Editorial

The recent case of loan default involving IL&FS has roiled the Indian economy and the stock markets over the last few weeks. It has dented the faith of investors not only in the group but in infrastructure finance and NBFCs. The government did take prompt decisive action by setting up a committee of senior corporate leaders, bureaucrats and political leaders to understand the issue and resolve it but it will be sometime before the committee members identify the causes and reasons for the default and deliberate on ways to resolve them.

The risk-averse psyche has reared its head among investors recently and the gold price is having a bull-run, both in the domestic and global markets, as a result of that. Economic volatility at the global level and the sliding valuation of the rupee have made the gold price zoom past the Rs 32,000 per 10 gram mark. Such a spike in the gold price, according to a section of analysts and market observers, might spook and scare away the festive buyers.

Industrial 4.0 new-age technologi­es are disrupting the jobs around the global. This is likely to have a marginal impact on labour surplus economy like India, where more important concerns are creation of more formal or decent jobs and rising non-standard form of work, whi­ch is replacing the limited formal or regular work in the organised sector.

Sexual harassment results in violation of the fundamental ri­ghts of a woman to equality und­er Articles 14 and 15 of the Constitution and her right to life and to live with dignity under Article 21 of the Constitution and right to practice any profession or to carry on any occupation, trade or bu­s­i­ness which includes a right to a safe environment free fr­om sexual harassment.

The United States on Monday annou­nc­ed a new raft of sanctions, whi­ch the world was awaiting with bated breath over the last couple of months, on Iran and threatened further action to pressure its old adversary. The move is part of a wider effort by US president Donald Trump to curb Tehran’s missile and nuclear programmes, and isolate and diminish the Islamic Republic's influence in the Middle East.

Last week saw Pakistan reaching out to every conceivable friend for bailout assistance. It was also seen unable to control radical elements, which overpowered the government decision-making and the judiciary in the Asia Bibi’s case, as well as providing big relief to some militant organisations like JuD and FIF to operate freely. Imran Khan is in China to nod to everything what Chinese say as head of a debt-ridden country after criticising the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) for long and threatening to review the same till he was elected.

It all started with deputy governor Viral Acharya speaking of violation of RBI’s independence by the government, and noting that such excess may lead to market forces creating havoc in the economy. This he did with the backing of governor Urjit Patel in mid-October. Acha­rya’s remark reflects hardening of positions and a breakdown in communication between the regulator and the government.

The government has rolled out key reform processes to lay the framework for sustainable growth and development of the education sector. Higher education institutes (HEI) will be encouraged to adopt competitive benchmarking practices to raise the standards of Indian academics. The ministry of hu­man res­ource development (MHRD) has stated that as part of the reform initiatives, research and innovation would remain the key parameter wh­ile assessing the performance ratings of higher education institutes.

When cornered, why is it that political formations revert to default settings? More importantly, why do these default settings smack of basic instinct and are driven by primal fear? Centrist or right, the default setting is the same. Under relentless attack, polity has no choice it seems in India but to recoil and conduct itself in a manner unbecoming of a democratically elected political apparatus.

Politics has no conscience, although Gandhi upturned, th­r­o­ugh the idea of Satyagraha, the moral turpitude of Ma­chiavellian politics, or Aristotle’s logic of the hierarchy of slaves, women and citizens. Is there a moral ground for politics? Ahimsa created a whole new vocabulary of how non-violence could be the way in which dissent could transform the treachery of crime in politics.