In Focus by The Hindu

The appointment of judges to the higher judiciary continues to be mired in controversy. So much so, there have been some sharp, public comments by Law Minister Kiren Rijiju on the subject. He has written to the Chief Justice of India, D.Y. Chandrachud, suggesting that a Central government representative sit on the collegium of Supreme Court judges that makes appointments to the top court. On several occasions, the Centre has sat on appointments that, perhaps, were not to its liking, drawing the ire of the Supreme Court.Justice Chandrachud recently referred to the “basic structure” of the Constitution as the “north star”, or a guide to the judiciary. This comment followed public remarks by Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankar that questioned the “basic structure” judgment delivered by 13 judges of the Supreme Court 40 years ago.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Private capital expenditure has been anaemic for a few years now, a state of affairs that has only been exacerbated by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. Business hates ambiguity and in the last three years, ambiguity alone has ruled our personal and professional lives. As we seek leave behind the pandemic impact and head into another Budget season, it’s time to review private sector investment levels in the country and the effect of the Production-linked Incentive scheme in bringing in investments. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Election Commission, on December 28th, wrote to political parties asking them to attend a demo of a remote Electronic Voting Machine or RVM, which was held on January 16. The EC’s justification for mooting RVMs is to enable domestic migrant workers - who may be working in a state different from where they are on the voter list - to cast their ballot. It has claimed that this measure could remedy the relatively low voter turnout in recent elections. But most of the Opposition parties have expressed scepticism about this proposal, pointing out that the EC’s proposal is not backed by any research or relevant data on migrant workers and their voting behaviour.So, does India really need remote EVMs? How will they work? Is this the right step when there are still doubts being raised about the integrity of EVMs themselves?  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It was only in 2022, after the third wave of COVID-19, that schools in India finally reopened fully, after two plus years of pandemic-related disruptions. Educationists had flagged concerns both about students potentially dropping out and about learning losses. The Annual Status of Education Report 2022, brought out by the NGO Pratham last week, reveals that at least one of these concerns may not be a problem: overall enrolment figures for the 6 to 14 year age group, have increased and the number is now over 98% in 2022. Learning losses however, are steep: both reading and numeracy skills in children have taken a hit.The percentage of class 3 children who were able to read at the level of class 2, has dropped from the already low 27.3% in 2018 to 20.5% in 2022 -- a decline visible across most States, in both government and private schools. The number of children who can do arithmetic at grade level is more varied, but still not promising. India now has National Education Policy 2020, which stresses the importance of fundamentals in education, and a scheme, the NIPUN Bharat programme, launched in 2021, aiming at achieving foundational literacy and numeracy for grade 3 children by 2026-27. But even as roadmap is laid out for lower primary schoolchildren, data from ASER from 2012 to 2022 shows that learning trajectories in upper primary, classes 5 to 8, are relatively flat. So where is the education system stumbling? Families want their children to be educated: this is clearly evident in the rise in number of children going for private tuition classes. What can be done, post-pandemic, to help children catch up with their learning? Do we need better teacher training, bigger budgets and more resources? In our curriculum-heavy, board exam driven system, how can the country ensure no child is left behind in their school career?  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As we begin our countdown to Budget 2023-24, India faces a tough global environment and volatile commodity prices, the latter posing upside risks to inflation. Economists see some bright spots in the economy as also some concerning metrics, especially to do with exports and recent Core Sector or IIP figures that have given no discernible trend in recent months.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On New Year's Day this year, the country was rocked by the news of a horrific accident in Delhi -- 20-year-old Anjali Singh, who was on a scooter, was hit by a car, and her body dragged for several kilometres. Soon after, news reports indicated that investigating officers may consider a lie detector test for the five main accused persons in the crime. This is not the first time a lie detector test has been brought up in the course of an investigation in a high profile case: the accused in the Shraddha Walkar case, Aaftab Poonawala underwent polygraph tests; these tests have begun on three suspects in the murder of a Tamil Nadu Minister's brother and a court has now allowed narcoanalysis and polygraph tests to be conducted on an accused person in the case of Ankita Bhandari, a 19-year-old murdered in Uttarakhand, as per news reports. These are just a few of the recent cases where such "scientific" tests are being used on those accused of crimes.In 2010, a Supreme Court ruling said that the use of narcoanalysis, brain mapping and polygraph tests on the accused, suspected and witnesses to a crime, without their consent, was unconstitutional and violated their right against self-incrimination. It also said that such test results could not be admitted in evidence; however any information/material subsequently discovered with the help of tests undertaken voluntarily, could be admitted.Despite the ruling however, these tests continue to be used, to date. But how scientific are they? Several countries across the world have disbarred or significantly cut down on their use - is there any evidence to suppose that they truly work? Do such invasive procedure violate the rights of those who undergo them? And have they led to any investigative breakthroughs in India? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The past few weeks have seen tremendous excitement around generative AI. Names like ChatGPT, Dall-E, and Stable Diffusion are buzzing around, and start-ups in the Generative AI space are being flooded with multiple rounds of funding worth millions of dollars. Apparently, all you need to do is type a textual prompt, and you can have an original news article or a whole new painting ready in a matter of seconds.So, what exactly is generative AI? What makes it different from the other kinds of artificial intelligence that we are accustomed to? What are its potential applications? And what are the ethical concerns over this technology?  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pakistan’s economic woes are not new. With dipping foreign exchange reserves and mounting debt, the country has a Himalayan climb ahead when it comes to getting its economy in order.Pakistan’s Prime Minister has just returned from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – two countries that have always been helpful to Islamabad in times of crisis. This time, too, they have promised to help out.So, what are the dimensions of Pakistan’s economic crisis and can the problem be fixed?  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Artificial intelligence has helped take over some of the mundane tasks done by humans across sectors, in recent years. It has helped enhance the value that humans bring to their jobs. But there is also fear that automation may replace humans, leaving us without options for livelihoods. Shop-floor automation in manufacturing is an example that has given rise to such anxieties. Where does AI go from here. In a conversation with The Hindu, Manish Bahl, founder, Curious Insights and former head of the cenre for the Future of Work in Cognizant says there will be job impact, as also job creation. Where he sounds a warning bell is on the education sector that is likely preparing students to fight artificial intelligence instead of equipping them to complement these technologies. Where creativity and innovation flourish, artificial intelligence can but take on a secondary role. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The town of Joshimath in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district is sinking. More than 700 houses are known to have developed cracks and nearly 150 families have been moved to safer locations. The Uttarakhand and Central governments are scrambling to deal with a problem that is now a full-fledged crisis. Teams of scientists have been deployed to investigate reasons behind the sinking of the town.For years, friends of the Himalayas have been warning that unchecked building activity, including the construction of dams, could jeopardise the lives and livelihoods of people not just in Uttarakhand but impact those living in downstream areas.Ravi Chopra, founder director of the People’s Science Institute, is one of those who has been watching the impact of so-called development on the Himalayas for more than three decades from his perch in Dehradun. Last year, he resigned as the chair of a high-powered committee to study the impact of expanding the road network to service the many shrines in Uttarakhand.Ravi has just returned from Joshimath and he has joined us to discuss what’s happening there.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices