The Modi government has announced setting up of a National Nutrition Mission (NNM) to reduce stunting, under-nutrition, anemia (among young children, women and adolescent girls) and bring down low birth weight by 2%, 2%, 3% and 2% per annum respectively. 
Although the target to reduce stunting is at least 2% annually, the Mission would strive to achieve reduction in stunting from 38.4% (NFHS-4) to 25% by 2022. The decision to set up the Mission was taken at a meeting of the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 
The Mission will be rolled out with a three year budget of Rs.9046.17 crore commencing from 2017-18. Implementation uld be based on intense monitoring and Convergence Action Plan right up to the grass root level. NNM will be rolled out in three phases from 2017-18 to 2019-20.  The National Nutrition Mission, as an apex body, will monitor, supervise, fix targets and guide the nutrition related interventions across the Ministries. 
The broad proposal includes mapping of various schemes contributing towards addressing malnutrition, introducing a robust convergence mechanism, ICT based Real Time Monitoring system and incentivizing States/UTs for meeting the targets. 
  Anganwadi Workers (AWWs) would be incentivized for using IT based tools and introducing measurement of height of children at the Anganwadi Centres (AWCs).  Social audits and setting-up Nutrition Resource Centres as well as involving masses through Jan Andolans for their participation on nutrition through various activities are other highlights of the Mission.  More than 10 crore people will be benefitted by this programme.  All the States and districts will be covered in a phased manner, beginning with 315 districts in 2017-18, 235 districts in 2018-19 and remaining districts in 2019-20.  An amount of Rs. 9046.17 crore will be expended for three years commencing from 2017-18. The government budgetary support would be 60:40 between Centre and States/UTs, 90:10 for NER and Himalayan States and 100% for UTs without legislature. Total Central share over a period of three years would be Rs. 2849.54 crore.  There are a number of schemes directly/indirectly affecting the nutritional status of children (0-6 years) and pregnant women and lactating mothers. In spite of these, level of malnutrition and related problems in the country is high. There is no dearth of schemes but lack of creating synergy and linking the schemes with each other to achieve common goal. NNM through robust convergence mechanism and other components would strive to create the synergy.

Dhinakaran threatens to form government in Tamil Nadu in three months time.

BJP expected to back cine star Rajnikanth’s political party on December 31.

The stunning and shocking win of rebel AIADMK candidate TTV Dhinakaran contesting as an independent in the R K Nagar bye-election in Chennai adds a new twist to the complex political environment in Tamil Nadu following the death of party supremo and chief minister J Jayalalithaa in December last year. 

It is widely being interpreted as an anti-BJP vote which has been reportedly backseat driving the government in Chennai in a bid to make its presence felt in this important southern state which has 39 seats in the Lok Sabha. 

The outcome in the R K Nagar bye poll has the portends of queering the pitch for the ruling party leading to a fresh spell of  political instability in the troubled state. Dhinakaran not only won by an impressive margin of 40,000 odd votes over his nearest AIADMK rival E Madhusudhanan but dealt a knockout blow to the DMK candidate Marudu Ganesh who lost his deposit. 

Winning or losing this seat should not make any difference to the DMK. However, what cannot be lost sight of is that the voters of this constituency have sought to infuse a fresh round of political oneupmanship between Dhinakaran, nephew of Amma’s one time confident Sasikala who is in jail, and the AIADMK where the two factions headed by chief minister E Palaniswamy and deputy chief minister O Paneerselvam respectively have come together in the larger context of occupying the seat of power at Fort St George in the state capital. 

An elated Dhinakaran claimed he will assume power in Tamil Nadu in three months time with a renewed bout of bluster rather than being realistic about the complex ground realities.  The DMK has suffered considerable erosion in its vote share but is holding its horses in the event of a snap poll in the state in the short to medium term. 

Dhinakaran’s shock victory can lead to confusion in the ranks of the AIADMK. Many of the legislators and MPs in the ruling faction of the AIADMK owe their allegiance to Dhinakaran and the Sasikala family. They, however, chose to back Palaniswamy and Paneerselvam as they did not want a mid-term poll. 

Be that as it may, Dhinakaran feels in the wake of his electoral victory, many of the legislators may now view the Sasikala factor as a force that can keep the party together and command wider voter support. 

Despite having won the battle for the party name and symbol, the fight for political legitimacy is far from over. The question is can the Dhinakaran faction attain a critical mass for the legislators of the ruling camp to resort to desertions on a large scale. This needs to be watched closely in the weeks and months ahead. The ruling faction of the AIADMK has spent far too much time on dousing the internal fires in the party rather than overseeing the critical aspect of governance. 

As a measure of abundant precaution the ruling party wasted no time in expelling at least five pro-Dhinakaran functionaries and relieved four more supporters of their position as district secretaries. 

Meanwhile, the BJP is keen on knitting alliances in Tamil Nadu  with an eye on the 2019 general elections followed by the assembly poll two years later in 2021. They have sought to build bridges with Prime Minister Narendra Modi calling on DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi recently in Chennai. 

Now they seem keen on hitching their bandwagon with mega Tamil star Rajnikanth who is expected to reveal his political plans on the eve of the New Year or December 31. 

The Lotus party will back Rajnikanth’s entry in politics hoping to improve its prospects of making an impact in Tamil Nadu. The discriminating in the state feel Rajnikanth’s popularity is on the wane compared to those younger than him. 

Rajnikanth is also being closely watched by the DMK as any such new venture in Tamil Nadu politics could pose a challenge to DMK’s heir apparent M K Stalin and his efforts to form the next government in Chennai. 

(Views are personal)

 The Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee is leading an Indo-UK consortium working on addressing the problem of peak demand reduction by aiming to eliminate peak demand of power in buildings. The project named Zero Peak Energy Building Design in India (ZED-i) is being led by IIT Roorkee with the consortium partners being Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and CSIR-CBRI from India and Bath University and the UK Met office. The total project value is around Rs. 15 crore out of which IIT Roorkee will receive a grant of Rs 6 crore. The overall vision of the project is to decouple building energy use from economic growth in India through a new science of zero peak energy building design for warm climates. This will provide “thermal stress free” living conditions whilst minimizing mean and peak demand. The project will work majorly on improved building designs, low-energy cooling & heating, social practices of adaptive thermal comfort and post-occupancy evaluation in order to bring about peak demand reduction. It will also look at providing support through research to urban planning, and integration of information, communication and renewable energy technologies at building level. The ZED-i project will also entail careful consideration of the current and future weather signals, which will be critical for any realistic assessment of mean and peak energy demands. It hopes to replace the current use of a small amount of observed weather data from a small number of sites with a repository of computer generated weather data from approximately 10,000 sites. Importantly, this repository will contain examples of events such as heat waves and cold snaps that can be used to test the resilience of buildings and the stresses they subject their occupants to. It will also include weather up to year 2080, thereby, allowing the impacts of climate change over the lifetime of buildings to be fully considered. The second focus of the project is on delivering a method of construction that is compatible not only with the Indian climate but also its building practices and social customs, thus avoiding the trap of an “imported” standard. This will be delivered through the creation of 60 pathways for a range of building types in 6 cities comprising different climates. Speaking about the Zed-I project, Dr. E. Rajasekar, Faculty of Architecture and Planning, IIT Roorkee said “In many developing countries, rising energy demand, and consequently carbon emissions, is seen as an unequivocal indicator of increasing prosperity. This trajectory has important consequences not just for global carbon emissions but for the ability of countries such as India to achieve its developmental goals. This is because, in most developing countries, growth in energy demand far outstrips growth in supply due to the large capital investment required to build energy infrastructure. Thus, even people with access to energy networks often find that they are unable to meet their comfort needs due to supply shortages.” Â“The population of India is growing at 1.2% per annum and is expected to reach 2.3 by by 2080. The per-capita energy use, driven by greater urbanization, is growing at an even faster pace at around 3.3% annually. This project directly addresses the problem of peak demand reduction by aiming to eliminate peak demand in buildings, where it is created. In most developing countries, the vast majority of the building stock of the future is still to be built, so there is a real opportunity to decouple economic growth from building energy use whilst ensuring comfortable conditions.” Dr. Rajasekar added This project brings together world-leading academic expertise in the fields of architecture, civil engineering, computer science, mathematical sciences, environmental psychology, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, hydrology, climate science and advanced materials to tackle the problem of climate change driven peak energy demand in buildings.

Frequent quibbling along with indulging in one-upmanship between the Executive and the Judiciary about their powers as enshrined in the Constitution has occupied centre stage once again. 
Prime Minister Narendra Modi might have been conciliatory but the issue of judicial overreach was left hanging.
This happened on the occasion of commemorating the National Law Day spread over two on November 25 and 26 when President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi underlined the need for the three organs of the State — the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary — to remain within their limits in fulfilling the wishes of the people. 
The message from the highest echelons of the BJP led NDA was unambiguous. The Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary should go about their business without stepping on the toes of one another. Modi drew pointed attention to this aspect emphasising “the balance between the Legislature, Executive and Judiciary has been the backbone of our Constitution. Because of this balance our nation was able to defeat the Emergency. When we are making every attempt to build a new India, these principles as outlined in the Constitution assumes significance. We have to fulful the peoples’ hopes and aspirations while remaining within our limits”. 
The emphasis was unmistakable. After the Union Law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and the Chief Justice of India Dipak Mishra had spoken, it became apparent that the Centre was concerned about judicial activism particularly with regard to the Court striking down the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) in 2015. What had bothered the government all along tumbled out into the open. 
He wondered why the Prime Minister, being a popular global leader in his own right and highly popular at home or he himself as the Law minister could not be trusted to make fair judicial appointments. 
He drew attention to the case of Kolkata High Court judge C S Karnan having been held guilty of contempt of court for questioning the collegium system of appointment of judges. 
On his part Justice Mishra quoted from a judgement interpreting Article 75 observing the Constituent Assembly had reposed faith in the Prime Minister and “we also repose the same trust in the Prime Minister”. Further, the CJI sought to dispel the impression that judges intended to run the country and cited specific instances to drive home the point. 
Quoting various judgements of the Supreme Court, Modi maintained “the Constitution creates three major instruments of power — the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary — demarcating their jurisdiction minutely expecting them to exercise their respective powers without overstepping their limits”. 
President Kovind believed the pillars of democracy were designed to lean on each other with countervailing force to strengthen the democratic processes. It is critical to keep this intricate and delicate balance when exploring the relationship among the three branches of the State. They should be careful not to disturb the separation of powers by even unknowingly intruding into the domain of either of the two other branches, the President added. 
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley observed that the Judiciary may intervene in the case of Executive failure but only to issue directives for taking necessary action. He had no doubt that the judiciary should steer clear of overreach by interfering in Executive functions. The argument that judicial activism was meant to fill the gaps left by other State organs was flawed, Jaitley added. 
The focus was on the government and the judiciary respecting each others turf coupled with overcoming their deficiencies. Pragmatism is what the judiciary and the executive need at this juncture. It has become imperative to strike the right balance between the three arms of the government. At the same time the judiciary remains the first among equals and is the unequivocal custodian and defender of the Constitution. 

Every 1 in 10 medical products circulating in low- and middle-income countries is either substandard or falsified, according to new research from the World Health Organization (WHO). 

In simple terms, it means that people are taking medicines that fail to treat or prevent disease. Not only is this a waste of money for individuals and health systems that purchase these products, but substandard or falsified medical products can cause serious illness or even death.

Prior to 2013, there was no global reporting of this information. Since WHO established the Global Surveillance and Monitoring System for substandard and falsified products, many countries are now active in reporting suspicious medicines, vaccines and medical devices.  WHO has trained 550 regulators from 141 countries to detect and respond to this issue. As more people are trained, more cases are reported to WHO.

Since 2013, WHO has received 1500 reports of cases of substandard or falsified products. Of these, antimalarials and antibiotics are the most commonly reported. Most of the reports (42%) come from sub-Saharan Africa, 21% from the Americas and 21% from the European region. 

This is likely just a small fraction of the total problem and many cases may be going unreported. For example, only 8% of reports of substandard or falsified products to WHO came from the WHO Western Pacific region, 6% from the Eastern Mediterranean and just 2% from the South-East Asia region.

WHO has received reports of substandard or falsified medical products ranging from cancer treatment to contraception. They are not confined to high-value medicines or well-known brand names and are split almost evenly between generic and patented products.

“Substandard and falsified medicines particularly affect the most vulnerable communities,” says Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “Imagine a mother who gives up food or other basic needs to pay for her child’s treatment, unaware that the medicines are substandard or falsified, and then that treatment causes her child to die.  This is unacceptable.  Countries have agreed on measures at the global level – it is time to translate them into tangible action.”

In conjunction with the first report from the Global Surveillance and Monitoring System, WHO is publishing research that estimates a 10.5% failure rate in all medical products used in low- and middle-income countries. 

This study was based on more than 100 published research papers on medicine quality surveys done in 88 low- and middle-income countries involving 48 000 samples of medicines. Lack of accurate data means that these estimates are just an indication of the scale of the problem. More research is needed to more accurately estimate the threat posed by substandard and falsified medical products.

Based on 10% estimates of substandard and falsified medicines, a modelling exercise developed by the University of Edinburgh estimates that 72 000 to 169 000 children may be dying each year from pneumonia due to substandard and falsified antibiotics. A second model done by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine estimates that 116 000 (64 000 – 158 000) additional deaths from malaria could be caused every year by substandard and falsified antimalarials in sub-Saharan Africa, with a cost of US$ 38.5 (21.4 – 52.4) million to patients and health providers for further care due to failure of treatment.

Substandard medical products reach patients when the tools and technical capacity to enforce quality standards in manufacturing, supply and distribution are limited. Falsified products, on the other hand, tend to circulate where inadequate regulation and governance are compounded by unethical practice by wholesalers, distributors, retailers and health care workers. A high proportion of cases reported to WHO occur in countries with constrained access to medical products.

Modern purchasing models such as online pharmacies can easily circumvent regulatory oversight.  These are especially popular in high-income countries, but more research is needed to determine the proportion and impact of sales of substandard or falsified medical products.

Globalization is making it harder to regulate medical products. Many falsifiers manufacture and print packaging in different countries, shipping components to a final destination where they are assembled and distributed. Sometimes, offshore companies and bank accounts have been used to facilitate the sale of falsified medicines.

New Delhi: The ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival which has often been described as the ‘greatest literary show on earth’ and the ‘Kumbh Mela of literature’ has hosted nearly 2000 speakers and welcomed over a million booklovers over the past decade, evolving into a global literary phenomenon. A true champion of literary and artistic traditions and democratic discourse, it encourages freedom of thought through a range of voices from India and abroad engaged in informed and enlightened dialogue and promotes above all a love for literature.

This year, the Festival will welcome over 250 writers, thinkers, politicians, journalists and popular cultural icons from over 35 different nations. It will feature a spectacular line-up of speakers representing the major awards including the Nobel, Man Booker, Pulitzer,Padma Vibhusan anhe Sahitya Akademi Award. The first list of 60 speakers released today include  Akhil Sharma, award-winning writer and creative writing professor Amy Tan, author of the widely adapted book The Joy Luck Club; award-winning Indian film director and producer Anurag Kashyap, Indian art critic, art historian, Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan awardee, B.N. Goswamy, former president of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai, English novelist and author of the iconic Bridget Jones Diary, Helen Fielding, Man Booker winner and author of The English Patient  Michael Ondaatje;Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter from The Boston Globe’s Spotlight team Michael Rezendes; Sahitya Akademi Awardwinner Mridula Garg;2006 Nobel Peace Prize Laurate Mohammad Yunus, essayist and novelist Pico Iyer, best known for travel writing;New York Times bestselling poet and illustrator Rupi Kaur; Indian classical dancer and Padma Vibhushan awardee Sonal Mansingh; Indian philanthropist and writer Sudha Murty; Academy and Tony Award winning Czech-born British playwright and screenwriter Tom Stoppard; and Grammy Award winning tabla maestro Zakir Hussain, among others.

The Festival will open as usual with Jaipur Book Mark (JBM), now in its fifth edition, with a full day of programming on 24 January at Diggi Palace followed by sessions at a dedicated JBM venue at the Festival Hub from the 25-28January.

 The ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival sets literary conversations, debates and dialogue against the backdrop of built and cultural heritage including curated art installations, world music performances at the Music Stage and cultural evenings at heritage venues like the Amber Fort and Hawa Mahal.

 Namita Gokhale, writer, publisher and Co-director of the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival, says, “This is a vintage year for the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival, with an amazing line up of international and Indian writers and multiple strands of thoughtfully curated sessions. A space to interrogate our changing times and to encounter poetry and the dreaming mind, the Festival returns with its unique brand of magic, whimsy and intellectual rigour.”

 According to William Dalrymple, writer, historian and Co-director of the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival, 2018 may be the best Jaipur ever, fielding an unrivalled literary ‘First Eleven’ made up of star poets and acclaimed novelists, historians and biographers, thinkers and dreamers and scribblers and critics, and half the faculty of Harvard.

 Sanjoy K. Roy, Managing Director of Teamwork Arts who produce the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival, said, “As we wait to celebrate yet another milestone year of the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival in 2018, we look forward to the infectious energy of intellectual debate and the dynamism that charges the Festival’s atmosphere and comes from a mingling of celebrated minds, diverse perspectives, and heightened cultural experiences.

BJP’s concerted attack against Rahul Gandhi catapults him as main opposition leader. With assembly elections in six states next year, Congress is in power only in Karnataka.

As the scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, Rahul Gandhi could not have ducked any longer becoming president of the Indian National Congress, the oldest political party in the country. Its significance cannot be lost as the baton of being the ‘numero uno’ of the Congress gets passed from mother Sonia Gandhi to son on the eve of the assembly elections in Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The importance of this particular poll cannot be undermined as the BJP has been in power in Gujarat continuously for 22 years. The fight this time between the Lotus party and the Congress appears to be a close one though Modi’s magic coming to the fore in electoral battles as evidenced in the past cannot be ruled out. 

Rahul has to steel himself for the daunting task ahead. He barely has 18 months remaining for the next general elections in the first half of 2019. Prior to that there are assembly elections in half a dozen states next year. The Congress is in power only in Karnataka. In the other states — Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Chattisgarh and Haryana — the saffron brigade has clinically sent the Congress packing. 

Despite serious doubts about Rahul’s ability to turn around the fortunes of the Congress particularly as its organisation is in a shambles, there is a big question mark about Rahul’s ability in pulling the chestnuts out of the fire and re-establishing the pre-eminence of Congress in the country’s politics. 

The ruling BJP led NDA at the centre is facing growing criticism on a wide range of issues encompassing spiralling prices, surging unemployment coupled with the hurried and poor implementation of the much talked about GST from the first of July. The problem caused by last November’s demonetisation and the distress caused to farmers has also caught the Modi government on the wrong foot.

Even though the country’s map is awash with the saffron colour as never before, Modi being the main campaigner for the Lotus party has proved to be debilitating for the Congress since he stormed to power at the Centre in May 2014. 

For Rahul, the do or die battle is revitalising the Congress party. It is widely believed that no one but for a member of the Nehru-Gandhi family can hold the Old Lady of Bori Bunder’s potentially fractious elements together. 

Intense infighting in the party and depressed Congressmen leaving the party to join the BJP has been disconcerting as evidenced by its impressive victories particularly in the Hindi heartland. The Lotus party regaining power in the most critical state of Uttar Pradesh with a mind boggling three-fourth majority was stunning.  

One of the major handicap confronting the Congress is being shorn of mass leaders in the states. This is on account of the high handedness and peremptory style of functioning of the Congress High Command. 

In the last few months since Rahul’s interface with teachers and students in Berkeley in the United States, there has been a marked and refreshing change in his approach. He is more amenable in having an interface and listening to the people along with becoming more active on the social media. At the same time there has been periodic chorus seeking his elevation as President of the 130-year-old party. 

There is anti-incumbency against the BJP in Gujarat having been in power on the trot for more than two decades. The angst against Modi who was also the chief minister of Gujarat for more than two terms is discernible. 

That the Lotus party has a challenge on its hands is not in doubt. Its leaders in Gujarat insist achieving the target of 150 seats fixed by BJP president Amit Shah in the 182-member assembly is being highly over ambitious. They believe it will be a saving grace if they retain power and manage anywhere from 100 to 110 seats. 

Losing power in Gujarat is bound to be a big loss of face for Modi having the portends of casting its shadow in the next general elections two years later. Rahul’s elevation as Congress President next month is more of a formality. This does not mean that the seniors will be sidelined or sent packing.  

Rahul will have to think out of the box as its rank and file is feeling demoralised. He has more than his hands full in galvanising and rebuilding the party organisation. A senior politician disappointed with Rahul’s style of functioning emphasised that “politics is a 24X7 job in this country”. 

He will have to be politically sound in taking on the formidable Modi-Amit Shah duo. This requires vision and connecting with workers right from the block level infusing a sense of pride and confidence in them. 

Lately, there has been a marked change in Rahul’s political approach. Getting elected as the President of the Indian National Congress is the easy part. The difficult part is getting accepted as a serious, interactive and committed leader. 

In the 2014 general elections the Congress finishing with its lowest ever tally of 44 seats in the 545-member Lok Sabha was a shocker. The party failed to secure even one-tenth of the seats in the House of the People to become eligible as the Leader of the Opposition. On the other hand the BJP secured a majority on its own for the first time in the Lok Sabha.  

BJP’s concerted onslaught against Rahul has contributing in propelling him as the main opposition leader in the country. There is no doubt the Congress requires a radical overhaul. It is a tricky affair requiring patience, tenacity and purposefulness for winning the electorate’s affection. It is for him to get his act together in galvanising the Congress along with forging an opposition front giving Modi and the BJP led NDA a run for its money. After all, the Congress has overcome challenges in the past.  

Parliament sessions are usually held thrice a year: once in February for the Budget Session, once around July or August for the Monsoon Session, and once in November for the Winter Session.  This year, the government is yet to announce the dates for the Winter Session.  While there has been uncertainty around whether Parliament will meet, ministers in the government have indicated that the Session will be held soon.

The practice of allowing the government to convene Parliament differs from those followed in other countries.  Some of these countries have a limited role for the government in summoning the legislature, because in a parliamentary democracy the executive is accountable to Parliament.  Allowing the government to call the Parliament to meet could be in conflict with this principle.  While we wait for the government to announce the dates for the Winter Session, this post looks at the relationship between Parliament and the government, recommendations made over the years on improving some parliamentary customs, and discusses certain practices followed by other countries.

What is the role of Parliament in a democracy?

The Constitution provides for the legislature to make laws, the government to implement laws, and the courts to interpret and enforce these laws.  While the judiciary is independent from the other two branches, the government is formed with the support of a majority of members in the legislature.  Therefore, the government is collectively responsible to Parliament for its actions.  This implies that Parliament (i.e. Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha) can hold the government accountable for its decisions, and scrutinise its functioning.  This may be done using various methods including, during debates on Bills or issues on the floor of Parliament, by posing questions to ministers during Question Hour, and in parliamentary committees.

Who convenes Parliament?

Parliament must be convened by the President at least once in every six months.  Since the President acts on the advice of the central government, the duration of the session is decided by the government.

Given the legislature’s role in keeping the executive accountable for its actions, one argument is that the government should not have the power to convene Parliament.  Instead, Parliament should convene itself, if a certain number of MPs agree, so that it can effectively exercise its oversight functions and address issues without delay.  Some countries such as the United Kingdom and Australia release an annual calendar with the sitting dates at the beginning of the year.

How regularly has Parliament been meeting over the years?

Over the years, there has been a decline in the sitting days of Parliament.  While Lok Sabha met for an average of 130 days in a year during the 1950s, these sittings came down to 70 days in the 2000s.  Lesser number of sittings indicates that Parliament was able to transact less business compared to previous years.  To address this, the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution has recommended that Lok Sabha should have at least 120 sittings in a year, while Rajya Sabha should have 100 sittings.

The Constituent Assembly, while drafting the Constitution had debated the power that should be given to Parliament with regard to convening itself.  Mr. K. T. Shah, a member of the Assembly, had suggested that in case the President or the Prime Minister are unable or unwilling to call for a Parliament session, the power to convene the Houses should be given to the presiding officers of those Houses (i.e., the Chairman of Rajya Sabha and the Speaker of Lok Sabha).  In addition, he had also suggested that Parliament should itself regulate its procedure, sittings and timings.

How does Parliament hold the government accountable?

One of the forums of holding the government accountable for its actions is the Question Hour.  During Question Hour, MPs may pose questions to ministers related to the implementation of laws and policies by the government.

In the 16^th Lok Sabha, question hour has functioned in Lok Sabha for 77% of the scheduled time, while in Rajya Sabha it has functioned for 47%.  A lower rate of functioning reflects time lost due to disruptions which reduces the number of questions that may be answered orally.  While Parliament may sit for extra hours to transact other business, time lost during Question Hour is not made up.  Consequently, this time lost indicates a lost opportunity to hold the government accountable for its actions.

Further, there is no mechanism currently for answering questions which require inter-ministerial expertise or relate to broader government policy.  Since the Prime Minister does not answer questions other than the ones pertaining to his ministries, such questions may either not get adequately addressed or remain unanswered.  In countries such as the UK, the Prime Minister’s Question Time is conducted on a weekly basis.  During the 30 minutes the Prime Minister answers questions posed by various MPs.  These questions relate to broader government policies, engagements, and issues affecting the country.

How is public opinion reflected in Parliament?

MPs may raise issues of public importance in Parliament, and examine the government’s response to problems being faced by citizens through: (i) a debate, which entails a reply by the concerned minister, or (ii) a motion which entails a vote.  The time allocated for discussing some of these debates or Bills is determined by the Business Advisory Committee of the House, consisting of members from both the ruling and opposition parties.

Using these methods, MPs may discuss important matters, policies, and topical issues.  The concerned minister while replying to the debate may make assurances to the House regarding steps that will be taken to address the situation.  As of August 2017, 50% of the assurances made in the 16^th Lok Sabha have been implemented.

Alternatively, MPs may move a motion for: (i) discussing important issues (such as inflation, drought, and corruption), (ii) adjournment of business in a House in order to express displeasure over a government policy, or (iii) expressing no confidence in the government leading to its resignation.  The 16^thLok Sabha has only discussed one adjournment motion so far.

To improve government accountability in Parliament, the opposition in some countries such as the UK, Canada, and Australia forms a shadow cabinet. Under such a system, opposition MPs track a certain portfolio, scrutinise its performance and suggest alternate programs.  This allows for detailed tracking and scrutiny of ministries, and assists MPs in making constructive suggestions.  Some of these countries also provide for days when the opposition parties decide the agenda for Parliament.

Source – PRS Legislative

On the morning of 1 December 2014, the family of 48-year-old judge Brijgopal Harkishan Loya, who was presiding over the Central Bureau of Investigation special court in Mumbai, was informed that he had died in Nagpur, where he had travelled for a colleague’s daughter’s wedding. Loya had been hearing one of the most high-profile cases in the country, involving the allegedly staged encounter killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh in 2005. The prime accused in the case was Amit Shah—Gujarat’s minister of state for home at the time of Sohrabuddin’s killing, and the Bharatiya Janata Party’s national president at the time of Loya’s death. The media reported that the judge had died of a heart attack.

Loya’s family did not speak to the media after his death. But in November 2016, Loya’s niece, Nupur Balaprasad Biyani, approached me while I was visiting Pune to say she had concerns about the circumstances surrounding her uncle’s death. Following this, over several meetings between November 2016 and November 2017, I spoke to her mother, Anuradha Biyani, who is Loya’s sister and a medical doctor in government service; another of Loya’s sisters, Sarita Mandhane; and Loya’s father, Harkishan. I also tracked down and spoke to government servants in Nagpur who witnessed the procedures followed with regard to the judge’s body after his death, including the post-mortem.

From these accounts, deeply disturbing questions emerged about Loya’s death: questions about inconsistencies in the reported account of the death; about the procedures followed after his death; and about the condition of the judge’s body when it was handed over to the family. Though the family asked for an inquiry commission to probe Loya’s death, none was ever set up.

At 11 pm on 30 November 2014, from Nagpur, Loya phoned his wife, Sharmila, using his mobile phone. Over around 40 minutes, he described to her his busy schedule through the day. Loya was in Nagpur to attend the wedding of the daughter of a fellow judge, Sapna Joshi. Initially he had not intended to go, but two of his fellow judges had insisted that he accompany them. Loya told his wife that he had attended the wedding, and later attended a reception. He also enquired about his son, Anuj. He said that he was staying at Ravi Bhavan, a government guest house for VIPs in Nagpur’s Civil Lines locality, along with the judges he had accompanied to Nagpur.

It was the last call that Loya is known to have made, and the last conversation that he is known to have had. His family received the news of his death early the next morning.

“His wife in Mumbai, myself in Latur city and my daughters in Dhule, Jalgaon and Aurangabad received calls,” early on the morning of 1 December 2014,  Harkishan Loya, the judge’s father, told me when we first met, in November 2016, in his native village of Gategaon, near Latur city. They were informed “that Brij passed away in the night, that his post-mortem was over and his body had been sent to our ancestral home in Gategaon, in Latur district,” he added. “I felt like an earthquake had shattered my life.”

The family was told that Loya had died of a cardiac arrest. “We were told that he had chest pain, and so was taken to Dande Hospital, a private hospital in Nagpur, by auto rickshaw, where some medication was provided,” Harkishan said. Biyani, Loya’s sister, described Dande Hospital as “an obscure place,” and said that she “later learnt that the ECG”—the electrocardiography unit at the facility—“was not working.” Later, Harkishan said, Loya “was shifted to Meditrina hospital”—another private hospital in the city—“where he was declared dead on arrival.”

The Sohrabuddin case was the only one that Loya was hearing at the time of his death, and was one of the most carefully watched cases then underway in the country. In 2012, the Supreme Court had ordered that the trial in the case be shifted from Gujarat to Maharashtra, stating that it was “convinced that in order to preserve the integrity of the trial it is necessary to shift it outside the State.” The Supreme Court had also ordered that the trial be heard by the same judge from start to finish. But, in violation of this order, JT Utpat, the judge who first heard the trial, was transferred from the CBI special court in mid 2014, and replaced by Loya.

On 6 June 2014, Utpat had reprimanded Amit Shah for seeking exemption from appearing in court. After Shah failed to appear on the next date, 20 June, Utpat fixed a hearing for 26 June. The judge was transferred on 25 June. On 31 October  2014, Loya, who had allowed Shah the exemption, asked why Shah had failed to appear in court despite being in Mumbai on that date. He set the next date of hearing for 15 December.

Loya’s death on 1 December was reported only in a few routine news articles the next day, and did not attract significant media attention. The Indian Express, while reporting that Loya had “died of a heart attack” noted, “Sources close to him said that Loya had sound medical history.” The media attention picked up briefly on 3 December, when MPs of the Trinamool Congress staged a protest outside the parliament, where the winter session was under way, to demand an inquiry into Loya’s death. The next day, Sohrabuddin’s brother, Rubabuddin, wrote a letter to the CBI, expressing his shock at Loya’s death.

Nothing came of the MPs’ protests, or Rubabuddin’s letter. No follow-up stories appeared on the circumstances surrounding Loya’s death.

Over numerous conversations with Loya’s family members, I pieced together a chilling description of what Loya went through while presiding over the Sohrabuddin trial, and of what happened following his death. Biyani also gave me copies of a diary she said she maintains regularly, which included entries from the days preceding and following her brother’s death. In these, she noted many aspects of the incident that disturbed her. I also reached out to Loya’s wife and son, but they declined to speak, saying that they feared for their lives.

Biyani, who is based in Dhule, told me that she received a call on the morning of 1 December 2014 from someone identifying himself as a judge named Barde, who told her to travel to Gategaon, some 30 kilometres from Latur, where Loya’s body was sent. The same caller also informed Biyani and other members of the family that a post-mortem had been conducted on the body, and that the cause of death was a heart attack.

Loya’s father normally resides in Gategaon, but was in Latur at the time, at the house of one of his daughters. He, too, received a phone call, telling him his son’s body would be moved to Gategaon. “Ishwar Baheti, an RSS worker, had informed father that he would arrange for the body to reach Gategaon,” Biyani told me. “Nobody knows why, how and when he came to know about the death of Brij Loya.”

Sarita Mandhane, another of Loya’s sisters, who runs a tuition centre in Aurangabad and was visiting Latur at the time, told me that she received a call from Barde at around 5 am, informing her that Loya had died. “He said that Brij has passed away in Nagpur and asked us to rush to Nagpur,” she said. She set out to pick up her nephew from a hospital in Latur where he had earlier been admitted, but “just as we were leaving the hospital, this person, Ishwar Baheti, came there. I still don’t know how he came to know that we were at Sarda Hospital.” According to Mandhane, Baheti said that he had been talking through the night with people in Nagpur, and insisted that there was no point in going to Nagpur since the body was being sent to Gategaon from there in an ambulance. “He took us to his house, saying that he will coordinate everything,” she said. 

(Questions that I sent to Baheti were still unanswered at the time this story was published.)

It was night by the time Biyani reached Gategaon—the other sisters were already at the ancestral home by then. The body was delivered at around 11.30 pm, after Biyani’s arrival, according to an entry in her diary. To the family’s shock, none of Loya’s colleagues had accompanied his body on the journey from Nagpur. The only person accompanying the body was the ambulance driver. “It was shocking,” Biyani said. “The two judges who had insisted that he travel to Nagpur for the marriage had not accompanied him. Mr Barde, who informed the family of his death and his post-mortem, had not accompanied him. This question haunts me: why was his body not accompanied by anyone?” One of her diary entries reads, “He was a CBI court judge, he was supposed to have security and he deserved to be properly accompanied.”

Loya’s wife, Sharmila, and his daughter and son, Apurva and Anuj, travelled to Gategaon from Mumbai, accompanied by a few judges. One of them “was constantly telling Anuj and the others not to speak to anybody,” Biyani told me. “Anuj was of course sad and scared, but he maintained his poise and kept supporting his mother.”

Biyani recounted that when she saw the body, she felt that something was amiss. “There were bloodstains on the neck at the back of the shirt,” she told me. She added that his “spectacles were below the neck.” Mandhane told me that Loya’s spectacles were “stuck under his body.”

A diary entry by Biyani from the time reads, “There was blood on his collar. His belt was twisted in the opposite direction, and the pant clip is broken. Even my uncle feels that this is suspicious.” Harkishan told me, “There were bloodstains on the clothes.” Mandhane said that she, too, saw “blood on the neck.” She said that “there was blood and an injury on his head … on the back side,” and that “his shirt had blood spots.” Harkishan said, “His shirt had blood on it from his left shoulder to his waist.”

But in the post-mortem report, issued by the Government Medical College Hospital in Nagpur, under a category described as “Condition of the clothes—whether wet with water, stained with blood or soiled with vomit or foe-cal matter,” a handwritten entry reads, simply, “Dry.”

Biyani found the state of the body suspicious because, as a doctor, “I know that blood does not come out during PM”—post-mortem—“since the heart and lungs don’t function.” She said that she demanded a second post-mortem, but that Loya’s gathered friends and colleagues “discouraged us, telling us not to complicate the issue more.”

The family was tense and scared, but was forced to carry out Loya’s funeral, Harkishan said.

Legal experts suggest that if Loya’s death was deemed suspicious—the fact that a post-mortem was ordered suggests that it was—a panchnama should have been prepared, and a medico-legal case should have been filed. “As per legal procedure, the police department is expected to collect and seal all the personal belongings of the deceased, list them all in a panchnama and hand them over to the family as they are,” Asim Sarode, a senior Pune-based lawyer, told me. Biyani said the family was not given any copy of a panchnama.

Loya’s mobile phone was returned to the family, but, Biyani said, it was returned by Baheti, and not by the police. “We got his mobile on the third or fourth day,” she said. “I had asked for it immediately. It had information about his calls and all that happened. We would have known about it if we got it. And the SMSes. Just one or two days before this news, a message had come which said, ‘Sir, stay safe from these people.’ That SMS was on the phone. Everything was deleted from it.”

Biyani had numerous questions about the events of the night of Loya’s death and the following morning. Among them was that of how and why Loya had been taken to hospital in an auto rickshaw, when the auto stand nearest to Ravi Bhavan is around two kilometres away from it. “There is no auto rickshaw stand near Ravi Bhavan, and people do not get auto rickshaws near Ravi Bhavan even during the day,” Biyani said. “How did the men accompanying him manage to get an auto rickshaw at midnight?”

Other questions, too, remain unanswered. Why was the family not informed when Loya was taken to hospital? Why were they not informed as soon as he died? Why were they not asked for approval of a post-mortem, or informed that one was to be performed, before the procedure was carried out? Who recommended the post-mortem, and why? What was suspicious about Loya’s death to cause a post-mortem to be recommended? What medication was administered to him at Dande Hospital? Was there not a single vehicle in Ravi Bhavan—which regularly hosts VIPs, including ministers, IAS and IPS officers and judges—available to ferry Loya to hospital? The winter session of the Maharashtra state assembly was to begin in Nagpur on 7 December, and hundreds of officials usually arrive in the city well in advance of assembly sessions for the preparations. Who were the other VIPs staying in Ravi Bhavan on 30 November and 1 December? “These all are very valid questions,” Sarode, the lawyer, said. “Why was the report of the medication administered at Dande hospital not given to the family? Will the answers to these questions create problems for someone?”

Questions such as these “still keep bothering the family, friends and relatives,” Biyani said.

It added to their confusion that the judges who had insisted that Loya travel to Nagpur did not visit the family for “one or one and a half months” after his death, she said. It was only then that the family heard their account of Loya’s last hours. According to Biyani, the two men told the family that Loya experienced chest pain at around 12.30 am, that they then took him to Dande Hospital in an auto rickshaw, and that there, “he climbed the stairs himself and some medication was administered. He was taken to Meditrina hospital where he was declared dead on arrival.”

Even after this, many questions were left unanswered. “We did try to get the details of the treatment administered in Dande Hospital, but the doctors and the staff there simply refused to divulge any details,” Biyani said.

I accessed the report of Loya’s post-mortem, conducted at the Government Medical College Hospital in Nagpur. The document raises several questions of its own.

Every page of the post-mortem report is signed by the senior police inspector of Sadar police station, Nagpur, and by someone who signed with the phrase “maiyatacha chulatbhau”—or the paternal cousin brother of the deceased. This latter person is supposed to have received the body after the post-mortem examination. “I do not have any brother or paternal cousin brother in Nagpur,” Loya’s father said. “Who signed on the report is another unanswered question.”

Further, the report states that the corpse was sent from Meditrina Hospital to the Government Medical College Hospital by the Sitabardi police station, Nagpur, and that it was brought in by a police constable named Pankaj, of Sitabardi police station, whose badge number is 6238. It notes that the body was brought in at 10.50 am on 1 December 2014, that the post-mortem began at 10.55 am, and that it was over at 11.55 am.

The report also noted that, as per the police, Loya “died on 1/12/14 at 0615 hours” after experiencing “chest pains at 0400 am.” It stated, “He was brought to Dande hospital first and then shifted to Meditrina hospital where he was declared to be in dead condition.”

The time of death cited in the report—6.15 am—appears incongruous, since, according to Loya’s family members, they began receiving calls about his death from 5 am onwards. Further, during my investigation, two sources in Nagpur’s Government Medical College and Sitabardi police station told me they had been informed of Loya’s death by midnight, and had personally seen the dead body during the night. They also said that the post-mortem was done shortly after midnight. Apart from the calls that the family received, the sources’ accounts also raise serious questions about the post-mortem report’s claim that the time of death was 6.15 am.

The source at the medical college, who was privy to the post-mortem examination, also told me that he knew that there had been instructions from superiors to “cut up the body as if the PM was done and stitch it up.”

The report mentions “coronary artery insufficiency” as the probable cause of death. According to the renowned Mumbai-based cardiologist Hasmukh Ravat, “Usually old age, family history, smoking, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes are the causes for such coronary artery insufficiency.” Biyani pointed out that none of these were applicable to her brother. “Brij was 48,” she said. “Our parents are 85 and 80 years old, and are healthy with no cardiac history. He was always a teetotaller, played table tennis for two hours a day for years, had no diabetes or blood pressure.”

Biyani told me that she found the official medical explanation for her brother’s death hard to believe. “I am a doctor myself, and Brij used to consult me even for minor complaints such as acidity or cough,” she said. “He had no cardiac history and no one from our family has it.”

(Story was reported by Niranjan Takle, Source- Caravan Magazine)

Brahmos, the world’s fastest supersonic cruise missile created history today after it was successfully flight-tested first time from the Indian Air Force’s (IAF) frontline fighter aircraft Sukhoi-30MKI against a sea based target in the Bay of Bengal. The missile was gravity dropped from the Su-30 from fuselage, and the two stage missile’s engine fired up and straightway propelled towards the intended target at the sea in Bay of Bengal.

The missile was gravity dropped from the Su-30 from the fuselage, and the two-stage missile’s engine fired up and straightway propelled towards the intended target at the sea in the Bay of Bengal.

The successful maiden test firing of Brahmos Air Launched Cruise Missile (ALCM) from Su-30MKI will significantly bolster the IAF’s air combat operations capability from stand-off ranges. 

Brahmos ALCM weighing 2.5 ton is the heaviest weapon to be deployed on India’s Su-30 fighter aircraft modified by HAL to carry weapons. 

Brahmos, the world-class weapon with multi-platform, multi-mission role is now capable of being launched from Land, Sea and Air, completing the tactical cruise missile triad for India. 

Brahmos is a joint venture between DRDO of India and NPOM of Russia.

Raksha Mantri Smt Nirmala Sitharaman congratulated DRDO and BrahMos for the outstanding accomplishment.

Dr S Christopher, Chairman DRDO & Secretary, Department of Defence R&D congratulated the Scientists and Engineers for this excellent text book kind of flight test.

The missile test was witnessed by Dr Sudhir Mishra, DG (BrahMos) & CEO & MD, BrahMos Aerospace along with senior IAF officials, Scientists and Officials from DRDO and BrahMos.