INL Digital Edition June 15 2020

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08 JUNE 15, 2020 Fijilink Former Indian envoy to Fiji passes away in India His love for Fiji and Fijians is remembered with respect Venkat Raman Ajay Singh, a former High Commissioner to Fiji who was active in federal and state politics in India, passed away in Agra, India, on Tuesday, June 9, 2020. He was 70 years old and according to available information, died of heart failure. Mr Singh was a regular visitor to New Zealand where he had many friends and this Reporter had known for more than 20 years. He was a jovial, honest and straightforward person and never minced words to express his true opinion over people and issues. Tribute by Sir Anand Satyanand Former Governor General Sir Anand Satyanand described him as a ‘long-standing, warm-hearted and consistent friend.’ “In the course of life, there are people who are personable and who maintain an active interest in current events and politics of the day. Ajay Singh, as a writer and journalist, was one of such person. He had studied journalism in New Zealand at the University of Canterbury in the 1970s and kept in touch with things here, years after returning to Fiji and then India,” he said. Sir Anand said that Mr Singh made a number of recurring visits to New Zealand and kept in touch with a wide group of friends, with whom he kept in contact. “The remarkable thing was that his approach was exactly the same with regard to Fiji, from which country he came in the 1970s when his father was Indian High Commissioner there. Like his coming to New Zealand, he returned to Fiji time and again taking an interest in current events and the people of the country. So much so was this the case that Online education reaches home screens in Fiji But mVuli Project needs financial and material support Swami Tadananda The Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) has had a huge impact on the delivery of education worldwide. Most First World countries have used their online education platforms to continue to deliver education to students at home. It seems that online education will continue to play an important role in future education programmes. Ramakrishna Mission piloted its e-learning programmes in 2010 at Swami Vivekananda College. Over time, many other schools took initiative to develop their ICT infrastructure. The digital challenge However, they all faced the challenge of developing quality digital educational content. To help these schools, Ramakrishna Mission undertook a F$250,000 project to develop an online portal to make available high-quality curriculum to interested students, teachers, and schools. After all, Maths and Sciences Ajay Singh (Photo Courtesy: Asia-NZ Foundation) in 2005 he received an assignment himself for three years to be High Commissioner, a task that he set about with flair supported by his wife Shiromani who was born and raised in Fiji,” he said. Sir Anand said that his comments leave aside the way Mr Singh functioned in his own country of birth, India, where he not only plied his career over time as a journalist with newspapers and magazines, but as an author of books. “With a personality that has been mentioned, politics beckoned for a time and he served as a Parliamentarian, at state and then federal levels in the 1980s. In the latter, he received appointment as a Union Minister for Railways for a term in the government led by Vishwanath Pratap Singh. After this phase he turned to governance and participated for example on the Council of Delhi University. His death, at age 70, deprives many who knew him of a remarkable achiever as well as a longstanding, warm-hearted and consistent friend,” Sir Anand said. curriculum are basically the same in all countries. These digital contents are provided to only to complement the curriculum of the Ministry of Education. At the same time, students have the freedom to learn at their own pace. The mVuli Services We are happy to inform that mVuli – the Fijian online education project of Ramakrishna Mission is now fully operational. You may visit the site at www. mvuli.org. This has become very useful in the coronavirus crisis when students and teachers are not able to go to schools. Currently, the mVuli portal has the following features and services: Secondary Level Curriculum: High quality Mathematics, Chemistry, Physics and Biology courses for Years 9-13 are available free of charge to all secondary students and teachers who have registered on www.mvuli.org. By Graeme Waters Graeme Waters, who served as New Zealand’s High Commissioner to India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka based in Delhi from August 2004 to 2007 (he was Deputy High Commissioner there in 1987) said that Mr Singh was a charming, erudite and thoughtful person who was equally at ease in India, Fiji or New Zealand. “He was wonderfully connected, and could straddle the divide between India’s robust domestic politics and the subtleties of international diplomacy. He and his late wife Shiromani were a formidable team, and it was an honour for my wife Audrey and me to be counted among their many Kiwi friends,” Mr Waters said. By Gillian Green The late Michael Green was New Zealand’s High Commissioner to Fiji during the same time as Mr Singh. His wife Gillian Green recalled their times together as ‘one of the great pleasures of the posting.’ “Discussing politics in general and Hindi mVuli allows parents to can login and follow the progress of their children and support their learning process. Virtual School: Any school can apply to register and replicate itself online in the same way the teachers, students, subjects are setup in their school. Many countries are moving towards integrating online curriculum into their education system. Fiji Mcurriculum Development: Once their school is registered, the teachers can easily upload their own teaching lessons for their students. They can also collaborate among themselves and other schools to produce and share better quality lessons. Virtual Classrooms: mVuli also offers Virtual Classroom functionality to teachers of registered schools to conduct interactive audio-visual classes for their students from their homes or schools. This is very useful in the current situation. Case for Primary Level Curriculum on mVuli: During the Covid-19 crisis, many schools and parents requested for the primary school curriculum. Accordingly, we negotiated to acquire the full Primary school curriculum from our suppliers Learnetic at a special price of F$100,000. This is 20% of their original cost of $500,000! Apart from the Primary school Mathematics and Sciences curriculum, the package includes Year 1-6 Interactive Primary Mathematics Curriculum based on the renowned system used in Finland. With an additional cost of about $10,000 for integrating the new Primary School curriculum into the mVuli platform, the project will cost F$110,000. With the inclusion of this Primary curriculum, mVuli would be able to offer the whole range of high-quality online curriculum right from year 1 to year 13. Over time, this project will help improve the quality of education in Fiji and empower the students, teachers, and parents. We wish to leverage the mVuli platform to expand the scope of education to include important areas such as (1) Emotional and Mental health, (2) Value Education (3) Spiritual education Request for support The mVuli crisis has shown that Online education will continue to play a prominent part in education movies in particular was a shared passion of us, two couples,” she said. By Ahemad Bhamji Ahemad Bhamji had known Mr Sigh for more than 50 years, first as a fellow student of Shiromani in Delhi and later as a family friend. There was not a single visit of Mr Singh to New Zealand during which Mr Bhamji was not a host. “It is hard to find a person like Ajay Singh who had true feelings and respect for Fiji and Fijians. He played a crucial role in promoting the welfare of our people all the time, especially during the first and second coup that occurred in 1987. He was a great, personal friend and hence it was heart-breaking to receive a call to say that he had passed away. I pray Almighty Allah that he soul rests in peace,” he said. A rare politician India’s Janata Dal United (JDU) Party General Secretary, said that Mr Singh was a rare politician. “He was a misfit in politics, he was too much of a gentleman. He had friendship towards all and malice towards none,” he said. Mr Singh was a President of the All India Jat Maha Sammelan and a Minister in the VP Singh Cabinet from December 7, 1989 to November 10, 1990. Political pundits in India said that when JDU leaders Devi Lal and Charan Singh fell out in 1982, Mr Singh was one person who managed to remain friends with opposing camps. Similarly, despite the bitterness between Mr Charan Singh and Mulayam Singh Yadav, he retained ties with both. He had friends across the political spectrum, from Madhu Limaye and George Fernandes to Biju Patnaik, Karpoori Thakur, Sharad Yadav, Ram Vilas Paswan and V P Singh. In 2013, Congress leaders from the Jat community, Natwar Singh and Bhupinder Singh Hooda , backed him for the post of President of All India Jat Maha Sammelan. Illustrious family Singh was the son of respected civil servant and diplomat Bhagwan Singh, who was also a shining light of his community. After serving in Army as Captain, obtained one of the war-time vacancies in the ICS and became the first Jat to join the Indian Administrative Service (IAS). From 2005 to 2007, Ajay Singh was India’s High Commissioner to Fiji, a post held by his father 30 years earlier. The family has an old association with Fiji, since Singh’s great-grandfather was among the first indentured labourers from India to be sent by the British to the Pacific island. His late wife Shiromani grew up in Fiji, although she was educated in India. He was working on the history of the Jat community and also researching his family’s links with Fiji at the time of his death. in the future. We seek your generous support to this second phase of the mVuli project to enable us to provide a comprehensive online curriculum to all Fijians. You may donate online for education or through GoFundMe. About mVuli Project mVuli is Ramakrishna Mission’s global initiative to provide high quality and holistic education for Fijians accessible to anyone, anywhere and anytime at a highly subsidised and affordable price. mVuli is an online school for Fiji. It brings directly to students the world’s most comprehensive digital K-12 curriculum in Mathematics, Chemistry, Physics and Biology from year 9 to year 13. Our youth of today will compete on the global platform. We wish to empower them with the high standard education required for their success. mVuli will also support interested schools with ready made interactive e-Content for their eLearning in classrooms. This highly cost effective online content does away with the need for developing own content, servers, IT personnel etc. Students and parents can directly access these on their devices (smartphones, tablets, laptops). Comprehensive reports to monitor progress in real-time are available in students, parents and teachers Swami Tadananda is the Head of Ramakrishna Vedanta Centre of Auckland. He lives in Nadi, Fiji.
JUNE 15, 2020 Businesslink Financial Markets Authority takes ANZ to court ‘False and misleading representation over credit card insurance charges’ Supplied Content The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) has filed High Court proceedings against ANZ Bank New Zealand (ANZ), alleging that the Bank charged some customers for Credit Card Repayment Insurance (CCRI) policies that offered those customers no cover. Two causes of action The FMA proceedings have two causes of action. Firstly, that ANZ issued duplicate CCRI policies to some customers, which provided no additional benefits or cover, and charged premiums on those policies, during the period April 2014 and November 2019. Secondly, ANZ issued and failed to cancel CCRI policies for ineligible customers, also charging premiums on those policies, during the period 1 April 2014 – May 2018. These two issues relate back to at least 2001. However, the FMA claim reflects the introduction of the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013, which came into effect from April 2014. The FMA claims that ANZ contravened section 22 of the Financial Markets Conduct Act by making false and misleading representations about the cover of the policies. The regulator is seeking declarations of contravention of the Financial Markets Conduct Act, pecuniary penalties and costs. Duplicate Policy Issue ANZ first identified the duplicate policy issue around September 2017 and the ineligible customers issue was identified around May 2018. ANZ did not disclose either issue to the FMA or Reserve Bank during their joint conduct and culture review of New Zealand’s retail banks from May to June 2018. The review requested that ANZ disclose “any work underway to remediate any identified issues where conduct by your firm has resulted in detrimental outcomes for customers.” ANZ first notified the FMA of both issues in June 2019. Internal systems failure FMA General Counsel, Nick Kynoch said, “While ANZ has embarked on their own remediation programme, and ultimately self-reported this matter, the case points to a failure of internal systems and controls resulting in customer harm over a significant period of time. Self-reporting is expected, and is taken into account by the FMA when determining the appropriate regulatory outcome. In this instance, we felt it appropriate to put the matter before the courts. “ANZ sold a product that, for some customers, offered no benefit.” CCRI is a form of insurance which covers some or all of a customer’s outstanding credit card repayments in certain circumstances, including in the event of a customer’s bankruptcy, redundancy, injury, illness or death. Source: Financial Markets Authority, Wellington. Central Government should help cash-strapped Councils Julian Wood Auckland Council is forecasting a $525 million dollar hole in its budget as a result of Covid-19. It is not alone. Across the country, City and regional Councils are adjusting their budgets. Wellington City Council is deciding what to do with a $70 million dollar shortfall, Hamilton City is facing a $22 million dollar drop in non-rates income and the Northland Regional Council is facing a $4 million shortfall. Restoring 60% or even 80% of these funding shortfalls over the coming year would be a lifeline for the local businesses who rely on Council contracts. Range of options When a local authority is facing a financial hole it has a range of options. It can increase its rates and fees, sell assets, borrow more, cut its current spending and or decide to defer new planned projects or maintenance. Most are likely to employ all these tactics at the same time. Take the Northland Regional Council, this $4 million dollar shortfall will mean $1.2 million will be cut from its existing budget, roughly $800,000 of new work delayed, and another $410,000 saved by not filling vacant positions. While local government is facing a funding crisis across the country, our central Government is spending up large. They are promising spending at levels we have never seen, so much that they are having to bring forward ideas and ask the regions for “shovel-ready” projects in order to stimulate the economy and create jobs. All the while, Councils are slashing and 09 burning line items and delaying projects that were already in motion and in some cases ready to go. This mini-austerity over the country, is like a death of a thousand cuts for smaller local businesses and service providers. Central Government War Chest It should not be a controversial or surprising idea that central Government should use some of its $20 billion Covid-19 war chest to plug some of the gaps in council revenue. That is not to say that the government should just hand over all the money needed to make up the difference; it is right that Councils should be forced to examine their spending, eliminate waste and prioritise work. But if we are to choose between big central government spending on projects that will take years to get going, or topping up budgets to allow local work that is already underway to keep going it’s time to choose the latter. Local governments contract smaller businesses to do all the unsexy stuff that make our lives better. They ensure that water flows into our homes, that waste leaves them, that drains do not block or are unblocked when they do. They contract out the maintenance on our local roads, ensuring that the lights at intersections work, that hazard signs are erected and maintained, that local parks, pools and public transport keep ticking over and are safe and up to date. It is time that the central government gave control of a small portion of their war-chest to local government and in doing so provide a lifeline for the many small businesses that are in grave danger. Julian Wood is a Researcher at Maxim Institute based in Auckland.
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