Covid-19 crisis has severely impacted almost all industries but disruptions in the airline industry is so profound and it has manifold implications that it is assumed to be greater than the combined crises of 9/11 terror attack in the US and the 2008 global financial crisis combined to put together.
The Government of India (acting through DGCA) (“GoI”) has vide its (i) order dated March 23, 2020, passed under Section 88(1) of the Aircraft Act, 1934; and (ii) orders dated March 26, 2020, and April 14, 2020, directed inter alia all aircraft operators to suspend the operations of all the domestic flights and all scheduled international commercial passenger services until May 3, 2020.
The forward air travel bookings are far outweighed by the cancellations due to which the air travel demand is in its all-time low and drying up in ways that are unprecedented with no semblance of normalcy on the horizon.
CURRENT SCENARIO DUE TO COVID-19
For an industry which is already in stress, the Covid-19 pandemic has only accelerated the process of a bankruptcy filing by several companies (like Virgin Australia and Air Mauritius).
Those airline companies which are still in business have also suffered huge losses and misfortunes as the novel coronavirus-forced lockdowns due to which the airlines had to keep their fleets at bay and grounded.
As per the market sources, apart from the pay cut, several airline companies from the likes of Indigo, Go Airlines etc in India have also taken other cost-cutting measures including furloughs.
Due to the turbulence caused by the outbreak of Covid-19 virus, the airline industry must focus on the horizon as there is always a silver lining in these tough times so that it can successfully navigate a wide array of challenges (including legal, financial and operational) which are likely to surface once the pandemic is behind us.
Future flight plan post the COVID-19 pandemic for the airlines will be influenced to a great extent by factors such as avoiding the countries that have been the virus epicentres and gauging government responses on the type and duration of travel restrictions and the conditions under which they might be relaxed.
Governments across the globe may likely consider imposing specific restrictions/limitations which is akin to the security measures put in place after terrorism events for inbound and outbound passengers.
RESTRICTIONS/ LIMITATIONS
Health screenings or certificates form prescribed by the medical practitioners before the boarding is a must. In the Post-COVID era, megatrends such as the dramatic rise in remote working, government or organisation-imposed limitations/restrictions on air travel, greater reliance on locally-oriented supply chains as well as avoiding non-essential travels will impact the recovery demand in the aviation industry and may lead to a major overhaul in the management and operation of the airline industry.
To fly safely through this turbulent time, it is of utmost importance that the airline companies launch a crisis management team or as its being coined by some in the industry – “Plan Ahead Team”. This Plan Ahead Team will be responsible for collecting forward-looking intelligence and provide a Post Covid-19 flight plan to guide and accelerate decision making.
CHALLENGES/ CONSIDERATIONS
Following are some of the challenges/considerations which airline companies in India may consider while formulating their Post Covid-19 flight plan.
Third-party contractor agreements/Hedging arrangement for jet fuel prices:
To determine the optimal size and dimensions of their networks and fleet, this will hold the key to the survival of airline companies. These companies may have to revamp their strategies vis-à-vis the air travel restrictions imposed by the governments to identify routes that are most likely to recover basis demand, regulatory and market structure scenarios.
The determination of routes that are most likely to recover will determine which fleet/route to recommission. For the routes that could not be recommissioned or are partially commissioned post-COVID-19 and withdrawal of lockdown orders, the airline companies may have to renegotiate/re-assess the legal risk that may arise according to their contracts with third-party contractors engaged for inter alia refuelling; catering; runway/taxiway construction and repair; aircraft maintenance and overhaul; crew training; and flight dispatch.
Further, airline companies must also consider revisiting/re-negotiating their existing contracts for hedging the jet fuel prices. Most of the airline are locked into contracts for hedging the jet fuel prices. There has been a steep drop and the prices of jet fuel is at an all-time low due to the upshot of the current crisis.
Accordingly, the airline companies will have to pay their higher hedged amount for jet fuel, creating hedging loses. In this context, the existing provisions of these contracts become relevant to determine the leverage of discussions from a legal rights perspective.
Financing Arrangements:
Given that the airline companies have suspended all their business, it would be imperative to ascertain if defaults would get triggered under the various financing agreements entered by the airline companies.
Where an event of default is only triggered upon a ‘voluntary’ suspension of business, it may be argued that such temporary cessation of business due to the virus outbreak is a direct consequence of the government regulations and therefore it is outside the purview and scope of such provision.
Further, it would be relevant to check if an event of default is qualified by a requirement that a suspension of business has a “material adverse effect” on the borrower’s ability to perform its contractual obligations.
If there is a significant impact on the borrower’s ability to pay, this will likely satisfy the test of ‘material adverse effect. Additionally, it is expected that post-COVID-19 and lifting of the lockdown orders, for reasons including financial and operational difficulties, the airline companies may not be able to commence operations in all the sectors or may not be in a position to recommission their entire fleet.
Given the aforesaid, it would be relevant for the airline companies to review an event of default provision relating to ‘cessation of business’ in their financing agreements.
Cessation of Business would typically include events where a company ‘threatens’ to suspend or cease to carry on its business and therefore, one may argue that such temporary closures post Covid-19 and/or lifting of lockdown orders, would constitute a ‘cessation’ of business. It would be prudent for airline companies to review their facility agreements when contemplating Covid-19 related measures and consider the impact of such measures may have on their financing arrangements. These tests can be carried out during the period of lockdown, such that the provisions can be re-considered by the parties.
Aircraft Lease Agreements:
The airline companies may have to revisit/review their aircraft lease agreements. The airline companies may consider approaching the lessors for seeking concessions concerning the lease obligations including ‘rental holiday’ on account of liquidity crunch consequent to fall in ticket receipts post Covid-19.
While the lessors may be entitled to decline requests for concessions on lease obligations, the commercial reality may well be that lessors will have to assess whether supporting an airline in some way may improve their financial health in the aftermath of the crisis or whether such benevolence will only delay the end of a business that was struggling in any case.
It may be worthwhile to consider that the relief package/concessions which an airline company may seek from the lessors may include inter alia a standstill for an agreed period with an agreed repayment schedule to recapture the unpaid rents, forbearance on event of default at a cost.
Governmental Support: Globally, the market structure for the airline industry is set to witness a major revamp. This change will be significantly influenced by government responses to the crisis and types and levels of support extended to the airline industry.
In the absence of specific announcements/ relief measures, the airline companies in India may consider approaching the Ministry of Civil Aviation and/or the GoI for relaxation/waiver concerning various fees/licenses including airport charges, AAI and Private Airport Operators’ space rentals and infrastructure charges which are to be paid by them.
This waiver may specifically be sought concerning air spaces/sectors, which the airline companies suspect will not be recommissioned or sectors where the travel demand likely to rebound slowly.
Resolution/Restructuring: Globally there are several airline companies which have filed for bankruptcy. Per CAPA-Centre of Aviation, most world airlines would be bankrupt by the end of May. In this context, the Ministry of Finance (“MoF”) has on March 24, 2020, indicated that if Covid-19 crisis continues beyond April 30, 2020, it may consider suspending Section 7, 9 and 10 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 for six months to stop companies from being forced into insolvency proceedings in such force majeure causes of default under the commercial agreements (e.g. financing agreements, lease agreements).
Import Duties and Trade barriers: Government of India is considering putting in place several trade restrictions/embargo on the import of goods from China.
CONCLUSION
As COVID -19 continues to spread across the globe, the challenges triggered by it are numerous and unprecedented. As COVID -19 continues to spread across the globe, the challenges triggered by it are numerous and unprecedented. The Indian tourism and hospitality industry is severely affected by the outbreak of COVID-19.
Once the COVID-19 crisis is contained, the GoI may inter alia consider developing an appropriate messaging/advertising campaign (similar to ‘Incredible India’ tourism campaign) to provide the necessary impetus to the recovery of the aviation industry post-COVID-19.
WEBSITES REFERRED
Covid-19: Flight Plan for Indian Aviation Industry by Subhojit Sadhu & Shrey Srivastava on May 6, 2020,
The Government of India had vide its circular dated April 14, 2020, has decided that all scheduled international commercial passenger services shall remain closed until May 3, 2020. Additionally, a collated list of the Global and regional Government measures related to Covid-19
Post 9/11, it is customary to have long lines at the airport and extensive security checks. The enhanced security measures are being monitored and implemented by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). The TSA was created as a direct result of the 9/11 attacks
“Cyber” is a prefix used to describe a person, thing, or idea as part of the computer and information age. Taken from kybernetes, the Greek word for “steersman” or “governor,” it was first used in cybernetics, a word coined by Norbert Wiener and his colleagues. The virtual world of internet is known as cyberspace and the laws governing this area are known as Cyber Laws and all the netizens of this space come under the ambit of these laws as it carries a kind of universal jurisdiction.
Cyberlaw can also be described as that branch of law that deals with legal issues related to use of inter-networked information technology. In short, cyber law is the law governing computers and the internet. The growth of Electronic Commerce has propelled the need for vibrant and effective regulatory mechanisms which would further strengthen the legal infrastructure, so crucial to the success of Electronic Commerce. All these regulatory mechanisms and legal infrastructures come within the domain of Cyberlaw.
Cyberlaw is important because it touches almost all aspects of transactions and activities on and involving the internet, World Wide Web and cyberspace. Every action and reaction in cyberspace has some legal and cyber legal perspectives.
Cyberlaw encompasses laws relating to:-
Cybercrimes
Electronic and digital signatures
Intellectual property
Data protection and privacy
WHY IS CYBER LAW THE NEED OF THE HOUR IN INDIA?
Firstly, India has an extremely detailed and well-defined legal system in place. Numerous laws have been enacted and implemented and the foremost amongst them is The Constitution of India. We have inter alia, amongst others, the Indian Penal Code, the Indian Evidence Act 1872, the Banker’s Book Evidence Act, 1891 and the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, the Companies Act, and so on.
However, the arrival of Internet signalled the beginning of the rise of new and complex legal issues. It may be pertinent to mention that all the existing laws in place in India were enacted way back keeping in mind the relevant political, social, economic, and cultural scenario of that relevant time.
Nobody then could really visualize about the Internet. Despite the brilliant acumen of our master draftsmen, the requirements of cyberspace could hardly ever be anticipated. As such, the coming of the Internet led to the emergence of numerous ticklish legal issues and problems which necessitated the enactment of Cyber laws.
Secondly, the existing laws of India, even with the most benevolent and liberal interpretation, could not be interpreted in the light of the emerging cyberspace, to include all aspects relating to different activities in cyberspace. In fact, the practical experience and the wisdom of judgment found that it shall not be without major perils and pitfalls, if the existing laws were to be interpreted in the scenario of emerging cyberspace, without enacting new cyber laws. Hence, the need for enactment of relevant cyber laws.
Thirdly, none of the existing laws gave any legal validity or sanction to the activities in Cyberspace. For example, the Net is used by a large majority of users for email. Yet till today, email is not “legal” in our country. There is no law in the country, which gives legal validity, and sanction to email. Courts and judiciary in our country have been reluctant to grant judicial recognition to the legality of email in the absence of any specific law having been enacted by the Parliament.
As such the need has arisen for Cyberlaw. Fourthly, the Internet requires an enabling and supportive legal infrastructure in tune with the times. This legal infrastructure can only be given by the enactment of the relevant Cyber laws as the traditional laws have failed to grant the same.
E-commerce, the biggest future of the Internet, can only be possible if necessary legal infrastructure compliments the same to enable its vibrant growth. All these and other varied considerations created a conducive atmosphere for the need for enacting relevant cyber laws in India.
CYBERCRIME ON THE RISE
As per the cybercrime data maintained by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), a total of 217, 288, 420 and 966 Cyber Crime cases were registered under the Information Technology Act, 2000 during 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 respectively.
Also, a total of 328, 176, 276 and 356 cases were registered under Cyber Crime related Sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC) during 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 respectively.
A total of 154, 178, 288 and 799 persons were arrested under the Information Technology Act 2000 during 2007-2010. A total number of 429, 195, 263 and 294 persons were arrested under Cyber Crime related Sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC) during 2007-2010.
Crime head-wise and age-wise profile of the offenders arrested under Cyber Crimes (IPC) for the year 2011 reveals that offenders involved in 9 forgery cases were more in the age-group of 18-30 (46.5%) (129 out of 277). 50.4% of the persons arrested under Criminal Breach of Trust/Cyber Fraud offences were in the age group 30-45 years (65 out of 129).
Meanwhile, 9 out of 88 mega cities did not report any case of cybercrime i.e., neither under the IT Act nor under IPC Sections during the year 2011. And 53 megacities have reported 858 cases under the IT Act and 200 cases under various sections of IPC.
There was an increase of 147.3% (from 347 cases in 2009 to 858 cases in 2011) in cases under IT Act as compared to the previous year (2010), and an increase of 33.3% (from 150 cases in 2010 to 200 cases in 2011) of cases registered under various sections of IPC. Bangalore (117), Vishakhapatnam (107), Pune (83), Jaipur (76), Hyderabad (67) and Delhi (City) (50) have reported a high incidence of cases (500 out of 858 cases) registered under IT Act, accounting for more than half of the cases (58.3%) reported under the IT Act.
Delhi City has reported the highest incidence (49 out of 200) of cases reported under IPC sections accounting for 24.5% followed by Mumbai (25 or 12.5%). A major programme has been initiated on development of cyber forensics specifically cyber forensic tools, setting up of infrastructure for investigation and training of the users, particularly police and judicial officers in the use of this tool to collect and analyze the digital evidence and present them in Court.
Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) and Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) are involved in providing basic and advanced training of Law Enforcement Agencies, Forensic labs and judiciary on the procedures and methodology of collecting, analyzing and presenting digital evidence.
Cyber forensic training lab has been set up at Training Academy of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to impart basic and advanced training in Cyber Forensics and Investigation of Cyber Crimes to Police Officers associated with CBI.
In addition, Government has set up cyber forensic training and investigation labs in Kerala, Assam, Mizoram, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Meghalaya, Manipur and Jammu & Kashmir.
In collaboration with Data Security Council of India (DSCI), NASSCOM, Cyber Forensic Labs have been set up at Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune and Kolkata. DSCI has organized 112 training programmes on Cyber Crime Investigation and awareness and a total of 3680 Police officials, judiciary and Public prosecutors have been trained through these programmes.
Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) issues alerts, advisories and guidelines regarding cybersecurity threats and measures to be taken to prevent cyber incidents and enhance the security of Information Technology systems.
IMPORTANT TERMS RELATED TO CYBER LAWAS PER INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ACT,2000
“Access” with its grammatical variations and cognate expressions means gaining entry into, instructing or communicating with the logical, arithmetical, or memory function resources of a computer, computer system or computer network. (Sec.2(1)(a) of IT Act, 2000)
“Addressee” means a person who is intended by the originator to receive the electronic record but does not include any intermediary. (Sec.2(1)(b) of IT Act, 2000.
“Affixing Electronic Signature” with its grammatical variations and cognate expressions means adoption of any methodology or procedure by a person for the purpose of authenticating an electronic record by means of Electronic Signature. (Sec.2(1)(d) of IT Act, 2000)
“Asymmetric Crypto System” means a system of a secure key pair consisting of a private key for creating a digital signature and a public key to verify the digital signature. (Sec.2(1)(f) of IT Act, 2000).
“Certifying Authority” means a person who has been granted a license to issue an Electronic Signature Certificate under section 24. (Sec.2(1)(g) of IT Act, 2000)
“Communication Device” means Cell Phones, Personal Digital Assistants (Sic), or combination of both or any other device used to communicate, send or transmit any text, video, audio, or image. (Sec.2(1)(ha) of IT Act, 2000)
“Computer” means any electronic, magnetic, optical or other high-speed data processing device or system which performs logical, arithmetic, and memory functions by manipulations of electronic, magnetic or optical impulses, and includes all input, output, processing, storage, computer software, or communication facilities which are connected or related to the computer in a computer system or computer network (Sec.2(1)(i) of IT Act, 2000)
“Computer Network” means the interconnection of one or more Computers or Computer systems or Communication device through- (i) the use of satellite, microwave, terrestrial line, wire, wireless or other communication media; and (ii) terminals or a complex consisting of two or more interconnected computers or communication device whether or not the interconnection is continuously maintained. (Sec.2(1)(j) of IT Act, 2000).
“Computer Resource” means computer, communication device, computer system, computer network, data, computer database or software. (Sec.2(1)(k) of IT Act, 2000)
“Computer System” means a device or collection of devices, including input and output support devices and excluding calculators which are not programmable and capable of being used in conjunction with external files, which contain computer programmes, electronic instructions, input data, and output data, that performs logic, arithmetic, data storage and retrieval, communication control and other functions. (Sec.2(1)(l) of IT Act, 2000)
“Cybercafe” means any facility from where access to the Internet is offered by any person in the ordinary course of business to the members of the public. (Sec.2(1)(na) of IT Act, 2000)
“Cyber Security” means protecting information, equipment, devices, computer, computer resource, communication device and information stored therein from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification or destruction. (Sec.2(1)(nb) of IT Act, 2000) (o)
“Data” means a representation of information, knowledge, facts, concepts or instructions which are being prepared or have been prepared in a formalized manner, and is intended to be processed, is being processed or has been processed in a computer system or computer network and may be in any form (including computer printouts magnetic or optical storage media, punched cards, punched tapes) or stored internally in the memory of the computer. (Sec.2(1)(o) of IT Act, 2000)
(p) “Digital Signature” means authentication of any electronic record by a subscriber by means of an electronic method or procedure in accordance with the provisions of section 3. (Sec.2(1)(p) of IT Act, 2000)
“Electronic Form” with reference to information means any information generated, sent, received or stored in media, magnetic, optical, computer memory, microfilm, computer generated micro fiche or similar device. (Sec.2(1)(r) of IT Act, 2000) “Electronic Record” means data, record or data generated, image or sound stored, received or sent in an electronic form or microfilm or computer generated microfiche. (Sec.2(1)(t) of IT Act, 2000)
“Electronic signature” means authentication of any electronic record by a subscriber by means of the electronic technique specified in the second schedule and includes a digital signature. (Sec.2(1)(ta) of IT Act, 2000)
“Function”, in relation to a computer, includes logic, control, arithmetical process, deletion, storage and retrieval and communication or telecommunication from or within a computer. (Sec.2(1)(u) of IT Act, 2000)
“Information” includes data, message, text, images, sound, voice, codes, computer programmes, software and databases or microfilm or computer generated microfiche. (Sec.2(1)(v) of IT Act, 2000)
“Intermediary” with respect to any particular electronic records, means any person who on behalf of another person receives, stores or transmits that record or provides any service with respect to that record and includes telecom service providers, network service providers, internet service providers, web 14 hosting service providers, search engines, online payment sites, online-auction sites, online market places and cyber cafes. (Sec.2(1)(w) of IT Act, 2000)
“Key Pair”, in an asymmetric cryptosystem, means a private key and its mathematically related public key, which are so related that the public key can verify a digital signature created by the private key. (Sec.2(1)(x) of IT Act, 2000)
“Originator” means a person who sends, generates, stores or transmits any electronic message or causes any electronic message to be sent, generated, stored or transmitted to any other person but does not include an intermediary. (Sec.2(1)(za) of IT Act, 2000)
“Private Key” means the key of a key pair used to create a digital signature. (Sec.2(1)(zc) of IT Act, 2000)
“Public Key” means the key of a key pair used to verify a digital signature and listed in the Digital Signature Certificate. (Sec.2(1)(zd) of IT Act, 2000)
“Secure System” means computer hardware, software, and procedure that -: (a) are reasonably secure from unauthorized access and misuse; (b) provide a reasonable level of reliability and correct operation; (c) are reasonably suited to performing the intended functions, and (d) adhere to generally accepted security procedures. (Sec.2(1)(ze) of IT Act, 2000)
“Subscriber” means a person in whose name the Electronic Signature Certificate is issued. (Sec.2(1)(zg) of IT Act, 2000)
ABOUT INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ACT, 2000
Information Technology Act, 2000 is India’s mother legislation regulating the use of computers, computer systems and computer networks as also data and information in the electronic format. This legislation has touched varied aspects pertaining to electronic authentication, digital (electronic) signatures, cyber crimes and liability of network service providers.
The Preamble to the Act states that it aims at providing legal recognition for transactions carried out by means of electronic data interchange and other means of electronic communication, commonly referred to as “electronic commerce”, which involve the use of alternatives to paper-based methods of communication and storage of information and aims at facilitating electronic filing of documents with the Government agencies.
This Act was amended by Information Technology Amendment Bill, 2008 which was passed in Lok Sabha on 22nd December 2008 and in Rajya Sabha on 23rd December 2008. It received the assent of the President on 5th February 2009 and was notified with effect from 27/10/2009.
The IT Act of 2000 was developed to promote the IT industry, regulate eCommerce, facilitate e-governance and prevent cybercrime. The Act also sought to foster security practices within India that would serve the country in a global context.
The Amendment was created to address issues that the original bill failed to cover and to accommodate further development of IT and related security concerns since the original law was passed. The IT Act, 2000 consists of 90 sections spread over 13 chapters [Sections 91, 92, 93 and 94 of the principal Act were omitted by the Information Technology (Amendment) Act 2008 and has 2 schedules.[ Schedules III and IV were omitted by the Information Technology (Amendment) Act 2008].
SALIENT FEATURES OF THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ACT, 2000
The term ‘digital signature’ has been replaced with ‘electronic signature’ to make the Act more technology-neutral.
A new section has been inserted to define ‘communication device’ to mean cell phones, personal digital assistance or combination of both or any other device used to communicate, send or transmit any text video, audio or image.
A new section has been added to define cyber cafe as any facility from where the access to the internet is offered by any person in the ordinary course of business to the members of the public.
A new section has been added to define cyber cafe as any facility from where the access to the internet is offered by any person in the ordinary course of business to the members of the public.
A new definition has been inserted for an intermediary.
A new section 10A has been inserted to the effect that contracts concluded electronically shall not be deemed to be unenforceable solely on the ground that electronic form or means was used.
The damages of Rs. One Crore prescribed under section 43 of the earlier Act of 2000 for damage to computer, computer system etc. has been deleted and the relevant parts of the section have been substituted by the words, ‘he shall be liable to pay damages by way of compensation to the person so affected’.
A new section 43A has been inserted to protect sensitive personal data or information possessed, dealt or handled by a body corporate in a computer resource which such body corporate owns, controls or operates.
If such body corporate is negligent in implementing and maintaining reasonable security practices and procedures and thereby causes wrongful loss or wrongful gain to any person, it shall be liable to pay damages by way of compensation to the person so affected.
Sections 66A to 66F has been added to Section 66 prescribing punishment for offences such as obscene electronic message transmissions, identity theft, cheating by impersonation using computer resource, violation of privacy and cyber terrorism.
Section 67 of the IT Act, 2000 has been amended to reduce the term of imprisonment for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form to three years from five years and increase the fine thereof from Rs.100,000 to Rs. 500,000. Sections 67A to 67C have also been inserted.
While Sections 67A and B deal with penal provisions in respect of offences of publishing or transmitting of material containing sexually explicit act and child pornography in electronic form, Section 67C deals with the obligation of an intermediary to preserve and retain such information as may be specified for such duration and in such manner and format as the central government may prescribe.
In view of the increasing threat of terrorism in the country, the new amendments include an amended section 69 giving power to the state to issue directions for interception or monitoring or decryption of any information through any computer resource. Further, sections 69A and B, two new sections, grant power to the state to issue directions for blocking for public access of any information through any computer resource and to authorize to monitor and collect traffic data or information through any computer resource for cybersecurity.
Section 79 of the Act which exempted intermediaries has been modified to the effect that an intermediary shall not be liable for any third party information data or communication link made available or hosted by him if; (a) The function of the intermediary is limited to providing access to a communication system over which information made available by third parties is transmitted or temporarily stored or hosted; (b) The intermediary does not initiate the transmission or select the receiver of the transmission and select or modify the information contained in the transmission; (c) The intermediary observes due diligence while discharging his duties.
However, section 79 will not apply to an intermediary if the intermediary has conspired or abetted or aided or induced whether by threats or promise or otherwise in the commission of the unlawful act or upon receiving actual knowledge or on being notified that any information, data or communication link residing in or connected to a computer resource controlled by it is being used to commit an unlawful act, the intermediary fails to expeditiously remove or disable access to that material on that resource without vitiating the evidence in any manner.
A proviso has been added to Section 81 which states that the provisions of the Act shall have overriding effect. The proviso states that nothing contained in the Act shall restrict any person from exercising any right conferred under the Copyright Act, 1957.
OVERVIEW OF THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ACT, 2000
The Information Technology Act was enacted with a view to give a fillip to the growth of electronic-based transactions, to provide legal recognition for e-commerce and e-transactions, to
facilitate e-governance, to prevent computer-based crimes and ensure security practices and procedures in the context of the widest possible use of information technology worldwide.
APPLICABILITY OF THE ACT
The Act will apply to the whole of India unless otherwise mentioned. It applies also to any offence or contravention thereunder committed outside India by any person.
The Act shall not apply to the following documents or transactions –
A negotiable instrument as defined in Sec.13 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881;
A power of attorney as defined in Sec.1A of the Powers of Attorney Act, 1882;
A trust as defined in Section 3 of the Indian Trusts Act, 1882;
A Will as defined in Sec.2(h) of the Indian Succession Act, 1925 including any other testamentary disposition by whatever name called;
Any contract for the sale or conveyance of immovable property or any interest in such property.
SCHEME OF THE ACT
Chapter – I – Preliminary
Chapter – II – Digital Signature and Electronic Signature (Sections 3 & 3A)
Chapter – III – Electronic Governance (Sections 4 to 10A)
Chapter – IV – Attribution, Acknowledgement and Dispatch of Electronic Records (Sections 11 to 13)
Chapter – V – Secure electronic records and secure electronic signatures (Sections 14 to 16)
Chapter – VI – Regulation of Certifying Authorities (Sections 17 to 34)
Chapter – VII – Electronic Signature Certificates (Sections 35 to 39)
Chapter – VIII – Duties of Subscribers (Sections 40 to 42)
Chapter – IX – Penalties, Compensation and Adjudication (Sections 43 to 47)
Chapter X – The Cyber Appellate Tribunal (Sections 48 to 64)
Chapter XI – Offences (Sections 65 to 78)
Chapter XII – Intermediaries not to be liable in certain cases (Section 79)
Chapter XIIA – Examiner of Electronic Evidence (Section 79A)
Chapter XIII – Miscellaneous (Sections 80 to 90)
First Schedule – Documents or Transactions to which the Act shall not apply
Second Schedule – Electronic signature or Electronic authentication technique or procedure
IMPORTANT PROVISIONS OF THE ACT
A) Digital signature and Electronic signature:
Digital Signatures provide a viable solution for creating legally enforceable electronic records, closing the gap in going fully paperless by completely eliminating the need to print documents for signing. Digital signatures enable the replacement of slow and expensive paper-based approval processes with fast, low-cost, and fully digital ones.
The purpose of a digital signature is the same as that of a handwritten signature. Instead of using pen and paper, a digital signature uses digital keys (public-key cryptography). Like the pen and paper method, a digital signature attaches the identity of the signer to the document and records a binding commitment to the document.
However, unlike a handwritten signature, it is considered impossible to forge a digital signature the way a written signature might be. In addition, the digital signature assures that any changes made to the data that has been signed cannot go undetected.
Digital signatures are easily transportable, cannot be imitated by someone else and can be automatically time-stamped. A digital signature can be used with any kind of message, whether it is encrypted or plaintext. Thus Digital Signatures provide the following three features:-
(i) Authentication– Digital signatures are used to authenticate the source of messages. The ownership of a digital signature key is bound to a specific user and thus a valid signature shows that the message was sent by that user. Integrity – In many scenarios, the sender and receiver of a message need assurance that the message has not been altered during transmission. Digital Signatures provide this feature by using cryptographic message digest functions.
(ii) Integrity– In many scenarios, the sender and receiver of a message need assurance that the message has not been altered during transmission. Digital Signatures provide this feature by using cryptographic message digest functions.
(iii) Non-Repudiation – Digital signatures ensure that the sender who has signed the information cannot at a later time deny having signed it.
A handwritten signature scanned and digitally attached with a document does not qualify as a Digital Signature. An ink signature can be easily replicated from one document to another by copying the image manually or electronically. Digital Signatures cryptographically bind an electronic identity to an electronic document and the digital signature cannot be copied to another document.
B) ELECTRONIC SIGNATURE
This has also been dealt with under Section 3A of the IT Act, 2000. A subscriber can authenticate any electronic record by such electronic signature or electronic authentication technique which is considered reliable and may be specified in the Second Schedule.
Any electronic signature or electronic authentication technique will be considered reliable if-
The signature creation data or the authentication data are, within the context in which they are used, linked to the signatory or, as the case may be, the authenticator and of no other person;
The signature creation data or the authentication data were, at the time of signing, under the control of the signatory or, as the case may be, the authenticator and of no other person;
Any alteration to the electronic signature made after affixing such signature is detectable;
Any alteration to the information made after its authentication by electronic signature is detectable; and
It fulfils such other conditions which may be prescribed. An electronic signature will be deemed to be a secure electronic signature if-
(i) the signature creation data, at the time of affixing the signature, was under the exclusive control of signatory and no other person; and
(ii) the signature creation data was stored and affixed in such exclusive manner as may be prescribed. (Sec.15)
An Amendment to the IT Act in 2008 introduced the term electronic signatures. The implication of this Amendment is that it has helped to broaden the scope of the IT Act to include new techniques as and when technology becomes available for signing electronic records apart from Digital Signatures.
There are various other provisions of the IT Act which are important which are as follows:
E-Governance
Attribution, Acknowledgement and Dispatch of Electronic Records
Certifying Authorities
Controller of Certifying Authorities (CCA)
Root Certifying Authority of India (RCAI)
Certifying Authorities
Under the IT Act the licensed Certifying Authorities (CAs) are –
Safescrypt
NIC
IDRBT
TCS
MTNL
Customs and Central Excise
(n)Code Solutions CA (GNFC)
e-Mudhra
NOW LET’S COME TO THE POINT THAT “WHO CAN BECOME A CERTIFYING AUTHORITY”?
The following persons can apply for the grant of a licence to issue Digital Signature Certificates, namely:-
(a) an individual, being a citizen of India and having a capital of five crores of rupees or more in his business or profession;
(b) a company having–
(i) paid-up capital of not less than five crores of rupees; and
(ii) net worth of not less than fifty crores of rupees: No company in which the equity share capital held in aggregate by the Non-resident Indians, Foreign Institutional Investors, or foreign companies, exceeds forty-nine per cent of its capital, will be eligible for grant of licence.
(c) a firm having – (i) capital subscribed by all partners of not less than five crores of rupees; and (ii) net worth of not less than fifty crores of rupees. No firm, in which the capital held in aggregate by any Non-resident Indian, and foreign national, exceeds forty-nine per cent of its capital, will be eligible for grant of licence.
(d) Central Government or a State Government or any of the Ministries or Departments, Agencies or Authorities of such Governments.
There are various other important provisions also that are to be kept in mind in relation to the certifying authority:-
Submission of performance bond
Submission of application:- Every application for a licensed Certifying Authority should be made to the Controller in the form given in Schedule I of the Information Technology (Certifying Authorities) Rules, 2000. Rule 10 of IT (Certifying Authorities) Rules, 2000 prescribes what all are the documents to be submitted along with the application.
Issuance of licence
Security Guidelines for Certifying Authorities
Commencement of Operation by Licensed Certifying Authorities
Procedures to be followed by Certifying Authorities
Audit of Certifying Authority
Registration Authority (RA)
ELECTRONIC SIGNATURE CERTIFICATES
Provisions relating to Electronic/Digital signature certificates are covered in Chapter VII i.e. Secs.35 to 39 of the IT Act, 2000 and Rules 23 to 30 of the IT (Certifying Authorities) Rules, 2000 and IT (Certifying Authority) Regulations, 2001. A Digital Signature Certificate is an electronic document which uses a digital signature to bind together a public key with an identity — information such as the name of a person or an organization, their address, and so forth. Digital certificates are the digital equivalent (i.e. electronic format) of physical or paper certificates. Examples of physical certificates are driver’s licenses, passports or membership cards.
Depending upon the requirement of assurance level and usage of Digital Signature Certificate, the following are the classes of Digital Signature Certificates:-
1) Class -1 Certificate
2) Class – 2 Certificate
3) Class – 3 Certificate
Different types of digital signature certificates that are issued:–
1) Individual Digital Signature Certificates (Signing Certificates)
2) Server Certificates
3) Encryption Certificates
Certificate Revocation
Digital Signature Certificates are issued with a planned lifetime, which is defined through a validity start date and an explicit expiration date. A certificate may be issued with a validity of up to two years. Once issued, a Certificate is valid until its expiration date. Under such circumstances, the issuing CA needs to revoke the certificate. In case a Digital Signature Certificate is compromised, one should immediately contact the respective CA to initiate revocation. The CA will then put the certificate in the Certificate Revocation List.
Duties of Subscribers
“Subscriber” means a person in whose name the Electronic Signature Certificate is issued. Chapter VIII i.e. Secs.40 to 42 of the IT Act, 2000 deals with the duties of subscribers.
CASE LAWS
i) State of Tamil Nadu Vs Suhas Katti
The Case of Suhas Katti is notable for the fact that the conviction was achieved successfully within a relatively quick time of 7 months from the filing of the FIR. Considering that similar cases have been pending in other states for a much longer time, the efficient handling of the case which happened to be the first case of the Chennai Cyber Crime Cell going to trial deserves a special mention.
The case related to the posting of obscene, defamatory and annoying message about a divorcee woman in the yahoo message group. E-Mails were also forwarded to the victim for information by the accused through a false e-mail account opened by him in the name of the victim.
The posting of the message resulted in annoying phone calls to the lady in the belief that she was soliciting. Based on a complaint made by the victim in February 2004, the Police traced the accused to Mumbai and arrested him within the next few days. The accused was a known family friend of the victim and was reportedly interested in marrying her.
She, however, married another person. This marriage later ended in divorce and the accused started contacting her once again. On her reluctance to marry him, the accused took up the harassment through the Internet. On 24-3-2004 Charge Sheet was filed u/s 67 of IT Act 2000, 469 and 509 IPC before The Hon’ble Addl. CMM Egmore by citing 18 witnesses and 34 documents and material objects.
The same was taken on file in C.C.NO.4680/2004. On the prosecution side, 12 witnesses were examined and entire documents were marked as Exhibits. The Defence argued that the offending mails would have been given either by the ex-husband of the complainant or the complainant herself to implicate the accused as accused alleged to have turned down the request of the complainant to marry her.
Further, the Defence counsel argued that some of the documentary evidence was not sustainable under Section 65B of the Indian Evidence Act. However, the court relied upon the expert witnesses and other evidence produced before it, including the witnesses of the Cyber Cafe owners and came to the conclusion that the crime was conclusively proved. Ld.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Egmore, delivered the judgement on 5-11-04 as follows: ” The accused is found guilty of offences under section 469, 509 IPC and 67 of IT Act 2000 and the accused is convicted and is sentenced for the offence to undergo RI for 2 years under 469 IPC and to pay fine of Rs.500/-and for the offence u/s 509 IPC sentenced to undergo 1-year Simple imprisonment and to pay fine of Rs.500/- and for the offence, u/s 67 of IT Act 2000 to undergo RI for 2 years and to pay fine of Rs.4000/- All sentences to run concurrently.” This is considered as the first case convicted under Section 67 of the Information Technology Act 2000 in India.
ii) Syed Asifuddin and Ors. V. The State of AP. & Anr., 2005CriLJ4314
Tata Indicom employees were arrested for manipulation of the electronic 32-bit number (ESN) programmed into cell phones that were exclusively franchised to Reliance Infocomm. The court held that such manipulation amounted to tampering with computer source code as envisaged by section 65 of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
Reliance Infocomm launched a scheme under which a cell phone subscriber was given a digital handset worth Rs. 10,500/- as well as a service bundle for 3 years with an initial payment of Rs. 3350/- and monthly outflow of Rs. 600/-. The subscriber was also provided with a 1-year warranty and 3-year insurance on the handset.
The condition was that the handset was technologically locked so that it would only work with the Reliance Infocomm services. If the customer wanted to leave Reliance services, he would have to pay some charges including the true price of the handset. Since the handset was of a high quality, the market response to the scheme was phenomenal.
Unidentified persons contacted Reliance customers with an offer to change to a lower-priced Tata Indicom scheme. As part of the deal, their phone would be technologically “unlocked” so that the exclusive Reliance handsets could be used for the Tata Indicom service.
Reliance officials came to know about this “unlocking” by Tata employees and lodged a First Information Report (FIR) under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code, Information Technology Act and the Copyright Act.
The police then raided some offices of Tata Indicom in Andhra Pradesh and arrested a few Tata Tele Services Limited officials for reprogramming the Reliance handsets. These arrested persons approached the High Court requesting the court to quash the FIR on the grounds that their acts did not violate the said legal provisions.
Some of the issues raised by the defence in the case were – It is always open for the subscriber to change from one service provider to the other service provider; The subscriber who wants to change from Tata Indicom always takes his handset, to other service providers to get service-connected and to give up Tata services; The handsets brought to Tata by Reliance subscribers are capable of accommodating two separate lines and can be activated on principal assignment mobile ( NAM 1 or NAM 2).
The mere activation of NAM 1 or NAM 2 by Tata in relation to a handset brought to it by a Reliance subscriber does not amount to any crime; A telephone handset is neither a computer nor a computer system containing a computer programmed; there is no law in force which requires the maintenance of “computer source code”. Hence section 65 of the Information Technology Act does not apply.
Following were the observations of the Court –
As per section 2 of the Information Technology Act, any electronic, magnetic or optical device used for storage of information received through satellite, microwave or other communication media and the devices which are programmable and capable of retrieving any information by manipulations of electronic, magnetic or optical impulses is a computer which can be used as a computer system in a computer network.
The instructions or programmed given to a computer in a language known to the computer are not seen by the users of the computer/consumers of computer functions. This is known as source code in computer parlance. ESN and SID come within the definition of “computer source code” under section 65 of the Information Technology Act.
When ESN is altered, the offence under Section 65 of Information Technology Act is attracted because every service provider has to maintain its own SID code and also give a customer-specific number to each instrument used to avail the services provided.
OTHER IMPORTANT CASE LAWS
P.R. Transport Agency Vs. Union of India (UOI)
SMC Pneumatics (India) Private Limited v. Jogesh Kwatra
Sports and games form an essential part of human resource development. Sports is very important for the development and excellence in the international events. Over the years a number of Nationals Sports Federations (NSFs) have come up for development of specific games/ sports disciplines.
One must actively support the sportsperson so that they can achieve their objectives and reach greater heights and also break records at the International Level tournaments like the Olympics. It has been the endeavor of the Government of India to lay down procedures for effective coordination among various agencies involved in the promotion of sports and extend required infrastructure, training and other facilities to the sportsperson for achieving excellence in the international events.
Over the years a number of Nationals Sports Federations (NSFs) have come up for development of specific games/ sports disciplines. The Government of India has been actively supporting these Federations in achieving their objectives.
Guidelines of 2001 laid down the following principles, which now stand subsumed in the National Sports Development Code of India(NSCI) 2011:
i. A clear role of dileanation between NSFs, SAI and the Government.
ii. Grouping of sport disciplines into priority, general and others for the purposes of determining the entitlement for government assistance.
iii. Detailed guidelines for preparation of Long Term Development Plans (4-year cycle). Provision made for annual sanction budgets of development plans.
iv. Binding tripartite agreements between NSFs, the Department and the SAI to be drawn up.
v. An emphasis on professionalizing and upgrading the administrative and financial management of Federations.
vi. An emphasis on systems to handle players‘ grievance.
vii. The appointment of registered chartered accountants to ensure maintenance of proper and transparent accounts.
viii. Recognition of the role of sports promoters, particularly in event management.
Recent Developments
Hon‘ble High Court of Delhi, in Civil Writ Petition No.7868 of 2005, in the matter of Indian Hockey Federation, while disposing off the matter vide Order dated 02.03.2010, categorically observed that the Government guidelines governing the NSFs are valid, binding and enforceable; and the tenure clause is not in violation of the International Olympic Charter. The Hon‘ble Court also observed that the Government of India is fully competent to make regulations on NSFs and IOA. The Hon‘ble Delhi High Court further cited entry 10 and 13 of List I (Union List) which read as under:-
Entry 10: Foreign affairs, all matters which bring the Union into relation with any foreign country. Entry 13: Participation in international conferences, associations and other bodies and implementing of decisions made thereat.
Based on the above, the Hon‘ble Court observed that while an NSF has autonomy in the actual conduct of sports, Government recognition is necessary to represent the country. It further observed that international sporting events are an essential part of diplomatic relations of the nations, and several considerations like security concerns of players,apartheid, and perceived human rights violations have guided nations in decisions to participate or not to participate in sporting events in different countries.
Political and diplomatic clearances are, therefore, required by the Indian teams before participation in the international tournaments and forums. The Court pointed out that no State Government has the competence or the jurisdiction to undertake such exercise, which is the sole prerogative of the Union Government.
In another Public Interest Litigation No.195/2010 in the matter of Rahul Mehra Vs. Union of India and Others, the Hon‘ble Delhi High Court took a serious view on the mismanagement of the Sports Sector in the country and expressed deep concern at the inaction on the part of the Government in implementing and enforcing its own guidelines,particularly those relating to age and tenure.
The gist of important new initiatives taken by the Government is indicated hereunder. These have been suitably incorporated in the subsequent paragraphs of Guidelines by replacing the existing provisions and/or adding the new provisions. The new provisions supersede the earlier provisions in the 2001 Guidelines:
Gist of new initiatives taken by Government in the recent past:
1. Restoring the limits on duration of tenure of office bearers of Indian Olympic Association and all recognized National Sports Federations. (Annexure-XIII)
2. Guidelines for Good governance in the context of Basic Universal Principle of Good Governance of Olympic and Sports Movement‖. (Annexure-XIV)
3. Annual recognition of National Sports Federations.(Annexure-XV)
4. Measures to combat fraud in age of players. (AnnexureXVI)
5. Prevention of sexual harassment of women in sports, etc.(Annexure-XVII)
6. Notifying IOA and NSFs as Public Authority under Right to Information Act. (Annexure –XVIII)
7. Drawal of advance calendar of sporting events both national and international. (Annexure-XIX)
8. National Anti-Doping Rules notified vide gazette notification no 21-4/2008-ID dated 5th February, 2010 (Annexure-XX)
9. Guidelines for efficient management of Coaching Camps, Selection of Coaches, Selection of Athletes, etc. (Annexure-XXI)
10. Representation of Indian Nationals only, in National Teams (Annexure-XXII)
Objectives of Guidelines
The objective of these Guidelines are three fold:
1. Firstly to define the areas of responsibility of the various agencies involved in the promotion and development of sports.
2. Secondly, to identify NSFs eligible for coverage under these guidelines, to set priorities, and to detail the procedures to be followed by the Federations, to avail of Government sponsorship and assistance.
3. And Lastly, To state the conditions for eligibility to receive government recognition and grant.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation vide Order of even Number dated 21.05.2020 has issued general instructions and detailed guidelines and also Specific Operating Guidelines (SOP) for stakeholders, in connection with the recommencement of domestic air travel from 25th May, 2020.
As per Para. 1(j)(v) of Annexure-II to Order dated 21.05.2020, the passengers have to give a declaration to the effect that they have not tested COVID-19 positive in last two months.
Also it has decided that with regards to the evolving COVID-19 situation in various places where new cases that have been cured which are to be found in large numbers, a need has been felt to update this provision to avoid hardships in the matter of air travel to the persons cured/recovered from COVID-19.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation has accordingly decided to update the above provision with a clause which is as follows :- “I/we have not tested COVID-19 positive in the last three weeks (COVID-19 recovered persons fulfilling this condition will be allowed to travel upon showing a COVID-19 recovered/discharged certificate from any institution dealing with COVID-19 subjects).
As you are aware that Smoking/spitting tobacco is also a major public health hazard which contributes to the spreading of communicable diseases like Tuberculosis, Swine Flu, Avian Flu and Pireumonia disease. As India combats the novel coronavirus and ensures the safety of every citizen, the government is making stringent laws to help control the spread of COVID-19 pandemic.
On that note and in view of this there are new laws that can come into force as a bane to many Pan Masala lovers. The national directive on lockdown conditions issued by the Home Ministry on Wednesday, April 15 states that the violators will be punished. It states that “Spitting in public spaces shall be punishable with a fine. There should be a strict ban on the sale of liquor, gutka, tobacco etc.”
RELEVANT PROVISIONS APPLICABLE
Following are the sections under the Indian Penal Code, 1860:-
Section 268 : Public nuisance:- a person is guilty of a public nuisance who does any act or is guilty of an illegal omission which causes any common injury, danger or annoyance to the public or to the people in general who dwell or occupy property in the vicinity, or which must necessarily cause injury, obstruction, danger, or annoyance to persons who may have occasion to use any public right.
Section 269:- Negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life:—Whoever unlawfully or negligently does any act which is, and which he knows or has reason to believe to be, likely to spread the infection of any disease dangerous to life, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to six months, or with fine, or with both.
Section 278 :- Making atmosphere noxious to health:—Whoever voluntarily vitiates the atmosphere in any place so as to make it noxious to the health of persons in general dwelling or carrying on business in the neighbourhood or passing along a public way, shall be punished with fine which may extend to five hundred rupees.
WHAT’S IN IT?
The Union Ministry has made public spitting an offence under the Disaster Management Act. With a daily rise of novel coronavirus, the patients around the country and the State Governments are ensuring strict laws. On that note, Himachal Pradesh police have issued a law for people who spit in public will now be charged with attempt to murder.
The reason for this measure that not only Himachal Pradesh but various states around the country are banning spitting because of its scientific reasons. Medical professionals state that droplets expelled in the air by infected patients via coughing or sneezing are the common means of transmission of the virus. As such, spitting is more dangerous as it can carry the pathogen to a longer distance than even coughing or sneezing could.
CONCLUSION
Other states in India have their own take when it comes to public spitting. In states like Uttar Pradesh, pan masala products are banned to discourage spitting. Other states including Bihar, Telangana, Haryana, and Assam, have banned smokeless tobacco products and public spitting. Furthermore, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation imposed ₹1000 fine on anyone caught spitting in public. So everyone, do be careful and refrain from spitting in public.
BOOKS REFERRED
Pillai’s, P S A Criminal Law Lexis Nexis 13th edition 2017 p. 537
“N” OBLE, Law is a ‘Noble’ Profession as its purpose is to conserve and preserve the moral sanctity that binds the society and it protects and upholds the law, this is depicted in Article 14 as per the Constitution of India, the State shall not deny to any person equality before law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India.
“E” NERGY, we are full of ‘Energy’ and ‘zeal’ due to Lawyers providing legal aid to all as “Justice delayed is Justice denied”.
“O” BEDIENT, as Lawyers we appear in Hon’ble Court in person at certain place, time and aid the person who seeks justice when the summons, notice, order, or proclamation proceeding issued from any public servant who is legally competent to the same as stated under Section 174 of Indian Penal Code.
“N” IFTY meaning Skilful. An Advocate is effective and good in proffering legal assistance, apart from being an avid Listener and an effective communicator.
Books Referred:-
Universal Law Publications :- The Constitution of India by P.M. Bakshi, 15th edition
Fiscal federalism refers to the division of responsibilities with regards to public expenditure and taxation between the different levels of the government. Having a fiscal federalism mechanism allows the government to optimize their costs on economies of scale, because in this manner, people will get public service which they prefer, and there will be no unnecessary expenditure. From the economic point of view also, having a federalised structure helps as it creates a unified market. India has a federal form of government, and hence a federal finance system. The essence of federal form of government is that the Centre and the state governments should be independent of each other in their respective, constitutionally demarcated spheres of action. Once the fundamentals of the government are spelt out, it becomes equally important that each of the government should be provided with sources of raising adequate revenues to discharge the functions entrusted to it. Constitutional Provisions The fiscal powers and functional responsibilities in India have been divided between the Central and State governments following the principles of federal finance. Article 246 of the Constitution lays down the list of subjects on which different levels of government can make laws. The division of functions is specified in the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution in three lists vis. the Union List, the State List and the Concurrent List.
The Union List contains 97 subjects of national importance, such as defence, railways, national highways, navigation, atomic energy, and posts and telegraphs. 66 items of State and local interest, such as law and order, public health, agriculture, irrigation, power, rural and community development, etc. have been entrusted to the state governments. 47 items such as industrial and commercial monopolies, economic and social planning, labour welfare and justice, etc. have been enumerated in the Concurrent List. The concurrent list is one in which both state and the Centre can make legislations. However, in case of a conflict or tie, federal laws prevail. Similarly, the borrowing powers have also been clearly mentioned in the Constitution. Under Article 292, the Central government is empowered to borrow funds from within and outside the country as per the limits imposed by the Parliament. According to Article 293(3), the States can borrow funds within the Country. Article 293(2) empowers the Centre to provide loans to state subject to conditions laid down by Parliament.
Fiscal Imbalances in India
Fiscal imbalance occurs when there is a mismatch between a government’s future debt obligations and future income streams.
Vertical Fiscal Imbalance occurs when the revenues of different levels of government (i.e. centre, state and local) do not match their expenditures responsibilities. There is a mismatch in the revenue capacity and expenditure responsibilities of the central, state and local govt. The lower level government (state and local) are often dependent on the central govt for finances to meet their expenditure responsibilities and this necessitates inter-governmental transfers from central govt to lower level governments.
Horizontal fiscal imbalance occurs when governments at the same level in different regions of a country have different abilities to provide services due to different abilities of raising funds. For example, not all states or municipalities in India raise equal amount of tax revenue, which will ultimately define the quality of services provided by individual states to their respective people. Then some region have higher cost of services compared to other regions, so this kind of an imbalance or mismatch in the revenue and expenditure accounts of governments at same level is known as horizontal fiscal imbalance.
Typically, federations (including the Indian one) face vertical and horizontal imbalances. A vertical imbalance arises because the tax systems are designed in a manner that yields much greater tax revenues to the Central government when compared to the state or provincial governments; the Constitution mandates relatively greater responsibilities to the state governments. For example, in India, post the advent of Goods and Services Tax (GST), the share of states in the public expenditure is 60% while it is 40% for the Centre to perform their constitutionally mandated duties. Justifying Centripetal Biases For the analysis of Indian fiscal federalism, nevertheless, it must be kept in mind that the Indian federation differs from the developed federations in many important respects.
First, India is vast country with wide inter-regional differences in economic endowments as well as levels of income, and is faced with conflicting tendencies of centralisation and decentralisation, the former designed to reduce inter-regional disparities and the latter to meet the diverse patterns of demand. Besides, the Indian economy is faced with severe interjurisdictional competition, underlining the need for utmost cooperation among various jurisdictions. Second, the low levels of income and wide inter-regional disparities have necessitated governmental intervention not just in the provision of public services; the government has taken the major responsibility for economic development of the country by taking up the role of both catalyst and an entrepreneur. The multilevel planning adopted for the purpose has brought forth additional com plexities in the fiscal arrangements in terms of heavy fiscal dependence of the states on the Centre, high degree of vertical and horizontal tax and expenditure spillovers and multiplicity in intergovernmental transfer schemes with overlapping and ambiguously defined objectives. Third, as the pattern of investments in pre-independent era was largely determined on the basis of colonial interests of the ruling power, the differences in the levels of development currently in vogue among the states do not necessarily represent their varied resource endowments. Finally, the existence of wide inter-regional differences in the levels of development itself under lines a significant role for inter- governmental equitable transfer schemes, as the nexus between levels of development and resource endowments seems to be tenuous in most cases. In such a situation, equitable transfers at the expense of richer states may not necessarily result in lower economic growth.
The Case of Horizontal Imbalances The horizontal imbalances arise because of differing levels of attainment by the states due to differential growth rates and their developmental status in terms of the state of social or infrastructure capital. Traditionally, Finance Commissions have dealt with these imbalances in a stellar manner, and they should continue to be the first pillar of the new fiscal federal structure of India. However, in India, the phenomenon of horizontal imbalance needs to be understood in a more nuanced fashion. It involves two types of imbalances. Type I is to do with the adequate provision of basic public goods and services, while the second, Type II, is due to growth accelerating infrastructure or the transformational capital deficits. The latter are known to be historically conditioned or path dependent. It is here that we believe that NITI Aayog must create a niche, assume the role of another policy instrument and become the second pillar of the new fiscal federal structure.
What Can be Done?
Reimagining NITI Aayog In the past, the Planning Commission used to give grants to the states as conditional transfers using the Gadgil-Mukherjee formula. Now with the Planning Commission disbanded, there is a vacuum especially as the NITI Aayog is primarily a think tank with no resources to dispense, which renders it toothless to undertake a “transformational” intervention. On the other hand, it is too much to expect the Union Finance Commission to do the dual job. In other words, there is an urgent need for an optimal arrangement. It is best that the Union Finance Commission be confined to focussing on the removal of the horizontal imbalance across states of the Type I: i.e. the basic public goods imbalance. We need another institution to tackle the horizontal imbalance of the Type II; for this the NITI Aayog is the most appropriate institution. It can be argued that the Finance Ministry is the other alternative to deliver the goods in this regard but it is ill-suited to do this; its primary duty is to concern itself with the country’s macro-economic stability and the proper functioning of the financial system rather than be an instrument of growth at the subnational level. Towards this task of cooperative federalism, NITI Aayog should receive significant resources (say 1% to 2% of the GDP) to promote accelerated growth in States that are lagging and overcome their historically conditioned infrastructure deficit, thus reducing the developmental imbalance. In short, the NITI Aayog should be engaged with the allocation of “transformational” capital in a formulaic manner, complete with incentive-compatible conditionalities. NITI Aayog should also be mandated to create an independent evaluation office which will monitor and evaluate the efficacy of the utilisation of such grants. In doing so, it should not commit the mistake of micro-management or conflicts with line departments. It must be also accorded a place at the high table of decision-making as it will need to objectively buy-in the cooperation of the richer states as their resources are transferred to the poorer ones.
The word Euthanasia originiates from the Greek words: Eu (good) and Thanatos (death) and it means “Good Death”, “Gentle and Easy Death.” It is also known as Mercy killing. It was first used in a medical context by Francis Bacon in the 17th century, to refer to an easy, painless, happy death, during which it was a “physician’s responsibility to alleviate the ‘physical sufferings’ of the body”.
According to the World Medical Association Euthanasia means:
Deliberate and intentional action with a clear intention to end another person’s life under the following conditions: The subject is a competent informed person with incurable illness. Who voluntarily asked for ending his life. The person who is acting knows about the state of this person and about his wish to die and is doing this action with an intention to end life of this person. The action is done with compassion and without any personal profit.
TYPES OF EUTHANASIA
Following are the types of euthanasia:-
Passive or Negative euthanasia means the withdrawal of necessary medical treatment with the deliberate intention to hasten the death of a terminally-ill patient is a must. In order for the death to be voluntary, the medicines which aids in saving lives will be discontinued so that death is brought about voluntarily. A common practice of this is a patient signing a ‘Do Not Resuscitate’ (DNR) document. It implies discontinuing or not using extraordinary life sustaining measures to prolong life. Others include act of omission such as failure to resuscitate a terminally ill or incapacitated patient (e.g. a severely defective new-born infant).
2. Active or Direct euthanasia means when one induces death by giving or providing medication or treatment leading to death.
3. Voluntary Euthanasia, sometimes called “assisted suicide”, is used in cases where the sufferer has made it clear that s/he wishes to die and has requested help to bring this about. When the euthanasia is practiced with the expressed desire and consent of the person concerned
4. Involuntary Euthanasia is one which is conducted without the consent and where an individual makes a decision for another person who is incapable of doing so. E.g. prolonged comma, old age, etc. It occurs when no consent or wish to die is expressed by the sufferer. When the euthanasia is practiced against the will of the person and also involuntary Euthanasia is one where patients can express a wish to die but don’t (this equates to murder).
5. Non- Voluntary Euthanasia is one where patients cannot express a wish to die. Patients who are in comas, infants, profound mentally retarded, severely brain damaged, cases of extreme senile dementia, those who cannot communicate for other reasons.
LEGAL VALIDITY IN INDIA
Passive euthanasia is legal in India. As per the 2018 ruling, The Supreme Court has held that the right to die with dignity is a fundamental right.
WHAT IS THE LEGAL POSITION AND TRENDS OF EUTHANASIAIN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES?
The Laws around the world vary greatly with regard to euthanasia, and are constantly subject to change as cultural values shift and better palliative care, or treatments become available. It is legal in some nations, while in others it may be criminalized. In some countries there is a divisive public controversy over the moral, ethical, and legal issues of euthanasia. Those who are against euthanasia may argue for the sanctity of life, while proponents of euthanasia rights emphasize alleviating suffering, and preserving bodily integrity, self-determination, and personal autonomy. Countries which have legitimized euthanasia are The Netherlands,Belgium, Oregon and Washington in the USA. In Switzerland only assisted suicide is legal. In India as mentioned above only passive euthanasia is legal.
LANDMARK CASE IN INDIA
Aruna Ramchandra Shanbaug vs Union Of India
FACTS OF THE CASE
Aruna Shanbaug, a nurse who was assaulted by a ward boy, and went into a vegetative state in 1973. • She remained blind, deaf, paralyzed and in a vegetative state till her death in 2015. A Writ Petition was filed by Pinki Virani claiming that her right to life guaranteed by the constitution had been violated. The petition was rejected by the court after medical examination. However, later in Aruna Ramchandra Shanbaug vs Union Of India, the Supreme Court in March 2011 held that passive euthanasia could be given a nod in case of exceptional circumstances and under strict monitoring of the apex court.
On 7 March 2011 the Supreme Court of India legalized passive euthanasia by means of the withdrawal of life support to patients in a permanent vegetative state. The decision was made as part of the verdict in a case involving Aruna Shanbaug, who had been in a Persistent Vegetative State (PVS) for 42 years until her death in 2015.
The Supreme Court of India specified two irreversible conditions to permit Passive Euthanasia:
The Brain-Dead for whom the ventilator can be switched off.
Those in a Persistent Vegetative State (PVS) for whom the feed can be tapered out and pain-managing palliatives be added, according to laid-down international specifications.
GUIDELINES LAID DOWN BY APEX COURT:
The following guidelines were laid down: A decision has to be taken to discontinue life support either by the parents or the spouse or other close relatives, or in the absence of any of them, such a decision can be taken even by a person or a body of persons acting as a next friend. It can also be taken by the doctors attending the patient. However, the decision should be taken bona fide in the best interest of the patient.
Even if a decision is taken by the near relatives or doctors or next friend to withdraw life support, such a decision requires approval from the High Court concerned. When such an application is filled the Chief Justice of the High Court should forthwith constitute a Bench of at least two Judges who should decide to grant approval or not.
A committee of three reputed doctors to be nominated by the Bench, who will give report regarding the condition of the patient. Before giving the verdict a notice regarding the report should be given to the close relatives and the State. After hearing the parties, the High Court can give its verdict.
WHAT ARE THE ARGUMENTS FOR AND AGAINST EUTHANASIA?
Benefits of Legalizing Euthanasia (Arguments For)
Provides relief to extreme pain.
Relieves physical, mental and psychological pain for the patient and the family.
Provides more facilities and funds for other patients needing medical treatment and attention.
Euthanasia provides a way of relief when a person’s quality of life is low.
It is another case of freedom of choice – the right to commit suicide.
People should not be forced to stay alive.
Speedy termination of physical and emotional suffering.
Organs can be put to good use.
Relieve mental suffering for the patient and his relatives.
Consequences of legalizing Euthanasia(Arguments Against)
The ‘living will’ could be misused
Religious beliefs could pose as a conflict in few scenarios
The person might not be well informed of the possible treatment options
Guidelines of the content of ‘living will’ has to be standardized
Euthanasia demeans and devalues the sanctity of human life.
Euthanasia can become a means of health care cost containment.
Euthanasia will become non-voluntary.
Euthanasia would not only be for people who are terminally ill.
It amounts to murder and it is only God who can take away human life.
It destroys life, which has potential that could be yet unknown to the patient, doctor or the family members.
It discourages scientists who are looking for a cure for incurable ailments.
An Act to provide for protection of the interests of consumers and for the said purpose, to establish authorities for timely and effective administration and settlement of consumers’ disputes and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
The Indian Parliament, on 6 August 2019, passed the landmark Consumer Protection Bill, 2019 which aims to provide the timely and effective administration and settlement of consumer disputes. The Consumer Protection Act, 2019 (New Act) received the assent of the President of India and was published in the official gazette on 9 August 2019. The New Act will come into force on such date as the Central Government may so notify. The New Act seeks to replace the more than 3 (three) decades old Consumer Protection Act, 1986 (Act).
While e-commerce has opened new avenues and has made transactions faster and more convenient, they have also been prone to unfair trade practices. Although e-commerce platforms tried to resolve the grievance of the customers, there was a need to streamline the functioning of the same. With this perspective, the Central government notified the Consumer Protection (E-commerce) Rules, 2020.
From Amazon to Walmart and now Facebook and Google, through Reliance Jio are all betting on India being their next big online consumer market.
Walmart has invested $1.2 billion in Flipkart in an equity round, two years after it bought a 77% stake in the Indian retail giant for $16 billion. Walmart’s investment came just days after Amazon invested ₹2300 crore or $305 million into its Indian arm, following Jeff Bezos’ $1 billion investment promise to India. Earlier this year, Amazon had also signed a long-term business agreement with Kishore Biyani’s Future Group.
Meanwhile, Facebook’s $5.7 billion investment and Google’s $4.5 billion bet on Reliance Jio come at a time when Reliance chairperson Mukesh Ambani is betting on retail as the next big venture. One of the most significant factors of the Facebook-Jio deal was that Reliance Retail and WhatsApp are now in a commercial partnership to accelerate JioMart’s growth. Through JioMart and WhatsApp, the entities will now help support consumer businesses.
E-commerce Rule, 2020
The intention of the Legislature to specifically deal with e-commerce and online transactions was evident from the very enlargement of the definition of consumer under Section 2(7) of the Act by including both online and offline transactions within the scope of ‘buying goods’ and ‘hiring services’. Further, the Act categorically defines relevant e-commerce, electronic service provider and misleading advertisement while specifically addressing the most commonly faced issues such as refusing to take back defective goods or refusing to refund the amount.
The Rules are pretty exhaustive in their sweep and, at the outset, declares its application to:
(i) All goods and services bought or sold over digital or electronic network including digital products;
(ii) All models of e-commerce, including marketplace and inventory models of e-commerce;
(iii) All e-commerce retail, including multi-channel single brand retailers and single brand retailers in single or multiple formats; and
(iv) All forms of unfair trade practices across all models of e-commerce.
A bare perusal of the same demonstrates that the intention of the Legislature is, clearly, to encompass every aspect of e-commerce and keep consumer interests on the highest pedestal while streamlining the functioning of e-commerce platforms. This is also demonstrated from the fact that the Rules clearly define the relevant players of the e-commerce space, such as e-commerce entity, inventory e-commerce entity, marketplace e-commerce entity and seller.
A couple of years back I was shortlisted for a well-known, reputed multinational organization and I had to appear for their recruitment drive. I had to report there at about 8:30 AM and the recruitment process consisted of GD followed a couple of rounds of interview. After clearing the GD and the first interview round, I appeared for the last round of interview. It was a managerial and HR round and mostly consisted of questions about me. I answered whatever they asked me and I could understand from their non-verbal expressions, that they were quite satisfied with my answers. I came out of my interview, getting a feeling of being shortlisted. But to my utter surprise, I was rejected. I left the building, thinking about where I went wrong considering the fact that I gave my best out there and they also seemed to be impressed by me. I was puzzled and confused and I really hoped at that time, that they should have told me after my rejection where I went wrong and where I can improve.
All I wanted at that time was feedback. Feedback would have clearly responded to my questions of rejection and would have left me – less confused. Essentially feedback is considered to be the last and the most crucial step in the entire recruitment process. But sadly, many companies fail to provide a reason of their doings, let alone a plausible one. Companies should understand that when candidates are signing up for them, they should at least respect our decision by providing a platform where we can share our thoughts easily. In the recent times, feedback is considered to be a crucial step and a recruitment process is considered to be incomplete without this step.
Why feedback is considered to be a very important step is due to these reasons:
Feedback ensures the transparency of the recruitment process of an organization. It remove the fuzziness involved in the process of selection.
Candidates better understand what went wrong in the process and it makes them stronger when they appear for the next drive.
Feedback, if solicited from the candidates, help the recruiters to understand any loopholes in the recruitment process and it also provides an avenue for the recruiters to improve themselves.
Ensures transparency of the company which can promote the employer branding and can also be a tool or a source of great competitive advantage.
Word of mouth is a tool which can make or break an organization. As in the case of mine, if feedback was provided, even though I did not get selected, I would have definitely spread the good word for that company.
The process which most company fails to understand is very simple. Our industry thrives on feedback and to get a very first-hand experience of how any program appeals to the mass, one should definitely implement the feedback step in each and every process. From a candidate’s perspective, I can say that it is not feasible to get selected in every company, but if I am giving sometime for one company, I might as well know what went wrong for me to be rejected from that company.
As for companies, they should understand – Respect works in both ways.
Abdul Kalaam once said – “Love your job but NEVER fall in love with your company”.
Desperate times calls for desperate measures. At least that’s what some of the reputed, well known and no-so-known companies have done in the recent times, owing to the pandemic. Many a companies are trying to cope with the lashes of COVID-19 by cutting costs, eliminating positions and retrenching people. Positions that were once considered to be very crucial to the functioning of the business were just scraped off from the hierarchy and employees occupying those positions were handed a ‘good-bye’ note.
But there is a stark difference in how some of the companies decided to do so. In some companies, the CEO was very transparent in explaining why there is a necessity to lay off people and they felt extremely sorry while doing so. They wrote long, meaningful mails and they at least tried to empathise with the laid off employees. And then there are other companies who’s CEOs just mailed a short message conveying that they are being laid off without any note of sorry or explanation, forget about transparency. But whatever be the mode or the reason of laying off, we as employees should understand that it is best for business and instead of leaving on a bad note, we should make sure to leave with respect and on a good note.
There is no doubt that we might be feeling very smitten inside, but we should not let that feeling empower us to destroy everything that we have accumulated over the years. Now, one must be wondering how to do so amidst such emotional times. I would like to suggest a few ways by which one can leave on a good note even when things might have not worked in their way. Some of those suggestions are:
Try to not dwell on the negative emotions. At the time of lay off, one might feel very low about it, but try not to feed into the negative emotions. Instead of that, one should think about one’ achievements, successes and milestones at the company. Think about what was your best contribution and what worked for you and try to harvest on that.
Try to work out a plan to handover your work. Since one is working remotely, one must be very methodical and careful while handing over very confidential information such as clients’ list project reports and other such documents so that others’ can plan out the work. It is very okay to feel about withholding information, but one should not do so because one should understand that it is not the end of one’s career.
Draft a proper good bye mail. Draft a short and clear mail, intended to one’s colleagues, friends and other people in one’s office network. Make sure to include your contact details – mostly phone number and personal mail id so that people can stay in touch with you. Also one should not forget to give a note of thanks to everyone, in spite of all differences. Such a habit will definitely help one in one’s career while searching for other jobs.
Try to build and amend bridges at the time of leaving. One should talk to the close colleagues, confidantes and the network of peers and mentors, so that they can assist to find a new job in this landscape.
These are the very few steps one should take to ensure that even though things did not quite work out well for you, there is always a way to make things better at some other place.
The Finance Commission is a constitutional body formed every five years to give suggestions on centre-state financial relations. Each Finance Commission is required to make recommendations on: (i) sharing of central taxes with states, (ii) distribution of central grants to states, (iii) measures to improve the finances of states to supplement the resources of panchayats and municipalities, and (iv) any other matter referred to it.
Composition of transfers:
The central taxes devolved to states are untied funds, and states can spend them according to their discretion. Over the years, tax devolved to states has constituted over 80% of the total central transfers to states. The centre also provides grants to states and local bodies which must be used for specified purposes. These grants have ranged between 12% to 19% of the total transfers.
Over the years the core mandate of the Commission has remained unchanged, though it has been given the additional responsibility of examining various issues. For instance, the 12th Finance Commission evaluated the fiscal position of states and offered relief to those that enacted their Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management laws. The 13th and the 14th Finance Commission assessed the impact of GST on the economy. The 13th Finance Commission also incentivised states to increase forest cover by providing additional grants. 15th Finance Commission: The 15th Finance Commission constituted in November 2017 will recommend central transfers to states. It has also been mandated to: (i) review the impact of the 14th Finance Commission recommendations on the fiscal position of the centre; (ii) review the debt level of the centre and states, and recommend a roadmap; (iii) study the impact of GST on the economy; and (iv) recommend performance-based incentives for states based on their efforts to control population, promote ease of doing business, and control expenditure on populist measures, among others.
Why is there a need for a Finance Commission? The Indian federal system allows for the division of power and responsibilities between the centre and states. Correspondingly, the taxation powers are also broadly divided between the centre and states. State legislatures may devolve some of their taxation powers to local bodies.
The centre collects majority of the tax revenue as it enjoys scale economies in the collection of certain taxes. States have the responsibility of delivering public goods in their areas due to their proximity to local issues and needs. Sometimes, this leads to states incurring expenditures higher than the revenue generated by them. Further, due to vast regional disparities some states are unable to raise adequate resources as compared to others. To address these imbalances, the Finance Commission recommends the extent of central funds to be shared with states. Prior to 2000, only revenue income tax and union excise duty on certain goods was shared by the centre with states. A Constitution amendment in 2000 allowed for all central taxes to be shared with states. Several other federal countries, such as Pakistan, Malaysia, and Australia have similar bodies which recommend the manner in which central funds will be shared with states.
Commission considerably increased the devolution of taxes from the centre to states from 32% to 42%. The Commission had recommended that tax devolution should be the primary source of transfer of funds to states. This would increase the flow of unconditional transfers and give states more flexibility in their spending.
The share in central taxes is distributed among states based on a formula. Previous Finance Commissions have considered various factors to determine the criteria such as the population and income needs of states, their area and infrastructure, etc. Further, the weightage assigned to each criterion has varied with each Finance Commission. with the weight assigned to them.
• Population is an indicator of the expenditure needs of a state. Over the years, Finance Commissions have used population data of the 1971 Census. The 14th Finance Commission used the 2011 population data, in addition to the 1971 data. The 15th Finance Commission has been mandated to use data from the 2011 Census. • Area is used as a criterion as a state with larger area has to incur additional administrative costs to deliver services. • Income distance is the difference between the per capita income of a state with the average per capita income of all states. States with lower per capita income may be given a higher share to maintain equity among states. • Forest cover indicates that states with large forest covers bear the cost of not having area available for other economic activities. Therefore, the rationale is that these states may be given a higher share.
Grants-in-Aid Besides the taxes devolved to states, another source of transfers from the centre to states is grants-in-aid. As per the recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission, grants-in-aid constitute 12% of the central transfers to states. The 14th Finance Commission had recommended grants to states for three purposes: (i) disaster relief, (ii) local bodies, and (iii) revenue deficit.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has issued the guidelines for the Independence Day celebrations that will take place amid the cloud of novel coronavirus pandemic. Due to this unfortunate and extraordinary situation the Independence Day celebrations on the 15th August will be subdued and low key.
THE LETTER
Joint Secretary Anuj Sharma has written a letter to all States and Union Territories sharing with them how the celebrations should be carried out in these testing times. In the letter preventive measures like social distancing, wearing of masks that are absolutely imperative have been mentioned in order to make sure that the celebrations are carried out without any collateral damage.
“In view of the spread of Covid-19 pandemic, while organizing various programmes or activities for the Independence Day celebrations, it is imperative to follow certain preventive measures such as maintaining social distancing, wearing of masks, proper sanitization, avoiding large congregations, protecting vulnerable persons, etc.; and follow all guidelines related to Covid-19 issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Health a Family Welfare,” the letter read. Hence one can assume and infer that all the functions organised countrywide will be deprived of large gatherings.
CELEBRATIONS AT THE LAL QILA
The Ceremony at Red Fort consisting of the presentation of a Guard of Honour by the Armed Forces and the Delhi Police to the Prime Minister (Pradhan Mantri), unfurling of the National Flag accompanied by playing of the National Anthem and firing of 21-gun salute, speech by the Prime Minister, singing of the National Anthem immediately after PM’s speech, and release of tricoloured balloons at the end. This will be followed by “At Home” reception at Rashtrapati Bhawan. As regards holding of “At Home” reception at Raj Bhawan /Raj Niwas by the Governor/Lt. Governor on the Independence Day, the matter is left to the discretion of Governors/Lt. Governors.
CELEBRATIONSAT THE STATE LEVEL
A ceremony in the morning (after 9.00 AM) in the State/Union Territory Capitals consisting of unfurling of the National Flag by the Chief Minister; playing of the National Anthem; presentation of Guard of Honour by the Police including Para-Military Forces, Home Guards, NCC, Scouts, etc; speech by the Chief Minister; and singing of the National Anthem.
In view of Covid-19 pandemic, large congregation in the ceremony be avoided. It is imperative that social distancing norms, wearing masks, etc., are followed. It would also be appropriate that Covid-19 warriors like doctors, health workers, sanitation workers, etc., are invited in the ceremony as a recognition of their noble service in fight against Covid-19 Pandemic. Some persons cured from Covid-19 infection may also be invited.
CELEBRATIONSAT THE DISTRICTS, SUB DIVISIONAL BLOCS AND PANCHAYAT HEADQUARTERS
The Districts, Sub Divisional blocs, Panchayat headquarters will have to follow similar protocols as the states. In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, preventive measures such as maintaining social distancing, wearing of masks, proper sanitization, avoiding large congregations, protecting vulnerable groups, etc., and other measures as prescribed and recommended by the Ministry of Health a Family Welfare, are to be followed. It would be appropriate that frontline warriors and workers like the doctors, health workers, sanitation workers, etc., are invited in the ceremony as recognition for their noble service in fight against the COVID-19 Pandemic. Some persons who have been cured from the infection may also be invited.
Performance of Police/Military bands may be recorded at places of historic importance associated with the Independence movement; and recorded versions thereof may be displayed through large screens/digital media, during public functions and on social media.
Other functions of the day may include activities like planting of trees; inter-school/inter-college debates on digital platforms; online quiz contests/patriotic essay writing and poetry competitions; launching of any important scheme, singing patriotic songs/delivering patriotic talks by selected boys/girls on the social media; illumination of Government Buildings/State Bhawans, etc; thematic webinars; online campaign by NSS and NYKS centered around patriotic themes; or any other activity deemed appropriate by the State Government/Union Territory Administration befitting the occasion. Other innovative ways of celebrating Independence Day may be considered like propagating patriotic or national integration messages/songs through digital and social media platforms, sound shows/lighting of important public buildings, waving of National Flags by people at rooftops/balconies, etc.
“It would be appropriate that the theme of “Aatmanirbhar Bharat” is suitably spread and publicized amongst the masses through various activities/messages in the functions and on social media during Independence Day celebrations,” the letter signed off with.
President Donald Trump executive orders, aimed at substantially reducing drug prices for the US residents, underscore the campaign pitch of the next election. Pharma pricing has been one of the most widely debated topic in America and we are likely to see some pre-election action on the issue.
Trump said the first order “will require federal community health centers to pass the giant discounts they receive from drug companies on insulin and EpiPens directly to their patients,” while the second allows some drug importation and the third will take discounts away from middlemen such as pharmacy benefits manager and give them to patients.
The fourth order will require that Medicare purchase drugs at the same price as foreign countries pay, Trump said. It “will end global freeloading on the backs of American patients and American seniors.
Though the enforcement of the orders before the November 3 election looks difficult because of legal hurdles and various caveats, if they go through Indian drug manufacturers may stand to benefit in terms of increased market access on the formulation side.
As a result of the orders, the heads of major drug companies have requested a meeting on Tuesday to discuss how to lower drug prices and out-of-pocket expenses for Americans, the president added. If talks are successful, the administration may not need to implement the fourth executive order.
The Trump’s order in general is aimed at reducing the gains of middlemen in the US pharma value chain and to that extent, at least optically, it doesn’t impact manufacturers directly. But the way drug price negotiations are usually done it can have an indirect impact on the large pharma manufacturers.
The most important executive order from the manufactures point of view is the fourth one. Spooked by this order, the stocks of the US-based big pharma companies reacted negatively on Friday. While the order doesn’t distinguish between patented drugs and generic drugs, it is most likely meant for the former as the generic market is already quite competitive.
Since the whole idea of the executive orders is to make drugs affordable, there is a good chance of a revamp of the US medicare and the way drug price negotiations are done. This can have a positive outcome on market access. In our opinion, Indian drug manufactures such as Cadila, Lupin, Cipla, Dr Reddy and Sun Pharma and a few small-sized pharma companies, such as Laurus Labs, may benefit if such an event unfolds. In such a case, volume opportunity may offset the incremental pricing erosion.
Trump over the years often has stated that drug companies are “getting away with murder” and prices are “out of control,” though this year he has been meeting with pharma execs as their companies work on a CoronaVirus vaccine.
Fiscal policy is the guiding force that helps the government decide how much money it should spend to support the economic activity, and how much revenue it must earn from the system, to keep the wheels of the economy running smoothly.
Fiscal policy in India:
Fiscal policy in India is the guiding force that helps the government decide how much money it should spend to support the economic activity, and how much revenue it must earn from the system, to keep the wheels of the economy running smoothly. In recent times, the importance of fiscal policy has been increasing to achieve economic growth swiftly, both in India and across the world. Attaining rapid economic growth is one of the key goals of fiscal policy formulated by the Government of India. Fiscal policy, along with monetary policy, plays a crucial role in managing a country’s economy.
What is meant by Fiscal Policy in India?
Example of Fiscal Policy in India: Through the fiscal policy, the government of a country controls the flow of tax revenues and public expenditure to navigate the economy. If the government receives more revenue than it spends, it runs a surplus, while if it spends more than the tax and non-tax receipts, it runs a deficit. To meet additional expenditures, the government needs to borrow domestically or from overseas. Alternatively, the government may also choose to draw upon its foreign exchange reserves or print additional money. For example, during an economic downturn, the government may decide to open up its coffers to spend more on building projects, welfare schemes, providing business incentives, etc. The aim is to help make more of productive money available to the people, free up some cash with the people so that they can spend it elsewhere, and encourage businesses to make investments. At the same time, the government may also decide to tax businesses and people a little less, thereby earning lesser revenue itself. Main objectives of Fiscal Policy in India: • Economic growth: Fiscal policy helps maintain the economy’s growth rate so that certain economic goals can be achieved. • Price stability: It controls the price level of the country so that when the inflation is too high, prices can be regulated. • Full employment: It aims to achieve full employment, or near full employment, as a tool to recover from low economic activity.
The objective of fiscal policy is to maintain the condition of full employment, economic stability and to stabilize the rate of growth. Generally following are the objectives of a fiscal policy in a developing economy:
Full Employment: The first and foremost objective of fiscal policy in a developing economy is to achieve and maintain full employment in an economy. Therefore, to reduce unemployment and under-employment, the state should spend sufficiently on social and economic overheads. These expenFull Employment:ditures would help to create more employment opportunities and increase the productive efficiency of the economy. In this way, public expenditure and public sector investment have a special role to play in a modern state. A properly planned investment will not only expand income, output and employment but will also step up effective demand through multiplier process and the economy will march automatically towards full employment. Besides public investment, private investment can also be encouraged through tax holidays, concessions, cheap loans, subsidies etc.
Price Stability: In developing economies, inflation is a permanent phenomena where there is a tendency to the rise in prices due to expanding trend of public expenditure. As a result of rise in income, aggregate demand exceeds aggregate supply. Capital goods and consumer goods fail to keep pace with rising income. In short, fiscal policy should try to remove the bottlenecks and structural rigidities which cause imbalance in various sectors of the economy. Moreover, it should strengthen physical controls of essential commodities, granting of concessions, subsidies and protection in the economy. In short, fiscal measures as well as monetary measures go side by side to achieve the objectives of economic growth and stability.
To Accelerate the Rate of Economic Growth: Primarily, fiscal policy in a developing economy, should aim at achieving an accelerated rate of economic growth. But a high rate of economic growth cannot be achieved and maintained without stability in the economy. Therefore, fiscal measures such as taxation, public borrowing and deficit financing etc. should be used properly so that production, consumption and distribution may not adversely affect. It should promote the economy as a whole which in turn helps to raise national income and per capita income.
Optimum Allocation of Resources: Fiscal measures like taxation and public expenditure programmes, can greatly affect the allocation of resources in various occupations and sectors. As it is true, the national income and per capita income of underdeveloped countries is very low. In order to gear the economy, the government can push the growth of social infrastructure through fiscal measures. Public expenditure, subsidies and incentives can favorably influence the allocation of resources in the desired channels. Tax exemptions and tax concessions may help a lot in attracting resources towards the favoured industries. On the contrary, high taxation may draw away resources in a specific sector. Above all, direct curtailment of consumption and socially unproductive investment may be helpful in mobilization of resources and the further check of the inflationary trends in the economy.
Equitable Distribution of Income and Wealth: To reduce inequalities and to do distributive justice, the government should invest in those productive channels which incur benefit to low income groups and are helpful in raising their productivity and technology. Therefore, redistributive expenditure should help economic development and economic development should help redistribution.
Economic Stability: Fiscal measures, to a larger extent, promote economic stability in the face of short-run international cyclical fluctuations. These fluctuations cause variations in terms of trade, making the most favourable to the developed and unfavourable to the developing economies. So, for the purpose of bringing economic stability, fiscal methods should incorporate built-in-flexibility in the budgetary system so that income and expenditure of the government may automatically provide compensatory effect on the rise or fall of the nation’s income. What is the difference between fiscal policy and monetary policy? The government uses both monetary and fiscal policy to meet the county’s economic objectives. The central bank of a country mainly administers monetary policy. In India, the Monetary Policy is under the Reserve Bank of India or RBI. Monetary policy majorly deals with money, currency, and interest rates. On the other hand, under the fiscal policy, the government deals with taxation and spending by the Centre. Importance of Fiscal Policy in India: • In a country like India, fiscal policy plays a key role in elevating the rate of capital formation both in the public and private sectors. • Through taxation, the fiscal policy helps mobilise considerable amount of resources for financing its numerous projects. • Fiscal policy also helps in providing stimulus to elevate the savings rate. • The fiscal policy gives adequate incentives to the private sector to expand its activities. • Fiscal policy aims to minimise the imbalance in the dispersal of income and wealth.
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