Almost a decade into its enactment, the Supreme Court issued a slew of directions to ensure effective implementation of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act 2013/PoSH Act. This came after the apex court discovered serious apses in the enforcement of the PoSH Act.

 The PoSH Act 2013 -

Background - Vishakha v. The State of Rajasthan (1997) —

Ø  The SC issued the Vishaka Guidelines, with the primary objective of providing a mechanism for workplace sexual misconduct redress and grievance processes.

Ø  These recommendations inspired the PoSH Act - a law administered by the Union Ministry of Women & Child Development (MoWCD).

Objective of the PoSH Act —

It aims to protect the rights of women at work and to make the workplace a safer place for them.

The legislation also functions as a forum for both avoiding and addressing problems.

Provisions of the Act —

Ø  Defines sexual harassment at workplace: Unwanted sexual physical, verbal or nonverbal action is defined as physical contact and advances, demand or desire for sexual favours, making sexually tinged comments, showing pornography, etc.

Ø  The concept of “extended workplace”: It defines “workplace” as any site where an employee goes as a consequence of work, including transportation offered by the organisation for the purpose of travel.

Committees for complaints —

Ø  The Act mandates any corporation or organisation with more than 10 employees to establish an Internal Complaint Committee (ICC) to hear and address sexual harassment allegations.

Ø  The MoWCD introduced (in 2017) an online platform - SHe-Box - that directs complaints to the employer or organisation’s ICC.

Ø  The Act mandates the District Officer to organise a Local Complaint Committee in each district where there are less than 10 workers.

Duties and obligations of employer —

Ø  It is a legal need to handle sexual harassment as a violation of service regulations.

Ø  If the employer fails to comply with the regulations a penalty of Rs. 50000 or it can even lead to cancellation of licence.

Ø  Procedure for complaint against Sexual Harassment at the Workplace -

Ø  An aggrieved female has three months from the date of the tragedy to make a written complaint with the ICC. According to the SC, the time limit can be extended if the lady is unable to submit the complaint owing to mitigating circumstances.

Ø  Before initiating an investigation, the committee can try to resolve the matter through mediation between the women and the responder. If a settlement is reached, no further investigation will be launched.

Ø  If the proposed conciliation does not provide any results, a fresh investigation (to be concluded in 90 days) will be launched. While directing the investigation, the Committee has the same authority as a civil court.

Ø  If the ICC determines that the claim against the defendant is false, the woman may be fired.

Ø  If the complaint is proven, the committee will recommend to the District Officer that sexual harassment be considered as improper conduct in accordance with the Act and the victim woman should be compensated.

Ø  Any individual who is harmed by the ICC guidelines, may file an appeal with the court (HC) within 90 days of their implementation.

Supreme Court’s directions on the effective implementation of POSH Act -

Background —

Ø  The apex court was deciding an appeal against the Bombay HC order upholding an employee’s dismissal from service on sexual harassment charges.

Ø  Allowing the appeal and sending the matter back to the Complaints Committee, the court flagged a report that 16 of the 30 national sports federations (including wrestling) don’t have an ICC a stipulated under PoSH.

Ø  This is indeed a sorry state of affairs and reflects poorly on all the state functionaries.

Ø  Being a victim of such a deplorable act not only dents the self-esteem of a woman, it also takes a toll on her emotional, mental and physical health.

Ø  Many of them are reluctant to report such misconduct and even “drop out from their job.”

Ø  There is the “uncertainty” over who to approach under the Act and the “lack of confidence in the process and its outcome.”

The court issued some key directions to the Centre, states and UTs —

Ø  To undertake a time-bound exercise to verify whether all Ministries, Departments, Government organisations, authorities, Public Sector Undertakings, institutions, bodies, have

Ø  The information regarding the constitution and composition of these committees are to be made readily available on the website of the concerned authority.

Ø  Immediate and effective steps by the authorities to “familiarise” committee members with their duties and the manner in which an inquiry ought to be conducted.

Ø  The bench directed the National Legal Services Authority and State Legal Services Authorities to organise awareness programmes to sensitise employers, employees and adolescent groups.

To promote ‘Aatmanirbharta’ in defence and minimise imports by Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs), the Ministry of Defence has approved 4th Positive Indigenisation List (PIL).

Ø  This fourth list is in continuation to the previous three PILs involving Line Replacement Units

Ø (LRUs)/Sub-systems/Assemblies/Sub-assemblies/Spares and Components.

Ø  The 4th PIL includes 928 strategically-important items, with import substitution value worth Rs 715 crore.

Ø  The DPSUs will undertake indigenisation of these items through different routes under ‘Make’ category and in-house development through the capabilities of MSMEs and private Indian industry.

Ø  These will only be procured from the Indian Industry after the timelines indicated in the list, thereby providing impetus to the growth in economy, enhanced investment in defence and reduction in import dependence of DPSUs.

Ø  In addition, this will augment the design capabilities of the domestic defence industry by involving academia and research institutions.

Ø  The industry may look for Expression of Interest (EoIs)/Request for Proposal (RFPs) on the Srijan Portal — especially designed for this purpose and may come forward to participate in large numbers.

What is a ‘Positive Indigenisation List (PIL)’?

The concept of a PIL was introduced under the Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) 2020.

Under the list, the Army, Navy, and Air Force will only procure the listed items from domestic manufacturers - DPSUs or players from the private sector.

About the ‘Defence Acquisition Procedure - 2020’ -

Ø  The DAP 2020 [erstwhile Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) - first initiated in 2002 and reformed in 2016] has been established as a potential catalyst for the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan, in the sector of defence manufacturing.

Ø  It aims to ensure timely acquisition of military equipment, systems and platforms as required by the Armed Forces with the highest degree of probity, public accountability, transparency, fair competition and level-playing field.

Ø  It eases the procurement and acquisition of upgraded technology, products and services for the Tri-Services and other allied defence services.

Ø  Through its many improved features, it hopes to provide a boost to the Make in India efforts in the field - especially to MSME’s, with an ultimate aim to develop India as a global defence manufacturing hub.

Ø  It will cover all Capital Acquisitions other than Works and Land undertaken by the Ministry of Defence.

The consumer price index inflation (CPI) figures for April have come down to an 18-month low of 4.7% and food prices have fallen even lower (3. 84%). However, to achieve the twin objective of managing inflation with high growth it is important that the RBI and Government of India must work in tandem to manage food and beverages inflation.

Reasons for decline in CPI inflation -

Ø  Decline in Food Prices — Food inflation dropped from 4.79% to 3.84%.

Ø  Decrease in Oil and Fats price — As per the latest NSO data, prices of ‘oil and fats’ declined by 12.33%, followed by vegetables (6.5%), and ‘meat and fish (1.23%) during April on an annual basis.

Ø  RBI’s decision to keep the repo rate unchanged — Recently, the Monetary Policy Committee stopped its rate hike retaining the repo rate at 6.5%.

Concerns -

Managing food and beverages inflation —

Ø  The food and beverages component in the Indian CPI has a weightage of 45.86 per cent, the highest amongst G20 countries.

Ø  Managing this component to around 4 per cent is critical to taming overall inflation.

Ø  This component of inflation cannot be managed only through monetary policy, nor even by fiscal policy, because it is often triggered by external shocks, such as droughts and breakdown of supply chains, for instance, during the Covid pandemic and the Ukraine war.

The overall Cereal and products Inflation —

Ø  The overall cereal and products inflation is still at a very uncomfortable level, 13.7 percent.

Ø  Rice (The biggest crop of the kharif season) inflation (non-PDS) for April was 11.4%.

Ø  Wheat (The most important rabi crop) inflation is still very high at 15.5 per cent.

Milk and Milk products inflation —

Ø  Inflation in this category in April was at 8.85 per cent.

Ø  It has the highest weight amongst 299 commodities that comprise the CPI basket, its contribution to CPI inflation in April was almost 12 per cent, the highest amongst all commodities.

Ø  High Inflation in this category has been attributed to Lumpy Skin Disease that has impacted a large number of animals and the fodder price inflation that has been very high, between 20 and 30 per cent, in recent months.

El Nino effects —

Ø  It could cause below normal rainfall, even a drought.

Ø  All droughts since 1947 have been El Nino years, but all El Nino years are not necessarily drought years.

Ø  The unseasonal rains in April end and the first week of May do not auger well for agriculture.

Some reliefs -

PM Garib Kalyan Yojana — More than 800 million people are getting free rice and/or wheat (5kg/person/month) under the PM-Garib Kalyan Yojana. So, they are well protected from cereal inflation.

Excess FCI buffer stocks — The rice stocks with the Food Corporation of India (FCI) are more than three times the buffer stock norms for rice.

Good Wheat Procurement — The wheat procurement has been sufficiently good (touching 26MT) to meet the requirements of the public distribution system (PDS) which is around 22 MT and it gives some room for open market operations.

Ø  Steps to be taken by the government to tame Cereal and Milk products inflation -

Ø  Proactive buffer stocking policy (unloading excess stocks in open market operations) —

Ø  To tame rice price inflation, the government can unload 5 million tonnes (MT) of rice from the Central Pool in open market operations, and easily bring down the rice inflation to around 4 per cent.

Ø  And the window to do that is from now to around September-October, just before the rice harvest season starts.

Import policy (reducing import duties) —

Ø  Reducing import prices could help in bringing down inflation in milk and milk products.

Ø  The policy instrument to lower import duties on fat, which are currently at 40 per cent and skimmed milk powder (SMP), which is at 60 per cent.

Ø  Indian prices of SMP and fat (butter) are much higher than the global prices, and therefore, by reducing import duties to 10 to 15 per cent, there would be some imports of fat and SMP.

Conclusion -

Inflation is coming down. But to overcome the challenges posed by El Nino, policymakers must check the prices of cereals and milk. These policy actions must be pre-emptive in nature and not reactive to the event.

Recently, Centre directed the e-commerce companies and food delivery players to join the government-backed Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC). Some players like Flipkart and Zomato are trying to set up step down subsidiaries to join this network. However, some other big ones such as Amazon and Swiggy have chosen to stay away so far.

What is Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC)?

Ø  ONDC is an initiative aimed at promoting open networks for all aspects of exchange of goods and services over digital or electronic networks.

Ø  It is to be based on open-sourced methodology, using open specifications and open network protocols independent of any specific platform.

Ø  Making a software or a process open-source means that the code or the steps of that process is made available freely for others to use, redistribute and modify.

Ø  It is developed as a counter to the current duopoly in the Indian e-commerce market which is largely dictated by Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart.

Ø  ONDC is not an application, an intermediary, or software, but a set of specifications designed to foster open interchange and connections between shoppers, technology platforms, and retailers.

It should be noted that ONDC is not —

Ø  A government regulatory body

Ø  A super aggregator application or a platform

Ø  A central intermediary

Ø  A medium to help digitise business.

Promoters —

Ø  It is a non-profit company established by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

Ø  It was incorporated in 2021 with initial investment from Quality Council of India (QCI) and Protean eGov Technologies Limited (formerly NSDL e-Governance Infrastructure Limited).

What led to the creation of ONDC?

Ø  Technological self-reliance

Ø  Demand for level playing field mainly from small retailers

Ø  Lower the barrier of entry and discovery online

Ø  Adoption of open digital ecosystem across key sectors

Ø  Fixing the non-competitive behaviour of big e-commerce firms like Amazon and Flipkart

Ø  To capture the fast growing domestic retail market

How will the ONDC work?

The ONDC platform lies in the middle of the interfaces hosting the buyers and the sellers.

Basically, ONDC ensures transition from platform-centric model to network-centric model.

What are the potential benefits of ONDC?

The strategy paper touts the following benefits of ONDC —

For sellers —

Ø  Access to more buyers

Ø  Better discoverability of products and cost

Ø  Autonomy on terms because of multiple choices for being digitally visible

Ø  Lower cost of doing business

Ø  More options for value chain services like logistics and fulfilment

For buyers —

Ø  Access to more sellers and therefore more choices

Ø  Better service and faster deliveries due to access to hyper-local retailers

Ø  Better customer experience

For technology platforms —

Ø  New opportunities for start-ups to drive innovation in various parts of the network

Ø  Access to the growth of digital commerce through buyer and seller side applications

Ø  Reduced time-to-market and time-to-scale

Ø  Focus on niche aspects leaving other partners to focus on different aspects

Challenges faced by ONDC -

Awareness and information overload —

Ø  A massive awareness campaign has to be organised because most small business owners lack the technical expertise to get involved in this program.

Ø  Another challenge is the sheer information overload that customers has to shift through.

ONDC and UPI —

Ø  ONDC is a far more complex system than UPI.

Ø  The UPI loop closes the moment a transaction is completed.

Ø  But in ONDC, the loop is much longer – you buy something, it has to be delivered offline.

Ø  There needs to be a mechanism for returns, grievance redressal.

Ø  Unlike UPI, which the government has consistently funded, ONDC stakeholders are banks and financial institutions.

Ø  Hence, ONDC is unlikely to receive similar financial or policy support.

Viability —

Ø  So far big players are reluctant to join the network.

Ø  Hence, it raises the question whether ONDC can be a success without the participation of the very entities whose hold over the e-commerce market it is vying to challenge.

Governments own statements on how it wants to roll out ONDC —

Initially, the Commerce Ministry said that ONDC will help small retailers from the onslaught of big tech companies.

Later, everyone – big and small, global or national – was invited to join the ONDC.

This has raised many questions about ONDC#s strategy. This is because, as long as big players compete with the smaller ones on the same platform, they are most likely to come out on top.

The Supreme Court on Thursday clarified that the Lieutenant Governor (L-G) does not have sweeping executive powers over the national capital.

A Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice of India held that the L-G can exercise executive power on behalf of the Centre only in the three areas of public order, police and land in Delhi as mentioned in Article 239AA(3)(a).

It also held that any any change in the L-G’s ambit of power should be supported by a parliamentary legislation which is subject to judicial review by the court.

Administration of the Union Territories (Article 239)

The Union Territories of India are administered by the President of India through an administrator, who is appointed by the President with a suitable designation.

This designation is either a Lieutenant-Governor or Chief Commissioner or Administrator.

The President may appoint a Governor of an adjoining state as the administrator of a Union territory as well. In such case the Governor works independently with regard to the administration of the Union Territory.

Who is a Lieutenant governor?

In India, a lieutenant governor is in charge of a union territory (including National Capital Territory NCT of Delhi) in a similar manner as the Governors of the states of India.

The rank of lieutenant governor is present only in the union territories of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi and Puducherry.

The other territories have an administrator appointed, who is usually an IAS officer or a retired judge of a court. However, the governor of Punjab acts as the administrator of Chandigarh.

The governors and lieutenant governors are appointed by the president for a term of five years.

Special Provisions with respect to Delhi (Article 239AA)

Ø  Article 239AA was inserted by 69th Amendment Act, 1991, which provides special provisions for the Union Territory of Delhi, and since this amendment came into effect, the UT of Delhi is called the National Capital Territory of Delhi.

Ø  The administrator of the NCT as appointed by the President and is known as the Lieutenant-Governor.

Ø  Through Article 239AA, a legislative assembly for NCT of Delhi was created, and the power to decide the number of the seats and reservation of the seats was vested in the Parliament.

Ø  With this, Delhi became a State and the Constitutional provisions with regard to Elections (Article 324-327 and 329) became applicable in NCT.