Category: General Knowledge

Chevalier Award, Chevalier de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters), has been conferred on International filmmaker Ashok Amritraj – the most famous Indian producer in Hollywood – Hyde Park Entertainment founder, by the French government in recognition of his contribution to the world of cinema and “Significant contribution to the enrichment of the French cultural inheritance”. The Knight of the Order of Arts and of Letters (Chevalier de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres) medal was presented to Amritraj at a ceremony presided over by the French Minister of Europe and Foreign Minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian and France’s ambassador to India, Alexandre Ziegler, in Mumbai on Friday 14 December 2018.

Le Drian said, “What is extremely precious in our eyes is your commitment to bringing together the Indian and French film industries.”

Ziegler said, “I am delighted that Ashok Amritraj’s contribution towards strengthening collaborations between France and India in the domain of cinema has been honoured.”

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was honoured in 2012 for her contribution in Indian and British cinema.

The French government distinction Chevalier des l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters) is conferred on “persons who have distinguished themselves by their creativity in the field of art, culture and literature or for their contribution to the influence of arts in France and throughout the world.”

Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Order of Arts and Letters) is an Order of France, established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture, and its supplementary status to the Ordre national du Merite was confirmed by President Charlesde Gaulle in 1963. Its purpose is the recognition of significant contributions to the arts, literature, or the propagation of these fields. Its origin is attributed to the Order of Saint-Michel (established 1 August 1469) as acknowledged by French government sources.

The Order National Du Merite (The Order of Merit) is part of France’s premier award, the Legion of Honor, and is awarded “to recognize eminent artists as well as people who have contributed significantly, to furthering the arts in France and throughout the world”.

• Ashok Amritraj, resident of Nungambakkam, enjoyed a successful professional tennis career prior to establishing Hyde Park in 1999.
• Amritraj, former CEO of National Geographic Films was lauded for his contribution to the world of cinema and Indo-French film industry and has produced over 100 movies in the span of his 30 year career.
• Amritraj has been the producer of Hollywood films such as Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance with Nicholas Cage and 99 Homes starring Andrew Garfield.
• Amritraj was recognized in 2016 by the United Nations for his role as a committed agent of change in his native country. Amritraj was appointed by U.N. India as its first Goodwill Ambassador for the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, including poverty and hunger alleviation, improvements in water and sanitation, and promoting gender equality.

Ashok Amritraj said, “I am humbled and privileged to receive this honor. I would like to thank the government of France for the Order National Du Merite and for recognizing my journey in the world of cinema”. “This award is a tribute to the growing cooperation between the film industries of France and India, an idea whose time has come.”

The French Minister also officiated over the closing ceremony of the second round of Indo-French professional meetings for the Film and Television Industry. He announced the institution of a special fund to encourage future Indo-French co-productions and exchanges in the film industry. Making a call for more collaboration between the film industries of both countries, Le Drian added, “I would like to suggest a few avenues to boost our collaboration and ensure that we have the requisite resources for meeting our ambitions. This fund will enable French and Indian scriptwriters to produce four-handed screenplays.”

Flying Drones is legal in India now as the Civil Aviation Regulations (CAR), to enable safe flying of Remotely Piloted Aerial Systems (RPAS) – popularly referred to as drones, released in August 2018, have come in effect from 01 December 2018. Drones are a frontier technology which has the potential to leapfrog India’s economic growth. This technology platform with wide-ranging applications can greatly benefit our farmers, infrastructure entities like railways, roads, ports, mines and factories, sectors like insurance, photography, entertainment, etc.

The new CAR policy called ‘Drone Regulations 1.0’ classified a remotely piloted aircraft and delineates how they can be flown and sets the restrictions under which they will operate, and  detailed the obligations of operators, remote pilots/ users and manufacturers/ OEM for safe operations of RPAS and co-operative use of airspace.

Digital Sky Platform, a first of its kind that implements ‘No permission, No take-off’ (NPNT) – a novel system of software-based self-enforcement to minimize deviations from the CAR, the registration portal for online permission has also been launched to start registration of drones, pilots, and operators.

Digital Sky Platform is built to evolve with the evolving needs of this rapidly changing industry. In the coming months, new features will be developed to ease the process of flying for users, and provide oversight to security agencies. It is envisioned that in the future Digital Sky Service Providers (DSPs) will be extending the functionality of the platform through Application Program Interfaces (APIs).

• Nano drones in India can start flying legally from the 1^st of December, 2018.
• Operators and pilots are required to register on the Digital Sky Portal for Micro and above categories.
• Nano drones are less than or equal to 250 grams; whereas Micro are from 250 grams to 2kg; Small are from 2kg to 25kg; Medium are from 25kg to 150kg; and Large drones are greater than 150kg.
• The platform has begun accepting registrations of users.
• Payments for Unmanned Aerial Operator’s Permit (UAOP) and Unique Identification Numbers (UIN) will be accepted through the Bharat Kosh (bharatkosh.gov.in) portal.
• RPAS operators or remote pilots will have to file a flight plan to get permission to fly.
• Flying in the ‘green zones’ will require only intimation of the time and location of the flights via the portal or the app.
• For flying in ‘yellow zones’, permissions will be required.
• Flights will not be allowed in the ‘red zones’.
• The location of these zones will be announced soon.
• Permission, if granted, will be available digitally on the portal.

“Drones are an industry of the future. It is a matter of great pride for India that we are now at the cutting-edge of the rule making in this industry. India will be taking lead in this sector and will be working with countries around the world to develop common, scale able standards. This industry has a large potential for Make in India and also to export drones and services from India”, said, Suresh Prabhu, Minister for Civil Aviation Government of India on the occasion.

A task-force on the recommendation of Drone Policy 2.0, under the chairmanship of the Minister of State, has been constituted by the Minister for Civil Aviation and is expected to release their final report by the end of this year. Drone 2.0 frameworks for RPAS that are expected to include regulatory architecture for autonomous flying, delivery via drones and beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) flights.

Dr. Krishnamurthy Subramanian, an expert on banking, corporate governance and economic policy, has assumed office of the new Chief Economic Advisor on Friday 7 December 2018 for a period of three years. He replaces Arvind Subramanian, who resigned from the post after a four-year stint on 20 June 2018. His term was supposed to end in May 2019 but he wanted to return to academic research in the US.

“The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has approved for the appointment of Dr Krishnamurthy Subramanian, Associate Professor and Executive Director (Centre for Analytical Finance) of Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad, to the post of Chief Economic Adviser”, a government notification stated.

Krishnamurthy Subramanian, born in 1978 at Chennai in Tamil Nadu, is a very good singer and a polyglot, fluent in Bengali, English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu; a top-ranking IIT-Kanpur and IIM-Calcutta (1997-99) alumnus, a PhD from Chicago-Booth School of Business in 2005, has served on boards of Bandhan Bank, Reserve Bank of India Academy and National Institute of Bank Management; a member of the P.J. Nayak Committee on Governance of Bank Boards and SEBI committees on corporate governance, primary markets and secondary markets.

• Subramanian obtained his MBA and PhD in Financial Economics under the advice of Professor Luigi Zingales and Professor Raghuram Rajan, former RBI Governor.
• He served on the finance faculty at Goizueta Business School at Emory University in the United States.
• His research in banking, law and finance, innovation and economic growth, and corporate governance has been published in leading journals, including The Review of Financial Studies, the Journal of Financial Economics, the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, and the Journal of Law and Economics.
• He worked as a consultant with JPMorgan Chase in New York.
• He also served in a management role in the research group at ICICI Ltd.
• He was awarded ISB’s inaugural Alumni Endowment Research Fellow in 2014 for his exceptional work in shaping the banking sector and other path-breaking research with a significant societal impact.

Krishnamurthy Subramanian, affectionately called as ‘Subbu’ by his friends and colleagues, is an “outstanding choice for the job” of Chief Economic Advisor, according to those who have worked with him.

Subramanian is a recognised scholar and columnist for the Economic Times, Financial Express and Associate Editor of the Financial Management and Journal of Corporate Finance:

• In a paper published in the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) in 2012, Subramanian with Viral Acharya (presently RBI Deputy Governor) argued that laws that protect employees against unjust dismissal spur innovation.
• “Stringent labour laws can provide firms a commitment device to not punish short-run failures and thereby spur their employees to pursue value-enhancing innovative activities”, he wrote with Acharya in another paper.
• Writing after demonetisation, he stated that the move would be “revolutionary in the annals of the country’s fight against corruption”, and argued that the data from the National Sample Survey Organisation showed that the impact of the note ban would not be as detrimental for the poor as was being portrayed by the opposition parties.
• Subramanian recently in 2018 wrote that to ward off a “witch hunt” against bankers, the Prevention of Corruption Act needs to be amended.

AYUSH-Health Management Information System (A-HMIS), a dedicated software application for Electronic Health Record (EHR) for the AYUSH systems of Healthcare which is expected to revolutionise the way Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy are practised in the country, by inducting modern IT-solutions into these system was launched at Dr. Ambedkar International centre in New Delhi on the 3^rd Ayurveda day celebrated throughout the country on the occasion of Dhanwantari Jayanti on 05 November 2018. Ministry of AYUSH observes Ayurveda Day every year on Dhanawantari Jayanti (Dhanteras).

Highlights of the 3^rd Ayurveda Day were as under:

• National Seminar on Entrepreneurship and Business Development in Ayurveda was also organised by the AYUSH in association with NITI Aayog on 4th & 5th November 2018 at New Delhi, with the intention to encourage entrepreneurs and Ayurveda stakeholders towards businesses opportunities in the sector, in whichnearly 800 participants from across the country participated in the main function.
• Scientific integration of AYUSH system of medicines was emphasised upon by Dr. Harshvardhan Union Minister for Science & Technology, Earth Sciences and Environment, Forest and Climate Change, while addressing the gathering shared his experiences about Ayurveda and other systems of Indian medicine.
• National Dhanwantary Ayurveda Awards, that carry a cash prize of ₹5 Lakh along with citation, were also conferred to following eminent Vaidyas this year on this occasion of 3^rd Ayurveda day for their significant contribution for the promotion of Ayurveda:
• S.K. Mishra, 
• M. S. Baghel  and 
• Itoozhi Bhavadasan
• National level Ayurveda quiz, conducted by All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA), New Delhi, winners were also felicitated.
• Ayurveda for public health is the theme for this year and many steps have been taken by AYUSH ministry to fulfil it.
• National Programme of ‘Prevention of Non Communicable Disease’- coverage is being expanded from exiting six states.
• Fifty workshops will be organised by AYUSH ministry in collaboration with MSME to enhance entrepreneurship in Ayurveda and AYUSH sector.
• Ayurveda Departments will be opened in the new 19 AIIMS, 100 ESIC hospitals under the Ministry of Labour and 7 hospitals of BSF and other Para military forces.

Minister of State for AYUSH Shripad Yesso Naik while addressing the inaugural session of the two day ‘National Seminar on Entrepreneurship and Business Development in Ayurveda’ on the 4^th of November informed that the ancient Scriptures of Ayurveda have at least 1.25 lakhs formulations which are collected in Traditional knowledge Digital Library. Each one of these formulations can be used to treat 20 to 30 different diseases. In this way we have 20 lakh medicines which is an incredible and unimaginable figure for entrepreneurs.

Sakharov human rights prize has been awarded to jailed Ukrainian filmmaker & activist Oleg Sentsov – a critic of Russia, by the European Parliament on Thursday 25 October 2018, unjustly jailed in Russia for opposing its annexation of Crimea and described as a “symbol of the struggle” to free political prisoners. Sentsov has been awarded the €50,000 prize for an “exceptional contribution” to human rights around the world. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko hailed the decision to give the award to Sentsov, and said on Facebook, “I am sure that this decision of the European Parliament will bring nearer the release of Oleg Sentsov”.

European Parliament President Antonio Tajani said, “Through his courage and determination, by putting his life in danger, the filmmaker Oleg Sentsov has become a symbol of the struggle for the release of political prisoners held in Russia and around the world”.

Sentsov was among three finalists for the prestigious prize, along with a group of 11 charities rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean, and Nasser Zefzafi, head of a Moroccan protest movement who has been in jail since May 2017.

Oleg Sentsov, 42, a vocal critic of the Kremlin, is serving a 20-year term over an alleged arson plot in Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014. He is being held in a Russian penal colony above the Arctic Circle. He started a hunger strike on May 14 demanding the release of all Ukrainian prisoners in Russia, and his poor health provoked an outcry from the international community. He called off the protest after 145 days to avoid being force-fed, after extracting no concessions from authorities.

• Sentsov made his first film Gamer in 2011, writing, directing and producing it himself on a budget of just US$20,000 raised from his job running a gaming centre in the Crimean city of Simferopol.
• It was shown at several film festivals but reviews were generally average.
• Sentsov’s career as a film director was on the rise when Russia’s annexation of his native Crimea abruptly changed the course of his life.
• At the time of his arrest in 2014, he was preparing to make a new film – Nosorog (Rhino) with financing from a German film fund.
• He was also an opposition activist and member of the protest group AutoMaidan (an on-going socio-political movement that began in Kiev within the Euromaidan) that held protests against Ukraine’s Russia-backed president Viktor Yanukovych. He took part in the uprising in 2014 that overthrew Yanukovych.
• Sentsov was convicted in 2015 by a Russian military court of carrying out arson attacks on pro-Kremlin party offices in Crimea and plotting more attacks, including blowing up a Lenin statue in Simferopol.
• His trial prompted condemnation from Western countries and Kiev.
• Supporters say Russia wanted to make an example of him with a particularly harsh sentence.
• His mother begged Russian President Vladimir Putin in a letter sent this summer: “Do not destroy his life and that of his loved ones. We are waiting for him at home.”

Sakharov Human Rights Prize – commonly known as the Sakharov Prize, set up in 1988, is awarded every year by the European Parliament to individuals or organizations that “have made an important contribution to the fight for human rights or democracy”, and is named in honour of Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov: a Russian nuclear physicist, renowned as designer of the Soviet Union’s RDS-37, a code name for Soviet development of thermonuclear weapons. He later became an advocate of civil liberties and civil reforms in the Soviet Union, dissident and activist for disarmament, peace and human rights, for which he faced state persecution; these efforts earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975. Nelson Mandela was the inaugural winner of Sakharov Prize in 1988 together with Anatoly Marchenko (posthumously); and Pakistan’s Malala Yousafzai won it on 10 October 2013.

Movable Enemy Property lying dormant for decades can now be monetized and sale proceeds therefrom may be used for development and social welfare programmes as the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the mechanism and procedure for sale of the enemy shares on Thursday 8 November 2018.

Enemy Property refers to any property belonging to, held or managed on behalf of an enemy, an enemy subject or an enemy firm, according to Enemy Property Act, 1968. Enemy properties are those abandoned properties which the government took over when their owners chose to leave India and move to Pakistan and China after Partition and the 1965 and 1971 wars. Some properties, including companies’ shares belonging to nationals of Pakistan, were tagged by the Indian government as enemy properties during the wars in 1962, 1965 and 1971 and vested with CEPI. The current price of enemy shares vested in the Custodian of Enemy Property of India (CEPI) is estimated at around ₹3000 crore.

Enemy Property Act, 1968 is an Act of the Parliament of India, which provides for the continuous vesting of enemy property in the CEPI. This Act was enacted soon after the 1965 war to tackle the growing list of abandoned buildings and their encroachment. The central government through the CEPI is in possession of enemy properties spread across many states in the country. The Act provides for continued vesting of enemy property vested in the CEPI under the Defence of India Rules, 1962 and the Defence of India Rules, 1971, (w.e.f. 27.09.1997). In the Enemy Property Act of 1968, the definition of “enemy” was as follows:

“Enemy” or “enemy subject” or “enemy firm” means a person or country who or which was an enemy, an enemy subject or an enemy firm, as the case may be, under the Defence of India Act and Rules, but does not include a citizen of India.

In the amendment of 2017, this was substituted by “…. including his legal heir or successor, whether or not citizen of India or the citizen of a country which is not an enemy or the enemy….. who has changed his nationality”.

An enabling legislative provision was created for the disposal of enemy property with the amendment of 2017. CEPI has been empowered for sale of enemy property through an amendment to this Act, vide Section 8A. Further,

“ Notwithstanding anything contained in any judgment, decree or order of any court, tribunal or other authority or any law for the time being in force, the Custodian may, within such time as may be specified by the Central Government in this behalf, dispose of whether by sale or otherwise, as the case may be, with prior approval of the Central Government, by general or special order, enemy properties vested in him immediately before the date of commencement of the Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Act, 2017 in accordance with the provisions of this Act, as amended by the Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Act, 2017”.

 According to amendment, as in sub-section 7 of section 8A of the Enemy Property Act, 1968, Central Government may direct that disposal of enemy property shall be made by any other authority or Ministry or Department instead of Custodian.

Enemy shares held under the Custody of Ministry of Home Affairs/ Custodian of Enemy Property of India (CEPI), as per sub-section 1 of section 8A of the Enemy Property Act, 1968 can now be sold by the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management under the provisions of sub-section 7 of section 8A of the Enemy Property Act, 1968, as per the ‘In principle’ approval that has been accorded by the Union Cabinet.

Sale proceeds are to be deposited as disinvestment proceeds in the Government Account maintained by Ministry of Finance.

With the approval, now, of the procedure and mechanism for sale of enemy shares an enabling framework has been institutionalized for their sale.

• A total number of 65075877 shares in 996 companies of 20323 shareholders are under the custody of CEPI.
• Of these 996 companies, 588 are functional/ active companies, 139 of these are listed with remaining being unlisted.
• The process for selling these shares is to be approved by the Alternative Mechanism (AM) under the Chairmanship of Finance Minister and comprising Minister of Road Transport and Highway and Home Minister.
• The AM will be supported by a High Level Committee (HLC) of officers co-chaired by the Secretary, DIPAM and Secretary, MHA (with representatives from DEA, DLA, M/o Corporate Affairs and CEPI) that would give its recommendations with regard to quantum, price/price-band, principles/ mechanisms for sale of shares, etc.
• Before initiation of sale of any Enemy Shares, the CEPI shall certify that the sale of the Enemy Shares is not in contravention of any judgment, decree or order of any court, tribunal or other authority or any law for the time being in force and can be disposed of by the Government.
• The advisors/ intermediaries like Merchant Bankers, Legal Adviser, Selling Brokers etc. as may be required for the disposal of movable enemy property, will be appointed by DIPAM through an open tender/limited tender process.
• An Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG) will guide the process of sale.

There are 9547 enemy properties, having estimated worth of more than ₹1.1 lakh crore, scattered in important cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bhopal, Hyderabad and Lucknow etc., according to a top government source.

 “There are court cases pending against 1215 properties. Most of the other properties are under illegal possession and occupation at prime locations in key cities, and can be used to serve government needs that are falling short of space in premium locations.”

The government has also reportedly taken possession of 31 such properties and decided to give their possession to the Central Reserve Police Force and Border Security Force facing space crunch for their offices.

Statue of Unity, world’s tallest, statue at 182 metres of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, towering over the Narmada River and overlooking the Sardar Sarovar dam, designed by Padma Bhushan-winning sculptor Ram V Sutar, was dedicated to the nation by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 31 October 2018, the 143^rd birth anniversary of Sardar Patel, at Kevadiya in Narmada District of Gujarat, as a tribute to the country’s ‘Iron Man’. The dedication ceremony was punctuated by flypast of IAF aircraft, and performances of cultural troupes.

Greeting the people of India on this occasion, the Prime Minister said that the entire country is celebrating Rashtriya Ekta Divas on the day and added, “Statue of Unity is an answer to all those who question the existence of India. The height of the statue is to remind the youth that the future of the country will be as huge as this. It is also symbolic of our engineering and technology affordability”.

The ‘Statue of Unity’, an embodiment of national integration and indomitable determination, stands in Sadhu Island on the Narmada in Gujarat depicts Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel wearing a traditional dhoti:

• Statue has been built at a cost of ₹2989 crore by Indian construction major Larsen & Toubro (L&T) in 33 months.
• Statute has about 6500 bronze panels.
• Exceeds the height of China’s Spring Temple Buddha by 177 feet.
• Is almost double the size of Statue of Liberty in the US
• Is four times the size of Christ the Redeemer in Brazil
• Two high-speed elevators are fitted inside the legs of the statue leading to the Visitors’ gallery near the chest of the statue, giving a breath-taking view of the beautiful Narmada Valley.
• Shrestha Bharat Bhavan’- a 52-room three-star lodging facility for the visitors coming to see the monument has been constructed along with the world’s tallest statue, in addition to the walkway, food court, and four-lane approach highway,

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also inaugurated the Wall of Unity. He visited the Museum and Exhibition, and the Viewers’ Gallery. This gallery, at 153 metres height, can accommodate upto 200 visitors at one time. It offers a spectacular view of the Sardar Sarovar Dam, its reservoir, and the Satpura and Vindhya mountain ranges.

Prime Minister described the Statue of Unity as a symbol of the self-respect of the farmers who gave soil from their land, and iron from their farming implements for the Statue and said the Statue would generate considerable tourism opportunities for the region.

Prime Minister mentioned that the work is in progress for the museum dedicated to Subhash Chandra Bose in Delhi, Shivaji statue in Mumbai, and Tribal museums across the country; and besides the Statue of Unity, following memorials have been made in recent years to recall the contributions of freedom fighters and great leaders:

• Museum dedicated to Sardar Patel in Delhi,
• Mahatma Mandir and Dandi Kutir in Gandhinagar,
• Panchtirth dedicated to Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar,
• Statue of Sri Chhotu Ram in Haryana, and
• Memorials of Shyamji Krishna Varma and Veer Nayak Govind Guru in Kutch.

World Development Report (WDR) 2019: The Changing Nature of Work finds that fears over the future of work: that robot will take away jobs from people, appear to be unfounded as innovation has already transformed living standards and the work is constantly reshaped by technological progress. New ways of production are adopted by firms, markets expand and societies evolve. Technology brings opportunity, paves the ways to create new jobs, increase productivity, and deliver effective public services. Digital transformation makes firms grow rapidly expanding their boundaries and reshaping traditional production patterns. Greater investments in people’s health and education are urgent in a rapidly evolving labour market increasingly shaped by technology.

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said, “The nature of work is not only changing – it’s changing rapidly”:

• Younger generation will have to be equipped the with the skills needed no matter what future jobs look like – skills such as problem-solving and critical thinking, as well as interpersonal skills like empathy and collaboration.
• There is stoking fears of a jobs meltdown due to rapidly rising number of robots operating worldwide.
• Technology is laying down a path to create jobs, increase productivity and deliver effective public services.
• Digital technology spurs rapid innovation and growth, disrupting old production patterns and blurring the boundaries of firms.
• New business models, such as digital platforms, evolve at dizzying speed from local start-ups to global behemoths – often with few tangible assets or employees.
• New platform marketplaces are connecting people more quickly than ever before.
• New markets and jobs are driving demand for employees with teamwork, communication and problem-solving skills.
• Technological change is eliminating repetitive “codifiable” jobs but replacing them with new types of employment: in Europe alone, there will be estimated 23 million new jobs this century.
• Technology is changing not just how people work but also the terms on which they work, creating more non-traditional jobs and short-term “gigs.”
• This is making some work more accessible and flexible, but raises concerns about income instability and the lack of social protection.
• Enhanced social protection with new ways of protecting people, regardless of employment status, are needed for adjusting to the changing nature of work.
• Governments will have to take better care of their citizens with a universal guaranteed minimum level of social protection.
• Full social inclusion will be costly, but it can be achieved with reforms in labour market regulation in some countries and, globally, a long overdue overhaul of taxation policy.
• As digital firms, with relatively few tangible assets, increase and grow, withholding taxes are also becoming more relevant.
• Current taxation patterns reveal large discrepancies, especially between poorer and richer countries.
• High-income countries collect a much larger share of their national output in direct taxes, while middle and low-income countries rely more on consumption and trade taxes.
• International tax system as such will have to be updated taking into account the globalized digital economy with the boundaries of firms transcending borders and physical assets.

Human Capital Index (HCI): World Bank’s latest country rankings released as part of its Human Capital Project on Thursday 11 October 2018 with the purported objective to show how low education and health outcomes, or human capital, impact productivity, growth and prosperity; uses metric of industrial era to measure the status of human capital for digital age and its production system. India is ranked 115 out of 157 countries in the index, below the world average and below the average for South Asia. As per the HCI, much poorer neighbouring countries like Bangladesh and Nepal score better than India. Even compared with its peers in terms of GDP per capita, India’s score is lower than the average of middle-lower income countries. Government of India has decided to ignore as better metric is needed as the Human Capital needs to continuously evolve and develop. There is need to recognize that digital technological changes taking place are more fundamental than even invention of the steam engine, which had laid the foundation of the industrial revolution. There is a digital revolution which is transforming the world.

Structural Reforms in areas like taxation and bankruptcy are helping the Indian economy in building its resilience to global shocks and maintain a robust growth rate despite challenges.

Prudent policy measures have helped, and measures being undertaken now will also help contain the stress currently seen in financial condition tightening, and oil prices etc.

World Bank’s Human Capital Index (HCI), claims to seek to measure the amount of human capital that a child born today can expect to attain by age 18. The HCI index values are contended to convey the productivity of the next generation of workers, compared to a benchmark of complete standard education and full health. The HCI has three components:

1. Survival, as measured by under-5 mortality rates;
2. Expected years of Quality-Adjusted Schoolwhich combines information on the:

• Quantity of education as measured by harmonizing test scoresfrom major international student achievement testing programme, and
• Quality of education from number of years of school that a child can expect to obtain by age 18 given the prevailing pattern of enrolment rates across grades in respective countries); and

3. Health environmentusing two proxies of:

• Adult survival rates and
• Rate of stunting for children under age 5.

HCI published for the first time on 11 October 2018 concludes that for 56% of the world’s population the HCI is at or below 0.50; and for 92% it is at or below 0.75. Hence only 8% of the population can expect to be 75% as productive as they could be.

HCI measures the Index outcomes for each country as a fraction of maximum value of 1. As expected the advanced economies such as North America and Europe mostly have HCI value of above 0.75, while South Asia and Sub Saharan Africa have the lowest HCI among the regions.

HCI for India has been estimated at 0.44. The quality adjusted learning has been measured in case of India by using the data as old as 2009. The key observations regarding HCI for India in the Report are as under:

• Human Capital Index: A child born in India today will be only 44% as productive when she grows up as she could be if she enjoyed complete education and full health. HCI in India for females is marginally better than that for males. There has been marked improvement in the HCI components in India over the last five years.
• Probabilities of Survival to Age 5: 96% of children born in India survive to age 5.
• Expected Years of School: In India, a child who starts school at age 4 can expect to complete 10.2 years of school by her 18^th
• Harmonized Test Scores: Students in India score 355 on a scale where 625 represents advanced attainment and 300 represents minimum attainment.
• Learning-adjusted Years of School: Factoring in what children actually learn, expected years of school is only 5.8 years.
• Adult Survival Rate: Across India, 83% of 15-year olds will survive until age 60.
• Healthy Growth (Not Stunted Rate): 62% of children are not stunted. 38% of children are stunted, and so at risk of cognitive and physical limitations that can last a lifetime.
• Gender Differences: In India, HCI for girls is marginally higher than for boys.

As regards advisability and utility of this exercise of constructing HCI there are serious reservations, as there are major methodological weaknesses and substantial data gaps. Several key factors seem to have been neglected.

In India’s context the HCI score does not reflect the key initiatives that are being taken for developing human capital in the country, such as the following:

• Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan:launched to focus on access and quality of education for the benefit of 197 million school children.
• Ayushman Bharat Programme: world’s largest Health Insurance initiative providing 500 million citizens with adequate health coverage, and transforming 150,000 Health Centres into Wellness Centres to provide comprehensive primary healthcare services.
• Swachh Bharat Mission: Sanitation coverage expanded from 38% in 2014 to 83% in 2018, made possible through the construction of over 72 million toilets and simultaneous societal reforms driven through strong political will.
• Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana:that has reduced drudgery and improved the health of about 38 million women by providing them with LPG connection to replace firewood and coke based cooking stoves.
• Pradhan Mantri Jandhan Yojana: has provided access to formal banking services to over 328 million persons in pursuing with the agenda of financial inclusion.  The share of account ownership among rural adults has more than doubled from 33% in 2011 to 79% in 2017, significantly bridging the rural-urban gap.
• Financial inclusion and Aadhaaridentification system has enabled India to make direct cash transfer of about US$ 64 billion to citizens, thus improving governance and social protection.

These initiatives are transforming human capital in India at rapid pace and very comprehensively touching upon the lives of millions of people living in rural and tribal areas. The qualitative aspects of improved governance that have a strong correlation with human capital development cannot be and have not been captured by the way the HCI has been constructed. The gap in data and methodology overlook the initiatives taken by a country and, in turn, portray an incomplete and pre-determined picture. The Government of India, therefore, has decided to ignore the HCI and will continue to undertake its path breaking programme for human capital development aiming to rapidly transforming quality and ease of life for all its children.