Fiinovation Reviews: Need of Stringent Policy on Rare Diseases

In the year 2013, a petition was filed in Delhi High Court by the seven-year old Mohammed Ahmed suffering from the rare disease “Gaucher”. It is a hereditary disorder which is caused by the absence of enzyme which breaks down fat and releases energy. The absence of this enzyme leads to fat building all over the body and patients suffer from bone pain and anemia. In some cases, it may also lead to death. Although, this disease can be treated through the replacement therapy of enzymes and the person can lead a normal life under all medications and precautions, however, it can never be completely cured. The cost of therapy is Rs. 6 lakh per dose and has to be administered every month till the patient is alive. Since, his father is a rickshaw-puller and earns daily wages for survival he knocked the door of High Court for help.

Gaucher is one of the 7,000 rare diseases that afflict less than 6% of the global population. Looking at the rare phenomenon of this disease, pharmaceutical companies don’t consider it as an economically viable drug and end up pricing them as high as possible to derive profits. Even these companies don’t invest much on the research of the Orphan Drugs making them almost inaccessible for the weak and marginalised sections of the society.

In order to encourage the pharmaceutical companies to stimulate research for the treatment of rare diseases, the Orphan Drugs Act was passed by the US government in 1983. The law offered different incentives like smaller clinical trials, higher rates of regulatory success, extended exclusivity and tax rebates. Laws on similar line have been replicated in other countries such as European Union, Japan and Australia making it economically viable and commercially attractive for investing in the Research and Development (R&D) of the rare diseases. However, these companies ignore the incentives offered by the government and sell the orphan drugs at inflated prices. Rituximab, an orphan oncology drug, is one such drug in this category which is also the second highest selling drug in the world. The patients of developed country have higher per capita income and also governed by good government health policies hence they can afford them whereas it is completely unaffordable for the patients of developing countries considering their economic status and flaws present in the healthcare policies.

The Delhi High Court gave full attention to the case of Mohammed Ahmed causing lot of stir and scrutiny in the existing healthcare policies governing the nation. Before giving his judgment, Justice Manmohan analysed many other cases which have proved that the right to health and access to healthcare is implicit in Articles 21, 38 and 46 of the Indian Constitution.

He concluded that “every person has a fundamental right to quality health care – that is affordable, accessible and compassionate.” While recognizing the fact that every citizen cannot expect to receive free medical treatment at the state expense he also held the government responsible for not devising favorable policies for ensuring that every citizen can afford the treatment of rare diseases.

The court suggested the government to increase investment in the healthcare sector and formulate best practices and polices related to the treatment of rare diseases. It also confirmed that the act of financial aid treatment of rare diseases will be qualified as a CSR activity. It also directed the state government to arrange treatment for Mohammed Ahmed free of cost at AIIMS whenever he requires it, as per his constitutional right.

Learning lessons from this case, Karnataka became the first state in India to release a Rare Diseases and Orphan Drugs Policy. It recommended to implement the preventive and carrier testing, which is a means of reducing morbidity and mortality. Considering the fact that around 80% of the rare diseases` have genetic connection, it also suggested to the pharmaceutical companies to use genetic testing for accelerating the identification of the critical genes involved in rare diseases.

The state also highlighted about the flaw present in the Insurance Laws of India due which often acts as huge disadvantage for the patients suffering from the rare disease in India. The private insurance companies of India consider the genetic disorders as pre-existing conditions, hence, on that basis doesn’t provide any insurance cover for the same. Since, most of the rare diseases are genetic in nature; hence patients don’t get any support from the existing insurance policy.

The state emphasised on the awareness programmes to combat delay in diagnosis and treatment. It also called for the enactment of an orphan drugs statute to allow for tax breaks, funding and exclusive marketing rights as incentives for orphan drug discovery.

The policy has requested the IRDA (Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority) to re-consider this exclusion from the above mentioned laws and at least provide basic coverage of rare diseases at reasonable premiums.

Fiinovation recommends the other states of India to follow the footsteps of Karnataka to ensure every citizen of India has access to affordable healthcare facilities. The state-led PSUs and private companies can utilize their CSR funds to undertake healthcare initiatives involving rare diseases for extending support to the weak and marginalized sections of the society.

 

By Manisha Bhatia

Media & Communications, Fiinovation

 

Budget Highlights – Education Sector

The much awaited Union Budget 2017 was presented by the Finance Minister Arun Jaitely on 1^st February 2017. Education is one of the key components for driving economical growth and acts as impetus for government schemes such as Make in India, Digital India and Skill India. Government should devise schemes to boost other sectors such as Automation, Artificial Intelligence, Textile, Energy etc. apart from focusing on the IT and applied IT sectors.

It is extremely important to pay attention on improving the quality of educational institutes for creating skilled workforce, ready to join the industry. The key budget highlights of the Education sector are as following –

• In year 2017, citizens will gain access to SWAYAM, a massive open online courses (MOOC) platform. This education portal, will be introduced with 350 online courses and will be providing high quality e-content to all the colleges and universities free of cost.
• Job-creating packages for textile sector
• Good quality institutions which will possess better quality and education
• 100 international centres will be launched across the country for providing assistance to the youth seeking jobs outside India
• PM Kaushal KendrasPM Kaushal Kendras to be extended to 600 districts
• 5 crore youth to be trained under Sankalp programme launched by government
• Quality and market relevance will be noted in vocational training
• Special scheme for employment has been launched in the textile sector
• National Testing Agency will be conducting major entrance examinations
• CBSE will be freed from conducting examinations, and will focus majorly on academics
• Skill strengthening to be implemented from this year with a budget of Rs 2,200 crore
• Greater autonomy will be provided to major institutes
• UGC will be reformed for higher education, colleges and institutions will give more autonomy
• Two new AIIMS to be opened in Jharkhand and Gujarat
• Big employment opportunities to come up in tourism sector
• Government will provide education through digital platform and the country will be turned into an electronics hub
• Additional opportunities for employment of women to open up through model shops and establishment bill
• The BHIM app has been downloaded 17 million times, and special cash back scheme for BHIM users

The main highlight of the budget in education sector was the introduction of 350 online courses and big employment opportunities to be introduced in textile and tourism sectors.

By Manisha Bhatia

Media & Communications, Fiinovation

FIINOVATION OBSERVES – WORLD SOCIAL JUSTICE DAY

World Social Justice Day is observed annually on 20^th February for promoting efforts to tackle global issues such as poverty, unemployment, gender equality and exclusion to create an equitable society for all. It promotes social justice, solidarity, harmony & equality for marginalised communities, women and immigrants. The theme of World Justice Day in 2017 is “Preventing conflict and sustaining peace through decent work”. On this day many organisations including the United Nations and International Labour Organisation present plans and issue statements regarding the promotion of social justice. Additionally, campaign groups, trade unions and volunteers are also invited to mark their support on this day.

In 2007, the World Day of Social Justice was introduced in the UN agenda. It urged governments to focus on three important aspects;

a) reaffirmation of commitments made in Geneva Development Summit 1995,

b) recalling the commitment to promote national and global economic systems based on the principles of justice, equity, democracy participation, transparency, accountability and inclusion and

c) reaffirming the commitment made in the 2005 World Summit Outcome to full and productive employment and decent work for all, including for women and young people.

Keeping focus on these aspects will remove the barriers that people face because of their gender, age, race, ethnicity, religion, culture or disability.

Equality is the basic fundamental right of every society and in order to achieve the same, governments have created a framework for action to promote social justice at national, regional and international levels. The governments accept the fact that holistic economic growth can be achieved only by promoting equitable distribution of income, resources and providing everyone an equal opportunity for growth and development irrespective of race, ethnicity, gender, religion, culture or disability. They promote the belief that only social justice can help in achieving the peaceful coexistence within and among the nations.

United Nations also promotes social justice as part of their global mission to achieve equality for all. The recent adoption of the Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization by the International Labour Organisation is one example of the UN system’s commitment to social justice. The Declaration focuses on guaranteeing fair outcomes for all through employment, social protection, social dialogue, fundamental principles and rights at work.

Fiinovation through its association with corporations for CSR and Sustainability initiatives, have always promoted social justice. It believes that there are serious challenges in front of us, including financial crises, insecurity, poverty, exclusion and inequality within and among societies and considerable bottlenecks to further social integration and full participation in the economy. The road ahead would be to incorporate social integration activities within the social development programmes to boost equitable growth in the country.

“With exclusion and inequality on the rise, we must step up efforts to ensure that all people, without discrimination, are able to access opportunities to improve their lives and those of others.” – Former Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

By Manisha Bhatia

Media & Communications, Fiinovation

India Celebrates – The 68th Republic Day

The Constitution of India came into force on 26^th January 1950 and the day is marked as the Republic Day which gave power to the people from the hands of a few. It was in 1930 on January 26^th when the most powerful political entity in India, the Indian National Congress declared ‘Purna Swaraj’ opposing the Dominion status offered by the British, suggesting another importance of selecting the date as Republic Day.

The day’s highlight has always been the celebrations at Rajpath before the President of India. The Republic Day Parade in Delhi showcases the nation’s Defence Capability, Cultural and Social Heritage. The celebrations goes on for a period of 3 days and ends with the Beating Retreat conducted on the evening of 29^th January.

Being a high profile event, a lot of thought goes into choosing the Chief Guest for the Republic Day Parade. The first Republic Day Parade in 1950 was attended by the Indonesian President followed by the King of Nepal in 1951. In the past two years of the present government, the former US President Barack Obama and French President Francois Hollande were invited with a motive to have the best possible ties with the western powers. This year, the chief guest for the Republic Day is Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed of UAE. Last year, French troops marched along with the Indian troops in the Republic Day Parade. This time troops from UAE are expected to lead the Parade. Clearly, the focus have shifted towards India’s neighbourhood, especially the Gulf region. The Comprehensive Strategic Partnership which has been spoken about in 2015 will materialise this time with major focus on joint defence production.

With such high profile guests including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Pranab Mukherjee at the venue, Delhi is likely to be under ground-to-air security cover with more than 60000 armed personnel keeping a tight vigil. From anti-drone technology to prevention from chemical attacks, the national capital region is expected to be on high alert with Delhi borders being sealed and cars entering being thoroughly checked.

The Republic Day Parade will showcase aerial fly-past by the Indian Air Force with Light Combat Aircraft making its debut in the Parade. The Indian Navy will highlight the indigenously built Kolkata class destroyer along with Kalvari class next generation attack submarines. Audience will also be witness to tableaux from 17 states and union territories and 6 Union Ministries. There will be tribute to Lokmanya Tilak on his 160^th birth anniversary with the ‘Swaraj Rath’, other than promotional tableaux of Skill India, Digital India and Beti Bachao Beti Padao which the pet schemes of the central government.

As citizens, the Republic Day enables us to re-think on the lines of our founding fathers who wanted to make this country a sovereign, secular and democratic republic. It is a day to be proud of ourselves who have given each other the constitution by having solemnly resolved our differences and pledging to secure all the citizens of Justice, Liberty Equality and Fraternity. The day reconfirms our faith on the fact that all the power emanates from the people and the political system will always be accountable and responsible to the people of the great country.

Swaraj is everyones‘ birthright, and everyone must have it.

Happy Republic Day

By Rahul Choudhury

Corporate Social Responsibility – In Context of 2017

The year 2017 brings new hopes in the social development sector with more businesses contributing towards improving the standard of living of the people. With praises across the country for their contributions, the businesses are now more focused on strategising CSR rather than doing charity. However, there are several questions which are not answered as CSR projects are not good parameters for judging societal welfare. Today, it is unclear whether CSR spending by businesses have increased or not as compared to the days before the mandate, with not much available information.

However, data from the last two years suggest an increase of CSR funding with Indian businesses spending INR 9,309 crore in 2015-16. This is INR 163 crore more than what was required by the law and INR 703 crore more than 2014-15. The major focus areas for businesses have been Education and Health and they are likely to remain one of the most favoured sectors for CSR investments.

Understanding the present situation, Fiinovation, a global CSR consulting company analyses the trends in CSR for the year 2017.

1. Environment – After the successive droughts that nearly crippled the rural economy, it is expected that businesses will look to invest their CSR funds in projects that mitigate the climate change risks. Keeping focus on water, businesses will look to implement CSR projects for natural resource conservation, rain water harvesting, safe drinking water, watershed development and irrigation. Organic agriculture, climate smart agriculture, grain production with new innovative methods, etc. will also receive adequate focus. Several companies are looking to reduce their harmful environmental impacts.

2. Education – Several businesses will rather not look to diversify and stick to their CSR projects in education. It is expected to remain the favourite sector when it comes to CSR expenditures. Although, there might be a shift towards digital literacy, digital education and higher education to meet the current demands of the nation.

3. Health – Similar to Education, investments in health projects is likely to continue even this year. Focus will be on preventive healthcare along with healthcare infrastructure facilities including ambulances, digital check ups, diagonistic centers etc. Several businesses will also look to invest in public health in a public-private partnership model working in tandem with the government initiatives.

4. Skill Development – The Indian Government is currently committed towards providing skill development trainings to the youth. The government also provides additional support for entrepreneurship of the SC, ST and women. The government has also urged the businesses to contribute their CSR funds towards skill development trainings to ensure that the emerging workforce is formally skilled. It is expected that businesses will also look to boost infrastructure in the ITIs and Training Institutes to support the government. There are several businesses who are also investing in Sustainable Agriculture projects by providing trainings to the farmers.

5. Other Sectors – It is also expected that several other sectors will receive CSR funding but not at a very large scale. Swachh Bharat, Clean Ganga, Digital Literacy, renewable energy, etc. are some areas which will receive contributions.

The impact of the CSR law can be better understood after the end of this year, when experts review the first three years after the enforcement of the law.

By Rahul Choudhury

Media & Communications, Fiinovation

Fiinovation: Beyond the Mandate – Changing CSR Paradigms

Not long ago, not many people cared about corporate social responsibility, at least in India. The concept might be known to a few, but there wasn’t much thought on the same. In the last two decades, things have changed significantly. Firstly, the economic reforms in 1991 laid the red carpet for the MNCs to start operating in India.

With the MNCs came the concepts of cause marketing, corporate responsibility, employee welfare, volunteerism, ethical practices, etc. Few other concepts, such as the Triple Bottom Line Approach (coined by the British consultant John Elkington in 1994), Shared Value (Michael Porter in 2011) and Conscious Capitalism (Raj Sisodia and John Mackey in 2013) also came into the limelight.

It was clear that in the last two decades, the emergence of these concepts targeting the commercial enterprises came up suggesting that the businesses should go beyond the obvious financial parameters and develop a holistic framework for assessing the impact of the business operations. From the point of view of the businesses, time and again they have spoken about doing good towards the society and environmental sustainability in their annual reports. Yet, the big issues such as climate change and well-being of the people and planet are prevalent along with a huge disparity.

The passing of the CSR law in India, seemed to have formalised the social sector contributions by the private entities. With not much data, a comparison of the same cannot be made. However, at least in the last two years, there has been significant amount of funds being invested in social projects. Businesses are now taking CSR as a strategic business concept and not many are contributing as a mere charity.

The move to bring about a cultural change within the businesses in India highlighted two concerns. Firstly, majority of the companies are searching beyond their own competencies to create programmes as per the Schedule VII. Secondly, there is not enough capacity or capability in the existing NGOs to meet the requirements of the businesses.

Fiinovation, a global CSR consulting company suggests that social sector initiatives require endurance and extended periods of investments in capability and delivery to make a significant impact. The concept is still evolving and incorporating sustainability issues, despite specifications mentioned in the Schedule VII. The whole idea is not to departmentalize business ethics and social responsibility, rather focus on sustainable corporate practices which includes CSR. Fiinovation suggests the idea of amalgamation of social and environmental issues within the business processes, help the businesses achieve enduring socio-economic outcome.

The time has come for businesses to be linked with ecosystem and not empty effluents into rivers and then contribute funds towards Clean Ganga. If businesses are truly considering becoming responsible entities they have to reduce, re-use and re-cycle the waste at least by 50 per cent. Therefore, when corporate social responsibility emanate from the core competencies of the respective companies, there is a higher chance of creating systemic solutions for delivery of social benefits.

By Rahul Choudhury

Media & Communications, Fiinovation

Fiinovation – How MNC’s are Contributing Towards Women Empowerment in India?

In the last two decades, their has been significant emergence of MNCs. The fast food outlets such as Mc Donald’s, KFC, Dominos, Pizza Hut, Burger King, etc. are now present even in smaller cities. Their emergence has led to an unique method of empowering women of the country.

For these MNCs, recruitment of women is almost necessary as they don’t want to run their businesses with only men. In this regard, they hire women to maintain a gender balance among the employees. Although, the plan seems to be good, but in a country like India, it is not that easy to find good women employees. It is a nation where women are not encouraged much to work outside their homes. Therefore, several MNCs are going off track to attract women employees by providing them with activities which ultimately helps them to get empowered.

The difference can be witnessed easily. A visit to the Delhi’s malls will make you witness women workforce in the outlets, whereas in a market place the women’s clothing stores are manned by men. Ironically, we do not observe women at these stores. Despite years of progress, India still has a skewed sex ratio and its tough place to be a women. There is a vast difference in the way things use to be and specially now after the emergence of MNCs.

Understanding the situation, the American food chains are doing a bit more than expected to ensure that they are able to employ more women. From allowing their parents to see the workplace to even taste the new burger about to be launched, these companies are doing a lot to attract women employees. Fiinovation, a global CSR consulting company understands that people around the world would be unaware about the hardship that these companies are putting in to cultivate female employees.

Fiinovation believes, going off track food chains such as Burger King teaches self defense to its women employees. Similarly, Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell run a mentorship program to help the women employees. Even Mc Donald’s appoints a “Female Confidant” at every outlet to ensure the women talk more freely about their lives and family problems. Apart from these, steps are even taken to give mothers flexible working hours.

These things are changing the way businesses operate in India. With more females joining the workforce, the societal hurdles are bound to reduce in the coming years. Fiinovation also believes that these affirmative action initiatives by the MNCs is a significant step towards empowerment of women in this country. With India being a prominent member of G20, it should lead by example for other emerging economies to follow.

Therefore, let us hope that in future, other businesses will implement similar initiatives that will help the country grow inclusively.

By Rahul Choudhury

Media & Communications, Fiinovation

Fiinovation – The Future of Impact Investing in India

Impact investments is not something new to the world anymore. It might have started on a similar concept back in the 1980’s when Bill Drayton’s Ashoka started funding social enterprises. The term impact investing was coined in the year 2007 at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center. The term was given to investments which are made with the intent of generating both financial and social and/or environmental returns.

In the last decade, India has become one of the world’s biggest impact investment market. The global investors are looking at India as a bright spot which is likely to grow rapidly in the next two-three decades. Along with this, there are several social and environmental issues which India would like to resolve while it continues to grow.

It is expected that with all the growth in several sectors, India could absorb $6-8 billion of capital annually by 2025. In the past six years, there has been $4.1 billion worth of cumulative investments with an annual growth of 15%. It is believed that impact investments has touch at least 60-80 million lives in the country focusing on sectors such as financial inclusion, agriculture, healthcare and education. Last year, impact investments touched the billion mark for the first time.

Understanding the present situation, Fiinovation believes that there is a huge importance of impact investors in helping socially relevant enterprises grow and prosper. There is need to focus on increasing investments to promote financial inclusion, clean-technology solutions, education, healthcare and agriculture. Fiinovation comprehends that the potential of impact investments needs to be unlocked as it provides vast opportunity for social and financial dividends.

With the impact investments growing at fast pace, it will be necessary to keep track on the returns. Fiinovation believes that there is a need for guidelines and monitoring frameworks to strengthen the entire investment process. The bottlenecks related to policies and government regulations need to be managed keeping in mind the adequate measures that can help the impact investment market expand. Fiinovation also understands that increase in investments will lead to requirement of professionals and therefore, government policies promoting skill development in sectors such as clean-tech, healthcare, education, digitalisation, financial inclusion, agriculture, etc.

In future, the struggle with access to capital will be done with and the massive challenges, which the sector is still facing, is expected to be addressed. It is also expected that the limited number of investors need to grow over a period of time. Fiinovation expects that better governance and talent will be required to provide support in the market expansion process. For bridging the gap between priviledged and the marginalised, it is important for impact investing to become mainstream.

By Rahul Choudhury

Media & Communications, Fiinovation

5 Big Things in the Education Sector in 2016

The education sector in India is currently at a crucial transformational stage. It is likely to grow leaps and bounds due to India’s demographic advantage presenting huge opportunities for investors. Among several things, these are the five big things that happened in the education sector.

1. The National Educational Policy Debate

The education sector in India had grown because of the first National Education Policy in 1968. The new draft NPE 2016 aims to bridge the gap between the growing population and quality education for all. It plans to put India’s education sector in the global map by making the country a global knowledge hub. The policy also plans to bring must needed reforms such as technology enabled education, skill education, teacher training support and compulsory quality audits for educational institutions. However, the draft policy has been widely criticised by teachers and institutions due to factors such as issues of commercialisation, massively open online courses (MOOCs), internationalisation and recruitment policies.

2. Education Sector & CSR

The education sector continues to be one of most favoured sector receiving CSR funds from businesses. In a recent report by Nasscom, it was highlighted that on an average 70% of the CSR funds of business is directed towards the education sector. Even, private educational institutions have been quite vocal about their wish of receiving CSR funds. The spending of the Nifty listed companies increased this year by more than 20% and education remained their priority sector.

3. Swachh Vidayala

Sanitation have become an important instrument to ensure there is no dropouts from schools. After the PM’s call to construct toilets and make the nation open defecation free, several companies under CSR contributed towards construction of toilets. Within a year, 4.07 lakh toilets were constructed out of which 2.66 lakh were new toilets whereas the rest were repaired. The aim was to have a separate toilet for girls and boys at every government school thereby reducing the drop-out rates of girls because of unhygienic facilities.

4. More Firms But Few Offers at IITs

The campus placements are always in the news, especially because of the highest offered packages from US based companies. This year, although more companies visited IIT campuses, it seems number of offers per company has dipped from last year. Students picked by leading finance and consulting firms have also reduced. The reason for such maybe the changing global dynamics and the slowdown of the developed economies.

5. Improved Rankings

The rankings of the Indian Universities improved from the last year. In the newly expanded Times Higher Education BRICS and Emerging Economies University Rankings, India was the 2^nd most represented country, with the Indian Institute of Science becoming the first Indian institute to enter the top 15. In the list of 300, India has 27 universities. In 2015, 16 Indian universities had made it to the top 200. China continues to dominate with 52 places in the top 300 and six in the top 10.

There might be several other impactful things that happened in 2016 related to the education sector, but these were the few which garnered much media attention.

By Rahul Choudhury

Media & Communications, Fiinovation

**The above article is based on the author’s personal views and analysis of the sector.

7 Things That Caught Attention Of The Nation in 2016

The year 2016 has been a happening year with both positive and negative things making the headlines. We take a look of the 7 things that caught the nation’s attention.

1. Budget 2016

The Budget 2016 created much uproar amidst the salaried class with the controversial proposal by the Union Finance Minister to tax EPF withdrawl. After facing flak from the opposition parties and the people, the government later forced to withdraw the controversial proposal and also withdrew the proposal to limit tax-free contribution by the employer to the provident fund of the employee. Despite the government clarifying its intent for its decision, the criticism continued from all ends.

2. The Great Nationalism Debate

If last year, Indians started teaching each other to be tolerant, than this year it was about Nationalism. The debate started with some people objecting to the statement ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ while anti-national slogans were being shouted at the JNU Campus. The incidents lead to a horrific situation with student leaders being arrested and being charged under sedition. The mysterious death of Rohith Vemula at Hyderabad University, finally led to an change of guard in the HRD Ministry. However, the atrocities against Dalits and Muslims continued in several parts of the country.

3. The Health of Delhi

The national capital region has become a talking point among the world due to its disastrous levels of air quality along with the recurring disease outbreaks that haunts the public health authorities every year. This year, the day after Diwali was the worst in the history in terms of levels of pollution. It seemed the people of Delhi din’t care much about their children and the elderly people when they were engaging in the celebrations. Even, the authorities failed to do something to solve the problem and were waiting for the winds to blow the polluted air away. Chikungunya, yet again highlighted its presence after claiming many lives while the authorities continued to ignore civic apathy.

4. The Longest Curfew in Kashmir

Following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani by the Indian Army in an encounter, the valley came to an absolute standstill for at least 70 days making it the longest running curfew in the history of the Kashmir unrest. Several people came out in the streets protesting against the killing and the armed forces had to resort to violent measures to distort the crowds. Pelting of stones by the children and youth on the armed forces was dealt by strong hands. The armed forces responded with pellet guns blinding thousands and sparking uproar in both the houses of the Indian Parliament.

5. RIO to JIO

The year was all about breaking the monotony. First started with Sakshi Malik, the PV Sindhu Storm rocked the nation during the RIO Olympics. Nobody else remembers when was the last time that the nation came together to watch a Badminton match. But, it was India’s daughter who was making the nation proud and there was no stopping people from supporting her. The support for sports persons continued as India’s para-Olympic team performed outstandingly at RIO. In another event, the India’s richest man took the telecom sector in a storm by launching its groundbreaking 4G services and letting the users use the services for free in the first 6 months.

6. The Law that Allows Child Labour

The new child labour law which was passed by the Parliament is progressive in nature, yet there are a few controversial elements that were highlighted by several activists. The Law allows children below the age of 14 years to work in family or family enterprises. The issue with this is that while drafting the law, the plight of the children was not considered, who after their school hours can help help their guardians or parents in work, instead of doing their homework or taking rest. The question isn’t it too much pressure on the children, will they have the stamina to go to school the next morning.

7. The Surgical Strike on Black Money

The biggest talking point of the nation came after the Prime Minister on November 8^th announced that India’s two big currency notes, Rs. 1000 and Rs. 500 will cease to be legal tender by midnight onwards. What followed was mayhem outside Banks and ATMs, massive debates in both the houses of Parliament, strong protests from opposition parties and deaths of innocent civilians. The most common sight was long queues and no cash available sign boards outside ATMs and Banks. The Prime Minister called it a surgical strike recalling Indian Army’s late night strike inside POK to eliminate terror launch pads. The country is yet to recover from the PM’s move and the public remains divided over the issue as of now.