New Delhi : A new study has shown that availability of essential drugs for treatment of childhood cancers was well below the World Health Organisation (WHO)-prescribed standards in both public and private sector pharmacies even in the national capital, Delhi.

The survey looked into availability of 33 essential anti-cancer medicines in four public and three private hospitals as well as 32 private retail pharmacies. It was found that their mean availability was a mere 70 per cent as against the WHO’s norm of at least 80 per cent. 

The situation was, however, somewhat better in private hospitals over public hospitals and private retail pharmacies. Private hospitals recorded availability of 71 per cent, while public hospitals reported 43 per cent and retail pharmacies 38 per cent.  

The study has also found problem with prices of drugs. Medicine prices were relatively low in Delhi compared with international reference prices. However, even at a lower price the medicines were unaffordable for a vast section of society.  The lowest cost of chemotherapy for treating a 30 kg child with standard risk leukaemia was Rs. 27,850 and for a child with early stage Hodgkin’s lymphoma was Rs.17,500. 

“Low availability and poor affordability of anti-cancer essential medicines highlight the need to streamline public sector and private sector medicine procurement and supply systems,’ said Neha Faruqui of the George Institute for Global Health, and a member of the research team.

The study has been published in journal BMJ Global Health. The study team included researchers from The George Institute for Global Health, University of Sydney, Cankids India, Max Super Speciality Hospital and Boston University School of Public Health. (India Science Wire)

VARANASI, Apr 25:  Waves of massive crowd lustily cheered  Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this holy city as he began his 7-km long road-show here on Thursday, a day before filing his nomination for the second time to seek re-election to the 17^th Lok Sabha.

Braving hot weather, a sea of people turned up to welcome Mr. Modi in this temple town as the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) used the occasion to put up a show of strength in the Prime Minister’s  parliamentary constituency in the heart of Uttar Pradesh, the key State from where the party had reaped a rich harvest of Lok Sabha seats in the 2014 general elections.

Donning a saffron kurta and scarf,  the Prime Minister was seen waving to the enthusiastic crowd which wanted to catch a glimpse of their star candidate. He began the roadshow from the iconic Banaras Hindu University (BHU) where he paid homage at a statue of Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya, a freedom fighter and founder of BHU.  

The Prime Minister’s roadshow is passing through a number of temples and ghats before culminating at the Dashashwamedh ghat on the banks of holy Ganga. Mr. Modi will also attend the evening aarti at the ghat.

The entire top brass of the BJP, including party president Amit Shah, several Union Ministers and Chief Ministers, accompanied Mr Modi as the cavalcade meandered its way through the lanes of the ancient city. People from their rooftops and terraces greeted and waved at Mr Modi and some were also seen showering flowers and rose petals on him. 

The main opposition party Congress has fielded Ajay Rai to contest against Mr Modi, ending days of speculation about the possible candidature of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra from Varanasi. 

NEW DELHI: The aviation industry in the country is in the throes of a crisis. The flashpoint has been the closure of the iconic Jet Airways, something that could not have been considered possible even a year ago. This is an airline that at one point of time had commanded 40 per cent of the aviation market share. It was considered a stable entity that survived while others launched at the same time or even later like Damania, Modiluft, East West Airlines and Kingfisher became unprofitable and had to close down. 
The failure of Jet Airways is not only linked to the poor management of the company headed by Naresh Goyal but also to the external environment that is affecting operations of all airlines in the country. The question is, whether other companies will be able to weather the crisis or also collapse in thesame manner.
As far as Jet Airways is concerned, its sudden unraveling over the last six months occurred due to mounting debt that had begun when it had acquired Air Sahara in 2007. Subsequently, it was not able to fend off the competition from the new budget carriers in the field like Indigo, SpiceJet and GoAir. It remained a full service airline at a time when fuel costs were rising rapidly and the rupee was also depreciating. Fuel costs have now reached nearly 40 per cent of total operating costs for airlines. In addition, Jet had to offer lower fares to beat the competition while also having the burden of the new budget carrier which was renamed as JetLite.
The demise of Jet has been due to multiple factors. One of these is reported to be the hands on managerial style of Naresh Goyal who was always considered a controversial figure due to his proximity to those in the top echelons ofgovernment. Ratan Tata famously blamed Goyal for not being able to launch a new airline in partnership with Singapore Airlines (SIA) in the mid-90s at the time of the United Front government and then later again during the period of the NDA government. It is indeed an irony that Vistara, the joint venture between Tatas and SIA was recently considered as a potential suitor to take over the failed airline.
Jet, however, is not the only airline in the doldrums. The government-owned Air India is saddled with enormous debt and strenuous efforts have been made over the past year to sell it to a private investor. There have been no bidders forthcoming. However, leaving the government with no choice but to try and revive the airline and bring it to a condition where it can become attractive to buyers. Air India is also a full service airline with an enormous outgo on staff salaries owing to excess employees. Some of the elements of the revival plan include monetizing the wide ranging real estate assets of Air India including sale of its iconic Nariman Point tower and hiving off its low cost subsidiary and those dealing with engineering and ground handling services.
Even so, Air India is basically limping along till it is finally privatized. It has amarket share of about 13 per cent, slightly lower than that of Jet till last yearwhich was about 14 per cent. The biggest player in the market is Indigo, which has a whopping 42 per cent share of the air travelers in the country. 
Market share of other airlines like Spice Jet is about 12 per cent while Vistara and GoAir have about 9 per cent each. All these equations will now shift significantly owing to the closure of Jet which will also lead to a hike in prices of air travel. The Civil Aviation Ministry has assured that it will keep a cap on air fares but it looks difficult as the summer is upon us and air travelers will be going on holiday en masse.
While there is no dearth of demand for air travel, the fact is the airlines are still struggling to stay afloat simply because of the extremely high cost of fuel. Crude oil prices are rising in international markets and this is leading to a matching rise in costs of aviation turbine fuel for airlines. The airline industry has been demanding for some time that ATF should be brought under the purview of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) instead of being governed by the old system of taxation. By bringing ATF under GST, the airlines will get the benefit of input credit which will save them thousands of crores annually.
It is interesting that though the airline industry is going through a crisis, it is also looking at huge opportunities in the future. India is the fastest growing market for aviation in the world with a 17 per cent growth last year. It is estimated that the sector will receive investments of about Rs. 35000 crores in the coming years. Also there is a huge demand for skilled personnel in the aviation industry. 
Even though the closure of Jet Airways has meant job losses for about 16000 staff members, many of them will be absorbed by other airlines which are desperately looked for trained employees. There is an enormous shortage of pilots and cabin crew in airlines like Indigo and others which are steeply expanding their fleets and hence need more staff.
On the regional airlines front, the much-vaunted Udaan scheme launched in 2016 has yet to live up to expectations. The aim is laudable, to enable those in small towns to be able to fly to other destinations at a reasonable cost. 
Unfortunately, the small airlines that should have helped to achieve the objective have not been able to gear up to fulfill targets. The aviation industry is thus at a crossroads. It is facing a calamity as well as the prospects of high growth in the future. The fate of the industry will now depend partly on government policies on oil prices as well as the industry’s ability to bringabout more effective management so that airlines can avoid the fate of Jet Airways. 

Cyberbullying or online fraud is not a new threat to the world. Only the methods to jeopardize a user’s digital wallet through various means of frauds leading authorized transactions are different. Some manage to escape while some get trapped. They just wait for your one casual move and in the blink of an eye, the damage is done!

On Saturday afternoon, I raised a complaint on Twitter to a leading online payment system, Phone Pe (Flipkart is the parent company), about an unfair deduction of some amount from the wallet linked to my bank account. Within a few minutes, an unverified, but official, customer support Twitter handle of Phone Pe (@PhonePeSupport) replied and asked me to share the details of my transaction including my registered phone number and the transaction ID, for further assistance. I thought to share the details; meanwhile, I was also concerned about the ‘unverified’ Twitter customer support handle of the popular digital payment app, recently endorsed by the famous Bollywood actor Mr. Aamir Khan.

The next moment I received a direct message (DM) from @Phone_pe_ regarding my query. (However, the official handle of Phone Pe is @PhonePe_ and chat support, @PhonePeSupport). I couldn’t differentiate between the two Ids. It asked me to share my phone number, which I did. Till this moment, I assumed that it is the same unverified handle of Phone Pe that asked me to share the details earlier. In the next message, I was requested to share my Unified Payment Interface (UPI) ID…… and here I held back. It raised a red flag.

Well, there are plenty of awareness campaigns and advertisements in today’s world where you are appealed not to share your crucial information related to your bank accounts or payment gateway wallets with anyone unless it comes from the company itself. But how to verify that on the other side of the screen or phone is a friend or a foe?

I denied sharing my UPI ID and questioned the efficacy of that Twitter account, @Phone_pe_. Soon I found myself blocked by that account. Now, it didn’t take me too long to decipher that on the other side of the screen there is a ‘Third Party Foe’ donning the camouflaged official purple logo of Phone Pe, disguising as the customer chat support for the same. It definitely saved me from getting my bank account compromised but the entire sabotage compelled me to think and look for whether similar instances occurred with others also.

Zubair Khan, a student from Jalandhar raised a complaint to Phone Pe on Twitter about a refund failure worth 11,999 rupees by Flipkart. As per the threads on Twitter, he mentioned that he made the payment for a mobile phone to the e-commerce portal via Phone Pe but wished to get it refunded it. Not receiving the refund in time, he sent a tweet to Phone Pe Support. In a similar pattern, he received a DM from the duplicate Twitter account of Phone_Pe_. Unlike me, Zubair failed to decipher the fraud and ended up sharing his UPI ID. He said on phone, “I was sent a link asking for my permissions, ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. I clicked Yes. I thought I am going to receive my money back, but next moment, I received a message that my account is debited with rupees 11,999. Not only this, I was again asked to click ‘Yes’ for a 23,999 rupees link but it was enough, however late, to get that I was just tricked by a fraud.”

Another person with Twitter handle @Bbpandit (Balkrishna Bhardwaj) complained that someone stole 60,000 rupees after he, unfortunately, shared his UPI in DM. The pattern was almost similar.

@Lalitait16 tweeted about a Phone Pe fraud. He talked to me and conveyed that he lost 5000 rupees after he shared UPI in DM with @Phone_Pe_.

There were several other complaints on Twitter against the inefficiency of Phone Pe to address these complaints properly and provide hassle-free customer service. Phone Pe says that a Third-Party fraud cannot be controlled. But the customers have nothing to do it. They will tend to think that because of the incapability of the merchant failing to deal with the situation, we are losing money.

The Delhi Metro levies conditional penalties to customers on every metro card recharge failure. An executive of Phone Pe informed me that Delhi Metro levies 2.5% charge on every recharge failure. Phone Pe replied to me, “as per Metro if a user doesn’t tap on the AVM machine then they charge a 2.5% fee and refund the remaining amount. Further, we never ask our customers for any confidential information.”

It implies that I have to pay extra due to some loopholes in the network or anomaly the interface of Phone Pe. Isn’t it bizarre? The most interesting thing is that I have never been charged for any recharge failures, previously. The new rule saw the light of the day after my complaint.

There are numerous complaints against Phone Pe. Most of them are related to UPI frauds by @Phone_pe_, unfair deduction, and refund failures/delay. Phone Pe says they do not intend any of its customers to have a bad experience but nothing concrete can be done so far. Customers have lost their valuable money. Phone Pe direly needs to strengthen the security policies to retain the customers. Otherwise, this Digital India has no dearth of online payment systems but I wish Phone Pe reforms its services and proves our data are in safe hands and actor Aamir Khan is a justified brand ambassador for the product.

(My unfair deduction by Phone Pe was worth 8 rupees only.)

The Weekend Leader – VIT ‘Person of the Year’ has been hosted for the past 9 years to honour the social change-makers and entrepreneurs with a cause. This program is unique, for the fact that it is different from regular expert talks, industry lectures. It takes the students through the journey that the awardee and the Chief Guest have walked through. The prospects and problems, social taboos and business hurdles are discussed at length. The take-away from the program goes beyond the bookish concepts and industry practices. It perpetuates the experience, confidence, wisdom that no book or a B-school puts on the platter.
This year the Chief Guest invited for ‘Person of the Year’ is Honourable Justice N Santosh Hegde, a honest, people friendly, social empathiser. The Weekend Leader-VIT Person of the year 2018 awardee is Padma Bhushan Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, founder, Sulabh International.  Bhushan Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak promotes human rights, environmental sanitation, non-conventional sources of energy, waste management and social reforms through education
Justice N Santosh Hegde, former Karnataka Lokayukta, called upon the youth of the country to imbibe two basic values that our forefathers cherished – contentment and humanism – to establish peace and solidarity in the society and said that, youth in the country need to Imbibe the values of contentment and humanism for peace and solidarity in society’.
Justice Hegde was addressing the students of VIT Vellore during The Weekend Leader – VIT Person of the Year (2018) award held during the last week of March 2018. The Weekend Leader – VIT Person of the Year, an annual event at VIT, is essentially meant for management students, to identify the opportunities even in dire situations. 
Known for his anti-corruption drive during his tenure as Karnataka Lokayukta between 2006 and 2010 when he exposed the large scale corruption in the mining operations in Karnataka, Hegde listed the various scams in the country starting from the Jeep scam in the 1950s, which resulted in a loss of Rs 52 lakh to the exchequer, to the more recent scams of the current century and said that greed has no limit and is the cause of all corruption in the country. Citing the falling moral standards in the society, he said, “We live in a society today that respects money and power more than anything else. Consequently there is a mad race to earn as much money as possible.”
In his acceptance speech after receiving The Weekend Leader – VIT Person of the Year Award, Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, founder, Sulabh International, shared his journey of building a national movement to restore the human rights and dignity of the manual scavengers.
Pathak said that Sulabh not only liberated the scavengers from the inhuman practice but also rehabilitated the people from the community by training the women and children in different skills.
Talking about the event, Dr. P Subhashree, Dean VIT Business School said, “These events are part of the conscious efforts of the business school to expose the students to positive journalism that instil confidence; equips them with the mind set to strive-achieve even in impossible situations, ability to shackle away the binding psychological, cultural barriers. This is one of the subtle but a strong Value that we give students”.
VIT Registrar Dr. K Sathiyanarayanan, who presided over the function, presented the citation and cash prize of Rs 25,000 to Pathak. P C Vinoj Kumar, Editor, The Weekend Leader, lauded Pathak for his role in ending the inhuman practice of manual scavenging and also rehabilitating them by providing them with jobs and educating their children. “Few people have been responsible for creating social change of this magnitude in their lifetime. In Tamil Nadu, we had Periyar who started a movement that led to the political and socio-economic empowerment of millions of marginalized people,” he said.Dr. N Jayasankaran, Adviser, VIT Business School, Dr. P Subhashree, Dean, VIT Business School, and Sam Rajappa, Consulting Editor, The Weekend Leader, also addressed the students and felicitated the awardee. 

“Believe in your dream, work towards it, keep the consistency without any thought of giving up. deaf your ears and blind your eyes to people’s negativity and put God first.”
Engr. Alabi Samson Ayobami (aka. Rubson) from Ogun state, was born and bred in Kaduna state, Northern Nigeria, but currently resides in Canada. He is a graduate of Civil Engineering from Liaoning University, China. He is a man of many parts, and in his own words, “I love challenges because those are what make me a God-fearing man.” Mr Alabi is a fast-rising entrepreneur and founder/CEO of Starwise Group. His diversity and work ethic are an inspiration to many. He got an MBA from University of South Whales, London and is presently pursuing another Masters in Civil Engineering in Canada.
He founded Starwise Group in 2013 after realising his strong knack for entrepreneurship and providing solutions to the problems around him. The company is a strong image of his personality and Mr. Alabi believes that he is his own inspiration.
So, the Starwise groups are one of the leading educational consulting firms in the whole of Nigeria. And they has rolled out many plans for the citizens of Nigeria, who are further seeking to pursue their education outside the country, the Starwise group is there with you with its Starwise study in China programme.
According to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Starwise groups, Mr. Alabi Ayobami, the main aim of this programme is basically helping the student belonging to Africa to get the admission in the China university securely and that too without any hassle. So, the students from Africa are surely going to get so many new things to learn for sure.
Alabi, being an educational expert is having experience of more than a decade in jobs, expertise in education, as well as a business mogul. So, the company is going to help and serve the students from the point of inquiry to the point of application as well as the accommodation.
Alabi has also mentioned that his company, the Starwise group, is going to help the students from different varieties of background, to attend the universities via different pathways before they subsequently getting the degree programme. And that is surely going to help them a lot. So, the student’s from Africa are surely going to get amazing facilities through the Starwise groups for sure. After all, the Starwise is surely going to provide you with the most amazing service for sure. As they are standing them with you and going to provide you with the application as well as the accommodation for sure.
Appreciated for his work: Alabi Samson has been appreciated for his work and received many awards too from many places like China than his home place Nigeria he is young but getting awards like an experienced Business tycoon and why not when you are so energetic and visionary person. Face of Foreigner in China (FIC 2015) Awards, Toosabi Awards China (2016) as the Entrepreneur of the year, Association of Nigerian Student in China (ANSIC) Treasurer Award (2016). Mr Alabi was appreciated in 2017 concert by Kiss Daniel for organizing and beautiful event in China.
Alabi Samson is a role model for many youngsters who want to achieve something in life you can learn many things from his short career. We wish Alabi Samson more success in life and also pray to god that he gets more energy to work hard so that his charity work also grows like his business.

An American news publication Foreign Policy in an exclusive story, “Did India shoot down a Pakistani jet? US count says No.”, contradicts India’s claim of taking down an F-16s aircraft. It highlights, “India’s claim that one of its fighter pilots shot down a Pakistani F-16 fighter jet in an aerial battle between the two nuclear powers in February appears to be wrong. Two senior U.S. defense officials with direct knowledge of the situation told Foreign Policy that U.S. personnel recently counted Islamabad’s F-16s and found none missing.”

Lara Seligman, the defense correspondent for Foreign Policy has further stated that ‘one of the senior U.S. defense officials with direct knowledge of the count said that Pakistan invited the United States to physically count its F-16 planes after the incident as part of an end-user agreement signed when the foreign military sale was finalized. Generally, in such agreements, the United States requires the receiving country to allow U.S. officials to inspect the equipment regularly to ensure it is accounted for and protected.’

The simmering tensions between India and Pakistan after the Pulwama attack took a completely new horizon as the two nuclear-armed nations got involved in an aerial dogfight, a month ago.

Post Balakot air strike, Indian authorities claimed that Pakistan’s fighter jet F-16s was shot down by the MiG-21 Bison piloted by the IAF Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, who was captured on the enemy’s soil later released by Pakistan to de-escalate the tension after some international pressure.

Islamabad refuted India’s claims and always maintained not a single US made F-16s was used in the aerial battle on 27th February. Lockheed Martin’s F-16s is a 4th generation multi-role combat fighter aircraft with over 3000 fleets in more than 25 countries. It is s blue-chip brand in the war industry.

A $15 Billion Fighter Contest Angle

Amid growing concerns of the aging fleet, has been opined to replace old Soviet-era Vietnam War MiG aircraft with advanced fourth and fifth generation combat aircraft. 

Lockheed Martin (LMT), Boeing (BA), Saab, Dassault Aviation and Russia’s United Aircraft Corp are all in the race for the contract worth $15 billion. It could be a matter of reputation and image for a blue-chip stock like Lockheed Martin if it gets the tag of being hit by a 3rd generation MiG bison in an aerial battle.

Lockheed Martin offers India an F-21. But the defense experts are opined the F-21 “appears to be an enhanced F-16 Block 70. Boeing came up with F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet.

The US war industry dons a reputation to leverage upon the escalating tensions between two countries and make this field an all-time profitable industry. While the Indian media is going hullabaloo after the Foreign Policy revelations, it’s high time to check the repeat offenses of the United States carried to the Third World countries. 

Meanwhile, Lockheed Martin suffers a dip in its shares while the news of ‘F-16s shot down’ hits the world media. Its shares dipped to 297.96 USD. In 2018, according to the New York Stock Exchange, LMT suffered a fall of 18% in its shares. Last month, Lockheed Martin shares closed flat at 309.47 while others enjoyed a take-off.

                                                                                       Picture courtesy: The Hindu 

Wayanad, a picturesque district in Northeast Kerala, located on high up on the Western Ghat, has catapulted in national limelight after Congress President Rahul Gandhi deciding to contest from this scenic constituency. He filed his nomination from the seat on Thursday. 

Wayanad, which sits comfortably on the tri-junction of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, is a tourist paradise. But its beauty aside, Wayanad was not exactly grabbing eyeballs during the general elections, until on March 31, when Congress announced that Gandhi will contest from this constituency in addition to Amethi in Uttar Pradesh.

Though Wayanad was under active consideration for many days, the decision was nonetheless surprising as Rahul Gandhi’s principal opponent would not be at the national level ideological rival BJP, but the Left party. 

Interesting is why the Congress decided to field Gandhi from Wayanad. It has been argued that the Congress President’s candidature could influence the party’s support base and galvanize the party workers not just in Kerala but also neighboring Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

The decision is seen an attempt by the Congress to consolidate its electoral base in South India especially in Kerala which has 20 Lok Sabha seats, Tamil Nadu has 39 seats and Karnataka 28.

Kerala Congress unit also believes that Gandhi contesting from Wayanad will provide an impetus to the party’s footprint in south India.

This is a message to the southern state that they are deeply valued and respected. Congress President Rahul Gandhi has said he will represent Amethi but also represent southern states as they are the important part of India’s way of life, Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala had said.

Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency is spread across three revenue districts- Wayanad, Kozhikode and Malappuram and comprises seven Assembly seats.

Wayanad came into being in 2009 after the delimitation of constituencies in 2008.

The first MP from Wayanad was senior Congress leader MI Shanavas, who had won with a huge margin of 1.5 lakh votes defeating CPI’s M Rahmatulla. 

Shanavas had retained the seat in 2014 Lok Sabha polls but with a relatively low victory margin of 20,000 votes. 

In November 2018, about six months ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Shanavas died at the age of 67 years. 

In that sense, picking Wayanad as Rahul Gandhi’s constituency is a careful choice as is the calibrated demand to have him contest from a south Indian seat apart from Amethi where he faces union minister Smriti Irani.

In 2014, the Congress secured 41 percent votes while the CPI got 39 percent. It is no wonder then that the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) in Kerala is livid over Gandhi contesting from Wayanad and see it as a challenge to them than to any other party in the state. 

The LDF has announced CPI’s  P P Suneer as its candidate from Wayanad while the BJP announced that its ally, the Bharath Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS)  candidate Thushar Vellappally would be NDA candidate against Gandhi.

Wayanad has a strong pro-Congress voter base and Muslims and Christians form over 50 percent of the vote bank. This district has also a mix of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe community. The Indian Union Muslim League, the second biggest partner in UDF, has considerable clout here.

Gandhi, who has positioned as a champion of farmers and agricultural laborers, can impress voters who are largely farmers and plantation worker in Wayanad. 

Also, Congress leaders in Kerala feel Gandhi’s stand against demonetization and GST will gain currency among state holder of the tourism industry.

With only 3.86 percent of people living in urban areas, a major chunk is involved in farming activities in Wayanad.  Rural distress, hence, is a major issue in the area. Pepper and coffee are major crops which were affected adversely during August 2018 floods that ravaged Kerala. 

But the Congress’ decision has not gone well with the LDF and the Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan saying Gandhi contesting from Wayanad is an attempt t attack the Left in the state and not the BJP.

The BJP went hammer and tongs and accused the Congress President of being a ‘fugitive’ who is no longer sure of success from Amethi and hence has chosen a “safe” seat. All eyes will be on Wayanad when it goes to polls on April 23. 

New Delhi, April  2 : The Congress on Tuesday released its manifesto for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, promising Rs 72,000 annually to five crore poorest families under Nyuntam Aay Yojana (NYAY) scheme, a simplified single slab Goods and Services Tax and filling up 22 lakh vacancies in the government.

The manifesto was released at the party headquarters at 24 Akbar Road at a press conference by Congress president Rahul Gandhi, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, former Union ministers and senior party leaders P Chidambaram and A K Antony. 

Describing the Congress manifesto as ”forward looking” document, Dr Singh said that it summed up aspirations of people of India for a decent, dignified life and of self-respect.  

”The manifesto has been prepared after consultation with a large number of people from various walks of life. All sections of society have been taken care of. It is the duty of the Congress workers to take the message of the manifesto to the people at large,” the former Prime Minister said.  

”This manifesto spells out how we could get out of poverty, ignorance and disease. We would all like India to be a prosperous country where prosperity and productivity go together,’’ said Dr Singh.  

While releasing the manifesto, Mr Gandhi said the document was not prepared in ”closed rooms” and reflected ”wishes of the people of India.”  

”I also said that whatever is going to be in this manifesto has to be truthful, I do not want a single thing in this manifesto that is a lie because we have been hearing large number of lies spoken everyday by our PM,” the Congress President said in his remarks. 

After releasing the manifesto, Rahul Gandhi answered a volley of questions from the mediapersons at the press conference. In reply to a question, he challenged Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a debate on national security and corruption.  

“I am challenging Narendra Modi for a debate on national security, foreign policy or corruption. But Mr Modi is scared to face such issues. He is not talking anything on the real issues like women’s problems, national security and corruption. He has to talk about all these”, Mr Gandhi said.   

Mr Gandhi brushed aside the criticism of the Bharatiya Janata Party, which has dubbed the NYAY as “not doable”. He said: “I?agree it is not doable for the BJP. But it is doable for the Congress.” 

Congress manifesto committee chairman P Chidambaram said, “Wealth and welfare is the theme of the Congress manifesto. The idea is how do you marry wealth and welfare.” 

“The idea is to set the narrative for the 2019 election. The BJP, which is our opposition, is trying to seize the narrative. They are trying to take the narrative to old 2014 election narrative of polarization, divisiveness and hyper nationalism,” Mr Chidambaram said. 

He said the election document of the party addresses the “concerns of our farmers, youth, women, Dalits, minority, industry, workers as well as those about internal security, national security and foreign policy.” 

10 Key Takeaway:

– 72,000/ per year direct transfer to the poorest bank accounts

– To Decriminalize ‘Farm Loan Defaulters’, will be taken as Civil, not criminal offense. 

– 6% of GDP to be spent in the education sector 

– 3% GDP to be used in the health sector

– 10 lakhs Seva Mitra posts in Gram Panchayat and in Urban local body

– To fill 4 lakhs government’s vacancies before March 2020

– Tax exemption for the start-ups for the first 3 years

– Focus on internal and national security

– Women security and empowerment

– Probe into Rafale Deal

The newly unveiled plan by the Congress Party to provide a minimum income guarantee to the poorest in the country has sparked a controversy as advocates for and against it are voicing their views in no uncertain terms. The proposal has been criticized, by one segment of economic writers for being too expensive, discriminatory and difficult to implement. On the other hand, it is being commended by others as being visionary and achievable without too much strain despite the estimates that it could cost up to Rs. three to four trillion. The fact is, the scheme is modeled loosely on the much-debated universal basic income concept that was outlined by former chief economic advisor Arvind Subramaniam in the 2016-17 Economic Survey. The Congress proposal is being described by some as the UBI but it differs in many ways from the original idea.

One also needs to mention in this context that the plan seems to have been an effort to leap ahead of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party after the NDA government launched its scheme to provide Rs. 6000 annually to farmers. This amount is far lower than the Congress plan which envisages Rs. 72000 every year to the poorest 50million in the country. But the announcement had brought cheer to famers at that time when agrarian distress was rising and kisan marches had brought this crisis to the attention of the nation.

As for the original UBI, it envisages that everyone in a nation receives a fixed amount of income. This is to be given to individuals, rather than to one person in a household, as is envisaged in the Congress plan.  Thus each individual in a family receives a stipend with money for children below 18 being given to a parent. The idea of a universal income to insulate people from the vagaries of the labour market actually emanated from developed countries which have been worried about the prospect of automation reducing jobs availability for humans. The history of this concept goes back even further as intellectuals and writers in western countries felt the need for a basic income to eliminate inequalities even several centuries ago.

In recent times, the idea of the UBI has been revived by many economists including Guy Standing and has been supported by leading lights of Silicon Valley like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.  Not only that, several trials of the UBI have been carried out in countries as diverse as Finland, Kenya, the U.S. and even India. The positive results of the trials, however, have not led to any decisions to implement the schemes on a larger basis. Mainly because of the costs involved, even for affluent countries like Finland and the U.S.

The scheme, termed Nyuntam Aay Yojana or Nyay, as outlined by Rahul Gandhi, however, is different on many counts. First, it is not a universal scheme. It is limited to 20 per cent of the population that has been identified as the poorest.   Second, the income will be paid per household and not per individual. It is planned to cover 50 million households and assuming that each one comprises of five persons, it will cover 250 million people. Third, there is an element of topping up incomes that is not envisaged in the UBI. It has been mentioned that the income of those below Rs. 12000 per month will be brought to that level.

So clearly this is not the universal basic income scheme. It remains discriminatory even though it will be argued that such discrimination is for the public good. The amount given will also be diluted as it has been allocated per household. The Nyay scheme envisages that Rs. 72000 annually or Rs. 6000 monthly will be paid to the 50 million households that are the poorest in the country. But it translates into Rs. 1200 per month or Rs. 14400 annually per individual in the household. And that will be even less if the household is larger. In addition, the UBI is meant to be introduced by eliminating all other types of income support to the people including subsidies. In this case, the income simply becomes an additionality along with all the other multifarious subsidies in this country.

At the same time, it can become a gamechanger for the Congress in the elections if it is well projected by the party. Whether it can be implemented ultimately without creating fiscal imbalances is another question altogether. The financing of the scheme is bound to be problematic. At a time when the Goods and Services Tax has subsumed most other taxes, it would be retrograde to introduce any cess or surcharge to finance it. Similarly, the proposal by some left activists to tax the rich to fund Nyay is bound to make investors nervous at a time when the economy is in need of greater capital inflows. In fact, recognizing this fact even the Congress has announced it will withdraw the angel tax on start up ventures.

Apart from being a huge drain on the exchequer, it would surely be better to opt for schemes that will provide some form of employment including enhancing skills.Some economists have suggested  that a universal employment scheme be launched  rather than a minimum income guarantee for the poorest. It would be more sustainable and achieve more tangible results in the long run.

In any case, it is clear that the scheme has been evolved to evoke a reaction at the hustings and has not been well thought out especially the financial aspects. The Congress has denied any such allegations and maintains that there have been prolonged discussions with economists including former central bank governor Raghuram Rajan. Even leading international economist Abhijit Banerjee said that he had provided inputs for it but proposed a much lower income guarantee than Rs. 6000 per month. The plan may thus have been discussed with many experts but the financial element has evidently been glossed over before being announced.  In case the Congress does come to power, the big uncertainty will be whether it can finally implement the promise in its present form. If it does not, it will become yet another political illusion aimed at gaining votes in this round of general elections.

(Views expressed by the writer are personal)