UPSC 2017: Comprehensive News Analysis - July 25

Lodha Committee:

The Lodha committee was formed in January, 2015 by the Supreme Court after the Mudgal committee report on IPL.

Structural Reforms:

• The committee recommended that a 9-member apex council replace the 14-member BCCI working committee.
• Each of these office-bearers has a three-year term and can contest for a maximum three terms.
• The Lodha Committee also calls for dividing the governance into two parts: cricketing and non-cricketing.
• The non-cricketing management will be handled by 6 professional managers headed by a CEO, and the cricket matters like selection, coaching and performance evaluation should be left to the players

Organisation & Office-bearers: Restrictions imposed

• Each of these office-bearers has a 3-year term and can contest for a maximum three terms.
• There will be a mandatory cooling off period after each term. Therefore, no office-bearer can hold office consecutively in a row.
• No BCCI office-bearer can be Minister or government servant.

State Cricket Associations: One Vote/State

• The Committee recommended that one association should represent an entire state and only one vote per state

Indian Premier League: Maintain distance

• It recommends separate governing bodies for the IPL and BCCI.
• There should be a 15-day gap between IPL season and national calender.

Betting: Legalize it

• It made a strong recommendation to lawmakers to legalise betting in cricket for all except cricket players, officials and administrators.
• The players and others banned officials should disclose their assets to BCCI in a measure to ensure that they do not bet.
• Betting is a $ 400 billion phenomenon practised across the globe and lawmakers in India should enact laws to legalise it.

Fixing: Criminalize it

• The committee said that match-and spot-fixing should be made a criminal offence.

Conflict of Interest & Corruption

• One individual hold only one post in cricket administration. The office-bearers would have to choose between positions in respective state associations and the parent body.
• A former High Court judge should be appointed as ethics officer by the BCCI to administer issues relating to conflict of interest, misdemeanour and corruption.
• A former Supreme Court judge should be appointed ombudsman to resolve internal disputes.

Transparency: Bringing RTI to BCCI

• It recommended that the Legislature must seriously consider bringing BCCI within the purview of the RTI Act

Securing player’s interest

• It recommended the setting up of a Players’ Association to safeguard the interests of the cricketers.
• The report said players that are the driving force of the game, but they had been reduced to the status of employees and subordinates of those governing the game.
• The idea is to give players voice, use their expertise and skills for the development and betterment of the game

Women Cricket: Often ignored by BCCI

The Women’s Cricket Committee to be formed to exclusively pay attention to this much ignored department, along with Women’s Selection Committee.

• It mentioned that it is the duty of the employer or other responsible persons in work places or other institutions to prevent or deter the commission of acts of sexual harassment and to provide the procedure for the resolution, settlement or prosecution of acts of sexual harassment by taking all steps required.
• It also provided with the range to behaviour that would be termed as sexual harassment, which includes such unwelcome sexually determined behaviour (whether directly or implication) as :-
  • physical contact and advances;
  • a demand or request for sexual favours;
  • sexually coloured remarks;
  • showing pornography;
  • any other unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct of sexual nature.
• It also provided with Complaints mechanism by stating that-
• All workplaces should have an appropriate complaints mechanism with a complaints committee, special counsellor or other support services.
• A woman must head the complaints committee and no less than half its members should be women.
• The committee should include an NGO/individual familiar with the issue of sexual harassment.
• The complaints procedure must be time-bound.
• Confidentiality must be maintained.
• Complainants/witnesses should not experience victimization/discrimination during the process.

Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act 2013

This act was enacted in April 2013 as India’s first law dealing with the protection of women against sexual harassment at workplace. Some important feature of this act are as follows:

• This Act aimed to provide every woman, irrespective of her age or employment status, a safe and secure working environment free from all forms of harassment.
• This Act covered both the organized and unorganized sectors in India. The statute applied to all government bodies, private and public sector organizations, non-governmental organizations, organizations carrying out commercial, vocational, educational, entertainment, industrial, financial activities, hospitals etc.
• This Act defined ‘sexual harassment’ in line with the Supreme Court’s definition in the Vishaka Judgment.
• The Act extended the meaning of the word sexual harassment to include “presence or occurrence of circumstances of implied or explicit promise of preferential treatment in employment, threat of detrimental treatment in employment, threat about present or future employment, interference with work or creating an intimidating or offensive or hostile work environment, or humiliating treatment likely to affect the lady employee’s health or safety could also amount to sexual harassment”.
• The Act also introduced the concept of ‘extended workplace’ since sexual harassment is not always confined to the primary place of employment. Therefore, the Act defined ‘workplace’ to include any place visited by the employee arising out of or during the course of employment, including transportation provided by the employer for the purpose of commuting to and from the place of employment.
• The Act provided for the establishment of Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) at each and every office or branches of the organization employing 10 or more employees, in order to provide a forum for filing complaints to facilitate fast redressal of the grievances pertaining to sexual harassment.
• It also provided for the establishment of local complaints committee (LCC) at the district level by the Government to investigate and redress complaints of sexual harassment of the unorganized sector or from those establishments where the ICC has not been constituted for the reason being, it having less than 10 employees.

Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP)

• Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a proposed free trade agreement (FTA) between the ten member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam) and the six states with which ASEAN has existing free trade agreements (Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand).
• RCEP negotiations were formally launched in November 2012 at the ASEAN Summit in Cambodia.
• The agreement is scheduled to be finalized by the end of 2017.
• RCEP is viewed as an alternative to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a proposed trade agreement which includes several Asian and American nations but excludes China and India.