बेबाक · Editorial
Cabinet approves courts, minerals, storage, statistics and Agniveer extension; now it must show results
The Union Cabinet's latest decisions are sound in direction. Their worth will be measured by courts that dispose of cases, plants that store power and data that tells the truth.
Five decisions
In its recent decisions the Union Cabinet approved five measures. It cleared a ₹2,814 crore scheme for lithium and nickel processing to reduce dependence on imported critical minerals. It approved a ₹14,500 crore viability gap funding scheme for hydro pumped storage, battery energy storage systems and alternative storage technologies. It continued the Centrally Sponsored Scheme for Fast Track Special Courts and expanded them from 779 to 850 to cut the pendency of rape and child sexual offence cases. It approved VISTAR, a three-pronged scheme to overhaul the statistical system. It also granted Agniveers a two-year additional engagement as the first batch nears the end of its four-year term. Each measure addresses a real gap. None will be judged by its approval.
Ambition against delivery
The strongest case for these decisions is that they are targeted and catalytic rather than sprawling. Viability gap funding is meant to draw private capital into storage that the grid needs if renewable power is to be dependable. Processing capacity for lithium and nickel is a strategic hedge in a world where supply chains can be used as leverage. The sceptic's case deserves equal weight. Indian governance has a long record of schemes that are approved and announced, then stall in tendering, staffing or state coordination. The outlays here are modest against the scale of what is promised, so execution, not money alone, will decide the outcome.
Courts are not buildings
The expansion of Fast Track Special Courts from 779 to 850 is welcome. It is also an admission that pendency in rape and child sexual offence cases remains serious enough to need more courts even after the scheme began. Survivors are not served by a count of sanctioned courts. They are served by trials that conclude. A fast track court without a judge, a prosecutor and timely forensic reports is a fast track in name only. The Centre and the states that run these courts should be judged on cases disposed and the time taken, not on the number of courtrooms notified.
The soldier and the scheme
The two-year extension, reported to cover nearly 20,000 Agniveers along with higher pay, gives trained young soldiers continuity and gives the forces the benefit of their experience. That is good for both. Still, a major revision arriving just as the first batch nears the end of its term suggests the original design did not fully anticipate what these young men and women would face at exit. Those who enlist deserve to know their prospects when they sign, not as their contracts expire. Respect for the soldier means a framework that is settled, published and predictable.
Data as the test
VISTAR may matter most of all, because it decides whether the rest can be measured honestly. Its promise of fresh data on the unorganised sector, meant to make the GDP figure more accurate, speaks to a long-standing weakness: this is a sector official statistics have struggled to capture well. The memorandum from agricultural labourers in a drought-hit district, submitted to the zilla parishad and seeking 200 days of work under the rural job scheme, is the kind of distress that headline growth figures often miss. Good data is a public good only if it is independent, regular and published even when it is unwelcome.
A way forward
Each of the five decisions should come with a public outcome dashboard, updated every quarter. For storage, it should report megawatt-hours commissioned. For minerals, processing capacity built. For the special courts, cases disposed per court and the median time to verdict. For Agniveers, the full terms of engagement and exit. VISTAR's first task should be to publish these numbers on a fixed release calendar, with methods open to scrutiny. An annual audited outcome report tabled in Parliament would turn approvals into accountability. That is the standard a serious republic should set for itself.
A sanctioned court is not a functioning court, and a viability gap fund is not a battery. The republic should judge by what is commissioned, not what is cleared.
What this editorial rests on
Drawn from our live multi-newsroom feed — read the reporting at source.
An editorial is the considered opinion of the FarziUPSC desk, argued from the sourced reporting above and written under our published persona, बेबाक. We name institutions, not parties. If we are wrong, we will say so. How we work →