DNA 20 July

SC wonders whether privacy could be an absolute right

• Right to privacy is not absolute and cannot prevent the state from making laws imposing reasonable restrictions on citizens, the Supreme Court orally observed
• ‘Amorphous’ term The court said ‘right to privacy’ is in fact too ‘amorphous’ a term
• To recognise privacy as a definite right, it has to first define it.
• But this would be nearly impossible as an element of privacy pervades all the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution.
• “How do we define privacy?
• What are its contents... Its contours?
• How can the state regulate privacy?
• What obligations do the state have to protect a person’s privacy?
• The court said that an attempt to define the right to privacy may cause more harm than good.
• Attorney-General K.K. Venugopal has already submitted in the Supreme Court that right to privacy is merely a ‘common law right’, and the Constitution makers ‘consciously avoided’ making it a part of the fundamental rights
• Another Justice said, “In the Internet age, a person should have control on how much he should put forward and not be compelled,”
• He said that there is hardly any data protection in this digital age, inevitably leading to a compromise in privacy.
• But Justice Chandrachud observed that right to privacy cannot be linked to data protection. He said this is the age of ‘big data’, and instead of focussing on privacy, steps need to be taken to give statutory recognition to data protection.

Ministry, NITI Aayog moot privatisation of select services in district hospitals

• As a part of a radical ‘privatisation project’, the Health Ministry and the NITI Aayog have developed a framework to let private hospitals run select services within district hospitals, on a 30-year lease
• In a 140-page document, prepared in consultation with the World Bank, the government will be allowing “a single private partner or a single consortium of private partners” to bid for space in district level hospitals, “especially in tier 2 & 3 cities.”
• Under this Public Private Partnership (PPP), care for only three non-communicable diseases — cardiac disease, pulmonary disease, and cancer care — will be provided
• People’s Health Movement said that the government was handing over critical public assets without gaining anything much in return.
• “NITI Aayog has no locus standi to make health policy, which is a state subject in India.
• The logic behind shutting down the Planning Commission was to ensure that policies are not centralised.
• NITI Aayog was to be an advisory body but here they are rushing through a policy that will essentially hand over public assets to the private sector, leading to a further dismantling of the public services available for free.
• If the government has to give seed money, share blood banks and other infrastructure, and still not be able to reserve beds for poor patients, it seems like we are not getting much in return

Viability gap funding

• Further, the State governments will give Viability Gap Funding (VGF), or one-time seed money, to private players to set up infrastructure within district hospitals. The private parties and State health departments will share ambulance services, blood banks, and mortuary services.
• A major concern about the policy is that under ‘principles’ of the financial structure, the document states that “there will be no reserved beds or no quota (sic) of beds for free services” in these facilities
• “While it is clear that insured patients will receive free care, it is not at all clear what will happen to the vast majority of the population
• “If implemented, these proposals could threaten to take India away from UHC(Universal health Care), a key sustainable development goal, rather than towards it

New social security net planned

The Union government plans to introduce a universal social security network for workers in both the informal and formal sectors. The scheme will be rolled out in a phased manner

A question was asked about a proposal to lower the employee’s and the employer’s contribution from the present 12% to 10%

IT Sector

An MP raised the issue of IT sector employees, stating that there was no superannuation fund in the country and EPF alone was the support for the employees who were retiring or getting terminated.

 Take any cosmopolitan city, services of thousands of IT employees are being terminated. As the Labour Ministry is not having any control over IT companies and multinational corporates, what is the measure that the Labour Ministry is intending to do to the Employees’ Provident Fund to protect the IT sector employees ?

Labour minister replied to the question and said the law might confine to wages of those who had got a ceiling of Rs.15,000, for that EPFO eligibility would be there. 

Apart from that, the government would provide social security to IT workers and also IT employers. Loan, PF, Pension, everything would be protected under wages’ safeguards. 

China shows zero tolerance to ‘sovereignty’ threats

The latest posturing is in line with its stand on areas of hypersensitivity — Tibet, Taiwan and South China Sea

China’s insistence on the withdrawal of Indian troops from the Doklam plateau as a precondition for negotiations is consistent with its position on Tibet, Taiwan or the South China Sea — areas of hyper-sensitivity where Beijing perceives that its “territorial sovereignty” is at stake

Diplomatic entangling between China and other countries

1.Proposed visit of the Dalai Lama to Botswana  

2.Moves by the United States to reopen naval port calls with Taiwan. 

3.Indonesia’s cartographic dalliance, by renaming a portion of the South China Sea as North Natuna      Sea,

4.Last year, Mongolia’s decision to welcome the Dalai Lama in Ulan Bator resulted in Bejing’s 

   decision to impose stringent trade restrictions on its unequal neighbour 

Dalai Lama

 The 14th Dalai is a political exile who has long been engaged in anti-China separatist activities under the cloak of religion with the attempt to split Tibet from China. China is firmly opposed to Dalai’s trip to any country for activities aimed at splitting China in any capacity or name

China perceives any encouragement to the Dalai Lama by foreign powers or military or political support to Taiwan as a challenge to its “One China” policy

Indonesia

China has also raised the red flag on Indonesia’s decision to issue a new official map renaming a part of the South China Sea (SCS) as the North Natuna Sea. 

The map apparently intersects a part of the Nine-Dash line, which defines China’s maritime boundary in the SCS, thus rejecting Beijing’s “sovereignty” in the entire area

Panel for bigger Indian role in Afghanistan

• India has a “critical role” to play in breaking the stalemate in Afghanistan, the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Forces has said, calling for enhancing trilateral cooperation between Afghanistan, India and the U.S
• In a report accompanying the National Defense Authorisation Act (NDAA) 2018, the committee also called for enhancing the overall defence cooperation between the U.S. and India, and “eventually joint naval patrol of the Indian Ocean.”
• The Senate Committee also pulled up the Department of Defense for not making faster progress in improving cooperation between India and the U.S.
•  While acknowledging improvement in partnership, the report said the committee was “concerned by a growing gap between the overarching goals of the bilateral defence relationship and the Department’s implementation of these objectives”.
• The committee specifically noted the delay by the Pentagon in designating an individual within the Department to “coordinate and expedite bilateral defence cooperation,” as required by last year’s NDAA
• “The committee is concerned by the current stalemate in Afghanistan, and believes that the United States should leverage the capabilities of allies and partners to more effectively secure regional stability and security. 
• The committee believes that the United States needs to recommit to the fight in Afghanistan and that India, as a major defence partner of the United States and a contributor to regional security, has a critical role to play in this effort 
• The report noted the “positive adjustment of U.S. export controls for defence articles sold to India” after last year’s NDAA, but called for faster progress and focussed approach. 
• It said the 2012 Defense Technology and Trade Initiative has six ‘‘pathfinder’’ initiatives, which need to be more in alignment with the Joint Strategic Vision between the two countries. 

INDIA-Afghanistan Relationship

• India has been less than enthusiastic about joint patrol and cautious while expanding cooperation with the Afghan government. 
• India has a strategic partnership agreement with Afghanistan, but its military component remains limited.

AAI to bear capex for two airports

• The Airports Authority of India (AAI) will bear the capital expenditure at Jaipur and Ahmedabad airports even as private developers will only need to concentrate on operations and maintenance (O&M) of the two airports whose terminal buildings are set to be privatised.
• The concept of project cost will be different in case of these two airports as against the model adopted for privatisation of other airports, including Delhi and Mumbai airports.
• The private developers of Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) and Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) - GMR and GVK respectively incur the capital expenditure for expansion of the Delhi and Mumbai airports.
• As per the public-private partnership (PPP) agreement, DIAL has to share 45.99% of its revenues with AAI, while MIAL is supposed to share 38.7% of revenues.