Daily Hindu Editorials

💥The move to recognise Lingayats as a separate religion must be seen in a political and historical context “Don’t say, ‘Who is he? Who is he?’ Say, ‘He is one of us. He is one of us.’” This excerpt from a popular vachana (a saying in verse form) of Basava, which views the Lingayat community as a boundless entity where there is no outsider, offers a glimpse of the radical theology of Lingayat dharma, which he founded in the 12th century. In another vachana of his, shedding “disgust” towards “others” is held out as a moral imperative alongside other foundational ones that forbid theft, murder, lies and slander for attaining inner and outer purity (shuddhi). The Lingayats evolved elaborate rituals to mark the distinctiveness of their dharma from the Brahminical, Jaina and folk faiths existing at that time. Composed by men and women from all “castes” (or occupational backgrounds), the extensive body of vachanas are in Kannada, not Sanskrit. They elevate labour to a spiritual ide...

💥The controversy is a wake-up call to press ahead with a robust data protection law click here    https://drive.google.com/file/d/19AIu7w2Hvs8A0ycxEJ0jYvb9FH2ndUYM/view?usp=sharing The world has just learned how a data analytics firm, Cambridge Analytica, harvested the data of 50 million Facebook users and used that information to feed strategies such as ‘behavioural microtargeting’ and ‘psychographic messaging’ for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in the U.S. Chris Wylie, a former CA employee-turned-whistle-blower, set off a storm with revelations of how the company had deployed a ‘psychological warfare’ tool for alt-right media guru Steve Bannon to try to sway the election in Mr. Trump’s favour. CA chief executive Alexander Nix, who was suspended a few days ago following an undercover report by a British TV broadcaster, said the company has used other dubious methods in projects worldwide — including honeytraps to discredit clients’ opponents. The combination of us...

💥Protecting innocent persons is fine, as long as the SC/ST Act is not de-fanged Will laying down procedural safeguards to curb false accusations work against the interest of protecting the oppressed from discrimination and caste-based atrocities? This is the salient question that arises from the Supreme Court verdict that has taken note of the perception that the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, is being rampantly misused to settle personal scores and harass adversaries. On the face of it, it is difficult to fault the court’s approach. It is settled law that the mere scope for misuse of an Act is not a ground to invalidate it. Constitution courts seek to preserve the spirit of such legislation on the one hand and to evolve guidelines to prevent its misuse on the other. This is precisely what the two-judge bench has aimed to do. It has ruled that Section 18, which bars grant of anticipatory bail to anyone accused of violating its pro...

💥Till the central grid becomes reliable, a solar- and wind-powered microgrid is the way to light up remote areas One often comes across news about variable renewable energy sources like solar photovoltaic and wind having reached ‘grid parity’. What is the concept of grid parity? Electricity grid is a very complex system. It involves long-distance transmission of electricity at high voltage, step-up and step-down transformers, and a distribution network at load centres. Various electricity generators and consumers are connected to it. 👉Complex network Grid parity can be seen in two different ways: generator-end grid parity and consumer-end grid parity. Generator-end grid parity is limited to the plant boundary and does not include the cost of the grid system. To ensure that electricity is always available to consumers on a reliable basis, a grid manager has to contract enough electric supply from generators available on demand at all times. In India, the peak demand occu...

👍 YES Jagdish Shettigar 👉 Disturbances on account of demonetisation and GST were purely short term Looking at various indicators such as an increasing trend in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) and GDP growth rates, there is a clear signal that the economy is back on track. Disturbances on account of demonetisation and the goods and services tax (GST) were purely short term, and short-term disturbances were only to be expected. Employment-generating sectors like construction, the worst hit by demonetisation, have already started reviving — demand is picking up because of falling prices and this is obviously due to minimum exposure to black money. There are indications that the government is realising the need to move towards the ideal GST by addressing the glitches experienced at present. Moreover, with the revival of India's major markets such as the U.S., Eurozone and Japan since September 2017, exports have started picking up, accounting for about 15% of the G...

💥Laws to do this are non-existent in India After the Cambridge Analytica crisis exploded, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad warned Facebook against the misuse of Indians’ data and any attempt to influence the electoral processes of this country. Unsurprisingly, the issue subsequently took on a partisan hue after the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress started trading accusations about hiring the services of Cambridge Analytica. Regardless, the fact remains that a clear mention was made by representatives of that company, which stands accused of misusing the data of 50 million users stored on Facebook and rigging multiple elections worldwide, of political involvement in India. In a sense the data of Indians has been ripe for the plucking for some time now. Statista, an online data portal, estimates that India had 281.81 million mobile phone Internet users in 2016 and would have an estimated 492.68 million mobile phone Internet users by 2022. In 2019, there would be a...

💥A proposed law addresses an invisible crime The Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill of 2018 addresses one of the most pervasive yet invisible crimes affecting the most vulnerable persons, especially women and children. There has been no specific law to deal with human trafficking, which is considered the third largest organised crime violating basic human rights. The Bill addresses, among other things, aggravated trafficking for forced labour, begging, trafficking by administering chemical substances or hormones to a person for the purpose of early sexual maturity, trafficking of a woman or child for the purpose of marriage or under the pretext of marriage or after marriage. The proposed law also punishes promotion or facilitation of human trafficking by, for instance, manufacturing fake certificates. The Bill ensures confidentiality of victims and witnesses, a time-bound trial, and repatriation of victims. It also provides for simult...