Podcasts about agnipath

Welcome to Top of the Morning by Mint, your weekday newscast that brings you five major stories from the world of business. It's Friday, July 12, 2024. My name is Nelson John. Let's get started: Indian stock market benchmarks- the Sensex and the Nifty 50- closed flat on Thursday, as gains in shares of ITC, ONGC, Tata Motors and SBI were offset by losses in those of Mahindra and Mahindra, Bajaj Finance, Larsen and Toubro and HDFC Bank. Delhi's summer has been nothing short of extreme this year. With temperatures frequently soaring well beyond the usual, hitting near 50 degrees Celsius, the capital found itself grappling with intense heatwaves. The sweltering heat prompted a significant response, with public hospitals establishing special heat treatment wards and reported heat-related fatalities reaching 58 by mid-June. However, as June ended, the weather took a drastic turn. The city experienced its highest single-day rainfall in 88 years on the 28 June.This sudden deluge not only disrupted daily life but also resulted in significant infrastructure damage, including the collapse of a canopy at Delhi Airport which tragically resulted in a fatality. The first half of 2024 has indeed been challenging for the residents of Delhi and the surrounding National Capital Region, home to a combined population of over 70 million. And the outlook for the remainder of the year suggests no respite, with the meteorological department predicting an unusually wet monsoon, which could lead to further flooding. Looking ahead to the winter, the situation appears equally grim with the anticipated onset of Delhi's notorious smog, which annually contributes to a high number of respiratory-related illnesses and deaths. This persistent cycle of extreme weather conditions underlines the urgent need for comprehensive environmental and infrastructural strategies to mitigate these impacts. Delhi's weather also begets the question - Is it time for you to leave Delhi? Mint's Sayantan Bera examines in today's Long Story. India's largest software exporter Tata Consultancy Services has set a strong pace in the first quarterly earnings of FY25, outperforming its average growth rate over the past five years. TCS reported a quarterly revenue of $7.5 billion, a 1.9% increase from the previous quarter, surpassing expectations from analysts who had projected a revenue of $7.44 billion. A significant portion of this growth, however, is attributed to an unusual surge in its India operations, Mint's IT correspondents Jas Bardia and Shouvik Das report. The push in revenue is primarily because of a $1.83-billion 4G network project from BSNL. This has raised questions about the organic nature of TCS's growth, as half of its $142 million sequential revenue increase was derived from this Indian deal, marking a deviation from its traditional revenue streams predominantly from the Americas, Europe, and UK. Despite these doubts, K Krithivasan, TCS's CEO, asserts that the company's growth isn't solely reliant on the BSNL project. He acknowledges the current volatile market conditions, which affect decision-making and client investments but remains cautiously optimistic about the broader growth beyond this single project.India is gearing up for an expansion of its aviation infrastructure by doubling the number of airports from the current 138 to 300 by the 100th year of independence in 2047. Mint's aviation correspondent Anu Sharma resorts that the plan is outlined in a draft by the Airports Authority of India. This ambitious project aims to accommodate an eightfold increase in passenger traffic, potentially reaching 3-3.5 billion passengers annually by the target year. The initiative aligns with efforts to enhance connectivity to tier 2 and tier 3 cities through programs like UDAN, which aims to make air travel affordable and widespread, particularly in less served areas. Locations identified for potential new airports include Kota in Rajasthan, Parandur in Tamil Nadu, and Puri in Odisha, among others. The plan also proposes converting existing airstrips in places like Mandavi in Gujarat and Sultanpur in Uttar Pradesh into operational airports.The Agnipath scheme is under review for potential modifications to enhance its appeal. Introduced in June 2022, to recruit young individuals aged 17.5 to 21 years into the armed forces, the scheme has been pivotal in rejuvenating the youth profile of the armed forces. It also addresses the ballooning defence pension liabilities. Currently, the scheme recruits these young individuals for a four-year tenure, with a fourth of them being offered a chance to join the permanent cadre afterwards. As of now, the scheme is expected to continue with possible modifications either in the FY25 Budget or later to make it more attractive to potential recruits, Mint's Gireesh Chandra Prasad reports. The financial implications of the scheme are significant, given that the defence pension allocation for FY25 is ₹1.41 trillion, nearly a quarter of the ₹6.2 trillion defence budget. The Agnipath scheme is seen as a sustainable solution to manage these pension costs.Hyundai Motors is making waves with its plans to list its Indian subsidiary, eyeing a massive $3-3.5 billion IPO. This could be India's second-largest public offering, valuing Hyundai India at $20 billion. It's a big move that's turning heads and might just inspire other multinational corporation to consider the vibrant Indian market for their listings. Mint's Priyamvada C spoke to Gaurav Sood, from Avendus Capital, who notes that Hyundai's decision underscores the depth and appetite of Indian capital markets. This  points to an increasing interest among global businesses towards India. This trend is supported by factors like enhanced ease of doing business and significant untapped market potential. Legal and financial experts suggest that other MNCs are observing Hyundai's move closely, with firms like LG Electronics and Italy's Carraro also rumored to be considering listings. Historical precedents from giants like Suzuki and Unilever, which have listed successful Indian subsidiaries, further pave the way for such strategic decisions.   We'd love to hear your feedback on this podcast. Let us know by writing to us at feedback@livemint.com. You may send us feedback, tips or anything that you feel we should be covering from your vantage point in the world of business and finance. That's all for today. Thank you for listening. We're eagerly looking forward to our next Top of the Morning episode, which will be packed with fresh business news. Until then, have a great day! Show notes:Frying pan, wetland, gas chamber: Is it time for you to leave Delhi?Big one mega hit on home ground, TCS kicks off first quarter on the front footIndia prepares plans to double airports to 300 by 2047Agnipath scheme to stay, tweaks likely in the upcoming budget or laterHyundai's IPO may inspire other MNCs to list in India for valuation gains

First, Indian Express' Arun Sharma joins us to talk about the terrorist attack that happened in Jammu and Kashmir's Reasi district, where 9 pilgrims were killed and 33 were left injured when fire was opened on a bus which then plunged into a gorge. Next, Indian Express' Amrita Nayak Dutta speaks to us about the Agnipath scheme that was introduced by the government for recruitment of young individuals in the armed forces. She talks about the scheme, the opposition it faced and how the government responded to it. (9:16)And in the end, we talk about a fraud that is being investigated by the CBI in Odisha. It pertains to the submission of forged class 10 certificates for recruitment in postal services. (20:00)Hosted by Niharika NandaProduced and written by Niharika Nanda and Shashank BhargavaEdited and mixed by Suresh Pawar

In today's episode we take a look how India and China icy relationship is leading to a big predicament in trade and manufacturing. In other news, the Indian army has reportedly made some suggestions to tweak the contentious Agnipath scheme that was brought in two years back to revamp the recruital process for the Indian army. What are the suggestions and why does the Agnipath Scheme need a review? Tune in for more!

This is the Catch Up on 3 Things for the Indian Express and I'm Flora Swain.It's the 13th of June and here are today's headlines.BJP leader Pema Khandu was sworn in as Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister for the third consecutive term at Itanagar today. The BJP returned to power in the northeastern state for the third time in a row, winning 46 seats in the 60-member Assembly. Chowna Mein secured the Deputy Chief Minister's position again and a total of 10 other ministers were inducted into the Cabinet.Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan dismissed all reports of paper leaks in NEET UG 2024 today and came out in support of the National Testing Agency who has announced a retest for the 1563 candidates who were awarded grace marks due to ‘loss of exam time'. As per the decision announced by NTA today, the affected candidates will now be given two options — either to accept the score that they were originally awarded, without the grace marks, or re-appear for the exam on the 23rd of June. Meanwhile, the Opposition demanded an SC-monitored investigation into the NEET UG case.The Indian Express has learnt the Army is conducting an internal survey on the Agnipath scheme to assess its impact on its recruitment process so far. Based on the findings, it is likely to draw up recommendations for the incoming government on possible changes to the scheme. One of the changes being discussed is a hike of retention percentage from the current 25 per cent to 60-70 per cent for regular troops and nearly 75 per cent for technical and specialist soldiers, including Special Forces.At least five workers were killed and five others injured in an explosion at an explosives manufacturing factory in Nagpur today. ANI news agency quoted the Police Commissioner saying, quote, “About four-five people died in this incident, including 4 women. Our investigation is ongoing. Our team, crime branch and senior officers are present on the spot, and action is being taken.” Unquote. The incident took place at Chamundi Explosive Pvt Ltd at Dhamna when the workers were packing explosives.Kuwait's Foreign Minister Abdullah Ali Al-Yahya assured full support to the Indians affected in the fire at an apartment housing foreign workers and vowed to promptly investigate the tragedy that killed 49 people, including about 40 Indians. He gave this assurance after meeting Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh, who landed in the country this morning. About 24 people from Kerela and 5 from Tamil Nadu are among the 40 Indian casualties.This was the Catch-Up on the 3 Things by The Indian Express.

Did Agniveer Cost BJP Haryana_ Rajasthan and U_P _ Election impact of Agnipath - Gen PR Shankar

This week, host Shivnarayan Rajpurohit is joined by Newslaundry's Basant Kumar and Avdhesh Kumar along with independent journalists Shweta Desai and Kashif Kakvi.Shweta was in Ayodhya to report on locals' fear and excitement over the Ram Mandir project. She says they're happy it's being built but are worried about the city's ‘redevelopment' wrecking their homes and livelihoods. She also explains why there's tension between Ramanandi akharas and the temple trust.Basant spoke to youths in the temple town for their views on the BJP and Ram Mandir, and also visited the site of the proposed mosque – to find nothing there.Away from the Ayodhya mayhem, Kashif reported on the release of a Muslim teenager in Ujjain, five months after he was jailed for purportedly ‘spitting' on a Hindu procession. He says there was no evidence and hostile witnesses, but the administration had bulldozed the accused's home anyway.Finally, Avdhesh talks about why students were protesting at Jantar Mantar and why they're upset with the government's Agnipath scheme.Tune in!Timecodes00:00:00 - Introduction00:01:34 - Ayodhya's redevelopment00:11:06 - Battle to control the temple00:19:53 - Land acquisition in Ayodhya00:34:31 - False cases in Madhya Pradesh00:49:57 - Negative impact of Agnipath Yojna00:53:53 - RecommendationsRecommendationsAvdhesh'मैला ढोने, गटर में जाने वाले दलित...', Bezwada Wilson सरकारों पर बरस पड़े! Manual Scavenging |GITNShwetaAyodhya: The Dark NightBasantDhimi Wali Fast PassengerKashifCity Of My HeartShivnarayanExclusive: AAP govt procured drugs from 2 blacklisted pharma firms with many failed quality testsProduced and edited by Saif Ali Ekram, and recorded by Naresh Kumar. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

First, we discuss how ISRO's project to study the sun, Aditya-L1 successfully reached its designated L-1 point. To help us understand what makes the project so unique, and what all ISRO plans to study through it, Indian Express' Anonna Dutt joins us in this segment. Second, we talk about a book titled 'Four Stars of Destiny,' authored by Former Army Chief, General MM Naravane. The Indian Army is now reviewing the book since it offers insights into India's military standoff with China in eastern Ladakh that started in 2020, including details about the Galwan Valley clashes and the Agnipath recruitment scheme. The Indian Express' Amrita Nayak Datta, joins us in this segment to share everything that's been happening regarding the book. Lastly, we talk about the Maldives government's suspension of three deputy ministers after they took to social media to make derogatory remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.Hosted by Rahel PhiliposeWritten and Produced by Rahel Philipose, Niharika Nanda, and Shashank BhargavaEdited and Mixed by Suresh Pawar

Chandigarh-based rapper Bagi Munda has come a long way from working as a waiter at Taj Hotel. He is steadily garnering a following in the underground music scene. In this episode, Baghi Munda and Vinamre talk about - - Things Baghi Munda saw as a hotel receptionist - How Baghi Munda uses his music to socialize- Whether there actually is a drug problem in Punjab0:00 - Intro2:24 - Bagi Munda's love for cinema (Agnipath, Scarface)9:01 - Music which is derived from philosophy13:48 - Working odd jobs from a young age19:48 - How Bagi Munda found division of labour23:50 - Learning the art of being a waiter 27:15 - How tipping sustained and sustains Bagi31:02 - Chores in hotels34:57 - People Bagi has met as a receptionist 40:10 - Drinking on the job as a waiter44:18 - Are drugs actually everywhere in Punjab48:48 - The Mubi interface sucks50:03 - What Bagi Munda is watching these days53:31 - Bagi's favorite movies56:26 - Tarantino is Bagi's favorite thief 59:34 - Dirty talk only sounds good in English1:02:15 - Betaaj Badshah reveals a lot about Bagi Munda1:07:12 - Socializing through music1:09:28 - Being careful about your influence1:13:28 - You still need your base emotions1:15:56 - Bagi Munda has a crush on Nazia Hassan1:22:26 - Vinamre is a big disco fan1:24:43 - Foreshadowing in Bagi and Vinamre's first meeting1:28:37 - What concerts are really about 1:32:52 - There's different ways of listening to different music 1:35:24 - Bagi's real appeal is this sound1:43:03 - ConclusionListen to the audio version of the full podcasts at - Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/70vrbHeSvrcXyOeISTyBSy?si=eZQk7N3_QOmvOfu0umGjzg Google Podcast - https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy8zZDkyMjI0MC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw== Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/dostcast/id1538251790 == This is the official channel for Dostcast, a podcast by Vinamre Kasanaa. Connect with me Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vinamrekasanaa/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/VinamreKasanaa Dostcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dostcast/ Dostcast on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dostcast Dostcast on Snapchat: https://www.snapchat.com/add/dostcast == Contact Us For business inquiries: dostcast@egiplay.com == #Dostcast

 The Nepalese government has taken issue with the Modi government's Agnipath scheme for short-term military service. This has exacerbated a shortage in the Army's numbers that have dwindled sharply on account of a 3-year lull in recruitment. In Ep 1265 of Cut The Clutter, Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta explains why Nepal has objected to the scheme, and discusses the long tradition of Gorkhas in the Indian Army — which today comprise seven regiments adding up to 40 battalions — as well as the concept of ‘martial races'.

Nikhil Upreti is back On Air! Nikhil Upreti is an actor, producer and martial artist, known for his debut movie Pinjada, Shiva Shakti, Agnipath, Dhadkan, and more. He is also an activist and humanitarian.

Join "Def-Savvy" Abhishek Bhalla and host Dev Goswami as they delve into the reports suggesting Beijing's interest in recruiting Nepal's renowned Gorkhas into the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA). The Indian Army's routine intake of the Gorkhas came to a halt after the Agnipath scheme was introduced. So, what factors contribute to the desirability of Gorkhas in the military forces of various nations, including China, India, and Pakistan, during times of conflict? How does the demographic composition of the Gorkha regiment, with a majority of soldiers from Nepal and a significant portion from India, influence the dynamics and demand for Gorkhas in different military alliances? Considering China's growing influence in Nepal, what potential consequences could arise if China successfully attracts Gorkhas away from their traditional military alliances, particularly with India, and how? Listen in!

बदलते समय  के साथ सरकार के कई मंत्रालयों को नयी समस्याओं पर काम करना ज़रूरी हो गया  है। कम  समय में इन सरकारी मंत्रालयों की कार्यक्षमता को कैसे बढ़ाएं? इस हफ़्ते की पुलियाबाज़ी इस विषय पर।  With changing geopolitics and technology, many government ministries have to deal with increasing levels of complexity. How can the government increase its state capacity in these areas within a short span of time. Today's Puliyabaazi explores this topic. ****   For More  ***** Substack | We need an Agnipath for India's Diplomacy by Pranay Kotasthane https://publicpolicy.substack.com/p/207-the-rise-and-rise-of-conglomerates #61 सरकारी तंत्र की काबिलियत के मायने. State Capacity ft. Prakhar Misra https://youtu.be/n3wdfpUAHdgसरकारी काबिलियत लोकनीति को कैसे प्रभावित करती है? Public Policy in India ft. Ajay Shah https://youtu.be/mvotEDOOdeA***************** Write to us at puliyabaazi@gmail.com  Hosts: @saurabhchandra @pranaykotas @thescribblebee  Puliyabaazi is on these platforms: Twitter: @puliyabaazi  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/puliyabaazi/ Subscribe & listen to the podcast on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Castbox, AudioBoom, YouTube, Spotify or any other podcast app. This Hindi Podcast brings to you in-depth conversations on politics, public policy, technology, philosophy and pretty much everything that is interesting. Presented by tech entrepreneur Saurabh Chandra, public policy researcher Pranay Kotasthane, and writer-cartoonist Khyati Pathak, the show features conversations with experts in a casual yet thoughtful manner. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

India Policy Watch #1: Don't Concentrate Insights on issues relevant to India— RSJIn one of the recent editions on the Hindenburg short-selling saga, I had written about how easily the Adani group had spread itself into a diverse range of sectors. The group was highly leveraged because it was so keen on getting into newer sectors and then winning bids in them with metronomic efficiency. Generally speaking, it is difficult to run a conglomerate of different businesses. You might argue that each business can be handled by a competent management team who will use the brand name and deep pockets of the parent group to build a solid business. But it is easier said than done. Capital allocation decisions, which lie at the heart of executing a business strategy, are difficult within a single line of business. They become hugely complicated within a conglomerate of businesses. Misallocation of capital, lack of focus and inability to stay competitive against smaller, nimbler players eventually follow. Soon, the businesses need to be hived off, and you find companies convincing would-be investors on how they are doing fewer things and doing them well instead of spreading themselves too thin. This is the usual cycle. Yet, you see conglomerates appearing on the business landscape across countries. In some cases, these are businesses integrating vertically or finding interesting adjacencies in their business. This kind of makes sense in the Coase-ian “Nature of Firm” way. I mean, if the transaction costs of finding someone to do a particular work are higher than you doing it yourself, sure, go ahead and do it yourself. But beyond that, there should be no economic reason for having conglomerates. Unless you have one of these conditions in the economy: a) Cost of capital is high, and access to it is difficult. Newer players find it difficult to access capital to start new businesses while older, established players with free cash flow can muscle their way into unrelated but lucrative new sectors only because they have access to capital at a lower rate. b) The playing field isn't level for newer players to make a dent. Through a mix of friendly regulations, ‘working' the networks and M&A activities, the bigger players continue to have an advantage going into a new sector over smaller players who might have expertise in cracking those sectors open.c) There's relatively little ease of doing business in those sectors or in the evening overall. The established conglomerates with an army of people, lawyers and consultants can get started relatively faster and capture the market than new entrants. You don't have to be a genius to see where the Indian policy-making framework is on the above conditions. There's common and easy access to capital through a large number of PEs and VC funds but only for a particular kind of ‘flavour of the season' variety. This also is getting difficult to access. The market for other forms of capital isn't deep enough. In the same vein, long-term capital for greenfield projects where the credit risk has to be borne by the issuer isn't available. There is always a whiff of regulatory capture especially in sectors where the government is closely involved bin decision making. Lastly, we might have moved up in the ‘ease of doing business' rankings, but it isn't clear yet how this has changed things on the ground. New businesses still find going tough for them. All of the above means that in the past five years, we are reversing a trend seen since the ‘91 reforms. That of increasing salience of conglomerates in India. You don't have to research too hard. Just take a look at any sector - already big or one that is emerging - you will have the same spectacle of a few large corporate groups getting themselves into all sorts of businesses, from defence to semiconductors or from airlines to carbonated soft drinks only because they believe they can take advantage of market distortions.As if to illustrate this point further, here's news that's only a day old. Here's Moneycontrol  reporting:“The shares of Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) rallied 3.5 percent in the morning trade on March 31 after the company said secured creditors, unsecured creditors and shareholders would meet on May 2 to approve the proposed demerger of Reliance Strategic Ventures.After the approval, the unit, which is the financial services subsidiary of the oil-to-telecom conglomerate, would be renamed Jio Financial Services.Benefits that shall accrue on the demerger of the financial services business will be the creation of an independent company focusing exclusively on financial services and exploring opportunities in the sector, the independent company can attract different sets of investors, strategic partners, lenders and other stakeholders having a specific interest in the financial services business, a financial services company can have a higher leverage (as compared to the Demerged Company) for its growth and, unlocking the value of the demerged undertaking for the shareholders of the demerged company, the conglomerate said in an exchange filing.”This isn't out of the ordinary. If you search for similar news items from the last five years, you will notice the same pattern of large conglomerates (usually the big 5) muscling into other or newer sectors because they think they have the capital and they will be able to manage the sector well. While one cannot blame these conglomerates for their ambitions, this trend suggests we might have tipped over from being pro-markets to pro-business. Coincidentally, as I was writing this, we had a paper authored by Viral Acharya (former Deputy Governor, RBI) on the opportunities and challenges for the Indian economy published by the Brookings Institution and being discussed in the media. Acharya has highlighted the concentration of power in Indian industry as a particularly worrying trend. He writes (I have paraphrased a bit):“A striking feature of this rise in industrial concentration by private companies is that it is in part due to the growing footprint of “Big-5” industrial conglomerates, based on the overall share of assets in non-financial sectors in 2021. Data shows the following patterns.First, until 2010, the Big-5 increased their footprint in more and more industrial sectors, broadening their reach to 40 NIC-2-digit non-financial sectors. After this breadth first strategy came the depth-next strategy. Starting in 2015, the Big-5 started acquiring larger and larger share within the sectors where they were present. In particular, their share in total assets of the non-financial sectors rose from 10% in 1991 to nearly 18% in 2021, whereas the share of the next big five (Big 6-10) business groups fell from 18% in 1992 to less than 9%. In other words, Big-5 grew not just at the expense of the smallest firms, but also of the next largest firms.Next, this growth of Big-5 appears to be driven in part by their growing share of overall Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) activity. Even though the aggregate number of M&A deals has dropped since 2011, the share of M&A deals by the Big-5 has doubled from under 3% in 2015 to 6% in 2021, without such an increase being seen in the next five biggest groups. Arguably, this growth has also been supported by a conscious industrial policy of creating “national champions” via preferential allocation of projects and in some cases regulatory agencies turning a blind eye to predatory pricing. Equally importantly, given the high tariffs, Big-5 groups do not have to compete with international peers in many sectors where they are present and derive most of their revenues domestically.”Acharya then goes on to list the usual downstream problems of such an increase in market power concentration - inefficient allocation of capital, favouritism in project allocation, regulatory interference, related party transactions, over-leveraging while becoming too big to fail and crowding out new players. But he also makes an important claim that this concentration of market power is one of the reasons for persistent core inflation. He concludes:“In summary, creating national champions, which is considered by many as the industrial policy of “new India”, appears to be feeding directly into keeping prices at a high level, with the possibility that it is feeding “core” inflation's persistent high level.”I won't go as far as Acharya yet on this thesis. As he admits, there's more work that needs to be done here, but his conclusion on pricing remaining high because of industry concentration does pass the smell test. And it should concern policy makers. I know there are many who will ask what's wrong in creating ‘national champions' like the tiger economies did between the 70s-90s. But there are a few differences in our case. Firstly, the focus on creating national champions elsewhere was to choose specific sectors where they might have a comparative advantage, invest in them, especially on technology and then win in global markets through an export-oriented strategy. It is a somewhat flawed approach, but it still makes sense for a low-income economy to do this. But we aren't really doing this in India. Our so-called national champions are focused on domestic markets where there's no particular need to have them. In fact, there is only a monopoly risk here with the attendant problems of price cartelisation and poor customer service. Also, the limited focus on exports that these big five domestic players have as of now is largely linked to natural resources and not large-scale, job-creating manufacturing setups. It is unclear how the broader economy is benefitting from this apparent design. Secondly, the successful national champion model in other economies didn't need high import tariffs to support their ambitions like it is now the case in India. We have written about this many times in the past. Higher tariffs will reduce the competitiveness of the domestic players in those sectors to compete globally. It is counterintuitive to have a high tariff regime if you want to build national champions. After all, global markets are much larger than the domestic market, and that's where these conglomerates must be competing. Thirdly, what's the government getting out of the apparent tilting, if it is intentional, of the playing field in favour of these players? If the idea is to have national champions despite the obvious flaws in this intent, it makes sense to have stakes in these ventures to participate in the value being created. Lastly, the overall economy will benefit if the process of creating such champions leads to factor market reforms and real ease of doing business for other participants in the process. Else, the larger players will continue to get ahead not because of better products or innovation but simply because they know how to manage the system. In other words, it is the 1970s all over again with a tadka of markets.It is difficult to see how we can trace our way back from this path, given the apparent lack of opposition and the already dominant position of these conglomerates in industry and media. Also, any walking back will require some bold antitrust kind of measures (it is what Acharya suggests) which is quite impossible in India. Possibly, the only medium-term scenario is these conglomerates start stepping on each other's toes as they continue to diversify their businesses and that competition alleviates the problems of concentration. But that might be too late in coming, or they might have a tacit understanding of the rules of the game in competing with one another. It will distort markets further. Maybe this is a tad alarmist, but it is important to acknowledge there's way too much diversification among the top conglomerates in India and that's always a sign of market distortion. India Policy Watch #2: We Need an Agnipath for India's DiplomacyInsights on issues relevant to India— Pranay KotasthaneIn edition #198, I highlighted that at least three areas of the Indian executive need a quick state capacity boost. These were: the Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), and economic regulatory bodies such as the Competition Commission of India (CCI). Then I came across this tweet from the External Affairs Minister, which acted as a positive reinforcement for this line of thinking. Managing these engagements in an unsettled world order needs an immediate boost in India's foreign policy capacity. Solutions like incremental increases in the Indian Foreign Service (IFS), while required, will be too slow.What we need today is a ‘surge hiring' strategy. The external affairs ministry, in fact, was the first union ministry to experiment with a broader lateral entry for government officers in 2015. It also opened up positions in its policy planning and research division for people in academia and the private sector. However, these tentative trials seem to have lost steam. The underlying reason is the internal resistance from the foreign service officers, who see such attempts as a threat to their career progression.The surge hiring strategy should try a different approach. It should attempt to hire a much larger number of people below ambassadorial positions. This way, the cadre protection impulse can be side-stepped. Instead of targeting joint secretary levels, two fellowships could be attempted: one for fresh graduates and another for young professionals working within and outside the government (thanks to Nitin Pai for this idea). Given the growing prominence of technology and economic issues as foreign policy domains, this approach would help build institutional knowledge within the ministry. More importantly, the surge should target staffing for the headquarter functions in Delhi for managing various engagements and new initiatives. Indian missions abroad can continue to be led by IFS officers. Past attempts at lateral hiring were advertised as single posts in the unreserved category. By opening up a larger number of positions concurrently, the government could retain existing norms on reservations and quotas. Finally, the surge hiring strategy should have a sunset clause and a well-defined recruitment target. If it is conceptualised as a non-recurring measure keeping the current geopolitical situation in mind, it will resonate with the opposition and the parliament.With the Agnipath experiment of the defence ministry, the idea of short-term employment within the government has gained some acceptability. It is no longer anathema to the government but an idea whose time has come. Without a surge in foreign policy capacity, we will only have great ideas but tardy implementation, resulting in a perennially underperforming foreign policy. Matsyanyaaya: Reflections on the QuadBig fish eating small fish = Foreign Policy in action— Pranay KotasthaneLast week, I attended a US State Department sponsored programme that aims to invigorate think tank research on Quad collaboration in the four countries. As part of the first segment of this programme, five representatives from each country's think tanks were hosted in the US. What follows are my reflections on the Quad as a geopolitical formation, based on what I saw in this programme.* Quad ranks higher on the US foreign policy agenda than I had expected. My prior assumption was that given the multiple alliances that the US leads, a new, amorphous grouping such as the Quad wouldn't rank high on its priority list. However, the interactions with the officials suggested a conscious effort to infuse energy into the Quad. * The Quad is being positioned visibly and intentionally as a positive force that would bring benefits to the Indo-Pacific at large, rather than as an anti-China “alliance”. This is the reason why the interactions as part of the grouping have spawned into six leader-level working groups—on COVID-19 Response and Global Health Security, Climate, Critical and Emerging Technologies, Cyber, Space, and Infrastructure, and at least three initiatives—Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness, Semiconductor Supply Chain Initiative, and the Quad Fellowship. The strategy, if there is one, seems to be to throw several balls up in the air, knowing fully well that some of them will get dropped, while others might be caught on their way back by all four countries, or only a subset amongst them.* As the Quad is not a traditional security alliance, its success metric will also be different. Not all cooperation will be Quad-labelled, and some of it might come in bilateral or trilateral formats. So, the increased cooperation between Japan and Australia on defence ties, and between India and Australia on economic ties, are also indicators that the Quad is moving in the right direction. * While the rationale for Quad collaboration in many areas is often “common interests” or “shared values”, an underrated frame is “mutual complementarities”. In many spheres, especially in technology, the Quad is an attractive forum for cooperation precisely because each country has complementary strengths. * Positioning Quad as a force for good in the Indo-Pacific—rather than a geopolitical grouping against China— in many areas runs the obvious risk of underperformance and loss of credibility. In international affairs, efforts at providing benefits to another country are usually known by their failures more than their successes. For instance, in May 2021, the Quad Vaccine Partnership targeted the provision of 1 billion COVID-19 vaccines. Even though the four countries individually delivered 670 million doses, including 265 million doses in the Indo-Pacific, the demand for vaccines waned by the end of 2022. The dominant narrative was that the Vaccine Partnership had failed, even though it had made a significant contribution. HomeWorkReading and listening recommendations on public policy matters* [Podcast] We were on Shruti Rajagopalan's excellent podcast Ideas of India to discuss our book and the Indian State's many puzzles. * [Podcast] A Puliyabaazi on citizencraft featuring Nitin Pai.* [Paper] This paper by Isha Bhatnagar offers evidence that gender equitable preferences are rising in India. From the abstract:Over more than a quarter-century period (1992–1993 to 2019–2021), I find a significant decline in son preference from 40 to 18 percent and an increase in gender-equitable preferences among most subpopulations. Multivariate analysis shows that for all survey years, education and frequent exposure to television significantly increased the odds of gender-equitable preferences. In the last decade, community norms supporting women's employment are also associated with gender-equitable preferences. In addition, decomposition analysis shows that compared to compositional change, social norm change accounts for two-thirds of the rise in gender-equitable preferences. These findings suggest that rising norms of gender equality have the potential to dismantle gender-biased preferences in India. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit publicpolicy.substack.com

In this episode, we talk about the assembly election and by-election results in India, and examine growing trepidation in Bangladesh about a 2017 deal signed between the Bangladesh Power Development Board and the Adani Group. In “Around Southasia in 5 minutes” we're talking about the closure of the Dainik Dinkal newspaper in Bangladesh; Pakistan on the economic precipice and a recent loan from China that's bought the country some time; shifts in the Nepali ruling coalition requiring a second vote of confidence for prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal; a new report on forced demolitions, arbitrary detention and torture in Tibet; and the Delhi High Court upholding the controversial Agnipath scheme for recruitment to the Indian Army. For “Bookmarked”, we'll be talking about Prasanna Vithanage's feature film Gaadi, which discusses caste discrimination in Ceylon at a time when courtiers plotted to overthrow the Kandyan king Sri Vikrama Rajasinghe. Episode notes: Power play: https://www.himalmag.com/power-play-bangladesh-2021/ Bangladesh's BNP fights to make a political comeback: https://www.himalmag.com/bangladesh-nationalist-party-bnp-political-rallies-election/ Rebound or relapse: Debt restructuring in a time of crisis: https://www.himalmag.com/debt-restructuring-imf-economic-crisis-southasia/ Desecration in Drago county: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5c6d7c35b2cf790541327f25/t/63cfdcc81771d947c2081480/1674566871741/Desecration-in-Drago-County.pdf A plot twist makes Pushpa Kamal Dahal prime minister of Nepal: https://www.himalmag.com/nepal-election-pushpa-kamal-dahal-prime-minister-2022/ Gaadi: https://youtu.be/JQIEvMb6eCM The podcast episode is now available now Soundcloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/QHajB Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3tdej1S3ea0wjaV4HuzQQc?si=aa0cc1671e524a15 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/southasiasphere-6-march-election-in-the-northeast/id1464880116?i=1000603230087 Youtube: https://youtu.be/ZNxl1MZM7ng

India Policy Watch #1: What Do Successive Defence Budgets Reveal?Insights on burning policy issues in India— Pranay Kotasthane(An edited version of this article was published in Hindustan Times on 13th Feb)Another defence budget zoomed past us on Feb 1. Since then, analyses have focused on how the defence spending for the coming year departs from the last year. Some have waved a red flag as defence spending has fallen below 2 per cent of GDP for the first time in many years. On the other hand, the defence ministry's post-budget press release emphasised a 44 per cent increase in operational spending, which is expected to “close critical gaps in the combat capabilities and equip the Forces in terms of ammunition, sustenance of weapons & assets, military reserves etc.” The ministry also highlighted that the capital outlay for modernisation and infrastructure development has risen by a seemingly handsome 57 per cent over the last five years. How, then, do we make sense of these conflicting narratives?Comparing allocations with those in the previous year gives us a confusing picture. Every interest group can pull up a number from the budget to suit their pre-formed narrative. Taking a step back from these narratives, this article will show that this was another run-of-the-mill defence budget, just like the previous one was. Nothing in it indicates any significant change in the defence posture. Unlike Japan, which has announced a doubling of its military spending in the next five years, India's approach is about gradually improving the operational efficiency of the armed forces.Looking under the hoodThis article looks at the defence expenditure over the last six budgets to make sense of the numbers. To put numbers into context, let's use an earlier year (FY16). FY16 is a useful reference point as it predates two major developments: China's visibly aggressive posture on the border and the budgetary commitments arising from the One Rank One Pension (OROP) scheme. Three observations follow from such an analysis.One, not only has defence spending fallen as a proportion of GDP, but it has also fallen as a percentage of government expenditure. In other words, defence has slipped in priority relative to non-defence functions (Figure 1). Two, the China challenge hasn't led to any spectacular change in the composition of defence expenditure. Defence spending can be divided into four major components: salaries, pensions, capital outlay, and others. As Figure 2 shows, capital outlay was being squeezed by rising pension expenditure over the last few years. For two consecutive years (FY19 and FY20), more money was spent on pensions than on capital acquisition and modernisation. The balance has now been marginally restored since FY21, after the Galwan crisis flared up.Crucially, the rises in pension and capital expenditures have come at the cost of operational and maintenance expenditures, including ammunition stores (under the Others category). It is hence not surprising that the latest budget is trying to arrest this decline in combat capabilities.Three, this period has been relatively better for the Indian Navy in terms of capital expenditure. Since the procurement of new platforms happens over multiple years, a temporal view is useful in analysing how capital outlay is split between the three armed forces. Figure 3 suggests that the big change in the last four years is in the capital outlay for the Indian Navy, with the FY24 figure having doubled in absolute terms since FY20.The Big PictureBy connecting these dots over the last five years, the picture that emerges is this: the government seems confident that China can be handled without a substantial rise in defence expenditure. The latest budget serves as a bellwether indicator for this claim. It was the first budget of the post-pandemic period, at a time when the economic prospects for India had improved considerably. The government achieved better-than-expected buoyancy in income taxes and GST in the current financial year, while the cooling of global fertilizer prices has led to a decline in the projected subsidy bill. Consequently, the government, for the first time in many years, had some fiscal room to play with. It has used that space to increase the overall capital outlay to Rs 10 lakh crore, almost three times the outlay in 2019-20. Despite this increase in the overall capital outlay, the defence budget resembles the middle overs of a one-day cricket match.From a financial savings perspective, there have been just two important changes over this period in the defence domain. The first was the announcement of the Agnipath scheme. It might reduce the pension burden, but these savings will reflect only after a decade-and-a-half. Other proposals, such as theatre commands, haven't come to fruition yet. The proposal to create a non-lapsable fund for modernisation — a proposal the union government gave an in-principle agreement way back in Feb 2021, still hasn't found a mention in the latest budget.Probably, the defence budget is the wrong place to infer India's strategic posture against China. Perhaps, the government considers other tools of statecraft—diplomatic, economic, or non-conventional—more suitable for the purpose. This point needs deeper reflection. The discussions over the roles of these tools of statecraft currently operate under mistaken assumptions. Attempts at getting India into an anti-China alliance are spurned at the altar of “strategic autonomy”. The opponents seem to assume that India only needs to equip its armed forces with greater firepower. For too long, many parliamentary standing committees and defence organisations have gone hoarse trying to convince the government that defence expenditure should be raised to 3 per cent of GDP. If anything, the change is in the opposite direction.The defence budget trends are a reminder that the government does not prefer using the military instrument to outflank China. At best, it wants to equip the armed forces such that China's incursions can be matched or repulsed. Given that there's no significant increase in allocations for the Navy and the Air Force, it also means that the government is not considering an increased presence in the South China Sea. So, the military is being equipped to plug a vulnerability and not to gain an asymmetric political advantage over China. This line of thinking probably makes sense. There's no point in matching China's defence spending dollar-for-dollar. After all, the Indian armed forces are more adept at fighting at high altitudes. But this line of thinking should also make it apparent that India must develop capabilities in domains other than those involving force to inflict pain on China. The government should build a political consensus that closer relations with China's adversaries are not a matter of choice but an imperative. That we need to double down on economic growth and technological upgrading if we are to constrain China's hand in other domains. It also means that we shouldn't be indiscriminately banning China's investments in India; a better approach would be to make their companies in non-strategic domains more dependent on the Indian market. We will then have more tools in our kit to deploy if the situation on the border worsens. Each of these posture changes needs an updating of our priors and payoffs. For that to happen, it is necessary that the government comes clean about China's incursions. Pretending that all's well might give us false comfort, but they will also dissuade the strategic establishment from confronting the tough trade-offs in non-military domains. Without this pivot, we would merely rely on hope as a strategy. India Policy Watch #2: Through The Looking GlassInsights on burning policy issues in India— RSJWe talk about the arbitrary powers of the state on these pages often. Now, we cannot grudge the state's sovereignty because we have voluntarily handed it that power. One argument that follows from this is that such power is often prone to be used arbitrarily. And that's a problem for the citizens. The typical solution we have offered on these pages over time is to restrict the domain of the state to a narrow set where it can make the maximum impact or to design its incentives in a way that makes the state act with accountability. Now, these are good design principles. We could use them to create structures and institutions that are strong and independent that could hold their own against any arbitrary use of power. But are these enough? A natural question that should follow is how do we know things are working in practice like they were meant to? How do we get authentic information about how the state is conducting itself? How do we confirm that it is not subverting the institutional design that is in place to control its powers? These questions lead us to the other pillar of a well-functioning democracy - transparency. It is a topic we haven't discussed enough on these pages. Transparency is a moral good, and it is vital for a healthy democracy. Darkness stunts democracy. It needs light to thrive. In the early part of the 20th century, the US Supreme Court judge Louis Brandeis famously remarked, “sunlight is the best disinfectant” while making a case for a transparency imperative. Or, if we were to go further back, Bentham, often credited to have done the most original thinking on transparency, summed it up with - the more strictly we are watched, the better we behave - a principle he put at the heart of his advocacy for an open government. So, what has triggered my early morning ruminations on transparency? Well, there are two reasons. Here's one. The Indian Express reports:“The Supreme Court said it did not want to accept in a “sealed cover” the Centre's suggestions on who could be the members of a committee the court had proposed to assess the market regulatory framework and recommend measures, if any, to strengthen it in the wake of the Adani-Hindenburg affair. It refused to accept any suggestions on names from the petitioners as well.Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, who headed a three-judge bench hearing a clutch of petitions on the Hindenburg Research report and its aftermath, told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, the court wanted to maintain “full transparency”. The court would appoint a committee of its own that will promote a sense of confidence in the process, he said.”CJI Chandrachud said, “We would rather not accept the sealed cover suggestions from you for this reason; in constituting a committee which we want to do, we want to maintain full transparency. The moment we accept a set of suggestions from you in a sealed cover, it means the other side is not seeing them. Even if we don't accept your suggestions, they will not know which of your suggestions we have accepted and which we have not. Then there may be an impression that well, this is a government-appointed committee which the Supreme Court has accepted even if we have not accepted your suggestions. So, we want to maintain the fullest transparency in the interest of protecting the investors.”Bravo. The Chief Justice was almost channelling Bentham there, who famously wrote, “secrecy, being an instrument of conspiracy, ought never to be the system of a regular government.” I mean, what even is a sealed cover in a matter that concerns millions of ordinary investors? Why should there be secrecy in the name of experts and their recommendations? A sealed cover is a strange invention. It gives the sheen of a fair and independent process to what is essentially a subversion of a democratic principle. It ranks up there among one of the great Indian coinages. The top spot, of course, is forever occupied by ‘mild lathicharge'. And now, onto the other reason for all this talk on transparency. This was the headline-grabbing news of this week in India - “Weeks after its documentary taken off, BBC gets I-T knock”. Here's the Indian Express reporting on this with many quotes from “unnamed government sources”:“The Income-Tax Department surveys at the premises of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in Delhi and Mumbai on Tuesday (February 14) were conducted in view of the BBC's “deliberate non-compliance with the transfer pricing rules” and its “vast diversion of profits”, government sources said.The surveys were looking into “manipulation of prices for unauthorized benefits, including tax advantages”, sources said.The BBC has been “persistently and deliberately violative of transfer pricing rules, it has “deliberately diverted a significant amount of the profits”, and has not followed the “arm's length arrangement” in the allocation of profit, the sources said.”A very garrulous source there with a lot of information. I don't want to ascribe motives to the tax raids yet. There's enough in the timing of these ‘surveys' to raise suspicions. The I-T department has been used to settle political and other scores for decades. It speaks poorly of our institutional strength and independence. But that's not the issue we are discussing today. The question is about transparency. Does anyone know why the surveys were carried out? The sources have cleverly given some reasons, but what stops the department from giving an official reason for them? Is it because it is likely that if they give the official reason, there will be further questions on the arbitrary nature of the actions? So, it is best to share nothing officially, selectively leak information to the media to paint the BBC in poor light and get away with harassment that then sends a message across to other foreign media outlets. Because even based on the merits of what the sources have said, it is difficult to justify a two-day survey. To quote the same news report:“Transfer pricing issues are very common for foreign companies but survey/search actions against them are not common. Assessment is usually opted for but is not the only route through which such cases can be approached. If tax officers want to do a survey/search, then transfer pricing issues can get covered.However, it is an approval-driven process with prior approvals required within the tax department before carrying out survey action. They would be having some information against the company and there might be a history of non-compliance too,” a Delhi-based tax expert said.  A notice preferably is issued to a company in an assessment exercise by the tax authorities flouting transfer pricing rules before undertaking any such action, experts said."It shouldn't surprise anyone that political actors don't like transparency. It adds to their burden of accountability and increases the political costs of any missteps, deliberate or otherwise. So, how should the citizens keep up the demand for transparency in a democratic setup? After all, for the citizens to be involved in the governance process, they must have access to the government's information, plans and intentions. Also, there is a line beyond which too much transparency could be counterproductive. Too much information, too early in the process, could mean stalling the plan as interest groups jump in and skew the decision-making process. I have outlined three frames that one could use to think about transparency in a democracy.First, it is in the long-term interest of political parties to seek transparency in a democratic setup. For those in the opposition, it is about making the incumbent party in power more accountable. For the incumbent, too, there's always the uncertainty about the future when they might not be in power. In such a scenario, it is better for them to have stronger laws on transparency for their own access to government information, which they can use to hold others accountable. A lack of certainty about future electoral prospects for any party is a feature of a good democracy. It is in this environment most transparency laws are made. In India, too, the RTI came about because of grassroots activism and a broad consensus among the political class led by the party in power then. However, it is important to note that the Overton window was right during that time when getting re-elected was an exception. It meant the political actors were keen to have access to information in future. In that sense, any period when transparency is suppressed in a democracy is a good surrogate for the power of the party in power. In India, the RTI laws allow for access to a significant amount of government information. The problem is that there is a gradual erosion of its ambit as the dominant political class comes to view it as an irritant. The only way to counter this is for the citizenry to continue using the RTI tool to its fullest extent. The more people know the tool's power, the harder it will be to blunt it. Second, it is important to devolve transparency to state and local governments. This is where the political uncertainty is still high in India, which means there's an incentive for political actors to support transparency moves to guarantee their own access to information in future. This is also the space where petty corruption is still rampant. One of the challenges of RTI in India is that most of the activism here is focused on big-ticket issues. The opportunity to bring sunlight as a disinfectant and its payoffs are the highest at the local level of governance. Separately, there are also specific areas in the private sector that could do with improved transparency. This is tricky territory, and let me be very specific about this. There's a significant amount of information that's collected, often without explicit consent, from the citizens by the private sector, which is then monetised in various ways. The mechanism by which their information is used and the extent to which the private sector, especially the social media platforms,  benefits from it are not transparent to the citizens who are the customers. If your attention is being monetised through multiple trackers and personalised ads, it is only fair you must know the rules of the game and agree to play it. This is still a white space of policymaking in India.   Lastly, the oft-cited risk of policy waters being muddied because of transparency, where various interest groups will lobby for their positions and slow down the decision-making process, is a bit misplaced. Those in favour of transparency do not argue for the innards of policymaking being put out for display. That process requires stakeholder mapping and seeking inputs in a way that's been documented by various policy thinkers. We have written about the eight-step process of policymaking on these pages on multiple occasions. The issue of transparency is important in two areas. First, the implementation and measurement of a policy proposal. How did a policy fare compared to its promise? Were the public resources and efforts prudently used? Was there a clear understanding of why something failed? Access to this information is important for the public and experts outside the government to hold the government accountable and improve future decisions. Second, the size of the state in India often means it is the biggest, often the sole, customer in multiple sectors and its decision on setting the rules of games in these sectors, awarding contracts and its performance in managing its budget should be available for public scrutiny. Again, this doesn't mean the government should vet its decisions at each stage with prevailing public opinion. Rather it must be able to explain its process and the rationale for decisions openly and transparently. The practice of sealed covers or I-T surveys and raids without a clear reason isn't new to India. What's new is the somewhat strange support for these actions by the mainstream media that are being fed by the ever-bizarre theories cooked by the partisans on social media. BBC isn't doing a documentary on Gujarat because China is now funding it. Nor is there a leftist cabal that's busy bringing Adani down one week and using BBC the next to show the government in a bad light. This playbook is reminiscent of the Indira era of the mid-70s, where in the name of national interest, we buried transparency and accountability. It took us decades to get out of that mire. Learning from history is free, but most of us fail the eventual test.PolicyWTF: Casually Banning Films Committee, RepriseThis section looks at egregious public policies. Policies that make you go: WTF, Did that really happen?— Pranay Kotasthane Last week, I came across an excellent report by Aroon Deep in The Hindu that explains how the Central Board for Film Certification (CBFC) is going way beyond its usual stance of “demanding” cuts of scenes showing sexual content, violence, or abusive language. Instead, the CBFC now also has a perspective on dietary preferences (demanding that mention of “beef” be struck off), foreign policy (demanding that references to ex-KGB officers, China, and Pakistan be removed), and even corruption (how can a filmmaker dare depict a police officer accepting a bribe?). Seriously, what an omniscient body.Despite its activism, the Censor Board hasn't impressed the extremists. One Hindu group leader has called for creating a ‘Dharma Censor Board' “to review Bollywood films and keep a check on any anti-religious content or distortion of facts about Sanatan Dharma.” In his words:“Our experts will see a film when it is released and if we find it suitable for people belonging to Sanatan Dharma, we will issue a certificate. At present, films passed by the censor board set up by the government have been found carrying scenes that hurt the sentiments of people. We have repeatedly asked for a religious person to be included in the censor board but this demand has not been accepted. This is why we had to constitute our own board.”While it sounds absolutely absurd at face value, there is a liberal way out to assimilate this conservative critique. We covered it in edition #122, and I want to re-emphasise those points.In 2016, my former colleagues Madhav, Adhip, Shikha, Siddarth, Devika and Guru wrote an interesting paper in which they recommended that film certification should be privatised.Deploying the Banishing Bureaucracy framework, they wrote:The CBFC be renamed the Indian Movie Authority (IMA) and that the primary purpose of the IMA would be to license and regulate private organisations called Independent Certifying Authorities (ICAs) which will then certify films.So, the Hindu group can very well have its own ICA, which will rate the movie on its Sanatana Dharma compliance score. But…The certificate granted by ICA will only restrict what age groups the film is appropriate for. This is the only form of pre-censorship that is necessary in today's age as all other restrictions on film exhibition should be applied retrospectively. The choice of ICAs available for producers to approach will render the question of subjectivity moot as the producer can switch to another ICA if unsatisfied with the certificate. The IMA will set the guidelines for the ICAs to follow and will be the first point of appeal.In other words, this solution reimagines the CBFC as a body that grants licenses to independent and private certification organisations called ICAs. These ICAs must adhere to certain threshold criteria set by the CBFC. Beyond these criteria, some ICAs may specialise themselves as being the sanskaari ones trigger-happy to award an “A” certification, while others may adopt a more liberal approach. In the authors' words:This will allow the marketplace of ideas to draw the lines of what kind of content is fit for what kind of audience with the government still being capable of stepping in to curb prurient sensibilities.This solution has the added benefit of levelling the playing field between OTT content and films. Currently, the CBFC has no capacity to certify the content being churned out on tens of streaming services. By delegating this function to private ICAs, the government can ensure adherence to certification norms.In essence, just as governments can often plug market failures, markets too can sometimes plug government failures. Reforming our ‘Censor Board' requires giving markets a chance.There's much more detail in the paper about grievance redressal, certification guidelines, and appeals procedure. Read it here.HomeWorkReading and listening recommendations on public policy matters* [Podcast] Over at Puliyabaazi, we discuss technology geopolitics with Anirudh Suri, author of The Great Tech Game.* [Paper] Laxman Kumar Behera's take on the defence budget.* [Paper] This paper has a fantastic framework for understanding policy failures and successes. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit publicpolicy.substack.com

In this episode Dev Goswami and Abhishek Bhalla reflect on the major defense developments of the past year in India. One significant reform from the Ministry of Defense was the Agnipath or Path of Fire initiative, which aimed to recruit a large number of troops aged 17.5 to 21. However, this scheme faced backlash and protests from aspiring candidates. The hosts also address the question of why India has not yet developed a basic rifle and discuss the importance of small arms for the army, despite the focus on larger weapons and equipment. They also raise the issue of the need to replace the Insas rifle. In addition, Dev and Bhalla discuss their favorite and least favorite episodes, including the appointment of General Anil Chauhan as Chief of Defense Staff and the accidental firing of a missile. They also mention the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and the events leading up to it.

India has not consulted Nepal regarding the Agnipath scheme applying to recruitment of Gorkhas, who have loyally served the Indian Army for over 200 years.

Top #news today:> 18 Indian labourers missing near China border in Arunachal Pradesh> EU's lending arm joins India-led Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure> Indo-Canadian shot dead at nightclub in Toronto> Supreme Court transfers pleas challenging Agnipath scheme to Delhi HC> Tamil anthology Victim trailer: Chimbu Deven, Rajesh M, Pa Ranjith and Venkat Prabhu promise four thrilling stories> 'Told MS Dhoni I didn't want his India shirt': Pakistan pacer on how he got former India skipper's CSK jerseyListen here:@HindustanTimes #News #DailyNews #DailyUpdates #CurrentAffairs #AudioNews #Podcasts #HTSmartCast

Top #news today:> LAC standoff, Agnipath on Opposition agenda for Parliament's monsoon session> Shinde-Fadnavis cabinet expansion likely after presidential polls> Supreme Court delivers 44 judgments in a day after summer break> Put chapter on social reformer in social science textbook: K'taka min writes to state> Priyanka Chopra rests her head on Nick Jonas' shoulder as they soak in Lake Tahoe's beauty during magic hour> Harmanpreet Kaur to lead India women at historic Commonwealth Games 2022> Biden wants India's help to cut Putin's oil profits; Talks likely at Sydney meetListen here:@HindustanTimes #News #DailyNews #DailyUpdates #CurrentAffairs #AudioNews #Podcasts #HTSmartCast

Where the pod starts with an innocuous whatsapp greeting and then goes full politico with fiery discussions on Agnipath and, religious rabble-rousing about the RSS and great opinions about Maharashtra, finishing with some onion rings which, contrary to popular belief, are just so.

The Modi government's “Agnipath” reform of the Indian military, if fully implemented, will determine a dramatic change in the way in which the Indian armed forces have been recruited and thus have related to wider Indian society. What was the genesis of this reform? Why has it been introduced? And what are its pros and cons? I discuss all this with former Indian Army Brigadier Rahul Bhonsle.

Agnipath is a continuation of the casualisation of frontline workers in civil bureaucracy—a trend that began in MP in 1996. It didn't turn out too well. ----more---- https://theprint.in/opinion/mp-para-teachers-scheme-showed-india-struggled-with-contract-service-apply-that-to-agnipath/1016723/ 

नमस्ते दोस्तों! The Ranveer Show हिंदी के 96th Episode में आप सभी का स्वागत है. आज के Podcast में हमारे साथ जुड़ चुके हैं Para SF यानि Special Forces के जवान Major Sushant Singh जी, जो Traveller और Adventurer है। साथ ही में वे एक बेहतरीन Cyclist, Mountaineer और Martial Artist है। इस Podcast में हम बात करेंगे ढ़ेर सारी बातें Sushant जी के Early Life, Schooling, Azad Hind Sena के हिस्सा बने उनके Nanaji और Dadaji, NDA के Classes, Special Forces तक के सफर के बारे में। साथ ही साथ हम बात करेंगे Spiritual Life Of An Army Life, Agniveer Scheme, Agnipath, Future Of India Army, Terrorists In Himalayas और Himalayan Rescues के बारे में और भी ढ़ेर सारी बातें। मैं आशा करता हूँ कि ये Video आप सभी Viewers को पसंद आएगा। खास तौर पर उन सभी को जिन्हें Army Officers के Life के बारे में जानने में Interest है। What Is Agnipath Scheme, Bonding Between Army Officers, Leadership Qualities, Born Leaders, National Democratic Alliance और Border Security Force जैसी चीज़ों के बारे में हम Discuss करेंगे इस Hindi Podcast में सिर्फ और सिर्फ आपके Favourite BeerBiceps Hindi Channel Ranveer Allahbadia पर।

In this latest SBS Hindi bulletin: New census data reveals more people are indentifiying as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, but underreporting remains an issue;  Authorities in the U-S state of Texas say the bodies of migrants found in a truck were 'hot to the touch'; In India, a large number of youth registered for Agnipath scheme and more news.  

Agnipath என்றால் என்ன? கொதிக்கும் வட இந்தியா? EXPLAINED | USA vs India

Global Policy Watch: Woe Vs RaidInsights on policy issues making news around the World - RSJOn Friday, Justice Samuel Alito along with the conservative bloc of the US Supreme Court (SCOTUS) overturned the landmark Roe v Wade judgment that had granted women a federal right to terminate a pregnancy about half a century ago. The conservative raid into the SCOTUS that started with the efforts of Bush Jr and concluded with Trump appointing three judges during his term has delivered to the great woe of the progressives. The learned judges searched for the word abortion in the Constitution. And to their surprise, they figured it just wasn't there. To quote:We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled. The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, including the one on which the defenders of Roe and Casey now chiefly rely—the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. That provision has been held to guarantee some rights that are not mentioned in the Constitution, but any such right must be “deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition” and “implicit in the concept of ordered liberty.”  The right to abortion does not fall within this category. Until the latter part of the 20th century, such a right was entirely unknown in American law. Indeed, when the Fourteenth Amendment was adopted, three quarters of the States made abortion a crime at all stages of pregnancy. The abortion right is also critically different from any other right that this Court has held to fall within the Fourteenth Amendment’s protection of “liberty.” Roe’s defenders characterize the abortion right as similar to the rights recognized in past decisions involving matters such as intimate sexual relations, contraception, and marriage, but abortion is fundamentally different, as both Roe and Casey acknowledged, because it destroys what those decisions called “fetal life” and what the law now before us describes as an “unborn human being.”Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences. And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division.Strong stuff. But with a minor problem. I’m not sure SCOTUS has always stayed away from subjects that don’t have a reference to them in the Constitution like the learned judges have claimed. I mean I have gone through the US Constitution and the Declaration of Independence document a few times. I could have also told them they won’t find a reference to abortion there. But I didn’t find the word woman in them either. No idea how that section of the human species got all sorts of rights in the US then. Also, missing from the Constitution are references to wild house parties involving strippers, or to tomatoes, home video recording, or swats to your bottom with a paddle to name just a few of my favourite things. But these are all things on whom the Court has delivered verdicts. Read them if your life is as boring as mine: Wild house parties involving strippers. Is the tomato a fruit or vegetable? The Betamax case of using a home recording device. And the case of the Principal who delivered 20 swats with a paddle to his pupil James. The SCOTUS has opined on them all. So, you see the judges aren’t exactly being consistent with precedence here. And they are setting new dubious benchmarks. There have been numerous instances of the Court striking down past judgments to grant more rights. Not to take them away. This is a repudiation of a lot of truths that progressives take for granted. That the arc of history in the long term bends towards moral justice. Or, that gains on individual liberty that survive more than a generation become irreversible. Apparently not. So, we have the US now joining El Salvador, Poland and Nicaragua in the list of countries that have rolled back abortion rights in the last three decades. About 26 states will make abortion illegal or restrict it on the back of this judgment with immediate effect. It is all quite remarkable. Some days you try and make sense of the pitched battles on the US cultural landscape: on how to use pronouns - he, she, they, it, them, their; or the definition of woman; or cancelling J.K. Rowling because she is a TERF. The terms of such debates are so rarefied that you need a primer first to understand the language being used before you can come to the substantive issues. And while they busy themselves in an ever-splintering contest of being ‘purer’ than the other, the rug gets pulled from under their feet with a judgment that rolls back years of hard-fought wins on women’s autonomy on their bodies, individual liberty and female reproductive health and safety. Now more than half the states are readying themselves to implement it tomorrow. It reinforces my view that any ideology or “-ism” isn’t threatened by its rival but by the absolute section of its own adherents. The desire to finish off the ‘near enemy” is stronger than fighting the real one. Some day the ‘trads’ and ‘raitas’ of Indian wrong wing will also get there. It is a point I have made a few times in explaining Schmitt’s notion of an enemy being essential for a political ideology to flourish.It is not that progressive are alone in this kind of hypocrisy. The same conservatives who value the life of a foetus or of those who are ‘unborn’ don’t see any problem in defending the ‘gun culture’ that takes away more than fifty thousand lives every year. For some convoluted reasons, those lives are an acceptable cost to pay for the right to possess firearms. It is sad yet funny to an outsider looking in.  This won’t stop here. The conservative majority in the SCOTUS took decades, and a lot of good fortune, to come to fruition. They will make the most of it. Justice Clarence Thomas gave a sense of what is to come in his concurring note to this ruling:“In future cases, we should reconsider all of this court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell.”Quick reminder. Griswold v Connecticut is about a married couple’s right to use contraception without state interference. Lawrence v Texas restricts the states from criminalising sodomy, and Obergefell v Hodges established the right for same-sex couples to marry in 2015. Justice Thomas might be alone now in raking these up. But something tells me that the genie is out now.For all its pretensions, ideology reduces itself to three functional truths. Find something to hate viscerally, over-extend the shadow of your ideology to all realms of a citizen’s life and protect yourself by sanctifying a core principle within the ideology that cannot be made profane. You will enjoy the fruits of power while future generations will foot the bill. We are now on an overdrive of ideology on both sides of the partisan divide.  Stepping back there are three points I want to make here about what this reversal could mean from the seemingly ineluctable path the American society was marching on since the civil rights movement of the 60s. First, the tyranny of the well-organised minority in a democracy is real. American society isn’t as divided on the issue of abortion as it was decades back. Roe v Wade didn’t ‘deepen division and enflamed debate’ as Justice Alito puts it. I went through Pew and Gallup surveys over the years on people’s attitudes towards abortion. It is safe to say anywhere between 60 - 80 per cent of Americans are against the idea of making abortion illegal. Most of the remaining too don’t hold extreme positions on this topic. Maybe there’s a 15 per cent minority of evangelicals and Catholics concentrated in certain states that hold views that have been upheld by the SC. Yet they have prevailed because single-issue voters like them matter in the Republican primaries and in winning the swing states. This is what explains Trump’s base among these groups despite his standing for everything they abhor on moral grounds. And once you establish this ‘tyranny of minority’, you can override the silent majority. Because the benefits are concentrated with them while the costs are diffused among the majority. It is not as if the founding framers of the US Constitution were unaware of this risk. Alexander Hamilton in Federalist Papers #22 (1788) had cautioned:“To give a minority a negative upon the majority (which is always the case where more than a majority is requisite to a decision), is, in its tendency, to subject the sense of the greater number to that of the lesser.If a pertinacious minority can control the opinion of a majority, respecting the best mode of conducting it, the majority, in order that something may be done, must conform to the views of the minority; and thus the sense of the smaller number will overrule that of the greater, and give a tone to the national proceedings. Hence, tedious delays; continual negotiation and intrigue; contemptible compromises of the public good.” This is the reality. The only way to deal with this is for the opponents to mobilise themselves into a single issue minority that counters this or to wait for this to splinter on its own. Neither seems possible at this time in the US. But the broader message on how a minority cause can overturn a majority consensus will not be lost on many who champion fringe causes. And this is also the reason one shouldn’t casually dismiss any voice even in India as fringe as we tend to do. Fringe swings votes and influences the social and cultural agenda of political parties. It is wise to remember that when considering the statements of Yati Narsinghanand or Nupur Sharma. Second, the concurrence note by Justice Thomas that refers to other hot-button conservative cultural causes will play out in a certain way. It is important to understand this. As he wrote:“we have a duty to “correct the error” established in those precedents …. After overruling these demonstrably erroneous decisions, the question would remain whether other constitutional provisions guarantee the myriad rights that our substantive due process cases have generated.”What Justice Thomas has done is in public policy called ‘shifting the Overton window’. What was earlier not in the realm of discussion or consideration now comes into play. The terms of reference for the cultural debate to be played out in courts have been widened with those lines. This will have an impact on the decisions made in numerous lower courts. Lives will be affected. Lastly, I come back to a point I have made before about the sanctity of Courts directing social norms in a top-down fashion as it was first done in Roe v Wade and the manner of overturning it on Friday. A bit of context will help here.The conservative preference is for any social change to be gradual. Societal change is shaped through the many eddies of debates and protests that resist the flow of the mainstream. As they gain wider acceptance, they begin changing the course of flow of social norms. This could be painstakingly slow, but it makes change acceptable and sustainable. For the conservatives, the role of the judges is to apply laws, not to create them. Going beyond this brief becomes judicial activism. So, the original conservative view was that all issues of public or social policy should be discussed and debated by the legislative and executive branches of the state that represents the society. Courts resolve disputes following the written-down law while sending back any ambiguities to the legislative arm for approval.The liberal position, as it has evolved over time, is marked with suspicion of the society reforming itself. The classical liberal approach to this problem was to accelerate the process of change in society. This was to be achieved through a combined political, social and cultural assault on the bastions of conservatism in the society. This led to the portrait of a liberal as a perpetual activist in a constant state of mobilisation to upend existing norms. The liberal belief that society must change from within was no different from the conservative stance. The difference was between the need to induce change through proactive measures and the speed of change. This need for speed eventually led the liberals to the courts.Based on the evidence it can be argued the conservatives have lost the argument. The courts are at the front and centre of social policy-making today. The many historic judgments that cleave the US society are evidence of it. The legislative arms of the state representing the society aren’t drafting these laws.But here’s the irony. The conservatives have co-opted the liberal model. With a few strokes of good fortune, the single-minded agenda of turning the US SC bench into a conservative majority has been fruitful. The peril of pushing social change into the cabins of a powerful, centralised and autonomous institution is clear to the liberals now when the shoe is on the other foot. A blunt instrument doesn’t look blunt till it is in the hands of your adversary. The path of wresting back control to society will be long and arduous. Roe v Wade verdict in 1973 was ahead of its time. It was imposed on a society where the majority weren’t onboard. It bred resentment and a counter-movement. Justice Alito’s verdict on Friday takes us back in time. It too is imposed on a society where the majority isn’t with it. The Court is either ahead or behind the times in which they live.And it is on this subject, I come to the only line that I agreed with in Justice Alito’s 213-paged judgment:It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives. “The permissibility of abortion, and the limitations, upon it, are to be resolved like most important questions in our democracy: by citizens trying to persuade one another and then voting.”That’s the way it should always be. Back in 1973. In 2022. And in future.Addendum— Pranay KotasthaneI don’t follow American politics. I’m also cognizant of my ignorance of the context of the abortion debate. And so I’ll stick to three broader points of comparison between the Indian and American political systems. First, this case brings the Constitutional Immutability Dilemma into focus. The underlying reasoning of the judgment is that the American constitution makes no specific reference to a right to obtain an abortion. The cases Roe and Casey tried to link it with other rights, which the current Court did not find acceptable. As an Indian observer, one would think that the constitution should’ve been amended to insert this right expressly, but that’s where the Constitutional Immutability Dilemma kicks in — how amendable should a constitution be after all?To resolve this dilemma, India and the US pick opposite ends. Amending the American constitution requires fulfilling extraordinary conditions, and hence just 27 amendments have been made in its nearly 250-year-old history. On the other hand, amending the Indian constitution is far easier. The latter’s mutability often attracts criticism on these lines—“a document that flexible is a periodical, not a constitution”. However, I’ve always been sceptical of that view. Constitutions are neither sacred books nor indisputable words of a supernatural force. Allowing subsequent generations to alter the constitution through their elected representatives is perhaps a better equilibrium than relying on future judges’ interpretations of an inflexible constitution. Ambedkar, in fact, cited Jefferson in defence of this choice:“We may consider each generation as a distinct nation, with a right, by the will of the majority, to bind themselves, but none to bind the succeeding generation, more than the inhabitants of another country.”As this case illustrates, having rigid conditions for amendments open the door for partisan court benches to interpret the constitution as per their ideological worldviews. At the very least, I submit that a periodical is not worse than an immutable book. The working of a constitution is dependent on many factors outside the nature of the constitution itself. These lines from Ambedkar’s Constituent Assembly speech reverberate today:“..however good a Constitution may be, it is sure to turn out bad because those who are called to work it, happen to be a bad lot. However bad a Constitution may be, it may turn out to be good if those who are called to work it, happen to be a good lot. The working of a Constitution does not depend wholly upon the nature of the Constitution. The Constitution can provide only the organs of State such as the Legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary. The factors on which the working of those organs of the State depend are the people and the political parties they will set up as their instruments to carry out their wishes and their politics. Who can say how the people of India and their purposes or will they prefer revolutionary methods of achieving them?… It is, therefore, futile to pass any judgment upon the Constitution without reference to the part which the people and their parties are likely to pay.Second, every polity has its unique set of ‘sacred cows’—issues involving such deference and passion that logical arguments stand no chance. For reasons of historical path dependence, these issues over time become wicked, insurmountable problems. Guns and pro-life are two such sacred cow issues of the American polity. To an external observer, the solutions might seem absurdly simple. But to someone in the midst of it all, the issue seems intractable. India too has many such sacred cow issues, one of which is the sacred cow itself. Third, the judiciary often ends up confusing itself for the politician. These lines from the judgment are instructive: “And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division.” Why should it be a court’s problem if its judgment has led to more division? Is it a Panchayat that needs to come to a mandavali (negotiated settlement) or should it only be concerned with the Constitutional provisions? These questions keep making a frequent appearance in India. Looks like they aren’t settled yet in the US as well. Course Advertisement: Admissions for the Sept 2022 cohort of Takshashila’s Graduate Certificate in Public Policy programme are now open! Apply by 23rd July for a 10% early bird scholarship. Visit this link to apply.India Policy Watch: Pension TensionInsights on burning policy issues in India— Pranay KotasthaneThe protests against the Agnipath scheme seem to have peaked. This gives us an opportunity to step back and look at the issue dispassionately. We have already looked at the Agnipath scheme in some detail last week. This time around, I’ll focus on the underlying motivation behind this scheme: India’s defence pension bill. In the Hindustan Times, I present a short history of India’s pension bill. "Before 1965, soldiers below officer ranks were recruited through a mechanism resembling Agnipath in the sense that they served seven years of compulsory service and didn’t receive a pension on retirement. This service period was first raised in 1965 to 10 years for bulking the armed forces after the 1962 defeat. Since a pension required a minimum service of 15 years, most soldiers still didn’t qualify.In 1976, this ten-year service term increased to 17 years, meaning every soldier in normal circumstances qualified for a pension on retirement. With the welcome development of a rising life expectancy, there was also a steady increase in the number of pensioners. The combined effect of these factors was a rapid rise in the pension bill. From Rs 228 crores in FY81, the pension expenditure galloped to Rs 5923 crores by FY99.The Kargil Review Committee (1999) set off the alarm bells over the pension issue, mooting the idea of reducing the service term to 7-10 years. As an alternative, the committee also proposed an inverse lateral induction mechanism, whereby a paramilitary force recruit would be deputed to the armed forces for seven years and repatriated back to the parent organisation after that. Through this mechanism, the experienced soldiers could be retained in the national security system longer while reducing the pension bill. None of these alternatives received the political nod. Meanwhile, in 2004, the union government was able to find a long-term solution for pensioners from the civil services cadre. While continuing to pay pensions of all current employees, the government moved its incoming employees recruited after 1 Jan 2004 to the National Pension System (NPS). NPS is a “defined contribution” scheme, where the pension is paid out of a corpus the employee and the government co-create over the employment period. Over time, this move will likely make the pension bill sustainable, as the liability is not being passed on exclusively to future taxpayers. However, armed forces personnel were kept out of this reform, mainly because non-officer rank soldiers retiring after a short 15-year service would not be able to build a robust corpus, unlike their civilian counterparts who were in service for twice that period. The lost opportunity in 2004 proved to be costly. By 2014, the public discourse had shifted in the opposite direction. Rather than customise the NPS to soldiers’ requirements—which would have been an ideal long-term solution—the NDA government implemented the One Rank One Pension (OROP) scheme. By agreeing to a “defined benefit” scheme that resets periodically based on current employee compensation, the union government unthinkingly committed itself to a perpetually fast-growing liability. While the government was happy to kick the can down the road, the COVID-19 pandemic was a wake-up call. On the one hand, government finances were thrown off balance. On the other, the border stand-off with China drove home the point that defence reforms are not just essential but also urgent. The creation of the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) position was the first step. General Bipin Rawat repeatedly drew attention to the unsustainable defence pensions. During his tenure, a few alternatives were discussed. Each available option came with its own set of implementation challenges. Out of this imperfect set, the government chose to reduce the default service term to four years, labelling it as the Agnipath scheme.In the Times of India, I try to estimate the defence pension savings arising from Agnipath:Over the long term, it has the potential to reduce the pension burden substantially. At the same time, the scheme will not directly impact the allocations for modernisation in the short term. Here’s why.Agniveers recruited today are replacing soldiers who would have retired approximately 15 years from now. The purported pension savings would start accruing only after a decade-and-half. As for the size of savings, we created a basic model from publicly available data. Our thumb rule suggests that the net present value of all future pension outflows per soldier is Rs 1 crore. The actual savings might be higher. Reports on the initial proposal by the Indian Army for a three-year Tour of Duty put the prospective lifetime savings per soldier at nearly ten times our estimate.Arriving at an accurate figure is difficult as the government does not release the split-up of total pension expenditures between officers, soldiers, and defence civilians. To get around this data hole, we assumed that the average pension of a retiring officer is 3.5 times the average pension of a retiring soldier. To calculate the total pension outflow per soldier, we assumed that a soldier receives a pension for 29 years on average, i.e. the difference between average life expectancy (69) and the retiring age of a soldier (40). Further, since pension outflows happen over several years in the future, we use the Net Present Value (NPV) method to determine the current value of all future payments. For simplicity, we assume that the pension is indexed to the discount rate. Using even this extremely conservative model suggests significant long-term gains. Allowing 75% of the Agniveers recruited this year to let go after four years alone has a net present value of approximately Rs 34500 crores.As highlighted earlier, these savings will accrue only after 15 years. But just as today’s deficits are tomorrow’s taxes, today’s reforms become tomorrow’s savings. Through Agnipath, the government can manage pension expenditures over the long term.Finally, this entire defence pension debate has three important lessons in public policy.First, secrecy is the enemy of public policy. Kelkar & Shah, in their book In Service of the Republic, identify secrecy levels as one of the barriers to building state capacity. They write that it is harder to achieve state capacity in areas closed to open feedback and criticism. The defence pension debate is a good illustration of their assessment. As a policy analyst, the sad feature of this entire debate over defence pension is the complete absence of good data. Believe it or not, the government does not release defence pension data beyond the aggregate numbers listed in the budget documents. For example, we still don’t know how this Rs 1 Trillion amount is split up between officers, non-officers, and defence civilians. In the absence of this foundational information, myths abound (We tried to tackle five common myths in ThePrint). Moreover, without good data, the policy pipeline is clean-bowled at the very first step. There are no good models or projections to inform a cost-benefit analysis. Second, is the absolute need for ex-ante fiscal projections of government plans. Seemingly innocuous changes in pension policies can have hard-to-reverse adverse effects. An institution such as an Independent Fiscal Council can help the people and politicians understand the financial consequences of such plans even before they are implemented.Finally, I liken pension reforms to six-day test matches. Reducing employees' pensions while they are in service would be an immoral breach of trust. And hence, all pension reform options can only tackle future employees. Reforms done today can at best contain the rise in spending a couple of decades later when these yet-to-be-hired employees retire. Hence, it is imperative to exercise caution on pension policies at the inception stage. HomeWorkReading and listening recommendations on public policy matters[Articles] In #171, we discussed two missing meta-institutions in India. This week, a couple of excellent articles throw light on two other missing mechanisms. KP Krishnan in Business Standard writes about the need for an independent evaluation mechanism for statutory regulatory authorities. Rajya Sabha MP Sujeet Kumar, Vedant Monger, and Vikram Vennelakanti propose a method for formalised impact assessments before and after any law/scheme get a go-ahead.[Audiobook] The late Richard Baum’s The Fall and Rise of China lectures are terrific.[Podcast] Over at Puliyabaazi, we discuss Agnipath and related issues.* Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, 1790 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit publicpolicy.substack.com

On Cock & Bull today, we are joined by Siddharth Deshmukh, Navin Noronha, Silverie, & Abbas. Cyrus joined the show from the IVM Studio in Barcelona, Spain, and talked about his not-so-good experience with the super-hot tabasco sauce. The show starts with Antariksh talking about the clothing size issues that Indians face and how he thinks it is because Indians have broader hips. Navin & Antariksh then discussed the Obi-Wan Kenobi Finale, and they might have given a spoiler or two. Topics discussed by the panel today included - Revolt in Shiv Sena & Maharashtra CM vacating official residence, the demand of Labradors shooting up after the release of the movie - 777 Charlie, Baba Ramdev calling the Agnipath protests meaningless and telling protestors to do Yoga, and the Sex ban at FIFA World Cup 2022. Cyrus came after the break & showed live footage of Spain's famous bullfighting. Tune in for this and much more!Check out Cyrus Says merch: ivm.today/3PLKo1mYou can follow Siddharth Deshmukh on Instagram at @thetravellingprofessorYou can follow Navin Noronha on Instagram at @houseofnoronhaYou can follow Antariksh on Instagram @antariksht: https://instagram.com/antarikshtYou can follow Abbas Momin on Instagram @antariksht: https://www.instagram.com/abbasmomin88/Do send in AMA questions for Cyrus by tweeting them to @cyrussaysin or emailing them at whatcyrussays@gmail.comDon't forget to follow Cyrus Broacha on Instagram @cyrus_broacha(https://www.instagram.com/cyrus_broacha)In case you're late to the party and want to catch up on previous episodes of Cyrus Says you can do so at: www.ivmpodcasts.com/cyrussaysYou can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the new and improved IVM Podcasts App on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios

We scrutinise if the Agnipath scheme is the best way to go and why is there so much angst and anger among applicants and ex-servicemen and are these justified. Tune in!

There has been a focus within military to bring down average age of soldiers, especially within Army, since 1980s, but actual work on it began in 2020, with an idea that germinated in 2019. ----more---- https://theprint.in/defence/how-tour-of-duty-pilot-project-became-agnipath-a-journey-of-254-meetings-lasting-750-hours/1007921/ 

Be it's the ‘tottering' Maharashtra govt, farmers' protests, hijab issue, Nupur Sharma remarks or Agnipath protests, Indian news channels describe them in mostly the same manner. ----more---- https://theprint.in/opinion/telescope/saazish-toolkit-mahayudh-tv-news-sees-nupur-sharma-agnipath-mva-as-one-big-conspiracy/1008048/ 

Even after a massive nationwide protest by army aspirants - the Govt made some superficial changes and is now pushing through the Agnipath Scheme for recruitment into the armed forces. However there are MANY unanswered questions that are staring us in the face - despite the best efforts of the Govt. these questions will continue to cause confusion and unrest. If not answered and solved - they will result in Agnipath becoming a masterstroke like Notebandi. Here are 8 MAIN questions about the Agniveer Scheme and some solutions that might reduce the pain. (Else we will find out in 3 - 4 years anyways)

A week has passed by since the "Agnipath" or Path of Fire initiative was announced for applicants aged 17.5 to 21.  Each year, between 45,000 and 50,000 troops will be recruited, with the majority of them leaving the military after just four years, with only 25% of them being retained after that. Amid the ongoing protests against the scheme, the Indian Air Force issued its notification, stating that registration will start from June 24.  Is it acknowledged that things might have been conveyed and people could have been engaged better given the violent protests that erupted following the announcement? And whether this is the best course of action? Should the government have been more explicit about its long-term goals? Why wasn't it implemented as a pilot programme? Our host Dev Goswami and "Def-Savvy" Abhishek Bhalla, national bureau chief, discuss in this episode of In Our Defence. Listen up! Produced by Anna Priyadarshini Sound mix by Kapil Dev Singh

The Agnipath scheme which aims to reform the way the armed forces recruits new soldiers, has been met with criticism and protests across the country. But what is the problem the policy is trying to solve and why is it so problematic? In this episode, Pranav R Satyanath is joined by Pranay Kotasthane and Lt Gen (ret) Prakash Menon to discuss the fundamental of the Agnipath scheme, the unintended consequences it creates and the alternatives.Follow Pranav on Twitter: https://twitter.com/duke_notnukemFollow Pranay on Twitter: https://twitter.com/pranaykotasFollow Prakash on Twitter: https://twitter.com/prakashmenon51Check out Takshashila's courses: https://school.takshashila.org.in/You can listen to this show and other incredible shows on the new and improved IVM Podcast App on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/iosYou can check out our website at https://www.ivmpodcasts.com

 On June 14, the government announced the Agnipath scheme which fundamentally transforms the process of recruitment of soldiers, sailors and airmen into the three services. Agniveers, the recruits, will be employed for four years, after which up to 25% of them will be selected for enrolment in the regular cadre, while the rest will be given a certain amount of money and be shown avenues to get back to civilian life. The scheme has generated a lot of debate, and protests against it have been violent in several parts of the country.  Here we discuss the nuances of the issue. Guests: Lieutenant General (Retd) D. S. Hooda, a former Northern Army Commander; Air Vice Marshal Manmohan Bahadur (Retd.), former additional director-general of Centre for Air Power Studies Host: Dinakar Peri  You can now find The Hindu's podcasts on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Stitcher. Search for Parley by The Hindu. Write to us with comments and feedback at socmed4@thehindu.co.in

The current debate on Agnipath illustrates 'mogic' at work, just as it did during demonetisation, Covid lockdown and the 2020 farm laws. ----more---- https://theprint.in/opinion/modi-govts-deepest-damage-isnt-hindi-muslim-divide-but-pms-mogic-dumbing-us-down/1006992/ 

Can Agnipath add to the fighting capabilities of the Military in its present form, or will it actually erode them? Lt Gen PR Shankar, ex-DG Artillery in the Indian Army and presently Professor of Defence Technology in IIT, Madras looks at all the operational aspects in this talk with Sanjay Dixit.

New recruitment rules for the Army, Navy and Air Force have met with fierce protests by potential recruits to the services and resistance from respected commentators from the military's retired ranks. Trains have been burnt and public property destroyed across several Northern states and in Telangana. So, what exactly is agitating these young people who wanted to make a career out of the armed forces. Is it the contractual nature of their four-year employment? Will they miss the pension and perks available to jawans currently serving in the services? Is Agnipath, as the scheme is called, basically a cost-cutting measure from the Government? Guest: Ajai Shukla, writer and commentator on defence and strategic issues. He retired as a Colonel in the Indian Army. Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu Edited by Reenu Cyriac

Droupadi Murmu, the former governor of Jharkhand will be most likely the next President of the Republic, PM Modi meets 3 service chiefs amid row over Agnipath scheme, Ruchika Kamboj appointed as India's new ambassador to U.N and other top news in this bulletin.

अग्निपथ योजना पर हाल ही में देश में काफ़ी बेचैनी और अशांति बनी हुई है। इस योजना के अंतर्गत देश के नागरिकों को 3 वर्ष के लिए सेना में भर्ती होने का मौका मिलेगा। इस योजना पर गहराई में पुलियाबाज़ी पहले भी हुई है और शायद आगे भी होती रहेगी। आज की पुलियाबाज़ी भी इस विषय पर आधारित है।ये हमारी नई कोशिश "एक सवाल, कई जवाब" का एक और अंक है। इस बार का सवाल है- "अग्निपथ कितना दुर्गम रहने वाला है?"Recently, there has been a lot of unrest in the country over the Agneepath scheme. Under this scheme, the citizens of the country will get a chance to join the army for 3 years. There has been an in-depth discussion on this scheme in the past and will probably continue to happen in the future. Today's Puliyabaazi is also based around this topic.This is another part of our new endeavor "One Question, Many Answers". This time the question is - "How Tough Will Be The Way Of Agnipath?"Puliyabaazi is on these platforms:Twitter: https://twitter.com/puliyabaaziInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/puliyabaazi/Subscribe & listen to the podcast on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Castbox, AudioBoom, YouTube, Spotify or any other podcast app.You can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the IVM Podcasts app on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios, or any other podcast app.You can check out our website at http://www.ivmpodcasts.com/

With Covid hitting the recruitment drive hard, Army aspirants in Agra's Akola are willing to do it all for the coveted soldier tag. A job in the Army here comes with 'status' and 'perks'. ----more---- https://theprint.in/india/repeating-class-10-forging-aadhaar-agra-youth-have-plan-b-ready-to-beat-agnipath-age-bar/1004913/ 

To make the MHA change its stance is a political responsibility, utilising the short-service prescription optimally a military responsibility. Both must be done. ----more---- https://theprint.in/opinion/agnipath-is-directed-correctly-but-modi-govt-needs-amit-shah-to-budge/1004206/ 

Indians are refusing to be silent spectators of Modi govt's disruptive policies. Agnipath protests are the latest indicator from a society that won't be muzzled. ----more---- https://theprint.in/opinion/modi-has-actually-given-democracy-a-shot-in-the-arm-with-his-usual-decision-making-style/1004917/ 

Aadit Kapadia is joined by Columnist and Author Rohit Pathania. They talk about the Agnipath scheme. They talk about why it is needed and also what is causing the local level protest. They also talk about Punjab politics and the situation of Punjabi Hindus and why there isn't any discussion on them. Lastly they talk about the state of Congress and Indian Politics. 01:52 : Agnipath Scheme and the Protests 23:35 : Politics of Punjab 36:46 : Silence on the Punjabi Hindus 47:10 : Crisis in The Congress

Bihar is in the grip of unprecedented violence over the Agnipath scheme. Abhishek Tiwary joins Sanjay Dixit to discuss the reasons underlying this violence, which seems to be more virulent than any other place.

Ten percent of vacancies in central government jobs in Group C and 20 per cent in Group D are reserved for ex-servicemen. For public sector banks, central public sector units and CAPFs, the reservation is 14.5 per cent in Group C and 24.5 per cent in Group D. But, Directorate General Resettlement data shows that states, central public sector units, and Central Armed Police Forces have failed to recruit against the vacancies reserved for ex-servicemen. Only 2.4 per cent of veterans who applied for a job could get one because of that. As of June last year, ex-servicemen constituted only 1.15 per cent of the Group C strength and 0.3 per cent of the Group D strength in 94 of the 170 CPSUs. Between 32 central ministries, only 1.60 per cent of the 22,168 positions reserved for veterans have been filled. The Indian Railways could only fill 1.4 percent of the positions reserved for retired armed forces personnel.   A spokesperson for the Indian Railways has said that recruitment for around 24,242 vacancies of ex-servicemen was currently underway. For the ten defence PSUs, where the Centre has announced a 10 per cent reservation for the Agnipath scheme, veterans comprised only 3.45 per cent and 2.71 per cent of Group C and Group D posts, respectively. As of June 2021, only 0.62 percent of positions reserved for veterans have been filled by paramilitary forces, which are made up of the BSF, CRPF, ITBP, SSB, and CISF. Meanwhile, the central government has announced that 10 percent of vacancies in the CAPFs would be reserved for Agniveer. This graphic should reveal itself category by category, like Central Public Sector Units first, and then in order. It should be matched to the script above in VO3, where CPSUs come first, followed by central ministries and then paramilitary forces, in that order.    By the end of 2020, Bihar, UP, Punjab and Haryana, which cumulatively account for 80 per cent of the Indian armed forces, had given jobs to only 1.5 percent out of the 200,000 veterans who had registered for a job. Officials of state Sainik Boards say that while most states have reservations under the ex-servicemen quota for all positions, they are reluctant to recognise the graduation certificate issued by the military. Under the Agnipath Pravesh Yojana, young candidates will be recruited for four-year tenures of service in the military. As many as 46,000 Agniveers are to be recruited this year. From each batch of Agniveer, the government will retain the best. Up to 25 per cent of each year's intake will be chosen to remain in service. While the government has announced reservations across sectors for the Agniveers, the hiring trend of ex-servicemen in government sectors does not paint an optimistic picture. The morale of those who secure our borders is just as important as the weapons we arm them with. The government should consider the following question -- if the Agniveer find themselves worrying about an uncertain future, will that bode well for the country?

The Modi government's decision to reform the recruitment process for the armed forces has come under immense criticism. Under the scheme, named Agnipath, members of the armed forces and non-officer cadre will be hired on a four-year contractual basis. There have been several protests against the schemes and many, like the protest at the Secunderabad Railway Station, have turned violent. The Opposition and some NDA allies have demanded the withdrawal of the scheme, but others are not convinced. One such leader is senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Manish Tewari. In this podcast, Poornima Joshi talks to Manish Tewari to understand why the leader has endorsed the scheme. Listen in! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/business-line/message

Hindi News (हिंदी समाचार), Will the BJP-JDU alliance break down over the Agnipath scheme बिहार में बीजेपी-जेडीयू गठबंधन के बीच तलवारें क्यों खिंची हुई हैं? मजबूरी का यह अलायन्स कब तक टिकेगा? क्या अग्निपथ स्कीम पर मतभेद की वजह से मुख्यमंत्री नीतीश कुमार बीजेपी का साथ छोड़ देंगे? जानने के लिए पूरा एनालिसिस सुनें navbharatgold.com पर डेली न्यूज़कास्ट में, सुबह 8 बजे से।

Agneepath Scheme a historical decision taken by Union Cabinet to recruit 46000 Indian youth to serve in the Armed Forces.Defence Minister Rajanath Singh launched the Agnipath recruitment scheme a historic decision approving an attractive recruitment scheme for Indian youth to serve in the Armed Forces. This scheme entails a recruitment process for individuals with ranks below that of officers, with the goal of deploying fitter, younger troops on the front lines, many of whom will be on four-year contracts. It's a game-changer that will give the Army, Navy, and Air Force a more youthful image. The youth selected under the Agneepath scheme will be called Agniveers. A total of 46,000 Agniveers will be recruited this year through this scheme. During the 4 years, Agniveers would be trained by the armed forces in the skills required. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/rj-nithya/message

While some say their ‘army dream' was about prestige and pride, for many hailing from poor families, a job in the armed forces came with the promise of financial security. ----more---- https://theprint.in/india/crushed-dreams-low-morale-pressure-from-home-why-many-army-hopefuls-in-bihar-are-anti-agnipath/1003547/ 

First, Indian Express's Man Aman Singh talks to host Shashank Bhargava about the reaction of defence aspirants and veterans to India's recently unveiled defence recruitment scheme, Agnipath. Next, with the increase in torrential rainfall in the Northeast resulting in floods and mudslides, Indian Express's Tora Agarwal sheds light on the increasing number of big floods. And at the end, Esha Roy joins us to explain India's bottom rank on the recently released Environment Performance Index.

Over 1k held for clashes during Agnipath protests across states, Opposition may pick President candidate tomorrow, IND vs SA: Series ends 2-2 as rain washes out decider in Bangalore and other top news in this bulletin.

Indian Army issued a notification for the recruitment of Agniveers under the Agnipath recruitment schemes, many states stepped up security over the Bharat Bandh call by some groups against Agnipath, Mamta Banerjee slammed the Narendra Modi government over the Agnipath scheme and other top news in today's bulletin.

Pros and cons of Agnipath | indian army | modi | wisdomtalks | ep: 83

Hello, this is your daily dose of news from Onmanorama. Tune in to get updated about the major news stories of the day.

Sanjay Dixit has Abhijit Iyer Mitra with him on this talk to ask all the questions that the people are asking about the 'Tour of Duty' scheme of the Govt, which AIM is going to answer in a way only he can.

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India Policy Watch: The Road Of FireInsights on burning policy issues in India- RSJThe Union Defence Minister along with the chiefs of the three armed services on Tuesday announced the ‘Agnipath’ scheme for recruitment into the Indian military. You can read more about the scheme here. I have summarised the key features below:The soldiers under this scheme (referred to as ‘Agniveers’) will be enrolled for a duration of four years in a conscription or tour of duty (ToD) like model that’s prevalent in other countries. They will be paid between INR 30,000 - 40,000 per month during their tenure apart from risk or hardship allowance as applicable. 30 per cent of their salary will be deducted as a voluntary contribution into a corpus called ‘SevaNidhi’ with a matching contribution from the government. Roughly put, the soldiers will get this SevaNidhi package of about INR 11.7 Lacs plus the interest accumulated on this amount at the end of their four years of service. Few other post-retirement benefits are thrown in, including a life insurance cover and access to a bank loan of INR 18.2 Lacs against the SevaNidhi package.About 25 per cent of Agniveers will be absorbed into the regular cadre after four years. The rest will receive an Agniveer Skill certificate, the SevaNidhi corpus and some preferential treatment in getting into the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) and maybe even state police forces. The Agniveers who leave at the end of four years, however, will not get the usual entitlements of gratuity and pension. This is huge. Over a period of couple of decades, this could mean only about 25 per cent of the forces will have the pension benefits that are available to all today. The enrollment under this scheme will be on an all-India and an all-class basis. This will be, by itself, a distinct rank in the armed forces with its own insignia. The likely implications of this are quite significant. The recruitment of soldiers today, especially in the army, is based on state-wise quotas and on the retirement of soldiers from various regiments that are class based. Class here should be read as an euphemism for caste or community. Drawing Agniveers on an all-class basis will mean withering away from the traditional structure of regiments. It could also mean a larger representation of states where unemployment rates are high because there might not be state-wise quotas anymore. This could further alter the composition mix of the armed forces.The government also positioned this as a move that will infuse youth and vitality (or ‘josh’ and ‘jazba’ as mentioned in various media reports) into the armed forces. The whole thing including the names Agnipath and Agniveer sounds like a campaign for an early 1990s Nana Patekar film. You could soon shoehorn Agni Pariksha (for the recruitment tests), Krantiveer (best Agniveer cadet), Yugpurush (lifetime achievement award for Agniveers), Angaar, Tiranga, Prahaar and so on. You get the picture. We are in this territory now. Anyway, the average age of the armed forces which is 32 now will come down by about five years. The younger workforce will be more technology-savvy that will be more attuned to the changing nature of modern warfare. Also, the 75 per cent of Agniveers who will go back into civil society will serve as a disciplined and nationalistic labour pool to draw from for organisations. There will be Agniveers in every village and taluk who will improve the moral fibre of our society. We will have no riots, no littering, no traffic violations and no crime. The retired Agniveers will change us. Because they will put the nation first. Always. Like Arnab. Well, that’s the official line anyway. BacklashUnfortunately, the response to the scheme hasn’t been what the government was expecting. There have been protests, arson and general lawlessness by unemployed youth that seems to be spreading across the country at the moment. A large section of retired armed forces officials too have questioned both the scale and speed of a change like this. The issues agitating them have some basis:There have been very few recruitment rallies during the two years of the pandemic. About 60,000 soldiers retire every year and this gap is filled up during the regular recruitment drives. It is safe to assume there's a 1.5 Lac gap that’s opened up since 2020. The expectation among aspirants was this will get filled up in the next year or so. That apart, there are those in the middle of their recruitment process who are unclear about their status now. Roughly put, there could be more than a crore of youngsters under the age of 21 who were waiting for these recruitment drives to restart. What they have now instead is about 46,000 open positions for the current year with a 25 per cent probability of a long-term career in armed services with full benefits. If you work the numbers, it also suggests a reduction in armed forces count by about 1.5 - 2 Lacs (about 10-15 per cent of the workforce) over the next four years. I’m not sure if that’s also a stated intent of this scheme but it will be a collateral result unless the Agniveer recruitment numbers are ramped up significantly in the following years.There is an inherent contradiction in acknowledging a modern military requires advanced warfare systems, technical know-how and expertise that takes years to build and having only 25 percent of personnel working on longer tenure commissions. Will the constant churn come in the way of managing these systems? Will there be institutionalised knowledge management that will be able to handle this scenario? Also, the eventual dismantling of the class-based system that this move seems to portend will need to be thought through. It is fundamental to how the army operates today.The other question is about the prospects of the 75 per cent who will be released every four years. This is a number that will keep rising over a period of time. All the romanticisation of the armed forces and its discipline aside, these will be youngsters without a college degree and with limited technical skills. How useful will they be to the wider world? Not much if you go by the current record of hiring of retired defence personnel. They will have to study further and acquire specific skills to be employable. To expect CAPF or the state police force to absorb them is a bit optimistic. Also, there are aspirants for those jobs too with their own patronage system who will scuttle these moves. Lastly, for all the josh and jazba that are likely to come free because of this move, it will be useful to understand the repercussions of having a workforce that knows only one in four among them will qualify for the longer commission. What behaviour will this engender in them? How objective will the criteria for selection be? And if the 75 per cent who are released struggle to get jobs and earn their livelihoods, the feedback loop to the future cohorts will be immediate. The situation will turn more fraught at the end of every four-year cycle. The comparison with other countries that have a ToD model is useful but it is important to appreciate we are a US$ 2000 per capita economy with over 40 per cent of the employable labour pool either without a job or underemployed. In other countries, those who want to continue to be in the armed forces almost self-select themselves. These arguments, for and against aside, this is a good example to understand the complexities of policymaking, especially in defence, in India. A Difficult ProblemLet’s begin with the single most important policy objective for armed forces now in India. This is quite stark and apparent - it needs to modernise its defence infrastructure and increase its capacity in areas of modern warfare like the air force and navy. Given the threat perception on its borders, this is an already delayed exercise. You can read a detailed ORF report on India’s platform modernisation deficit here for more. TL;DR: yes, we do have a modernisation challenge on hand. And it is quite bad.Now the key question is what’s coming in the way of modernisation? There are multiple answers to this but on the top of that list is a lack of funds. The defence budget has broadly remained around 2.2 per cent of the GDP over the last decade. India has struggled to contain its fiscal deficit and it has limited ability to allocate more to its defence budget. As we have written on umpteen occasions, the Indian state is spread wide and thin. It does way too many things badly. Therefore, it cannot find money to do things it must. More importantly, pension benefits (24 per cent) and wages (28 per cent) take up over half of its budget. These numbers, especially pension outlays, will continue to grow in the coming years as the full impact of OROP (one rank one pension) plays out. The OROP that came into effect in late 2015 is a known and acknowledged policy mistake that is quite simply unsustainable. But it is almost impossible to walk back on that now. So, the search for circumventing that burden is one of the factors that has led to this scheme. A bad policy decision has a long-term downstream impact and this is a classic case of that playing out. Even if the Agnipath scheme is implemented as it stands today, the easing up of the pension burden will take decades to play out. The need for modernisation of the armed forces is as of yesterday. But the government is hoping through a combination of a 10-15 per cent reduction in the strength of the military and a long-term solution to control the burgeoning pension bill would have given it some room to ramp up on modernisation without increasing defence outlay. There are various estimates of the net present value of the expenditure on a single soldier who joins the armed forces today. At fairly conservative estimates of discount rates, wages and future pension benefits, Pranay estimates this to be about INR 1 crore. In my view, that is the absolute floor for that value and it might be around INR 2 crores if one were to take a bit more realistic assumptions. So, a 1.5 - 2 Lac workforce reduction could mean a significant availability of funds to modernise the defence platforms over time.  Growth, Growth, GrowthThat’s likely the thinking that’s gone behind the scheme. Everything else including the messaging on josh and jazba or having retired Agniveers in every village is to make it palatable to the public. It is difficult to acknowledge openly to people that the economy cannot support the defence requirements of India when you have made nationalism and nation-first important planks of your political strategy. This communication plan could have worked except it had to contend with the other real problem of the Indian economy at the moment. Lack of jobs. For reasons that could take up another post, the Indian economy isn’t generating enough jobs for its large youthful population. Roughly, India needs to create between 15-20 million non-farm jobs every year to keep pace with those entering the labour force. The labour participation rate has remained in the 40-45 per cent range for a long time. New job creation data can be contentious but it is difficult to argue that India is creating anything more than 3-4 million jobs every year. The quality of many of these new jobs isn’t great. The merry-go-round of employees switching jobs and getting big hikes in the IT/ITES sector shouldn’t blind us to the reality in the broader economy. There aren’t enough jobs. The two prerequisites for job creation, an 8-9 per cent GDP growth and skew towards sectors like construction, infrastructure or labour-intensive exports aren’t being met. The reason the job crisis hasn’t snowballed into a larger political and social issue is the immense faith in the PM among the youth. There’s a strong belief among them that India is on its way to becoming a superpower. The regular dose of nationalism and jingoism that’s amplified by the media helps continue this narrative. A related issue here that accounts for the violent protests is the lure of government jobs. The public sector jobs at the junior levels have become more remunerative than similar roles in the private sector in the last decade. As much as people love quoting the salaries of the CMDs of PSU Banks or the senior IAS officers and comparing them to the compensation of private-sector CEOs, the reality is that at mid to junior levels the government jobs are better paying. You can dig deeper into the wage bills of listed PSUs and compare them with their private counterparts for evidence. The other supposed benefits of a government job like job security, work-life balance and a possibility of rent-seeking (though low in defence jobs) make the package very attractive. This has meant a dramatic reversion in trend of people hankering for public sector jobs that had waned in the first couple of decades of liberalisation. So, a reduction in the number of such jobs or cutting down their benefits as the Agnipath scheme is likely to be isn't going to be accepted despite the great popularity of the PM and the ruling party among this segment. Their expectation, in contrast, is for the number of government jobs to go up.Considering the constraints, it is difficult to see what else the government could have done here. The need to reduce wage and pension costs to fund modernisation is real. And given the fiscally conservative instinct of this government, it won’t deficit fund the modernisation programme. As is its wont, it has chosen to put a bold announcement with emphasis on other benefits while trying to solve its key problems under cover. There’s this myth that a big bang approach to reform is the only model that works in India. That’s wrong. A lot of what has looked like big reforms in India have actually had a long runway that’s often invisible to people. A more comprehensive reading of the history of ‘91 reforms makes this clear. So, the usual template has been followed so far: minimal consultation, no plans to test it out at a smaller scale and instant big bang implementation. The results are unsurprising. I am guessing we will see a similar script play out for the next few months. There will be rollbacks (a few have been already announced), some concessions that will tinker around years of service or percentage releases, and a few sops thrown in, to temper the anger. If I were to give more credit than is due to this government’s planning chops, I might even say it possibly did this on purpose. Release a more extreme form of scheme, brace for impact and then roll back to the position that you always wanted in the first place. It is one way to game public opinion to your favoured outcome. Of course, a more impactful solution to this is to acknowledge the mistake that OROP is and shift the pension of defence forces onto a voluntary, defined contribution scheme like the NPS which has been implemented since 2004 for all new recruits joining government services, except defence. That is the only sustainable solution to this problem. But dispassionate policy making in defence sector in India is difficult. All kinds of emotions about izzat, vardi, naam and nishaan get mixed up. Nana Patekar gets in the way of clear-headed thinking.  * (with apologies and acknowledgement to Harivansh Rai ‘Bachchan’)Addendum— Pranay KotasthaneFor a researcher working on the public finance of defence, the Agnipath scheme is an important milestone. Over the long term, it has the potential to substantially reduce the pension burden. And as RSJ writes, the scheme will have no impact on the allocations for modernisation in the short term. Nevertheless, this scheme is important for the single reason that just as today’s deficits are tomorrow’s taxes, today’s reforms become tomorrow’s savings. Many commentators suggest that India’s defence expenditure problem can be solved merely by increasing defence expenditure to 3 per cent of GDP, from the current allocation of 2.04 per cent. That’s hardly the case. Projecting current growth rates of defence spending components over the next ten years suggests that even if the government were to agree to a 3 per cent spending, pension spending will grow rapidly enough to allow only an incremental increase in the fiscal space for capital outlay.Keeping the public finance angle aside, I took away two lessons in politics.One, the political narrative that can be used to sell a policy solution sometimes matters more than the solution itself.In an article for the Times of India in March, I listed four alternatives before the government to manage personnel costs. The three solutions that were dropped tried to address the pension problem directly. It wasn’t possible to project these solutions as achieving any other objective. In contrast, the solution that was picked up, i.e. Agnipath, was the only one that allowed the government to skirt the fiscal motivations for this reform. The government went in with this stated objective: “attracting young talent from the society who are more in tune with contemporary technological trends and plough back skilled, disciplined and motivated manpower into the society.”  No mention of the fiscal angle. At all.This strategy itself had mixed results in the early days. Politically, it allowed the government to make statements such as these: “We never see the Armed Forces through the perspectives of savings. Whatever we need to spend, the government is willing to spend. Our aim is to defend the country’s borders. Whatever needs to be spent, will be spent.” — Mr Rajnath Singh, Union Defence MinisterHowever, not acknowledging the real reason why these reforms were mooted, created an impression that the government has needlessly and suddenly foisted another disruptive scheme on unsuspecting masses.Two, the government failed to align cognitive maps of important stakeholders, yet again. Pension reforms are wicked problems everywhere in the world because there are strong endowment effects of a large, organised collective at play. Some of you might recall that a couple of years ago, nearly 800,000 French people protested and disrupted key services across the country in opposition to the proposed pension reform. That reform merely aimed to consolidate 42 different pension schemes, with variations in retirement age and benefits, into a universal points-based system. Even so, the government had an excellent, indigenous pension reform example at hand. As we’ve written many times before, the civil services pension reform of 2004 was a rare example of introducing a scheme to reduce the pension burden without protests. Despite this example, the government chose to opt for an Agnipath scheme that made some applicants suddenly ineligible for selection. The resulting protests and violence eventually made the government relax the age criteria this time. The government mandarins would surely have anticipated these consequences. To smoothen the transition, the government could’ve done regular recruitment along with the Agnipath recruitment this year. Over the subsequent three-four years, it could have increased the intake for the latter and tapered down the intake in the regular induction in a phase-wise manner. But it chose a sledgehammer instead of a scalpel. Global Policy Watch: Social Media’s Rule of Three Global policy issues relevant to India— Pranay KotasthaneSocial media continues to confound us all. By now, we all have read a number of hypotheses on how social media rewards “evil”. In the initial days, social media’s tendency to push us into echo chambers was oft-cited as the mechanism that made people more extreme in their views. Then came the view that the evil lay in the “likes”, “retweets”, and “share” features, which promoted an asymmetric virality. Thereafter came the notion that it was the economic models that were to blame. Advertisement-led services and Big Tech monopolies were the real problems, we were told. And over the last four years or so, it’s the algorithms and recommendation engines of social media companies that have been the target. Despite these arguments, we still don’t have a conclusive answer. Several studies have refuted many of the assertions made above. And so, let’s take a step back from specific social media apps, and instead ask: what are the meta-mechanisms that make all forms of social media a powerful instrument? I can think of three interrelated mechanisms. All three mechanisms are connected to sociological and cognitive behaviours in the Information Age.One, Social Media expands our Reference NetworksReference Networks is a term used by psychologists to mean “people whose beliefs and behaviour matter for our behaviour”. A really small part of our behaviour is independent of others’ actions and beliefs. Most of our behaviour is interdependent, i.e. it depends on what people in our reference network say or do. For most of human history, geographic proximity largely determined our reference network. For instance, our on-road driving behaviour is shaped by people who are around us and whom we consider ‘like us’. TV, radio, books, and newspapers have played a major role in creating new horizontal comradeship (or what Benedict Anderson called ‘imagined communities’), but these media did not supplant the importance of geographically proximate reference networks. Social media, by contrast, expands our reference networks like never before. People across the world can now influence our perceptions instantly and repeatedly. And by this reference network expansion, I do not imply the ‘echo chambers’ trope. Courtesy of social media, our reference network in fact now includes many more people who think unlike us. Sociologist Zeynep Tufecki explains this mechanism using a beautiful metaphor:“While algorithms will often feed people some of what they already want to hear, research shows that we probably encounter a wider variety of opinions online than we do offline, or than we did before the advent of digital tools.Rather, the problem is that when we encounter opposing views in the age and context of social media, it’s not like reading them in a newspaper while sitting alone. It’s like hearing them from the opposing team while sitting with our fellow fans in a football stadium. Online, we’re connected with our communities, and we seek approval from our like-minded peers. We bond with our team by yelling at the fans of the other one. In sociology terms, we strengthen our feeling of “in-group” belonging by increasing our distance from and tension with the “out-group”—us versus them. Our cognitive universe isn’t an echo chamber, but our social one is. This is why the various projects for fact-checking claims in the news, while valuable, don’t convince people. Belonging is stronger than facts.” [MIT Technology Review, August 2018]Expressed another way, every issue becomes global by default because our reference networks are also global. Two, Social Media expands the Overton WindowRepeating what I had written about this particular mechanism in edition #130. The Overton Window framework suggests that for any political issue, there's a range of socially acceptable positions that's narrower than the range of all possible positions. These socially acceptable ideas are seen as being inside the Overton Window — they are mainstream and uncontroversial. On the other hand, policy positions outside it are viewed as shocking, upsetting, and electorally harmful. The key insight of this framework is that, with social pressure, the Overton Window can shift over time; today's radicals may become tomorrow's moderates. In the Information Age, something even more striking has happened. The Overton Window on practically every issue has been stretched such that nearly all possible positions on an issue have become socially acceptable. With that happening, the older institutions, which earlier exuded authority, are shredding legitimacy with every decision they make.With the old gatekeepers no longer wielding the same power as earlier, the range of opinions on any issue can be extremely broad. And combined with the fact that each of those views attracts a new reference network, the Overton Window of social acceptability gets stretched.Three, Disproportional Rewards for Extreme ContentMany analysts say that this mechanism is a result of skewed algorithms and the incentives arising out of an advertisement-based model. While that’s partly true, there’s a deeper reason: information overload. Persuasion is a key power in the information age. Persuading someone requires attracting someone’s attention. And since attention is a scarce commodity in a crowded information environment, the only way to attract it is to come up with something surprising and shocking. Consider this analogous example. If I were to write “Lng Yrs g, W Md Tryst WTh Dstny”, you would immediately identify that I’m talking about Nehru’s iconic 1947 speech, despite me dropping all vowels. From an information theory perspective, vowels carry “less” information content because they occur more frequently. In contrast, consonants contain “more” information because the probability of their occurrence is low.In a similar manner, a news feed post which reads “There was a bomb blast in Kabul”, carries less information, because this has quite unfortunately become a regular occurrence over the last few years. In contrast, a shocking opinion or news like “Russian information ops influenced the 2016 election results” surprises us, and hence carries more information. Over time, not only does the Overton Window expand, it becomes broader at the two poles. My proposition is that many real-life events attributed to social media (positive or negative) can be explained by a combination of these three mechanisms. Consider the work done by an online group DRASTIC (Decentralized Radical Autonomous Search Team Investigating COVID-19) in mid-2021. Their work alone changed the conversation on the Wuhan lab origin theory (RSJ wrote about it here). In this case, the expanded reference network allowed a band of interested folks to build on each other’s work. The Overton Window expansion meant that the group could put forward an idea that seemed preposterous at that time. And a skew towards surprises meant that their idea didn’t just die away in a closed in-group, but instead sailed across the globe.HomeWorkReading and listening recommendations on public policy matters[Article] Janan Ganesh has a cracking column in FT, which discusses a favourite topic of ours: economic growth. Sample these lines from the column: “The looming recession will be painful. But it will also drive a certain kind of post-materialist humbug from polite discourse. Growth will be harder to dismiss as a bean counter’s tawdry obsession when there is so little of the stuff to go round.”[Article] Zeynep Tufekci’s analysis of “how social media took us from Tahrir Square to Donald Trump”.[Post] Gurwinder from The Prism has this terrific insight: ideologies are memetic superbugs. His words: “The most successful ideology in the West today, wokeism, has succeeded because it’s perfectly configured, not to establish social justice, but to establish more copies of itself. It’s a memetic superbug evolved for contagion rather than truth or compassion, and if contaminating others requires it to delude the senses, twist the truth, and darken the heart, then so be it.”[Tweet] The always-insightful Bryan Caplan’s take on intersecting echo chambers lights a bulb. He says: “If you want to combat error, critique your in-group. You speak their language and they trust you, so you might persuade someone. If you want to raise your status, critique your out-group. They won't listen, but your in-group will love it.” The latter tendency dominates the former by a big margin, I guess. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit publicpolicy.substack.com

The Bharatvaarta Weekly is our reaction to the news headlines of the week that was. If you liked this episode, then don’t forget to subscribe to our channel and share this content. You can stay updated with everything at Bharatvaarta by following us on social media: we're @bharatvaarta on Twitter, facebook.com/bharatvaarta.in on Facebook, and @bharatvaarta on Instagram).

Modi govt's biggest flaw has been its disinclination to accept limitations of electoral majorities. This ruined land acquisition and farm reform, stalled labour codes. In this week's #NationalInterest Shekhar Gupta explains how a much needed reform could be derailed. Brought to you by  @Kia India  ----more----Read this weak's National Interest here: https://theprint.in/national-interest/with-agnipath-modi-govts-shock-awe-doctrine-may-have-misfired-a-vital-reform-yet-again/1001178/----more----Read Jyoti Yadav's article here: https://theprint.in/features/overage-at-21-rural-indias-army-aspirants-are-running-for-their-lives-and-out-of-time/951366/----more----Read Lt. Gen. H.S. Panag's article here: https://theprint.in/opinion/agnipath-scheme-is-proof-that-modi-govt-can-bring-change-for-good-but-an-open-mind-is-key/998767/

Veronica Joseph brings you the news from Bihar, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, New Delhi, and Afghanistan. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

There is a huge reaction against Agnipath scheme for military recruitment. Government is trying to take the debate into employment prospects, but the real issue is perhaps dilution of fighting capabilities of a famous military force. CDS Rules are equally baffling. Akshaya Kapoor and Dr. Shiv Shastry join Sanjay Dixit to discuss the issue.

Sanjay Dixit dives deep into the issue of Agnipath to find out who is actually at fault for the violence sweeping the country. Central Govt, the youth, or the State governments.

Why is it that Netas always incite the students to further their ends? Sree Iyer walks down memory lane, showing how it is always the student who loses in the end. #AgnipathSchemeProtest #Agnipath #AgnipathRecruitmentScheme #AgnipathProtest #Agniveers #Agniveer #69TelanganaRiots, #MandalAgitation References: 1. https://twitter.com/KanchanGupta/status/1537812552356220929

Top #news today:> Bihar bandh today over Agnipath; RJD, BJP ally Jitan Manjhi extend support> Agnipath: Telangana man who died in protest 'was inspired by sister to pursue military dream,' says family> UK approves extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange; appeal possible> Pakistan won't be removed from FATF grey list immediately, decision after onsite visitListen here:@HindustanTimes #News #DailyNews #DailyUpdates #currentaffairs #Podcasts #HTSmartCast

Hello, this is your daily dose of news from Onmanorama. Tune in to get updated about the major news stories of the day.

Introduction Time:0.10 - 2.50 तू न थकेगा कभी, तू न रुकेगा कभी, तू न मुड़ेगा कभी, कर शपथ, कर शपथ, कर शपथ, अग्निपथ अग्निपथ अग्निपथ जब हरिवंश राय बच्चन ने अपनी कविता अग्निपथ में लाइनें लिखी होंगी, तब उन्हें क्या पता था कि अग्निपथ नाम की केंद्र की योजना के खिलाफ लोग रेल जलाते नहीं थकेंगे, सांसदों और सिधायकों के घर तोड़ते नहीं रुकेंगे। अब तक आप समझ ही गए होंगे कि मैं क्या बात कर रहे हूँ यहाँ। मैं बात कर रही हूँ केंद्र द्वारा लाई गई अग्निपथ योजना की। देशभर में यही खबर छाई हुई है, और इसलिए नहीं क्योंकि लोग उत्साहित हैं इस योजना का फायदा उठाने के लिए, बल्कि इसलिए क्योंकि लोग गुस्साए हुए हैं, स्टेशन से लेकर घरों तक इस योजना के खिलाफ नफरत की लपटें उठ रही हैं। सेना में भर्ती की प्रक्रिया में बदलाव पर इस योजना को लेकर पूरे देश में आक्रोश (Protest) है. अग्निनपथ योजना (Agnipath Scheme) को लेकर प्रदर्शनकारी देश के अलग-अलग हिस्सों में अपना विरोध जता रहे हैं. इसी बीच आज बिहार (Bihar) में लखीसराय (Lakhisarai) में प्रदर्शनकारियों ने नई दिल्ली से भागलपुर जाने वाली विक्रमशिला एक्सप्रेस ट्रेन (Vikramshila Express Train) में आग लगा दी. इस ट्रेन की 12 बोगी आग लगने से क्षतिग्रस्त हो गई.  इस दौरान जलती ट्रेन में यात्रा कर रहे एक शख्स की मौत हो गई. लखीसराय के डीएम ने एबीपी न्यूज को बताया कि यात्री बीमार था और ट्रेन से यात्रा कर रहा था. उसे लखीसराय के सदर अस्पताल ले जाया गया, लेकिन उसे बचाया ना जा सका. रेल मंत्री ने की अपील की कि भैया railway को नुकसान मत पहुंचाओ ये तो तो सार्वजनिक संपत्ति है, तुम्हारी भी है मगर लोगों के सर पर रोष सवार है। वो कहाँ किसी की सुन रहे हैं। मगर जहाँ हम सब इस आगजनी की खबर अपने सामने TV और social media पर चलती देख रहे हैं, वहीँ कई लोगों को पता ही नहीं है कि प्रदर्शन क्यों हो रहे हैं और और अग्निपथ योजना आख़िर है क्या। तो आज FYI पर हम बात करेंगे कि असल में अग्निपथ योजना क्या है और क्यों मच रहा है इस पर बवाल नमस्कार, आदाब, सत्श्रीअकाल, मैं हूँ Sahiba Khan और आप सभी के समक्ष हूँ, ABP Live Podcasts की खास पेशकश - FYI पर। आज बात होगी अग्निपथ योजना की। तो सबसे पहला सवाल, क्या है अग्निपथ योजना जवाब - भारत सरकार ने जून 2022 में रक्षा बलों (यानी कि Army, Air Force और Navy) के लिए अग्निपथ भर्ती स्कीम का ऐलान किया (Agnipath recruitment scheme), जिसके अंतर्गत भारतीय सैनिकों की भर्ती अब सिर्फ चार साल के लिए की जाएगी. अग्निपथ योजना के तहत सैनिकों की भर्ती प्रक्रिया में एक बड़े बदलाव की घोषणा भारत के रक्षा मंत्री राजनाथ सिंह (Defence Minister Rajnath Singh) ने की (Agnipath Scheme). इस योजना में सेना में चार साल के लिए युवाओं की भर्ती का प्रावधान है. साथ ही उन्हें सेवानिवृत्ति के साथ सेवा निधि पैकेज दिए जाने की योजना भी इस स्कीम में शामिल है (Agnipath Scheme Job Duration). इस स्कीम के तहत सेना में शामिल होने वाले को अग्निवीर कहा जाएगा (Agniveer). सेना की इस नई भर्ती स्कीम को रक्षा मंत्री राजनाथ सिंह ने थल सेना अध्यक्ष जनरल मनोज पांडे, वायु सेना के चीफ मार्शल वीआर चौधरी और नेवी चीफ एडमिरल आर हरि कुमार की उपस्थिति में लॉन्च किया. अग्निपथ योजना का लक्ष्य आर्मी सर्विस की प्रोफाइल को उपयोगी बनाना है (Agnipath Scheme Objectives). हर साल योजना के तहत 2 बार भर्ती होगी। हर भर्ती में 40-50 हज़ार भर्तियां होंगी। इसमें 17.5 साल से लेकर 21 साल तक के लड़के फॉर्म भर सकते हैं, हालाँकि नौजवानों का आक्रोश देखते हुए सरकार  अभी-अभी फैसला लिया कि अब उम्र 23 साल तक बढ़ा दी है मगर केवल इस साल के लिए। 21 साल की उम्र में क्या दिक्कत थी और युवा क्यों इस पर भड़के हुए हैं, ये सब आगे बताएँगे। अभी basic कोरा-कोरा समझें कि योजना क्या है। आगे बढ़ते हैं। योजना के तहत हर इंसान को 6 महीने की ट्रेनिंग दी जाएगी और उसके बाद वो लोग केवल बचे हए 3.5 साल तक सेना में भर्ती रह सकते हैं जहाँ युवाओं को पहले साल 4.76 लाख का पैकेज मिलेगा,यानी कि हर महीना कुछ 40 हज़ार, जो चौथे साल तक बढ़कर 6.92 लाख तक पहुंच जाएगा. यानी कि हर महीना करीब 58 अट्ठावन हज़ार। इसके अलावा इस योजना में रिस्क और हार्डशिप अलाउएंस भी मिलेंगे. चार साल की नौकरी के समाप्त होने के बाद उन्हें 11.7 लाख रुपए की सेवा निधि मिलेगी जो टैक्स-फ्री होगा (Tax Free Service Fund for Agnipath Scheme). अब ये जो हर महीना 40,000 और 58 (अट्ठावन) हज़ार की बात कही जा रही है, इसमें से 30% कटेगा आपकी सेवा निधि का पैसा। इस योजना एक का मक़सद है  कि सेना में जवान लोग ज़्यादा भर्ती हों इसलिए उम्र कम राखी गई है। Lt Gen BS Raju ने कहा कि "सेना के जवानों की औसत आयु लगभग 32-33 वर्ष है। अग्निपथ योजना के साथ, लगभग 8-10 वर्षों में, हम सैनिकों की प्रोफाइल को लगभग 26 वर्ष तक कम करने में सक्षम होंगे। यह सेना को ज़्यादा फिट बना देगा। अभी फिलहाल हम बस इस योजना के main features की बात कर रहे हैं। इन बातों पर लम्बी व्हर्चा करने के लिए हम थोड़ी देर में Lt. Gen. Shankar Prasad से बात करेंगे और उन से समझेंगे कि इन शब्दों में कितनी सच्चाई है। फिलहाल आगे बढ़ते हैं। हालांकि Lt. Gen. Rameshwar Roy का कहना है कि ये योजना गलत समय पर आई है। हमारे ऊपर हर तरफ से दुश्मन देश का खतरा मंडरा रहा है। 2020 में चीन ने दिखा दिया कि वो क्या कर सकते है। पाकिस्तान भी उसी का दम भरता है। क्या इतने छोटी उम्र के लड़के इन दिक्कतों को समझ पाएंगे। एक मक़सद ये भी है कि सेना को और ज़्यादा heterogenous यानी कि विषम बनाना। हर जगह के लोग apply कर सकते हैं, उन्हें अलग-अलग टुकड़ियों में बाँट दिया जायेगा।  सरकार सेना पर हर साल काफी पैसा खर्च करती है। सरकार का कहना है कि सेना में लोगों की pension और उनके रख-रखाव का खर्चा बचे तो वो सेना के आधुनिकीकरण यानी कि modernisation में खर्चा करें। इस योजना से पहले ही लोगों उनके हक़ का पैसा देदिया जायेगा और ज़्यादातर लोग तो 4 साल बाद सेना छोड़ ही देंगे तो वो पैसा भी बचेगा। 11 लाख की पेंशन एक बार में मिल जाएगी और जीवन-भर pension की झंझट भी नहीं रहेगी।  सरकार का कहना है कि ये बदलाव कई नए ज़माने के देश कर चुके हैं और उन्हें इसका अच्छा फल भी मिल रहा है। Israel से लेकर France तक सभी देश कभी न कभी ये बदलाव लाये हैं। ऐसा इस scheme के समर्थक बोल रहे हैं। मगर जब मैंने Retired Lt. Gen. Rameshwar Roy से बात की तो उन्होंने कहा कि Israel, France, इन देशों से हमारे देश की तुलना कैसे हो सकती हैं। भारत कितने अलग-अलग देशों के साथ अपना border share करता है। हमारी दिक्कतें अलग हैं, हमारे आस-पास दुश्मन मुल्क़ ज़्यादा हैं जो एक तीली भर दिक्कत का भी फायदा उठाने से बाज़ नहीं आते। Lt. Gen. Rameshwar Roy ये भी कहते हैं कि 6 महीने में कोई जवान सेना की बारीकियों को कैसे समझ पायेगा। सेना में सबसे ज़्यादा ज़रूरी होता है मनोबल - Conditioning of the mind. वो बताते हैं कि Siachen में हर साल combat से ज़्यादा मौतें लोगों की वहां की ठण्ड के कारण होती हैं। तो हम कैसे 6 महीने में 18-20 साल के लड़कों से उम्मीद कर सकते हैं कि वो अपना मनोबल नहीं खोएंगे। एक अहम feature ये भी है कि जितनी भी भर्तियां होंगी, उनमें से केवल 25% लोग ही सेना में 15 और सालों के लिए में सेवा देंगे - यानी कि अगर 100 लोग हैं तो केवल 25 लोग ही आगे सेना में सेवा दे सकते हैं। इस पर बाकियों के लिए सरकार का जवाब ये है कि उन्हें ऐसे skill-set दिए जाएंगे कि उनकी नौकरी लग्न बहुत आसान हो जायेगा और नौकरी के लिए भी उन्हें 4 साल बाद पैसे मिलेंगे ताकि वो अपना खुद का कुछ व्यापार कर सकें या नौकरी पा सकें। इस पर भी कई लोग आलोचना कर रहे हैं, जो आगे बताएँगे। योजना AIAC यानी कि All India All Class के तहत काम करेगी। आपको पता होगा कि सेना में बटालियन होती हैं अलग-अलग groups की और ये बटालियन होती हैं जगह, जाति और धर्म के आधार पर। मगर AIAC के तहत सभी जगह के लोगों को भर्ती किया जाएगा और उन्हें अलग-अलग बटालियनों में दाल दिया जायेगा। इस पर भी विवाद है। Retired Lt Gen Tej Sapru (retd), पूर्व जीओसी-इन-सी पश्चिमी कमान का हिस्सा थे। Sapru गोरखा बटालियन से आते हैं और उनका मानना है कि इस तरह अलग-थलग लोग अगर किसी भी बटालियन का हिस्सा बनेंगे तो सही नहीं रहेगा। नेपाल की अर्थव्यवस्था में गोरखा रेजिमेंट का बहुत योगदान है। इसी कारण चीन अब तक नेपाल पर अपनी साख  नहीं जमा पाया है और नेपाली भारत के प्रति वफादार रहते हैं। अब अगर उसमें अगर छेड़-छड़ होती है जैसे पेंशन नहीं आती है, उम्र कम होती है तो भारत और नेपाल के रिश्तों में दरार आ सकती है। तो ये तो थी अग्निपथ योजना। अब बात करते हैं Lt. Gen. Shankar prasad से क्योंकि वो हमें देंगे ऐसा ज्ञान जो सिर्फ एक एक्सपर्ट ही हमें दे सकता हैं। Lt. Gen. Shankar prasad सेना का हिस्सा रहे हैं, वो इस योजना के साथ-साथ रणभूमि में लड़ने की बारीकियां भी समझते हैं। उनसे जानते हैं कि वो इस पर क्या मत रहते हैं। Interview तो Lt. Gen. Shankar prasad ने हमें काफी बेहतरीन ज्ञान दिया इस योजना के बारे में। उम्मीद है आप सभी को इस योजना से सम्बंधित ज्ञान समझ आया होगा। ये भी समझ आया होगा कि नौजवान, जिन्हें भारत की रक्षा करने के लिए सेना में जाना था, वो आख़िरकार क्यों खुद ही देश का नुक्सान करने पर तुले हुए हैं। मज़ाक तो ये भी चल रहा है कि अब सरकार के bulldozer कहाँ गए। मगर खैर ये थी ABP Live Podcasts की ख़ास पेशकश FYI. आवाज़ है मेरी यानी कि Sahiba Khan की और पॉडकास्ट की sound-designing की है Lalit ने। मिलेंगे अगले FYI में। अपना ख्याल रखें। नमस्कार Host: @jhansiserani Sound designing: @lalit1121992 Guest: Lt. Gen. Shankar Prasad (retd.)

On Cock & Bull today, we are joined by Varun Duggirala, Ayushi Amin, & main-man, Abbas. Cyrus starts with a rather dark take on how executions should be brought back to the modern era. The show witnessed a live breakup in the chat box, and Abbas introduced the panel to sex toys that can be controlled remotely. Topics discussed today on the show were as follows - A 70-year-old woman who was killed by an Elephant that showed up at her funeral & trampled her body again. New 4-year Agnipath scheme for recruitment in Armed Forces. Why Sharad Pawar turned down an offer to be Opposition's presidential candidate. Tune in for this and much more!Check out Cyrus Says merch:ivm.today/3PLKo1mYou can follow Varun Duggirala on Instagram at @varunduggiYou can follow Ayushi Amin on Instagram at @ayushia9You can follow Antariksh on Instagram @antariksht: https://instagram.com/antarikshtYou can follow Abbas Momin on Instagram @antariksht: https://www.instagram.com/abbasmomin88/Do send in AMA questions for Cyrus by tweeting them to @cyrussaysin or emailing them at whatcyrussays@gmail.comDon't forget to follow Cyrus Broacha on Instagram @cyrus_broacha(https://www.instagram.com/cyrus_broacha)In case you're late to the party and want to catch up on previous episodes of Cyrus Says you can do so at: www.ivmpodcasts.com/cyrussaysYou can listen to this show and other awesome shows on the new and improved IVM Podcasts App on Android: https://ivm.today/android or iOS: https://ivm.today/ios

First, Indian Express' Mihir Vasavda joins host Shashank Bhargava to talk about another top cyclist, Deborah Herold, accusing India's former cycling coach RK Sharma of abuse and harassment.Next, with the Presidential elections scheduled for next month, Indian Express' Manoj CG explains their significance, and whether BJP will be able to get their nominee elected this time.And in the end, we bring you an update about the protests against the central government's new defence recruitment reform scheme, Agnipath.

Anwiti Singh brings you the news from Telangana, Bihar, New Delhi, Karnataka, Switzerland, and Sri Lanka. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this latest SBS Hindi bulletin: Anthony Albanese extends COVID funding arrangement in first national cabinet meeting as prime minister; SBS Chairman and South Australia Premier among Australians sanctioned by Russia; In India, nationwide violent protests against the Agnipath scheme and more news. 

Top #news today:>Govt grants age waiver for Agnipath amid stir>Govt clears appointments, 6 High Courts to get new Chief Justices>Biden on recession: 'Not inevitable but we're in a stronger position'>U.S. NSA: Playing long game with India, engaged in ‘deep' dialogue>Priyanka Chopra shares glimpse of daughter Malti Marie in birthday post for 'nani' Madhu Chopra>Manoj Tiwary wins hearts with adorable gesture for family; Bengal player shows handwritten note after scoring 100Listen here:@HindustanTimes #News #DailyNews #DailyUpdates #currentaffairs #Podcasts #HTSmartCast

What is Modi govt's Agnipath scheme and why youths are protesting against it? My Youtube Channel- bit.ly/2LiPAgC My Instagram Page - www.instagram.com/politicsarca/ My Facebook Page - www.facebook.com/politicsarca My Twitter Page- twitter.com/politicsarca #politicsarca #modigovt #agnipath #bjp #indianarmy --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/politicsarca/message

In today's podcast I talk about: Agnipath protests reach Hyderabad. My travel to Pune is doubtful. Good peace prevails. Long run aborted today at 30k. Focusing on recovery. Hope to meet everyone in Pune.

A protest against the recently announced army recruitment scheme, Agnipath, turned violent at Secunderabad Railway Station on Friday. Over 200 trains have been canceled so far due to protests against the Agnipath scheme for recruitment in the defense services across India. Naga Sridhar reports the day's happenings. Listen in! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/business-line/message

Hello, this is your daily dose of news from Onmanorama. Tune in to get updated about the major news stories of the day.

First, Indian Express' Krishn Kaushik talks about the Agnipath scheme, how it is expected to change the recruitment process of defence services and decrease the money spent on defence pensions.Next, Indian Express' Sweety Kumari talks about the violence that has erupted in West Bengal after protests took place against the controversial statements made by Nupur Sharma.And in the end, Indian Express' Anonna Dutt tells us about the latest guidelines issued by ICMR regarding Type 1 diabetes.

Veronica Joseph brings you the news from the Supreme Court, Maharashtra, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana and Ukraine. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Is Agnipath a good strategy for India's Armed forces? How will it fit in with the current system? What are its long-term and short-term benefits? All this and more! #Agnipath #AgnipathScheme #BharatKeAgniveer #Army

Putting yet another status quo to rest, the government announced a big structural reform in the armed forces this week. The consequences of this shake-up will take a few years to manifest, but the radical move has taken even defence experts off the guard. On Tuesday afternoon, fresh from a meeting of Cabinet Committee on Security -- which was led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi -- a beaming Rajnath Singh dwelled into the details of the project before media persons. He was flanked by chief of three Services – who head the world's second largest standing defence force.   Under the scheme, named ‘Agnipath', Defence Minister Singh said that “patriotic and motivated” youth will be given the chance to serve the three forces for a brief period of four years. Starting this year, about 45,000 youths between the age of 17.5 and 21 years will be recruited. They will almost hit the ground running after a basic training of six months. After completion of their four years of service, 25% of the ‘Agniveers' will be selected for regular cadre, where they will serve for another 15 years before retiring with pension and other benefits. The remaining 75% ‘Agniveers' will be demobilised with an exit package of about 12 lakh and a certificate. About half of the exit package money will come from their own contributions as a portion from their salary which will be between Rs 30,000 to 40,000. Those who join the services after Class 10 will get the certificate of 12th standard after the job completion. But they will not be entitled to any pension or other post-retirement perks which regular soldiers avail. Currently there are about 1.4 million personnel on active duty. In their first year, ‘Agniveers' will be paid a customised package of Rs 30,000 per month, rising incrementally each year to Rs 40,000 in the fourth year. In addition, they will be paid risk and hardship allowances on a par with the three services. Throughout their service, 30 percent of their salary – a sum of Rs 9,000 per month in the first year, rising incrementally to Rs 12,000 per month in the fourth year – will go into Agniveer corpus fund. So why did the government take this step? In this year's Union Budget, India allocated ₹5.25 trillion for military spending. And in this ₹1.19 trillion went towards paying the pensions of ex-servicemen. According to experts, over 70% of the defence expenditure goes into salary and pension. As of 2020, India has about 32 lakh defence pensioners and every year this number goes up by 55,000. It leaves little room for the army to spend on capital expenditure, including buying of big-ticket weapons, modern military systems, fighter jets etc. In 2015, the government gave the nod to implement one-rank-one-pension scheme. It ensured equal pension to military personnel retiring from the same rank with the same years of service, irrespective of the date of their retirement. The then defence minister Manohar Parrikar had said that it added a “huge fiscal burden” on the state. So through the ‘Agneepath' scheme, the government obviously wants to cut the pension budget in the long run. Another benefit of the scheme, cited by the government, was that it will bring down the average age of the army. India has the world's largest youth population. About 40% are between 13 to 35 years. Rajnath Singh said that with the scheme, the average age of soldiers will gradually come down to 24-26 years from the existing 36. But the scheme drove a wedge between defence experts. Some are favouring it, while others saying that it may hit the combat effectiveness of the armed forces. Meanwhile, according to some reports, there was a sense of gloom among army aspirants across the north Indian towns. Most of them asked what they would do after four years of service. In rural belts of UP, Haryana, Punjab, Bihar etc. an army job is tied to honour. Job security and pension after retirement offered youth some sola

China blocks India-US move to designate Hafiz Saeed's relative as terrorist, 'PM Modi cares for youth…': Amit Shah amid Agnipath protests in several states, Covaxin shows robust safety, immunogenicity in children aged 2-18 years: Lancet, and other top news in this bulletin.

‘Everything should look fair': SC on UP demolitions- told no community targeted, Train set ablaze as protests against Agnipath scheme escalate in Bihar, Congress protest outside Hyderabad Raj Bhavan: Two-wheeler set afire, bus damaged and other top news in this bulletin.

Aaj k episode me baat karenge Agnipath scheme k baare main aur kyun ho rahe hai protests isko leke.Janne k liye sunte rahiye Namastey India!

Battered by demonetisation, pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, the Indian economy has started showing some signs of revival now. In May, the number of employed people jumped by one million. It resulted in a drop in unemployment rates from 7.83% in April to 7.12% in May. Economists, however, are sceptical. Some say that it is difficult to get the real picture of unemployment from the methodology used by the Centre for Monitoring India Economy or CMIE. The same CMIE, however, recently conceded that more than half of the 900 million Indians of legal working age -- roughly the population of the US and Russia combined – are not looking for a job at all.   And amid these hopeful and gloomy numbers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday announced to give central government jobs to 1 million people in the next year and a half. But in February this year, the government had told Rajya Sabha that there were over 872,000  vacant posts in central government departments as on 1st March 2020. As many as 910,153 vacancies existed as on 1st March 2019 and 683,823 as on 1st March 2018.   The government had also said that the Staff Selection Commission, the Union Public Service Commission, and the Railway Recruitment Boards had recruited 265,468 people during 2018-19 and 2020-21. India is still far behind the US, China and others in public sector employment. In 2015, there were nearly 39 million public-sector employees in China. This would mean 5 per cent of China's workforce had public sector employment. The corresponding figures for the UK in 2021 were 17 per cent, and for the EU, it was 18 per cent. In the US, 6.9 per cent of the total workforce was employed in the government in 2020. This does not include state government employment. If we were to assume that state employment is four times that of central government and armed forces employees, India's total public sector employment would be in the vicinity of 20 million. Even after an addition of 1 million, India will still have only 2.2 per cent of its total workforce employed in the public sector.   In August of 2020, a McKinsey Global Institute report had said that India needed to generate 90 million non-farm jobs between 2023 and 2030 in order to absorb new workers and an additional 30 million workers who could shift from farm work to non-farm sectors. The report had said that to absorb this influx, India would need close to 12 million additional gainful non-farm jobs every year starting in financial year 2023. This would be triple of the four million non-farm jobs created annually between 2012 and 2018.   The government on Tuesday also announced a major reform in how soldiers will be recruited for the army, navy and airforce by way of the new Agnipath scheme. Under the model, soldiers will be recruited from those between the ages of 17.5 to 21 years. These 'Agniveers' will serve for four years. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has said that this scheme will increase employment opportunities with new skills in different sectors. Under this scheme, most soldiers will exit the service in four years. Out of the 45,000 recruited annually, only 25 per cent will be allowed to continue under permanent commission. According to one report, the model will make the permanent force levels of the country's armed forces much leaner. So, its net impact on employment generation remains to be seen.     As reported by Business Standard, an urban job scheme along the lines of MNREGA is back in debate after a report commissioned by the Prime Minister's advisors recommended it. The report, commissioned by the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, has recommended such a scheme based on its assessment that a gap between the labour force participation rate in rural and urban areas is widening.   The government also has an ambitious target of generating over 6 million jobs in five years from the production-linked incentive schemes. Meanwhile, i

Modi government introduces a new reform for the armed forces in 'Agnipath' recruitment scheme. In Episode 1020, Shekhar Gupta explains the details of the scheme, its many merits and demerits and how it changes the Indian military?

Union defense minister Rajnath Singh and the three service chiefs introduced the short-term defense recruitment policy called Agnipath, Indian business conglomerate Adani Group and French energy behemoth TotalEnergies have entered into an agreement to jointly create the world's largest green hydrogen ecosystem, PM Narendra Modi reviewed the status of human resources across all government departments and ministries and other top news in the bulletin.

We start with a poem that serves as a warning message on Corona pandemic. The title of the poem is – “Mat Nikal” (मत निकल - Don't go out), a poem written by Sharad Gupta but wrongly recognized as one written by Harivansh Rai Bachchan, probably because of its similarity with Agnipath (अग्निपथ). Every word of the poem is spot on for today's situation, sample this:संतुलित व्यवहार कर, बन्द तू किवाड़ करघर में बैठ, इतना भी तू ना मचलमत निकल, मत निकल, मत निकल Then we read a poem written by Harivansh Rai Bachchan – Andhere ka Deepak (अंधेरे का दीपक - a lamp in the dark). This is a poem of optimism and hope, which gives a message of lighting a lamp however dark one's time may get. A ray of hope in the face of difficult and changing times. Some hard-hitting lines, such as these:किन्तु ऐ निर्माण के प्रतिनिधि, तुझे होगा बताना,जो बसे हैं वे उजड़ते हैं प्रकृति के जड़ नियम से,पर किसी उजड़े हुए को फिर बसाना कब मना है?है अँधेरी रात पर दीपक जलाना कब मना है? Welcome to the firstDhai Aakhar – a Poetry Podcast”. This is a podcast of upbeat Hindi Poems about hope, life and optimism.We have one more Podcast, exclusively about the stories and poetry of Bachchan's Madhushala. Please check out here. Don't forget to leave a review on Apple iTunes.Thanks for listening :-) stay safe. You can connect with me:Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | www.arisudan.com Credits:Poems written by Sharad Gupta and Dr Harivansh Rai Bachchanpi e

अग्निपथ का अर्थ है संघर्षमय जीवन पथ.......