Daily Hindu Editorials

The PNB fraud must be speedily investigated to restore faith in the banking system. A regulatory filing to the stock exchanges by Punjab National Bank has blown the lid off a ₹11,500-crore fraud. Perhaps the largest such scam in India, it was perpetrated by a maverick diamond merchant in collusion with bank officials at a single branch in South Mumbai. For India’s second largest bank to be defrauded in the manner suggested is astounding, especially since there has been heightened scrutiny of public sector banks’ operations in the last few years. The bank’s audit committees and boards, as well as the central bank, which conducts routine financial inspections of banks’ books, have been ostensibly keeping a close watch on the loans that have turned substandard or are on the verge of default. The government, which has often blamed the pile of bad loans on crony capitalism during the UPA regime, just last month unveiled a plan to infuse about ₹1 lakh cror...

It will enable the legal system to deliver on its promise of empowering the masses YES  | AVANI BANSAL As Kautilya said in the Arthashastra, and during that time, when judges delivered a judgment, they did so in an open court. From then until now, the visual setting of the justice delivery mechanism hasn’t changed much. While the Indian legal system is built on the concept of open courts, which means that the proceedings are open to all members of the public, the reality is different. On any given day, only a handful of people can be physically present and are allowed in the courtroom. Given the technological strides made in every possible field of work, the natural question is, why shouldn’t the legal system benefit from technology? While the courts are now opting for digitisation, with online records of all cases, a provision for filing FIRs online, an automated system of case rotation, etc., there is still a need to push the bar much higher. In the light of these...

Justin Trudeau, Canada’s youthful, popular and telegenic Prime Minister, begins his much anticipated seven-day, five-city state visit of India on February 17. This is his first trip to India after he became Prime Minister in 2015, but he has always had India and Indians around him. He is familiar with Indian rituals and customs. He and his spouse are practitioners of yoga. He can even perform bhangra. He has several friends, advisors and colleagues of Indian origin, given that the Indian diaspora comprising 3.6% of the Canadian population is well-educated, affluent and politically suave. 🔹The Khalistan angle He is particularly close to the Sikh community, which affectionately calls him ‘Justin Singh’. Never in Canadian history have at least 19 persons of Indian origin been elected to the House of Commons, of which 17 (15 Sikhs) represent Mr. Trudeau’s Liberal Party. He has rewarded four Sikhs with key Cabinet berths. As such these should have been heyda...

Jacob Zuma’s exit as South Africa’s President must lead to an institutional clean-up Jacob Zuma’s resignation as South Africa’s President brings an opportunity to start cleaning up its government and institutions. The ‘Teflon’ president, a moniker the 75-year-old earned for his survival skills, finally gave in to weeks of pressure from his own party, the African National Congress, ending an almost nine-year-long, scandal-hit presidency marred by hundreds of allegations and charges of fraud, money laundering and racketeering. Despite having survived eight no-confidence motions, Mr. Zuma had little choice this time as his own party asked him to resign, with ANC legislators looking inclined towards even a no-confidence motion against him in parliament. The growing pressure on Mr. Zuma was also visible on some of those who allegedly colluded with him, notably the India-born Gupta brothers whose home in the swish Saxonwold suburb of Johannesburg was raide...

The more necessary it seems, the less likely it gets. That is the story of public spending on education. In 1966, the Kothari Commission had said in its voluminous report that India should aim at spending 6% of its GDP on education. More than half a century later, we are spending less than 3% of our GDP on education. D.S. Kothari’s recommendation gives us a symbolic measure of the importance given to education. At the time the commission chaired by him was drafting its report, India was passing through a difficult period. Famines, wars and political uncertainty were taking their toll. The economy was stuck in sluggish growth, and the idealism of the freedom struggle was waning. 🔹Walking the talk Conditions are rather different today. By any standards, India is more prosperous today and people’s aspirations are higher. Education is valued across different sections and strata. Despite this favourable social climate, education has failed to become a matter of national...

The courage of a group of Dawoodi Bohra women, who were subject to female genital mutilation (FGM) and recently began speaking about it publicly, has “shone a light” upon the often debilitating, secretive process in India, like never before. Two important developments have followed in the wake of this community coming forward with their personal stories: a broader and more intense dialogue against the practice has evolved, and the most committed followers of the practice from the community have retaliated. A newly formed association of women from the community who believe in the practice describe it as khatna, khafz, or female circumcision. They consider it to be a harmless cultural and religious practice of over 1,400 years that involves a tiny excision of the prepuce, which is the fold of skin surrounding the clitoris. Khatna is carried out on girls as young as seven years of age. These women insist that female circumcision and FGM are different things: while followers o...