Ravi Shankar Prasad interview of the week

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

Interview of the Week with Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Law & IT Minister  

Law is taking its genuine course in probes against the corrupt

We can’t look the other way in corruption cases

India is free from cyber attacks, our systems are in place

Digital payment charges are being looked into

By Harish Gupta

Lokmat: Where do you stand on Triple Talaq now that the SC has heard it ?

R S Prasad: I will not make any comment now that the SC has completed hearing on its validity. But we have stated our views very clearly. Its not an issue related to any religion or community. It relates to gender justice, gender dignity, gender equality. After nearly 70 years of India`s Independence, the issue of right to live with dignity has been raised by a big segment of country. Our view is clear; It is unconstitutional and must go.

Lokmat: What is the alternate machination if the SC strikes it down?

R S Prasad: We will have to decide after the court judgment.

Lokmat: It is said that you may come out with Muslim Marriage Act?

R S Prasad: All these things are going on. I do not wish to make any comment. But surely the government is open to have a fair mechanism if it is needed.

Lokmat: But you have doing this lip service. Your party has done nothing for Muslims in terms of giving them tickets or positions of eminence ?

R S Prasad: This concern for dignity of women is not for Muslims. What is BETI BACHALO BETI PADHAO, What is Sukanya Samridhi Yojna which I am handling as postal department minister. Why is out of almost 7 Crores transactions in MUDRA 2/3 are woman. Of the nearly 40 lakh IT employees nearly 1/3 are women.

Lokmat: I was talking about giving them political recognition by your party?

R S Prasad:  May be you have a case that we ought to give them more tickets. But there I have differences and I am happy that you asked this question. But other parties symbolism ends by giving them tickets. The real issue is of denial of empowerment of the Muslim women. These parties maintain silence when it comes to their empowerment. 

Lokmat: So you are empowering Muslim women?

R S Prasad: Obviously. Now their voice is heard. Rajiv Gandhi ultimately surrendered despite having a massive majority in the Shah Bano`s case. But the Muslim women in India have got a strong leader in Modi who stands by them in their pain and agony.

Lokmat: You are needling your political opponents one by one by using state agencies in every state and also at the Centre?

R S Prasad: Did we tell Lalu Prasad`s sons to have big land in Delhi and Patna ? Did we advise his daughter to have huge farm houses through means which are questionable?

Lokmat: You have lodged cases against Mayawati’s Brother, congress leaders in Karnataka, Himachal, Haryana and other states ?

R S Prasad: Has any one been chased without any evidence? If there is a case against a Karnataka Minister and crores of rupees are found,  you want Income Tax dept to remain quite? If Mayawati’s brother`s issue is discovered by agencies, you mean to say they should look the other way.

 Lokmat: So you are saying that your CBI, ED, DRI, IT are not going after the opposition parties.

R S Prasad: Your allegation is incorrect that’s what I can say.

Lokmat: All kinds of allegations and probes are being made against Arvind Kejriwal. But why have failed to chargesheet him?

R S Prasad: We do not interfere in the work of any of these agencies.  The law is taking its genuine course without any pressure and without resorting to any manipulation.

Lokmat: You mean the whole lot of Opposition is corrupt?

R S Prasad: There are court rulings in cases where Income Tax is probing cases against high & mighty people, you know. Now they are forming grand alliance. Its nothing but the congregation of the corrupt.

Lokmat: You are selective in acting against political class.In Maharashtra you bitterly campaigned against corruption of NCP leaders like  Ajit Pawar. But did nothing against him ?

R S Prasad: I do not have the facts of the case presently. But the legal process is on against all of  them.

Lokmat: Cyber security is one of the biggest issues and you are handling it……..

R S Prasad: Digital India is changing the face of India now. Two Crore people are on BHIM app for digital payments and more than 20 crore transactions have taken place by linking 27 crore Jan Dhan account with mobile and AADHAR. We have saved more than Rs  50000 crores by directly transferring the monies into their accounts eliminating the middlemen.

Lokmat: But why the banks are still charging higher for digital payments? It’s a great concern?

R S Prasad: There is no charge on BHIM app. The AADHAR PAY which the PM had launched, there is no charge. For other UPI apps, the cost is zero. 

Lokmat: But banks are charging more for digital payments while cash is free of charge?

R S Prasad: Its very low and we are already looking into this issue.

Lokmat: And what about the cyber attacks & security?

R S Prasad: India, fortunately, is free today except a few isolated incidents in AP and in Kerala.

Lokmat: May be India was not targeted by hackers?

R S Prasad: No, not at all. From March-April we have taken enough steps to make our systems secure because we were planning to go digital in a big way.

Lokmat: You mean to say that you had advance information about these attacks?

R S Prasad: All I can say is that we took steps to tighten digital and cyber security systems. We installed PACT system. We advised all the banks and govt. departments to put strong systems in place.

Lokmat: Controversies with regard to Aadhaar refuse to die down. P Chidambram says it was conceived for Direct Benefit Transfer Scheme and was optional?

R S Prasad: The problem of Chidambram is that he is yet to reconcile that he is no more in power. We are doing what they didn’t have the courage to do. We laid Optical fiber network for 2.5 lakh gram panchayats today while they connected less than 100 villages.  We are not making it mandatory.... section 7 says no one shall be denied the right of benefit but you must alternatively come on the AADHAAR system. Who is unhappy? The Poor ? Some people are unhappy because there are no middlemen. I am surprised at Chidambaram’ statements.

Lokmat: So the sinking feeling that Chidambram is having and expressing through his articles is only for him and his party?

R S Prasad: It is completely personal….. why it is so… I will not go into those details. The whole country knows why he is having this sinking feeling. For the Congress, in-spite of getting 44 seats...  in-spite of reduced to single digit in UP... in-spite of a washout in one election after the other, the party is unwilling to learn lessons. It is seeking space in only editorial pages.... good luck to them.

Stand by India

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

Deepavali, the Hindu festival of light, is not just an Indian event. It is a public holiday in as many as 11 countries, including Pakistan, as it signifies the victory, among other things, of hope over despair.

As far as India's economy is concerned, it is doubtful if the coming Deepavali has much bright tidings to offer. The indicators on the ground, like sluggish sales of fancy cars, expensive flats and such big-ticket items, are matched with an array of drooping indicators. Of the latter, I think the most significant is the sharp fall in the second quarter of 2016-17 of the Gross Fixed Capital Formation (GFCF). The GFCF measures the capital deployed in investment at a given point. From the first quarter of the current financial year to the second, it dropped from Rs 8,861.47 billion to Rs 8,639.56 billion. If investible capital shrinks, how will industry grow?

The fact that industry is caught in a mess is apparent from data churned out by the Central Statistical Office. Industrial production in India has contracted 0.7 per cent year-on-year in August 2016. It follows a 2.5 per cent squeeze in July. The declining industrial production figures show sector-wise collapse. Like a 49.4 per cent drop in electrical machinery and apparatus, and a 22.4 per cent fall in furniture and wearing apparel. Arguably, it points towards a downward spiral in standard of living. Such a conclusion is logical in view of the poor growth of bank credit, which stood at around 10-12 per cent year-on-year most of this year against 16-18 per cent in 2013-14 and in subsequent years. 

Cement production is down to 22,283 thousands of tonnes in August, from over 25,000 thousand tonnes most of 2015. The number of cars registered in September, though a respectable 268,058, is still way behind the previous monthly high of 304,000 in March 2012. The index measuring infrastructure output has levelled to 3 after reaching an 8-plus high earlier this year. Although steel has rebounded in the past few months, electricity, coal, natural gas and crude continue to be a dismal story. What is certainly on the rise is the government's military spending, from US $48,403 million in 2013 to US $51,115.9 in 2015. And like most other indices, the export growth languishes and so does import.

Simultaneously, there is a general decline in global interest in the so-called "India story", as evident from more guarded reports on Indian economy in the western media. An ominous silence has descended on the IT sector, India's proud emblem of technological maturity. IT czars like TCS and Infosys, after showing anaemic results for quarter after quarter, are now engaged in a battle for survival. Their Western clients are now reluctant to outsource operations to foreign vendors as globalisation as a concept is facing rough weather politically. But the brick-and-mortar alternative to information technology is gasping. The recent news of a few hundred graduate engineers being among seven thousand applicants for 120-odd sweepers' jobs, at Amroha in Uttar Pradesh, was found so commonplace that it buried it in the inside pages.

Narendra Modi, before becoming prime minister, routinely condemned the previous government for "jobless growth". On assuming office, he launched a slew of projects such as Start up India, Digital India, Smart City, Skill India, MUDRA. All these were aimed at creating a new class of Indians educationally and professionally equipped to manage their careers themselves. But so far these have remained largely signboards. On the other hand, a million boys and girls are entering the labour market each month with little hope to land a job. In a recent sample survey, 77 per cent of households were found without a single member with regular income. Unemployment rate has hit a five-year high of five per cent. It is argued that definition of employment and employability has changed with the change of time and merely obtaining an engineering degree alone cannot take the person to an upper income bracket. Lakhs of such graduates passing out each year are casual employees or have some seasonal income.

Modi came to power promising a remedy to jobless growth, but it seems he does not have a silver bullet. The new entrants in the labour market severely lack training. Just 2.5 per cent of the country's working population have any vocational training, compared to 60 to 70 per cent in OECD countries. As its natural consequence, reservation demands in jobs and educational institutions from caste groups like Patel, Maratha and Jat have become the defining feature of electoral politics. 

Modi is a globe-trotter and claims having strong views on all nations, including China, the neighbour with which he is involved in duelling on terrorism. Since he has a deeper knowledge of global economy, he’d have noticed that China emerged as the ‘workshop of the world’ by systematically keeping its currency devalued for decades, with its workers producing goods cheaply because they were paid very little. Something similar, though on a smaller scale, is happening in Bangladesh, where unskilled or semi-skilled workers, mainly women, have turned the country into an international hotspot for ready-made garments.

At a time when jobs are disappearing everywhere, and Artificial Intelligence has been to industry what steam was two centuries ago, it requires innovative thinking to create jobs for the multitude. It calls for a deeper understanding of how resource-poor nations engage large number of workers in making export-grade products. Maybe India needs to rethink its strategy of holding the exchange value of its currency at a high level, as it is more necessary to earn dollars than to let the rich buy his BMW cheap. It is also necessary to enable more women to join the productive work force. That will be more useful than leaders showering advice on women about dressing and lifestyle.