Daily Hindu Editorials

👉Why we need to go through the timeline of the uncalled-for drama at ICICI Bank👈 Finally, finally, the board of ICICI Bank has ordered a probe into allegations levelled against its CEO, Chanda Kochhar. Does this call for a celebration? No, it doesn’t. The probe comes rather late in the day. And the board is having to refer the matter to an outsider only because of its own inadequate response to the initial set of charges made nearly two years ago. These constitute lapses in governance at a bank that has been characterised as “systemically important” by the regulator. On May 30, the board of directors of ICICI Bank announced that it had ordered an inquiry by an outsider into allegations made by a whistle-blower. These allegations are not to be confused with the ones made by an investor, Arvind Gupta, in 2016. Mr. Gupta had then written to the Prime Minister, with copies to the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India and the Chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Board of Ind...

👉It’s far from fantastic India’s framework on discouraging its use is in disarray👈 As a major producer of plastic waste that ends up in the oceans, India is arguably the best place to host World Environment Day. Union Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan has said the government means business, and the UN theme, “Beat Plastic Pollution”, will not remain an empty slogan. His claim would have inspired greater confidence had India taken its own rules on waste management seriously. Both the Solid Waste Management Rules and the Plastic Waste Management Rules of 2016, which built on previous regulations, mostly remain on paper. State governments have simply not given them the necessary momentum, and the producers of plastic articles that are invariably used just for a few minutes have shown little concern about their negative environmental impact. The Centre’s somewhat liberal estimate shows over 60% of about 25,000 tonnes of plastic waste generated daily is collected. That essentially me...

👉With his Shangri-La Dialogue address, the PM signals a foreign policy re-orientation👈 Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, three of India’s most important partners in Southeast Asia, could not have come at a more important moment in Indian foreign policy positioning. In the past few months, the government has shifted considerably in its signalling, with Mr. Modi visiting China and Russia for informal summits with Presidents Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, respectively. The fact that these visits have taken place at a time the U.S. administration has sharpened its aim at China and Russia with sanctions and threats of a trade war suggests Mr. Modi is also attempting to moderate India’s strategic posturing on the global stage, and striving for a more balanced approach in what it increasingly sees as an uncertain world. India has also maintained its commitment to relations with the U.S. in order to build a “free and open” Indo-Pacific region, mai...

👉A range of policy responses is crucial to tackle the rising incidence of obesity👈 In March, the government announced that it would release an annual “state of nutrition” report, detailing India’s level of stunting, malnutrition and feature best practices for States to scale up nutrition interventions. It is clear that India has a lot to do to tackle nutrition challenges — 26 million children suffer from wasting (a low weight-for-height ratio), more than in any other country. Yet, the country has the second highest number of obese children in the world — 15.3 million in China and 14.4 million in India. While tackling undernutrition through assurance of adequate nutrition (usually interpreted as dietary calories), we need to ensure that it is also about appropriate nutrition (the right balance of nutrients). Our policy response has to move from “food security” to “nutrition security”. 👉New problem India must step up its efforts to fight overweight and obesity just as it...

CENTRE TO MEASURE ‘GREEN GDP’ OF STATES ( ECONOMY) Starting this year, the government will begin a five-year exercise to compute district-level data of the country’s environmental diversity and riches, which despite being huge have never been quantified for. The numbers will eventually be used to calculate every State’s ‘green’ Gross Domestic Product (GDP), a metric which will help in formulating a range of policy decisions, such as compensation to be paid during land acquisition, calculation of funds required for climate mitigation, and so on. Scope of the survey Since it’s the first such a survey being undertaken, a pilot project will be rolled out in this September in 54 districts. Land will be demarcated into “grids” with about 15-20 grids per district. These will capture the diversity in the State’s geography, farmland, wildlife, and emissions pattern, and will be used to compute a value. Much of the data required for the inventory would be sourced from datasets that...