The coronavirus lockdown has reinforced the merits of a basic income scheme. But apart from alleviating distress, the replacement of wasteful subsidies by a basic income scheme would even be financially prudent. It would make economic reform more viable and the public sector more efficient.
Freedom Gazette
Some believe that the migrant crisis unleashed by India's lockdown was inevitable. But the government's own track record proves otherwise. It already has the infrastructure and capacity to respond, including several assets that are not currently being used.
Police violence during the ongoing lockdown in India is dangerously undermining India's fight against the coronavirus. Liberia's experience with Ebola shows that community involvement is as important as the role of emergency services during a pandemic.
Across the world, countries have been forced to sacrifice economic activity to contain the spread of coronavirus. In India, lockdowns and restrictions will have an adverse impact across a range of issues, from NPAs in the banking sector, to trade in the chemical sector.
Judgments of the Supreme Court have pointed out that there is an arbitrary application of the death penalty. This is a gross violation of human rights and is also counterproductive. Harsh punishments will not serve as a deterrent, if the punishment itself is applied arbitrarily.
The working middle class in the West faced difficulties due to globalisation. But unlike in the West, the rise of right-wing populism in India does not have an economic rationale. Instead, it actively sabotages the economic openness which has worked well for India in the past.
The Anti-Defection Law has created a democracy of parties and numbers in India, rather than a democracy of debate and discussion. Lawmaking is increasingly driven, not by the compulsive force of a party’s argument, but by the brute force of a party’s numbers in the legislature.
The Bill gives government agencies unrestricted power to acquire any piece of anonymised non-personal data without guidelines, checks or limitations. Without protection, companies and individuals may be arbitrarily forced to share data.
The existence of intelligence information from India on the Easter attacks indicated to Sri Lanka and to South Asia in general that regional cooperation and mutual support could prevent the reoccurrence of such heinous acts.
Editor-in-Chief Mohamed Zeeshan spoke with Honourable Justice V Gopala Gowda, a retired Judge of the Supreme Court of India, regarding lawmaking under single-party majorities, the independence of the judiciary, judicial reform, and other key issues concerning the judiciary.