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President of India dedicates ‘RUPAY’ to the nation

President of India dedicates ‘RUPAY’ to the nation 

The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee dedicated ‘RuPay’ India’s own card payment network to the nation today (May 8, 2014) at function at Rashtrapati Bhavan. 

Speaking on the occasion, the President congratulated the Reserve Bank of India for having envisioned the need for such an indigenously managed service in 2005 and for entrustingthis task to the National Payments Corporation soon after its operationalization in 2010. He said that it usually takes five to seven years to build a fully functional card payment network. He was happy to note that the NPCI could make the RuPay service operational by April 2013.

The President said creativity lies in developing products meeting the special needs of the customers by the issuing banks. For a large country like India with a rapidly growing economy, the volume of payment transactions, specially those settled through cards, will be significant in the years ahead. Transactions which are mostly settled today either by way of cash or cheque will progressively make way for card based payment transactions as the economy matures and internet penetration increases. An indigenous system like RuPay will not only reduce the dependence on cash and cheque modes of settlement but will also make it easier to offer products based on specific requirements of diverse user sets within the country.

The President said that seven million cards issued so far is only a fraction of the potential. Launch of milk procurement pre-paid card by milk procurement agencies or grain procurement agencies in Punjab are other such variants of the card payment mechanism which only a card payment system developed within the country can appreciate and implement faster. Dedication of RuPay to the nation is thus symbolic of the maturity of the payment system development in India and contribution of the National Payments Corporation of India to nation building.

Govt’s nod not required to investigate corruption charges

Govt’s nod not required to investigate corruption charges on senior bureaucrats: Supreme Court
As per the Supreme Court, the legal provision which makes approval of competent authority mandatory for CBI to investigate a corruption case against an officer of joint secretary-rank or above is invalid and unconstitutional and has the propensity of protecting the corrupt. The judgement was delivered after the court examined Section 6A of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act (DSPEA), which shields top bureaucrats from being probed in corruption cases without prior approval.

Key observations in the judgment by the SC:

The requirement of Central Government’s approval to probe corruption charges against officer of the rank of joint secretary and above under the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA), is invalid and violates Article 14 of the Constitution.
Equal treatment of corrupt public servants for the purpose of inquiry of offence under the PCA, irrespective of the rank they hold.
Prior approval under Section 6A would result, indirectly, in obstructing the probe and if the CBI is not allowed to carry on the preliminary inquiry how the investigation can proceed.
The issue of protection from inquiry against senior bureaucrats had come under the scanner of the SC 17 years ago when the Centre’s argument was scrapped that being policy makers, they required protection from frivolous complaints. The first petition in filed in 1997 had contested that execution of criminal law gets affected due to the presence of Section 6A in the statute.

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Indian Army conducted “Sarvada Vijay” combat drill in West Rajasthan as part of regular training aimed at honing war-fighting skills in temperatures as high as 45 degree Celsius. Composite infantry and mechanized forces practised swift manoeuvres as part of the air – land battle.

Networked radars, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and aerial surveillance platforms ensured continuous flow of information resulting in battlefield transparency which enabled Commanders to assess and suitably modify their operational plans to meet the emerging challenges. Mobile communication systems integrated with terrestrial network provided efficient communication during manoeuvres.

Issues of antibiotic resistance
For too long, humankind has taken for granted the antibiotics that have held dangerous germs at bay. It was only about 70 years ago that penicillin, the world’s first antibiotic, came into widespread use and revolutionised medicine. Its discoverer, Alexander Fleming, who won the Nobel Prize for his work, presciently warned that disease-causing organisms would become resistant if the drug was improperly used. And that is just what has transpired. Although more antibiotics were subsequently discovered, these drugs have been given with such profligacy that pathogens resistant to them have evolved and spread with alarming rapidity. ‘Superbugs’ resistant to almost all antibiotics have become a problem, raising worries of a return to the bad old days if much greater care was not exercised when prescribing existing drugs and sufficient encouragement for finding new ones was lacking. Now, with its first global report on antimicrobial resistance, the World Health Organization has added its voice to the chorus of concern. The report has documented how bacterial resistance to antibiotics, including those of last resort, is a major health issue confronting all regions of the world. Without urgent, coordinated action, “the world is headed for a post-antibiotic era in which common infections and minor injuries, which have been treatable for decades, can once again kill,” Keiji Fukuda, the health agency’s Assistant Director-General for Health Security, has warned. The report also calls for greater emphasis on preventing infections from occurring, such as with better hygiene and by improving access to sanitation and clean water.

For India, preventing antibiotic resistance from spiralling has to be a matter of urgency. The healthcare burden placed by bacteria such as Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae, which have become resistant to many antibiotics and cause difficult-to-treat infections, is already quite substantial. Bacteria that have acquired a ‘New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase (NDM)’ gene are resistant to even last-resort carbapenem antibiotics, forcing doctors to turn to colistin, a drug that is more than 50 years old. Halting the indiscriminate use of antibiotics is vital. The Union Government has taken an important first step in that direction by introducing a stringent rule that prohibits medical stores from selling 24 key antibiotics without a doctor’s prescription. Much more needs to be done, including getting doctors to prescribe antibiotics only when essential. Hospitals must pay attention to proper infection control. In a country so large and populous, with widely differing levels of healthcare reach, curbing the rise of antibiotic resistance is not easy. But it must be done.