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The recent events on the global stage as well as in India caught everyone’s attention, an unexpected Trump victory in the United States’ Presidential elections, which went against media assessments and defied most opinion polls has left people guessing as to the actual reasons behind his rise to the top and also about what it may bring in the future.

In between all of the guessing games, there is somebody who claims to have predicted these events with critical accuracy.

Meet Rajiv Narain Sharma 54, a Vedic Astrologer from New Delhi who has been reading the stars for past 15 years. Sharma caught my eye when his press release reached my desk on November  2  in which he claimed to predict not only Trump’s win but also his victory margin.

I caught up with him for a brief chat at in Bhartiya VidyaBhawan’s cafeteria. Dressed in a simple kurta and trousers with laptop in hand, he answered my queries over tea.  Here are some excerpts:–

Q. How did you go about this process of predicting the US elections?

A. I am an engineer by training. Judging, observing, testing and recalibrating is what I have been taught. Getting birth-charts of Trump and Hillary were not easy as there is a lot of dirty data out on the web. After taking a few leads from what appeared to be relatively correct, I tweaked and corrected it by matching it with their life events (marriage, child birth etc.). I based my judgments on their individual charts and the planetary transit they are running, as well as checking with the birth chart of the United States itself to see which leader has the best chance.

Q. How were you able to predict that it would be a close call, but Trump would win?

A. I claimed that the fight would be neck and neck and almost like a see-saw situation. In my prediction I have clearly written that Hillary will get good votes, but not the crown and in the end it was a difference of only 1 percent or so between votes for her and votes for Trump. The planetary transit on the day of election did not favour her, her moon was afflicted that day, and Trump’s transits had RAJ YOG. Secondly, according to the birth chart of USA, it favoured a change in power from ruling party as well as a male leader.

Q. What are some of your other predictions?

A. In the past I have predicted that PM Modi’s tenure will be full of ups and downs and he will face many problems in the implementation of his ideas while his intention may be correct. Secondly, I have regularly predicted the outcome of the past few sessions of parliament. Including the deadlocks and monsoon session washouts. I had also predicted natural disasters/ earthquakes as well as terrorist strikes in 2016. All of my predictions are dated and published with time stamp on my facebook and whatsapp.

Q. So what do you see next?

A. I am currently analyzing the impact of Trump’s presidency for USA, India and the whole world and will be out with it soon. I am also seeing partial roll back of this ban on notes leading to grim situation and judiciary intervening soon.

In our neighbourhood, Pakistan may see instability with the possibility of a military coup in near future. 

(Rakesh Nagar is a Delhi-based journalist who writes on a variety of subjects and dabbles in digital and visual media also.)”

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In India in 2012, more than 100,000 pregnant women in India had syphilis, and more than half of those newborns were affected. Syphilis has severe health impact, ranging from early fetal loss to stillbirth and premature birth.

A new report from the international nonprofit PATH highlights the toll that parent-to-child transmission of syphilis has on Indian mothers and their babies. The report, “”Congenital Syhilis in Nigeria, Zambia, and India: Identifying Policy Pathways to Eliminae Mother-to-Child Transmission of Syphilis,”” details the severe health issues caused by congenital syphilis, which range from early fetal loss to stillbirth and premature birth.

According to the report, there are existing solutions to this issue because congenital syphilis is easily detectable with rapid, point-of-care diagnostics and easily treatable with antibiotics, and that no mother or newborn should suffer.

In recent years, Indian government has committed to eliminate congenital syphilis and has made significant progress in reducing cases through strengthened policies, testing, and treatment. Though failure of some States to take advantage of available funding for test kits, screening data gaps, and incomplete guideline dissemination have all stalled improvements.

“Congenital syphilis is an absolutely avoidable burden on our mothers and newborns. India’s decision-makers should continue their work to ensure we are doing all we can to bring us toward elimination,” said Nitya Nand Deepak, knowledge management leader and maternal and child health expert at PATH in India.

The report outlines specific actions saying that decision-makers should ensure that all mothers are tested and treated, so that no babies suffer from syphilis. The report recommends scaling up guideline dissemination and training for state program managers and health care workers at lower levels of care.

Ensuring state decision-makers are using all available resources for obtaining tests and treatment and creating a comprehensive way to monitor India’s progress toward congenital syphilis elimination targets are some other recommendations made in the report.

While the recommendations require concerted effort, the report confidently presents them as feasible and crucial ways to improve India’s maternal and newborn health. The paper concludes that “new technologies, awareness, and commitments mean that elimination is within sight. To ensure progress, governments and global stakeholders…must develop strong policies and strategies aligned with existing programs, advocate for political prioritization that includes clear national targets, finance diagnostics and treatment, and consistently implement policies throughout the health care system.”

PATH is an international nonprofit organization which saves lives and improves health, especially among women and children. PATH accelerates innovation across five platforms—vaccines, drugs, diagnostics, devices, system and service innovations—that harness our entrepreneurial insights, scientific and public health expertise, and passion for health equity.”

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Non-governmental organizations, working in the field of reproductive health, have asked the government to reconsider their approach towards maternal and child health for the vulnerable sections by putting in a multi-pronged effort that includes research and more context-situated interventions, even if these challenge the ‘template approach’ currently adopted.

In a report, “”CHRONICLES OF DEATHS FORETOLD,””– A civil society analysis of maternal deaths In seven districts from the states of Odisha, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh—the groups have drawn the attention of the government towards the fact that millions of children continue to be born at home, leaving these women at greater risk and the presence of informal providers and community birth companions and the existing health care practices which may not be really healthy.

The study was done by SAHAYOG and the National Alliance for Maternal Health and Human Rights (NAMHHR) and it documents the stories of about 140 women who did not survive pregnancy and childbirth, and it calls for a more pragmatic approach about the socio-cultural situation in these villages. It asks the government to move away from ‘hospital delivery equals safe delivery’ assumption to building skill in continuum of care for prevention and management of adverse outcomes.

“”Can we stop imagining that only IFA tablets with reduce severe anaemia? Anemia must be treated with something more effective than IFA tablets which are not helping women who are already severely anaemic. Can we continue our focus on terminal contraception and ignore informed contraceptive choice for all women? The lack of acceptable and appropriate family planning counseling and services is life-threatening for many women. Can we acknowledge that one-third of deaths in India are due to “”other causes”” that include domestic violence and non-obstetric causes of death, such as malaria, kalazar and falciparum malaria, and other local health problems. Can we make safe abortion services available at sub-district level?  Can we realize that the lowest functionary ASHA alone cannot easily negotiate the complex chain of referrals and the health system for the family? Can we move away from this ‘input-focused’ high priority area approach given the interconnecting webs of risks and vulnerabilities for specific populations at risk,’’ the report has sought answers for these questions.

The report points out that the current approach of Priority Actions in high-focus districts and vulnerable populations has two major limitations. The first is that it primarily includes more ‘inputs’. It also has a very limited definition and understanding of ‘vulnerable populations’. The primary measure of vulnerability that is used is ‘reaching the unreached’ and clubs a diverse range: from the poor, urban slum dwellers to tribals, and even adolescents. There is no analysis of why the system fails these people and there is an assumption that “”implementing and monitoring high impact interventions”” will be sufficient to address equity. “If we are serious in wanting to address disparities it is necessary to move from this ‘input-focused’ high priority area approach to a ‘highly vulnerable population’ approach which integrates inputs with processes and is informed by existing health care practices and socio cultural understanding of health determinants among the vulnerable communities,’’ it says.

To achieve this, the government should develop  a Highly Vulnerable Populations Approach  Mapping of Vulnerabilities and Risks and the existing health care practices in areas where  maternal health outcomes are poor, not showing the anticipated improvements and where the proportion of marginalised communities is higher. It has called for developing an appropriate cadre of providers – new personnel like emergency patient facilitators at secondary and tertiary care hospitals as well additional training to improve quality of care through improved interpersonal interactions, and adverse management outcomes skills.  Identifying niches within existing practices and practitioners for building an alternative safety plan (including the support of Dais and Informal providers where appropriate) and focussed on saving lives, and developing context specific plans from home to institution and from ante natal to postpartum period, are some other suggestions.

Developing Appropriate Protocols and Procedures for managing adverse outcomes using a team approach as well as ICT to support decision making is another suggestion made in the report. The team would include public and private providers located in different spaces from village to the tertiary care facilities. These protocols and procedures would need to be done for Management of Risks and Complications during Pregnancy, strengthening the Referral Chain, providing effective Comprehensive Obstetric Care Services to the marginalized, and monitoring ‘performance’ of the ‘adverse outcome management’ system, it says.  

We need MDRs to be done systematically in the community, and the health system to publicly share the findings or Action Taken from MDR. The community-perspective needs to be strongly incorporated in all MDR by having PRI members accompany the women’s family even for facility-based MDR, and promote reporting and review of all the maternal death cases with the health officials. The role of adequately trained civil society organizations (CSOs) is important when we see the extreme disempowerment of marginalized communities. CSOs can play a role in non-partisan, non-adversarial CB-MDR work in selected districts, according to the report.

The Janani-Shishu Suraksha Karyakram entitlements also means that supply of medicines should be ensured in all health facilities and the private sector needs more monitoring and better regulation: the quality and rationality of treatment is doubtful in the private hospitals, but huge sums of money are taken. There is serious need for regulation of the costs of services provided by the private sector. Families are paying any amount for unskilled and poor quality care of women in critical condition, and getting into debt. In addition the public sector doctors examining/treating patients who come to public hospital privately and public providers are also referring women into the private sector, which needs to be checked, the report says.”

“In one of the worst train accidents in the country in recent past at least 120 passengers were killed and another 200 were wounded when 14 coaches of Indore-Patna Express jumped tracks in Kanpur rural area in Uttar Pradesh in the early hours of Sunday.The derailment took place at about 3 a.m. when passengers were asleep and were jolted with a loud noise and the compartments smashing into one another and going topsy-turvy. It is suspected that rail fracture could have been the cause behind derailment of the train which was hurtling towards its destination Patna in speed. The accident site Pukhrawa was said to be about 80 kms from the industrial town of Kanpur which is also a big railway station and yard.  The disaster badly damaged four ordinary sleeper coaches in which hundreds of passengers were trapped, media reports said. As railway personnel assisted by those of army, NDRF and state police carried out the search and rescue operation, the number of casualties went on increasing. By Sunday night at least 120 bodies had been extricated out of the badly twisted and mangled coaches. Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha said that it seems the cause of the accident is rail fracture. Member (Engineering) of the Railway Board will find out the cause of the mishap and action will be taken against those responsible, he said.

President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Vice President Hamid Ansari, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and other leaders have mourned the loss of lives in the train tragedy.Indian Railway is the fourth largest in the world and ferries nearly 20 million passengers daily across the country.”

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Health groups are raising grave concerns over recent reports that the government, through discussions with the Niti Ayog, is proposing sweeping changes to the regulatory framework for pharmaceuticals, which will grievously impact access to affordable medicines. Ignoring the reality of unacceptability high out-of-pocket spending on medicines, the government is proposing to dismantle the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) and remove or significantly dilute price controls on essential medicines.

In a joint statement several health groups have said that the move towards dismantling price controls on essential medicines and winding up of the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) are being advanced at the behest of industry lobbies, under the pretext of removing “”unnecessary hurdles”” and “”ease of doing business”” in India and with little or no proper public consultation. These ill-conceived attempts to de-regulate the medicines market and in particular the prices of essential medicines will not only result in a surge in the prices of commonly used medicines but also violate Supreme Court directions to regulate the prices of all essential and life saving medicines, the statement said.

These reports come just a few days prior to a critical hearing in the Supreme Court on 9 November challenging the government’s current approach of market based drug pricing.

“”Even the existing system of price control has been watered down and greatly compromised through years of industry lobbying. Instead of dismantling the system, the government must reform it to remove market-based-pricing and replace it with a cost-based pricing mechanism,’’ said Narendra Gupta of Jan Swasthya Abhiyan.

Nearly 80 % of medical care costs have to be paid by the patients out of pocket, of which 70% of the expenditure is on medicines. Denial of essential life saving medicines due to the lack of affordability and indebtedness is a harsh reality. A distorted market cannot, and should not, be the basis of drug pricing and policy, especially when the sale price has no bearing with the cost of production and purchasing power of our people, added Mira Shiva of the All India Drug Action Network which is the petitioner in the ongoing case before the Supreme Court.
Reports of attempts being made in parallel to introduce new rules for marketing approval of drugs have also raised concerns as the purpose of these new rules remains unclear and they may create significant barriers in the registration of generic medicines.

“”The exorbitant prices of patented medicines are already a matter of great concern. Cancer drug prices are in lakhs of rupees while new injections can cost tens of thousands. Not only has the government done little to regulate the prices charged by multinational companies or issue compulsory licenses to ensure the availability of affordable generic versions, it now appears that greater barriers to the registration of generic medicines many be on the anvil,’’ said Dinesh Abrol, Convenor of the National Working Group on Patent Laws.

The government has reneged on its election promises to ensure access to medicines. These moves will only increase out-of-pocket spending on medicines and influct injury on a hapless populace, asked Anurag Bhargava of AIDAN.

The groups are urgently calling on the government to abandon the ill-conceived ideas of dismantling the NPPA and diluting the DPCO and to prioritse public health and the right to life and health of patients in India.”

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A new report by UNAIDS shows that countries are getting on the Fast-Track, with an additional one million people accessing treatment in just six months (January to June 2016). By June 2016, around 18.2 million people had access to the life-saving medicines, including 910 000 children, double the number five years earlier. If these efforts are sustained and increased, the world will be on track to achieve the target of 30 million people on treatment by 2020.

“”Get on the Fast-Track: the life-cycle approach to HIV’’ says the report contains detailed data on the complexities of HIV and reveals that girls’ transition to womanhood is a very dangerous time, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. “Young women are facing a triple threat,” said Mr Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS. “They are at high risk of HIV infection, have low rates of HIV testing, and have poor adherence to treatment. The world is failing young women and we urgently need to do more.”

HIV prevention is key to ending the AIDS epidemic among young women and the cycle of HIV infection needs to be broken. Recent data from South-Africa shows that young women are acquiring HIV from adult men, while men acquire HIV much later in life after they transition into adulthood and continue the cycle of new infections, the report says.

The report also shows that the life-extending impact of treatment is working. In 2015, there were more people over the age of 50 living with HIV than ever before—5.8 million. The report highlights that if treatment targets are reached, that number is expected to soar to 8.5 million by 2020. Older people living with HIV, however, have up to five times the risk of chronic disease and a comprehensive strategy is needed to respond to increasing long-term health-care costs.    

The report also warns of the risk of drug resistance and the need to reduce the costs of second- and third-line treatments. It also highlights the need for more synergies with tuberculosis (TB), human papillomavirus (HPV) and cervical cancer, and hepatitis C programmes in order to reduce the major causes of illness and death among people living with HIV. In 2015, 400 000 of the 1.1 million people who died from an AIDS-related illness died from TB, including 40 000 children.

The report outlines that large numbers of people at higher-risk of HIV infection and people living in high-burden areas are being left without access to HIV services at critical points in their lives, opening the door to new HIV infections and increasing the risk of dying from AIDS-related illnesses. The report examines the gaps and approaches needed in HIV programming across the life cycle and offers tailored HIV prevention and treatment solutions for every stage of life.

Globally, access to HIV medicines to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV has increased to 77% in 2015 (up from 50% in 2010). As a result, new HIV infections among children have declined by 51% since 2010.

The report stresses that more efforts are needed to expand HIV testing for pregnant women, expand treatment for children and improve and expand early infant diagnosis by using new diagnostic tools and innovative methods, such as SMS reminders, to retain mothers living with HIV and their babies in care.

The report shows that the ages between 15 and 24 years are an incredibly dangerous time for young women. In 2015, around 7500 young women became newly infected with HIV every week. Data from studies in six locations within eastern and southern Africa reveal that in southern Africa girls aged between 15 and 19 years accounted for 90% of all new HIV infections among 10–19-year-olds, and more than 74% in eastern Africa. 

Globally, between 2010 and 2015, the number of new HIV infections among young women aged between 15 and 24 years was reduced by just 6%, from 420 000 to 390 000. To reach the target of less than 100 000 new HIV infections among adolescent girls and young women by 2020 will require a 74% reduction in the four years between 2016 and 2020.

Many children who were born with HIV and survived are now entering adulthood. Studies from 25 countries in 2015 show that 40% of young people aged between 15 and 19 years became infected through mother-to-child transmission of HIV. This transition is also magnifying another major challenge—high numbers of AIDS-related deaths among adolescents. Adolescents living with HIV have the highest rates of poor medication adherence and treatment failure.

A range of solutions are needed to respond to the specific needs of adolescents, including increased HIV prevention efforts, keeping girls and boys in school, increasing HIV testing and voluntary medical male circumcision, pre-exposure prophylaxis and immediate access to antiretroviral therapy.   

The report shows that antiretroviral therapy is allowing people living with HIV to live longer. In 2015, people more than 50 years old accounted for around 17% of the adult population (15 years and older) living with HIV. In high-income countries, 31% of people living with HIV were over the age of 50 years.

As people living with HIV grow older, they are also at risk of developing long-term side-effects from HIV treatment, developing drug resistance and requiring treatment of co-morbidities, such as TB and hepatitis C, which can also interact with antiretroviral therapy. Continued research and investment is needed to discover simpler, more tolerable treatments for HIV and co-morbidities and to discover an HIV vaccine and cure, the report says.”

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An officially committee has recommended introduction of full-fledged Yoga courses in the Indian universities. The committee, set up by the Ministry of Human Resource Development in January this year, submitted its report in April and has recommended five degree courses in Yoga. These are Bachelors, Masters, Doctor of Philosophy, Post Graduate Diploma in Yoga and Post Graduate in Yoga Therapy.

The Committee has also prescribed the details of courses to be run and qualification of yoga faculty in its report.  The courses may also form the basis for selection of Yoga Instructor for Universities/colleges, the committee has said. This information was given by the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for AYUSH, Shripad Yesso Naik in written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha.

Also, the Ministry of AYUSH has adopted various measures to make the AYUSH systems of medicines people-friendly through various central Sector Schemes like Information, Education and Communication (IEC), Public Health Initiatives, Centre of Excellence,  research Councils, and the National AYUSH Mission, Mr Naik said. As a result of these measures, there have been many achievements in the field of AYUSH by was of development of medicines through research like AYUSH-82 for Diabetes Mellitus, training and accreditation of Yoga instructors, the NABH accreditation of AYUSH Colleges initiated and signing of Mous with various countries including USA.”

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India needs to engage with a multiplicity of actors in a varied range of arenas and try to straddle what can be contradictory trends in our foreign policy, said Foreign Secretary, Dr S Jaishankar on Monday. He was delivering a key note address at the inaugural session of the IFS-IDSA Seminar on ‘India and the Great Powers: Continuity and Change’, organised by the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) in collaboration with the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies (IFS). 

Dr Jaishankar pointed out that the contradictions between India and the other great powers are far less than before, offering the country an opportunity to forge ahead in a much more fluid and multi-polar set up than before. We should work towards an India which is prepared to engage the great powers more robustly, and see in that engagement a possibility of advancing its own prospects, he added. Speaking on the issue of connectivity, the Foreign Secretary said that the lack of connectivity in South Asia is what is holding back India’s and South Asia’s prospects. We need to figure out how India and South Asia fit into the larger connectivity grid, he observed.

The fluidity and the free play at the great power level have translated into greater uncertainties at the regional level, noted Dr Jaishankar, adding that Asia is a large continent marked by sharp national rivalries and the absence of a security architecture.

Stating that forums like BRICS offer the possibility of finding common ground with countries like Russia and China, Dr. Jaishankar pointed out that the changing nature of India’s engagement with the great powers is reflected in recent engagements with  the British Prime Minister Theresa May’s bilateral visit to India,  the Chinese and Russian presidents’ participation at the BRICS meet in Goa recently, and the Indian Prime Minister’s recent visit to Japan – all reflect a decisive shift in India’s foreign policy.

Apart from great powers, India also needs to focus on the regional flux, observed Dr Jaishankar. The region is moving into a much more dynamic and complex environment, with unprecedented developments in the maritime space and on the land hubs on either side of India, he said. The seminar, attended by foreign policy experts, examines India’s relations with the great powers, particularly the relationships with the United States, China, Russia and Japan.”

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The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) under the Ministry of Science & Technology has been supporting the research on Dengue vaccine in a major way. This is being done in collaboration with the Indo-US Vaccine Action Programme (VAP) and the Vaccine Grand Challenge Programme (VGCP).

Efforts have been supported for the development of safe, efficacious and inexpensive dengue vaccine and continued support will be provided based on review of the programme and the milestones achieved, according to Y.S.Chowdhury, Minister of State for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences.

A major project on “Development of envelope domain III –based dengue virus-like particle (VLP) vaccine candidates“ has been implemented at New Delhi-based International Centre for Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology (ICGEB) at a total cost of Rs.429.41 lakhs in March, 2016.

Under this, promising candidates were developed that elicited protective immune response in mice. The Dengue Subunit Vaccine Tetravalent (DSV) vaccine candidates have been transferred to Industry for further development. Also the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), a not-for-profit Section 8, Schedule B, Public Sector Enterprise of DBT supported project on ‘Optimization and characterization of a Virosome Vaccine for Dengue” with a total cost of Rs.89.19 lakhs for a period of two years, to induce a balanced immunity against all four dengue virus serotypes. The project will go to further studies subsequent to establishment of immunogenicity for the tetravalent vaccine in the present proposal.

As and when the candidates are ready for the dengue vaccine trials, the Government will explore the possibility of supporting the trials through inter-ministerial sources and other international agencies.

Dengue outbreaks have been taking a heavy toll in India, particularly in the National Capital Region (NCR) for the past several years. Thousands of people develop highly debilitating dengue every year and many deaths are reported due to dengue-related complications which results in a sharp fall in blood platelets. Dengue is mosquito-borne disease. This mosquito thrives in fresh water near human habitation.  “

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This is about the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrabu Naidu and his counterpart in the state of Telangana K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR). Both are Chief Ministers of new born states, a difference of less than 24 hours separates their official identity. Yet their response to the recent `surgical strike’ of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on ‘black money’ makes a fascinating case study.

For the record Mr. Babu was the only Chief Minister to have publicly demanded demonetisation of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1, 000 notes three weeks before the actual announcement by the Prime Minister. The Andhra Chief Minister held a news conference at the temporary capital of his state-Vijayawada on October 12 to articulate his demand. There was a specific context in which he made the suggestion.

He had linked his demand for immediate abolition of currency notes of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 denominations as a pragmatic measure to curb black money. “”Out of the Rs 65,000 crore disclosed across the country, Rs 13,000 crore was declared in Hyderabad and, out of it, Rs 10,000 crore by a single individual. Who is that, we can’t know as per law. Is it possible for a businessman to declare such huge money,”” he had asked.

Noting that politics has become a “”shelter”” for corrupt people and black money earners, he said, “”Some people who are in politics are misusing the people’s mandate. I am writing a letter to the Prime Minister today asking that Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes be abolished and total bank transactions be encouraged.””

One can only surmise that either Mr. Naidu was in the know of a great deal of what is happening in his or the neighbouring state as well as the Centre or he was just speculating. One can only presume a CM of his stature and seniority would not talk loose.

Ten days later after the PM’s announcement, Mr. Babu begun to demonstrate signs of nervousness. Last week he actually deemed it necessary to write for the second time to the Prime Minister as well as the Finance Minister and officials in the Union Finance Ministry on measures needed to make the whole operation smooth and a little less painful!

What went wrong? For academic argument let us say either he assumed his demand for demonetisation would never be fulfilled or he just did not anticipate the consequences of the decision.

How else does one explain his second letter to the Prime Minister seeking Rs. 10,000 Crore rupees of smaller denominations to the state to overcome the problems. The second letter pleaded for Rs. 10 thousand Crore rupees of smaller denominations–Rs.10, Rs.20, Rs.50 and Rs.100–to the state on the ground that it was required to overcome the problems following demonetisation of currency.

At a formal news conference in Vijayawada last week, the temporary capital of the state, Mr. Naidu urged the Union government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to immediately dispatch new currency notes of smaller denominations worth Rs. 10,000 crore to tide over the crisis precipitated by the demonetisation of old currency notes.

“I spoke to RBI Governor Mr. Urjit Patel requesting him to despatch adequate new currency. The government will also mount pressure on the Centre for release of additional currency to ease the cash crunch,” he told the media.

He suggested to the Centre to provide 80 per cent subsidy on E-Pass machines to the businessmen and said his Government will be happy if the Centre is ready to agree for 100 per cent subsidy.

Mr. Naidu wanted the centre to exempt charges to the people who will make on-line transactions. Mr Naidu said the common people, farmers, daily wage earners and old people are facing immense inconveniences due to non-availability of cash in the banks and ATMs in the state.

Why should it surprise anyone if a Chief Minister chooses to point out the adverse impact of the demonetisation move? It should not in the normal course. But case of Mr. Babu is different. He was one who had made the suggestion in the first place.

It leaves one with two scenarios to contemplate particularly given the backdrop against which Mr. Babu had originally articulated his demand. His demand came after he dropped a bombshell that out of the Rs 13,000 crore of black money declared in Hyderabad under a recent scheme, Rs 10,000 crore belonged to a single individual, in apparent hints towards his political rivals. Yes, Rs. 10,000 crore by one individual!

“”In my vast political life and experience, this is the first time I’m seeing a crisis remaining unresolved for such a long period,”” the Andhra Pradesh chief minister said during a teleconference with Reserve Bank and state government officials and district collectors.

“”It’s painful to see that the problem caused by demonetisation is continuing even after 12 days.”” Mr. Naidu appeared to be handing a lesson in crisis management to the Centre as he recounted how fast his administration had stemmed the chaos from a cyclone and a stampede-scarred mass festival in the past two years.

The chief minister said he was “”becoming impatient””. Modi had asked people to be patient for 50 days. Mr. Naidu had been advocating a ban on 500 and 1,000-rupee notes since 2013, and was one of the few politicians outside the BJP to welcome the demonetisation announcement of November 8.

Indeed, a few days before the announcement, he had written to Modi urging such a move to stifle corruption and vote-buying. The letter has prompted a couple of Naidu’s ministers to claim the chief minister had inspired Modi’s decision. “”I compliment the PM,”” Naidu had himself said after the demonetisation drive was launched, while at the same time questioning the plan to introduce 2,000-rupee notes and seeking a debate on it.

In a show of support for Modi’s decision, Naidu’s government had opened a helpdesk at Vijayawada and a toll-free line to help people deposit their old notes at banks and post offices. The endowment department, which oversees the running of many temples, offered the coins and smaller currency from the hundis to the banks. In certain districts such as West Godavari, the administration initiated a system of tokens substituting for notes in the purchase of vegetables at government-administered farmer markets.

Mr. Naidu cited how he had dealt with crises. “”We overcame the catastrophe caused by the cyclone in eight days,”” he said, referring to Cyclone Hudhud, which had pounded Visakhapatnam in October 2014. He had camped in the port city for about a week, operating out of a bus and winning praise from residents for restoring normality in a short time.

“”We held the Godavari pushkaram (a festival in July last year) for 14 days without further hiccup after the trouble faced on the first day (a stampede that killed about 30 people). But the demonetisation trouble remains unresolved after 12 days,”” he said. “”Bankers should take this as an opportunity to prove their capabilities. We should move forward to tackle the situation with cooperation, coordination and efficient action.”” He warned that notices would be served on banks that failed to cooperate.

Mr. Naidu asked the banks to set up call centres to keep customers abreast of the latest position on cash. He asked the bigger banks with currency chests to share the money with rural branches. He said that more point-of-sale machines would be added to the already operating 25,208 e-pass machines at ration shops. He asked state officials to make all the transactions cashless.

The chief minister also directed that 60 lakh students be trained in mobile banking and online transactions so they could spread the knowledge among family and friends. In contrast the response of his counterpart in Telangana K. Chandrasekhar Rao was entirely different. 

His state was badly hit on account of withdrawal of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 notes,Telangana CM KCR rushed to New Delhi for an interactive session with Mr. Modi on urgent steps needed to be taken to ease the sufferings of people as well as the state governments on account of the crisis triggered by the ban on Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 notes!

According to his office last week Mr. Rao had telephoned the Prime Minister to apprise the Prime Minister of the serious situation faced by the ordinary folk in his state on account of the currency ban. In the course of the conversation the PM not only asked him to visit New Delhi but also requested to come with a blue print on what can be done to ease the situation.

So on Saturday Mr. Rao had a meeting with Mr. Rao with a demanding moratorium for states on payment of interest on loans due to centre. He also appealed to the PM to direct the concerned enforcing agencies and officials to ensure that money kept by women for `emergencies’ is not treated as a crime. In addition he wanted the centre to direct that private hospitals also accept old Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 notes

There are no views that Telangana state is in dire straits following the recent decision of the Narendra Modi government to ban Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 notes. The state has been hit severely due to the demonetisation move. On Friday hours before the Chief Minister’s was to depart for New Delhi, the state officials had maintained that though bank deposits swelled to Rs.30,000 crore of which only 10 per cent is in circulation. 

The sharp decline in revenue from liquor is evident from 50 per cent drop in sales in the retail outlets. VAT revenue declined steeply in the last 10 days. As against collection of about Rs.2,400 crore a month, so far only about Rs.200 crore was realised in more than two weeks.

The irony of it all is that of the Rs. 63000+ plus that got converted into white thanks to the recent tax amnesty scheme of the Modi Government, Telangana alone accounted for Rs. 13000 crore of the disclosure. Of this one individual is supposed to have benefited to the extent of Rs. 10000 crore. 

In the course of his meeting with Mr. Modi the Telangana Chief Minister made a plea that the old currency kept by women and housewives, as home contingency fund, should not be considered illegal. He also wanted the PM to direct that all private hospitals should accept old currency notes till normalcy returns.

It seems the Telangana State has been hit very hard by the decision of the Modi government. He is perhaps the first Chief Minister in the country who actually deemed it necessary to dial up Mr. Modi to give his frank assessment of the ground situation.

A statement issued by the Chief Minister’s Office on Thursday had quoted Mr. Rao as saying that while he welcomed demonetisation `if it helped clean up the country’s economy’, the Centre should take into account the loss incurred by State governments and decreased flow of revenue to them.

Telangana wants the Centre to defer payments by States on the loans borrowed by them as it they are hard pressed for payments due to various organizations as well as advances and salaries to the state government employees. Official statement of the Telangana CM had quoted Mr. Rao as saying that all those having more than Rs 2.5 lakh as income or savings should not be treated as black money holders. “Instead, it should be referred as unaccounted money. These small and medium traders, businessmen and others in the unorganised sector should be given certain exemptions. They should be given one more chance to disclose their income and deposit the money in banks, thereby granting them one-time amnesty.”

It said that the Chief Minister has reviewed at length the impact of demonetisation on the State’s revenue. “It was informed that transport and registration departments bore the brunt while excise, sales and commercial taxes also had a setback. While welcoming demonetisation, Mr. Rao said any reform was a continuous process and aimed at achieving excellence. It would be nothing but success when thinkers and intellectuals collaborated for a purpose. However, any decision of the Centre to curb and prevent black money should not cause misery and suffering to lakhs of small traders, common public and those in the unorganised sector. Efforts should be put in place to safeguard the interests of these sections. People should be made partners and stakeholders in development.

Meanwhile Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that an all-party delegation from the state will meet Prime Minister Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in Delhi, over the prevailing corporate bank crisis.

The Kerala Assembly, which held a special session to discuss the turbulent situation in the state’s co-operative sector in the wake of Centre’s demonetisation scheme, passed a resolution stating that union government should withdraw the restrictions on cooperative banks. The resolution states that like commercial banks, co-operative banks should also be given permission to conduct transactions. Chief Minister Vijayan assured said that people who have deposited their money in co-operative banks need not get worried, guaranteeing that not even a single penny will be lost.

Vijayan has made his stand on demonetisation quite clear, as on several occasions he has voiced out against the Centre saying that the radical scheme has “”inconvenienced”” people across the country as no “”adequate”” backup arrangements were made. Asserting that people were suffering across the nation because of lack of planning by the government, the Chief Minister has emphasised that his government is not against curbing black money but was against the steps which cause hardship to common people.

Last week, Vijayan and his cabinet colleague Finance Minister Thomas Issac called on Mr Jaitley in New Delhi and conveyed to him the difficult situation on account of spiking of high value currencies. Mr. Vijayan’s delegation would appraise the Prime Minister, the Union Finance Minister and all others concerned during their visit to N. Delhi would discuss among other issues on cooperative sector crisis that has gripped the state

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, while calling for unity among the major players in the cooperative sector, said the Centre should remove the ceiling on cash withdrawals by cooperative banks, exchange demonetised notes and give operational freedom to treasuries to handle cash transactions. He said Kerala had always stood united, irrespective of political affiliations, whenever the Centre had adopted policies intended to weaken the cooperative sector.

No other financial establishment could compete with cooperative bodies in the credit sector, he said. The cooperative movement had emerged as the most revolutionary development after the land reforms. “The RBI’s stand will adversely impact rural areas. Unfortunately, the RBI is not prepared to recognise the social commitment of the cooperative movement. It does not recognise the presence of the cooperatives in providing varied services such as interest-free loans, housing loans, running medical stores, consumer fair price shops.” He said the State could not accept the stand that cooperatives should withdraw from social objectives. “The main dispute is connected to the Vaidyanathan Commission report which the State had rejected totally,” he said.

The second major issue related to income tax under which cooperatives are now deducting TDS on deposits above Rs.25 lakh. But the decision to keep the cooperative banks out of financial transactions after demonetisation was intended to strangle the sector. Scheduled commercial banks can never be a substitute for cooperative banks in the rural credit sector.

BJP State president Kummanam Rajasekharan and general secretary K. Surendran walked out of the meeting stating that the party could not support a move that was intended to help holders of black money! Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said it was not possible to accept the BJP’s stand on this issue.

About the author: The author is a practicing hack, a cynic to core.”