Centre debates taking a caste count during Census

The move comes amid persistent demands by the Congress and other political parties, including National Democratic Alliance partners of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, to record caste.

Other than enumerating the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST), a caste-wise count of population as part of the Census has not been done in Independent India. In 2011, the Congress- led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) conducted the first-ever caste count, separate from the Census exercise, but the findings were never made public. In 2021, the Union government submitted an affidavit in the Supreme Court that the caste data enumerated in the Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) of 2011 was fraught with "mistakes and inaccuracies". The total number of castes, according to the 1931 Census, was 4,147 and the SECC compiled more than 46 lakh castes, sub- castes and names. 

Moral pressure and human rights compliance

As is commonly recognised, there are two ways in which compliance with human rights norms can be enforced. One approach is the enforcement of economic sanctions or military invasion. This is only possible in the case of powerful nations. The other strategy is through forceful condemnation which can be undertaken by non-governmental organisations or smaller nations, irrespective of their military or economic power or their lack of adequate international clout. Though the practice of state sovereignty puts up barriers to the implementation of international human rights standards, moral pressure against the governments guilty of violating human rights sometimes succeeds in nudging them to step back. But mostly, it is seen that authoritarian regimes such as the dispensation of Vladimir Putin in Russia, Xi Jinping in China or Kim Jong-un in North Korea completely ignore the pleadings of various governments, many of whom, in reality, have their own political and economic agenda in disingenuously taking the moral high ground of an anti-war or a liberal narrative.

Power play

While Wayanad in Kerala limps back to normal life after the devastating land- slide last month, a landslide on Tuesday in Sikkim caused damage to six houses and a building of the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) at its Teesta-5 hydropower station in Gangtok. There is no comparison of the impact of the event in both places, as there was no loss of lives or injuries reported in Sikkim. However, the cause for concern is that this is the second natural-disaster-led assault on a hydropower project along the Teesta. A deluge from the South Lhonak glacier in North Sikkim last October washed away the Chungthang dam that was critical to the Teesta-3 power station (which is not operated by the NHPC). The Teesta-3 (1,200 MW) power project was the largest hydroelectric power project in the State until it was effectively grounded after the outburst. Only a tenth of the power originally being supplied by the project is now available. The Teesta-5 project, at 510 MW, has also been made non-functional since the glacial lake outburst. 

After 'manifesto moment, budgetary disappointment

Following a "manifesto moment" in the lead-up to the 2024 general election where several major political parties pledged support for the LGBTQ+ community, the 2024 Union Budget has dashed the hopes of queer Indians yearning for recognition in national politics. Meagre funding for crucial programmes on paper, the budgetary outlay for transgender welfare increased from ₹52.91 crore in FY24 to ₹68.46 crore in FY25. But a closer look reveals a harsh reality: actual expenditure was a meagre ₹22.82 crore in FY24. Nowhere is the impact of this discrepancy more starkly reflected than in the fact that most Garima Grahas have shut down over the past two years due to lack of funding, and the NCTP is barely functional. Even more troubling is the reduction in funding for the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) from ₹3,079.97 crore in FY24 to 2,892.00 crore in FY25. NACO, tasked with both combating HIV/AIDS and preventing Sexually transmitted infections, plays a crucial role in public health. Despite decades of progress, India still faces one of the largest HIV epidemics in the world, with LGBTQ+ Indians at a higher risk of contracting the virus and facing distinct psychosocial challenges. 

Imports weaken Indian pharma

Ensuring the affordability of pharmaceuticals is essential for controlling healthcare costs, especially in India, where out-of-pocket health expenditures accounted for nearly 47.1% of the total health expenditure in 2021. While the Drugs Price Control Order, 2013, aims to regulate the prices of existing medicines, a better option is to establish a competitive environment for critical medicines by promoting local production. The first was a Department of Expenditure (DOE) order permitting the Ministry of Health to procure 120 medicines through global tenders to supply Union government schemes. This list includes several top-selling anti-diabetes medicines and anti-cancer drugs. Currently, the companies selling these medicines enjoy a market monopoly in India, largely due to patent protection, regulatory barriers, or both. Moreover, for over 40 of these 120 medicines, the DoE order specifies a specific brand to be procured, implying that monopoly control of foreign companies would be enhanced. Secondly, the 2024-25 Union Budget proposed removing the 10-12% customs duty on three cancer medicines marketed by AstraZeneca, ostensibly to reduce their prices. Given that some of these medicines are priced extremely high, the proposed import duty reduction would contribute little towards making them affordable. 

Were 8 crore new jobs created in three years?

Employment, or the lack of it, has been a major issue of debate among economists and policy makers in India in recent years. Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed that India created "eight crore new jobs in the last three to four years". The Prime Minister was using data from the India-KLEMS database hosted by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). As per this database, the total number of workers in India rose from 56.6 crore in 2020-21 to 64.3 crore in 2023-24, that is, a net rise by 7.8 crore workers. Tailing this claim, the research team of the State Bank of India (SBI) published a validating report that claimed a match between the total number of workers in the India-KLEMS database and in the NSSO's Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises (ASUSE), 2022-2023. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), the employment-to-population ratio between 2019 and 2023 was stagnant, if not falling, in East Asia, South-East Asia and the Pacific.

'151 MPS, MLAs have declared cases related to crimes against women'

Sixteen MPs and 135 MLAS have declared that they have cases related to crimes against women registered against them. The largest number of such lawmakers are from West Bengal, according to a report. The report is based on an analysis of 755 out of 776 affidavits of MPs and 3,938 out of 4,033 of MLAs from all 28 States and eight Union Territories in the past five years. The report, prepared by the Association for Democratic Reforms and National Election Watch, also includes affidavits submitted for bypolls held during this period following resignation, death or vacancy due to any other reason. Among political parties, the Bharatiya Janata Party has the highest number of MPs or MLAs with such cases registered against them at 54, followed by the Congress with 23. Among the States, West Bengal has the highest number of MPs or MLAs with these cases against them at 25. The report says that there are two MPs and 14 MLAs who have declared cases related to rape under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code, which carries a minimum sentence of 10 years and can be extended to life imprisonment. 

SC to examine need for environmental regulator

The Supreme Court on Wednesday decided to examine the need for a 'permanent environmental regulator' similar to those found in the telecom and electricity sectors. "There is a regulator in telecom [Telecom Regulatory Authority of India] and electricity [Central Electricity Regulatory Commission]. like that for climate and environment," said Justice K.V. Viswanathan, who was accompanying Justices B.R. Gavai and P.K. Mishra on the Bench. Justice Gavai was heading the Bench. Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati said the Union government had a "mixed response" to the issue. Ms. Bhati said the existing system had specific regulators who were experts in their fields of environmental and climate change study. There were several tiers in decision-making and review, including the Ministries concerned, the National Green Tribunal, the Central Empowered Committee and finally the Supreme Court itself.