Ratan Watal committee on Digital Payments

Constituted in August 2016 and headed by former Finance secretary Mr. Ratan Watal, to spearhead the motion of India towards a cashless society.

Recommendations:

• Setting up of an independent payment regulator withing the framework of the RBI  called the Payment Regulatory Board (PRB) with members from outside the RBI.
• Amend the Payment and Settlement Act to include clauses on consumer protection, data security and privacy.
• Make Aadhar as a prime KYC document and also replace PAN with it gradually.
• RGTS and NEFT to be operational 24*7 with the facility being extended to non banking payment service providers.
• Interpolability between banks and payment service providers, also between service providers based on the JAM trinity.
• Payment service providers should be regulated by the RBI.
• Cash handling charges to be levied by government and merchandises to disincentivize cash transactions
• All govet transactions to be made digital with transaction fee/charges waived off.
• Setting up of a digital payment incentive fund using savings accruing from reduced cash transactions.

Social media is better at breaking things than at making things

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/03/opinion/social-media-destroyer-or-creator.html?_r=0

Anil Kakodkar Committee on Railway Safety and the Indore-Kanpur rail accident

A High level safety review committee was constituted under the Ministry of Railways headed by Dr Anil Kakodkar, the former Atomic Energy Commission chairman. It also had former managing director of Delhi Metro Rail corporation (DMRCL) E Sreedharan as one of its advisors. It was constituted in the year 2012 by the UPA-2 govt.

Some of the major recommendations of the committee:

• Setting up of an independent body like Railway Safety Authority under the ministry with chairman and experts members being taken from outside the Railways.
• A robust and powerful Safety Architecture to have a safety oversight on the operational mode of the Railways.
• The committee found that 65 per cent of the total deaths due to train accidents were at level crossings. To eliminate this it recommended elimination of both manned and unmanned level crossings within the next five years (i.e., withing 2017) as a measure of avoiding accidents and deaths. This would also improve the line capacity as trains get held up at busy LC gates st the same time save operation and maintenance costs incurred at the gates.
• Monitoring the bridges in terms of scientific measurements of deflections/displacements, water level and flow velocity on a continuous basis and sharing the data with the office of the concerned Chief Bridge Engineer.
• The committee notes that the Railways had already classified at least 3,000 bridges to be 100 years old or more and 32 bridges to be distressed structures, vulnerable bridges need to be fitted with water level gauges and turbine flow meters to measure flow which should be interlocked in a way to warn the driver of the approaching train.
• An advanced signalling system based on continuous track circuiting and cab signalling similar to European train control system Level-II on the entire trunk route of about 19,000 route kilometres at an estimated cost of Rs.20,000 crore within five years.This can be done by the customization to the Indian conditions of technologies like the Anti-Collision Detection Device and the Train Protection and Warning System. 
• If all the recommendations of the committee would be accepted then the total financial implication would be of Rs. 1lakh crore in five years. The fund requirement for doing away with level crossings was estimated at Rs.50,000 crore which is an investment that apart from saving lives could be recouped in about 8 years as the monetary saving due to phasing-out of level crossings would stand at Rs.7,000 crore per annum.
• The committee noted that, based on the data for the last 5 years the Indian Railways was spread across 64,000 route kilometres. The rail derailments accounted for nearly half the total accidents followed by accidents at unmanned level crossing gates (36 per cent). Level crossing incidents contributed to 59 per cent of the deaths and 42 per cent of casualties.
• The committee also recommended time-bound filling up of vacancies in Critical Safety Categories and Manpower Planning Issues.

The committee's recommendations are yet to be implemented completely. The recent Indore-Kanpur train derailment accident is a stark reminder of the risk factors involved in the operation and maintenance of the Indian Railways. Though India has started working on its ambitious Bullet Train and high speed railways for fast and better connectivity, the safety factors needs serious thought and investments. With the railway budget being merged with the general budget, the future of the largest transporter of India will only shine with more funds being allocated for its safety and maintenance along with creation of new rail lines and better facilities for travellers.

Sharia Banking and Indian scenario

Recently, the RBI has expressed its intention to introduce "Islamic Banking Windows" in Indian commercial banks and also proposed the same to the Central government. On reading abut this I decided to take a deeper look at what Islamic banking was all about and why RBI wanted it in Indian banks.

Islamic Banking/ Shariat Banking:
Islamic banking basically follows 2 main principles in consonance with the Shariat Law:

• Sharing both profit and loss 
• Ban on paying and receiving "interest" by borrowers as well as lenders alike, as interest or "Riga" is against the Shariat Law and believed to be exploitative.

The Islamic Banking owes its foundation to the Islamist doctrine of two people(in the present times)

• Indian-born Abul Ala Maududi of the Jamaat-e-Islami  
• Hassan al-Banna of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt

Muhammad Saleem a former president and CEO of Park Avenue Bank in New York and a critic of Islamic banking says "Proponents of Islamic banking say that Islam bans all interest. But an understanding of pre-Islamic and Islamic history and keeping in mind the context would lead one to conclude that what the Quran bans is usury, not interest. Usury can be defined as interest above the legal or socially acceptable rate. Phrased differently, usury is the exploitative, exorbitant interest rate."

Financial Inclusion:

RBI has quoted financial inclusion of a group of people who are in minority as one of the reasons for introduction of IB into Indian Commercial banks. 

But the need of the hour is to conduct a socio-economic survey and find out the number of people among the Muslims who are out of any kind of financial inclusion schemes of the GOI like the JAM trinity. If it is found that considerable number people from the community have voluntarily stayed out of the financial mechanism of the country due to lack of Islamic banking facilities, then introduction of Islamic banking in the commercial banks may be considered after consultation with experts and stakeholders.

Sec 377 and the constitutionality

I recently stumbled upon a piece of information (though much later than the actual event took place) which indicated that the Hon'ble PM of Luxembourg, Xavier Bettel was a gay and also the only open gay leader in the world as of 2016. Trust me, I read it twice!!!Reason??? very simple...an average Indian that I am, my mind couldn't digest what my eyes read.

Demonetisation of HVC and its long term impact on the Indian economy

The Indira Gandhi Years- An administrative analysis

The DU Photocopy Case

The "Educational Mess"

"Education is the manifestation of the perfection already in man"-Swami Vivekananda.


This quotation was part of a letter written to Singaravelu Mudaliyar (Kidi) from Chicago, United States in 1894. The letter was later published as a prose in the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda and was named "What we believe in". This is one of the most famous quotes related to education and expresses Swamiji's ideas related to it. He explained it in very simple terms that education is manifestation(reflection or symbol) of the perfection already in man and probably held that the teacher is the one who guides one towards acquiring that education.


Today in the 21st Century as life has ended up being just a show business, it has pulled education into its folds too. Education which was supposed to bring in modesty, compassion, simplicity, wisdom and above all morality into our lives has ended up being a fancy tool in the hands of the elitist crowd.


I remembered my first day at school very bleakly.Those were the early nineties, when going to a convent school was a privilege not many people could afford.My father dropped me to school and moved to his work. I neither cried nor wanted to run back home. I was enjoying the new atmosphere, where majority of the kids were crying.School for my generation was never a place to compete with our fellow companions. Rather a place which taught us equality. We never bothered if our bags had the most famous cartoon character's picture on it or the lunch box was of a particular color or brand.We never competed with our classmates to have the costlier bag or pencil pouch. We simply lived an innocent childhood. A generation more happy to be playing under a tree than indoors, happy to share our food than think of the hygiene taken care of by the others cook,happy to barter our notes for a day to a friend so that we can borrow their fancy pen.


Our education system taught us to mug up a lot of things but also taught us to respect our teachers. Most of us were not taught to swim or play tennis in our schools, but we were taught not to look down upon our fellow classmates.We were never taught to be judgemental based on the bags we carried our books to school. You may call us backward on several grounds.But life was easy then.At least for a child!!!We did not have to think about competing with our fellow classmates to impress our teachers with a branded shoe or a branded bag. We never bothered if our bags were wildcraft or chumbak or american tourister. We just saw them as bags and nothing else. We never discussed price tags of our clothes or the vehicles that our parents owned.We never bothered if somebody's mother was a divorcee or if their father had left them. The innocence of our childhood remained with us as long and in some cases longer than our childhood days.


But the scenes have changed now. The school going kids are no more the innocent ones.They question the teachers of their rights to preach them morality.They judge each other by the price of the cars they come to school in.They use abusive language at an early age. At times without knowing the exact meaning of the abuse!I agree that world is running fast today and the children have to run with it to catch up with the crowd. But is it enough if they run and win the competition without being morally and ethically sound?" The children of today are the future of tomorrow". So is this the kind of future we are setting up for ourselves?How would it be to have nuclear scientists excellently talented in their domain but morally and ethically poor?Would they not destroy the world to prove their expertise?


Are we teaching our children to respect every individual irrespective of the brand of clothes that they wear or the mode of transport that they use?Are we teaching them that money cannot buy everything by not buying them somethings? Are we teaching them to bond with people and nature without being judgemental.Are we teaching them the life that exists beyond our gated communities?We should! If not their minds would become just that..."A gated community". They would never be able to see the life and struggles beyond that gated community.Let us teach them that education is not synonymous with their degrees.Education is something which expands our rational horizons not restrict it to a subject specialization.


"Happy children's day". Let us continue to uphold the principles of chacha Nehru and be a versatile persona just like him.

Pradhan Mantri Krishi Bima Yojana

Mangalore Blues1

To start with "My Home" is where the coast is. "My Home" is where sweat is (This might sound awful I know!!). "My Home" is where the fresh sea food is. "My Home" is where there are beauties with brains. "My Home" is where the wind that blows through ones face brings aroma of fresh and dried fish. I presume you already know the place I am talking about- "Mangalore" or "Kudla" or "Kodial" whatever you would like to call it with love, because as Shakesphere has said "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet".

Double patenting reference: A comprehensive study

Judicial Activism VS Judicial Overreach

Role of India in SAARC

Surgical strikes

We have already heard lots about the surgical strikes carried out by the Indian Army on the nights of September 28-29th, 2016 in the PoK. I would not like to delve into the details nor give my opinion on the same. Rather I would explore the meaning of surgical strikes, the importance of such a strike, the need for carrying out such strikes, role of the governments involved and geopolitical implications of the same.

Rafale:The costly affair

Section 3(K) of the Indian Patent Act

Fencing the Indo-Pak border and its impacts

"Facebook" and an economic analysis

Basavanna's vachana

ಅತ್ತಲಿತ್ತ ಹೋಗದಂತೆ ಹೆಳವನ ಮಾಡಯ್ಯಾ ತಂದೆ,
ಸುತ್ತಿ ಸುಳಿದು ನೋಡದಂತೆ ಅಂಧಕನ ಮಾಡಯ್ಯಾ ತಂದೆ,
ಮತ್ತೊಂದ ಕೇಳದಂತೆ ಕಿವುಡನ ಮಾಡಯ್ಯಾ ತಂದೆ,
ನಿಮ್ಮ ಶರಣರ ಪಾದವಲ್ಲದೆಅನ್ಯ ವಿಷಯಕ್ಕೆಳಸದಂತೆ ಇರಿಸು,
ಕೂಡಲಸಂಗಮದೇವಾ. 

Meaning:

The one who would be an achiever would be the one with focus - on the right target. Having got to know the Glorious Lord Shiva, one needs to keep the mind fixed in God to continue to enjoy the Bliss the Lord showers. Digressing in focus would make one find at a much displaced location from the path towards the target.

“SOFOSBUVIR “-THE EXORBITANT SAVIOUR

Hepatitis C is a viral disease caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV) that primarily affects the liver. HCV is spreads by blood-to-blood contact associated with intravenous drug use, unsterilized medical equipments, needle stick injuries in healthcare and blood transfusions. There is no vaccine to fight against hepatitis C. Prevention includes harm reduction efforts among people who use intravenous drugs and testing donated blood. Chronic infection can be cured about 90% of the time with treatments that include the medications Sofosbuvir or Simeprevir.


Hepatitis C is the leading reason for liver transplantation, though the virus usually recurs after transplantation. An estimated 130–200 million people worldwide are infected with hepatitis C. Estimated 1.2-2crore persons in India are infected with Hepatitis C. India did not have proper facilities to screen blood for Hepatitis C virus till 1996. Many people had received contaminated blood before 1996.


Sofosbuvir, an oral drug and the only cure – is a distant unaffordable luxury for many. Sofosbuvir had first received regulatory approval in the US in 2013, and has been priced by Gilead at US$ 84,000 for a treatment course, or $1,000 per pill in the US which had caused a worldwide debate on the pricing of patented medicines. But in contrast to this, a study from Liverpool University showed that Sofosbuvir could be produced for as little as $101 for a three-month treatment course.


A six-month treatment in India meant Rs 1.8 crores, which got reduced drastically to Rs 1.2 lakh after US-based Gilead Pharmaceuticals, manufacturer of the drug, licensed it to multiple generic Indian companies to make it available here. The list price in India as of April 26, 2016 according to the Asia Pacific Network of People Living with HIV, was $384 per bottle, or about $14 per pill due to the generic manufacturers.


In 2015 the Indian Patent Controller rejected one of Gilead’s key patent application titled "A (2'R)-2'-DEOXY-2'FLUORO- 2'-C-METHYL NUCLEOSIDE" with application number 6087/DELNP/2005, which covered the drug Sofosbuvir, marketed under the name Sovaldi.


Reasons for the Gilead patent being rejected in India in 2015: Section 3(d) of the IPA which quotes:


“The mere discovery of a new form of a known substance which does not result in the enhancement of the known efficacy of that substance or the mere discovery of any new property or new use for a known substance or of the mere use of a known process, machine or apparatus unless such known process results in a new product or employs at least one new reactant".


Explanation.—for the purposes of this clause, salts, esters, ethers, polymorphs, metabolites, pure form, particle size, isomers and mixtures of isomers, complexes, combinations and other derivatives of known substance shall be considered to be the same substance, unless they differ significantly in properties with regard to efficacy.”


Accordingly the IPO rejected patent to Sofosbuvir on the grounds that Gilead’s patent application had


· Represented only minor changes to a previous formulation, indicating that no new reactant was used resulting in a new product and it was merely a new form of a known substance that did not have enhanced therapeutic efficacy and thus was a violation of sec 3(d).


· The company already had licensing deals with manufacturers in India.


Both the opponent and applicant have argued based on the below two case laws


· Novartis Vs. Union of India (AIR 2013 SC 1311)


· F. Hoffman la Roche Ltd and Anr. Vs. Cipla RFA (OS) 92/2012


But a year later in 2016 the patent has been granted to Gilead on the grounds that the IPO has found the “Compounds to be novel and inventive”. This without considering the issue under sec 3(d) of IPA that, if at the time of filing the patent application (read PS) did the applicant claim that the compound is more efficacious than a previously known compound or not!! This keeps the door open for further appeal and a possibility of a compulsory license in future if need persists.


Sec 3(d) was also the center for controversy in 2013 when the Indian Supreme Court had rejected Novartis’s patent application for anti cancer drug , Glivec .


Patents guarantee drug makers exclusive sales for a decade or more, before letting in generic players, so the companies can recoup their investment and use profits to develop new medicines. In a country like India where majority of the population is not covered under any health insurance scheme and are also not in a position to afford expensive health care and drugs, patenting essential drugs can lead to long term health disasters. The need of the hour is to strike a balance between pharmaceutical innovations and public health such that there wouldn’t arise a situation in future where one has to pick one above the other.

Dreams that should not let India sleep

Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make a man more clever

How Electronic media has impacted our cultural fabric

Social networking and its impact on our social relationships

"Shahrukh Khan's son and Amitab Bachchan's grand daughter graduate from school", "Some XYZ smallscreen actress gives you serious holiday goals" and many many more such unnecessary news items do the rounds in our newspapers and social media sites benefiting nobody with its contents.

Today we happily exclaim the reach or probably the over reach of internet,television and radio into not just our towns but also the most interior villages.It is truly a great achievement or I can say the literal advent of technology.It is hard to imagine our lives without a mobile phone or for that matter even a television.We cannot resist ourselves from checking the social networking sites umpteen times a day.We call it being updated with information (or rather misinformation!!!). There have been instances when some of us have not know who the President or Prime minister of India are but we call ourselves updated with knowledge(about the current AFFAIRS you know)!!!This knowledge I'm talking about is the details of the current relationship status of our friends and celebrities, their tour pictures, dps, work position, personal lives and what not.

The over presence of electronic media which we proudly call Being Connected has actually disconnected most of us from our real social surroundings and tangled us in the virtual social web.This has changed the older social and cultural fabric of our societies.

Change!! The only permanent factor in life

Mangalore blues2