‘Present’ with your thumb
PRONAB SEN Former Chief Statistician
ISoon saying “present” in the classroom to mark attendance in schools might be a thing of the past. If the recommendations in the Survey are enforced then students and their teachers might thumb their attendance on biometric machines. From biometric attendance for school students, direct transfer of salaries for teachers, risks involved in agriculture, to lack of transparency in governance, it is not just inflation targeting and growth prospects the second edition of the Survey covers. Biometric attendance In hopes of bringing down absenteeism among students and teachers, the Survey has recommended a pilot project be launched in the next six months to start a biometric attendance system. This would be accompanied with independent setting of examination papers and neutral evaluation. Based on the feedback, the Survey has recommended the project should be modified and extended to all schools in all blocks in India before the end of 2021-22. Direct transfer of salaries to teachers To prevent delays, leakages and diversions, the Survey recommends that salaries to teachers and staff should be directly remitted using Aadhaar identity linked to biometric attendance. Cash transfers, at present being undertaken for scholarship and other payments to students, should achieve a target of transfer of 100 per cent of the funds transferred. Uncertain policies a risk for agriculture Agreeing that uncertain policies and regulations are a major risk for agriculture, the Survey recommended that trade or policy changes should be announced well before sowing and should stay till arrivals and procurement were completed. Also it charted out production risks such as pests, diseases, shortage of inputs like seeds, irrigation, low productivity and declining yields. The Survey recommends pest- and disease-resistant seeds, free markets for inputs and enforcing standards for quality seeds.
According to the Survey, lower than remunerative price, absence of marketing infrastructure and excessive profiteering by middlemen are a few of the other problems that are draining the sector. “Build marketing infrastructure along the value chain, regime-based selective timely interventions are needed,” the Survey states. Does India need a Transparency of Rules Act? According to the Survey, almost everyone will agree that the “rule of law” is fundamental to good governance. In turn, the rule of law is based on the expectation that all citizens are aware of the country’s laws and will follow them.
The Survey recommends one way to solve this could be a Transparency of Rules Act (TORA). TORA would make it mandatory for all departments to place every citizen-facing rule, regulation, form and other requirement on its website (preferably in English, Hindi and a regional language). Once a department is declared “TORA-complaint”, any rule that is not explicitly on the website would be deemed not to apply. No government official would be allowed to impose a rule, procedure or form that is not explicitly displayed on the website. TORA will further specify that all laws, rules and regulations need to be presented as an updated, unified whole at all times. Citizens should not have to wade through decades of circulars to find out the current state of play.