December 4, 2025 • 26 mins
First, we talk to The Indian Express' Ravi Dutta Misra about how Indian exporters are doing as we cross the 100 day mark of USA's 50% tariffs. He shares while some products have found new markets, some are still lagging behind, while India is working on different trade deals.
Next, we talk to The Indian Express' Vineet Bhalla about India's juvenile justice system and what a recent study published by The India Justice Report shares about the challenges that the system is facing and their impact on the children. (9:25)
Lastly, we talk about why India's largest airline IndiGo has been facing long delays and widespread cancellations. (22:45)
Hosted by Niharika Nanda
Produced by Niharika Nanda and Shashank Bhargava
Edited and mixed by Suresh Pawar
Next, we talk to The Indian Express' Vineet Bhalla about India's juvenile justice system and what a recent study published by The India Justice Report shares about the challenges that the system is facing and their impact on the children. (9:25)
Lastly, we talk about why India's largest airline IndiGo has been facing long delays and widespread cancellations. (22:45)
Hosted by Niharika Nanda
Produced by Niharika Nanda and Shashank Bhargava
Edited and mixed by Suresh Pawar
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
In this episode, we talk about what a recent study
says about the state of India's juvenile justice system and
what its findings reveal about how well the system is
meeting its goal of rehabilitating children. We also explain why
Indigo Airlines has been facing long delays and widespread cancelations
over the past few days. But we begin today by
(00:21):
talking about how some exporters have managed to mitigate the
impact of the US tariffs. Hi, I am Aherrikan Nanda
and you are listening to three things in an Express
News show. After the United States imposed a fifty percent
(00:43):
tariff on Indian gods earlier this year, exporters have been
worried not just about the short term losses, but also
about the long term impact on their businesses, especially since
the US is their biggest market. But now nearly one
hundred days in, it turns out that several product categories
have managed to find alternative markets for their goods, potentially
(01:05):
offsetting some of the losses. In this segment, Michaelleague Shashank
Pargev speaks to the Indie Expresses Ravida Tamishra, who analyze
the data released by the Commerce and Industry Ministry.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Reve tell us about the products that have been able
to do this, that have been able to mitigate some
of the impact of these statufs.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
So there are a bunch of high margin products which
have found markets elsewhere.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
Particularly we have written.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
About marine products because China is importing a lot of
marine products from India now because they have tense situations
with Japan. European Union has also absorbed a bit of
our marine products Japan or has also Thaighland. So these
are the countries who have bought our marine products. And
then we see a similar trend in automobile component exports.
(01:56):
You know, they have found market in Germany, which is
a big automo manufacturer. So the difference the data suggests
is number one, the high margin products have managed to
move to other countries, but the low margin products like garments,
they have not. And ultimately what we see is that
(02:16):
there will be a very uneven impact of the US tariffs,
hurting the smaller players more than the large industries.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
And could you give us some more examples of the
kind of products that have low margins and that are
facing the most challenges.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
So, you know, yesterday I was speaking to handicraft manufacturers.
They are based mostly in Jaipur. Some of them are
in Gugao, and they were saying that they are struggling
to find newer markets because number one US was the
largest market and number two. When your margins are low,
(02:51):
it is rather difficult for you to immediately, you know,
change your suppliers or find new buyers. On top of that,
you have to look at your loans. So on the
immediate basis, it is difficult for leather products sports goods
to really work around US status.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
And you mentioned Germany when it came to autoparts. What
are some of the other places where India has been
able to export its products.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
So interesting country that appeared in number of products is Ui.
As you know, Ui is a transhipment hub and a
lot of products go via Ua to other countries. So
Ue is one of the country that is showing up
in the data. Again, Thailand is also a common name
that is coming up. Japan is also a common name,
(03:42):
and largely these countries are Asian countries. So we have
to know that the speed of growth in trade particularly
is much higher in Asia than other places. And eventually
our linkages in Asia could help us in fighting this off.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
And you know, initially when the tariffs were announced, exporters
were contemplating, you know, whether they should lower their prices
because now they would be facing an even tougher competition.
But considering that they're finding these new markets, are they
still considering that approach.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
So that is a big point of worry. So the
lack of clarity on the US deal is something that
is hurting our plans. For instance, we just supported that
around two billion worth of orders from the US summer orders,
you know, for which preparation starts a little early in
the winters. So negotiations on those orders are stuck because
(04:36):
the suppliers are not sure if the tariffs will come
down to twenty five percent or to fifteen percent or
to nineteen percent. So that is the issue over here.
US tariffs are at fifty percent. But then it could
have a larger and a longer sustained impact because these
orders tend to come in fairly early. Work starts happening
in the next three or four months. The products are manufactured,
(04:58):
the capacities decided, the raids are decided, so the whole
lot of process goes into these supplies, and if there
is uncertainty about the deal, it kind of hurts our
interest and.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Ra we can this also be seen as a silver
lining of sorts, you know, the fact that they're finding
these new markets and they maybe aren't as reliant on
the US anymore.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
It's too early to say, you know, because in most
of the product categories, US is the largest market, and
US has explicitly informed its straight partners or warned its
straight partners to against transhipments. So any product being rerouted
to the US throughout other countries will eventually face a
(05:41):
risk if that is happening.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
For example, if we sell something to the UA and
then UA sells that thing to the US.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Yeah, so eventually those things could come under the radar
and that could be a problem going forward. So these
might be short term arrangements that exporters might have gotten into,
or partially there could be a higher demand elsewhere. So
there are a lot of things that we don't know
at this point, and maybe a three month or four
(06:09):
month you know, impact will give us a better clarity.
But the early data suggests that some Indian exporters have
managed to withhold their market salesware and.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Earlier you had briefly mentioned the apparel industry. Now that's
an industry where the margins are low, competition is very high.
You have our neighbor Bangladesh that makes a lot of apparel.
There's also Vietnam. China of course talk about how that
sector is coping right now.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
So you know, this is something that everybody produces, even
our neighboring country like Pakistan, and on Pakistan US status
are at nineteen percent. So the problem is if you
have a unique product, it could manage to land up
in Europe or other countries. But then if Cambodia is
also fighting, if Bangladesh is fighting, if Vietnam is also fighting,
(06:57):
and they have efficient supply seas, and that also goes
against us. We are competitive in textile industry, we are
fairly competitive. But if we talk about Bangladesh, their textile
manufacturing is higher than China and in few respects. So
some of the countries have been doing this for a
long time. They have set supply chains and they are
taking advantage. The orders that should have come to India
(07:19):
are going to Bangladesh. And you know, exporters are talking
about it that few people who have had long standing
relationship with our suppliers have arranged twenty five twenty five
percent kind of a sharing of these status, but then
some do not see business interests anymore. Who is going
to absorb these fifty percent? Certainly not the workforce. And
(07:39):
I mean, for instance, the manufacturers in Jaipur, and they
were worried that they'll be layoffs and then they'll have
difficulty getting them back.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
And talk about the status of the deal. So far,
how far into the talks are we right now?
Speaker 3 (07:54):
So here there's something really interesting happening. We have sent
across our proposal of deal, our best proposal, what we
are willing to give, what we are willing to open,
our stand on agriculture, stand on automobile, all those sensitive
issues that has been cent across and that has been
communicated by our ministry to the press, on everybody.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
And now things are at a political level.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
So there's a likelihood that the decision, the US decision,
will be taken by the end of the year. That
is what our Common Secretary said, and only then we'll
be able to figure out what kind of rates will
be applicable on India. But on the background, we are
trying to negotiate deals with New Zealand, Israel, European Union.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
So there's a fair chance.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
That a lot of these trade deals will come through
much before the US, especially European Union. There's a lot
of work going on and it's one of our biggest market.
Apparently a lot of a legal team that is working
on the EU deal was asked to avoid taking leaves
so that this deal is secured, our new market is
secured and beyond our exports. A trade deal and these
(08:57):
s tariffs, particularly the US tariffs, have hurt our investments.
So if a new market opens up, there will be
a signal for higher investments to come in. So that
is what our government is trying to do. Again, this
could also change, so this is the point of polticity.
Supreme Court U Supreme Court is also here in the
case and there's a likelihood that US staffs under IPA
(09:17):
no longer.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
Stay if the court decides so. So there's a.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
Lot of uncertainty and much should happen in the next
one month.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
And next. We turn our attention to India's juvenile justice system,
a system meant to protect children from being treated like adults,
and one that focuses on rehabilitating young offenders rather than
simply punishing them.
Speaker 5 (09:42):
The core philosophy of the juvenile justice system. It's actually
distinct from the adult criminal justice system.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
That's the Indian expresses Beneath Bahala, who writes on law
for the paper.
Speaker 5 (09:56):
In the sense that it is focused exclusive on the
rehabilitation of the child and the primary objective under the
Juvenal Justice Act of twenty fourteen is to ensure the
best interest of the child. So the system operates on
this basis that children are a unique category. And even
(10:19):
the term that is used is when they come in
conflict with the law. We don't say that they have
committed criminal offenses. We say that they have come in
conflict with the law. Even in those situations, the goal
is not to punish them, but to reform them so
that they can reintegrate into the society as efficient members.
(10:39):
So the law mandates child friendly approach in how these
juvenile justice cases are dealth with, and it emphasizes that
putting a child in a childcare home should be a
last resort measure.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
But while that's the goal in theory, a new analysis
by the India Justice shows the many challenges the system
faces in actually meeting those objectives. The report points to
structural gaps, a lack of transparency and systemic inefficiencies that
often fail to protect a child's dignity, leaving many of
them dealing with the same issues adults face. So to
(11:18):
understand India's juvenile justice system more closely and to break
down the findings of this report, we are speaking to
beneath in this segment. Now, you recently wrote about this
study titled Juvenile Justice and Children Conflict with Law, which
was published by the India Justice Report. Before we talk
about its findings, tell us what it was trying to
(11:39):
find out in the first place.
Speaker 5 (11:41):
So, the India Justice Report IJR they wanted to conduct
a capacity check of the juvenile justice's legal system in
India and they produce this report this year because this
year marked one full decade since the current Juvenile Justice
Act was past. They wanted to see if the machinery
(12:03):
that is required under the Act, whether it actually exists
and delivers on the ground. So they looked at whether
there is enough infrastructure, enough staff, enough budget in these
juvenile justice institutions. They asked very basic questions like are
they functioning juvenile justice boards, do they have enough social
(12:25):
workers and judicial members, are rehabilitation homes and shelter rooms
actually in place, and since there is no centralized database
for this which is available for public viewing, they had
to file I think about two hundred and fifty Right
to information applications across all states and Union territories to
(12:45):
get the data that they use for this report.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
So we need what have been some of its key
findings and what kind of challenges has it recognized within
the juvenile justice system.
Speaker 5 (12:56):
So the findings in the reporter quite alarming. It paints
this picture of a system with vast structural deficits. There
is huge pendency, there are severe staff shortages, and essentially
the infrastructure and staffing is not at all in consonance
(13:19):
with the intent of the act.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Right and you mentioned the huge pendency in cases as
one of the issues, and this is something that the
adult justice system also faces. But tell us why is
this happening and how does this delay impact the children.
Speaker 5 (13:35):
So the delay, just like with the adult justice system,
the delay in the juvenile justice system is also the
reason behind it is largely administrative. So for example, under
the Juvenal Justice Act, each Juvenile Justice Board must have
a principal magistrate who's a legal officer, and two social
workers who are not necessarily from a legal background, but
(13:58):
they should have some sort of understanding of how to
reform and rehabilited children and look after their emotional welfare. Now,
what the IDA report found out was that twenty four
percent of all jjbs that they got data for they
were not fully constituted, which means that either they did
not have a principal magistrate or they did not have
(14:20):
one or both social workers. And often in most of
these jjbs, the magistrate is holding that post as an
additional charge. It is to say that they are deputed
as judges in one of the local courts, and they're
doing this as a side gigsore to speak, which means
that they are not coming for daily hearings at the JJB.
(14:45):
As to how this delay impacts children, from my understanding
from what from the literature I've read, the impact is
actually far more severe the impact of this delay then
it is for an adult. So if you keep a
child in one of these shelter homes for maybe one
or two years, then that is a big percentage of
their age, right, so it sort of disrupts their education,
(15:09):
It increases trauma for them, It separates them from their
family and their support network. The report actually says that
I'm quoting from the report, that the promise of disposing
of cases without delay remains largely unfulfilled, and it says
that children are effectively suffering like adult under trial prisoners,
(15:32):
that is that they're looking for that they're incarcerated, and
the cases go on pending for months and years.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
And since the vacancies are a big issue and you
mentioned they're not being enough principal magistrates and social workers,
so tell us about some of the other positions and
roles that remain vacant and what do we assess are
the possible reasons behind it.
Speaker 5 (15:55):
So there are vacancies across the boat from the jjbs
to the support staff at these homes. In out of
the four seventy jgbs that responded to the applications filed
by IJR, out of those four seventy one hundred, eleven
said that the jgbs were not fully constituted, So that
is twenty five percent right. Apart from that, there is
(16:17):
also a shortage of legal come probation officers. Legal comme
probation officers are required to sort of track the progress
of the case of the child while they are kept
in custody, and according to the report from the ten
states that provided full data, the average workload of a
legal com probation officer was one seventy five cases per officer.
(16:41):
So you can imagine how unsustainable that is. An officer
cannot provide realistically speaking, full attention to one seventy five
children's cases at all times. And inside these homes also
there is a shortage of care staff and medical staff.
As to the reasons behind this, I think the reasons
are the same as for vacancies across government institutions, which
(17:04):
is bureaucratic lethargy. There are delays and appointments, there is
lack of funds, and perhaps there is not political will
to give priority to this particular segment.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Another very important thing in all of this are, of course,
the rehabilitation spieces where these children are meant to stay.
So what does these studies say about the current state
of these facilities.
Speaker 5 (17:29):
So again, nothing great the state of these facilities as
per the report. So according to law, let's go into
what kind of facilities are to be provided. Legally speaking,
According to the Juvenile Justice Act, there are three types
of homes for kids who are in conflict with law.
There are observation homes which are for temporary stay of
(17:50):
children against whom a case is currently pending in a JJB.
Then there are special homes which are meant to house
children again who have been convicted of an offense who
have been found to be in conflict with the law.
So there are special homes where they're kept for rehabilitation,
where the JJB might order that they stay for a
(18:10):
specific period of time. And then there are places of
safety which are for those who are accused of particularly
heinous crimes. So what the study found out was that
in fourteen states there is not even a single designated.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
Place of safety.
Speaker 5 (18:25):
This is highly problematic because this means that children who
are of different age groups and who might have been
accused of different categories offenses might be mixing together, which
defeats the purpose of having a separate place of safety
in the first place. And oversight is also a concern
because jgbs are supposed to inspect these homes at least
(18:49):
once a month, but the data from the reports shows
that less than half of the mandated inspections were completed.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Also, we need the poor state of medical care is
something that is often highlighted for adults under trials, but
is that the case with children as well?
Speaker 5 (19:07):
Yes, unfortunately that is the case with children who are
in conflict with the law as well. So as for
the report, fifteen states provided data on staffing in childcare institutions.
Out of these, from this data, IGR found that eighty
percent reported having no medical staff for doctors. So out
(19:29):
of one seventy one institutions that responded to the specific
query of whether you have doctors or not, only nineteen
had doctors. So nineteen out of one seventy one institutions
had doctors, which is to say that one fifty two
of one seventy one institutions did not have doctors at all.
With What this means is that the children who are
(19:50):
placed at these one to fifty two institutions, they are
being denied basic healthcare access.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
And do we have a sense of how many children
are currently within the juvenile system? Do we have data
for that?
Speaker 5 (20:04):
Yeah, unfortunately we don't have any data for exact numbers.
There are estimates in place, but exact numbers we don't
know because as I earlier pointed out, and that there
is no centralized data system for juvenile justice which is
why IGR came out with this report in the first place.
Based on the RTI responses that have been mentioned in
(20:27):
the report from twenty one states, So from twenty one states,
the number estimated is fifty thousand, so fifty thousand children
were awaiting justice as of October last year. The total
workload in the report was about one lack cases, So
in these twenty one states there are one lack cases
(20:47):
which are currently pending and fifty thousand children are currently
awaiting justice. They're currently involved in pending cases. But the
report also criticizes the lack of data transparency and the
lack of easy access to data. It calls the state
of data when it comes to the juvenile justice system
(21:09):
data black hole. And they have also mentioned in the
report that almost a quarter of their RTI queries did
not receive any reply.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
And we need what do people within the system like
judges have to say about this situation.
Speaker 5 (21:25):
So the IGR report itself includes comments from Justice Modern
Local former Delhi High Court and Supreme Court judge who
has worked extensively on juvenile justice both during his tenure
as a judge and afterwards. He has called it very
worrying that there are so many jjps which don't have
(21:46):
a full bench, and he pointed out to the detrimental
effect this will have on children who are caught in
this system. And his main takeaway was that unless we
have a centralized, transparent data system, we cannot hold the
system accountable. And during the launch of this report which
(22:06):
I had attended, AIJ had invited on a panel of
speakers a lady who had worked as a social worker
on one of the jjb's in Maharashtra, and she herself,
while recalling her experiences, said that the system is so
terribly inadequate in terms of both infrastructure funds people that
(22:27):
it is just not possible for the people who are
there in the system who are supposed to take care
of the children who are members of jjbs, even if
they have the best intentions, it is not possible for
them to carry out their work effectively and look after
the best interest of the child as is mandated by
the Juvenile Justice Act.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
And finally we turn to the chaos brewing inside Indigo,
India's largest airline. For the past few days, Indigo has
been dealing with major disruptions, with long delays and widespread
cancelations intensifying since Tuesday. Hundreds of flights have been canceled,
many more have been delayed by several hours, and only
a fraction of the airline's schedule has been operated on time.
(23:14):
On Wednesday alone, Indigo's on time performance dropped to under
twenty percent, compared with around fifty percent at the start
of the week. According to the Indiane Express's Suculpturema, the
chaos has primarily been driven by crew shortages triggered by
the second phase of India's new flight duty time limitation norms,
which came into effect last month. These rules increase pilot's
(23:37):
weekly rest requirements, limit night landings, and expand the definition
of night time flying changes that are meant to address
pilot fatigue. While the new norms apply to all airlines,
Indigo has been hit the hardest because of its enormous scale,
high frequency network, heavy reliance on late night flights, and
a model built on very high aircraft and crew utilization,
(24:01):
so this leaves little room for adjustment when crew availability.
Titans other airlines Succult points out have been operating at
lower utilization levels due to delays in aircraft deliveries and
maintenance related groundings. Giving them more flexibility in pilot rostering. Now,
Indigo's own data shows how sharply operations have been affected.
(24:22):
In November alone, it canceled more than twelve hundred flights,
most of them due to the new norms. Airports across
major cities from Bengaluru and Delhi to Mumbai and Tennai
reported dozens of cancellations, leaving thousands of passengers stranded. The
airline has apologized and says a combination of unforeseen operational
challenges has compounded the impact of the flight duty time
(24:45):
limitation norms. These include minor tech glitus, winter schedule adjustments,
bad weather, and rising congestion. Indigo ses it has begun
calibrated adjustments to stabilize operations over the next forty eight hours,
which will involve more cancelations and rescheduling. It is also
offering alternate flights or refans to affected passengers. Meanwhile, Sukul
(25:09):
purports that the regulator DDCA has launched an investigation and
asked Indigo to explain how the situation escalated. Pilot groups, however,
have blamed Indigo's long standing lean staffing strategy and say
the airlines should have prepared better for rules it knew
were coming. They allege the disruptions could have been avoided
(25:29):
with stronger hiring, better retention and more realistic scheduling. You
were listening to Three Things by the Nian Express. Today's
show was edited and mixed by Siriesh Pavar and produced
by Shashank Phagev and Ninahri Khan Nanda. If you like
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(25:50):
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tweet us at Express Audio and can write to us
at podcasts at Indian Express dot com.
In this episode, we talk about what a recent study
says about the state of India's juvenile justice system and
what its findings reveal about how well the system is
meeting its goal of rehabilitating children. We also explain why
Indigo Airlines has been facing long delays and widespread cancelations
over the past few days. But we begin today by
(00:21):
talking about how some exporters have managed to mitigate the
impact of the US tariffs. Hi, I am Aherrikan Nanda
and you are listening to three things in an Express
News show. After the United States imposed a fifty percent
(00:43):
tariff on Indian gods earlier this year, exporters have been
worried not just about the short term losses, but also
about the long term impact on their businesses, especially since
the US is their biggest market. But now nearly one
hundred days in, it turns out that several product categories
have managed to find alternative markets for their goods, potentially
(01:05):
offsetting some of the losses. In this segment, Michaelleague Shashank
Pargev speaks to the Indie Expresses Ravida Tamishra, who analyze
the data released by the Commerce and Industry Ministry.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Reve tell us about the products that have been able
to do this, that have been able to mitigate some
of the impact of these statufs.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
So there are a bunch of high margin products which
have found markets elsewhere.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
Particularly we have written.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
About marine products because China is importing a lot of
marine products from India now because they have tense situations
with Japan. European Union has also absorbed a bit of
our marine products Japan or has also Thaighland. So these
are the countries who have bought our marine products. And
then we see a similar trend in automobile component exports.
(01:56):
You know, they have found market in Germany, which is
a big automo manufacturer. So the difference the data suggests
is number one, the high margin products have managed to
move to other countries, but the low margin products like garments,
they have not. And ultimately what we see is that
(02:16):
there will be a very uneven impact of the US tariffs,
hurting the smaller players more than the large industries.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
And could you give us some more examples of the
kind of products that have low margins and that are
facing the most challenges.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
So, you know, yesterday I was speaking to handicraft manufacturers.
They are based mostly in Jaipur. Some of them are
in Gugao, and they were saying that they are struggling
to find newer markets because number one US was the
largest market and number two. When your margins are low,
(02:51):
it is rather difficult for you to immediately, you know,
change your suppliers or find new buyers. On top of that,
you have to look at your loans. So on the
immediate basis, it is difficult for leather products sports goods
to really work around US status.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
And you mentioned Germany when it came to autoparts. What
are some of the other places where India has been
able to export its products.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
So interesting country that appeared in number of products is Ui.
As you know, Ui is a transhipment hub and a
lot of products go via Ua to other countries. So
Ue is one of the country that is showing up
in the data. Again, Thailand is also a common name
that is coming up. Japan is also a common name,
(03:42):
and largely these countries are Asian countries. So we have
to know that the speed of growth in trade particularly
is much higher in Asia than other places. And eventually
our linkages in Asia could help us in fighting this off.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
And you know, initially when the tariffs were announced, exporters
were contemplating, you know, whether they should lower their prices
because now they would be facing an even tougher competition.
But considering that they're finding these new markets, are they
still considering that approach.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
So that is a big point of worry. So the
lack of clarity on the US deal is something that
is hurting our plans. For instance, we just supported that
around two billion worth of orders from the US summer orders,
you know, for which preparation starts a little early in
the winters. So negotiations on those orders are stuck because
(04:36):
the suppliers are not sure if the tariffs will come
down to twenty five percent or to fifteen percent or
to nineteen percent. So that is the issue over here.
US tariffs are at fifty percent. But then it could
have a larger and a longer sustained impact because these
orders tend to come in fairly early. Work starts happening
in the next three or four months. The products are manufactured,
(04:58):
the capacities decided, the raids are decided, so the whole
lot of process goes into these supplies, and if there
is uncertainty about the deal, it kind of hurts our
interest and.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Ra we can this also be seen as a silver
lining of sorts, you know, the fact that they're finding
these new markets and they maybe aren't as reliant on
the US anymore.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
It's too early to say, you know, because in most
of the product categories, US is the largest market, and
US has explicitly informed its straight partners or warned its
straight partners to against transhipments. So any product being rerouted
to the US throughout other countries will eventually face a
(05:41):
risk if that is happening.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
For example, if we sell something to the UA and
then UA sells that thing to the US.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Yeah, so eventually those things could come under the radar
and that could be a problem going forward. So these
might be short term arrangements that exporters might have gotten into,
or partially there could be a higher demand elsewhere. So
there are a lot of things that we don't know
at this point, and maybe a three month or four
(06:09):
month you know, impact will give us a better clarity.
But the early data suggests that some Indian exporters have
managed to withhold their market salesware and.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Earlier you had briefly mentioned the apparel industry. Now that's
an industry where the margins are low, competition is very high.
You have our neighbor Bangladesh that makes a lot of apparel.
There's also Vietnam. China of course talk about how that
sector is coping right now.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
So you know, this is something that everybody produces, even
our neighboring country like Pakistan, and on Pakistan US status
are at nineteen percent. So the problem is if you
have a unique product, it could manage to land up
in Europe or other countries. But then if Cambodia is
also fighting, if Bangladesh is fighting, if Vietnam is also fighting,
(06:57):
and they have efficient supply seas, and that also goes
against us. We are competitive in textile industry, we are
fairly competitive. But if we talk about Bangladesh, their textile
manufacturing is higher than China and in few respects. So
some of the countries have been doing this for a
long time. They have set supply chains and they are
taking advantage. The orders that should have come to India
(07:19):
are going to Bangladesh. And you know, exporters are talking
about it that few people who have had long standing
relationship with our suppliers have arranged twenty five twenty five
percent kind of a sharing of these status, but then
some do not see business interests anymore. Who is going
to absorb these fifty percent? Certainly not the workforce. And
(07:39):
I mean, for instance, the manufacturers in Jaipur, and they
were worried that they'll be layoffs and then they'll have
difficulty getting them back.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
And talk about the status of the deal. So far,
how far into the talks are we right now?
Speaker 3 (07:54):
So here there's something really interesting happening. We have sent
across our proposal of deal, our best proposal, what we
are willing to give, what we are willing to open,
our stand on agriculture, stand on automobile, all those sensitive
issues that has been cent across and that has been
communicated by our ministry to the press, on everybody.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
And now things are at a political level.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
So there's a likelihood that the decision, the US decision,
will be taken by the end of the year. That
is what our Common Secretary said, and only then we'll
be able to figure out what kind of rates will
be applicable on India. But on the background, we are
trying to negotiate deals with New Zealand, Israel, European Union.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
So there's a fair chance.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
That a lot of these trade deals will come through
much before the US, especially European Union. There's a lot
of work going on and it's one of our biggest market.
Apparently a lot of a legal team that is working
on the EU deal was asked to avoid taking leaves
so that this deal is secured, our new market is
secured and beyond our exports. A trade deal and these
(08:57):
s tariffs, particularly the US tariffs, have hurt our investments.
So if a new market opens up, there will be
a signal for higher investments to come in. So that
is what our government is trying to do. Again, this
could also change, so this is the point of polticity.
Supreme Court U Supreme Court is also here in the
case and there's a likelihood that US staffs under IPA
(09:17):
no longer.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
Stay if the court decides so. So there's a.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
Lot of uncertainty and much should happen in the next
one month.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
And next. We turn our attention to India's juvenile justice system,
a system meant to protect children from being treated like adults,
and one that focuses on rehabilitating young offenders rather than
simply punishing them.
Speaker 5 (09:42):
The core philosophy of the juvenile justice system. It's actually
distinct from the adult criminal justice system.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
That's the Indian expresses Beneath Bahala, who writes on law
for the paper.
Speaker 5 (09:56):
In the sense that it is focused exclusive on the
rehabilitation of the child and the primary objective under the
Juvenal Justice Act of twenty fourteen is to ensure the
best interest of the child. So the system operates on
this basis that children are a unique category. And even
(10:19):
the term that is used is when they come in
conflict with the law. We don't say that they have
committed criminal offenses. We say that they have come in
conflict with the law. Even in those situations, the goal
is not to punish them, but to reform them so
that they can reintegrate into the society as efficient members.
(10:39):
So the law mandates child friendly approach in how these
juvenile justice cases are dealth with, and it emphasizes that
putting a child in a childcare home should be a
last resort measure.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
But while that's the goal in theory, a new analysis
by the India Justice shows the many challenges the system
faces in actually meeting those objectives. The report points to
structural gaps, a lack of transparency and systemic inefficiencies that
often fail to protect a child's dignity, leaving many of
them dealing with the same issues adults face. So to
(11:18):
understand India's juvenile justice system more closely and to break
down the findings of this report, we are speaking to
beneath in this segment. Now, you recently wrote about this
study titled Juvenile Justice and Children Conflict with Law, which
was published by the India Justice Report. Before we talk
about its findings, tell us what it was trying to
(11:39):
find out in the first place.
Speaker 5 (11:41):
So, the India Justice Report IJR they wanted to conduct
a capacity check of the juvenile justice's legal system in
India and they produce this report this year because this
year marked one full decade since the current Juvenile Justice
Act was past. They wanted to see if the machinery
(12:03):
that is required under the Act, whether it actually exists
and delivers on the ground. So they looked at whether
there is enough infrastructure, enough staff, enough budget in these
juvenile justice institutions. They asked very basic questions like are
they functioning juvenile justice boards, do they have enough social
(12:25):
workers and judicial members, are rehabilitation homes and shelter rooms
actually in place, and since there is no centralized database
for this which is available for public viewing, they had
to file I think about two hundred and fifty Right
to information applications across all states and Union territories to
(12:45):
get the data that they use for this report.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
So we need what have been some of its key
findings and what kind of challenges has it recognized within
the juvenile justice system.
Speaker 5 (12:56):
So the findings in the reporter quite alarming. It paints
this picture of a system with vast structural deficits. There
is huge pendency, there are severe staff shortages, and essentially
the infrastructure and staffing is not at all in consonance
(13:19):
with the intent of the act.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Right and you mentioned the huge pendency in cases as
one of the issues, and this is something that the
adult justice system also faces. But tell us why is
this happening and how does this delay impact the children.
Speaker 5 (13:35):
So the delay, just like with the adult justice system,
the delay in the juvenile justice system is also the
reason behind it is largely administrative. So for example, under
the Juvenal Justice Act, each Juvenile Justice Board must have
a principal magistrate who's a legal officer, and two social
workers who are not necessarily from a legal background, but
(13:58):
they should have some sort of understanding of how to
reform and rehabilited children and look after their emotional welfare. Now,
what the IDA report found out was that twenty four
percent of all jjbs that they got data for they
were not fully constituted, which means that either they did
not have a principal magistrate or they did not have
(14:20):
one or both social workers. And often in most of
these jjbs, the magistrate is holding that post as an
additional charge. It is to say that they are deputed
as judges in one of the local courts, and they're
doing this as a side gigsore to speak, which means
that they are not coming for daily hearings at the JJB.
(14:45):
As to how this delay impacts children, from my understanding
from what from the literature I've read, the impact is
actually far more severe the impact of this delay then
it is for an adult. So if you keep a
child in one of these shelter homes for maybe one
or two years, then that is a big percentage of
their age, right, so it sort of disrupts their education,
(15:09):
It increases trauma for them, It separates them from their
family and their support network. The report actually says that
I'm quoting from the report, that the promise of disposing
of cases without delay remains largely unfulfilled, and it says
that children are effectively suffering like adult under trial prisoners,
(15:32):
that is that they're looking for that they're incarcerated, and
the cases go on pending for months and years.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
And since the vacancies are a big issue and you
mentioned they're not being enough principal magistrates and social workers,
so tell us about some of the other positions and
roles that remain vacant and what do we assess are
the possible reasons behind it.
Speaker 5 (15:55):
So there are vacancies across the boat from the jjbs
to the support staff at these homes. In out of
the four seventy jgbs that responded to the applications filed
by IJR, out of those four seventy one hundred, eleven
said that the jgbs were not fully constituted, So that
is twenty five percent right. Apart from that, there is
(16:17):
also a shortage of legal come probation officers. Legal comme
probation officers are required to sort of track the progress
of the case of the child while they are kept
in custody, and according to the report from the ten
states that provided full data, the average workload of a
legal com probation officer was one seventy five cases per officer.
(16:41):
So you can imagine how unsustainable that is. An officer
cannot provide realistically speaking, full attention to one seventy five
children's cases at all times. And inside these homes also
there is a shortage of care staff and medical staff.
As to the reasons behind this, I think the reasons
are the same as for vacancies across government institutions, which
(17:04):
is bureaucratic lethargy. There are delays and appointments, there is
lack of funds, and perhaps there is not political will
to give priority to this particular segment.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Another very important thing in all of this are, of course,
the rehabilitation spieces where these children are meant to stay.
So what does these studies say about the current state
of these facilities.
Speaker 5 (17:29):
So again, nothing great the state of these facilities as
per the report. So according to law, let's go into
what kind of facilities are to be provided. Legally speaking,
According to the Juvenile Justice Act, there are three types
of homes for kids who are in conflict with law.
There are observation homes which are for temporary stay of
(17:50):
children against whom a case is currently pending in a JJB.
Then there are special homes which are meant to house
children again who have been convicted of an offense who
have been found to be in conflict with the law.
So there are special homes where they're kept for rehabilitation,
where the JJB might order that they stay for a
(18:10):
specific period of time. And then there are places of
safety which are for those who are accused of particularly
heinous crimes. So what the study found out was that
in fourteen states there is not even a single designated.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
Place of safety.
Speaker 5 (18:25):
This is highly problematic because this means that children who
are of different age groups and who might have been
accused of different categories offenses might be mixing together, which
defeats the purpose of having a separate place of safety
in the first place. And oversight is also a concern
because jgbs are supposed to inspect these homes at least
(18:49):
once a month, but the data from the reports shows
that less than half of the mandated inspections were completed.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Also, we need the poor state of medical care is
something that is often highlighted for adults under trials, but
is that the case with children as well?
Speaker 5 (19:07):
Yes, unfortunately that is the case with children who are
in conflict with the law as well. So as for
the report, fifteen states provided data on staffing in childcare institutions.
Out of these, from this data, IGR found that eighty
percent reported having no medical staff for doctors. So out
(19:29):
of one seventy one institutions that responded to the specific
query of whether you have doctors or not, only nineteen
had doctors. So nineteen out of one seventy one institutions
had doctors, which is to say that one fifty two
of one seventy one institutions did not have doctors at all.
With What this means is that the children who are
(19:50):
placed at these one to fifty two institutions, they are
being denied basic healthcare access.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
And do we have a sense of how many children
are currently within the juvenile system? Do we have data
for that?
Speaker 5 (20:04):
Yeah, unfortunately we don't have any data for exact numbers.
There are estimates in place, but exact numbers we don't
know because as I earlier pointed out, and that there
is no centralized data system for juvenile justice which is
why IGR came out with this report in the first place.
Based on the RTI responses that have been mentioned in
(20:27):
the report from twenty one states, So from twenty one states,
the number estimated is fifty thousand, so fifty thousand children
were awaiting justice as of October last year. The total
workload in the report was about one lack cases, So
in these twenty one states there are one lack cases
(20:47):
which are currently pending and fifty thousand children are currently
awaiting justice. They're currently involved in pending cases. But the
report also criticizes the lack of data transparency and the
lack of easy access to data. It calls the state
of data when it comes to the juvenile justice system
(21:09):
data black hole. And they have also mentioned in the
report that almost a quarter of their RTI queries did
not receive any reply.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
And we need what do people within the system like
judges have to say about this situation.
Speaker 5 (21:25):
So the IGR report itself includes comments from Justice Modern
Local former Delhi High Court and Supreme Court judge who
has worked extensively on juvenile justice both during his tenure
as a judge and afterwards. He has called it very
worrying that there are so many jjps which don't have
(21:46):
a full bench, and he pointed out to the detrimental
effect this will have on children who are caught in
this system. And his main takeaway was that unless we
have a centralized, transparent data system, we cannot hold the
system accountable. And during the launch of this report which
(22:06):
I had attended, AIJ had invited on a panel of
speakers a lady who had worked as a social worker
on one of the jjb's in Maharashtra, and she herself,
while recalling her experiences, said that the system is so
terribly inadequate in terms of both infrastructure funds people that
(22:27):
it is just not possible for the people who are
there in the system who are supposed to take care
of the children who are members of jjbs, even if
they have the best intentions, it is not possible for
them to carry out their work effectively and look after
the best interest of the child as is mandated by
the Juvenile Justice Act.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
And finally we turn to the chaos brewing inside Indigo,
India's largest airline. For the past few days, Indigo has
been dealing with major disruptions, with long delays and widespread
cancelations intensifying since Tuesday. Hundreds of flights have been canceled,
many more have been delayed by several hours, and only
a fraction of the airline's schedule has been operated on time.
(23:14):
On Wednesday alone, Indigo's on time performance dropped to under
twenty percent, compared with around fifty percent at the start
of the week. According to the Indiane Express's Suculpturema, the
chaos has primarily been driven by crew shortages triggered by
the second phase of India's new flight duty time limitation norms,
which came into effect last month. These rules increase pilot's
(23:37):
weekly rest requirements, limit night landings, and expand the definition
of night time flying changes that are meant to address
pilot fatigue. While the new norms apply to all airlines,
Indigo has been hit the hardest because of its enormous scale,
high frequency network, heavy reliance on late night flights, and
a model built on very high aircraft and crew utilization,
(24:01):
so this leaves little room for adjustment when crew availability.
Titans other airlines Succult points out have been operating at
lower utilization levels due to delays in aircraft deliveries and
maintenance related groundings. Giving them more flexibility in pilot rostering. Now,
Indigo's own data shows how sharply operations have been affected.
(24:22):
In November alone, it canceled more than twelve hundred flights,
most of them due to the new norms. Airports across
major cities from Bengaluru and Delhi to Mumbai and Tennai
reported dozens of cancellations, leaving thousands of passengers stranded. The
airline has apologized and says a combination of unforeseen operational
challenges has compounded the impact of the flight duty time
(24:45):
limitation norms. These include minor tech glitus, winter schedule adjustments,
bad weather, and rising congestion. Indigo ses it has begun
calibrated adjustments to stabilize operations over the next forty eight hours,
which will involve more cancelations and rescheduling. It is also
offering alternate flights or refans to affected passengers. Meanwhile, Sukul
(25:09):
purports that the regulator DDCA has launched an investigation and
asked Indigo to explain how the situation escalated. Pilot groups, however,
have blamed Indigo's long standing lean staffing strategy and say
the airlines should have prepared better for rules it knew
were coming. They allege the disruptions could have been avoided
(25:29):
with stronger hiring, better retention and more realistic scheduling. You
were listening to Three Things by the Nian Express. Today's
show was edited and mixed by Siriesh Pavar and produced
by Shashank Phagev and Ninahri Khan Nanda. If you like
the show, then do subscribe to us wherever you get
your podcasts. You can also recommend the show to someone
(25:50):
you think will like it, share it with a friend
or someone in a family. It's the best way for
people to get to know about us. You can also
tweet us at Express Audio and can write to us
at podcasts at Indian Express dot com.
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