✌✌✌✌ THE HINDU ✌✌✌✌
✌✌ Patriotism by diktat ✌✌
Patriotism is a value that most people cherish without being required to demonstrate it in visible ways. Unfortunately, a notion has emerged in the country that it ought to be articulated frequently, demonstrated publicly and enforced in such a manner that it will be an object lesson to the odd dissenter. Given this, it is hard to understand the rationale for the Supreme Court’s order that every cinema hall should play the national anthem before the exhibition of a film. India has given itself an anthem easily recognised as a lofty and moving rendering of the country’s oneness amidst diversity. It hardly requires judicial promotion. The singing of the national anthem on special occasions, especially in schools and colleges, is sufficient to help citizens identify the anthem with something larger than their daily concerns. There are clear rules on when the anthem should be played. Any misuse of the anthem or any wilful insult to it is legally prohibited, and those aggrieved by any such incident can take recourse to the law. Beyond this, in a mature democracy such as India, there really is no need to make the playing or the singing of the anthem mandatory through a judicial order.
It is not clear why cinema halls were singled out for special treatment by the Supreme Court. The only possible explanation is that they were required to play the national anthem some decades ago, a practice that has been largely given up. But if the logic for playing the national anthem at places where a sizeable number of people congregate is taken to its logical conclusion, they should be extended, for example, to dance and music recitals as well. To take this line of reasoning even further, why not to every sitting of the legislature, or the court itself? Playing the national anthem in theatres at the end of the film was given up some three decades ago in most parts of the country, largely as a result of the tendency of a section of the audience to walk out. To reintroduce it now gives the impression that cinemas should forever be the main sites for the demonstration of patriotism. Matters such as commercial exploitation and dramatisation of the anthem cannot be the subject of blanket interim orders in a public interest petition. The appeal to a sense of ‘constitutional patriotism’ is also intriguing, as the only reasonable interpretation of the term is that of having allegiance to the values underlying the Constitution. This is not something that can be enforced by judicial diktat, or by making cinema halls the playground for a misplaced sense of patriotism.
✌✌ HIV: The self-test option ✌✌
With the World Health Organisation releasing guidelines on HIV self-testing, a major obstacle in improving access to diagnosis has been cleared. Though much progress has been achieved in India in making HIV testing accessible and free of cost, many infected persons remain unaware of their status. Across the world, nearly 40 per cent of people with HIV are unaware of their infection and run the risk of unknowingly transmitting it. Besides going a long way in preventing new infections, early diagnosis will help in a prompt start to treatment and enable the infected to live longer and healthier. Though there has been a 66 per cent drop in incidence in 2015 in India compared with 2000, the number of new HIV infections last year was 86,000; children below 15 years of age alone account for 12 per cent of this number. In 2015, the total number of people with HIV in India was estimated to be 2.1 million. Of this, 1.5 million were detected and tested at integrated counselling and testing centres (ICTC) and about a million people are on treatment. This leaves about half a million who are unaware of their HIV status. The government has approved in principle the proposal to take HIV testing closer to those in need by starting community-based testing. This will soon become operational and will be in addition to institutional testing. India is also weighing the option of self-testing.The WHO-approved OraQuick HIV self-testing is based on HIV antibodies present in oral and blood samples. The test can detect antibodies developed within three months of getting infected. It is a screening test, and a positive result should be reconfirmed though a blood-based test. Despite greater awareness, people with HIV still face stigma and discrimination. As a result, getting everyone at risk of HIV infection tested has been a challenge. The OraQuick self-testing makes diagnosis easier and faster, besides ensuring privacy and confidentiality, thus encouraging more people to get tested. But there are challenges in terms of counselling and sensitivity, with the accuracy of the tests pegged at around 93 per cent. Counselling has to be done through innovative ways, such as over the telephone, as in the case of the U.S. Unlike the conventional method of getting tested at ICTCs, people self-testing should be more aware about the possibility of false negatives. But the risk of not getting tested far outweighs the limitations posed by self-testing. Twenty-three countries have in place policies that support HIV self-testing. It is time India adopted it quickly to enable more people to test themselves and help break the transmission cycle.
✌✌✌✌ THE ECONOMIC TIMES ✌✌✌✌
✌✌ Bring down costs of electronic payments ✌✌
The government’s move to encourage electronic payments to move to a less-cash society is laudable. The use of plastic creates audit trails, enables faster and secure payments for transactions, and lowers risk and cash-handling costs.
Security is already widely recognised as a challenge in e-payments. That calls for technological solutions, besides strict adherence to standard operating protocols for businesses and consumers as regards passwords and other sensitive data.
Cost of e-payments is another challenge that must be tackled. Banks have now waived the merchant discount rate (MDR) — fee paid by the merchant for every transaction conducted on the point-ofsale machine installed by the bank.
The waiver, till December 31, is only a temporary measure to push merchants to use electronic payments.
There is scope to reduce each element in the cost of electronic payments: the fee collected by the card-issuing bank that accounts for bulk of the cost of using credit or debit cards, the fee collected by the payment network such as RuPay, Visa or MasterCard, and the fee charged by the bank that places the cardswipe machine at the shop and settles the payment.
Cost of e-payments is another challenge that must be tackled.
MDR on debit cards has been capped at 1 per cent for transactions over Rs 2,000.
The National Payments Corporation of India has set a low benchmark via RuPay for the cost of the accounting and security services that allow card-issuing and payment-acquiring banks to put through payments.
Visa and MasterCard must meet this benchmark. However, the card-issuing and payment-acquiring banks continue to charge heavy fees that can afford to come down with the likely upsurge in e-payments.
Costs associated with the use of cash are borne by the RBI, which could spare some funds for card payments’ infrastructure and software costs.
Patriotism is a value that most people cherish without being required to demonstrate it in visible ways. Unfortunately, a notion has emerged in the country that it ought to be articulated frequently, demonstrated publicly and enforced in such a manner that it will be an object lesson to the odd dissenter. Given this, it is hard to understand the rationale for the Supreme Court’s order that every cinema hall should play the national anthem before the exhibition of a film. India has given itself an anthem easily recognised as a lofty and moving rendering of the country’s oneness amidst diversity. It hardly requires judicial promotion. The singing of the national anthem on special occasions, especially in schools and colleges, is sufficient to help citizens identify the anthem with something larger than their daily concerns. There are clear rules on when the anthem should be played. Any misuse of the anthem or any wilful insult to it is legally prohibited, and those aggrieved by any such incident can take recourse to the law. Beyond this, in a mature democracy such as India, there really is no need to make the playing or the singing of the anthem mandatory through a judicial order.
It is not clear why cinema halls were singled out for special treatment by the Supreme Court. The only possible explanation is that they were required to play the national anthem some decades ago, a practice that has been largely given up. But if the logic for playing the national anthem at places where a sizeable number of people congregate is taken to its logical conclusion, they should be extended, for example, to dance and music recitals as well. To take this line of reasoning even further, why not to every sitting of the legislature, or the court itself? Playing the national anthem in theatres at the end of the film was given up some three decades ago in most parts of the country, largely as a result of the tendency of a section of the audience to walk out. To reintroduce it now gives the impression that cinemas should forever be the main sites for the demonstration of patriotism. Matters such as commercial exploitation and dramatisation of the anthem cannot be the subject of blanket interim orders in a public interest petition. The appeal to a sense of ‘constitutional patriotism’ is also intriguing, as the only reasonable interpretation of the term is that of having allegiance to the values underlying the Constitution. This is not something that can be enforced by judicial diktat, or by making cinema halls the playground for a misplaced sense of patriotism.
✌✌ HIV: The self-test option ✌✌
With the World Health Organisation releasing guidelines on HIV self-testing, a major obstacle in improving access to diagnosis has been cleared. Though much progress has been achieved in India in making HIV testing accessible and free of cost, many infected persons remain unaware of their status. Across the world, nearly 40 per cent of people with HIV are unaware of their infection and run the risk of unknowingly transmitting it. Besides going a long way in preventing new infections, early diagnosis will help in a prompt start to treatment and enable the infected to live longer and healthier. Though there has been a 66 per cent drop in incidence in 2015 in India compared with 2000, the number of new HIV infections last year was 86,000; children below 15 years of age alone account for 12 per cent of this number. In 2015, the total number of people with HIV in India was estimated to be 2.1 million. Of this, 1.5 million were detected and tested at integrated counselling and testing centres (ICTC) and about a million people are on treatment. This leaves about half a million who are unaware of their HIV status. The government has approved in principle the proposal to take HIV testing closer to those in need by starting community-based testing. This will soon become operational and will be in addition to institutional testing. India is also weighing the option of self-testing.The WHO-approved OraQuick HIV self-testing is based on HIV antibodies present in oral and blood samples. The test can detect antibodies developed within three months of getting infected. It is a screening test, and a positive result should be reconfirmed though a blood-based test. Despite greater awareness, people with HIV still face stigma and discrimination. As a result, getting everyone at risk of HIV infection tested has been a challenge. The OraQuick self-testing makes diagnosis easier and faster, besides ensuring privacy and confidentiality, thus encouraging more people to get tested. But there are challenges in terms of counselling and sensitivity, with the accuracy of the tests pegged at around 93 per cent. Counselling has to be done through innovative ways, such as over the telephone, as in the case of the U.S. Unlike the conventional method of getting tested at ICTCs, people self-testing should be more aware about the possibility of false negatives. But the risk of not getting tested far outweighs the limitations posed by self-testing. Twenty-three countries have in place policies that support HIV self-testing. It is time India adopted it quickly to enable more people to test themselves and help break the transmission cycle.
✌✌✌✌ THE ECONOMIC TIMES ✌✌✌✌
✌✌ Bring down costs of electronic payments ✌✌
The government’s move to encourage electronic payments to move to a less-cash society is laudable. The use of plastic creates audit trails, enables faster and secure payments for transactions, and lowers risk and cash-handling costs.
Security is already widely recognised as a challenge in e-payments. That calls for technological solutions, besides strict adherence to standard operating protocols for businesses and consumers as regards passwords and other sensitive data.
Cost of e-payments is another challenge that must be tackled. Banks have now waived the merchant discount rate (MDR) — fee paid by the merchant for every transaction conducted on the point-ofsale machine installed by the bank.
The waiver, till December 31, is only a temporary measure to push merchants to use electronic payments.
There is scope to reduce each element in the cost of electronic payments: the fee collected by the card-issuing bank that accounts for bulk of the cost of using credit or debit cards, the fee collected by the payment network such as RuPay, Visa or MasterCard, and the fee charged by the bank that places the cardswipe machine at the shop and settles the payment.
Cost of e-payments is another challenge that must be tackled.
MDR on debit cards has been capped at 1 per cent for transactions over Rs 2,000.
The National Payments Corporation of India has set a low benchmark via RuPay for the cost of the accounting and security services that allow card-issuing and payment-acquiring banks to put through payments.
Visa and MasterCard must meet this benchmark. However, the card-issuing and payment-acquiring banks continue to charge heavy fees that can afford to come down with the likely upsurge in e-payments.
Costs associated with the use of cash are borne by the RBI, which could spare some funds for card payments’ infrastructure and software costs.
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