Current Affairs January 2014 To September 2014 PDF

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CHRONICLE
IAS ACADEMY
A CIVIL SERVICES CHRONICLE INITIATIVE
WEEKLY CURRENT
AFFAIRS BULLETIN
1ST JANUARY 2014 TO 5TH JANUARY 2014
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Nagar, Metro Station, Gate No. 4, Delhi-110 009.
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Nagar, New Delhi-110 060.
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For details visit : www.chronicleias.com
CONTENTS
Sl. No.
TOPICS
Pg. No.
NATIONAL
1. GOVT ROLLS OUT MULTI-SECTORAL NUTRITION PROGRAMME ........................................ 4
2. NEW LAND ACQUISITION LAW COMES INTO FORCE ........................................................... 4
3. GOVT SET TO TIGHTEN CLINICAL TRIAL NORMS .................................................................. 5
4. SPORTS MINISTRY ISSUES NEW GUIDELINES FOR ARJUNA AWARDS ............................... 5
5. ONLY 10% STUDENTS HAVE ACCESS TO HIGHER EDUCATION IN INDIA ......................... 6
6. ODISHA, BIHAR SPELL OUT EXCLUSION CRITERIA UNDER FOOD SECURITY ACT ..... 7
7. GOVERNMENT RELAXES NORMS FOR MEGA POWER PROJECTS....................................... 8
8. SHAH PANELS REPORT ON ILLEGAL IRON ORE MINING REFERRED TO COS ............... 8
9. NANAVATI PANEL GETS EXTENSION ........................................................................................... 9
10. INDIA TO HAVE 185 MN MOBILE INTERNET USERS BY JUNE 2014 .................................... 9
INTERNATIONAL
11. LATVIA, THE 18TH MEMBER OF EURO ZONE ......................................................................... 11
12. WHO DECIDES IF THE CONVERGENCE CRITERIA ARE MET? ..................................... 12
INDIA AND THE WORLD

13. INDIA TO ASSESS SITUATION IN SOUTH SUDAN .................................................................. 13
14. INDIA SIGNS LABOUR TREATY WITH SAUDI ARABIA ........................................................... 13
15. INDIA INKED MOU WITH MALDIVES ........................................................................................ 13
ECONOMY
16. GOVT WORKING ON ALLOWING FDI IN RAILWAYS ........................................................... 15
17. BALI DEAL PUTS LIFE BACK INTO WTO TALKS ................................................................... 15
18. FINANCIAL INCLUSION SCORE IMPROVED IN FY12, SAYS CRISIL ................................. 16
19. 2013 M&A ACTIVITY DOWN 11.5% TO 31.5 BN ....................................................................... 16
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

20. MRAM TECHNOLOGY ................................................................................................................... 18
21. PARAM YUVA II ............................................................................................................................. 18
HEALTH
22. MODIFIED MICROLASERS TO DIAGNOSE MALARIA ........................................................... 19
23. THE PILL CAN KILL: AIIMS STUDY ........................................................................................... 19
24. INDIA TO BE CERTIFIED POLIO-FREE THIS YEAR................................................................. 20
25. TRIPLING TOBACCO TAXES MAY CUT DEATHS & SMOKING ........................................... 21
26. LIFESTYLE CHANGES MAY HELP PREVENT ALZHEIMERS CASE ..................................... 22
NEWS IN BRIEF
27. NEWSMAKERS ................................................................................................................................ 23
28. OBITUARIES ..................................................................................................................................... 24
29. AWARD/PRIZES ................................................................................................................................ 24
30. TERMINOLOGIES ............................................................................................................................ 25
31. SPORTS .............................................................................................................................................. 26
EDITORIALS
32. A REDLINE ON FISCAL DEFICIT ................................................................................................ 27
33. TELENGANA: NO CONSTITUTIONAL BARRIERS .................................................................... 27
34. NOT HANDLED WITH CARE ........................................................................................................ 28
35. MEETING POINT ............................................................................................................................. 31
36. GOING NOWHERE .......................................................................................................................... 32
37. THE UNACCOUNTED ..................................................................................................................... 32
38. COUNTING OUR CHICKENS ....................................................................................................... 33
39. HIGH GROWTH IS STILL POSSIBLE ........................................................................................... 34
40. NEW YEAR MUSINGS .................................................................................................................... 36
41. RBI CRACKS WHIP ON BANK ASSET QUALITY .................................................................... 36
42. BOND BETTER ................................................................................................................................. 38
43. WATER IS A BASIC RIGHT, DELIVER IT .................................................................................... 38
NATIONAL
GOVT ROLLS OUT MULTI-SECTORAL NUTRITION PROGRAMME
ICDs
Launched on 2nd October 1975, ICDS Scheme
represents one of the worlds largest and most
unique programmes for early childhood
development. ICDS is the foremost symbol of
Indias commitment to her children Indias
response to the challenge of providing pre-school
education on one hand and breaking the vicious
cycle of malnutrition, morbidity, reduced learning
capacity and mortality, on the other.
1. Objectives: The Integrated Child
Development Services (ICDS) Scheme was
launched in 1975 with the following objectives:
(i) to improve the nutritional and health status
of children in the age-group 0-6 years;
(ii) to lay the foundation for proper
psychological, physical and social
development of the child;
(iii) to reduce the incidence of mortality,
morbidity, malnutrition and school dropout;
(iv) to achieve effective co-ordination of policy
and implementation amongst the various
departments to promote child development;
and
(v) to enhance the capability of the mother to
look after the normal health and nutritional
needs of the child through proper nutrition
and health education.
2. Services: The above objectives are sought to
be achieved through a package of services
comprising:
(i) Supplementary nutrition,
(ii) Immunization,
(iii) Health check-up,
(iv) Referral services,
(v) Pre-school non-formal education and
(vi) Nutrition & health education.
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To address the problems of maternal and child

under-nutrition in the country the Union
Government has finally approved the rollout of
the Multi-sectoral Nutrition Programme.
The programme, recommended by the Prime
Ministers National Council on Indias Nutrition
Challenges in 2010, will be implemented in 200
high-burden districts in two phases at an estimated
cost of Rs. 1,213.19 crore. It will be a Centrally
Sponsored Scheme under the National Nutrition
Mission, with the Centre-State cost sharing ratio
90:10 for all components in the north-eastern States
and special category States, and 75:25 for the other
States and the Union Territories.
The first phase will begin in 100 districts in
2013-14, and the rest will be covered in the second
in 2014-15. The National Mission Steering Group
and the Empowered Programme Committee
constituted for Integrated Child Development
Services (ICDS) Mission will be the highest
administrative and technical bodies for ensuring
effective planning, implementation, monitoring and
supervision.
The programme will bring in strong nutrition
focus in various sectoral plans and provide gapfilling support to key nutrition-related intervention
targets to contribute to the prevention of and
reduction in child under-nutrition (underweight
prevalence in children under three); and reduction
in the levels of anaemia among children, adolescent
girls and women. It will also work for the
establishment of State and District Nutrition
Councils.
The highest number of districts, with a high
burden of under-nutrition, have been identified in
Uttar Pradesh with the number being as high as
41, followed by Madhya Pradesh at 30, Rajasthan
and Maharashtra at 20, Bihar at 17 and Gujarat
1ith 15.
NEW LAND ACQUISITION LAW COMES INTO FORCE
The new land acquisition law enacted by

Parliament in September, 2013, which aims to
provide fair compensation, rehabilitation and
resettlement to farmers whose land is acquired
[4]
came into force from 1st January, 2014. The Right

to Fair Compensation and Transparency in
Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, replaces
the 120-year-old legislation dates back to 1894.
Weekly Current Affairs Ist January to 5th January, 2013

The Act, meant for bringing transparency to
the process of acquisition of land, provides for
generous compensation and rehabilitation of those
affected by the takeover. The new law proposes
that farmers and landowners be paid up to four
times the market value for land acquired in rural
areas and two times the market value in urban
areas. Another key feature of the act is that the
consent of 80 per cent of land owners is needed for
acquiring land for private projects and of 70 per

cent landowners for public-private projects.
The law has the provision that the companies
can lease the land instead of purchasing it. Besides,
the private companies will have to provide for
rehabilitation and resettlement if land acquired
through private negotiations is more than 50 acres
and 100 acres in urban and rural areas, respectively.
GOVT SET TO TIGHTEN CLINICAL TRIAL NORMS

Phase of Clinical Trials
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The government is set to tighten regulation of

clinical trials in India by mandating that ethics
committees that clear clinical trials will not only
have to be registered but also accredited.
It has put together a three-member committee to
identify experts wholl form the accreditation council.
The three-member committee consists of Dr YK
Gupta, head of the pharmacology department of
AIIMS and national scientific co-ordinator,
Pharmacovigilance of India; Dr Ranjit Roy
Chaudhury who headed the committee which
submitted the report on guidelines on clinical trials;
and Dr AK Aggarwal, ENT professor and former
dean of Maulana Azad Medical College.
According to Dr Roy Chaudhury, they would
be advising on the whole process of implementing
the 23 recommendations of his committees report
on approval of new drugs and clinical trials, which
the government has accepted. We have to decide
whether we want to constitute the accreditation
council from scratch or farm it out to the Federation
of Ethics Committees of India. Many of the ethics
committees, like those associated with wellrespected medical colleges like CMC Vellore or
AIIMS, can be given accreditation without much
hassle. And independent ethics committees are
totally out, as far as I know, said Dr Chaudhury.
He explained only clinical trials involving drugs,
pharma research and those sponsored by pharma
companies or a government or non-government
agency required to be cleared by an accredited ethics
committee. Clinical research which is about
academics and generating knowledge should not
require clearance by a registered ethics committee.
But these are all things we will have to decide, added
Dr Chaudhury.
Clinical trials are a set of procedures in medical

research and drug development that are
conducted to allow safety and efficacy data to be
collected for health interventions. These trials can
take place only after satisfactory information has
been gathered on the quality of the non-clinical
safety, and Health Authority/Ethics Committee
approval is granted in the country where the trial
is taking place.
Clinical trials are conducted in phases. The
trials at each phase have a different purpose and
help scientists answer different questions:
In Phase 1 trials, researchers test an
experimental drug or treatment in a small group
of people (20-80) for the first time to evaluate its
safety, determine a safe dosage range, and identify
side effects.
In Phase 2 trials, the experimental study drug
or treatment is given to a larger group of people
(100-300) to see if it is effective and to further
evaluate its safety.
In Phase 3 trials, the experimental study drug
or treatment is given to large groups of people
(1,000-3,000) to confirm its effectiveness, monitor
side effects, compare it to commonly used
treatments, and collect information that will allow
the experimental drug or treatment to be used
safely.
In Phase IV trials, post marketing studies
delineate additional information including the
drugs risks, benefits, and optimal use.
Before pharmaceutical companies start clinical
trials on a drug, they conduct extensive preclinical studies.
SPORTS MINISTRY ISSUES NEW GUIDELINES FOR ARJUNA AWARDS

In a bid to improve transparency, objectivity
and do away with lobbying, factors that dent the
image of the coveted national sports awards, the
sports ministry has introduced new criteria for
giving away Arjuna Awards 2014 onwards.
The new criteria as decided by the ministry are

as follow
1. To grant 90 per cent weightage to medal
winners of various international championships
and sports events of disciplines covered in
[5]
3.
4.
5.
6.
to the marks awarded by the selection

committee for assessment of the sportsperson,
keeping in view factors like profile and standard
of the sports events in which he or she has
won medals and qualities like leadership,
sportsmanship, team spirit, fair play and sense
of discipline.
7. For cricket and indigenous games, not included
in Olympics, Asian Games or Commonwealth
Games, the selection committee will recommend
the number of awards (not exceeding two) to
be given, besides recommending the
sportspersons after taking into consideration
their individual performances and qualities of
sportsman spirit, leadership, discipline etc.
8. Normally not more than 15 awards could be
given in any calendar year. However, keeping
in view the performance of athletes in the
events mentioned, the selection committee could
recommend more sportspersons for Arjuna
award.
9. The ministry has also decided to have twolayered background checks of nominations.
When submitting the papers, the concerned
national federation will have to certify the athlete
has a clean record. Subsequently, the jury will
run an independent check of doping violations.
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2.
Olympics (Summer, Winter and Paralympics),

Asian Games and Commonwealth Games.
The winners of medals in Olympics and
Paralympics will automatically be considered
for Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna or Arjuna
Awards, depending on the type of medal won
and whether the sportspersons have already
been conferred with either of the two honours.
After Olympics, the maximum weightage will
be given to World Championship/World Cup
(once in four years), followed by Asian Games
and Commonwealth Games.
Points to be awarded for performances during
the past four years will be calculated as per the
following format: World Championship/World
Cup [once in four years] (gold: 40 points, silver:
30, bronze: 20); Asian Games (30, 25, 20);
Commonwealth Games, World Championship/
World Cup [biennial/annual] (25, 20, 15);
Asian
championship,
Commonwealth
championship (15, 10, 7).
While 90 marks will be given to the
sportspersons getting maximum points in the
World Championship/ World Cup, the rest of
the sportspersons will be given marks
proportionately to that athletes medal.
Meanwhile, 10 per cent weightage will be given
ONLY 10% STUDENTS HAVE ACCESS TO HIGHER EDUCATION IN INDIA

A report Intergenerational and Regional
Differentials in Higher Education in India authored
by development economist, Abusaleh Shariff of the
Delhi-based Centre for Research and Debates in
Development Policy and Amit Sharma, research
analyst of the National Council of Applied
Economic Research revealed that access to
education beyond higher secondary schooling is a
mere 10% among the university-age population in
India.
Further, the report says that a huge disparity
exists as far as access to higher education is
concerned across gender, socio-economic
religious groups and geographical regions. The skew
is most marked across regions. Thus, a dalit or
Muslim in south India, though from the most
disadvantaged among communities, would have
better access to higher education than even upper
caste Hindus in many other regions. Interestingly,
people living in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West
Bengal designated as the north central region
and those in northeast India have the worst access
to higher education. Those in southern India and
[6]
in the northern region consisting of Jammu &

Kashmir, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand,
Chandigarh, Haryana and Delhi are relatively
better placed in this regard.
In the age group 22-35 years, over 15% in the
northern region and 13% in the southern region
have access to higher education. In the northcentral region, the number is just 10% for men and
6% for women whereas in the northeast, only 8%
men and 4% women have access to higher
education.
The report, brought out by the US-India Policy
Institute in Washington, is based on data from the
64th round of NSSO survey 2007-08. It throws up
quite a few other interesting facts. For instance,
among communities, tribals and dalits fare worst
with just 1.8% of them having any higher
education. Muslims are almost as badly off, with
just 2.1% able to go for further learning. Similarly,
just 2% of the rural population is educated beyond
higher secondary level, compared to 12% of the
urban population and just 3% of women got a
college education compared to 6% of men.

trapped in low quality education, the report points
out. It adds that although free education is
provided at school level, it is almost non-existent at
higher levels.
The report also compares Indias low 10%
access to higher education with Chinas 22%
enrolment and the 28% enrolment in the US. Since
the early 1990s, Chinas post-secondary enrolments
grew from 5 million to 27 million, while Indias
expanded from 5 million to just 13 million, says
the report, while emphasising that higher education
has the potential to enhance productivity and
economic value both at the individual and national
levels.
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South India offers the best opportunities for

socially inclusive access to higher education
including technical education and education in
English medium. For instance, the share of Hindu
SC/ST in technical education in south India is about
22%, and the share of Muslims 25%. These were
the lowest shares among all communities in south
India. But this was higher than the share of most
communities including Hindu OBCs and upper
caste Hindus in most other regions. South India
also has the highest proportion of higher education
in the private sector at about 42%, followed by
western India where it is 22%. The northeast has
the least privatized higher education sector and is
almost entirely dependent on government-run or
aided institutions.
Not surprisingly, government institutions are the
cheapest places to study at, with annual
expenditures ranging from less than Rs 1,000 to
around Rs 1,500, except in north and south India,
where the average is above Rs 2,000. Both private
and private-aided institutions are quite costly,
making them difficult to access for the poor. With
little regulation of the quality of education and cost
differentials, the poor and deprived are often
Hence, Shariff advised the government to

urgently address the geographical skew in the
availability of higher education facilities in the two
regions of north-east and north-central. The
central region, comprising Chhattisgarh, MP,
Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Odisha, too needs
attention. Further he added, what India needs today
is thousands of community colleges that can offer
professional courses so that youngsters can improve
their skills and become employable.
ODISHA, BIHAR SPELL OUT EXCLUSION CRITERIA UNDER FOOD

SECURITY ACT
The Bihar and Odisha Governments have spelt
out the eligibility criteria for identifying eligible
households to be covered under the National Food
Security Act, which aims to provide subsidised food
grain to 75 per cent rural and 50 per cent urban
poor.
In fact, the Odisha Government has set up a

task force to implement the Act, which has
suggested exclusion criteria for households, and
has invited public comments.
According to the public announcement the
exclusion criteria of Odisha Government are as
follow:
1. Owners of motor vehicles, two-wheelers, threewheelers and registered fishing boats,

mechanised three- or four-wheeler agricultural
equipment, such as tractors will be excluded
from the Act.
2. Also, families with any member with monthly
income above Rs 10,000, pension holder getting
Rs 10,000 a month, any member paying income

or professional tax will not be eligible.
3. Families with a landline connection and

electricity connection with 2KW or ore using
more than 300 units a month will also not get
benefits under the Act.
4. The exclusion criteria also include any family

which has a member who is a Government
employee in Central, State, public sector or
autonomous institutions aided by Government
and the municipality.
A public notice inviting public comments by

the Bihar Government broadly follows similar
criteria, except that in urban areas it plans to
exclude any family with a member earning more
than Rs 20,000 a month.
In urban areas, the notice announces the
inclusion of beggars, rag-pickers, domestic
workers, street vendors, construction workers,
home-based workers, rickshaw pullers, among
others.
[7]
GOVERNMENT RELAXES NORMS FOR MEGA POWER PROJECTS

The Government, recently, decided to further
ease the Mega Power Policy in a move that will
help nearly 25 projects with investments of more
than Rs 1.6 lakh crore. This is expected to increase
power availability in the country and also ensure
that consumers are charged reasonably for
electricity supply.
The Mega Power Policy was introduced in

November 1995 to provide impetus for setting up
of large projects. Thermal power projects of 1,000
MW and hydel plants of 500 MW are eligible for
benefits under the policy. It will also benefit
supercritical projects that are awarded through
international competitive bidding with the
mandatory condition of setting up indigenous
manufacturing facilities.
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To benefit from this policy, the developer will

have to tie up sales with distribution utilities
through long-term power purchase agreements
(PPAs). The amendment allows project developers
to tie up for only 65 per cent of generation capacity
through competitive bidding with the State
distribution utilities against the earlier norm of 85
per cent.
regulated tariff. States such as Odisha, Chhattisgarh

and Madhya Pradesh insisted on buying up to 2530 per cent of electricity from power stations for
their respective States. The Government has also
extended the maximum time for furnishing final
mega certificates to tax authorities to 60 months
instead of 36 months from the date of import for
provisional mega projects (25 projects).
The amendment allows the developer to sell up

to 35 per cent of installed/net capacity under
regulated tariff as per the specific host State policy.
This dispensation would be one time and limited
to 15 projects located in the States having
mandatory host State power purchase policy under
The Cabinet also approved setting up of Power

System Development Fund (PSDF). The projects taken
up to strengthen the electricity transmission grid can
source funding from this Rs 6,000-crore facility.
SHAH PANELS REPORT ON ILLEGAL IRON ORE MINING REFERRED

TO COS
The Union Cabinet referred the MB Shah
Commissions report on illegal mining in Odisha to a
committee of secretaries to scrutinise the report, which
has indicted the Odisha government for failing to
contain illegal mining leading to a colossal financial
loss of about Rs 60,000 crore to the exchequer.
The commission, in its report, has held unlawful
mining in Odisha as one of the biggest ever seen
by it and has strongly suggested that this is an apt
case for being handed over to the CBI for a thorough
probe. However, the state is reluctant to ask the
CBI for a probe arguing that its administrative and
police machinery is adequately geared up to do so.
However, the panel wants the FIRs filed by the
police to be handed over to the CBI.
Of the over 185 mining leases of iron and

manganese ores in Odisha, the commission said,
over 110 were functioning without lawful
authority by violating green laws. It is learnt to
have recommended the Naveen Patnaik-led
government should suspend mining operations in
over 50 mines along the Baitarani River in Balasore
district besides review their green clearances.
Pointing out that illegal extraction of iron ore

has led to the exchequer losing about Rs 59,203 crore,
it said it appeared that so far miners enjoyed paying
meagre royalty and pocketing windfall profits.
Holding that iron ore mines in Joda and Koira

areas have witnessed serious violations, the Shah
Commission said while 92 mines were operating
without green clearance, a similar number have
got delayed environmental clearance. Observing
that there are huge number of iron ore mines
operating in violation of Environment Impact
Assessment notifications of 1994 and 2006, the
inquiry panel said over 90 such mining leases are
functional under presumed extensions or in
common parlance called deemed extensions.
It has suggested that the producing firms should

be asked to sell their output through e-auction only.
The state government has, meanwhile, accepted
that it will cap the production from major iron ore
mines including Joda at 40 million tonne and Koira
mines at 12 MT annually.
Recommending stiff penalties for miners

violating green norms under Forest Conservation
Act, the commission suggested that violators be
imprisoned for six months which could be extended
to seven years. Monetary penalties should be
imposed on them as well.
[8]

The commission said it was disturbing to find
that although most mines are located in the tribaldominated zones, but the tribals have remained a
deprived lot. Unless the miners operating in those
zones are mandated to spend half of their profits,
their lot would not be improved.
produce false excise certificates to claim a lower

freight rates from the Railways. The Railways
charge lower rates for domestic transport of ore
compared with exports.
In its report recently submitted to the Union

Mines Ministry, it has also traced how illegal miners
The scale of evasion is particularly high in south

eastern railways zone.
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The commission has, however, let off large

mining companies including Tata Steel, Essel Mining
(Birla group) and SAIL from any fresh probe. It
has not found any evidence of illegal mining by
these companies but that of over extraction from
their mines.
The miners used the lower charges to earn about

Rs 1,900 crore in six years while exporting the ore
too. The commission has asked Railways to ask
CBI to probe these freight evasions. Alarmed by
the panels suggestion, the Railways have informed
the commission that it has detected such evasion
cases against 14 companies and have issued them
notices to recover an amount of Rs 1,874 crore.
NANAVATI PANEL GETS EXTENSION
Gujarat government has granted yet another

extension of six months to the Nanavati
Commission, probing the 2002 post-Godhra riots.
The extension, given to the commission for the
twenty-first time, is valid up to June 30, 2014. The
commission comprises Retd Justices G T Nanavati
and Akshay Mehta. In June 2013, the state
government had extended the term of the
commission by six months (till December 31, 2013).
Sources in the government said that the

commission is in the final stages of preparing the
report and has not held any hearing for nearly the
last one year.
In 2008, the inquiry panel had submitted one
part of its finding with regard to the Godhra train
burning incident, in which it had concluded that
the burning of S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express near
Godhra railway station was a planned
conspiracy.
The panel had been constituted by the state

government on March 3, 2002, under the
Commission of Inquiry Act comprising Justice K.G.
Shah in the wake of Godhra train carnage on
February 27, 2002 and the subsequent communal
riots across the state.
Initially, the Terms of Reference (ToR) of the
commission were to inquire into the facts,
circumstances and course of events that led to the
burning of the S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express.
In May 2002, the state government appointed
retired Supreme Court Justice G.T. Nanavati as the
chairman of the commission and the ToR were
further amended in June 2002 as per which the
panel was also asked to inquire the incidents of
violence that took place after the Godhra incident.
In 2008, after the death of Justice K.G. Shah,
Retd High Court Justice Akshay Mehta was
appointed to the commission.
INDIA TO HAVE 185 MN MOBILE INTERNET USERS BY JUNE 2014

According to the Internet and Mobile
Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB the number
of mobile Internet users in India will be 155 million
people by the end of March 2014.
With a quarter-over-quarter growth of 20 per
cent, this number is expected to cross 185 million
by June 2014, says the Mobile Internet in India
2013 report. According to the report, in October
2013, India had 110 million mobile internet users,
with just 25 million in rural India. Urban Indias
dominance of this segment is expected to continue
for at least a couple of quarters. Indicating that
many Indians were accessing the internet for the
first time on mobile devices, the report says across
both urban and rural India over half the Internet

users where on the mobile.
At the end of December 2013, the number of
mobile internet users stood at 130 million as against
a userbase of 110 million in October 2013.
According to the report, the number of mobile
Internet users in urban India is expected to grow
from 103 million in December 2013 to 126 million
in March 2014 and further touch 153 million by
June. Rural India, though accounting for the smaller
share, is also expected to register strong growth to
touch 32 million users (in June 2014) from 27
million in December 2013.
[9]

35 per cent of the mobile Internet users are spending
between Rs 100 and Rs 500 monthly on their phone
expenses. While nine per cent are believed to be
spending over Rs 500, six per cent are spending
less than Rs 100 every month, the report said.
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The report also found that the average revenue

per user (ARPU) has dropped to Rs 387 from Rs
460 in 2012. However, the percentage amount spent
on mobile Internet has gone up to 45 per cent in
2013 from 43 per cent in the previous year. Also,
[10]
INTERNATIONAL
LATVIA, THE 18TH MEMBER OF EURO ZONE
nearly 30% of Russian origin and annual gross
domestic product of $28 billion.
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Latvia has become the 18th nation to join euro

zone. The government is hoping the introduction
of the euro will boost economic growth by
attracting more foreign investment to the country.
Latvia gained its independence from the Soviet
Union in 1991 and joined the European Union and
NATO in 2004. It has a population of two million
Latvia will be the fourth smallest member of

the currency area, ahead of Cyprus, Estonia and
Malta. Latvias other Baltic neighbour, Lithuania,
is hoping to join the euro in 2015.
Eurozone
The eurozone , officially called the euro area, is an economic and monetary union (EMU) of 18
European Union (EU) member states that have adopted the euro () as their common currency and
sole legal tender. The eurozone currently consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland,
France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal,
Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain.
All Member States of the European Union, except Denmark and the United Kingdom, are required
to adopt the euro and join the euro area. To do this they must meet certain conditions known as
convergence criteria.
What are the convergence criteria?
The convergence criteria are formally defined as a set of macroeconomic indicators which measure:
1. Price stability, to show inflation is controlled;
2. Soundness and sustainability of public finances, through limits on government borrowing and
national debt to avoid excessive deficit;
3. Exchange-rate stability, through participation in the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM II) for at
least two years without strong deviations from the ERM II central rate;
4. Long-term interest rates, to assess the durability of the convergence achieved by fulfilling the
other criteria.
The exchange-rate stability criterion is chosen to demonstrate that a Member State can manage
its economy without recourse to excessive currency fluctuations, which mimics the conditions when
the Member State joins the euro area and its control of monetary policy passes to the European
Central Bank (ECB). It also provides an indication of the appropriate conversion rate that should be
applied when the Member State qualifies and its currency is irrevocably fixed.
Who decides if the convergence criteria are met?
According to the Treaty, at least once every two years, or at the request of a Member State with
a derogation, the Commission and the European Central Bank assess the progress made by the euroarea candidate countries and publish their conclusions in respective convergence reports. On the basis
of its assessment, the Commission submits a proposal to the ECOFIN Council which having consulted
the European Parliament, and after discussion among the Heads of State or Government decides
whether the country fulfills the necessary conditions and may adopt the euro.
[11]
The five convergence criteria

What is
measuresd :
Price stability
How it is
measured:
Consumer
price inflation
rate
Convergence
criteria :
Not more than

1.5 percentage
points above
the rate of the
three best
performing
Member States
Durability of
convergence
Exchange rate
stability
Long-term
interest rate
Deviation from
a central rate
Not more than

percentage points
Reference
value : not
more than
3%
Reference
value : not
more than
60%
above the rate of

the three best
performing
Member States in
terms of price
stability
Participation in
ERM II for at
least 2 years
without severe
tensions
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Convergence
criteria :
Sound Public Sustainable

finance
public
finances
Government
Government
deficit as %
debt as %
of GDP
[12]
INDIA AND THE WORLD

INDIA TO ASSESS SITUATION IN SOUTH SUDAN
But Indias interests are also political and
economic and their furtherance depends on peaceful
ties not only within South Sudan but stable ties
with Sudan from which it was carved out in 2011.
Indian companies have 25 per cent stake in a South
Sudan oil company whose crude is sent across
Sudan by an India-built pipeline.
India as one of the three biggest contributors of

soldiers to U.N. peacekeeping missions has been
unhappy about not being consulted on some of the
ways in which operations are now being carried out.
India, along with some other nations, has also urged
the U.N. Security Council to take steps for going after
people responsible for the killing of their troops.
In Africa, the two Sudans have the third largest

crude reserves and India appointed a Special Envoy
for South Sudan even as its independence was being
negotiated. It was among the earliest to open a
consulate in Juba, four years before it formally
became the national capital. Both Sudans are keen
on Indian assistance and expertise in infrastructure
development and capacity building and a wider
footprint by its corporates.
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India will conduct an on-ground assessment of

political and security situations in South Sudan,
especially the well being of its 2,000 soldiers who
are part of a United Nations stabilisation team.
The Indian Army contingent had lost three men
after its camp was overrun in the ongoing ethnic
strife.
A team of senior officials is scheduled to leave by

the end of first week of January 2014 and will also
interact with some of the 250 Indians in South Sudan.
INDIA SIGNS LABOUR TREATY WITH SAUDI ARABIA
In an order to protect interest of Indian workers,

India has signed a labour cooperation agreement
with Saudi Arabia. India has signed MoUs with
various countries in the Gulf, this is the first time
that it has signed a pact with Saudi Arabia.
This agreement will cover about a quarter of the

28 lakh Indian expatriates working there and could
be the stepping stone for a more comprehensive pact
covering all Indian workers in the Gulf Kingdom.
Of 500000 domestic workers in Saudi Arabia, most
people are working as maids, helpers, drivers and
cleaners of which around 10 percent are women.
There are over 70 lakh Indians working in the six
Gulf countries and India has put much store on
ensuring reasonable work conditions and eliminating
middlemen from the recruitment process.
The Agreement on Labour Cooperation for
Domestic Service Workers Recruitment has been
inked by Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar

Ravi and Saudi Arabian Labour Minister Adel bin
Mohammed Fakeih, which will be monitored by a
committee of senior officials.
The features of the agreement as per the
official statements are:
1. The agreement regulates contractual relations
between employers and domestic workers.
2. It ensures authenticity and implementation of

the employment contract.
3. It promises action against recruitment agencies
violating laws and seeks to establish a
mechanism to provide 24 hours assistance to
domestic workers.
4. A standard employment contract would set out

minimum wages, working hours, paid holidays
and a dispute settlement mechanism.
INDIA INKED MoU WITH MALDIVES

Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh has
announced to extend the standby credit facility of
$25 million to Maldives for imports from India.

This statement is an outcome of the delegation[13]

in the islands. Currently the case is in arbitration.
The two countries also inked MoUs for
cooperation in health sector apart from extending
the MoU on Manpower Requirements of Indira
Gandhi Memorial Hospital and agreement for
allotment of plot to the High Commission of
Maldives in New Delhi.
The two also agreed on a number of initiatives
to strengthen bilateral defence and security
cooperation, including through training, supply of
equipment, capacity building, joint patrolling and
aerial and maritime surveillance.
Noting that the bilateral trade was around
Rs700 crores which was overwhelmingly in Indias
favour, they have agreed to liberalise visa regimes,
especially for those coming from Maldives for
medical treatment.
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level meeting between the Indian Prime Minister &

Maldives President Abdulla Yameen.
India has agreed to consider favourably the
Maldivian request for import of diesel, petrol and
aviation fuel from India. India has always been
supporting Maldives and it was his resolve to
maintain the relationship. In an apparent reference
to GMR-Male airport matter, the issues will be
resolved in a broad sense. The Indian prime
minister also said he would like to see a more
balanced growth in bilateral trade as increase in
Indian investments in Maldives would also
contribute to expansion of economic relations.
In 2012, Maldives had cancelled its biggest foreign
investment project, a $511 million deal with Indian
firm GMR Group to develop its international airport,
raising questions over the future of Indian investment

[14]
ECONOMY
GOVT WORKING ON ALLOWING FDI IN RAILWAYS
As per the proposal, foreign companies would
be allowed to pick up 100 per cent stake in the
special purpose vehicle (SPV) that will construct
and maintain rail lines connecting ports, mines and
industrial hubs with the existing rail network. It
will be first-to-last mile connectivity between ports
and things like coal mines to the existing railway
freight stations. First-to-last mile connectivity
would mean smooth movement of raw materials
from mines to ports.
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The government indicated that it is working

on liberalising foreign direct investment (FDI) in
high-speed trains and other projects including
development of rail lines between project sites and
existing network.
Besides, proposing 100 per cent FDI through

automatic route in the cash-starved railway sector,
the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion
(DIPP) has also proposed to de-license and dereserve few areas of the sector. However, FDI will
not be allowed in train operations and safety.
At present, there is a complete ban on any kind
of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the railways
sector except mass rapid transport systems.
According to the proposal, foreign investment
would also be allowed in sub-urban corridor, highspeed train systems and dedicated freight line
projects implemented in PPP mode . It has also
suggested widening the definition of infrastructure
by including railway line and railway sidings.
The move will help in attracting more and more

FDI besides development of infrastructure for
industrial purposes. Indian Railways are facing a
cash problem. Industrial development and exports
have been suffering on account of poor
infrastructure which hampers output and raises
the cost of production. In such scenario, it is felt
that railways can play a role in providing a reliable
transport facility necessary for promoting industrial
growth.
BALI DEAL PUTS LIFE BACK INTO WTO TALKS
After hectic negotiations the members of the

World Trade Organisation (WTO) managed to come
up with a pact which was hailed by the WTO as
the first agreement of the 21st century one that
could infuse life into the Doha Round launched
more than a decade ago. The pact includes
commitments by WTO members to facilitate trade
by simplifying customs procedures, pledges to limit
agricultural subsidies, and policies to aid leastdeveloped countries.
However, a closer look at what was achieved
shows an agreement quite limited in scope and, as
some would argue, heavily tilted in favour of the
developed countries.
The one major thing that was agreed upon in Bali
was a trade facilitation pact to smoothen the flow of
goods between borders by upgrading port infrastructure,
reducing paperwork and cutting down on clearance
time. The agreement was largely a victory for the US
and the EU that had been lobbying hard for it.
Since developed country infrastructure is
already state-of-the-art, the pact puts the onus on

developing countries and least developed countries
(LDCs) to pull up their socks or face action.
In return for their acceptance of the trade
facilitation agreement, India and other developing
countries (G-33 group) whose farm procurement
subsidies are close to breaching prescribed limits
got an interim relief from legal action.
The documentation required and other
conditions attached to it, however, could make it
very difficult for India to take advantage of the
waiver. India is hopeful that it would get a full
exemption for its food procurement subsidies when
a final solution is worked out in 2016.
The Bali pact has very little to offer beyond the
trade facilitation pact and the interim relief given
to India and the G-33 group.
The silver lining, however, is the possibility that
older unresolved issues, such as market access for
industrial and agricultural goods, will be negotiated
with renewed zeal in 2014.
[15]
The Doha Round

The Round was officially launched at the
WTOs Fourth Ministerial Conference in Doha,
Qatar, in November 2001. Its aim is to achieve
major reform of the international trading system
through the introduction of lower trade barriers
and revised trade rules. The work programme
covers about 20 areas of trade. The Round is also
known semi-officially as the Doha Development

Agenda as a fundamental objective is to improve
the trading prospects of developing countries.
Main areas of negotiations in the Doha Round
are agriculture, non-agricultural market access,
services, intellectual property, trade and
development, trade and environment, trade
facilitation, WTO rules and dispute settlement
understandings.
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FINANCIAL INCLUSION SCORE IMPROVED IN FY12, SAYS CRISIL

Analysing the latest RBI data CRISIL (Credit
Rating Information Service of India), Indias first
credit rating agency, announced the latest scores
in its index Inclusix for measuring financial
inclusion.
4. There has been a significant rise in new savings

accounts across the five regions north, south,
east, west and north-east. Overall, 79 million
new savings accounts were opened in fiscal
2012, 12.6 per cent more than in fiscal 2011.
According to Roopa Kudva, Managing Director

& CEO, CRISIL, Indias overall Crisil Inclusix score
has risen 2.7 in fiscal 2012 the highest annual
increase since 2009. As many as 587 out of a total
638 districts in India and 34 out of 35 states and
Union territories improved their scores, reflecting a
broad-based improvement in financial inclusion.
5. Also, agricultural credit accounts have grown

at 11.1 per cent, which is the most since fiscal
2009.
Other findings of the CRISIL are as follow:
1. Nevertheless, at 42.8 on a scale of 100, the allIndia Inclusix score reflects under-penetration
of formal banking in the country.
2. Just one in two Indians have a savings account
and one in seven has access to bank credit.
3. There are wide disparities in access to financial

services, too. While Indias six largest cities
have 10 per cent of Indias bank branches, the
bottom 50 districts have merely 2 per cent of
the bank branches.
6. The number of bank branches in the bottom

100 districts has increased by six per cent,
faster than the all-India growth of 5.6 per cent.
7. New deposit accounts in three regions north,

south and east. This contributed 42 per cent
to the rise in Crisil Inclusix.
8. The north, by adding 2.4 million new credit
accounts, contributed 11 per cent to the indexs
increase.
9. Almost 30 per cent of the 5,125 new bank
branches were added in the South, which
contributed 9 per cent to the increase.
10. Credit penetration in the top 50 districts

jumped significantly as small-borrower
accounts surged.
2013 M&A ACTIVITY DOWN 11.5% TO 31.5 BN
According to data compiled by Thomson

Reuters, the value of announced mergers and
acquisitions ( M&A) deals involving Indian
companies reached $31.5 billion in 2013, registering
an 11.5 per cent decline from last years activity,
and the lowest annual period since 2009 ($21.5
billion. Deal count also slowed down as number of
M&A transactions dropped 12.6 per cent to 967
from 1,107 announced deals in 2012.
According to estimates from Thomson Reuters/
Freeman Consulting Co, in Q4 of 2013, overall
Indian M&A totaled $7.1 billion, a 28.5 per cent
sequential increase from the third quarter of 2013
but, on the other hand, saw a 29.8 per cent drop
[16]
from the fourth quarter of 2012. The average M&A

deal size for transactions with disclosed values
involving India climbed up to $76.1 million so far
this year, as more deals were announced above
$1-billion in value, compared to $ 73.5 million in
2012.
Findings of the study
1. Domestic M&A stood at $5.2 billion, down

68.9 per cent compared to last year, and the
lowest annual period since 2004 ($2.0 billion).
The bulk of domestic activity focused on the
materials sector with $1.5 billion, down 75.4
per cent from last year, but nonetheless

captured 29.4 per cent of the total domestic
M&As, but this again was a massive 75.4 per
cent lower than that of 2012.
up 53.3 per cent, capturing 28.8 per cent of

all the outbound deals.
7. At 14.9 per cent, industrials came third,
followed by telecommunications with 13.9 per
cent, which together captured 28.8 per cent
of the deals as both sectors witnessed a
significant rise in deal value with 164.7 per
cent and 347.3 per cent growth, respectively,
from 2012.
2. Total across the board, M&As grew a healthy

56.8 per cent to $24.7 billion compared over
2012, driven by a 43.5 and 83.1 per cent
increase in the inbound and outbound M&As,
respectively.
3. Completed M&A deals involving domestic
companies totalled $29 billion, up 49.5 per cent
from $19.4 billion in 2012. Energy and power
sectors lead the M&A street with 21.1 per cent
market share or worth $6.7 billion, which is a
whopping 173.3 per cent increase over 2012.
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8. However, private equity-backed M&As were

down 46 per cent, recording the lowest levels
since 2009.
4. The second slot was occupied by the healthcare

players, capturing 15.8 per cent of the total
with $5 billion worth of deals, up 24.5 per
cent from the previous year.
5. On account of the large oil and gas reserves,

Mozambique was the top outbound FDI
destination in terms of value, accounting for
52.9 per cent of the market share worth $5.1
billion from three deals.
6. The US, however, saw the most number of
transactions (21 deals valued at $2.8 billion)
9. Buy-side financial sponsor M&As totalled $2.6

billion in 2013, a 45.6 per cent decline from
2012, which was lowest since 2009 when deal
value fell to $2.4 billion.
10. In-bound M&As rose 43.5 per cent as foreign

firms acquired domestic companies reaching
$15 billion, despite the number of announced
deals slipping 13.3 per cent from 2012.
11. The bulk of inbound acquisitions focused on

the healthcare sector and captured 27.3 per
cent of inbound deals worth $4.1 billion, a
102.2 per cent growth from 2012.
[17]

MRAM TECHNOLOGY
The innovation is expected to change the architecture
of computers, making them much easier to manufacture
as it does away with many facilities such as flash
memory, effectively bringing down the cost.
MRAM is emerging as the next big thing in
data storage as it is non-volatile, which means that
data can be retrieved even when the electronic
equipment is not powered up. The current methods
of applying MRAM revolve round the technology
which uses an in-plane, or horizontal, currentinduced magnetisation.
This method uses ultra-thin ferromagnetic
structures which are challenging to implement due
to their thickness of less than 1 nanometre. Their
manufacturing reliability is low and tends to retain
information for only less than a year.
The NUS team, in collaboration with the King
Abdullah University of Science and Technology in
Saudi Arabia, was able to resolve this problem by
incorporating magnetic multilayer structures as
thick as 20 nanometre, providing an alternative film
structure for transmission of electronic data and
storage.
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A team of researchers, led by Dr Yang

Hyunsoo, from the Department of Electrical &
Computer Engineering at the National University
of Singapore (NUS) Faculty of Engineering
developed the new Magnetoresistive Random
Access Memory (MRAM) technology that that
enables bigger and longer lasting memory in
electronics such as laptops and smartphones. The
technology will drastically increase storage space
and enhance memory which will ensure that fresh
data stays intact, even in the case of a power failure.
According to Yang, now the consumers no
longer need to wait for their computers or laptops
to boot up. Storage space will increase, and memory
will be so enhanced that there is no need to
regularly hit the save button as fresh data will
stay intact even in the case of a power failure. The
new technology can also be applied in
transportation, military and avionics systems,
robotics etc. Devices and equipment can now
have bigger memory with no loss for at least 20
years or probably more. Currently pursued schemes
with a very thin magnetic layer can only retain
information for about a year, Yang added.
PARAM YUVA II
PARAM Yuva II Indias supercomputer,

developed by Centre for Development of Advanced
Computing (C-DAC), ranked first in India, 9th in
the Asia-Pacific Region and 44th in the world
among the most power efficient computer systems
as per the Green500 list. The list was announced at
the Supercomputing Conference (SC 2013) in
Denver, Colorado, in the US.
Supercomputers, in general, consume a lot of
electrical power and produce much heat that
necessitates elaborate cooling facilities to ensure
proper operation. This adds to increase in the Total
Cost of Ownership (TCO) of a supercomputer. To
draw focus towards development of energy efficient
supercomputers, Green500 ranks computer systems
in the world according to compute performance
per watt, thus providing a world ranking based on
energy efficiency.
Energy consumed by supercomputers is
measured at various Levels L1, L2, L3 - for
purpose of reporting. As the level increases,
[18]
accuracy and rigor of measurement exercise also

increases. It is also a measure of our capability and
noteworthy that C-DAC is the second organization
worldwide to have carried out the Level 3
measurement of Power versus Performance for the
Green500 List.
PARAM Yuva II uses hybrid technology
processor, co-processor and hardware accelerators
- to provide the peak compute power of 520.4
Teraflop/s using 210 kiloWatt power. The
interconnect network comprises of homegrown
PARAMNet-III and Infiniband FDR System Area
Network. This system is designed to solve large and
complex computational problems. The system has
200 Terabytes of high performance storage, and
requisite system software and utilities for parallel
applications development.
The device is expected to be used for research in
space, bioinformatics, weather forecasting, seismic
data analysis, aeronautical engineering, scientific
data processing and pharmaceutical development.
HEALTH
MODIFIED MICROLASERS TO DIAGNOSE MALARIA
mice so that laser light could be shone at a surface
blood vessel and the resulting sounds recorded.
The device was able to accurately pick out
infected animals, even when only about one in a
million red blood cells carried the parasite, their
paper reported. The first trials of the technology in
humans was expected to begin in early 2014 at
Houston where Rice University is based.
Vinod Prakash Sharma, who was founder
director of the National Institute of Malaria
Research in New Delhi while praising the technique
said the method would be unable to distinguish
between two species of the parasite, Plasmodium
falciparum and Plasmodium vivax that cause malaria
in India. Treatment depended on which parasite
was infecting a patient.
The technique described in the PNAS paper
would therefore have to be combined with ways of
discriminating between the two. Moreover,
haemozoin may persist in the blood even after the
parasite has been cleared, remarked V. Arun
Nagaraj, Ramanunjan Fellow at the Indian Institute
of Science in Bangalore. With this technique, a
previously-infected individual who had another
bout of fever from some other cause might
potentially be misdiagnosed as having malaria.
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Researchers in the U.S. have come up with a

way to rapidly diagnose malaria simply by shining
brief pulses of light from a laser through the skin.
Rugged and inexpensive microlasers exist that

could be modified to create portable devices capable
of operating in harsh conditions. Non-medical
personnel would be able to operate these devices
and obtain a diagnosis in seconds, according to the
researchers in their paper published in the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
(PNAS).
Rice Universitys Dimtri O. Lapotko, the senior
author of the paper, said when a malaria parasite
invades red blood cells, it gorges on the
haemoglobin those cells contain. Haemoglobin is
the molecule that helps carry oxygen to all parts of
the body. The parasite turns the iron-containing
haeme component, which can be toxic for the
organism, into an insoluble pigment, haemozoin.
The technique developed by Dr. Lapotko and

his colleagues relies on detecting the haemozoin in
red blood cells. They achieve this by using a narrow
band of near-infrared light that is strongly absorbed
by haemozoin but not haemoglobin.
A brief pulse of light in this band from a lowpower laser heated up the tiny particles of
haemozoin, causing a vapour nanobubble to form
in the fluid around each particle. These bubbles
expand explosively and then collapse with a
characteristic sound that could be picked up with
an ultrasound sensor.
The scientists demonstrated the technique in
animal trials using malaria-infected mice.
A probe that carried an optical fibre as well as

an ultrasound sensor was clamped to the ear of the
THE PILL CAN KILL: AIIMS STUDY
Recently, AIIMS doctors conducted a study

which found that women who take oral
contraceptives regularly are found to be 9.5 times
more at risk of developing breast cancer compared
to others. Early menstruation cycle, late marriage
and lower duration of breastfeeding were the other

major factors responsible for the disease among
Indians, according to the study published in the
latest issue of the Indian Journal of Cancer.
[19]

The study was conducted on 640 women, of
which 320 were breast cancer patients. The doctors
found long-term use of oral contraceptive pills (OCP)
higher among those suffering from breast cancer11.9%-compared to healthy individuals-1.2%. Dr
Umesh Kapil, a professor at the public health
nutrition unit, AIIMS said breast cancer is caused
by repeated exposure of breast cells to circulating
ovarian hormones, and long-term use of OCPs,
which contain estrogen and progesterone, may be
increasing this risk by causing hormonal imbalance.
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The study mostly had women who used OCPs

for birth control. Emergency contraceptives,
popularly called morning-after pills, were not
included. Dr Ajeet Singh Bhadoria, a public health
specialist and co-author of the study, said that while
the use of OCPs for birth control is on the decline,
there has been a spike in the use of morning-after
pills. Morning-after pills contain a higher dose of
hormones and are meant for emergency. However,
many young women use them regularly to prevent
pregnancy in case of unprotected sex. Awareness
about the side-effects of long-term use is a must.
According to experts, regular use of such

medication must be avoided or taken under strict
medical supervision. An AIIMS study on the profile
of patients between 2000 and 2011 found that one
in 10 women with breast cancer was less than 35
years of age. Of these, about 73% were between 30
and 35, while 24% were as young as 25-29 years.
According to Dr G K Rath, the head of Bhim Rao
Ambedkar Institute Rotary Cancer Hospital (BRAIRCH) the relationship between contraceptive use
and occurrence of breast cancer is not known. But
there is enough evidence to show the hormonal
imbalance caused by them, increasing the risk. Early
menarche, late marriage and childbirth and
abortions are important factors.
Early menstruation cycle, doctors say, results
in a substantial cumulative exposure to estrogens
and the simultaneous presence of progesterone,
which increases breast cancer risk. In Delhi, the
incidence of breast cancer is 32 per 100,000 people.
Data shows 5-10% patients are between 20 and 30
years of age and a majority are 40-50 years old.
INDIA TO BE CERTIFIED POLIO-FREE THIS YEAR
India will clock three polio-free years, a

milestone that will be officially certified in 2014 by
the World Health Organisation (WHO). India
reported 150,000 cases of paralytic polio in 1985,
and it still accounted for half of all cases globally
in 2009, with 741 infections that led to paralysis.
In 2010, the number of victims fell to double
figures before the last case on January 13, 2011,
when an 18-month-old girl in a Kolkata slum was
found to have contracted it.
The countrys success was built on a huge
vaccination programme that began in the mid1990s with the backing of the central government
WHO, Rotary International, the US Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention and UNICEF.
An army of more than two million vaccinators,

supported by religious and community leaders,
canvassed villages, slums, train stations and public
gatherings in even the most remote parts of the
country.
WHO appointed an independent body to
evaluate the ground situation before certifying India
as a polio-free nation. Countries are certified by
the WHO as being polio-free if they go 12 months
without a case, and are then said to have eradicated
[20]
it after a period of three years without new

infections. India will likely receive this endorsement
only in March.
In fact, India belongs to a region with
Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, who are already poliofree. When India gets its polio-free status, the region
becomes polio free.
Concern though remains, as Pakistan is one of
three countries where polio is still to be eradicated
- Afghanistan and Nigeria, being the other two.
Vaccinators in Pakistan are being killed by the
Taliban who view them as possible spies.
Hence, polio surveillance needs to be stronger
than ever, says Nitin Shah, former head of the
Indian Academy of Paediatrics, especially since 17
polio-free countries got re-infected by the wild polio
virus. Shah also suggests a shift from the oral to
injectible vaccines, to prevent the sporadic cases of
vaccine-derived polio that surface in the country.
The hitch here, though, is cost, with injectibles (at
Rs 200 300) being more expensive than the oral
vaccine (at Rs 10-15), in the retail market, he points
out.
Given the real and imminent danger of reinfection, India will continue with its oral polio

vaccine campaign till the world is polio free, a
milestone that is expected in 2018
But Nigeria and Afghanistan, the two other
nations where polio is still endemic, are making
steady progress. Hamid Jafari, global polio expert
at the World Health Organisation, said In 2012,
there were the fewest numbers of cases in endemic
countries than ever before. So far in 2013 (records
are still being checked), there were even less. If

the current trends of progress continue we could
very easily see the end of polio in Afghanistan and
Nigeria in 2014.
Despite the success, isolated polio outbreaks in
the Horn of Africa and war-wracked Syria emerged
as new causes for concern in 2013.
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TRIPLING TOBACCO TAXES MAY CUT DEATHS & SMOKING

Researchers from the charity Cancer Research
UK (CRUK) opined that trebling tobacco tax
globally would cut smoking by a third and prevent
200 million premature deaths this century from lung
cancer and other diseases.
According to the review published in New
England Journal of Medicine hiking taxes by a large
amount per cigarette would encourage people to
quit smoking altogether rather than switch to
cheaper brands, and help stop young people from
taking up the habit. As well as causing lung cancer,
which is often fatal, smoking is the largest cause of
premature death from chronic conditions like heart
disease, stroke and high blood pressure.
According to the World Health Organisation
(WHO) tobacco kills around 6 million people a year
now and that toll is expected to rise above 8 million
a year by 2030 if nothing is done to curb smoking
rates.
Richard Peto, an epidemiologist at CRUK who
led the study, said aggressively increasing tobacco
taxes would be especially effective in poorer and
middle-income countries where the cheapest
cigarettes are relatively affordable. Of the 1.3 billion
people around the world who smoke, most live in
poorer countries where often governments have also
not yet introduced smoke-free legislation.
But increasing tobacco tax would also be
effective in richer countries, Peto said, citing
evidence from France, which he said halved
cigarette consumption from 1990 to 2005 by raising
taxes well above inflation.
While smokers lose at least 10 years of life,
quitting before age 40 avoids more than 90 per
cent of the increased health risk run by people who
continue smoking. Stopping before age 30 avoids
more than 97 per cent of the risk.
Governments around the world have agreed to
prioritise reducing premature deaths from cancer
and other chronic diseases in the United Nations
General Assembly and in the WHOs World Health
Assembly in 2013. They also agreed to a target of
reducing smoking by a third by 2025.
The CRUK analysis found that doubling the

price of cigarettes in the next decade through
increased taxes would cut worldwide consumption
by about a third by that target, and at the same
time increase annual government revenues from
tobacco by a third from around $300 billion to $400
billion. This extra income, the researchers suggested,
could be spent on boosting health care budgets.
Tobaccos Toll in Health and Lives
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Tobacco use killed 100 million people in the

20th century. If current trends continue,
tobacco will kill one billion people in the 21st
century.
Tobacco kills nearly 6 million people a year
and accounts for one in 10 deaths among
adults.
If current trends persist, tobacco will kill more
than 8 million people worldwide annually
by the year 2030, with 80 percent of these
deaths in low- and middle-income countries.
Almost a billion men in the world including
half of men in low- and middle-income countries
and 250 million women smoke. If no action is
taken, 650 million smokers alive today will
eventually die from tobacco-related diseases.
Tobacco kills prematurely. On average,
smokers lose 15 years of life, and up to half of
all smokers will die of tobacco-related causes.
Every day, 80,000 to 100,000 young people
around the world become addicted to
tobacco. If current trends continue, 250
million children and young people alive today
will die from tobacco-related diseases.
Secondhand smoke kills more than 600,000
people worldwide each year, including
165,000 children.
The top five cigarette-consuming countries
are China, Russia, United States, Japan and
Indonesia. China consumes more than 35 per
cent of the worlds cigarettes, with 53 per
cent of males smoking.
[21]

According to Harpal Kumar, CRUKs chief
executive Worldwide, around half a billion children
and adults under the age of 35 are already - or
soon will be - smokers, and many will be hooked
on tobacco for life. So theres an urgent need for
governments to find ways to stop people starting
and to help smokers give up.

He said the study, which examined 63 research
papers on the causes and consequences of tobacco
use in many different countries, showed tobacco
taxes are a hugely powerful lever.
LIFESTYLE CHANGES MAY HELP PREVENT ALZHEIMERS CASE

While more research certainly needs to be done
in this area, considering its profound benefits, coconut
oil and coconut products can be incorporated into
our diets. Coconut oil can be stirred into our soups,
breakfast cereals, desserts or salads.
Alzheimers is a progressive disease, where
dementia symptoms gradually worsen over the years.
Symptoms include disturbance of multiple functions,
including
memory,
thinking,
orientation,
comprehension, calculation, learning capacity,
language and judgement. The impairments of
cognitive function are commonly accompanied, and
occasionally preceded, by deterioration in emotional
control, social behaviour or motivation.
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Over the decades due to the improvements in

healthcare life expectancy of the people increased.
On the other, there is increase in incidences of noncommunicable diseases, including neurodegenerative chronic diseases such as Alzheimers.
According to estimates, the 35.6 million people
worldwide living with Alzheimers will double by
2030 and more than triple by 2050. Not only are
the numbers growing, but the age onset is also
dropping to as early as 40-50s.
The good news is that 50-60 per cent cases can
be prevented by simply addressing lifestyle changes.
Moreover, since treatments are few and rarely
effective, early diagnosis and prevention become
all the more important. Diet is paramount. Several
studies have indicated encouraging correlations.
A strong correlation between between insulin
resistance in the brain and Alzheimers has been
found, leading some to now classify Alzheimers
as a type 3 diabetes. According to neurologist
Dr David Perlmutter, Alzheimers is an entirely
preventable disease, driven by lifestyle factors such
as diet. According to him, a low fat diet and over
consumption of carbohydrates are at the heart of
the Alzheimers epidemic.
Further, he believes that gluten (the protein in
wheat, barley and oats) also makes our gut more
permeable, which allows proteins to get into the
bloodstream, sensitising the immune system and
promoting inflammation and autoimmunity, both
of which play a role in the development of
Alzheimers.
Interestingly, good fats have also been found to
be protective. These include fish oils, avocado, nuts,
seeds and virgin coconut oil. Virgin coconut oil has
received a great deal of attention with respect to
its protective role in preventing Alzheimers.
A study published in the journal Neurobiology
of Aging in 2004 showed that after administering
coconut oil to Alzheimers patients, there was a
significant improvement in cognitive performance.
Tips to maintain healthy brain function

1. Limit sugar and fructose
2. Optimise your gut flora with regular intake
of fermented foods or high-potency and
high quality probiotic supplements
3. Improve your magnesium levels in your
body.
4. Optimise your vitamin D levels
5. Include foods rich in B vitamins including
Vitamin B12, folic acid and Alpha lipoic
acid (ALA)
6. Keep your fasting insulin levels low
7. Exercise regularly. Its been suggested that
exercise can slow down the onset and
progression of Alzheimers
8. Mental stimulation, especially learning
something new, such as learning to play an
instrument or a new language, is associated
with a decreased risk of Alzheimers
9. Avoid use of aluminium, such as antiperspirants, non-stick cookware etc.
10. Limit or avoid drugs including certain nighttime pain relievers, anti-histamines, sleep
aids, anti-depressants, medications to control
incontinence, and narcotic pain relievers.

[22]
NEWS IN BRIEF
NEWSMAKERS
Subodh Agrawal
Air Marshal Arup Raha, a veteran fighter pilot,

took over as the 24th chief of the Indian Air Force.
He has succeeded Air Chief Marshal
N.A.K.Browne. He previously served as the Vice
Chief of the Air Staff of the Indian Air Force.
Subodh Kumar Agrawal, president of the

Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI)
has taken over as the president of the South Asian
Federation of Accountants (SAFA). Earlier, he has
also been the Vice-President of SAFA. Moreover,
he has been the member of various committees of
SAFA, like committee for improvement in
Transparency, Accountability and Governance,
Committee on Professional Accountants in
Business, Committee on Professional Ethics and
Independence & Committee on Quality Control.
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Arup Raha
The new Air chief who is an experienced

Qualified Flying Instructor (QFI) holding A2
instructional category and had been commissioned
into the Flying Branch in December 1974, also called
upon all air warriors to maintain high operational
status of the legacy equipment, while operationalising
the new inductions in a time-bound manner.
He was all praise for the manner in which the
force had displayed exceptional dedication and
commitment during Operation Rahat in
Uttarakhand, rescuing thousands of people and
saving precious lives.
Arup Raha, who has clocked nearly 3,400 hours

of flying, mainly on fighter aircraft, is an alumnus
of Defence Services Staff College and the National
Defence College and has held many operational
assignments such as Command of a MiG-29
Squadron, Bhatinda in Punjab during OPETATION
PARAKRAM.
For his excellence he has also been awarded
with Param Vishist Seva Medal (PVSM), Ati Vishist
Seva Medal (AVSM), Vayusena Medal(VM).
Param Vishisht Seva Medal (PVSM) is a
military award of India. It was constituted in 1960
and since then till date, it is awarded in recognition
to peace-time service of the most exceptional order.
Ati Vishisht Seva Medal (AVSM) is a military
award of India given to recognize distinguished
service of an exceptional order to all ranks of
the armed forces.
The Vayusena Medal is an Indian military
decoration, usually awarded in peacetime for a
job well done. However it has been granted during
times of conflict for acts of gallantry in the face of
enemy, though not in the same numbers as the
Vir Chakra.
South Asian Federation of Accountants (SAFA)

South Asian Federation of Accountants
(SAFA) as a forum of professional accountancy
bodies was formed in the year 1984. SAFA is an
Apex Body of the South Asian Association for
Regional Co-operation (SAARC) and a Regional
Grouping of International Federation of
Accountants (IFAC).
Objectives of SAFA
1. To understand the profession in the regional

context and continuously work towards its
development in keeping with global trends.
2. To participate and play the leadership role on
the International forums.
3. To promote harmonize accountancy profession
in SAARC Region and in keeping with global
development.
4. To play promotional role for the countries
within its jurisdiction, where the accountancy
profession does not exist or is not sufficiently
developed.
5. To promote and set professional standards.
6. To act as interface between international
bodies and member-bodies.
7. To promote and develop state-of-the-art
research compact.
8. To carry out such other activities as are
considered incidental or ancillary to the above
or considered expedient in furtherance of the
development of Accountancy profession in the
SAARC Region.
[23]
OBITUARIES
T.C. Narendran
Elizabeth Jane Howard
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Taxonomist T.C. Narendran, 69, died of massive

heart attack. He was internationally known insect
taxonomist and recipient of the E.K. Janaki Ammal
National Award of the Ministry of Environment and
Forests.
He was currently working as coordinator of
the All India Coordinated Project on Taxonomy
and Capacity Building (hymenoptera) at the
Zoological Survey of India here after retiring as
Professor from the Department of Zoology of the
University of Calicut.
His research contributions to the science of
taxonomy have been substantial in realising the fauna
diversity of the parasitic hymenoptera not only of the
Indian region but also of other places outside the
country.
He was instrumental in stimulating interest in
study of, and research in, taxonomy and pursued
research at prestigious research stations such as
the Natural History Museum, London; and the
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, U.S. He
discovered and described 1,043 new species of
insects, which represent nearly 1.7 per cent of the
insect diversity known from India, and published
380 research papers.
Besides E.K. Janaki Ammal National Award,

Prof. Narendran was recipient of the Swadeshi
Shastrapuraskaram in 2008, UGC postgraduate
fellowship for research at Budapest, Hungary, in
1994; Ernst Mayr grant of Harvard University; and
Royal Society, London, grant for research at
Natural History Museum, London.
The English novelist, Elizabeth Jane Howard,

passed away at the age of 90. The author of a
dozen novels, Ms. Howard was best known for
The Cazalet Chronicles, a five-part series that
follows the fortunes of an upper-middle-class family
before, during and after World War II. The books
in the series are, The Light Years (1990), the
narrative continues in Marking Time (1991),
Confusion (1994) , Casting Off (1995) and The
Cazalets, in 2001.
She originally worked as a theatre actress and
was a broadcaster for the BBC during World War
II, before taking to writing in the 1950s. In 1951,
she won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for her first
novel, The Beautiful Visit (1950). Her other novels
include, The Long View, After Julius and Something in
Disguise. She also wrote TV scripts for the likes of
Upstairs, Downstairs and penned short fiction such
as Mr Wrong.
AWARD/PRIZES
SASTRA-CNR Rao award
The two scientists Suresh Das and Sourav Pal

will receive the first SASTRA-CNR Rao award
instituted by Sastra University. The first SASTRACNR Rao Award for Excellence in Chemistry and
Materials Science will be awarded jointly to Suresh
Das, Director of the Council of Scientific and
Industrial Research (CSIR) National Institute for
Inter-Disciplinary Science and Technology,
Thiruvananthapuram and Sourav Pal, Director,
CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory, Pune.
The award instituted by the SASTRA University
in recognition of outstanding contributions in
Chemistry and Materials Sciences, the two areas in
which Prof. C. N. R. Raos contribution has been
phenomenal. The award would carry a cash prize of
Rs. 5 lakh and a citation. The award will be presented
on February 28, on the National Science Day.
Mammen Mathew conferred Journalism Award

Mammen Mathew, the Chief Editor and
[24]
Managing Director of Malayala Manorma has been

awarded with the prestigious journalism award. A
prestigious journalism award, instituted by a trust
founded by Lokamanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak. This
award is given for Excellence in Journalism, which
is instituted by the Kesari-Mahratta Trust, consists
of Rs.1 lakh and a memento.
He has also won Padma Shri in the field of
Literature & Education by Govt of India in 2005.
He is one of the senior most journalists in India
with 44 years of experience, he worked with reputed
publications in India and abroad. He served as
president of the Editors Guild of India and the
Indian Newspaper Society, an association of
newspaper owners. He was also a member of the
National Security Advisory Board.
He was a Director Trustee of the Thomson
Reuters Founders Share Company, which runs the
international news agency, Thomson Reuters. Mr.
Mathew is the first Indian Director Trustee of the
150-year-old company.
TERMINOLOGIES
Telltail
Solar cooking is the simplest, safest, most

convenient way to cook food without consuming
fuels or heating up the kitchen. Many povertystricken families worldwide spend 25% or more of
their income on cooking fuel. For solar cooking, solar
cooker or solar oven is used. It is a device which
uses the energy of direct sun rays (which is the heat
from the sun) to heat, cook or pasteurize food or
drink. The vast majority of solar cookers presently
in use are relatively cheap, low-tech devices. Money
saved can be used for food, education, health care,
etc. Besides this it has other advantages also like:
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The new security mobile application Telltail

has been launched for women safety. The Delhi
Multimodal Transport System (DIMTS) has come
out with this security application on android and
smartphones. Soon, this application can also be
used in GPS/GPRS phones.
by teaching others in their school, society or village.
Telltail, once downloaded on the phones, will help

users reach their friends and family by pressing a
button in case of an emergency. It will help the user
to raise a security alert by contacting the police, friends
and family simultaneously. The application will also
provide visual tracking information of the user.
The application will have three button options
Track Me, Track By Vehicle and Panic
Button. They all work differently, by clicking
which the user will reach her primary contacts
within seconds.
1. Track Me - It will help the primary contact
locate the tracking route of the user through
the map location icon on the screen.
2. Track by Vehicle- This allows the user to enter

the vehicle number. This will help DIMTS to
track the vehicle status, and subsequently link
the user with the monitored vehicle.
3. Panic Button- By pressing it for just three
seconds, the user can generate an alert to the
backend server of DIMTS. It will send detailed
information of the location to the primary as
well as other registered contacts through an SMS.
The application is differed from other available

applications as The Track by Vehicle option is
not available in any other application.
1. Moderate cooking temperatures in simple solar

cookers help preserve nutrients.
2. Those who otherwise could not afford the fuel
to do so can cook nutritious foods such as
legumes and many whole grains that require
hours of cooking.
3. At times many families must trade scarce food
for cooking fuels. Solar cooking can help them
to keep more food and improve their nutrition.
4. Smoky cooking fires irritate lungs and eyes and
can cause diseases. Solar cookers are smoke-free.
5. Smoke from cooking fires is a major cause of
global warming.
6. Cooking fires are dangerous, especially for
children, and can readily get out of control
causing damage to buildings, gardens, etc. Solar
cookers are fire-free.
7. With good sunlight, solar cookers can be used
to cook food or pasteurize water during
emergencies when other fuels and power
sources may not be available.
Suryakumbh
Other Benefits of solar cooking
SuryaKhumbh made its way into Guinness

Book of world records, as it initiated at least 3,484
students from 80 schools to participate in one of
the largest solar cooking initiative Suryakumbh.
1. No fuel is required as with the power of sun

one can bake, boil, steam any kind of food.
2.
There is no learning curve, one can create

favorite recipes upon natural sun baked treats.
It was literally a festive gathering to celebrate

the power of the Sun. Here every single participant
internalises the art and science of solar cooking by
building a solar oven and cooking their lunch in it.
Participants then carry the oven with them,
continue cooking in it and spread the knowledge
3.
It is just like a home cooking as it reaches

temperatures of 360 to 400 F.
4.
It is totally safe. There is no danger of fire and

never burn food.
5. It is versatile, Easy-to-use and Portable .

[25]
SPORTS
France gets its First Hopman cup
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France won the nations first Hopman Cup title

after beating Poland. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Alize
Cornet have broken the French drought in Perth
leading their country to its first Hyundai Hopman
Cup title with a thrilling 2-1 win over Poland.
World No. 10 Tsonga let the second set slip to
288th-ranked Grzegorz Panfil before steadying the
boat to secure the first rubber 63 36 63 in the mens
singles before world No. 5 Agnieszka Radwanska
levelled the tie in a dramatic 63 67(7) 62 triumph
over Alize Cornet. Tsonga was the standout player
in a lop-sided mixed doubles rubber, guiding the
French to a 60 62 victory, with an elated Cornet
Bangladesh to host Asia Cup. Bangladesh Cricket

Board (BCB) & Asian Cricket Council (ACC) has
signed Host Nation Agreement. The tournament
will commence on 25th February and the final
will be played on 8th March. In the tournament
eleven matches will be played at two venues in
Dhaka, Fatullah and the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium.
Five teams will be participating in the Asia Cup,
India, who is currently ranked No. 1, Pakistan,
who is the defending champion, Sri Lanka,
Bangladesh and Afghanistan, who received its ODI
status in January 2009.
Hopman Cup
The Hopman Cup is an annual international

team indoor hardcourt tennis tournament held in
Perth, Western Australia each year, which plays
mixed teams on a country by country basis. It is
also known as the ITF World Mixed Team
Championships.
The Hopman Cup was founded in 1989. The
championship is named in honour of Harry
Hopman (19061985), an Australian tennis player
and coach who guided the country to 15 Davis
Cup titles between 1938 and 1969.
The winning team receives a silver cup
perpetual trophy and the winning team members
are presented with distinctive individual trophies
in the shape of a tennis ball encrusted with
diamonds from the Argyle diamond mine in the
Kimberley region of Western Australia.
Asia Cup to be held in Bangladesh
The Asian Cricket Council has announced
This years event will have 11 matches, as

compared to seven held during the last two Asia
Cups. As per the schedule, the inaugural match of
tournament, will be played between defending
champions Pakistan and Sri Lanka at Fatullah.
India begins their campaign against the home side
at Fatullah on February 26. The final is scheduled
on March 8 at Sher-e-Bangla Stadium at Mirpur.
The tournament carries a total prize fund of
$260,000 with the winners and runners up taking
home $60,000 and $30,000 respectively.
ACC Asia Cup
The ACC Asia Cup is the biggest cricketing

tournament in the Asian subcontinent. The
tournament had been up and running since the
year 1983, when the ACC or the Asian Cricket
Council was formed for the promotion of gesture
and goodwill among the cricketing nations of Asia.
Originally, it was decided that the tournament
will be held once in two years. The first
tournament of the ACC Asia Cup took place in
Sharjah, which is located in the United Arab
Emirates, in the year of 1984.
[26]
EDITORIALS
A REDLINE ON FISCAL DEFICIT
problems arising from runaway fiscal deficit as
strongly as P. Chidambaram. He has often said
that the red line for the fiscal deficit, which he
set at containing it within 4.8 per cent of GDP, will
not be breached. That is going to be a particularly
daunting task in the light of the latest CGA data,
according to which the fiscal deficit in the first
eight months of the current fiscal year (AprilNovember) at 94 per cent was already close to
breaching the full years target. Total expenditure
during the first eight months was at 61.3 per cent
of the whole years budget, higher than the 58.2
per cent in the previous year. Revenue collections
have remained constant at a little over 47 per cent.
The urgent task therefore is to prune expenditure
while trying to boost government revenues,
especially tax revenues. Expenditure control, always
a tough task, is even tougher in an election year.
The axe is bound to fall on Plan expenditure and
that in turn will have a negative impact on the
growth momentum. Tax revenues are directly
dependent on GDP growth. There again, with the
economy unlikely to grow much above 5 per cent
during the current year, the outlook for higher tax
collections and hence a lower deficit is by no means
positive.
Source: The Hindu
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The latest data on the fiscal situation released

by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) on
Tuesday does not portend well for the governments
stated objective of holding the fiscal deficit within
reasonable limits. For most of the past two years
the macroeconomy has been beset with twin deficits
the fiscal deficit and the current account deficit.
During the first half of the year the current account
deficit (CAD) appeared to be spinning out of
control with all projections going awry. The
deleterious consequences were felt across the
macroeconomy. The rupee declined and inflation
remained persistently high. However, a surprisingly
strong rebound in exports and some innovative
government measures to shore up the external
account, along with tariff and non-tariff measures
to restrict gold imports, have helped narrow down
the CAD within reasonable limits, The expectation
is that by March 31 the CAD will be well below 3
per cent of GDP, a figure which even the most
optimistic forecasters would not have imagined just
a few months ago. While the threat from a
burgeoning CAD might have receded though
by no means has it been eliminated the
governments fiscal problems have come to the fore.
The challenge of containing the fiscal deficit
has persisted with successive governments. No
Finance Minister, however, has articulated the
TELENGANA: NO CONSTITUTIONAL BARRIERS
Now that the proposal for a new Telangana

state has entered the legislative stage, in the State
Assembly and subsequently Parliament, the
constitutional question will take centre stage: does
the absence of a supporting State Assembly
resolution for the creation of a new Telangana state,
an outcome which remains likely, render a
parliamentary amendment unconstitutional? In this
essay I show that this constitutional question sits
at the fault lines of two conflicting constitutional
impulses on federalism in India: first, the imperative
of crafting an accommodating state-nation and
second, to guard against the excesses of venal
partisan federalism. On balance, I conclude that
the absence of a State Assembly resolution is not a
constitutional barrier to the creation of Telangana.

We must preserve the Union power to redraw State
boundaries unfettered by new constitutional
restraints, imposed either by the President or the
Supreme Court, as the flexibility to create suitable
state-nation arrangements has sustained Indian
federalism and political unity.
Legal argument against creation
The constitutional legal argument against the

creation of Telangana rests on the claim that a
State Assembly to which the President refers a Bill
to alter State boundaries under the proviso to Article
3 must consent to this proposal for it to be
[27]

constitutionally valid. As has been pointed out in
the opinion columns of this paper, this argument
faces a significant hurdle. The Supreme Court has
repeatedly clarified that while the State Assemblys
resolution is an important procedural requirement
under Article 3, a negative vote or a failure to vote
on the referred Bill does not impose substantive
constraints on the Union power to enact such
legislation.
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In Babulal Parate (1959) a five-judge

Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court
confronted the political jostling around the status
of Bombay in Maharashtra and Gujarat. The
President had referred a Bill to the State Assembly,
which proposed a three-way split between Gujarat,
Maharashtra and a Union Territory of Bombay.
After the State Assembly approved this Bill, it was
amended by Parliament to include Bombay within
the State of Maharashtra a not so insignificant
change! Despite the significant unilateral alteration
by Parliament, the Supreme Court concluded that
this was not a sufficient reason to strike down the
Union law as the States had no rights under the
Indian Constitution. This view of the role of State
legislatures where State boundaries are altered has
been reaffirmed recently in Pradeep Chaudhary
(2009) where the final Union law creating
Uttaranchal State included the entire Haridwar
district while the one approved by the State
Assembly included only Haridwar city. Hence, we
are in no doubt that even if the Andhra Pradesh
Legislative Assembly rejects or refuses to pass this
resolution, this will not be a constitutional barrier
to the creation of the Telangana State unless the
Supreme Court changes its interpretation of Article
3.
suitable to the genius and requirements of the

Indian people as a whole. Unlike some other federal
legislatures, Parliament, representing the people of
India as a whole, has been vested with the exclusive
power of admitting or establishing new States,
increasing or diminishing the area of an existing
State or altering its boundaries, the Legislature or
Legislatures of the States concerned having only
the right to an expression of views on the
proposals. As Stepan, Linz and Yadav show, in a
federation of this type, the Unions capacity to shape
State boundaries to respond to claims for political
autonomy based on linguistic, ethnic, religious or
tribal identities has arguably strengthened the
capacity of the Indian federation to endure over
the last 60 years. Any attempt, by the President or
the Supreme Court, to constrain this Union power
with new constitutional or political limitations may
have a lasting impact on the future of the Indian
federation.
Hence, the constitutional argument against the

creation of the Telangana State is not about what
the law is but what it should be. There is nothing
in the text of the proviso to Article 3 to indicate
that Parliament must accept or act upon the views
of the State legislature. Further justification for such
a view should be understood to be the result of the
embrace of a particular type of federalism: a
holding-together federalism that adopts state-nation
strategies. In Babulal Parate, the court observed that:
None of the constituent units of the Indian Union
was sovereign and independent in the sense the
American colonies or the Swiss Cantons were before
they formed their federal unions. The Constituent
Assembly of India, deriving its power from the
sovereign people, was unfettered by any previous
commitment in evolving a constitutional pattern
[28]
However, it appears that the state-nation and

holding together federalism justification for the
Union power to create new States does not take
the problem of political partisanship seriously
enough. As many commentators have argued, the
Congress party may well be endorsing the
Telangana state to secure partisan electoral gains.
So should the President of India or the courts
intervene to craft neutral constitutional rules that
prevent the federal constitutional arrangements
being exploited for partisan political considerations?
In the last three decades, the Supreme Court
has intervened in at least three types of disputes to
craft neutral constitutional rules that prevent
partisan federalism: proclamation of regional
emergencies or Presidents Rule under Article 356;
appointment of Governors and their exercise of
executive power and to prevent the abuse of Union
executive power to preserve law and order in the
States. Despite the courts intervention, partisan
federalism has become ubiquitous in Indian
constitutional culture. In the last decade, on almost
every issue on which federalism has been invoked
by the States, it has been by parties in opposition
to those at the Union government: the ostensibly
federal division on the GST, NIA, CBI power, Lok
Pal Bill, FDI in retail or the Communal Violence
Bill is better explained by opposition party control
over State units. However, we must be careful in
characterising federalism in India as
inexorably partisan in character, particularly in the
realm of new State creation.
Legitimate & partisan mobilisation
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The diverse range of political mobilisation that

gives rise to State reorganisation claims in India
alerts us to the analytical problems of distinguishing
between legitimate political mobilisation and
partisan mobilisation. While linguistic State
reorganisation in the early decades of the Republic
is now construed as legitimate constitutional
redrawing of boundaries there is no doubt that
several regional party formations benefited from
this process: the Dravidian parties in Tamil Nadu
and the Shiv Sena are prominent examples. The
Akali parties benefited from the creation of a Sikh
majority Punjab state and as Louise Tillin
(Remapping India, 2013) persuasively shows, the
Bharatiya Janata Partys political interests were
critical to the formation of the States of
Uttaranchal/Uttarakhand,
Jharkhand
and
Chhattisgarh. So, invariably States have emerged
from legitimate demands for political autonomy
anchored by political parties which either motivated
or benefited from the creation of new States.
asymmetric arrangement to reserve jobs and

educational opportunities to people from the region.
The failure of these statutory and constitutional
arrangements led to the present demand for a new
State. While the Telangana Rashtra Samiti and the
Congress may potentially benefit from the
formation of a new State, only those who pay no
heed to the facts would claim that this is the only
motivation for the state of Telangana. The present
division in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly on the
Telangana Bill is unambiguously along regional and
not party lines.
Is the movement for the creation of a Telangana

state an exception to this historical pattern? There
is one issue on which the Justice B.N. Srikrishna
Committee Report is emphatic and clear: that the
political demand for a Telangana state is perceived
as
legitimate
due
to
the
persistent
underdevelopment of these regions. The
Gentlemens Agreement settled in 1956 devised
statutory means to eliminate under-representation
and underdevelopment in the Telangana region.
Article 371-D was introduced in 1973 to formalise
the Six-Point Formula through a non-territorial
So, to conclude, should the President of India

or the Supreme Court change the balance of power
between the Union and the States in the process of
State reorganisation by insisting on an affirmative
State resolution under Article 3? There are three
compelling reasons not to do so: first, Indias
successful holding-together federalism model has
helped us craft an enduring state-nation by allowing
the Union to redraw State boundaries; second,
though we have crafted neutral constitutional rules
to check partisan federalism in several cases, it is
difficult if not impossible to do so in the context of
State reorganisation. Third, there is no limited set
of constitutional principles that ex-ante justify the
formation of States, as the primary justification for
State formation is of an ex-post political character.
In these circumstances it is best left to the political
process to craft a resolution to competing group
claims for political autonomy and statehood rather
than the President or the Supreme Court to secondguess this process through constitutional rules.
Source: The Hindu
NOT HANDLED WITH CARE
Was 2013 the annus horribilis for Indian foreign

policy? Foreign policy formulation and
implementation by definition require meticulous
planning, attention to detail and clinical and mature
assessments. Some of these qualities were not in
full evidence during the course of the year.
The events of 2013 provide pointers to a few

trends. First, the management of the more
important bilateral relationships, particularly those
in our immediate neighbourhood and with the
United States, requires extra effort and skilful
handling not only with the countries concerned
but also with domestic constituencies, including the
media and state governments. The required margin
of persuasion with domestic constituents does not
appear to have been used in 2013. In many cases,
there was a failure to communicate the rationale

of policy initiatives, even when these were sound.
The management of our relations with Bangladesh
and Sri Lanka is a case in point. In the case of the
former, the failure to persuade domestic
constituencies, particularly the chief minister of
West Bengal, will prove to be costly, in both the
short and medium terms. In Sri Lankas case, we
failed to encourage Colombo to move away from
majoritarianism and be more responsive to and
ensure Tamil interests.
With Pakistan, the year started badly. The
barbaric beheading of an Indian soldier inside
Indian territory in January, the murder of Sarabjit
Singh in a Pakistani prison in April-May and the
[29]

in her physical arrest, handcuffing and strip search.
The few limited steps we took to introduce
reciprocity in the grant of privileges, immunities
and courtesies helped focus attention on the
asymmetric nature of the relationship.
Relations between the US and India are far too
important to be jeopardised by any one single act,
set of incidents or misguided individual. It is
unlikely, however, given the widespread attention
that the mistreatment of the Indian diplomat has
received in India, that this can be done without
the dignity of the person in question being restored.
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killing of five Indian soldiers by Pakistani special

forces in August brought relations to a boil. Firing
along the Line of Control almost threatened the
10-year-old ceasefire. Domestic passions were
inflamed and provided just the opportunity some
members of our strategic community required to
indulge in Pakistan-bashing. There was little or no
evidence that the new political dispensation in
Pakistan either wished to turn a new leaf or had
the clout to rein in the terror machine. The need to
keep channels of communication open is not an
issue. What was and should continue to be the
decisive determinant is timing. The prime minister
should have been discouraged from meeting his
counterpart in New York. Strong political
opposition domestically, particularly from the BJP,
scaled down expectations.
In many respects, the events of 2013 forcefully

drove home to the domestic audience in India that
our approach to China has been somewhat
complacent. A new political leadership in Beijing,
established following the 18th Party Congress in
November 2012, tested our resolve. The physical
demonstration of this was the three-week-long
incursion by Chinese troops and the stand-off in
Ladakh during April. This and continuing
incursions elsewhere again generated concern in
Parliament and across the political spectrum. There
were demands for a more clinical assessment.
Equally, India needs to accelerate the modernisation
of the infrastructure on the border on our side and
scaling-up of our defence preparedness.
The bilateral relationship that seemed most in
trouble is the one with the US. Much of the
euphoria, following the September 2008 prime
ministerial visit to Washington, had already
evaporated in 2012. The much heralded Indo-US
civil nuclear deal, for which the PM, at one stage,
appeared ready to even risk the survival of his
government, became the source of bickering and
mutual recrimination. The Americans accused us
of not delivering on the nuclear liability law.
Commercial contracting for its implementation even
five years after the passage of the legislation in the
US, such that there is, is not worth recalling. Billions
of dollars of defence purchases by us from the US
did not prevent the state department from
withholding clearance for the humiliation of an
Indian diplomat on trumped up charges, resulting
[30]
There are also important lessons for those who

are easily impressed by the US espousal of and
insistence on human rights. Clearly, the US may
need to undertake some introspection. It based its
approach to visa, in respect of the BJPs prime
ministerial candidate, on allegations that have now
turned out to be based on fabrication of evidence
and a litany of lies. The clean chit from the Indian
judicial system should at the very least result in
some introspection.
Nothing serves to demonstrate our desire for
the best of relations with the US more than our
response to the Snowden affair. Contrast this with
the reaction of Brazil and the picture is complete.
In similarly placed circumstances, for us, it was
business-as-usual. The Brazilians took the
unprecedented step of President Dilma Rousseff
calling off her visit to Washington, the only state
visit scheduled by the US for 2013. Boeing also lost
a $4 billion military deal on account of the
Snowden revelations.
The day after Devyani Khobragade was
subjected to unprecedented humiliation, a colleague
called to relate the story of Sergei Lavrov, longserving Russian permanent representative to the
UN in New York and now Russian foreign minister.
His official car was towed away by the New York
traffic police. It required one telephone call to
Moscow. After six American cars went missing,
Lavrov got his car back with a note of apology.
Interpretations of the Vienna Conventions are best
left to lawyers who, for an attractive amount, could
make out an equally compelling case on both sides.
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,/
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.
Source: Indian Express
MEETING POINT
convey the seriousness of intent. I am not sure
whether just an operational-strategic flag meeting
works towards the larger aim of the prime ministers.
The Pakistan armys reported demarche to its
LoC troops to not initiate any negative situations
on the LoC and to de-escalate potentially negative
events is a positive development. However,a t the
end of the day,it is the truancy of the terrorists
who the Pakistan army claims are not under its
control that must make up the operational and
tactical agenda. Pakistan has never accepted that
it gives the Lashkar-e-Taiba space for its activities
against India. Terrorist infiltration attempts
continue unabated. The Pakistan army must be
made to realise the futility of such meetings if it is
not going to accept this fact,which is central to
almost all the negativity and turbulence on the LoC.
There is no doubt that the Pakistan army follows
a two-track policy on dealing with terrorists
those who instigate internal unrest in Pakistan are
treated differently from those who seek to keep the
fire burning in J&K. It will be difficult to convince
a professional army that such a policy will bring it
to grief. Yet,a degree of accountability among the
Pakistan armys units on the LoC must continue to
be our demand. That is as realistic as it gets.
Lastly,the much-publicised pre-meeting agenda
put out in the media by the Pakistan establishment
needs a comment. Bringing in the UN Military
Observer Group in India and Pakistan to monitor
the ceasefire or the infiltration attempts will be akin
to retracing our steps 40 years. The Simla
Agreement clearly lays down the mutuality aspect
of dealing with Pakistan on all issues relating to
Kashmir. To expect India to take a step back from
the agreement is nave,unrealistic and loaded with
malice because our stance is only too well known.
Without
commensurate
progress
on
Afghanistan and the other mutual interests of India
and Pakistan at political and diplomatic levels,the
DGMO talks are likely to remain at the operational
and tactical level,and not rise to the intended
strategic level. Yet,in the decisive year of 2014,it is
good that the two armies are now engaged. It sends
a good message to the rogue elements within
Pakistan and forces a greater sense of responsibility
on the Pakistan army. Perhaps,with the arrival of
General Raheel Sharif, these positive strokes could
be converted to something more meaningful,even
as India starts to take the internal issues of Kashmir
to a higher degree of resolution.
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It is good to see the trust reposed in the directorgeneral of military operations (DGMO) to stabilise,if
not
resolve,a
tricky
military-to-military
relationship,which more often than not transforms
into a tricky nation-to-nation relationship. But what
do such meetings really achieve,and how should
they be handled? This time around,its been all
about the Line of Control (LoC) and the frequent
flare-ups which threaten to trigger greater tension
with Pakistan.
The DGMO meeting is not a flag meeting. Flag
meetings are at the level of local commanders or
staff. They take place on either side of the LoC or
border,as the case may be. They are not part of the
political dialogue but are just border conferences
to temporarily dilute a military standoff in a
situation where political parleys are not possible.
Unlike a political dialogue,it does not take much
effort to organise a flag meeting. Sometimes,they
can be held for a specific purpose,not linked to the
LoC or to border tension. However,the usual flag
meetings at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and
LoC are held to de-escalate a crisis situation. A
flag meeting between general officers is rare it
remains pegged at the level of colonel or brigadier
to keep the agenda local. It does not resolve an
issue and neither should it be expected to unless
it is to hand over or take back someone who has
unwittingly crossed the LoC. This is because the
agenda is usually contentious and the participants
are not empowered to dilute the established
positions. There have been times when firing has
recommenced in the vicinity of a flag meeting,even
as the local commanders returned to their
respective sides after the meeting. Lasting solutions
to even local problems are almost impossible.
Ceasefire infringements have been the order of
the day in Mendhar and Krishna Ghati since 2007
despite numerous flag meetings. Other hotspots are
Poonch,Uri,Tangdhar and Keran. The Pakistan
army allegedly supports terrorist infiltration by
drawing our men into exchanging fire.
What then should be expected from the DGMO
meeting? The first thing a Kashmir hand would
observe is its venue. Why across the Attari crossing
and not at Islamabad,Lahore,Amritsar or Delhi?
By not being held at these other locations,the
DGMO talks appear to have been given the colour
of a flag meeting. Actually,it should have been held
against the strategic backdrop of the recent
turbulence,with an agenda not restricted to any
level. I am sure it was,but even in military
diplomacy,symbolic gestures are important and

[31]
GOING NOWHERE
that they are required to submit their findings
within months,the expectation is that they would
bring some quick and informed clarity within the
terms of reference. Instead,it is a recurrent
experience that the panels take an archival attitude
to their task. For example,the Liberhan commission
was formed within a fortnight of the demolition of
the Babri Masjid in December 1992 and was tasked
with submitting its findings in three months. In the
event,it submitted its report in 2009 it took a
report in this newspaper on its contents for the
government to table it in Parliament.
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The Nanavati commission inquiring into the

Godhra incident of February 2002 and the riots
that ravaged Gujarat in the following days has been
given yet another extension,its 21st. The
commission is now scheduled to submit its report
on June 30 this year that is,if it should break
from form and actually deliver. It would not be
controversial to say that if it does in fact press for
an extension,there will be no surprise,and that in
a nutshell is the scandal of panels formed under
the Commissions of Inquiry Act.
An urgency had informed the constitution of
the Nanavati commission within days of the Godhra
fire,with the country still trying to come to grips
with the savagery and scope of the violence as
well as the role of the Narendra Modi government.
Almost 12 years later,as the commission has
acquired permanence,living from one six-month
extension to another,the questions about the
violence in Gujarat remain,but if the retired judges
have any misgivings about their failure to deliver
on time,they have kept them very private. The
latest extension must be an occasion to address
concerns about how commissions of inquiry function
and how their terms of reference are set. Given
It behoves neither the judiciary,as the supplier

of retired judges,to head such commissions,nor the
executive to be assailed by suspicions that the
exercise is one of evasion (by the executive) of the
burning issue and of self-serving perpetuation (by
the judge) of the spoils of the task. It may well be
that certain inquiries take time. But it would enable
a healthier culture of public debate and inquiry if
commissions submitted what they gather in the time
frame allotted and let that be the grounds on which
to seek an extension or recommend an ancillary
probe.
THE UNACCOUNTED
A rich man will most likely have a bank

account, and a poor woman will most likely not.
The Crisil Inclusix index, which measures Indias
progress on financial inclusion, does not tell us that.
Women and the poor remain invisible in this index,
and in a deeply divided society such as ours, figures
often hide the truth. Yes, the number of loans have
increased, but they have gone to corporations,
sometimes to small businesses and almost none to
poor, self-employed women. Yes, branches have
increased and so have the number of low-frill
accounts, but a poor woman rarely saves her money
in that account. She is still keeping her meagre
savings at home, hidden in the roof, to be taken
away from her when others need it, or even to be
eaten by rats.
Indices such as these are designed to help

policymakers and service providers improve
financial inclusion, which is often defined as
reaching the unreached. But if the aim is to reach
the poor and to reach women, then the figures
should give us a break-up by gender. Also invisible
in the Crisil index are the myriad financial providers
[32]
that actually do reach the poor. There may be no

data on the informal sector, but there is no excuse
for excluding those in the formal sector the nonscheduled co-operatives or private banks, the
savings and credit societies, the micro-credit nonbanking financial companies.
Recently, the Self Employed Womens Association
(SEWA) conducted a study on the effectiveness of
unconditional cash transfers in rural Madhya Pradesh,
and another one on women in the informal economy
in Bihar. Based on these we formulated five principles
of genuine financial inclusion of poor women.
First, it must be recognised that a poor woman
is willing to be part of the financial system. She is
a natural saver, so having a safe place to save is
important to her. An account of her own builds
her identity and empowers her. However, banks
often exclude women because they do not fulfil the
KYC (know your customer) criteria. As Kamlabai,
a bidi worker in rural MP, says They ask for
identity proof, but I have no identity. In my house,
no one uses my name, they call me bahu or ma or
bhabhi. I studied till sixth class. My name was

changed after marriage, so my name on the ration
card is different from the name on my school
certificate. And Deepali, who works as a domestic
help in Delhi and rents a room for Rs 2,000, speaks
of the difficulties of providing the residence proof
that a bank wants.
Fourth, government schemes that involve direct

cash transfers induce better financial inclusion, as
the pressure to open accounts mounts on the
financial systems, both from beneficiaries and from
government. Our surveys in Madhya Pradesh and
other surveys in Bihar have shown that cash
transfers are perhaps the best option for both social
security and financial inclusion, but only if they
are unconditional or have minimal conditions.
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Second, women respond much better to

doorstep banking. The success of micro-finance
institutions, and self-help groups (SHGs) attests to
this. Going beyond their village to deposit or
withdraw money requires time and money, and in
such cases men take over. Doorstep banking is also
more sensitive to local needs. Although more and
more girls are going to school, it must be
remembered that there is a high rate of illiteracy
among women, and it becomes difficult for them
to do the paperwork required. Women in our
Madhya Pradesh study said the main difficulty that
they faced in banks was their inability to fill forms.
And the women who were illiterate had to rely on
other customers or bring along literate family
members. Others said bank staff helped them.
cycle of debt and bring about structural change,

reducing inequality. A Planning Commission study
in Bihar says that only 4 per cent of the women
have taken credit from banks and 7.6 per cent from
NGOs and SHGs, 61 per cent had high-interest
loans from money lenders and 18.4 per cent had
mortgaged their land or property. In contrast, the
SEWA Bank has a portfolio of 100 per cent loans
to poor women and the extremely low number of
non-performing assets proves that the poor are good
repayers.
Third, loans are important. Most poor families

are in exploitative debt, with extremely high
interest rates, or in debt of goods like seeds, which
require double the repayment in kind, or in debt
which is to be repaid by labour at below market
wages, or in debt that forces families into nearbondage. Loans at reasonable rates could break this
Finally, financial literacy needs to be tailored to

the poor. SEWAs experience shows that specially
designed modules increase womens knowledge
about financial systems, change their savings
behaviour and make them responsible debtors.
Bringing knowledge and awareness to poor women
not only broadens their world but also enriches
mainstream financial systems.
COUNTING OUR CHICKENS
It started with a mundane question: what is

the chicken population in India? There are glaring
inconsistencies in the available data. The National
Sample Survey Organisations (NSSOs) surveys
show a 20 per cent annual growth of chicken
consumption between 2005 and 2010. But according
to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO),
the production of chicken meat only rose 10 per
cent a year during the same period. The FAO figure
was still higher than the 7 per cent reported by the
animal husbandry department whose data feeds
into the GDP calculations. So we have three
different reported growth rates for chicken meat
production, and no idea which is correct.
We are not counting chickens to bore you to
sleep. Poultry farming, in addition to providing an
affordable source of nutrition, could be creating
close to a million jobs a year. The arithmetic is
surprisingly simple: as per the GDP data, India
consumed about Rs 30,400 crore worth of chicken
in 2010. If demand was rising at 12 per cent a
year, and chicken prices have risen by about 14
per cent every year, the consumption this financial

year should be Rs 80,000 crore. This implies there
will be Rs 17,000 crore of additional sales just this
year. So, across the value chain that is, feed
producers, hatcheries and poultry farmers more
than a million additional people can earn around
Rs 250 per working day. If the growth rate of
demand were higher, at say 15 to 20 per cent a
year, 1.5 to 2 million new jobs would have been
created at the same income per day. These growth
rates do matter.
Take buffaloes, for example. India exported 1.1
million tonnes of buffalo meat last year to become
the largest beef exporter in the world. Buffalo meat
exports are expected to grow another 20 per cent
this year, which will translate into nearly 13 million
buffaloes. This is where the buffalo arithmetic
started to confound us. According to the 2007
livestock census, India had 105 million buffaloes,
of which 85 million were female and bull calves
(either too young to breed or lactating or expecting).
[33]

One wonders where the buffalo meat came from.
If the 2 per cent annual buffalo population growth
rate as given in the national accounts was correct,
by now we should have run out of them.
Comprehensive consumption surveys as well as

anecdotal evidence suggest that eating habits are
changing dramatically: Indians are consuming more
fruit and vegetables and animal products, and less
cereals. Naturally, demand is met with rising
production of these higher-value items, which in
turn creates jobs and incomes, further fuelling the
demand for these food items. The catalyst for this
seemingly endless virtuous cycle, in our view, is
the silent transformation brought about by the
spread of rural roads, cellphones and the creation
of rural economic clusters that we discussed in
Hope lies low (IE, April 12, 2013).
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What raised our suspicions even further was

that the largest increase in buffalo meat exports
was from Uttar Pradesh while the national accounts
statistics, which feed into the GDP calculations, do
not suggest such rapid growth. We believe that the
export data, compiled by a handful of certified
abattoirs, is more reliable. On the other hand,
counting buffaloes spread across 65,000 villages is
less so.
near Giridih in Jharkhand? How do you measure

the buffalo milk output in the Sector 9 khataal
(dairy farm) of Bokaro Steel City? How do you
measure the tonnage of tomatoes, cauliflowers and
aubergines produced when consumption is almost
immediate and storage facilities are limited?
In our view, these inconsistencies in the data

point towards under-reported agricultural growth,
which in turn implies that the income growth at
the bottom of the wealth pyramid is far more
sustainable than previously thought. Also, the
growth has little to do with high minimum support
prices for cereals or the MGNREGA.
Until recently, we did not question the accuracy

of the reported agricultural GDP. We were fully
aware that 94 per cent of Indias agricultural output
is informal, not generated by incorporated
companies. But because agriculture has been a
substantial source of taxes for governments for
centuries, we thought the data gathering and
output measurements would be accurate. One can,
for example, retrieve historical records and calculate
paddy yields for 18th century Coimbatore.
But we were wrong. Not because the data on

cereals is inaccurate, but because cereals, which
were earlier pretty much the only taxed part of
agriculture, only account for 20 per cent of Indias
agricultural output. There is little accurate data for
the rest. Categories such as fruit and vegetables
(17 per cent) and milk (17 per cent) are almost as
important as cereals. In fact, when it comes to the
reported incremental growth between 2005 and
2011, cereals contributed only 14 per cent, whereas
animal products including dairy, eggs, meat and
fish contributed 37 per cent, and fruit and
vegetables 23 per cent. As discussed earlier, actual
growth may have been even higher.
Accurate data collection is a daunting task. How
do you count the chicken production in Bagodar
Given the near absence of good quality,

frequently available data, the national accounts
team applies intelligent assumptions to estimate this
growth. However, given the unprecedented nature
of this change, this growth is likely underestimated
because their assumptions are based on past trends.
Such errors should get corrected in the next GDP
series. Among other primary sources of data for
this series, the livestock survey was completed in
2012, and its output should be the best available
indicator of the scale of the change.
The growth in milk and meat production, and
fruit and vegetable farming may have created
millions of jobs in the informal economy and lifted
many out of poverty. Analyses that solely rely on
GDP data would not be able to capture these trends.
While the resilience of this growth is
encouraging, it is no excuse for complacency. Astute
observers have noted that the one animal farmer
that India has for every 75 citizens is among the
most inefficient in the world. We must set our
aspirations higher. While such growth could result
in increased prosperity over the next two to three
generations, effective policies and administration
could help to deliver it in a shorter timeframe.
HIGH GROWTH IS STILL POSSIBLE
After growing at an average of 8-9 per cent for

most of the last decade, Indian economic growth
almost halved last year.
Despite some improvement in the latest quarter,
[34]
overall growth this year is likely to be below 5 per

cent.
The most significant impact of this has been on

manufacturing. Growth fell to just 1 per cent last
year and has been in the negative so far in the
current fiscal, drying up job opportunities.
The decline is also accompanied by persistently
high inflation. While rising unemployment has
restricted demand, high inflation has squeezed
demand further.
The services sector, the cornerstone of Indias
growth story in the past two decades, is also being
impacted by the industrial slowdown.
erodes
our
overall
Time to fast-track
Therefore, it is highly imperative to fast-track
investments, especially in the infrastructure domain,
to bring India back on the high growth path.
Stringent tax laws are another stumbling block
for doing business in India.
Besides the increasing levels of tax incidence,
multiplicity of taxes at both State and Union levels,
the industry also suffers from retrospective effects
of tax ruling. Huge amounts of tax revenues remain
under dispute estimated to be Rs 2.56 lakh crore
in 2011-12.
Whats the way forward? The onus of levying
tax should be left to states, with the Centre receiving
a fixed share of the total tax receipts.
Hence, there is an urgent need to implement
the Direct Taxes Code and Goods & Services Tax,
which can build a unified market. Investment
decisions can then be made purely on economic
concerns, free of any tax considerations.
It is clear that efforts by the RBI to anchor
inflationary expectations by increasing interest rates
are simply not working.
This is because the current inflation is driven
by rising food prices, courtesy inefficient supply
and non-uniform rise in minimum support prices.
So, it is important to augment supplies through
better productivity and by avoiding large wastage
in the supply chain.
This calls for more investment in infrastructure,
particularly in warehouses and cold-storages.
Moreover, there is a need to take a re-look at
the buffer stock norms for foodgrain. Any excess
could be liquidated for market use, which at the
current rate is well over 50 million tonnes.
In the meantime, the RBI should take a break
from the current monetary tightening mode as it is
only restricting the demand for manufactured
goods and their production. The central banks
target variable also needs to be changed to core
(non-food) inflation as is the case elsewhere.
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This is mainly felt in trade and transport, a

major part of the overall services that have strong
inter-linkages with manufacturing.
employment, but also

competitiveness, globally.
Such contraction in real economy is making

businesses apprehensive, with increasing input costs
putting more pressure on their pricing power and
so thinning down margins.
As a result, new projects are pushed back as
investors are in a wait and watch mode. India,
therefore, is slowly falling into a recessionary trap
a consumption drought has set in the economy
alongside an investment famine.
Road blocks
The question, therefore, is how can we return

to the earlier high growth path? Because, unless
we revive demand and push growth to earlier high
levels, inclusive growth will remain elusive.
One of the clear-cut ways to improve the

situation and boost investment sentiment is by
removing infrastructure deficiency. But the efforts
so far leave much to be desired.
Despite huge spending plans on infrastructure,
as earmarked since the 11th Five-Year Plan and
continued in the current Plan, we have been unable
to spend even half of the planned expenditure, with
the situation bring abysmal in core sectors such as
power, roads, railways and ports.
For instance, Indias freight transport remains
heavily reliant on roads more than 60 per cent,
against 22 per cent in China.
This makes it more expensive and time

consuming, besides being less environment-friendly.
The average turnaround time for a ship at an Indian
port has worsened to 4.2 days from 3.85 days four
years ago, while it has improved significantly in
China to less than a day from 5.8 days in 2006.
As a result, our average logistical costs remain
high, at around 14 per cent of GDP vis--vis less
than 8 per cent elsewhere. This not only leads to
loss of potential growth opportunities and
Growth on agenda
The government can even consider borrowings

on a temporary basis, a course of action that it
seems apprehensive about.
It fears that will breach fiscal deficit targets and
jeopardise its poll prospects. But we must rise above
electoral politics when the countrys long term
health is at stake.
[35]

No doubt, we
profligacy. But the
be revived at any
fiscal deficit target
will increase the risk of fiscal

moot point is demand needs to
cost, and if we overshoot our
for this, so be it.
employment), or burgeoning middle class with

rising purchasing power to uplift the economy.
I still feel India has the potential to achieve a 78 per cent annual growth on a sustained basis,
provided we implement the policy decisions already
taken and foster an enabling environment that
makes us more competitive.
I also believe that growth and inclusion can go

together if we empower the people with basic
education, health and skill development, so that
everyone is encouraged to participate in the growth
process.
This is also important to cash in on the inherent

growth drivers positive demographic dividend,
low manufacturing imprint (scope for more
This is the right way to go about ensuring

inclusive growth.
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The government can always minimise that

through better tax compliance, bolder disinvestment
programmes and utilising the cash surplus of PSUs
to boost investment.
For that, it is imperative that a broad minimum

consensus should be evolved among all
stakeholders, government, industry and civil society,
on core economic issues, so that it helps the
industry do its business without worrying about
political fall-outs.
Source: Business Line
NEW YEAR MUSINGS
The year gone saw the Indian economy go

through one of its worst phases. The current
account deficit (CAD) hit 4.9 per cent of GDP
during April-June, while the following quarter
recorded net capital outflows of $ 5.38 billion
more than the nearly $ five billion in OctoberDecember 2008 at the height of the global economic
crisis. As fears of the US Federal Reserve gradually
turning off its liquidity spigot gathered momentum,
Indias high CAD levels and slowing growth were
enough for foreign investors to pull out money.
The rupee plunged to an all-time-low of 68.36 to
the dollar on August 28. Moreover, its internal
purchasing power also suffered major erosion, with
consumer price inflation averaging 10.1 per cent
in 2013. Even worse was the roughly 15 per cent
increase in food prices that, among other things,
contributed to the ruling Congress decimation in
recent polls.
Yet, as we enter 2014, things look much better.
The CAD fell to 1.2 per cent of GDP in JulySeptember. With exports picking-up partly
courtesy a weaker rupee and a clampdown on
gold imports, the CAD seems more manageable.
This perception, in turn, has led to foreign
institutional investors turning net buyers in Indian
equities again and the rupee stabilising at under
62 to the dollar. The Reserve Bank of Indias deft
external management especially its offering
concessional swap facilities to enable banks mobilise
some $ 34 billion in non-resident deposits and

overseas borrowings has made India much less
vulnerable to a Fed taper or speculative currency
attacks than it was a few months ago. Even food
prices, particularly vegetables, have started
softening in the last one month as the effects of a
good monsoon are finally bearing fruit through
increased crop arrivals.
But external stability and a semblance of control
over inflation are only the beginning. The real
challenge in 2014 is to get growth back on track
and revive the economys investment engine that
has been stalled for over two-and-a-half years. This
to a large extent hinges upon the results of the
next general election, now just months away. The
hope is that it will usher in a stable government
capable of taking bold and quick decisions on
disinvestment, opening up railways and coal mining
to private capital, replacing all subsidies with
targeted direct benefit transfers, and implementation
of nationwide goods and service tax. Stability alone
of course is not enough the present government
is an example that it takes more than numbers to
be decisive. But it has shown some spine at the fag
end of its tenure and deserves credit for refraining
from indulging in a spending binge in a fit of prepoll populism. One hopes the next government will
get down to business from day one and implement
reforms out of conviction, not desperation.
RBI CRACKS WHIP ON BANK ASSET QUALITY
Deteriorating asset quality in the banking system

has prompted the Reserve Bank of India to publish
a discussion paper Early Recognition of Financial
[36]
Distress, Prompt Steps for Resolution and Fair

Recovery for Lenders: Framework for Revitalising
Distressed Assets in the Economy.

The paper has attempted to address both the
proactive steps to prevent slippage in asset quality
as well as reiterate some of the earlier guidelines
that the regulator had issued.
Better Risk Management
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For starters, the regulator has reinforced the

importance of credit risk management. Banks have
been asked to carry out independent and objective
credit appraisal in all cases and not depend on
credit appraisal reports prepared by outside
consultants. They have been mandated to ascertain
the source and quality of equity capital brought in
by the promoters.
This primarily ensures that multiple leverages,
especially in infrastructure projects, are eliminated.
Banks have been required to verify the source of
the equity capital in the subsidiaries/SPV to ensure
that debt of the parent company is not infused as
equity. Banks are now additionally required to
verify if the names of any of the directors of the
company appear in the list of defaulters/wilful
defaulters. They also have to classify borrowers as
non-cooperative borrowers those who do not
provide necessary information to assess financial
health even after two reminders or deny access to
securities or do not comply with the terms of the
sanction.
The RBI proposes to create a database of
directors on the boards of companies, classified as
non-cooperative borrowers, for dissemination to
lenders. Banks have asked not to rely on
certification given by borrowers auditors.
The central bank has also brought the advocates
and asset valuers within the radar. While
blacklisting of professionals by banks has always
been in vogue, it has to be viewed in the context of
the provisions under Section 447 of the new
Companies Act 2013, which envisages class-action
for abetment to fraud.
The proposed guidelines also envisage a higher
degree of monitoring in respect of advances already
made. Banks have now been mandated to create a
new sub asset category Special Mention Accounts
(SMA). The concept of SMA is not new in the
context of the Indian banks.
The regulator, as early as September 2002, had
issued guidelines on preventing slippage of NPA
accounts. SMAs find reference even in that
document. SMA has now been further subcategorised into SMA-NF, SMA-1 and SMA-2.
A loan can be potentially categorised as SMANF, if any one of the following, illustrative signals,
are noticed delay of 90 days or more in the
submission of stock statements or other operating

control statements including non-renewal of
facilities based on audited financials; actual sales/
operating profits falling short of projections, for
loan sanction, by 40 per cent or more; noncooperation for conduct of stock audits or reduction
of drawing power by 20 per cent or more after
stock audit or evidence of diversion of funds; return
of three or more cheques or electronic debit
instructions in the last 30 days on account of nonavailability of funds; return of three or more bills/
cheques sent on collection by the borrower;
devolvement of letters of credit or invocation of
bank guarantees and its non-payment within 15
days; increase in frequency of overdrafts in current
accounts and borrower himself reporting stress in
business and financials.
SMA-1 represents a category where the principal
or interest payment is overdue between 31 and 60
days, and SMA-2 where principal or interest
payment is overdue between 61 and 90 days.
The existing guidelines provide for assets to be
categorised as NPAs, where principal and/or
interest are not paid for 90 days or more. The RBI
proposes to set up a Central Repository of
Information on Large Credits (CRILC) that will
collect, store and disseminate credit data by the
banks.
Additionally, important non-banking financial
companies are also required to submit data. Banks
will be required to submit credit information to CRILC
on borrowers having aggregate fund-based and nonfund-based exposure of Rs 5 crore and above.
Banks will also have to furnish details of all
current accounts of their customers with
outstanding balances, both debit and credit, of Rs
1 crore and above.
Banks will be required to submit SMA status of
the borrowers to CRILC. If an account is categorised
as an SMA-2 at any time or SMA-1 for any two
quarters or SMA-NF for three quarters in a year,
then the bank would be required to initiate the
corrective action plan.
Corrective Action
The implementation of the action plan is also

proposed to be monitored closely. Failure to turn
around stressed assets would warrant initiation of
other recovery mechanisms. The document
envisages a positive reconstructive role for asset
reconstruction companies/private equity funds. The
proposals are in the right direction and the
challenge lies in their implementation.
[37]
BOND BETTER
to funding start-ups for earning inflation-beating
returns. Instead, the IICs need to be targeted mainly
at the middle class and lower income groups, who
require safety with inflation protection.
To attract these investors, it is necessary to
clearly quantify and communicate the likely returns
on these bonds. A return of 11 per cent-plus on a
sovereign instrument is far from bad, but a lay
investor may not be able to gauge this from
advertisements talking of a 1.5 per cent fixed rate
above the reference CPI inflation. As cash flows
matter to small investors, the bonds should offer
regular interest payouts in addition to the
cumulative option. Procedural hassles in applying
also need ironing out. With banks reluctant to
promote these bonds citing low commission, they
arent widely available on online trading platforms
and entail cumbersome physical application forms.
Access can also be ensured through the post office
network, as in the case of small savings schemes.
But above all, the IICs lack attractive packaging.
The advertisements need to convey the bonds return
potential and safety in simple layman terms. A rebranding exercise would be welcome. As catchy
acronyms go, IINSS-C the abbreviation for
Inflation Indexed National Savings Securities
(Cumulative) is quite a mouthful. It is also out
of sync with the new RBI Governors emphasis on
clear communication from the central bank.
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The response to the new inflation-indexed

certificates (IIC) floated by the Reserve Bank of India
(RBI) has been disappointingly lukewarm, leading
to an extension of the one-week offer window by
three months. This, even as tax-free bonds from
other issuers have been eagerly lapped up; National
Housing Banks recent offering was oversubscribed
two times on the very first day. But the RBI must
not allow this experience to discourage future issues,
given the significant potential of inflation-protected
bonds in channelling household savings into
financial instruments and away from gold and real
estate. The poor response to this offer had more to
do with weak marketing efforts, unusually high
market yields and an over-crowding of bond offers.
A few tweaks to enhance the mass appeal of these
certificates will elicit a far better retail response.
Critics have pointed out that the IICs are
unattractive because they are illiquid and suffer
income tax on interest payments. So, even if they
fetch 12.7 per cent as annual interest (taking a
mark-up of 1.5 per cent over the prevailing
consumer price inflation of 11.2 per cent), post-tax
returns to investors in the top (30 per cent) bracket
would be just 8.7 per cent. This is against the 9 per
cent offered by many tax-free bonds. But
policymakers neednt worry too much about
enhancing the bonds appeal to affluent investors
by handing out tax breaks. These investors have
many other avenues from stocks and real estate
WATER IS A BASIC RIGHT, DELIVER IT
The draft National Water Framework Bill in

India is set to address issues such as water scarcity,
inequities in water distribution and the lack of a
unified perspective in planning, management and
use of water resources.
Revised for the second time, thanks to protests
on the first draft of treating water as an economic
good favouring privatisation, the present draft seeks
to provide a right to water based on a daily
allowance of 25 litres per person, about five litres
more than the World Health Organisations
recommendation.
Impressive as this may seem, such proposed

standards have been known to eventually
compromise on the quality and quantity of service,
let alone consistency. Instead, there must be a
strong emphasis on considering access to safe water
[38]
as a human right, where the right to continuous water

supply must be the goal this addresses both quantity
and quality concerns as it mitigates the health
concerns arising from supplying stagnant water. In
India, it is a common sight for women to queue up
at public water fountains, forgoing potential
employment opportunities, leaving the newborns
unattended back home, all for one reason water!
The problem lies buried
Rapidly growing cities in India have increased

the demand for natural resources and basic public
services, including water supply. But the existing
infrastructure is outdated and in desperate need of
repair, where according to the World Bank, about
half the water supplied for domestic consumption
is lost through internal leakages or theft.

Other issues such as intermittent water supply
with lack of water metering and, more importantly,
loss of water arising from unmetered supply, often
camouflaged as free supply, are increasing.
Further, if there is no perceivable price attached,

water loses its value and is thus wasted. As for the
poor, many studies conducted around the world
prove that the poor do pay, far more than their
fair share. In Dakhin Durgapur in West Bengal the
villagers were willing to pay Rs 2,000 each for
reliable service to about 5,000 slum dwellers as a
deposit to the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation
to extend distribution networks to unserved areas,
without additional finance. Also, interestingly, the
subsidies for water benefit mainly those who are
not poor. This was established in the case of Baroda
Municipal Corporation where the main
beneficiaries of the subsidies were the middle and
upper-income households, who paid less than 20
per cent of the actual cost of water they consume.
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There is thus a growing need to provide safe

water on a continuous basis for all as a human
right. Whilst over 90 per cent of urban households
in India have access to water supply services, this
access is often not equal, not sustainable and not
to safe water. There remain challenges of high loss
levels due to pipelines breaking down as a result of
pressure fluctuation, and low cost recovery. Piped
water is distributed only for a few hours every
day, and water is stored in large overhead tanks
on roof-tops. Coverage levels of water supply
services may have, arguably, increased over time.
But this has not necessarily translated into improved
services that are safe, reliable and continuous.
individual household, and its regular maintenance,

household filters are all a part of the overall
cost.
But is lack of water availability the reason for

governments inability to supply continuous water?
The problem, in fact, lies not in the lack of water
availability, but in the dilapidated and leaky
networks that lie beneath the ground. A proven
example is the World Bank-funded project in
Karnataka where Veolia Water, a water services
company, has successfully demonstrated the
feasibility of providing safe and continuous water
to nearly 3.5 lakh consumers. Thus, by optimally
maintaining the existing water infrastructure and
increasing operations efficiency, water can be
distributed sustainably for all.
Private or public delivery?
Next is the question of preferred service

delivery model the public versus the private
debate. Why should a local authority engage a
private operator? One rationale may be the
perceived inability of the state to deliver safe water
continuously, and this encourages the state to
change its role from a service provider to a
regulator.
There are two key prominent arguments against

using private enterprise to deliver water services.
First, the perceived rise in the cost of drinking water
for private profits. Secondly the poor will be unable
to pay for the water services. In reality, the rise in
water tariffs may be justified for two reasons: one,
water may be free, but not the service rendered of
supplying water by way of treatment and supply,
meeting the quality standards for consumption.
Also, a number of unseen costs the overhead
tanks, pipelines from the water main to each
Is private participation the same as

privatisation? The important element here is that a
water-PPP (as opposed to privatisation) presents a
framework that acknowledges the role of the
government in ensuring that social obligations are
met and successful sector reforms and public
investments are achieved. Whether there is
empirical evidence to this is another question. The
assets are then handed over back to the government
at the end of the contract. Privatisation, on the
other hand, is the case of the UK where the utility
companies buy the water assets such as the water
treatment plants, distribution networks, etc., from
the government and operate as a form of monopoly
for a specific region.
This is not, however, to say that water-PPPs
are the only way forward. The Government could
effectively bridge the gaps in operational efficiency.
In essence, a lay person cannot be required to bear
the brunt of lack of safe water and of intermittent
supply as a result of the underproductive public
versus for-profit private debate. Should the
criticisms suggest good reasons to reject private
participation, efficient water service delivery models
must be adopted/demonstrated by the local
authority. On the other hand, should the
government wish to use private sector management
until public sector capability has been developed,
there must be effective institutional framework.
The way forward

The government must build its capacity to
recognise that the solution to the problem of water
is both a matter of social and institutional
[39]

of a state-wise independent regulator for the sector
is required in order to carry out projects in a
transparent manner.
Thus, in the wake of water policy revisions being
undertaken by policy makers, there must be an
emphasis on providing access to safe water as a
human right, irrespective of whether the service is
being rendered by a public or a private body.
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governance and a regulation project, and not

merely an engineering one. If the project is
economically viable and sustainable in water PPPs,
political opposition must become issue-based rather
than an anti-privatisation drive. Alternate and
exclusive project structures must emerge to suit
varied conditions. A draft Model Concession
Agreement must be put in place where a
comprehensive framework, along with risk sharing
arrangements, is standardised. Finally, constitution
[40]
CHRONICLE
IAS ACADEMY
Weekly Current Affairs Bulletin
6TH JANUARY 2014 TO 12TH JANUARY 2014
Call: 9953120676, 9582263947

CONTENTS
TOPICS
Pg. No.
National ........................................................................................................................ 4-11

International .............................................................................................................. 12-15
India and the World .............................................................................................. 16-17
Economy ..................................................................................................................... 18-23
Science & Technology ............................................................................................. 24-27
Health.......................................................................................................................... 28-30
News in Brief ........................................................................................................... 31-36
Editorials .................................................................................................................... 37-57
A Different Model for DRDO ....................................................................................................... 37
Two Shades of Immunity .............................................................................................................. 38
Too Grand to Work ........................................................................................................................ 39
Vaccines Can Change Childrens Future ................................................................................... 41
Containing the Maoist Threat ....................................................................................................... 42
The Right to Privacy in the Digital Age.................................................................................... 42
A False Duality ................................................................................................................................ 44
Fly, the Beloved Country .............................................................................................................. 44
Asian Imperatives ............................................................................................................................ 45
Role Confusion................................................................................................................................. 46
Pivotal Partnership .......................................................................................................................... 47
Error and Trial ................................................................................................................................. 47
Demand-driven Research ............................................................................................................... 48
The Nail that lost the Kingdom................................................................................................... 49
Breaching Boundaries ..................................................................................................................... 50
Rigas New Currency ...................................................................................................................... 51
The Power of Hot Bubbles ........................................................................................................... 51
One Nation, One Grid .................................................................................................................... 53
Rueing the Waves ........................................................................................................................... 53
Mother Care ...................................................................................................................................... 55
Mangled Messages .......................................................................................................................... 56
NATIONAL
SC ORDERS GOVT TO SET UP NATIONAL GREEN REGULATOR
level. It also held there was a direction to the
government in the Lafarge judgement to set up a
regulator.
The Green bench consists of Justices A.K.
Patnaik, S.S. Nijjar and Ibrahim Kalifullah rejected
the governments contention that it alone was the
regulator under the Forest (Conservation) Act and
that no one else could be appointed regulator.
The court clarified that the regulator has to
function within the ambit of the Environment
Protection Act and it should not exercise the powers
of the Centre under the Forest (Conservation) Act
that the government had cited to oppose a separate
watchdog.
The court did not specify the modalities for the
functioning of the regulator or the number of
branches to be set up, leaving that to be determined
by the government. The court will take up the issue
again on April 7.
Some officials wondered whether projects would
be delayed further as the regulator will have to
assess the impact and then clear the proposals that
come under the purview of the Environment
Protection Act.
But others felt the process might pick up speed
because a regulator might be less indecisive than
the political establishment that has lost the stomach
for taking decisions in the current mood of mistrust
and season of scandals.
The regulator will also be entrusted with the
task of imposing penalties on the polluters, a task
otherwise being performed by the National Green
Tribunal.
The tasks raise the question whether the ministry
will become redundant.
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The Supreme Court rejecting the governments

contention that it alone was the regulator under
the Forest (Conservation) Act and no need for a
green regulator directed the government to set
up national regulatory body to process
environmental clearance for industrial projects.
The apex court said till a new law is passed,
the government should follow its 2011 Lafarge
judgment that had directed the government to set
up a green regulator for grant or denial of
clearances to projects.
In the Lafarge judgment, dealing with the
environmental aspects of the French cement firm
operating on the eastern border, the Supreme
Court had directed the Centre to set up a
regulatory body to lighten the burden of the court,
which has to look into each minor issue raised by
individual industries.
However, this order has not been complied with
so far, leading to an application for an order to set
up such a panel.
The government had vehemently opposed the
proposal, contending the present arrangement
under the environmental laws was adequate to
handle environmental issues and argued that it
was the absolute authority under the law. It also
said that creation of such an authority was not
feasible and it may face infrastructural issues like
the NGT. The government also contended what
was said in the Lafarge judgement was merely a
suggestion and not a binding order.
The bench, however, dismissed the
governments objections, noting the Environment
Protection Act conferred a power coupled with a
duty to appoint an appropriate authority in the
form of a regulator at the Centre and the state
MoEF SET TO NOTIFY NEW FOREST CONSERVATION RULES
The Ministry of Environment and Forests

(MoEF) is set to notify new Forest Conservation
(Amendment) Rules, 2013 that will bring in more
realistic timelines for granting forest clearances
to projects and will also require officials to give
explanations if these deadlines are not met.
[4]
In order to address concerns raised by some

infrastructure ministries, particularly Mining and
Coal, the MoEF will also allow for a more relaxed
and shorter forest clearance procedure for
exploratory/prospecting projects.
Weekly Current Affairs 6th January to 12th January, 2014

Finer points
1. The new rules propose varying and tiered
timelines for projects depending on the
requirement of forest land. So a project
involving say diversion of only 5ha forest land
will be processed faster than one involving
more than 100ha of forest land.
8. The new rules will replace the Forest

Conservation Rules 2003, which asks state
governments to examine and recommend to
the Centres fresh forest clearance proposals
within 90 days of the receipt of the proposal
and for the Centre to reject/approve it within
60 days.
Tawang hydel unit gets MoEF nod
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2. The rules also fix deadlines at each level from

the state to the Centre including provision
for transit period so that a realistic and
workable timeline is brought in place.
5ha, it goes up to 300 days for projects

involving forest land diversion of more than
100ha.
3. While the ministries of Mines and Oil &

Petroleum among others had sought complete
exemption from forest clearance processes for
prospecting proposals aimed at exploring new
mineable coal/hydrocarbon reserves, the
MoEF did not agree with such a blanket
exemption. Instead, it proposed a separate
and simple process, specifically for
prospecting and exploratory projects.
4. Under the new Forest Conservation rules,
exploratory projects will not have to go
through time-consuming processes like
counting exact number of trees that may be
affected. They will instead have to give
information on approximate trees that may
be affected by the prospecting exercise.
5. On the issue of timelines, the ministries of

Power and Coal had initially objected as it
would extend the current 150 days time limit
for disposing a forest clearance proposal to a
maximum of 300 days for projects involving
forest land diversion of more than 100
hectares. The stakeholder ministries felt it may
just end up delaying clearances even further.
6. However, it is learnt that they are now largely
on board as the new rules also specify that in
case a state government exceeds the stipulated
timeline, it will have to give a valid
explanation for the delay along with details
of action taken against the individual held
responsible for the delay and only then will
the Central government consider the
proposal.
7. Under the new rules, while the total timeline,

including at the state and Centre levels, is
140 days for diversion of forest land up to
Finally, the 800 MW Tawang II II hydroelectric

project in Arunachal Pradesh has got the
clearance from the Ministry of Environment and
Forests. The strategic Tawang II Hydroelectric
Power Corporation project has been pending with
the MoEF since 2011. After the Forest Advisory
Committee (FAC) gave its approval in January
2013, then environment minister Jayanthi
Natarajan did not clear it. But, days after taking
over, new minister Veerappa Moily has agreed
with the FACs recommendations, granting State
I forest clearance to the project.
With China announcing three new
hydroelectric projects on the river Brahmaputra
early last year, the Centre has been keen on
pushing the Tawang project.
The Tawang project will require diversion of
116 hectares forest land, including 19.6 hectares
for underground use. It is proposed to be set up
on the Tawangchu river, downstream of
Forebridge near Jang in Arunachal Pradesh.
Expected to cost Rs 6,112.30 crore as per May
2010 estimates, the project is likely to benefit all
states in the Northeast, promising annual power
generation of 3,622 million units.
Meanwhile, the other major hydel project
proposed in Aruncahal Pardesh the 3,000 MW
Dibang project is yet to find favour with the
MoEF. While the FAC had rejected the project
earlier, the state government had sought that it
should be reconsidered. It is now learnt that
the FAC has suggested that the proposal be
revised so that the forest area to be diverted is
reduced considerably.
CENTRE ISSUES NEW NORMS FOR PHONE INTERCEPTION

In response to the leakage of the Radia tape,
the government has come up with a stringent set
of fresh standard operating procedures (SOPs). The
SOP document is 45 pages long and divided into

11 sections. The sections include the operational
structure, types of request, validation of interception
[5]

request, legal intercept under number portability,
reconciliation and pruning processes, consequences,
list of 10 law enforcement agencies authorised to
intercept and a set of 10 annexures relating to
interception.
The SOP require that if a request is made on email, unless a physical copy is not reached to the
telecom service provider within 48 hours the
interception should be terminated and an
intimation provided to [the] concerned Home
Secretary as a part of the fortnightly report.
4. In addition, a designated officer from each

regulating agency will have to certify on a
monthly basis that the interception, storage
and destruction are in strict conformity with
section 5(2) of the Indian Telegraphs Act,
1885. This section permits interception during
a public emergency or in the interest of public
safety.
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The SOP require that records pertaining to such

interception, such as letter and envelope, intercept
form and internal interception request form should
be destroyed within 2 months of discontinuance
of interception of such messages.
3. As a further safeguard, the government wants

to ensure that there is monthly reporting by
the agencies as well as the service provider to
the home secretary on authorized interception.
If, however, it is a case of emergent request

where Home Ministry Order for approval was not
conveyed to the telecom company, then the telecom
company cannot destroy such records until the
Home Ministry order is conveyed or a list of such
numbers is provided to the concerned Home
Secretary intimating this fact.
An inquiry could seek to find out whether an
acknowledgement was sent within 2 hours of the
receipt of the [interception] request, to the
requesting agency confirming that the request has
been complied with, from the mobile operator.
A committee, headed by cabinet secretary K.

M. Chandrashekhar, has also decided that the
Union home secretary will now ask for reports from
the government agency requesting the tapping, as
well as the service provider, to ensure that the same
phone number is being tapped for which permission
was sought. These reports will be tallied to ensure
no phone is tapped based on any forged approval
in the name of the home secretary.
5. Service providers and government agencies

will have to come up with a standardised
system to ensure biometric identity-based
access for approved personnel to the records
of such phone tapping to ensure tracking of
the culprit in case of any leaks.
6. Besides, the government wants a clear
protocol on sharing of information among the
investigative community with a need-based
approach adopted. The panel will provide the
roadmap for sharing of information with only
extracts to be shared. As a further safeguard,
the sharing will occur only if an agency
authorized to tap phones finds information
that is relevant to another agency.
7. There would be an ombudsman at each
service provider-level to curb illegal tapping
of phones and every request for phone
tapping to the MHA will have to be vetted by
a senior officer in the government agency.
8. No phone tapping for detecting income tax
evasion.
9. According to the new SOP document, the
interception order of the State Home Secretary
in which the subscriber is registered should
be honoured by the State in which the
subscriber is roaming. In effect, no new order
from a second State that may be involved, or
from the Union Home Secretary, is needed.
However, evidence under the new SOP will
need to be provided to the effect that a formal
request was made to the other State for
interception while roaming.
1. The SOP mandates that, any request received

by telephone, SMS and fax, should not be
accepted under any circumstances. This
would mean that the government concerned
would have to produce an original copy of its
request that bears the Union/State
Secretarys order number with date, or an
order and date by an officer of the rank of
Joint Secretary who has been duly
authorised. Non-compliance with the
provisions can result in prosecution as per
the law of the land.
10. According to the norms, requests would

include interception and monitoring under the
Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, for voice, SMS,
GPRS, MMS, Video and VoIP calls.
2. The revised guidelines will prescribe prior and

post-facto approval by the home secretary for
any phone tapping.
11. Additionally, authorised security agencies can

seek information under Section 92 of the
Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) of call
[6]

records (CDRs), home and roaming network,
CDR by tower location and by calling/called
number, location details of target number
within home or roaming network, and so on.
13. Interception is subject to eight checks before

monitoring is allowed. These include receiving
the request in a sealed envelope, ensuring
the delivery of interception by an officer not
below the rank of sub-inspector of police or
equivalent.
14. Any inquiry process could, under the new
SOP, check whether the request was in
original and addressed to the Nodal Officer
and from which designated security agency
it came from.
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12. One specification detailed in the section

Validation of Interception Request is that
only the Chief Nodal Officer of a telecom
company can provide interception if the order
is issued by the Secretary to the Government
of India in the Home Ministry, in case of
Government of India, or a Secretary to the
State Government in charge of Home
Department, in case of State Government.
In unavoidable circumstances, such orders can
be issued by an officer not below the rank of
Joint Secretary to the GOI who has been fully
authorised by the Union Home Secretary or

the State Home Secretary.
15. The date and time of the actual provisioning

of target in the TSP network should be
mentioned, too.
GOVT NOTIFIES DOMESTIC NATURAL GAS PRICING GUIDELINES, 2014

The Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry
notified the Domestic Natural Gas Pricing
Guidelines, 2014 under the Rangarajan Committee
formula which will double the domesticallyproduced gas, including conventional, shale, coal
bed methane (CBM), from the present price of $4.2
mbtu starting April 1, 2014.
The notification said gas from April will be

priced at an average price of liquefied natural gas
(LNG) imports into India and benchmark global
gas rates. This formula will be applicable till March
31, 2019. The new rates will change every quarter,
based on the 12-month average of global rates and
LNG import price with a lag of one quarter. The
guidelines shall also be applicable for natural gas
produced by ONGC/OIL from their nominated
fields, the notification added.
Implications for RIL: Reliance Industries

Limited (RIL) will get the benefit of the new gas
price for its existing fields like MA in the KG D6
block and new/upcoming ones like R-Series and

satellite in the KG Basin block and the ones in North
East Coast block NEC-25. However, for the D1&D3
gas fields in KG-D6 block, it will have to submit a
bank guarantee to cover its liability if the charges
of hoarding gas by deliberately producing less
during last three years are proved by independent
observers or an arbitrator.
In respect of D1 and D3 gas discoveries of
Block KG-DWN-98/3, these guidelines shall be
applicable subject to submission of bank guarantees
in the manner to be notified separately, the
notification said.
The bank guarantee will be encashed if it is
proved that the company hoarded gas or
deliberately suppressed production at the main
D1&D3 fields in the Eastern offshore KG-D6 block
since 2010-11. Experts estimate that price of gas
from April will be around $8 to 8.4 mbtu during
2014-15 as against the current rate of $4.2 per mbtu.
CABINET APPROVES REGULATORY FRAMEWORK FOR TV RATING

AGENCIES
Aiming at making television ratings transparent,
credible and accountable, Union Cabinet has
approved comprehensive regulatory framework
with guidelines for Television Rating Agencies in
India.
These guidelines will cover detailed procedures
for registration of rating agencies, eligibility norms,
terms and conditions of registration, cross-holdings,
methodology for audience measurement, a
complaint redressal mechanism, sale and use of

ratings, audit, disclosure, reporting requirements
and action on non-compliance of guidelines.
The Guidelines for Television Rating Agencies
in India are designed to address aberrations in the
existing television rating system. This would help
make rating agencies accountable to stakeholders
such as the Government, broadcasters, advertisers,
advertising agencies and above all the people.
[7]

Salient features of these guidelines are as
follows:
1. All rating agencies including the existing
rating agencies shall obtain registration from
the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
2. Detailed registration procedure, eligibility
norms, terms and conditions, cross-holding
norms, period of registration, security
conditions and other obligations have been
delineated.
9. The rating agency shall set up an internal

audit mechanism to get its entire
methodology/processes audited internally on
quarterly basis and through an independent
auditor annually. All audit reports to be put
on the website of the rating agency.
Government and TRAI reserve the right to
audit the systems /procedures/mechanisms
of the rating agency.
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3. No single company / legal entity either

directly or through its associates or
interconnect undertakings shall have
substantial equity holding that is, 10 percent
or more of paid up equity in both rating
agencies and broadcasters/advertisers/
advertising agencies.
8. The rating agency shall set up an effective

complaint redressal system with a toll free
number.
4. Ratings ought to be technology neutral and

shall capture data across multiple viewing
platforms viz. cable TV, Direct-to- Home
(DTH), Terrestrial TV etc.
5. Panel homes for audience measurement shall

be drawn from the pool of households
selected through an establishment survey. A
minimum panel size of 20,000 to be
implemented within six months of the
guidelines coming into force. Thereafter the
panel size shall be increased by 10,000 every
year until it reaches the figure of 50,000.
6. Secrecy and privacy of the panel homes must
be maintained. 25 percent of panel homes
shall be rotated every year.
7. The rating agency shall submit the detailed

methodology to the Government and also
publish it on its website.
10. Non-compliance of guidelines on crossholding, methodology, secrecy, privacy, audit,

public disclosure and reporting requirements
shall lead to forfeiture of two bank guarantees
worth Rs. one crore furnished by the
company in the first instance, and, in the
second instance shall lead to cancellation of
registration.
11. For violation of other provisions of the

guidelines, the action shall be forfeiture of
bank guarantee of Rs. 25 lakh for the first
instance of non-compliance, forfeiture of bank
guarantee of Rs.75 lakh for the second
instance of non compliance and for the third
instance, cancellation of registration.
12. 30 days time would be given to the existing
rating agency to comply with the guidelines.
13. The guidelines would come into effect
immediately from the date of notification.
14. The agencies operating in this field have to
comply with directions relating to public
disclosure, third party audit of their
mechanisms and transparency in the
methodologies adopted.
NEW NORMS TO TACKLE PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF SEXUAL

VIOLENCE
The Department of Health Research (DHR) has
issued new guidelines to address psychological
aspects of sexual violence. The guidelines suggest
the survivor may feel a sense of injustice resulting
from lack of information; perceived lack of interest
by the police or courts, delay in the legal process;
or loss of income or job resulting from the impact
of the assault.
secondary victimization by family and society is

not uncommon. Such treatment may have a great
negative impact on a womans mental health and
increase feelings of vulnerability. She may feel
shunned by family, friends, or others who may
blame her for the incident or fail to understand her
mental state. They may underestimate the problem
or her reaction to it.
She may have been treated disrespectfully by

hospital or police personnel, or she may have lacked
support from her friends and family.
Considering these problems the new rules focus

on bracing a victim of sexual assault for secondary
victimisation.
In India, where honour is considered sacred,

[8]

According to the guidelines,
1. A counsellor must tell a victim what might
happen in court and discuss methods by
which they can handle the situation.
2. Visualisation techniques can be employed to
help the victim recover from the trauma soon
after being questioned;
3. Conversations with friends and family can
be used to prevent the victim from thinking
about the ordeal.
4. The counsellor/nurse/doctor should provide

the victim with clear, accurate, unbiased
information regarding her medical options
and then, regardless of her choices, be
supportive and non-judgmental of the
decisions she makes.
5. It will also be important to explain clearly to
the woman as to why the examination is
required.
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INDIA RANKS AMONG COUNTRIES WITH THE WEAKEST N-SECURITY

According to a study by the Nuclear Threat
Initiative, India has been ranked among countries
with the weakest nuclear security in the world.
Among the 25 countries with weapons-usable
nuclear materials, the weakest nuclear security is in
Israel, Pakistan, India, Iran and North Korea. It
assessed factors such as accounting methods,
physical security and transportation security. It
ranked Australia as having the best nuclear security
arrangements, followed by Canada, Switzerland,
Germany and Norway. The US was ranked No. 11.
According to the study, Mexico, Sweden,
Ukraine, Vietnam, Austria, the Czech Republic and
Hungary have removed all or most of the weaponsusable nuclear materials on their territories since
2012. That has reduced the number of countries
with one kilogram or more of weapons-usable
nuclear materials, such as highly enriched uranium,
to 25 from 32 two years ago, the study said. The
Nuclear Threat Initiative is a private, non-partisan
group that advocates reducing the risk of the spread
of nuclear weapons.
Further the study revealed that the number of
countries possessing the makings of a nuclear bomb
has dropped by almost one-quarter over the past

two years, but there remain dangerous weak links
in nuclear materials security that could be exploited
by terrorist groups with potentially catastrophic
results.
The drop in the number of countries possessing
such materials could be seen as encouraging for
President Barack Obamas declared ambition to lock
down all of the worlds highly enriched uranium
and plutonium.
There are an estimated 1,400 tons of highly
enriched uranium and almost 500 tons of plutonium
stored in hundreds of sites around the world.
Top five nations with best nuclear security
arrangements are Australia, Canada, Switzerland,
Germany and Norway.
The bottom five nations with the weakest
nuclear security in the world are Israel, Pakistan,
India, Iran and North Korea.
Nations who have removed all or most of their
weapons-usable nuclear materials are Mexico,
Sweden, Ukraine, Vietnam, Austria, the Czech
Republic and Hungary.
MGNREGS TO INCLUDE RURAL SANITATION
Government has widened the scope of Mahatma

Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee
Scheme (MGNREGS) to include works relating to
rural sanitation in collaboration with the Nirmal
Bharat Abhiyaan (NBA) Scheme to address the
practice of open defecation in the country.
This interlinking is aimed at strengthening the

base of rural livelihood and creates durable assets
in rural areas and infrastructure at a village level.
More specifically, it shall accelerate sanitation
coverage in rural areas to provide privacy and
dignity particularly to women. India is the worlds
largest open air lavatory with over 620 million
people practising open defecation in the country.
As per the Para 4 (1) IV (i) of the Schedule- I
of the MGNREG Act, taking up rural sanitation

related works, such as, individual household latrines,
school toilets, Anganwadi toilets can be taken up
either independently or in convergence with schemes
of other Government Departments to achieve open
defecation free status, stated an official Ministry of
Rural Development NREGA Division circular.
The amendment made to the existing guidelines
incorporates various changes including Individual
Household latrine (IHHL) works can be taken up
either under NBA or independently under
MGNREGS, as per the choice of the beneficiary.
According to the circular, in the case of IHHL
works taken up in convergence with NBA, the
MGNREGS component stands increased from the
present Rs. 4,500 to Rs. 5,400.
[9]

shall be shared with implementing agencies to
ensure no further incentive is paid from NBA
funds. This will demarcate toilets taken up under
NBA in convergence with MGNREGS and
independently of the scheme.
For all works taken up by the Gram Panchayats,
including the rural sanitation works taken up based
on the above guidelines, the cost of the material
component including the wages of the skilled and
semi-skilled workers shall not exceed forty per cent
at the Gram Panchayat level.
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Additionally, the guidelines specifically mention

where IHHLs are taken up independently under
MGNREGS, the payment shall be based on the
actual value of work done, subject to the overall
outflow from MGNREGS funds limited to Rs.
10,000 per IHHL including the wage rate and
material cost. Any expenditure over and above this
amount shall be there beneficiary contribution.
The design and specifications shall continue to
be laid down by the Ministry of Drinking Water
and Sanitation. Further, the data of such IHHLs
Nirmal Bharat Abhiyaan (NBA)
Government started the Central Rural

Sanitation Programme (CRSP) in 1986 primarily
with the objective of improving the quality of life
of the rural people and also to provide privacy
and dignity to women. The concept of sanitation
was expanded to include personal hygiene, home
sanitation, safe water, garbage disposal, excreta
disposal and waste water disposal. With this
broader concept of sanitation, CRSP adopted a
demand driven approach with the name Total
Sanitation Campaign (TSC) with effect from
1999. The revised approach emphasized more on
Information, Education and Communication
(IEC), Human Resource Development, Capacity
Development activities to increase awareness
among the rural people and generation of demand
for sanitary facilities. TSC was re-named as Nirmal
Bharat abhiyan w.e.f.01-04-2012.
The main objectives of the NBA are as under:
1. Bring about an improvement in the general
quality of life in the rural areas.
2. Accelerate sanitation coverage in rural

areas to achieve the vision of Nirmal
Bharat by 2022 with all gram Panchayats
in the country attaining Nirmal status.
3. Motivate communities and Panchayati Raj
Institutions promoting sustainable
sanitation facilities through awareness
creation and health education.
4. To cover the remaining schools not
covered under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan
(SSA) and Anganwadi Centres in the rural
areas with proper sanitation facilities and
undertake proactive promotion of hygiene
education and sanitary habits among
students.
5. Encourage cost effective and appropriate
technologies for ecologically safe and
sustainable sanitation.
6. Develop
community
managed
environmental sanitation systems focusing
on solid & liquid waste management for
overall cleanliness in the rural areas.
MAULANA AZAD TALEEM-E-BALIGHAN SCHEME
Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry

has announced Rs 600 crore for Taleem-e-Balighan
scheme with the aim to achieve higher literacy rates
for the minority Muslim community. The Maulana
Azad Taleem-e-Balighan scheme objective is to
imparting literacy to one crore population (in the
age group of 15 years and above), basic education
to 2.5 lakh adults and skill development
programmes to cover around 3 lakh people.
Apart from that 1,000 additional Adult
Education Centres will be set up exclusively for
women in Gram Panchayats exceeding 5,000
Muslim population. To start with, the scheme will
be launched in 61 Muslim-concentrated Sakshar
Bharat districts in 11 states. Sakshar Bharat is the
Centres adult literacy programme.
[10]
The first classes under this scheme will start in

September 2014.
According to official data, the enrolment of
Muslim children has steadily been increasing from
9.4% in 2006-07 to 14.25 in 2012-13 at the primary
level. At the upper primary level, enrolment of
Muslim children increased from 7.2% to 12.1%.
The HRD ministry is also working on a scheme
on the lines of HUNAR for skill development among
minority girls in the age group of 14-plus besides
establishment of educational hubs by co-locating
KGBVs, girls/womens hostels, degree colleges in
selected towns/districts, which are educationally
backward and have substantial Muslim
concentration.
Saakshar Bharat
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The Prime Minister launched Saakshar

Bharat, a centrally sponsored scheme of
Department of School Education and Literacy
(DSEL), Ministry of Human Resource
Development (MHRD), Government of India
(GOI), on the International Literacy Day, 8th
September, 2009. It aims to further promote and
strengthen Adult Education, specially of women,
by extending educational options to those adults

who having lost the opportunity of access to
formal education and crossed the standard age
for receiving such education, now feel a need
for learning of any type, including, literacy, basic
education (equivalency to formal education),
vocational education (skill development),
physical and emotional development, practical
arts, applied science, sports, and recreation.
HIMALAYAS LOST 13% OF GLACIERS IN 40 YEARS
A new research paper published in Current

Science disclosed that the Himalaya lost 13 per cent
of its glaciers i.e. approximately 443 billion tonnes
(Gt), in just four decades. It estimates the total
glacial water stored in the Indian Himalaya to be
around 4,000 Gt.
Authors of the research paper Anil V. Kulkarni

and Yogesh Karyakarte of the Divecha Centre for
Climate Change at the Indian Institute of Science
(IISc) said, This loss is significant considering the
amount of water stored in the glaciers of the Indian
Himalayas.
The scientists reviewed information on 11,000
sq km of Himalayan glaciers from existing field
investigations, satellite imagery, inventories of the
Geological Survey of India, scientific papers and
maps and conclude that in fact most of the
Himalayan glaciers are retreating. The rate of
retreat however varies from glacier to glacier,
ranging from a few metres to almost 61 m/year.
Several predictions have been made about the

impact of global warming on the Himalayas, many
of which have been speculative, not least because
of gaps in data, says the paper.
One such assessment, it points out, was this
(controversial) statement made by the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
in 2007: If the present rate [of glacial retreat]
continues, the likelihood of them disappearing by

year 2035 and perhaps sooner is very high if the
earth keeps warming at the current rate.
While IPCCs hypothesis was erroneous and
alarmist, the fact that glaciers are indeed being lost
is in no doubt, said Prof Kulkarni. The researchers
found that Karakoram is the only stable range. The
others are retreating at different rates. The
investigation also finds that the rate of glacial loss
in the Himalayas has accelerated over the decades:
from around 9 Gt/year in 1975-85 to 20 Gt/year
in 2000-2010. Glaciers are retreating faster in
Western Himalaya than in Sikkim.
Existing research on the Himalayas, said Prof
Kulkarni, tends to focus on specific segments and
not the chain in its entirety. Studies on glacial retreat
also often overlook other key indicators of glacial
loss such as the decrease in the depth of glaciers,
which is more difficult to calculate. This has
obviously created considerable confusion among the
scientific community and the public over the extent
of glacial loss. The paper cautions that the best
estimates of globally averaged surface air warming
vary between 1.8 and 4.0C and that this would
have profound effect on the Himalayan glaciers.
The purpose of this study is to present a larger
picture of the Himalayas as a whole and bring
about a cohesive picture.
[11]
INTERNATIONAL
MALAYSIA TO INTRODUCE I-KAD FOR FOREIGN WORKERS
embedded with high-tech chips, would ensure only
legal foreign workers were in the country. The cards
will store identification documents of the holder and
could be examined easily by the security personnel.
The cards will come in different colours to indicate
various sectors of employment. The i-Kad will have
barcodes that will allow enforcement officers to scan
them using a smartphone to assess the workers
details. These security elements are incorporated to
prevent fraud and forgery of the card.
The cards were originally planned to be
introduced in 2013.
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Influx of illegal immigrants is a cause of concern

for any nation. Malaysia has recently decided to
issue new biometric identity cards to nearly 2.3
million foreigners in the country to check the influx
of illegal foreign workers.
Malaysia is heavily dependent on foreign
workers mainly from India, Indonesia, Bangladesh
and Cambodia to support its tourism, infrastructure
industry, rubber and palm plantation.
There are 2.25 million documented foreign
workers in the country right now.
According to officials, the new ID cards,
CHINESE PROVINCE OUTLINES NEW FISHING REGULATION
A new fishing regulation outlined by a Chinese

province requiring all foreign vessels to obtain
approval before entering the disputed waters of
the South China Sea. Chinas Ministry of National
Defenses Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ)
over the East China Sea will monitor the details.
Hainan province claims administrative
responsibility over Hainan Island, the Xisha
(Paracel) archipelago, Zhongsha (Macclesfield
Bank) archipelago, the Nansha (Spratly)
archipelago and their dependent waters.
Foreign fishing boats and survey vessels that
refuse to comply will be either forced out of the area
or boarded, impounded and subject to a fine. Hainan
province authorities also assert the right to confiscate
the fish catches it finds on the boats that it seizes.
Immediately after Hainan province issued these

new regulations, many of the affected countries
sought clarification from Chinas Ministry of Foreign
Affairs. The Philippines was the most vociferous in
criticizing the Hainan fishing regulations.
In Chinas view, the actions by government
authorities were totally normal and part of the
routine for Chinese provinces bordering the sea to
formulate regional rules according to the national
law to regulate conservation, management and
utilization of maritime biological resources.
Washington described the move as provocative
and potentially dangerous. The Chinese Foreign
Ministry said its 30-year-old fisheries laws had been
consistently implemented in a normal way and
never caused any tension.
INDONESIA BANS MINERAL EXPORTS
Indonesia, worlds biggest exporter of nickel ore,

refined tin and thermal coal and is home to the
fifth largest copper mine and top gold mine, put
ban on the mineral exports. Indonesias president,
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, signed a regulation
implementing a mineral ore export ban.
The ban is mandated by a Mining Law passed
by Parliament in 2009 which included a provision
that mineral ores must be processed at smelters in
Indonesia. Mining companies, including PT Freeport
Indonesia and PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara, have
warned that they will have to lay off thousands of
[12]
their workers if the law was imposed without

exemptions.
The ministry has proposed a three-year
exemption that would allow companies to export
unprocessed minerals until 2017 provided they
make a commitment to build their smelters in
Indonesia. It was intended to protect hundreds of
small mining companies from going out of business.
The government had originally proposed a blanket
ban on the export of certain raw minerals, which
also included concentrates, but the revised version
would ban ore only and allow concentrates to be
exported for the next three years by paying special

tax. This means many miners including US giant
Freeport McMoRan, the biggest miner operating in
resource-rich Indonesia can continue to export.
Under the new rules the export tax for
concentrates of lead, iron, zinc, ilmenite, titanium
and manganese is 20 percent for 2014, but will rise
to 60 percent by the second half of 2016.
The proposed ban prompted strong opposition
from both foreign and domestic miners, some of
whom dubbed the policy nationalistic, and
warned the demands were unrealistic and would

lead to widespread closures and lay-offs in the
industry.
The government has estimated that the ban will cut
government revenue by about 10 trillion rupiah ($833
million) due to declines in export taxes and royalties.
The ban is part of a wider policy in Southeast Asias
largest economy to boost state revenue by turning
Indonesia from an exporter of raw commodities into a
manufacturer of higher-value products.
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CHINA PUT FULLSTOP ON ONE CHILD POLICY

China has ended the one kid policy and banned
forced abortions on women in advanced stages of
pregnancy. As per Chinas National Health and
Family Planning Commission (NHFPC) such acts
will be seriously investigated and people who are
found responsible for them will be punished
severely.
The move follows the decision to end the onechild policy. The government recently said a couple
will be allowed to go for a second child if one of
One Child Policy
It is officially the family planning policy which

is the population control policy of the Peoples
Republic of China. This policy was introduced in
1979 to alleviate social, economic, and
environmental problems in China. Demographers
estimate that the policy averted 200 million births
between 1979 and 2009. The policy is
controversial both within and outside China
because of the manner in which the policy has
been implemented, and because of concerns
about negative social consequences. The policy
has been implicated in an increase in forced
abortions, female infanticide, and underreporting
of female births, and has been suggested as a
possible cause behind Chinas sex imbalance.
the two parents was a single child in his childhood.

The Commission is worried that the lifting of
controls under the one-child policy will result in a
one-sided sex ratio with a lot more males than
females if there are no controls on abortions.
China has a serious problem with sex ratio
forcing a large number of men to marry women
brought in by agents from North Korea, Thailand
and Vietnam. Millions of men, mostly farmers, stay
unmarried because they are not able to find wives.
The policy is enforced at the provincial level
through fines that are imposed based on the
income of the family and other factors.
Population and Family Planning Commission
exist at every level of government to raise
awareness and carry out registration and
inspection work.
The policy allows many exceptions: rural
families can have a second child if the first child
is a girl or is disabled, and ethnic minorities are
exempt. Families in which neither parent has
siblings are also allowed to have two children.
Residents of the Special Administrative Regions
of Hong Kong and Macau, and foreigners living
in China are also exempt from the policy.
BANGLADESH VIOLENCE AFFECTS MINORITIES
The recent elections in Bangladesh have again

reminded the vulnerable minority community of
the brutal treatment it received 43 years ago at the
hands of marauding Pakistani forces and their local
cohorts.
Hindus in particular have become easy targets

of anti-election activists who attacked their houses
and other properties, thinking that they voted for
the ruling Awami League and did not heed their
directive to refrain from voting .
The attacks, most of which took place in the
post-election period, have forced hundreds of

minority members to flee their houses. Systematic
attacks were carried out by activists of the
Opposition BNP and the Jamaat-e-Islami, the party
which had violently opposed the independence
of Bangladesh from Pakistan in 1971.
Most of the attacks took place in the minority

dominated villages in the northern districts of
Thakurgaon,
Dinajpur,
Rangpur,
Bogra,
Lalmonirhat, Gaibandha, Rajshahi, the southern
district of Chittagong and western Jessore.
[13]
IRANS INTERIM NUCLEAR DEAL WITH WORLD POWERS

The Iranians already have used uranium
hexaflouride at Natanz to test five types of
centrifuges, the IR-1, IR2-M, IR-4, IR-5 and IR6
models.
Iran agreed to cease uranium enrichment levels
higher than 5 percent and would also disconnect
centrifuges that are used for high-level enrichment.
In addition Iran agreed to convert its stockpile of
200kg of 20 percent enrichment to higher levels. A
final agreement with Iran is expected to address
the United Nations Security Council resolutions
against it and give answers to allegations by the
International Atomic Energy Agency.
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An interim agreement has been reached

between six world powers and in return for
sanctions relief. The interim deal signed aimed at
halting Irans nuclear progress for six months to a
year while negotiators from six world powers and
Iran try to reach an agreement imposing longerlasting curbs on the nuclear program. Many nations
fear Iran is aiming for a nuclear weapons capability,
despite its denials.
Centrifuge research is an important issue
because advanced machines can generate nuclear
fuel more quickly, giving Iran the capacity to reach
nuclear bomb-making capability in a shorter time.
ABOUT THE JOINT ACTION OF PLAN
The goal of these negotiations is to reach a

mutually agreed long term comprehensive solution
that would ensure Irans nuclear programme
would focus on peaceful reaffirmation that under
no circumstances will Iran ever seek or develop
any nuclear weapons.
Iran has committed to halt enrichment above 5%:
Halt all enrichment above 5% and dismantle
the technical connections required to enrich
above 5%. Iran has committed to neutralize
its stockpile of near-20% uranium:
Dilute below 5% or convert to a form not
suitable for further enrichment its entire
stockpile of near-20% enriched uranium
before the end of the initial phase.
Iran has committed to halt progress on its
enrichment capacity:
Not install additional centrifuges of any type.

Not install or use any next-generation
centrifuges to enrich uranium.
Leave inoperable roughly half of installed

centrifuges at Natanz and three-quarters of
installed centrifuges at Fordow, so they
cannot be used to enrich uranium.
Limit its centrifuge production to those

needed to replace damaged machines, so Iran
cannot use the six months to stockpile
centrifuges.
Not construct additional enrichment facilities.
Iran has committed to halt progress on the
growth of its 3.5% stockpile:
Not increase its stockpile of 3.5% low enriched
uranium, so that the amount is not greater at
[14]
the end of the six months than it is at the

beginning, and any newly enriched 3.5%
enriched uranium is converted into oxide.
Iran has committed to no further advances

of its activities at Arak and to halt progress
on its plutonium track. Iran has committed
to:
Not commission the Arak reactor.
Not fuel the Arak reactor.
Halt the production of fuel for the Arak
reactor.
No additional testing of fuel for the Arak
reactor.
Not install any additional reactor components
at Arak.
Not transfer fuel and heavy water to the
reactor site.
Not construct a facility capable of
reprocessing. Without reprocessing, Iran
cannot separate plutonium from spent fuel.
Unprecedented transparency and intrusive
monitoring of Irans nuclear program
Iran has committed to:
Provide daily access by IAEA inspectors at
Natanz and Fordow. This daily access will
permit inspectors to review surveillance
camera footage to ensure comprehensive
monitoring. This access will provide even
greater transparency into enrichment at these
sites and shorten detection time for any noncompliance.
Provide IAEA access to centrifuge assembly
facilities.

Provide IAEA access to centrifuge rotor
component production and storage facilities.
Provide IAEA access to uranium mines and
mills.
Provide long-sought design information for
the Arak reactor. This will provide critical
insight into the reactor that has not previously
been available.
Provide more frequent inspector access to the
Arak reactor.
P5+1
The P5+1 is a group of six world powers which
in 2006 joined the diplomatic efforts with Iran
with regard to its nuclear program. The term refers
to the P5 or five permanent members of the UN
Security Council, namely United States, Russia,
China, United Kingdom, and France, plus
Germany. P5+1 is often referred to as the E3+3
(or E3/EU+3) by European countries.
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Provide certain key data and information

called for in the Additional Protocol to Irans
IAEA Safeguards Agreement and Modified
Code 3.1.
[15]
INDIA AND THE WORLD

BSF, PAK RANGERS AGREES TO REVIVE PHONE LINES
lines were installed at various sectors, from Jammu
border to Gujarat, and were to be handled by DIGlevel officers.
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India and Pakistan have agreed to re-activate

16 telephone numbers along the border, which were
put in place after the ceasefire in 2002 but never
used. It was installed to discuss incidents along the
border and prevent them from escalating. The
decision was taken at the Director General-level
talks between the Border Security Force (BSF) and
Pakistan Rangers in Lahore.
After the 2002 ceasefire, it was decided that
senior officers of the two forces would contact each
other on phone to discuss any issue. The telephone
The two forces have also decided to be lenient

with women and children who inadvertently cross
the border. Besides this, the two forces decided to
hold sporting activities and visits of schoolchildren
to build confidence. It was also decided that no
new defence structures would come up in certain
areas.
VOA IN MALAYSIA FOR INDIAN TRAVELLING
The Government of Malaysia has introduced

Visa on Arrival (VOA) facility for visiting Indians.
This announcement is in conjunction with the Visit
Malaysia Year 2014 (VMY 2014) and the Year of
Festivals 2015. The VOA facility is applicable for
those travelling to Malaysia from a third country;
namely Singapore and Thailand; holding valid visas
for the respective countries and having confirmed
return tickets to India.
Visiting Indian tourists can avail of Visa on

Arrival at all major airports of Malaysia namely
Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), Low
cost Terminal LCCT (KLIA), Penang International
Airport, Sultan Ismail International Airport, Johor
Bahru, Kota Kinabalu International Airport, Sabah
and Kuching International Airport, Sarawak, at a
fee of $100. With this new announcement of VOA,
the Malaysian Government is expecting the number
of tourist arrivals to increase significantly.
JAPAN, INDIA RAISE CURRENCY SWAP PACT
India and Japan have expanded their bilateral

swap agreement designed to help each other in the
event of a forex crisis or a short-term liquidity crisis.
It is a financial tool to help cushion volatility in
foreign exchange markets. Bank of Japan (BoJ) and
the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have concluded an
agreement that expands the amount to $50 billion
from its original size of $15 billion. This agreement
was signed by BoJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda and
RBI Governor Raghuram G. Rajan.The agreement
shall be effective till December 3, 2015.
A currency swap is a foreign-exchange agreement
between two institutions to exchange aspects of a
loan in one currency for equivalent aspects of an
equal in net present value loan in another currency.
Currency swaps have two main uses:
[16]
1. To secure cheaper debt (by borrowing at the

best available rate regardless of currency and
then swapping for debt in desired currency
using a back-to-back-loan).
2. To hedge against (reduce exposure to)
exchange rate fluctuations.
Currency swaps were originally conceived in

the 1970s to circumvent foreign exchange controls
in the United Kingdom. At that time, UK
companies had to pay a premium to borrow in US
Dollars. To avoid this, UK companies set up backto-back loan agreements with US companies
wishing to borrow Sterling. While such restrictions
on currency exchange have since become rare,
savings are still available from back-to-back loans
due to comparative advantage.
India, Japan Defence Co-operation

India and Japan have agreed to boost defence
and security cooperation. The Indian prime
minister described the ties as a partnership defined
by mutual respect. It is founded on shared values.
And it is increasingly driven by expanding
cooperation.
Onodera briefed Antony about Japans

national security strategy and the national defence
programme guidelines, which were adopted in
December 2013.
The two sides also agreed to continue expert
exchanges in disaster relief and counter terrorism
between both Indian and Japanese armies and
discuss possibility of conducting staff talks
between their air forces along with professional
exchanges of test-pilots and in the field of flight
safety.
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They step up military ties as they discussed

issues of regional and global security during talks
between Defence Minister A. K. Antony and his
visiting Japanese counterpart Itsunori Onodera.
The two ministers extensively and frankly
exchanged ideas regarding regional and global
security challenges, as well as bilateral defence
cooperation and exchanges between India and

Japan. They shared views on issues relating to
the peace, stability and prosperity of the region.
FAO TAKES UP INDIAS FoCT CONCEPT
The UNs Food and Agriculture Organisation

(FAO) has adopted the Coconut Development
Boards Friends of Coconut Tree (FoCT) training
programme as model project for coconut-growing
countries. Along with FoCT, other programmes of
the Coconut Board such as replanting and
rejuvenation programme and the concept of farmerproducer organisation too won appreciation at the
meet as best Indian models which could be
adopted by others.
The Friends of Coconut Tree (FoCT) training

programme of the Coconut Development Board has
received UN recognition. It was started by the
board to address the problem of shortage of climbers.
The FoCT training programme, which started in

August 2011, has trained 20,000 youth from
Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Goa, Andhra
Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Chhattisgarh,
Gujarat, Assam, Bihar and Lakshadweep. The
training provided by the board to both men and
women has enabled them to earn a maximum
income of Rs 1,500 each day.
The Board could ease the dearth of coconut
climbers and also develop technically qualified
green collar professionals who are otherwise called
coconut technicians. Along with this, the board is
extending free insurance coverage and a palm
climbing machine.
[17]
ECONOMY
KELKAR PANEL FOR PRODUCTION SHARING
Auditor General of India (CAG) had criticised this
approach on grounds that it encourages companies
to increase capital expenditure and delay the
governments share.
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The high-level Vijay Kelkar Committee has

favoured the current production sharing regime for
high-risk deep sea oil and gas exploration over the
revenue-sharing model, which is being considered
for the next round of auction. Sources said the
Kelkar panel favours the revenuesharing model
for shallow and onland blocks that are less cost
intensive than deep sea exploration.
It also calls for moving to an open acreage
regime where companies can pick exploration areas
through the year rather than wait for periodic
auctions that offer areas identified by the
government.
To facilitate this, the panel has called for setting
up a National Data Repository (NDR) that will
preserve and promote the countrys natural
resources data. Sources said the Committee also
suggested administering Production Sharing
Contracts (PSC) without any changes and
strengthening the DGH for better administration.
Under the present regime, oil companies can
recover all costs of successful and unsuccessful
wells from sales of oil and gas before sharing
profit with the government. The Comptroller and
The Kelkar Committee submitted the first of its

two-part report on a road map to enhance domestic
oil and gas output to Oil Minister M Veerappa
Moily. While the first part of the report deals with
Quick Fixes such as shifting to an open acreage
regime, setting up a data repository, administering
signed contracts and strengthening the Directorate
General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), the second part
covers pricing and taxation. Part two of the report
is expected to be submitted in February.
A panel headed by Prime Ministers Economic
Advisory Council Chairman C Rangarajan had
suggested moving to a revenue-sharing regime that
requires companies to state upfront the quantum
of oil or gas they will share with the government
from the first day of production.
The Kelkar panel effectively overturned the
recommendations of C Rangarajan committee.
The government appears to have decided in
favour of moving to a new regime.
SEBI NOTIFIES SEARCH AND SEIZURE NORMS
Recently SEBI notified new norms empowering

its Chairman to order search and seizure operations
during investigations, while necessary safeguards
have also been put in place to protect rights of
affected persons.
Besides, a necessary framework has been

provided for the safeguards to be adopted during
different stages of search and seizure and to protect
the rights of those persons subjected to search and
the obligations of the authorised persons.
These regulations would help SEBI exercise the

powers of search and seizure at the time of
investigation, harmonious with the rights of the
persons who are subjected to search of their person
and property, while pursuing the regulators
statutory mandate of investor protection.
[18]
The new powers are aimed at making SEBI

more effective in protecting investor interest and
helping it to better regulate the market, including
enforcement of securities laws.
The government had promulgated Securities
Laws (Amendment) Second Ordinance, 2013 in
September last conferring explicit powers on SEBI
Chairman to authorise Investigating Authority or
any other officer of SEBI to conduct search and
seizure under the SEBI Act. The Ordinance also
provided that SEBI may make necessary regulations
in relation to search and seizure.
As per the new regulations, SEBIs Investigating
Officer would have to request the SEBI Chairman
for one or more Warrants of Authority for
execution of search and seizure of a person, an
enterprise, building, place, vessel, vehicle or aircraft.

These warrants would need to be returned to
SEBI Chairman after being executed fully along
with the seizure memo, or even if not executed
within the authorised time, if any.
Any search and seizure operation at a place of
business or profession would need to be carried
out during daytime (from 7 am to 6 pm), but a
warrant can continue to be executed after daytime
if the entry of the office is at daytime.
These regulations, which run into 24 pages,

provide detailed procedures to be followed for
issuance of warrants and execution of search and
seizure orders, among others.
SEBI is now on par with other foreign securities
regulators, including the US Securities and
Exchange Commission (SEC), which can ask
defaulters to pay disgorgement to repay ill-gotten
gains to investors. However, the government has
not yet granted powers to wire-tap, a function
critical in prosecution, especially in insider trading
cases, to SEBI. It can, however, seek call data
records.
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For vessel, vehicle, aircraft or place other than

the dwelling place, the search can be initiated and
continued at any time, while search at dwelling places
would need to be initiated, resumed and completed
in daytime, unless authorised to the contrary.
taking into account suggestions from public and

other stakeholders to draft regulations, which were
issued in November 2013.
The new norms providing SEBI with powers to

conduct search and seizure have been finalised after
INDIA OCCUPIES 8TH SPOT IN BUSINESS OPTIMISM
In the recently released Grant Thorntons

International Business Report (IBR) India has
slipped to eighth rank from the top spot in terms
of business optimism, with 69 per cent of the
corporates having a positive outlook on the
economy and growth of operations in 2014. The
list was topped by United Arab Emirates and the
Philippines, where 90 per cent of businesses said
they are optimistic about growth and the economy.
India had topped the optimism charts in the IBR
for five consecutive years.
IBR is a survey of both listed and privately held
businesses. The data was drawn from interviews
with 3,500 senior executives across industry sectors
and was conducted between November and
December 2013.
According to the report
1. 90 per cent of Indian businesses believe their

revenues would rise in 2014 while 76 per
cent are most optimistic for increasing
profitability this year.
2. Around 35 per cent of businesses are also
hoping to witness a jump in exports.
3. Research and Development (R&D) initiatives
are also likely to get a boost this year with 46
per cent businesses betting big on R&D.
4. About 65 per cent businesses foresee a rise in
employment in 2014.
5. 52 per cent of companies believe shortage of
finance is likely to hurt their business and derail
their growth plans in 2014. Other constraining
factors include rising energy costs, regulations/
red tape and lack of skilled workers.
CHINA OVERTAKES US AS WORLDS LARGEST GOOD TRADER
According to the latest data, China became the

worlds biggest trader in goods for the first time
last year, overtaking the US for all of 2013 and
finishing the year with record trade figures in
December. The total value of Chinas imports and
exports in 2013 was $4.16tn, a 7.6 per cent increase
from a year earlier on a renminbi-adjusted basis.
The US will release its full-year figures in February

2014 but its total imports and exports of goods
amounted to $3.57tn in the 11 months from January
to November 2013, making it a virtual certainty
that China is now the worlds biggest goods trading
nation.
RBI EASES FDI NORMS
FDI in India declined by about 15 per cent to

$12.6 billion (Rs.74,971 crore) in April-October.
According to the Department of Industrial Policy
and Promotion, FDI in the same period a year
earlier was $14.78 billion. Hence, in order to boost

greater foreign direct investment (FDI) flows into
the country the Reserve Bank of India has relaxed
the FDI norms.
[19]

In a separate notification, the RBI said banks
might include a close NRI relative as a joint holder
in an individual residents existing or new bank
account on an either or survivor basis. Such
accounts will be treated as resident bank accounts
for all purposes, and all regulations applicable to a
resident bank account will be applicable.
Until now, only equity shares or compulsorily

and mandatorily convertible preference shares or
debentures could be issued to persons resident
outside India under the FDI policy, and these
instruments were not allowed to have any
optionality clause, the RBI said.
Cheques, instruments, remittances, cash, card

or any other proceeds belonging to the NRI close
relative will not be eligible for credit to this account.
Such joint account holder facility may be extended
to all types of resident accounts, including savings
bank accounts.
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According to the modified norms foreign

investors, now, have option to exit their investments
by selling their holdings of equity or debt. Besides,
FDI contracts can now have optionality clauses,
which allow investors to exit, subject to the
conditions of minimum lock-in period and without
any assured returns.
POSCO GETS GREEN FLAG AFTER 8 LONG YRS
The Union Environment Ministry has, finally,

given environmental clearance to the Rs 52,000crore Posco steel plant in Odisha, rejecting the forest
clearance for Vedantas bauxite mining project in
Niyamgiri Hills.
The rejection of Vedantas proposal to dig in
the Niyamgiri hills came after 12 village councils of
Dongriya Kondh tribal groups rejected the project
in their traditional forestlands.
The Supreme Court had empowered the village

councils to decide on the project in order to protect
their customary and religious rights. The court had
asked the Environment Ministry to review its earlier
decision to not permit the mining, based on the
views of the tribal community.
The renewal of original clearance given to

Poscos steel plant in 2007 by Environment Minister
Mr Veerappa Moily, on the other hand, came after
the Ministry delinked other components of the
integrated project, including the port and the
mining parts from its review process.
The Ministry was asked by the National Green

Tribunal to review the environment clearance. The
NGT had recommended that the ministry take a

holistic view of the project, taking into account
several components such as construction of a port,
housing and roads, besides mining.
The Environment Ministry was unable to do so
with the company not satisfying the requirements
to get the port component cleared.
Poscos forest clearance is still under challenge
in the National Green Tribunal. Petitioners have
said the company had begun cutting trees on the
project site even though the State government had
not officially given forest clearance.
Under the rules, once the Centre gives its nod
for use of forest lands, the State should convey it
to the project developer.
The NGT stayed the cutting of trees at the site
during the adjudication.
With some parts of the site under tree cover,
the injunction is likely to slow down but not
prevent the company from pursuing work. An
official clearance is likely to get challenged in the
court too.
INDIA SEES SHARP DROP IN PATENT APPLICATION BY INDIANS

There has been a significant improvement in
the filing of patents in India. Patent filing at the
Indian patent office has seen a rise of 23.97 per
cent from 2007-08 to 2012-13. But filing of patent
by Indian applicants is only a meager 22 per cent
in 2012-13. While 43,663 patents were filed in 201213, a majority or 78 per cent were international
applications.
The trend has been consistent over the years.
In 2011-12, out of the 43,197 patent applications
[20]
filed, 80 per cent were foreign applications. In 201011, the total number of applications filed by the
Indian applicants was 8,062, which accounts for
only 20.46 per cent of the total number of
applications filed during that fiscal.
According to the World Intellectual Property
Indicators (WIPO-2012) report, while Chinas
contribution to the rise in patent applications
globally has increased from 37.2 per cent between
1995-2009 to 72.1 per cent between 2009-11, Indias

contribution decreased from 3.5 per cent between
1995-2009 to 2.7 per cent between 2009-2011. The
report shows that while China topped the global
list by filing 503,582 patent applications, India was
ranked seventh with 42,291 applications.
According to the patent office, maximum

applications in 2012-13 were filed in mechanical
(around 9,000), followed by chemical (7,000). While
computer-related applications accounted for 4,500,
about 4,300 were filed in the field of drugs, followed
by 2,500 in electrical and close to 900 in biotech.
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According to figures given by the Office of the

Controller General of Patents, Designs & Trade
Marks, Mumbai, for the 2013-14 financial year,
28,850 patents have been filed up to November
2013. While 11,751 applications were examined in
2007-08, 12,186 were examined in 2012-13.
According to Rakesh Kumar, deputy controller

of patents and designs and head of Mumbai office,
there are two reasons for this drop, one being
shortage of examiners as examiners were promoted
to controller rank. Another reason is that from 2009
onwards, quality system was introduced in the
patent office by adopting patent manual, patent
office procedures and various guidelines regarding
quality examination.
Significantly, figures show that as far as

granting of patent is concerned, India has seen a
sharp drop of 72.96 per cent from 2007-08 (15,261
granted) to 2012-13 (4,126 granted). For 2013-14,
2,185 patents have been granted up to November
2013.
RBI SELECTS CCIL TO OPERATE GLOBAL CODE
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has selected

Clearing Corporation of India Ltd (CCIL) to act as
a local operating unit for issuing globally compatible
legal entity identifiers (LEIs) a 20-character
unique identity code assigned to entities which are
parties to a financial transaction in India. Once
the infrastructure in this regard is set up, the use
of the code is likely to be mandated for derivative
transactions and large borrowers in a phased
manner.
functioning of CCIL will be under the regulation

and oversight of the RBI.
CCIL will issue unique identifier codes to all

eligible legal entities participating in financial
markets across the globe on a non-profit cost
recovery basis. Codes issued by it will be accepted
globally.
The global financial crisis underscored the lack

of a common, accurate and sufficiently
comprehensive identification system for parties
undertaking financial transactions across the globe
and also provided a renewed spur its development.
The G-20 tasked the FSB with its evolution at the
Cannes Summit in 2011.
The implementation of the code, as part of

Group of 20 nations mandate, is being spearheaded
by the Financial Stability Board (FSB) and the
CCIL was recently designated as a critical

financial market infrastructure for oversight
considering its systemic importance in financial
markets regulated by the RBI. Recently, it was
granted the status of a central counterparty, which
will enable it to guarantee forward agreements and
allow banks to eliminate various counterparty
exposure risks.
GOVT FLOATS DISCUSSION PAPER FOR FDI IN E-COMMERCE
Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion

(DIPP) has started consultations with stakeholders
on allowing foreign direct investment in retail ecommerce, to open the sector for foreign investors
before the end of this financial year. According to
the official, the main sticking point is whether to
allow FDI in e-commerce only in goods, which has
taken off in a big way in the country, or to include
services as well. Including FDI in e-commerce in
services will have larger implications as the ambit
is huge.
At present, 100 per cent FDI is allowed in
business-to-business e-commerce, while business-toconsumer is prohibited.

The government allowed 51 per cent FDI in the
multi-brand retail trading (MBRT) in September
2012, with riders including mandatory investment
of a minimum 50 per cent towards back-end
infrastructure and compulsory 30 per cent sourcing
from SMEs.
Another important issue raised in the paper is
geographical restriction for e-commerce, as
applicable in the FDI policy for MBRT. According
to the policy for MBRT, states have been
[21]

empowered to take decision on notification of
towns and cities with population of more than 10
lakh as per 2011 census. At present, 11 states
including Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Haryana, J&K,
Maharashtra,
Manipur,
Rajasthan,
and
Uttarakhand allow FDI in multi-brand retail stores.
Also, MBRT is a city-specific policy and the cities
have been listed out in the FDI circular. The paper
asks if the presence of e-commerce platforms should
also be restricted.
On local sourcing, the discussion paper has

sought views on whether the inventory-based model
on which many retailers including Amazon work,
will adversely impact the SMEs and should local
sourcing should be made mandatory for such
companies. Nasscom has also made a strong case
for local sourcing.
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DIPP is faced with another problem. In some

cases, foreign players have already tied up with
domestic companies. As a result, these players are
now not so enthused with the governments
decision to allow FDI at this juncture.
Large international players such as Amazon

and eBay are currently in discussion with DIPP on
what the possible outcome in case FDI is allowed.
Apparently, they are pushing for this heavily as
they find the Indian market extremely lucrative.
Currently, international players like Amazon

have set up shop in India on market-place model
whereby it is allowed to sell products of other
companies only.
INDIAS NON-EARNING SEGMENT SHRINKING, BUT GONE UP IN 8 STATES

Non-workers, broadly those who have no work
or are not paid if they do, make up a smaller
segment of the national population than they did
10 years earlier. An analysis of census records
shows the proportion of non-workers nationwide
falling from 60.88 per cent of the population (62.63
crore out of 102.8 crore) in 2001 to 60.20 per cent
(72.88 crore out of 121.05 crore) in 2011. The trend
suggests that a larger segment of people are now
being involved in economically productive activity.
But, the proportion has gone up in eight states
Gujarat, Bihar, Punjab, Haryana, Jammu and
Kashmir, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and
Mizoram. Among these states Gujarat has seen its
non-workers rise from 2.9 crore to 3.56 crore,
figures that translate into 58 and 59 per cent of the
respective populations of 2001 and 2011. In Bihar,
the non-working population has risen from 66.29
per cent to 66.64.
The highest proportion of non-workers is in

Lakshwadeep (70.91 per cent of 45,720) and Uttar
Pradesh (67.06 per cent of 19.98 crore).
Broadly, non-workers include students who did
not participate in any economic activity during the
census period, people attending to daily household
chores, and dependants such as infants or very
elderly people not included in the category of
workers.
Economists are split over why the segment of
non-workers is growing in some states.
Traditionally, it has been seen that if a society ages,
then its productive population too decreases. This
may not be the case with these states. This may
not be the case with these states.
Another theory is that the figures could suggest
that these economies are creating opportunities and
social infrastructure that, in turn, could be
encouraging people who were earlier part of the
labour force to study instead.
MOR PANEL PROPOSES FOR DIFFERENTIATED BANKS
The multi-member panel headed by Nachiket

Mor set up in September 2013 by RBI to study
various aspects of financial inclusion, including
institutional frameworks and regulations and a
comprehensive monitoring framework to track the
progress of the financial inclusion of small businesses
and low-income households in India.
The panel suggested a slew of dedicated banks

to be formed. The recommendations are as follow:
1. A Reserve Bank of India (RBI) panel has
[22]
recommended that a special category of

banks, which will have a minimum entry
capital requirement of Rs.50 crore, one-tenth
of what a full-service bank requires, since
they will have a near-zero risk of default.
Payments banks will be required to comply
with all RBI guidelines relevant for
commercial banks.
2. Existing banks should be permitted to create

a payments bank as a subsidiary.

3. The panel has also recommended the creation
of a set of banks called wholesale banks to
provide liquidity to other banks and financial
institutions creating assets in the so-called
priority sectors. Such banks, given that their
primary role is to give loans, will only be
permitted to accept deposits of more than
Rs.5 crore, the panel said. They too will have
a minimum entry capital requirement of Rs.50
crore.
9. Also, the panel has proposed that all loans

given to landless labourers and small and
marginal farmers be counted as a part of
direct agriculture and not merely the wages
component of a loan given to a farmer for
financing her agricultural production.
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4. The Mor panel has also proposed the creation

of a universal electronic bank account (UEBA)
for all adult Indian citizens and access to
formal credit for low-income households and
small businesses by January 2016 and major
changes in priority sector lending norms,
among other things.
8. Noting that banks may choose to focus their

priority sector strategies on different customer
segments and asset classes, the panel has
recommended that RBI should provide
specific guidance on differential provisioning
norms at the level of each asset class.
5. According to the panel, by 1 January 2016,

each
low-income household and small
business would have convenient access to
providers that have the ability to offer them
suitable investment and deposit products,
and pay reasonable charges for their
services.
6. It is mandatory for banks to disclose their
concentration levels to each segment in their
financial statements. Under the priority sector
lending, banks are required to lend 40% of
their loans to agriculture and economically
weaker sections of the society.
7. The panel has also proposed to do away with
the requirement of prior approvals from RBI
to create dedicated subsidiaries for financial
inclusion.
10. To enable non-banking financial companies

(NBFCs) to become more active in spreading
financial inclusion, the Mor panel has
recommended a partial convergence of norms
for NBFC and banks with regard to bad loan
norms.
11. Besides, the panel has proposed to restore
the permission of non-deposit taking NBFCs
to act as business correspondents of a bank.
12. According to the panel, the apex bank must
represent to the ministry of finance to restore
the tax-free status of securitization deals
conducted through pass-through vehicles for
tax treatment, pointing out the role it would
play in ensuring efficient risk transmission.
13. Also, banks must be permitted to purchase

portfolio-level protection against all forms of
rainfall and commodity price risks, through
the use of financial futures and options
bought either within India or globally.
[23]

ISROS GSLV-D5 FINALLY TASTED SUCCESS
complex because of the use of propellants at
extremely low temperatures and the associated
thermal and structural problems. The GSLV is a
three-stage vehicle with solid, liquid and cryogenic
propulsion systems.
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One of Indias most ambitious dreams became

a reality when its Geosynchronous Satellite Launch
Vehicle (GSLV-D5), powered by an indigenous
cryogenic engine launched successfully. It
effortlessly
put
the
1,982-kg
GSAT-14
communication satellite into a perfect orbit. The
country entered into an elite club of spacefaring
nations, capping a two-decade long effort by the
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in
mastering the crucial cryogenic propulsion
technology.
The precision of the cryogenic upper stage was
such that it put the GSAT-14 into an orbit with a
perigee of 179 km, against the target of 180 km,
and the apogee achieved was off by a mere 50 km
for a target of 36,000 km.
The missions success means India now has the

ability to put satellites weighing more than two
tonnes in orbit, joining the elite club of the U.S.,
Russia, France, Japan and China who have
mastered this perilous technology of using cryogenic
propellants - liquid oxygen at minus 183 degrees
Celsius and liquid hydrogen at minus 253 degrees
Celsius.
A few more successful launches will establish

this reliability and ISRO could soon be competing
with US space agency NASA and the European
Space Agency for a pie of a multi-billion dollar
market.
The launch of GSLV D5, which came three years
after a failed attempt, paves way for ISRO to launch
heavy communications satellites on its own,
undertake bigger space missions and also compete
globally in satellite launch services. Currently, a
handful of countries including the United States,
France, Russia and China dominate the market for
launching large satellites and ISRO has been relying
on foreign launch services in adding more
transponder capacity to meet growing domestic
demand.
A cryogenic rocket stage is more efficient and
provides more thrust for every kilogramme of
propellant it burns compared with solid and liquid
propellant rocket stages. But is also technically
[24]
Over the past decade, ISRO has built a brand

for itself by building and launching small satellites
at a cost much lower than most countries through
its workhorse rocket, the Polar Satellite Launch
Vehicle (PSLV). So far, ISRO has launched 35
foreign satellites with this rocket. ISRO has already
established its reliability when it comes to launching
smaller satellites using its smaller Polar Satellite
Launch Vehicle (PSLV).
The GSLVs success is also critical for ISRO to
move to the next stage in space exploration. Its
plan to land a spacecraft on the moon and launch
a manned space flight hinged on the success of the
GSLV and cryogenic technology.
GSLV-D5
GSLV-D5 is the eighth flight of Indias

Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV).
It is also the fourth developmental flight of GSLV.
GSLV-D5 vehicle is configured with its first and
second stages similar to the ones flown during
earlier GSLV missions. The third stage is the
Indigenous Cryogenic Stage. The metallic payload
fairing with a diameter of 3.4 metre is adopted
for GSLV-D5. S-band telemetry and C-band
transponders enable GSLV-D5 performance
monitoring, tracking, range safety / flight safety
and Preliminary Orbit Determination (POD).
GSLV-D5 was launched from the Second
Launch Pad (SLP) at Satish Dhawan Space Centre
SHAR, Sriharikota on January 05, 2014. Its salient
features are:
1. Overall Height- 49.13 metre
2. Lift-off Mass- 414.75 Ton
3. Lift-off Thrust- 6773 Kilo Newton
4. Number of stages- 3
5. Payload- GSAT-14
The GSLV Timeline

Launch
GSLV
Payload
Payload
Result
Remarks
D1
18.04.2001
Mk I
GSAT-1
1,540 kg
Failure
First developmental flight.

Payload placed into
lower-than planned orbit,
and it did not have
sufficient fuel to reach a
usable orbit. Velocity
contribution of the cryo
stage was less by 80 m/s,
which resulted in an
apogee lower by 4,000
km. Satellite life: one
year.
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Flight
D2
08.05.2003
Mk I
GSAT-2
1,825 kg
Success
Second developmental
flight
F01
20.09.2004
Mk I
EDUSAT
1,950 kg
Success
First operational flight
F02
10.07.2006
Mk I
INSAT-4C
2,168 kg
Failure
Both rocket and satellite

had to be destroyed over
the Bay of Bengal after
the rockets trajectory
veered from the permitted
limits. The primary cause
was the sudden loss of
thrust in one of the four
liquid propellant strap-on
stages at 0.2 second after
lift-off.
F04
02.09.2007
Mk I
INSAT-4CR
2,160 kg
Partial failure Apogee

lower
and
inclination higher than
expected owing to error
in one strap-on control
subsystem. Eventually,
the 2,160 kg payload
reached the designated
geostationary transfer
orbit. Minor error in orbit
inclination corrected by
satellite mission operators.
D3
15.04.2010
Mk II
GSAT-4
2,220 kg
Failure
First flight test of the

ISRO-designed and built
Cryogenic Upper stage.
Failed to reach orbit
owing to malfunction of
the fuel booster turbo
pump of the CUS. The
start-up of pump was
normal.
[25]

25.12.2010
Mk I
GSAT-5P
2,130 kg
Failure
Destroyed after loss of

control of liquid-fuelled
boosters. The primary
cause was the untimely
and
inadvertent
snapping of a group of
10 connectors located at
the bottom portion of the
Russian cryogenic stage.
The affected the flow of
control commands to
the first stage.
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F06
D5
05.01.2014
MKII
GSAT-14
1,980 kg
Success
The flight was scheduled

for August 19, 2013. But
an hour and 14 minutes
before left off, a leakage
was reported and the
launch was halted. The
second flight of the
GSLV
with
an
indigenous CUS was
launched on January 5,
the first successful flight
of the indigenous CUS.
DGCA CERTIFIES GAGAN
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation

(DGCA), India has provisionally certified the GPSAided Geo Augmented Navigation (GAGAN)
system to RNP0.1 (Required Navigation
Performance 0.1 Nautical Mile) service level. The
certification will enable the aircraft fitted with
Satellite Based Augmentation System (SBAS)
equipment to use GAGAN signal in space for EnRoute Navigation and Non-Precision Approaches
without vertical guidance over Indian air space.
The SBAS consists of 15 Indian Reference

Stations, three Indian Navigation Land Uplink
Stations, three Mission Control Centres, three GeoStationary Navigation Payload in C and L bands
and with all the associated software and
communication links.
Mission control centres, along with associated
uplink stations, have been set up at Kundalahalli
in Bangalore. Another control centre and uplink
station is in Delhi. One of the Reference Stations
has been housed outside the premises of the
Thiruvananthapuram airport. The reference stations
pick up signals from the orbiting GPS satellites.
The measurements are immediately passed on to
the mission control centres that then work out the
[26]
necessary corrections that must be made. Messages

carrying those corrections are sent via the uplink
stations to the satellites in geostationary orbit that
have the GAGAN payload.
The satellites then broadcast the messages. The
SBAS receivers use those messages and apply the
requisite corrections to the GPS signals, thereby
establishing their position with considerable
accuracy.
The GAGAN system is poised to next level of
certification in the near future to offer precision
approach services to the aircraft.
With this India is the fourth country to offer
safety of life, space based satellite navigation
services to aviation sector in the world. The
availability of GAGAN Signal in space will bridge
the gap between European Unions EGNOS and
Japans MSAS coverage areas, thereby offering
seamless navigation to the aviation industry.
Besides, the benefits of GAGAN also include
improved efficiency, direct routes, increased fuel
savings, approach with vertical guidance at
runways, significant cost savings due to withdrawal
of ground aids and reduced workload of flight crew
and Air Traffic Controllers.

to APV1/1.5 level of certification in the near future
to offer precision approach services over the Indian
land mass. The GAGAN signal is being broadcast
through two Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO)
satellites - GSAT8 and GSAT10 - covering whole
Indian Flight Information Region (FIR) and beyond.
An on-orbit spare GAGAN transponder will be
flown on GSAT-15.
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The GAGAN System, jointly developed by the

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and
Airports Authority of India (AAI), is a giant leap
forward in the development of Global Navigation
Satellite System (GNSS) services in India and will
pave the way for more growth and enhancement
in the days to come. The GAGAN System is poised
[27]
HEALTH
IPAQT: SUBSIDIZED XPERT TB TEST
launched 15,000 Xpert tests have been done. This
suggests that making WHO-endorsed tests more
affordable can increase uptake.
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In India numbers of labs/private hospitals offer

the WHO-approved tests like GeneXpert, Line Probe
Assay (LPA) for diagnosing TB disease at a
subsidized price. There are over 10,000 collection
centres spread across the country.
But since last eight months the novel initiative
named Improving Access to Affordable & Quality
TB Tests (IPAQT) was launched, the number people
accessing these labs for the subsidised tests has risen
to 30,000. Of them, over 15,000 people have availed
the Xpert test. These people have been referred by
private doctors.
That the WHOs Global Tuberculosis Report

2013 had highlighted this novel initiative reveals
how important it is.
Four labs offer this test in Chennai. Unlike these

four labs, the TB control programme in Tamil Nadu
(RNTCP) provides this test free of cost at the
Intermediate Reference Lab (IRL), Chetpet, Chennai.
But starting January 15, 2014, the cost of the
subsidised Xpert test will go up from Rs.1,700 to
Rs.2,000. According to a reliable source from one
of the non-profit partners of the initiative, the
compulsion to increase the price was due to the
depreciation of rupee against the U.S. dollar.
The agreement with the manufacturers of Xpert

was reached when the dollar exchange rate was
Rs.53. The agreement allowed for a 10 per cent
variation in the exchange rate.
According to the source, despite the 10 per cent

variation in place, the cost of the test was not
increased even when the rupee depreciated 19 per
cent. Despite the increase, the cost differential
between the subsidised test offered by the 54 labs/
hospitals and those offered by labs which are not
part of the IPAQT initiative is substantial.
Labs which are not part of the IPAQT initiative
charge anywhere between Rs.3,500 and Rs.5,000
for the Xpert test.
Before IPAQT was launched, the price of Xpert
MTB/RIF in the private sector was in excess of
Rs.3,000, and less than 500 tests were done in the
private sector in all of India. After IPAQT was
[28]
The increase in the cost notwithstanding, there

are abundant reasons for opting for the GeneXpert
test. While the sensitivity of smear microscopy is
about 50 per cent, Xpert has 90 per cent sensitivity
(in smear positive cases) and 98 per cent specificity.
It can therefore diagnose more people who have
TB and with a greater degree of confidence. It can
turn in results in about two hours.
And unlike smear microscopy, Xpert can also
indicate resistance to rifampicin a first-line TB
drug. Almost 98 per cent of people who are
resistant to rifampicin are also resistant to isoniazid,
another first-line TB drug.
A person is said to have multi-drug resistant
TB when he is resistant to at least two first-line TB
drugs. In short, Xpert can help doctors know if a
patient suffers from MDR-TB even before starting
treatment.
While the Revised National TB Control
Programme (RNTCP) uses Xpert and other WHOapproved diagnostic tests like LPA only for
retreatment cases (where the patient had earlier
been successfully treated for TB), private
practitioners prefer Xpert even in the case of fresh
cases (those who have never before been down
with TB disease).
A ban on the serological test, one of the major
decisions taken in early 2012 by the government of
India, will go a long way in correctly diagnosing
TB disease on time.
The serological TB test diagnoses TB disease
based on the presence of antibody response. But
its a fact that the presence or absence of antibody
response does not reflect the true TB disease status.
Hence, serological test is a highly unreliable for
diagnosing TB disease. Unfortunately, with the
serological test banned, many labs are offering TB
Gold blood test.
But the ban had created a void in the diagnostic
tests that the private labs could offer. The IPAQT

initiative is now successfully filling this vacuum.
The other reasons include lower availability (and
higher costs) of high-quality, WHO-endorsed tests
[till IPAQT came into the picture], and lack of
awareness about the value of these tests.
With nearly 40 per cent of the adult population

in India infected with TB bacilli, the blood test is of
no use except in instances where there is scope for
preventive therapy child contacts of TB cases,
individuals with HIV-infection and other immunecompromising diseases.
IVF BABY AT GREATER RISK: STUDY

published in 2004 found IVF babies had around
twice the risk of death shortly before or after birth,
and a similarly increased risk of low birthweight
and preterm birth.
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A study into the health of newborns led by

Michael Davies found that children conceived
through IVF treatment have a greater risk of
complications ranging from preterm birth to
neonatal death.
Doctors found that single IVF babies were nearly

twice as likely to be born early, to be stillborn, or
to die within the first 28 days of delivery compared
with those conceived naturally. But the study, based
on more than 300,000 births in South Australia
between 1986 and 1992, did not look at whether
IVF treatment was to blame, and leaves open the
possibility that the IVF babies fared worse for other
reasons, such as health problems, or older age, that
caused couples to be infertile in the first place.
The researchers found that preterm birth rates

rose from 4.7% in naturally conceived babies to 8%
in those born to couples who had IVF. Neonatal
deaths rose from 0.3% in naturally conceived babies
to 0.5% in IVF children. The findings build on
previous work that has found similar rates of birth
problems in IVF babies. A survey of medical reviews
Whats hard to tease out is how much is due

to the treatment itself and how much is due to
underlying infertility which the ART [assisted
reproductive technology] is overcoming, said
Dagan Wells at the Institute of Reproductive
Sciences at Oxford University.
The most striking finding, which needs
confirmation, was of a group of women who were
diagnosed as infertile but had babies after
continuing to try naturally. Babies born to these
women appeared to fare much worse than others,
with average birthweights 250g lighter than others
conceived naturally. The risk of stillbirth was nearly
seven times greater.
The cause of the problem is unclear and needs
confirmation, but may be down to the parents
health or lifestyles.
GLOBALLY 1.3 MN DIE OF FUNGAL INFECTIONS
India probably has the largest burden of fungal

disease in the world. Lack of better diagnostic
capability, affordable, high quality antifungal
medicines and better medical training are the three
avenues that led to make India a nation with
largest number of fungal infected patients.
Fungal infections kill close to 1.3 million people

globally every year with or following AIDS, cancer,
TB and asthma, and also cause blindness to 300
million people annually.
According to Professor Arunaloke Chakrabarti
from the Department of Microbiology at the Post
Graduate Institute of Medical Education and
Research, the magnitude of the problem is
particularly serious in India because of
overcrowding in hospitals, malnutrition and
unhygienic tropical environs.
After TB about 20 per cent of patients develop
lung fungal infection, which slowly progresses to
death over several years, unless arrested with

treatment, an estimated burden of 1.2 million people
worldwide and 290,000 patients in India. Fungal
meningitis and pneumonia kills in excess of 1 million
patients with AIDS every year, including many
children, before treatment for HIV can begin to
work. Candida bloodstream infections are hospital
acquired and India has one of the worlds highest
rates with poor survival. Over 170,000 cases of
mucormycosis are estimated to occur in India each
year, the highest rate in the world. Skin fungal
infections affect a billion people worldwide.
From the limited data available in India, among
the three major fungal infections in hospitals, the
prevalence of candidemia (300-500 cases per year)
at any tertiary care institute (with 1,500 beds) is
more than what obtains in the whole of Australia.
Unhygienic handling by healthcare staff causes
invasive candidemia and the infection flows right
up to the blood stream.
[29]

Up to 60 per cent of invasive infections, majority
of which can be prevented with timely diagnosis
and appropriate treatment, eventually kill a patient.
In fact, a million farmers get blind due to fungal
keratitis in India, 17-30 million suffer from asthma
and 1.7-4.7 million suffer from allergic asthma, also
caused by fungal infections.
With a view to addressing these issues,
international experts have come together and
launched two initiatives Leading International
Fungal Education (LIFE) and Global Action Fund

for Fungal Infections (GAFFI) to improve fungal
infections outcomes in patients through awareness
and education and access to appropriate antifungal
therapies.
GAFFI has a stellar international Board and
Advisor group from the UK, USA, Brazil, India,
Australia, Spain, Switzerland, Norway and Japan
to guide the foundations work as it begins its many
tasks to rescue patients.
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GOVT LAUNCHES RASHTRIYA KISHOR SWASTHYA KARYAKRAM

The Government launched Rashtriya Kishor
Swasthya Karyakram (National Adolescent Health
Programme), nations first comprehensive
adolescent health programme. The RKSK for the
age group of 10-19 years adolescents will focus on
six areas: sexual and reproductive health, nutrition,
injuries and violence (including gender-based
violence), non-communicable diseases, mental
health and substance abuse. The Rashtriya Kishore
Swasthya Karyakram (RKSK) programme would
initially cater to reproductive sexual health of
adolescents in select government facilities and later
expanded to include nutrition, injuries and violence,
including
gender-based
violence,
noncommunicable diseases, mental health and
substance abuse.
Findings from National Family Health Survey3 (NFHS3) show that births in the age group of
1519 years account for 17% of the total fertility
rate (the average number of children born to a
woman) in India. In this age group, 8% of the girls
reported sexual debut before 15 years of age,
compared to 2.7% of the boys. But only 3% of the
girls and 19% of the boys in this age group who
had had sex reported using a condom the first
time they had sexual intercourse.
Further, as per NFHS-3, adolescents in India
suffer from both undernutrition and overweight
issues. In the 1519 age group, nearly half the girls
and nearly three-fifths of the boys (58%) are
underweight. At the same time, 2.4% of the girls
and 1.7% of the boys in this age group are
overweight.
Mental health is another area of focus. A recent

epidemiology study by the National Institute of
Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences reports that
[30]
suicides are increasing at the rate of 5 to 10 per

cent every year across the country. Psychological
disorders like depression and anxiety occur more
often in girls than boys, with gender disparity
becoming evident in early adolescence.
The significance of RKSK is underpinned by
evidence that adolescence is the most important
stage of the life cycle for health interventions.
The scheme would introduce community-based
interventions through peer educators and is
underpinned by collaborations with other ministries
and state governments, knowledge partners and
more research. The programme will use social media
networks like Facebook, Twitter and Whatsapp to
reach urban adolescents with correct information
on safe sex practices.
A crucial part of the outreach programme is to
have an adolescent-friendly health clinic in every
district of the country, offering a range of clinical
services, including contraceptives.
The programme would move away from a
doctor-driven effort towards a holistic and
participative programme. The programme
recognises that all adolescents need attention even
before the occurrence of any disease or problem,
and in order to make informed decisions and
choices.
Adolescents aged 10 to 19 years constitute about
one-fifth of Indias population and young people
(aged 10-24 years) about one-third of the
population. The large and increasing share of
adolescents and youth in Indias population can
translate into a demographic dividend only if
policies and programmes focus on the health and
wellbeing of this 253 million strong, yet very
vulnerable adolescent population.
NEWS IN BRIEF
NEWSMAKERS
Ali Larayedh
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Tunisias Prime Minister Ali Larayedh has

resigned in line with agreement for ending political
deadlock against backdrop of growing social unrest.
His resignation comes as part of a plan to put the
democratic transition in Tunisia back on track after
the assassination of Mohamed Brahmi, an
opposition MP. Under the plan, Larayedh is set to
be replaced within 15 days by Mehdi Jomaa, the
prime minister- designate, at the head of a
government of technocrats that will lead the
country to fresh elections.
hour parade at the magnificent Rajpath which

showcased social, cultural aspects and military
might of the 1.2-billion strong nation. Signifying
growing bilateral defence ties, India has also invited
Japan to be part of the Indo-US naval exercise later
this year to work out the modalities for supply of
US-2 amphibian aircraft from Japan.
Mr Larayedhs Ennahda party won the first

democratic elections after long-time ruler Zine alAbidine Ben Ali was forced from power in
2011.However, Ennahda has faced widespread
opposition since coming to power, from those who
accuse it of being too close to militant groups charges it strongly denies. It has also been unable
to end an economic crisis, another factor in
widespread street protests.
Shinzo Abe
Japans Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was the

chief guest at the 65th Republic Day parade,
becoming the first premier from Japan to grace the
occasion. Abe attended the over one-and-a-half
The two countries also inked as many as eight

agreements, including those to promote tourism,
enhance energy efficiency in telecom towers and
power generation in India.
Coming against the backdrop of tensions
between Japan and China over a group of disputed
islands in the East China Sea, Abes India visit and
its outcome are also expected to be keenly watched
by the Chinese government.
In the last one year, there have been a series of
high- level visits between the two countries. Singh
had visited Japan in May last year during which
both sides agreed to further enhance cooperation
in diverse fields, particularly in trade and
investment.
Japans emperor Akihito and his wife empress
Michiko had come to India on a six-day visit over
a month back. The visit was the first to any South
Asian country by the emperor after he was
enthroned in 1990.
OBITUARIES
Ariel Sharon
Ariel Sharon, the former Israeli Prime Minister

has died at the age of 85. Sharon had been in a
coma for eight years after suffering a stroke in 2006.
Sharon, Israels controversial 11th Prime

Minister earned the nickname The Bulldozer early
in his career because of his reputation for stopping
at nothing.
By ignoring orders as a soldier, he turned defeat
into victory over Egypt in the 1973 October War.
When then Gen. Sharon led his troops across the
Suez Canal, encircling the Egyptian Third Army,
he violated orders from the militarys Southern

Command.
Sharon entered politics after the 1973 war but
he became Defence Minister in 1981 and took
charge of the invasion of Lebanon the following
year, in an attempt to remove Palestine Liberation
Organisation (PLO) fighters who had carried out
attacks across Israels northern border. In 2001 he
came to power as Prime Minister.
It led to a massacre of civilians carried out by
Christian Phalangist militia in Beiruts Sabra and
Shatila refugee camps. Ariel Sharon was found
[31]

personally responsible by an Israeli inquiry for
failing to prevent the massacre.
He was forced to resign as Defence Minister
but stayed in government. It was not until 2001
that he came to power as prime minister. He was

the man who reshaped the Middle East in a career
marked by adventurism and disgrace, dramatic
reversals and stunning rebounds.
AWARD/PRIZES
Pravasi Bhartiya Samman 2014
12. Dr. Parthasarathy Chiramel Pillai Contributions in field of science, and fostering
closer relations between India and USA
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Pravasi Bhartiya Samman Award has been

announced for the year 2014 where Mahatma
Gandhis grand-daughter Ela Gandhi, Australian
senator of Indian origin Lisa Maria Singh and
Ramkrishna Mission in Fiji were among the 13
recipients of Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award.
Govt. minister for Conservative Party in UK
President Pranab Mukherjee conferred the

awards to the winners at the Pravasi Bharatiya
Diwas programme. Ela Gandhi has been awarded
the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman for public service,
enhancing Indias image and promoting ties
between India and South Africa.
Following is the list of other recipients who got

the award for their commendable contribution.
1. Ms. Senator Lisa Maria Singh - First member
of South Asian descent in Australian
Parliament
13. Ms. Renu Khator - one of the first persons of

Indian origin to head a higher system and a
research university in America
Pravasi Bhartiya Samman
The Pravasi Bharatiya Samman (Overseas

Indian Award) is an award constituted by the
Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, Government
of India in conjunction with the Pravasi Bharatiya
Divas (Non-resident Indian Day), to honor
exceptional and meritorious contribution in their
chosen field/profession.
Award Information
Type
Civilian
Category
International
3. Vasdev Chanchlani - Entrepreneur and

philanthropist based in Canada
Description
to honour exceptional
NRIs and PIOs
4. Ramakrishna Mission - Fiji
Instituted
2003
Total awarded
136
Awarded by
President of India
2. Kurian Varghese - Leading overseas Indian

businessman in Bahrain
5. Bikas Chandra Sanyal

educationist in France
Renowned
6. Satnarainsing Rabin Baldewsingh - Significant

contribution
to
promoting
better
understanding of India in The Netherlands
7. Sasindran Muthuvel - First Member of
Parliament of Indian origin in Papua New
Guinea
8. Shihabudeen Vava Kunju - Contributor to

welfare of Indian community in Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia
9. Ms. Ela Gandhi - Contributions in promoting

ties between India and South Africa, and the
cause of freedom in South Africa
10. Dr. Shamsheer Vayalil Parambath Contribution in field of healthcare business
and for promoting better understanding of
India in UAE
11. Shailesh Lakhman Vara - First Indian origin

[32]
Odissi Danseus Pritika gets honour
Odissi Dancer Pritika Kalra Gandhi was

honoured with the prestigious National Nritya
Shiromani Award for her outstanding contribution
to promote the classical dance form.
She was presented the prestigious award by
eminent medical scientist Ramaraman Sarangi at
the ongoing 5th Cuttack Mahotsav, an international
dance and music festival. She also treated the
audience at the festival to an enthralling solo
performance. She has been a disciple of Sarmilee
Sengupta and Lekha Mohanty. She has been a
dedicated Odissi dancer for more than eight years.
The danseuse has also performed in Canada,
Hungary and Hong Kong. Moreover her aim and
desire is to bridge borders and make friends across
the globe through Odissi.
DEFENCE & SECURITY

Prithvi II
Weight
4,600 kg
Length
8.56 m
Diameter
110 cm
Engine
Single Stage liquid fuel

dual motor
Operationalrange
250-350 km
Guidancesystem
strap-downinertial
guidance
Launchplatform
8 x 8 Tata Transporter
Erector Launcher
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India has successfully test-fired its indigenously

developed nuclear-capable Prithvi-II missile, which
has a strike range of 350 km and is capable of
carrying warheads of up to 1000 kg, from a test
range in Odisha. The launch was part of a user
trial by the Army.
Specifications of Prithvi-II
The surface-to-surface missile was test-fired

from a mobile launcher in salvo mode from launch
complex-3 of ITR at Chandipur. Inducted into
Indias SFC in 2003, Prithvi-II, the first missile to
be developed by DRDO under Indias prestigious
IGMDP (Integrated Guided Missile Development
Programme) is now a proven technology.
Such training launches clearly indicate Indias

operational readiness to meet any eventuality and
also establishes the reliability of this deterrent
component of Indias strategic arsenal.Prithvi is
capable of carrying 500 kg to 1,000 kg of warheads
and is thrusted by liquid propulsion twine engines.
About Prithvi II :- Prithvi II class is also a singlestage liquid-fuelled missile having a maximum
warhead mounting capability of 500 kg, but with
an extended range of 250 km. It was developed
with the Indian Air Force being the primary user.
It was first test-fired on January 27, 1996 and the
development stages were completed in 2004. This
variant has been inducted into the army as well. In
a recent test, the missile was launched with an
extended range of 350 km and had improved
navigation due to an inertial navigation system.
Inducted into the Strategic Forces Command (SFC)
in 2003, Prithvi-II was the first missile to be
developed by DRDO under the IGMDP. After a
failed test on 24 September 2010, two more missiles
aimed at two different targets were launched on
22 December 2010 and were successful. According
to news sources the range is now increased to 350
km and the payload capacity now ranges between
500 to 1000 kg. A test firing on 9 June 2011 at the
Interim Test Range in Chandipur was successful
with the missile reaching an accuracy of better than
10 meters. Prithvi II was successfully fired by the
SFC again on 25 August 2012 and 4 October 2012,
and it covered its full range of 350 kilometers.
Another successful training firing of Prithvi II was
conducted by the SFC on 7 October 2013, and again
on 7 January 2014.
INS Vikramaditya
Indias
biggest
aircraft
carrier
INS
Vikramaditya, which will add a new dimension to
Indian Navys operational capabilities, reached the
INS Kadamba naval base in Karwar.
India purchased the warship from Russia for
about Rs 14,500 crore. It will bridge the time gap
that may come up between the INS Viraat, which
will be decommissioned in the next few years, and
the indigenously built aircraft carrier Vikrant, being
built at the Cochin Shipyard and to be
commissioned in 2018. It will help achieve the
Indian Navys medium-term goal of operating two
aircraft carriers.
With over 1,600 personnel on board, INS
Vikramaditya is literally a Floating City. The
carrier, helmed by Commodore Suraj Berry, took
eight years to refurbish at the Russian shipyard. A
modified Kiev-class carrier, it has a capacity of over
8,000 tonnes of fuel, and is capable of operations
up to a range of over 7,000 nautical miles.The 22deck aircraft carrier will take about four months to
be integrated into the Navy.
Its air wing will draw on a fleet of 45 Indian
MiG-29Ks. In addition, the naval version of the
indigenous Light Combat Aircraft may also be
positioned onboard.
An extensive range of sensors - long-range air
surveillance radars and an advanced electronic
warfare suite - makes the ship capable of maintaining
a surveillance bubble of over 500 km around it.
It is as Strong as sun. Vikramaditya (which
means strong as the sun) is complemented by the
ships motto - Strike Far, Strike Sure. It has 1,600
crew members and trainers from India and Russia.
[33]

It will become fully operational by May 2014.
Power generation capacity on board is about 18
megawatts-enough to cater to the lighting
requirement of a mini city.
The ship has the ability to carry over 30 aircraft

comprising an assortment of MiG 29K/Sea Harrier,
Kamov 31, Kamov 28, Sea King, ALH-Dhruv and
Chetak helicopters.
INS Vikramaditya, 60m high and weighing

40,000 tonnes, will be the largest and heaviest
operated by the Indian Navy. The 284m-long vessel
will have MiG-29K naval combat aircraft along with
Kamov 31 and Kamov 28 antisubmarine warfare
and maritime surveillance helicopters. The warship
has been inducted into the Navy after a delay of
almost five years and a cost overrun of almost $1
billion.
The MiG 29K swing role fighter is the main

offensive platform and provides a quantum jump
for the Indian Navys maritime strike capability.
These fourth generation air superiority fighters with
a range of over 700nm and an array of weapons.
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The ship has an overall length of about 284

metres and a maximum beam of about 60 metres,
stretching as much as three football fields put
together.
TERMINOLOGIES
Netra
It completely complements its name. NETRA(

Network Traffic Analysis) is an Internet Spy System,
developed by Centre for Artificial Intelligence and
Robotics (CAIR), a lab under Defence Research and
Development Organization (DRDO), which is
capable of detecting mala fide message. It is used
by the Intelligence Bureau, Indias domestic
intelligence agency and the Research and Analysis
Wing (RAW), the countrys external intelligence
agency to intercept and analyse internet traffic using
pre-defined filters.
Netra, which will be deployed by all security
agencies to capture any dubious voice traffic passing
through software like Skype or Google Talk, besides
write-ups in tweets, status updates, emails, instant
messaging transcripts, internet calls, blogs and
forums.
An inter-ministerial group, comprising officials

of the Cabinet secretariat, home ministry, DRDO,
CAIR, Intelligence Bureau, C-DoT and Computer
Emergency Response Team ( CERT-In) have
chalked-out a strategy on how to deal with
computer security incidents, track system
vulnerabilities and promote effective IT security
practices across the country.
The inter-ministerial group favoured allocation

of 300 GB of storage space to a maximum of three
security agencies, including the Intelligence Bureau
and Cabinet Secretariat, for intercepted internet
traffic and an extra 100 GB would be assigned to
the remaining law enforcement agencies.
Capabilities:
1. It can be launched from a small clearing, and
[34]
it can fly up to a distance of 2.5 km from its

take-off point. The operational altitude of the
UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) is 200 m.
2. With an on-board wireless transmitter, it can

carry out surveillance in an area of 1.5 km
Line of Sight (LOS) at the height of 300 m,
for 30 minutes on a single battery charge.
3. It has a high resolution CCD camera with a
pan/tilt and zoom to facilitate wider
surveillance and can also carry a thermal
camera for night operations. The images are
sent through a local wireless network to
laptops for monitoring.
4. Flight and navigation is independent of userinput, and is controlled by an on-board autopilot with the help of anti-collision sensors.
5. A built-in fail-safe allows it to return to base
if there is loss of communication with the
controller or if the battery is low in power.
Operations where it was used:
1. In July 2013 during the 136th Jagannath Rath

Yatra, Ahmedabad became the first Indian
city to use UAVs for crowd management.
2. Three Netra UAVs were used in Uttarakhand
by the NDRF for locating people during the
2013 North India floods. It was Netras first
deployment in a disaster rescue operation.
They were used in Badrinath and Kedarnath,
where real-time monitoring of their video feed
helped locate hundreds of survivors with
precision.
3. The Indo-Tibetan Border Police also deployed the

UAV in remote locations like Kedarnath, Bhairav
Chatti and Jungle Chatti to spot survivors.
Polar vortex
How dangerous is a polar vortex distortion as

compared to a tornado or hurricane?: Completely
different type of systems. A cold air outbreak caused
by the polar vortex is much more widespread and
lasts longer than a single storm. With the
widespread drop in temperature, however, you can
see significant winter storms develop, especially
when the cold air is initially advancing into a
previously warm region.
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One of several semi-permanent weather systems

over the Earth, the polar vortex is an area of low
pressure in the upper atmosphere, primarily in the
stratosphere, the layer of the atmosphere above
which most of our sensible weather occurs (known
as the troposphere). The polar vortex is circulation
of strong, upper-level winds that normally surround
the northern pole in a counterclockwise direction
a polar low-pressure system. These winds tend
to keep the bitter cold air locked in the Arctic
regions of the Northern Hemisphere. It is not a
single storm. On occasion, this vortex can become
distorted and dip much farther south.
Where on Earth can this happen?: The polar

vortex can lead to major cold air outbreaks in any
portion of the Northern Hemisphere North
America, Europe and Asia. It mainly centers in
two main areas: near Canadas Baffin Island, and
over northeast Siberia. There is a Southern
Hemispheric version of the polar vortex, as well,
within which depletion of the upper-atmospheric
ozone layer occurs.
The upper-level winds that make up the polar

vortex change in intensity from time to time. When
those winds decrease significantly, it can allow the
vortex to become distorted, and the result is a jet
stream that plunges deep into southern latitudes,
bringing the cold, dense Arctic air spilling down with
it. This oscillation is known as the Arctic Oscillation
and it can switch from a positive phase to negative
phase a few times per year. This oscillation namely
the negative phase where the polar winds are weaker
tends to lead to major cold air outbreaks in one or
more regions of the planet.
Is polar vortex a global warming fallout?: It is

a matter of debate. Some say yes. The overall
warming of the planet can trigger different types
of extreme weather conditions such as polar vortex.
Some scientists attribute the current cold spell to
the shrinking of the Arctic Sea ice, courtesy
manmade climate change.
SPORTS
Football Legend Eusebio passes away
The Portuguese football legend Eusebio has died

at the age of 71, due to cardio-pulmonary arrest.
He was popularly known as the Black Panther or
simply The King. He reigned over Portuguese
football in the 1960s, bringing glory to both his
club Benfica and his country.
The top scorer in the 1966 World Cup and
considered one of the best footballers of all time. The
top Portuguese footballer of all time Eusebio rivalled
all-time greats including Brazilian Pele, Argentinas
Alfredo Di Stefano and Englands Bobby Charlton.
Eusebio, whose full name was Eusebio da Silva
Ferreira, was European Footballer of the Year in
1965 but won global acclaim a year later at the
World Cup in England, where his nine goals helped
Portugal reach the semi-finals. He earned 64 caps
and scored 41 goals for Portugal, records that stood
for almost two decades.
He was a European Cup winner with Benfica
in 1962 and played in three other finals, including
the loss to Manchester United at Wembley in 1968.
Eusebio helped Benfica to 11 Portuguese

championships and later served as an ambassador
for the club. He scored more than 300 league goals
for the Lisbon outfit.
In 1975 he joined the flow of players involved
in the ill-fated North American Soccer League,
before retiring in 1979 after winding down his
career in Mexico and Portugal.In retirement he
became an ambassador for Benfica and the
Portuguese football federation.
Aditya Joshi the world no 1 Jr Shuttler
Aditya Joshi has become the first male junior

badminton player from India to be ranked top in
the world. Indonesias Christie Jonatan and Chinas
Zhao Jun Peng are ranked second and third
respectively. Another Indian, Harsheel Dani, is also
in the top ten with eighth ranking.
Aditya started playing badminton in 2001 when
he was only five and very soon, he started winning
in the categories above his age in the local
tournaments.
[35]

Within six years, he started proving himself at
the international arena and clinched the gold in
Remensco Junior International tournament held in
Russia in 2011. During the same year, he won a
gold medal in Asian Sub-Junior championship held
in Japan.
He is also a member of the Air India and has

also won senior national team runners-up trophy
with them. Aditya also won the singles and doubles
crowns in the Sushant Chipalkatti Memorial India
Junior International Badminton Championships.
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The shuttler reached up to the pre-quarter level

in junior international championship held at
Malaysia last year and played quarter-final of the
junior world championship held at Bangkok.
Aditya was the national champion in 2013 and

had won two gold medals in Junior International
tournament held at Pune and a silver in the Senior
National championship while his age corresponds
to junior category.
[36]
EDITORIALS
A DIFFERENT MODEL FOR DRDO
one eminent scientist from outside the atomic and
space programmes is also made a member. But most
often the scientist concerned has little detailed
knowledge of the atomic or space programmes. So,
the commissions are, in fact, wholly in-house
structures de-facto.
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There is hardly any lecture or discussion on the

Defence Research and Development Organisation
(DRDO) and the Defence Ministry more broadly in
which a call is not given for the setting up of a
Defence R&D Commission on the pattern of the
Atomic Energy Commission and the Space
Commission. The rationale for such a proposal is
that it would enable the DRDO to have steeply
increased autonomy and more administrative and
financial powers and, thereby, to be more effective.
However, those who so argue are rarely aware
of the detailed organisational structure and
managerial practices of the two existing
commissions. This article is intended to bring out
those structures and practices.
First and foremost, the Cabinet Minister for
those commissions is no less than the Prime Minister
himself. So, the chairmen of those commissions have
direct access to the very head of government. There
is not even a Minister of State in between. Where
such a Minister of State has been brought into the
picture, his only role is to lighten the burden of the
Prime Minister in answering parliamentary
questions and other matters related to Parliament.
The commission chairmen meet the Prime Minister
whenever they want to and also submit files directly
to him/her. This gives both chairmen unrivalled
power.
Second, the commissions are small and compact
and the membership is at a very high level e.g.
both the principal secretary to the Prime Minister
and the cabinet secretary are invariably members
of the commissions. As for scientists, not only is
the chairman an eminent atomic/space scientist or
engineer, but he is also the secretary of the executive
arm of the commission concerned viz . the
departments of atomic energy or space. The
members (R&D) of the commissions are usually the
directors of the largest or principal R&D centre of
the atomic energy and space programmes
respectively viz . the Bhabha Atomic Research
Centre (BARC) and the Vikram Sarabhai Space
Centre (VSSC). To give the commissions the
semblance of not being entirely in-house affairs,
Continuity till realisation
Third, and very importantly, exactly what

projects the departments or R&D centres concerned
should take up and how the entire atomic and
space programmes should be structured in terms
of goals, modalities, sequences, costs and time
frames of realisation are defined by the chairman
and the member (R&D) as an internal process. In
other words, the programme goals are chosen and
then attempted to be achieved by the same people.
We thus have a situation of a self-fulfilling
prophesy. There is no one to ask, for example,
why there should be a Chandrayaan programme
related to the Moon, or, the Mars mission and/or
whether we, as a nation, should not set ourselves
a different set of goals. This may be contrasted
with the situation of the DRDO which has users
external to it viz . the defence services and it is
those services who define and set programme and
project goals.
Success and failure
Fourth, as the goals of the atomic energy and

space programmes are set totally internally, there
is none to hold the commissions and departments
concerned accountable for failures or project delays
or escalations in project costs of a very large
magnitude, e.g. the prototype fast breeder reactors
in the case of atomic energy and the GSLV
(Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle) in the
case of space. In contrast, in the case of the DRDO,
the defence service concerned and the Secretary
(Finance) in the Defence Ministry call in such
circumstances not only for project reviews but, on
occasions, for project termination and the going in
for the import of the weapon system concerned,
quite apart from massive pillorying of the DRDO.
[37]

release or that the DRDO will need much more
time to develop it, whereas they can supply the
system to the defence service concerned practically
off the shelf! Such a situation just does not arise in
the case of atomic energy or space.
To sum up: setting up a defence R&D
commission will make little difference by way of
increasing self-reliance in defence systems and
equipment, or changing for the better the relations
between the DRDO and the defence services
because of the fundamental dynamics of that
relationship. What it can achieve, however, is to
increase the administrative and financial powers
of the DG, DRDO and the autonomy of functioning
of the DRDO laboratories. Though a more modest
achievement, it may still make it worthwhile to
have a commission for the DRDO.
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Fifth, in atomic energy and space whether one

should go in for import or pursue further R&D on
a badly delayed project is a decision taken by an
entity that is both designer and developer and user
rolled into one. For example, if Chandrayaan
succeeds or fails, there are no external consequences
or implications. However, in the case of defence
systems under design and development by the
DRDO in one of its laboratories, the consequences
of success or failure have a direct bearing on
national security and the credibility of the DRDO
in the eyes of the Defence Minister and all other
elements of the Defence Ministry.
Finally, and partly related, is the fact that the

DRDO is doing its design and development under
the overhang of constant lobbying by foreign
suppliers, that the defence system concerned is
either too complex and difficult for the DRDO to
Source: The Hindu
TWO SHADES OF IMMUNITY
As we move away from a monocivilisational

world of Western domination of world history to a
multicivilisational world, our minds must begin
retooling themselves. We have to develop the
capability of carrying competing, if not
contradictory, narratives and understand that both
may be correct, even if they contradict each other.
We will have to learn to shed black and white
judgements in favour of multi-hued, complex
assessments.
American society. So is the egalitarian spirit of

American society, which has gone much further
than any other human society in removing and
eradicating all traces of feudal culture. In my first
book on America and the world (entitled Beyond
the Age of Innocence), I praised the American
doormen who would look me in the eyes and treat
an ambassador like me as an equal, and not act in
a submissive manner like any Asian doorman
would.
A perfect example of equally correct but

contradictory narratives is provided by the case of
Devyani Khobragade, an Indian consular officer
arrested by US authorities on December 12. In
American eyes, it is a clear, black and white case.
She had signed an agreement to pay her domestic
help, Sangeeta Richard, $9.75 an hour. Instead she
paid her only $3.31 an hour. As Khobragade had
violated US laws, it was both legal and legitimate
for the US attorney, Preet Bharara, to have her
arrested and charged. Reflecting mainstream
American opinion, The New York Times
editorialised that Indias overwrought reaction to
the arrest of one of its diplomats in the United
States is unworthy of a democratic government.
Shekhar Gupta has waxed eloquent on the

egalitarian virtues of American society. He noted
that barely within a year of leaving office as deputy
secretary of state, Strobe Talbott had to scramble
for a taxi in New Delhi like any other commoner.
More amusingly, he told the story of a famous
Indian film actress who refused to marry and settle
down in America because Indians in America
refused to allow her to cut a supermarket queue,
even after they had recognised her. The good news
for our world is that this American egalitarian spirit
is gradually infecting other societies, including
Asian societies, and therefore making them less
feudal.
This American narrative has a point.

Khobragade has her rights. So does Sangeeta
Richard, the employee. Richard was clearly the
underdog in this exercise (even though by being
employed in America, her wages increased 25-fold).
Indeed, the traditional American concern for the
underdog is one of the strongest aspects of
[38]
Ironically, however, even as this American spirit

of egalitarianism infects the world, American
government officials continue to insist on feudaltype privileges while serving in other countries. It
is normal for American diplomats to receive
diplomatic immunity. Rather abnormally, the
American government expects that even its nondiplomats should receive immunity. In some cases,

they have literally, not metaphorically, gotten away
with murder. Raymond Davis, a CIA contractor,
was whisked away from the Pakistani judicial
system after shooting and killing two Pakistani
citizens. In the ancient days, only feudal lords stood
above the laws of the land. Today, American
government employees also enjoy feudal immunities
overseas (even though most of them are law-abiding
citizens while working overseas).
This schizophrenic attitude of the US

government explains why virtually every other
government in the world was quietly cheering on
the Indian government as it insisted on total
reciprocity in the treatment of Indian and American
officials. Few governments in the world have the
geopolitical heft or the moral legitimacy to look the
American government in the eye and demand such
absolute reciprocity. India does. Hence, even Indias
biggest detractor in the world, Pakistan, is quietly
cheering on India. They hoped that India would
finally succeed in persuading the US government
to accept a level playing field in dealing with other
countries.
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Sadly, few Americans are aware that the

American government practices double standards
in the application of laws. It allows no foreign
government officials, including a powerful person
like Dominique Strauss-Kahn, then head of the
International Monetary Fund, any immunity from
American laws. Yet it expects its government
officials to be in theory and in practice
immune from other countries legal courts.
Whenever any US government official faces the
threat of prosecution in a foreign legal court, he or
she is quietly whisked away, as few governments
can withstand bilateral pressure from the US
government. Since many Americans are puzzled
by the Indian outrage, they should know that
Indian society was deeply shocked that a senior
Indian official was subject to a strip search. This
created a deep sense of cultural outrage, similar to
the outrage that Americans would feel if a black
citizen is called a nigger today. Any Westerner
who cannot understand this analogy will be unable
to absorb a multi-civilisational perspective.
send US citizens to the ICC. Similarly, the US

Congress has developed a long-standing practice
of extra-territorial application of its domestic laws
on other countries and their citizens. But it is
extremely reluctant to allow the extra-territorial
application of other countries laws on its own
territory.
All governments in the world are aware of this

schizophrenic attitude of the US government
(which, I must stress, reflects the views of the US
Congress). On one hand, the US government is
second to none in defending the rule of law at
home. On the other hand, the US government is
second to none in defending immunity for its
officials from all foreign legal courts and judicial
procedures.
When the International Criminal Court (ICC)
Statute came into force on July 1, 2002, the US
government undertook a massive campaign to get
over a hundred foreign governments to sign what
have been called article 98 agreements or
bilateral immunity agreements (BIAs). These
agreements stipulate that these countries would not
The Indian governments success in persuading

the American government to allow Khobragade to
return home and not face charges in an American
court will therefore be cheered all around the world.
Most countries realise that they would not have
had the weight to shift the US government. India
is one of the few who could do so. And in doing
so, India has also enhanced the rights and standing
of other foreign diplomats on American territory.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, India
may have actually done America a favour. Why?
The former American president, Bill Clinton, has
wisely counselled his fellow citizens to prepare for
a world that we would like to live in when were
no longer the military political economic
superpower in the world. His wise advice indicates
how the two contradicting narratives can come
together: Americans should work hard to create
binding international law regimes that would apply
equally to American and non-American officials
and citizens. In the final analysis, a level playing
field in this area would demonstrate that the
American egalitarian spirit is influencing
international law too.
TOO GRAND TO WORK

Election season is here. And like the mythical
phoenix, the idea of river-linking has risen from
the ashes again. Transferring surplus Himalayan
waters to parched peninsular basins is a 150-yearold idea, first aired by Sir Arthur Cotton. In 1972,
it crystallised into a gigantic project to re-plumb
[39]

India with a 12,500 kilometre network of canals
that, through 37 links, would connect water surplus
Himalayan basins with the deficit basins of the
south and west. Among the biggest infrastructure
projects in the world, it would dwarf even Chinas
Three Gorges Dam and the south-north water
transfer project.
More prosaic considerations might also be at

play. Irrigation projects are the biggest source of
political corruption. For instance, after nearly Rs
2,00,000 crore in irrigation projects awarded mostly
to MPs and MLAs, Andhra Pradesh has hardly
seen any new irrigation. The recent irrigation
scandal in Vidarbha is another example. Nobody
knows how much new irrigation was created after
that Rs 71,000 crore scam.
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At one level, its logic is impeccable. About 1,350

billion cubic metres (BCM) of rainwater and
snowmelt sloshing around the Ganga-BrahmaputraMeghna basin maroons 34 million people and floods
three million hectares in eastern India and
Bangladesh annually before running off into the
sea. Transferring a mere 178 BCM of this to the
water-scarce south and west can drought-proof
these areas while reducing floods in the east,
generating some much-needed hydropower en
route.
centuries, kings have used ambitious irrigation

projects to imprint their names in the footnotes of
history. In a Keynesian sense, such massive
infrastructure might also be desired as an economic
stimulus, generating employment and pepping up
industrial demand during construction.
Fifteen years ago, the project was estimated to

cost Rs 5,60,000 crores. Today, the estimate is over
Rs 10 lakh crore, close to a full years GDP. But
given Indias past record, over the 30-50 years it
would take to complete, the project cost will
multiply many times over. Costs aside,
environmentalists worry about dying fisheries,
growing water pollution and declining
environmental flows. NGOs and activists cry foul
about massive involuntary displacement of people
in tribal areas.
And all this to what gain? Much of the 35
million hectares the project promises to irrigate is
already under private tubewell irrigation, which
has proved far more profitable than canal irrigation.
Moreover, lifting 178 BCM of Himalayan water across
the central Indian highlands will use up much of the
35 gigawatt of hydropower the project is expected to
generate. The net socio-economic benefits seem illusory
even with rosy assumptions.
Even if the assumptions hold, the future value of

the benefits promised is suspect. Agriculture, the key
beneficiary, is already shrinking in southern states
such as the rapidly urbanising Tamil Nadu,
Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. Farmers are
ageing as the youth is quitting agriculture to
participate in the booming non-farm growth. Decades
from now, agriculture will have majorly shrunk in
the south and the west but it will still be flourishing
in the Ganga basin, with its population still growing
and irrigation expanding. The canals will be ready
but there will be no surplus water to transfer.
Why then does the idea refuse to die? Perhaps

because it makes a bold political statement. For
[40]
To believe that river linking will be a panacea

for Indias water crisis is delusional. In any case,
the idea cannot take off until Bangladesh and Nepal
sign up. Indias abject track record in water
diplomacy with neighbours makes it hard to
imagine they will cooperate on such an ambitious
plan, which has no clear benefits for them. Water
being a state subject, getting Indias own state
governments to cooperate will also be a roadblock.
There are easier, proven and local solutions to
resolve the most significant problems that river
linking aims to solve: floods in eastern India and
groundwater depletion in western and southern
India. First, intrastate water transfers can be quicker
and beneficial for flood control in surplus basins
Bihar is already planning such a project. They can
also help ease water scarcity in deficit basins, as
Gujarat has shown. Second, groundwater depletion
can be controlled by decentralised groundwater
recharge, as demonstrated in the Saurashtra region
of Gujarat and the Alwar district of Rajasthan.
Third, aggressive micro-irrigation can drastically cut
down water use in agriculture. Fourth, reforming
perverse electricity subsidies can curtail the waste
of groundwater and energy in agriculture.
Fifth, reforming the prevailing MSP regime can
wean Punjab and Haryana away from the waterguzzling rice-wheat system and make their
agriculture far more sustainable. Sixth, transferring
food rather than water the so-called virtual water
transfer from surplus to deficit basins can turbocharge eastern Indias agriculture while ensuring
national food security. Together, these measures
can resolve in five years a crisis that river-linking
is unlikely to resolve in 50 years, if ever.
VACCINES CAN CHANGE CHILDRENS FUTURE

A single medical discovery has changed the
future of children. Vaccination is a powerful and
cost-effective weapon against disabling and lifethreatening diseases. In India, nearly two million
children still die from preventable diseases such as
pneumonia, diarrhoea, malnutrition and birth
complications.
In India, the pentavalent vaccine that contains

Hib (and also protects against diphtheria, pertussis,
tetanus, hepatitis B) has been popular for a decade
in the private sector, and was included in the
National Immunisation Programme more recently.
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Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) is a major

cause of bacterial meningitis while pneumonia
caused by Hib and Streptococcus pneumoniae (S.
pneumoniae or pneumococcus) is also a threat to
childrens health worldwide.
India too would derive massive benefits: 72,000

child deaths and nearly three million
hospitalisations in India will be prevented each year
once the Hib programme is established across the
country.
Rotavirus-related diarrhoea sends thousands of

children to the hospital and kills a large number
too. New vaccines are available to protect against
these pathogens and India is now gradually moving
towards including these latest vaccines in the
immunisation programme.
In fact, 2011-20 has been declared the Decade

of Vaccines by the global community. Awareness
about the benefits of vaccines and advocacy for
the introduction of new lifesaving vaccines must
increase during this period. The health and wellbeing of millions of children will improve only
when the importance of vaccines is acknowledged.
Vaccines provided under the Universal

Immunisation Programme (UIP) in India offer
children protection from just a handful of infections
tuberculosis, diphtheria, pertussis (whooping
cough), tetanus, polio, measles and Hepatitis B
across the country and Japanese encephalitis in
some areas.
New vaccines against Hib and rotavirus have
gained popularity in many countries. The benefits
of these vaccines are yet to be maximised in India.
The three new vaccines that will benefit children
the most in the country are the pentavalent vaccine
that confers protection against Hib; the rotavirus
vaccine and the pneumococcus conjugate vaccine.
Other countries have readily embraced these
vaccines, and are deriving their benefits. Hib
vaccine has been a part of routine immunisation
programmes in several countries after WHOs
Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE),
recommended in 2006 that this be included in
national immunisation programmes. Of the 194
WHO Member States, 185 have adopted the
pentavalent vaccine that protects against Hib.
And the benefits have been huge, since Hib diseases
have almost disappeared in these parts of the world.
The vaccine was introduced in Tamil Nadu and

Kerala in 2011 after endorsement by Indias
National Technical Advisory Group on
immunisation and a detailed review of vaccine
safety coordinated by the Indian Council of Medical
Research (ICMR).
Since then, the pentavalent vaccine has also
been introduced in six additional states.
Pentavalent Safety
The introduction of the pentavalent vaccine in

some Asian countries has been associated with
safety concerns.
This included reports of deaths shortly after
vaccination in Sri Lanka, Bhutan, India, Pakistan,
Nepal and Vietnam.
Because of these concerns, Sri Lanka, Bhutan
and Vietnam temporarily suspended pentavalent
vaccine use as a precautionary measure. In all
countries, investigations by local governments,
WHO and international experts have not
demonstrated a causal link between vaccination
and infant death.
As a result, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Vietnam
have resumed the use of pentavalent vaccine.
Faith in the safety of this vaccine was further
reinforced after WHOs Global Advisory Committee
on Vaccine Safety reviewed the pentavalent vaccine
safety data from four countries (Sri Lanka, Bhutan,
India and Vietnam) and concluded that it was safe.
The Indian Academy of Paediatrics (IAP) has
expressed concern about the misinformation being
spread about the vaccine, and has denounced
attempts to distort facts.
IAP maintains that pentavalent is safe and
endorses the governments decision to introduce
the vaccine in six states.
While efforts should continue to ensure the
safety of vaccines, the drive to introduce
[41]

immunisation that reduces childhood illnesses and
saves lives should not be compromised.
The WHO remains committed to working with
the national government to enhance the benefits of

safe and efficacious vaccines to Indias population.
CONTAINING THE MAOIST THREAT

are even hunted down by their former colleagues
for being police informers and betrayers of the
movement. The safety of these persons who have
chosen to step out of the shadow of extremist
politics must be guaranteed by governments.
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When the state responds to political violence in

an indiscriminately heavy-handed manner,
members of extremist groups will only harden their
positions and hesitate to join the democratic
mainstream. Whether the surrender of Maoist leader
G. Venkatakrishna Prasad alias Gudsa Usendi, and
his wife Santhoshi Markom, marks the beginning
of a welcome new trend or is just a one-off event
depends a lot on the rehabilitation of the couple
who have been active with the Dandakaranya
Special Zonal Committee of the CPI-Maoist. Mr.
Prasad, who was the spokesperson for the Maoists
in Chhattisgarh, was wanted by the police for his
direct involvement in major acts of violence,
including the killing of Congress leaders in Bastar
last year. Whether it was ill-health or disgust with
the politics of violence that prompted him to
surrender before the police in Andhra Pradesh, Mr.
Prasad is entitled to the rehabilitation scheme
already in place for reformed Naxalites.
Governments are wont to seek the media spotlight
and a bit of political triumphalism is inevitable
when Maoists surrender, given the deadly and
inherently anti-social nature of their activities. It is
important to ensure that the reformative approach
to these former extremists succeeds in transforming
their mindset. Some of the Maoists return to
collaborating with the extremist group, and some
others spend the rest of their life in penury. A few
There are many Maoists who feel trapped in

the movement and the cycle of attacks and
reprisals, but who are unable to gather the courage
to make the transition from the fringe to the
mainstream. However, rehabilitation of lapsed
militants can only be a small part of the larger
strategy of containing extremist violence. The
administrative response of deploying specially
trained security personnel in the violence-affected
areas should be accompanied by a developmental
strategy to enhance livelihood opportunities in tribal
and forest regions. When rural wages remain low,
the youth in Indias deprived interior areas can
easily be lured into believing that political power
grows out of the barrel of a gun. If it is not to be
an isolated instance, the surrender should not be
projected as a vindication of harsh measures in the
face of extremist threat but should prompt a
reworking of the strategy of countering political
violence, and the putting in place of a
comprehensive, equitable development programme
for Indias tribal areas.
Source: The Hindu
THE RIGHT TO PRIVACY IN THE DIGITAL AGE
Much has happened in the last six months, in

different parts of the world, after the global
surveillance programme of the United States
National Security Agency (NSA) was revealed by
Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor. In
the U.S., there was a lot of noise made by privacy
and liberty groups such as American Civil
Liberties Union, Center for Democracy and
Technology, and Electronic Frontier Foundation
among others and some Senators and
Congressmen. Even U.S. President Barack Obama
raised some questions on the propriety of such a
massive surveillance programme. He set up a
committee under the chairmanship of Richard
Clarke, former National Coordinator for Security,
[42]
Infrastructure Protection, and Counter-terrorism for

the U.S., to review the programme for
recommendations to scale it down so as to be less
intrusive in the lives of Americans and others.
Within three months, the committee submitted its
report to President Obama on December 12,
2013 to be precise.
In the months leading up to the submission of
this report, there were strong reactions from the
European Union, especially Germany and France.
Angela Merkels personal mobile phone was kept
under surveillance by the NSA. She was put on a
par with the Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff,
whose phone gave away several governance and
economic secrets to the Americans. The EU leaders

liberties, the rule of law promoting prosperity,
security, and openness in a networked world. But
the recommendations do not suggest that bulk data
of U.S. persons or non-U.S. persons should not be
collected under Section 702 of the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). While it does
make some recommendations on probable cause
for U.S. citizens to be shown to the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), there is no
such concession for non-U.S. persons.
It is interesting that the committee
acknowledges, albeit indirectly, that the U.S.
government is undermining encryption standards,
and subverting or weakening commercial
encryption software, by advising the government
not to do so. Likewise, it recommends that
surveillance of foreign leaders should be done after
due consideration of possible reactions by
concerned countries, if it ever becomes public. The
committee does not recommend that bulk data
collection, in the form of meta-data of phone calls,
under Section 215, be stopped. Instead it should be
held by a private entity, and made available to the
NSA after a judicial order by the FISC. There are
several other recommendations, some of which will
cause discomfort in the intelligence community. No
wonder, in the congressional hearings, both the
NSA and the Director, National Intelligence, have
strongly urged that the surveillance programme
should be allowed to continue in its present form,
since it is essential for its counterterrorism
operations.
The committee reiterates the position of the U.S.
government on the Internet for global agreements,
namely freedom of expression, Internet governance
through multi-stakeholderism, use of the mutual
legal assistance treaty process for gaining access to
electronic communications, not engage in espionage
to steal trade secrets through surveillance, not to
sabotage financial systems. In a clear message to
the Brazilian President, it recommends that countries
should not try to locate servers in their territories,
or prevent data trans-border data flows. While other
nations should not localise servers as that may
balkanise the Internet, the U.S. has to do more to
show that it is not infringing on the rights of global
citizens or undermining the sovereignty of nations.
Will the U.S. review its laws, procedures and
practices regarding the mass surveillance of
communications, their interception and collection
of personal data to uphold the right to privacy by
ensuring the full and effective implementation of
its obligations under international human rights law,
as per the UN resolution, to which it was a party?
Source: The Hindu
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condemned the NSA; the American ambassadors

in various European cities were summoned and
asked to explain their governments actions. Threats
were held out that the safe harbour extended to
the U.S. for EU data flows would be withdrawn.
Although the Brazilian President sent a strong
signal by cancelling her visit to the White House,
she was sought to be pacified through the offer of
ICANN CEO Fadi Chehad for holding a
conference in April, 2014, in Brazil to consider or
establish a new governance framework for ICANN,
which currently governs the Internet under the
exclusive control of the U.S. government.
In the meantime, Brazil and Germany had
moved a resolution in the UN for nations to agree
on privacy protection for citizens in cyberspace,
which was passed by the General Assembly on
December 18, 2013, as Right to Privacy in the
Digital Age. It was sponsored by more than 50
countries, including India, and approved
unanimously by the 193 members. The resolution
upholds the right to privacy for everyone when
billions of innocent individuals around the world
have been victims of the sweeping mass surveillance
conducted by the U.S. and the United Kingdom
from their domestic soil. It reaffirms the human
rights core principle that individuals cannot be
denied human rights simply because they live in a
country different from the one that is placing them
under surveillance.
The resolution calls upon states to end violations
of privacy by ensuring that national legislation
complies with obligations under international
human rights law, and to review their procedures,
practices and legislation regarding the surveillance
of communications, their interception and collection
of personal data, including mass surveillance,
interception and collection, with a view to
upholding the right to privacy by ensuring the full
and effective implementation of all their obligations
under international human rights law.
The Clarke Committee in its report, titled
Liberty and Security in a Changing World,
observes that advances in ICT continue along with
increased globalisation of trade, investment and
information flows, as also the national security
threats. Information collection by intelligence cannot
distinguish between domestic and foreign, leading
to violation of the privacy of American citizens
and foreigners. Even strategic relationships with
allies get into difficulties because of pursuing
multiple and competing goals at home and
abroad. These goals include: protecting the nation
against threats to national security, foreign policy
interests, the right to privacy, democracy, civil
[43]
A FALSE DUALITY
to determine prices. The sooner this is done, the
better. Even the policy of supplying subsidised diesel
to farmers, fishermen and STUs is better achieved
through direct budget transfers outside of the
market. What we have today is a situation where
the SUV owner gets diesel cheaper than the STU
bus on which the poor and the ordinary middle
class ride.
Mercifully, there has been a rationalisation of
diesel consumption over the last year and more.
Till 2012-13, this was going up every year by 4-4.5
million tonnes. The current fiscal from April till
November, however, has seen consumption fall by
0.7 per cent year on year, even while that of petrol
has risen 10 per cent during this period. This has
obviously come about because of the narrowing
petrol-diesel price differential, from over Rs 32 a
litre in May 2012 to about Rs 18 now. What this
and the prospect of the gap narrowing further has
done, is to contain the phenomenon of runaway
dieselisation of the economy. The starkest
manifestation of this was soaring sales of dieselpowered cars and SUVs, which one wouldnt have
minded so long as it had to do with superior fuel
efficiencies and new advances in diesel engine
technology. But in this case, consumer preference
was seemingly guided more by artificially cheap
pricing. That must end, along with dual pricing
across consumers.
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The Centre is planning a partial rollback of its

decision last January to make prices of diesel for
bulk consumers fully market-linked. It is a sensible
move, given that dual pricing wasnt a great idea
in the first place, being difficult to properly
implement. The Railways or the Defence
establishment, being Central undertakings, could
be forced to procure diesel at unsubsidised rates.
But there was no way to stop other bulk consumers,
including State Transport Undertakings (STU) and
industrial units, from filling up at retail fuel outlets.
The huge gap between bulk and retail prices
currently over Rs 9.2 a litre made this a viable
option, despite the oil marketing companies
providing dedicated depots for bulk consumers to
directly lift diesel. In the event, the share of such
direct sales has fallen to around a tenth of total
diesel sales. Besides, it has led to avoidable
congestion in retail outlets.
That problem may be somewhat addressed with
the proposal now under consideration to treat
STUs as retail consumers even if they fill up at
dedicated outlets. But the real and long-term
solution lies in doing away with dual pricing
altogether. The current approach of having
differential pricing at the point of sale runs the
inherent and inevitable risk of bulk diesel users
turning into retail consumers and causing
overcrowding at fuel outlets. This will end only if
diesel is decontrolled and market forces are allowed
FLY, THE BELOVED COUNTRY
New Years Day marked the 100th anniversary

of the birth of commercial aviation. On January 1,
1914, the first paying passenger on a scheduled
airline flight was transported across Tampa Bay in
Florida, US. What followed from the event the
development of the global aviation industry
changed our world.
The pace of growth reflected the thirst for

connectivity. Commercial aviation started with one
route, one plane, one passenger and one pilot. This
year we expect some 3.3 billion passengers to board
aircraft. That is a task equivalent to moving the
entire population of India three times. They will fly
safely on a fleet that exceeds 23,000 aircraft which
operate on some 40,000 routes.
It is no understatement to say that aviation

literally makes the economy move. The 50 million
[44]
tonnes of air cargo that is carried annually accounts

for more than a third of the value of the total world
trade some $6.4 trillion. The aviation industry
itself supports 57 million jobs and a $2.2 trillion in
economic activity.
The combination of connecting people and
supporting economic growth firmly positions
aviation as a force for good. It gives people the
freedom and independence to explore the world.
The industry links economies, supports
development, and is arguably the most effective
vehicle for sharing cultures and ideas.
A growth market
India is among the beneficiaries of aviations
many benefits. In fact, its role in modern-day India
is critical. Aviation, including aviation-related

tourism, contributes 1.5 per cent of Indias GDP
and supports about 8.8 million jobs.
At the moment, I dont see these being

addressed with the needed speed and effectiveness.
The airport serving Mumbai will reach its
maximum capacity in 2017. We will run out of
Band-Aid solutions. But there is no clear indication
of when Navi-Mumbai will be able to provide
capacity to enable connectivity that underpins
successful financial capitals the world-over.
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India would be a very different place without

the ability to ship high-value products to waiting
markets, or the ability to link overseas Indians to
family and friends at home. It makes possible the
face-to-face meetings and experiences that lead to
foreign direct investment, training and skillsbuilding that play such an important role in Indias
development. And aviation brings most of the
tourists eager to explore Incredible India.
Here, urgent action is needed in three areas

addressing the high-cost airport environment,
reducing the unduly onerous tax and regulatory
burden; and increasing infrastructure capacity.
Only then can we confidently predict that growth
will be successful.
The value of marking the centennial of an

industry is found more in looking to the future
than reminiscing about the past or exalting the
present. We havent even scratched the surface of
the potential for Indian aviation.
Domestic and international passenger traffic

combined, only about 100 million people in India
travel by air annually. That means the average
Indian travels about 0.1 times per year. In the US,
the number is over two times. When Indians travel
by air as much as Americans we would expect a
market of over 2.5 billion people.
The 6.6 per cent annual compounded growth
that we expect over the next five years ranks India
among the fastest developing aviation markets. This
growth potential is being realised with some exciting
developments on the countrys aviation landscape.
In India today, new airlines are coming onto

the scene. Existing airlines are growing and
developing global partnerships. Non-Indian carriers
are eager to expand their offers. Two new airlines
are expected to commence operations soon.
Indian carriers are expanding their activities
through partnerships. And many governments are
interested in expanding economic ties through
aviation links.
India Flying
It is absolutely certain that the aviation industry

in India will grow. But the question is wether that
growth will be successful or not. Will it deliver the
maximum economic benefit? Will India be an
industry leader as the size of its market would
indicate or will it muddle along? Positive answers
to these important questions are not guaranteed.
Indias airport costs are increasing. In the past

two years, weve seen charges at Delhi increase by
346 per cent, Mumbai by 164 per cent, Kolkata by
385 per cent, and Chennai by 269 per cent. This is
eroding the sectors competitiveness at a time when
it needs some serious bolstering.
Although there has been some relief on aviation

turbine fuel the industry still faces domestic fuel
taxes as high as 30 per cent on top of which an 8.2
per cent excise duty is charged.
There are, of course, no easy answers to these
issues. But a great start to commemorating
aviations first 100 years and preparing for the next
century would be the development of a coordinated
national policy approach to aviation.
That would give us the political will to push
forward projects such as Navi-Mumbai, to ensure
cost-effective infrastructure and to replace the
myriad taxes and charges on fuel with a more
reasonable approach.
On the latter, a 4 per cent standard state tax
on air turbine fuel confined to domestic operations
would provide an enormous boost to the industry
and Indias economy. But it could only be achieve
as part of a national policy for the industry.
My hope is that 2014 will be the year where
we put these challenges behind us.
India needs to enter aviations second century
on a solid footing for success.
ASIAN IMPERATIVES
The year 2013 was a year of development and
cooperation for Asia. Asia remains a major engine
of the world economy. Emerging economies in Asia
kept up rapid growth and contributed to the

development and prosperity of the world. Asia is
generally stable. It is a common aspiration of Asian
[45]

countries to live in peace, stability and
development. In the meantime, Asia is in a
continuous process of economic integration, as well
as cooperation in politics and security. Regional
cooperation as a whole was further deepened. As
a matter of fact, the rise of Asia has come to play
a prominent part in the international context. It is
important for us to have a proper understanding
of the status and role of Asia in global affairs.
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The current global economy, though in a slow

process of recovery, is undergoing in-depth
restructuring. Its future is, however, of some
uncertainty. The US economy shows rejuvenation,
but the momentum is relatively weak. It is difficult
to say for the time being that the US will end its
quantitative easing (QE) policy. The European debt
crisis is at a turning point, but recovery is still slow.
Emerging economies like the BRICS countries keep
growing, but at a slower pace. They encounter more
and more pressure due to changes in the external
environment and their own structural adjustment.
Against this background, the whole world,
including Asia, is more committed to economic
development and improving peoples livelihoods so
as to consolidate the momentum of economic
recovery and buffet uncertainty. Especially for
Asian emerging economies like China and India, it
is imperative to seize the hard-won economic
recovery tendency, enhance mutually beneficial
cooperation and push forward reform of the
international financial regulatory system so as
to reduce the impact, on their own imports and
exports and currency, of the withdrawal of QE by
the US.
to the above three economies will not only damage

the global economic recovery impetus, but also harm
Asian economies, India included. Japan, as an
Asian country per se, should have assumed its
responsibility of promoting common prosperity in
Asia. The Japanese government, however, is fiercely
implementing its right-wing doctrine by trying to
get rid of the post-war order, by amending its
pacifist constitution and by developing into a
military power. This obviously runs against the
global trend of pursuing development and
enhancing economic recovery.
Unfortunately, some Japanese leaders blatantly

paid homage at the Yasukuni Shrine where ClassA war criminals of World War II are honoured.
This is a brazen challenge to the post-war
international order, to historical justice and human
conscience. This will also undermine the political
stability in East Asia and hurt economic relations
between China and Japan and even the US
economy. The GDPs of China, the US and Japan
rank the top three in the world. Any disturbance
Both China and India have made important

contributions to the fight against Japanese militarist
aggression in WW II. Dr Kotnis and his medical
team went to China and helped the Chinese people
against Japanese aggression during the antiJapanese War. The doctor even sacrificed his life in
China. He is well remembered by the people of
China. With assistance from the US and the United
Kingdom, Indian and Chinese soldiers together
fought against Japanese aggression in India. We,
after suffering the invasion by Japan, should by no
means forget this part of history. As Julia Lovell
writes in her review of the book Chinas War with
Japan, 1937-1945: The Struggle for Survival by
professor Rana Mitter of Oxford University,
Chinas eight years of resistance changed the
course of the Second World War. By refusing to
surrender, Chinas armies detained at least half a
million Japanese troops which could otherwise have
been deployed to other territories. Mitter also
mentions in his book that A pacified China would
have made the invasion of British India much more
plausible.
Today, the people of Asian countries, including
China, India and Japan, would all bear in mind
the lessons of history, not for the sake of hostility
or revenge, but for the purpose of telling right from
wrong, for the purpose of upholding the path of
peace and for the purpose of realising common
development.
ROLE CONFUSION
The RBI panel on financial inclusion reinforces

a traditional and outdated central planning
approach to financial inclusion. The vision in
this case, of every adult Indian having a bank
account by 2016 may be a noble one, but it is no
different from the paternalistic formulation which
says that the state or central planner knows what
[46]
should be consumed by each consumer and then

licences are given to those who produce those
goods. In this case, the good is bank accounts. Each
Indian must hold one, we are told, and she must
have an Aadhaar card which is linked to it. And
society, that is, other consumers, must pay for it.
Here, the decision that bank accounts are good

Also, with restricted entry, and with a PSL/
inclusion mandate, banks have no incentives to
expand anywhere. If a bank wants to expand, say,
in Bangalore, because business is booming there,
for every three branches it opens there, it will need
to open an unprofitable branch in the middle of
nowhere. Also, it would need to make half of its
new loans to priority sectors. So, it decides that its
not worthwhile to expand. And therefore the
financial sector remains small and uncompetitive.
Is this really a good development strategy? The
report lists business models for banks. This is not
the role of the RBI. The RBI should ensure the
safety and soundness of banks, and not try to carry
out the agenda of the UPA or the NAC.
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and better than mobile wallets, or money market

mutual funds, is that of the central bank. Society
must bear the costs of this vision of the central
planner.
One important cost is for bank lending rates.
The big reason why ordinary lending rates are high
is that rates are mandated to be low on priority
sector loans. Ordinary businesses have to suffer
because some sectors are being subsidised. Raising
the priority sector lending (PSL) requirement would
mean that ordinary borrowers will now have to
pay even more. And to the extent that banks suffer
losses because of these loans, taxes will need to be
raised for ordinary people to restore banks capital.
This will all be done non-transparently. The tax
payer will only be told that he is paying for the
noble cause of keeping public sector banks alive.
PIVOTAL PARTNERSHIP
With Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as

the chief guest at the upcoming 65Republic Day
celebrations,New Delhi and Tokyo have a historic
opportunity to take bilateral ties to the next level.In
fact,global circumstances over the last few years
have brought India and Japan closer.This
culminated in the recent landmark visit of the
Japanese Emperor and Empress to India,signalling
a watershed moment in the two-way
relationship.Both countries share significant
complementarities that can entice meaningful
cooperation in sectors ranging from manufacturing
and IT to defence and education.
Theres no denying that much of the recent
bonhomie between New Delhi and Tokyo can be
primarily attributed to two factors Abes return as
Japanese PM and the rise of an assertive China,as
evidenced by its strident position on territorial
disputes with countries along its borders.Abe,a
known friend of New Delhi,has chosen to adopt a
robust
approach
to
counter
Beijings
assertiveness.This in turn means that capital-rich
Japan is on the lookout for markets other than

China.And an infrastructure-hungry India with a
young population is perfectly poised to leverage
Japanese investments.In fact,New Delhi should use
Abes visit to push big-ticket infrastructure projects
akin to the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor that
could attract Japanese investors.
On the security front,both sides have already
decided to expand cooperation in maritime
security,counterterrorism
and
anti-piracy
operations.And with Japan relaxing its 1967 ban
on defence exports,India becomes a potential
buyer.The strategic partnership between the two
countries should become an important pole of Indias
foreign policy.As it is,the momentum behind New
Delhis Look East policy starts ebbing beyond the
Asean nations.With countries such as Taiwan,South
Korea and Japan looking for greater regional
cooperation and new partners,India must make the
most of circumstances.
Source: Times of India
ERROR AND TRIAL
Anguished at the lack of evidence forcing it to

acquit a man accused of raping and murdering a
child, the Supreme Court has ordered a drastic
corrective. It has asked all state governments to set
up a standing committee to examine each acquittal,
and identify where the police and prosecution
failed. An acquittal, it reasoned, means that either
the police and prosecution have failed to present
convincing evidence and press their case or that
the accused was wrongfully put in the dock. The

process should, therefore, be examined carefully
and the lapses, deliberate or inadvertent, should be
identified. If there is serious negligence or culpable
misdemeanour, the officer should face
departmental action, the court said. It also asked
state governments to evolve a procedure by which
prosecuting agencies only take on cases that hold
up, and order further investigations if necessary to
[47]

Given the judgement calls inherent in crime
scene investigations, eyewitness evidence,
interrogation as well as in the prosecution, it may
prove to be difficult to pin the blame for errors and
make the distinction between negligence and malice.
Whats more, the systems real weaknesses have
been made clear by the Supreme Court itself, in
the Prakash Singh judgment of 2006, which laid
out a new plan for operational responsibility and
accountability. And yet, the police across states
remains responsible for an array of tasks ranging
from detective work and maintaining order to
bandobast duties. Without a separate, trained
investigative wing, is it any wonder that there are
persistent flaws in the quality of investigations? The
court should prod the government to comply with
its vision of comprehensive police reform, instead
of creating workarounds like these proposed panels.
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put together a credible case. While the courts

motives are commendable in attempting to institute
a review of our criminal justice system and fix
greater accountability on police and prosecution,
its solution is too sweeping to be useful. It also
treads on the state governments turf.
The courts presumptions are also debatable. A
Supreme Court bench should be wary of the
reflexive assumption that every case that fails hinges
on the failures of the police or prosecution and
therefore calls for a departmental inquiry just as
the motives of the judge are not questioned if a
trial court verdict is overturned later. If there are
glaring lapses in the gathering and presenting of
evidence, the trial court often points them out and
a departmental inquiry is initiated within the police.
Mandating this for every acquittal is unnecessary,
and would place heavy strain upon an already
overburdened system.
DEMAND-DRIVEN RESEARCH
Renowned farm scientist M.S. Swaminathan has

pointed out that there is no field where the benefitcost ratio is as high as in agricultural research and
development (R&D). This statement is well borne
out in basmati rice, where Indias exports have shot
up more than ten-folds in the last ten years.
Roughly three-fourths of shipments expected to
touch $ 5 billion this year are today accounted
for by Pusa-1121, a high-yielding variety bred by
the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI)
having an annual Plan budget of hardly Rs 60 crore.
The same goes for cotton, where a more than twoand-a-half times jump in the countrys output since
2002-03 has been largely courtesy transgenic Bt
hybrids. Or for that matter maize production, which
has again witnessed a doubling of production in
the last 10 years only with the advent of singlecross hybrids.
The common factor in these success stories is
not just one of technological intervention translating
into higher crop production and farm incomes. It
also points to the crucial role of the private sector
be it seed companies, millers, processors or
exporters in ensuring effective transfer of research
knowhow in laboratories to farmers fields. In Bt
cotton and single-cross hybrids, the breeders were
themselves mainly private multinationals such as
Monsanto and DuPont; they had every reason
hence to aggressively push these new cropping
technologies. But even Pusa-1121 would have
[48]
remained in the IARIs research fields, but for a

certain basmati exporter who saw its potential and
took the initiative to promote the variety, both
among farmers and prospective overseas buyers.
IARI has since come out with an improved basmati
variety Pusa-1509, which also promises to be a
successful public sector breeding effort undertaken
in close collaboration with the exporting and
farming community.
What these examples point to is the need for a
totally new public-private-partnership (PPP)
framework for agricultural R&D. This could involve
the likes of IARI partnering with private seed
companies for large-scale production and
multiplication of publicly-bred material in order to
reach farmers. Such material can even be assigned
on an exclusive limited-period basis to make it
commercially attractive to the companies
concerned. The PPP approach could further extend
to sponsored or joint research collaboration with
industry say, breeding of barley varieties yielding
more malt for brewing purposes or potatoes with
less moisture and sugar content making them
amenable for processing and frying. There is lot of
hidden value in public sector laboratories, which
can be unlocked with research that is more
demand-driven than being conducted in silos as
is the case today. Equally, there is a need to move
away from old-style breeding relying on physical
observation of plants, to use of molecular biology

and marker assisted selection tools for identifying
genes coding for specific traits. All this requires
huge investments, making the case for collaboration
further compelling.
Lift-out: Farm research lends itself naturally to

public-private-partnership.
THE NAIL THAT LOST THE KINGDOM

India has had unrelenting food price inflation
since 2007.
Macro-Economic Side-Effects
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The Government neglected the problem initially:

Perhaps, inflation was seen as politically tolerable
because rising incomes and various welfare/income
transfer schemes for the poor were thought to be
protection enough.
welfare benefits from the policies of the

Government.
But the recent major electoral reverses suffered

by the main ruling party suggest that the above
protection was inadequate. Food inflation could
well be the nail for which the Kingdom was lost
as in the nursery fable where a horseshoe came off
because of a loose nail, and because of which the
horse tripped, the King fell.
Political Economy of Inaction
One should place the Governments inaction

against the context of the policies that it regarded
as political winners, but were themselves
responsible for creating food inflation.
Thus, its moves to enact a nationwide food

security legislation turned the Government into the
nations biggest hoarder of foodgrains. Likewise, it
resisted releasing the stranglehold of middlemen
on agricultural mandis not only because these
intermediaries enjoyed huge political clout, but also
the fact that helped the Governments procurement
operations.
Besides, the Governments many social
programmes pumped money into rural areas. But
since these patronage-based credit and other flows
were designed to leak, they boosted consumption
rather than adding to production and boosting
overall productivity.
The growth in incomes, including from
Government consumption spending, led to
diversification of diets.
But at the same time, increased support prices

for grains prevented corresponding diversification
of cropping patterns. The supply response was
inadequate, both quantitatively and qualitatively
also because of the same middlemen, who soaked
in most of the high prices consumers paid.
The above counter-adjustments, perhaps
unanticipated, translated into near-zero public
Food price volatility and the resultant rise in

wages from it has also been an important factor in
the Reserve Bank of Indias moves to tighten
monetary policy.
Unlike temporary supply-side shocks that can
be overlooked, persistent and steep food inflation
tends to push up wages, creating second-round
effects that raise prices again through a vicious
spiral.
The RBI did take note of the perceptible rise in
wages initially. But rather than food inflation, the
central bank was more inclined to blame
government spending and programmes such as
MGNREGA for the wage-price spiral that it saw
developing.
There is an opposite view, often articulated by
the World Bank, that relative prices do not affect
aggregate prices provided there is no excess
demand. The Banks early work actually showed
real wages in India to fall during inflationary
episodes.
But there is also research that highlights the
role of the labour market structure in determining
the second-round effects of prices on wages. These
are typically higher in countries where the share of
food in the consumption basket is large.
This is true in India, especially for subsistence
wages. Such wages always adjusted to food price
inflation, albeit with a lag.
But the post-2007 period was peculiar. Rural
real wages that were earlier flat now showed a
substantial rise. Nominal wage growth not merely
caught up with, but far exceeded inflation.
Whats new?
A State-level dataset for wages of unskilled rural

labourers from 2007 makes it possible to use
regression analysis for identifying the key drivers
of real wage increases over this period.
As per this, wholesale food inflation and the
[49]

fiscal deficits were the two variables whose
contributions to higher wages were consistently
high and significant the first ones three times
more than the second ones.
The MGNREGA dummy variables impact was
actually negative, meaning that it was overall
Government spending rather than that for a single
scheme that drove up wages.
At the same time, based on reverse regressions,
the effect of wages on rural inflation was low even
while positive.
In other words, the unprecedented real wage

increase since 2007 may have been a one-time
phenomenon, linked to high growth, Government
spending, and food price spikes that had the
cumulative effect of raising the norms for fair
wages.
Contrary to what many believe, we may not
really be caught in a permanent wage-price spiral,
despite the Governments decision to index
MGNREGA wages to inflation. While indexation
may prevent inflationary expectations from
adjusting downwards, a rise in real wages can be
accommodated without inflation if there is
accompanying rise in productivity.
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Cyclical and monetary policy variables had an

even lower impact on rural inflation, while the
contribution of fiscal deficits was statistically not
significant. Lagged rural CPI had the largest
coefficient showing persistence.
Special Circumstances
These results suggests that it is the special

circumstances (after 2007-08) of very large
Government consumption spending, and repeated
food price peaks, that has driven the unusually
sharp rise in real wages in recent times.
However, since the impact of rural wages on

food prices wasnt so significant, it would point to
some rise in farm productivity. It also, then, rules
out a wage-price spiral.
Instead, our analysis suggests it was a series of
multiple supply shocks that really impacted food
pricesstarting with the global food price surge of
2007, monsoon failures in 2009, and episodes of
sharp rupee depreciation in 2008, 2011, and 2013.
The above multiple shocks raised social norms

of what was the fair subsistence wage to
compensate for food price jumps. The ambitious
programmes that the Government undertook,
aimed at transferring spending power, would also
have contributed to raising these norms. These
programmes were initially funded by the high
growth and revenues accruing to the Government
from it, and subsequently the post-crisis fiscal
stimulus.
Food inflation, nevertheless, remains a critical

concern. While real rural wage growth came down
to 2 per cent in August, it may have gone up
thereafter with vegetable prices once again driving
up food inflation.
The Government needs to act on removing the
impediments that prevent free movement of farm
produce, marketing monopolies and power
generation bottlenecks militating against creation
of cold storage infrastructure, along with reducing
unproductive transfers and spending for containing
fiscal deficits.
Onions are a staple in Indian diets; whenever
their prices have shot up, the anger of the electorate
has brought down governments. A cartoon in 1998
pictured Amartya Sen, who had just been awarded
the Economics Nobel, talking on the phone: Yes
Minister, thank you Minister, no, I do not have a
theory to bring down the price of onions.
Economists here have for long been suggesting
dismantling of intermediaries and allowing direct
marketing of perishables.
As onion prices have once again contributed to
electoral reversals of the main ruling party, the
Government has finally got cracking on this.
BREACHING BOUNDARIES
The biggest concern touched off by the Delhi

High Court judgment permitting a CAG audit of
private telecom companies has to do not so much
with the violation of their privacy but the change
or dilution in the objective of the CAG. If the
government received Rs 2,000 crore from the
telecom companies but reported
matter would fall within the CAGs jurisdiction.

But cheating or violation of contractual obligation
should be dealt with by investigative agencies or
contract law, not by the CAG. The government
needs to arrive at better contracts and audit
requirements in the contracts instead of burdening
the CAG.
Rs 1,000 crore to Parliament, for instance, the

[50]

taxes collected by the government? Could an
implication of this judgment be, then, that the
government may appoint the CAG to audit every
taxpayer who pays, or is liable to pay, any tax to
the government?
Through the CAG, Parliament can keep a check
over whether the executive is making expenditures
the legislature has not approved of. The Indian
governments accounts are in very bad shape. We
are yet to move to a double entry book-keeping
system. Moving the attention of the CAG to actions
of private companies may afford some glee in the
short term, but it may well prove to be harmful in
the long run.
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In interpreting the law to allow the CAG to

audit telecom companies, the court states: The rule
and the section fit perfectly into the constitutional
scheme of every rupee flowing into the Consolidated
Fund of India, by way of revenue, to be audited by
the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.
Before celebrating this as a victory of transparency
and a blow to crony capitalism, however, we should
pause and ask why the CAG was created and
whether it has a clear and defined objective. The
primary mandate of the CAG is to find accounting
violations of the government of India, to prevent
the government from making expenditure under
false pretenses or not recording income accurately.
All money due to the government of India goes to
the Consolidated Fund. Does this not include all
RIGAS NEW CURRENCY
Latvias entry this month as the Eurozones 18th

member-state, a decade after Rigas accession to
the European Union (EU), leaves Lithuania as the
lone Baltic nation still outside the currency bloc.
Not surprisingly, strong nationalist overtones have
reverberated in the rival stances in the population
of two million on the adoption of the beleaguered
euro. For, as many as five countries sharing the
common currency including Spain, the groups
fourth largest economy, had to be bailed out in the
wake of the credit, banking and housing crises.
Bemoaning the countrys third currency changeover in nearly 25 years, after the lats and the rouble
earlier, the no-euro camp has characterised euroentry as another sacrifice of national sovereignty.
Conversely, the champions of Rigas Eurozone entry
view membership as symbolic of the assertion of
the countrys European identity.
For the leadership of the crisis-ridden European
Union, meanwhile, Rigas entry is a rare
opportunity to tout the appeal of the euro. Brussels
remembers that neither the economic climate nor
the political reception was very different when
Estonia adopted the euro in 2011, in the previous
expansion of the currency union. Latvias
spectacular recovery from the ravages of the 2008
banking collapse and the virtues of economic
austerity is the dominant narrative. The run-up to
the so-called Baltic Tigers euro entry had raised

concerns about the countrys large foreign bank
deposits sourced from Russia, especially after the
huge run on Cypriot banks last April. Although
foreign money accounts for 50 per cent of Latvian
bank deposits, the size of the banking sector is small
relative to the overall economy, according to the
European Commission. Save in Lithuania, which
is expected to join in 2015, the prospect of
expansion of the Eurozone into the rest of the bloc
of 28 countries is extremely remote, both in the
states of the former Eastern Europe as well as in
Britain, Denmark and Sweden. The reasons for this
have to do largely with the rise of strong
Eurosceptic parties in some countries. In others,
apprehensions about the implications of joining a
monetary union that is still dithering on the question
of forging economic integration are among the
factors. But the reality in the medium term of a
two-speed Europe of euro ins and outs could take
a toll on the overall process of deeper and closer
European integration. The EU will no doubt
continue to muddle through. Its leaders have to
strive hard to deepen the democratic legitimacy of
its institutions to their own people. That would be
in the interest of the worlds single largest trading
bloc, as well as the rest of the world.
Source: The Hindu
THE POWER OF HOT BUBBLES
There is something off-kilter about the drive up

to Kamojang, the crater of Mt. Guntur in West
Java. Just before beginning the ascent I pass a bird
market, with brightly coloured songbirds in wooden
cages laid out in front of a mosque, standing

abruptly before a field of electrical power
transmission towers. The entire scene is framed by
the mountain itself, a hulking green creature pierced
[51]

ever so often with shooting columns of steam.
Panacea for energy woes

Geothermal energy is also clean and renewable.
If exploited, it can help Indonesia combat some of
the environmental impact of the massive
deforestation that has made it the worlds third
largest emitter of greenhouse gases.
With some 130 active volcanoes, Indonesia is a

hotbed of tectonic plate activity. Lying at the point
where the Eurasian plate constantly bumps up
against the Indo-Australian plate, volcanoes in the
archipelago have long been associated with
outsized eruptions, deaths and misery. The 1883
eruption of Krakatoa, for example, killed more than
36,000 people and is considered to be one of the
loudest sounds ever heard in modern history. Only
a few days before my trip to Kamojang, another
volcano in Sumatra, Mt. Sinabung, had erupted,
forcing the evacuation of thousands of villagers.
But Abadi Purnomo, chairman of the

Indonesian Geothermal Association and former
president director of Pertamina Geothermal Energy,
a subsidiary of the countrys state-owned oil and
gas major Pertamina, is pessimistic. He says the
governments lack of financial and policy assistance
to geothermal energy, has led to a stalling of the
majority of geothermal projects. Pertamina
currently has 14 projects around the country in
various stages of development, some of which are
run jointly with international energy firms like
Chevron and Star Energy.
But all this geological ferment is not an

unmitigated negative. The flip side of the
destruction is the availability of a vast amount of
geothermal energy that if harnessed, can provide
Indonesia with the kind of clean and reliable energy
source it is in desperate need of.
Geothermal plants cannot sell directly to

customers and must instead negotiate prices with
PLN, the state electricity company. The price is
simply not right, says Mr. Abadi. He points out
that Jakarta subsidises oil and diesel these fuel
subsidies will account for almost 200 trillion rupiah,
or 13.3 per cent of government revenue in this fiscal
but geothermal is largely left to fend for itself.
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But the strangeness of the moment only

accentuates my anticipation of coming face-tosteam with the source that could prove to be
Indonesias energy salvation: renewable, constant,
and plentiful geothermal energy.
Forty per cent of the worlds geothermal energy

resources are in fact located in the country with
the potential to provide 28 gigawatts (GW) of
energy, roughly equivalent to 12 billion barrels of
oil. And yet, three decades after the countrys first
geothermal plant at Kamojang was set up,
Indonesias total installed geothermal capacity of
1.4GW is only equivalent to four per cent of this
potential.
On a global scale this is a poor showing. Over

20 countries use geothermal energy to produce
electricity and even a neighbouring nation like the
Philippines which only has a 6GW potential,
already utilises about 33 per cent of its resources.
In Iceland, 25 per cent of the countrys total
electricity production is geothermal-based.
Indonesia ignores geothermal resources at its

own peril, and with global implications. The
country has been growing at around six per cent
in recent years, and is a huge consumer of oil.
Once a major oil exporter, Indonesia is today a net
oil importer, forced to quit its membership of the
Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries
in 2008. It currently imports some 400,000 barrels
of oil a day. By some estimates, its crude oil reserves
will be completely gone within 12 years. Oil imports
have led to a widening trade deficit, which in turn
adds to the countrys balance of payments and
currency woes.
[52]
Because the initial cost of exploration is high,

as are investments in setting up the plants, the
uncertainty regarding price means that the financial
risk of failure is a deterrent.
The Indonesian government has a target of
developing 9GW of installed geothermal energy
capacity by 2015, which would account for 12 per
cent of Indonesias total energy mix. But the gap
between current capacity and this goal is wide.
Even if all ongoing plans for geothermal
development reach fruition, these would only cover
third of the gap says Mr. Tavip Dwikorianto,
General Manager of Pertaminas Kamojang plant.
And without more financial support, it is far from
clear whether even plans already under way will
be successful.
Jakarta had announced a feed-in tariff for
geothermal energy earlier this year. However, Mr.
Abadi says the sector is still awaiting details. Without
price clarity and certainty there is no economic
feasibility for geothermal [energy], he states flatly.
In Kamojang, where a total of four power
plants with an installed capacity of 200MW are
already operational, plans are afoot for a fifth plant
with a 30MW capacity. Mr. Tavip hopes it will be
functional by 2015.
On-site
As I tour the site, I learn that Kamojang is
exceptionally well suited to electricity production
because of the availability of dry steam wells, with
little water content. The steam turns the turbines,
which generate electricity. The water that is
separated from the steam is reinjected into the
ground to replenish the resource.
I approach this fenced-off well gingerly, the

noise from the erupting steam is violent. The
surrounding mountain air is cool, but close to the
well it warms, abruptly. A toothless man in tattered
clothes spots me and comes running up. He vaults
over the fence and in a second stands next to the
gushing steam into which he floats empty plastic
bags. With a cackle he indicates to me to take his
picture, but my Pertamina hosts bundle me away
to look at the plants electricity grid.
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Frothy mud pools, and hot springs dot the

mountain, visible manifestations of the energy that
bubbles just below the earths surface. In fact the
very first attempts to tap the energy of volcanoes
in Indonesia were made in Kamojang. Back in
1926, when the country was still a Dutch colony,
five test borings were drilled here. Four of these

were eventually abandoned, but one still releases
steam, and is now a tourist attraction.
Source: The Hindu
ONE NATION, ONE GRID
The integration of the southern power grid with

the national grid fulfils a long-felt need of
consumers and state electricity utilities in the South.
The integration was achieved when the Power Grid
Corporation of India commissioned a 765-kilovolt
transmission line between Raichur and Solapur on
New Years Day, five months ahead of schedule.
The southern grid is the third largest in terms of
power consumption amongst the five regional grids
and is perennially starved of power. With a base
energy deficit of 7.7 per cent that shoots up to 12.5
per cent during peak hours (as per latest data from
the Central Electricity Authority), the southern grid
has been hamstrung by inadequate generation
capacity. The absence of synchronous connectivity
with the national grid meant that the southern
states could not take advantage of surplus power
available in other regions. Currently, the southern
grid has asynchronous connections with the other
grids that enable transmission of high voltage direct
current. But this is a cumbersome and inefficient
way to transmit power and the capacity is limited.
The completion of the commissioning process of
the Raichur-Solapur line will synchronise the
southern grid with the others in a single frequency
and allow seamless transmission across the country;
it will be a truly one-nation-one-grid that will have
232 giga watts of installed capacity at its disposal.
to be completed before the line becomes operational

in the next few months but there is little doubt that
it will help balance the power situation across the
country. The southern states can now purchase
power from the other regions to manage their
deficit, but more important is the nationwide
electricity market that will now come into being.
There is a large disparity in traded short-term
electricity prices between the south and the other
regions due to the absence of transmission links.
During the summer, for instance, traded electricity
prices in the South are typically twice or even thrice
the levels that prevail in the other regions.
Hopefully, such disparities will now be a thing of
the past. The responsibilities of the regulators and
grid managers are now that much higher with the
entire country united in a single grid. Lapses such
as those that caused the western and northern grids
to collapse on two consecutive days in July 2012
can lead to disastrous consequences in a unified
grid. The regulators also need to keep an eye out
on power exchanges and traders as their market
expands with the entry of the southern grid and
its eternally power-starved utilities. If integrating
the country into a single grid was a challenge, then
that will be rivalled by the task of efficiently
managing it.
Source: The Hindu
To be sure, there are still technical procedures
RUEING THE WAVES
SINCE October sightseers on the hills above

Edinburgh have gawped at a brand new landmark.
Across the Firth of Forth, on a test site, stands the
biggest wind turbine in Britain. The tips of its blades
rise 196m above sea level. Its rotor sweeps an area
twice as large as the London Eye. This monster

and others like it are bound for the North Sea
part of the biggest and most ambitious offshore
wind programme in the world.
[53]

Britain gets more electricity from offshore wind
farms than all other countries combined. In 2012 it
added nearly five times more offshore capacity than
Belgium, the next keenest nation, and ten times
more than Germany. Its waters already contain
more than 1,000 turbines, and the government
thinks capacity could triple in six years. Boosters
think Britain a global pioneer. Critics say ministers
are flogging a costly boondoggle.
Unfortunately, offshore wind power is

staggeringly expensive. Dieter Helm, an economist
at Oxford University, describes it as among the
most expensive ways of marginally reducing carbon
emissions known to man. Under a subsidy system
unveiled late in 2013, the government guarantees
farms at sea 155 ($250) per megawatt hour for
their juice. That is three times the current wholesale
price of electricity and about 60% more than is
promised to onshore turbines. It is also more than
the 92.50 which Britains new nuclear plant at
Hinkley Point will getthough that deal is for 35
years, not 15.
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Two things explain Britains enthusiasm for

offshore wind turbines. First, the country is
committed by European law to generate about 30%
of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020,
up from about 13% now. Nuclear energy does not
count and Britain is well behind on solar power,
which means lots more wind turbines and biomass
plants (mostly wood-burning power stations) will
be required.
but little capacity. America has only a single

prototype turbine.
Ten-metre waves and salty gales are just two

of the hazards that keep offshore costs high.
Second-world-war bombs on the seabed are slowing
new projects in Germany; in December Scottish
Power, an energy firm, scrapped plans for 300
turbines on a site filled with basking sharks.
The government wants offshore generators to
slash costs by about one-third by 2020. The price
of energy from offshore farms has actually risen
since Britain built its first turbines at sea in the
early 2000s, in part because developers are putting
them in ever deeper waters, farther from land. But
costs now appear to be stabilising. Operators claim
bigger turbines can bring prices down. Simpler
models that break less ought to help matters, too.
In some places floating wind farms could prove
cheaper than fixed foundations. To cut losses from
outages, offshore operators are investing in
helicopters to whizz engineers to stricken turbines
when seas are too rough for boats.
The simplest solution would be to put more

wind turbines on land. But they are unpopular
with locals: rural voters have harried several
Conservative MPs into outright opposition. So
Britain is building much of its new capacity at sea.
Offshore turbines supply less than 3% of Britains
juice but about one-fifth of its renewable power
(see chart). That share is rising.
The second reason for ministers enthusiasm is

that they spy a chance to conquer a growing global
market. Miles of shallow sea give Britain an
unrivalled opportunity to experiment with
technologies it may one day lucratively export,
much as North Sea oil has turned Scotland into a
hub of hydrocarbon expertise. China and Japan
have a growing appetite for offshore generators
[54]
Another hitch is that much of the money

lavished on building offshore wind farms leaves
the country. Only about 25% of capital spending
flows through British companies, compared with
70% of the cash invested in North Sea oil and gas.
Almost all of the countrys existing offshore turbines
were produced by two firms, Siemens and Vestas,
which manufacture them in Denmark. Fleets from
continental ports commonly construct the farms.
The government hopes British firms will one
day shoulder at least half of the work new offshore
farms require. Its industrial strategy, published in
August, tries to give small businesses a leg up. But
whereas local companies are already good at many
footling jobs, the real prize would be tempting a
turbine manufacturer to build a British factory.
Lacklustre facilities at ports near the farms are one
significant obstacle.

emissions in 2030 and extending its support for
new wind farms from 15 years to 25 years. In
December, partly in response to such concerns,
DECC tweaked its subsidies to provide more cash
to offshore farms that begin construction at the
end of the decade. It reaffirmed that Britain could
have over 40GW of offshore capacity by 2030, if
costs fall quickly. That would mean offshore
turbines supplying about a third of Britains power.
Yet hefty subsidies will only get harder to defend
as bill-payers grow angrier about rising energy
prices. And Britain is not the only country
questioning its support for costly, complex offshore
generation. In 2012 European offshore deployment
fell 14% behind its target; in November 2013
politicians in Germany agreed to slash that
countrys objective from 10GW in 2020 to 6.5GW.
One day mammoth offshore turbines might herald
cheaper power. For now they only supersize the
gamble.
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The industry says offshore wind power would

become cheaper more quickly, and boost Britains
economy, if the government agrees to build lots
more offshore farms. The Department of Energy
and Climate Change (DECC) says that 10 gigawatts
(GW) of offshore capacity is achievable by 2020.
That is three times the amount already deployed,
and would provide about the same capacity as
Britains nine nuclear power stations combined
(although wind farms produce power only about a
third of the time). Still, ministers once had loftier
ambitions. Wind-farm operators worry that the
government will divert subsidies to other kinds of
low-carbon generation, such as nuclear and gasfired stations.
The Institute for Public Policy Research, a thinktank, warns that half-hearted investment in offshore
power could leave Britain in the worst of all
worldsa moderate amount of offshore energy,
supplied at whopping cost and to little economic
benefit. Enthusiasts want the government to boost
investment by setting a binding target for carbon
Source: The Economist
MOTHER CARE
One of Indias most shameful scandals has been

the number of women who die daily from childbirth
complications human tragedies that could have
been so easily averted with better pregnancy
monitoring and access to safer delivery. While
childbirth-related deaths occur around the
world,countries with poor public health
infrastructure find it harder to identify and manage
complications like eclampsia and sepsis. Adequate
nourishment is another problem. In India,more than
half of married women were found to be anaemic,in
2006. Now,new data from the Registrar General of
India shows that the maternal mortality rate has
fallen to 178 per 1,00,000 live births,a remarkable
drop over the last decade. It was 398 in 2002-04,and
has declined steadily since,even though the
millennium development goal commitment of 108
remains unmet. States with better demographic and
socio-economic indicators like Kerala and Tamil
Nadu have long outpaced the national average,but
it turns out that the most impressive changes have
been achieved in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.
Assam,the worst-performing state for a long
time,has also registered a sharp fall in such deaths.
So what gives? To some extent,the states
persistent efforts to improve pre-natal care,and

encourage institutional deliveries,focusing
particularly on the eight worst-off states. Many poor
and rural women are understandably reluctant to
travel great distances to submit to the care of a
clinic or hospital,even though institutional delivery
is the most assured way to reduce maternal
morbidity. The Janani Suraksha Yojana,launched
in April 2005 under the umbrella of the National
Rural Health Mission,gives cash incentives to
women to have babies in hospitals,rather than at
home. It also employs a network of accredited social
health workers to link rural communities with
government medical centres,from facilitating
checkups for pregnant women and providing
supplements to identifying women facing greater
risks and referring them to higher-level health
facilities.
While these schemes acknowledge maternal
health as a priority,it will take much more to turn
the numbers around. The lack of nutrition and
health-awareness among pregnant women is a
consequence of gender inequity and poverty.
Combating those will be a harder haul.
[55]
MANGLED MESSAGES
any doubt about her diplomatic status.
Following the petty tit-for-tat in which
diplomats everywhere are schooled, India has taken
reprisals: the security roadblocks outside the
American embassy in Delhi were removed;
investigations are under way into what American
diplomats paid their domestic staff; import
clearances for the American embassy were halted.
At least no one, so far, has followed through the
suggestion from a senior politician that the samesex partners of some diplomats should be arrested
for flouting Indias newly reinstated ban on
homosexuality.
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Plenty of boulders have blocked the path to the

closer friendship that Indian and American leaders
say they seek for their countries. Civil nuclear cooperation, the issue that above all symbolises the
partnership they aspire to, remains stunted by a
row over Indian legislation on the liability for
accidents. Security ties are constrained by Indias
fear of being seen as part of an American-led antiChina axis. Trade relations are fraught with
bickering over patents, visas, market access and
the transfer of technology. In comparison, the
dispute that has opened the biggest rift between
the two countries in years looks like a pebble. It
centres on the treatment of Devyani Khobragade,
an Indian diplomat in New York. She was arrested
in December for allegedly falsifying documents used
to obtain a visa for the Indian citizen she employed
as a maid and nanny. She is accused of claiming
to pay her more than she actually did, which was
below the statutory minimum in America. She was
freed on bail.
Indias government, arguing that Ms

Khobragade, a consular official, enjoyed diplomatic
immunity, was outraged at both the fact and
manner of her arrest. She was reportedly picked
up outside her daughters school in Manhattan and
subjected in her words, to the indignities of
repeated handcuffing, stripping and cavity
searches, swabbing, in a hold-up with common
criminals and drug addicts. The prosecutor in
Manhattan has denied some of this, and insisted
she was accorded courtesies well beyond what
other defendantsare accorded. But for Indian
politicians and commentators it all amounted to a
scandalous breach of diplomatic protocol and an
almost calculated insult to Indian dignity. The case,
thundered Salman Khurshid, the foreign minister,
is no longer about an individual. It is about our
sense of self as a nation and our place in the world.
Indian fury mounted when it emerged that the

family of the nanny, Sangeeta Richard, had been
spirited out of India with American assistance, to
protect them from alleged harassment. Americas
secretary of state, John Kerry, called Indias national
security adviser, Shivshankar Menon, to express
regret for the way the arrest was handled. But no
formal apology was offered. This week it was
reported that the prosecution will go ahead, and
that the State Department has yet to approve Indias
request to transfer Ms Khobragade to a new job in
Indias mission at the United Nations, removing
[56]
The governments strong stance seemed to reflect

genuine popular anger. It helped, perhaps, that
Ms Khobragade was an attractive heroine, an
Indian success story. She is a Dalit, a member of
the group at the foot of the Indian caste system
once known as untouchables and still often victims
of discrimination. Most educated Indians, having
had servants at home themselves, seemed to have
an instinctive understanding of the case. They
believed that a streetwise servant, looking for a
better life in America, had schemed against her
employer and had succeeded in duping gullible
American do-gooders.
That the main American protagonist in the saga,
the New York prosecutor, Preet Bharara, is of
Indian origin in some ways has made matters worse.
In a post on the Times of India website Swapan
Dasgupta, a commentator, wrote that the episode
has made Indians at home and those who live in
the West turn on each other. The Indian press has
portrayed Mr Bharara as an ambitious would-be
politician looking for high-profile cases to boost his
career. He was already well known for the
prosecution of ethnic Indians in an insider-trading
case. Indians in America, in contrast, have by and
large applauded Mr Bharara for trying to enforce
American laws. They have chosen the values of
their adopted home over their ancestral one.
Those new values, as Mr Bharara put it, include
holding accountable anyone who breaks the law
no matter what their societal status and no matter
how powerful, rich or connected they are. And
Ms Khobragade is indeed well-off. Among various
properties she owns is one in a development in
Mumbai, Adarsh, which was the centre of a scandal
because, though built for army families, many units
were bought cheaply by the well-connected.
Victim mentality
It would be wrong however to interpret Indian

rage over Ms Khobragades misfortunes merely as
a defence of the inalienable human right of the
Indian well-to-do to exploit domestic labour. Rather,
at a time when America insists it sees India as an
equal partner, the cack-handed manner of the arrest
fuelled the resentment India feels at still being
patronised, bullied and lectured by the superpower.
It feels treated, in other words, rather like a
domestic servant.
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So for Mr Bharara and many other Americans,

the victim in this story is not the humiliated Ms
Khobragade but her allegedly mistreated servant,
Ms Richard. He has queried why, with so much
Indian outrage gushing over the case, so little has
been spent on her. Ms Khobragade is the third
Indian diplomat in New York to run into trouble
in recent years over the employment of servants.
So one explanation offered for the strength of the
reaction to this case is that India is scared of classaction lawsuits from hundreds of underpaid
servants in America. To most Indiansservant and
employer alikethe New York minimum of $7.25

an hour (raised this week to $8) would seem an
inconceivable fortune.
[57]
CHRONICLE
IAS ACADEMY

Call: 9953120676, 9582263947

CONTENTS
TOPICS
Pg. No.
National ......................................................................................................................... 3-8

International ............................................................................................................... 9-11
India and the World .............................................................................................12-14
Economy .................................................................................................................... 15-17
Science & Technology .......................................................................................... 18-19
Health ......................................................................................................................... 20-22
News in Brief........................................................................................................... 23-26
Editorials from Newspapers................................................................................. 27-58
Turmoil In the Heart of Africa ..................................................................................................... 28
Easing tensions in the Palk Bay ..................................................................................................... 29
A new paradigm for inclusion ....................................................................................................... 29
Justice in judicial appointment ..........................................................................................................
Scoring over polio ............................................................................................................................ 32
Safeguarding ancient treasures ...................................................................................................... 32
Power with responsibility .............................................................................................................. 33
Testing the limits .............................................................................................................................. 33
Estrangement and engagement ..................................................................................................... 34
Environment and development ..................................................................................................... 36
Arming India into dependency ..................................................................................................... 37
Knowledge as power ....................................................................................................................... 39
Inject investment into biotech ........................................................................................................ 41
Learning in schools .......................................................................................................................... 42
Political stalemate defangs SEBI ................................................................................................... 43

Can benefits be tied to the vote?.................................................................................................... 44
One size will not fit all .................................................................................................................... 45
The road ahead for an anarchic currency ..................................................................................... 47
The trouble with taxes ..................................................................................................................... 48
Vaccines can change childrens future ......................................................................................... 48
Our poorly written Lokpal ............................................................................................................ 50
Because we can ................................................................................................................................. 51
Public in the private ....................................................................................................................... 52
Building bridges over the sea ....................................................................................................... 53
Learning from success .................................................................................................................... 54
Opportunity lost.............................................................................................................................. 55
Too grand to work .......................................................................................................................... 57
Two shades of immunity ............................................................................................................... 58
NATIONAL
INDIA DOING WELL TO PROTECT CHILD RIGHTS: STUDY
good education, health and protection outcomes,
nor have they necessarily promoted childrens voices
in decision-making at local and national levels.
Overall, Sri Lanka has the highest score in the

child-friendliness index though all countries,
including Afghanistan and Pakistan, have made
important progress in most of the themes covered
by the report.
There is need to better ensure childrens legally

enforceable right to health, education, protection
and participation, and to ensure that the structural
framework in place has the power to create change,
says the report.
The South Asian Report on the Childfriendliness of Governments evaluates the efforts
of the governments at fulfilling the obligations
under the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Stronger mechanisms are needed to translate

new laws, policies and institutions into meaningful
entitlements and services for children; data
collection should be used more systematically to
track progress; and further collective efforts of
governments, inter-governmental organisations,
non-state actors, communities and children are
necessary, nurturing a cadre of child rights
professionals and activists. Of the greatest
importance is inclusion of childrens issues at the
highest political level in national planning,
budgeting and governance.
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According to a survey conducted by the South

Asia Initiative to End Violence Against Children
a SAARC apex body revealed that India has
done the most towards establishing an enabling
legal and policy framework for children in the
SAARC region, closely followed by Nepal,
Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. On the other hand,
Maldives, Bhutan and Sri Lanka have scored very
well on health, education and child protection
outcomes including birth registration and chid
marriage.
Since 2000 in particular, governments in the

region have put in place a basic enabling
framework of laws, policies and institutions for
implementation of the Convention and made
important progress in childrens health and
education. However, countries that did the most
for putting in place an enabling structural
framework have not always been able to ensure
Despite the progress, 500 million South Asians

still live in extreme poverty, and there are great
disparities between rich and poor children.
Inequalities, gender discrimination and conflicts
based on religion, caste and ethnicity deeply affect
children, who are also influenced by social norms
condoning child labour, child marriage and corporal
punishment.
CENSUS UNDER REPORTS MENTAL ILLNESS COUNT
Widely welcomed as a progressive move, mental

illness was carved out as a separate category for
Census 2011. The findings released recently,
however, estimate that only 7.2 lakh people across
India suffer from mental illness, a figure suspected
to be grossly underestimated. In 2011, health
minister Ghulam Nabi Azad himself on the floor
of the Lok Sabha estimated 6-7% of Indias
population to be suffering from mental illnesses.
At a conservative estimate, this would translate
into more than 7 crore people, a far-cry from the
Census modest figure.
Accurate estimates are crucial as they determine
[4]
the allocation of resources for prevention and

treatment of mental illnesses. In other words, undercounting could adversely affect the budget allocated
to the National Mental Health Programme (NMHP),
distort the requirement of psychiatric professionals,
counsellors and social workers and skew the
demand for hospital beds.
Some difference in figures could be definitional
because different illnesses are included in the broad
category of mental illness. But most psychiatrists,
including Dr P Satishchandra, director of
NIMHANS (National Institute of Mental Health and
Neuro Sciences), have dismissed the count as being

too low. It is widely accepted that 3% of the
general population suffers from major mental
illness, while 20-30% suffers from minor disorders
such as anxiety, phobia, alcohol or drug addiction,
or attention deficit disorder in children,
Satishchandra said, pointing out that correct
estimates were essential for laying down public
health policies, planning and determining how
minimal resources could be distributed optimally.
The correct figures and the subsequent planning
are all the more crucial as mental health has long

been ignored in India. The health ministry
acknowledges a shortfall in resources to tackle
rising mental illness among people. Going by an
assessment of the NMHP in December 2013, there
are merely 3,800 psychiatrists across the country
though the requirement is as high as 11,500. Not
surprisingly, the World Health Organisation says
the treatment gap for mental illnesses in developing
countries like India is as high as 90%.
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GOVT UNVEILS NEW LAND POLICY FOR MAJOR PORTS
The Shipping Ministry unveiled the muchawaited land policy guidelines for 12 major ports
in the country that will help them to undertake
various development projects on a tender-cumauction basis.
The new guidelines provided for a transparent
mechanism for leasing and licensing of land in
possession of major ports inside the custom bonded
areas for short term licenses (from 11 months to
five years) and outside the custom bonded areas
on long term leases (for a maximum of 30 years).
With the approval of the Union Cabinet, a
major hurdle that prevented the growth of major
ports had been removed. Till recently, major ports
were not permitted to allot lands on short-term
licenses or long-term leases, whereas the minor
ports were not having such problems. The new
policy would enable us to become competitive. Even
those who do not have exposure to port activities
can take part in port projects.
One of the salient features of the new policy is
that the land can be allotted to government
agencies, public sector undertakings and statutory
authorities on nomination basis. It cannot be given
to religious institutions or political institutions. The
policy also provides guidelines for mortgages, subleases, transfer and right of way permissions.
All the 12 major ports of the country are

required to draw land use plan covering all land
owned or managed by them. The new guidelines
are applicable to all major ports in India except for
the land relating to township areas in Mumbai,
Kolkata and Kandla.
The new policy guidelines for land management
are part of the on going process of port reforms
and liberalisation.
While major ports, owned by the Centre operate
in a comparatively more regulated environment,
the non-major ports, comprising state ports and
private ports enjoy substantial degree of flexibility.
The 12 major ports in India - Kandla, Mumbai,
JNPT, Marmugao, New Managlore, Cochin,
Chennai,
Ennore,
V
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Chidambarnar,
Visakhapatnam, Paradip and Kolkata (including
Haldia) handle approximately 61 per cent of cargo
traffic. During 2013-14, it is planned to augment
port capacity by 220 million tonnes per annum
(MTPA) through 30 port projects.
Out of these 20 port projects, with a capacity
of 100 MTPA have already been approved. The
remaining projects, including the Rs 8,000 crore
JNPT Terminal-4, are likely to be approved during
fourth quarter of current fiscal.
INITIATIVES TO IMPROVE IITS POSITION IN INTL RANKING
Eager to make a mark on international ranking

lists for educational institutions, the Indian
Institutes of Technology (IITs) recently decided to
step up inter-disciplinary research collaborations
tailored to meet the national development agenda
and open the premier engineering institutions to
more foreign students at the post-graduate and
research levels.
In advocating greater intake of foreign students,
the IITs see a double-advantage. First, it will help
internationalise IITs. As per the report of the IIT
Ranking Committee which was presented and
accepted at the Retreat IITs are weak, almost
nowhere, on internationalisation as per the
criterion of the ranking agencies.
Like their own alumni who have returned from

foreign universities to work in India but continue
to fondly recall their campus days overseas, the
hope is that foreign students of IITs would become
IIT brand ambassadors.
As for collaborations, a pan-IIT approach
would be adopted both with the various PSUs and
ICMR. In the case of ICMR, the effort would be to
develop surgical implements in India to contain
the cost of treatment. More than the monopoly that
some international companies have over surgical
implements, a bigger issue pertains to mindset. With
some IITs having already begun work on this front,
the directors said that many an Indian doctor was
reluctant to use indigenously developed implements
on the premise that lives are at stake.
[5]

As for ONGC and BHEL, it was decided that
workshops would be organised to help identify
requirements of the two specific industries.
According to officials, ONGC has indicated interest
in increasing research investment in IITs to have
these institutions as research referral units for
the oil company. Again, the effort would be to
adopt a pan-IIT approach so that ONGC does not
have to scout for which IIT is best positioned for
collaboration in a particular field.
Also, the IITs have decided to set up design

schools to develop a design spine in engineering
education. As per a concept note, this would be
done by not just making design an autonomous
field of education by establishing centres or
departments for design in IITs but also ensuring
that design thinking percolates into other areas of
expertise.
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9TH ASE REPORT LEARNING LEVELS COME

DOWN: PRATHAM
Prathams ninth Annual Status of Education
Report (ASER) released recently shows that school
education in rural India is a mixed bag of
improving parameters like enrolment and
compliance to Right to Education norms but
declining learning outcomes.
Finer points of the survey are as follow:
1. Over 96% of all rural children in the age
group of 6 to 14 were going to school.
2. There was further good news as proportion
of girls in the age group of 11 to 14 not
enrolled in schools dropped from 6% in 2012
to 5.5% in 2013.
3. Uttar Pradesh made the biggest progress as
the percentage dropped from 11.5% in 2012
to 9.4% in 2013.
4. Rajasthan remains a cause for worry as the
proportion of out of school girls aged 11 to
14 - rose for the second consecutive year, from
8.9% in 2011 to 11.2% in 2012 to 12.1% in 2013.
5. Though ASER pointed to poor learning level
of children, there was almost negligible
increase in enrolment in private schools; 29%
in 2013 to 28.3% in 2012.
6. There were wide variations in private school
enrolment. For instance, in Manipur and
Kerala, more than two-thirds of all children
in the 6 to 14 age group were enrolled in
private schools, while less than 10% were in
private schools in Tripura (6.7%), West Bengal
(7%), and Bihar (8.4%).
7. But the prevalence of private tuition was on
the rise across India. In Tripura, more than
60% of children in class I-V took private tuition
and in West Bengal, it was over 70%. States
like Bihar (52.2%), Odisha (51.2%) and
Manipur (38.9%) also had high incidence of
children taking private tuition.
8.. For the first time, ASER measured the amount
families spend on private tuition and found
that 68.4% of class I-V government school
children who went to private tutors paid Rs
[6]
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
100 or less per month.

Among private school students of class I-V,
36.7% paid Rs 100 or less per month and the
same proportion paid Rs 101 to Rs 200 per
month for private tuition.
The report said nationally, the proportion of
class III students who could read at least a
class I level paragraph had risen slightly from
38.8% in 2012 to 40.2% in 2013.
ASER claimed the increase was mainly on
account of improvement among private
school children. Among class III students in
government schools, the proportion who
could read class I text remained unchanged
from 2012 at 32%. Class III students of
Jammu & Kashmir and Punjab showed
steady improvement in reading ability.
Proportion of class V children who could read
class II level text remained static since 2012
at 47%. In 2009, the proportion was 52.8%.
Class V government school children who
could read class II text declined from 50.3%
in 2009 to 41.1% in 2013. More than 60%
class V government school students of
Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Mizoram and
Kerala could read class II texts.
In arithmetic, 18.9% of class III students in
government schools could do basic subtraction
or more, compared to 44.6% of class III
students in private schools. ASER claimed that
in 2010, 33.2% children in class III in
government schools could do subtraction but
since then, there has been a gradual decline.
Also, the proportion of class V students who
could solve a three digit by one digit division
problem increased slightly, from 24.9% in
2012 to 25.6%. Among class V children in
government schools, 20.8% could do this level
of division in 2013. In private schools, this
figure was 38.9%. But in Himachal Pradesh,
Punjab and Mizoram, more than 40%
government school children could do three
digit by one digit division problems.
NCERT survey presents a different picture
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A day before Prathams ASER was released,

parts of NCERTs National Achievement Survey
(NAS) for Class III was partially shared at a
function to commemorate three years of Right to
Education Act. NAS gave a very encouraging
picture of learning outcomes in mathematics and
language, though it acknowledged a lot remained
to be achieved.
NAS, unlike ASER, did not use class I level
text or arithmetic questions to test class III students.
It tested class III students with class-specific
questions.
Faced with consistent criticism that NAS was
more robust and scientific than ASERs mapping
of learning outcomes, Prathams report this year
devoted three pages pooh-poohing NAS on all
counts - tools, process, test, sampling, coverage and concluding that the two surveys were different
and could not be compared.
In fact, experts associated with NAS asked a
basic question about ASER. Since 2008, how come
Madhya Pradesh, that was among top five states
in 2008 in class I and II, disappeared from the
performers list in 2009. Similarly, Chhattisgarh,
that was in the top five performing states in class
III to V, was not among the top next year. What
happened? Is it that the level of teaching went
down dramatically or was there a problem with
the survey? These are unanswered questions about
ASER. A closer scrutiny of ASER shows that while
MP joined the worst performing five states for
class III to V in 2011 and 2012, Chhattisgarh is
not even in the reckoning.

Coming back to NAS, it was conducted in 34
states, 298 districts, 7046 schools and 1.04 lakh
students in urban and rural India. In language,
NAS said 65% children were able to listen and
respond correctly, about 86% children were able
to recognize pictures given in the question and
nearly 59% children were able to read,
comprehend and answer questions correctly which
included inferences, comparisons, locating
information and interpretation.
The result was further analyzed. It revealed
that while students in states like MP, J&K, Punjab,
UP, Rajasthan, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Assam
and Arunachal Pradesh scored below the average
score, Andhra Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh
scored equal to group average and coastal states
like Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu,
Goa and Kerala scored more than the average.
In gender terms, NAS revealed there was no
gender difference in learning levels in most states,
barring MP, where boys did better and HP where
girls did better. Not much difference was noticed
among urban and rural students barring J&K,
Punjab, Bihar and West Bengal where urban
students did better.
In mathematics, NAS revealed that 68% could
recognize numbers, 74% could do addition of two
digit numbers, 54% could do subtraction of three
digit numbers, 70% could solve multiplication
sums, 67% could recognize geometric shapes, 85%
could solve time measurement sums and 84% could
do basic data handling sums.
REPORT ON INDIAS LABOUR MARKET ILO
According to new report on Indias labour

market by International Labour Office the
government has generated more jobs, but 85% of
the 17 million new formal sector jobs created
between 2009-10 and 2011-12 offer no employment
benefits and social security. In a 10-year report card
released ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan
Singhs press meet, the government has cited Indias
unemployment rate falling from 8.4% in 2004-05
to 5.6% in 2011-12 as one of its biggest
achievements. The ILO analysis, however, warns
about the sharp dip in the quality of employment
opportunities created in UPA-IIs first three years.
The trend, according to labour market experts,
means that those who got jobs created in recent
years are extremely vulnerable to the loss of
livelihood in downturns like the current slump in
the countrys industrial economy.
Warning that the current economic downturn

will have a negative impact on the labour market as
a consequence of depressed investment and
consumer spending, the ILO has said that outcomes
in Indias job market have lagged economic trends
as reflected by the period of jobless growth from
2004-05 to 2009-10. Just 1.1 million jobs were created
between 2004-05 and 2009-10, but nearly 14 million
jobs were created between 2009-10 and 2011-12.
While the unemployment rate had indeed
shrunk in 2011-12, when the last official survey
was done, the economy has been in a downward
spiral since then. Growth slipped to a decade-low
of 4.96% in 2012-13, with industrial growth
touching a two-decade low of 2.1%.
[7]
Cabinet nods Tilaiya project

The Cabinet Committee on Investment has
cleared Reliance Powers 4000 MW ultra mega
power project at Tilaiya in Jharkand, advising
Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) to take
necessary steps to treat it at par with Central
Government undertaking project for the purpose
of rules for compensatory afforestation.
Under the clearance given by CCI headed by
Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, Reliance Power
may not have to provide non-forest land to
compensate for the loss of forest land acquired for
the proposed plant. The plant will now be on a
par with the other public sector projects and
therefore would be exempted from providing
compensatory afforestation for the loss of forest
land. At present, only central government or public
sector undertakings have exemption from the
obligation to provide non-forest land.
THE CCI asked MoEF to issue necessary
clarification immediately to the Forest Department
of Jharkhand that Tilaiya UMPP and related mines
for use of 19.44 metric tonne per annum as
indicated in the project information report may be
treated at par with Central Government projects
so that balance land for the power plant could be
transferred immediately to the developer.
The Cabinet note states that the developer, in
addition to cost of compensatory afforestation on
double the diverted forest land, be also asked to
deposit the cost of land required for the above
compensatory aofforestation.
Tilaiya UMPP is to be executed by a Special
Purpose Vehicle (SPV), Jharkhand Integrated
Power Ltd, which was handed over to Reliance
Power in January 2009 by Power Finance
Corporation the nodal agency for UMPPs. Tilaiya
would be the fourth UMPP to be awarded to a
developer after Sasan (Madhya Pradesh),
Krishnapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) and Mundra
UMPP in Gujarat.
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The situation has worsened this year, with

growth at 4.6% in the first six months and
industrial activity shrinking by 0.2% in the first
eight months.
Informal sector jobs accounted for 90% of Indias
workforce till 2000, but engaged only 82.2% by
2011-12 - which, on the surface, suggests that more
formal jobs are being created. But thats not the
case. From 2009-10 to 2011-12, employment in the
organised sector increased by 17.2 million. However,
84.9% of this increase was due to a rise in informal
work in the organised sector.
A five-year old government plan to ensure that

informal workers in the formal sector, who are
usually hired on a contractual basis directly or
through contractors, get social security and other
job benefits on par with regular employees has gone
nowhere due to resistance from government
departments and PSUs who also rely heavily on
such contract workers.
The plan was to amend the 1971 Contract
Labour Act so that the rising contractualisation of
the workforce doesnt foment industrial unrest due
to unequal working conditions and salaries between
workers and regular employees.
DO NOT INSIST ON ADDRESS OF RTI APPLICANT CENTRE
The Ministry of Personnel has written to all

central government ministries or departments, who
act as public authorities mandated with providing
information on RTI applications made to them,
citing a judgement by Calcutta High Court in this
regard.
When the legislature thought it fit, the

applicant need not disclose any personal detail,
the authority should not insist upon his detailed
whereabouts particularly when post box number
is provided for establishing contact between him
[8]
and the authority. In case the authority would find

any difficulty with the post box number, they may
insist upon personal details. However, in such case,
it would be the solemn duty of the authority to
hide such information and particularly from their
website so that people at large would not know of
the details, the High Court judgement said.
The order had come following a writ petition
by Avishek Goenka who sought courts direction
that authority should not insist upon the detailed
address of the applicant as and when any application
is made under the Right to Information Act.

The interested parties could cause a threat to
the activist and there have been past incidents of
unnatural deaths of activists in the field, presumably
by persons having vested interest to conceal the
information that is asked for by the activist, the
petitioner had said.
Disposing of the petition on 20th November,
last year, the court had directed Secretary, Ministry

of Personnel, to circulate a copy of its order to all
concerned so that the authority can take
appropriate measures to hide information with
regard to personal details of the activists to avoid
any harassment by the persons having vested
interest.
MORE FINANCIAL AUTONOMY TO CBI

the Opposition. During the debate on the Lokpal
Bill, the Opposition had suggested that the CBI
should have two wings one for prosecution and
other for investigation. Both the Director CBI and
Director of Prosecution must have a fixed term,
the BJP MPs had said in a note to the select
committee of Rajya Sabha on the Bill.
The party had also demanded that both Director
CBI and Director Prosecution, should not be
considered for re-employment in Government. The
power of superintendence and direction of the CBI
in relation to Lokpal-referred cases must vest with
Lokpal.
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With the aim to provide greater financial

autonomy the Central Government relaxed its
control over the Central Bureau of Investigation
(CBI) and granted the CBI director a rank equal to
a Secretary.
With this the CBI Director could now approve
projects worth Rs. 15 crore in a year. The Director
is given a free hand to appoint consultants and
employ people on contract in the investigating
agency.
The debate on CBIs autonomy had gained
momentum after complaints from the Opposition
that Congress was using it to intimidate allies and
TN-IAMWARM PROJECT
Water has always been a big problem for

farmers. Dr. K. Ramasamy, Vice Chancellor, Tamil
Nadu Agriculture University has taken strenuous
efforts to improve the living standards of a group
of Scheduled Caste/ Scheduled Tribe farmers of
the Periyakalakkadi village on the outskirts of
Chennai through World Bank funded TNIAMWARM (Irrigated Agricultural Management
and Water Resources Management) project. The
project helps farmers to manage water resources
like lakes, ponds and dams in an integrated manner
to increase productivity.
Initially, drip irrigation was laid out in 60 acres
and sprinklers in 27 acres. Vegetables like brinjal,
bhendi, cluster bean, moringa, curry leaf and
tuberose are now being grown on them. This move
has increased farmers daily income of more than
Rs.1,000.
IAMWARM is a water management project in
the arid Indian state of Tamil Nadu that aims to
facilitate efficient irrigation practices by local
farmers. Its objectives are:
1. Improving irrigation service delivery including
adoptation of modern water-saving irrigation
technologies.
2. Forming water users associations and
involving farmers inwater resources
management.
3. Agricultural
intensification
and
diversification.
4. Strengthening institutions and instruments
dealing with water resources management.
5. Stabilise & increase the area (hectares) served

by irrigation systems in 63 sub-basins.
6. Increase in agricultural productivity and
stakeholder income.
7. Enhanced farm income adopting allied sectors
through increase in fish production and
livestock output.
8. Increase in marketable surplus and
commodity arrivals to markets.
9. Improved knowledge base and analytical
capacity development for water resources
management.
Drip Irrigation
Drip irrigation, also known as trickle irrigation

or micro irrigation or localized irrigation, is an
irrigation method that saves water and fertilizer
by allowing water to drip slowly to the roots of
plants, either onto the soil surface or directly onto
the root zone, through a network of valves, pipes,
tubing, and emitters. It is done through narrow
tubes that deliver water directly to the base of the
plant.

[9]
INTERNATIONAL
98.1 PER CENT BACK EGYPT CONSTITUTION
era constitution and a major source of tension
between rights groups and the military since
the ouster of autocrat Hosni Mubarak in the
countrys 2011 revolution.
The draft gives the President the right to
appoint a Prime Minister and gives
Parliament two chances to support the
presidents choices, or be disbanded. The
timeframe for forming a Cabinet is 60 days.
For the first time, Parliament has the power
to remove an elected president and prosecute
him over a list of crimes. Lawmakers can
withdraw confidence from the president and
call for early elections if they have a twothirds majority and after a public referendum.
The draft says the freedom of belief is
absolute.
The draft prohibits political activity or the
establishment of political parties based on
religion, dealing a blow to movements like
the Muslim Brotherhood, its Freedom and
Justice
party,
and
Al-Nour,
an
ultraconservative Salafi party.
The draft ensures equality between men and
women, and says the state must take
necessary measures to guarantee women have
proper representation in legislative councils,
hold senior public and administrative posts
and are appointed to judicial institutions. It
obligates the state to provide protection to
women against any form of violence.
The draft says the state is bound to all
international agreements, including human
rights covenants, already signed by Egypt.
The new charter gives authorities 24 hours
for those arrested to be referred to
interrogators where a lawyer must be present.
The right for detainees to remain silent is
ensured. Detainees have the right to appeal
a detention order before a court within a
week or be set free.
The draft prohibits forced displacement,
which Coptic Christians and other minorities
suffered as a result of sectarian tensions or
government expansionist plans.
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In a referendum 98.1 per cent of Egyptian voters

have approved a new, military-backed constitution
of the nation. The High Election Commission said
that 38.6 per cent of the countrys more than 53
million eligible voters took part in the first poll.
Thats 20.5 million voters casting ballots.
This is the first vote since the military removed
Egypts first freely elected president, Mohammed
Morsi, following massive protests in July. Officials
view the vote as key in legitimising the countrys
military-acked interim government and its plan for
parliamentary and presidential elections.
But a boycott by Islamists and low youth turnout
suggest the country is still dangerously divided.
In 2012, some 16.7 million voters cast ballots
on the constitution drafted under Morsi,
representing a 32.9 per cent turnout amid a boycott
by liberal and youth groups. In that election, 63.8
per cent voted for the constitution.
Some of the key provisions of the Constitution
are as follow:
1. In the preamble, the draft states that the
charter continues to build a democratic,
modern country with a civilian government.
The word civilian in Arabic indicates nonreligious and non-military has stirred anger
among ultraconservative Islamists.
2. The new charter retains Article 2, which says
the principles of Islamic law, or Shariah, are
the basis for legislation, a phrase that has been
in all Egyptian constitutions since the 1970s.
However, it removes a Morsi-era provision that
gave a more precise definition for principles
that could have been used to enact stricter
Islamic law. It also deletes a reference to a role
for Al-Azhar, the countrys main Islamic
institution, in overseeing legislation.
3. A key clause gives the armed forces the right
to name the defense minister over the next
two presidential terms, an arrangement that
places the military above any civilian oversight
for eight years and leaves the power of the
president uncertain.
4. Civilians can still be tried before military
tribunals, a provision introduced in the Morsi[10]
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
OBAMA SIGNS $1.1TN GOVT SPENDING BILL

US President Barack Obama has signed a $1.1
trillion spending bill that puts conditions on
continuation of American aid to Pakistan. The
1,582-page bill passed by both the House of
Representatives and the Senate requires a
certification from the Secretary of State and the
Defence Secretary that Pakistan is co-operating
with the US in counter-terrorism efforts against
the Haqqani Network, Quetta Shura Taliban, LeT,
Jaish-e-Mohammed, al-Qaida, and other domestic
and foreign terrorist organizations.
$33 million assistance until Pakistan releases Shakil

Afridi from prison and is cleared of all charges
relating to the assistance provided to the US in
locating slain terrorist Osama bin Laden.
It also includes Pakistan taking steps to end

support for such groups and prevent them from
basing and operating them on its soil, and carrying
out cross-border attacks into neighbouring
countries. Further, the Congress has also withheld
The secretary of state is authorized to suspend

assistance if Pakistan fails to make measurable
progress in meeting such goals or benchmarks, the
bill says.
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As per the bill, the secretary of state also requires

to certify the Congress that Pakistan is not
supporting terrorist activities against the United
States or coalition forces in Afghanistan and
expertise and Pakistans military and intelligence
agencies are not intervening extra-judicially into
political and judicial processes in Pakistan.
Obama announces key reforms to NSA
Barack Obama announced four key reforms to

the National Security Agencys massive online and
telephone spy programmes, apparently seeking to
bring a greater transparency to surveillance
activities affecting friendly nations such as India,
which have been major targets of American
snooping.
1. First, presidential directive for signals

intelligence activities, at home and abroad,
that would take into account not only security
requirements, but also its alliances and its
trade and investment relationships.
2. Second, to build on the declassification of over

40 opinions and orders of the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Court,
including the Section 702 programme
targeting foreign individuals overseas and the
Section 215 telephone metadata programme,
and direct the DNI to annually review
for the purpose of declassification any

future opinions of the Court with broad
privacy implications.
3. Third, further protections for activities

targeting foreign nationals would be
instituted, specifically including additional
restrictions on governments ability to retain,
search, and use in criminal cases,
communications between Americans and
foreign citizens incidentally collected under
Section 702".
4. Fourth, Obama indicated his willingness to
address complaints regarding data collection
made by large Internet companies such as
Google and Facebook, when he said secrecy
surrounding data requests made to these
companies will not be indefinite, and will
terminate within a fixed time unless the
government demonstrates a real need for
further secrecy.
NIGERIAN BANS GAY MARRIAGE
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan signed

the Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act that
criminalizes same-sex relationships.
The Act says persons who enter into a samesex marriage contract or civil union commit an
offence and are each liable on conviction to a term
of 14 years in prison. And any person, who
registers, operates or participates in gay clubs,
societies and organizations or directly or indirectly
makes public show of same-sex amorous
relationship in Nigeria commits an offence and shall
each be liable on conviction to a term of 10 years

in prison.
Under existing Nigerian federal law, sodomy is
punishable by jail, but this bill legislates for a much
broader crackdown on homosexuals and lesbians,
who already live a largely underground existence.
While European countries, most recently France,
have moved to offer same-sex couples the same
legal rights enjoyed by heterosexuals, many African
countries are seeking to tighten laws against
homosexuality.
[11]

Britain and some other Western countries have
threatened to cut aid to governments that pass laws
persecuting homosexuals, a threat that has helped
hold back or scupper such legislation in aiddependent nations like Uganda and Malawi. But
they have little control over Nigeria, whose budget
is funded by its 2-million-barrel-per-day oil output.
Oil-rich Nigeria is one of the top crude suppliers to
the U.S.
Some have suggested the new law in Nigeria

and the proposed one in Uganda are a backlash to
Western pressure to decriminalize homosexuality.
Several African leaders have warned they will not
be dictated to on a subject that is anathema to
their culture and religion.
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According to Amnesty International, Nigeria is

one of 38 African countries about 70 per cent of
the continent that have laws persecuting gay
people.
The motivation for the Nigerian law is unclear,

given that the country already has one making
homosexual sex illegal. And gay people were not
demanding to be married in a country where being
gay can get a person lynched by a mob. In parts of
northern Nigeria where Islamic Shariah law is
enforced, gays and lesbians can be legally stoned
to death.
[12]
INDIA AND THE WORLD

IRAN TO GET $4.2 BN OF BLOCKED FUNDS IN PHASES
nuclear programme for six months in exchange for
modest relief from international sanctions.
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Iran will get $4.2 billion of its blocked funds in

phases under a six-month landmark nuclear deal,
as President Barack Obama cautioned that any
congressional legislation that slaps fresh sanctions
on Tehran will only risk derailing the peace efforts.
The $4.2 billion in restricted Iranian assets that
Iran will gain access to as part of the agreement
will be released in regular instalments throughout
the six months. The final instalment will not be
available to Iran until the very last day.
Iran and the P5+1 group the US, UK, Russia,

China, and France plus Germany sealed a sixmonth Joint Plan of Action in November 2013.
Under the plan, Iran agreed to curb parts of its
Iran announced that it along with six world

powers have agreed on how to implement the
nuclear deal they struck in November with the
terms starting from January 20.
Beginning January 20, Iran will for the first time
start eliminating its stockpile of higher levels of
enriched uranium and dismantling some of the
infrastructure that makes such enrichment possible,
the US President said. However, some congressional
lawmakers who are skeptical over the deal have
proposed fresh sanctions against Iran.
INDIA, UAE INK MOU ON RENEWABLE ENERGY
Union Minster for New and Renewable Energy

Farooq Abdullah and UAEs Minister of State Sultan
Ahmed Al Jaber signed to enhance cooperation in
renewable energy, especially solar and wind power
in Abu Dhabi.
India, stands among the top five countries in
terms of renewable energy capacity, is looking to
strengthen cooperation and investment with the
UAE to ramp up efforts in the renewable energy
sector. Cooperation under the MoU will help
identify areas of mutual interest and develop new

and renewable energy for both countries.
The two sides also agreed to form a Joint
Working Group for joint research on subjects of
mutual interest, exchange and training of scientific
personnel, exchange of technologies and data,
organisation of workshops and seminars, and
transfer of know-how and equipment on noncommercial basis.
INDIA, SOUTH KOREA SIGN NINE PACTS
During the visit of South Korean President Park

Geun-hye India and South Korea signed nine pacts
aimed at imparting forward momentum to their
bilateral ties that have seen intensification over the
past four years. Under the nine pacts both the
nations agreed:
1. To cooperate in the field of defence and to

ensure the protection of classified military
information exchanged under this Agreement
2. Implementing agreement between Indian

Space Research Organisation And Korea
Aerospace Research Institute For Cooperation
in the peaceful uses of outer space
3. Memorandum of understanding between the

nations to develop further cooperation in the
field of prospective technologies for the
common benefit of the two countries by
involving
industry-academia-institute
partnerships for translational research leading
to the practical application of research and
development (R&D) findings, and to
cooperate in a joint applied research and
development program
4. To enhance cooperative activities under the
Cultural Agreement concluded between the
Governments of the two countries on 12
August 1974
[13]

5. To cooperate in reviving Nalanda University
as an international institution that will
advance the concept of an Asian community
by bringing together future generations in a
common objective of making new discoveries
of old relationships to realize a unity of minds
6. To develop and strengthen mutual friendly
relations in the field of Broadcasting with the
aim of leading to greater understanding
between the two countries
However, there was no comfort to South Korea

on its desire to set up nuclear power plants in India.
New Delhi has conveyed its intention to take up
this proposal when it starts work on phase II of
large nuclear power plants.
In order to further security cooperation, it was
agreed to hold annual interactions between the
national security structures of the two countries as
also launch a Cyber Affairs Dialogue.
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7. To promote, facilitate and support joint

ventures, joint initiatives and markets in the
ICT sector
The two sides also announced the conclusion

of negotiations for revision of the existing Double
Taxation Avoidance Convention.
8. To develop cooperation between the parties

for facilitating development of an
arrangement which will provide such Mutual
Recognition of the certifying Authorities of
the two countries
9. To develop cooperation between the Parties

in the area of Information Security to deter
cyber threats and to further improve
computer security readiness and raise
awareness around the importance of keeping
systems secure, and security practices and
procedures current and up to date.
Besides, India assured that work on the multibillion-dollar Posco steel plant in Odisha would start
very soon.
Another forward looking aspect was exploring
the possibility of setting up a Korean Industrial Park
in India. South Korea is one of the few countries
with a trade surplus with China and Indias
intention is to not only to provide a new avenue for
its industry suffering from sluggish growth in exports
that account for half of the countrys GDP, but also
get integrated in the global supply chain.
The two leaders also touched on regional issues,

particularly developments in the Korean peninsula
and cooperation in the East Asia Summit processes.
South Korea for reopening CEPA with India
While expressing satisfaction over assurances

given by India on the multi-billion dollar Posco
project, South Korean President Park Geun-hye called
for the reopening of the Comprehensive Economic
Partnership Agreement (CEPA), one of the earliest
of this kind India signed with any country.
Underlining the need to negotiate CEPA with
authenticity, Park pointed out that since its
operationalisation, trade in volume terms has
increased by 70 per cent but its content does not
match with that of other FTAs. The South Korean
President felt there was enough potential to raise
the level of trade and investment and suggested
liberalisation of the visa regime, a proposal that has
already been accepted in-principle by New Delhi.
The dissatisfaction expressed by Park on CEPA
mirrors the reservations Japan has on a similar
pact signed with India. The India-Japan CEPA
was signed about a year after the Korean version
and Tokyo believes it is yet to pay dividends.
CHINA EDGES AHEAD OF INDIA IN HR, SAYS IDC
According to research firm International Data

Corp (IDC) China has edged out India in the
availability of software developers and is closing
the gap in the size of human resource skilled in
information, communication and technology (ICT)
an area that India has dominated for over two
decades.
The US continues to be the leader in both
categories.
Globally, there are 18.5 million software
developers of whom 11 million are professional
developers and 7.5 million amateur developers.
[14]
There are 29 million ICT skilled workers, including

professional software developers, and 18 million
operations and management skilled workers.
The US accounts for 19 per cent of global
software developers (both professional and
hobbyists). China is ahead of India with 10 per
cent while Indias share is 9.8 per cent. The US
also accounts for 22 per cent of global ICT-skilled
workers followed by India with 10.4 per cent and
China with 7.6 per cent.
The numbers of both developers and ICT-skilled
workers are expected to grow over the next few

years. However, shifts in how IT is being delivered
through cloud-based services will favour the growth
in software developers over other ICT-skilled
workers, according to Al Hilwa, Program Director,
Application Development Software, IDC.
Annually, India produces around 7.5 lakh

engineers at a growth rate of 5 per cent whereas
China produces around 25 per cent less in
comparison. Indian graduates are more exposed to
processes and systems during their academic years
due to evolution of the IT industry over the last
two decades and English as a spoken language is
far more prevalent in India.
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China is demonstrating its ambition in playing

a global role in ICT. It has a large domestic market
for ICT and many large software service firms and
product companies of global scale have set up
development centres in China to leverage on the
local talent pool. However, they are not yet on an
equal footing with India to work on a global scale,

said Aditya Narayan Mishra, President, Staffing,
Randstad India, an HR company.
KUWAIT AGREES TO A LARGER CREDIT PERIOD
Kuwait has agreed to extend the credit period

on crude oil sales to India from the current 60
days to 90 days. After a meeting, the two countries
agreed to put in place the new system soon. This
would help state-owned Indian refineries that face
tight cash flow problems due to time lag in
disbursement of government subsidy.
upstream, downstream, sales and marketing

segments, also saw ONGC offering services of its 5,000
retired employees to the national oil company of
Kuwait. It is just the start of a relationship. In two
projects, we are becoming strategic partners, said
Nizar Al-Adsani, deputy chairman and chief executive
officer of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC).
Kuwait is the fourth largest oil importer to India,

after Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Venezuela. India
bought around eight million tonnes (mt) from that
country till recently. But with India deciding to
lower its crude oil imports from Iran by 15 per
cent to 9-9.5 mt next year, from an estimated 11
mt in 2013-2014, its dependence on other countries
is expected to increase.
For OPaL project at Dahej special economic

zone, ONGC was looking for a foreign participation
of about 25 per cent. ONGC holds 26 per cent in
the venture, in which GAIL and GSPC are also
partners.
Besides, in a first step towards taking in Kuwait

as a equity partner in its two major projects, Oil
and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) Ltd also
signed a memorandum of understanding with
Kuwait Petroleum Corporation for collaboration
across the petroleum value chain. The state-run
Kuwaiti company will take stakes in ONGC Petro
Limited (OPaL) and ONGC Mangalore
Petrochemicals (OMPL).
Interestingly, the MoU, which extends to
While the OPaL petrochemical venture would

see an investment of Rs 21,000 crore, OMPL would
be in the range of Rs 5,700 crore. ONGC holds 26
per cent stake for OPaL. It has formed a joint
venture with Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation
and GAIL India for the remaining 15.5 per cent.
The special purpose vehicle is yet to rope in a
partner for the remaining equity. Kuwait has also
shown keenness in Bharat Petroleum Corporation
Ltds proposed chemical unit at Kochi.
India has also welcomed Kuwaits investment
in the upcoming liquefied natural gas terminals at
Visakhapatnam, Mangalore and Padur.
SAHAYOG-KAIJIN 2014
The Indian and Japan Coast Guard conducted

a joint exercise Sahayog-Kaijin 2014 off Kochi.
The exercise benefits both the forces in several areas
which include cooperation in search and rescue
(SAR), pollution response, training and capacitybuilding and maritime law enforcement.
Earlier, the joint exercise the 13th in a series
of annual exercises launched in 1999 was held
with Japan Coast Guard ship Mizuho taking part
along with its integral helicopter; Indian Coast
Guard Ship Samrat; interceptor vessel C-404, which

in a simulated scenario acted as a pirate-controlled
vessel; a Chetak helicopter; and a Dornier maritime
recce aircraft.
The bilateral exercise, conducted some 20 nautical
miles off Kochi, saw both forces carry out crossdeck landings; anti-piracy operations with combat
boarding teams conducting search and arrest of
pirates from a simulated hijacked vessel; search and
rescue operations; and fire-fighting on a ship.

[15]
ECONOMY
SEBI TIGHTENS NORMS FOR ISSUE OF P- NOTES
Under the new FPI guidelines, foreign investors
are classified into three groups based on their risk
profile and would eventually replace existing
categories such as FIIs, their sub-accounts and
qualified foreign investors.
Category-I FPIs, entities with the lowest risk,
would include foreign governments and
government-related foreign investors.
Category-II FPIs would include appropriately
regulated broad-based funds, university funds,
university-related endowments and pension funds,
among others.
Category-III FPIs would include all others not
eligible under the first two categories.
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In the move to tighten the norms for issue of

participatory notes (P-Notes) by overseas investors,
Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has
barred unregulated foreign funds from dealing
in offshore derivative instruments even if their
investment managers are appropriately regulated
by their concerned regulators.
In the draft guidelines SEBI had barred
Category-III or high-risk foreign investors from
issuing P-notes. But in the gazette notification,
which has given the Foreign Portfolio Investor (FPI)
Regulations official status, also prohibits certain
entities under Category-II, or medium-risk
investors, from issuing P-Notes.
Considering that the Indian regulators
(including Sebi) do not have direct jurisdiction over
such foreign instruments, the intent of SEBI seems
to be making foreign investors invest directly into
India by registering as FPIs, instead of coming
through the P-note route. SEBI has allowed only
regulated entities to issue/subscribe to P-notes,
ensuring that such entities can be easily reached
through foreign regulators.
P-notes
P-Notes, or offshore derivative instruments, are

mostly used by overseas HNIs, hedge funds and
other foreign institutions to invest in Indian markets
through registered foreign institutional investors
(FIIs), while saving on time and costs associated
with direct registrations.
RBI TIGHTENS PROVISIONING NORMS FOR UFCE
The unhedged foreign currency exposures of

the entities are an area of concern not only for
individual entity but also to the entire financial
system of a nation. Hence, to tackle the issue the
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to
introduce incremental provisioning and capital
requirements for bank exposures to entities with
unhedged foreign currency exposures. These
guidelines will be implemented from April 1, 2014.
According to estimates, about 65 per cent of
foreign currency loans and bonds of Indian firms
is unhedged. Liabilities of companies will rise in
case the rupee depreciates substantially against the
dollar and its loan-servicing capacity diminishes,
which could affect banks.
Finer points of the final norms on unhedged
corporate exposure are:
1. banks have to provide 80 basis points on total
credit exposure over and above the standard
provisioning requirement if the likely loss is
more than 75 per cent.
[16]
2. If the loss is more than 75 per cent, an

additional risk weight of 25 per cent has also
been prescribed.
RBI said if the likely loss was up to 15 per cent,
no additional provision was required.
1. For losses of 15-30 per cent, the additional
provisioning requirement will be 20 basis
points,
2. for 30-50 per cent 40 basis points and
3. for a likely loss of 50-75 per cent, additional
provisioning will be 60 basis points.
4. The final guidelines on unhedged forex
exposure has also suggested a methodology
to be followed by banks while calculating
incremental provisioning and capital
requirements.
5. While banks have been asked to monitor the
unhedged foreign currency exposure (UFCE)
on a monthly basis, they have to calculate
the incremental provisioning and capital

requirements on a quarterly basis, at the least.
However, during periods of high dollar-rupee
volatility, the calculations may be done at
monthly intervals.
6. To calculate the loss for foreign branches and
foreign subsidiaries, the rupee should be
replaced by the currency of the country
concerned.
To find out the amount of UFCE, the RBI said

that foreign currency exposure (FCE) referred to
the gross sum of all items on the balance-sheet that
had impact on profit and loss account due to
movement in foreign exchange rates. This may be
computed by following the provisions of relevant
accounting standard. Items maturing or having cash
flows over the period of next five years only may
be considered.
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Since the implementation of the guidelines

could pose difficulties for exposures to projects
under implementation and to new entities that may
not have data on annual earnings before interest
and depreciation (Ebid), RBI has suggested such
calculations be based on the projected average Ebid
for the three years from the date of commencement
of commercial operations. Provisioning for these
exposures should be to the tune of at least 20 basis
points.
current account deficit through restrictions on

imports, particularly gold.
The sharp depreciation of the rupee against the

dollar in the last couple of years, particularly after
May 2013, has prompted the regulator to come up
with more stringent provisioning norms. The rupee,
however, stabilised since September 2013, after
hitting an all-time low in the last week of August,
following a series of measures by the government
and RBI to attract inflows and narrow the countrys
RBI eases hedging regulations for currency

trading
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has allowed

exporters and importers to freely cancel and rebook
their rupee forward contracts but continued with
restrictions on foreign investors.
According to RBI, in case of contracted

exposures, forward contracts in respect of all
current account transactions as well as capital
account transactions with a residual maturity of
one year or less, can be now freely cancelled and
rebooked.
This is a rollback of previous measures where

the central bank had restricted exporters ability
to cancel and rebook forward contracts to the
extent of 50% of the contracts booked in a
financial year for hedging, while importers were
allowed to cancel and rebook forward contracts
to the extent of 25% of the contracts booked.
The restrictions were first put in place on 15

December 2011 to deter exporters and importers
from speculating on the exchange rate. Forward
contracts were blamed for much of the rupee
depreciation in 2011 when between August and
December the rupee lost 16.5% to touch 55 a
dollar. On 4 September 2013, the RBI had allowed
exporters to cancel and rebook contracts up to
50% and importers were allowed to do this to the
extent of 25% of the contracted exposure.
However, the central bank has kept restrictions
in place for foreign institutional investors.
As far as the exposure of the FIIs/QFIs/other
portfolio investors is concerned, forward contracts
booked by these investors, once cancelled, can be
rebooked up to the extent of 10% of the value of
the contracts cancelled, the RBI notification said,
adding the forward contracts can be rolled over
on or before maturity.
2014 INDEX OF ECONOMIC FREEDOM
In the latest 2014 Index of Economic Freedom

published annually by The Wall Street Journal and
The Heritage Foundation Hong Kong defended
its number one position for the 20th consecutive
year followed by Singapore, Australia and New

Zealand. On the other hand, Timor-Leste,
Turkmenistan and North Korea occupied the
bottom three positions.
[17]

Launched in 1995, the Index evaluates countries
in four broad areas of economic freedom: rule of
law; regulatory efficiency; limited government; and
open markets. Based on its aggregate score, each
of 178 countries graded in the 2014 Index is
classified as free (i.e., combined scores of 80 or
higher); mostly free (70-79.9); moderately free
(60-69.9); mostly unfree (50-59.9); or repressed
(under 50).
The Index covers 10 freedoms. They are business,

trade, fiscal, government spending, monetary,
investment, financial, property rights, freedom from
corruption and labour freedom.
Top 10 Countries
Rank
1
Country
Overall
Change
Hong Kong
90.1
0.8
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Asia-Pacific, home to over half the worlds

population, is the most improved region in the 2014
Index. Twenty-eight of its economies saw their
scores rise, while 14 saw them decline.
format and straight-forward analysis, readers can

track up to two decades of advancement in
economic freedom, prosperity, and opportunity.
Singapore
89.4
1.4
The world average score of 60.3seven-tenths

of a point above the 2013 averageis the highest
average in the two-decade history of the Index.
Forty-three countries, including Singapore and
Sweden, achieved their highest scores yet in the
2014 Index. Among the 178 countries ranked, scores
improved for 114 countries and declined for 59.
Four recorded no score change.
Australia
82.0
-0.6
Switzerland
81.6
0.6
New Zealand
81.2
-0.2
Canada
80.2
0.8
Chile
78.7
-0.3
Mauritius
76.5
-0.4
Ireland
76.2
0.5
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the

Index of Economic Freedom. With its user friendly
10
Denmark
76.1
0.0
BITCOIN OPERATORS RESUME OPERATIONS IN INDIA
After suspending their operations for a few

weeks following growing regulatory glare, many
bitcoin operators have cautiously resumed courting
business from their clients.
The Reserve Bank also had issued a warning

against dealing in bitcoin and other virtual
currencies due to various risks, including those
related to money-laundering and cyber security,
as such digital currencies are not backed by any
assets or monetary authorities.
Besides, tax authorities and the Enforcement
Directorate have also initiated action against some
bitcoin operators, which resulted in many entities
suspending their operations. However, many
bitcoin operators and even some corporate houses
have recently stepped up their lobbying for a clear
regulatory framework on digital currencies in
India.
In the meantime, some operators like Unocin
have resumed operations, although on a trial
basis, while some new entities have also started
dealing in bitcoins. Unocoin says it will be collecting
0.5% of trade value from customers on every
bitcoin buy and sell operations. Unocoin will also
contribute 1% of trade value to bitcoins Alliance
India (BAI), a new grouping formed by bitcoin
[18]
operators in India, to further their cause.
Another new entrant, BitQuick.in is claiming

to help connect bitcoin buyers and sellers in India
directly to their own banks. This new player is
offering to provide a platform for sale and purchase
of bitcoins in India while linking the payments to
the customers bank account. It is charging one per
cent fee for purchases of bitcoin, while no charge
is levied on those selling these currencies.
Large operators like buysellbitco.in and
inrbtc.com continue to remain suspended for want
of a clearer framework. However, experts say that
market demand for trading in bitcoins and 75 other
such currencies in circulation has not diminished
much.
There are an estimated 30,000 bitcoin holders
in the country, currently in possession of 1% of
around 12 million bitcoins in global circulation.

INDIGENOUS DIABETIC TESTING KIT LAUNCHED
several years with dietary and lifestyle changes.
Blood glucose monitoring is recommended for
all people with diabetes as it is a valuable diabetes
management tool which can help to give you a
sense of control and freedom. Regular testing of
blood glucose levels (BGL) can reinforce your
healthy lifestyle choices as well as inform you of
your response to other factors.
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The Diabetic Testing Kit has been launched,

which is mobile, indigenous and not so heavy on
pockets. The launching of two kinds of glucometers
and testing strips will make mass screening and
detection feasible. The glucometers will now cost
between Rs. 500 and 1,000 as against the price of
Rs. 1,000-2,500 for the imported instrument. Each
glucostrip will cost between Rs. 2 and Rs. 4, down
from Rs. 18-35.
The diabetes screening system and test strips
have been developed by the Indian Institute of
Technology Mumbai (called Suchek) and the Birla
Institute of Technology, Hyderabad (known as
QuickcheQ) with funding from the Indian Council
of Medical Research. These will be manufactured
by Biosense Technologies and will be available in
the open market in the next six months.
According to the International Diabetes
Federation Diabetes Atlas 6, published in November
2013, India has an estimated 65 million people with
diabetes with a prevalence rate of 6 per cent.
Additionally, there are 77 million with pre-diabetes
in whom, if altered glucose levels are detected early,
the onset of actual diabetes can be postponed for
DSPEC CAN CONVERT SOLAR ENERGY INTO HYDROGEN FUEL
The Researchers have built a system that

converts the suns energy into hydrogen fuel and
stores it to use after the sun goes down. The system
developed at the universitys Energy Frontier
Research Center generates hydrogen fuel by using
the suns energy to split water into its component
parts - hydrogen and oxygen - then storing the
hydrogen while the oxygen is release into the air.
The system can turn the suns energy into fuel while
needing almost no external power to operate and
releasing no greenhouse gases.
The new system is known as a dye-sensitized
photoelectrosynthesis cell, or DSPEC. This design
has two basic components: a molecule and a
nanoparticle.
The molecule, called a chromophore-catalyst
assembly, absorbs sunlight and then kick starts the
catalyst to rip electrons away from water. The
nanoparticle, to which thousands of chromophorecatalyst assemblies are tethered, is part of a film of

nanoparticles that shuttles the electrons away to
make the hydrogen fuel.
However, even with the best of attempts, the
system always crashed because either the
chromophore-catalyst assembly kept breaking away
from the nanoparticles or because the electrons
couldnt be shuttled away quickly enough to make
hydrogen.
To solve both of these problems, a new technique
is used that coated the nanoparticle, atom by atom,
with a thin layer of a material called titanium
dioxide. By using ultra-thin layers, the researchers
found that the nanoparticle could carry away
electrons far more rapidly than before, with the
freed electrons available to make hydrogen.
[19]
ROBOEARTH
A world wide web for robots, RoboEarth has
been developed for robots to learn from each other
and share tips and information. The system has
been developed by research scientists from Philips
and five European universities including Eindhoven.
behaviour, and ultimately, for more subtle and

sophisticated human-machine interaction.
Four robots will use the system to complete a

series of tasks, including serving drinks to patients
in the mocked-up hospital room. The goal of
RoboEarth is to allow robotic systems to benefit
from the experience of other robots, paving the
way for rapid advances in machine cognition and
In late 2009, the RoboEarth project was

awarded a 4-year funding grant from the European
Commissions Cognitive Systems and Robotics
Initiative in order to develop their networked
database platform, Rapyuta, and to develop proofof-concept systems to demonstrate its use.
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The eventual aim is that both robots and

humans will be able to upload information to the
cloudbased database, which would act as a kind
of common brain for machines. RoboEarths
database stores knowledge generated by humans
and robots in a machine-readable format.It
will provide software components, maps for
navigation, task knowledge and object recognition
models.
The RoboEarth project was started as a

partnership of robotics researchers collaborating to
demonstrate the benefits and feasibility of a
standardized robot control network. The stated
objective of the project is to prove that connection
to a networked information repository greatly
speeds up the learning and adaptation process,
allowing robotic systems to perform complex tasks,
and to show that a system connected to such a
repository will be capable of autonomously carrying
out useful tasks that were not explicitly planned
for at design time.
[20]
HEALTH
INDIA SAFEGUARDS POLIO-FREE STATUS
The rule applies to both children and adults.
The step is being taken to safeguard Indias poliofree status attained after sustained efforts and
investment. The new policy is applicable to anyone
who travels to India from all countries where polio
is endemic or where polio cases have been reported.
Pakistan continues to be a polio-endemic country.
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India declared as polio-free by the World Health

Organisation (WHO) when random samples tested
by the global health body turns out to be negative
for polio. WHO has removed India from the list of
countries with active, endemic, wild polio
transmission. The last case of polio was reported in
2011 from West Bengal; there were 42 case of polio
in 2010 and 741 in 2009.
Recently, Peshawar has been declared as the

worlds largest reservoir of Polio cases. India with
no polio case for three years has focused to ensure
that no cases come up in future. Therefore the
government has put in place a new policy that
requires every Pakistani travelling to India to
compulsorily receive oral polio vaccination at least
six weeks prior to departure to India.
So oral polio vaccination given to people prior

to departure to India boosts their immunity and
cuts the risk of virus transmission. The reason for
giving oral polio vaccination six weeks prior to
departure is that it provides sufficient time for
immune system to get boosted.
Contrary to common perception, adults can also
get affected by polio. This typically happens when
they have neither received polio vaccination nor
been naturally infected with polio virus before.
CHOROIDEREMIA GENE THERAPY SHOWS PROMISE
The first Phase I clinical trial of a gene therapy

for Chorideremia shows positive initial results.
Choroideremia (CHM) is a rare inherited disorder
that causes progressive loss of vision due to
degeneration of the choroid and retina almost
exclusive.
of vision is due to dysfunction, gene therapy is able

to restore vision. However, the photoreceptors that
have already undergone cell death cannot be saved.
The results hold promise for other disorders like
age-related macular degeneration and rod-cone
dystrophies.
The objective of this study was to get the gene

into the cells in the retina of the eye using an AAV
vector without causing damage. This disease starts
with loss of night vision in the first decade of life
and then progresses with a gradual loss of
peripheral vision and legal blindness by the fifth
decade. Vision loss results from both dysfunction
and degeneration of photoreceptors. Since the loss
The Phase I trial began with six patients, on

the whole, the group of six showed an improvement
in maximal retinal sensitivity in the eye that was
treated. Five of the six patients who received the
full dose of AAV vector had improvements in
mean retinal sensitivity in their detached retinas
six months after surgery.
INDIA PERMITS IMPORT OF FROZEN EMBRYOS
India has allowed the import of human embryos

for artificial reproduction. The decision will allow
foreign couples to bring in frozen human embryos
and rent a surrogate womb in India for the baby
to be born. The relaxed rules will also apply to
other infertility-related treatment such as IVF.
The decision was announced through separate

notifications by the Central Board of Excise and
Customs and the Directorate General of Foreign
Trade. To ensure quality control, such imports will
have to carry a no-objection certificate from the
Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
[21]

Although ICMR had recognised the import of
human embryos frozen in liquid nitrogen containers
for artificial reproduction techniques as proper
medical procedure to be conducted in India, doctors
said customs and DGFT rules did not permit such
imports. By doing this, medical tourism business is
expected to grow by 30 per cent cumulatively to
about $2 billion (Rs 12,000 crore) by 2015.
The Indian ART clinic has to give a certificate

saying which foreign clinic has referred the couple
and from which country, including name and
address of the couple, while its foreign counterpart
has to certify that the embryo was generated in
their clinic and there was no sex selection. The
couple has to furnish identification documents and
proof of marriage.
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The conditions for granting NOC are stringent.

The documents required for an NOC include a
certificate of registration of the ART clinic
recommending transfer of embryos/gametes and
the clinic in India where the infertility treatment
will happen along with name and address of its
in-charge.
The foreign clinic has to certify that the infertile

woman cannot conceive or that such conception
may lead to undesirable medical implications. There
has to be certification that at least one of the gametes
was from the infertile couple.
30 MN OBESE CHILDREN LIVE IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD
Statistics shows there are more overweight

people in the developing countries than in the
developed world. Similarly, more than 30 million
overweight children live in the developing world
compared to just 10 million in the developed
countries. Over one out of every five person in the
world is obese.
This was revealed in a global food index put
together by the international aid and charity
organization Oxfam. The Good Enough to Eat index
of Oxfam looked at levels of under nutrition, food
prices, quality of food and unhealthy outcomes due
to peoples diet to rank countries. It analysed data
most recently available from eight global data
sources including the World Health Organisation,
the Food and Agriculture Organization and the
International Labour Organization.
According to Oxfam, the growing obesity
challenge illustrated a broken global food system
in which consumers suffered from both under
nutrition or hunger and obesity, often in the same
countries and communities.
One of the reasons for the developing world

accounting for larger number of obese people could
be because of higher population in the developing
world compared to the developed world. Hence
these higher numbers might not be a large proportion
of the developing world population compared to
the smaller numbers in the developed world which
could be a larger percentage of their population.
In this analysis it was found that Saudi Arabia

scored the worst with 18% of its population being
diabetic and a third being obese. When only obesity
was considered, Kuwait fared the worst with 42%
of its population being obese, followed by Saudi
Arabia with 42% of its population being obese. In
the US and Egypt, about a third of the population
was obese.
However, many poorer countries too were
reeling from an epidemic of obesity such as Mexico,
Fiji and Venezuela. This has been attributed to
changing diets and a shift from eating cereals and
grains to more fats, oils, animal products and
sugars.
The island of Nauru ranked the highest with
71% of its relatively poor population being obese.
In wealthier countries, obesity was often linked to
poorer sections in society as processed high fat foods
were often significantly cheaper than fresh fruits
and vegetables, as was the case in the US.
Lowest levels of obesity were found in Ethiopia
and Bangladesh with just 1.1% of the population
found to be obese, followed by Nepal with 1.4%. In
India, barely 2% of the population is estimated to be
obese, though this is said to be increasing rapidly
with changing diet. In the Oxfam analysis when
the scores for Unhealthy Eating (obesity and diabetes
prevalence) and Enough to Eat (under nutrition and
underweight children) were combined, the Republic
of Korea and Japan came out the best.
THIRD LINE HIV TREATMENT

The government will soon be giving Third Line
therapy for persons living with HIV in the
[22]
governments
Anti-Retroviral
Treatment
programme. Third line drugs are said to be the

only succour for HIV-affected who have become
resistant to second line drugs.
At the beginning of HIV treatment, the
combination of drugs that a person is given is called
first line therapy. If after a while HIV becomes
resistant to this combination, or if side effects are
particularly bad, then a change to second line
therapy is usually recommended.
Moreover, the Department of AIDS Control

would soon be signing a Memorandum of
Understanding with the Ministry of Commerce and
the Ministry of Information and Technology to
explore different advocacy methods. It had already
signed MoUs with the Ministry of Shipping and
six other Ministries.
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For third line treatment, government would

identify the number of patients who need such
treatment before it can place orders for the
medicines and formulate a budget.
Currently, training and preparation for the

Prevention of Parent-to-Child Transmission scheme
(PPTCT) is under way, which would be rolled out
in a phased manner. The PPTCT is already in place
in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
GOVT NOTIFIED ORGAN TRANSPLANT ACT
The
government
has
notified
the
Transplantation of Human Organs (Amendment)
Act, 2011 that allows swapping of organs and
widens the donor pool by including grandparents
and grandchildren in the list.
The Act, which has come into effect in Goa,

Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal, Delhi and all
Union Territories, also provides for the
establishment of a National Human Organs and
Tissues Removal and Storage Network, and
development and maintenance of a national
registry of recipients of organ transplants.
Moreover, it prescribes stringent punishments for
commercial dealing in human organs and
contravention of any provisions of the law.

The Act regulates the removal, storage and
transplantation of human organs for therapeutic
purposes, and prevents commercial dealing in
human organs. It enables a surgeon or a physician
and an anaesthetist to be included on the medical
board in the event of non-availability of a
neurosurgeon or a neurologist to certify brain
death; makes it mandatory for the ICU/Treating
Medical Staff to request relatives of a brain-dead
patient for organ donation; and empowers the
Union government to prescribe the composition of
authorisation committees that grants approvals for
donating organs.
[23]
NEWS IN BRIEF
NEWSMAKERS
Hery Rajaonarimampianina
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Hery Rajaonarimampianina has been declared

as the President of Madagascar to restore
democracy on the island nation in the following
elections. He was officially declared as the
president of the country by the president of the
special electoral court, Mr. Francois Rakotozafy.
Mr. Hery got 53.49 % votes during the run-off
presidential election while Jean Louis Robinson
had 46.51 %.
in two years of office. He plans to boost rural

infrastructure to ensure agricultural production and
food security. He offered to set up the free primary
school and create the mobile hospital for remote
zones.
He vows to fight against corruption, establish

press freedom and independence of justice and
restore security in the country. He promised safety
of investment in Madagascar, security of
businessmen and their goods, security in tax
payment, security in customs and other incentives.
He also pledged jobs in agriculture to boost
the economy. His tourism target is 500,000 arrivals
Mr. Hery is the 8th elected Malagasy president

and 11th chief of state since Madagascars
independence in 1960. He was the former Finance
Minister of Madagascar. Rajaonarimampianina, 55,
is a chartered accountant from Canada. He was
appointed minister of finance and budget by
President of Transition Andry Rajoelina in 2009.
He was appointed chairman of board of directors
of Air Madagascar in 2011. He remained in position
until becoming candidate to the presidential
election.He created his party Hery Vaovao ho ani
Madagasikara,which means new force for
Madagascar, when he decided to be candidate to
the election in 2012.
OBITUARIES
Juan Gelman
Juan Gelman, a renowned Argentine poet and

the receiver of the prestigious Cervantes Prize, has
died in Mexico. Gelman was considered one of the
Spanish speaking worlds greatest poets. Gelman
was a fierce critic of military rule in his country
and had been living in exile in Mexico for the past
two decades.
He worked as a journalist and translator and

published more than 30 books. His poetry was known
for a sharp sense of humor, a touch of the absurd
and defiance in the face of injustice. Gelmans work
has been translated into 14 different languages and
among his most recent awards were the National
Poetry Prize (Argentina, 1997), the Juan Rulfo Prize
in Latin American and Caribbean Literature (Mexico,
2000), the Pablo Neruda Prize (Chile, 2005), the Queen
Sofia Prize in Ibero-American Poetry (Spain, 2005)
and the Cervantes Prize.
The Cervantes Prize established in 1976, is
[24]
awarded annually to honour the lifetime

achievement of an outstanding writer in the
Spanish language. The prize is similar to the Booker
Prize, with its candidates from Commonwealth
countries, in that it rewards authors from any
Spanish-speaking nation.
Namdeo Dhasal
Namdeo Dhasal, the well-known Marathi poet

has been passed away after a battle with colorectal
cancer. He was the one who altered the Marathi
literary landscape in the 1960s with his protest verse
and whose works have been translated in Germany,
French and Italian.
In 1973, he published his first volume of poetry,
Golpitha. More poetry collections followed: Moorkh
Mhataryane (By a Foolish Old Man) inspired by
Maoist thoughts; Tujhi Iyatta Kanchi? (How
Educated Are You?); erotic Khel; and Priya
Darshini (about the former Indian Prime Minister
Indira Gandhi).

Saptapadi and Deep Jwele Jai in Bengali.
Suchitra Sen was the first Bengali actress to be
awarded at an international film festival (Best
Actress award for Saat Paake Bandha in the 1963
Moscow film festival).She was awarded the Padma
Shri in 1972 by Government of India.
In 1978, she made her last celluloid outing in
Pranoy Pasha opposite Soumitro Chatterjee, retiring
not just from the big screen but from public life
itself. Over the years, just a handful of people
were admitted into her South Kolkata home apart
from daughter Moon Moon and grand-daughters
Raima and Riya Sen.
She allegedly refused the Dadasaheb Phalke
Award in 2005, preferring to stay out of the public
eye. In 2012, Sen was conferred West Bengal
governments highest award Banga Bibhushan.
Dawoodi Bohra communitys spiritual head
passes away
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Dhasal wrote two novels, and also published

pamphlets such as Andhale Shatak (Century of
Blindness) and Ambedkari Chalwal (Ambedkarite
Movement), which was a reflection on the socialist
and communist concepts of Dalit movement
founder Babasaheb Ambedkar.
He received the Nehru award for his book
Golpitha. In 2004, he was awarded the prestigious
Sahitya Akadami award for his contribution for
literature. Dhasals selected poems were translated
into English under the title Namdeo Dhasal: Poet
of the Underworld, Poems 1972-2006.
Suchitra Sen
Renowned actor Suchitra Sen died. She was

known as the Greta Garbo of Bengali cinema and
had done more than 60 films to her credit. She has
starred in memorable Hindi films like Devdas, and
Aandhi and Saat Paake Bandha, Agnipariksha,
HISTORY/CULTURE
Junbeel Mela may get Heritage Status
First Anthropomorphic Motif Discovered
The Assam Government has approached the

UNESCO for declaring the historic Junbeel Mela, a
Heritage Festival and a Heritage Site in Morigaon district.
Junbeel Mela was the rarest of the rarest
festivals where both tribals and non-tribals of
Assam and Meghalaya practice a barter system for
exchanging agricultural produces in a festive
manner at the end of Assamese Magh Bihu period
(Makar Sankranti).
The genealogy of the Mela can be traced back
to the 15th century on the banks of the Moonshaped (Jun) beel (water body) with a three-day
programme under the auspices of the then Gorbar
kingdom with the participation of the Jaintia king
of neighbouring Meghalaya.
In the Wayanad district of Kerala, an

Anthropomorphic motif figure has been discovered
by a team of rock art enthusiasts. The figure was
discovered among the prehistoric rock engravings,
which is termed as Petroglyps near the caves of
Edakkal on the Thovari hills. This discovery
emerges as one of the first anthropomorphic figure
of pre-historic rock arts sites on the world.
Junbeel Mela
Junbeel Mela is a three-day community fair

held at the weekend of Magh Bihu at a historic
place known as Dayang Belguri at Junbeel. The
Junbeel where Jun and Beel are Assamese terms
for the Moon and a wetland respectively is so
called because a large natural water body is
shaped like a crescent moon.
The theme of the mela is harmony and
brotherhood among the tribes and communities
scattered in the Northeast India. The King along
with his courtiers visits the mela and collects taxes
from his subjects. People perform their traditional
dance and music, making the whole atmosphere
full of joy and fun.
The discovered Petroglyph bears close

resemblance to the motifs of the Indus valley seal.
Petroglyphs that is also known as the rock
engravings are a logogram images that is created
by removing part of a rock surface by incising,
picking, carving, and abrading. It is generally
believed that the Thovari hill carries geometrical
and abstract figures of rock engravings.
Anthropomorphic Motifs
Anthropomorphic(human-form)
representation is generally these are the object
that depicts religious pictures as well as the
sculpture. This particular tendency has been
found during the early religious history, which
symbolise typically religious behaviour.
[25]
AWARD/PRIZES
DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2014
Puskas Award has been named after Hungarian

football legend Ferenc Pusks. This award is
basically just FIFAs goal of the year competition meaning Zlatan couldve probably won it for several
of his spectacular strikes in the last couple of
seasons.
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Cyrus Mistry, the Mumbai-based authorjournalist won the prestigious DSC prize for South
Asian literature for 2014 for his book Chronicle of
a Corpse Bearer, based on the painful lives of
members of the small Zoroastrian community of
corpse carriers. The book was set at several
simultaneous themes, covering the period of Quit
India Movement in India and the rise of Hitler,
and had dealt with the painful saga of love of a
priests son with the daughter of an ageing corpsebearer.
Barcelonas young Brazilian attacker, then playing

for Santos. The former Inter and Juventus striker
was also named as in the FIFPro World Xi, forming
an all-star front three with Cristiano Ronaldo and
Lionel Messi.
His book was selected from among the six books

shortlisted for the coveted prize instituted in 2010
for the best work or translation of a work on the
South Asian region. He is the second Indian to
win the award, which is running into its fourth
year. The award was won last year by Jeet Thayil
for his debut novel Narcopolis . For the year 2014,
70 entries were recieved from South Asian countries
as well as from the U.S., Britain, Canada and
Australia.
DSC Prize for South Asian Literature
The DSC Prize for South Asian Literature is a

literary prize awarded annually to writers of any
ethnicity or nationality writing about South Asia
themes such as culture, politics, history, or people.
It is for an original full-length novel written in
English, or translated into English. The award is
for novels published in the year preceding the
judging of the prize. The winner is announced at
the DSC Jaipur Literature Festival. The winner
receives 2,800,000 (about US$50,000). The prize
has been instituted by DSC Limited, an Indian
infrastructure and construction company which
also sponsors the DSC Jaipur Literature Festival.
Puskas Award
In an international friendly, Zlatan Ibrahimovic

has won the Puskas Award for his memorable
overhead kick for Sweden against England. The
Puskas Award was first awarded back in 2009 for
Cristiano Ronaldos goal against Porto and has
since been given to the likes of Hamit Altintop,
Neymar and Miroslav Stoch.
Ibrahimovic, 31, was previously nominated for
the 2011 edition of the prize for his strike for AC
Milan against Lecce in Serie A but lost out to
[26]
UNICEF honours Michael Douglas
Michael Douglas, the actor has been honoured

by UNICEFs Danny Kaye Humanitarian Peace
Award to mark his determined effort to have the
bombs eliminated. The accolade is named after
entertainer Danny Kaye, who devoted himself to
helping children around the world through the
charity.
The Oscar-winner was recognised by UNICEF
for his nuclear disarmament campaign work. The
actor has been a United Nations Messenger of Peace
since 1998 and started looking at the nuclear issue
in the 1979 film The China Syndrome.
Douglas won an Oscar in 1988 for his role as
ruthless corporate raider Gordon Gekko in Wall
Street. He decided long ago that to deal with the
overwhelming demand for him to show up for
charity, that he would principally work with the
elimination of nuclear weapons and small arms at
the UN.
AP grabs conservation award
Andhra Pradesh has won the prestigious award

for its outstanding performance during the Oil &
Gas Conservation Fortnight (OGCF). The Petroleum
Conservation Research Association (PCRA),
Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, has selected
Andhra Pradesh for the award of best performing
state amongst the big states for the oil & gas
conservation programmes.
PCRA has been organizing the Oil & Gas
Conservation Fortnight between January 16 and
31 every year. The award is given for the
exceptional support and cooperation extended by
the state government for various conservation
activities organized by the State Level Coordinator
during OGCF 2013.

Oil & Natural Gas Commission plans to invest
over $ 9 billion in a wide array of oil & gas
discoveries in the block allotted to it in Krishna Godavari Basin, which will enhance the scope of
Andhra Pradesh to get additional gas allocations

to cater to the needs of the gas-based power plants,
with an overall capacity of more than 2000 MW,
now lying idle for want of gas allocations.
SPORTS
Ronaldo wins Ballon dor for second time
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Cristiano Ronaldo has been named the worlds

best footballer for the second time. His success
prevented his great rival Lionel Messi from winning
the award for a fifth year in a row. Ronaldo secured
the title with 1,365 points, ahead of Lionel Messi
with 1,205 points and Franck Ribery with 1,127
points.
The 28-year-old has 20 La Liga goals this season

for Real Madrid and netted a record nine times in
the Champions League group stage. The high point
of his year, however, came with Portugal when he
scored a stunning hat-trick and almost singlehandedly beat Sweden 3-2 in the second leg of
their World Cup playoff tie to send his country
through to the finals.
Ronaldo was also voted FIFA Player of the Year

in 2008, before Messi began a run of four successive
titles. In 2010 and 2011, the award was fused with
the Ballon DOr award previously handed out by
France Football magazine.
Joining Ronaldo in the team of the year were

Manuel Neuer in goal, Philipp Lahm, Sergio
Ramos, Thiago Silva and Dani Alves in defence,
midfielders Andres Iniesta, Xavi and Ribery with
Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Messi in attack.
[27]
EDITORIALS
TURMOIL IN THE HEART OF AFRICA
with the task of disarming militias and facilitating
political transition before 2015. We support swift
augmentation of MISCA capabilities from 2,400
men to 6,000 men. The French engagement is
temporary and not a substitute for African efforts.
But in the face of the urgency of the situation, it
was necessary to act promptly with sufficient and
swiftly deployable resources. France, a permanent
member of the United Nations Security Council,
responded in keeping with its international
responsibilities and on the basis of a UN mandate.
Resolution 2127 provides for the option of a UN
peacekeeping operation to follow the MISCA,
should the Security Council so decide.
Working hand in hand with our African
partners, we hope to enhance the international
forces swiftly and stabilise the situation on the
ground within a few months. The intervention in
the CAR is quite different from that which took
place in Mali. Mali required countering a terrorist
offensive led by particularly determined groups
operating from strongholds they already occupied
in the north of the country. We repulsed and
defeated this offensive, helped Mali regain its
territorial integrity and have democratically elected
political authorities, with the presidential election
held in July and legislative polls in December. Of
course, on the ground, the fight to defeat any
terrorist resurgence continues. In the CAR, we have
to disarm militarily not a specific enemy but
completely out-of-control militias, and prevent
communal violence between Christians and Muslims.
In the face of such crises, terrorism, piracy, and
all kinds of trafficking, Africa must organise ways
to deal by herself with such challenges rapidly and
efficiently. At the Summit for Peace and Security
in Africa, held in Paris in early December, the
African Heads of State and government agreed on
the necessity of forging collective security in Africa
by establishing an African rapid reaction force in
the coming months. France hails this important
development and will support this force. The
international community must rise to this challenge
together in the interest of Africas security, which
is important for all of us, well beyond the
boundaries of this continent.
Source: The Hindu
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The Central African Republic (CAR) is an

impoverished country of 4.5 million inhabitants
spread over 623,000 sq. km, located in the centre
of Africa, which became independent from France
in 1960. It has recently turned into another hub of
instability. Responding to an urgent appeal from
the African Union and the transitional authorities
of the CAR, on December 5, 2013, France decided
to deploy 1,600 soldiers in the country. The French
soldiers are bolstering the African-led International
Support Mission to the Central African Republic
(MISCA). Several international partners many
European have contributed with logistical and
financial support.
This intervention was urgent and necessary to
prevent a catastrophe. Since rebels ousted the ruling
government in March 2013, the daily life of civilians
was reduced to exactions, arbitrary arrests, looting,
recruitment of child soldiers, scorched villages, rape,
mutilation, and summary executions. One out of
ten inhabitants was forced to abandon their house,
70,000 Central Africans have fled the country, and
2.3 million people urgently need help. Even more
disquieting, the clashes between Christian and
Muslim groups had assumed extremely dangerous
communal and religious tendencies.
Threat of anarchy
Anarchy in the CAR is also a threat to its
neighbours, especially Sudan as well as the
Democratic Republic of Congo, and South Sudan,
where the United Nations maintains peacekeeping
operations with large Indian contingents. In an
already quite fragile region, the CAR must not
become a new sanctuary for trafficking, militias
and terrorist groups.
Our goals are clear. The first is to restore security
in the CAR, check the spiralling extortions and
religious drift, and enable the return of relief
organisations as well as the reinstatement of a
functioning government. The situation is still fragile,
but the initial results are encouraging. Through
dissuasive patrolling, French soldiers have been able
to avert widespread massacres at a time when the
situation in the capital city of Bangui was becoming
particularly critical.
The second goal is to put the MISCA in a
position to ensure control over the security situation,
[28]
EASING TENSIONS IN THE PALK BAY

struggling to rebuild their lives find themselves in
daily competition with Tamil Nadu fishermen for
what they claim is rightfully theirs. Worse, the
fishermen from the Indian side, better organised
and equipped with bigger boats and better nets,
use the same practices that ravaged their side of
the bay.
It is no surprise that an agreement finalised
in 2008 when the Sri Lankan military operations
against the LTTE were intensifying that was
favourable to Indian fishermen is now seen by the
Sri Lankan side as requiring re-negotiation. The
solution to the problem may well come from the
fishermen themselves. With the backing of the two
capitals, they are to hold a meeting of their
representatives on January 20 and may explore
options such as licensing and placing restrictions
on the number of fishing days. Ultimately, however,
the real solution for both, especially on the Indian
side, lies in preserving what is left by moving away
from coastal to deep sea fishing. The State
government and the Centre must also encourage
fishermen to diversify into related activities such as
deep-freezing, preserving and canning. That could
even pave the way for collaboration between Indian
and Sri Lankan fishing communities. The way
forward is to find ways to complement each others
livelihoods, instead of just competing over scarce
resources.
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The agreement between India and Sri Lanka to

empty their jails of each others fishermen is an
encouraging sign that both sides have the will to
resolve a long-standing irritant in bilateral ties. At
Wednesdays meeting between Union Agriculture
Minister Sharad Pawar and Sri Lankan Fisheries
and Aquatic Minister Rajitha Senaratne, both sides
agreed to release all fishermen in their custody
except those who face charges other than crossing
the International Maritime Boundary Line. With
this confidence building measure, both sides must
now sit down to the challenge of finding a longterm solution to the problems of the fishing
communities in the region. Over the years, Tamil
Nadu fishermen have with increasing stridency
made the demand for the right to fish in the entire
Palk Bay, describing it as their traditional fishing
grounds. It is no longer just about fishing rights
around Kachchatheevu. The reason is that the catch
is better on the Sri Lankan side. This is no accident.
Bad practices such as the indiscriminate use of
trawlers that dredge right down to the sea bed
have depleted the resources along the Tamil Nadu
coast. On the other side, the long years of conflict
during which fishermen in Northeast Sri Lanka
were barely allowed by the Sri Lankan Navy to
put their boats out a few hundred metres into the
sea has ensured that fish and other marine
resources are still plentiful. Now that there are no
military restrictions on fishing off Northeast Sri
Lanka, Tamil fishermen there who are still
Source: The Hindu
A NEW PARADIGM FOR INCLUSION
The report of an RBI-appointed committee on

financial inclusion and financial deepening has
stimulated a wide-ranging debate on these crucial
areas. However, policy measures initiated by the
government and the RBI while adding to the
numbers of new bank branches, new accounts and
so on did not really enhance the quality of such
inclusive practices. In September last year, the RBI
asked the committee chaired by Nachiket Mor to
prepare a clear and detailed vision document to
lay down a set of design principles to guide
national frameworks and regulation and to review
existing strategies and institutions with a view to
removing barriers to inclusion and to the deepening
of the financial sector. The report, submitted in
just over four months, is rich in detail, but its core
agenda is to be seen in a few specific action points.
Every Indian above 18 will have to be provided

with a universal electronic bank account by January
2016, less than two years from now. Aadhaar will
be the basis to open bank accounts. A vertically
differentiated banking system with payments banks
for deposits and payments and wholesale banks
for credit outreach will come up, with few entry
barriers.
No one can fault the committee for the lack of
ambition or a sense of urgency. It has underlined
the urgency by stipulating a distance rule no
one need walk for more than 15 minutes to reach
a point of contact to avail a financial service. That
has been one of the major areas of dissent within
the committee, with two of its members seeking a
more realistic timeframe. The committee might have
glossed over the huge costs that will have to be
[29]

incurred in terms of physical infrastructure and
human resources. No matter how important
technology will be in the emerging financial scene,
the role of human resources cannot be discounted.
The idea of setting up differentiated banks is not
new. Regional rural banks and local area banks
which fall in this category did not measure up
despite being theoretically sound. Their cost
structure moved up in line with those of commercial
banks, making them unviable. Despite a much lower
capital requirement being stipulated for these banks,

there may not be many takers for them. The
assumption that Aadhaar will roll out across the
country by the end of next year might be an
optimistic one. Despite such doubts, the Nachiket
Mor report is a truly visionary document that should
help the Reserve Bank and the government to
initiate specific moves towards complete financial
inclusion.
Source: The Hindu
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JUSTICE IN JUDICIAL APPOINTMENT
With a proactive role based on the power of

judicial review, the higher judiciary in India has
attained an unprecedented significance. However,
in the areas of judicial management and
appointments, there is little scope for euphoria. In
selecting judges for the constitutional courts, the
collegium system has exposed itself. In the words
of Justice Krishna Iyer: There is no structure to
hear the public in the process of selection. No
principle is laid down, no investigation is made,
and a sort of anarchy prevails.
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar warned against the system
of judges selecting judges by saying that to allow
the Chief Justice practically a veto upon the
appointment of judges is really to transfer the
authority to the Chief Justice which we are not
prepared to vest in the President or the Government
of the day. However, no sane criticism of the
collegium system would advocate for restoration
of political supremacy in judicial appointment. The
country is presently seriously debating on the issue
and attempting legislation.
My recent visit to the U.K. Supreme Court
reminded me of the progress that a modern
constitutional democracy has made in judicial
management in general and appointments of judges
in particular. India cannot afford to ignore the
quality of the British judiciary in the ongoing efforts
to bring radical changes, especially because we have
adopted the Anglo-Saxon system.
The judges in the higher judiciary in the U.K.

are appointed on the basis of recommendations
made by the independent Judicial Appointments
Commission (JAC). Regional representation in
appointments is ensured. The Judicial Commission
has a representative and participative character.
The procedures are transparent. There is no
predominance either of the judiciary or of the
executive. There is no collegium syndrome, much
less any kin syndrome. Nor is there any political
[30]
highhandedness.
The JAC is an independent body which is given

the task of selecting candidates for judicial offices
in courts and tribunals in England, Wales and also
tribunals which have jurisdiction over Scotland and
Northern Ireland. There is fair and open
competition which ensures assessment of inter se
merit. The process is lengthy and complex.
However, it is more effective and accountable.
The Constitutional Reform Act (CRA) 2005 was
recently amended by the Judicial Appointments
Regulations, 2013. There are 15 members in the
JAC including the Chairman. All of them, except
the three judicial members are selected through
open competition. Apart from the members from
judiciary and legal profession, there are also judicial
officers who are not legally qualified and also
eminent persons from the public.
There is a well-designed and systematic selection
process for induction of Judges at all tribunals and
courts including the High Court. It involves the
request for vacancy position, advertisement, receipt
of applications, shortlisting, references, candidate
selection, panel decision, statutory consultation,
checks, decisions on selection, submission of report
to the Lord Chancellor and finally the procedure
for quality assurance which includes review of the
progression of the candidates and observation of
the interviews and test results.
The statutory consultation is a mandatory
requirement as per the CRA. It is an integral part
of the selection process. After the finalisation of
selection, the JAC recommends the name of the
candidate to the appropriate authority. JAC thus
selects the Lord Chief Justice, Heads of Division
and the Lord Justice of Appeal.
Selection to Supreme Court

However, the JAC on its own cannot select

enhancing its democratic character and by ensuring
procedural fairness. We cannot, however ignore
the global trend in the realm of judicial
appointments which is more towards independent
commissions. The United States Institute of Peace
has published a Report on judicial appointments
and judicial independence.
It says that judicial council promises to be a
happy medium between the extremes where
neither the judges nor the political heads have the
final say. A duly constituted commission is capable
of reconciling the need for independence with
accountability. About 60 per cent of the countries
have adopted the system of judicial council in some
form, according to the said report.
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justices for the U.K. Supreme Court. It is governed

by Sections 25 to 31 and Schedule 8 of the
Constitutional Reforms Act 2005 as amended.
Sections 50 to 52 of the amended Act say about
the minimum benchmark for appointment as
justices of the Supreme Court. Experience at the
bar is given due importance. The Lord Chancellor
should constitute the Selection Commission by
addressing a letter to the president of the Court
who chairs the Commission. The president should
also nominate a senior judge in the U.K., who
should not be, however, a Justice of the Supreme
Court.
Thus the system in the U.K. inherently guards
against the vices of the collegium system. There is
a member of JAC from England and Wales, Judicial
Appointments Board (JAB) in Scotland and JAC in
Northern Ireland. Again, and significantly, at least
one of the representatives of such a commission
should be a layman. Thus the judicial appointment
is no more a matter concerning only lawyers or
judges. It is meant for the public, for there is no
republic without the public.
In the process of appointment to the U.K.
Supreme Court also there is a mandatory
consultation process with a group that includes
senior judges in the Supreme Court to the
Chancellors of the High Court and the President of
the Family Division. Likewise, there should be
consultation with the Lord Chancellor, the First
Minister in Scotland, the First Minister in Wales
and the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.
Thus regional representation is ensured.
The report should be finally submitted to the
Lord Chancellor who should again consult with
the judges and politicians who are already
consulted by the Commission. Only thereafter the
Lord Chancellor can recommend the name of the
candidate to the Prime Minister who in turn should
advice the Queen to issue formal orders of
appointment. Consultation in the U.K. does not
mean concurrence by the judges as it occurs in
India after the Supreme Court judgments in 2nd
Judges case (1993) and the 3rd Judges case (1998).
And it makes a very big difference.
India has now accepted the need for a Judicial
Appointments Commission in principle as evident
from the cabinet decision on August 23, 2013 that
was followed by introduction of a Bill in that
direction. But whether the composition of the
Committee, with two eminent jurists, is
vulnerable to political intrusion that could jeopardise
the independence of the judiciary, is a fundamental
question being widely asked.
We should restructure the committee by
Screening of cases
In sharp contrast to the Indian situation, there

are days when no cases are listed at all in the U.K.
Supreme Court. Appeal is not a matter of routine.
Nor it is a matter of right. Leave to appeal is not
automatic. Only when there is a substantial legal
or constitutional issue, the Supreme Court
entertains the appeal. As such there is no docket
explosion, as we face.
However, the situations are incomparable in
terms of population and other socio-economic
factors. Therefore, the Indian Supreme Court cannot
probably emulate the British path in this respect.
Our Supreme Court, on the other hand, needs to
be a common mans court, and there should be
easy access to the system for the ordinary citizen
as visualised by the framers of the Indian
Constitution.
Incidentally, one may see that the judges of the
U.K Supreme Court do not wear official robes
during court proceedings. Lawyers also could
dispense with official robes on mutual consent.
Proceedings of cases of public importance or
constitutional relevance are telecast live. As such
there is little scope for media trial. These are all
small but significant instances which reflect
institutional democracy and transparency. The
openness of the system is ensured in all facets of
judicial process, starting from the selection.
Presently there are twelve Justices in the U.K.
Supreme Court. Lord Neuberger is the president
and Lady Hale is the deputy president in the bench.
John Rawls rightly said that justice is fairness.
The Supreme Court of the U.K. simply demonstrates
it. A more independent judiciary based on an
equally independent Judicial Appointments
Commission is a categorical imperative for
democratic praxis in India.
Source: The Hindu
[31]
SAFEGUARDING ANCIENT TREASURES

familiarise themselves with specificities of the illicit
antiquities trade, and methods to investigate and
store antiquities. Such a focussed approach is
unheard of among Indian State and Central
government agencies. Another critical shortcoming
is the lack of documentation. Indian authorities
realised the importance of documentation in the
recent episode. The Archaeological Survey of India
had details of two of the three idols and alerted
the Interpol in time. Unfortunately, such thoughtful
actions are few and far between. The sad truth is
that many antiquities remain undocumented. In
2007, the Ministry of Culture launched the National
Mission on Monuments and Antiquities to complete
documentation of seven million antiquities by 2010.
Until 2012, it had documented only 800,000
artefacts. Worse, the NMMA put details of only
2,823 objects on its website. Since 1987, the Central
government has been promising to amend the
Antiquities and Art Treasures Act, which mandates
registration of old artefacts and prohibits their
export, but it has not done much on that front. An
important lesson from the return of the three idols
is that unless India vastly improves protective
measures and investigative infrastructure, it can
neither control trafficking nor recover lost
antiquities.
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The return of three 1,000-year-old stone idols

to India from the U.S. kindles the hope of
recovering many more such stolen antiquities.
Impressive detective work and persistent efforts by
the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements
(ICE) Homeland Security Investigations deserve
commendation for this. The restitution of the three
idols is a part of ICEs ongoing efforts, and has less
to do with assuaging feathers ruffled by the recent
diplomatic row. In the last seven years, ICE, which
was set up as a principal investigation arm of the
Department of Homeland Security in 2003, has
recovered more than 7,150 objects belonging to 26
countries. India benefited even on an earlier
occasion. In 2006, ICE recovered a 9th century idol,
which was stolen from a temple in Madhya
Pradesh. To its credit, ICE in the recent case traced
the trail of the stolen idols that spanned three
continents and seized them when traffickers tried
to move them across U.S. borders.
In contrast, the vigil for cultural objects that

are moved across the Indian borders has been slack.
For instance, container scanners are hardly available
in Indian seaports. This has helped smugglers mix
stolen idols with newly made look-alikes and ship
them as handicrafts in large containers undetected.
Another reason for ICEs success is its training.
Agents participate in workshops organised by the
Smithsonian Museum Conservation Institute and
Source: The Hindu
SCORING OVER POLIO
On January 13, 2011, an 18-month-old infant

in Howrah district of West Bengal was found to
have been crippled by a naturally occurring wild
strain of the polio-causing virus. However, no more
children fell victim to such viruses over the next
one year and India was then removed from the list
of countries where polio is endemic. India has
remained free of polio, and analysis of sewage
samples have not turned up any signs of the virus
lurking silently in the environment. Once final tests
confirm that the wild virus has not been seen here
for the last three years, the World Health
Organisations 11-nation South-East Asia Region
(of which India is a part) can be formally certified
as polio-free. This region will then join the three
that already enjoy this status the Americas,
Western Pacific and Europe. For India, this is an
enormous public health achievement. Not so long
ago experts believed that India, with its huge
[32]
population, many poor and living in squalor, would

be the very last to eradicate polio, a disease that
once struck 50,000 to 100,000 Indian children
annually. Even in 2009, nearly half of the worlds
polio cases were occurring here. Yet, through
determined efforts and systems to ensure that no
child was missed during immunisation drives,
transmission of the wild virus has been halted. Each
national immunisation campaign is a mammoth
operation, with 2.4 million vaccinators reaching oral
vaccine drops to some 170 million children.
But the job is not over yet. Although no child
in India has been paralysed by wild polio viruses
over the last three years, several have been affected
during the period when live but weakened strains
of the virus used in the oral polio vaccine turned
virulent again. Such vaccine-derived viruses can
also spread like wild ones and be just as dangerous.
In order to safely withdraw oral vaccines, all

countries that rely on them have been asked to
introduce at least one dose of an injectable polio
vaccine based on killed viruses into their routine
childhood immunisation. In India, steps are being
taken to strengthen the way such immunisation is
provided, particularly in States where vaccination
levels are low, by incorporating lessons from the
polio campaign for reaching every child and gaining
community acceptance. Moreover, polio is still
endemic in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria, and

in the past year the viruses have spread from there
to other countries. There is therefore the risk that
the virus might be imported into India too. As long
as it continues to circulate in the world, India and
other countries that are polio-free must keep their
guard up.
Source: The Hindu
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POWER WITH RESPONSIBILITY

There are two parts to the Supreme Courts
landmark decision on Kudankulam, and each is
equally important. Much to the relief of the Centre,
which had invested hundreds of crores of rupees
there, the Tamil Nadu government which
desperately needs electricity, and the nuclear
establishment whose very raison detre had been
challenged, the court has said the power plant can
now be switched on. But it has laid down important
caveats on safety the chief concern of those
opposed to the project and urged the authorities
to roll-back the hundreds and thousands of cases
that have been foisted, mostly unfairly, on the
protesters. Apart from underscoring the need for
the plant to satisfy all environmental safety
conditions stipulated by the Ministry of
Environment and Forests, the judges have wisely
tasked Kudankulams operator the Nuclear
Power Corporation of India Limited and its
regulator, the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board,
with a review of the plant every three months,
after initially certifying the safety and reliability of
all the components and systems installed. It would
add to the credibility of Indias atomic energy
establishment if it widens the ambit of such reviews
by making them truly independent and
transparent. The AERB today is not independent
of the Department of Atomic Energy, which is the
parent body of NPCIL, and the government itself
plans to replace it with a more credible Nuclear
Safety Regulatory Authority. In the interim, and
indeed even after the NSRA comes into being, the
Supreme Court ought to subject these reviews to

judicial scrutiny. This approach would mirror the
apex courts efforts to strengthen the independence
of the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Apart from expeditiously withdrawing the cases
lodged against those who participated in the antinuclear agitation, the Tamil Nadu government must
also actively follow-up the neighbourhood
development and housing programmes for which
funds have been allocated. While judicial orders
can help ensure that Kudankulam starts its
operations on a sound footing, building public
confidence will depend on the approach of the
nuclear establishment to a host of issues: of safety
of nuclear material, handling of spent fuel, and the
need to build scientifically validated nuclear waste
repositories without delay. Since spent fuel is not
to be reprocessed at Kudankulam, and must be
transported to other facilities as per international
safety norms, it is reasonable to expect that the
modalities, if not the details, will be shared with
the country. For instance, is transport by rail
adequately protected? Equally, it is incumbent on
the Centre and Tamil Nadu to show demonstrable
proficiency in emergency and disaster management
preparedness up to the district level, as mandated
by national guidelines. After Fukushima, it should
be clear that indifference to safety can jeopardise
the future of the entire nuclear energy programme.
Source: The Hindu
TESTING THE LIMITS
The Supreme Court has once again admonished

the Sahara Pariwar, as the group likes to be called,
for its endless machinations aimed at flouting its
orders. Seeking to send a clear message to the
Pariwar, the court said it was not helpless in
taking further action and might ask the CBI and
the Registrar of Companies to probe the sources of
funds. An earlier order barring the promoter

Subroto Roy and a few of his associates from
leaving the country will remain. The specific issue
now has been Saharas continued stonewalling of
the courts order to disclose the source of the nearly
Rs. 23,000 crore with which it had claimed to have
made refunds to a very large number of investors
[33]

Having failed in its attempts to shop around
for a favourable regulatory jurisdiction for its
OFCDs the Ministry of Corporate Affairs is seen
to be more lenient than SEBI Sahara is facing a
more basic problem of preserving its extremely
opaque functioning. The controversial debenture
issue is to be seen as another attempt to conceal
the true ownership of large sums of money. It is
also another instance of its frequent brush with
financial sector regulators. SEBI, which has pursued
the case doggedly, should continue to be firm and
withstand political pressures. Politicians,
particularly in the Opposition, who are quick to
seize issues such as this, have been strangely silent
on the Sahara issue. The Finance Ministry has
remained silent. As for the Supreme Court, neither
its strong language nor indeed its repeated warnings
are likely to faze the Pariwar. As a consequence,
the credibility of the entire financial regulatory
system, and indeed the rule of law itself, stands
diminished.
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in its controversial optionally fully convertible

debentures (OFCD). In 2011, the capital market
regulator, SEBI, ruled the debenture illegal, after
which the group launched a spate of legal
proceedings at different forums, basically
challenging the capital market regulators
jurisdiction. Repeated rebuffs, at the Allahabad High
Court and the Securities Appellate Tribunal, did
not detract Sahara from the legal battles. A
landmark Supreme Court judgment of August 31,
2012, comprehensively upheld SEBIs stand and
directed Sahara to furnish information on the
OFCDs and repay depositors within strict timelines
but it has found ways to dodge the order. In
November, the Supreme Court, while dealing with
yet another default, chastised the group for making
a mockery of our order and for playing hide and
seek with the highest judiciary. Those words were
strong enough to shame anybody, but Sahara
remains unfazed.
Source: The Hindu
ESTRANGEMENT AND ENGAGEMENT
The handling of Indian Deputy-Consul

Generals case by the U.S. Government is
symptomatic of a deepening divide between India
and the United States. President Barack Obama in
2010 declared India-U.S. relations to be the
defining partnership of the 21st century. He told
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh later that India
is a big part of my plans. There is actually no
plan to show, big or small. Even as both
governments struggle to put the recent incident to
rest, the high-handed U.S. action has guaranteed
that the manner in which it transacts business with
India will change.
Indias foreign policy goals today include

creating a facilitating environment for Indias
continuing transformation; securing access to
markets, investments, technology, energy sources,
and strategic minerals needed for development;
coping with the impact of climate change; securing
the global commons outer space, the oceans,
transportation and communication networks, and
cyber-space; and reforming the United Nations and
Breton Woods institutions, even while the United
States and other industrialised countries are moving
away from the open, democratic and rule-based
conditions for international commercial and
financial exchanges. Except the latter, these are not
generally at odds with U.S. interests.
[34]
Closer home, India seeks to combat terrorist

groups in the subcontinent, maintain maritime
security, including by protecting the two choke
points of the Indian Ocean the Gulf of Hormuz
and the Straits of Malacca and promote stability
in Indias larger neighbourhood and the world.
Indeed, many of these are also U.S. goals.
Dramatic change
The dramatic change in India-U.S. relations, a

full decade after the end of the Cold War, was
propelled by Indias economic growth and,
paradoxically, by its nuclear weapon tests of 1998.
Indias relations with the other great powers began
to change too, but only in synch with and partly
as a consequence of the transformation of the IndiaU.S. relationship. It became clear also that the future
success or failure of Indias external engagement,
including that with the United States, would be
determined by Indias economic performance.
The India-U.S. bilateral agenda straddles myriad
fields. If a relationship were to be judged by the
number of bilateral summits Dr. Manmohan
Singh has had six bilateral summits with Presidents
of the United States and full-spectrum official
dialogue mechanisms there are now 35 of them
in operation, spanning civil nuclear industry,
counterterrorism, cyber security, culture, defence,

energy, higher education, health, space, and science
and technology then there is no denying the
multi-faceted interactions between the two
countries.
India has proven through its resourceconstrained development that a different type of
frugal innovation can be forged, such as GEs ultralow cost ECG machines, hand-held echo-scans,
biomass devices, prosthetics, and inexpensive drug
discovery. Indeed, joint innovation can be tried for
a range of low-cost and sustainable products and
services, spanning the areas of agriculture, energy,
environment and science and technology.
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Meetings must be judged by desirable outcomes,

not by their count but by their content. U.S. leaders
had committed to support Indias permanent
membership of the U.N. Security Council and to
the four principal international export-control
groupings. But without proactive diplomatic
pursuits like when U.S. was seeking Nuclear
Suppliers Group (NSG)s approval for the Civil
Nuclear Agreement many Indians see these as
empty promises.
investment treaty, a comprehensive cost-benefit

study of a free trade agreement, monsoon weather
forecasting, clean energy technologies, and U.S.
investments in innovative technologies to increase
productivity and build manufacturing capacities
without which there cannot be significant growth
of employment and consumption in India.
The United States is Indias most important

trading partner. Bilateral trade in goods and
services exceeded $100 billion last year. While the
standalone picture is satisfactory, the comparative
one is not. India is only the 13th largest goods
trading partner of the United States.
Of the two-way trade in goods (2011) of $57.8
billion, precious stones (diamond and gold)
accounted for $12.6 billion. Mutual investments
have been modest by global parameters from
India, estimated at about $10 billion; and from the
United States, about five times that. The nearly
three million persons of Indian origin who
contribute significantly to American economy, and
100,000 Indian students on U.S. campuses,
symbolise strong people-to-people ties. Except for
information technology, however, the two countries
have not found good ways to leverage this link.
The size of National Security Agency (NSA)
operations in India and the foot-dragging on access
to David Headley have left an adverse impact on
the Indian psyche. At the same time, U.S. business
and government representatives complain about
Indias nuclear liability law, tax regime and
intellectual property rights protection. India
continues to have concerns about U.S.
protectionism, changes in immigration laws
affecting movement of Indias skilled workers, and
the absence of a response on concluding a
totalisation agreement exempting temporary Indian
workers from paying U.S. social security taxes,
which amount now to $1 billion annually.
Future agenda
The challenge is to extricate India-U.S. dialogue

from the contentious and transactional pattern of
exchanging crib and laundry lists, complaining
against or making excessive demands on each other.
Fresh ideas to be explored include a bilateral
Defence cooperation is set to grow. India is

acquiring U.S. weapons-locating radars, attack and
heavy lift helicopters, transport and reconnaissance
aircraft, and light-weight howitzers. An estimated
half a percentage of Indias GDP is lost to the
country in buying weapons abroad. India-U.S.
defence ties must quickly be lifted beyond a vendorbuyer equation and move towards joint research,
development and production of the most advanced
weapons systems that India needs. The United
States could work with India much in the same
way as Russia does on the Brahmos short-range
cruise missile, the nuclear submarine, and the fifth
generation fighter aircraft. Co- development and
co- production, with India treated on a par with
Americas closest partners, as suggested in the
Joint Declaration on Defence Cooperation of
September 2013, could build confidence about
assurance of supply, lower acquisition costs, and
energise the nascent indigenous India defence
industry. Indians are watching how and when this
comes about.
At the inaugural of the India-U.S. strategic
dialogue in June 2010, the then Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton referred to their joint responsibility
to determine the course of the world. Given their
different histories and distant geographies, Indian
and U.S. geo-strategic interests can never
completely converge. Yet, there is consonance in
their concern about the consequences of the rise of
China. China and the United States have
adversarial relations with each other. So do China
and India.
Both India and the United States independently
are trying to find the best possible entente with
China. The present gap between China and the
United States in economic, technological and
[35]

relations for the next four decades and undermined
the existence of former Soviet Union. The gains
from this abdication are hard to comprehend.
Equally damaging is a U.S. public posture that
emboldens elements such as the Jamaat-e-Islami to
subvert democracy and development in Bangladesh.
India and the United States also share a

common interest in dismantling the infrastructure
of terrorism in Pakistan. Neither country wants safe
havens for al-Qaeda and associated terrorist groups.
Renewed U.S. messaging to Pakistans leaders to
resolve all disputes with India bilaterally has been
helpful. As for terrorism, India should not expect
the United States to solve problems that India needs
to itself address.
There is no real dialogue between India and

the United States on Bangladesh, Afghanistan,
Pakistan, or Asian security architecture. The pursuit
of a transformed or special relationship will be
meaningless if there is low regard for Indias
concerns in its South Asian contiguity.
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military power is roughly the same as the gap

between India and China. This is the overall setting
in which intra-Asian relations are being calibrated.
This requires deeper conversations between India
and the United States, minus pivoting, rebalancing,
and containment against China.
Nevertheless, the U.S. inclination to cut its losses

and run from Afghanistan is incomprehensible.
From an Indian perspective, the spectre of resumed
Taliban rule in parts or the whole of Afghanistan
in full cooperation with Pakistan looks
catastrophic. To allow this could be understandable
in pursuit of a higher foreign policy objective as
was the case when the United States supported
Pakistan during the Bangladesh crisis in order to
pursue its extraordinary opening to China, which
in turn set the parameters of Sino-American
The pendulum between the two democracies is

still swinging between estrangement and
engagement. The unfettering of Indias economy
gave the relationship its uplift. Its current
deceleration is a dampener. Indeed, President
Obama seems to have taken a step backward. He
shows personal regard for Dr. Manmohan Singh,
but not enough practical commitment. The
fundamental lack of resolve to address specific
issues is eroding public goodwill on both sides.
Perhaps the most we can hope for at this juncture
is that the relationship does not become worse.
Source: The Hindu
ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT
The decision of the Ministry of Environment

and Forests to revalidate the environmental
clearance issued to South Korean steelmaker Posco
for the proposed steel plant in Odisha is based on
a piecemeal approach, rather than a comprehensive
and cumulative assessment of all parts of the project.
It cannot claim to rely on sound judgment. What
distinguishes the proposal from the welter of
projects before the Ministry is its major Foreign
Direct Investment potential, estimated at more than
Rs.50,000 crore. There is little doubt that it will
take massive investments to pull the masses out of
deep poverty, and new industries are vital to
achieving this goal. Significant expansion of the
economy has taken place over the past two
decades, creating much wealth. Unfortunately, this
has also coincided with grossly uneven distribution
of negative externalities. In the case of Posco, the
acquisition of land has been a contentious issue,
evoking strong protest from local communities
which remain unconvinced about the benefits.
Evidently, neither the project proponent nor the
Odisha government has come up with persuasive
arguments over the past eight years on why villagers
[36]
should part with their land when their livelihood

is linked to it. Moreover, there is no effort to reach
a consensus on the renewal of environmental
clearance, now for a production capacity of eight
million tonnes per annum, even with
conditionalities that include spending on social
commitments by Posco.
Grant of environmental clearance for the steel
plant addresses only one of many components of
the Posco project mines, a port, railway lines
and a housing facility that are integral to the
functioning of the steel plant have been delinked.
That point has already been made by the National
Green Tribunal, which had recommended to the
Centre that it consider the cumulative impact, and
the concerns expressed by review committees set
up to evaluate it. If the Ministrys decisions must
carry credibility, it must provide a detailed report
on how these suggestions have been complied with.
In the case of the equally high-profile Vedanta
bauxite mining project in Niyamgiri in Odisha, the
Ministry has deferred to the sentiments of the tribal
residents and rejected the bid. Appropriating
natural resources for development remains a

contentious issue in a populous country where land
is scarce and rehabilitation systems are weak. It
has to be done selectively, and only after careful
study of the impacts by credentialled specialists.
There is little scope in a democracy to override
public opinion, and impose unpopular decisions. It

is also misleading to cast environmental safeguards
and development as conflicting imperatives when
they are vitally interlinked.
Source: The Hindu
ARMING INDIA INTO DEPENDENCY

billion in 2013.
Still, few Indians are raising the key questions:
How are Indias security interests being advanced
by substituting the corrosive import dependency
on Russia with a new dependency on the U.S.,
without progress to build a domestic armsproduction base? What makes the strategic
partnership special, given that Washington also
has special relationships with Indias regional
adversaries a security alliance since 2004 and
strategic partnership since 2006 with Pakistan, and
a constructive strategic partnership with China
since 1997 that predates the strategic partnership
with India? Is a relationship locking India as a
leading U.S. arms client sustainable in the long run?
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The blossoming of ties with the United States

has become an important diplomatic asset for India
in recent years. Yet, the heady glow of the muchballyhooed strategic partnership helped obscure
prickly issues that arose much before the Devyani
Khobragade episode. In truth, the Obama
administrations reluctance to accommodate Indian
interests on major issues, coupled with the
fundamental challenge of managing an
asymmetrical relationship, has created fault lines
that are testing the resilience of the partnership.
One aspect of the relationship, however, has
thrived spectacularly U.S. arms sales to India.
In just a few years, the U.S. has quietly emerged as
Indias largest arms supplier, leaving Russia and
Israel far behind. This development is linked to the
Indo-U.S. civilian nuclear deal. Although it remains
a dud deal on energy, with little prospect of
delivering a single operational nuclear power plant
for years to come, it has proved a roaring success
in opening the door to major U.S. arms sales. The
2005 nuclear agreement-in-principle incorporated
a specific commitment to ramp up defence
transactions.
The booming arms sales rising in barely one
decade from a measly $100 million to billions of
dollars yearly have seemingly acquired an
independent momentum. Nothing better illustrates
this than the fact that, at the height of the
Khobragade affair, India, far from seeking to impose
any costs on America, awarded it yet another
mega-contract a $1.01-billion deal for supply of
six additional C-130J military transport aircraft.
When Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited the
White House last September, among the gifts he
took for President Barack Obama was a
commitment to purchase $5 billion worth of new
arms.
Today, Indias largely one-sided defence

relationship with the U.S. is beginning to look akin
to its lopsided ties with Russia, with weapon sales
serving as the driving force. However, unlike the
torpid Indo-Russian non-military commerce, the
two-way Indo-U.S. trade has quadrupled in just
seven years from $25 billion in 2006 to about $100
Lets be clear: India can never emerge as a major

international power in a true sense, or acquire a
military edge regionally, if it remains dependent
on imports to meet even its basic defence needs.
The capacity to defend oneself with ones own
resources is the first test a nation must pass on the
way to becoming a great power.
Leading arms importer
Ominously, a still-poor India has emerged as

the worlds biggest arms importer since 2006,
accounting for 10 per cent of all weapons sold
globally. Such large-scale imports might suggest that
India is pursuing a well-planned military build-up.
In truth, such imports lack strategic direction, given
the absence of long-term political thinking or joint
tri-service planning and command. They are being
made in a haphazard manner, although any
imported weapon makes India hostage to the
supplier-nation for spares and service for the full
life of that system.
The rising arms imports, far from making India
secure, are only exposing new gaps in its
capabilities to decisively win a war. The inveterate
dependency burdens Indian taxpayers, forcing them
to subsidise foreign military-industrial complexes.
Worse still, defence transactions remain the single
largest source of kickbacks for Indias corrupt and
compromised political elites. This factor alone
[37]

explains why India has failed to replicate in the
conventional-arms sector its impressive indigenous
achievements in the fields where imports are not
possible the space, missile and nuclear-weapons
realms.
The declaration clearly sought to pander to

Indias desire for a less inequitable defence
relationship. By dangling the carrot of India being
upgraded to the same level as Americas closest
partners, the declaration also peddled a catchy
slogan excitedly lapped up by the Indian media.
The U.S. is now willing to co-produce some smaller
defensive systems with India, such as the Javelin
anti-tank missiles. Such restricted technology
transfers, the U.S. believes, will pave the way for
securing additional multibillion-dollar contracts to
sell large readymade weapons to India.
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For the U.S., displacing Russia as Indias largest

arms supplier has been a diplomatic coup. Rarely
before has America acquired a major arms client
of such size so rapidly. The U.S.s India success
indeed parallels what happened in the early 1970s
when Egypt switched sides during the Cold War,
transforming itself from a Soviet arms client to
becoming reliant on American arms supplies. The
difference is that unlike the perpetually aiddependent Egypt, India buys weapons with its own
money.
weapon-related projects will be pursued in

accordance with national policies and
procedures. But if U.S. policies and procedures
do not evolve in the direction of facilitating such
collaboration, the declared intent will remain little
more than pious hope.
With U.S. military spending slowing and other

export markets remaining tight, American firms are
eager to further expand arms sales to India. The
fact that the U.S. now conducts more military
exercises with India than with any other country
creates a favourable political milieu for its defence
firms to aggressively push their wares for sale. Even
so, the troubling lack of competitive bidding or
transparency in the arms deals all clinched on
a government-to-government basis has become
conspicuous. In the one case where India invited
bids to buy 126 fighter-jets American firms
failed to make it beyond the competitions first
round.
Diplomacy without leverage
The annual value of Indias arms contracts to

the U.S. already surpasses American military aid
to any country other than Israel. Diplomacy, to be
effective, must be backed by leverage and crosslinkages to minimise the weaker sides
disadvantages. Yet, New Delhi has not tried to
leverage its contracts either to persuade the U.S. to
stop arming Pakistan against India or to secure
better access to the American market for its highly
competitive
information-technology
and
pharmaceutical companies, which are facing new
U.S. non-tariff barriers. Indias new frontier of
dependency has emerged even as the U.S. bolsters
Pakistan with generous military aid.
To be sure, the U.S. signed a four-point
declaration of intent with India last September to
move beyond the sale of complete weapon systems
to co-production through technology transfer.
Translating that intent into practice wont be easy,
though. According to the joint declaration, efforts
to identify specific opportunities for collaborative
[38]
Significantly, U.S. arms to India fall mainly in

the category of defensive weapons. Russia, by
contrast, has transferred offensive weapon systems
to India, including strategic bombers, an aircraft
carrier, and a nuclear-powered submarine. Will the
U.S. be willing to sell high-precision conventional
arms, anti-submarine warfare systems, long range
air- and sea-launched cruise missiles, and other
conventional counterforce systems that could tilt
the regional military balance in Indias favour?
The China factor
Another issue relates to the strategic benefits

from a closer defence relationship. True, such a
relationship will have a countervailing value vis-vis China. Yet, it is also true that America has a
deeper engagement with China than with India.
Indeed, China is now central to U.S. economic and
strategic interests. This fact helps to explain why
the Obama administration has chartered a course
of neutrality on territorial disputes between China
and its neighbours, shying away from holding joint
military exercises in Arunachal Pradesh.
A wake-up call for Asian states that rely on the
U.S. as their security guarantor was Obamas
inaction on the 2012 Chinese capture of the
Scarborough Shoal, located within the Philippines
exclusive economic zone. Americas indifference to
its commitment to the Philippines under their
Mutual Defence Treaty emboldened China to
effectively seize a second Philippine-claimed shoal.
This is proof that despite its pivot toward Asia,
the U.S. wont act in ways detrimental to its close
engagement with China. Obamas foreign policy
bears a distinct transactional imprint.

A wise India would consider declaring a
moratorium on arms purchases from all sources to
give itself time to strategise its priorities and clean
up its procurement system. A moratorium of just
three years will save the country a whopping $20
billion without compromising national security.
With non-traditional threats ranging from
asymmetric warfare in the form of cross-border
terrorism to territorial creep through furtive

encroachments now dominating Indias security
calculus, procurement of more mega-weapons to
meet traditional security challenges must wait until
the nation has added strategic direction to its
defence policy.
Source: The Hindu
KNOWLEDGE AS POWER
pointing out other peoples mistakes, so an excellent
way of arriving at valid information on the Internet
is to begin by posting some, possibly erroneous
information.
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My ears perked up during a lively rendition of

the Lungi Dance by my granddaughters, for the
words ran: Gharpe jaake tum Google kar lo, mere
baare me Wikipidia pe padhlo! So, Wikipedia, which
has become such a fantastic source of information
and enjoyment for me over the last few years, is
now a part of popular culture! This is incredible,
because Wikipedia goes against all the tenets of the
votaries of market economy who had confidently
predicted fourteen years ago that this non-profit,
voluntary experiment was bound to fail.
The Wiki software that permits building up of

information in a collaborative fashion is a
remarkable innovation, and its creator, Ward
Cunningham, could have made lots of money by
patenting it. Instead, he made it freely available,
opening up enormous possibilities. Encyclopedias,
centuries-old compendia of knowledge, have
traditionally been expert-driven and commercially
produced. But with the World-Wide-Web flowered
concepts such as Creative Commons, a platform
for people who wish their creations texts,
pictures, music to be freely and publicly available,
not only to enjoy, but to change, augment, improve.
This is a process of positive feedback, with creations
and creativity growing from strength to strength.
According to market devotees, Creative Commons,
starved of the waters of private profit, should have
forever remained barren. But over the years it has
become a lush garden, tended lovingly by people
who can see well beyond personal gain.
Wikipedia is the great Banyan tree, growing in

this public garden. The initial free, public
Encyclopedia, Nupedia, composed by experts, failed
to take off. Experts are busy people, generally with
a strong personal profit motive, and initially failed
to take the lead in this public-spirited endeavour.
It was then that Wikipedia boldly decided that any
lay person too would be welcome to contribute to
an article on any topic, provided that the inputs
are based on acceptable sources of information.
People, especially experts, enjoy nothing more than
Rigorous scrutiny
Wikipedia invites all comers to scrutinise every

piece of information in every article, eliminate errors
and improve its quality. This stimulated experts
who now participate enthusiastically in the
inclusive, egalitarian enterprise of Wikipedia. In this
new culture of the Commonwealth of Knowledge,
experts have graduated from the earlier
overpowering, monopolistic role to a very
constructive one of collaboration and guidance. So,
Wikipedia has become a standard source of
information even for professional mathematicians,
with the material, naturally enough, based on inputs
from practising mathematicians. They have gone
on to collaboratively develop outstanding
mathematical text-books as Wikibooks.
The gratifying outcome is that the accuracy of
information on Wikipedia, on a par with that in
commercial encyclopedias, has been maintained
even as its quantity has grown a thousand times
over that of commercial ones. Moreover, the
information is very much up to date. Within hours
of the tsunami hitting the east coast of India,
Wikipedia carried authentic pictures and
information on the event. Happily, all major Indian
languages now have their own Wikipedias, with
more than half a lakh articles each in Hindi, Tamil
and Telugu.
Common people, acting collaboratively, are a
wonderful source of public good. Regretfully,
experts, when assigned a monopolistic role, can
abuse public interest. Goas Mines and Geology
Department is expected to regularly inspect mines,
maintain proper data and ensure that mining
operations do not impose undue environmental and
social costs. Yet, the Shah Commission Report on
Illegal Mining in Goa records that no inspection
[39]

was carried out of iron ore mines as required under
the Act, resulting in damage to the ecology,
environment, agriculture, ground water, ponds,
rivers, and biodiversity. The commission squarely
puts the blame for such damage on many official
experts. My own studies document that experts
from private organisations have been guilty of
deliberately falsifying information in the
Environmental Impact Assessments of mines.
now taking root. It is such Citizen Science that the

people of Kerala should now pioneer, with the stone
quarries as the focus, for the official agencies have
no proper database on these allegedly largely illegal,
environmentally-destructive and socially-abusive
activities. After all, it was in Kerala that scientists
began to break the stranglehold of official agencies
through an open, transparent exercise of
conducting an environmental and techno-economic
assessment of the Silent Valley Project.
Creation of knowledge
Now, in the new millennium, a cadre of

volunteers can readily put together a quarries
database since the easily available GPS instruments
pinpoint geographical locations, and satellite images
bring out patterns of land use including
quarrying, the watercourse that the quarries affect,
the landslides that they trigger, the fields and
plantations that they smother. Local residents can
involve themselves by speedily collecting pertinent
physical data, as well as detailed information on
employment generated, other economic, social,
health impacts and on matters like whether the
concerned gram sabhas support or oppose the
enterprises. If organisations like the Kerala Sastra
Sahitya Parishat and Vigyan Bharathi make such
an effort their mission, a rich reliable information
base can be put together in as short a time as a few
weeks.
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Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, an exercise of

compiling available knowledge. But new
knowledge, too, may be created very effectively in
the same inclusive culture of collaboration, for
common people know a great deal from their
experience. I discovered a striking example of this
in my field research on ecology and management
of bamboos. The Foresters prescribed that the
thorny covering at the base of bamboo clumps must
be cleared to decongest the clumps and promote
better growth of new culms. The villagers told me
that this was a mistake; that clearing the thorns
exposed new shoots to grazing by cattle as well as
wild animals, adversely impacting the bamboo
stocks. Three years of careful field studies revealed
that the villagers were entirely right.
So, systematically recording such detailed

location and society specific knowledge can be of
immense value. The Australians, for instance, have
a Citizens River Watch Programme involving local
residents who adopt nearby river stretches for
keeping a watch over them. The government
arranges two-day training programmes for all those
interested, communicating simple techniques of
assessing water flow and water quality. The water
quality assessments are based on occurrence of
animals like damselflies that occur only in clean
water or chironomids that frequent highly polluted
waters. Numerous volunteer observers upload such
data employing user-friendly online data entry
forms. This data is open to scrutiny and correction
by all concerned. Such citizen scientist data has by
now generated an excellent knowledge base of the
state of rivers of Australia. Such a rich database
could never have been created by experts acting by
themselves; there are too few of them, they are
expensive, and assigning a monopolistic role to
them is dangerous. Moreover, involving all
interested citizens in collecting and scrutinising the
data ensures that errors, including deliberate
falsifications, are quickly noticed and eliminated.
The world over, such Citizen Science projects are
[40]
Of course, this ought to have been already

under way. The Biological Diversity Act, 2002,
mandates all Panchayat Bodies to develop Peoples
Biodiversity Registers that would include many of
the elements sketched above. Noting that first-hand
observations on environmental parameters would
be an excellent educational tool, the Central
Advisory Board on Education had strongly
endorsed a programme of using student
Environmental Education projects throughout the
country to develop such databases as early as 2005,
as did the Approach Paper for the Eleventh Five
Year Plan. But these formal provisions have been
of no avail for our rulers believe in what Tao Te
Ching, the Chinese manual of Statecraft preached
two thousand four hundred years ago: The
ancients who practised the way did not enlighten
people with it; they used it, rather to stupefy them;
the people are hard to rule when they have too
much knowledge. Therefore, ruling a state through
knowledge is to rock the state. Ruling a state
through ignorance brings stability to the state.
The citizens of the world are now ready to rock
many of the thoroughly mismanaged boats of our
nation-states. Peoples taking charge of the

knowledge enterprise should be one of the steps in
such a revolution. So, let Kerala pioneer the Citizen
Science approach, focusing on a significant issue
of the day the stone quarries disfiguring the

mountains of Gods own country.
Source: The Hindu
INJECT INVESTMENT INTO BIOTECH

The biotechnology industry is one of the fastest
growing in the country and the outlook for it show
no signs of dimming as we push forward to 2025.
The favourable business environment that is

created as a result will allow the biotechnology
and healthcare sectors combined to grow at a rate
of 25-30 per cent with the potential to generate
revenues of $100 billion by 2025.
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Currently, a significant portion of the sectors

growth is contributed by pharmaceuticals, where
growth has followed a rapid and impressive
trajectory, following the economic liberalisation of
the early nineties.
further impetus to industry growth and enable

India to emerge as a real bio-economy.
Despite this optimistic scenario for the

healthcare and biotech sectors, there is a danger of
the potential coming unstuck if we fail to bolster it
with some critical investments.
We need to take a long-term view of the

resources needed to sustain this growth. Public
policy, insofar as it impacts the biotech sector, has
been largely growth-oriented and investmentfriendly.
A PwC report on the outlook for the
pharmaceutical industry in India highlights some
of these initiatives.
Some initiatives
On the infrastructure front, they have included

building more healthcare facilities, boosting access
to healthcare, improving the quality of medical
training and increasing public spending on
healthcare. In addition, tax incentives and policies
have been rolled out to attract more private
investment in the sector from domestic and
international companies.
This is not only the right strategy for India at

its current stage of development, it also makes
sound economic sense.
Sensible approach
Consider the market for healthcare and

healthcare-related products in a country of Indias
size.
Currently, the penetration of prescription drugs
and pharmaceutical products is still very low in
rural areas. According to a report by PwC, 742
million people live in rural areas but rural markets
contribute only 17 per cent of overall market sales.
Increasing penetration into these markets
through public distribution channels, better
healthcare facilities and public-private partnerships
represents a huge opportunity.
While the economic benefits in this scenario are
abundantly clear, it will also dramatically improve
the governments ability to ensure access to quality
healthcare services and products in under-served
sections of the country.
These are important measures, but there is now

a need to further scale this investment to where its
impact will be far-reaching and sustainable.
Currently, India is a leading producer of generic

drugs but the next step in the industrys evolution
will involve new drug discovery and product
development.
We are talking about an annual investment of

$4-5 billion over the next four to five years in order
to support new infrastructure development,
research geared to new drug discovery, and a fresh
round of investment-friendly incentives.
While this is already happening at a certain

level, a concerted and planned effort in building
research and educational infrastructure is needed
to support cutting edge research. Public funding
and grants are critical to this effort.
In the current environment, the domestic

pharmaceutical industry is expected to grow at a
compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15-20
per cent, according to the PwC report, reaching a
value of anywhere between $50 billion and $74
billion by 2020.
The availability of public funds for original R&D

will also alleviate one of the biggest challenges in
the sector.
This kind of sustained investment will provide

Currently, many biotech firms especially the

smaller ones find it difficult to obtain the
financial resources to conduct such projects. Since
outcomes in this sector can take a long time, private
[41]

investors and venture capitalists are often wary of
tying up their money in such projects. Infusing
public funds into the system will ease this situation
and set the stage for better and more productive
collaboration between public institutions and
industry.
Destination of choice
India is already the preferred destination for
MNCs seeking to outsource much of their research
and manufacturing activities.
It will enable us to make advances on several

fronts: in recognising disease conditions and
patterns that are unique to our population, in
boosting agricultural yield and productivity, and
in helping us develop sustainable solutions to our
developmental challenges of energy production and
water supply.
A figure of $5 billion may seem like a significant
investment for the government in any given year.
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The development of world class research

facilities and the presence of well-trained research
talent will make it more attractive in this respect.
Investment in other key sub-sectors of the

biotech industry namely, bioinformatics, agribiotech and industrial biotech is also essential at
this juncture of Indias development.
Along with the right tax incentives and policies,

these positive trends will cement Indias status as
a biotech hub. The economic impact in terms of
better employment opportunities in the sector and
overall contribution to GDP is likely to be
significant.
However, the economic case for such an

investment is compelling as its impact extends
beyond the sector into other areas that are linked
to overall national growth and prosperity.
LEARNING IN SCHOOLS
The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan programme and a

2 per cent primary education cess levied on Central
taxes since 2004-05 have undoubtedly delivered
results from a quantitative perspective. The
proportion of rural children in the 6-14 age group
enrolled in schools has risen to around 96 per cent.
Also, the fact that over 82 per cent of girls aged
15-16 years today study in schools compared
with the times when a majority of them would
have been married off definitely represents
progress. Equally significant is the provision of basic
infrastructure/facilities: almost three-fourths of all
schools now have drinking water, two-thirds have
playgrounds and usable toilets, and more than 87
per cent serve mid-day meals for students. These
ratios, while far from ideal, were much worse a
decade ago.
But what the above improvements mask is a

simultaneous deterioration on the qualitative front,
captured starkly in an Annual Status of Education
Report prepared by the NGO, Pratham. According
to it, only 25.6 per cent of Std V schoolchildren in
rural India in 2013 could solve three-digit by onedigit division problems, while only 47 per cent were
capable of reading Std II-level textbooks. Given that
the corresponding numbers in 2009 were somewhat
better at 38.1 and 52.9 per cent respectively, it
points to a phenomenon of more children going to
school and yet learning less. This crisis of quality
has also been highlighted by other surveys, including
a worldwide assessment test of reading, and
[42]
mathematical and scientific skills among 15-yearold students conducted by the Organisation for
Economic Cooperation and Development. India did
not participate in the last test in 2012, but in an
evaluation round held three years earlier, it ranked
second from the bottom after Kyrgyzstan. At the
top of the 74-country list was China.
There are many lessons here. That the average
Indian is just 25.5 years gives the country the
chance to reap a demographic dividend similar to
the phenomenal growth rates that China recorded
over the last three decades, courtesy a
predominantly young workforce. But young people
are an asset only when they have the skills
necessary to meet the demands of a globalised
economy. And that can come only with quality
education down to the level of our mofussil and
village schools. The Pratham report has a revealing
statistic: the proportion of 6-14 -year-olds enrolled
in rural private schools went up from 17 to 29 per
cent between 2005 and 2013. The reason for this is
only quality; all indicators clearly show private
schools delivering better learning outcomes than
government schools. The time has come to focus
more on quality in government-run schools and
also look at models to incentivise inclusionary
education by private schools. Government grants
to private schools linked to their intake of students
from less privileged backgrounds can certainly be
one of them.
POLITICAL STALEMATE DEFANGS SEBI

If a Saradha-type scam breaks out now, chances
are the perpetrators will go scot free. That is because
capital markets regulator, the Securities and
Exchange Board of India (SEBI), has just lost the
teeth it had acquired a few months ago by way of
an ordinance.
These orders could now be challenged in court.

Legal pundits say if the basis for those orders ceases
to exist, they may be pronounced as null and void
by a court. However, it will not affect cases in
which action has been initiated and completed.
However, the Finance Ministry believes that any
action ordered on the basis of power derived from
the provisions of the ordinance will be unaffected,
even it lapses. However, Ministry mandarins do
admit that there will be an impact on matters
where no final decision has been taken.
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The ordinance, which had given the regulator

additional powers to market manipulations of the
more sophisticated kind and regulate illegal deposits
and Ponzi schemes, lapsed on Wednesday. The
lapsing of the ordinance could become a major
cause of embarrassment to the market regulator.
Legal validity
The ordinance was brought in place of the

Securities Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2013, which
aims to amend three laws, namely, the SEBI Act,
1992, the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956
and the Depositories Act, 1996.
It must be reissued to ensure the continuance

of actions already initiated by SEBI, including
framing of regulations, appointment of recovery
officers, organising capacity-building programmes
and taking action against irregularities and frauds
in the securities market. The Government failed to
get the Securities Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2013
passed in the winter session of Parliament, which
began on December 5.
Investor interest
The Bill was aimed at protecting investor interest

and ensuring orderly development of securities
markets. It proposed to empower SEBI to call for
information not only from people or entities
associated with the securities market, but also from
persons who were not directly associated with the
market.
It also empowered SEBI to provide effective
protection of investors in cases of fraudulent
diversion of monies raised from investors.
The Bill also intended to help SEBI monitor

collective investment schemes. Further, in view of
large pendency of cases, the Bill prescribed the
setting up of Special Courts for prosecution of
offences under securities laws. The ordinance had
essentially conferred these powers to SEBI.
The regulator has already notified five sets of
rules, including those for search and seizure. It has
also issued orders for attachment and recovery,
using the power given to it by the ordinance.
The ordinance also prescribes that registration

with SEBI will be mandatory for pooling money
amounting to over Rs. 100 crore.
The Saradha scam in West Bengal highlighted
the regulatory gap and overlap in curbing
fraudulent investment schemes. Now, the fear is
that Ponzi schemes may become active again.
Although the Finance Ministry is seeking the
Law Ministrys opinion to re-promulgate the
ordinance dated September 16, there is a
constitutional hitch.
Article 123 of the Constitution says that the
President can promulgate an ordinance between
two sessions of Parliament, if the matter requires
immediate action. An ordinance has the same force
and effect as an Act of Parliament.
The hitch
The problem now is that the winter session of

Parliament was adjourned sine die on December
18, but the President is yet to prorogue the session.
The formalities of winding up the session are not
yet complete and, in fact, Parliament can be reconvened any time.
Hence, reissuing the ordinance becomes an issue.
The Government issued the ordinance on July 18
and re-promulgated it in September, after it failed
to get the Bill passed in the monsoon session of
Parliament.
Converting an ordinance into an Act would
require approval by both Houses of Parliament in
the next session. Otherwise, the ordinance expires
six weeks from the time Parliament begins its session.
[43]
CAN BENEFITS BE TIED TO THE VOTE?

Clientelism tying benefits to political choices
cannot work because voting preferences cannot
be ascertained.
In Rajasthan, for example, incumbent parties have

been removed from office in every state election for
twenty years.
Do parties and their local agents link access to

government services and benefits from government
welfare schemes to how voters vote, or are expected
to vote?
Finally, recent research shows that caste has

become a weaker predictor of vote choice than
before. This makes the task of identifying how
people vote challenging.
The Rajasthan survey
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This political strategy, which social scientists

refer to as clientelism, depends on a massive
investment in local leaders who collect information
on voters party preferences, vote choices and
intentions, as well as which inducements will
convince voters to support their party at the polls.
This strategy also importantly depends upon
the credible threat of punishment when a voter is
found to vote the wrong way.
Caste, weaker predictor
Clientelism and its informational requirements

are at the centre of many analyses of Indian politics
and the politics of other developing countries.
Nonetheless, data to test this conventional wisdom
is largely lacking.
Based on my evidence from rural Rajasthan,

the basic ability of village council presidents,
informally akin to political middlemen, is lower than
this view presumes.
Three important changes to Indian democracy

in recent decades should lead us to question the
capacity of parties to allocate government benefits
conditional on vote choice. First, Indias Election
Commission has become a model in the protection
of the secret ballot, and voters know it.
In a preliminary survey in rural Rajasthan,
respondents were unanimous in their belief in the
secrecy of the ballot.
Even in Bihar, where Centre for the Study of

Developing Societies (CSDS) data is available, 77
per cent of respondents in a 2010 post-poll survey
said that politicians could never (50 per cent) or
rarely (26.9 per cent) find out how they voted.
This means that local agents must depend on

conversations, local observations, rumours and
stereotypes about the party affiliations of particular
jatis (sub-castes) or communities to identify voters
political preferences.
Second, we have seen a sharp increase in

electoral competition across India since the 1990s.
[44]
How realistic is the fundamental assumption

that parties through their local politicians
can identify voters partisan preferences?
In January 2013, I conducted a survey of 95
village council presidents (sarpanch) and 950
randomly selected voters in rural blocks across
Rajasthan.
I showed each sarpanch a sheet of ten voters,
which included photographs, names, and other
information from the electoral rolls, and asked each
to guess which party a voter would support if an
election were held tomorrow. Sarpanch guesses were
matched to answers voters provided by secret ballot
in the voter survey.
I used the share of sarpanch guesses that matched

surveyed voters partisan preferences to yield a rate
of correct guesses, which I call guessability.
Since Rajasthan is a two-party system, caste
(or local jati) is predictive of vote choice, and 95
per cent of sarpanch personally knew the voters we
asked them about, I expected guessability to be high.
Interestingly, I found an overall guessability rate
of 64.5 per cent. To put this number in perspective,
if a sarpanch guessed voters partisan preferences
randomly between Congress and BJP, guessability
would be at 50 per cent.
Sarpanch exceed this; however, guessability is
equal or worse relative to two other low information
methods. First, I conducted a simple statistical
analysis using only land holdings and caste to
predict partisan preferences.
This correctly predicted partisan preferences
64.3 per cent of the time. Second, I developed a
simple decision rule using publicly available CSDS
polling data on the percentage of members of major
castes and Muslims who supported the BJP and
Congress. If, on average, a group voted at least 15
per cent more for the BJP than Congress in the
2003 and 2008 elections (or visa versa), I guessed
that all voters from that group support the BJP.
Evenly split
Otherwise, members of that group are evenly
split between BJP and Congress. When I apply this
rule to my data, guessability is 76 per cent. It
appears that sarpanch performance on guessability
does not measure up to inexpensive, lowinformation alternatives.
These results suggest two simple kinds of logic

at odds with the conventional wisdom. Local
politicians perform better at guessability when
voters or the groups they belong to are commonly
known to be solidly partisan or when they interact
routinely with them.
Why does low guessability matter for how we
think about the strength of Indian democracy? First,
these results indicate that the ballot is genuinely
secret.
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The next set of issues is to consider how

guessability varies across local politicians and
voters characteristics. We might expect more
educated or politically experienced sarpanch to
perform better on guessability.
voters, who are likely to reveal the party they

support.
Interestingly, measures of education, family

political connections, and tenure in the village
council have no effect. There are also no
distinguishable differences in aggregate guessability
rates between male and female sarpanch or upper
and lower-caste sarpanch.
And what about voters? Compared to scheduled

castes, voters from castes that switch the party they
vote for from one election to the next, namely Jats
and Meenas, were hardest to guess, while the
richest and poorest voters are easier to guess than
those in the middle.
This is not surprising; the rich and poor tend to
interact often with local politicians to seek favours
or access to welfare benefits, respectively.
Secret ballot
Another important finding is that sarpanches

are better at guessing the partisanship of voters in
their local co-partisan network. Of course, the
sarpanch is likely to routinely interact with these
Local politicians either cannot identify voters

partisan preferences or do not attempt to because
clientelism is deemed non-credible as an electoral
strategy in rural Rajasthan.
This means that voters largely vote without fear
of retribution, which opens up the potential for
voters to hold their leaders accountable. Second, if
guessability is low, should we expect benefits to be
allocated as a function of individuals votes or
partisan preferences in the first place, and should
local politicians have incentives to allocate benefits
in this way?
Given the unpredictability of partisan
preferences among those who personally know
voters in their local areas, it seems that either this
strategy is quite ineffective as a vote-getting strategy
or it is not as prevalent as expected. We should
revisit our thinking on clientelisms pervasiveness
in India.
ONE SIZE WILL NOT FIT ALL
The Nachiket Mor panels suggestions on

priority sector lending should not extend to private
and foreign banks.
The Reserve Bank of Indias committee on
comprehensive financial services for small
businesses and low income households, headed by
RBIs central board member Nachiket Mor, has
suggested that priority sector lending (PSL) by banks
be raised to 50 per cent, against the current 40 per
cent.
To achieve this, the committee has

recommended assigning weights to districts and
sectors on the basis of constraints faced in reaching
them, and that banks must extend credit to these
district-sector combinations, keeping the associated
weights into account, to meet the 50 per cent target.

The committee has further suggested broadening
the scope of PSL: treating loans extended to small
and marginal farmers and landless labourers; banks
investments in institutional bonds and guarantees;
equity investments in infrastructure such as
godowns and silos; and so on.
In addition, the committee has suggested giving
freedom to banks to use relatively risk-free trade in
PSL certificates to meet targets.
Helpful suggestions
These suggestions, when accepted by the RBI
and implemented properly, may help small and
marginal farmers get out of the clutches of
[45]

moneylenders and simultaneously provide some
cushion to banks in deciding their priority lending
portfolio. A pertinent question now is will private
and foreign banks also be required to meet the
increased PSL target?
According to the guidelines revised by the RBI
in 2012, all public and private banks, and foreign
banks with 20 and more branches, have to lend 40
per cent of their adjusted net bank credit to six
priority sectors defined by the central bank.
A 1 per cent increase in non-PSL loans leads to

a 0.17 per cent increase in NPAs in the non-PSL
category.
This indicates that the cost that PSL loans impose
on banks in the form of NPAs is higher compared
with loans extended in the nonpriority sectors.
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Going by this, it appears that PSL lending of 50

per cent will have to be followed by private and
foreign banks (with 20 branches or more) also.
Two separate regressions, using PSL loans and

NPAs from PSL in the first regression and non-PSL
loans and non-PSL NPAs in the second regression
respectively showed that a 1 per cent increase in
PSL lending leads to a 0.22 per cent increase in
NPAs in priority sectors.
The question then is, will such a move be

efficient for private and foreign banks which have
different business models and objectives and have
no provisions of capital infusion by the government
to cushion against non-performing assets (NPAs),
unlike public sector banks (PSBs)?
Learning from the experience of countries such

as Korea, Japan, China, Brazil and Thailand, the
study further highlighted that directed lending
programmes might not always be the most efficient
way of making finance available to certain sectors,
because of the high costs of implementing such
programmes.
Recent study
The consequence
A recent study by Nathan Economic Consulting

India submitted to the British High Commission as
part of its prosperity fund has concluded that
mandating all kinds of banks, public, private and
foreign, to extend PSL to specific sectors such as
agriculture and related activities may not yield
efficient results for the banking industry and the
economy as a whole.
In the absence of provisions for capital infusion

in private and foreign banks, continuous increase
in PSL targets (from 32 per cent to 40-50 per cent
for foreign banks) can prove detrimental to the
bottomlines of these banks.
The study has suggested that increasing credit

availability in the export sector as also in micro
and small enterprises (MSEs) can actually boost
the economy.
The findings
The study focused on three of the six priority

sectors defined by the RBI agriculture, export
and MSE.
It reveals that a 100 per cent increase in PSL to

the export sector increases export GDP by 76 per
cent.
The same increase in PSL to the MSE sector
increases manufacturing GDP by 41 per cent.
However, in the case of agriculture, a 100 per cent
increase in PSL increases agricultural GDP only by
11 per cent due to factors such as dependence on
the monsoon and excessive land fragmentation. This
indicates that the export and MSE sectors offer
better buoyancy to PSL.
The study has also found that the cost of lending
to priority sectors is higher compared to nonpriority sectors.
[46]
Since the RBI has shown its inclination to

provide operational flexibility to private and foreign
banks through a more liberalised policy, besides
relying on them for better efficiency in the sector,
should stringent PSL norms be imposed upon them?
According to the discussion paper, Banking
Structure in India: The Way Forward, published
by the RBI in August 2013, revenues from wholesale
banking, dominated by foreign banks and new
generation private banks are expected to double
by 2015 compared to what they were in 2010.
According to the paper, wholesale banking
revenues in India account for around 30 per cent
of total banking revenues and are pegged to double
from around $16 billion in 2010 to over $35 billion
by 2015.
The paper also highlights that foreign banks
participation is significant in increasing competition
and introducing sophisticated financial services and
risk management methodologies in the Indian
banking system.
Their expectations, in turn, are governed by
profits and opportunities in host countries.
Setting targets for these banks to lend to sectors
such as agriculture is, therefore, not efficient.

Rather, their strengths sophisticated products
and sourcing foreign capital should be utilised
to propel the growth of the economy, more so,
when foreign banks have far lower concentration
in rural areas.
As of May 2013, out of the 333 branches of 43

foreign banks, 331 were in urban and metropolitan
areas.
THE ROAD AHEAD FOR AN ANARCHIC CURRENCY

works well enough for most transactions, it still
suffers from the inherent weaknesses of the trustbased model. The bitcoin, obviously, does not rely
on this trust quotient.
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On June 23, 2011, Google CEO (now executive

chairman) Eric Schmidt held a secret five-hour
meeting with WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange,
who was under house arrest. In the course of their
marathon discussion, the transcript of which is
available online, Assange asks Schmidt, you
know about bitcoins? The Google topgun replies
in the negative. Assange tries to educate Schmidt:
Bitcoin is something that evolved out of the
cypherpunks a couple of years ago, and it is an
alternative... it is a stateless currency.
Interestingly, there is a lot in common between
the master whistleblower and the digital currency.
And perhaps the most important aspect is their
anti-state, anti-establishment character. In fact, in
the popular as well as the academic discourse on
bitcoin, this key aspect has not received the attention
it deserves. The anarchist principles embedded in
the very origin and evolution of the crypto currency
is something that demands closer investigation.
Beyond boundaries
The bitcoin was created in response to state

interventions in the currency system. Satoshi
Nakamoto, the master geek (or a battery of geeks,
as many believe) who created bitcoins in 2009, was
acting in response to the collapse of the global
financial system in general and the US meltdown
of 2007-08 in particular.
Nakamoto felt currencies backed by states and
central banks could not be trusted, and he built a
parallel currency system that uses a peer-to-peer
network to prevent double-spending. Its
completely decentralised with no server or central
authority, Nakamoto wrote on January 9, 2008,
releasing the first version of the bitcoin Bitcoin
V.01.
In a paper entitled Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer

Electronic Cash System, Nakamoto came down
heavily on the trust-based model of commerce and
money transaction. He felt it was an obsolete idea.
Commerce on the internet, wrote Nakamoto,
has come to rely almost exclusively on financial
institutions serving as trusted third parties to
process electronic payments. While the system
Instead of trust, bitcoin works on cryptographic

proof. This allows any two willing parties to
transact directly with each other without the need
for a trusted third party not the state or banks
or regulators. This apathy towards authority is
what makes the bitcoin starkly different from
similar ideas such as the once-famous QQ coin, an
online currency, in China.
This virtual money was earned by playing
computer-based games online and users could
spend the money to buy stuff online. Later, some
people broke with tradition and started using QQ
coins for offline transactions as well. But the
government was in no mood to entertain a system
that could be a potential threat to the yuan. The
QQ coin had to go back to where it belonged. Its
owners, the Hong Kong-based Tencent, were asked
to take measures to keep its flow under check.
Eventually, Tencent had to shut some services.
No one in charge
In all likelihood, the bitcoin wont do a QQ

coin for the simple reason that there is no physical
owner governments can go after. And this will
always remain a monetary policy migraine for
central banks and governments. This also means
the chances of bitcoins going completely legit are
fairly remote as things stand now. Governments
always look for someone they can hold responsible
if things go wrong. In the case of bitcoins, there is
no one.
The bitcoin is designed to work without
government approvals or regulatory interventions.
If governments want to make room for them, its
left to them to find the legal leg room.
Given the mystery shrouding the production,
distribution and even the very evolution of bitcoins,
and how drug peddlers and money launderers in
myriad geographies use them, most governments
will not wax eloquent on the concept of cryptocurrencies or currencies without borders and
[47]

embrace them. That means, despite the welcome
of sorts extended by some countries to bitcoin, the
alternative currency is not going to enter the
mainstream for a very long time. Little wonder then
that economist Paul Krugman calls it evil.
Post-modern money
And thats reason enough for mainstream

currency traders to loathe it. Its inherent aversion
towards control, especially state control, will act
as an impediment in the bitcoins future journey to
officialisation. As one techie said, the bitcoin is the
Julian Assange of the greenback. Few countries will
dare deal with it.
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But how more evil can the bitcoin do than what

official currencies have already done? To some in
India, like this ethical hacker in Bangalore this
writer spoke to, the bitcoin represents a change in
mindset. Its the Aam Aadmi Party of currencies.
It represents change, transparency and, above all,
its post-modern.
In fact, this argument has many takers, even

among laypersons. In a world where currencies are
manipulated to the maximum even by governments
(take how China kept its currency undervalued for
long, for instance), the bitcoin offers a transparent
and intervention-free ecosystem.
THE TROUBLE WITH TAXES
Death and taxes are inevitable, goes the old

saying, but that hasnt prevented rulers throughout
history from trying to change the natural order of
things on both fronts. While the pharaonic practice
of embalming for eternity may have fallen into
disuse, fiddling with the tax rates the ultimate
assertion of the State over the individual
continues to be a favourite with governments
everywhere. Reforming taxes, of course, is a noble
pursuit, and arguably the one form of government
action which is likely to find popular support. But
tax reform seldom goes the way most taxpayers
expect it to towards a more moderate tax regime.
Take France, which pushed through a furiously
opposed and highly controversial new rule which
taxes the super rich defined as those with
earnings of more than one million euros a year
at a staggering 75 per cent. This prompted Frances
most internationally recognised personality, actor
Gerard Depardieu, into taking Russian citizenship.
Frances soccer clubs are also up in arms, what
with several multi-million-euro stars in their ranks,
whose taxes will now have to be paid by them.
But soaking the rich during tough times is not
a French monopoly. India is no exception. There is
clear evidence that a more moderate tax regime,
coupled with sensible avenues for legal tax
avoidance such as exemptions on home loan
payments by individuals ensures greater
compliance, with the tax-GDP ratio hitting a peak

of 11.9 per cent in 2008-09. But that didnt prevent
Finance Minister P. Chidambaram from imposing
a higher tax on incomes over Rs. 1 crore. A
proposed amendment to the Direct Taxes Code will
see a new slab of 35 per cent tax on incomes of
over Rs. 10 crore.
The Finance Minister justified taxing the rich
by pointing out that only 48,000 out of Indias
nearly 35 million taxpayers declared income over
Rs. 1 crore. Only 1.7 million have a declared income
of more than Rs. 10 lakh. Nearly 89 per cent
declare income under Rs. 5 lakh. The numbers
clearly show the scale of evasion, which is not going
to be helped by even higher tax rates. The
alternative reportedly being mulled by the BJP
of abolishing most taxes in favour of a flat banking
transaction tax is no solution either, since it will
exclude an even larger percentage of the population
which has no bank transactions at all and
encourage rampant evasion and a cash economy.
If the Centre be it a Congress- or a BJP-led one
is serious about tax reform, it needs to focus on
making life simpler for the salariat, which bears
the bulk of the tax burden, crack down on evasion,
and plug leakages and legal loopholes which allow
the very rich to get off lightly. And bite the bullet
on taxing agricultural income.
VACCINES CAN CHANGE CHILDRENS FUTURE
A single medical discovery has changed the

future of children. Vaccination is a powerful and
cost-effective weapon against disabling and life[48]
threatening diseases. In India, nearly two million children

still die from preventable diseases such as pneumonia,
diarrhoea, malnutrition and birth complications.

Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) is a major
cause of bacterial meningitis while pneumonia
caused by Hib and Streptococcus pneumoniae (S.
pneumoniae or pneumococcus) is also a threat to
childrens health worldwide.
The vaccine was introduced in Tamil Nadu and

Kerala in 2011 after endorsement by Indias
National Technical Advisory Group on
immunisation and a detailed review of vaccine
safety coordinated by the Indian Council of Medical
Research (ICMR).
Since then, the pentavalent vaccine has also
been introduced in six additional states.
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Rotavirus-related diarrhoea sends thousands of

children to the hospital and kills a large number
too. New vaccines are available to protect against
these pathogens and India is now gradually moving
towards including these latest vaccines in the
immunisation programme.
tetanus, hepatitis B) has been popular for a decade

in the private sector, and was included in the
National Immunisation Programme more recently.
In fact, 2011-20 has been declared the Decade

of Vaccines by the global community. Awareness
about the benefits of vaccines and advocacy for
the introduction of new lifesaving vaccines must
increase during this period. The health and wellbeing of millions of children will improve only
when the importance of vaccines is acknowledged.
Vaccines provided under the Universal
Immunisation Programme (UIP) in India offer
children protection from just a handful of infections
tuberculosis, diphtheria, pertussis (whooping
cough), tetanus, polio, measles and Hepatitis B
across the country and Japanese encephalitis in
some areas.
New vaccines against Hib and rotavirus have
gained popularity in many countries. The benefits
of these vaccines are yet to be maximised in India.
The three new vaccines that will benefit children

the most in the country are the pentavalent vaccine
that confers protection against Hib; the rotavirus
vaccine and the pneumococcus conjugate vaccine.
Other countries have readily embraced these

vaccines, and are deriving their benefits. Hib
vaccine has been a part of routine immunisation
programmes in several countries after WHOs
Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE),
recommended in 2006 that this be included in
national immunisation programmes. Of the 194
WHO Member States, 185 have adopted the
pentavalent vaccine that protects against Hib.
And the benefits have been huge, since Hib
diseases have almost disappeared in these parts of
the world.
India too would derive massive benefits: 72,000

child deaths and nearly three million
hospitalisations in India will be prevented each year
once the Hib programme is established across the
country.
In India, the pentavalent vaccine that contains

Hib (and also protects against diphtheria, pertussis,
PENTAVALENT safety
The introduction of the pentavalent vaccine in

some Asian countries has been associated with
safety concerns.
This included reports of deaths shortly after
vaccination in Sri Lanka, Bhutan, India, Pakistan,
Nepal and Vietnam.
Because of these concerns, Sri Lanka, Bhutan
and Vietnam temporarily suspended pentavalent
vaccine use as a precautionary measure. In all
countries, investigations by local governments,
WHO and international experts have not
demonstrated a causal link between vaccination
and infant death.
As a result, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Vietnam
have resumed the use of pentavalent vaccine.
Faith in the safety of this vaccine was further
reinforced after WHOs Global Advisory Committee
on Vaccine Safety reviewed the pentavalent vaccine
safety data from four countries (Sri Lanka, Bhutan,
India and Vietnam) and concluded that it was safe.
The Indian Academy of Paediatrics (IAP) has
expressed concern about the misinformation being
spread about the vaccine, and has denounced
attempts to distort facts.
IAP maintains that pentavalent is safe and
endorses the governments decision to introduce
the vaccine in six states.
While efforts should continue to ensure the
safety of vaccines, the drive to introduce
immunisation that reduces childhood illnesses and
saves lives should not be compromised.
The WHO remains committed to working with
the national government to enhance the benefits
of safe and efficacious vaccines to Indias
population.
[49]
OUR POORLY WRITTEN LOKPAL

always mean that everything else in the universe
can be ignored the real test is to discover which
laws continue to apply.
The bill, like so many others, also fails to strike
a satisfactory balance between the over-vague and
the over-precise. On one hand, it seeks to establish
the principles on which the lokpal will function,
and keeps the text appropriately vague the lokpal
website will display the complaints status from
time to time. But it also micromanages the
institution, providing the method to calculate the
salary reduction of a lokpal member if the person
receives a pension.
Consequently, the true legal effect of a provision
can be understood only after wading through a
maze of double negatives, convoluted and verbose
phrasing, and numerous cross-references. All this
when straightforward sentences would have
sufficed. Imagine the number of court-hours that
are devoted to such exercises. Amidst the quibbling
that follows, the original object of the law in
this case, a speedy disposal of corruption cases
against public servants gets conveniently
forgotten. Whom, then, do we blame for judicial
delays? The courts applying the law, or the
legislators making the law?
Poorly written laws are not specific to India,
and indeed, the world over, transformative changes
are taking place to overcome precisely this problem.
For example, the UK, whose legal legacy we
frequently bemoan, has set up the good law
initiative to make legislation less difficult for people
to understand and easier to access in the digital
age.
But straightening out the language is hardly
the main problem. Beleaguered by process issues,
human resource constraints and the lack of
guidance and instruction, it is no surprise that laws
in India are drafted the way they are.
The Indian lawmaking system allows practically
any person to draft the first version of a legislative
text (the Jan Lokpal Bill, for instance). Before it
reaches Parliament, though, any draft law must go
through due process of vetting and testing for
soundness and consistency. This last exercise is
usually carried out by the law ministry. But India
has no manual or document that offers guidance
on drafting a law, or on testing for soundness and
consistency. The ministry is understaffed and illequipped to carry out these essential tasks. And
professional drafters in this country are ill-trained
and few and far between. For subordinate
legislation, such as regulations issued by regulators,
there is no equivalent oversight by the law ministry.
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The quality of parliamentary debate in India

has always been lamented. When it comes to
matters of lawmaking, the art of asking the right
questions about substance is rare enough; the art
of having a real debate about style and form is
practically extinct. This is true of primary laws
passed by Parliament or by state legislatures, and
also of subordinate legislation issued by regulators.
The outcome is that Indian laws are often poorly
drafted, requiring frequent amendments and
tedious judicial clarification.
A case in point is the 2013 version of the Lokpal
and Lokayuktas Bill, as passed by both houses of
Parliament. Considerable time was spent debating
substantive issues, but the bills drafting style was
ignored. Some innocuous (but classic) examples of
poor drafting that the bill exhibits are gathered here.
Matters of grammar, punctuation, political
correctness (gender neutral, anyone?), and plain
sloppiness aside, the bill is complex and unreadable
for many reasons. There is the problem of ambiguity,
where a provision invites more than one possible
meaning. For example, one subsection empowers
the lokpal to authorise agencies to search and seize
documents, that, in its opinion are useful for an
investigation, if it has reason to believe that such
documents are secreted in any place. Later, in
another situation, the lokpal must record reasons
for its belief in writing. While tests in jurisprudence
may conclude that belief and opinion are to be
treated the same, and that both have to be reduced
to writing, this text of law prompts many questions:
(a) Since belief and opinion are used in the
same sentence, are they intended to mean different
things? (b) Does the lokpal not have to record
reasons for its belief in writing unless specifically
asked? (c) Do opinions not have to be recorded in
writing at all? And so on. Clarity and precision,
two essential principles of the rule of law, cannot
be co-opted by allusion.
Phrases common in law but increasingly
regarded as archaic, and open to ambiguity and
misuse, are omnipresent, such as without
prejudice to and provided that. A perennial
legal favourite, notwithstanding xyz (implying
that xyz will be ignored and overridden), appears
over a dozen times. (The American Law Division
of the Congressional Research Service that serves
the legislative needs of the US Congress describes
notwithstanding aptly as the statutory
equivalent of a parent telling a child I really
mean it, and therefore, regards it as superfluous.)
Courts still have to decipher xyz, and examine
why it is not applicable in context. Further, a
blanket notwithstanding provision does not
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And you would be hard pressed to find the last
instance of regulations being debated in Parliament,
despite being tabled before both houses. The quality
of subordinate regulations, therefore, stands to be
doubly worse than that of primary laws.
A poorly drafted legal text will not only have
immediate impact in the form of ambiguity and
uncertainty, but will also require years of
philological unravelling to understand the original
legislative intent. Members of the legislature

(Parliament and states), executive (law ministry)
and the judiciary (the Bar and the higher courts)
can all contribute to improving this sorry state of
affairs. But nobody seems to want to make a
beginning. For how, then, as Dickens famously put
it, would law make business for itself?
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BECAUSE WE CAN
This week, we mark the three-year anniversary
of the last case of polio virus in India. It is a
monumental achievement and arguably one of
the greatest public health success stories of all time.
The legacy of the polio campaign is more than just
the successful eradication of the crippling disease.
The systems and strategies put in place to reach
every child in every part of the country with
lifesaving polio vaccines can be used to save millions
of children from other preventable diseases.
catastrophically off course to meet the UN

Millennium Development Goal 4, which calls for
reducing child mortality by two-thirds by next year.
The national immunisation programme has only
61 per cent coverage across the country. We lag
behind many of our neighbours in introducing
critical new vaccines into the national immunisation
programme, including those to protect against the
leading causes of diarrhoea and pneumonia the
two biggest killers of children under five.
According to Unicef, every year in India, 1.4

million children under five die from preventable
diseases. Reaching every child with timely
vaccination could dramatically reduce child deaths
in the country. Polio shows that this can be done,
if we put our minds to it.
India has the opportunity to build on the success

of the polio campaign to prioritise childhood
immunisation. Polio successes have already
contributed to efforts against other vaccinepreventable diseases. For example, the government
has implemented a polio-style vaccination campaign
in 14 high-risk states against measles, a disease that
killed approximately 56,000 children in 2011.
Surveillance laboratory systems set up under the
polio programme now help monitor for measles
outbreaks. Already, large declines in measles cases
have been recorded in several states. This is a great
step forward and more should be done to leverage
the systems and strategies that have defeated polio.
Five years ago, India had nearly half of the

worlds polio cases. Experts considered the country
the most technically difficult place to end polio,
with migration, high population density and low
immunisation coverage posing significant
challenges. Through the commitment and leadership
of the government and with support from national
and international partners, over 2.3 million
vaccinators immunised 172 million children with
the polio vaccine every year. A vast surveillance
system was established to allow vaccinators to
respond quickly to outbreaks. Strategies were
formed to target children in vulnerable communities
and other places that were hard to reach.
While we have won the war on polio, we still
have a long way to go in combating other childhood
diseases that can be prevented with vaccines.
Today, we have vaccines that protect against some
of the most common childhood diseases. If we can
get the polio vaccine to every child, why cant we
do the same with vaccines that protect children
against a whole range deadly of diseases?
We need to instil the urgency displayed against
polio into the fight against other childhood diseases.
While we have made some progress, we are
The opposition to efforts to strengthen and

expand childhood immunisation, however, poses a
real threat. There are some groups that vocally
continue to resist vaccination, particularly newer
vaccines. Most recently, criticism has stemmed from
a small group of doctors that has expressed
unfounded scepticism against the five-in-one
pentavalent vaccine, despite the vast body of
evidence supporting the use of this vaccine. Based
on appropriate scientific evidence and
recommendations, the government made the
decision to introduce the pentavalent vaccine,
which protects against diphtheria, pertussis,
tetanus, hepatitis B and haemophilus B (Hib), in
the national immunisation system. This is an
important step towards ensuring that children are
protected from life-threatening illnesses, including
pneumonia and meningitis caused by Hib.
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The polio campaign has shown the power of
vaccines to wipe out a disease and safeguard the
future of our children. We can continue to build
on the legacy of polio to strengthen routine
immunisation. This includes adding new vaccines into
the national immunisation system when
recommended by the experts. Let the legacy of Indias
amazing polio success be that we provide every child
in the country with access to lifesaving vaccines and
end all child deaths from preventable diseases.
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The Indian Academy of Paediatrics (IAP), an

umbrella body of 22,500 paediatricians, and many
others supported this long-overdue decision. In fact,
during my tenure as IAP president, we released a
comprehensive statement condemning the criticism
and denounced the attempts to distort facts and
create confusion regarding the safety of the vaccine.
As medical professionals, we have the responsibility
to put children first and use science to inform our
decisions. It is time we focused our efforts on
ensuring that all children receive scientifically
proven vaccines.
PUBLIC IN THE PRIVATE
Our contemporary moment seems fraught with

both possibility and anxiety. A new social contract
will be institutionalised in the next couple of years.
But we dont know the shape of this contract.
Learning by doing, compromising to get a workable
consensus are, to some extent, inevitable. But we
are in the midst of defining new relationships
between public and private that will require us to
return to a new framework.
In 1991, a simple framework became a guiding
template for a renegotiation between the public and
the private sector. The private sector was to be
freed, its productive and competitive energies were
to be unleashed. The gains from the resulting
growth would not just trickle down, they would
also provide resources for the state to help citizens
who could not, in their current circumstances,
participate in the gains of growth. The basic idea,
only imperfectly realised, was not on the wrong
track. But it turned out to be a limiting template in
several ways.
First, our understanding of the relationship
between the state and private enterprise turned
out to be too simplistic. This was partly because
the fascination with the private sector did not come
from a story about its virtues; it came as a negative
reaction to state failure. Since the public sector was
full of vice, as it were, the opposite, namely the
private sector, must be full of virtue. This sensibility
underwrote the great reforms of the period: ending
the licence permit raj, greater integration with the
global economy. But it neglected key issues in the
relationship between public and private. First, there
was the question of an appropriate regulatory
structure. As the recent Delhi High Court judgment
allowing for government audit of private telecom
companies has reminded us, the issue of an
interface between the state and private companies
is more complex than a pure ownership story
would suggest. In the United States, these kinds of
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audits of private utility companies, for instance,

are routine and far more invasive than in India.
Much of the debate over public and private in India
is based on a simplistic conception of ownership:
private, therefore exempt; public, therefore
accountable. Yet the issue of accountability is now
based not on ownership, but function. If you are a
private monopoly in utilities, the fact that you are
private is neither here nor there: your costing will
have to be audited.
Public-private partnerships have been a success
in areas like infrastructure; they have been oversold
in other areas, like education. But if 50 per cent of
government expenditure is routed through these
partnerships, it will be hard to make the argument
that this expenditure should be exempt from public
accountability. The public-private debate will now
have to move to a whole new level of sophistication.
To use a phrase central to the reforms process,
instead of a pitched battle between public and
private, both will have to be unbundled. Rather
than thinking of the private as always a default
substitute for public failure, we will have to carefully
think about what institutional form is likely to
succeed under what conditions. As the Delhi High
Court noted, the real issue is going to be whether
both sides learn sensible norms appropriate to this
regulation, or whether this ends in a combat of
mutual suspicion. The danger is that much of the
rhetoric, from both companies and political parties,
increases risks of the latter.
The second aspect of the liberalisation story was
that we ignored the costing of negative externalities
that impinge on the public-private relationship. The
environment is a classic case, where we are
producing a near irretrievable disaster.
Unfortunately, this message is still not getting
through. So you have both spectacles in progress.
On one hand, there is the government, trying to
speed up clearances. On the other hand, the

regulatory framework is multiplying, with the
Supreme Court mandating the creation of statelevel environmental regulators just last week. Again,
will we get a new social contract or the logjams of
mutual suspicion?
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You can run a similar story across every sector.

Our laws on social regulation bear the marks of
mutual suspicion rather than reasonable agreement.
Our debate on taxation is taking a similar turn.
There are two issues. The first is the institutional
architecture, centred on simplicity and ease of
enforcement. As the fiscal deficit got worse, the
tax authorities got even more licence to be arbitrary,
leading to the same argument: is taxation about
reasonably justified mutual obligations or is it
doomed to be an extreme contest between
arbitrariness on one hand and evasion on the other?
Accountability in healthcare will be the next frontier

issue in politics. But a deeper issue is this. While
we need to strengthen the state in so many ways,
there is no short cut around it. At the same time,
the cost of an extraordinary privatisation of services
may be undermining the willingness to support the
state. It is one thing for the state to have a taxation
debate in a context where it could assure the middle
classes that there is a reasonably priced, good
quality university they could access. It is another
to do it in a context where anxiety over how much
you will have to pay for health or education wrecks
the system.
But most fundamentally, the issue of fairness has

come up again. Whining about tax burdens is
inevitable. Unfortunately, the debate has got
complicated because we do not have a clear publicprivate framework. So, on one hand, there are
several irrational subsidies. On the other hand, the
things most capitalist states provide health,
education, water, in many cases, transport and even
security are available through private provision.
What is the public-private interface in these

sectors? In education, we ended up with a regime
that neither rejuvenated public institutions, nor
unleashed the full advantages of the private.
A similar argument could be made for another

place where we have got the public-private mix
wrong. Labour regulation, in some areas, impeded
formalisation and job creation. Yet it would be
easier to argue for different labour laws if there
was some other, effective social protection.
We grasped correctly that corruption had
stripped away trust across the board. It corroded
the legitimacy of every institution, making solutions
harder. Both growth and justice were casualties.
But are we ready for a more sophisticated
negotiation on the balance between public and
private? To paraphrase Vivekanada, we have
arisen, we are awake. But we still need to decide
whether this revolution will get the public-private
relationship right.
BUILDING BRIDGES OVER THE SEA
Japanese Prime Minister Shizo Abe will be back

in India later this month. He gave a magnificent
speech at the Indian Parliament in August 2007
advocating the Japan-India strategic global
partnership in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Abe
envisioned the idea that Japan and India, as likeminded maritime democracies, should promote
freedom and prosperity in the broader Asia,
evolving the region into a network that would
allow people, goods, capital and knowledge to flow
freely.
Although his health did not allow Abe to

pursue this vision himself, his successors promoted
the strategic global partnership and expanded
bilateral security and economic cooperation over
the past six years. The recent visit of the emperor
and empress of Japan to India endorsed and further
strengthened bilateral ties. In particular, Japan and
India have bolstered maritime security cooperation
with occasional combined naval exercises. Japanese
and Indian defence minsters have just agreed on a

plan to export Japans highly capable frying boat
US-2 to India, which will enhance Indias maritime
capability.
Abe has returned to power in a world different
from that seven years ago. The Indo-Pacific region
is witnessing a power shift as a result of the rise
of the rest. There is a growing concern over the
sustainability of the US pivot towards Asia due to
its fiscal constraints and indecisive domestic politics.
China has surpassed Japan as the worlds secondlargest economy and become more assertive,
disrupting freedom in the global commons, while
Japan was suffering from its decade-long stagnation
and reducing its defence budget. Meanwhile, India
has maintained rapid economic growth, although
the pace is slowing, and invested more in the
development of sea power.
The great maritime commons provide most
benefits when regarded as an open and free
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highway, not a defensive barrier. Good order at
sea that ensures legitimate use of the seas for
navigation and resource exploitation is the
foundation of regional security and prosperity.
However, good order at sea is now being challenged
in the Long Littoral along the Indo-Pacific region
by persistent piracy, growing sea-denial capabilities
and excessive maritime claims.
The most important mission for the security

diamond is to deter armed conflict between
traditional and emerging maritime powers. The
security diamond partners need to develop a
strategy of offshore control, or a strategy to deny
any hostile maritime powers use of sea
communication with other like-minded maritime
nations. Offshore control aims to deter Chinese
aggression by showing sea-denial and interdiction
capabilities in peacetime and, if deterrence fails, it
creates time for diplomats to negotiate for peace
while reducing escalatory pressure.
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Legal warfare the efforts to reshape

navigational regimes in the economic exclusive zone
(EEZ) and the airspace above it as part of an accessdenial strategy is a serious challenge to good
order at sea. Chinas arbitrary interpretation of the
Law of the Sea triggered Chinese aggressiveness in
the Hainan EP-3 incident in 2001, the USNS
Impeccable incident in 2009, and the USS Cowpens
incident in 2013. The announcement of Chinas air
defence identification zone (ADIZ) in the East
China Sea is another attempt to deny the freedom
of overflight. Whether the Law of the Sea is able to
continue to establish order at sea will depend on
the outcome of the ongoing struggle for law in
the oceans.
diamond, a coalition among Japan, India, the US

and Australia, as a key enabler for good order at
sea and an expanded capacity-building programme
for navies and maritime law enforcement agencies
in Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Horn of Africa
and the south Pacific. The Indo-Pacific is a vast
unified strategic theatre. As Japan maintains its
naval presence in the Indian Ocean and India
bolsters its engagement in the western Pacific, Abes
upcoming visit to India is an important step to
realise the security diamond.
Abe clearly recognises the threat to good order

at sea. Japan has a strong stake in maintaining the
liberal international order and has just adopted its
first national security strategy for proactive
contribution to peace. Abe understands that the
best source of national power is the economy. In
order to restore Japanese national power and keep
Japan relevant, Abenomics addresses the three
arrows of monetary easing, stimulus spending and
growth with structural reforms. At the same time,
Abe is determined to reform Japans national
security policy by reversing downward spending
in defence, introducing effective decision-making
and relaxing self-imposed restrictions on defence
policy.
Abe also envisions a democratic security
It is time to operationalise the Japan-India

strategic global partnership. India fails to recognise
its EEZ as international waters and prohibits other
countries military exercises and manoeuvres
without authorisation. Although India does not
implement the regulation in an assertive way,
how can Japan and India deepen maritime
cooperation without a shared interpretation of the
rules? To maintain a liberal rule-based maritime
order, the two maritime nations should address
the difference. By doing so, Japan and India can
shift
their maritime partnership from rhetoric to
reality.
LEARNING FROM SUCCESS
With India reporting zero cases of polio once

again this year, it is finally on the brink of being
officially declared polio-free. After 741 cases in
2009, 42 in 2010 and a lone case in West Bengal in
2011, the subsequent three years have been clear,
giving hope that this time round, the elimination
of the debilitating disease will be longstanding.
For this, the public health network will have to
maintain a heightened vigil to check against import
of the virus, especially from neighbouring countries,
and remain watchful by testing the habitat for the
[54]
viruss prevalence. And for all the hiccups in the

immunisation drive since 1995, the anti-polio
programme also provides a template for rallying
healthcare workers and volunteers to take on
prevention programmes against other diseases, by
immunisation and sanitation initiatives.
The fight against polio, taken up with vigour in
the Pulse Polio Programme since 1995, rested on
leaving no child behind, by targeting the entire
population in a designated time period, often a
day. This required motivating workers and

volunteers, fine-tuning the vaccine supply chain
and, perhaps the most difficult of all, creating
awareness. The almost celebratory edge given to
vaccination days helped spread the news and made
the exercise participatory at a macro level. But
plugging the gaps needed localised attention to
identify children who may have slipped through
for lack of reach and awareness, but also because
of rumoured and false beliefs about the side-effects
of the vaccine.
Moreover, the Pulse Polio Programme should

compel a commensurate attack on other preventable
diseases in the strategies for coordination and
awareness that it is based on, as well as for the
simple reminder that to make a proper success of
any effort, every last person in the target group
must be accounted for.
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Failure to plug the gaps delayed Indias

achievement, and this experience must serve as a
cautionary reminder of the effects of letting up.
But now that it is within grasp, it is important that
watchfulness be maintained to identify any possible

introduction of the polio virus in the country.
Remember the widespread prevalence of polio and
the toll it would take on thousands of un-vaccinated
children each year? That memory should keep us
on guard.
OPPORTUNITY LOST
Now that the Lok Sabha election is only months

away, the UPA is working hard to fulfil an old
promise. The minority affairs ministry has moved
a cabinet note to put in place an Equal
Opportunities Commission (EOC), but one that
confines itself to the limited concerns of religious
minorities. The EOC was indeed born out of a
recommendation by the Sachar committee, which
mapped the realities of Muslim social and economic
deprivation and suggested that a commission be
formed to combat discrimination against all
disadvantaged groups, to make sure that education,
employment, housing and other domains reflected
the diversity of our population. The EOC, as
conceived by the Sachar committee, was intended
as a body to uphold social equality and mobility, to
fold together the concerns of anti-discrimination
and diversity in a single mechanism, as is the
practice in other countries like the US, South Africa,
Canada and the EU. It was meant to counter
institutional bias, whether on the basis of age,
gender, caste, ethnicity, linguistic identity or sexual
orientation.
That plan was undercut by ministerial turf

wars, with the minority affairs ministry finally
taking it over. Then, given that India already has
several group-specific commissions for women,
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, minorities
etc, it was feared the EOC would displace these
bodies, or overlap with their functions. Of course,
this could have been resolved in one of several
ways. India could have replicated the UKs
experience in 2007, when existing commissions were
merged into the EOC a route that would call for
a constitutional amendment. Or it could have
allowed the EOC to work alongside the

commissions, with a wider mandate, and work out
a system of institutional collaboration. Or existing
commissions could have been allowed to fade away
after an allotted period, and their functions could
be absorbed by the new EOC.
But instead of demarcating their duties and
making sure the EOC remained true to its spirit, a
group of ministers decided, in 2010, to limit its
ambit to religious minorities. Perhaps it was
perceived as politically useful to keep aggrieved
constituencies separate, and to foreground identity
issues, than to serve them all with a competent
and focused equality commission. Given that a
minorities commission already exists, this new body
seems superfluous. The EOC as conceived by the
UPA betrays the felt need for an equal opportunities
legislation, one that will provide legal deterrence
against discrimination for every citizen. It also gives
the opposition a handy tool to oppose the very
concept, and deny the real systemic injustice
experienced by these groups.
Same old banking
A Reserve Bank of India panel has submitted a

report on financial inclusion. It proposes that
priority sector lending by banks be raised and that
banks be mandated to open accounts for every adult
Indian by January 2016. The recommendations do
not challenge the RBIs basic approach to financial
inclusion. This approach, which has been to
mandate banks to undertake financial inclusion,
might have spread public sector bank branches in
[55]

rural areas for some years, helped open bank
accounts and directed credit, but it has stopped
yielding results. What India needs is a new
approach, which encourages competition and
innovation, rather than more mandates.
its agenda through banks.
The panels recommendations are in sync with

the RBIs recent guidelines for the grant of licences
to new banks. These require that the bank have a
plan for financial inclusion and that it open 25 per
cent of its branches in unbanked rural areas. This
approach is similar to the one that required PSU
banks to open rural branches. By once again
mandating financial inclusion, this time for private
sector licence applications, instead of focusing on
competition and innovation, the RBI is essentially
doing more of the same.
As part of the RBIs bank-centric approach,

there are regulatory and entry barriers to prevent
bank-like institutional mechanisms from competing
with banks. For example, money market mutual
funds, a viable alternative to bank deposits and
popular in countries such as the US, are not
allowed to issue cheques by the RBI, which also
regulates the payments system. This reduces
competition to banking. These barriers help generate
complacency among banks and curb the extent to
which new business models emerge.
Financial inclusion may be defined as access to

a range of financial services in a convenient,
flexible, reliable and continuous manner from
formal, regulated financial institutions. Even
though access can be ensured by mandates, the
quality parameters of access may be compromised
in the process. This is seen in the low usage of
accounts and the poor asset quality of priority sector
portfolios. Such inclusion confuses ends with
means. A bank account is meant to fulfil certain
functions simply opening an account is not
enough. The panel proposes to make it mandatory
for every Indian over the age of 18 to have a bank
account.
The mandate-driven approach to financial

inclusion has also been a key hindrance to
innovation. The RBI has emphasised specific
quantitative targets, such as priority sector lending
or opening bank accounts. Lately, appointing
customer service providers has been added. A
consequence of these mandates is that the rural
business departments of banks are too busy trying
to meet the targets to spend time and effort in
actual innovation that serves the consumers.
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Indias approach to financial inclusion has been

bank-centric. So far, it has focused on bank
nationalisation, continued with government
ownership of banks and their recapitalisation. The
way to ensure inclusion has been priority sector
lending, which mandates that 40 per cent of each
banks lending be to weaker sectors small-scale
industries, agriculture and exports to which the
bank might not have lent otherwise. The RBI panel
now recommends raising this share to 50 per cent.
This approach has been accompanied by a

neglect of the other drivers of inclusion
competition and innovation. In the last 11 years,
the Indian economy has grown rapidly, but no
banking licences have been given in this time. The
trend has been that once a decade, the RBI decides
to give a few licences, but there is no window to
get licences during this period. The incumbent
banks feel little or no pressure to reach out to
unbanked areas and people with their services. This,
in turn, necessitates a mandate-driven approach to
financial inclusion. Despite decades of RBI
mandates, rural customers turn to informal
channels and unregulated financial firms.
An often overlooked consequence of the

mandate-driven approach to inclusion, as pursued
by the RBI, is that the costs of this inclusion are
levied on the investors and consumers of banks.
The losses from unused bank accounts and poorly
performing priority sector assets are eventually
borne by the investors and consumers. If the
political objective of opening bank accounts is to
be met, or lending to certain sectors ensured, it
should be transparent as a line item on the
governments budget. Instead, it is done through a
cross-subsidy that effectively makes other customers
pay for the political goals of a government pushing
[56]
A comprehensive change in regulatory

philosophy is required to bring about meaningful
financial inclusion in India. This would entail a
shift from the present bank-centric, mandate-driven
approach to an emphasis on competition,
innovation and consumer protection as the pillars
of regulatory philosophy. The Financial Sector
Legislative Reforms Commission has recommended
an approach to financial regulation that is based
on these three pillars.
To encourage competition, the RBI should not
decide the optimal number of banks for the country.
Bank licences should be available on tap, based on
reasonable eligibility criteria. The RBI should also
permit the emergence of new business models in
banking, non-bank lending and payments. An
increase in competition should encourage existing

banks and newcomers to explore opportunities
beyond the markets that have already been served.
Consumer protection also translates into

proportionate regulation to maintain the safety and
soundness of financial service providers. A bank or
an insurance company must be managed prudently
enough to minimise the probability of failure. The
failure probability need not be zero, for that would
lead to excessive conservatism. Once in a while,
when a financial firm fails, it should be resolved in
a manner that entails the least pain for the
consumers.
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The second pillar is allowing innovation to

happen. The RBIs present approach prohibits
innovation until it is expressly permitted. This
approach has led to delayed innovation across all
products and processes. For example, the business
correspondent model, which enables the delivery
of banking services through low cost agents, was
introduced more than a decade after it made
headway in comparable emerging markets. The RBI
must shift to an approach that allows innovation
to happen and then responds with proportionate
regulations.
be limited to getting access. This access must help

consumers use finance in beneficial ways, with the
regulator protecting them from unfair contracts and
terms.
Increased competition and innovation must be

accompanied
by
consumer
protection,
acknowledging the imperfections in financial
markets. The idea of financial inclusion must not
India needs a new approach to financial

innovation and it is time the RBI realised that more
of its mandate-driven approach is not the solution.
TOO GRAND TO WORK
Election season is here. And like the mythical

phoenix, the idea of river-linking has risen from
the ashes again. Transferring surplus Himalayan
waters to parched peninsular basins is a 150-yearold idea, first aired by Sir Arthur Cotton. In 1972,
it crystallised into a gigantic project to re-plumb
India with a 12,500 kilometre network of canals
that, through 37 links, would connect water surplus
Himalayan basins with the deficit basins of the
south and west. Among the biggest infrastructure
projects in the world, it would dwarf even Chinas
Three Gorges Dam and the south-north water
transfer project.
At one level, its logic is impeccable. About 1,350
billion cubic metres (BCM) of rainwater and
snowmelt sloshing around the Ganga-BrahmaputraMeghna basin maroons 34 million people and floods
three million hectares in eastern India and
Bangladesh annually before running off into the sea.
Transferring a mere 178 BCM of this to the waterscarce south and west can drought-proof these areas
while reducing floods in the east, generating some
much-needed hydropower en route.
Fifteen years ago, the project was estimated to

cost Rs 5,60,000 crores. Today, the estimate is over
Rs 10 lakh crore, close to a full years GDP. But
given Indias past record, over the 30-50 years it
would take to complete, the project cost will
multiply many times over. Costs aside,
environmentalists worry about dying fisheries,
growing water pollution and declining
environmental flows. NGOs and activists cry foul
about massive involuntary displacement of people

in tribal areas.
And all this to what gain? Much of the 35
million hectares the project promises to irrigate is
already under private tubewell irrigation, which
has proved far more profitable than canal irrigation.
Moreover, lifting 178 BCM of Himalayan water
across the central Indian highlands will use up
much of the 35 gigawatt of hydropower the project
is expected to generate. The net socio-economic
benefits seem illusory even with rosy assumptions.
Even if the assumptions hold, the future value
of the benefits promised is suspect. Agriculture, the
key beneficiary, is already shrinking in southern
states such as the rapidly urbanising Tamil Nadu,
Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. Farmers
are ageing as the youth is quitting agriculture to
participate in the booming non-farm growth.
Decades from now, agriculture will have majorly
shrunk in the south and the west but it will still be
flourishing in the Ganga basin, with its population
still growing and irrigation expanding. The canals
will be ready but there will be no surplus water to
transfer.
Why then does the idea refuse to die? Perhaps
because it makes a bold political statement. For
centuries, kings have used ambitious irrigation
projects to imprint their names in the footnotes of
history. In a Keynesian sense, such massive
infrastructure might also be desired as an economic
stimulus, generating employment and pepping up
industrial demand during construction.
[57]

More prosaic considerations might also be at
play. Irrigation projects are the biggest source of
political corruption. For instance, after nearly Rs
2,00,000 crore in irrigation projects awarded mostly
to MPs and MLAs, Andhra Pradesh has hardly
seen any new irrigation. The recent irrigation
scandal in Vidarbha is another example. Nobody
knows how much new irrigation was created after
that Rs 71,000 crore scam.
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To believe that river linking will be a panacea

for Indias water crisis is delusional. In any case,
the idea cannot take off until Bangladesh and Nepal
sign up. Indias abject track record in water
diplomacy with neighbours makes it hard to
imagine they will cooperate on such an ambitious
plan, which has no clear benefits for them. Water
being a state subject, getting Indias own state
governments to cooperate will also be a roadblock.
and beneficial for flood control in surplus basins

Bihar is already planning such a project. They can
also help ease water scarcity in deficit basins, as
Gujarat has shown. Second, groundwater depletion
can be controlled by decentralised groundwater
recharge, as demonstrated in the Saurashtra region
of Gujarat and the Alwar district of Rajasthan.
Third, aggressive micro-irrigation can drastically cut
down water use in agriculture. Fourth, reforming
perverse electricity subsidies can curtail the waste
of groundwater and energy in agriculture.
Fifth, reforming the prevailing MSP regime can
wean Punjab and Haryana away from the waterguzzling rice-wheat system and make their
agriculture far more sustainable. Sixth, transferring
food rather than water the so-called virtual water
transfer from surplus to deficit basins can turbocharge eastern Indias agriculture while ensuring
national food security. Together, these measures
can resolve in five years a crisis that river-linking
is unlikely to resolve in 50 years, if ever.
There are easier, proven and local solutions to

resolve the most significant problems that river
linking aims to solve: floods in eastern India and
groundwater depletion in western and southern
India. First, intrastate water transfers can be quicker
TWO SHADES OF IMMUNITY
As we move away from a monocivilisational

world of Western domination of world history to a
multicivilisational world, our minds must begin
retooling themselves. We have to develop the
capability of carrying competing, if not
contradictory, narratives and understand that both
may be correct, even if they contradict each other.
We will have to learn to shed black and white
judgements in favour of multi-hued, complex
assessments.
A perfect example of equally correct but
contradictory narratives is provided by the case of
Devyani Khobragade, an Indian consular officer
arrested by US authorities on December 12. In
American eyes, it is a clear, black and white case.
She had signed an agreement to pay her domestic
help, Sangeeta Richard, $9.75 an hour. Instead she
paid her only $3.31 an hour. As Khobragade had
violated US laws, it was both legal and legitimate
for the US attorney, Preet Bharara, to have her
arrested and charged. Reflecting mainstream
American opinion, The New York Times
editorialised that Indias overwrought reaction to
the arrest of one of its diplomats in the United
States is unworthy of a democratic government.
This American narrative has a point.
Khobragade has her rights. So does Sangeeta
Richard, the employee. Richard was clearly the
underdog in this exercise (even though by being
[58]
employed in America, her wages increased 25-fold).

Indeed, the traditional American concern for the
underdog is one of the strongest aspects of
American society. So is the egalitarian spirit of
American society, which has gone much further
than any other human society in removing and
eradicating all traces of feudal culture. In my first
book on America and the world (entitled Beyond
the Age of Innocence), I praised the American
doormen who would look me in the eyes and treat
an ambassador like me as an equal, and not act in
a submissive manner like any Asian doorman
would.
Shekhar Gupta has waxed eloquent on the
egalitarian virtues of American society. He noted
that barely within a year of leaving office as deputy
secretary of state, Strobe Talbott had to scramble for
a taxi in New Delhi like any other commoner. More
amusingly, he told the story of a famous Indian film
actress who refused to marry and settle down in
America because Indians in America refused to
allow her to cut a supermarket queue, even after
they had recognised her. The good news for our
world is that this American egalitarian spirit is
gradually infecting other societies, including Asian
societies, and therefore making them less feudal.
Ironically, however, even as this American spirit
of egalitarianism infects the world, American
government officials continue to insist on feudalWeekly Current Affairs 13th January to 19th January, 2014

have been called article 98 agreements or
bilateral immunity agreements (BIAs). These
agreements stipulate that these countries would not
send US citizens to the ICC. Similarly, the US
Congress has developed a long-standing practice
of extra-territorial application of its domestic laws
on other countries and their citizens. But it is
extremely reluctant to allow the extra-territorial
application of other countries laws on its own
territory.
This schizophrenic attitude of the US
government explains why virtually every other
government in the world was quietly cheering on
the Indian government as it insisted on total
reciprocity in the treatment of Indian and American
officials. Few governments in the world have the
geopolitical heft or the moral legitimacy to look the
American government in the eye and demand such
absolute reciprocity. India does. Hence, even Indias
biggest detractor in the world, Pakistan, is quietly
cheering on India. They hoped that India would
finally succeed in persuading the US government
to accept a level playing field in dealing with other
countries.
The Indian governments success in persuading
the American government to allow Khobragade to
return home and not face charges in an American
court will therefore be cheered all around the world.
Most countries realise that they would not have
had the weight to shift the US government. India
is one of the few who could do so. And in doing
so, India has also enhanced the rights and standing
of other foreign diplomats on American territory.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, India
may have actually done America a favour. Why?
The former American president, Bill Clinton, has
wisely counselled his fellow citizens to prepare for
a world that we would like to live in when were
no longer the military political economic
superpower in the world. His wise advice indicates
how the two contradicting narratives can come
together: Americans should work hard to create
binding international law regimes that would apply
equally to American and non-American officials
and citizens. In the final analysis, a level playing
field in this area would demonstrate that the
American egalitarian spirit is influencing
international law too.
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type privileges while serving in other countries. It

is normal for American diplomats to receive
diplomatic immunity. Rather abnormally, the
American government expects that even its nondiplomats should receive immunity. In some cases,
they have literally, not metaphorically, gotten away
with murder. Raymond Davis, a CIA contractor,
was whisked away from the Pakistani judicial
system after shooting and killing two Pakistani
citizens. In the ancient days, only feudal lords stood
above the laws of the land. Today, American
government employees also enjoy feudal immunities
overseas (even though most of them are law-abiding
citizens while working overseas).
Sadly, few Americans are aware that the
American government practices double standards
in the application of laws. It allows no foreign
government officials, including a powerful person
like Dominique Strauss-Kahn, then head of the
International Monetary Fund, any immunity from
American laws. Yet it expects its government
officials to be in theory and in practice
immune from other countries legal courts.
Whenever any US government official faces the
threat of prosecution in a foreign legal court, he or
she is quietly whisked away, as few governments
can withstand bilateral pressure from the US
government. Since many Americans are puzzled
by the Indian outrage, they should know that
Indian society was deeply shocked that a senior
Indian official was subject to a strip search. This
created a deep sense of cultural outrage, similar to
the outrage that Americans would feel if a black
citizen is called a nigger today. Any Westerner
who cannot understand this analogy will be unable
to absorb a multi-civilisational perspective.
All governments in the world are aware of this
schizophrenic attitude of the US government
(which, I must stress, reflects the views of the US
Congress). On one hand, the US government is
second to none in defending the rule of law at
home. On the other hand, the US government is
second to none in defending immunity for its
officials from all foreign legal courts and judicial
procedures.
When the International Criminal Court (ICC)
Statute came into force on July 1, 2002, the US
government undertook a massive campaign to get
over a hundred foreign governments to sign what
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CHRONICLE
IAS ACADEMY

Call: 9953120676, 9582263947

CONTENTS
TOPICS
Pg. No.
National ......................................................................................................................... 3-8

International ............................................................................................................... 9-11
India and the World ............................................................................................. 12-14
Economy .................................................................................................................... 15-17
Health ......................................................................................................................... 20-22
News in Brief........................................................................................................... 23-26
Editorials from Newspapers ................................................................................ 27-58
A mismatch of nuclear doctrines .......................................................................................................... 36
Changing the rules of the game ............................................................................................................ 37
A patchy record ....................................................................................................................................... 39
Outsourcing environment decisions ................................................................................................... 40
An ominous situation ............................................................................................................................. 41
Indias virtually challenged universities ............................................................................................ 42
Time for no-frills airports ...................................................................................................................... 43
Sustainability and food security .......................................................................................................... 45
Not entirely bankable ideas .................................................................................................................. 46
Mera vala pink ......................................................................................................................................... 48
Who cares for energy efficiency ........................................................................................................... 49
India, Japan and a broader Asia ........................................................................................................... 49
Small Change ........................................................................................................................................... 50
A measure for RBI ................................................................................................................................... 51
Repression and referendum.................................................................................................................. 52
At davos, the india dialogues ............................................................................................................... 53
Social audit isnt enough ....................................................................................................................... 54
NATIONAL
ODISHA GOVT GOES GREEN
penal provision under the Prevention of Insults to
National Hounor (Amendment) Act,2003 in case of
any violation.
The law provides for imprisonment for a term
up to three years for anyone who in any public
place or in any other place within public view burns,
mutilates, defaces, defiles, disfigures, destroys,
trample upon or otherwise shows disrespect or
bring into contempt (whether by words, either
spoken or written, or by acts) the Indian national
flag.
Months before the court order, the Centre too
had advised all states and Union Territories to issue
directions for not using national flags made of
plastic.
Referring to concerns expressed by
environmentalists, the Union home ministry had in
2012 issued an advisory insisting the use of only
paper in making flags which are waved by common
people during important national, cultural and
sports events. It also advised that such flags, as far
as possible, should be disposed of in private,
consistent with the dignity of the flag.
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Taking the lead in heeding the Centres advice

backed by concerns expressed by environmentalists
and a court order, the Odisha government has
issued directions to district authorities to ensure
that no plastic tri-colour is used during celebration
of Republic Day, Independence Day or other
important days in the state.
Though other states including Maharashtra
and Karnataka had also issued similar directions
in the past, such an order could not be
implemented due to lack of monitoring mechanism
at local level.
Unlike other states, Odisha has asked district
civil and police authorities to depute officers
specifically for this job so that the state High Court
order was followed and the national flag was used,
made and distributed as per the national flag code.
Acting on a writ petition, the HC had in
August last year directed the state government to
take steps to prevent sale and distribution of the
tri-colour made of any other material barring those
permitted under the Flag Code of India, 2002.
The code specifies that the national flag should
be made of cotton, wool, silk or paper. It also has
JAINS IN MINORITY LIST
The Union Government has given the nod to

accord national minority status under the National
Commission of Minorities Act to the Jain
community. The Jains became the sixth community
to have minority status after Muslims, Christians,
Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsis. The recognition as a
minority community would give Jains a share in
central funds for minority welfare programmes and
scholarships. Under Article (30) once designated
as a religious or linguistic minority it can run its

own educational institutions.
The community is already enjoying minority
status in some states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya
Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan but the new
decision extends that status across the country.
Numerically, the Jain community is small, with
a population of about 50 lakh but they are
prosperous, mostly engaged in business.
JIND, KARNAL NOW IN NCR
Delhi witnessed another expansion with the

inclusion of two districts Jind and Karnal of
Haryana.This takes the total number of cities in
NCR zone to 21. The move aims to ease Delhis
burden as with inclusion of these districts in NCR
[4]
means more fund for development of infrastructure

such as roads, public transport, sewer, health
facilities, education and rapid connectivity with the
national capital.

The NCR accounts for 7.6 per cent of the
countrys urban population and has also come to
acquire the distinction of the worlds largest urban
agglomeration.
The NCR last underwent an expansion in July

2013 when three districts Mahendragarh,
Bhiwani and Bharatpur were added to it. Along
with Delhi, the total area under the NCR now
constitutes 45,887 sq km. Delhi alone accounts for
4.4 per cent of the population of the region.
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The NCR currently includes 19 districts spread

across three states Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and
Rajasthan and the National Capital Territory of
Delhi. In Haryana, it comprises the districts of
Faridabad, Gurgaon, Mewat, Rohtak, Sonepat,
Rewari, Jhajjhar, Panipat, Palwal, Mahendragarh
and Bhiwani. In Uttar Pradesh, the districts of
Meerut, Ghaziabad, Gautam Budh Nagar,
Bulandshahr, Hapur and Baghpat are included. The
districts from Rajasthan are Alwar and Bharatpur.
The state governments of Haryana, Rajasthan and

Uttar Pradesh have been pitching to include more
districts from their states within the NCR with an
eye on the benefits of being close to Delhi in the
form of real estate development, soft loans for
infrastructure projects, greater investment activity
in the state and development.
INDIA PLANS TO MAP ITS HYDROCARBON RESOURCES
To boost oil and gas output, the government is

assessing Indias hydrocarbon resources across all
the 26 sedimentary basins, covering an area of 3.14
million sq. km. The last such exercise was carried
around 20 years ago in 15 sedimentary basins.
The latest decision comes in the backdrop of

waning interest in the Indian hydrocarbon sector,
with around 70% of Indian basins remaining largely
under-explored. The 30-month exercise will be
undertaken by a team led by the Keshav Dev
Malviya Institute of Petroleum Engineering and will
be monitored by a national committee headed by
the petroleum secretary.
According to the petroleum ministry, it may be
recalled that during the course of implementation
of pre-Nelp (New Exploration Licensing Policy) and
Nelp rounds and other exploration and production
activities, substantial geo-scientific data have been
acquired and interpreted. New oil and gas fields
have also been discovered by utilizing improved
geological understanding and new technology. With
the increase in exploration spread and quantum
jump in availability of geo-scientific data generated
under Nelp, there is a need to revisit the
hydrocarbon resource assessment of India.
Nelp was approved by the government in

1997it kicked off in January 1999in an effort
to boost hydrocarbon exploration in the country.
Under Nelp, the government allocates rights to
explore hydrocarbon blocks through a bidding
process and has done this in nine phases so far for
360 blocks, with an investment of around $21.3
billion.
Further the ministry said there is also an urgent
need for the fresh estimation in the remaining 11
sedimentary basins as well, for which no
hydrocarbon resources have been estimated so far.
The exercise comes in the backdrop of India
offering 46 hydrocarbon blocks to investors under
the 10th round of Nelp through a revenue-sharing
regime that was recommended by a panel headed
by C. Rangarajan, chairman of the economic
advisory council to the Prime Minister. A panel led
by former finance secretary Vijay Kelkar favours
the continuation of the current production sharing
contract framework, which allows for cost recovery
by exploration and production companies before
they pay the government its share.
NATIONAL URBAN HEALTH MISSION LAUNCHED
Aiming at providing adequate and efficient

urban public health delivery system for the urban
poor the Union Health Ministry has launched
National Urban Health Mission (NUHM). NUHM
is the urban counterpart of the National Rural
Health Mission (NRHM). It will cover Bangalore,
Mangalore, Mysore, Ullal and Bagalkot in the State
in the first phase.
Under the Scheme the following proposals have

been approved :
1.
One Urban Primary Health Centre (U-PHC)

for every fifty to sixty thousand population.
2.
One Urban Community Health Centre (UCHC) for five to six U-PHCs in big cities.
3.
One Auxiliary Nursing Midwives (ANM) for

10,000 population.
[5]

4. One Accredited Social Health Activist ASHA
(community link worker) for 200 to 500
households.
The interventions under the sub-mission will

result in
The estimated cost of NUHM for 5 years period

is Rs.22,507 crore with the Central Government
share of Rs.16,955 crore. Centre-State funding
pattern will be 75:25 except for North Eastern states
and other special category states of Jammu and
Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand for
whom the funding pattern will be 90:10.
Reduction in Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR)
on primary health care

This Mission will be
and towns with more
cover about 7.75 crore
Universal access to reproductive health care

Convergence
interventions.
of
all
health
related
The existing institutional mechanism and

management systems created and functioning
under NRHM will be strengthened to meet the needs
of NUHM. Citywise implementation plans will be
prepared based on baseline survey and felt need.
Urban local bodies will be fully involved in
implementation of the scheme.
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The scheme will focus

needs of the urban poor.
implemented in 779 cities
than 50,000 population and
people.
Reduction in Infant Mortality Rate (IMR)
DISPOSING OF MERCY PLEA A CONSTITUTIONAL OBLIGATION: SC

The Supreme Court held that exercising of
power under Article 72/161 of the Constitution to
consider and dispose of mercy petitions of convicts
by the President or the Governor is a constitutional
obligation and not a mere prerogative and such a
decision would be subject to judicial review.
A Bench of Chief Justice P. Sathasivam and

Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Shivakirti Singh, allowing
writ petitions of 15 death row convicts, said:
Considering the high status of office, the
constitutional framers did not stipulate any outer
time limit for disposing of mercy petitions under
the said Articles, which means it should be decided
within reasonable time. However, when the delay
caused in disposing of mercy petitions is seen to be
unreasonable, unexplained and exorbitant, it is the
duty of this court to step in and consider this aspect.
Right to seek mercy under Article 72/161 is a
constitutional right and [it is] not at the discretion
or whims of the executive.
Writing the judgment, the Chief Justice said:
Every constitutional duty must be fulfilled with
due care and diligence; otherwise, judicial
interference is the command of the Constitution
for upholding its values. It is clear that after the
completion of the judicial process, if the convict
files a mercy petition to the Governor/the President,
it is incumbent on the authorities to dispose of the
same expeditiously. Though no time limit can be
fixed for the Governor and the President, it is the
duty of the executive to expedite the matter at every
stage
Laying down guidelines, the Bench deprecated
the practice of keeping death row convicts in
solitary confinement and said such a practice, prior
[6]
to rejection of the mercy petition by the President,

was unconstitutional.
It said: There is no provision in any of the
prison manuals for providing legal aid, for preparing
appeals or mercy petitions or for accessing judicial
remedies after the mercy petition has been rejected.
Since this court has held that Article 21 rights inhere
in a convict till his last breath, even after rejection
of the mercy petition by the President, the convict
can approach a writ court for commutation of the
death sentence on the ground of supervening
events, if available, and challenge the rejection of
the mercy petition and legal aid should be provided
to the convict at all stages. Accordingly,
Superintendent of Jails are directed to intimate the
rejection of mercy petitions to the nearest Legal
Aid Centre, apart from intimating the convicts.
The Bench said: As and when any such mercy
petition is received or communicated by the State
government after the rejection by the Governor,
necessary materials such as police records,
judgment of the trial court, the High Court and
the Supreme Court and all other connected
documents should be called at one stroke, fixing a
time limit for the authorities to forward the same
to the Ministry of Home Affairs. Even after sending
the necessary particulars, if there is no response
from the office of the President, it is the responsibility
of the Ministry of Home Affairs to send periodical
reminders and to provide required materials for
early decision.
The Bench pointed out that no prison manual
has any provision for informing the prisoner or his
family of the rejection of the mercy petition by the
Governor. Since the convict has a constitutional

right under Article 161 to make a mercy petition to
the Governor, he is entitled to be informed in writing
of the decision on that mercy petition. The rejection
of the mercy petition by the Governor should
forthwith be communicated to the convict and his
family in writing or through some other mode of
communication available. Similarly all the States
should inform the prisoner and their family
members of the rejection of the mercy petition by
the President.
The Bench said: Most of the death row

prisoners are extremely poor and do not have copies
of their court papers, judgments, etc. Since the
availability of these documents is a pre-requisite
for the accessing of these rights, it is necessary that
the copies of relevant documents should be
furnished to the prisoner within a week by the
prison authorities to assist in making mercy petition
and petitioning the courts. While some prison
manuals provide for a final meeting between a
condemned prisoner and his family immediately
prior to execution, many manuals do not. Such a
procedure is intrinsic to humanity and justice, and
should be followed by all prison authorities. It is
therefore, necessary for prison authorities to
facilitate and allow a final meeting between the
prisoner and his family and friends prior to his
execution.
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The Bench said that giving 14-day notice for

execution allows the prisoner to prepare himself
mentally for execution, to make his peace with God,
prepare his will and settle other earthly affairs. It
allows the prisoner to have a last and final meeting
with his family members. Without sufficient notice
of the scheduled date of execution, the prisoners
right to avail themselves of judicial remedies will
be thwarted and they will be prevented from having
a last and final meeting with their families. It is the
obligation of the Superintendent of Jail to see that
the family members of the convict receive the
message of communication of rejection of the mercy
petition in time.
prisoner before a medical board for a

comprehensive evaluation and shall forward the
report of the same to the State Government for
further action.
The Bench said there must be a regular mental

health evaluation of prisoners as in some cases,
death-row prisoners lost their mental balance on
account of prolonged anxiety and suffering
experienced on death row. There should, therefore,
be regular mental health evaluation of all death
row convicts and appropriate medical care should
be given to those in need. If the Superintendent is
of the opinion that the prisoner is not fit, he should
forthwith stop the execution, and produce the
The Bench said although none of the jail

manuals provide for compulsory post mortem on
death convicts after the execution, we think in the
light of the repeated arguments by the petitioners
herein asserting that there is dearth of experienced
hangman in the country, the same must be made
obligatory. By making post mortem obligatory, the
cause of the death of the convict can be found out,
which will reveal whether the person died as a
result of the dislocation of the cervical vertebrate
or by strangulation which results on account of
too long a drop.
LPG PORTABILITY LAUNCHED
Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister, Veerappa

Moily announced the launch of the portability of
LPG connection scheme across 480 districts of the
country covering all the oil marketing companies
(OMCs) and distributors which have multiple LPG
distributors of various ratings.
With the launch of this new initiative, consumers
can now switch to the distributor of his choice
within a cluster of LPG distributors in the vicinity.
This measure will bring great relief to those LPG
consumers who are either unhappy with the
services of their current distributor or want to move
to an LPG distributor closer to their place of
residence.
As a pilot project, the OMCs together launched

LPG connection portability scheme in 24 districts
covering 13 States in October last year. However,

Moily said this was being extended on all India
basis by expanding its coverage to over 480 districts
and a population of over 8.2 crore LPG consumers
across the country.
In order to facilitate LPG consumers to benefit
from the portability scheme, the OMCs have made
more than 1,400 clusters distributors in over 480
districts with an average of almost 4 distributors
per cluster to choose from. The details about these
clusters are available on the OMC websites. It has
also been ensured that the portability scheme now
covers all possible markets that are having
distributors of multiple companies coupled with the
scope for formation of clusters. The procedure to
opt for portability is very simple.
[7]

across companies, the consumer will have to visit
the current distributor and surrender the cylinder
and pressure regulator, collect the refund/transfer
documents and then approach the distributor of
his/her choice for reconnection by paying the same
deposit as earlier. No Transfer fee or additional
security deposit will be charged for transfer of
connection under the portability scheme.
The success of this scheme lies in conferring the
power with the consumer to be able to change the
distributor and the oil company, which forces the
distributor and oil company to perform and not in
large number of portability requests.
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To register for portability, the LPG consumers

need to do the following visit the website of three
OMCs Indian Oil Corporation, Hindustan
Petroleum Corporation Limited and Bharat
Petroleum Corporation Limited and register
themselves. The consumers can then see the
distributors in the cluster and their star rating in
terms of refill delivery performance and then select
the distributor of their choice from the cluster and
submit request. Subsequently, the consumer will
receive an email confirming the registration and
advising details of further procedure. In case of
inter-company transfer, i.e. between two different
OMCs, since the LPG equipment is not compatible
GOVT BANS USE OF ANIMALS IN TESTING OF COSMETICS
Conceding to concerns raised by animal welfare

organizations, the government has banned the use
of animals in testing of cosmetics manufactured in
the country. The amendment, made in the Drug
and Cosmetics Act, 1945, says the decision has
been taken after consultation with the ministrys
Drugs Technical Advisory Board, and the rules will
be effective within 45 days of it being made public.
The ban implies that no cosmetic which has been
tested on animals in the country will be allowed to
be sold.
Since the regulation on animal testing in India

was opaque, there are no specific estimates of
animal-tested cosmetics sold in the country, N G
Jayasimha, director of animal welfare group
Humane Society International, which championed
the cause.
removal of animal tests from the countrys

cosmetics standard. The use of modern non-animal
alternative tests also becomes mandatory, replacing
invasive tests on animals. This means that any
manufacturer interested in testing new cosmetic
ingredients or finished products must first seek
approval from Indias Central Drug Standards
Control Organisation. A manufacturer will be given
approval to test only after complying with the BIS
non-animal standards.
However, the ban will not prevent companies
from importing and selling animal-tested cosmetics
in the country. Companies are still free to outsource
their animal testing to other countries and then
import newly animal-tested cosmetics and
ingredients back into India.
The health ministry decided to amend the rules

after issues were raised by certain organizations
and Members of Parliament, and to follow
standards in line with the European Union. Last
year saw the implementation of the final phase of
an EU law, making the testing of cosmetics on
animals completely illegal.
To prevent this, India must also ban the import

and sale of cosmetic products and ingredients that
have been newly animal-tested anywhere in the
world. Israel and 28 countries in the EU have
already done this. According to him, the Drug
Technical Advisory Board has also spoken in favour
of an import and sales ban of animal-tested
cosmetics.
Paving the way for the ban, the Bureau of

Indian Standards had last year approved the
There are no official statistics on the use of

animals in cosmetics in India.
INDIA APPROVES ICC TAKEOVER PROPOSAL
The Indian cricket board (BCCI) formally

approved and backed the plan which proposes to
overhaul the world body, International Cricket
Council (ICC), by handing over executive decisionmaking to India, Australia and England.
reviewed the new draft proposal prepared by a

working group of the ICCs finance and commercial
affairs committee and come to the conclusion that
the proposed changes were in the interests of
cricket at large.
After an emergent working committee meeting,

BCCI issued a statement saying its members had
Controversially, though, BCCI also sought to

link its participation in ICC events with the
[8]

proposals being cleared, saying, (The committee)
authorized the office bearers to enter into
agreements with ICC for participating in ICC events
and host ICC events, subject to the proposal being
approved in the ICC board.
The BCCI also said it had formally approved
the proposal of the working group, authorized
office bearers to discuss bilateral matches with other
full members (including Pakistan) and sign formal
FTP agreements.
Proposed changes
* New executive committee to be run by BCCI,
CA and ECB.
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The draft proposals will be presented to the

ICC executive board during its quarterly meeting
in Dubai on Jan 28 and 29. It needs the support of
seven of the 10 Full Member nations to be passed.
The proposal, which has drawn flak from

Pakistan, Sri Lanka and South Africa, also seeks to
introduce a two-tier Test system but exempts India,
Australia and England from relegation, apart from
removing the current system of Future Tours
Programme (FTP) to pave the way for individuallynegotiated bilateral contests.
The BCCI is set to profit substantially if the

new structure comes into place, since the 21-page
draft proposes, among other things, a radical
redistribution of crickets financial pie, with the
ICCs central revenue being distributed in
proportion to the income generated by each board.
In the current system, 75% of the ICC earnings are
divided equally among the 10 Full Member nations,
the rest going to associate members.
Ahead of negotiations for the next ICC

commercial rights cycle from 2015 to 2023, the BCCI
is keen on seeing that its share of the ICC pie reflects
the fact that it generates approximately 80% of the
games global revenues. Under the current system,
the BCCI currently gets around 4.2% of the ICCs
current revenue-cycle generation of $1.5 billion.
* Promotion and relegation system in Tests

with India, Aus and England exempted from
relegation.
* ICC to be delinked from FTP in favour of
individually negotiated bilateral contests.
* A maximum of 21% of ICCs revenues to
BCCI since it generates almost 80% of the
games finances. Those who raise more
money to get more of the share, which
means England & Australia will follow India
in bagging largest portions.
* Champions Trophy to make a comeback.
Proposed Test Championship to be shelved.
* A new Test cricket fund will be set up to
encourage countries to keep long-form
cricket alive.
PANEL RECOMMENDS AUTONOMY FOR PRASAR BHARATI
An expert committee, headed by Sam Pitroda,

suggested public broadcaster Prasar Bharati will
have to monetise its assets, including its real estate,
and involve the private sector in monetising some
of its existing infrastructure to generate revenue.
The recommendations made by the expert
committee set up by the government in January
2013 to address issues around new models of
funding, human resource management, content
creation and technology interventions, aims to
ensure that Prasar Bharti is at par with global
benchmarks.
The committee recommends diverse sources of
funding for the public broadcaster, including
private investment. It is recommended that in
addition to government, Prasar Bharati should
generate funds through autonomous sources and
through commercialization of a part of its
activities, the report said. The pattern of funding
from the three sources respectively should be

approximately 20%, 40% and 40%.
On the financial front, the committee said the
government must waiveRs.13,641 crore due from
Prasar Bharati as a result of funds provided in the
past for capital expenditure as well as to meet the
operating expenses.
The conservative assessment of requirement of
funds for Prasar Bharati is pegged at close to
Rs.17,412 crore in terms of present value, according
to the report. Under this scenario, Prasar Bharati
would reach operating break-even by 2021 and selfsufficiency, including capital expenditure, by 2024.
The committee also recommended setting up of
a global broadcaster on the lines of the British
Broadcasting Corporation to tap the international
broadcasting market. It also said some of its
recommendations could be implemented
immediately.
[9]

The committee also recommended giving power
to Prasar Bharati to frame rules and regulations
and hire manpower without going to the
government for approval. The broadcaster will now
undertake a manpower audit to map its workforce
for future.
The committee also pointed out that it needed

younger staff in the engineering department to keep
up with the changing times.
The committee has also recommended a review of
all existing channels and content of Doordarshan and
All India radio and has asked for phasing out programs
where there is sub-optimal utilization of resources.
UGC PANEL TO LOOK INTO 44 DEEMED TO BE VERSITIES

Set up by UGC chairman Prof Ved Prakash,
the committee will study the previous reports on
the 44 institutions and assess the present situation.
It would be required to submit a report within two
months. The court said the UGCs view on the 44
universities must be taken, even though it may not
be binding.
To be chaired by Prof S K Joshi, former DG of

the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research, the
committee would have on board Prof Akhilesh
Kumar Tyagi, director of the Plasma Research
Genome Institute, Prof Digvijay Singh, former V-C
Roorkee University, Prof Mahesh Mishra, director
AIIMS, Prof Dinesh Singh, V-C Delhi University,
and Prof Parsuraman, director of Tata Institute of
Social Sciences.
In 2010, the HRD Ministry had recommended

that the 44 deemed to be universities were found
lacking on several counts by an expert panel and
that they should be closed down. While the SC
stayed the ministrys proposed action against these
institutions, the issue has been sub judice ever since.
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With the Supreme Court asking the University

Grants Commission (UGC) to take a fresh look at
44 deemed to be universities that the Human
Resource Development (HRD) Ministry had
recommended for blacklisting, the higher education
regulator set up a six-member committee for the
purpose.
The HRD Ministrys move had come at a time

when there was a sudden rise in the number of
deemed to be universities in the country.
RAIL TARIFF AUTHORITY GETS CABINET NOD
The Cabinet cleared the Rail Tariff Authority

(RTA) giving it more teeth than the mere advisory
body the Railways had planned to create. The RTA,
to be formed as per this executive order, will advise
the Railway ministry on fare revision and freight
revision with the caveat that Railways will
ordinarily accept its recommendations, and in
extraordinary cases if Railways disagrees, it will
send the recommendations with its observations
back to the authority which will review its decision.
This minute clause makes the five-member RTA

as strong as possible without amending the Railway
Act, 1989. This will be the first external pricing
regulatory body for the countrys rail sector.
According to sources, the Cabinet has in principle
approved moving an amendment to the Act by
which power to decide tariff will be vested with
the Authority making it a statutory regulator in
future.
rates. A search committee will be likely set up in

15 days to look for a chairman and four other
members. Two members will be former senior
railway officials. Former heads of PSU banks,
former deputy governor of the Reserve Bank and
eminent expert in any field from the civil society
are some criteria for the posts.
At present, setting of tariffs for railways is the
Railway Boards job. Historically, political
dispensations have prevailed over the Board to stall
moves for tariff revision fearing political backlash.
The Cabinet also gave formal approval to an
electric locomotive factory at Madhepura, and a
diesel locomotive factory at Marhowra, both in
Bihar, at an estimated cost of Rs 1,293.57 crore
and Rs 2,052.58 crore, respectively.
Railway sources said Chapter 5(A) will be

inserted in the Act for the same.
There will be 800 electric locos of 12,000 horse

power each and a mix of 1,000 diesel locomotives
of 4,500 and 6,000 horse power with high level
performance guarantees similar to international
practices.
At present, as per the Railway Act, the Railway

Board is the only authority to set fares and freight
[10]
INTERNATIONAL
NOW CHINA EXPORTS POLLUTION TO US
atmosphere, so it persists across long distances, the
statement said. Black carbon is linked to asthma,
cancer, emphysema, and heart and lung disease.
Using a modeling system called GEOS-Chem,
the scientists estimated that in 2006, sulfate
concentrations in the Western United States
increased as much as 2 percent, and ozone and
carbon monoxide levels also increased slightly
because of the transportation of pollutants from
emissions that resulted from the manufacture of
goods for export to the United States.
Because the Eastern United States has a much
denser
population,
the
outsourcing
of
manufacturing to China still resulted in an overall
beneficial effect for the U.S. public health, even if
Western states suffered, the scientists wrote.
The amount of air pollution in the Western
United States resulting from emissions from China
is still very small compared with the amount
produced by sources in the United States that
include traffic and domestic industries.
The studys scientists also looked at the impact
of Chinas export industries on its own air quality.
They estimated that in 2006, Chinas exporting of
goods to the United States was responsible for 7.4
percent of production-based Chinese emissions for
sulfur dioxide, 5.7 per cent for nitrogen oxides, 3.6
per cent for black carbon and 4.6 per cent for carbon
monoxide.
The interdisciplinary research project was begun
two and a half years ago by scholars in Britain,
China and the United States. The group included
economists as well as earth and environmental
scientists. The methodology applied various
analyses and modeling to the Chinese economy and
to the earths atmosphere and weather patterns.
The scholars who gave emissions estimates for
Chinas export industries, a significant part of the
countrys economy, looked at data from 42 sectors
that are direct or indirect contributors to emissions.
They included steel and cement production, power
generation and transportation. Coal-burning
factories were the biggest sources of pollutants and
greenhouse gases, which contribute to global
warming.
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According to a paper published by a prominent

American science journal pollution from China
travels in large quantities across the Pacific Ocean
to the United States making environmental and
health problems unexpected side effects of U.S.
demand for cheap China-manufactured goods.
The research is the first to quantify how air
pollution in the United States is affected by Chinas
production of goods for export and by global
consumer demand for those goods, the studys
authors say. It was written by nine scholars based
in three nations and was published by Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences, which last
year published a paper by other researchers that
found a drop in life spans in northern China
because of air pollution.
The paper explores the environmental
consequences of interconnected economies. The
scientists wrote that outsourcing production to
China does not always relieve consumers in the
United States or for that matter many countries
in the Northern Hemisphere from the
environmental impacts of air pollution.
The movement of air pollutants associated with
the production of goods in China for the American
market has resulted in a decline in air quality in
the Western United States, the scientists wrote,
though less manufacturing in the United States does
mean cleaner air in the American East.
Jintai Lin, the lead author of the paper, said in
an interview that he and the other scientists
wanted to examine the transborder effects of
emissions from export industries to look at how
consumption contributes to global air pollution.
Powerful global winds called westerlies can
carry pollutants from China across the Pacific
within days, leading to dangerous spikes in
contaminants, especially during the spring,
according to a news release from the University of
California, Irvine, where one of the studys coauthors, Steven J. Davis, is an earth system scientist.
Dust, ozone and carbon can accumulate in valleys
and basins in California and other Western states,
the statement said. Black carbon is a particular
problem because rain does not wash it out of the
[11]

But the proportion of Chinas exports that are
made in China has risen steadily in recent years as
many companies move more of their supply chains,
instead of just having final assembly work done
here. So the overall percentages of economic output
might not by themselves be fair indicators of the
importance of exports to the Chinese economy.
Chinese exports to the United States sagged in
2009 because of the global financial crisis but have
resumed vigorous growth. By Chinas method of
counting, which includes only direct shipments
from mainland Chinese ports to the United States
and excludes goods that travel by way of Hong
Kong, Chinese exports grew to $368.5 billion last
year from $252.3 billion in 2008. By contrast, China
imported only $152.6 billion worth of goods directly
from the United States.
The United States, which does include goods
briefly transiting Hong Kong in its trade figures
with mainland China, has shown even larger
American trade deficits with China for many years,
because Chinese companies use Hong Kong heavily
for exports but much less for imports.
Chinas GDP growth slows to 7.7%
allocating resources, and promoting domestic

consumption at the expense of investment and
exports.
The recent data from the National Bureau of
Statistics showed Chinas 56.9 trillion yuan ($9.4
trillion) economy is still very much dependent on
investment for growth. Capital formation
accounted for 54 percent of Chinas economic
growth last year, exceeding the 50 percent share
taken up by consumption. Net exports, on the
other hand, detracted 4.4 percent from overall
growth.
China is widely expected to face slower
expansion in the years ahead with its leaders
saying they are committed to transforming the
countrys growth model to one where consumers
and other private actors play the leading role,
rather than huge and often wasteful state
investment.
For 2014, the median forecast in the AFP
(Agence France-Presse, a French news agency)
survey of economists was for growth to slow to
7.5%. Separately, the NBS said industrial output,
which measures production at factories, workshops
and mines, rose 9.7% in December year-on-year,
while expanding a similar 9.7% for the full year
2013. Retail sales, a key indicator of consumer
spending, gained 13.6% in December from the same
month the year before and rose 13.1% in 2013, it
said. And fixed asset investment, a measure of
government spending on infrastructure, expanded
19.6% 2013, the NBS added.
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In recent years, scholars have been studying

the impact of Chinas total emissions on global air
pollution and warming. Residents of nations in the
path of winds carrying pollutants from China have
grown alarmed at what they believe to be
deteriorating air quality in their countries because
of that pollution. In Japan, for instance, an
environmental engineer has attributed a mysterious
pestilence that is killing trees on Yakushima Island
to pollutants from China.
Exports accounted for 24.1 per cent of Chinas
entire economic output last year, down sharply
from a peak of 35 per cent in 2007, before the
global financial crisis began to weaken overseas
demand even as Chinas domestic economy
continued to grow. The 2013 number takes into
account economic data that was released recently.
Economists caution that this does not mean that
a quarter of the economy was dedicated to
producing goods for exports, since China still does
a lot of reprocessing instead of making exports
entirely itself.
China is one of the most powerful engines of

global growth, but one that no longer operates at
full throttle. On Monday, Beijing reported that its
gross domestic product last year grew 7.7%,
matching 2012s rate. China economists generally
forecast economic growth of somewhere between
7% and 8% this year, too.
The chance that the worlds second-largest
economy may decelerate in coming months was
underscored by data that showed growth in
investment and factory output flagged in the final
months of last year.
Waning momentum capped Chinas annual
economic growth at a six-month low of 7.7 per
cent in the October-December quarter, a slowdown
some analysts say may deepen this year as China
endures the short-term pain of revamping its
growth model for the long-term good.
Full-year growth in 2013 was 7.7 per cent
steady from 2012 and just slightly above market
expectations for a 7.6 per cent expansion, which
would have been the slowest since 1999.
After 30 years of sizzling double-digit
economic growth that lifted many millions of
Chinese out of poverty but also devastated the
environment, China wants to change tack by
embracing sustainable and higher-quality
development instead.
That means reducing government intervention
to allow financial markets to have a bigger say in
[12]
THAILAND DECLARES EMERGENCY IN BANGKOK

Thailand has announced a two-month state of
emergency in Bangkok and neighbouring provinces
in response to protests that have seen nine people
killed and hundreds injured amid calls for the
government to resign.
Following these incidents the cabinet decided

to invoke the emergency decree to take care of the
situation and to enforce the law to instill some sense
of law and order in the capital. But it is unclear to
what extent the decree will be used to break up
the protest camps.
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Anti-government protesters have taken to the

streets of the capital since November, cutting off
water and power to ministers homes, besieging
government ministries, and forcing the beleaguered
prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, to rule from

offices north of the capital in their attempt to oust
her from power.
EUS ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY REVIEW
The European Commission published its biggest

review of its environmental policies in seven years.
While the proposals disappointed environmental
groups, they also fell short of the measures that
European industry had hoped for to mitigate their
rising energy bills.
By 2030, greenhouse gas emissions across the

EU must fall 40 per cent below 1990 levels, while
at least 27 per cent of energy should come from
renewable sources. However, there wont be any
binding targets for individual member states, a
move which it said was necessary to give countries
the flexibility to transform their energy systems
to suit their national preferences and circumstances.
European Commission President Jose Manuel
Barroso acknowledged the fine balance that the
commission was attempting to strike between
environmental and industrial concerns. The
Commission will also reform its emission trading
scheme, and separately published a paper on

energy pricing.
European industry has long warned that the
EUs environmental policies and consequent impact
on energy prices, were proving unsustainable to
them. Axel Eggert, a spokesperson for Eurofer, the
body representing Europes steel industry,
expressed his disappointment with the measures
set out by the European Commission.
Environmental groups were also critical,
including the decision to delay any proposals on
regulating fracking. By suggesting a greenhouse
gas emissions target out of line with climate science,
as well as a low renewable energy target which
places no legal requirements on member states, the
Commission appears to be putting the brakes on
modernising Europes energy system, the World
Wildlife Fund said.
CEASEFIRE ACCORD IN SOUTH SUDAN
Negotiators representing President Salva Kiir

and rebel leader Riek Machar signed a ceasefire
deal aimed at ending a five-week conflict in which
thousands of people have been killed and 500,000
displaced. The agreement was signed in the
Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa after peace talks
mediated by the East African bloc IGAD had
deadlocked for more than two weeks.
The talks had deadlocked mainly over Kiirs
refusal to release 11 Machar supporters he accused
of plotting a coup. The detainees include senior
figures from South Sudans ruling Sudan Peoples
Liberation Movement (SPLM), such as its former
secretary-general Pagan Amum and former cabinet
minister Deng Alor.
The rebels said the release of the detainees
would remain their priority during the ceasefire.
The rebels also highlighted their desire to be involved

in the countrys government as a solution to the
crisis within the SPLM.
The power struggle between the two rivals
turned violent mid-December, when fighting
erupted between Kiirs ethnic group the Dinkas
and Machars Nuers in the presidential
guard.
Fighting soon spread around the country.
Human rights groups reported ethnically based
killings on both sides.
The International Crisis Group and other
analysts put the number of casualties at up to
10,000. Nearly 500,000 people have been internally
displaced, while more than 80,000 have fled to
neighbouring countries.

[13]
INDIA AND THE WORLD

INDIA & JAPAN SIGN EIGHT PACTS
Organisation Japan and Department of Economic
Affairs, Ministry of Communication & Information
Technology, Ministry of New and Renewable
Energy on a model project for energy management
systems in telecom towers in India.
To help implement bilateral science and
technology exchanges, an implementing
arrangement was inked between the Ministry of
Education, Culture, Sports, Science & Technology
of Japan and the Department of Science &
Technology of India.
Both the sides also exchanges notes on Overseas
Development Assistance (ODA) loan for
Uttarakhand Forest Resource Management Project.
The project is financed by Japanese Official
Development Assistance. Further, exchange of
notes took place between the two sides for
improvement of the Institute of Child Health and
Hospital for Children in Chennai.
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During the visit of Japanese Prime Minister

Shinzo Abe, who was the chief guest for the
Republic Day Parade, India and Japan inked eight
agreements on areas like promotion of tourism,
enhancing energy efficiency in telecom towers and
power generation in the country.
Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC)
has signed two pacts with National Thermal Power
Corporation (NTPC). Under the agreements, JBIC
would provide soft loan for NTPS Kudgi Power
Plant and loan for NTPCs Auraiya Power Plant.
A Memorandum of Cooperation was signed
between the Bureau of Indian Standards and
Japanese Industrial Standards Committee to
harmonise standards between the two countries.
Aiming at enhancing energy efficiency in
telecom towers, an MoU was inked between New
Energy and Industrial Technology Development
ARMY JOB PROSPECTS OF SIKH AMERICANS GET BRIGHTER
The Pentagon has updated its policy on

permitting service members to adhere to attire or
sartorial accessories prescribed by religious
practices. The new policy states that military
departments will accommodate religious requests
of service members unless a request would have an
adverse effect on military readiness, mission
accomplishment, unit cohesion and good order and
discipline.
Immediately, 20 members of the U.S. Congress,
led by Democrat of New York Joe Crowley, sent a
letter to Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel calling for
an end to the presumptive ban on Sikh Americans
in the U.S. military.
Although the Pentagon has steadily pushed
towards a relaxation of rules on religious attire for
its members, it has not rescinded the ban entirely,
instead opting to continue its case-by-case approach.
Explaining the latest change in the protocol the

Pentagon said that when a service member requests
such an accommodation it could be denied only
if an official determines that mission
accomplishment needs outweigh the need of the
service member, and each request will be assessed
on a case-by-case basis.
In particular the latest guidance requires that
expression of sincerely held beliefs may not be
used as the basis for adverse personnel action or
discrimination, and hair, grooming practices,
and religious body art such as tattoos or body
piercings are to be considered eligible areas for
religious accommodation.
It is expected that this move is likely to improve
military job prospects for members of the Sikh
community.
ADB TO GIVE $100 MN LOAN TO MEGHALAYA

The multilateral funding agency Asian
Development Bank (ADB) and the Government of
India signed an agreement for a $100 million loan
[14]
for Meghalaya, aimed at enhancing the

employability of the states youth through
improvements in secondary education and

vocational skills training programmes. The project
Supporting Human Capital Development in
Meghalaya is ADBs first loan in India focusing
on boosting education and skills.
ADB said a technical assistance grant of
additional $2 million by Japan Fund for Poverty
Reduction will also be associated with this loan to
strengthen the capacity of civil society organisations
and related state government departments.
The loan of $100 million from ADBs ordinary

capital resources makes up 80 per cent of the total
project cost of $125 million, with the central and
state governments providing counterpart finance
of $25 million. The loan has a 25-year term,
including a five-year grace period, with an annual
interest rate determined in accordance with ADBs
LIBOR-based lending facility.
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ADBs first ever loan for skills development and

reform of secondary education to India will enhance
the employability of Meghalayas youth by
improving the quality, access, and delivery of its
secondary education (Grades 9 to 12) ... the project
will help in creating a virtuous cycle of inclusive
growth in the state.
standards, supporting training of 3,500 secondary

school teachers, and promoting the use of internetbased teaching, it will improve the overall learning
environment for nearly 20,000 poor students, 40
per cent of which will be girls.
The project will provide employment-linked

skills training to around 60,000 youth, 40 per cent
whom are women, through innovative publicprivate partnership arrangements.
By upgrading the infrastructure of more than
100 government-aided private schools to national
The project is expected to be completed by

September 30, 2018.
ADB helps in areas such as reducing poverty
in Asia and the Pacific through inclusive economic
growth, environmentally sustainable growth and
regional integration.
It has 67 members, of which 48 are from the
Asia Pacific region alone.
[15]
ECONOMY
RBI PANEL TO REVIEW GOVERNANCE OF BANK BOARDS
investigate possible conflicts of interest in board
representation,
including
among
owner
representatives and regulators.
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The Reserve Bank of India has constituted an

expert committee to review the governance of bank
boards in India. The committee will review the
regulatory compliance requirements of the board
of directors of banks, judge what can be
rationalised and where requirements need
enhancements, examine the working of the boards,
including whether adequate time is being devoted
to issues of strategy, growth, governance and risk
management.
The committee, Chaired by P.J. Nayak, former
Chairman and CEO of Axis Bank, will review
central bank regulatory guidelines on bank
ownership, ownership concentration and
representation on the board, analyse the
representation to see whether the boards have the
appropriate mix of capabilities and necessary
independence to govern the institution, and
In this regard, it will also assess and review the

fit and proper criteria for all categories of directors
of banks, including tenor of directorship, board
compensation guidelines and any other issue
relevant to the functioning of the boards and the
governance they exercise.
The committee is expected to submit its report
within three months after its first meeting.
Other members of the committee are S. Raman,
whole-time member, SEBI; Shubhalakshmi Panse,
Chairperson and Managing Director, Allahabad
Bank; Pratip Kar, former Executive Director, SEBI,
and Joydeep Sengupta, Director, McKinsey &
Company.
INDIA TO RETAIN TOP RICE EXPORTER TAG
Sharp rise in demand from the US, Europe and

the middle-eastern countries for Basmati rice and
Africa and Asian countries for non-Basmati rice,
India is all set emerge as worlds top rice exporters
in the current fiscal.
This will be second time in a row that India is
likely to emerge as biggest rice exporter globally.
As per the commerce ministry data (AprilNovember, 2013), India has exported close to 7
million tonnes (MT) of rice and expected to ship
more than 10.5 MT by end of current fiscal.
More than 2.3 MT of aromatic and long-grain
Basmati rice and 4.6 MT of non-Basmati rice were
exported during first eight months of the current fiscal.

The exporters are targeting to achieve more than
10.5 MT of rice in 2013-14 while in the previous
fiscal, the country has shipped 10 MT. Thailand
and Vietnam are the other rice exporters, who ship
around 7 MT of rice annually each. Rice exports
have been looking northwards since the country
lifted a four-year ban on non-Basmati rice shipment
after in September 2011.
The ministry data also indicate that last fiscal
rice exports fetched more than Rs 33,800 crore
while in the April-November 2013 period, India
has earned more than Rs 29,000 crore.
RBI STANDARDIZES GOLD LOAN NORMS
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) stipulated a limit

for banks to lend against a particular value of gold
besides standardizing norms to calculate the value
of gold for the purpose of lending. The RBI in its
notification said that it has set the loan-to-value
(LTV) ratio for gold loans at 75% including for bullet
repayment loans against pledge of gold jewellery.
[16]
This means that if the value of the gold is

Rs.100, banks can lend Rs.75 to the borrower. Early
January, the central bank had increased the LTV
ration for non-banking financial companies
(NBFCs) lending money using gold as a collateral
to 75% from 60% earlier.
Earlier there was no LTV ratio set for banks,
which lend against gold.

RBI has also standardized norms to value the
gold for the purpose of calculating the LTV. As per
this, gold jewellery accepted as collateral will have
to be valued at the average of the closing price of
22 carat gold for the preceding 30 days as quoted
by the India Bullion and Jewellers Association Ltd.
[Formerly known as the Bombay Bullion
Association Ltd. (BBA)].
The RBI reiterated that banks should continue

to observe necessary and usual safeguards and also
have a suitable policy for lending against gold
jewellery with the approval of their boards of
directors.
In May 2013, the RBI had imposed restrictions,
according to which while granting advance against
the security of specially minted gold coins sold by
banks, they would have to ensure that the weight
of the coin(s) does not exceed 50 gm per customer
and the amount of loan to any customer against
gold ornaments, gold jewellery and gold coins
(weighing up to 50 gm) should be within the boardapproved limit.
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If the gold is of purity less than 22 carats, the

bank should translate the collateral into 22 carat
and value the exact grams of the collateral. In other
words, jewellery of lower purity of gold shall be
valued proportionately, the central bank said.
unorganised sector in the business of lending against

gold.
Earlier, a RBI panel headed by K. U. B. Rao, an

adviser in the central banks department of
economic and policy research, had recommended
a higher LTV ratio for gold loan providers.
By allowing banks and NBFCs to lend more
against the pledge of gold jewellery, the central
bank may be trying to break the shackles of the
The limit of 50 gm is also applicable to grant of

advance against units of gold ETFs and gold mutual
funds.
URJIT PANEL SUGGESTS 4% CPI INFLATION TARGET
An expert committee appointed to examine the

current monetary policy framework of the Reserve
Bank of India (RBI) has suggested that the apex
bank should adopt the new CPI (consumer price
index) as the measure of the nominal anchor for
policy communication.
The committee headed by Urjit R. Patel, Deputy
Governor of the Reserve Bank of India felt that
inflation should be the nominal anchor for the
monetary policy framework. The nominal anchor
or the target for inflation should be set at 4 per
cent with a band of +/- 2 per cent around it. It
should be set by the RBI as its predominant objective
of monetary policy in its policy statements.
The nominal anchor should be communicated
without ambiguity, so as to ensure a monetary
policy regime shift away from the current approach
to one that is centred around the nominal anchor.
Subject to the establishment and achievement of
the nominal anchor, monetary policy conduct
should be consistent with a sustainable growth
trajectory and financial stability, it added.
According to the report, the nominal anchor
should be defined in terms of headline CPI inflation,
which closely reflects the cost of living and
influences inflation expectations relative to other
available metrics. This target should be set in the
frame of a two-year horizon that is consistent with
the need to balance the output costs of disinflation
against the speed of entrenchment of credibility in
policy commitment.
In view of the elevated level of current CPI

inflation and hardened inflation expectations,
supply constraints and weak output performance,
the committee said the transition path to the target
zone should be graduated to bringing down
inflation from the current level of 10 per cent to 8
per cent over a period not exceeding the next 12
months and to 6 per cent over a period not
exceeding the next 24 month period before formally
adopting the recommended target of 4 per cent
inflation with a band of +/- 2 per cent.
Since food and fuel account for more than 57
per cent of the CPI on which the direct influence
of monetary policy is limited, the commitment to
the nominal anchor would need to be demonstrated
by timely monetary policy response to risks from
second-round effects and inflation expectations in
response to shocks to food and fuel, the committee
pointed out.
The committee asked the Central Government
to ensure that the fiscal deficit as a ratio to GDP
(gross domestic product) is brought down to 3.0
per cent by 2016-17.
It said all fixed income financial products
should be treated on a par with bank deposits for
the purposes of taxation and TDS. With a sharp
rise in the ratio of agricultural credit to agricultural
GDP, the need for subventions on interest rate for
lending to certain sectors would have to re-visited.
[17]

1. The Governor of the RBI should be the
Chairman of the MPC and the Deputy
Governor in-charge of monetary policy could
be the Vice-Chairman. The Executive Director
in charge of monetary policy could be its
member.
2. It could have two external members. The fulltime external members would have full access
to information/analysis generated within the
Reserve Bank.
3. They (external directors) should not hold any
office of profit, or undertake any activity that
is seen as amounting to conflict of interest
with the working of the MPC.
4. The term of office of the MPC could be three
years, without prospect of renewal.
5. Each member of the MPC will have one vote
with the outcome determined by majority
voting, which has to be exercised without
abstaining.
6. Minutes of the proceedings of the MPC will
be released with a lag of two weeks from the
date of the meeting.
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In view of the cross country and Indian

experience with global spillovers driving episodes
of large and volatile capital inflows as well as
outflows, the committee felt that a flexible setting
of monetary policy by the RBI in the short-run was
warranted. With regard to inflows that are
excessive in relation to external financing
requirements and the need for sterilised
intervention, the RBI should build a sterilisation
reserve out of its existing and evolving portfolio of
GoI securities across the range of maturities, but
accentuated towards a strike capability to rapidly
intervene at the short-end. The central bank should
introduce a remunerated standing deposit facility,
which would effectively empower it with unlimited
sterilisation capability. As a buffer against outflows,
the RBIs strategy should be to build an adequate
level of foreign exchange reserves.
On MPC: The Patel panel felt that the monetary
policy decision-making should be vested with a
monetary policy committee (MPC). It went on to
recommend that:
RBI TO SET UP DEPOSITOR EDUCATION & AWARENESS FUND

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said that it
would establish a fund to be called Depositor
Education and Awareness Fund, which would
comprise unclaimed funds of depositors.
Pursuant to the amendment of The Banking

Laws (Amendment) Act, 2012, Section 26A has
been inserted in the Banking Regulation Act, 1949,
that empowers the Reserve Bank to establish a fund
called Depositor Education and Awareness Fund,
said the RBI in its release.
The Fund will be created by taking over
inoperative deposit accounts which have not been
claimed or operated for ten years or more or any
deposit or any amount remaining unclaimed for
more than 10 years within three months from the
expiry of the period of ten years.
The Fund would be utilised for promotion of
depositors interest and for such other purposes
which may be necessary for the promotion of
depositors interests as specified by the Reserve Bank

from time to time.
The depositor would, however, be entitled to
claim from the bank his deposit or operate his
account after the expiry of ten years, even after the
unclaimed deposit funds have been transferred to
the Fund.
The bank would be liable to pay the deposit
amount to the depositor and claim refund of such
amount from the Fund.
The RBI also said that it would appoint an
authority or a committee to administer the Fund,
and to maintain separate accounts and other
relevant records in relation to the Fund, which
would be specified by it.
The RBI has invited comments on this scheme
from all stakeholders, which should reach the
central bank by February 5.
SWISS BANKS DEVELOP NEW STRATEGIES TO PROTECT HIDDEN

WEALTH
After losing their secrecy tag, Swiss bankers are
coming up with innovative ideas to lure rich clients
from India and other countries by providing services
[18]
like cash courier as well as by offering large metal

vaults to store currency notes, gold, artworks and
other valuables.

Also on the platter is advice to put money in
virtual currencies, especially in the wake of Bitcoin
ATMs becoming operational in Zurich.
As hundreds of worlds rich congregate for the
World Economic Forum annual meeting in the
Swiss Alpine resort town of Davos, many of them
have also scheduled meetings with Swiss bankers
to devise new strategy for their hidden wealth.
Switzerland recently also offered to send a

delegation to India to further strengthen the
cooperation between the two countries on this
front.
Switzerlands federal department of finance had
said it has intensified its efforts in the field of
information exchange to explain Swiss laws and
practice to the Indian authorities in a transparent
way.
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While representatives from the large banks said

they are advising their clients about potential risks
associated with keeping their hidden wealth here,
those associated with many smaller banks claimed
risks are relatively lesser when using the services of
cash vaults, which however come with a higher
price tag in terms of service fees, maintenance
charges and rentals.
not been any major headway at ground level as

yet.
None of the bankers are willing to talk on record

with regard to their dealings with rich clients from
abroad, which also includes a significant number
of Indians.
Bankers are also offering to show their

prospective clients a visit to the banks cash vault
sections, where large metal boxes are placed within
the bank premises and at third- party designated
places to safely store wades of currency notes as
also other valuables.
In the meantime, a new trend seem to be

catching up where human couriers are being used
to carry large amount of cash, although it is a riskier
venture. Airport officials admit that many such
couriers have been apprehended in recent months.
These developments assume significance in the
wake of Swiss banks gradually losing their safehaven status every passing day due to ever-growing
global pressure on Switzerland to demolish their
secrecy walls that have historically helped in keeping
details about their clients and money off the limits
for authorities in respective jurisdictions.
At the same time, India and many other
countries have stepped up their surveillance on
people and entities suspected to be dealing with
Swiss banks.
While India and Switzerland governments have

revised their tax treaty to facilitate greater
information sharing and cooperation for
apprehending the alleged tax offenders, there has
However, the OECD tax convention that

Switzerland signed last year on October 15 has not
yet come into force.
Once it is in force, the information exchange
between Switzerland and India will be further
enhanced.
As per the latest data available with the
European nations central bank, the Swiss National
Bank, the total funds held by Indians in Swiss banks
declined to a record low of about Rs 9,000 crore
(1.42 billion Swiss francs) at the end of 2012, as
compared to around Rs 14,000 crore (2.18 billion
Swiss francs) a year ago.
The overall funds held in Swiss banks by entities
from across the world also fell from $1.65 trillion
to $1.5 trillion during 2012.
Seen as a major step in cracking down on black
money menace, Switzerland in October 2013 agreed
to automatic exchange of tax information and
mutual administrative assistance in tax matters
with overseas jurisdictions.
This has made the European nation a signatory
to OECDs Multilateral Convention on Mutual
Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters, to which
India is also a signatory.
The convention, once operational, would require
Switzerland to extend all kinds of mutual assistance
in tax matters including exchange on request,
spontaneous information sharing, tax examinations
abroad, and assistance in tax collection.
Paris-based OECD (Organisation for Economic
Cooperation and Development), sets the global tax
standards and is the key player in international efforts
to curb the menace of tax evasion and black money.
PENSION PLAN GETS FINANCE MINISTRY NOD

The finance ministry has approved a proposal
for providing a minimum monthly pension of Rs
1,000 to workers in the organised sector, a move
which would benefit 27 lakh pensioners

immediately. The ministry has also approved a
proposal for raising the basic wage ceiling under
[19]

are, therefore, expected to get benefit with effect
from April 1 2014.
At present, there are about 44 lakh pensioners.

Of this 27 lakh, including 5 lakh widows, get less
than Rs 1,000 a month.
Labour minister Oscar Fernandes, however, is

yet to decide on whether the move requires the
Cabinet approval or not.
The finance ministry has approved the

proposal for providing a minimum monthly pension
of Rs 1,000 under the Employees Pension Scheme
1995 (EPS-95) run by EPFO. The ministry also
cleared enhancing the wage ceiling to 15,000 under
social security schemes run by the retirement fund
body, an official source said.
The labour ministrys proposal on giving a

minimum monthly pension of Rs 1,000 under the
EPS-95, run by the Employees Provident Fund
Organisation (EPFO), has been pending for a long
time. Earlier, the labour ministry had proposed that
government should increase subsidy on EPS-95
from 1.16 per cent of basic wage to 1.79 per cent
to ensure minimum pension. However, it did not
find favour with the finance ministry as this would
have resulted in a permanent increase in subsidy.
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the Employees Provident Fund Scheme to Rs 15,000

from existing Rs 6,500 per month.
The government will provide additional subsidy

of Rs 1,217 crore to ensure the minimum monthly
pension of Rs 1,000 starting 2014-15. Pensioners
[20]

SPACECRAFT ROSETTA AWAKEN FOR COMET RENDEZVOUS
within 673 million km from the Sun, there is enough
solar energy to power the spacecraft fully again.
Still about 9 million km away from the comet it is
chasing, the space probe was awoken by its preprogrammed internal alarm clock.
On its way to the comet, a roughly 3 by 5 kmlarge rock discovered in 1969, Rosetta has been
circling the sun on a widening spiral course,
swinging past Earth and Mars to pick up speed
and adjust its trajectory. The mission will perform
several historical firsts, including the first time a
spacecraft orbits a comet rather than just whizzing
by it to snap some fly-by pictures, and the first
time a probe has landed on a comets nucleus.
Rosetta is also the first mission to venture beyond
the main asteroid belt relying solely on solar cells
for power generation, which is also why it had to
be put into a deep sleep for 957 days.
But many fundamental questions about these

enigmatic cosmic objects remain, and through its
comprehensive, in situ study of Comet 67P/
Churyumov-Gerasimenko, Rosetta aims to unlock
the secrets contained within. With Rosetta, scientists
will be able to track the evolution of a comet on a
daily basis and for over a year, giving us a unique
insight into a comets behavior and ultimately
helping us to understand their role in the formation
of the solar system. But first, essential health checks
on the spacecraft must be completed. Then the
eleven instruments on the orbiter and 10 on the
lander will be turned on and prepared for studying
Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
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Comet-chasing spacecraft Rosetta woke from

nearly three years of hibernation to complete a
decade-long deep space mission that scientists hope
will help unlock some of the secrets of the solar
system. Rosetta, which was launched by the
European Space Agency (ESA) in 2004, is due to
rendezvous with comet 67P/ChuryumovGerasimenko and land a probe on it this year in an
unprecedented manoeuvre. Scientists hope data the
probe gathers will allow them to peek into a kind
of astronomical time capsule that has preserved
for millions of years clues as to what the world
looked like when our solar system was born.
Now, as Rosettas orbit has brought it back to
After warming up its key navigation

instruments, coming out of a stabilizing spin, and
aiming its main radio antenna on Earth, Rosetta
sent a signal to let mission operators know it had
survived the most distant part of its Comets are
considered the primitive building blocks of the solar
system and likely helped to seed Earth with water
and perhaps even the vital ingredients for life.
WATER DETECTED ON DWARF PLANET CERES
Scientists using the Herschel space observatory

have made the first definitive detection of water
vapor on the largest and roundest object in the
asteroid belt, Ceres. Plumes of water vapor are
thought to shoot up periodically from Ceres when
portions of its icy surface warm slightly. Ceres is
classified as a dwarf planet, a solar system body
bigger than an asteroid and smaller than a planet.
This is the first time water vapor has been
unequivocally detected on Ceres or any other object
in the asteroid belt and provides proof that Ceres
has an icy surface and an atmosphere.
The results come at the right time for NASAs
Dawn mission, which is on its way to Ceres now
after spending more than a year orbiting the large

asteroid Vesta. Dawn is scheduled to arrive at Ceres
in the spring of 2015, where it will take the closest
look ever at its surface.
For the last century, Ceres was known as the
largest asteroid in our solar system. But in 2006,
the International Astronomical Union, the
governing organization responsible for naming
planetary objects, reclassified Ceres as a dwarf
planet because of its large size. It is roughly 590
miles (950 kilometers) in diameter. When it first
was spotted in 1801, astronomers thought it was a
planet orbiting between Mars and Jupiter. Later,
[21]

other cosmic bodies with similar orbits were found,
marking the discovery of our solar systems main
belt of asteroids.
Scientists believe Ceres contains rock in its
interior with a thick mantle of ice that, if melted,
would amount to more fresh water than is present
on all of Earth. The materials making up Ceres
likely date from the first few million years of the
solar systems existence and accumulated before
the planets formed.
The results are somewhat unexpected because

comets, the icier cousins of asteroids, are known
typically to sprout jets and plumes, while objects
in the asteroid belt are not.
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Until now, ice had been theorized to exist on

Ceres but had not been detected conclusively. It
took Herschels far-infrared vision to see, finally, a
clear spectral signature of the water vapor. But
Herschel did not see water vapor every time it
looked. While the telescope spied water vapor four
different times, on one occasion there was no
signature.
weeks and months, because of the water vapor

plumes rotating in and out of Herschels views as
the object spun on its axis. This enabled the scientists
to localize the source of water to two darker spots
on the surface of Ceres, previously seen by NASAs
Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based
telescopes. The dark spots might be more likely to
outgas because dark material warms faster than
light material. When the Dawn spacecraft arrives
at Ceres, it will be able to investigate these features.
Here is what scientists think is happening: when

Ceres swings through the part of its orbit that is
closer to the sun, a portion of its icy surface becomes
warm enough to cause water vapor to escape in
plumes at a rate of about 6 kilograms (13 pounds)
per second. When Ceres is in the colder part of its
orbit, no water escapes.
The strength of the signal also varied over hours,
The research is part of the Measurements of 11

Asteroids and Comets Using Herschel (MACH-11)
program, which used Herschel to look at small
bodies that have been or will be visited by
spacecraft, including the targets of NASAs previous
Deep Impact mission and upcoming Origins
Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification
Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer
(OSIRIS-Rex).
Laurence O Rourke of the European Space
Agency is the principal investigator of the MACH11 program.
NASAS MARS ROVER FINDS FRESH WATER FLOWED ON MARS

According to NASAs Mars Rover Opportunity
fresh water suitable for life flowed on the surface
of the Red Planet four billion years ago. The
findings from rock samples collected and examined
by Opportunity have confirmed an ancient wet
environment that was milder and older than the
acidic and oxidising conditions revealed by rocks
the rover examined previously.
The astrobiological hunt begins once the $2.5

billion Mars Science Lab Rover Curiosity lands itself
beside a towering mountain that rises from the floor
of a vast, ancient impact basin called Gale Crater.
Scientists considered hundreds of landing sites
before choosing Gale Crater, which probably formed
when an asteroid or comet crashed into the planet
some 3.5 billion to 4 billion years ago.
From high-resolution images taken by orbiting
satellites, Gale Craters central mound, known as
Mount Sharp, appears to consist of layers of
sediment rising like a stack of cards 3 miles (5 km)
into the sky, taller than the craters rim. The most
likely origin of the mountain is that it formed from
[22]
the remains of whatever material filled up the basin

long ago. How it was left standing in the middle of
Gale Crater, a 96-mile-(154-km)wide bowl located
near the planets equator, is a mystery, one of many
scientists hope to answer during Curiositys twoyear science mission.
Regardless of how it formed, scientists consider
Mount Sharp a gift of time.
The oldest sections of Mount Sharp may overlap
the window when life emerged on Earth, a time
when Mars is believed to have been warm and wet.
Curiositys landing site inside Gale Crater is one
of the lowest regions on Mars, stacking the odds
that water, if it existed there, flowed down to the
basins floor. Mount Sharp may be the remains of
this ancient lake bed and perhaps a place that life
once called home.
On the day of its 10th anniversary on the Red
Planet, Opportunity is examining the rim of the
Endeavour Crater. It has driven 38.7 kilometres
from where it landed on January 24, 2004. The

evidence previously examined by investigations with
Opportunity.
To find rocks for examination, the rover team

steered Opportunity in a loop, scanning the ground
for promising rocks in an area of Endeavours rim
called Matijevic Hill. The mineral-mapping
instrument on NASAs Mars Reconnaissance
Orbiter (MRO) detected evidence on Matijevic Hill
of a clay mineral known as iron-rich smectite. These
rocks are older than any the scientists examined
earlier in the mission, and they reveal more
favourable conditions for microbial life than any
The Opportunity team set a goal to examine

this mineral in its natural context where it is
found, how it is situated with respect to other
minerals and the areas geological layers a valuable
method for gathering more information about this
ancient environment. Researchers believe the wet
conditions that produced the iron-rich smectite
preceded the formation of the Endeavor Crater
about 4 billion years ago.
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site is about halfway around the planet from

NASAs latest Mars rover, Curiosity.
The findings appear in the journal Science.

[23]
HEALTH
JET LAG DISRUPTS RHYTHM OF HUNDREDS OF GENES
circadian clocks on physiology at the University of
Pennsylvania, said such disruption to gene activity
could affect how well peoples drugs work.
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Researchers have found evidence that jet lag

causes profound disruption to more than a 1,000
genes, including many that are normally drawn
upon to maintain, repair and protect the body.
Tests found that hundreds of genes whose
activity should rise and fall on a daily basis lost
their rhythm when people had jet lag, while other
genes developed abnormal cycles of their own.
Scientists spotted the effects in 22 men and

women aged 22 to 29 who took part in the study
at Surrey University, southeast England. The
volunteers stayed at a centre where the lighting
was controlled to transform a normal 24-hour day
into a 28-hour day. Three days into the study the
participants sleep-wake cycle had been shifted
forwards by 12 hours, meaning they were
completely out of synch with their bodys 24-hour
biological clock. The effect was designed to simulate
severe jet lag or working a night shift.
The researchers took blood samples from each
participant before the study began and again on
the third day. Before the study, the activity of 1,396
genes rose and fell in line with a healthy circadian
rhythm. Afterwards, only 40 or so kept their
rhythms. Another 180 genes, which normally had
constant levels of expression, began to rise and fall
instead.
Writing in the journal, Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences, the scientists state
that the negative health outcomes linked to jet
lag, and also nightshift work, may have their roots
in the profound disruption of the usual rhythms
of gene activity.
The findings might help to explain why people

with jet lag feel so miserable, with ailments ranging
from nausea and anxiety to stomach complaints
and memory problems, scientists said.
One of the most striking findings from the study
is that jet lag and nightshift work had a similar
effect on gene activity to ageing. As people age,
the daily rise and fall of gene expression becomes
less pronounced. The findings will have an impact
far beyond research into jet lag and shift work.
John Hogenesch, an expert on the effects of
[24]
Many common drugs work properly only if they

are taken at the right time. For example, Mevacor,
a cholesterol-cutting statin, works best at night
because levels of the enzyme it targets are highest
then. The same goes for the use of low-dose aspirin
to lower blood pressure.
The effects are likely to hit patients in intensive
care the most. Patients in long-term intensive care
are generally in an unnatural environment where
resetting cues such as natural sunlight, exercise and
food arent normal. Because of this, their body times
can go out of phase with the environment. Certain
drugs work best when given at the right time, but
for these patients it isnt as simple as looking at the
clock.
Stuart Peirson, who studies circadian rhythms
at Oxford University, said the reported changes in
gene activity could affect peoples wellbeing.
Rhythmic physiology is an important aspect of
normal healthy physiology, so such impairments
may have health consequences, he said.
Circadian Rhythm
A circadian rhythm is a roughly 24 hour cycle

in the physiological processes of living beings,
including
plants,
animals,
fungi
and
cyanobacteria. In a strict sense, circadian rhythms
are endogenously generated, although they can
be modulated by external cues such as sunlight
and temperature.
Circadian rhythms are important in
determining the sleeping and feeding patterns of
all animals, including human beings.
There are clear patterns of brain wave activity,
hormone production, cell regeneration and other
biological activities linked to this daily cycle.

NEWS IN BRIEF
NEWSMAKERS
Shinzo Abe
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Japans Prime Minister Sinzo Abe was the Chief

Guest at the 65th Republic Day Parade. This is the
first time a Japan dignitary has been invited for the
parade. During his visit numbers of agreements
were signed between India and Japan. They
include: Promotion of tourism, Implementation of
bilateral S&T exchanges, Harmonizing standards
between the two countries, enhancing energy
efficiency in telecom towers, ODA loan for
Uttarakhand Forest Resource Management Project,
Improvement of the Institute of Child Health and
Hospital for Children (Chennai) and Japanese soft
loan for power generation in India.
Djotodia, the leader of the Seleka rebels who seized

power in March, 2013. Djotodia stepped down on
Jan. 10 under intense international pressure after
failing to halt inter-religious violence which has
displaced more than 1 million people. The
landlocked former French colony descended in
chaos in March after Seleka unleashed a wave of
killing and looting, triggering revenge attacks by
Christian militia known as anti-balaka. French
deployed 1,600 troops in December under a U.N.
mandate to support an African Union peacekeeping
mission, but has failed to halt the violence. U.N.
officials say that more than 2,000 people have been
killed in clashes since March. European Union
foreign ministers agreed recently to send up to 1,000
soldiers to help stabilise the country.
Abe is the fourth dignitary from the region to

be invited as the Chief Guest at Indias Republic
Day parade that showcases Indias military might
and cultural diversity. Previous guests include South
Korean President Lee Myung-bak in 2010,
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
in 2011 and Thailands Prime Minister Yingluck
Shinawatra in 2012 a signal that India is
seriously engaging the countries in the region long
considered Chinas backyard and upgrading its ties
with them.
Mehdi Jomaa
Mehdi Jomaa has been sworn in as the caretaker

Prime Minister of Tunisia after Prime Minister Ali
Larayedhs resignation. The Larayedhs government
was seen as a failure, as continued unrest
undermined its efforts to transition of the country
from turmoil to peace following the 2011 ouster of
Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali. The new government faces
challenges, including curbing the influence of
militant jihadists and implementing economic
reforms aimed at curbing unemployment, chronic
poverty and inflation.
Catherine Samba-Panza
The mayor of Bangui, Catherine Samba-Panza
has been elected interim president of the Central
African Republic. Samba-Panza succeeds Michel
Laimdota Straujuma
Laimdota Straujuma has been swon in as the

Prime Minister of Latvia. She is the first woman to
serve as the head of government of the country.
Earlier, she served as Minister for Agriculture. On
January 5, 2014 Unity Party nominated Laimdota
Straujuma as a candidate to the post of Prime
Minister following the resignation of Valdis
Dombrovskis. She heads a broad coalition
commanding a solid 66seats comprising four of the
five parties represented, plus six independent MPs.
Lewis Clarke
Lewis Clarke, a 16-year-old British schoolboy,

has set a world record for the youngest person
ever to trek to the South Pole, completing the
gruelling 1,129km journey in just 48 days. Clarke
from Bristol spent 48 days at spine chilling
temperatures as low as minus 50 degrees Celsius,
braving icy winds of up to 193 kph. Clarke reached
the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station after
completing the 1,129 kilometre journey from the
Antarctic coast.
Lewiss record - for the same coast-to-pole route
- was previously held by 18-year-old Sarah McNair
Landry, from Canada.
[25]
OBITUARIES
Akkineni Nageswara Rao
Legendary Telugu actor and film producer
Akkineni Nageswara Rao has passed away. He was
90. He won three Filmfare Best Telugu Actor
Awards in his acting career and was honored with
the Padma Shri in 1968, Padma Vibhushan in
2011. He was also given Dada Saheb Phalke Award

in 1990 for his contribution to Indian Cinema. He
had acted in all times hits like Tenali Rama
Krishna, Devdas, Maya Bazaar and Missamma.
In a carrier spanning almost seven decades
Nageswara Rao acted in around 250 films.
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DEFENCE/SECURITY
ICGS Abhinav Commissioned
Garuda Vasudha
The Indian Coast Guard Ship Abhinav, the

third in the series of twenty Fast Patrol Vessels
(FPVs), designed and built by M/s Cochin Shipyard
Limited, has been commissioned at Kochi. The 50
meter indigenous FPV displaces 290 tonnes and
can achieve a maximum speed of 33 knots with an
endurance of 1500 nautical miles at economical
speed of 13 knots, equipped with state-of-the-art
weaponry and advanced communication and
navigational equipment. She makes an ideal
platform for undertaking multifarious close-coast
missions such as surveillance, interdiction, search
and rescue and medical evacuation. The special
features of the ship include an Integrated Bridge
Management System (IBMS), Integrated Machinery
Control System (IMCS) and an integrated gun
mount with indigenous Fire Control System (FCS).
Advanced Light Helicopter Garuda Vasudha

of Geological Survey of India equipped with
Heliborne Geophysical Survey System (HGSS) has
been dedicated to the nation. The Garuda Vasudha,
a Dhruv category helicopter has been indigenously
built by HAL and the HGSS comprising four
aerogeophysical sensors. Garuda Vasudha would
be used for extensive surveys by the GSI for locating
hidden mineral wealth.
Agni-IV Test Fired Successfully
Agni-IV, the 4000 kms range Nuclear Capable

Ballistic Missile was successfully launched from the
Wheeler island, off the coast of Odisha. This was
the third consecutively successful trial and the last
one in the series of development launches. The
AGNI-IV missile propelled by composite solid fuel
rocket motor technology was launched from its road
mobile launcher indigenously developed by DRDO.
The missile is now ready for induction and its
serial production will now begin.
Agni-IV is equipped with state-of-the-art

Avionics, 5th generation On Board Computer and
distributed architecture. It has the latest features to
correct and guide itself for inflight disturbances.
The most accurate Ring Laser Gyro based Inertial
Navigation System (RINS) and supported by highly
reliable redundant Micro Navigation System
(MINGS), ensured the vehicle reach the target
within two digit accuracy.
[26]
Dhruva-3 Inaugurated
Dhruva 3, the latest in series of indigenous High

Performance Computing Systems designed and set
up by DRDO for solving mission critical Defence R
& D applications was inaugurated recently at
Advanced Numerical Research and Analysis Group
(ANURAG) in Hyderabad. It is useful for the design
of aircrafts particularly Advanced Medium
Combat Aircraft
AMCA and other such
aircrafts where it requires analysis of aerodynamics
at high speeds and under different conditions. It is
one of the fastest computing facility in the country
and will also play a very good roll in cyber security
and information processing.
Agni-V successfully test fired
The Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM)

Agni-V was successfully test-fired for its full range
of 5,000 km. This is the second successful launch
of the nuclear-weapons capable missile in 17
months. On April 19 last year, India staked claim
to a place in the elite group of nations that possesses
the technology to develop ICBMs, launching AgniV for the first time with a huge success.
Tracking a near parabolic trajectory, the missile
reached an altitude of more than 400 km and
descended swiftly as its three stages got ignited on
time and were jettisoned at altitudes of 40 km, 140

km and 260 km. The nose-cone, made up of
composite materials and carrying a dummy
warhead, re-entered the atmosphere, withstanding
temperatures of more than 3,000 degrees Celsius,
and hurtled at 6 km a second, splashing down
near the target point in the Indian Ocean in just
20 minutes.
Radars along the East Coast, including those at

Sriharikota and telemetry stations, and electrooptical tracking systems monitored the trajectory
of the system. Three ships, one in mid-range and
two near the target point, tracked the missile.
AWARD/PRIZES
Vijayendra Nath Kaul, Civil Service; Late Justice
Jagdish Sharan Verma, Public Affairs #; Late Dr.
Anumolu Ramakrishna, Science and Engineering
#; Prof. Anisuzzaman, Literature and Education *;
Prof. Lloyd I. Rudolph and Prof. Susanne H.
Rudolph, Literature and Education *$; Dr. (Smt.)
Neelam Kler, Medicine Neonatology.
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Padma Awards 2014
Padma Awards - one of the highest civilian

awards of the country, are conferred in three
categories, namely, Padma Vibhushan, Padma
Bhushan and Padma Shri. The Awards are given
in various disciplines/ fields of activities, viz.- art,
social work, public affairs, science and engineering,
trade and industry, medicine, literature and
education, sports, civil service, etc. Padma
Vibhushan is awarded for exceptional and
distinguished service; Padma Bhushan for
distinguished service of high order and Padma Shri
for distinguished service in any field. The awards
are announced on the occasion of Republic Day
every year. These awards are conferred by the
President of India at ceremonial functions which
are held at Rashtrapati Bhawan usually around
March/ April every year.
List of winners and their Field
Padma Vibhushan: Dr. Raghunath A.

Mashelkar, Science and Engineering; Shri B.K.S.
Iyengar, Others-Yoga
Padma Bhushan : Prof. Gulam Mohammed

Sheikh, Art - Painting; Begum Parveen Sultana,
Art - Classical Singing; Shri T.H. Vinayakram, Art
- Ghatam Artist; Shri Kamala Haasan, Art-Cinema;
Justice Dalveer Bhandari, Public Affairs; Prof.
Padmanabhan Balaram, Science and Engineering;
Prof. Jyeshtharaj Joshi, Science and Engineering;
Dr. Madappa Mahadevappa, Science and
Engineering; Dr. Thirumalachari Ramasami,
Science and Engineering; Dr. Vinod Prakash
Sharma,
Science
and
Engineering;
Dr.
Radhakrishnan Koppillil, Science and Engineering;
Dr. Mrityunjay Athreya, Literature and Education;
Ms. Anita Desai, Literature and Education; Dr.
Dhirubhai Thaker, Literature and Education; Shri
Vairamuthu Ramasamy Thevar, Literature and
Education; Shri Ruskin Bond, Literature and
Education; Shri Pullela Gopichand, Sports
Badminton; Shri Leander Paes, Sports - Tennis; Shri
Padma Shri : Shri Mohammad Ali Baig, Art Theatre; Ms. Nayana Apte Joshi, Art; Shri Musafir
Ram Bhardwaj, Art - Instrumental Music - Pauna
Manjha; Ms. Sabitri Chatterjee, Art - Film; Prof.
Biman Bihari Das, Art - Sculptor; Shri Sunil Das,
Art - Painting; Smt. Elam Endira Devi, Art Manipuri Dance; Shri Vijay Ghate, Art Instrumental Music - Tabla; Smt Rani Karnaa, Art
- Kathak; Shri Bansi Kaul, Art - Theatre; Ustad
Moinuddin Khan, Art - Instrumental Music Sarangi Player; Ms. Geeta Mahalik, Art - Odishi
Dance; Shri Paresh Maity, Art - Painting; Shri
Ram Mohan, Art - Film Animation; Shri Sudarsan
Pattnaik, Art - Sand Artist; Shri Paresh Rawal, Art
- Cinema and Theatre; Shri Wendell Augustine
Rodricks, Art - Fashion Designing;
Prof.
Kalamandalam Sathyabhama, Art - Mohini Attam;
Shri Anuj (Ramanuj) Sharma, Art - Performing Art;
Shri Santosh Sivan, Art - Film; Ms. Supriya Devi,
Art-Bengali Cinema; Ms. Sooni Taraporevala, ArtScript Writing; Ms. Vidya Balan, Art-Cinema; Smt.
Durga Jain, Social Work; Dr. Rama Rao Anumolu,
Social Work; Dr. Brahm Dutt, Social Work; Shri
Mukul Chandra Goswami, Social Work; Shri J.L.
Kaul, Social Work; Shri Mathurbhai Madhabhai
Savani, Social Work; Shri Tashi Tondup, Public
Affairs; Dr. Hasmukh Chamanlal Shah, Public
Affairs; Shri Sekhar Basu, Science and Engineering;
Shri Madhavan Chandradathan, Science and
Engineering; Prof. Sushanta Kumar Dattagupta,
Science and Engineering; Dr. Ravi Bhushan
Grover, Science and Engineering;
Prof.
Eluvathingal Devassy Jemmis, Science and
Engineering; Shri Ramkrishna V. Hosur, Science
and Engineering; Dr. Ajay Kumar Parida, Science
and Engineering; Dr. Malapaka Yajneswara and
[27]

Sports - Kabbadi;
Shri Love Raj Singh
Dharmshaktu, Sports - Mountaineering; Ms.
Dipika Rebecca Pallikal, Sports - Squash; Shri H.
Boniface Prabhu, Sports - Wheelchair Tennis; Shri
Yuvraj Singh, Sports - Cricket; Smt. Mamta Sodha,
Sports - Mountaineering; Ms Parveen Talha, Civil
Service; Late Dr. Narendra Achyut Dabholkar,
Social Work #; Shri Ashok Kumar Mago, Trade
and Industry *; Dr. Siddharth Mukherjee,
Medicine-Oncology *; Dr. Vamsi Mootha, Medicine
- Biomedical Research *; Dr. Sengaku Mayeda,
Literature and Education *;
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Satyanarayana Prasad, Science and Engineering;

Shri Kiran Kumar Alur Seelin, Science and
Engineering; Dr. Brahma Singh, Science and
Engineering; Prof. Vinod Kumar Singh, Science
and Engineering; Dr. Govindan Sundararajan,
Science and Engineering; Ramaswamy R. Iyer,
Science and Engineering; Dr. Jayanta Kumar
Ghosh, Science and Engineering; Shri Ravi Kumar
Narra, Trade and Industry; Shri Rajesh Saraiya,
Trade and Industry; Ms. Mallika Srinivasan, Trade
and Industry; Shri Pratap Govindrao Pawar, Trade
and Industry; Dr. Kiritkumar Mansukhlal Acharya,
Medicine - Dermatology; Dr. Balram Bhargava,
Medicine - Cardiology;
Prof. (Dr.) Indra
Chakravarty, Medicine - Health & Hygiene; Dr.
Ramakant Krishnaji Deshpande, Medicine Oncology; Prof. (Dr.) Pawan Raj Goyal, Medicine
- Chest Disease; Prof. Amod Gupta, Medicine Opthalmology; Prof. (Dr.) Daya Kishore Hazra,
Medicine; Prof. (Dr.) Thenumgal Poulose Jacob,
Medicine - Vascular Surgery; Prof. (Dr.) Shashank
R. Joshi, Medicine - Endocrinology; Prof. Hakim
Syed Khaleefathullah, Medicine - Unani Medicine;
Dr. Milind Vasant Kirtane, Medicine - ENT
Surgeory; Dr. Lalit Kumar, Medicine - oncology;
Dr. Mohan Mishra, Medicine; Dr. M. Subhadra
Nair, Medicine - Gynecology;
Dr. Ashok
Panagariya, Medicine - Neurology; Dr. Narendra
Kumar Pandey, Medicine - Surgery; Dr. Sunil
Pradhan, Medicine - Neurology; Dr. Ashok
Rajgopal, Medicine - Orthopaedics; Dr. Kamini A.
Rao, Medicine - Reproductive Medicine; Dr.
Sarbeswar Sahariah, Medicine - Surgery; Prof. Om
Prakash Upadhyaya, Medicine; Prof. (Dr.) Mahesh
Verma, Medicine - Dental Science; Dr. J.S. Titiyal,
Medicine- Opthalmology; Dr. Nitish Naik,
Medicine- Cardiology; Dr. Surbrat Kumar Acharya,
Medicine- Gastroenterology; Dr. Rajesh Kumar
Grover, Medicine-Oncology; Dr. Naheed Abidi,
Literature and Education; Prof. Ashok Chakradhar,
Literature and Education; Shri Chhakchhuak
Chhuanvawra, Literature and Education; Shri Keki
N. Daruwalla, Literature and Education; Prof.
Ganesh Narayandas Devi, Literature and Education;
Prof. Kolakaluri Enoch, Literature and Education;
Prof. (Dr.) Ved Kumari Ghai, Literature and
Education; Smt. Manorama Jafa, Literature and
Education; Prof. Rehana Khatoon, Literature and
Education; Dr. Waikhom Gojen Meeitei, Literature
and Education;
Shri Vishnu Narayanan
Namboothiri, Literature and Education; Prof.
Dinesh Singh, Literature and Education; Dr. (Mrs.)
P. Kilemsungla, Literature and Education; Ms.
Anjum Chopra, Sports - Cricket; Ms. Sunil Dabas,
[28]
Note: * indicates awardees in the category of

Foreigners / NRIs/ PIOs.
# indicates awardees in the posthumous
category. $ indicates one duo case. (treated as
one award)
National Bravery Awards 2014
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh conferred

the National Bravery Awards to 25 young children
this year on the eve of Republic Day. Among the
awardees 9 were girls. Five awards were given
posthumously.
Bharat Award: Kumari Mahika Gupta, Delhi
Geeta Chopra Award: Kumari Maleka Singh

Tak, Rajasthan
Sanjay Chopra Award: Master Shubam
Santosh Chaudari, Maharashtra
Bapu Gaidhani Awards: Master Sanjay Navasu
Sutar, Maharashtra, Master Akshay Jairam Roj,
Maharashtra, Late Kum. Mausmi Kashyap, Uttar Pradesh
and Late Master Aryan Raj Shukla, Uttar Pradesh.
Other Recipients: Kumari Shilpa Sharma
(Himachal Pradesh), Master Sagar Kashyap (New
Delhi), Master Abhishek Ekka (Chattisgarh), Master
S.S. Manoj (Karnataka), Master Subin Mathew,
Master Akhil Biju and Master Yadhukrishnan V.
S. (all from Kerala), Master Saurbh Chandel
(Madhya Pradesh), Kumari Tanvi Nandkumar
Ovhal and Master Rohit Ravi Janmanchi
(Maharashtra),
Master
Kangleinganba
Kshetrimayum, Kumari Kharibam Gunichand Devi
and Later Master M. Khayingthei (all from
Manipur), Master Vanlalhruaia, Kumari
Remlalhruaitluangi, late Kumari Malsawmtluangi
and Kumari Hani Ngurdinthari (all from Mizoram)
and Late Master L. Manio Chachei (Nagaland).
National Communal Harmony Awards 2013

The National Foundation for Communal
Harmony has instituted two National Communal

Harmony Awards, one each for an individual and
an organisation that are given every year for
outstanding contribution for continued promotion
of communal harmony and/or national integration
over a period of time. The Awards carry a citation
and cash amount of Rs. 5.00 lakh (Individual) and
Rs. 10.00 lakh (Organisation).
List of some Important Awards and Winners

1. Album of the Year: Random Access
Memories, Daft Punk
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Organisation : Centre for Study of Society and

Secularism (CSSS): Mumbai based CSSS is
working to promote peace, secularism and
communal harmony in the country. It has also been
working on human rights issues and issues of the
marginalized and deprived sections of the society.
The Centre has also been regularly publishing a
quarterly journal Indian Journal of Secularism
which is popular amongst academics and the
masses.
Rock Performance category. The Music Video field

became the Best Music Video/Film field. Its two
categories were renamed: Best Short Form Music
Video will now be known as Best Music Video and
Best Long Form Music Video will change into Best
Music Film. These changes bring the total number
of categories at the 2014 Grammy Awards to 82,
up from 81 at the 2013 Grammy Awards.
Individual : Dr. Mohinder Singh: He is a

scholar and presently member of the National
Commission for Minority Educational Institutions.
In 1984, he along with other social activists,
organized relief camps at Delhi and restored
friendship between the Hindu and Sikh
communities in the wake of anti-Sikh riots. In 1985,
he set-up a Communal Harmony Forum along with
Dr. Nirmala Deshpande, which worked for nearly
four years and organized inter-faith meetings and
visit to holy places by its members
2. Record of the Year: Get Lucky, Daft Punk

Featuring Pharrell Williams & Nile Rodgers
3. Song of the Year: Royals, Joel Little & Ella
Yelich OConnor, songwriters (Lorde)
4. Best New Artist: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
5. Best Pop Solo Performance: Royals, Lorde
6. Best Pop Duo/Group Performance: Get
Lucky, Daft Punk Featuring Pharrell
Williams & Nile Rodgers
7. Best Pop Instrumental Album: Steppin
Out, Herb Alpert
8. Best Pop Vocal Album: Unorthodox
Jukebox, Bruno Mars
9. Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album: To Be

Loved, Michael Buble
Dr. N Radhakrishnan: He is a well known

academic, a Gandhian scholar and a peace worker.
He initiated the Shanti Sena programme at the
Gandhigram University and extended this work to
other parts of the country. He has been actively
working to restore peace in communally tense areas
of Tamilnadu and Kerala. His campaign
Himsamukth Bharat Andolan motivates people to
become foot soldiers in campaigning for peace and
sustainable development.
10. Best Rock Song: Cut Me Some Slack, Dave

Grohl, Paul McCartney, Krist Novoselic & Pat
Smear, songwriters (Paul McCartney, Dave
Grohl, Krist Novoselic, Pat Smear)
Grammy Awards 2014
14. Best Rap Song: Thrift Shop, Ben Haggerty

& Ryan Lewis, songwriters (Macklemore &
Ryan Lewis Featuring Wanz)
The 56th Annual Grammy Awards was held

on January 26, 2014, at the Staples Center in Los
Angeles. The annual award ceremony is a
recognition given in the field of music. On June 4,
2013, the Recording Academy approved a number
of changes. A new category for Best American
Roots Song has been added to the American Roots
Music field. The Best Hard Rock/Metal
Performance category was renamed Best Metal
Performance and becomes a stand-alone category.
Hard rock performances were screened in the Best
11. Best Rock Album: Celebration Day, Led

Zeppelin
12. Best Rap Performance: Thrift Shop,
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis Featuring Wanz
13. Best Rap/Sung Collaboration: Holy Grail,
Jay Z feat. Justin Timberlake
15. Best Rap Album: The Heist, Macklemore

& Ryan Lewis
Thiruvalluvar Award
Taiwan scholar and poet Dr. Yu Hsi (Hung

Ching Yu), who has translated Tirukkural and the
poems of Subramaniya Bharathi and poet
Bharathidasan in Mandarin, was conferred with the
Thiruvalluvar award instituted by the Tamil Nadu
[29]

government. The founder president of the Tamil
Sangam of Taiwan, Dr Yu Hsi is the first foreign
scholar to receive this award. The award carries a
gold medal, a cheque for Rs. 1 lakh and a citation.
Marconi Prize 2014
Kerala Tourism was awarded for its pathbreaking Responsible Tourism project in
Kumarakom, which has successfully linked the local
community with the hospitality industry and
government departments, thereby creating a model
for empowerment and development of the people
in the area while sustaining eco-friendly tourism.
The Kumarakom initiative had earlier won the
National Award for Best Rural Tourism Project in
March last year and also the PATA Grand Award
for Environment.
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Arogyaswami Joseph Paulraj, India-born

professor at Stanford University in the US, has won
the Marconi Prize 2014 for his pioneering work on
developing wireless technology to transmit and
receive data at high speed. Every WiFi (wireless
fidelity) router and 4G phone uses Multiple InputMultiple Output (MIMO) technology pioneered by
him. Named after Nobel laureate Guglielmo
Marconi, who invented radio, and set up in 1974
by his daughter Gioia Marconi Braga through an
endowment, the Marconi Society awards annually
an outstanding individual whose scope of work
and influence emulate the principle of creativity
in service to humanity that inspired Marconi. The
prestigious prize includes $100,000 (Rs.6.2 million)
honorarium and a sculpture and its honourees
become Marconi Fellows.
the highest honour given to government bodies for

shaping global tourism policies through innovative
initiatives.
He was also honoured with the IEEE Alexander

Graham Bell Medal in 2011 for his profound work
on theoretical foundations of MIMO. Paulraj is
the only India-born scientist to receive both the
Marconi Prize and the Bell Medal the two top
global IT technology awards.
Kerala tourism wins UNWTO Ulysses Award
Kerala Tourism has been conferred the top

United Nations Award for its global leadership in
creating innovative initiatives for sustainable
tourism, the first time India has ever won the
recognition. Kerala Tourism walked away with the
top honours at the annual United Nations World
Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) Awards for
Excellence and Innovation in Tourism presented
on January 22 in Madrid, the capital of Spain.
In its biggest international recognition to date,

Kerala Tourism won the UNWTO Ulysses Award
for Innovation in Public Policy and Governance,
Last year, the Ministry of Tourism of Malaysia

had won the UNWTO Ulysses Award for
Innovation in Public Policy and Governance for its
Homestay Experience Programme. Previous winners
in the category include Peru, Portugal and China.
CNNs Richard Quest was conferred the 2013
UNWTO Award for Lifetime Achievement, in
recognition of his work as a business journalist
reporting on the tourism industry.
Instituted in 2003 by UNWTO, the United
Nations agency for the promotion of responsible,
sustainable and universally accessible tourism, the
UNWTO Awards showcase innovation and
application of knowledge in tourism with the aim
of effecting governance and society. The awarded
projects are in line with the UNWTOs Code of
Ethics for Tourism and standards set in the UN
Millennium Development Goals.
UNWTO Ulysses Award for Innovation was
given in four categories - Publlic Policy and
Governance, Enterprises, NGOs, and Research and
Technology. Two other categories - UNWTO
Ulysses Prize and UNWTO Award for Lifetime
Achievement recognize individual contributions.
The UNWTO has 156 countries as its memberstates besides 6 associate members and over 400
affiliate members representing the private sector,
educational institutions, tourism associations and
local tourism authorities.
HISTORY
Port, Barracks Unearthed Near Giza Pyramids

The remains of a bustling port and barracks for
sailors or military troops have been discovered near
[30]
the Giza Pyramids. They were in use while the

pyramids were being built about 4,500 years ago.
The archaeologists have been excavating a city near
the Giza Pyramids that dates mainly to the reign

of the pharaoh Menkaure, who built the last
pyramid at Giza. Also near the pyramids they have
been excavating a town, located close to a
monument dedicated to Queen Khentkawes,
possibly a daughter of Menkaure. The barracks are
located at the city, while a newly discovered basin,
that may be part of a harbor, is located by the
Khentkawes town.
Robbins Schug and an international team of

researchers examined evidence for trauma and
infectious disease in the human skeletal remains
from three burial areas at Harappa, one of the
largest cities in the Indus civilization.
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Diseases, fights led to collapse of Indus

civilization
reorganization of its human population has been

controversial for a long time, lead author of the
study, Gwen Robbins Schug, from the Appalachian
State University, US, said. Climate, economic, and
social changes all played a role in the process of
urbanization and collapse, but little was known
about how these changes affected the human
population.
According to a new study conducted by an

international team of researchers, inter-personal
violence and infectious diseases played a role
around 4,000 years ago in the collapse of the Indus
civilization that spanned over a million sq km of
India and Pakistan, a new study suggests. While
contemporaneous civilizations in Egypt and
Mesopotomia are well-known their Indus trading
partners have remained more of a mystery.
Archaeological research has demonstrated that
Indus cities grew rapidly from 2200-1900 BC, when
they were largely abandoned.
The collapse of the Indus civilization and the
The results of their analysis counter

longstanding claims that the Indus civilization
developed as a peaceful, cooperative, and
egalitarian state-level society, without social
differentiation, hierarchy, or differences in access
to basic resources.
The data suggest instead that some communities
at Harappa faced more significant impacts than
others from climate and socio-economic strains,
particularly the socially disadvantaged or
marginalised communities who are most vulnerable
to violence and disease.
MISCELLANEOUS
2016: International Year of Pulses
The General Assembly of the UN has voted to

declare 2016 as the International Year of Pulses.
A variety of pulses have been the cornerstone of
global nutrition for centuries. Having a UN
dedicated year will raise the level of awareness of
pulses globally and the important role pulses can
play in advancing health and nutrition, food
security and environmental sustainability. India is
the worlds largest producer (18.5 million tons),
importer (over 3 million tons) and consumer (22.0
million tons) of a variety of pulses; yet, the per
capita availability of this nutritious vegetable protein
is relatively low at about 15 kilograms per annum.
For a country that faces persistent protein inflation
and has preference for vegetarian diet, pulses are
the most economical source of vegetable protein.
Higher consumption of pulses will help address
the scourge of pervasive malnutrition caused by
protein deficiency among large sections of the
population.
Chilika Lagoon named Destination Flyways

by UNWTO
Odishas Chilika lagoon, which is a hotspot for

biodiversity, has been named destination flyways
by United Nations World Tourism Organization
(UNWTO) following its inclusion in a list of eight
such sites worldwide. The lagoon was so named
for its sustainable and resilient destination for
migratory birds. The UNs body arm, under the
project Destination Flyways, will help Chilika
Development Authority (CDA) develop strategies
for protection of migratory birds. Chilika is the only
site to be selected from Asia by the UNWTO. The
annual bird census in 1100sq km Chilika Lake was
concluded recently. According to it, 7,19,262
winged guests were counted. The number of
migratory birds in Chilika this year has come down
by nearly 1.5 lakh as compared to 2013 figure.
About 8.77 lakh birds had visited the lake last
winter.
[31]
Project to Conserve Snow Leopards
Bangalore top IT hub, Mumbai slips to no.3

Bangalore remains the most attractive IT/ITeS
outsourcing location in the world, and six Indian
cities are part of the top 10 most attractive
outsourcing locations, says the latest annual ranking
by consulting firm Tholons. The other cities are
Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Chennai, Hyderabad and
Pune.
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WWF India, in partnership with Tata Housing

Development Company, announced the launch of
a project for the conservation of endangered snow
leopards in the country. As a part of the project
Save Our Snow Leopards (SOS), the two
organisations unveiled an online crowd funding
campaign for species conservation in India, aiming
to raise at least Rs. 15 lakh. Tata Housing CEO
and Managing Director Brotin Banerjee said the
company would donate Rs. 15 lakh per year in the
project. The snow leopard population in India is
estimated to be 400-700, while their worldwide
number is around 7,000. In India they are in Jammu
and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand,
Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.
Pacific. Extreme El Ninos occur when sea surface

temperatures exceeding 28 degrees Celsius develop
in the normally cold and dry eastern equatorial
Pacific Ocean.
Worlds Longest Railway Platform
A newly built railway platform at Gorakhpur

has entered into the record books as the longest
railway platform in the world. According to the
certificate given by the Limca Book of Records to
Platform No. 1 of the railway station, the length of
the platform is 1,355.40 metre. Till now, the record
was held by the railway platform at Kharagpur in
West Bengal which is 1,072.5 metre long.
Extreme EL Ninos to occur every 10 years:

Study
According to a new research the world

currently experiences an unusually strong El Nino
event every 20 years but, this would double to one
event every 10 years. Extreme weather events
fuelled by unusually strong El Ninos - such as the
1983 heat-wave that led to massive bushfires in
Australia - are likely to double in number as the
planet warms.
The team examined 20 climate models that

consistently simulate major rainfall reorganisation
during extreme El Nino events. They found a
substantial increase in events from the present-day
through the next 100 years as the eastern Pacific
Ocean warmed in response to global warming.
But the 2014 edition of this survey, which ranks

the top 100 locations, also points to some interesting
trends: several Indian tier-2 cities, as also cities in
the Philippines, Poland and South America, have
significantly improved their attractiveness over the
past year.
Chandigarh (at No. 23), Kolkata (25), Jaipur

(38) and Ahmedabad (63) have improved their
rankings. Ahmedabad rose the most, by six ranks,
compared to last years ranking.
It is seen to be particularly good in finance &
accounting BPO and in certain aspects of IT.
However, Coimbatore (31), Bhubaneswar (55) and
Thiruvananthapuram (68) have slipped a little.
Manila, the capital of the Philippines, has risen
to the second spot, dislodging Mumbai, which is
down to No. 3. Other cities in the Philippines,
including Davao City, Santa Rosa (Laguna), and
Bacolod City, all rose up the ranks, while Cebu
City maintained its No. 8 position.
Cape Town in South Africa rose nine positions
to No. 59, while Johannesburg rose one spot to No.
21. Cities in Egypt suffered severely because of the
political turmoil there.
This research is the first comprehensive

examination of the issue to produce robust and
convincing results.
In South America, San Jose in Costa Rica is at

No. 13. Brazilian and Argentinian cities are seen to
be losing out, partly because of rising costs. The
beneficiaries of that are cities in Colombia, Peru
and Nicaragua. But with the outsourcing industry
evolving to move closer to clients, South and Latin
American locations, as also East European and
African ones, are generally expected to gain in
future.
Extreme El Nino events develop differently from

standard El Ninos, which first appear in the western
Tholons ranks cities based on six parameters:

scale & quality of talent; cost; business catalyst
[32]

TOP TEN CITIES
Rank 2014
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Movement
from 2013
0
+1
1
0
0
0
0
0
+1
1
City
Bangalore
Manila*
Mumbai
Delhi (NCR)
Chennai
Hyderabad
Pune
Cebu City*
Krakow**
Dublin*
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(economic profile of city); infrastructure; risks

(political and social risk, risk of natural disasters
etc); and quality of life. Thirty-nine of the top 100
locations in the latest survey are from Asia-Pacific.
But other continents, too, are seeing more action
now. Poland is increasingly seen as a great
destination to offer IT and ITeS services to European
locations, particularly given its wide mix of language
capabilities. Krakow in Poland rose one spot to
No. 9 in the 2014 survey, Warsaw, the capital, rose
three positions, and Wroclaw rose ten positions to
No. 65.
[33]
EDITORIALS
TOWARDS A RULES-BASED POLICY
The committee has suggested crucial changes
in the operating framework and instruments in the
conduct of monetary policy. Its report has generally
been received well by banks and financial markets.
It enables policy formulation in a phased and
transparent manner using a real policy rate as
reference. Over the medium term, the
recommendations will help develop a term money
market, reduce fluctuations in market liquidity and
remove distortions in interest rates. Its unrelenting
focus on inflation is justified on several counts
India has the highest rate of inflation among G-20
countries. Inflation expectations are deeply
entrenched and inflation at current levels is inimical
to medium-term growth and macroeconomic
stability. Understandably, Finance Ministry officials
are not happy with proposals that would strengthen
the central banks case for complete autonomy in
matters of monetary policy. The fact that monetary
policy has very little influence over high food
inflation that has pushed up the CPI, could limit
the efficacy of the new approach. All these do not
detract from the fact that a shift to a rules-based
policy framework recommended will replace the
purely discretionary approach the RBI has followed
so far, and is therefore to be welcomed.
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A Reserve Bank-appointed committee headed

by Deputy Governor Urjit Patel was asked to revise
and strengthen the monetary policy framework in
India. In its core recommendations it wants
monetary policy to formally move towards using
headline CPI (Consumer Price Index) as its nominal
anchor. Communicating the nominal anchor
without any ambiguity will be a key task. The
objective is to ensure a monetary policy regime shift
away from the current approach, which has
multiple objectives, to one that is centred on the
target CPI. However, taking into account the
current macroeconomic scenario, the committee has
conceded the need for flexibility in inflationtargeting to enable the central bank to deal with
other objectives in the short run. The ultimate goal
is to contain CPI inflation within a target band of
4 per cent plus or minus 2 per cent. A smooth
two-year transition is envisaged. From the current
10 per cent levels, CPI inflation is to be brought
down to 8 per cent in 12 months and to 6 per cent
in 24 months. Monetary policy will henceforth be
conducted by a new Monetary Policy Committee
which will have the Governor as its head and three
senior officers of the RBI as its members. In addition,
two outside experts will be nominated. All members
will vote on the policy at meetings every two
months. The MPC will be accountable for any
failure to achieve the inflation target.
Source: The Hindu
A LAW THAT RAISES MORE QUESTIONS THAN IT ANSWERS
Complaints by two law interns against two

retired judges of the Supreme Court have created
several controversies, which include the mechanism
required for conducting enquiries against members
of the higher judiciary. They have also thrown up
the question of the application of Vishaka
principles which set up a mechanism to enquire
into such complaints. The aborted action pursuant
to the report of the three-judge committee
nominated by the Chief Justice of India also received
flak from different quarters. While the Supreme
Court washed its hands of the report, which found
a prima facie case, the judge himself questioned
[34]
the wisdom of constituting a committee knowing

full well that he had already retired from service
and the law intern was not an employee of the
Supreme Court. He also lamented that he was
unjustly dealt with by the court at the cost of his
honour.
In the midst of this debate, pursuant to the
direction issued by the Supreme Court in Binu
Tamtas case (2013), it notified The Gender
Sensitisation and Sexual Harassment of Women at
the Supreme Court of India (Prevention, Prohibition
and Redressal) Regulations, 2013. Many high courts

notified such regulations and formed their
complaints committees.
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However, the full court of the Supreme Court

hurriedly decided that no more complaints of
sexual harassment would be entertained by the
court against its retired judges. Subsequently, when
a complaint against another retired judge was not
entertained, the aggrieved intern challenged the
decision and notice has been ordered. It was
observed that a mechanism would have to be
found to deal with complaints against even retired
judges. The mechanism to be evolved and its source
of power were not explained.
December 9, 2013. Curiously, the Act nowhere

referred to the Vishaka judgment. Its Objects and
Reasons only referred to Articles 15 & 51A of the
Constitution. The SHW Act borrowed the definition
of the term Sexual Harassment from Vishaka. It
mandates all the employers to constitute an Internal
Complaints Committee and requires that at least
50 per cent membership should be women.
Contrary to the earlier direction of the Supreme
Court, the SHW Act put in place a two-tier
mechanism for enquiring into complaints. When
the ICC arrives at a conclusion on an allegation, it
can recommend to the employer action against the
person concerned in terms of service rules (in such
an enquiry the employer will nominate his own
enquiry officer who need not be a female). The
SHW Act also provides for a settlement procedure,
appeal to a court/tribunal against the decision of
the ICC. It provides for the prosecution of the person
concerned. In case of malicious intent of a
complainant, retributory action is contemplated.
When Chief Justice J.S. Verma embarked on a

law to deal with complaints of Sexual Harassment
at the Workplace (SHW), he drew support from
the Convention on Elimination of Discrimination
Against Women (CEDAW) in Vishakas case. It
defined sexual harassment and directed the
formation of Complaints Committees consisting
predominantly of women and including an NGO.
They were made applicable to private work
establishments. It was a rare instance where in the
absence of a parliamentary enactment, the court
itself enacted a law with its extraordinary power
under Article 142 of the Constitution. Conscious of
its limitation in making such a law, the court said
its directions would be binding and enforceable
in law until suitable legislation is enacted to occupy
the field.
Ten years later, although a bill was introduced
in 2007, for unexplained reasons it was not made
into an Act. Following Vishaka, in Medha Kotewal
Leles case (2013), all governments were directed to
amend the relevant service rules, and incorporate
a provision by which the enquiry report given by
a complaints committee would replace the enquiry
by an employer, who was to initiate action based
on the report alone. Under this process, an
aggrieved woman employee need not depose more
than once first before the Vishaka Committee
and again during a departmental enquiry.
Though the Central government amended its

Discipline and Appeal Rules, it was reported that
many State governments were yet to amend their
rules under Article 309 of the Constitution. The
Central government amended only the model
standing orders in the Industrial Employment
(Standing Order) Rules. At this stage, Parliament
enacted The Sexual Harassment of Women at
Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal)
Act, 2013(SHW Act) and got assent from the
President (April 2013). It came into effect from
Following the special law enacted by Parliament,

the Vishaka guidelines will no longer apply since
the Supreme Court itself had ruled that its guidelines
would be followed only till a law is made by
Parliament. A number of State governments, public
sector and private employers have not amended
their service rule/statutory orders switching over
to one-time trial and the binding nature of the
report of the complaint committee. Hence, in future,
an aggrieved woman will have to depose before
the ICC and, in case the ICC agrees with her
complaint, once again before the employer under
disciplinary rules.
The future application of regulations framed
by the Supreme Court and other courts drawing
their power only from Vishaka is in doubt since
the power to frame rules under the new Act vests
solely with the Centre. Parliament, no doubt, had
ignored the earlier directions issued by the Supreme
Court but it attempts to safeguard the interest of
persons who are accused of harassment in
workplace by providing for Conciliation, Appeal
and retributory action in case of complaints with
malicious intent.
The SHW Act has thrown up more questions
than what it seeks to achieve. It is because Vishaka
limited its operation till the time a new law was
made. In future, a person charged with sexual
harassment is likely to demand that he should be
tried only under the SHW Act and not under the
earlier rules or directions by courts. It is not clear
under which authority the Supreme Court
[35]

retirement. The law also does not deal with conduct
outside the workplace unless it is connected to the
employment.
In order to inquire into complaints of sexual
harassment of women at any place by anyone, a
special criminal law must be put in place to deal
with SHW offences delinking them from
employment rules as was done in Tamil Nadu
which enacted the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of
Harassment of Women Act, 1998 to deal with such
type of cases.
Source: The Hindu
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constituted a three-member committee to go into

the allegations against Justice A.K. Ganguly. Further
after resolving not to entertain future complaints
against retired judges but entertaining a writ
petition so as to explore the possibility of evolving
a mechanism to deal with complaints against
persons who ceased to be in employment. If a
person is not in the employ of an employer, then
the SHW Act has no mechanism to deal with
complaints. The Act contemplates only disciplinary
action against a person accused of committing SHW
and no action can be initiated after anyones
A MISMATCH OF NUCLEAR DOCTRINES
Manufacturing a nuclear weapon does not, as

a senior Indian Minister in 1998 claimed, create
credible deterrence. Deterrence is entirely a matter
of perceptions, a mental effect that is created on
the adversary that nuclear use will entail assured
retaliatory holocaust. The possibility of nuclear use
is thereby pre-empted. The Indian nuclear doctrine,
in that sense, is well articulated on paper. Since
1998, more than 15 years have passed and in the
Indian sub-continent, nuclear arsenals have grown
far beyond the small nuclear ambitions that were
articulated then. Yet there is an increasing fund of
world literature being published, pointing to
structural and operational weaknesses in the Indian
nuclear arsenal. The question is not whether India
has built enough nuclear bombs. Hardly anyone
questions this basic fact, but the ideational systems
that will ensure the massive retaliation promised
in the doctrine are being increasingly questioned
by scholars and analysts worldwide. Pakistani
observers cannot help but be swayed and
dangerously influenced by such literature, thereby
inducing them to think the unthinkable. What does
not help in encouraging sober thinking is the fact
that since the end of the Second World War, South
Asia has seen the largest number of shooting wars
in the world. So the questions of nuclear use will
not arise in the quiet peace of neighbourly relations,
but in the stress of combat over the Line of Control
or the international border.
The 1998 test
Critics of the credibility of Indias nuclear

arsenal begin with their doubts on the success of
the thermo-nuclear test of 1998, which they claim
was a fizzle. There has been much toing-andfroing in technical journals, of the veracity,
accuracy and interpretation of seismic readings.
[36]
There has also been an occasional closed door

briefing by select bomb makers but surprisingly
there has not been, to date, a clear unambiguous
public statement from the right source about the
countrys thermo-nuclear capacity being fielded in
Indias nuclear arsenal. This is a matter of some
negligence, considering that the only members of
the scientific community who have spoken on this
issue are deeply sceptical of the success of the
thermo-nuclear test.
The command and control of nuclear forces are
another area of criticism, and not surprisingly so,
since India is the only nuclear weapon country
without a Chief of Defence Staff to act as the
interface between the Prime Minister, the National
Command Authority and the military who own
the weapons at least most of it. In the guise of
safety, Indias nuclear weapons are not only demated and the core and ignition device separated
from the warhead, but the separate components
are under different departmental control. The actual
reason for this bizarre arrangement is quite obvious.
There is a petty turf war, and neither the
Department of Atomic Energy nor the DRDO is
willing to let go of the controlling part of the bomb,
even if it means a cumbersome and unnecessary
loss of control. Needless to say, between the military,
the DAE and the DRDO, none of them has any
hierarchical control over the other two.
Other critics have written to say that having
opted for road or rail mobile launching
arrangements, India does not have the robust
transport, road and rail infrastructure to move the
missiles, warheads and cores from safe storage to
launch hideouts and dispersal points with
confidence and alacrity.
These weaknesses have led to critics stating that
Indias nuclear capability is disaggregated and with

small warning shot by Islamabad. This is what
the Indian doctrine promises. Life for the leaders
of the strategic community would be easy if a
doctrine, once written on paper, could be left
unchanged for decades without reinforcement, to
prove its validity.
That unfortunately is not the case in a dynamic
field where the stakes are the survival of nations.
Even K. Subramanyam had warned that massive
retaliation was an outmoded concept and difficult
to enforce without periodic reinforcement. So this
article is inspired not because India is not
continuing to arm itself with bombs and missiles.
This piece is inspired by the increasing clamour in
international literature that Indias penchant for
secrecy is ill-suited to conveying the stabilising
threat of nuclear deterrence. Against China where
our capabilities are undeveloped, a certain amount
of ambiguity is sensible, but against a country
which is openly wedded to first use, and is
introducing battlefield weapons, an untended 10year-old piece of paper is inadequate.
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weak institutional features. In the case of China, it

is conceded that India feels more threatened by
Chinese nuclear delivery than vice-versa. Yet, in
the absence of the Agni long-range missiles, it is
vaguely surmised that the Indian retaliatory
capacity is based on air delivery weapons, which
could mean anything Mirages, Jaguars, Su 30s.
The absence of the CDS results in even
knowledgeable Indians conjecturing that the
Strategic Forces Command (SFC) will completely
bypass the military chain of command and operate
directly under the PMO. This, of course, raises other
more serious problems.
In the case of deterrence with Pakistan, it is
accepted that the doctrines of the two countries
are mismatched. India intends to deter nuclear use
by Pakistan while Pakistans nuclear weapons are
meant to compensate for conventional arms
asymmetry. At the same time, Pakistan relies on
20,000 LeT cadres as an extension of its armed
forces to create terror strikes, to which the Indian
answer is to punish the Pakistani state with
conventional war. Thus arises the vague and elastic
concept of a nuclear threshold. Yet, the Indian
National Command Authority is ill designed to
manage the inevitable South Asian transition from
conventional war to a possible nuclear exchange
or the frantic strategic signalling that is bound
to occur as the threshold approaches.
If, for instance, the threshold was to materialise
as a result of an armoured incursion, the Indian
NCA by its location, composition and infrastructure
would be entirely unaware of the impending
catastrophe. Hanging untethered to any
commanding authority, civilian or military, would
be the Integrated Defence Staff, a well-staffed
organisation designed for the civilian-military
interface, but currently without a head, nor with
any links to the SFC.
After much persuasion, there now exists a
skeleton nuclear staff under the NSA, normally
headed by the retired SFC. But while its Pakistani
counterpart, the Strategic Plans Division (SPD), is
highly active both on the domestic and international
conference circuit, its Indian counterpart seems to
be totally tongue tied, non-participatory and holed
up at its desk. Foreign critics have noted the
introduction of battlefield nuclear weapons in
Pakistans arsenal and raised doubts of the
likelihood of massive retaliation in response to a
Signalling, overdue
Something needs to be done to reassure both

the domestic and international audience that with
high pressure terrorism lurking across the border,
it is not just Indias strategic restraint that will keep
the peace as it did after Mumbai and the attack
on Parliament. Nuclear signalling from the Indian
government is hugely overdue, so much so that it
will take some effort to restore stability to South
Asian deterrence. The first target should be the
Indian strategic community and there are enough
discussions and conferences where officers from
the SFC and nuclear staff could provide discrete
assurances that things are not anarchic with Indias
nuclear command and control.
The strategic community in turn will carry the
message abroad or to foreign observers that in the
face of Indian official silence, they need not imagine
the worst. The establishment needs to do more than
arrogantly refer to the doctrine as being the sole
answer to all questions. In deterrence, only
perceptions matter and there is a disturbing buildup of literature indicating that the disbelief of others
in our nuclear command and control is in urgent
need of correction.
Source: The Hindu
CHANGING THE RULES OF THE GAME

India is yet again on the cusp of a battle for
deeper democratisation. The data from nationwide
surveys have repeatedly shown that Indians
increasingly view their elected representatives and

political parties as uncaring, unreachable,
unresponsive, untrustworthy, and unrepresentative.
[37]

To clean up the muddy waters, courts and the
EC have stepped in from time to time. BSP leader
Mayawatis rupee garland was considered a
campaign contribution by the EC and needed to be
declared. However, such interventions and
judgments have often fallen short of expectations
and have been indicative of judicial overreach.
Anti-Defection Law
The Anti-Defection Law was passed in 1985
and strengthened in 2002. This law is a concrete
example that substantiates a limited claim of
unintended consequences. The law succeeded in
checking the regular phenomenon of unstable
governments and horse-trading due to floor crossing
by legislators. However, it played a huge role in
encouraging the centralisation of Indias political
parties. Legislators in India now cannot take a stand
against party leaders or defy the party whip, and
use their conscience to vote on a Bill in the House
due to fear of losing their seat under the provisions
of the Anti-Defection law. The second unintended
consequence of this law is that a legislator cannot
question the party leader for flirting with a possible
alliance with both the Congress and the BJP while
toying with the idea of a third front. Sweet deals
between top party leaders not ideological
harmony, social constituency compatibility or
organisational coherence determine political
alliances in contemporary India.
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This overarching anger against the functioning of

legislative institutions (particularly Parliament),
political parties, and elected representatives has led
to massive protests by citizens and civil society
activists in the last few years. The office of the
Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) and courts
took cognisance of the matter and delivered a series
of verdicts to deal with legislators with criminal
records, free flow of black money during elections,
needless competition among political parties to
announce freebies, caste-based rallies, and massive
corruption implicating many legislators. Similarly,
the emergence of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)
a non-party political movement is likely to force
mainstream parties not to be brazen about the
winnability factor in allocating ticket to
candidates with criminal records and family ties.
Several commentators in the past few months
have criticised the overzealous attempts by courts
to clean up Indias party politics, and expressed
doubts about whether the AAP will survive long
enough in its idealistic mode to have any influence
on the rules of conducting politics in India. We
disagree with this view. Our concern in this article
is not whether the AAP will succeed in the electoral
battlefield or if these rulings delivered by the CIC
and courts are an exercise in judicial overreach.
We believe that citizens protests in the last few
years signal a widespread consensus among all
segments of society that the rules of the game of
conducting politics in India need to change. We
argue that even if political experiments (like the
AAP) fail, they help substantially in moving the
established norms to a new equilibrium. In our
view, laws and rulings alone do not challenge
established norms. However, the presence of a
political party, mobilising voters on a similar
platform, helps in doing so by significantly
strengthening the legal process itself, by disarming
those who would seek to scuttle such change.
Legal decisions can never be permanent solutions

for they are turned and overturned on the basis of
interpretations of specific words/clauses of a statute
or provision. Political parties and their leaders in
India have few incentives to play by the rules. For
instance, they are required to submit documents to
the Election Commission (EC) about expenditures
and contributions they receive. Many parties submit
incomplete documents and others submit even more
unbelievable documents. The BSP, for example,
submitted a two-page affidavit to the Election
Commission claiming that it had not received any
donations above Rs. 20,000 the legal limit above
which all contributions need to be disclosed.
[38]
Parties thrive on how successfully they can

divide electorates and seek support, and voters
reward or punish the party its actions and
inactions at the next given opportunity. The
problem we seek to rectify does not stem
immediately from parties in their mobilisational role
but in their role as institutions that link the state
with society. This distinction needs to be analytically
separated. We may love to hate political parties
but the truth is no one has shown how
representative government could work without
them. Political parties are necessary evils and in
E.E. Schattschneiders words modern democracy
is unthinkable save in terms of political parties.
The word party itself, as Giovanni Sartori
emphasised many years ago, derives its meaning
from the Latin verb meaning to part or divide.
The role of political parties is to link the state and
society by aggregating divergent interests.
Politicians are not only office seekers, but also have
interests and values stemming from various
identities such as economic position, gender, caste,
religion, region, language, and so forth. Parties in

their mobilisational role use such social faultiness
because it is inherent in their definition of why
they exist.
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Political parties are the torchbearers of the

representative character of Indian democracy. No
other institution NGO, the media, courts or the
bureaucracy that claims to represent societal
interests
has
completely
succeeded
in
accommodating marginalised groups. Empirical
research suggests that civil society organisations and
NGOs are dominated by social elites, especially the
upper castes and middle classes. Ironically, not a
single media house has members belonging to the
Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes in their
top decision-making team. Similarly, among 88
Secretary-level posts in the Central government,
there is not a single Dalit bureaucrat and in the
last 60 years, only four judges belonging to the SC
have become judges in the Supreme Court of India.
This may give us a hint about why Dalit
entrepreneurs have organised a separate forum
(DICCI), rather than joining FICCI.
The party has successfully managed to alter the

terms of debates and has even altered the rules of
the game. It has shown that campaign finance can
be collected transparently and declared even more
transparently. It has shown that nothing beats
people-to-people contact and that politicians should
aim to serve the public and not the other way
around. It has shown that nominations can be
given democratically and has also demonstrated a
willingness to comply with the norms of the Election
Commission. In doing so, it has strengthened the
reach of the Election Commission by paving the
way for future legislation.
We think that the AAP phenomenon needs to

be understood in this broader context of changing
norms of conducting electoral politics in India. Let
us take, for instance, the experiment of Indias first
national Dalit party, the Bahujan Samaj Party. The
BSP started as a political experiment, initially had
an electoral stronghold in Punjab, but subsequently
emerged as one of the strongest players in Uttar
Pradesh. Later, all the ills associated with political
parties also afflicted the BSP. However, one cannot
deny that it gave Dalits an organised political voice
and a proper channel of representation in the
electoral arena, so much so that now every politician
has to cater to their demands for governance and it
is virtually impossible to think in terms of national
politics without thinking about the Dalit question.
In turn, all types of institutions have displayed a
greater willingness to incorporate Dalits and address
their demands. While the situation still leaves much
to be desired, the point we are trying to make is that
if the Dalit question had not emerged through a
mass politics of agitation, legislation alone could not
have possibly guaranteed their incorporation into
mainstream politics.
Similarly, the entry of the AAP has deepened
the possibility of renewal in Indias electoral arena.
Incremental process
Now this is not to overstate the bright side of

the AAP. It is also entirely possible that the AAP
will be afflicted just like the BSP was with corrupt
members, and perhaps in a decade or so we will
no longer think of the party as a harbinger of
institutional change. However, the argument we
make is linked to the idea that it doesnt matter if
the AAP fails its own public. What matters is what
it sets in motion an incremental process of
institutional change defined by the need to have a
cleaner, corruption free politics. Because of the
AAP, the standards of politics have changed and
this is what we think is its greatest contribution. It
may have moved institutional mechanisms in India
to a new equilibrium where corruption is not
acceptable and cannot be lazily rationalised.
The Indian state has been consistently hollowed
out, stolen from and weakened in capacity over
the years by people chosen by the public to
safeguard the interest of the very same public. The
rise of the AAP has been surprising and dramatic
and the detractors are many. It is possible that in
the coming months, the party may not be able to
abide by the high standards it has set, but as the
BSP example suggests, the battle for some severe
institutional changes in the functioning of Indias
electoral democracy has begun. Indias electoral
politics is a decidedly murky process, and it is so
by design. This route is not a quick-fix solution, but
the true meaning of democracy can be realised only
when democratic ideals are deeply embedded in
the practice of democracy.
Source: The Hindu
A PATCHY RECORD
Even as the prevalence of daily smoking among
men in India has come down from about 34 to 23
per cent between 1980 and 2012, the absolute

number of smokers has risen from about 69
[39]

Standards Regulation Act 2011, most of the
measures to rein in tobacco use have not been
implemented in earnest. It is shocking that there is
near-absolute apathy on the part of the government
despite the huge health implications and economic
costs of tobacco use. According to the Ministry of
Healths own admission before the Supreme Court
in October last year, the total economic cost of
tobacco use is over Rs.10,500 crore ($1.7 billion).
The 2013 WHO report on the global tobacco
epidemic reveals Indias shortcomings in
implementing key tobacco control policies aimed
at cutting consumption. For instance, it has
achieved just 50 per cent compliance in banning
all forms of direct and indirect advertising. Not
surprisingly, it has got a dismal rating of two on a
five-point scale for the small health warning on
cigarette packages. Besides violating the WHOs
Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, to
which India is a signatory, by deciding to rotate
pictorial warnings only once every two years instead
of every year, it is yet to change even the ineffective
ones first introduced in 2009. Thousands of deaths
that take place every year represent the huge and
tragic cost of deferring to the interests of the tobacco
industry and tobacco growers.
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million in 1980 to 98 million in 2012. In the case of

women, while the prevalence has increased only
marginally from 3 per cent in 1980 to 3.2 per cent
in 2012, the number of smokers has more than
doubled from 5.3 million to 12.1 million during
the same period. The increase in the absolute
number of smokers is due to the growth in
population outpacing the percentage reduction in
prevalence. These are some of the findings of a
study published in the Journal of the American
Medical Association. The only silver lining is the
reduction in the mean daily consumption of
cigarettes and bidis per smoker from 11.6 to 8.2
between 1980 and 2012. All these clearly illustrate
why tobacco use (smoking and chewing) kills nearly
a million people annually in India. Large-scale
studies undertaken in a few countries, India
included, have found that mortality among middleaged people who smoked was two to three times
more than those who have never smoked. Thus,
on an average, the life span of smokers is reduced
by 10 years. The prevalence of smoking reaches its
peak at 45 per cent in the 45 to 49 age group, and
then falls.
Except for facilitating individual States to ban
chewing tobacco under the Food Safety and
Source: The Hindu
OUTSOURCING ENVIRONMENT DECISIONS
The idea of a new, independent regulator to

protect the environment has been revived by the
forest bench of the Supreme Court in the Lafarge
mining case. The apex court has ordered by
mandamus, a new authority to be set up under
Section 3(3) of the Environment (Protection) Act,
1986 for appraising projects, enforcing conditions
and imposing penalties on polluters. This is to be
done by March 31, 2014. The Environment Ministry
had responded to the court in November 2013 that
it had enough means to regulate the environment
through existing institutions and procedures. The
court was not convinced.
Secondly, the Supreme Court seems to want to

shake the status quo by bringing in a new regulator.
Most environmentalists believe that the system
deserves to be shaken. They also have great faith
in the Supreme Courts wisdom on complex matters
of governance. Thirdly, there is a real fear about
opening up the laws on grant of clearances even
though everyone agrees that we can barely expect
good decisions without several amendments to
green laws. So creating a new institution is at least
doing something.
The idea of a new regulator seems to grab

eyeballs and attention from all quarters. It also
seems to have little resistance in principle for three
reasons. Firstly, this government and its
Environment Ministry have lost practically all their
supporters among citizens due to the manner in
which they have dealt with environmental and
forest clearances. Any move to take away decisionmaking powers from them will only improve the
situation.
For those who have studied the institutional

structures of the environment, this announcement
is like an advertisement for a new and improved
version of a product that has already been around
a long time. In fact, in the field of environmental
governance, setting up new institutions has been a
routine way of taking away attention from the real
causes of environmental degradation. The Supreme
Court has used this route the most; and its setting
up of the Compensatory Afforestation Fund
[40]
Institutional structures

to laws is in our view the cause of environmental
degradation and conflict. By desired outcomes of
environment laws, we mean not a grant or rejection
of clearance but substantive results like reducing
environmental conflict, achieving social justice
through decisions and ensuring the highest order
of environmental compliance.
If routine decisions by all actors in the
environment field are not assessed against these
outcomes, a new regulator will buckle under
pressure from all sides exactly the way all the ones
before it have.
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Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) is

an example of institution-building where the core
problem remains unabated.
This authority came out of a case that should
have ensured that the long-pending objectives of
compensatory afforestation are achieved. Instead,
what we got was a body that collects and disburses
monies earned from granting forest clearances.
The Supreme Court does not clearly state what
such a new regulator is meant to achieve that has
so far evaded the environmental governance
system. Did the court and the amicus not find it fit
to assess whether the existing regulatory bodies set
up under 3(3) are able to perform at all? From the
order, it appears that the only point cited in favour
of independent environment institutions doing well
is the Arunachal forest protection authority.
There is no study whatsoever to prove that this
authority is indeed arriving at better environmental
results. This is pretty much the case with some of
the better known institutions set up under the same
clause of the EP Act; The Biodiversity Authority,
the Coastal Zone Management Authorities and the
Authority set up to monitor the state of notified
Ecologically Sensitive Areas. There arent any such
studies from within the official system to show if
they have been useful environmentally.
Working to what end?
A serious assessment of the functioning of these

institutions will reveal that they are floundering
primarily due to one reason: the laws under which
they are set up dont provide any clarity on what
is to be achieved in terms of environmental
outcomes. What are the outcomes they are to be
working towards with all their procedures, their
methods and their discussions? Our laws have no
end results they are expected to bring about, only
procedures. To not have desired outcomes attached
Diabolical
The proposals for the new regulator so far have

also suggested that they be kept independent so
that such buckling under pressure does not occur.
This promise of independence seems to create much
support for the idea of a new regulator. However,
the idea of a regulator outside of the sphere of
social and public influence sounds diabolical as then
it will serve the interests of only the political class.
It, of course, needs no explanation that we cannot
create a body that is outside of the influence of the
latter. It is far more important that we have
decision-making bodies that can be subject to public
influence so that their decisions reflect our concerns
of being citizens dependent on common resources.
Rather than one independent regulator, what we
need is a practice of outcome-based governmental
decision making located within the public sphere
of influence. It needs to be democratic in its form
and method rather than leaving decisions to a
group of selected experts. Through it, we must
achieve substantive justice rather than procedural
efficiency.
Source: The Hindu
AN OMINOUS SITUATION
That the medicine chest is bereft of effective

new drugs to fight the extremely drug-resistant
tuberculosis (XDR-TB) strain has once again become
frighteningly clear. According to a study published
recently in The Lancet, while only 16 per cent (17
of the 107) of a South African patient cohort had
either treatment cure or completion at the end of
two years of follow-up, as many as 49 patients
died and 25 failed treatment. With the strain
remaining resistant to at least four of the most
potent anti-TB drugs available today, XDR-TB
patients have virtually exhausted all treatment
options. Hence, despite long, complicated and

prohibitively expensive treatment using toxic drugs,
the outcome is at best poor. The dire urgency to
bring immediate focus on the discovery of efficacious
anti-TB drugs to treat all forms of drug-resistant
strains becomes clear as hospitals in South Africa,
for want of beds, are being forced to discharge
XDR-TB patients who are yet to be cured. This is
particularly ominous as they can spread the disease
with equal ease as those with drug-sensitive TB.
With the median survival period from the time of
discharge being nearly 20 months, the threat of the
[41]

dangerous form of TB spiralling out of control is
real as many patients are culture-positive and about
a third are smear-positive at the time of discharge;
smear-positive patients have a higher bacterial load
and hence a greater potential for spreading the
disease. If this situation is allowed to continue for
a few more years, the XDR-TB strain would spread
to all countries.
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There is also an immediate and pressing need

for the high-burden countries to increase the
number of beds for treating drug-resistant cases. It
is time to come up with acceptable and workable
solutions to isolate XDR-TB treatment failure or
incurable cases to cut the transmission chain.
Reducing the reservoir of TB-infected people
through a simple, cheap and effective isoniazid
preventive therapy in children under five years of

age exposed to adults with pulmonary TB, will pay
significant dividends in the long run. Next in priority
should be ensuring that most drug-sensitive patients
are diagnosed early, treatment using the correct
drug regimen is initiated without delay, and the
default rate is greatly reduced. This would
automatically prevent the emergence of drugresistant forms. The importance of this becomes all
the more clear as all the parameters that go into
the successful completion of drug-resistant TB
treatment are fraught with problems. India, which
is now expanding and equipping MDR-TB
diagnostic centres with GeneXpert, has already
detected 64,000 cases, the highest in the world.
Source: The Hindu
INDIAS VIRTUALLY CHALLENGED UNIVERSITIES
Students the world over complain about the

expense of higher education and how difficult it is
to get into a college or university of their choice.
Everyone desires to get into the best institution

since that is perceived to be, if not a guarantee to
a good job, at least a way to smoothen ones
chances.
The US is facing a crisis of sorts in the field of

education. Tuition costs have often risen at more
than twice the rate of inflation, making college
unaffordable to many. Student loans continue to
burden the borrower for many years after taking
up a job and since 2010, national student debt has
overshot credit card debt.
President Barack Obama has taken the stand

that college education is not a luxury but a prerequisite for jobs in the future. However, only about
half of the high school graduates from the poorest
25 per cent of US families attend college.
Home-classroom flip
The impact of digital technology in the field of

education in the last few years may perhaps hold
the key to providing lower-cost access to learning.
Online education has been around for a long time.
Universities first began putting their courses
online with little change, making it just an easy
way of disseminating material, as against the
traditional postal correspondence courses. Then,
gradually, synchronous methods such as chat rooms
and soon began to make a difference to online
learning.
Everyone knows about the big impact of Khan
[42]
Academy on school-level math education. It has

done so well that several school districts in the US
have adopted what is now being called flipped
classroom.
Instead of students being taught in a classroom
and then doing problems and practice sets at home,
they are now asked to watch Khan Academy
videos at home and do problem sets in class where
the teacher is available to help and guide. The
classroom and home have been flipped.
The big development since about 2008 has been
the emergence of the massive open online course,
better known by its acronym, MOOC. At the
beginning, individual professors grabbed the
headlines when tens of thousands of students
registered for their free courses from around the
world. Sensing a big opportunity, organisations
were formed to develop the idea further.
Three big players in this area now, Udacity,
Coursera and edX offer courses in the sciences and
humanities, theoretical and practical, and proclaim
their belief that education is a basic human right
and their objective is to provide access to anyone
around the world to a world-class education.
This is no idle assertion, since they are also
backed by some of the leading research universities.
Blended learning
Coursera, an initiative of Stanford University,

California, claims to have reached over 6 million
learners from 108 countries, offering 564 courses.
edX, a joint initiative of Harvard University and
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, also

claims to reach millions. In addition, edX offers
Certificates of Achievement at the end of a
completed course, so you not only can claim to
have the knowledge but also have a piece of paper
to show.
A lot of people are still trying things out,

perhaps the content is not what they really want,
or the pedagogy may not suit them.
With several companies now offering skills
certification, we may see a future where the
demand for degrees falls.
All students need to do is to pick the skills
they need for particular jobs and careers, and learn
it at the minimum cost and get certified for it,
rather than get a degree.
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Udacity, also with roots in Stanford University,

offers courses at both the school and college level.
While these organisations presently offer their
courses free, supported by various foundations and
philanthropists, this is not going to last. Whether
they would monetise their ventures through fees
or through advertising is to be seen.
Also, what surprised me the most was that

over 90 per cent of those who registered for a
course did not finish.
What about the students perspective in this

discussion? Low cost or free courses are always
welcome although students who sign on to courses
from top-ranked universities would also love to see
a degree certificate with the universitys monogram.
That is still a longway off. However, learning

benefits cannot be ignored. A US Department of
Education report says that blended learning (where
there is a combination of online and face-to-face
delivery) offers the best advantage over either one
alone.
A University of Pennsylvania survey of students
who have taken MOOCs provides a valuable
perspective, for it suggests that the reality may be
at variance with the high ideals of the promoters.
For instance, it was found that most of the

students were already well educated and looked to
pick up new skills to advance their careers. Nothing
wrong with that, but the courses are not reaching
those who may otherwise skip college.
Moreover, students in poor countries were
primarily from among the wealthy, perhaps because
they are the ones who have computers and access
to the internet. So the access objective is yet to be
met.
As an educationist, that makes me

uncomfortable, for thats not what learning is all
about.
On cusp of new model
Perhaps we are at the cusp of a new model of

higher education, especially in countries such as
India with a shortage of qualified faculty to teach,
across several disciplines.
An entrepreneur could set up campuses in
smaller towns that provide good lodging facilities
that meet the social and networking needs, a
library, and computer labs with good internet
connections so students can take online classes
from around the world.
A few part-time tutors who can clarify doubts
and questions are all that would be required.
Coursera has already started an initiative of
providing physical spaces called Learning Hubs in
10 countries with good access to the internet
where students can come to learn.
Brick-and-mortar universities with expensive
faculties are in for interesting times. They need to
figure out how they can stay relevant and add value.
Source: The Hindu
TIME FOR NO-FRILLS AIRPORTS
A model of low-cost airlines and no-frills

airports will drive down costs, lift volumes and
improve connectivity.
The advent of low-cost carriers (LCCs) has led
to a rapid growth in the aviation market in India.
Today, LCCs have captured a majority share of
the market.
Globally, LCC growth is often associated with

a boom in tourism, growth in air traffic and
increased frequencies to smaller cities. And it has
been led by new entrants like Ryan Air, South West

Airlines and Air Asia, which have also shown
healthy bottomlines, while the traditional airlines
have floundered.
This is mainly because globally, LCCs have a
totally different model right from choice of routes,
ticketing, check-in, passenger service, baggage rules,
labour engagement to aircraft configuration.
Unfortunately in India, our LCCs have only a
slightly better cost structure (primarily aircraft
[43]

configuration, salaries), but they mirror full service
carriers (FSC) on all other parameters. No wonder,
the LCCs in India are struggling to survive and are
essentially lower priced carriers.
One key parameter where LCCs differ globally
from FSCs is the choice of airport. Flying out of
low cost airports enables airlines operate more
efficiently and unbundle services, thus resulting in
lower airport-related costs (up to 13 per cent).
Low Cost Experience
Air Asia initially operated to Delhi, Mumbai,

Kolkata, Chennai, and Trichy but later withdrew
from Delhi and Mumbai airports, owing to high
airport charges, even as it introduced its third daily
flight from Trichy, becoming the largest airline there.
Consequently, Trichy airport today has 45 per
cent as many international passengers as Kolkata!
Its international passenger traffic is over eight times
its domestic passenger traffic.
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Low cost airports are characterised by the

absence of grandiose buildings, less space per
person compared to international terminals, and
significantly lower investment.
The Airports Authority of India (AAI), as part
of its suggestions to the Ministry, has included doing
away with luggage scanning X-ray machines and
conveyor belts for the low cost airports.
Whereas the Kuala Lumpur International
Airport (KLIA) Main Terminal Building (MTB) was
built for a 25-million passenger capacity at a cost
of $3.5 billion, the KLIA Low Cost Carrier Terminal
(LCCT) is a 10-million passenger terminal costing
only $30 million.
Unlike the MTB, the LCCT does not have any
escalators, complex baggage handling systems or
aero-bridges. Consequently, passenger fees at KLIALCCT are 86 per cent lower than at the KLIAMain Terminal building.
The Illico terminal in Bordeaux, is a 4000 sq m
wood frame terminal constructed on a minimalistic
budget of $6.7 million in 2010. Mirroring the
difference between low cost and legacy airlines,
low cost airports operate on the policy of minimal
frills and operational efficiency.
The benefit of having these low cost terminals
is three-fold.
Currently, a passenger at Delhi airport pays

Rs. 600 as (airport development fee) ADF and Rs.
1,100 as UDF (user development fee) for
international flights, whereas at Tiruchirappalli
(Trichy) airport, the same passenger is charged only
Rs. 360 as UDF.
Boost to tourism
First, LCCs prefer low cost airports as these are

relatively uncongested and free from ground and
air traffic control delays. Lack of congestion and
faster turnarounds enables LCCs to increase their
productivity and lower their operational costs.
Second, it would increase air connectivity to
tier-II and tier-III cities, making these cities directly
accessible without having to pass through major
hubs like Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. With
significantly lower investments, both passenger and
airline fees would be correspondingly lower. This
can really spur the growth of international short
haul traffic from India.
[44]
LCCs lead to a spike in tourist traffic. A recent

study of Malaysia-Thailand air transport
liberalisation found that in 2005, 28 per cent of the
traffic was directly attributable to LCC traffic
growth resulting in 4,300 new jobs and $114 million
GDP growth. Tourist traffic to Kuala Lumpur from
Singapore by air increased 24.3 per cent from 2007
to 2010 due to the entry of LCCs. Excluding
Singapore, Malaysia received 11.3 million
international tourists in 2011, which represents
almost 40 per cent of Malaysias population.
This is in stark contrast to India, which only
recorded 6.3 million international tourists.
Malaysias experience shows that Indias tourist
traffic can jump manifold with the support of shorthaul international LCCs like AirAsia.
Airport-Airline Deal
Often, LCCs strike a mutually beneficial deal

with the local airport authorities, whereby the
airline creates jobs and commits to a minimum
number of passengers, promoting tourism in the
region. In return, the local authorities organise the
airport on advantageous terms for LCCs or structure
financial incentives.
Ryanair in Europe and Southwest in US thrive
on such low cost airports/secondary airports for
their operations. There have also been cases where
carriers have abandoned a particular airport, in
order to get better deals from airport operators that
support their cost structures.
Ryanair has been at the forefront of such
activities, abandoning or threatening to abandon
many airports such as Manchester, Graz, GironaCosta Brava, Reus and others in recent years, to
protest against the high airport costs and other
regulations. With the development of more low cost

airports and entry of new LCCs in India, the
dynamics of carrier-operator relationship would
change, eventually benefiting the consumer.
Finally, low cost airports serve the important
function of acting as secondary airports in cities
where a major airport already exists. These airports
are supposed to complement the major airport in
terms of capacity and also act as a hub for LCCs.
The concept of low cost airports/terminals is

quite new in India, where the focus has always
been on building huge state of the art airports like
we have in Delhi and Mumbai. For a developing
country like India, we need to supplement the key
world-class international hubs like Delhi and
Mumbai with a good network of low cost airports
to provide direct point to point connectivity
throughout the country.
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London is the perfect example of a city with

successful secondary airports Stansted and Luton.
In India, the first secondary airport that is coming
up is the Navi Mumbai airport and it has the
opportunity to be a low cost hub. However, news
indicates that instead it will be a very expensive
proposition ($ 2.4 billion), defeating the very
purpose it is intended to serve.
driving ticket prices down and incentivising air

passenger growth.
The need of the hour is to plan for the

introduction of no-frills terminals or secondary low
cost airports where the primary airport is saturated.
This will lower airport charges for airlines, thus
Realising the gravity of the situation, the

Ministry of Civil Aviation recently proposed setting
up of 100 low cost airports over the next two years.
The government needs to ensure quick
implementation of this idea, which would help
boost tourism, increase economic development as
well as give a boost to the fortunes of LCCs.
SUSTAINABILITY AND FOOD SECURITY
The South Asian population has been growing

at the rate of 1.5 per cent per annum, and
agricultural production at 2.5 per cent per annum
has been keeping pace with the demographic
trends, thereby creating the necessary provision for
food. Yet, the inherent problems of distribution have
loomed large for South Asia.
Indias National Food Security Act, 2013,

emphasises defining certain target groups and
highlights the importance of distribution.
Agricultural policies in South Asia, including that
of India, have always been vocal about production,
marketing, pricing and, to an extent, about natural
resource use, and the use of agricultural inputs.
Food-ecosystem linkage
However, in policy implementation, the

inextricable linkage between ecosystems and food
is often ignored. There is practically no recognition
of the fact that, of the entire range of services
provided by the ecosystem, food provisioning
either by natural operation or through human
intervention holds utmost importance.
Critical ecosystem services facilitate agricultural

production, create income-generating opportunities,
and provide energy for cooking.
The production aspect of food is explained by
the fundamental dependence of agricultural systems
on ecological processes. On the other hand,
household-level access to income is facilitated by

the production of agricultural goods and raw
materials that can be sold. From the utilisation
perspective, ecosystem services create provision of
safe drinking water and food; provide fuels and
energy for hygienic heating, cooking, and storage
of food; the materials for sanitation and health care;
and the micronutrients necessary for an adequate
diet.
Another Perspective
Often, what is perceived as damage from a

myopic economic perspective turns out to be a boon
from the social-ecosystemic perspective and viceversa. The Bihar floodplain in the Ganges sub-basin
of India is a case in point. Apparently perceived as
flood damage, the floodwater, upon receding,
leaves behind rich silt and micronutrients that have
helped in the natural creation of the most fertile
agricultural land also known as rice bowl of
South Asia.
The opposite is also prevalent in the same basin.
Further downstream, the Farakka barrage,
constructed in 1975 to resuscitate the Calcutta port,
has been witnessing ecosystem damages due to
stream-flow depletion caused by its natural course.
This has, in turn, affected the mangrove forests,
fisheries production, fish catch (quantity and
quality), and eventually the fishing community.
[45]

The traditional engineering paradigm has
conveniently been oblivious of these ecosystemsfood-livelihood linkages in the planning process.
There are many such examples in South Asia. These
ecosystem concerns have hardly featured even in
the context of the grand plan of river interlinking,
or while converting forest land for agriculture or
other purposes.
dams, began decommissioning dams that have

caused egregious ecological impacts; thereby
affecting livelihoods and the provisioning services
of the ecosystem. Nearly 500 dams in the US and
elsewhere have already been removed, with an aim
to restore the ecosystem.
Agricultural expansions during the last century

have caused widespread changes in land cover,
watercourses, and aquifers; thereby degrading the
ecosystems and restricting their ability to support
some services, including food provisioning. Some
examples of this are the various major river basins
such as the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM)
basin, Cauvery basin, Krishna basin, and so on.
By 2050, food demand in South Asia is going

to double. There is no doubt that in many cases,
bringing land and water resources under the fold
of agriculture will not be a viable option. With
ecological thresholds being exceeded, food
provisioning services of the ecosystem are being
seriously affected; thereby, posing a threat to the
natures capacity to provide food for rural
households.
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Towards sustainability
Flawed approach
The management policy of many agroecosystems has essentially been based on the
premise that they are delinked from the broader
landscape. Crossing ecological thresholds leads to
a regime change in the ecosystem and its
concomitant services. Apart from reducing the
ecosystem resilience, this restricts the sustainability
of food provisioning.
Threats to the ecological foundation of
agriculture arise from resources that are supposedly
becoming scarce over time. The drivers of this
process are competition over land and water,
traditional resource-consuming agricultural
practices, deforestation, and unsustainable pesticide
use (that reduces the long-term soil productivity,
and also contaminates groundwater), and climate
change.
The critical knowledge gap here pertains to the

relations between water and food. Food security
has so far been thought of as a positive and linear
function of water availability. While most
experiments on the subject in the US and the EU
have refuted the direct proportionality between
water and food availability, such a knowledge base
is yet to emerge in South Asia. The US, the country
which started the global trend of building large
South Asian river basins like the GBM present

the most interesting paradox of the development
theory ample water, ample poverty. As has been
proposed by Jayanta Bandyopadhyay and Nilanjan
Ghosh in an article in Economic and Political Weekly
in 2009, the prime reason for this paradox is a
sheer de-recognition of the ecosystems-livelihoods
linkage.
There is no doubt that increased water and land
productivity (and not increased use) has to be the
core of the solution. On the other hand, from a
very regional food security perspective, trade in
virtual water (or agricultural imports) can indeed
play a crucial role. For serving the long-term needs
of food security, a more holistic perspective is
needed. This will entail an integrated approach for
managing land and water resources and ecosystems,
in order to support long-term food production.
There is a need to develop less-resource intensive
practices (for example, system of rice intensification)
for producing crops that have traditionally been
high-resource-consuming. Moreover, policy
documents need to look at water and land as an
integral part of the global eco-hydrological cycle,
and not as a stock of material resource to be used
for the satisfaction of human requirements.
NOT ENTIRELY BANKABLE IDEAS
Some years ago, a banker who was discussing

why rural branches were not profitable, said, There
is no economic activity in the area that can earn
an individual even Rs. 10,000 a month. What he
or she earns now is enough for bare subsistence.
So what kind of banking experience can we
[46]
provide and how will we break even?
This is the first thought that came to mind while

looking at the Nachiket Mor committees tome on
the subject of providing comprehensive financial
services to small businesses and low income
households.

of the same idea and dubbed it lazy banking.
Do we need a new animal for this objective?
Banking experts think the idea of payment/
wholesale banks is a non-starter. They point out
that regional rural banks were started with similar
objectives: as a low-cost option, to be staffed by
local talent that would have its ear close to the
ground in rural areas.
But this experiment has not succeeded and has
actually forced the government to organise a longrunning bailout programme by sponsor banks.
There is often a difference between the
architecture of an institution on the drawing board
and its actual operation most often seen in cost
assumptions.
Any institution started by a government or its
banks will inevitably have their staff clamouring
for pay-parity with government employees.
These and other such demands have the effect
of increasing costs and rendering the experiment
unviable ab initio. The recommendations on priority
sector lending are sensible and pragmatic. The
committee proposes that banks be allowed to
specialise in different segments (agriculture/ SME/
Infra and so on) based on their strengths, rather
than expecting all banks to do all things.
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On the face of it, the aspiration to have an

electronic bank account for every Indian above 18
by January 2016 is laudable. The idea is to ride on
the UIDAIs Aadhaar number for this. An estimated
50 crore bank accounts are expected to be added
in the next two years.
Thats an ambitious goal considering it has not
been achieved in over four decades of financial
inclusion till now. Although we may not get there
in two years, having that goal will enable some
progress. That is welcome. But what next?
As an experienced banker put it: What is the
objective? Is opening a bank account an end in
itself or is it a means to an end?
The report gives the impression that bank
accounts are the panacea for every problem in the
economy.
The reality is different. Just look at the
innumerable cash transactions even among people
who have bank accounts. Or the no-frills accounts
opened by banks but the accounts remain nonoperational or there is very little churn.
Earlier, experiments aimed at widening financial
inclusion whether through cooperative banks,
nationalisation of commercial banks, starting of
regional rural banks, local area banks, micro-finance
institutions, self-help groups or business
correspondents have each had mixed success.
The committee has recognised this and is realistic
in acknowledging that there is no single strategy
that can hope to serve the entire country.
Each of these models/channels has value to add
and can be complementary.
A New Animal
Some ideas proposed by the committee such as

the setting up of payment banks and/or wholesale
banks seem intriguing.
According to the committee, these banks (to be
started as subsidiaries of existing banks) will only
offer a limited range of services either payment/
deposit services or lending services.
Therefore, the committee recommends a lower
capital base of Rs. 50 crore (as against Rs. 500
crore for a full service commercial bank).
Critics say the payment/wholesale banks are
really a version of narrow banks those that
would acquire deposits and just invest them in
government securities/treasuries.
At one time, this was proposed as a solution
for some banks with a large NPA.
And one RBI deputy governor had even
pilloried bankers for practising a different version
Pragmatic Measure
It proposes to replace the current requirement

of lending 40 per cent of credit to priority sectors
with a 50 per cent adjusted priority sector lending
(APSL) requirement.
This it seeks to do by providing extra weightage
for lending in remote locations or regions that have
suffered from disparities or to sectors that most
need banking services.
It also suggests that the target be achieved and
monitored on a quarterly basis, instead of having
an annual target.
This will ensure that banks remain focused
throughout the year rather than scramble in March
every year.
Data shows that one-fourth the agricultural
credit is given in March the maximum (when
there is no requirement) while it is niggardly
during the months of the rabi and kharif crop.
The committee argues that given the huge
requirement of funds for small and marginal
farmers alone, the case for reducing priority sector
lending targets may be weak.
It is true that this segment is underserved. But
increasing the priority sector requirement will only
result in banks being overburdened.
[47]
Follow The Money

To expect banks to throw money when other
basic elements of inclusion are woefully missing
(roads, power, connectivity, other social
infrastructure) is reprehensible.
Let the government first do its bit and create
conditions where people can earn more. Then,
banks will definitely help in their own interest.
Bank accounts will follow the money.
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They will do what they do when politicians

compel them just convert existing advances and
re-classify them as priority sector loans or lobby for
dilution of norms which will defeat the very
purpose of the priority sector.
Look at, for instance, the ever-changing
definition of infrastructure.
Similarly, the district-wise plan to increase the
credit to GDP ratio, though well intentioned, may
just give another handle to the local IAS official to
harass bankers there or still worse, see the return
of the loan melas of the eighties!
MERA VALA PINK
Intellectual property rights (IPR) is widening

its prospects in India with the legal system starting
to recognise unconventional trademarks. In 2008,
the trademark registry started acknowledging
sounds as well when it registered Yahoo!s yodel
sound. All this became possible after India became
a signatory of TRIPS in 1994.
Article 15 of the agreement on trade related
aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPS) states:
Any sign, or any combination of signs, capable of
distinguishing the goods or services of one
undertaking from those of other undertakings, shall
be capable of constituting a trademark. So, what
are some of these?
Sound marks
Here, sound is used to perform the trademark

function of uniquely identifying the commercial
origin of a product or service. The representation
of the sound to be registered must be clear, precise,
self-contained, easily accessible, intelligible, durable
and objective. It is sufficient that the sign is easily
intelligible.
Further, the application must clearly state that
they are meant for sound marks. Hence, Nokia tone,
the Airtel tune, the melodious musical introduction
of AVM productions, Doordarshans lively
signature tune, can all be registered in India.
Sound marks are shown in the form of graphical
representation, i.e. musical notes. A graphic
representation of this has to be given in the
application. Sound marks not only enhance the
credibility of the products, they are significantly
important for those who are visually impaired or
unlettered, says David Vaver, a professor of
Intellectural Property.
Smell marks
Smell marks are another unconventional
trademark that are getting popular in India. They
[48]
are also called olfactory or scent marks.

Manufacturers introduce smells as marketing
strategy to make the the products more pleasing or
attractive. These goods could include cleaning
preparations, cosmetics and fabric softeners.
Nowadays, even less obvious goods are
manufactured with particular scents to add to the
products appeal, such as, for example, magazines,
pens, paper and erasers. Hence on enabling the
smell marks, the smell of freshly cut grass
emanating from tennis balls, or tires with a
fragrance reminiscent of roses can be registered.
Even these olfactory marks should be in the
form of graphic representations.
The European Court has pronounced that a
smell trademark does not satisfy the requirements
of graphic representation if it is presented in the
form of a chemical formula, a description in written
words, a deposit of the odour sample or a
combination of those elements. However, in the
Indian context, such marks should be represented
only in the graphic form. The biggest challenge,
therefore, is for traders to meet these requirements.
Legal assistance
The global market is moving towards an

absolute capitalist economy. Given this emerging
economic trend, the recognition of non-conventional
marks by a trademark registry is a sign of
prosperity. It marks a progressive aspect of
consumer acknowledgement and brand strategies.
We can now expect the entry of such unusual
marks as taste, moving grams, gestures or
holograms. Of course, the government and the
authorities concerned need to take initiatives to
make people aware of such rights and marks.
Awareness of these laws will not only bring
protection to business houses but also revenue to the
government, and healthy competition in the markets.
WHO CARES FOR ENERGY EFFICIENCY

energy consumption of the industry as a whole
would drop by 20 per cent or 50 Mtoe.
Main barriers
According to the EIU survey, the three main
barriers to investments in energy efficiency are the
lack of a clearcut financial case, a lack of funds for
large infrastructure investments and the lack of
actionable information about energy-efficiency
options.
Fully 28 per cent of firms surveyed said that, in
times of tight resources, companies had to choose
between allocating capital to measures that would
save money and those that would provide growth
opportunities.
This suggests that many firms do not fully
appreciate that being more efficient can lead to
competitive advantage, which in turn leads to
profitable growth.
The survey also showed that while information
about the benefits of investments in energy efficiency
had improved, 71 per cent of companies said that
industries need clearer benchmarks for what
constitutes energy efficiency in their sectors. Some
of those which have invested have used internal
benchmarks, comparing plants of different ages, to
gauge the value of investments.
Its difficult to make the right decisions
concerning resource efficiency if there is no
agreement on benchmarks, and companies are
afraid of missing out on growth opportunities.
From these findings, I would say its clear that
we in industry need to make a greater effort to
raise awareness of the opportunities offered by
energy efficiency. We also need to continue investing
in technology and we need to work with politicians
to make sure that we have a regulatory
environment that strives for predictability and
clarity in energy efficiency.
The findings referred to in this article can be
found in Trends in global energy efficiency, which
comprises a white paper by the EIU based on a
survey of 317 senior industry executives, and
research by Enerdata.
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Research commissioned by ABB has confirmed

that energy efficiency remains a high priority for
executives in industry. Of more than 300 surveyed
in the manufacturing and power sectors by the
Economist Intelligence Unit (a part of The
Economist group), almost all said energy efficiency
will remain a crucial success factor for their
companies in the next two decades.
But three-quarters of those same executives said
they faced barriers to improving energy efficiency,
and data from the EIU report indicates that these
barriers are affecting more companies.
This is a problem for reasons of industrial
competitiveness energy costs are high and rising
and because energy efficiency is the most effective
way to limit our impact on the environment.
It may not seem exciting or glamorous, but
reducing the amount of energy consumed for the
same or a greater amount of output is
unquestionably the most sustainable approach of
all.
So how much room is there for industrial
companies to improve energy efficiency?
The first thing to note is that significant progress
has been made over the past 20 years in the most
energy-intensive industries.
Some progress
Many producers in the steel industry, which is

the main industrial energy consumer, have
dramatically reduced consumption by switching
from blast furnaces to the electric process, which
uses only half the energy. However, among
producers using the electric process, there are wide
national and regional variations (consumption in
China, Russia, Ukraine and Brazil is 1.5 to 2 times
higher than in Japan, for instance).
The potential for further annual energy savings
is estimated at around 40 per cent or 250 million
tonnes of oil equivalent (Mtoe), which is equivalent
to the energy consumption of France or Brazil.
Similar considerations apply in the cement
industry, the third-largest industrial energy
consumer; if the main producing countries were to
have the same energy efficiency as the worlds best
performers (Mexico, Germany and the US), the
INDIA, JAPAN AND A BROADER ASIA

Inviting foreign dignitaries to the Republic Day
festivities is a traditional affair in India. This year
the guest is special. Japans Prime Minister Shinzo
Abe will grace the occasion. His visit closely follows

one by Japans emperor and empress. Abes interest
in India is not new and his desire to forge closer
[49]

security ties between the two countries is wellknown.
As far as conflicts go, China seems to be actively

seeking them, goaded by its economic and military
might. But as American scholar Edward Luttwak
has said, what it does not seem to realize is this:
In a world of independent states, even the strongest
rising power can be overcome by the gathering of
adversaries summoned by the very increase of its
own strength. (The Rise of China vs. the Logic of
Strategy, 2012, P67).
Given this context and its own border disputes
and history with China, India has to make some
pragmatic choices. Hitching its ride to the Chinese
bandwagon will isolate it from Japan, Asean and,
most importantly, the US. Any Chinese overtures
to India at this point will have to be seen not as an
attempt by the former to forge long-term
meaningful ties but as an opportunistic pre-emption
of a possible Southeast Asian collaboration against
it.
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On a visit to India during his first term as prime

minister, Abe addressed Parliament in 2007 and
said that a broader Asia that broke away
geographical boundaries is now beginning to take
on a distinct form. Our two countries have the
abilityand the responsibilityto ensure that it
broadens yet further and to nurture and enrich
these seas to become seas of clearest
transparenceA number of times in history, Japan
and India have attracted one another.
reducing the collective force of Asean members.
Five years later he wrote in this newspaper and

said that Japan is a mature maritime democracy,
and its choice of close partners should reflect that
fact. I envisage a strategy whereby Australia, India,
Japan, and the US state of Hawaii form a diamond
to safeguard the maritime commons stretching from
the Indian Ocean region to the western Pacific.
(Asias Democratic Security Diamond, Mint, 1
January 2013).
India has strong, traditional ties with Japan.
Not only are their political ties deep but the latter
has great economic stake in India. From investment
in industry to bilateral developmental economic ties
to the industrial corridor in western India, Japan
has helped the country to the fullest extent. India
is one of the largest recipients of official
development assistance from Japan.
There is an additional dimension to these
relations. As India looks East to strengthen its
position in Southeast Asia and deepen ties with
Japan, it has to take cognizance of an emerging
China and its growing military ambitions.
China is embroiled in a series of territorial
disputes with one or a combination of countries
over islands in the East and South China Sea. The
Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei,
Indonesia and Japan, all claim that China is
encroaching on their territories. Apart from Japan
and Taiwan, all the other countries are members
of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(Asean), and have made collective efforts to counter
Chinas aggressive tactics.
Chinas strategy has always been to counter
these moves by dealing with each nation separately
and never through multilateral talks, thereby
Abe is one Asian leader who understands these

security dilemmas well. His strong efforts to build
closer defence and security ties should be viewed
as part of the continents China problem. It has
its own dispute with China over Senkaku Islands
in East China Sea. Japan is all too aware of Chinese
tactics. There is a natural affinity between India
and Japan in finding a solution to Chinas
aggressiveness.
If this is an important aspect of bilateral relations
with Japan, it is not their only determinant. These
ties have deeper roots and the business and
economic aspects have equal importance even if
these have been shadowed a bit by the security
relationship. No two countries can remain friendly
if their relationship is based on a single dimension.
India has much to offer Japana good base for
industrial investment with an abundance of cheap
labour. This is an opportunity India should not
lose. It should pay attention to nurturing economic
ties as well.
India would do well to heed the wise words of
Zbigniew Brzezinski, a former US national security
adviser, who once said that, A great deal of world
politics is a fundamental struggle but it is also a
struggle that has to be waged intelligently.
Source: Mint
SMALL CHANGE
The Geneva 2 conference on Syria began
ominously on Wednesday, when representatives of
the Bashar al-Assad regime and the Syrian
[50]
opposition refused to meet each other and resorted

to angry speeches, which threatened to forestall
the formal talks scheduled to begin on Friday.

The failure to get them face-to-face was
compounded by the government delegation
threatening to pull out if serious discussions didnt
begin by Saturday. With the opposition calling for
Assads removal as the starting point of peace
negotiations and the regime focused on fighting
what it calls terrorism, the divisions remain too
entrenched for a consideration of the 2012 Geneva
1 communiqu that called for a transitional
government.
The governments that Kerry and Lavrov

represent are both responsible for letting down
Syrians. Russia staunchly stood by its ally, Assad,
vetoing UN Security Council resolutions, even as
his troops went about their massacres. The Obama
administration first refused a timely intervention
that could have saved lives and prevented the
extremist hijack of opposition forces. It threatened
action too late and the deal on Assads chemical
weapons was brokered by Moscow, which took
the credit. Even now, the divide extends to the big
powers. Washington supports the oppositions
demand for Assads removal, while Moscow insists
he alone can run the country. Geneva 2 will be a
success if just the smaller, pragmatic agenda can
be secured.
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In realistic terms, Geneva 2 has been narrowed

to a smaller, concrete agenda, such as local
ceasefires and safe passage for aid convoys. The
larger political questions of the civil war, which
has killed 1,00,000 people and rendered 9.5 million
refugees, will have to wait. Three top diplomats,
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, US Secretary
of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov, couldnt convince the warring sides
about the need to discard the dispute over who
started the bloodshed and to look, instead, at ways

to end the violence. Their prime concern now is to
ensure that neither side walks out.
A MEASURE FOR RBI
The report of the Urjit Patel committee, which

has recommended that the RBI should be a flexible
inflation-addressing central bank that targets the
CPI at 4 per cent, is a welcome step towards making
it a modern central bank. As these columns have
long argued, the monetary policy framework for
India needs to clearly state the single predominant
objective of policy.
The lack of such a measure and the absence of
accountability owing to a multiple-objective
approach has given us persistently high inflation
since 2006. A single defined aim will allow the RBI
to focus on how to handle inflation and strengthen
its research capability for doing so, as well as be
accountable for the same. The framework and
voting mechanism for the monetary policy
committee (MPC) will make the RBI function like
a modern central bank that manages market
expectations based on its views. The
macroeconomic stability provided by low and stable
inflation will deliver higher GDP growth in the
long run.
An important element of the recommendation
is that CPI, which is the basket the common man
cares about, will be the inflation rate that the RBI
will target. There is no point in targeting the WPI,
which is no ones consumption basket. All other
countries that address inflation also target
consumer prices. A 4 per cent inflation rate is
realistic in India and will help anchor inflationary

expectations.
The flexibility around it provided by a plusminus 2 per cent band is sensible, given the weak
monetary policy transmission mechanism in the
country.
The RBI should immediately accept the
recommendations of the committee on the single
objective and measure of inflation. The policy
community has already debated this issue for a
decade and the three major committee reports on
financial sector reforms the Raghuram Rajan
committee, the Percy Mistry committee, and more
recently, the Financial Sector Legislative Reforms
Commission (FSLRC) have all recommended it.
The Indian Financial Code (IFC) recommended
by the FSLRC should now put this in the law, as
in other countries. Once codified in law, the RBI
will be accountable to Parliament and no governor
will be allowed to take arbitrary decisions about
monetary policy that violate the decision of the
MPC. That will add teeth to the monetary policy
framework of the RBI.
If accepted by the RBI, the committee report
will be the first step towards voluntary adoption of
governance-enhancing principles in the IFC and a
significant step forward in making Indian
regulators transparent and accountable.
[51]
REPRESSION AND REFERENDUM

installations.
With the military controlling a large part of the
economy and where many of its installations are
unknown or operate in the shadow of the real
economy, what prevents a military factory
producing macaroni from arresting a competitormanufacturer for questioning its pricing policies?
Sadly, the military regime has already proven itself
capable of and willing to cast a wide net on those
whom it deems to be enemies of the state.
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Egyptians were asked, yet again, to vote on a

constitution, but it was really about legitimising a
military coup detat. Since the military overthrew
the democratically elected president, Mohamed
Morsi, last summer, it has maintained that it was
acting on the will of the people. Led by General
Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, the Egyptian military has been
trying to dodge international criticism for
overthrowing a democratically elected government.
The censure of Egypt has included the United

States suspending valuable military and economic
aid, to the tune of $1.3 billion. While the Egyptian
military had gone to great lengths to show the
international community that it had some 30 million
people pour into the streets on June 30 to support
the coup, the question of how many really
supported it remains unknown.
In many ways, the referendum on the
constitution is about getting the electorate to show
its support for the coup and its disdain for the
Muslim Brotherhoods tenure in office. The
referendum has had little to do with the substance
of the constitution. After all, the majority of
Egyptians have not read the latest draft of the
constitution, not to mention the sad fact that 40
per cent of the population are illiterate.
But the military generals dont really care if
people have read the revised constitution. The latest
draft of the constitution is not very different from
the 2012 version rushed through by the
constitutional committee appointed by Morsi. This
version improves the language in some references
to women and minorities, but it still discriminates
against those from the non-Abrahamic religions and
still says that Egypt follows Islamic law.
The main change in this version is a cementing

of military and police autonomy and authority.
Military budgets and expenditures are now
constitutionally off-limits for inquiry or criticism.
There are estimates that the military holds 20 to 40
per cent of the Egyptian economy, which produces
everything from washing machines and macaroni
to arms. Now, the armed forces infiltration into
the already poor economy is protected from any
legal oversight. Further, the latest draft imposes
heavy penalties for anyone who insults or
undermines the military, its personnel and its
[52]
Today, political prisoners in Egypt include not

only the upper echelons of the Muslim Brotherhood,
but also youth groups, journalists, civil society actors
and others who have questioned the military regime
and its policies. Many of the youth leaders who
had organised movements to overthrow the Hosni
Mubarak regime are also imprisoned now for
undermining the state by questioning the coup
and its gag order on civil society.
Egypt is now one of the deadliest places for
journalists to operate in even worse than
Somalia, according to media freedom watch groups.
One political party, which tried to campaign with
posters in favour of voting no in the referendum,
found some of its staff arrested as well. Liberal
activists and former members of parliament not
aligned with the Brotherhood but critical of the
military regime coup are also barred from travelling
outside Egypt and are under gag orders.
This is the climate of censorship prevailing in
Egypt, and unfortunately, many Egyptians support
their military for restoring order and removing an
embarrassing dispensation like the Morsi regime.
According to the referendum results, the draft
constitution has won the support of a large
majority.
But then, those who would have voted against
the constitution were unlikely to participate in the
polls, in any case. What is worrying for the process
of democratisation in Egypt is that there is electoral
support for the coup and its military backers
much to the detriment of Egypts political
development. The referendum on the constitution is
a sideshow for the real threat facing Egypt: political
repression and censorship of liberal thought.
AT DAVOS, THE INDIA DIALOGUES

corruption initiative (PACI) will soon launch a
project focusing on how companies can achieve a
higher degree of transparency across complex
supply chains and assess the tools available and
best practices. The repository of PACI best practices
may focus on India as a pilot country.
YGLs in India come together to work on a range
of issues, including fostering peace across India and
Pakistan, working on government policy reform on
a specific set of themes and distributing deworming
pills in a large number of Indian schools. Each
Global Shaper hub is engaged in projects such as
mentoring college students, bringing transparency
in governance, gender sensitisation or educating
children living in slums. These initiatives, impactdriven projects and dialogues subsequently inform
the themes that we focus on during the annual
meeting in Davos.
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Since 1984, the World Economic Forum has

annually convened in India at its only countryfocused summit. This summit has contributed
substantially over the years to the promotion of
understanding and collaboration between the
international and Indian business communities. The
forums commitment to India continues. This year,
Kris Gopalakrishnan, the president of the
Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and vice
chairman of Infosys, is one of the seven official cochairs of the annual meeting in Davos.
The WEF has always acknowledged Indias
great importance in the global landscape. At this
years annual meeting, which kicks off tomorrow,
there are 130 Indian participants, 30 of whom have
roles in the official programme. Participants this
year include business and cultural leaders as well
as political figures such as the minister of finance,
P. Chidambaram, the minister of commerce and
industry, Anand Sharma, the minister of urban
development, Kamal Nath, the minister of state for
power, Jyotiraditya Scindia, and the deputy
chairman of the planning commission, Montek
Singh Ahluwalia.
The WEF has 109 Indian member companies,
which represents the second largest number of
member companies at the forum. Apart from
working with the top leadership in the Central
government, we are increasingly also working with
chief ministers of Indian states at the regional level.
Further, in India, a country where a large chunk

of the population is under 30, the forum has a
strong emphasis on engaging the youth of the
country. One example is our Young Global Leaders
(YGL) community, which brings together the
worlds most extraordinary leaders 40 years or
younger, and who are dedicated to jointly shaping
a better future. Similarly, the WEFs Global Shapers
community is a network of hubs developed and
led by young people between the ages of 20 and 30
who are exceptional in their potential, achievement
and drive.
Our goal at the forum is to bring together

member companies, governments, young leaders
and other constituents in a multi-stakeholder
environment. For instance, the healthy living
initiative is working with member companies to
systematically tackle type two diabetes in children
and parents through schools in the National Capital
Region. Similarly, the forums partnering against
With general elections on the horizon,

discussions on India at Davos will focus on how its
leaders can accelerate growth while restoring
investor confidence. What are the prospects for
further reform? What will be the impact of the
new governments stance on human capital
development and inclusive policymaking?
At Davos this year, India will also be part of
dialogues on the future of urban development,
where mayors, industry leaders and experts will
convene to highlight new ways that cities, citizens
and the private sector can tackle urban problems
like extreme slums, ageing infrastructure and
looming climate risks. Indian participants will also
be involved in sessions about how the world can
increase food availability while minimising
environmental impact using agricultural
innovations. The WEF recognises the key position
that India holds in the world, and the country will
feature in various sessions on issues of global
significance, ranging from achieving global gender
parity to discussing what should be on the agenda
for the global economy in the year ahead.
India will also be part of the BRICS dialogue,
as growth rates for Brazil, Russia, India, China
and South Africa remain at only half their precrisis levels, prompting concern that the golden age
of emerging-market growth appears to be over. We
believe that Indias growth story is far from over.
In spite of the current challenges of broken investor
confidence, political instability and social unrest,
much can be achieved through dialogue,
[53]

collaborative action and showcasing small and large
success stories on an international multi-stakeholder
platform.
Here in Davos, the general feeling is that 2014
will be an important year for India. The nation as
well as the world awaits the outcome of the largest

democratic exercise the general elections with
the hope that the future coalition government will
bring with it inclusive growth and greater global
influence.
SOCIAL AUDIT ISNT ENOUGH

Analysis of data from official audit reports of
almost 100 mandals during 2006-10, however,
shows that repeated social audits of MGNREGA
projects did not reduce the number of corruptionrelated labour complaints, while there was a
substantive rise in material-related complaints.
While a modest decline in administrative
complaints related to the non-provision of work
was observed, there was an increase in complaints
of missing records on material expenditures. The
impact of audits on other programme outcomes
employment generation, targeting of the SC/ST
population was absent. Increase in local
stakeholders awareness levels or in the number of
MGNREGA projects, selective repeated audits in
the more corrupt mandals and possible biases in
complaint registrations do not explain this.
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The recent pronouncements by the AAP on

measures to hold public officials accountable have
brought into sharp focus peoples participation and
social accountability as mechanisms to foster
transparency and improve the delivery of public
programmes. However, so far, there has been an
absence of rigorous evidence on the effectiveness
of the countrys sole community monitoring
initiative espoused by the MGNREGA back in 2005
social audits. Mandatory social audits prescribed
by the MGNREGA intend to empower beneficiaries
to scrutinise expenditures and keep track of
delivery. In spite of the widespread acclaim of social
audits as low-cost and powerful participatory tools,
a key question is whether community monitoring
has reduced corruption and improved MGNREGA
delivery. The assessment of the impact of the only
largescale and systematic social audits in the
country, in Andhra Pradesh, raises some key issues.
Even if a state government publicly announces

regular social audits, the first round of auditing,
because of limited state credibility, is likely to take
public officials (or transgressors) by surprise and
reveal large irregularities in basic programme
delivery. Furthermore, local MGNREGA
beneficiaries are expected to have high stakes in
employment availability and in timely payment,
while having sufficient initial capacity to detect
transgressions. We can thus anticipate an evolving
dynamic process, with more effective local
participation through learning, and improved
auditing after repeated audits. The drawback is
that transgressions may also become more
sophisticated. Monitoring may result in the
substitution of one type of irregularity for another,
as transgressors learn to manipulate the new
system.
Given these assumptions, if audits effectively
detect malpractices and the threat of punishment
is credible, the easy-to-detect irregularities (nonpayment of wages or ghost projects) should decline.
At the same time, we can expect more hard-todetect irregularities (those related to procurement
of materials) in later audit rounds.
[54]
The findings suggest that, despite increasing

awareness of beneficiaries and the greater capacity
of the audit process to detect irregularities, the
overall social audit effect on reducing easy-to-detect
malpractices was mostly absent. One can interpret
the rise in irregularities as an underlying change in
the anatomy of corruption and a failure of the social
audit process to deter leakage of programme funds.
What explains the apparent lack of effectiveness
of social audits in reducing malpractice? The
analysis of administrative data on social audit
findings in Andhra Pradesh suggests that followup and enforcement of punishments was weak.
While it is possible that this weakness has been
mitigated by the establishment of vigilance cells
post-2010, less than 1 per cent of irregularities, for
which one or multiple functionaries were held
responsible, ended in dismissal, removal or criminal
action. Even modest punishment such as
suspension, show-cause, or being deemed ineligible
for contractual work was meted out for less
than 3 per cent of detected irregularities. Further,
87 per cent of the missing amount was yet to be
recovered.
The responsibility for the implementation of a
project under MGNREGA is held collectively by
grassroots and block-level functionaries. Yet, the

responsibility for most irregularities was pinned on
a single gram panchayat level, contractual
functionary the field assistant, typically a resident
of the panchayat. Naming and shaming might
act as an effective deterrent for this particular
functionary. However, social sanctions are unlikely
to curtail malpractice among other functionaries,
who often escape responsibility (such as the block
development officer or assistant programme officer)
and/ or are panchayat non-residents (like branch
postmasters).
A second, critical takeaway is that, without

sufficient institutional support, the expectation that
beneficiary-led audits should spontaneously arise
is unsustainable. Systematic and regular audits
with beneficiary participation have not taken off
in other parts of the country. To ensure effective
bottom-up involvement, beneficiary participation
must be induced and strengthened through a
combination of top-down and grassroots
approaches.
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The effectiveness of social audits in deterring

theft and other malpractices may thus be
undermined by a single design weakness or slipup. A key lesson from the data analysis would
thus be to ensure social audits culminate in the
type of enforceable and credible contract that
allocates responsibilities, defines timelines and
ensures that those found guilty are promptly
penalised. The credibility of the social audit rests
ultimately on the ability and willingness of the
political and bureaucratic establishment to take

effective remedial action against offenders.
While the potential benefits of public

programmes are large, the costs of ensuring that
those benefits are realised through beneficiary-led
audits are low. But before community monitoring
can be scaled up in other parts of the country or
for other public programmes, we must strengthen
its credibility.
A BIT OF A SECRET
Following the White Industries decision in 2011,

the first ever bilateral investment treaty (BIT) award
against India, BITs have been in the news. BITs
entered between two countries allow investors of
one country to initiate investment treaty arbitration
(ITA) against the other (host) state if the latters
measures are not consistent with the investor rights
granted under the BIT. Foreign investors who had
hitherto ignored Indias BIT obligations have become
aware of their rights, and reports indicate that legal
notices have been served on the state by various
foreign investors threatening ITA.
UNCTAD reports that there are (at least) 12
known ITA claims against India, making it 11th in
the list of countries against whom ITA claims have
been raised. Late last year, Deutsche Telekom, a
German investor in Devas Multimedia, sought
damages of over $1.6 billion for the cancelled
satellite project between Antrix, ISROs marketing
arm, and Devas. Clear details are however not
available, and the government has not made any
disclosures about the case.
This complete lack of transparency relating to

ITAs is worrying. The number of claims, the
potential liability in issue, the status of the hearings,
the results of the awards are all matters where
information is available (if at all) only through
reports in the media. Even the White Industries
award, which was delivered in November 2011,

was available in the public domain only around
February 2012 after being published by a foreign
publisher. Similarly, recently a leading financial
daily indicated on the basis of reports that 17
(and not 12) ITA notices have been served on the
government.
The Indian government maintains silence
relating to ITAs against it, citing the
confidentiality of arbitral proceedings. This
understanding is misplaced. Confidentiality is no
doubt critical for private parties choosing to resolve
their purely private disputes through arbitration.
However, ITAs implicate different concerns.
First, the conduct and outcome of an ITA is an
essentially public activity since it involves the state
as a necessary party. Second, ITAs often involve
large claims against the state. An average ITA claim
is around $350 million, and a state normally wins
and loses ITAs in equal measure. To put this in the
Indian context, take the number of existing claims
against India as 12, and assume that India might
lose roughly half. The states potential liability
would be over $4 billion. Thats enough to sustain
a programme to employ 2,00,000 additional
primary school teachers for the next 10 years. Third,
an ITA award creates liability in international law
against the state, and can be used as a precedent
[55]

Third parties also have limited rights to make written
submissions in the ITA.
Inspiration can also be taken from the United
Nations Commission on International Trade Law,
which recently adopted a set of transparency rules
for ITAs. The aim of the rules is to make ITAs
accessible to the public. Subject to certain
exceptions, the rules require the hearings,
submissions, statements, orders, etc to be accessible
to the public. They also provide for third party
intervention and allow them to file written
submissions. The rules, however, come with a
caveat they are applicable, unless specifically
opted out of, only for new treaties entered into
after April 1 this year. For treaties before that date,
both states must specifically renegotiate to opt-in.
Since India has already executed BITs with most of
its bigger trade partners, the onus remains on the
government to incorporate the transparency rules
to cover disputes raised even under existing BITs.
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against that state by other investors. Fourth,

transparency in ITAs will assist potential investors
in assessing the risk to their investment in the state
and thereby promote informed investment. Finally,
an increasing number of ITAs seek to constrain a
states power to regulate its affairs. For instance,
there have been many ITA claims against India
resulting from the Supreme Courts order cancelling
2G licences. The allegation that in so doing, the
Indian state is in breach of its international
obligations raises important considerations regarding
judicial independence and is a significant public
issue.
It is in this context that the government ought

to recognise the broader interests involved in ITAs,
and work towards making ITAs more public both
in terms of greater transparency and increased
public participation. Most BITs entered into by India
do not have any requirement to maintain
confidentiality with respect to disputes arising under
them. Even with respect to BITs that have
confidentiality requirements, it is imperative that
the government take proactive steps to introduce
transparency provisions.
In so doing, India would be taking steps in a
direction endorsed by other countries and
multilateral bodies. For instance, both the US and
Canada already have transparency provisions in
their model BITs, requiring the main documents
and hearings of the ITA proceedings to be public.
ITA awards can have a significant impact on a

countrys conduct, finances and the welfare of its
people. Under the present system, there is no official
record available regarding the number of claims,
their status, the conduct of negotiation/ arbitration
proceedings and their eventual outcome. This
clearly has to change, and fast. Increased
transparency is necessary to maintain the
acceptability and credibility of the ITA system.
THE WEATHER REPORT
THE polar vortex that brought freezing

weather to North America chipped roughly $3
billion off American output in a week. It was a
reminder that extreme weather has economic
consequences even in the richest countries and that
climate changewhich may usher in even wilder
fluctuationsis likely to have a big economic
impact. A recent burst of studies look at how large
it may be, adding useful detail to the initial efforts,
such as the Stern review of 2010. The results
suggest that climate change may be having an
effect already; that the weather influences
economies through a surprisingly wide range of
channels; but that calculating the long-run effects
of climate change is harder than estimating the
short-run impact of weather.
The link between more heat and more poverty
is robust. Tropical countries are poorer. In a review
of the literature, Melissa Dell of Harvard University,
Benjamin Jones of Northwestern University and
[56]
Benjamin Olken of the Massachusetts Institute of

Technology find that, for each 1C rise in the
average temperature of a country, its GDP per head
is 8.5% lower. Another study of poor countries
alone showed that being 1C warmer in any given
year reduces income per head by 1.4%. These
findings would not have surprised Montesquieu,
who in 1748 argued that hot climates were inimical
to the material conditions of the good life.
But it does not follow that if global temperatures
were to rise by 1C because of climate change, then
world output would be 8.5% lower than it would
otherwise have been. Perhaps the correlation
between heat and poverty might exist because of
some third factor (for example, the presence of
malaria). If it were possible to change that factor
(ie, eradicate the disease), temperature might cease
to matter. Recently, tropical regions from southern
China to Rwanda have been among the worlds
most economically successful.

what happens at 76-80F. These are outdoor
activities, which may explain why workers fail to
show up. But a study of call centres also showed
that each 1C rise between 22C and 29C cut
labour productivity by 1.8%. And in car factories
in America, a week of outside temperatures above
90F reduced output by 8%. Perhaps the heat
disrupts the supply chainor perhaps air
conditioners fail to work properly.
Lastly, the weather influences basic conditions
of life and hence factors of production. In America
each additional day above 32C raises the annual
age-adjusted mortality rate by 0.1% relative to a
temperate day (10-15C). In India the rate increases
by almost 0.8%. Heatwaves cause early deaths
(especially of mothers and infants) and, by affecting
the harvest, damage nutrition. This in turn has longlasting effects on the economy.
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However, a correlation also exists between heat

and growth, suggesting a longer-run effect. Despite
some successes, tropical countries grew by 0.9
percentage points a year more slowly than the
global average in 1965-90. In a sample of 28
Caribbean countries national output fell by 2.5%
for each 1C of warming. Again, this does not prove
that high temperatures were to blame. But the
correlation is strong enough to make it worth
investigating whether the weather itself might be
dragging down countries growth rates directly. The
new literature suggests several ways in which it
might do that.
First, natural disasters still wreak a lot of

damage. One study reckons cyclones pushed down
the worlds annual GDP growth by 1.3 points in
1970-2008. (Poor countries suffer disproportionately
because they are more vulnerable to such disasters.)
So if global warming were associated with more
extreme weather, it would lower growth.
Next, higher temperatures and worse droughts
tend to reduce farm yields. This hurts poor and
middle-income countries most because agriculture
has a bigger share in their GDP. To take one case,
a decline in rainfall of one standard deviation cuts
Brazilian farm incomes by 4%. But the agricultural
effect of changing weather varies a lot. There seems
to be a threshold of 29-32C below which rising
temperatures can be beneficial; above it they are
sharply harmful. With some crops, rising nighttime temperatures do more damage than rising
noontime ones. Farmers also adapt to higher
temperatures by planting new crops or by
emigrating to cities. So the impact of rising
temperatures on farming is heterogeneous and hard
to measure.
It is often assumed that the economic effects of

climate change will be confined mainly to poor
countries. That may be wrong. A study of time-use
surveys and temperatures in the United States
found that when temperatures reach 100F (38C),
the labour supply in farming, forestry, construction
and utilities falls by an hour a day, compared with
Uncertain, with a chance of sub-optimal

equilibrium
Almost all these correlations derive from

weather data from the past five or ten years. But
drawing conclusions about climate changewhich
takes place over hundreds of yearsis perilous.
Even more than with farming, the impact of climate
change will be non-linear: changes may be modest
up to a point, then turn dramatic. Meanwhile,
people can adapt in important ways to changing
conditions. This makes simple extrapolation
nonsense.
But the new literature is a start. It shows how
information in models of climate impactrecently
described as completely made upcan be
improved. It shows the multiple channels that
economists of the climate must heed. It suggests
that climate change is not something that will affect
only poor countries, or hit rich ones only in the
distant future. Andwho knowsit may one day
show how public policy, now so ineffective, might
stem the emissions that are causing the mess in the
first place.
[57]
CHRONICLE
IAS ACADEMY

27TH JANUARY 2014 TO 2ND FEBRUARY 2014
Call: 9953120676, 9582263947

CONTENTS
TOPICS
Pg. No.
National ....................................................................................................................... 3-13

International ............................................................................................................. 14-17
Economy .................................................................................................................... 21-25
Health ......................................................................................................................... 29-29
News in Brief........................................................................................................... 30-37
Who will Pay for A Skilled Workforce ? ................................................................................................... 38
Nuts and bolts of financial inclusion .......................................................................................................... 39
Bitter medicine.................................................................................................................................................... 40
Raised rate, lowered sentiment ..................................................................................................................... 41
Every entry needs an exit ............................................................................................................................... 42
Time we pushed Asean pact on services ................................................................................................... 42
Rwanda: from genocide to growth miracle .............................................................................................. 44
Good laws, bad implementation ................................................................................................................... 45
Rights and resentment ..................................................................................................................................... 46
Keeping people and tiger safe ....................................................................................................................... 47
Keeping india at bay ........................................................................................................................................ 47
Japan, India and the balance of power ..................................................................................................... 49

On the wrong side ............................................................................................................................................ 51
Redeeming the supreme court ....................................................................................................................... 53
Indias Syria venture ........................................................................................................................................ 55
The agony of awaiting death ........................................................................................................................ 56
A lost opportunity ............................................................................................................................................. 57
Tension in Ukraine ........................................................................................................................................... 58
A new lesson from school .............................................................................................................................. 58
Bending towards justice .................................................................................................................................. 60
Building a new school system ....................................................................................................................... 61
Indo-japanese ties in the fast lane ............................................................................................................... 63
How to grow at 8.5% ...................................................................................................................................... 64
Regulate pharma to be truly world class .................................................................................................. 65
Indian pharmas twin woes ........................................................................................................................... 66
Did Womens Lib Raise Income Disparity ................................................................................................. 66
NATIONAL
UNESCO: INDIA HAS 287mn ILLITERATE ADULTS
UNESCOs recent report Education For All Global
Monitoring Report (GMR) reveals that India currently
has the largest population of illiterate adults in the
world with 287 million. This is 37 per cent of the
global total. While Indias literacy rate rose from 48
per cent in 1991 to 63 per cent in 2006.
Similarly, India is in the top bracket of countries

likely to achieve a primary enrolment target of at
least 95 per cent by 2015. This league includes
Australia, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany,
Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway,
Sweden, United Kingdom and United States.
One of the reasons for the learning crisis is

teacher governance, with the report saying that
absenteeism varied from 15% in Maharashtra and
17% in Gujarat two richer states to 38% in
Bihar and 42% in Jharkhand, two of the poorest
states.
However, the report questions the quality of

education; placing India among the 21 countries
facing an extensive learning crisis. Referring to
the new analysis, the GMR states that less than
half of the children were learning the basics in 21
of the 85 countries with full data available. India
features in this list along with 17 countries from
sub-Saharan Africa, Mauritania, Morocco and
Pakistan.
People Moving for Education: On the other side

in an attempt to get better education several young
Indians move to different Indian states to pursue
an education. In the last 10 years, a total of 37 lakh
moved to get a degree, showing that a discouraging
academic landscape near home is no longer keeping
its youth from travelling to the brighter lights
elsewhere.
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There are better tidings for India at the preprimary and primary level. India features among
the countries likely to achieve the pre-primary
enrolment target of at least 70 per cent by 2015
along with countries like Australia, Austria, Canada,
Denmark, Norway, Sweden and United Kingdom.
These are among the many alarming findings

in UNESCOs 11th Education For All (EFA) Global
Monitoring Report, which states that despite
progress, most EFA goals are likely to be missed by
2015. According to the report, the pace in achieving
universal primary education, lower secondary
education and youth literacy is woefully slow for
many countries in the region, especially for the
disadvantaged. With respect to India, it said while
the richest young women have already achieved
universal literacy, the poorest are projected to do
so only by 2080.
Part of the learning crisis has been attributed

to the ambitious curriculum drawn out for children
in India; including disadvantaged learners.
Contrasting this to Vietnam where the
curriculum focuses on foundation skills and is
closely matched to what children are able to learn,
especially disadvantaged learners.
Moreover in India, even after completing four
years of school, 90% of children from poorer
households remain illiterate. And this also holds
true for around 30% of kids from poorer homes
despite five to six years of schooling.
Besides, only 44% of rural students in the Std

V age group in Maharashtra and 53% in Tamil
Nadu could perform two-digit subtraction. And it
will take another 66 years for poor young women
of the country to achieve universal literacy.
[4]
Departure rate among young men wanting to

pursue an education is higher, for 26 lakh shifted
as compared to 11 lakh women. Of those, 6.2 lakh
youths (or 17%) moved to a new state; 16.8 lakh
shifted to another district within their home state
in the last 10 years. Karnataka received the largest
exodus 1.8 lakh from other states and Uttar
Pradesh sent out most students 1.1 lakh.
The most important states from the perspective
of migration for education are Delhi, Maharashtra,
Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh,
Kerala, West Bengal and Rajasthan. Of these states,
Delhi, Maharashtra, Karnataka are the main
destinations (i.e. attracting migrants from other
states), whereas Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala,
Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Rajasthan are
the main source states of migrants.
Weekly Current Affairs 27th January to 2nd February, 2014
INDIA RANKED 155th ON EPI

India has been titled 155th position in a global
list that places countries on how well they perform
on high-priority environmental issues. The 2014
Environmental Performance Index (EPI) has ranked
178 countries in total. Among them, India is placed
at the 155th position, with an index score of 31.23
points. Its rank is also much lower than BRICS
peers.
The index is prepared by researchers at Yale

and Columbia Universities in collaboration with
the World Economic Forum (WEF) as well as with
support from the Samuel Family Foundation and
the McCall MacBain Foundation.
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Among the BRICS, South Africa was placed at

the 72nd rank with an index score of 53.51, followed
by Russia (73rd rank, 53.45 points), Brazil (77th
rank, 52.97 points) and China (118th rank, 43
points). Besides, India has fared poorly compared
to neighbouring countries like Nepal and Pakistan
which are ranked 139th and 148th, respectively.
The overall list is topped by Switzerland followed
by Luxembourg, Australia, Singapore, and Czech
Republic.
align. When data and measurement are poor or

not in concert with policy priorities, natural and
human systems suffer. The index also demonstrates
what happens when countries are unable to
prioritise environmental management.
EPI ranks how well countries perform on highpriority environmental issues mainly in the areas
of protection of human health from environmental
harm and protection of ecosystems. It also states
that improved environmental results are possible
when measurement and management practices
The 178 nations in the index represent 99 per

cent of the global population, 98 per cent of the
worlds total land area, and 97 per cent of the
global GDP. As per the report, the bottom five
performers - Somalia, Mali, Haiti, Lesotho, and
Afghanistan - all are grappling with civil unrest,
significant economic development pressures, and
political turmoil.
The emerging economies represent 55 per cent
of global growth from the end of 2009 to 2012.
Urbanisation without sufficient investment in
environmental safeguards is a key reason for
emerging economies poor showing when it comes
to air quality, biodiversity and habitat protection.
CIILS PROGRAMME FOR TEACHERS GOING WELL
Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL),

new language education programme for teachers
to enhance the capabilities of teachers is getting
good response. The teachers are trained in another
Indian language under the 10-month language
programme.
The other objective of the programme is
nurturing tolerance for diversity and heralding the
importance of language education in mental
development and knowledge production. More
than 7,000 candidates have undergone the
programme successfully.
Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL)
was established to coordinate the development of
Indian Languages, to bring about the essential unity
of Indian Languages through scientific studies,
promote inter disciplinary research, contribute to
mutual enrichment of language.
This programme will help the learners to
enhance their skills. Learning different languages

would enable one to broaden his/her mental
horizon, develop cognitive abilities, enhance
communicative competence and support the theory
of multi-lingualism.
For instance,if a teacher is from Karnataka, he
or she would be allowed to learn another Indian
language. The training will be put to use after the
teacher returned to the home State, where about
10 students will be trained in that language.
CIIL would pay the teacher based on their last
pay certificate for the period of the course. The
full-time diploma course in language education
would be conducted involving school teachers,
researchers, minority language speakers and
postgraduates in languages and allied
subjects.Candidates can choose from any of the 20
scheduled languages in the seven regional centres
of CIIL situated in different parts of the country.
ATTRITION RATE OF PARAMILITARY FORCES IS INCREASING

Tough working conditions and career stagnation
is forcing officers of paramilitary forces to quit in
Weekly Current Affairs 27th January to 2th February, 2014
large numbers. In the past one year, the forces have

seen an alarming increase in the number of officers
[5]

resigning within 4-5 years of service. A total of 80
officers have resigned in forces such as CRPF, BSF,
CISF and ITBP in 2013.
This is 30% more than the figures for 2012.Until
now, only high rate of voluntary retirement of
jawans in the lower ranks had remained a concern
for the forces. In that area too, however, 2013 has
turned out to be one of the worst with around
8,500 jawans leaving the four forces (even as figures
for SSB and Assam Rifles are not included).
To make matters worse, while voluntary

retirement among officers has been decreasing,
resignations are increasing. While 57 officers took
VRS in 2012, only 53 chose it in 2013. Conversely,
while 57 officers resigned in 2012.
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Many officers have run away from the middle

of their training in the private sector or elsewhere.
Only recently, 19 officers of CRPF quit even as
their training for induction in the force was on. As
many as 11 others resigned within five years of
service. CRPF, which is the principal force fighting
Naxals in the inhospitable jungles of central and
east India, alone has seen 46 resignations, almost
double compared to last year.
UGC HOLDS THE POWER ON TECHNICAL INSTITUTES
University Grants Commissions takeover of All

India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) is
complete as far as degree-granting technical
institutes are concerned. UGC has formally notified
the regulations to be followed by technical institutes
affiliated to universities.
UGCs regulations come in the wake of a
Supreme Court order which negated AICTEs
power to grant approval to technical colleges
affiliated to universities. With new regulations in
place, it is unlikely that AICTEs hope of getting its
power restored through amendment of AICTE Act
will be realized anytime soon. But AICTE can
continue to regulate diploma-granting institutions.
UGC regulation makes it mandatory for a
college to first seek affiliation from the university
before starting academic activities. A new college
proposing to offer technical education can be

created by introducing one or more programmes
housed either in one or separate buildings.
The new college shall be granted affiliation
when it is on one contiguous plot of land except
for those in north-eastern and other hilly states
where it can spread into three pieces of land, not
far from one another, by more than one kilometer.
Apart from a host of regulations, technical
institutes will have to keep 50% faculty from general
shift for the evening shift. Each part-time course
will be managed by 20% core staff i.e. minimum
one associate professor and two assistant professors.
Guest faculty should not be more than 30% to be
sourced from neighbouring industries/R&D
organizations/government technical colleges.
NINC & MSME ANNOUNCED IIIF
The National Innovation Council (NInC) and

the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium
Enterprises (MSME) announced the creation of the
India Inclusive Innovation Fund (IIIF). The fund
seeks to combine innovation and the dynamism of
enterprise to solve the problems of citizens at the
bottom of the economic pyramid in India.
The IIIF seeks to create a new class of capital
which helps set up and scale entrepreneurial skills
and innovation. The fund will invest in innovative
ventures that are scalable, sustainable and therefore
profitable, but address social needs of the less
[6]
privileged citizens in areas such as healthcare, food,

nutrition, agriculture, education and skill
development, energy, financial inclusion, water,
sanitation employment generation, etc.
The fund will be registered under SEBIs
Alternative Investment Fund Category I guidelines
with an initial corpus of Rs. 500 crores, with the
Ministry of MSME committing to 20 per cent (Rs
100 crores) and the balance being given by banks,
insurance companies and overseas financial and
development institutions.

The funds eventual aim is to expand the corpus
to Rs. 5,000 crores over the next 24 months. The
NInC was set up by the Prime Minister to create
an Indian model of innovation.
The government would not be involved in the

day to day operations of the fund, and it would be
entrusted to an Asset Management Company.
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Lack of capital has been one of the major

reasons why ventures and entrepreneurs seeking
to address the needs at the base of the economic
pyramid have failed to take off, with IIIF seeking
to address exactly this gap. At least 50 per cent of
its investments initially would be to enterprises that
fall in the MSME stage.
The IIIF would also partner the entire ecosystem

in this space, including incubators, angel groups,
and also public research and development
programmes and laboratories to support the
commercialisation and deployment of socially
relevant innovative technologies and solutions.
SC GAVE RELIEF OF 2 YRS TO THE MINING UNITS
The Supreme Court stayed the application to

Odisha of a letter from the Union Ministry of
Environment and Forests to all states, allowing
mining units whose licences had expired to
continue operations for two more years. About 590
licensees are operating in forest areas and the
permission for 350 had expired.
In another order referring to Odisha, the Bench
directed the state government to set up a special
purpose vehicle (SPV) for the welfare of tribals
affected by mining. This is on the pattern of the
SPV devised by the court in 2008 in the Vedanta

case.
Half the net present value of money recovered
from mines breaching environmental conditions
will finance the SPV. This must be utilised for
inclusive growth of tribal people and
development work. The order further said the
government, in consultation with the CEC, shall
present a comprehensive plan for tribal
development, taking into account the needs for
health, education, livelihood and other parameters.
Shah Panel pegs illegal mining in Odisha at

Rs 59,000 cr
Coorporation and M/s Serajuddin dug up iron

ore and manganese much beyond the permissible
level, the total amount of iron ore extracted from
those between 2005-06 to 2011-12 was 5,24,142
million tonne. Its total sale value at Rs 19,99,847.5
crore.
Keonjhar and Sundargarh are among the

poorest districts of Orissa with a majority
population living below poverty line. If the value
of the iron ore and manganese mined in
Sundargarh and Keonjhar districts for one year is
given to the tribal families of the two Orissa districts,
each of the tribals would be richer by Rs 9.43 lakh,
says justice MB Shah Commission in its report on
Orissa mining irregularities. The commission has
put the Orissa illegal mining figure at Rs 59,000
crore.
In the two districts, where 79 companies

including Tata Steel, Essel Mining, Orissa Mining
The commission in its report said that even if

10 per cent of the average income from the sale
of iron ore between 2004-05 to 2011-12 is utilised
for providing basic facilities such as drinking
water, roads, hospitals and schools, the districts
would have well-knit basic facilities. The
commission has advised the government to adopt
auctioning of iron ore and manganese for
maximisation of revenue.
MINIMUM 2-YEAR TERM MUST FOR IAS, IPS, IFOS
According to the new rules aimed at checking

political interference, the government has notified
that the officers of the three premier services IAS,
IPS and IFoS will now spend a minimum of two
years in each posting.
However, transfers and postings before two
years will be done by a Civil Services Board to be
constituted by states under the new rules circulated
by Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT)
of the central government. A cadre officer,
appointed to any cadre post, shall hold the office

for at least two years unless he or she is promoted,
retired or sent on deputation outside the state or
for training exceeding two months. States have
now been mandated to constitute a civil services
board, which is to be headed by the chief secretary.
However, the competent authority may reject
the recommendation of the Civil Services Board by
recording the reasons for the same.
[7]

For transfer and postings of Indian
Administrative Service officers, the board will have
the senior-most Additional Chief Secretary or
Chairman, Board of Revenue or Financial
Commissioner, or an officer of equivalent rank and
status as member, and Principal Secretary or
Secretary of the Department of Personnel in the
state government, as member secretary.
Supreme Court has commenced hearing to

examine the constitutional validity of the law which
makes it mandatory for the CBI to take approval of
the competent authority to probe senior bureaucrats
in corruption cases. A five-judge Constitution Bench,
headed by Justice R.M. Lodha, will decide on the
validity of Section 6A of the Delhi Special Police
Establishment Act, 1946, which protects senior
bureaucrats from being directly probed by the CBI.
The first petition was filed in 1997 by BJP leader
Subramanian Swamy and the Centre for Public
Interest Litigation (CPIL) in 2004.They contended
that the movement of the law gets affected by
Section 6A, as it manifested in the 2G spectrum
and coal blocks allocation scams.
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For the posting and transfer of Indian Police

Service officers, the board will have two more
members Principal Secretary or Secretary, Home,
and the Director General of Police.
SC: CBI to take approval to probe senior

bureaucrats
For Indian Forest Service officers as well, the

board is to have two additional members
Principal Secretary or Secretary, Forest, and the
states Principal Chief Conservator of Forest.
NRLM & DIGITAL GREEN INKED MOU
A memorandum of understanding has been

signed between the National Rural Livelihoods
Mission and Digital Green for a Microsoft Research
Project. National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM)
is a poverty alleviation project implemented by
Ministry of Rural Development Government of India.
This scheme is focused on promoting selfemployment and organization of rural poor. The
basic idea behind this programme is to organize the
poor into SHG (Self Help Groups) groups and make
them capable for self-employment The NRLM was
the biggest programme for women empowerment.
Digital Green aims to exchange livelihood

practices among rural communities using locally
produced videos and mediated dissemination. Its
innovative ICT-based approach focusses on lowcost and effective, peer-to-peer learning processes
which seek to empower poor households for
increasing productivity and incomes sustainably. It
builds on and strengthens the existing extension
systems of public, private, and civil society
organisations to be more effective and efficient.
ROAD MINISTRY SET TO MODIFY EXIT POLICY
In a move that would allow road developers to

free up capital and speed up execution of delayed
projects, the road ministry is set to modify its exit
policy and make it easier for new investors to enter
and replace existing ones. If the proposal kick-starts
road projects, it would resume cash flows to these
projects and also unlock bad loans owed by
financial institutions.
Accordingly, the ministry has tweaked the
policy it formed and allowed concessionaires to
divest their stake in the road projects without
necessarily forming new special purpose vehicles
(SPVs). Earlier policy permitted a promoter an early
exit provided all promoters agreed to offload their
stakes and form a fresh SPV with a new
composition of promoters.
Doing away with the requirement of forming a
[8]
new SPV would mean that lenders of the project

will not have to carry out fresh due diligence and
that the project will not need fresh clearances like
environment and forest clearances. In addition, the
substituting developer will also be entitled to the
same tax exemptions.
The government had approved a new exit policy
for highway projects in June 2013 that relaxed the
exit norms by allowing concessionaires to exit both
ongoing and completed highway projects. Earlier,
a concessionaire could exit only two years after the
start of commercial operations for contracts
awarded after 2009. For projects awarded before
2009, a complete exit was not allowed. A
concessionaire could sell 74% equity after the date
of start of commercial operations, but had to hold
26% in the project until the end of the concession
period.

According to the draft, the substitution process
will be subject to lenders and NHAIs approval.
The concessionaire substituting during the
construction period will be required to have similar
technical and construction capabilities as the
outgoing concessionaire. For completed projects, the
substituting entity should have adequate experience
of operating and maintaining road projects by itself

or through its associates or subsidiary.
The proposal to ease the lock-in period for
developers was first mooted 18 months ago and
was expected to free up capital for investment in
new projects. It was also expected to revive projects
stuck due to the financial distress of the developer.
SC VERDICT REMAIN UNCHANGED

Amid huge outrage against the judgment, the
Centre had also filed a review petition in the apex
court seeking a relook to avoid grave miscarriage
of justice to thousands of LGBT persons who have
been aggrieved by the apex court judgment
contending it is unsustainable as it suffers from
errors.
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The Supreme Court refused to reconsider its

verdict that affirmed the legality of Section 377
and criminalised gay sex, dealing a severe blow to
the governments attempt to get the law changed
through a legal rather than parliamentary process.
In a big setback to the LGBT community, the
Supreme Court had on December 11 set aside the
Delhi high court judgment decriminalizing gay sex
and thrown the ball into Parliaments court for
amending the law.
The judgment revived the penal provision
making gay sex an offence punishable with life
imprisonment in a setback to people fighting a battle
for recognition of their sexual preferences.
Under Section 377, voluntary carnal intercourse
against the order of nature with any man, woman
or animal is punishable with imprisonment from
10 years to life. On December 11, 2013, the Supreme
Court ruled that gay sex was an offence
irrespective of age and consent, overturning the
July 2009 Delhi High Court verdict that found
Section 377 to be violative of Articles 14, 15 and 21
of the constitution.
Challenging the verdict, Naz Foundation had

said in its review plea that the verdict is contrary
to the well-settled legal principles of the
Constitution and proscribing certain sexual acts
between consenting adults in private, demeans and
impairs the dignity of all individuals under Article
21, irrespective of their sexual orientation.
While setting aside the July 2, 2009 judgment
of the Delhi high court, the apex court had held
that Section 377 (unnatural sexual offences) of the
IPC does not suffer from the vice of
unconstitutionality and that the declaration made
by the high court is legally unsustainable.
CMS SET FOR LAUNCH
The Central Monitoring System (CMS) which

is the centres highly advanced telecom and Internet
surveillance project is in its final stage of
deployment. It is expected that in early 2014,
several of the States will go live on the CMS,
making the existing surveillance and monitoring
mechanism as well as the manual intervention of
telcos and ISPs, redundant. The CMS will work
with the operators existing LI systems to provide
nationwide interception.
Even as the Government is rapidly transitioning

interception of voice calls, SMS and emails to the
CMS, there is still no framework in place to ensure
against misuse or infringements of privacy. Yet,
there has been no word on the legal and procedural
framework under which the countrys security
agencies can track phone calls, voice over Internet
protocol (VoIP) and e-mails in real time.
In seven of the 11 states covered in the first

phase, the Centre for Development of Telematics
(C-DoT), a government agency has already installed
the equipment for this massive snooping
programme. Over 50 per cent of the overall testing
is over. It has been completed in Delhi and is
underway in Haryana.
Tests for remote provisioning and those
related to protocol testing are underway. The
Intercept Storage and Forwarding (ISF) servers of
the Government are being tested for integration
with the telcos and ISPs legal intercept (LI) system.
Additionally, the license conditions of telecom
operators, which currently place the obligation for
surveillance on the operators, are being amended
by the Government; Section 419(A) of the Indian
Telegraph Rules related to interception, will also
be amended soon.
[9]

Under the new system, the telecom operator or
ISP will have no role in the interception of nearly
850 million fixed lines and 200 million Internet users
on a real time basis through secure Ethernet
leased lines. The authorised agency will send the
interception request to a designated government
department and the interception made without the
knowledge of telecom operators or ISPs.
The central agencies authorised to seek

monitoring are the Intelligence Bureau, Narcotics
Control Bureau, Directorate of Enforcement, CBDT,
DRI, CBI, NIA, R&AW, Directorate of Signal
Intelligence, and the Ministry of Defence for prespecified areas. At the State level, they are the DGP
and in Delhi, the Commissioner of Police.
ASSAMARUNACHAL DISPUTED LAND REPORT SUBMITTED

Forest. After this, Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) has
been deployed and it would patrol the inter-state
boundary to contain violence.
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In the recent report submitted by the panel to

Ministry of Home Affairs states that the disputed
land around the interstate boundary should be
given back to Arunachal Pradesh. In order to
resolve the border disputes between Assam and
Arunachal Pradesh, Supreme Court formed a three
member committee. The Committee report will be
examined by the Supreme Court. The boundary
dispute has led to violent clashes and protest
between the two states. Ten people have been killed
and eight injured in a deadly dispute over land in
Assam. The clash took place near the Behali Reserve
Arunachal Pradesh was declared a separate

state in 1987. Since then, the state has had a
boundary dispute with neighbouring state of Assam.
Eight districts of Assam including Baksa, Dhemaji,
Dibrugarh, Lakhimpur, Sivasagar, Sonitpur,
Tinsukia and Udalguri share the border with
Arunachal Pradesh.
ENVIRONMENT MINISTRY ADDS 4 NEW REGIONAL OFFICES
Environmental ministry has set up four new

regional offices to step up its monitoring at the
state level at Chennai, Dehradun, Nagpur and
Ranchi to add to its existing five. Officials at these
offices, apart from monitoring and evaluating
schemes, will inspect sites where forest land is being
diverted for industrial use, before forest clearance
is granted.
The new offices are being set up to comply with

the Supreme Courts 2011 order in the so-called
Lafarge case, and to facilitate more frequent
inspections and in-depth scrutiny and appraisal of
the proposals.
In the 2011 Lafarge judgement, the apex court

had allowed French cement maker Lafarge SA to
mine limestone in the forests of Meghalaya. It had
also asked the government to make a temporary
arrangement for a forest clearance till a national
environment regulator was set up. Setting up more
regional offices was also a part of this judgement.
The five existing regional offices of the
environment ministry are at Bangalore, Bhopal,

Bhubaneswar, Lucknow and Shillong. The
headquarters of all the regional offices is at New
Delhi, which monitors and evaluates forestry
development projects, with an emphasis on their
conservation. The headquarters of the new offices
will remain the same.
Regional offices are empowered to approve
diversion of forest land for projects of less than five
hectares (except mining and regularization of
encroachment) and to process clearance for project
between five hectares and 40 hectares in
consultation with state advisory groups.
In projects involving diversion of more than 100
hectares of forest land, regional officials conduct
site inspections and monitor the implementation of
conditions and safeguards imposed by the
environment ministry while granting forest
clearance. The forest advisory committee (FAC),
which recommends if forest clearance should be
granted for a project, generally asks the regional
offices to conduct the site inspections.
INDIAS AVIATION MOVES DOWN AT SAFETY RANKING

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
downgraded Indias aviation safety ranking,
bringing it below Pakistan and at par with countries
[10]
like Ghana, Barbados and Bangladesh. Air

passengers to and from the US may have to face
the brunt as Indian airplanes would have to go

through more engineering and other safety checks
on the American soil.
As per the FAA, the downgrade means that
the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA)
does not meet the safety standards set by UN agency
International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).
The downgrade does not mean that these airlines
are unsafe but show that the DGCAs safety
oversight is not enough to properly monitor safety
performance of Indian carriers.
FAA
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is
the national aviation authority of the United States.
An agency of the United States Department of
Transportation, it has authority to regulate and
oversee all aspects of American civil aviation. The
Federal Aviation Act of 1958 created the
organization under the name Federal Aviation
Agency. The agency adopted its current name in
1966 when it became a part of the U.S. Department
of Transportation. Its role includes regulating U.S.
commercial space transportation; regulating air
navigation facilities; encouraging and developing
civil aeronautics; issuing, suspending or revoking
pilot certificates; researching and developing the
National Airspace System and civil aeronautics etc.
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The FAA downgrade of Indias safety rankings

would effectively bar Air India and Jet Airways
from increasing flights to the US from the current
level. They would also not be able to enter into any
new code-share relationships with any US airline.
Category II means the aviation safety records of

these countries do not meet ICAO standards.
Pakistan is placed in Category I.
FAA conducts the International Aviation Safety

Assessment Program (IASA) to assess the civil
aviation authorities of each country that has carriers
operating to the US. It has only two categories and
FIVE PLUS FREE PLAN DOESNT PROVE USEFUL
Five Plus Free plan aimed to dispose of all cases

which have been pending for more than five years
is still under question mark. After following it for
two years, RTI replies it can take three decades to
dispose the cases.
Criminal cases instituted as early as 1982 are
still lying pending in the trial courts. This is despite
Supreme Court judgements and circulars issued by
Delhi high court asking subordinate courts to
conduct day-to-day trials. Even cases of serious
offences like domestic violence and attempt to
murder, which involve a maximum punishment of
life imprisonment are pending for two decades.
The judiciary has time and again launched
drives to reduce pendency, with a focus on old
cases. In 2012, higher judiciary had asked lower
court judges to identify cases pending for over
five years. The courts were asked to dispose of such
cases within six months. Despite the Five Plus Free
drive being in operation for two years decade-old

cases are yet to see light of day.
In one of the magisterial courts, the 10 oldest
cases were all filed in the 1990s and deal with
Section 498A (cruelty against woman by husband
and relatives of husband). In another court, customs
cases dating back to 1980s are pending. Charges
have not been framed in one of the cases.
The state of affairs in trial courts remains
abysmal even after Delhi high courts direction that
district courts are to comply with Section 309 of
Criminal Procedure Code in letter and spirit.
Section 309 of CrPC makes it mandatory for a court
to conduct day-to-day hearing until all the
witnesses in attendance have been examined, unless
the court finds the adjournment of the same beyond
the following day to be necessary for reasons to be
recorded.
JOBLESSNESS AMONG RURAL YOUTH IS HIGHEST, SURVEY
Joblessness among the youth aged 15 to 29 years

in rural areas has hit the highest level since 199394. Official five-yearly survey data shows, about
5% of rural young men and women remained
without jobs in 2011-12.
Rural unemployment was about 4.7% for both

rural males and females in 2009-10. In 1993-94,
3.5% of rural young men in the labour force had
no jobs. The corresponding figure was 1.9% for

young women in rural areas.
Experts said a rising trend in the unemployment
rate in rural areas could indicate a structural shift
in the labour market that policymakers have not
adequately addressed. These data are very
worrying because they show how the declines in
agricultural employment have not been met by
[11]

rising jobs in other activities, since only construction
has shown a significant increase. So there are few
options for the growing number of youth who have
gone through more secondary and tertiary
education.
To be sure, higher unemployment among youth,

particularly educated youth, has always been
higher when compared to the overall average of
all age groups. The unemployment rate among
educated youth was 8.1 % for rural males, 15.5 %
for rural females, 11.7 % for urban males and 19.8%
for urban females, the report shows. The trend of
urban unemployment rates, in general and for
youth, being higher than those in rural areas
continued in 2011-12.
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Workforce in agriculture fell below 50% for the

first time in 2011-12.The proportion of workers
engaged in agricultural activities fell from 81% in
1977-78 to 63% in 2009-10 to 59 % in 2011-12 for
rural males and from 88% in 1977-78 to 79% to 75
% in 2011-12 for rural females, the National Sample
Survey Offices survey reports show.
unemployed young persons at 18.7%, followed by

Assam and Kerala.
The report said, Over the years, there has been

considerable increase in the proportion of workers
engaged in construction. Between 1977-78 and
2011-12, the increase in the proportion of workers
in construction was about 11 percentage points
for rural males, 6 percentage points for rural
females, 7 percentage points for urban males and
2 percentage points for urban females.
In rural areas, Kerala had the worst record
with 21.7% of its youth unemployed followed by
Assam with about 15% and Uttarakhand with
about 11% youth unemployed. In urban areas,
Jammu and Kashmir had the highest proportion of
But, the trend over time has been more mixed

in urban areas, where although it has declined to
its lowest level since 1993-94 for young women to
13.1%, it rose from its all time low of 7.5% in 200910 for young men to touch 8.1%. The rise in
joblessness holds true when statistical investigators
ask persons about their employment status in the
one year till the survey, or their usual principal
and subsidiary status. However, unemployment by
current daily status, where statistical investigators
ask persons about their employment status on each
day of the week before the survey, has declined
since 1993-94 for all areas.
CABINET APPROVES SUC PROPOSAL
The empowered group of ministers (EGoM) has

set that the telecommunication companies will need
to pay five per cent of their annual gross revenue
as spectrum usage charge (SUC). The ministerial
group looking into the issue has decided to do away
with the escalating system of collecting spectrum
usage charges (SUC), wherein operators pay
between 3 per cent and 8 per cent of their annual
revenues as charges, depending on the quantum of
spectrum held.
At the same time broadband players such as
Reliance Jio can continue to pay the existing fee.
According to the new formula cleared by the
ministerial group, operators can acquire any
amount of spectrum in the auction by paying a flat
5 per cent spectrum usage charge. Incumbent
operators will have to pay the weighted average of
the rate they currently pay and the new 5 per cent
rate.
This will bring some relief to older players such

as Airtel and Vodafone, who will now be able to
buy more spectrum without worrying about higher
charges.Most of the incumbent players currently
pay a fee of 6 per cent and would move to the 8
[12]
per cent slab under the existing system if they

bought additional spectrum.
For example, an operator with 8.2MHz of GSM
spectrum currentll pays 5% of its revenue as
spectrum usage charge. If this operator acquires
additional spectrum in the auction and raises its
total holding to 12 MHz, then it would have had
to pay 8 per cent of its annual revenue as SUC
under the current system. Under the new system,
the telecom operator will pay a spectrum usage
charge that is slightly more than 5 per cent.
The move will benefit large companies such as
Bharti Airtel and Vodafone India that pay higher
rates as they hold more airwaves. Analysts say that
their fee rate may come down to around 5.5% on
overall spectrum holding. It will also benefit them
prospectively as the companies are likely to be two of
the four aggressive bidders in the upcoming auctions.
The panel of ministers had also decided to stick
with the existing 1% fee that broadband wireless
bandwidth (BWA) holders pay, providing big relief
to Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Jio, which is
also among the top four bidders in the auction,
along with Idea Cellular.

The government has put up for sale 403 units
of airwaves in 1800 Mhz band and 46 units in the
900 Mhz band. Analysts expect a keen fight for
900 Mhz bandwidth, with cash rich Reliance Jio
Infocomm and Idea Cellular likely to slug it out
with Bharti Airtel and Vodafone India. They add

that telcos may not bid aggressively in the 1800
Mhz band where ample spectrum has been made
available, so much so that spectrum may be sold at
base prices in some circles.
ISB STUDY SHOWS CORRUPTION CAN BE REDUCED

disciplines in role-playing games as officials/bribegivers. Out of this, 55 per cent paid a bribe for
household services such as electricity, water/phone
connection, at bank, post office, insurance company,
transport office or school/college while 63 per cent
reported. The study also suggested that crowdsource complaints instead of relying on single citizen
or complaint. Transfers and staff rotation for lower
bureaucracy would also be helpful.
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A study conducted by Indian School of Business

(ISB) jointly with Australian and the US universities
states that legal immunity to bribe givers will
motivate greater citizen reporting and decrease
official demands for bribes. This would also increase
whistle-blower protections through anonymous
reporting systems including phone and through
Web sites. As part of the study, an experiment was
conducted involving 480 students from across
[13]
INTERNATIONAL
PESHAWAR WORLDS BIGGEST POLIO RESERVOIR: WHO
collected from different locations of Peshawar since
the last four years, and 72 of these samples have
shown the presence of the highly contagious and
paralytic wild poliovirus strain, the statement
pointed out. During the last six months, all the
samples collected from various locations of
Peshawar have shown presence of the highly
contagious wild poliovirus strain in the
environment.
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According to World Health Organisation

(WHO) with more than 90 per cent of the current
polio cases in the country genetically linked to
Peshawar, the provincial capital of Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa is now the biggest reservoir of
endemic poliovirus in the world.
Pakistan is the only polio-endemic country in
the world where polio cases rose from 2012 to 2013.
According to the latest genomic sequencing results
of the Regional Reference Laboratory for Poliovirus,
83 out of 91 polio cases in the country during the
last year are genetically linked to the poliovirus
circulating actively in Peshawar. Moreover, 12 out
of the total 13 cases reported during the previous
year from Afghanistan are also directly linked to
Peshawar.
For the last four years, samples of sewage water
from throughout the country have been periodically
tested for presence of poliovirus in the environment.
Eighty-six samples of sewage water have been
Peshawar has reported 45 polio cases during

the last five years whereas four cases were reported
during the previous year from Peshawar. The
explosive poliovirus outbreak in the Federally
Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), which has left
65 children paralysed in the last one year, owes its
origins to Peshawar.
As a major portion of the areas population
moves through Peshawar, the city acts as an
amplifier of the poliovirus.
RUSSIA CHINA LAUNCH FIRST NAVAL WAR GAMES
Russia and China have begun their first naval

war games in the Mediterranean in what is seen as
preparation for joint military operations in the
world ocean far away from their territorial waters.
The main purpose of the drill is to enhance the
interoperability of Russian and Chinese combat
ships for joint operation in the Eastern
Mediterranean.
The joint naval drill involves Russias heavy

nuclear missile cruiser Peter the Great and Chinese
frigate Yancheng. The Russian and Chinese
warships will perform joint manoeuvring, in the
course of which the Russian cruiser will set up a
smokescreen and ship-borne helicopters of the two
vessels will practise landing on each others deck.
The warships will also conduct air-defence training,

using their helicopters as mock targets, the
statement said.
In the first week of January, Russian and
Chinese warships escorted the first consignment of
Syrian chemical weapons materials transferred on
a Danish ship. This became the first practical
interaction between the Russian and the Chinese
navies.
Experts said Russia and China may be training
for larger-scale joint naval operations.
In July, 2013 Russia and China held their
largest joint naval war in the Sea of Japan, in which
a total of 23 warships took part.
TUNISIA APPROVES NEW CONSTITUTION
Taking a big stride towards democracy, Tunisia

adopted a new constitution. After years under
autocrat Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisias charter
[14]
has been praised as one of the most progressive in

the Arab world, designating Islam as the state religion
but protecting freedom of belief and sexual equality.

Islamist party Ennahda won the most seats in
parliament, but the assassination of two opposition
leaders last year pitched the country into crisis.
Increasing deadlock in Tunisia, and the Egyptian
armys deposing of its Islamist president in July,
eventually prompted a compromise between
Ennahdas chief Rached Ghannouchi and the
opposition.
Divisions are still present, but Tunisias leaders,
heavily reliant on tourism for its foreign income,
and with no tradition of violence or military
interventions, opted to battle at the ballot box, not
on the street.
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The small North African countrys steady

progress contrasts sharply with turmoil in Libya
and Egypt, whose people followed Tunisia in
ousting their veteran leaders in 2011.
After months of crisis, Tunisias transition got
back on track when ruling Islamist party Ennahda
agreed to compromise late last year and step down
to make way for a non-political cabinet of experts,
led by former minister Mehdi Jomaa.
One of the most secular nations in the Arab
world, Tunisia struggled after its 2011 revolution
with divisions over the role of Islam and the rise of
Islamist ultra-conservatives.
UKRAINE REPEALS ANTI-PROTEST LAWS
In back-to-back moves, Prime Minister Mykola

Azarov submitted his resignation and parliament
repealed anti-protest laws that prompted violent
clashes between protesters and police. The twin
moves were significant concessions to the protesters
who have occupied the capitals main square for
two months and fought sporadically with police.
Yet key issues remain unresolved in Ukraines
political crisis, including the oppositions repeated
demands for President Viktor Yanukovych to resign
and a new election to be held.
The changes included a ban on unauthorised
tents in public areas, and criminal responsibility
for slandering government officials.
Another potential sticking point is that the
proposed amnesty for arrested protesters will not
be offered unless demonstrators stop occupying
buildings and end their round-the-clock protests
and tent camp in Kievs central Independence

Square.
The protests in Kiev started Nov. 21, almost
immediately after Yanukovych abandoned the deal
with Europe. Unlike protesters in Russia in recent
years, demonstrators in Kiev dug in and created a
barricaded encampment that police have been
unable to budge.
After parliament passed the - anti-protest laws
on a voice vote less than a minute after they
were introduced clashes with police began to
develop on nearby Hrushevsky Street. At least four
demonstrators were killed.
New protests broke out almost simultaneously
in western Ukraine and, over just a few days, spread
to the eastern, Russian-speaking heartland of
Yanukovychs Party of Regions.
MERKEL UNVEILS COSTLY PENSION REFORM
German Chancellor Angela Merkel set out her

coalition governments plans for the next four years,
including sweeping and costly pension reforms.
Addressing parliament, Merkel also came out
strongly in support of a financial transaction tax
and urged employers to sign off on new wage
agreements before the government introduces its
planned national minimum wage. The Social
Democrats had made a 8.5-euro-per-hour (11.6dollar) minimum wage a condition for joining
Merkels conservative Christian Democrat-led block
in a grand coalition of Germanys biggest parties.
The government hopes legislation for the

pension changes will be enacted by the middle of
2014. At the heart of the plan is a proposal to
allow long-term employees to retire at the age of
63 - four years earlier than the legal retirement
age. The changes also call for an extra pension
benefit for more than 9 million women whose
children were born before 1992, and an increase in
disability pensions. The high cost of the pension
changes stand in stark contrast to other parts of
the eurozone, which are still struggling to cut back
high debt-and-deficit levels to bring them into line
with the requirements for euro member states.
RWANDAN GENOCIDE @ 20
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the
Rwandan genocide. In less than 100 days around
800,000 men, women and children were killed in

one of the worst examples of human depravity.
[15]

The world stood by and watched in silence as Hutu
extremists went about killing members of the Tutsi
community (who were the ruling elite for long in
Rwanda and constituted around 14% of the
population). The killings were not acts of sporadic
or dispersed violence but were planned to eliminate
the entire Tutsi community.
Another disaster is unfolding in front of the

world but there has been no action to rectify what
will soon turn out to be humanitarian travesty.
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Documentary evidence published as part of the

Rwanda20yrs project, a partnership between the
National Security Archive and the Center for the
Prevention of Genocide at the United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum, reveals how despite
advance warnings of the impending killings, world
leaders as well as the United Nations (UN) did
nothing to prevent it.
after suspending it in December). Meanwhile the

situation is worsening, at least 100,000 people have
died since the start of the conflict, and in earlyJanuary the UN said it has stopped updating the
death toll as it could no longer verify the numbers.
There has been unrelenting pressure on the Syrian
government, if it can be called that, to give up
chemical weapons but latest reports suggest, Syria
has given up less than 5% of its chemical weapons
arsenal and will miss next weeks deadline to send
all toxic agents abroad for destruction.
In October 1993, the US intervention following

Somalias civil war resulted in the death of 18
American soldiers. The events in Rwanda occurred
soon after the USs Somali misadventure. Bill
Clinton, who took office as US president in January
1993, shied away from a politically difficult course
of explaining to the Congress and public why the
country should risk another humanitarian
intervention. He also had to consider a mid-term
election due in November 1994.
Restoring order and spreading democratic
values have always been the justifications the US
has given for intervention in other countries, be it
Somalia, Kosovo, Iraq or Afghanistan.
In Kosovo in 1999, joining forces with North

Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) and European
countries, the US staged another humanitarian
intervention. The US feared losing Kosovo to Serbia
and ultimately turning it into another area of
Russian influence. If loss of geo-strategic initiative
was one reason, support from European countries
was another motivation. The Europeans offered no
such support in Rwanda. In Iraq and Afghanistan
the heightened paranoia surrounding security, post9/11, became the major driving force for such
interventions.
Today, Syria is in the midst of an armed conflict

which began with the Arab Spring in 2011. Three
years and still counting, the US has limited itself to
providing non-lethal aid (which it recently resumed
So what explains this big gap between the

Wests profession of human rights and its record of
selective intervention in humanitarian disasters as
they unfold across the world? Two disturbing
observations are obvious.
1) Those countries that have the resources to
prevent such occurrences are hostage to domestic
political pressures that prevent timely action.
Intervention takes place swiftly only if some
strategic objective is served or if the danger from
not intervening is too high.
2) More disturbingly, democratic processes and
pulls may themselves be limitations in upholding
human rights globally. The citizens of democracies
that have the means to prevent genocide and
human rights violations are unwilling to make
sacrifices needed to protect citizens of other
countries.
Any pragmatic person will conclude human
rights are merely the stuff of rhetoric for rich
countries. What is disappointing is that the UN,
which in its preamble declares that it is determined
to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in
the dignity and worth of the human person, in the
equal rights of men and women and of nations
large and small is prisoner to the whims of its
permanent members. In Rwanda it was the US
that did not care; in Syria it is Russia and China.
Multilateralism is yet to fulfil its promise for a large
fraction of humanity.
ISRAEL SEEKS TO EXPORT CYBER TECHNOLOGY
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

announced a bold initiative calling on tech giants
and western powers to band together to protect
the world from cyber attacks, vowing to relax
export restrictions normally placed on security[16]
related technologies so that Israeli cyber-defence

companies can sell their expertise around the globe.
Making this vision a reality, however, will be
complicated.
Industry experts say that tech companies and

intelligence agencies would likely be loath to trade
secrets and reveal their own vulnerabilities. Israel
also risks compromising its own national security
by allowing cyber companies, mostly formed by
graduates of stealth Israeli security units, to export
advanced technologies that enemies could use
against Israel.
arms sales, move to place restrictions on the cyber

technology trade. Israel is not a signatory to the
Wassenaar Arrangement, but the country says its
weapons trade policies follow the spirit of the
agreement.
Israel established a national cyber bureau two

years ago to coordinate defence against attacks on
the countrys infrastructures and networks, such
as a virus that recently shut down a major Israeli
roadway two days in a row. The bureau also seeks
to boost Israels economy by building up its cyberdefence industry. In the last few years, the number
of Israeli cyber-defence companies has ballooned
from a few dozen to more than 200, accounting
for five to 10 per cent of the global cyber-security
industry, said Eviatar Matania, head of Israels
national cyber bureau.
The Wassenaar Arrangement has been

established in order to contribute to regional and
international security and stability, by promoting
transparency and greater responsibility in transfers
of conventional arms and dual-use goods and
technologies, thus preventing destabilising
accumulations. Participating States seek, through
their national policies, to ensure that transfers of
these items do not contribute to the development
or enhancement of military capabilities which
undermine these goals, and are not diverted to
support such capabilities.
Recently, international giants IBM and Lockheed

Martin announced new cyber-research projects in
Israel, and Deutsche Telekom and EMC have also
established research centres in the country.
The decision to transfer or deny transfer of

any item is the sole responsibility of each
Participating State. All measures with respect to
the Arrangement are taken in accordance with
national legislation and policies and are
implemented on the basis of national discretion.
Therefore, for specifics on Export Controls in
Participating States contact the National
Authorities in that country.
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Wassenaar Arrangement
Israel has established itself as a world leader in

cyber technology innovation, fuelled by graduates
of prestigious and secretive military and security
intelligence units. These units are widely thought
to be behind some of the worlds most advanced
cyber attacks, including the Stuxnet virus, which
attacked Irans nuclear energy equipment.
Each year, these units churn out a talent pool

of young Israelis who translate their experience
executing or protecting against advanced cyber
attacks to the corporate world. But regulation of
the industry to bar Israeli secrets and know-how
from leaving the country like limits that Israel puts
on weapons exports has been almost non-existent.
The same is true in other countries. Only last month
did western signatories to the Wassenaar
Arrangement, an international treaty that regulates
The Participating States of the Wassenaar

Arrangement are: Argentina, Australia, Austria,
Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech
Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France,
Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan,
Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico,
Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland,
Portugal, Republic of Korea, Romania, Russian
Federation, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain,
Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United
Kingdom and United States.
[17]
INDIA AND THE WORLD

DELAY HITS INDO-CHINA BORDER ROAD PLANS
the delay mainly to the limited number of working
months in tough hilly terrain of Uttarakhand, the
ITBP and the army rebut this theory, arguing that
the construction agencies should have considered
this before setting the 2012 deadline.
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Red tapism, held-up environmental clearances

and antiquated construction equipment have left
19 critical and strategically important IndiaChina border roads in Uttarakhand in the
doldrums. Till now only one stretch of the
prioritized border road project has entered the
second phase of construction.
The Border Roads Organization (BRO) and the

Central Public Works Department (CPWD) are
constructing 10 India-China border roads in various
areas under the jurisdiction of the Indian Tibetan
Border Police (ITBP), and nine under that of the
Indian Army in Uttarakhand.
According to records accessed by a national
daily, the second stage of construction work- the
surfacing of roads- has begun only on a 2.54kmlong stretch of the ITBPs border priority road
between Ghastoli and Rattakona in Chamoli district.
The BRO had initially started constructing this
17.95km-long border road in May 2009 and was
aiming to finish it by December 2012.
None of the other nine ITBP border roads in

Uttarakhand have been able to reach the surfacing
stage yet and are still stuck at the first stage of
construction work, which is essentially the
formation cutting. These strategically important
roads fall in some ecologically fragile environmental
zones in the state and require a clearance from the
ministry of forest and environment.
While both the BRO and the CPWD attribute
6 PSUS SIGN UP FOR WORLDS LARGEST SOLAR PLANT
Six public sector undertakings (PSU) including

state-run Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL)
and Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) have
come together to set up the worlds largest singlelocation 4,000-MW ultra mega solar power project
in Rajasthan.
In a first of its kind, the joint venture companies

will have equity participation of 26 per cent from
BHEL, 23 per cent from SECI (Solar Energy
Corporation of India), 16 per cent from SSL
[18]
(Sambhar Salt Ltd), 16 per cent from Power Grid,

16 per cent from SJVNL (Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam)
and 3 per cent from REIL (Rajasthan Electronics &
Instruments Ltd).
According to BEHL chairman and managing
director, B.P. Rao, in the first phase of the project,
1000 MW would be made operational. The project
will be the largest single location solar plant spread
across 19,000 acres at Sambhar in Rajasthan. It entails
an investment of Rs. 7,500 crore in the first phase.

The project will come up on surplus land
available with SSL in Sambhar. The equipment will
be supplied by BHEL, power evacuation
infrastructure will be put up by PGICL, sale of
electricity would be done by SECI, operation and
maintenance by REIL and project management by
SJVNL. The department of heavy industry would
set up a special purpose vehicle for executing this
project, which will require an investment of Rs
7,500 crore in the first phase. The project will be

developed in different phases in 7 to 8 years.
The solar PV (photo-voltaic) power plant will
use PV modules based on crystalline silicon
technology. With an estimated plant life of 25 years,
the 4,000 MW of the solar plant is expected to
supply 6,400 million units of energy per year and
consequently help to reduce CO2 emissions by over
4 million tonnes per year.
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SPORTS PACT WITH HOLLAND

India and the Netherlands have signed an MoU
to work together in the field of Sports development
and the development of excellent Sports facilities.
As part of the newly signed MoU, there will be
sharing of comprehension, skill, and knowledge in
the areas of sports management, establishment of
competition infrastructure, plus coaching, training
systems, training of referees for a range of sports
streams and top-sport development via youth
academies.
The agreement will also facilitate the two
countries to collaborate and exchange schemes in
the sector for the development of new-fangled sports

infrastructure and management, comprising
financial expansion, spatial area development,
planning as well as designing of sports
infrastructure and facilities, utilization of resources,
management training and safety and security.
The two partners are also involved in exploring
the possibilities on the area development and
resource utilization opportunities nearby one of the
main stadiums in Delhi and carry out achievability
assessment to develop and manage turnkey indoor
sporting entities.
JAPAN TO GIVE 3-YEAR MULTIPLE ENTRY VISAS
Japan announced that soon there will be

multiple-entry visas, which will last up to three
years, for Indian ordinary passport holders.
Presently, Indian tourists can get only single-entry
visas to Japan for short duration. However, Indian
visitors to the US, UK get up to 10-year visas. This
visa relaxation was made by Tokyo since Japanese
tourists get visas-on-arrival to India.
Government of India has introduced Tourist

Visa on Arrival (TVOA) scheme for the nationals
of eleven countries, namely,Japan, Singapore,
Philippines, Finland, Luxembourg , New Zealand
, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar and
Indonesia. The TVOA is allowed for a maximum
validity of 30 days with single entry facility by the
Immigration Officers at Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai
and Kolkata Airports on payment of a fee of US $

60/- or equivalent amount in Indian rupees per
passenger (including children). TVOA is allowed
for a maximum of two times in a calendar year to
a foreigner with a minimum gap of two months
between two visits. TVOA shall be non-extendable
and non-convertible.
The foreigners of above mentioned countries
may avail of TVOA for a period up to 30 days for
tourism, medical treatment, casual business or to
visit friends/relatives, etc. The TVOA facility is not
applicable to the holders of Diplomatic/Official
Passports. Further, TVOA shall not be granted to
the foreigners who have permanent residence or
occupation in India. Such persons can visit India
on normal visa, as applicable.
INDIA, AUSTRALIA PLAN BIO ROBOTS IN INDIAN OCEAN
India and Australia will launch Bio Argo

floats in mid 2014. It will enhance the already
successful Argo float technology to measure largescale changes in the chemistry and biology of
marine ecosystems below the Indian Oceans
surface. The Argo floats are a network of 3,600
free-floating sensors, operating in open ocean areas
that provide real-time data on ocean temperature
and salinity.
The Bio Argo floats will include additional

sensors for dissolved oxygen, nitrate, chlorophyll,
dissolved organic matter, and particle scattering.
They will target specific gaps in the understanding
of Indian Ocean ecosystems of immediate concern
to India and Australia, such as the Bay of Bengal
and the waters of north Western Australia. Further,
[19]

by studying the Indian Ocean in this detail,
scientists can investigate the origin and impact of
marine heatwaves like the one that devastated the
coral reefs and fisheries off north Western
Australian in 2011 and improve prediction of

them in the future. The USD 880,000 project was
funded in part by the Australian government under
the Australia- India Strategic Research Fund.
INDIA AND FIJI SIGN DTAA

This is the first time both countries are entering
into a DTAA. The pact also includes certain specific
provisions to prevent treaty abuse.
According to the pact, business profits will be
taxable in the source state if the activities of an
enterprise constitute a permanent establishment in
the source state. Also, dividends, interest, royalty
and fees for technical or professional services will
be taxed both in the country of residence and in
the country of source.
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India and Fiji have signed a Double Taxation

Avoidance Agreement, DTAA for the avoidance
of double taxation and for the prevention of fiscal
evasion with respect to taxes on income. The
agreement will provide tax stability to the residents
of India and Fiji and facilitate mutual economic
cooperation. The move will also stimulate the flow
of investment, technology and services between
both countries.
[20]
ECONOMY
RBI LAYS OUT FRAMEWORK TO LIMIT BAD LOANS
treatment for stressed assets where such a
plan is under implementation.
5. As a way to discourage long-drawn-out
negotiations between bankers, RBI said
accelerated provisioning will be applicable if
no agreement can be reached.
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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently has

laid out a road map to deal with a surge in bad
loans in the Rs.82 trillion banking system. The
framework outlines a corrective action plan that
will offer incentives for early identification of
stressed assets by banks, timely revamp of accounts
considered to be unviable and prompt steps for
recovery or sale of assets in the case of loans at the
risk of turning bad.
RBI has been worried about the pile-up of bad

loans in Indias banking system as slower economic
growth, which slumped to 5% in the last fiscal
yearthe least in a decadehigh borrowing costs
and stalled projects make it difficult for corporate
borrowers to repay debt.
About Rs.2 trillion in loans is now classified as
bad loans and at least Rs.4 trillion is being
restructured. Together, this constitutes about 10%
of all bank loans. A report, recently, released by
India Ratings and Research Pvt. Ltd, an arm of
global credit rating agency Fitch, said stressed assets,
including bad loans and restructured loans, are
likely to increase to 14% of total loans by March
2015.
Finer points of the framework are as follow:
1. Lenders will need to carve out as special

category of assets termed special mention
accounts (SMAs) in which early signs of stress
are visible. Accounts within this category will
be put under three sub-categories, based on
the period for which their principal or interest
payments are overdue.
2. The duration of overdue payments can range
from under 30 days to 90 days. Loan
repayments that are more than 90 days
overdue are classified as non-performing
assets (NPAs) under existing regulations.
3. If a borrowers interest or principal payments

are overdue by more than 60 days, a joint
lenders forum must be formed by the bankers
for early resolution of stress.
4. The new rules also offer incentives to lenders

to quickly and collectively agree to a
resolution plan by offering better regulatory
6. Gross NPAs of 40 listed Indian banks rose to

Rs.2.29 trillion as of September, up 37% from
last year. Rising bad and restructured loans
hurt the profitability of banks because they
have to set aside more money to cover such
loans.
7. An important part of the new framework is

the independent evaluation of large-value
restructuring that has now been made
mandatory.
8. Restructuring proposals in accounts where
the aggregate exposure of banks is above
Rs.500 crore will now be subjected to
assessment by an independent evaluation
committee (IEC) of experts.
9. The IEC will look into the viability aspects
after ensuring that the terms of restructuring
are fair to the lenders.
10. The
committee
will
submit
its
recommendations to the corporate debt
restructuring (CDR) cell within a period of
30 days.
11. The proposal gains importance in light of the
spurt in cases of CDR during the past few
years. About Rs.4 trillion of loans is being
recast by Indian banks both through the socalled CDR mechanism and on a bilateral
basis between individual banks and
borrowers.
12. The new rules also permit leveraged buyouts

for specialised entities for acquisition of
stressed companies and outlines steps to
enable better functioning of asset
reconstruction companies.
13. Appropriate incentive structures may be built

so as to provide greater role to PE (private
equity) firms and other institutions in
[21]

restructuring of troubled-company accounts.
These institutions can be expected not only
to bring additional funds for restructuring,
but also bring in expertise for management
of the business unit in question.
14. Further, banks will not be allowed to offer
finance to such specialized entities put
together for acquisition of troubled
companies.
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Going by the new rules, borrowers who do not

cooperate with lenders in bad-loan resolution will
have to pay higher interest for any future

borrowing. Banks will also be required to make
higher provisions for further loans extended to
borrowers who are considered to be noncooperative. In the interest of better information
sharing within the banking system, RBI said it will
set up a central repository of information on large
credits to collect, store and disseminate credit data
to lenders. For this, banks will have to furnish credit
information on all their borrowers having aggregate
fund-based and non-fund-based exposure of Rs.5
crore and above.
GOVT TO ALLOW 100% FDI IN RAILWAYS
Indias trade ministry has revised a proposal to

allow 100% foreign direct investment (FDI) in
railways after the home ministry flagged its concerns
on Chinese firms potentially investing in projects
near the international border with the Asian
powerhouse.
that Chinese investments in sensitive and core

sectors, which may pose danger to national security,
should be viewed with caution. For example
Chinese investments should not be allowed in
sensitive border areas like Jammu and Kashmir,
North east and Sikkim.
The Department of Industrial Policy and

Promotion (DIPP), an arm of the industry and
commerce ministry, has now proposed setting up
of a core group with requisite technical and security
expertise under the railways ministry to evaluate
FDI proposals in the sector to address national
security concerns.
The Home Ministry said that FDI in railway

projects with involvement of the Chinese workers
near the restricted areas and in vicinity of
international border with China and Pakistan was
not desirable from security angle. If unavoidable,
Chinese workers and technicians may not be
allowed to enter such areas without obtaining
necessary security permits and requisite visas, it
added.
The department had sent a cabinet note for

approval seeking allowing 100% FDI in railway
transport such as elevated rail corridor projects,
freight terminals, suburban corridors, dedicated
freight lines and high-speed train systems to meet
the urgent need to modernize and expand the
railway network, which require large capital
investments.
The proposal does not require approval from
the Foreign Investment Promotion Board. An
approval from the railways ministry will suffice,
according to the original proposal. While the Home
Ministry has expressed no reservation on foreign
capital investment in railway transport
infrastructure development, it has emphasised that
the signalling and telecommunications of railways
networks network should be entirely in the hands
of Indian Railways.
However, the Home Ministry wrote to the DIPP
Similar concerns of security were expressed in

2010 regarding China-made telecom equipment
after which a telecom security policy was put
together. As part of the policy, the telcos using the
equipment are responsible for the security aspect
as well and have to give an undertaking that there
is no malware and spyware installed in the
equipment.
The government is also in the process of setting
up telecom equipment security testing labs across
the country. The government introduced a new
rule in 2010 that all equipment needed to be
certified by International standard laboratories.
From July next year, all telecom equipment should
be certified by laboratories in India. This deadline
was extended from May 2011 after two earlier
extensions in March and October.
ECONOMIC CONFIDENCE IMPROVES MARGINALLY: IPSOS
According to the report by Global research firm

Ipsos India is among the top 10 nations in terms of
economic confidence. Indias economic confidence
improved marginally due to falling food inflation,
[22]
stabilisation of Indian rupee and steady growth of

exports which has helped to narrow the Current
Account Deficit (CAD).

India continues to hold the number seven
position as the most economically confident country
in the world after Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Germany,
Canada, Australia and China.
The nations economic confidence increased
marginally by 1 point to 52 per cent in December,
2013 compared to the November, 2013 according
to the report titled Ipsos Economic Pulse of the
World.
As per the report, three in 10 Indians believe

that the local economy, which impacts their
personal finance, is good. Further it said, Indians
are very hopeful that the general election will trigger
economic growth and stability; with four in ten
(43 per cent) people expecting that the economy in
their local area will be stronger in next six months,
a slender rise of 1 point.
The findings are based on an online survey that
covered more than 21,800 people in 24 countries.
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UNIFORM TAX RATE FOR FPIs
In a major boost for overseas entities, the

government has said that foreign portfolio investors
(FPIs) will attract uniform tax rate across categories.
FPIs bring together all the three investment
categories foreign institutional investors (FIIs),
their sub-accounts and qualified foreign investors
(QFIs).
Besides, the tax rate for FPIs would be the same
as that extended to FIIs. The new system would be
especially beneficial for QFIs, who were subjected
to higher tax rate earlier.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes has notified
that the new class of investors, FPIs, would be
treated as FIIs under the Income Tax Act, 1961.
With the notification, issued on January 22, FPIs

would now be subject to the same tax treatment as
is applicable to FIIs under the current tax regime.
The move clears the air over taxation regime for
FPIs, created with the aim of rationalising overseas
investments in the domestic capital market.
Global consultancy EY said that QFIs would

also become eligible to concessional tax rates in
respect of, inter-alia, capital gains earned on offmarket transactions in securities (such as buyback
and open offers in equity shares).
The Securities and Exchange Board of India

notified the FPI norms on January 7, replacing the
regulations for FIIs.
Under the new norms, FPIs have been divided
into three categories as per their risk profile and
the KYC (Know Your Client) requirements, and
other registration procedures would be much
simpler for FPIs compared to the current practices.
Besides, the new class would be given a
permanent registration, as against the current
practice of granting approvals for one year or five
years to the overseas entities seeking to invest in
Indian markets.
Such registration would be permanent unless
suspended or cancelled by SEBI or surrendered by
the FPI.
Category I FPIs, classified as entities with lowest
risk, would include foreign governments and
government related foreign investors.
Category II would cover appropriately regulated
broad based funds, appropriately regulated entities,
broad-based funds whose investment manager is
appropriately regulated, university funds and pension
funds, among others. Those who are not eligible to
be in the first and second set of classifications would
be considered under Category III.
FDI INFLOWS INTO INDIA IN 2013 ROSE 17% TO $28 BN
According to a United Nations report, FDI inflows

into India grew 17 per cent to $28 billion in 2013
despite unexpected capital outflows in the middle of
the year. With this growth, India ranked 16th among
the top 20 global economies, receiving the maximum
FDI. Further it said that foreign direct investment
across the world rose to the levels not seen since the
start of the global economic crisis in 2008.
On the other, the UN Conference on Trade and

Development (UNCTAD) report said global FDI
increased by 11 per cent to an estimated $1.46
trillion in 2013, with the lions share going to

developing countries. Further, UNCTAD forecasts
that FDI inflows will gradually rise to $1.6 trillion
and $1.8 trillion in 2014 and 2015, respectively.
As global economic growth gains momentum,
this may prompt investors to turn their cash
holdings into new investments, it said. However,
uneven levels of growth, fragility and
unpredictability in a number of economies and risks
related to the tapering of quantitative easing could
dampen the FDI recovery.
[23]

FDI inflows into developing economies reached
a new high of $759 billion, accounting for 52 per
cent, during the year. Developed countries,
however, remained at an historical low (39 per
cent) for the second consecutive year.
FDI inflows into developed countries increased
12 per cent to $576 billion, with such investments
into the European Union increasing, while flows
to the United States continued their decline. The

US received $159 billion in FDI inflows last year.
The BRICS Brazil, Russian Federation, India,
China and South Africa continued to be strong
performers in attracting FDI. Their current share
of global FDI inflows at 22 per cent is twice that of
their pre-crisis level.
NOW, INDIAN FIRMS FACE GLOBAL WATCHDOGS

last year, have already been blacklisted by the FDA,
which also imposed an import alert (effectively
a ban) on Wockhardts Chikalthana plant while
another drugmaker Strides Arcolab Ltds facility
got a warning letter after an FDA inspection in
June.
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The flip side of globalisation, as many Indian

companies and even sectoral regulators would
testify, is the increased levels of scrutiny by foreign
regulators, especially US watchdogs.
Recently, the government was forced to approve

the creation of 75 crucial posts in the domestic
aviation sector regulator DGCA to carry out safety
inspection of airlines and private charter companies,
largely under pressure to avoid a downgrade by
the US regulator the Federal Aviation Authority
(FAA).
The non-implementation of these could have

resulted in the downgrade of the DGCA on aviation
safety count from the top Category I to a lower
ranking, which would have implied that Air India
and Jet Airways, which fly to the US, would not
be allowed to hike the existing number of flights
they operate and subject themselves to greater safety
supervision in the US.
Indian firms, which make nearly 40 per cent of
generic and over-the-counter drugs for the US
market, are facing the heat from the US Food and
Drug Administration, which earlier barred products
from Ranbaxy Laboratories Toansa plant, coming
in the wake of a $500-million settlement by the
Gurgaon-based firm in May last year after
allegations it had faked test results and sold
adulterated products. Three of Ranbaxys facilities,
at Paonta Sahib and Dewas in 2008 and Mohali
Meanwhile, early last year, the California-based

subsidiary of the State Bank of India was forced to
agree to take a series of steps to improve its banking
practices related to bad loans following a critical
review by US regulators. The countrys largest bank
consented to the orders of the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation and the California
Department of Financial Institutions that, among
other things, required it to have and retain
qualified management and obtain within 90 days
an independent study to ensure it is staffed by
qualified individuals commensurate with its size
and risk profile to ensure the safe and sound
operation of the bank. The US stock market
regulator the Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC) reportedly got 18 whistleblower tip-offs from India during the year ended
September 30, 2013 for its probes into various
market related irregularities. This formed part of
the 400-odd tip-offs received by the US SEC from
various countries during the period. The way things
are going, there could be more fireworks expected
in the coming days.
RED TAPISM IMPEDES TRADE AMONG NEIGHBOURS: STUDY
The study done by Delhi-based thinktank

Research and Information System for Developing
Countries (RIS) for Asian Development Bank and
UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and
the Pacific has detailed how trade through three
key corridors in the four countries faces major delay
because of tardy procedural clearances. For
example, procedural approvals for both importers
and exporters to transport pulses from Nepal to
Bhutan via India takes at least 23 days.
[24]
The study shows that 21 clearances for importers

take as many as 21 days. For importing exporting
orange between India and Bhutan traders need to
spend 18 days to get 32 clearances. The report
also shows how the traders of lentils need as many
as 36 documents and 115 copies while orange
traders need to carry 32 documents as proof and
95 copies of these documents.
The report says that on an average submission
of documents over 80 per cent is handled manually

causing all the more delay to faster clearances in
Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. Hence, the report
suggests interventions how each country can
expedite clearances to boost trade. For example, by
making submission of documents electronically,
Bhutan can save over a week and harmonization
of documentations would reduce average
transaction time from 22 days to less than 10 days

in the region.
But, analysts also feel that improvement of road
infrastructure remains the key as most of the roads
in Bangladesh cannot carry 20 tonnage trucks and
its no good in Bhutan and Nepal.
ZIMBABWE ALLOWS RUPEE AS LEGAL TENDER

and British pound are already considered legal
tender. The majority of Zimbabweans primarily use
the US dollar and South African Rand, while import
prices are mostly set at the US value. But an increase
in trade, mainly with the Eastern market, means
more currencies will technically be considered legal
tender this year.
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The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has

included currency of four nations including Indian
rupee as legal tender. The decision has been taken
keeping in view the growing trade and investment
ties between the two countries. India-Zimbabwe
trade was $177 million, with balance of trade
heavily in favour of India. Other three currencies
are Chinese yuan, Japanese yen, and Australian
dollar.
Zimbabwes multi-currency system, adopted in
2009 to override the worthless local dollar, means
the US dollar, South African rand, Botswana pula
Legal tender is a medium of payment allowed

by law or recognized by a legal system to be valid
for meeting a financial obligation. Paper currency
and coins are common forms of legal tender in
many countries.
[25]

A RIVER OF HYDROGEN IN SPACE
years from earth - has a faster rate of star generation
that of Milky Way, but until now nobody has
known why.
A leading theory is that rivers of hydrogen
known as cold flows may be ferrying hydrogen
through intergalactic space, clandestinely fueling
star formation. But this tenuous hydrogen has been
simply too diffuse to detect, until now.
The team added that it is possible the external
cloud of gas might have been left over from a past
collision with another galaxy - though it will require
further study to work out if thats the case.
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A team of astronomers from West Virginia

University have discovered what appears to be a
vast river of hydrogen in deep space using the
National Science Foundations Robert C. Byrd Green
Bank Telescope. The massive field of diffuse gas is
thought to act as a bridge between galaxies, closing
the gap in the otherwise empty wastes of intergalactic space.
They said that the very faint filament of gas
could help explain why spiral galaxies are able to
keep up a steady rate of star formation. This
particular galaxy - located about 22 million light-
REVERSING ADULT CELLS TO STEM CELLS BECOME EASY
Haruko Obokata from the Harvard Medical

School, Boston and the first author of the papers
could reprogram adult mice cells to become
pluripotent (the ability to become any of the 256
adult cells) cells without using any of the
transcription factors.
Neither did the team resort to cloning (somatic
cell nuclear transfer technique), where the nuclear
matter from an adult cell is transferred into an egg
whose nucleus has been removed.
What the team of researchers did was simple.
They exposed the haemopoietic adult cells taken
from newborn mice to a mildly (sub-lethal) acidic
condition (pH 5.7) for just 25 minutes at 37 degree
C. And behold, the environmental stress did not
kill or damage the adult cells but surprisingly
reprogrammed the adult cells to behave like
pluripotent cells.
And unlike even embryonic stem cells, the
reprogrammed adult cells were found to be capable
of contributing to both embryonic and placental
tissue formation; embryonic stem cells (ES cells) do
not contribute to the formation of the placental
tissue. Whether the adult cells reprogrammed by
environmental stress could form both tissues or
behave just like ES cells (by forming only the
embryonic tissue) depends on the medium in which
they are cultured.
The studies have shown that adult cells have
some hidden plasticity, and when exposed to stress,
the plasticity comes into play to convert the adult
[26]
cells into pluripotent cells.

The stem cells so produced exhibited
pluripotency on the seventh day after exposure to
stress. But unlike embryonic stem cells or those
produced by cloning, the stem cells produced
through stressing stimulus-triggered acquisition
of pluripotency (STAP) rarely multiplied or
proliferated on their own. Proliferation of stem cells
is essential for obtaining a huge mass of cells for
therapeutic use.
But the researchers were able to overcome this
hurdle. By using a culture medium containing a
particular hormone, the STAP cells were enabled
to grow into colonies. What is indeed interesting is
that the researchers achieved the same measure of
success when they repeated the experiment using
various adult mice cells brain, muscle, fat, bone
marrow, lung and liver muscle.
The question is whether such reversal could be
seen or achieved when adult cells are subjected to
other stresses like physical damage, heat shock etc.
Also, the study raises an important question why
do adult cells retain latent plasticity that gets
expressed when subjected to stress?
While mammalian cells are more resistant to
conversion, except in certain cancers, conversion
of adult cells into pluripotent cells occurs in plants
when subjected to drastic environmental changes.
Similarly, adult cells of amphibians, reptiles, and
birds exhibit similar ability to reverse their status to
become pluripotent cells or switch identity.
WATER JET PRINTER INVENTED

Like any ordinary printer, this machine ingests
a blank page and spits it out covered in print. But
instead of ink, it uses only water, and the used
paper fades back to white within a day, enabling
it to be reused.
According to Sean, dye-treating the paper, of

the type generally used for printing, added about
five per cent to its price, but this is more than
compensated for by the saving on ink.
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Sean Xiao-An Zhang, a chemistry professor at

Jilin University in China and his claimed that their
water-jet technology allows each page to be
reprinted dozens of times a money and treesaving option in a digital world that still relies
heavily on hard copy. The trick lies in the paper,
which is treated with an invisible dye that colours
when exposed to water, then disappears.
The print is clear, claim the designers, and

the technology cheap. Based on 50 times of
rewriting, the cost is only about one per cent of
the inkjet prints. Even if each page was re-used
only a dozen times, the cost would still be about
one-seventeenth of the inkjet version.
The print fades away within about 22 hours at

temperatures below 35 degrees Celsius as the water
evaporates quicker if exposed to high heat.
No change of printer is needed. Replacing

ink in the cartridge with water would suffice.
Four water-printed colours have been created so
far but can only print in one hue at a time, for
now.
CERN SCIENTISTS CREATE ANTI-HYDROGEN ATOMS
The ASACUSA experiment at CERN has

succeeded for the first time in producing a beam
of anti-hydrogen atoms. In a paper published in
Nature Communications, the ASACUSA
collaboration reports the unambiguous detection
of 80 anti-hydrogen atoms 2.7 metres downstream
of their production, where the perturbing influence
of the magnetic fields used initially to produce the
anti-atoms is small. This result is a significant step
towards precise hyperfine spectroscopy of antihydrogen atoms.
Primordial anti-matter has so far never been
observed in the universe, and its absence remains
a major scientific enigma. Nevertheless, it is possible
to produce significant amounts of anti-hydrogen
in experiments at CERN by mixing antielectrons
(positrons) and low energy antiprotons produced
by the Anti-proton Decelerator.
The spectra of hydrogen and anti-hydrogen are
predicted to be identical, so any tiny difference
between them would immediately open a window
to new physics, and could help in solving the antimatter mystery. With its single proton accompanied
by just one electron, hydrogen is the simplest
existing atom, and one of the most precisely
investigated and best understood systems in modern
physics. Thus comparisons of hydrogen and antihydrogen atoms constitute one of the best ways to
perform highly precise tests of matter/antimatter
symmetry.
Matter and antimatter annihilate immediately
when they meet, so aside from creating
antihydrogen, one of the key challenges for physicists
is to keep antiatoms away from ordinary matter. To
do so, experiments take advantage of antihydrogens
magnetic properties (which are similar to hydrogens)
and use very strong non-uniform magnetic fields to
trap antiatoms long enough to study them. However,
the strong magnetic field gradients degrade the
spectroscopic properties of the (anti)atoms. To allow
for clean high-resolution spectroscopy, the
ASACUSA collaboration developed an innovative
set-up to transfer antihydrogen atoms to a region
where they can be studied in flight, far from the
strong magnetic field.
The next step for the ASACUSA experiment
will be to optimize the intensity and kinetic energy
of antihydrogen beams, and to understand better
their quantum state.
INDIA WORST IN INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY INDEX
Despite the current decade being declared

Indias decade of innovation, the country has
been ranked at the bottom of the list of 25 countries
in terms of its intellectual property (IP)
environment. While India scored 6.95 points out of
a maximum 30, the US topped the index with 28.5.

The US is followed by the UK and France. The five
BRICS economies Brazil, Russia, India, China,
and South Africa continue to face serious
challenges.
[27]

According to the 2014 International Intellectual
Property (IP) Index by the US Chamber of
Commerces Global Intellectual Property Center
(GIPC), several factors led to the deterioration of
the IP environment in India. For instance, in the
biopharmaceutical sector, Indian policy continued
to breach international standards of the protection
of innovation and patent rights, revoking patents
generally accepted around the world and
announcing that other patented medicines are being
considered for compulsory licences.
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The report also mentions the Supreme Courts

April 2013 ruling on the patentability of the anticancer drug, Glivec, that the drug does not meet
patentability standards imposed by the Indian
Patent Act.
India scored poorly in the areas of patents,

copyrights, enforcement, membership and
ratification of international treaties (in which it
scores zero), among others. The continued use of
compulsory licences, revocation of patents, and
weak legislative and enforcement mechanisms
across all IP rights raise serious concerns about
Indias commitment to promoting innovation.
Most high-income economies with notable
exceptions such as Canada, New Zealand, Chile,
and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have robust
national IP environments in place. The weakest
national IP environments are in the lower-middleincome countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia,
Thailand, and India.
Some of the developments, which are expected

to improve the IP climate globally include the fact
that currently 12 countries the US, Japan,
Australia, Peru, Malaysia, Vietnam, New Zealand,
Chile, Singapore, Canada, Mexico, and Brunei
Darussalam are negotiating the Trans-Pacific
Partnership Agreement, which is expected to set a
higher standard in the Pacific region, and help in
protecting and enforcing IP.
Moreover, the US is currently negotiating with

the European Union on a trade and investment
partnership agreement, which is supposed to
promote competitiveness, growth, and jobs.
China continues to show strength in the patents
arena, earning the highest score of all middleincome countries and even outperform high-income
countries such as Chile and the UAE. While
progress is being made, Chinas overall IP
environment continues to see challenges,
particularly with regard to trademark and trade
secrets as shown by its overall score.
[28]
HEALTH
INFERTILITY NOW MOSTLY A MALE PROBLEM, EXPERTS
due to infections but now it had been replaced by
environmental toxins.
Another doctor from Ahmedabad Dr Sonal
Panchal, said men these days were open to getting
themselves tested and treated. Most of them come
with problems like erectile dysfunction, low sperm
motility and sperm deformity. Rising temperatures
and increased chemical content in the air also
contribute to the increasing incidence of infertility.
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Infertility experts from across the world in the

international conference on Challenges in infertility
management said there was a paradigm shift over
the past few years. Experts were of the opinion
that a decade earlier, male infertility contributed
only to 40% of the cases, but now the numbers
had increased to 60%.
According to Dr Geetha Haripriya, organizing
secretary of CIIM, environmental factors and
lifestyle changes are the major reasons for this
transition. Especially those with white-collar jobs
have problems because they have an improper
biological cycle due to unusual working hours.
Stress, eating at odd hours, tobacco and alcohol
consumption and poor nutritional intake are the
additional factors. The gynaecologist also pointed
out that earlier most of the infertility issues arose
Women on the other hand have been queuing

up with problems of polycystic ovaries and
endometriosis (cells from the lining of the uterus
grow outside the uterine cavity) which results in
infertility. Doctors pointed out that more couples
above the age of 35 were approaching infertility
clinics.
EXPERTS: CONTROL OF DISEASES VITAL
According to a recent statistics released by the

Union Health Ministry besides an increase in
average life expectancy, basic health indicators have
shown significant improvement across the country
in the past 10 years. Infant mortality ratio has come
down to 42 in 2012 from 58 per 1,000 live births
in the 2005.Maternal mortality ratio has declined
from 301 per 100,000 live births in 2001-03 to 212
in 2007-09, the health ministry said.
water and better control of non-communicable

diseases would play a major role. However, India
is still grappling with communicable diseases, he
said.
Dr George Thomas, editor of the Indian Journal

of Medical Ethics said a steady supply of food is
the prime reason for increased life expectancy, says.
Since the time of Independence, famine has reduced
dramatically in our country and people have a
decent supply of nutrition. However, the real
challenge lies in taking the numbers beyond this.
Dr S Balasubramanian, joint director of Tamil

Nadu public health, said the increase shows health
policies are in the right direction. Earlier, people
had more children, and the chances of all the kids
getting a balanced diet were low. Family planning
has also helped. Childhood vaccination has checked
epidemics and saved lives, he said. Life-threatening
diseases like diphtheria, tetanus and whooping
cough have been eliminated completely. India has
also been recently declared a polio free nation,
which is an added feather to the cap, he said.
Thomas pointed out that increasing life

expectancy beyond 70 years would depend on
environmental factors. Supply of clean drinking
Some experts still advocate caution. With

increased life expectancy, the disease burden would
increase, said geriatrician Dr B Krishnaswamy.
[29]
NEWS IN BRIEF
NEWSMAKERS
Influential 500 List
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Nobel Prize-winning author of Indian-origin,

Sir V.S. Naipaul, and Pakistani teenage campaigner
Malala Yousafzai have been named among Britains
500 most influential people.
cast their vote against him. As many as 148

lawmakers from UCPN-Maoist, Rastriya
Prajatantra Party-Nepal and some small parties in
the Maoist-led alliance voted against 75-year-old
Koirala.
The first-ever Influential 500 list, compiled by

specialist publisher Debretts and The Sunday Times,
includes personalities in 25 areas chosen by experts
in their field.
While Ms. Yousafzai makes the cut in the
charity and campaigning category, Sir Naipaul
stands out as the only Indian-origin author to be
featured in the list.
Trinidad-born Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad
Naipaul was singled out for his Nobel Prize in
Literature in 2001.
Other Indian-origin professionals to make their

mark include Dr. Chaand Nagpaul, chair of the
British Medical Association GP Committee, in the
healthcare category, architect Sunand Prasad and
Anshu Jain, the Jaipur-born chief executive of
Deutsche Bank, the worlds fourth-largest
investment bank.
Among some of the other famous names to

feature include Prince Charles for his work with
more than 350 charities, Victoria Beckham for
fashion, novelist Hilary Mantel and Sir Elton John,
for both his music and charity work.
In sports, footballer David Beckham and
Olympic champions Jessica Ennis-Hill and Mo
Farah are named as being among the most
influential figures.
Sushil koirala
Veteran Nepali Congress leader Sushil Koirala

was elected as Prime Minister of Nepal with the
support of the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified
Marxist-Leninist (CPN-UML), ending months of
political instability following last years elections.
Although his party does not have a majority in

parliament Koirala got 405 of the 553 votes cast in
the 601-member parliament while 148 lawmakers
[30]
The standing committee of the CPN-UML - the

second largest party which has 173 lawmakers backed Koirala for the top post after the party
reached a six-point deal with the NC, which as
194 lawmakers.
The two largest parties in the Constituent
Assembly inked the deal after several rounds of
negotiations on the issue of power sharing.
Under the six-point agreement, they agreed to
promulgate the new constitution within a year and
to hold elections for the posts of president, vice
president and chairman of the Constituent
Assembly after it approves the new constitution.
The agreement also mentioned about taking
ownership of the past agreements of the dissolved
Constituent Assembly regarding the drafting of the
constitution.
The CPN-UML had earlier pressed for new
elections for president and vice president. However,
after reaching a power sharing deal, the party
agreed to support Koirala as Prime Minister.
Vivek Lall
Renowned aerospace and cyber security expert

Vivek Lall has been appointed as a special advisor
to United Nations, a role in which he will steer the
multi-nation body frame policy and its
implementation in the area of broadband and
associated cyber security issues.
Lall, who heads the Indo-US Strategic Dialogue
and has formed the Indo-American Chamber of
Commerce, is actively engaged in India-US dialogue
in various fields including defence, aviation,
aerospace and cyber security.
The objective of UN is to design, develop and
deploy a cyber security strategy that will identify

the unique challenges within the global community
and provide services that will help address them in
an efficient and cost effective manner.
Mykola Azarov
Justice Agrawal, 60, will have a tenure of about

five years. He will be the second judge to represent
the Allahabad High Court along with Justice
Chauhan till July. He was made active Chief Justice
of the Madras High Court in February last year
and appointed as regular Chief Justice in October.
With their appointment, the Supreme Court will
be full strength with 31 judges, although for a brief
period as 10 judges are due to retire this year.
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Ukraines Prime Minister Mykola Azarov

tendered his resignation to President Viktor
Yanukovych in order to facilitate peaceful
settlement of the political crisis even as the
Parliament repealed the harsh anti-protest laws that
triggered violent anti-government protests.
decades. Earlier, Justice K. Subba Rao was the CJI

from June 1966 to April 1967.
He was the First vice Prime Minister and Finance

Minister from 2002 to 2005 and again from 2006 to
2007. Azarov also served ex officio as an acting
Prime Minister in the First Yanukovych Government
when Viktor Yanukovych ran for president at first
and then upon resignation of his government.
Mehdi Jomma
Tunisias new technocratic government headed

by Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa was sworn in,
replacing an Islamist-led administration under an
accord to end political turmoil and prepare for fresh
elections.
He did not belong to any political party. On 13

March 2013, he became Minister of Industry in a
coalition government led by Ennahda after Ali
Laarayedh appealed him to be part of his
government. After the assassination of Mohamed
Brahmi in July, there had been a political deadlock.
To ease the situation, parties entered a national
dialogue which was held for weeks. The dominant
Islamist party Ennahda agreed to relinquish power
under the hard-fought political accord reached late
last year. The political agreement also required the
adoption of a long-delayed new constitution and
called for parliamentary and presidential elections
to be held by the end of 2014.
SC gets two new judges
The Supreme Court collegium headed by Chief

Justice of India P. Sathasivam has recommended
that the Chief Justices of the Madras and the Delhi
High Courts, Rajesh Kumar Agrawal and
Nuthalapati Venkata Ramana, be appointed as
judges of the apex court.
Justice Ramana has a chance to become the
Chief Justice of India in 2021. If that happens, he
will be the second person from Andhra Pradesh to
adorn the highest judicial office after over five
Gigar Das
Gigar Das, an Indian-origin soldier, helping in

the fight against the al-Qaeda, has become the first
in the British Army to get an on-the-spot field
promotion in more than 60 years.
Rifleman Gigar Das, from 1st Battalion The
Rifles, was presented with his Lance Corporals
stripe in front of his colleagues for his service to
Mali while serving as part of an European Union
Training Team.
The Chief of the General Staff, General Peter
Wall, accompanied head of the French Army
General Bertrand Ract-Madoux to witness soldiers
from 1 Rifles delivering infantry training to their
Malian counterparts. Both generals were hugely
impressed with Rifleman Das as they observed him
conducting a lesson in marksmanship principles.
Astounded to see that the soldier was a rifleman,
Gen Wall decided to promote him there and then.
The move from Rifleman lowest level in his
regiment to Lance Corporal is the first sudden
rise in rank on field since the Korean War in 1953.
Kathy Cross
New Zealand umpire Kathy Cross has become

the first woman to be named in an ICC umpires
panel - she was added to the ICC Associate and
Affiliate panel of umpires for 2014. Cross is now
eligible to officiate in World Cricket League Divisions
3 to 6. She had umpired in the Womens World
Cup in 2009 and 2013, the Womens World Cup
Qualifier in 2011 and the Womens World T20
Qualifier in 2013.
Cross and Vanuatus Nigel Morrison have
joined Sameer Bandekar, Mark Hawthorne,
Wynand Louw, David Odhiambo, Buddhi Pradhan,
Sarika Siva Prasad, Richard Smith, Ian Ramage
and Courtney Young in the panel for 2014.
[31]
OBITUARIES
Silverine Swer
Meghalayas oldest voter and the first Padma
Shri awardee from the State, Silverine Swer, passed
away at the age of 103 at her residence after a
brief illness.
Pete seeger
Legendary folk singer Pete Seeger has died at
the age of 94. With a career spanning decades, Seeger
was credited with popularising the hymn of the civil
rights movement, We Shall Overcome and was
known for renditions of songs like If I had a
Hammer and Where Have all the Flowers Gone.
He was an ardent social activist and his career
mirrored the concerns of the American left. He sang
for the labour movement in the 1940s and 1950s,
for civil rights marches and anti-Vietnam War rallies
in the 1960s. He also intoned for environmental and
antiwar causes in the 1970s and beyond.
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Kong Sil, as she was affectionately called, saw

four wars the two World Wars, the Sino-Indian
War and the Bangladesh Liberation War involving
India.
nominated for his performances in Charlie

Wilsons War, Doubt and The Master.
Kong Sil was born on November 12, 1910 and

did her schooling from the Welsh Mission Girls
School and then attended Scottish Church College
in then Calcutta. Kong Sil joined as the assistant
controller of rationing in 1944 during World War
II under the Assam government, and continued to
serve till 1949.
Maximilian Schell
Philip Seymour Hoffman
The Oscar-winning American actor Philip

Seymour Hoffman has died. He was 46. Hoffman
has over 60 film credits to his name, including
Magnolia, The Master, Boogie Nights, the Big
Lebowski, Mission Impossible III. He made his debut
as a film director in 2010 with the film- Jack Goes
Boating, in which he also starred. But he was more
often associated with the independent film world
for his portrayals of often disturbing and complex
characters in such films as Happiness, in which
he played an obscene phone caller, and Before
the Devil Knows Youre Dead. Philip Seymour
Hoffman won an Academy Award in 2006 for his
critically-acclaimed performance in Capote, where
he portrayed author Truman Capote. He was also
Austrian actor Maximilian Schell, who won

an Academy Award for his role as a German
defense attorney in the acclaimed 1961 courtroom
drama Judgment at Nuremberg, has died at age
83.
One of the best known foreign actors in U.S.
films, Schell starred on stage and screen on both
sides of the Atlantic after growing up in
Switzerland, where his family settled to escape the
Nazis after Germanys 1938 annexation of Austria.
Among his dozens of other movies were Topkapi
(1964), The Odessa File (1974), A Bridge Too
Far (1977), Cross of Iron (1977), The
Freshman (1990), Deep Impact (1998) and The
Brothers Bloom (2008). Schell was also a talented
pianist and directed operas.
DEFENCE
DRDO amphibian waits in the wings
In 2001, Defence Research and Development

Organisation (DRDO) entrusted one of its exclusive
development partners, TIL Ltd, to come up with
an amphibian vehicle, which has steel body but
capable of ferrying a 42-tonne main battle tank. In
18 months, TIL Ltd. delivered two such units.
The indigenously developed system is capable

of moving on and off road and can serve as a 24metre long and 3.6-metre wide fully decked floating
bridge within 9 minutes. The two-axle vehicle,
during the DRDO technical trials, could achieve
[32]
on-road speed of 50 kmph and 35 kmph crosscountry.

Its twin pump jets allow the vehicle to move on
water at a speed of 2.7 metre per second and let it
manoeuvre reverse, lateral and yawing. Two or
more such vehicles can be joined to meet logistic
challenges in war or disaster management
situations.
The lone competitor, a French company,
produces such a vehicle with its hull and bridge
made of aluminium at a higher cost. Considering
Indian defences preference for high strength steel,

the DRDO and TIL developed this unmatched
system.
The two units, conceived as technology

demonstrators, realised the status of prototypes
after trials.
CULTURE/HERITAGE
Gorton Castle gutted in fire
The site belonged to one Gorton, ICS in 1840.

After changing hands thrice, it was purchased by
a banker, Sir James Walker for Rs.80,000.
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Shimlas Gorton Castle, which caught fire

recently, joins a long list of heritage buildings
ravaged by fire in Shimla. This was the first fire in
a decade to have struck a British-era heritage
building, but fire officials say many other structures
have continued to suffer in a hill town defined by
its wooden buildings.
had the famous Sir Swinton Jacob as its architect.

The Rajasthan jaali work on its balconies obviously
came from his 45 years of experience as the
executive engineer of the princely state of Jaipur.
Gorton Castle, 110 years old and housing the

office of the accountant general, had been built with
grey stone walls but was renovated with wooden
interiors, with wiring behind the panels carrying
power to a heating system.
One of the most striking buildings of the British
empire, Gorton Castle is a neo-Gothic structure that
Between 1998 and 2014, too, there were many

buildings which caught fire. A common cause of
most fires has been electric appliances that have
replaced traditional bukharis and angithis. Most
of these wooden buildings are coated in thick layers
of inflammable chemical paint, and are forever at
risk from electrical appliances drawing from wires
often loose and worn out.
TERMINOLOGOIES
Rett Syndrome
Rett syndrome is an autism spectrum disorder

that affects girls almost exclusively. Its rare only
about one in 10,000 to 15,000 girls will develop the
condition.
In most cases of Rett syndrome, a child develops
normally in early life. Between 6 and 18 months of
age, though, changes in the normal patterns of
mental and social development begin.
Although its not always detected, a slowing of
head growth is one of the first events in Rett
syndrome. Loss of muscle tone is also an initial
symptom. Soon, the child loses any purposeful use
of her hands. Instead, she habitually wrings or rubs
her hands together.
Around 1 to 4 years of age, social and language

skills deteriorate in a girl with Rett syndrome. She
stops talking and develops extreme social anxiety
and withdrawal or disinterest in other people.
Rett syndrome also causes problems with

muscles and coordination. Walking becomes
awkward as girls develop a jerky, stiff-legged gait.
A girl with Rett syndrome may also have
uncoordinated breathing and seizures.
Although Rett syndrome seems to be genetic,
the faulty gene is almost never inherited from the

parents. Rather, its a chance mutation that
happens in the girls own DNA. No Rett syndrome
risk factors have been identified, other than being
female. There is no known method for preventing
Rett syndrome.
When boys develop the Rett syndrome
mutation, they die shortly after birth. Because boys
have only one X chromosome (instead of the two
girls have), the disease is more serious, and quickly
fatal.
A diagnosis of Rett syndrome is based on a
girls pattern of symptoms and behavior. The
diagnosis can be made on these observations alone.
Discussions between a doctor and a girls parents
will help determine important details, such as when
symptoms started.
Genetic testing can help confirm the diagnosis
in 80% of girls with suspected Rett syndrome. Its
possible that genetic testing can help predict
severity.
Gyanodaya Express
Gyanodaya was christened and conceptualised
as a maiden project by the University of Delhi to
broaden the perspective of education and extend
[33]

The University of Delhi assisted by the Indian
Railways organized a dedicated train Gyanodaya
Express for an educational journey by NCC and
NSS students from 32 colleges. The train is meant
to be a kind of college-on-wheels an opportunity
to experience life and culture.
This year, Delhi Universitys Gyanodaya
Express, for the first time, will be headed across
the border.
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it beyond mere geographical boundaries. It was an

innovative and novel project which aimed at
comprehensive empowerment of the students by
endowing them with hands-on knowledge of the
world outside the classrooms. The students thus
got an opportunity to interact with the outside
world, explore the cultural wealth and heritage of
our great country, understand the grassroots level
issues and also strengthen the bonds within
themselves besides developing camaraderie and
understanding between each other.
AWARD/PRIZES
Costa Book Award
Judges for one of the UKs most prestigious

literary prizes heralded a major new talent when
they named mental health nurse Nathan Filer
winner of the 2013 Costa book award for a moving
account of schizophrenia and grief. Filer won
against more fancied contenders, not least Kate
Atkinson, for his debut novel The Shock of the Fall.
The book is narrated by Bristol boy Matthew
from the age of five to his early 20s and is a gripping
account of his descent into schizophrenic illness
following the death of his younger brother.
He is the fifth first novelist to win, with previous

winners including Atkinson, who won in 1995 for
Behind The Scenes at the Museum. The last one was
Stef Penney in 2006 with The Tenderness of Wolves.
Since the introduction of the Book of the Year
award in 1985, it has been won eleven times by a
novel, five times by a first novel, five times by a
biography, five times by a collection of poetry and
once by a childrens book.
The Costa Book Awards, formerly known as

the Whitbread, is open to authors resident in the
UK and Ireland. All five shortlisted authors receive
5,000 with the overall winner getting a further
30,000.
Last years top prize went to Bring Up the Bodies
by Hilary Mantel. It was the first book to be named

as Costa book of the year and win the Man Booker
Prize in the same year.
Ela Gandhi
Ela Gandhi, a granddaughter of Mahatma

Gandhi, has been honoured with an award for her
lifetime contribution to the freedom struggle in South
Africa. Gandhi was one of three Indian-origin
South Africans lauded among many veterans of
Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation), which
was the armed struggle wing of the African
National Congress. The others were Sunny Singh
and Mac Maharaj.
The awards, titled Amadelakufa, meaning
sacrifice in Zulu, were hosted by the military.
She runs a range of community projects, among
them at the Phoenix settlement where Mahatma
Gandhi ran his successful anti-discrimination
activities during his tenure in Durban at the turn
of the last century. Sunny Singh had joined the
liberation movement 42 years ago. Maharaj is
currently spokesman for President Jacob Zuma. He
has served time with Mandela on Robben Island.
Ela Gandhi has been recently awarded the Pravasi
Bharatiya Samman for public service, enhancing
Indias image and promoting ties between India
and South Africa.
MISCELLANEOUS
101st Indian Science Congress
The 101st Annual Session of Indian Science

Congress was held at the University of Jammu from
3rd 7th Feb 2014 which focused on the theme
Innovations in Science and Technology for
Inclusive Development. The Congress is annually
[34]
organized since 1914 to showcase the recent

developments in the field of Science & Technology
in the country and abroad. The Indian Science
Congress Association (ISCA) owes its origin to the
foresight and initiative of two British chemists,
namely, Professor J. L. Simonsen and Professor P.

S. MacMahon. The first meeting of the congress
was held from 1517 January, 1914 at the premises
of the Asiatic Society, Calcutta. Honorable justice
Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee, the then Vice Chancellor
of the University of Calcutta presided over the
Congress.
India ranks 127th in EPI
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Indias air quality ranks among the lowest five

countries in the world, according to the
Environmental Performance Index by Yale
University that assessed 178 nations. The only
countries ranked below India on this score are
Pakistan, China, Nepal and Bangladesh.
The report assessed countries on their air
quality, status of biodiversity, water and sanitation.
Overall, Indias rank was 155th, far below other
BRICS countries, China (118), Brazil (77), Russia
(73), and South Africa (72).
A deeper look at the data gathered by a NASA

satellite showed that Delhi had the highest
particulate matter 2.5 pollution levels followed by
Beijing. Delhi, with 8.1 million registered vehicles,
has repeatedly beaten the Chinese capital on
particulate matter pollution.
The high PM2.5 pollution caused by high vehicle
density and industrial emissions is the reason for
the dense smog that has been engulfing Delhi during
the winter months in the last few years, with
adverse health implications. And while Beijings
infamous smog has hogged headlines and prompted
government action, even led to the announcement
of rewards for cutting back on pollution, the
dangers in Delhi have been largely ignored.
While there has been a lot of debate on Delhis
air quality is poorer than that of Beijings, in the
country-wise ranking India fares better than China.
The worst air quality according to the report is of
Bangladesh.
India has fared relatively better on just three
counts: forests, fisheries and water resources.
Switzerland has topped the rankings, while

Luxembourg, Australia, Singapore and Czech
Republic made it to top five in the index. The bottom
five performers are Somalia, Mali, Haiti, Lesotho
and Afghanistan.
While focus has always been on China and
India because they are bigger economies, the report
raises concerns about air quality in Bangladesh and
Nepal too. This category also includes a household
air quality indicator assessing the percentage of solid
fuel used primarily for cooking and heating.
Among graduates, only 30% job worthy
According to the National Skill Report 2014

prepared by CII, People Strong and Wheebox, an
online assessment firm, only 34% were employable
and women fared better than men in the tests. It
assessed one lakh students on various skills and
tested the students across 28 states and Union
Territories on their numerical and logical ability,
communications and domain knowledge. The
findings of the assessment are as follow:
1. Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi,
Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Karnataka,
Odisha and West Bengal were among the top
states from where the major chunk of
employable pool emerged.
2. Nagaland, Meghalaya, Jammu & Kashmir,
Manipur, Jharkhand and Bihar were among
the bottom of the heap.
3. The top 10 cities where maximum employable
candidates were available were Ajnala,
Dhariwal, Ponneri, Akola, Fatehgarh, New
Delhi, Coimbatore and Madurai.
4. The survey also found that the maximum
percentage of employable skill was available
in pharmacy, followed by engineering, ITI,
MCA and MBA.
5. The assessment also showed that out of the
women who took the tests, about 42% were
employable while only 30% men were found
fit for jobs.
[35]

6. The top states where most test takers scored
well in English were Rajasthan, Andhra
Pradesh, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Punjab,
Kerala and Karnataka.
IISC to set up brain research centre

In the biggest initiative of its kind, the Indian
Institute of Science (IISc) will establish a Centre for
Brain Research, having received a grant of Rs. 225
crore for the project from Pratiksha Trust for 10
years. The Centre will specifically aim to find cure
for neurodegenerative conditions accelerated by old
age.
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7. For logical and numeric ability, the states with

the best talent were Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu,
Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Kerala and
Karnataka. The cities which performed well
under this category were New Delhi,
Vadamadurai, Coimbatore, Ghaziabad,
Chennai, Erode, Delhi/NCR, Bangalore and
Agra.
South Mumbai. The monorail will be extended to

a 20-km corridor, with work on the remaining
stretchWadala to Jacob Circleexpected to be
completed by March 2015. The monorail project
has been executed by a consortium of Larsen and
Toubro Ltd (L&T) and Malaysian firm Scomi
Engineering and owned and operated by MMRDA.
8. Puducherry emerged as one of the top talent

pools and figured among the well-off states
in terms of computer skills.
9. Rajasthan, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka,

Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala,
Haryana and Delhi were among the top
states in computer skills, according to the skills
tests data.
10. The government is faced with a huge
challenge to upgrade skills and improve the
education standards to meet the demand of
the job market.
ICLICK
In a first of its kind in India, an Instant

Complaint Logging Internet Kiosk (ICLICK) has
been introduced by Odisha Police, which can help
women lodge complaints without going to any
police station. The ICLICK has the ability to receive
both voice and written complaints. It is directly
connected to the police control room through
internet. One can lodge a complaint in three ways.
First, if a victim wants to send an email, she can
type using the touch screen and provide details of
the complaint. Second, in case she does not want
to type but speak, there is a speaker mode. She can
record and the voice gets transmitted to the police
control room. Third option is if she has something
written on a paper, she can put it inside and the
machine scans it, transmitting it to the control room.
Indias first Monorail Service Commences
The countrys first Monorail service started

operations from February 1 on the 8.9 km WadalaChembur section in Mumbai. The Rs 3,000 crore
mono rail project is being implemented in two
phases. The first phase comprises the 8.9 km long
Wadala-Chembur section. The Phase I stretch has
seven stations. In the second phase the services
will be extended to Sant Gadge Maharaj Chowk in
[36]
The IISc will explore ways to understand and

treat diseases such as dementia and Parkinsons
among Indias growing population of the elderly.
Currently, India has over 100 million people
aged over 60 years. Middle and low-income
countries like India will have one of the greatest
burdens in the world.
Pamban Bridge completes 100 years
A long-time resident of Rameswaram and

former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam inaugurated
the centenary celebrations of the Pamban railway
bridge Indias first cantilever bridge, connecting
the pilgrim-island of Rameswaram with the
mainland.
The bridge was an engineering marvel that had
withstood corrosion and a violent sea for over a
century. The 65.23-metre-long rolling central lift span
(the bridge is 2.06 km long), named after Scherzer,
German engineer who designed and built the span,
has been given a fresh coat of paint and decorated
with lights. It opens up like a pair of scissors to
allow vessels to pass through under the bridge.
The bridge was put to test for the first time in
December 1964, when a severe cyclonic storm hit
this part of the area. All girders, both RCC and
steel, were washed away. Two of the 141 piers
were also damaged. But, Scherzers span withstood
natures fury.
Kalam had played a vital role in preserving the
bridge. After the Railways announced its uni-gauge
policy in 2006, and almost gave up gauge
conversion at the bridge, he brought in IIT-Madras
expertise to thrash out an engineering solution.
SPORTS
Australian Open 2014
Extreme Heat Policy
It was the 102nd edition of the Australian

Open, and the first Grand Slam tournament of the
year. This year all the defending champions except
whileSara Errani and Roberta Vinci lost their titles.
The event was in news for the use of Extreme Heat
Rule.
There is no set number for the WBGT that

triggers a halt in play, but a combination of high
temperature and high humidity are the conditions
that most affect players, spectators and personnel.
A WBGT reading of 26 sees ice vests sent to all
courts and a reading of 30.1 sees a 10-minute break
introduced to womens singles matches, but only
at one set all.
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Results
The Australian Open uses a combination of

air temperature, humidity and wind speed (the
Wet Bulb Global Temperature reading, or WBGT)
- rather than just air temperature - to decide
whether conditions are suitable for play.
Mens Singles: Stanislas Wawrinka of

Switzerland defeated Rafael Nadal in the mens
singles final to win his first grand slam title.
Womens Singles: Li Na won the womens
singles, beating Dominika Cibulkova.
Mens Doubles: Aukasz Kubot and Robert
Lindstedt took the mens doubles title with a victory
over Eric Butorac and Raven Klaasen.
Womens Doubles: Sara Errani and Roberta

Vinci defended their womens doubles title with a
victory over Ekaterina Makarova and Elena
Vesnina.
Mixed Doubles: Kristina Mladenovic and
Daniel Nestor defeated Sania Mirza and Horia Tecu
to win the award.
The next threshold is at the discretion of the

tournament referee and sees the extreme heat
policy introduced, when the tournament director
can call for play to be suspended at the end of the
current set in each match. Play can resume on
Rod Laver Arena and Hisense Arena once the
retractable roofs are brought across and the airconditioning is active.
[37]
EDITORIALS
WHO WILL PAY FOR A SKILLED WORKFORCE?
jobs at the top tend to be highly aspirational for
job-seekers, while those at the bottom are not sought
after at all.
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The National Skill Development Mission is an

ambitious project of skilling 500 million youth and
making them employable by 2022. The recent STAR
scheme launched by the National Skill Development
Corporation (NSDC), under the Union Government
has earmarked 10,000 as the expected cost of a
single skill intervention. If we juxtapose these facts,
India needs to find and invest 5 lakh crore to
meet the skill needs of its economy and fulfil the
aspirations of its youth. Where will this massive
investment come from? Who will foot the bill?
Different needs
The top of the pyramid is populated by the

likes of Ajita who have high qualifications and
aspirations. The idea of plush offices, elite peer
groups, and upward social mobility greatly excites
this segment, and an inherent willingness exists to
do whatever it takes to secure these jobs. As an
increasing number of colleges and universities fail
to impart employability skills through their
curricula, these job-seekers are waking up to the
prospect of their irrelevance in the job market.
Consider Ajita, aged 22, who has just graduated

with an engineering degree from a second-tier
private college. Her heart is firmly set on working
in one of the shiny glass towers at an IT SEZ.
Unfortunately, neither her engineering nor
communications skills are adequate to penetrate
the selection barrier set up by software firms. After
failing at yet another job interview, she has realised
the need to join a paid professional skill development
course that will make her competent enough to
secure the job of her dreams.
The power of aspiration makes the market priceinelastic to an extent. Consequently, such jobseekers are willing to pay to become employable,
either through on-campus courses during their
college years or through off-campus programmes
after graduation. Retail skill loan providers have
also emerged to assist such job seekers. Progressive
colleges too are stepping up to a greater moral and
financial accountability in making their graduates
job-ready.
Then there is Suresh, 18, who dropped out of

Class 10 a few years ago because he disliked going
to the government school in his village. After
helping his father on the farm for a few years, he
is now looking for a steady income; the only option
at the moment is working in a small retail store in
the town nearby. He is unable to secure any other
employment because of poor interpersonal skills and
lack of basic knowledge in operating computers.
Nor does he have the financial resources to pay for
a skills training course. The experiences of Ajita
and Suresh clearly indicate that skill development
does not lend itself to a one-size-fits-all solution.
Understanding the segments in this market is
essential to decide who should foot the national
skill bill.
Role of employers
The economy may offer jobs at various levels of

academic accomplishment, but job-seekers greet
them with a wide range of psychological responses.
This creates a hierarchy of desire, a pyramid, where
[38]
The bottom of the pyramid is a study in contrast.

School dropouts like Suresh are reluctant to accept
jobs readily available to them in the unorganised
sector, citing tough working conditions, low social
status and lack of job security. Many employers do
not even value skilled workers; hence skill
certifications today do not necessarily result in a
wage premium. There lie our skill development
challenges, complicated by the need to change
mindsets. While job seekers have to be counselled
to accept and respect the jobs available, employers
also have to pay a premium for skilled labour.
The State must play the role of an anchor to
address this massive socio-economic challenge.
Through well-designed voucher programmes and
training reimbursement schemes, the State must
incentivise those at the bottom of the pyramid to
acquire useful skill certifications.

The middle of the pyramid is a mix of services
and manufacturing jobs that will require greater
participation of employers. The services sector,
especially in field sales, may not offer dream jobs,
but employers still need to have an efficient
workforce to survive in a super-competitive
environment. Employers in manufacturing sectors
face significant risk if expensive machinery is
handled by an unskilled workforce.
In the same vein, wherever and whenever

industrial employers have a lot to gain or lose
depending on the talent they recruit and train,
employers must fund skill development out of their
own self-interest.
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In such situations, the industry has much to

gain with the deployment of skilled resources. But
that will need investments from employers to create
and nurture a talent pool, though the State too
may have a role to play. For example, it may offer
schemes that incentivise employers to engage in
industry-oriented talent development.
should be the burden of the State alone. Smart

market segmentation suggests that job-seekers and
academic institutions will readily pay for skill
development that leads to high-end, aspirational
jobs, and they should be actively encouraged to do
so.
In summary, if 5 lakh cror must be spent to

train 500 million youth, there is no reason why it
Last but not the least, the State must play an

active role in creating a skill-rich ecosystem at the
bottom-end of the job spectrum, a space that neither
excites job seekers nor attracts enlightened
employers today. As is the case with many
profound questions, the answer to who should
really pay for skills is simple. It depends!
NUTS AND BOLTS OF FINANCIAL INCLUSION
The Committee on Comprehensive Financial

Services for Small Businesses and Low Income
Households chaired by Nachiket Mor submitted its
Report on December 31. The expanse of the Report,
its vision and depth of analysis backed up by
massive data, is awesome. The instant impression
could be summed up as wonderful to the point of
bewilderment.
Under the Committees proposed financial

structure, there would be two types of national
banks (one with branches and one with agents),
besides wholesale consumer banks, wholesale
investment banks and payments banks. The entry
capital requirements would be 500 crore for
national banks and 50 crore for the wholesale
banks.
But each of us commenting on the Report are

rather like the Six Blind Men of Hindustan. The
Mor Report is far too important a document to be
consigned to the archives. The Report deserves
serious in-depth examination by policymakers and
institutions which are likely to implement its
recommendations.
The Report recommends that the cash reserve

ratio (CRR) should apply only on demand deposits.
It is envisaged that the statutory liquidity ratio (
SLR) will be phased out for national as well as
wholesale Banks but this is contingent on
governments acceptance of market interest rates
on its borrowing.
Facilitating financial inclusion
The Report highlights that 90 per cent of small

businesses have no link with the formal financial
sector and 60 per cent of the population does not
have a functional bank account. While the bank
credit-GDP ratio is around 70 per cent of GDP,
there are wide regional and district-wise disparities
which confirms that financial inclusion has a long
way to go.
The Report stresses that savers have difficulties
in accessing institutions and with no instrument
providing a positive real rate of return on financial
savings, there has been a move away from financial
assets to physical assets.
Wholesale banks would not accept deposits

below 5 crore and hence would be heavily
dependent on inter-bank borrowing from the
national banks. Since inter-bank liabilities are not
treated as liabilities for purposes of CRR
requirements, the wholesale banks will be subjected
to a much lower CRR.
Role of Postal Bank
The Committee envisages the setting up of

payments banks which will provide payments
services and deposit products to small businesses
and low income households with a maximum
deposit of 50,000 per customer. These banks will
be subject to reserve requirements. In the case of
[39]

the SLR, the payments banks will be required to
invest in government securities with a duration of
not more than three months.
The Postal Bank is proposed by the Committee as
a payments bank. It would be a serious error of policy
if the Postal Bank is not granted a full-fledged banking
licence for which it has applied. Given its vast expanse
of offices, unmatched by any other institution, the
Postal Bank has to be given a full-fledged banking
licence if financial inclusion is to be meaningful.
The January 1, 2020 targets appear excessively

ambitious, but the recommendation in a sense
underlines the enormity of the task. To ensure that
backward districts get preferential treatment, the
Committee rightly suggests a weighted district-wise
formula in the attainment of the priority sector
targets.
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Financial sector reforms
By January 1, 2016, each district should have a

credit-deposit ratio of a minimum of 10 per cent,
which should be raised rapidly by 10 percentage
points each year to reach a minimum of 50 per
cent by January 1, 2020. Again, in each district, by
January 1, 2016, there should be a minimum total
deposits plus investments to GDP ratio of a
minimum of 15 per cent which should be increased
by 12.5 percentage points each year to reach a
minimum of 65 per cent by January 1, 2020.
The Mor recommendations will require a major

revamp of the present financial legislative
framework. Governor Raghuram Rajan has rightly
pointed out that before implementing the
recommendations of the Financial Sector Legislative
Reforms Commission (FSLRC) it will be necessary
to settle on the desired financial structure. As such,
the FSLRC Report and the Mor Report have to be
examined simultaneously. Eager beavers wanting
instant
implementation
of
the
FSLRC
recommendations need to be reined in until a
comprehensive examination is undertaken not only
by policymakers, opinion makers and the
operational units but more importantly by
Parliament. Implementing the recommendations of
the FSLRC without Parliamentary approval would
be, to say the least, highly irregular.
Inclusion framework
The Mor Committee recommends that every

resident Indian over the age of 18 years should
have a Universal Electronic Bank Account by
January 1, 2016 and every low income household
and small business should have convenient access
to formally regulated lenders for credit products at
an affordable price.
The Mor Report could be considered to be

excessively ambitious, but given the task one has to
dare to be bold. I have on a number of occasions
stressed the relevance of the Rajamannar Working
Group of the Banking Commission of the 1970s
which set out an elaborate legislative framework
for linking the organised financial system with the
unorganised indigenous financial sector. Not
having such a link is a serious error of policy.
Will history repeat itself?
Forty five years ago, the late R.K. Hazari,

prepared a path-breaking report on concentration
of industrial licensing in the hands of a few
industrial houses. The report recommended the
nationalisation of banks. Soon after nationalisation
of banks in 1969, Hazari was inducted into the
RBI as Deputy Governor. Will history repeat itself?
BITTER MEDICINE
The US Food and Drug Administrations

(USFDA) ban on import of active pharmaceutical
ingredients from Ranbaxys plant at Toansa in
Punjab in addition to three other of its earlier
blacklisted manufacturing sites has implications
for more than just the beleaguered company. To
start with, Ranbaxy Laboratories is not alone. The
USFDA has also identified significant violations
of current good manufacturing practice (cGMP)
regulations at two facilities belonging to
Wockhardt, apart from issuing warning letters to a
host of other firms such as Dr Reddys, Lupin, Sun
[40]
Pharma and Aurobindo Pharma. While Ranbaxy

may be the only company to have been prohibited
from manufacturing drugs from all its Indian plants
for the US market, the matter is serious enough for
the Centre to sit up and take notice. The Drug
Controller General of India and other authorities
must work closely with the pharma industry to
evolve systems for enforcement of compliance with
global cGMP standards. At stake is Indias $15
billion-a-year pharma exports, over a quarter of
which goes to the US.

Toansa plant were found not calibrated, qualified
or maintained appropriately, while the sample
preparation room had Too Numerous To Count
(TNTC) flies. The deviations at its Mohali unit
included use of dirty glassware and black fibre
embedded in a tablet originating from hair from
an employees arm. These only point to the absence
of robust and sustainable systems to monitor
production processes at the shopfloor. The
companys top management is no less responsible
here, especially when the USFDAs first import alert
against its facilities goes back to 2008. Also, some
drugmakers have taken corrective measures
following the detection of manufacturing lapses by
the US health regulator, which suggests the problem
is far from intractable. But it is time that the
industry and perhaps the government as well
started by at least recognising the existence of
the problem.
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The industry may well say that irrespective of

the USFDA inspections revealing significant
deviations from the cGMP standards, there is no
evidence to suggest that the exported drugs are of
substandard quality. In fact, what the USFDA calls
adulterated drugs includes any medicine not
manufactured under conditions confirming to its
cGMP regulations it does not necessarily mean
the product is inadequate. Ranbaxy continues to
export to other regulated markets and the fact that
many of its finished pharmaceutical products are
listed under the World Health Organisations
Prequalification of Medicines Programme supports
such a claim.
But there is little to be had in pushing such a
line of argument. The truth is that if a company
hopes to export to the US, it has no option but to
meet the latters regulatory requirements,
howsoever stringent they may be. In this case,
Ranbaxys alleged transgressions arent minor: the
analytical instruments in the laboratory of its
RAISED RATE, LOWERED SENTIMENT
In his last mid-quarter policy review on

December 18, the Reserve Bank of India Governor
Raghuram Rajan surprised almost everyone by not
hiking interest rates despite the consumer price
index (CPI) inflation hitting a record 11.16 per cent
in November. He gave two main reasons for not
doing so. The first was the weak state of the
economy. The second pertained to the merit in
waiting for more data, especially taking into
account indications that vegetable prices may be
turning down sharply. On the data front, the
governor was absolutely right. Not only did retail
inflation in December fall to 9.87 per cent, vegetable
and fruit prices are registering disinflation, as
the RBIs policy review has pointed out. As for the
state of the economy, Rajan put it most succinctly:
The slowdown is getting increasingly worrisome,
with industrial activity in contractionary mode
and lead indicators of services also suggesting a
subdued outlook.
Despite all of this, the governor has, rather than
lowering or retaining the RBIs benchmark repo
rate at the current level, chosen to raise it by 25
basis points to 8 per cent. This is unwelcome and
a departure from the central banks own position
in December that was sensitive to the risks to
growth from taking an overly reactive policy
action. Those risks, if anything, have only gone
up now even as inflation pressures are receding
courtesy a bumper rabi crop. The rate hike,

moreover, sits uneasily with a Centre that is
simultaneously resorting to fiscal tightening, which,
by the RBIs own admission, is likely to exacerbate
the weakness in aggregate demand.
One reason why the RBI may have opted for a
rate increase is to signal acceptance of the Urjit
Patel committees recommendation of making CPI
inflation the nominal anchor for monetary policy
formulation. But the Patel panel had warned
against the output costs of disinflation, while
setting a one-year time frame for bringing down
retail inflation rate to 8 per cent. Given that food
and fuel have a combined weight of 57.1 per cent
in the CPI and the RBI has little control over
their prices it is debatable whether a repo rate
increase is going to have any effect on inflation 12
months down the line. What will matter much more
is the behaviour of the south-west monsoon. It is
also doubtful whether higher interest rates will help
contain inflation in the short term; therefore, those
who think that a hike may help the UPAs chances
in the next Lok Sabha election are harbouring a
false hope. But they are certainly not going to help
lift investor and consumer sentiment either. The
fact that further policy tightening in the near term
is not anticipated at this juncture, as the RBI
governor has assured, is the only consolation.
[41]
EVERY ENTRY NEEDS AN EXIT

subscribers by 2020 as against the existing 200
million-odd who download at not even 256
kilobits/second average rates it cannot be achieved
without our operators having access to adequate
spectrum. One way to facilitate this is by creating
a secondary market, so that those wanting
additional spectrum can buy from operators
holding these in excess of their requirements.
Some of TRAIs recommendations, such as
permitting only spectrum originally allocated
through auctions to be traded or not allowing
airwaves once bought to be resold for at least two
years, may seem restrictive at first glance. But they
make sense if the idea is to promote efficient usage
of a scarce natural resource. A two-year lock-in is
essentially meant to discourage non-serious players
interested in acquiring spectrum only to make
trading gains. Likewise, it is only fair to prevent
operators who obtained spectrum at below market
price through an administered process from making
windfall profits; they should be given the right to
trade in these airwaves only after paying a onetime charge covering the difference. Equally sensible
is the proposal to make spectrum trading
conditional upon an outright transfer of usage
rights. A buyer in this case will, then, have to also
assume the roll-out obligations associated with
ownership of the spectrum block. This, again, is
only intended to promote efficient spectrum usage.
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The Telecom Regulatory Authority of Indias

(TRAI) recommendations for spectrum trading
should hopefully receive the Governments go-ahead
at the earliest. The release of the draft guidelines is
well-timed, coming just ahead of the next spectrum
auction, scheduled to begin on February 3.
Currently, telecom firms have no viable mechanism
to exit the sector, by either surrendering spectrum
to the Government and claiming refund of their
auction monies, or by selling spectrum to other
operators. This prospect of being locked-in and
suffering the winners curse in the event of their
bids proving far too aggressive in hindsight has, in
turn, discouraged participation in auctions. By
allowing spectrum trading, the chances of more
players taking part goes up, as they can now bid
with the knowledge of being able sell airwaves to
other operators. And if the spectrum is valued
higher in the secondary market than the original
auction price, there is no winners curse either.
A secondary market for airwaves is equally
important from the buyers standpoint. A Bharti or
Vodafone today does not own more than 30 megahertz (MHz) of spectrum across all frequency bands
in any circle. Contrast this to the 100 MHz available
with Verizon in the US or the 130 MHz allocated
to China Mobile for just high-speed 4G data service
applications such as mobile healthcare and video
entertainment. While the National Telecom Policy
has set a target of delivering broadband services at
minimum 2 megabits/second speeds to 600 million
TIME WE PUSHED ASEAN PACT ON SERVICES
Indias resolve to get closer to Asean countries

is faltering at the altar. After signing a free trade
agreement on goods with Asean, a similar pact on
trade in services and investment unarguably
Indias strong suit still eludes the country.
Marked by public squabbling between ministries, it
is quite likely that the final agreement will be signed
only after elections.
Make that one year from now. Once the new

government takes over, it will be another six-seven
months before it can sink its teeth into bilateral
trade deals. This is tragic because while India has
an advantage in services, Indias existing trade
balance with Asean is negative.
Confusion, delays
India signed a free trade agreement (FTA) with
[42]
Asean an economic bloc of 10 countries for

only goods in 2009. This was to be followed up
with the signing of a separate FTA on services and
investment, negotiations on which have been
continuing for some time now. There is no clarity
on the benefits that such an FTA will offer since
the agreement is not yet in public domain, but it
can be safely said that it will allow India to leverage
its competitive offerings in finance, education,
health, IT, telecommunications, transport and
movement of professionals.
Consequently, Indian service providers will be
able to offer services to Asean customers with
greater ease than what is available currently.
A formal conclusion to negotiations was
signalled through an Asean secretariat communiqu
in Delhi on December 20, 2012: ...we welcome

the successful conclusion of the negotiation on
ASEAN-India Trade in Services and Investment
Agreements. The session concluded with Prime
MInister Manmohan Singh also endorsing the end
of negotiations.
For example, Indias trade deficit with Thailand

has grown by 111.55 per cent between 2008-09
and 2012-13.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram found vocal
support from three sources. First, RBI governor
Raghuram Rajan alluded to misaligned FTAs in a
November speech: I am worried because we seem
to be reverting to a dialogue of protection and
subsidies that we left behind long ago...While we
should not enter into free-trade agreements that
give foreign manufacturers an undue advantage,
that is no reason for us to now respond by giving
domestic manufacturers protection.
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This led to speculations about probable dates,

with August 2013 emerging as consensus deadline.
On October 10, 2013, at another Asean Summit,
Manmohan Singh provided another deadline:
India stands ready for the signature of the IndiaAsean FTA on Services and Investment by the end
of this year and its early implementation. The
Cabinet then on December 19, 2013, approved a
services and investment treaty with Asean, raising
hopes that the deal would be sealed soon.
contends that there should be a proper study on

performance of all FTAs. Specifically, it feels that
Asean countries have gained more than India
in simple terms, that means India has imported
more from Asean countries than it has exported to
them.
Sadly, that cut-off date too has lapsed and the

agreement seems to have fallen into the cracks that
lie between promises and approvals. The delay is
being blamed on shadow-boxing between Ministry
of Commerce and Industry, which wants India to
push ahead with the agreement, and Ministry of
Finance, which wants a detailed study on the
performance of all FTAs signed so far. While the
Cabinet over-ruled all opposition, a delay is now
inevitable.
Indias economic strength lies in services, given
that over 50 per cent of GDP comes from services.
It is, therefore, counter-intuitive that bickering and
delay should bog down an advantageous trade
pact.
Missing the target
The unsigned, unconsummated FTA is to be

formalised under the umbrella framework of
Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement
(CECA) which India and Asean inked in 2003.
CECA which has two components, goods, as
well as services and investment is similar to most
FTAs, but earns the comprehensive sobriquet by
including investment. India has signed CECAs with
Japan, Singapore and Australia.
Under CECA with Asean, the Agreement on
Trade Goods was signed in 2009. Asean comprises
Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand,
Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, the Philippines and
Myanmar. Indo-Asean trade has grown from $30
billion in 2008 (before FTA on goods was initialled)
to $76 billion in 2012. But, given the pace of
progress, it seems the 2015 target of $100 billion
will be missed.
The source of inter-ministerial conflict lies in
the disaggregated numbers. The Finance Ministrys
Industry lobbies Ficci and Assocham also

pitched in. A Ficci survey among its members
showed that many respondents felt trade in goods
with Asean either had no impact on exports or
had an adverse impact, but only a minimal
beneficial effect.
An Assocham report was a bit more hardhitting and cautioned the government to
incorporate lessons from the Asean goods FTA into
the Indo-EU trade negotiations.
Interestingly, apart from the Indian side, Asean
members have been also holding up the talks, even
as tariffs on a number of items keep coming down
every year. For instance, it is believed some Asean
countries are opposed to free movement of
professionals, given rising unemployment in their
countries.
Some of them are insisting that Indian professionals
should obtain local qualifications; for instance, a doctor
wanting to practice in Thailand must obtain a licence
from Medical Council of Thailand.
India, on the other hand, wants to sign a mutual
recognition agreement with Asean so that there is
a mutual recognition of professional qualifications;
in case there is no such agreement at the Asean
level, India will then have to sign such an accord
with each country separately.
The clock is ticking. Every wasted moment
results in India importing more goods (which
eventually affects domestic manufacturing) while
being handicapped in using its competitive
advantage of services export.
[43]
RWANDA: FROM GENOCIDE TO GROWTH MIRACLE

Concluding in 2010, the Gacaca courts represent
a unique form of communal and collaborative
justice, which is motivated as much by
reconciliation as by justice.
The umuganda effect

Rwanda has developed other equally inventive
ways of bolstering social cohesion.
On the last Saturday of every month, all
Rwandan citizens, including President Paul
Kagame, come together to clean their
neighbourhoods.
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Rwanda, a tiny country in east and central

Africa, aspires to be a knowledge-based, middleincome economy by the year 2020. By the same
time Rwanda, which possesses relatively limited
natural resources, especially in comparison to
neighbouring countries such as the Democratic
Republic of Congo, aims to transform into East
Africas undisputed and indispensable services hub.
Yet, 20 years ago, the world was witness to a very
different country.
On April 7, 2014, Rwanda will begin the
national commemoration of the genocide of 1994,
a devastating tragedy that left hundreds of
thousands of Tutsis and Hutus dead.
Two decades is a relatively short period in a

nations lifetime and the Rwandan genocide is still
etched in the collective memory of the international
community. Yet, Rwandas achievements in this
span of time are astounding.
Systematic progress
At the economic level, Rwanda has been

working systematically towards attaining middleincome status by 2020. The World Bank tells us
that Rwanda recorded an impressive GDP growth
rate of 7 per cent in 2013, a figure that is forecast
to climb up to 7.5 per cent this year.
As proof of its commitment to nurturing the
private sector, Rwanda was ranked 32 out of 189
economies in the World Banks Doing Business
2014 report. This demonstrates the strength and
openness of the business environment for both local
and international entrepreneurs.
A strong leadership with an uncluttered

developmental vision has resulted in sustained
capacity development and institution-building. This
has placed Rwanda firmly on the path to economic
wellbeing. Moreover, members of the diaspora
poured into the country in the years following the
genocide in order to help build a peaceful and
prosperous nation that would never again be
vulnerable to conflict and discord.
In fact, Rwanda has made tremendous progress

in repairing a society that was torn apart by
mistrust and violence. The Gacaca courts were
established in 2001 to try the many genocidaires,
who could not be tried in the conventional courts
due to the overwhelming numbers of perpetrators
brought to trial.
[44]
Umuganda, as this event is known, seeks to instil

a sense of purpose and unity among the people
while simultaneously preserving the environment.
Empowering women is another integral aspect
of Rwandas recuperative process. With a femaledominated parliament, the Rwandan government
has demonstrated its dedication to gender equality
and womens representation, both of which are
critical to creating a society that is whole and
inclusive.
Rwanda is also known for generating
innovative, home-grown approaches to
developmental issues. The one cow per poor family
programme (girinka), for instance, which was
initiated by Kagame, aims to eliminate child
malnutrition and raise incomes for farmer
households. The programme is targeting 3,50,000
Rwandese families by 2015; it has already impacted
over 1,77,200 families.
By steadily mending internal social and
economic cleavages, Rwanda is becoming an
increasingly attractive location for international
investors and entrepreneurs who are eager to
explore promising markets in Africa. The World
Banks Doing Business parameters reflect the
realities on the ground, as establishing a company
in Rwanda is a quick and an efficient operation.
Government officials at all levels are
approachable, willing to respond to queries and
share information. Moreover, public accountability
is high and corruption minimal.
Holistic view
However, even as the government has made

private sector development one of its priorities, the
pace of decision-making can impede timely project
execution. The momentum of the public and private

sectors is not always aligned. This can lead to
businesses having to rearrange timelines and
commitments; it may not always be easy to recover
from these adjustments. In light of this, prospective
investors should approach Rwanda and other
developing nations in Africa with a long-term and
holistic perspective, as projects can take time to
materialise.
As the date of the official commemoration

draws near, it is incumbent on us to remember
those who lost their lives 20 years ago and express
our solidarity with the survivors. Moreover, we
should use this time to reflect on how far Rwanda
has come since then, and how much further it has
the potential to go as a dynamic and positive force
in the international arena.
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Securing finance in order to implement

innovative and high-impact initiatives is not always
a straightforward process, especially in the case of
foreign entrepreneurs attempting to enter a new
market. As African countries strive to reduce their
reliance on donor aid, it will be necessary to
innovate financial solutions that will serve their
unique development needs. For new ideas, both
strong political will and funds are necessary. This
again points to the need for a long-term strategy.
Kwibuka20, the annual commemoration of the

1994 genocide, began on January 7 this year. The
objectives of Kwibuka20 are three-fold: to remember
those who died in and support those who survived;
to unite Rwandans and the world at large in a
spirit of reconciliation and empathy; and to renew
by sharing and learning from their experiences in
order to move forward collectively towards a
brighter, more hopeful future.
GOOD LAWS, BAD IMPLEMENTATION
In the last two years the highest courts in the

country have responded to a mass call for more
protection for women. Alongside, there have been
many judgments from non-constitutional decisionmaking bodies like khap panchayats and kangaroo
courts sanctioning violence against particular
women or curtailing womens freedom in significant
ways. Why is it that while there has been a legal
expansion of womens rights in India, the societal
trends that maintain a violent order against women
have remained intact?
Recently, a 20-year-old Santhal tribal woman
was raped by 12 men in West Bengal on the orders
of a kangaroo court called a salishi sabha. Her crime
was to have fallen in love with a man outside her
community. The couple were tied up and tried
and asked to pay Rs.25,000 as payment. The man
was able to pay but the woman could not. The
headman reportedly decreed that she could be
enjoyed by several men and that they could have
fun with her.
The tone of this diktat parrots what Nirbhayas

rapists said they were out to have some fun
and a good time. She later died after having
sustained massive injuries but left behind a mass
political movement calling for more rights for Indian
women.
Societally sanctioned rape and sexual assault is
not new in India. It has been repeatedly established
that Indian men assert a claim over the bodies of
women because somehow, families believe that in
Indian society a woman exists as an appendage to
some man in her life father, brother, son or

husband. If a woman steps across an invisible line
(lakshman rekha), where her behaviour is seen as
outrageous and unacceptable, then many people still
believe that she is opening herself up to sexual assault.
The most recent such pronouncement came from Ms
Asha Mirje, a member of the Maharashtra State
Commission for Women who stated: Rapes take
place also because of a womans clothes, her behaviour
and her presence at inappropriate places. In other
words, for many people in society (including many
women) such a woman deserves what she gets.
Over the years, violence against women in
various forms has reached epic proportions. An
estimated 30 to 70 million girls are missing in
India since 1950, i.e., they dont make it out of the
birth canal. In 2011, the International Men and
Gender Equality Survey (IMAGES) on gender
attitudes showed that 68 per cent of the Indian
men surveyed (n=810) agreed that women should
tolerate violence to keep their families together,
while 65 per cent believed that sometimes a woman
deserves to be beaten; 37 per cent of men (n=929)
had physically assaulted their intimate partner at
least once; 24 per cent had committed an act of
sexual violence against someone in society and 20
per cent had committed sexual violence against their
partners. The most interesting finding from the
TrustLaw study was this one 92 per cent of
those surveyed knew of the laws pertaining to
violence against women. What does this figure tell
us about what is happening in India to women?
[45]
Rights and resentment
Women in rural India

One of the agents of mass pushback against
womens rights is kangaroo courts in India. These
clan-based khap panchayats and sabhas have had a
long history in India. Khaps are unconstitutional
and informal law-giving bodies that have captured
much rural terrain in north and eastern India. Why
they have re-emerged recently as strong political
bodies is still a mystery but one that suggests that
they have more than just traditional authority.
Khaps in rural India have been asserting much
power over the lives of people in rural India, the
weakest of whom are women of all communities.
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The figure quoted above tells us that legislation

alone is not going to stop violence against women
from occurring. For every piece of progressive
legislation that has upped the ante on womens
rights in India, there is still the struggle against
first responders who are often reluctant to register
a case of rape or sexual assault. The reporting of
rapes is very low in India. Most women do not
report assault for a variety of reasons. Last year,
Indias National Crime Records Bureau data
revealed that in 2012, 24,923 rape cases were
reported across India. Out of these, 24,470 were
committed by parents/family, relatives, neighbours
and other known persons. This leaves us with a
total of 453 cases of stranger rape. In essence, men
known to the victim committed 98 per cent of
reported rapes. This itself is a staggering figure.
Imperfections notwithstanding, these are still

very far-reaching changes. However, for every such
legislation passed by the Lok Sabha and courts,
there has been a gradual stripping away of the
rights of women as well. In fact, the gender
situation in India needs to be understood through
this process of rights expansion and the pushback
it gets from society.
A second cause of concern that emerges from

the data is that we have to think about why, despite
far-reaching legislation, rape and sexual assault is
still common. Romit Chowdhury suggests that for
Indian men the demonstration of masculinity,
which has always problematically rested on
harassing women, has now also become linked to
breaking the laws that protect women.
Rape and sexual assault are not only occurring

in homes, streets and offices, but also take on a
unique group dynamic in situations of communal
riots where a womans body become a site of
violence in the battle between caste or religious
groups. Sexual violence was a strong component
of the rioting in the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots in
Uttar Pradesh; 13 rape and assault cases were
reported. It is suspected that some cases have not
yet been reported because the women, now in
refugee camps, have refused to step forward as
they are afraid of losing their honour.
Last year, the landmark Criminal Law

(Amendment) Act, 2013 expanded the definition
of rape to include more than just vaginal
penetration. Stalking, voyeurism, acid attacks were
brought under the Act as punishable crimes. The
age of consent was raised to 18 years, below which
all penetrative sexual acts will now constitute
statutory rape. A rape shield clause was included,
where the character of the victim was rendered
irrelevant to establishing her consent. However,
marital rape did not find its way into the Act and
neither was rape and sexual assault removed from
the purview of the Armed Forces (Special Powers)
Act (AFSPA).
[46]
In the last two years alone, khaps have

sanctioned several honour killings and have
suggested a level of misogyny that is completely at
odds with what the leading courts in the country
are articulating. For instance, in the State of
Haryana, there are several local khaps. Two such
jat caste bodies imposed dress codes on women,
and one even said that girls are agents who
pollute society and bring a bad name to the
community. For these bodies, policing women is
easy. In rural India, police presence is low and
many local notables have links with local law
enforcement agents. These notables are also involved
in the functioning of khaps. So, they are reasonably
confident that their diktats policing womens
behaviour will not be challenged.
What is transpiring in contemporary India is a
backlash against an expansion of rights for women
that stops women from building capabilities,
economic careers and acquiring some independence
from male figures in their lives. Second, since khap
diktats are singular statements that send messages
to all women, they instill fear in young women
and families with daughters, successfully silencing
any protest that could arise against their rulings.
The Indian state has been quite reticent in initiating
any action against khaps even though it is apparent
that khap diktats are blatantly undercutting
womens rights and thereby contradicting the
verdicts of the highest constitutional law-making
bodies.
A mismatch
This process giving rights with one hand, while
the other takes it away shows that people resent
an expansion of rights for women and go to extreme
lengths to make sure that the law of the land has no
stronghold in their local communities. The Indian state
may make many laws that protect women. However,
none of this means much unless law enforcement
agencies actually implement the law.
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This mismatch between the existence of good

laws and their actual implementation is itself a
commentary on state capacity in India. Many years
ago, Francine Frankel and M.S.A. Rao drew our
attention to social structures of dominance in India

and how they inhibit, negotiate or encourage state
power. The Indian state has failed Indian women
by allowing khaps to issue diktats that contradict
constitutionally sanctioned rights women have. In
ignoring the khap question and not taking them
head-on as groups that violate human rights, the
Indian state seems to be saying that its job is done
when it passes good legislation. Rights may be
apparent or self-evident and constitutionally
secured; however, they do not automatically
implement themselves.
Source: The Hindu
KEEPING PEOPLE AND TIGER SAFE
As conservation of wild species becomes more

successful, higher levels of human-wildlife conflict
are being reported in many parts of the country.
The outcome of such encounters is a distressing
number of human lives lost, and the tragic
elimination of the wild creatures involved in the
attacks. The man-eating tiger incident in Dodabetta
in the Nilgiris, which ended in the gunning down
of the cat, brings to the fore the dilemma of ensuring
a safe distance between wild animals and people.
Evidently, there are no easy answers to this question,
not just in India but in several other countries that
have well-protected wildlife. Two strategies often
adopted to prevent conflict rely on modification of
human and animal behaviour. Farmers are
encouraged to switch to cash crops to avoid
attracting elephants, while forest departments
provide access to water within protected areas to
stop animals from moving out. Wild creatures in
turn learn to avoid places rendered inaccessible
through trench-digging and building of fences. Yet,
these are by no means fail-safe interventions. It is
necessary to identify areas for intensive protection,
and encourage forest-dwelling communities to move
out of course, with sufficient attention devoted
to their rehabilitation at a new location.
Removal of problem animals often becomes
unavoidable if there are human casualties and there
is a prospect of more people being killed. It would

appear ironic, but conservation advice in such
circumstances is usually to swiftly eliminate the
lone animal, such as the Dodabetta tiger, rather
than attempt slow capture and risk negative public
attitudes to tigers as a whole. Unfortunately, it is
not easy to identify the individual tiger or leopard,
and the conflict may continue even after one animal
is shot dead. In Chikmagalur district, for instance,
17 leopards had to be shot in 1995 before the
problem of attacks on people stopped. Research
evidence supports a strategy that relies on spatial
separation of people and animals as a more
rewarding means of conflict reduction. If isolated
villages and free ranging cattle are moved out of
the small land area that makes up Indias protected
forests, the risk of an encounter with fierce creatures
can be brought down. The problem today is that
successfully managed national parks and
sanctuaries are witnessing a rise in tiger and leopard
numbers, leading to the dispersal of old and injured
animals towards habitations on the periphery and
even beyond. Future conservation strategies would
have to rely on well-administered wildlife
sanctuaries, and equally on a voluntary
resettlement programme for forest communities.
Source: The Hindu
KEEPING INDIA AT BAY
Fish move over the Indian Ocean knowing no

borders, while marine resources including corals
on the continental shelf are important for the
seasonal migration and reproduction of fish.
Similarly, for centuries past, fishers and traders
travelled freely over the ocean, fishing and
accumulating wealth needed to build coastal

economies. Eventually, colonial empires and postcolonial states drew borders and boundaries across
land and sea as capitalist forms of fishing and
coastal industries steadily ravaged marine
resources. The backdrop to the discussions and the
[47]

upcoming India-Sri Lanka negotiations on the Palk
Bay fishing conflict is the tension between a history
of coexistence in the Indian Ocean and the
contemporary predicament of exploitative fishing
that destroys livelihoods and the environment.
Deep-sea trawling
On the environmental front, years of trawling
have led to the depletion of fish stocks. There is
ample evidence of ecological damage by trawling,
which scrapes the seabed, destroying biodiversity.
Indeed, trawling is banned in many countries. In
Sri Lanka, fishery policies in recent decades opposed
trawling, which culminated in a ban in 2010.
Research by marine scientists is now beginning to
map the environmental damage due to Indian
trawlers on the ocean bed.
Why has this dire situation arisen? It is not that
fishers in the past or elsewhere did not face such
conflicts. When such conflicts did arise, there were
struggles, negotiations and agreements reached.
Indeed, that is how the trawling from the Tamil
Nadu side came to be restricted to three days a
week, as small-scale fishers hit back at trawlers.
The problem with the Palk Bay fishing conflict is
precisely its interstate character. Indian trawlers
ravage Northern fishers livelihoods, but cannot be
confronted and negotiated with on the shore as
they live in two different countries.
In this context, there have been two significant
rounds of talks between Tamil Nadu and Northern
fishers in 2004 and then again in 2010. The
agreement reached in 2010 called for a complete
end to trawling in Sri Lankan waters within a year,
giving Indian trawl fishers time to shift to other
forms of fishing. The agreement has not been
implemented by either country across the Palk
Straits, and three and a half years later, the
situation has reached crisis proportions.
The irony of the tragedy facing the Northern
fishers is that the Tamil Nadu polity, which claims
to champion the rights of the Sri Lankan Tamils,
has been complicit in the dispossession of the Sri
Lankan Tamil fishers. This hypocrisy also extends
to the Sri Lankan Tamil middle class, the Sri
Lankan Tamil media and the Tamil National
Alliance. With the singular exception of the recently
elected Chief Minister Wigneswaran, who recently
called for a principled cessation of trawling, the Sri
Lankan Tamil polity has been, for the most part,
silent, reflecting its class and caste bias towards
fishers. The Sri Lankan state, in turn, has used the
issue as a leverage in a difficult relationship with
its bigger neighbour on issues ranging from a
constitutional political settlement, continuing
militarisation and the acrimonious human rights
debates in UN forums.
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During the decades of war, the Northern fishers

in Sri Lanka were restricted from the seas. Their
livelihoods were devastated as they confronted
repeated displacement. They lost many of their kith
and kin to the unceasing firing and bombs, but
struggled to keep their communities together
through the years. Today they recall the decades
before the war as a golden age of prosperity when
the North contributed to over a third of the fish
catch of the country. With such prosperity came
social mobility and the consolidation of fishers
cooperative unions. Although it was a herculean
task for the fishers to keep their cooperatives
running, these unions remained intact through the
war. With the end of the war came hope that fishing
would be revitalised in the North. There was an
expectation of relief and return to sustenance on
fishing, which about two hundred thousand people
in the Northern Province depend on for livelihoods.
way of life and resorting to day wage labour as

masons or seeking work as migrants.
Almost five years after the war, the

reconstruction of the war-torn North and East has
failed due to flawed neoliberal policies which
banked
on
infrastructure
development,
financialisation and the market, with little serious
attention given to local livelihoods. For the Northern
fisherfolk, the problem is compounded by an
armada of some two thousand Indian trawlers
mercilessly poaching in their seas. On the three
nights of a week when the Indian trawlers
relentlessly invaded the seas, the local fishers
smaller boats were run over and their costly nets
destroyed. Having lost millions of rupees in
damaged equipment, they now mostly stay at home
on those three trawling days. Their catch is greatly
reduced exacerbating their plight. With decreasing
incomes, waning political and economic power and
the politicisation of rural development by the regime
in Colombo, the cooperatives, which managed to
survive the war, are weakening and face the danger
of collapse.
While the Sri Lankan fishers also compete with
Indian small-scale fishers on non-trawling days, it
is the more high-powered trawlers that are the
cause for rage in the coastal North. The humming
and the lights of the larger trawlers venturing close
to the shores are the disquieting reality of the Sri
Lankan fishers stolen future. With crippling
indebtedness, some fishers are abandoning their
[48]

to the Northern fishers, their devastating past
means there needs to be much support for their
revival. There are calls by fishers for compensation
for their loss of equipment and catch over the years.
There is a need to rebuild fisheries infrastructure
such as jetties and harbours. Next, training and
investment in multi-day boats capable of deep-sea
fishing for at least some sections of the Northern
fishers are needed. It is such investment that can
ensure that the fishers affected by the war for
decades can catch up with fishers in Southern Sri
Lanka. India can support such efforts to revitalise
fisheries in the North and thus address the damage
done by Indian trawlers and rebuild goodwill across
the Palk Bay. The Government of Sri Lanka and
the Northern Provincial Council must realise that
the revitalisation of fisheries in the North is
inextricably linked to credible reconstruction
policies by an engaged civil administration and to
democratisation that strengthens institutions such
as the fisher co-operatives.
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It is in this context that multi-level talks and

negotiations seem to be the only way forward. It is
critical that the affected fishers and their interests
are placed at the centre, but the governments will
have to arrive at agreements. While confidence
building measures such as releasing Indian and Sri
Lankan fishers arrested on both sides of the
maritime boundary are welcome, there is specificity
to those releases. The Sri Lankan fishers arrested in
India are mainly from the South involved in deepsea fishing and a different constituency from the
war-affected small scale fishers of the North. It is
therefore critical that the negotiations are inclusive
of the representatives of Northern fishers
cooperatives.
Introspection needed
For now, the vision and initiative has to come

from the Indian side; New Delhi, the Tamil Nadu
polity and the trawl fishing communities have to
engage in some serious introspection. Otherwise,
the mounting anger among the Northern fishers
may place a wedge between the post-war North
and India. Indeed, Indias support for devolution
of power, substantive demilitarisation, the massive
fifty thousand housing scheme for the war-affected
and building of the Northern railroad are all now
overshadowed by the Palk Bay fishing conflict.
Addressing the Indian trawling problem is fast
becoming the litmus test for Indian solidarity; not
only towards the fisherfolk but the war affected
North and East as a whole.
Negotiations are not about demonising the
Tamil Nadu trawlers, but rather about calling on
them to take responsibility. On the Indian side,
while a ban on trawling would be welcome given
the ecological damage, it may, in reality require a
process of buyback of trawlers by the government
to reduce capacity and, over a period of time,
complete decommissioning.
On the Sri Lankan side, while an end to

poaching by Indian trawlers will give some relief
The vast Indian Ocean has both a history of

coexistence and the resources to accommodate the
peoples of the subcontinent. It is our modern
predicament, shaped by muscular nation-states and
avarice of capitalist institutions, that exploitation
for profits and destruction of natural resources have
created crises, be it be armed confrontations or
fishing conflicts. It is now time to reclaim the Palk
Bay to rebuild these fractured social relations. There
is an urgent need for dialogue and cooperation
between Northern and Tamil Nadu fishers to end
destructive trawling. At the same time, we must
imagine a future where Sri Lankan and Indian
fishers collaborate and traverse the Indian Ocean
on deep-sea vessels, while fishing for the sustenance
of the subcontinent. And closer to the coast, the
socially-excluded and dispossessed fisherfolk should
be given respite to revive their livelihoods in their
fishing villages and re-imagine a future that can be
prosperous.
Source: The Hindu
JAPAN, INDIA AND THE BALANCE OF POWER
Within two months, we have received from

Japan, first that rare, and symbolically greatest,
gesture, the visit of Their Imperial Majesties, then
the Defence Ministers, and now, the Premiers. It
is heartening that such an important country
attaches such importance to us, despite our best
efforts to prove ourselves unready, if not unable, to
play the role clearly expected of us. Formally, we
have so many strategic partners, the term has lost
meaning, but Japan surely could give it solid

contents. The economic component is obvious,
limited largely by our own non-performance; the
strictly strategic part is even more important but
even less attended to. We could grow economically
even without making the most of Japans
cooperation, but to our national security interests,
it is irreplaceably valuable. Moreover, the
[49]

relationships significance is more than bilateral; it
will influence others and the global power structure.
That imposes compulsions arising from one

stark fact: two states already occupy substantial
parts of our territory and claim more. Our
differences certainly need not erupt in major
violence; we should keep trying for a relationship,
with both our neighbours, in which a realisation of
the benefits of peaceful cooperation outweighs any
calculations of gains from conflict. But the surest
way to preclude conflict is to manifest capabilities
which make it too costly. If miscalculation or
mischance should nevertheless cause eruption,
nobody will help us: we would have to cope alone.
We are nowhere near equipped for that, on the
ground or, even more importantly, in our thinking.
Japans interest in us should at least be a stimulus
for the thinking part, as well as leading potentially
to improving our ground position.
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The power-politics and balance-of-power

calculations we denounce are facts of life, standard
practice for all serious countries which plan for
their national security interests with evaluations of
the international distribution of power. Having
multiple, often conflicting, interests to manage, all
countries need some organising principle. During
practically all of Indias first half-century, the Cold
War furnished that principle for everyone, the
pursuit of other interests being conditioned by this
central fact of international life. Since its end, all
countries have been at sea, casting around for some
new sextant to guide them. We Indians, like all
others who only took charge of their own destinies
just before or during the Cold War, are dealing for
the first time with the interplay of multiple powers,
some rising and some weakening. They all act
without the constraints, indeed the discipline,
imposed by the Cold War, but one development
provides a major sort of organising principle, for
many states if not all: the enormous rise of China.
imagine that these wont happen if we do not give

China cause for misunderstanding. In this complex
world, we must deal with many, varied concerns,
but in regard to our national security there is surely
a clear and imperative organising principle: do
whatever you must to ensure territorial integrity.
No country has divined the ramifications of this

for itself or globally not even China. How far it
will prove an alarmingly assertive power, throwing
its weight about aggressively, and how far a
constructive, if self-centred, leader in shaping a new,
equitable world order, is a question that has
spawned quite an industry, but leaving everyone
guessing. Great powers have, historically, been
both, usually more the former. China should prove
no exception, but in a very new setting.
Most countries cop out with the banality that

one must build on areas of cooperation with China
while remaining wary of unwelcome possibilities.
The first depends on Chinese attitudes, the latter
on your own capabilities. Since no regional country
comes anywhere near Chinas present capabilities,
leave alone tomorrows, each must strengthen its
own, which includes building partnerships. Each
will strenuously and genuinely maintain these
are not aimed at harming, or even containing,
China, but that is what China will consider them.
Is that a reason for eschewing them?
Territorial integrity paramount
Perceptions are often more consequential than

actualities, but that works both ways. China surely
knows that how it appears to others inevitably
shapes their policies. We should not fight shy of
readying ourselves for unpleasant eventualities, nor
[50]
Uncertainty about the intentions and will

power of the America so many criticise but rely
upon to limit any Chinese hegemonism makes all
affected countries rethink how to safeguard their
interests. We Indians are often accused of not
overcoming our neighbours animosities towards
us, but Chinas are not exactly in love with it. Unlike
us, however, China enjoys a respect that shapes its
neighbours behaviour towards it. A distinguished
ASEAN diplomat once remarked that, when
deliberating some issue his Foreign Office no
longer ask themselves first what Washington might
be thinking, but what Beijing might. He added:
we hope we can soon also ask what Delhi might
think. That hope has kept fading, thanks entirely
to us, but is still there; Japan has emerged as one
country that looks actively to its realisation.
Why our political leaders refuse to see such
obvious reality is incomprehensible and selfdamaging. That nobody is about to attack you
tomorrow does not mean there is no clear and
present danger demanding preparation for
tomorrow. Enhancing our capacity to ensure our
territorial integrity brooks no slacking. It has already
suffered because our opposing parties would rather
gather sticks to beat each other than agree not to play
cheap politics on even a handful of issues of vital
national importance. They have let our defence
procurement become an inadequate patchwork, ignored
both the essentiality of developing a strategic-thinking

defence apparatus and the disturbingly unhappy civilmilitary relations and, not least, not allowed India to
function as a serious player in the increasingly complex
and demanding international arena.
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One simple question can be a surprisingly useful

pointer in working out our international
relationships: which countries welcome a rise of
India, and which dislike it? Most countries wouldnt
care; two definitely do not wish us well; a few
view a strong India as an asset to their own
interests. Often, we dont recognise some of these,
much less take advantage of the opportunities they
offer. Japan is clearly wishing us well, as we wish
it for them. There is no point in pretending that
China does not drive us both more than our bilateral
hopes might do otherwise, but there is no harm in
that reality. We can both honestly say we are not
building relations in hostility against China; but it
is right and proper for us to examine what to do
if China acts in hostility against us.
stability. In our totally changed world, we ourselves

have evolved to cooperate strategically with the
U.S. Doing so with Japan is no less important. Just
how reliable a partner Japan might consider us
depends on our future functioning. That
functioning is stifled by political bickering and
the dysfunction of our instruments of state. Not
one vote will be changed in elections by the issues
affected, but with elections approaching no
improvement is conceivable for who knows how
long. Fortunately, most political parties can be
expected to welcome cooperation with Japan.
Long dependent solely on its alliance with

America for its national security, Japan is now
looking for the best ways to rely more on itself,
and play a greater role in the search for Asian
In translating into policies his striking devotion

to his countrys greatness, Prime Minister Abe has
somehow included a special liking for India. It is
also to our governments especially our Prime
Ministers credit that our relationship has
reached such a promising stage. Once before, in
the 1950s, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Premier
Nobusuke Kishi had similar hopes for a special
relationship. The realities of todays strategic flux
in Asia should encourage us to pick up the threads
with Mr. Kishis grandson.
Source: The Hindu
ON THE WRONG SIDE
In casting its vote on Syria with the West and

the Arab League at the United Nations Security
Council, India may have lost a rare opportunity to
impart solid political content to the Brazil-RussiaChina-India-South Africa (BRICS) grouping, which
has so far focussed on economic issues.
Two key countries belonging to BRICS China
and Russia vetoed the West-backed resolution,
which did not explicitly call for the Syrian President,
Bashar al-Assad, to quit. However, it implicitly did
demand the Presidents departure as it backed the
position adopted by the Arab League, which had
earlier called for Mr. Assads exit. In the Arab
Leagues perception, the President needed to make
way for Syrias Vice-President with a national unity
government overseeing the political transition.
Libyas experience weighed heavily in
determining the Russian and Chinese positions on
Syria. Both countries publicly acknowledged that
they had been misled by the West on Libya. The
western powers and some of their key Arab allies
had, instead of protecting civilians through the
establishment of no-fly zones, the stated intention
of the resolution, manoeuvred it to institute a
regime change. In the end, the Security Council
Resolution 1973, on which Russia, China and India
had abstained, paved the way for the grisly killing
of the former Libyan leader, Muammar Qadhafi.
Divergent ideologies
The debate over Syria has also demonstrated

the clash of two divergent and competing
ideological positions. The West is undermining the
principle of national sovereignty, with the implicit
backing of the doctrine of the Right 2 Protect (R2P),
which allows international military intervention in
a sovereign nation when the State, in the perception
of the international community, endangers the
lives of its citizens on a large scale.
Rejecting humanitarian interventions, China
and Russia, on the contrary, have staunchly defended
and invoked the principle of sovereignty, which they
say the U.N. must uphold in formulating its stance
towards Syria. This has been the core of their
position, from which they have not budged so far,
despite their recent attempts to evolve a position
around which an international consensus can evolve.
The heated debates on Syria in the U.N. cannot
be seen in isolation. They mask a clash of great
intensity, of competing geopolitical agendas, which
are being played out at several levels. For Russia
and China, the insistence on regime change in Syria
is part of a long narrative scripted mainly by the
[51]

bereft of a larger strategic vision that India seems
to have lost the plot on Syria. Viewed from a
strategic perspective, the Indian establishment
appears to have under-appreciated the importance
of Iran, Syrias core ally, to Indias larger national
interests. Not only is Iran indispensable as the
gateway for protecting Indias interests in
Afghanistan as well as for reasons of energy
security, it is also the key for developing Indias
ties with Iraq in the post-Saddam era.
After the demise of the former Iraqi President,
who was Indias reliable partner, and the
impending exit of American forces from the
country, Iran has emerged as the biggest gainer
and potentially the chief power broker that can
facilitate Indias re-entry into Iraq a country with
a vast untapped oil wealth that is bound to feature
ever more prominently in India and Chinas energy
security matrix in the future.
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United States, to overwhelmingly establish its

cascading control over the rest of the world in the
aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union. This
has taken the form of western backed colour-coded
revolutions, as in the case of Ukraine and Georgia,
or use of varying degrees of force, some of it covert,
as seen in the case of former Yugoslavia, Iraq,
Lebanon and in Libya, in the aftermath of the Arab
Spring. China is of the view, that in the end, Beijing
could become a target of the so-called prodemocracy, regime change subversion and must
therefore stand up to the West, as it has done on
Syria, to stem the tide, even at the cost of losing
some tactical ground.
Tactical versus strategic
India seems to have lost a trick by voting on

tactical rather than strategic considerations with
the West and the Arab League on Syria. There is
an argument that Indias vote was the result of a
great balancing act it undertook between Iran and
Saudi Arabia the two countries locked in a bitter
and escalating Cold War in West Asia. In trying to
balance its interests between Iran and the pro-West
Gulf countries, especially Saudi Arabia, India sided
with Iran, and despite enormous pressure from the
Americans and the Gulf countries, refused to
enforce oil sanctions against Tehran, which were
being imposed outside the U.N. framework.
Flawed presumption
Having done so, it appeared to have gone with

Saudi Arabia by voting with the West and the Arab
League on Syria, apparently to protect its legitimate
and growing interests with the petro-monarchies
the source of billions of dollars of remittances, a
lucrative source of investment, and the anchor of
Indias energy security. There is also an argument
that Saudi Arabia has become important as a factor
in influencing Pakistan, and is therefore important
to India on grounds of national security.
Finally, it is being said that by voting with the
West and the pro-West Arab regimes, India has
positioned itself on the right side of history, in
the post-Cold War era a superficial and deeply
flawed presumption at a time when the locus of
global economic power has already shifted East,
and it may not be long before emerging powers
discover that they are capable of asserting
themselves, ever more strongly, on the global
political stage.
But by voting against the Syrian regime, India

adopted a position that was plainly hostile to Iran,
for Damascus is the lynchpin for projecting Iranian
influence in the Levant. It is also more than likely
that if a regime change is accomplished in Syria,
with Israeli pressure already substantial on the
American establishment, the Islamic Republic may
soon find itself fighting for its political survival.
Such an existential threat may force Tehran to
review its position on the nuclear issue and impart
a so far unproven militaristic dimension to its atomic
programme. In plain language, regime change
in Syria may push an isolated Iran to develop the
atomic bomb and permanently change the regional
balance of power a situation that does not suit
Indias larger interests in West Asia.
The argument that Indias vote on Syria was
necessary to protect Indias deepening interests in the
arena of human resource, trade and energy in this
vast oil bearing zone is specious, to say the least.
There is no doubt that India has heavy stakes in the
Gulf, which is the source of billions of dollars of
remittances from Indians who work there, as well as
on account of burgeoning trade. But this relationship
has evolved out of economic necessity, and is reflective
of a mutually advantageous win-win situation. Indias
vote at the U.N. is hardly going to threaten this deeprooted relationship with the Gulf countries, especially
at a time when the pragmatic Arabs have realised
that the presence of disciplined Indians lies at the
core of their economic development.
Heavy price
It is in trying to find a tactical balance to protect

its interests in the region, in a framework largely
There is no doubt that India needs to continue
[52]

building its ties with the Gulf countries in all major
spheres of engagement. However, it does not mean
that New Delhi, an outsider to the region, should
pay a heavy price for protecting its interests by
joining, however inadvertently, the Cold War
between Saudi Arabia and Iran centred around
Syria, which is a purely regional affair.
Finally, the developments in Syria give India
an opportunity to bond on the political plain with
Russia and China, and carry with it Brazil, which
might have voted against the Syrian regime at the

U.N. not entirely out of conviction. Fresh avenues
are opening Indias way, not only for undertaking
a course correction on Syria, but for imparting a
prominent political dimension to BRICS. The
upcoming BRICS summit that India is hosting may
emerge as the first major occasion for New Delhi
to make a fresh start.
Source: The Hindu
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REDEEMING THE SUPREME COURT
In a span of about 45 days, the Supreme Court

of India has delivered two judgments that have
received diametrically opposite reactions one will
count among the Courts most poorly reasoned
judgments while the other is likely to be heralded
as one of its finest for its clarity and fidelity to
earlier decisions. The contrast between Justice
Singhvis judgment upholding the criminalisation
of homosexuality and that of Chief Justice
Sathasivam affirming the rights of mercy-rejected
death row prisoners could not be starker. After
Justices Singhvi and Mukhopadhaya upheld the
constitutionality of Section 377 of the IPC in Suresh
Kumar Koushal, the credibility of the Court as a
counter-majoritarian institution had suffered a
serious setback. However, the Chief Justice, along
with Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Shiva Kirti Singh,
has done a remarkable job in partly restoring the
credibility of the Court through a thoroughly
reasoned judgment in Shatrughan Chauhan v Union
of India. In Chauhan, the Court has concluded that
inordinate delay in the rejection of mercy petitions
of death row convicts amounted to torture and
that it is a sufficient basis, in and of itself, to
commute a sentence of death to life imprisonment.
It is not just about the contrast in outcomes in
these two cases but the processes adopted by these
two judgments will go a long way in determining
the position they will occupy in the judicial history
of this country.
The similarities
Any comparison between the two judgments

must begin by acknowledging complexities involved
in both cases. The legal response to homosexuality
in India through Section 377 has been on the statute
books for over 150 years. Though attitudes towards
homosexuality have undergone significant changes,
it would only be fair to acknowledge that it is
nonetheless a deeply divisive issue in India. It would
also be a fair assessment that the death penalty

and treatment that must be accorded to those
sentenced to death are extremely polarising issues.
The case before the Supreme Court in Chauhan was
particularly delicate because the President had
rejected mercy to all 15 prisoners before the Court.
However, all 15 prisoners had returned to the
Supreme Court seeking enforcement of their right
to life on the ground that their suffering on death
row due to the inordinate delay by the executive
(ranging between 11 to 1.5 years) entitled them to
commutation of their death sentence. It must also
be noted that the Supreme Court in both cases was
being asked to intervene in situations where other
organs of the state had already made certain
determinations. In Koushal, the legislature had made
the political determination that homosexuality
would be criminalised by not repealing Section 377.
Similarly, in Chauhan, the executive, through the
President of India, had rejected all the mercy
petitions.
Differences
Though the challenges were similar in many

ways, there is an unbelievable contrast in the
manner in which the Supreme Court responded.
In Koushal, the judgment authored by Justice
Singhvi does not address the legal issues that were
at the heart of the constitutional challenges to
Section 377. There are the poorly argued sections
on equality under Article 14 and the right to life
under Article 21 while completely ignoring the
arguments on the protection against discrimination
under Article 15. The shortcomings of Koushal are
evident when it is compared to the judgment of
the Delhi High Court on Section 377 in Naz
Foundation. There are established constitutional
doctrines to test whether a provision of law is
discriminatory and violates the right to equality
under Articles 14 and 15 of the Constitution, none
[53]

reviled, the judges emphatically held that the
protections in the Constitution are available to every
individual, without exception. Perhaps the greatest
merit of the decision in Chauhan is the rejection of the
argument that retribution or strong moral disapproval
of actions by death row prisoners can be used to
deny them constitutionally protected rights.
As far as institutional relations between different
organs of the State are concerned, the Supreme
Court, in Koushal, ruled that Parliament was free
to amend Section 377 and decriminalise
homosexuality. However, if the law were to stand,
the judges felt there was no constitutional infirmity.
There is a palpable reluctance to meaningfully
scrutinise a law on a divisive issue where the
political class has made a choice. However, in
Chauhan, the Supreme Court squarely addresses the
warning that the Court might be overstepping its
jurisdiction because the President had already
rejected the mercy petitions of all 15 prisoners. The
Court is clear that it is not questioning the power of
the President to reject mercy petitions but is rather
interested and competent to go into the issue of
whether the executive violated the rights of the death
row convicts due to the inordinate delay. The
Supreme Court has taken the position that it cannot
be expected to abandon its role of being the guardian
of the fundamental rights of all persons within the
territory of India, whoever they might be.
The Supreme Court, in Chauhan, had the
courage to undertake significant course correction
by clarifying the ruling in Triveniben. As efforts to
decriminalise homosexuality gather pace again with
the scheduled review of Koushal this week, the
Supreme Court must see the fact that critical
questions about the constitutionality of Section 377
have not been addressed in Koushal. If the review
petition does not result in correction of the errors
in Koushal, the Chief Justice of India (due to retire
in April 2014) will find himself in an interesting
position. After having delivered a judgment that
has gone a long way to restore the credibility of
the Court after Koushal, the Chief Justice will have
to decide if he wants to refer the constitutionality
of Section 377 to a larger bench. Given the intensity
of his commitment to the rule of law as displayed
in Chauhan, it would be surprising if Chief Justice
Sathasivam lets the poorly reasoned judgment in
Koushal be a blot on his tenure as Chief Justice of
India. He only needs to look as far as the Delhi
High Courts judgment on Section 377 in Naz
Foundation to realise what an alternative legacy
could look like.
Source: The Hindu
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of which finds any serious engagement in Koushal.

None of this is about whether one supports Section
377 or not. It is about adopting a sound judicial
technique it is about identifying precise and
relevant questions; it is about applying
constitutional doctrines to those questions in a
rigorous manner; it is about reasoned conclusions.
Rights adjudication is not about judges merely
taking a decision and that is what distinguishes
them from politicians. Unfortunately, the judgment
in Koushal fails on all these grounds. More than the
unacceptable outcome, what must worry us more
is that the judgment in Koushal reads like a thinly
veiled political decision.
However, the judgment in Chauhan articulates
a very difficult legal issue precisely and clarifies
the decision of a five-judge bench in Triveniben
(1989) on it. While clarifying and relying on
Triveniben, there is thorough constitutional
reasoning in Chauhan that led the Court to come to
the conclusion that inordinate delay in disposing
of mercy petitions amounts to torture and that the
nature of the crime must have no relevance in that
determination. The issue about the nature of the
crime was particularly important in the context of
the Supreme Courts decision in Bhullar. In Bhullar,
the Supreme Court had concluded that those
sentenced to death for terrorist offences could not
invoke the argument about inordinate delay in
disposing of mercy petitions due to the nature of
crimes. While relying on Triveniben to come to the
conclusion that the classification of terrorist and
non-terrorist offences in the context of inordinate
delay in disposing of mercy petitions is
constitutionally invalid, the judges, in Chauhan,have
not created new jurisprudence and have only
clarified the content and application of earlier
judgments. There is tremendous judicial skill in the
manner in which they have analysed earlier
judgments and applied constitutional doctrines.
Challenges and responses
The most obvious difference in the two

judgments is the approach to the target groups
concerned. In Koushal, the perception that only very
few homosexuals have been prosecuted under
Section 377 was of tremendous significance to the
judges. A numerical approach to rights enforcement
is rather baffling and quite alien to the
jurisprudence developed by the Indian Supreme
Court. In Chauhan, despite dealing with a very
small group of individuals (those death row
prisoners whose mercy petitions have been rejected)
and in particular a group which is often hated and
[54]
INDIAS SYRIA VENTURE

After three years of a brutal civil war in Syria,
the world is watching the Geneva-II talks, where
for the first time, the regime and the opposition are
to negotiate. Also, for the first time, India has been
invited to this important forum to deliberate on
Syrias future.
In joining the diplomacy on this issue, India

faced an impossible balancing act, given its friendly
relations with every rival the U.S., Russia, Iran,
Israel, Syria a fact that amazes observers.
Adroitly manoeuvring out of the tight spot of
having to pick a side, India took a position in
alliance with BRICS which eventually sided with
Russia, an apt choice given Indian priorities.
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In popular debate, India is cursorily grouped

with either the American or Russian camps, but
Indias own assessment of the conflict is little
discussed. While India has an official position for
the negotiations, it has largely viewed the conflict
from a global perspective.
is the last foothold in the Middle East; almost every

other regime supports America.
However, the negotiations and the conflict will

continue for a while as both are stalemated. It might
now be time for India, as one of the players on the
table, to look closely at the conflict, to determine
where the tide is turning and what it would mean
for the country.
The narratives of the conflict are many and

muddled. However, this is no simple fight for
democracy; the problem is religious, ethnic and
economic as much as it is political. The democracy
narrative traces the roots of the conflict to the March
2011 military crackdown of pro-democracy protesters
in Daraa which triggered widespread rebellion in
Syria. However, the demands for political reform
were limited; instead, what drove many was
economic frustration. Syria had faced a four-year
drought which reduced two-million people to
extreme poverty, unemployment and starvation.
Overlaid was the long-simmering tension of religious
and national identity; many in Syrias Sunni majority
could not accept the rule of Bashar al-Assad with
his Alawite, Shiite and Christian associations.
Over two years, all these motivations have

spawned a large opposition to the Assad regime,
which is in reality a tremendously fragmented entity
comprising multiple, mutually hostile groups. The
opposition also carries out brutal, armed attacks
on civilians and rival groups, meaning they are not
quite the good guys.
For the United States, bringing down Mr. Assad
would champion its pro-democracy record, dispose
of an anti-U.S. regime and constrict Iranian and
Russian influence in the Middle East. It would also
appease its ally, Israel. For Russia and Iran, Syria
Syria is home to few Indian expatriates, nor

does India source any oil from Syria; the impact of
the war on those issues is indirect. An important
Indian priority that is commonly discussed is the
opportunity for India to conduct itself as a
responsible global power, fit for a seat at the U.N.
Security Council.
Ironically, what should be a chief concern, but
remains undiscussed, is the fact that Syria is coming
close to shifting from an India-friendly regime to a
possibly hostile, Islamist regime. For all his flaws,
Bashar al-Assad runs one of the few secular regimes
in the Middle East. India supports Syrias right to
the Golan Heights, and in exchange, Syria endorses
Indias position that Kashmir is a bilateral issue.
Such support is rare in the Arab world; while
officially the Arab League does not take a stance
on Kashmir, it tends to empathise with Pakistan.
Mr. Assad also supports Indias bid for a Security
Council seat. Islamic fundamentalism has grown
rapidly among the rebels over the last two years.
Fuelled by international support, al-Qaeda offshoots
Jabhat al-Nusra and ISIL grew in rank and were
joined by several others the Islamist Front, the
Syrian Revolutionaries Front and Al-Mujahideen.
While moderate forces like the Free Syrian Army
exist, the conflict has quite definitively become about
religion for the rebels. Some experts estimate that
if the status quo continues, rebels will control about
two-thirds of territory and oil resources. Syrias slide
into a religiously driven conflict and a possibly
radical regime is not good news for India.
The atrocities and destruction from the war must
stop, and India has to do its part. However, can it
afford to let Bashar al-Assad go?
Source: The Hindu
THE AGONY OF AWAITING DEATH

On January 21, 2014 the Supreme Court of India
pronounced a momentous judgment relieving the
agony of convicts in India sentenced to death

awaiting their execution for prolonged periods of
[55]
Uncertainty
The law was brought into uncertainty in 2012,
when the Supreme Court was moved to commute
the death sentence on Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar
who had been kept in suspense for seven years
without a decision on his petition to the President.
After a prolonged hearing in which the Court called
for the records of all petitions pending consideration
by the President, a bench of two judges (Justice
G.S. Singhvi and S.J. Mukhopadhaya) held that as
Bhullar was convicted under the Terrorist and
Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, delay in his
execution was irrelevant and refused to commute
his sentence to life imprisonment. Bhullar was to
be executed after pronouncing the judgment in his
case on April 12, 2013 but because of his physical
and mental condition the execution has been
postponed. Fortunately for Bhullar in the meantime
the present larger bench of three judges was called
to consider the correctness of the Bhullar judgment
in the case of the 15 convicts due to be executed
after an inordinate delay of many years.
The larger bench of the Supreme Court has now
differed from the view taken in Bhullars case and
held that the gravity of the crime was irrelevant in
considering the commutation of the sentence as
this is always considered by the convicting Court
sentencing him to death.
While the judgment in Bhullars case was
reconsidered by the Supreme Court by a larger
bench to be wrong, the case of Afzal Guru could
not be considered by the Court as he had been
executed by then. If ever an execution of a death
convict was carried out in the most inhumane way
it was that of Afzal Guru who was convicted and
sentenced to death for the crime of attacking
Parliament. Afzal Guru was hanged on February 9,
2013 over seven years after the Supreme Courts
pronouncement of the death sentence on him on
August 4, 2005 and over six years after his clemency
petition was made to the President of India on
November 8, 2006. During this period, he and his
family remained in a day-to-day agonising suspense.
Apart from this delay, the rejection of his petition by
the President was kept a secret and deliberately not
communicated to his family, lest it become the subject
of judicial consideration as had been done in other
cases of delayed execution. Within a few days after
the rejection of his mercy petition, Afzal Guru was
hanged in morbid secrecy without informing his
family and his body was buried in equal secrecy in
the confines of Tihar Jail in New Delhi.
The disposal of Afzal Gurus petition to the
President had become a political matter, with the
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time. A bench of Chief Justice P. Sathasivam and

Justice R. Gogoi and Justice Shiva Kirti Singh held
that inordinate delay in deciding a petition of a
convict sentenced to death by the President can be
torture and inhumane punishment to the convict.
In such circumstances, if the convict approaches the
Court, the Court will hold that his fundamental right
to protection of life and personal liberty under Article
21 of the Constitution is violated and the Court will
commute his sentence to life imprisonment.
The Court has held that a convict sentenced to
death has a Constitutional right to petition the
President for relief against his sentence, and the
consideration of his petition is not an act of grace
or mercy by the President but a necessary relief
provided by the Constitution, and the Court will
judicially review the decision to execute the convict
after inordinate delay.
In the 15 cases of convicts facing imminent
hanging after the rejection of their petitions by the
President, the Court found that there was
inexplicable delay, from seven to 12 years, in
deciding their petitions by the President and
communicating the decision to the convicts. The
Court held that keeping such a convict in suspense
while his petition was not decided by the President
for many years was an agony for him which creates
adverse physical conditions and psychological
stresses on him and was a trauma not only on him
but also his family awaiting his execution. The Court
has also held that a Court cannot excuse the
agonising delay caused to the convict merely
because of the gravity of the crime for which the
death penalty was imposed on him. With this
judgment, any uncertainty in the law on execution
of death sentence is now cleared.
This is not for the first time that the Supreme
Court has found that a convict sentenced to death
has a right to be treated humanely and not put to
the agony of awaiting his execution. The Court had
been in fact a pioneer in deciding cases of delay in
execution of a death sentence. As early as 1974,
Justice Krishna Iyer had written of the brooding
horror of haunting the prisoner in the condemned
cell for years. In 1983 and 1989, the Court delivered
judgments which held that a prolonged delay in
carrying out the death sentence would be inhumane
and degrading treatment to the convict. These
Supreme Court judgments were cited with approval
by the Privy Council in 1994. Despite these
pronouncements of the Supreme Court, the President
of India and the government kept the petitions of
death row convicts in suspense for prolonged periods
of time, sometimes as much as 15 years in disregard
of the plight of the convict and his family.
[56]

convict and the scheduled date of execution. Such
a period would enable the prisoner to have a last
and final meeting with his family members and
permit him to avail of a judicial remedy if necessary
against the manner of his execution. The Court
has also held that a convict cannot be subjected to
solitary confinement during the period his petition
was being considered by the government and no
convict can be executed if he was suffering from a
mental illness like schizophrenia.
Overall, the judgment of the Supreme Court is
a landmark decision in cases of carrying out of the
death penalty. It is in keeping with the judgments
in other courts in the world which have held that
trifling with the carrying out of a death sentence is
agonising torture for the prisoner which a court
would not permit. The death penalty itself has been
abolished in 140 countries as a cruel punishment
as against 58 countries which retain it. India has
retained it with the dubious and unpredictable
formula evolved by the Supreme Court of imposing
it in the rarest of rare cases. At some stage, the
Supreme Court may have to reconsider the legality
of the death penalty itself. In the meantime, it is
some consolation that the Court has now firmly
declared the illegality of the practice in India of
execution of death penalty after prolonged
agonising suspense to the convict and his family.
Source: The Hindu
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Bharatiya Janata Party unseemingly demanding his

execution and making it an issue in the elections,
and with the government for its own political
considerations not deciding on the petition. In fact,
between 2006 to 2008 the then Home Minister
deliberately instructed the government of Delhi to
delay responding to the file on Afzal Guru sent to
it. In 2008, in one of the most pathetic statements
revealing his mental distress, Afzal Guru during
his incarceration pending his mercy petition said
in an interview: I really wish L.K. Advani becomes
Indias next PM as he is the only one who can take
a decision and hang me. At least my pain and
daily suffering will ease then.
Reconsidering its legality
Though the Court in its present judgment has

not expressly referred to the inhumane execution
of Afzal Guru, during the hearing as amicus curiae
I had drawn the Courts attention to the case of
Afzal Guru. The Court was therefore conscious of
the manner in which a convict can be secretly
executed without giving him a right to approach
the Court after the rejection of his mercy petition
and without even informing his family. The
Supreme Court in the present case has therefore
held that there should be a minimum period of 14
days between the receipt of a written
communication rejecting the mercy petition by the
A LOST OPPORTUNITY
There are occasions when the finality of a

judicial verdict is in unfortunate conflict with the
interests of justice. The contentious case of Section
377 of the Indian Penal Code is one such. By
declining to review its retrograde decision to uphold
the validity of Section 377, the Supreme Court has
lost an opportunity to revisit a verdict that has
drawn widespread criticism for failing to extend
constitutional protection to sexual minorities. While
it is true that the scope for review is limited, there
was some hope for the LGBT community when the
Union government came forward to seek a review
of the December 2013 verdict in Suresh Kumar
Koushal. Many jurists, activists and political leaders
felt the ruling overturned a well-reasoned judgment
of the Delhi High Court, which had read down
Section 377 to de-criminalise consensual sex among
adults irrespective of gender. It was seen as
incongruous with the mores of our times. The
verdict required a review on merits because of some
intriguing conclusions. The Bench had ruled that
those indulging in carnal intercourse against the
order of nature constituted a different class, and
that Parliament could treat the category differently

from others. It had failed to see that order of nature
is itself an artificial construct rooted in the outdated
view that alternative sexuality is unnatural. It had
dismissed the LGBT community as a minuscule
fraction of the population, as though the relative
smallness of a group disentitled it to constitutional
protection.
While holding that Section 377 suffered from
no infirmity, the Bench had said it was open to the
legislature to delete or amend it. The verdict had
cast a shadow of doubt on the judiciarys
decisiveness in enforcing fundamental rights. In a
recent case concerning death row convicts and
mercy petitions, it was reaffirmed that the Supreme
Court was best equipped to adjudicate the content
of fundamental rights. This Court has always
granted relief for violation of fundamental rights
and has never remanded the matter, it said. The
Bench that declined to review the verdict could
have taken inspiration from these words and
examined afresh the sections chilling effect on
[57]

fundamental rights, instead of leaving it to the
legislature. A curative petition could provide one
more avenue of redress, but its scope is limited to
judgments passed in violation of principles of
natural justice or in circumstances suggesting bias
on the part of the court. The situation is ripe for a
legislative solution, but the process may not be easy,

for not all members and parties will be able to
resist the influence of religious conservative groups
that are likely to oppose any amendment.
Source: The Hindu
TENSION IN UKRAINE
election in 2010 have troubled a substantial section
of Ukraines 46 million people, especially those in
the western regions, who support accession to the
EU. Eastern Ukrainians, however, prefer closer links
with Russia. Secondly, the EU deal was tied to an
IMF bailout that would require public-spending cuts
and higher gas prices. Thirdly, NATO and Ukraine
have held joint exercises, which they have
progressively enlarged, though Parliament cancelled
the 2009 manoeuvres. The EU association
agreement proposes deeper Ukraine-NATO links,
though only 30 per cent of Ukrainians favour
NATO membership; such proposals fuel support
for aggressively ethno-nationalist far-right coalitions
such as Prawy Sektor (Right Sector). Russian
President Vladimir Putin, for his part, has blocked
the Kiev-EU agreement with 15 billion in aid,
cheaper gas supplies, and trade deals. While
Moscow sees NATO as trying to encircle Russia,
the Atlantic alliance has repeatedly tried to invent
new roles for itself since the Soviet Union and the
Warsaw Treaty Organisation collapsed in 1991, and
both NATO and the IMF have in effect tried to
hijack the EUs relations with Ukraine; neither
Ukrainians nor the EU must allow themselves to
be traduced thus, and Ukraines future direction
must be decided solely by Ukrainians.
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The unrest in Ukraine, which recently flared

into violence, is dividing the country and
intensifying long-standing tensions between Russia
and the West. Public protests started in December
2013 over President Viktor Yanukovychs decision
to abandon a deal with the European Union in
favour of aid and natural gas agreements with
Russia. The protesters, who for weeks were
peaceful and even returned equipment to the police
after water cannon was used to disperse crowds in
the capital, Kiev, have seized government offices
across the country, including the Justice Ministry.
Their demands include an end to corruption and
self-enrichment by the ruling political elite, and at
least four people have died as security forces
opened fire. Mr. Yanukovych has softened his
position by putting an amnesty for protesters
through Parliament and by offering the prime
ministership and deputy prime ministership to the
respective opposition leaders, Arseny Yatsenyuk
and Vitali Klitschko. But the opposition parties are
furious that the amnesty requires the protesters to
vacate the occupied buildings, and the offer of
political posts has been rejected.
Mr. Yanukovych has now taken a time-out by
going on sick leave, but his cosmetic measures
are bound to fail because Ukraine is a prize in a
geostrategic tussle between Russia and the West.
To start with, the Presidents policies since his
Source: The Hindu
A NEW LESSON FROM SCHOOL
The Annual Status of Education Report (rural)

for 2013 serves as a reminder of the persistent
disconnect between action and outcomes in basic
education in India. Consistent with previous
reports, the 2013 survey highlights that school
inputs are improving, steadily reducing the
shortfalls with respect to Right to Education norms.
But learning outcomes remain stuck at a dismally
low level. Only 41 per cent of children in
government schools could read a Class II text in
[58]
2013, about the same as 2012, but down from 50

per cent in 2009. Learning outcomes in private
schools are slightly better (albeit still dismal) and
as government school performance has
deteriorated, the gap in learning levels between
private and public school attendees is widening.
But there is positive news. This years ASER
comes in the wake of an important shift in the
national discourse. Back in 2005, when ASER first
made headlines, the challenge was to push Indias

education policy towards acknowledging the
problem of outcome failures. This has changed. The
12th Five Year Plan adopted in December 2012
and recent policy documents of the ministry of
human resource development recognise the
outcomes problem and explicitly articulate learning
improvements as the stated goal for education
policy.
Himachals bureaucratic norms are long-term

products of its political formation and social history.
But they show that Indias bureaucracies can
operate with very different professional norms,
which yield better results. And we believe this is a
more constructive aspiration than the current
emphasis on holding bureaucrats to account
through varieties of punitive action.
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Now, as the goal has shifted and state

governments are gearing for action, the country
faces the even bigger challenge of how to build a
service delivery system that genuinely seeks to
improve outcomes, responding to problems as they
exist today.
bending rules. Interestingly, Himachal is one of the

few states in India to seek community inputs in
plans. Uttarakhand and UP stand in sharp contrast
to Himachal, where bureaucrats follow traditional
hierarchies and stick to guidelines in ways that
have constrained them from adopting appropriate
strategies to address education challenges.
Much of the current debate has focused on the

vexed question of what works. There is now a
carefully developed body of evidence, ranging from
curriculum reform that shifts pedagogical strategies
away from the current age-grade matrix to one
aligned with childrens learning capability, to
performance-based pay for teachers. But while the
evidence offers an array of specific policies, the
real challenge, as Prathams Rukmini Banerji has
argued, lies in sustaining and scaling them up and
ensuring they are embedded in the day-to-day
functioning of the local bureaucracy. This requires
us to engage with questions of bureaucratic
behaviour across the delivery chain from the
state level to the frontline bureaucracy and teachers.
It involves wrestling not just with technical issues
of curricula and pedagogy, but also with questions
of local politics and civil society behaviour.
The good news is that there is much to be learnt

from India itself. Take two cases where local
bureaucracies have behaved differently. First, take
Himachal Pradesh, which has had better education
performance for some time (though still way below
international norms). Research by Harvard professor
Akshay Mangla on the behaviour of Himachals
education bureaucrats in comparison with those
of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh finds a
striking difference. In Himachal, the bureaucratic
culture is embedded in norms that encourage
problem-solving. Remarkably for India, Mangla
found that senior Himachal bureaucrats have
willingly worked with frontline education
bureaucrats and teachers, reinterpreting policies to
make them locally relevant and forming alliances
with civil society groups and politicians to get the
job done. Mangla calls these deliberative norms.
And it is this way of doing business that has enabled
Himachals bureaucrats to adopt locally relevant
solutions to education problems, even if it meant
This takes us to our second case. Bihar is hardly

known as a domain of deliberative bureaucracy.
But a different kind of exploration was undertaken
last year, when a district magistrate (DM) sought
solutions to the learning challenge. The DM
experimented with alternative approaches through
a partnership with an NGO. The key to the
experiment was putting the much maligned
frontline bureaucrats (cluster coordinators in charge
of 10-15 schools), at the centre of the action. This
cadre was trained and empowered to adopt an
alternative pedagogical strategy for an hour and
a half a day, to teach children by their learning
level rather than according to their grade. What
began as an experiment resulted in a significant
shift in bureaucratic behaviour. Instead of blaming
schools, teachers and the system, in this
intervention, the district administration catalysed
the team to lead from the front. Over time, the
coordinators gained confidence to take charge and
scale up these alternative teaching strategies in their
schools. The results are impressive. At the start of
the intervention, 40 per cent of students in Class
III, IV and V had basic reading skills. Six months
later, this improved to 60 per cent.
There remain questions over scaling up this
experiment and how these shifts should be
embedded in local demand for change. But the
lesson from this experiment is that modest changes
within the system, empowering rather than
denigrating frontline officers, can shift bureaucratic
behavioural patterns even in the most hostile of
environments.
Building an outcomes-focused delivery system
requires substantial shifts in the everyday behaviour
of our bureaucracy. These shifts can be enabled
through a combination of political pressure and
civil society demand. But for this to happen,
[59]

education outcomes must become genuinely salient
in public and political debate. ASER is a remarkable
contribution to this, but it is only the beginning.
Change will only occur if our governance systems
are designed to reward problem-solving by
bureaucracies and others, fostering a more local
approach to planning and decision-making, with

politicians and citizens mobilised around the future
of Indias children as opposed to the next round of
promised transfers or patronage.
BENDING TOWARDS JUSTICE

now think twice about exercising their own
discretion. The fact that now the procedure for
clemency is certainly subject to judicial review,
under Article 21, is a considerable normative
advance. The death penalty does not operate when
the executive violates its constitutional duty to
aid justice, acting instead in defiance of it.
The nation just celebrated the 64th year of

republican democracy when will social and
economic conditions be ripe is a question that may
be asked by many, not just convicts under a death
sentence and their families.
In almost all of the cases under consideration,

presidential clemency took as long as 12 years. The
Supreme Court declares this to be unreasonable,
inordinate and undue. Unexplained delays
in clemency have been pronounced unjust and
unconstitutional. But what these phrases mean is
for future courts to decide, and they may vary in
their approach. Even the Supreme Court itself, for
example, may accept a duly explained delay as
reasonable.
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India has long been party to the United Nations

covenant on the abolition of the death penalty but
has leaned toward its progressive abolition. Even
the successive law commission reports have opined
that social and economic conditions in India are
not ripe for the total abolition of state killings in
the form of the death sentence.
The Supreme Court also endorsed the view that

conditions are not ripe when it sustained two
constitutional challenges to the death penalty. But,
overall, it has been more progressive than the
supreme executive and legislature. It has held that
the death sentence may be awarded in the rarest
of rare cases, the criteria for which have been
specified. What this means in actual practice has
been a matter of great debate and, no doubt, the
Supreme Court has been inconsistent in application.
Its judgments furnish the best evidence there is for
the total abolition of the death sentence.
On January 21, the Supreme Court commuted
the death sentences of 15 convicts in the
Shatrughan Chauhan and another vs Union of
India case. It said that certain supervening
circumstances could be grounds for commuting a
death sentence into a life sentence. These are: delay
in reaching clemency decisions, insanity while
serving the sentence, solitary confinement,
judgments declared by the court to be erroneous
(per incuriam) and procedural lapses.
The Supreme Court unambiguously declares

that the right to life and liberty (guaranteed under
Article 21), which Parliament may not abridge or
take away, is of paramount importance in
adjudging the constitutionality of the governors or
presidents power to grant pardon. The power of
clemency is the power of the people, which has
been delegated to them, and should only be
exercised on the advice of the council of ministers.
This clarification is welcome, since presidents may
[60]
In this context, the request made by the Peoples

Union for Civil Liberties and Peoples Union for
Democratic Rights for guidelines on the exercise of
clemency powers makes full constitutional sense.
In the concluding section of the judgment, the
Supreme Court does lay down some guidelines
safeguarding the interest of death row convicts.
But it is reluctant to frame additional guidelines on
the award of capital punishment, on the grounds
that it has refused to do so in the past because of
the nature of power enshrined in Article 72/ 161
and the presumption that constitutional authority
acts with an application of mind.
This is disappointing because by the Supreme
Courts own reasoning, the executive in these cases
showed no constitutional application of mind
unless the raw exercise of presidential power to
withhold a decision on a mercy petition can be
considered as such. These delays cannot be
explained as procedural lapses: clearly, some
governors and presidents were personally in favour
of the abolition of the death sentence.
Further, the court itself cites the study by Bikram
Jeet Batra and others, reflecting the vast fluctuations
in the exercise of executive clemency powers. They
reveal that until 1980, mercy petitions were decided

in a minimum of 15 days and a maximum of 1011 months and from 1980 to 1988, it took about
four years. Delays going up to 12 years now seem
to be the norm.
The Supreme Court deserves national gratitude

for clarifications on the clemency law and the
practice of it. It also deserves our gratitude for
saying that those who are mentally ill shall not be
executed and their death sentences shall be
commuted to life imprisonment. This was an
obscenity in criminal law that had long awaited
removal. We are still waiting for the day, not too
distant now, when we hear the Supreme Court
declare the death penalty itself unconstitutional.
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Instead of issuing guidelines even in these

circumstances, the Supreme Court only requests
the concerned ministry to follow its own rules
rigorously. If the president just keeps the mercy
petition pending, however, neither the ministry nor
the council of ministers can do more than request
the president to act. The Supreme Court should
have constructed a timeline within which the entire
process would have to be completed. Outside this
timeline, the sentence would be automatically
commuted.
ruling on the Sunil Batra vs Delhi Administration

case
had
declared
such
confinement
unconstitutional and against societys human
essence. The present court recognises that the
actual implementation is far from reality. Yet it
merely puts forward a request, urging jail
authorities to comprehend and implement the
decision. This is even more bewildering when we
consider that Sunil Batra was decided on in 1979.
Article 21 mandates a judicial order, not a judicial
tendency to request the executive.
On solitary confinement, the view of the

Supreme Court has been made crystal clear: it is
not permissible under the Constitution and the law.
The court now further clarifies that a person may
not be put in such confinement unless and until
she is under a finally executable death sentence.
Yet, the same requesting vein continues in the
courts comments on solitary confinement. The
BUILDING A NEW SCHOOL SYSTEM
The growing share of private school enrolment

in India has raised concerns about the
socioeconomic stratification of schooling by ability
to pay. Such stratification not only perpetuates
inequality over generations, but also threatens the
ideal of public schooling as a shared space for young
citizens at a formative stage of their lives that can
foster awareness of, and respect for, the
socioeconomic diversity in the country.
A key objective of clause 12 of the Right to

Education (RTE) Act is to reduce this stratification
in schooling. It aims to do so by stipulating that all
private schools in India reserve 25% of their seats
for students from economically weaker sections
(EWS), with the government reimbursing the fees
for these students up to the per-child spending in
public schools. However, while the inclusiveness
goal has been broadly supported, there have also
been concerns raised that the provision may lead
to a dilution of education quality for students who
were in private schools to begin with. Two new
pieces of evidence may help to allay these concerns.
First, the Andhra Pradesh School Choice Project
(described last week) not only featured a lottery at
the student-level to allocate the vouchers (which
enabled a statistically valid comparison of the
relative impact of attending public and private
schools), but also featured a village-level lottery to

determine which 90 villages (out of 180 eligible
villages) would receive the programme. We compare
students who started out in private schools in the
programme villages (who were exposed to EWS
classmates for four years) with those in the control
villages (who were not exposed to EWS classmates)
and find no evidence of negative spill-overs on the
test scores of students who were already in private
schools.
Second, recent research by Gautam Rao studies
the impact of exposure to EWS peers on the
attitudes and behaviour of privileged children in
private schools in Delhi. By comparing students in
cohorts that were exposed to the EWS provision
versus those in immediately older cohorts (who
were not), he finds that having poor classmates
makes wealthy students more likely to volunteer
for charity, more likely to be generous, increases
egalitarian preferences, and makes them less likely
to discriminate against poor children. While he finds
a small negative effect on test scores in English,
there are none in Maths and Hindi.
Taken together, these results suggest that
including EWS students in private schools is likely
to improve equality in educational access, at limited
or no academic cost to students in private schools,
[61]

while improving pro-social preferences among
wealthy students. Combined with evidence that
private schools are slightly more effective at
improving learning outcomes (at much lower costs
per student), the evidence suggests that RTE clause
12 may be one of those rare policy opportunities
that can increase equity as well as efficiency, and
also do so at lower cost than the status quo (since
the reimbursements to private schools are capped
at the per-child spending in public schools).
Child-tracking system and payment flows

Efficient implementation of RTE clause 12 will
need a simple child-tracking system that can assign
a unique identifier (ID) to each child, document
their eligibility for the EWS category as per the
states rules, and verify that a child is only enrolled
in one school.
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However, realizing the full potential of RTE

clause 12 will crucially depend on design and
implementation details. Some key implementation
considerations are listed below:
(including teacher qualifications), and student

outcomes. However, since public money will be
provided to these schools, it may make sense to
require a minimum period of successful operation
(say three years) before implementing the EWS quota
and reimbursement to discourage fly-by-night
operators from being eligible for public funds.
Regulation of private schools and criteria for

recognition
Multiple research studies in India (including by

Abhijeet Singh and Geeta Gandhi Kingdon) show
that the criteria currently being used to determine
recognition of private schools (physical
infrastructure, teacher qualifications, and teacher
salaries) are not significant predictors of school
effectiveness. On average, private schools are able
to more than make up for lower formal
qualifications of teachers (relative to public schools)
with greater time on task, lower teacher absence,
greater teaching effort, and significantly smaller
pupil-teacher ratios (enabled by lower teacher
salaries). Overall, schools (that have to satisfy
parents) are in a better position than bureaucrats
to decide on the optimal combination of teacher
quality and quantity. For instance, it may be optimal
to have more qualified subject teachers in higher
classes, while supplementing teachers in lower
classes with less-qualified teaching assistants to
provide more individual attention to younger
children.
Evidence suggests that parents actively weigh
and evaluate schooling options, and so the focus of
regulation should be on empowering parents with
the tools to make better informed choices and not
on input mandates for schools that are uncorrelated
with quality. In particular, it will be
counterproductive to shut down schools for not
meeting one-size-fits-all input mandates that are poor
predictors of actual school effectiveness. Instead a
better approach to regulation would be to require
all private schools to meet physical safety norms
and give them full freedom to make operational
decisions on input use as they see fit, subject to
making full and audited disclosure of all inputs
[62]
With such a system in place, the government

can also ensure prompt payment to schools for the
children enrolled under the EWS quota. Field
research suggests that in most cases (except perhaps
in the most exclusive schools) private schools are
more than happy to enroll EWS children if they
can be assured prompt and reliable payment of
fees. If anything, the schools in our fieldwork in
Andhra Pradesh seem to go the extra mile to
accommodate the needs of EWS children because
they lose the payments associated with these
children if they choose to leave the school. Thus,
ensuring timely payments will be essential to
making sure that the EWS children are valued and
integrated into the private schools they attend.
Who should get EWS seats in private schools?
Both theoretical and empirical research suggests

that private schools should not be allowed to
cherry-pick the children whose fees will be paid by
the government. It is essential that private schools
should compete for these students on the basis of
their ability to add value as opposed to their ability
to screen out educationally weaker children. One
way to do this is to implement a transparent
system-level lottery for allocating children to EWS
places (see details below).
A simple implementation protocol
Effective implementation of clause 12 can be

done by following a simple three-step procedure.
First, require all private schools to provide
audited enrolment and fee data to the concerned
local government. This information will determine
both the number of places under the EWS quota

and the rate of reimbursement. To minimize
additional expenditures by EWS parents, the school
fees should be all-inclusive to the extent possible
(including books, uniforms, and all fees) and schools
should be responsible for providing books and
uniforms to EWS students.
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Second, EWS parents (based on eligibility

determined and verified by the government) should
rank schools (private and government) as per their
preference ordering. A neighbourhood criterion is
not needed because, in practice, parents strongly
prefer schools that are nearby and are likely to
prefer these schools in any case. Needing to verify
the locations of households will create unnecessary
administrative bottlenecks and rent-seeking with
no gains on average to either students or schools.
Also, given that better schools often set up in richer
localities, a neighbourhood criterion might actually
reduce opportunities for the poorest children.
and cannot turn away anybody. However, they

are plagued by weak governance and
accountability, and a poor track record of
converting spending to outcomes. Private schools
typically have better management and are
accountable to parents, but are typically not
inclusive because they only admit students with
the ability to pay. RTE clause 12 is a wonderful
opportunity to design an education system that can
leverage the strengths of both public and private
provision while mitigating the weaknesses of the
other.
Third, the concerned government should

conduct a centralized, computerized lottery
whereby each EWS applicant gets a lottery rank
and EWS quota spots in schools are filled as per
the precedence ordering established by the lottery
rank. Students will be allotted schools in descending
order of their lottery rank, and are assigned to their
highest-ranked private school that still has open
EWS places when their turn arrives (or the highestranked government school if the private schools
they ranked above have filled up their EWS places).
Overall, implementation of clause 12 should be
seen as a system-level concern as opposed to a schoollevel compliance issue, and the procedure outlined
above provides a transparent way of doing so.
Transforming school education in India

through clause 12
The fundamental challenge in the design of

high-performing and inclusive school systems is the
following: Public schools are by definition inclusive,
A well-implemented clause 12 has the potential

to transform school education in India by: (a)
reducing socioeconomic stratification in schools, (b)
empowering EWS children with more schooling
choices and options, (c) increasing pro-social
preferences and behaviour among wealthy children,
(d) encouraging entry and expansion of higherquality private schools catering to EWS students
(since the government will pay the fees), and (e)
forcing government schools to improve their quality
since their monopoly power over the captive
demographic of EWS children who cannot afford
to pay private school fees will be reduced. The first
three features could contribute to improving equity
and social integration, while the last two could
contribute to an improvement in quality in both
public and private schools.
While the history of education inequality in
India is poignantly captured in the parable of
Arjuna and Eklavya, there is also the optimistic
narrative of Krishna and Sudama studying side by
side and forming a lifelong bond of friendship
despite their differing economic circumstances. A
well-designed and implemented RTE clause 12 can
make an important contribution towards changing
the parable that best represents schooling in India.
Source: Live Mint
INDO-JAPANESE TIES IN THE FAST LANE
That Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan was

the chief guest at Indias Republic Day function
just weeks after the extended visit of Emperor
Akihito and his wife to India underscores the
growing importance of Indo-Japanese ties.
This is reiterated in the joint statement issued
by the Prime Ministers of the two countries. Apart

from listing out an array of projects in areas ranging
from infrastructure development in India to
womens development and cross-border regional
cooperation in transport and energy, the statement
describes at fairly great length the institutional basis
Indo-Japanese strategic cooperation has acquired,
[63]

extending to joint naval exercises and naval
cooperation in areas far removed from Indias
coastline. This is all to the good.
It is not just India that stands to gain from
stronger strategic ties with Japan. So does the rest
of the world, particularly Asia, including China.
This might sound strange, given the strained
relations over a tiny group of islands between China
and Japan.
It is imperative for New Delhi to articulate the

multilateral benefits of its closer cooperation with
Japan. The gains go far beyond India getting better
infrastructure, Japanese companies finding a
market for their advanced products and services
and Asean countries feeling more secure. The world
as a whole will be a more stable place that allows
emerging countries to create shared prosperity, free
from the threat of war and disruption.
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But the reality is that a clearly articulated, visible

commitment by the rest of the world to permit
border changes only through dialogue and consent
will make it easier for Beijing also to align domestic
politics with an external posture that conforms to
its own stated aspiration for a peaceful rise.
the US-dictated constitutional provisions that limit

its defence capability, with regard to both orientation
and overall spending. A Japan that is free to pursue
defence capability as any other free nation does
will be a stronger, more confident Japan capable of
accommodating give and take in border disputes.
The logic extends even to Japan abandoning
Source: Economic Times
HOW TO GROW AT 8.5%
The Indian economy is currently passing

through a phase of relatively slow growth, but this
should not cloud the fact that over the eight-year
period beginning 2005-06, the average annual
growth rate has been 8%. Does India have the
potential to grow at a sustained rate of 8-9%?
Normally, potential growth is measured using
trends.
These are backward-looking measures, since
they depend on historically observed data.
In the case of determining the potential rate of

growth of the economy, one can take the maximum
growth rate achieved in the recent past as the
lowest estimate of the potential, if there is reason
to believe that the maximum growth rate achieved
in the recent past was not a one-off event and the
growth rate achieved was robust. India achieved a
growth rate of 9.5% in 2005-06, followed by 9.6%
and 9.3% in the subsequent two years.
Reverse Swing
After declining a bit in the wake of the

international financial crisis, growth rate went back
to 9.3% in 2010-11. The growth rate achieved
during 2005-06 to 2007-08 was robust. The
domestic savings rate during this period averaged
33.4% of GDP.
Similarly, the gross capital formation rate
averaged 34.2%. The current account deficit
remained low with an average of 1.1% of GDP.
Farm growth during this period averaged 5% and
the annual manufacturing growth rate was 11.5%.
account deficit remained very low, the accretion to

reserves amounted to $144 billion.
On many dimensions, the growth rate was
robust. It was not just fuelled by financial availability.
This was the period during which the world
economy was also booming. The growth rate slowed
to 6.2% in 2011-12, though this rate may be revised
upwards. It came down to 5% last year and this
year, it is expected to be around the same level.
Growth Mismatch
The savings and investment rates have come

down from the peak reached in 2007-08, because
of economic and non-economic factors such as
perceptions about governance and policy.
Nevertheless, recent data indicates that in 2011-12,
the gross fixed capital formation rate, a measure of
the accumulation of fixed assets by business,
government and households, was around 30.6%
against 32.9% of GDP in 2007-08.
In normal conditions, this should have given us
a growth rate of 7-7.5%, but the actual rate turned
out to be 6%. Growth has declined much more
steeply than what is warranted by the decline in
investment.
This may be because projects have not been
completed in time or complementary investments
have not been forthcoming. Or, it could also be
due to non-availability of inputs like coal and power.
But savings and investment rates are at high levels,
so if we are able to find ways to complete projects
speedily, growth will follow in the short run.
The capital flows were large but as the current

[64]

But while the decline in overall gross fixed
capital formation from the peak reached in 200708 was only 2.2%, the decline for the private
corporate sector was as high as 4.6%.
The composition of investment has also played
a role in the reduction in productivity of capital.
While the existing level of investment rate should
enable us to grow at 7.5% in the short run, a return
to higher savings and investment can take us back
to very high levels of growth.
Within household savings, there was a sharp

decline in the ratio of savings in financial assets to
GDP by 3.6 percentage points, mostly due to high
inflation.
We forecast a more modest current account
deficit of about 2.5% of GDP. Even a somewhat
lower level of current account deficit will be
desirable. To get back to 8.5% growth, domestic
savings have to pick up. For that, we need fiscal
consolidation.
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To assess whether we will be able to get back

to high savings and investment rates, we need to
look a little more closely at some macro parameters
during the low-growth phase.
by a fall in public sector savings. During this period,

the fiscal deficit rose sharply.
Fall Season
The gross domestic savings rate fell by 6

percentage points between 2007-08 and 2011-12,
but the fall in the investment rate was around 3
percentage points. The lower decline is because the
current account deficit rose from 2% of GDP in
2007-08 to 4.2% in 2011-12.
Of the decline of 6 percentage points in

domestic savings, more than half was contributed
So, with a modest current account deficit of

2.5% of GDP and a savings rate of 32% of GDP,
one can expect the Indian economy to grow at
8.5%.
To sustain a long-term growth rate of 8.5%,
three things need to happen: the current account
deficit must be lowered, the domestic savings rate
must pick up, with much of it coming from fiscal
consolidation, and the productivity of capital should
improve. These are not impossible tasks, but will
require focused efforts on all the three fronts.
REGULATE PHARMA TO BE TRULY WORLD CLASS
Regulation of pharmaceutical production in

India seems to be stuck in the pre-reform days of
autarky, bereft of ambition and oblivious of the
global opportunities the sector holds out for India.
The drug controller general of India has

reportedly admitted that if we followed US
standards, we would need to shut down most
domestic pharma facilities. It betrays a defeatist
mindset and worse.
Instead, we surely need world-class quality

control in domestic pharma to realise our potential
to be the pharmacy of the world. True, the Indian
pharma industry does already supply generics to
over 200 nations and territories. But the potential
upside is simply huge if we follow the highest global
standards. The size of the US generics drug market
alone is $80 billion, and fast growing. Also, when
it comes to advanced manufacturing capability,
pharma is the lone sector where we have something
of a toehold.
Hence the vital need not to be behind the curve
when it comes to its regulation and oversight. The
notion that our norms and regulations need only
be good enough to make available affordable
medicines is spurious.
Rather, we need to go out of our way to create

incentives to allocate human and financial resources
to shore up quality standards in pharma
manufacture and boost exports, leveraging our
resource endowment and skill base. And instead
of leaving it to the US Food and Drug
Administration to routinely find faults with plants
here the latest being Ranbaxys Toansa facility
our regulatory authorities clearly need to be
much more proactive.
It is true that the mandate of the national drugs
regulator is more voluntary than statutory;
manufacturing compliance and quality assurance
is supposed to be the lookout of the concerned state.
It points to the pressing need to overhaul and
modernise the entire regulatory structure with
stepped up resources and capacity building.
Without uncompromising standards and norms
that are regularly updated, we would stand to
greatly forfeit the massive potential of pharma
manufacturing for the national good.
Source: Economics Time
[65]
INDIAN PHARMAS TWIN WOES

hosting such trials because of its cost advantage.
The country is already losing earnings from the
operations of global contract research organisations
(CROs), as the number of clinical trials allowed
has plummeted. Besides, the Indian pharmaceutical
sectors cost advantage, on much of which the
industrys global competitiveness is based, is likely
to be dented if the cost of conducting clinical trials
goes up substantially. These are needed to generate
data to establish the bio-equivalence of generics that
seek to replace drugs going off patent and on whose
global sales the Indian pharmaceutical industry
thrives. Who is responsible for this? Indian
regulators and Ghulam Nabi Azad, who has been
the Union health minister since 2009, owe an
explanation.
In a repeat of what has been happening in the
case of iron ore mining, lax regulation has led to
serious wrong-doing by a section of business,
causing citizens interests to approach the Supreme
Court. The latter has put business-as-usual on hold
and asked the government to come up with new
and elaborate rules and procedures. As these take
shape, industry is claiming some of them to be
excessively onerous, to the point of being
ridiculous. With death during clinical trials far
higher in India than elsewhere and many instances
of poor and barely literate patients being taken for
a ride (they were not even told they were being
roped in for an experiment, not to speak of
obtaining proper consent), doctors and CROs also
have a lot to answer for. All that can be hoped is
that new procedures will be in place and working
soon so that there is regulatory certainty.
Source: Business Standard
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The Indian pharmaceutical industry is beset by

two adverse conditions - one is a recent
development and the other a long-standing malady.
Most recently, leading pharmaceutical company
Ranbaxy met with yet another regulatory mishap:
the United States Food and Drug Administration,
or FDA, withdrew approval for the firms Toansa
plant because of significant lapses in manufacturing
practices. The fourth Indian plant of the company
to suffer such a setback from the US regulator,
Toansa is the major supplier of low-cost active
pharmaceutical ingredient, or API, a key raw
material for some Ranbaxy products marketed in
the US. Maintaining both volumes and margins in
a market accounting for more than a third of
consolidated global sales will now be difficult, if
not impossible. The unique selling proposition of
Indian exporters of generics - and the US market
is the worlds biggest - is their cost advantage. To
lose it even temporarily is to be severely hampered.
Ranbaxy is not the only Indian pharmaceutical
company to face such developments as the FDA
has tightened up its own act. All those affected
have only one course ahead of them: satisfy the
FDA, the global leader in pharmaceutical regulation
whose actions are carefully monitored by other
regulators around the world, so as to regain
unhindered access to the worlds most lucrative
pharmaceutical market.
The longer-term adverse condition relates to the
regulatory regime for clinical trials in India, which
is getting so restrictive that several leading
pharmaceutical companies are in the process of
going to other geographies to conduct such trials.
This represents a double whammy, since not too
long ago India was seen to hold great potential in
DID WOMENS LIB RAISE INCOME DISPARITY
Birds of a feather flock together, so it shouldnt

be surprising that, when given the choice, intelligent
and successful women tend to marry intelligent
and successful men.
But until recently, most women in the U.S.

didnt have that choice. They had far fewer
educational opportunities than men. Those who
excelled academically often were unable to translate
their accomplishments into remunerative careers:
Only about 35 percent of women aged 25 to 54
worked outside the home in 1950, compared with
about 75 percent now. Economists now tell us that
this social progress is responsible for a significant
portion of the rise in household income inequality.
[66]
They start by tracking whether men and women

have become more likely to pick marriage partners
on the basis of their education level. They find that
the number of matches between husband and wife
with the identical education level is larger than
what would occur if matching was random and
that the tendency for men and women to engage
in assortative mating has increased over time.
Heres the kicker: Assortative mating can
explain the entire increase in U.S. household income
inequality as measured by the Gini coefficient.
The reason is that women are more likely to
work than in the past, and the women most likely

By 2005, the Gini coefficient was 0.43. Thats a
big increase. Whats more, the economists found
that if people matched in 2005 according to the
1960 standardized mating pattern there would be
a significant reduction in income inequality; i.e.,
the Gini drops from 0.43 to 0.35.
According to the economists, had marriage

patterns remained unchanged from 1960, todays
empowered career women would have pumped
up the incomes of households with men who were
professionally beneath them and kept the U.S. Gini
coefficient constant.
Intelligence, education and incomes tend to go

hand in hand in a free society. Until quite recently,
the ambitions of half the population were
suppressed by law and culture. That made the
distribution of income more equal than it would
have been under a less-restrictive social system.
Now that tens of millions of women have greater
opportunities to live up to their potential and marry
men who are their equals, household income
inequality has increased. If thats the case, lowering
inequality will be a lot harder than anyone imagines.
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to work are the ones with the best educations and

the highest salaries. Women in poorer households
are much less likely to work. Moreover, the gap
between the labor force participation rates of poor
married women and high-income married women
was much wider in 2005 than in 1960.
The economists test this by comparing the Gini

coefficient against their model of what the Gini
coefficient would have been if men and women
married randomly. In 1960, the actual Gini coefficient
in the U.S. was 0.34, almost indistinguishable from
the Gini coefficient produced by their random model
(0.33). That suggests there was very little assortative
mating back then. (Think of all the executives who
ended up with their secretaries.)
Source: Bloomberg
[67]
CHRONICLE
IAS ACADEMY

3RD FEBRUARY 2014 TO 9TH FEBRUARY 2014
Call: 9953120676, 9582263947

CONTENTS
TOPICS
Pg. No.
National ......................................................................................................................... 4-8

International ............................................................................................................... 9-11
Economy .................................................................................................................... 15-19
Health ......................................................................................................................... 21-24
News in Brief........................................................................................................... 25-28
In Defence of Private Participation ................................................................................................................. 29
A power shift towards emerging markets ..................................................................................................... 30
A new framework for monetary policy ......................................................................................................... 31
Ukraines search for a political identity ......................................................................................................... 32
Weathering the emerging storm ..................................................................................................................... 34
Welcome to the halal economy ......................................................................................................................... 35
Why the fuss about cost audit? ........................................................................................................................36
Are our labour markets less segmented now? ............................................................................................. 37
Investment atrophy ............................................................................................................................................... 39
Two agencies on a collision course ..................................................................................................................40
Paralysis in science policies ................................................................................................................................41
A retrograde and incoherent law..................................................................................................................... 43

Putting a full stop to death sentence ..............................................................................................................44
Heavy burden on the young ..............................................................................................................................46
Condemned to die, but not to wait .................................................................................................................47
Interpreting a federal Constitution ..................................................................................................................48
Integrating IT and BT ..........................................................................................................................................50
Better sense prevails ............................................................................................................................................52
Public health first .................................................................................................................................................52
On the leeward side ............................................................................................................................................53
Building a schooling system that delivers ......................................................................................................54
The trouble with emerging markets .................................................................................................................55
Why we need PSU bank reforms .....................................................................................................................56
The I.M.F. Needs a Reset ....................................................................................................................................58
Time for a ceasefire ..............................................................................................................................................59
NATIONAL
RAJPUT PANEL SUBMITS PRIMARY REPORT
tackle violence against women. Also, the
curriculum and training methodology of
judicial and police academies must change
and must be passed though a gender lens.
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The 14-member committee, headed by Pam

Rajput in its primary report recommended 50 per
cent reservation for women in all decision-making
bodies and an overhaul of the criminal justice
system to ensure justice for women. It also strongly
advocated formulating a National Policy and
Action Plan to end violence against women. Calling
for an increase in resources, the panel said a large
amount of resources was being directed towards
child development in the Ministry.
Focussing on the need to bring about major
changes in the criminal justice system, the report
suggests initiatives ranging from a more gender
sensitive enforcement machinery to greater
awareness of different legislation and their interconnectedness, along with accountability for
securing womens rights.
Recommendations suggested by the panel are
as follow:
1. India revisit its two-child norm as it is related

to missing girl children and initiate dialogues
with Hindu religious leaders to arrest the
falling sex ratio.
2. Speedy passage of Women Reservation Bill
but recommended a 50 per cent quota instead
of the proposed 33 per cent.
3. It stressed that marital and sexual choices

should be ensured through amendments to
IPC section 377.
4. A mechanism for annual survey by a cell
within the WCD ministry or any other
organization to collect data on violence
against women.
5. Recommended structural reform in police to
6. A separate panel should be appointed by the

government to study the status of Muslim
women in the country.
7. Upgrade the Minister of Women and Child

Development to Cabinet rank
8. Parliamentary
Committee
on
the
Empowerment of Women must examine the
gender implications of all proposed legislation
and
9. The National Commission for Women, as an
apex body responsible for and answerable to
50 per cent of the population, must go beyond
reactive interventions to fulfil the proactive
mandate of studying, recommending and
influencing policies, laws, programmes and
budgets to ensure full benefits to the
stakeholders.
The government had in February 2012 set up a

High Level Committee to undertake a comprehensive
study to understand the status of women since 1989
and evolve appropriate policy interventions based
on a contemporary assessment of womens needs.
After the chairperson, member secretary and three
members resigned, the committee was reconstituted
last May.
The first such committee formed 40 years ago
had stalwarts such as rights activist Vina Mazumdar
and lawyer Lotika Sarkar and submitted its seminal
report titled Towards Equality: The Report of the
Committee on the Status of Women in India in 1974.
BRIBING CORPORATE HEADS MAY GET 7 YEAR JAIL
The standing committee of Parliament on

Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice,
headed by veteran Congress MP Shantaram Naik
has recommended that the owner of a corporate
house will also be responsible for the corrupt acts
of his or her employees. The Committee said in its
[4]
report, tabled in both the Houses of Parliament,

that punishment to a bribe giver associated with a
corporate house will be three years, extendable to
seven years. It is the same as prescribed to any
other bribe giver as well as takers. Further the report
said the person associated with the company who
Weekly Current Affairs 3rd February to 9th February, 2014

is directly involved in the corrupt practices will be
prosecuted and punished.
*Vicarious liability is a legal doctrine that assigns

liability for an injury to a person who did not cause
the injury but who has a particular legal
relationship to the person who did act negligently.
Legal relationships that can lead to imputed
negligence include the relationship between parent
and child, husband and wife, owner of a vehicle
and driver, and employer and employee. Ordinarily
the independent negligence of one person is not
imputable to another person.
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The same quantum of punishment is also

extendable under the proposed Section 10 of PC
Act to the in-charge of commercial entity i.e. director,
manager, secretary etc, when it is proved that such
offence of bribe giving to public servant is committed
by any person associated with it with consent /
connivance of or is attributable to any neglect on
the part of in charge of that entity to prevent such
conduct of the individual associated with it.
desires that the punishment prescribed for

commercial organisation should be in addition to
the punishment prescribed to individual/associated
with it and in-charge of the commercial
organization.
The Committee said punishment for *vicarious

liability to the commercial organisation is a fine
whereas to the in-charge of that organisation is
imprisonment with fine. Further, the Committee
CENTRE SLAPS FRESH BAN ON SIMI
More than a decade after Students Islamic

Movement of India (SIMI) was first banned, the
home ministry said its activities are still prejudicial
to the integrity and security of the country and
imposed a fresh ban of 5 years starting February 1,
2014.
The central government is of the opinion that
if unlawful activities of SIMI are not curbed
immediately, it will take the opportunity to continue
its subversive activities and reorganise absconding
members, disrupt the secular fabric of the country
by polluting the minds of the people by creating
communal disharmony, propagate anti-national
sentiments, escalate secessionism by supporting
militancy and undertake activities prejudicial to the
integrity and security of the country.
The ministry cited four cases registered in
Hyderabad. Similarly, two cases of Gujarat were
highlighted where 14 under-trials in a case of

bomb blasts dug the earth beneath a water tank
for escaping from jail. The notification also cites
two cases in Madhya Pradesh where six former
members of SIMI escaped from the Khandwa jail
in October last year. Another case relates to
exchange of fire between alleged SIMI members
and the Maharashtra ATS in 2012.
The ministry claimed when ATS members
conducted a raid to arrest alleged SIMI members,
they reportedly opened fire in which a suspect died.
Two people were apprehended. The Centre also
provided details of recent judgments pronounced
by various courts against arrested SIMI members
in Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. In a majority
of the cases, however, the accused were let off with
a fine for lack of evidence.
COMMUNAL INCIDENCE UP BY 30%
Fresh data released by the Ministry of Home

Affairs shows a steep 30 per cent rise in the number
of communal violence incidents in 2013 as
compared to 2012, with the maximum number of
cases being reported from Uttar Pradesh. The Home
Ministry in reply to the House said that the total
number of cases reported in 2013 was 823, up from
668 incidents in 2012. According to the ministry,
133 people were killed and 2,269 injured in such
violence in 2013 against 94 and 2,117 respectively
in 2012.
The worst-hit state was Uttar Pradesh, which
recorded 247 incidents in 2013 as compared to 118
in 2012. Besides UP, Bihar saw an increase in the
number of communal violence incidents 63 cases

in 2013 against 21 in 2012. Gujarat showed a
marginal increase, from 57 incidents in 2012 to 68
in 2013.
Karnataka, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh
also contributed to the rise in cases. Dhule in
Maharashtra witnessed the worst riots while in
Karnataka and MP, sporadic cases of violence were
reported. Tamil Nadu also registered a rise in
number of cases 36 incidents in 2013 as
compared to 14 in 2012. In Rajasthan, 52 incidents
were reported in 2013 as compared to 37 in 2012.
Soon after the last years Muzaffarnagar riots,
the Centre had issued advisory to all states asking
[5]

to take measures and strengthen ways to curb these
incidents. According to the Home Ministry, the
communal polarisation is being stroked to vitiate
the atmosphere for political gains and needs to be

checked immediately.
CENTRE CONCERNED OVER RISE IN BEGGARS

Act.
Begging is a social problem and has multifarious
ramifications, especially in metropolitan cities and
towns. It has become a major concern, needing
immediate attention for its prevention in a
multipronged manner, the Ministry said, while
demanding data from States on anti-beggary
measures adopted by them.
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Concerned over the increase in the number of

beggars across all major cities and towns in the
country, the Centre is now focussing on preventing
begging. To begin with, the Ministry of Social Justice
and Empowerment has asked the States and Union
Territories to inform the Centre about schemes and
welfare measures taken by them to check beggary.
Although various State governments and Union
Territories have enacted anti-beggary legislations
or adopted measures through executive orders, not
much information regarding the status of their
implementation is available.
Begging is considered a crime in India under

the Bombay Prevention of Begging Act, 1959, rather
than a social issue. An individual found begging
can be sent to a begging shelter home or even jail
without a trial. Several States have adopted this
Worse, homeless people and landless labourers

who migrate to bigger cities in search of livelihood,
destitute people and other categories of people fall
into the category of beggars and it is extremely
difficult to differentiate [them]. Hence, neither the
Centre and State governments nor the National
Crime Records Bureau have data on the number of
beggars in the country.
IMR VARIES WITHIN STATES
It is well known that quality of life greatly varies

amongst different states within India. Some states
have greater industrial or agricultural output,
higher income levels, better educational and health
indicators while others are still struggling with
backwardness. But what is much less known is
that within states too there are wide and
astonishing variations. State level averages often
hide huge and unconscionable disparity on life and
death issues.
Recently released data on infant mortality rates
(IMR) - a key measure of health and wellbeing shows that it varies widely within states like
Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and
Gujarat. IMR refers to the number of new born
babies that die before reaching one year age, as a
proportion of 1,000 live births. These deaths are
most commonly due to treatable diseases or
malnutrition. The data is part of the Sample
Registration System (SRS) survey covering 7.35
million persons, conducted by the Census Office in
2012.
In Gujarats arid districts of Kachch,

Banaskantha and Surendernagar IMR is high at
51. In contrast, the relatively better off Saurashtra
regions six districts exhibit an IMR of just 31.
[6]
Saurashtra is agriculturally much more advanced,

and fed by Narmada waters. Gujarats average IMR
is 45, slightly higher than the national average.
Maharashtra has an IMR of 30, well below the
national average of 42. But seven districts of the
Vidarbha region have an IMR of 51, about 70%
higher than the state average. In effect, Vidarbhas
babies face the same future as those in Rajasthan
or Uttar Pradesh, although Maharashtra state
average wont tell you that. In northern
Maharashtra, Nandurbar, Dhule, Nashik and
Jalgaon districts have an IMR of 23 less than the
state average.
In Madhya Pradesh, six districts of the central
region which includes the state capital Bhopal have
a shockingly high IMR of 70, while the Vindhya
region which includes the southern Bundelkhand
districts has an IMR of 68. The state average is 60,
the highest in the country. Surprisingly, the South
Western region of MP which is mostly tribal
dominated has the lowest IMR of 46.
Karnatakas three districts in the Coastal and
Ghat region have an IMR of just 16, comparable to
the adjacent northern Keralas 14. But once you
move into interior Karnataka, the situation worsens
- in the seven southern districts, including

Bangalore, Mysore and Kolar, the IMR is 44, higher
than the state average of 36.
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The IMR in Rajasthans southern and southeastern regions which includes Kota, Udaipur,
Chittorgarh, Baran and Dungarpur is 66, much
higher than the state average of 54. This tribal region
is arid in its western reaches but not so much in
the east. In Odisha, the tribal dominated southern
region, has an IMR of 68 compared to the state
average of 55. In many states, variations in IMR
are limited. These include lower IMR states like
Punjab, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Kerala, and
high IMR states like Uttar Pradesh and Assam.
According to T Sundaraman, executive director

of the National Health Systems Resource Centre,
which provides technical support to the
governments National Rural Health Mission access
to healthcare is only one of the many factors that
will determine infant mortality. But, basic issues
seem to be education, especially womens
education, access to safe water and sanitation, and
malnutrition. The number of health care
professionals (nurses+doctors) per 1,000 population,
both public and private, would also contribute to
better or worse performance for a given level of
education.
R&AW ADOPTS NOVEL LINGUISTIC IMMERSION PROGRAMME

Taking a cue from American intelligence
agencies which have a fairly open policy of hiring
natives for improving their linguistic skills in
languages such as Arabic, Farsi and even Telugu
and Malayalam, the Research and Analysis Wing
(R&AW) has adopted a novel linguistic immersion
programme.
Started about a year ago, the intelligence agency

has revived the gurukul concept for specialised
language training. The gurus are security-cleared
native linguists, teaching may be Pashto or
Myanmarese in a residential environment, while the
shishyas are specialists posted at the R&AW
headquarters in New Delhi and its missions abroad.
According to a senior R&AW official, besides

the long-term aim to strengthen its cadre of linguists
(currently comprising around 100-150 officers), the
programme is also aimed at eliminating third-party
intervention in sensitive operations like culling out
intelligence from a vital foreign source. Besides
spoken proficiency, the stress is also on learning the
right diction, nuances and colloquialisms, as well
as picking up historical and cultural background
from the teachers.
While the R&AW has been recruiting postgraduates from foreign language schools for its
linguistic wing, the agency has been facing a
shortage with many specialists trading jobs for the
corporate sector. Besides, the changing dynamism
of international terrorism, re-organisation of
insurgent groups and increasing reliance on
electronic intelligence gathering including wiretaps
have added to the demand for instant translation
and analysis of several new languages and dialects.
Stressing on the Indian intelligence agencies
lack of proficiency in linguistic skills, the Naresh
Chandra task force report on national security had
said the agencies should urgently devise ways to
tackle the problem.
The world over, agencies which face the
challenge of upgrading linguistic skills have two
options: either recruit linguists as intelligence officers
or train intelligence officers to double up as
linguists. The R&AW, it appears, has chosen the
safer though complex second option.
GOVT SUBSIDISES LOAN FOR RURAL WOMEN SHGs
The centre has announced Rs 1,400 crore

subsidized loans to women Self Help Groups (SHGs)
across 150 backward districts. The nearly 3 per cent
interest subvention given to women will be effective
on loans of up to Rs 3 lakh taken after April 1,
2013. The decision is expected to benefit 3 crore
women in 25 lakh SHGs across the country.
The move would benefit a large number of
women SHGs in Odisha, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh,
Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Andhra
Pradesh. In the first phase the rural development
ministry will provide loans to women self-help
groups at the rate of 7 per cent against over 10 per

cent market rate in the 150 identified naxal-affected
districts, making it at par with crop loans to farmers.
This would cost Rs 650 crore to the government
and would be funded from the Rs 2,600-crore
budgetary allocation to the ministry under the
National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM).
However, in the remaining districts across the
country, the women self-help groups would be
compensated through rebate which will cost the
ministry another Rs 750 crore, taking the total outgo
on subsidised loans to Rs 1,400 crore.
[7]

According to the ministry, this means that they
would get loan at market rate only, but if they pay
it back promptly, the difference in the amount
between the market rate and subsidised rate will
be credited to the account of women SHGs, further,
adding that the rates would be further lowered to
4 per cent for SHGs who repay the loan on time.
As per the ministry, banks had given Rs 21,000
crore as loans to SHGs in 2012-13. Of this, Bihar
Under the National Ajeevika Mission, the

ministry aims to raise the number of SHGs to 60
lakh in next five years enrolling 7 crore women as
compared to 3 crore now. The ministry claims to
have added 30 lakh women through 3 lakh new
SHGs under NRLM in 2013-14.
6000 blocks, 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats and 6 lakh
villages in the country through self-managed Self
Help Groups (SHGs) and federated institutions and
support them for livelihoods collectives in a period
of 8-10 years. In addition, the poor would be
facilitated to achieve increased access to their
rights, entitlements and public services, diversified
risk and better social indicators of empowerment.
NRLM believes in harnessing the innate capabilities
of the poor and complements them with capacities
(information, knowledge, skills, tools, finance and
collectivization) to participate in the growing
economy of the country.
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National Ajeevika Mission
got Rs 222 crore, West Bengal (Rs 515 crore), UP

(Rs 450 crore), Maharashtra (Rs 580 crore), MP (Rs
137 crore) and Gujarat (Rs 119 crore).
Aajeevika - National Rural Livelihoods Mission

(NRLM) was launched by the Ministry of Rural
Development (MoRD), Government of India in
June 2011. Aided in part through investment
support by the World Bank, the Mission aims at
creating efficient and effective institutional
platforms of the rural poor enabling them to
increase household income through sustainable
livelihood enhancements and improved access to
financial services.
NRLM has set out with an agenda to cover 7
Crore rural poor households, across 600 districts,
[8]
INTERNATIONAL
SYRIA & REBELS REACH DEAL FOR CIVILIANS
or medicine since summer 2012.
Homs was one of the first cities to stage protests
and then take up arms against the government of
President Bashar al-Assad, and many of its
neighborhoods quickly fell under rebel control. But
over the past year, the government has steadily
wrested most of them back, leaving a pocket of
rebel-held territory in the citys historic heart.
Residents say food is so scarce that they have been
reduced to eating grass, and there are unconfirmed
reports of children having died of malnutrition.
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The United Nations brokered a deal between

the Syrian government and rebels in the city of
Homs to allow the innocent civilians to leave
besieged areas and will also let aid to reach hungry
citizens.
The United Nations welcomed what it termed
a humanitarian pause that will allow women,
children, the elderly and the injured to leave and
aid to enter the Old City in the heart of Homs,
which has been besieged by government forces for
nearly two years.
A convoy of 12 trucks of food, medicine and
other aid has been waiting to enter since then. But
the Syrian government balked at allowing supplies
to enter the area out of concern that it would fall
into the hands of terrorists. It also objected to
the emphasis placed on Homs, saying other areas
where supplies are scarce also should be helped.
The aid agreement is expected to bring relief to
about 2,500 people who have been holed up
alongside several hundred rebel fighters in the
shattered city center without regular access to food
The deal came a day after Russia indicated again

that it would block action in the U.N. Security
Council to force the Syrian government to comply
with demands for the delivery of humanitarian aid
to besieged areas. But Russia also suggested that it
is exerting pressure on Syria to make some
concessions to the international communitys
growing concerns about the scale of the
humanitarian crisis engulfing areas that are
besieged by government forces.
SWISS VOTED AGAINST IMMIGRATION FROM EU
Switzerland voted to impose curbs on

immigration by European Union citizens, in a nailbitingly close referendum that threatened to ignite
a row with Brussels. Final results showed that
50.3 per cent of voters had backed the Stop Mass
Immigration proposal pushed by right-wing
populists, even though it could mean the demise
of a raft of deals signed in 1999 with the EU
including on the economic front. This is a turning
point in SVPs (Swiss Peoples Party) immigration
policy.
The vote comes amid increasing debate across
Europe about migration and the impact of free
movement of people.
Switzerlands economy is booming at the

moment, and unemployment is low, but many
Swiss worry about immigration. A quarter of the
eight million-strong population is foreign, and last

year 80,000 new immigrants arrived.
Since 2007, most of the EUs 500 million
residents have been on an equal footing with locals
in the Swiss job market - the result of a policy
voted into law in a 2000 referendum.
But a coalition led by the right-wing Swiss
Peoples Party now wants to reverse this deal,
saying it was a huge mistake.
Supporters of quotas believe free movement has
put pressure on housing, health, education, and
transport. They also argue that foreign workers
drive salaries down.
But the Swiss government and business leaders
say free movement is key to Switzerlands economic
success, allowing employers to choose skilled staff
from across Europe.
[9]
CANADAS NEW ELECTION LAWS NEED CLOSE SCRUTINY

The Conservative government announced a
new law to reorganize Elections Canada, taking
away the agencys power to enforce the law and
creating a new agency. Through this Act the
Conservative plan features major structural
changes to Elections Canada, an agency that many
Conservatives feel is biased against them.
9. Other measures include an extra day of

advance voting on the eighth day before
election day, allowing for a block of four
consecutive advance polling days.
10. Also, the legislation proposes new rules on
political loans, and would increase the
amount
candidates
and
leadership
contestants may contribute to their own
campaigns to $5,000 and $25,000,
respectively.
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The Harper governments Bill C-23, The Fair

Elections Act will create an independent election
commissioner and make it harder for election law
breakers including those who make illegal
robocalls.
Prosecutions for a seven-year term, and that

the commissioner by housed within the
directors office but conduct investigations
independently.
Finer points of the Bill C-23 are as follow:
1. Raises the ceiling for annual donations to

political parties, to $1,500 from $1,200 now,
and increasing by another $25 annually after
the first year
2. Strip the power to launch investigations into

elections violations from the Chief Electoral
Officer and hand it to the Commissioner of
Canada Elections, in a new independent post.
3. Proposes eliminating the practice of
vouching for other voters who lack proper
identification at the ballot box, and prohibits
the use of voter information cards as proof
of identity.
4. It will also repeal the current ban on

premature transmission of elections results
which, for example, prevents results in
Eastern Canada from being shared on social
media or broadcast until voting is completed
in Western Canada. The government says this
change upholds free speech.
5. In an effort to crack down on illegal robocalls,
the legislation proposes a mandatory public
registry for mass calling, prison time for
impersonating elections officials and
increased penalties for deceiving people out
of their votes.
6. The move to increase the annual contribution

limit comes as the taxpayer-funded, per-vote
subsidy for political parties is being phased
out. It will be eliminated by next year.
7. The legislation will change the appointment

process for the Commissioner of Canada
Elections, who is tasked with investigating
violations of election laws.
8. The bill proposes the commissioner be
appointed by the Director of Public
[10]
But, theres a lot to like in Prime Minister

Stephen Harpers sweeping overhaul of Canadas
elections laws. Theres quite a bit to be suspicious
of, as well. It needs careful scrutiny. The massive
bills most controversial feature is a direct blow to
Chief Electoral Officers office. The government
argues the new bill will give Elections Canada
sharper teeth, longer reach and a freer hand.
Nice phrase, and partly true. The bill does indeed
toughen some penalties and create new offences.
But it also strips the chief electoral officer, a nonpartisan appointee who answers to Parliament, of
key investigatory powers and gives them to civil
servants who answer to the government.
The chief electoral officer would no longer
appoint and manage the commissioner of Canada
elections, the person charged with enforcing the
rules. The commissioner would be appointed by
the director of public prosecutions, a civil servant
who answers to the attorney-general, which is a
cabinet post. The government has presented no
evidence that this change is needed, and the
proposed structure raises questions about
impartiality.
He loses his power to police infractions of the
laws by appointing a Commissioner of Elections and
directing him or her to look into problems. The new
law also contains measures to save errant MPs undue
embarrassment. New procedural safeguards
require that probes by the Commissioner of Elections
be kept confidential. And MPs who are in a dispute
with Elections Canada over their expenses will get
to keep their seat in the Commons until a judge can
sort out the matter, instead of being suspended as
they are now. Nice for the MPs. But what about the
publics right to know?

Other proposed reforms are less controversial.
Welcome changes include tougher penalties
including potential prison time for obstructing
an election officer, voting more than once, offering
a bribe, applying for a ballot under a false names
and other offences. There would be a mandatory

public registry for mass political calling as a hedge
against rogue callers. And voters would face
tougher rules to prove their identity.
IRAN RECEIVED FIRST INSTALLMENT ON FROZEN FUNDS

- higher-level uranium enrichment in return for
some relief from Western sanctions. The agreement
aims to give the two sides six months to reach a
comprehensive deal to address all questions about
whether Iran seeks nuclear arms. Among the total
sanctions relief over the six months, $4.2 billion is
in the form of access to currently blocked Iranian
revenues held abroad.
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Iran has got its first installment of the USD 4.2billion of Irans blocked oil revenues into an Iranian
Central bank account in Switzerland. Iranian
frozen assets would be released in eight stages and
Tehran, in return, would oxidize its 20-per centenriched uranium within a year.
Iran and the six major world powers Russia,
China, the US, France, Britain and Germany inked
a nuclear accord in the Swiss city of Geneva. Under
the Geneva accord, the six countries agreed to lift
some of the existing sanctions against Iran in
exchange for Tehrans confidence-building measure
to limit certain aspects of its nuclear activities for
a six-month period.
Moreover, under the accord, Iran agreed to
curb its most proliferation-sensitive nuclear activity
Some payments under the six-month deal which officially began Jan. 20 - depend on Iran
keeping its commitment to dilute half of its 20
percent enriched uranium to no more than 5
percent enriched uranium. Iran cannot get its next
installment of $450 million unless the International
Atomic Energy Agency confirms Tehran has done
half the necessary dilution of its enriched uranium.
[11]
INDIA AND THE WORLD

GAVI ALLIANCE TO GET INDIAS DONATION
The pentavalent vaccine simultaneously provides
protection against the five life threatening diseases
Diphtheria, Pertussis, Tetanus, Hepatitis B and Hib
(Haemophilus influenza type b). DPT (Diphtheria,
Pertussis, Tetanus) and Hepatitis B are already part
of the national routine immunisation programme.
Protection against Haemophilus influenza type B
(Hib), which causes severe pneumonia, meningitis and
other life-threatening conditions in children less than
five years of age, is a new addition.
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India will contribute $4 million over the next

four years to GAVI alliance in an attempt to
immunize children worldwide against lifethreatening diseases. The contribution, which will
be spread over four years as part of the Government
of Indias 12th Five Year Plan, marks a milestone
in the relationship between India and the GAVI
Alliance. India has received support for its
immunisation programme from GAVI since 2002.
The announcement comes at a critical time as the
GAVI Alliance is stepping up its efforts to save
childrens lives and protect peoples health by
increasing access to immunisation in the worlds
poorest countries.
By committing funding to GAVI, India joins 21
international donors, the largest funding for GAVI
came from the United Kingdom, followed by the
Gates Foundation, and the Norwegian and other
governments, including the U.S., the Netherlands,
Germany and Japan. While doing so it also joined
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation which is fighting
child mortality through immunisation.
The funding reinforces Indias commitment

towards immunisation following its recent
announcement to scale up the five-in-one
pentavalent vaccine nationally. So far, pentavalent
vaccine has been introduced in eight states in India
with GAVI support, as part of a 2009 agreement,
with a firm commitment to extend this to cover all
states.
GAVI Alliance
The GAVI Alliance (formerly the Global

Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation) is a
public-private global health partnership committed
to increasing access to immunisation in poor
countries. The Alliance brings together developing
country and donor governments, the World Health
Organization, UNICEF, the World Bank, the
vaccine industry in both industrialised and
developing countries, research and technical
agencies, civil society, the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation and other private philanthropists.
The GAVI Alliance was launched in 2000, at
a time when the distribution of vaccines to children
in the poorest parts of the world had begun to
falter. By the end of the 1990s, immunisation rates
were stagnating or even declining. Nearly 30
million children born every year in developing
countries were not fully immunised. GAVI Alliance
has immunized millions of children to fight against
deadly diseases and viruses.
INDIA-PAK TO RESUME CROSS LOC BUS SERVICE
Indo-Pak relations are always a matter of talk.

Recently, all movement including travelling and
trade along the Line of Control (LoC), which divides
the disputed region between Pakistan and India,
had been suspended after Indian authorities
detained a Pakistani truck driver for allegedly
carrying 114kg of heroin.
diplomatic immunity. From the beginning, India

proposed three graded steps that Pakistan agree to
the resumption of bus services across the LoC, take
back the other trucks and return Indian trucks,
and agree to a working level group meeting to
decide standard operating procedures for future
crossings.
The discussion took place where initially, the

Pakistanis insisted on repatriation of the arrested
driver, going to the extent of insisting he had
With the new agreement, India-Pakistan bus

services have been resumed but cross-LoC trade is
still held up by Pakistan. Barter trade across the
[12]

de facto border began in 2008 as part of peace
efforts between the nuclear-armed neighbours, but
it is frequently disrupted by disputes.
It was last suspended in September 2013 for a
period of almost six weeks over a disagreement on
the origin of goods being traded. Kashmir, divided
between India and Pakistan at their independence
from Britain in 1947, has been a continual thorn in

relations and the countries have fought two wars
over the territory. More than a dozen armed rebel
groups have been fighting Indian forces since 1989
for the regions independence or its merger with
Pakistan.
FESTIVALS OF INDIA TO CELEBRATE PANCHSHEEL

festival will include a Buddhist exhibition, a
Buddhist Mahotsava including the construction of
sand mandala, butter sculpture and Lama chant
by monks, a food festival, Bollywood films, mehndi
and yoga. China, in contrast, has sought folk dance,
literary festival, Bollywood dance and mehndi, and
yoga as key components.
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To celebrate 60th anniversary of the Panchsheel

pact between India and China, India is planning a
multi-city Festivals of India in China. As per plans
initially the festival will be held in four cities of
China, the number could double in view of interest
shown by the Chinese side and the Indian mission
in Beijing. Moreover, 2014 has been declared as
the Year of Friendship and Exchange for India
and China, this will help the two countries to
boost cooperation in art, cultural exchanges, youth
communication and education, and cement the
bond further.
According to Union Culture Ministry officials,
China wants a business element added to the
otherwise essentially cultural event. In particular,
China wants a presence of the India Brand Equity
Foundation, a trust established by the Commerce
Ministry to promote and create international
awareness of the Made in India label in overseas
markets, and facilitate dissemination of information
about Indian products and services.
The Festival of India in China is likely to be
held in summer which will be preceded by similar
festivals on a smaller scale in Laos PDR, Cambodia,
Vietnam and Myanmar. It is being planned that
the Festival will include the presentation of
Ramayana. Besides a presentation of Ramayana in
a ballet form by the Kalakshetra Foundation, the
Panchsheel Treaty
The Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence,

known in India as the Panchsheel Treaty are a
set of principles to govern relations between states.
Their first formal codification in treaty form was
in an agreement between China and India in 1954.
They were enunciated in the preamble to the
Agreement (with exchange of notes) on trade
and intercourse between Tibet Region of China
and India, which was signed at Peking on 29
April 1954. This agreement stated the five
principles as:
1. Mutual respect for each others territorial
integrity and sovereignty.
2. Mutual non-aggression.
3. Mutual non-interference in each others

internal affairs.
4. Equality and mutual benefit
5. Peaceful co-existence
INDIA, GERMANY SIGNED GREEN PACTS
India and Germany signed two agreements on

green energy corridors under which India will
receive almost 900 million euros loan from the
European nation. This includes 5.45 million euros
for consultancy projects of German Environment
Ministry and a commitment for 250 million euros
to support the feeding of power from renewable
sources into Indias grid. The green energy
corridor is aimed at synchronising electricity
produced from renewable sources, such as solar
and wind, with conventional power stations in the
grid.
In India the massive grid failure left the entire

North, East and North-East in the dark for more
than six hours on July 30-31 last year, the
Government is aiming at strengthening the
distribution network across the country making it
smart to handle fluctuations.
Renewable energy sources are playing an
increasingly important role in India. Currently 25
GW of renewable energy capacity are installed in
India. Within the 12th Five Year Plan alone, India
is planning to add about 41 GW of additional
renewable energy capacity. The integration of these
[13]

power plants in the transmission network is a
critical prerequisite for ensuring an environmentally
more sustainable energy supply in India. The
integration requires transmission infrastructure for
the evacuation of power as identified in the
comprehensive transmission plan called Green
Energy Corridors prepared by POWERGRID
Corporation of India (PGCIL) in 2012. The Green

Energy Corridors project of the Tamil Nadu
Transmission Corporation (TANTRANSCO) will be
the States first power project to be funded by the
KfW, a German development bank. It will take care
of transmitting power from wind mills, the point
of generation, to sub-stations.
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[14]
ECONOMY
PANEL TO REVIEW FSLRC PROPOSALS
the guidance handbook, there are a number of
recommendations in the FSLRC report which are
in the nature of governance enhancing and do not
require legislative changes. The implementation of
the NLR made by the FSLRC was discussed by the
Financial Stability Development Council (FSDC).
The panel will also suggest changes or

modifications to the extant framework in
compliance with the 14 NLR. While not much
progress has been made towards implementing the
recommendations made in FSLRC report, which
was submitted to the government in March last
year, the Finance Ministry has called for early
implementation of the non-legislative proposals
contained therein.
The committee consists of C R Muralidharan,

G Prabhakara, and Mathew Varghese, all exMembers, IRDA and M S Sahoo, ex-Member, SEBI.
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Insurance regulatory and Development

Authority (IRDA) has set up a nine-member
committee to review the recommendations made
by the Financial Sector Legislative Reform
Commission (FSLRC). The committee will also
examine the extant legislative and regulatory
framework in compliance 14 non-legislative
recommendations (NLRs). The non-legislative
recommendations are related with consumer
protection, transparency and capacity building,
among others.
The finance ministry recently asked regulators

to voluntarily implement the non-legislative
recommendations of FSLRC, while issuing a
guidance handbook on this matter. According to
In its report, the FSLRC has recommended

sweeping changes to the way financial sector is
regulated in the country, including in areas ranging
from banking and insurance to capital markets,
among others.
According to IRDA the committee will submit

its report by April-end.
On 24th March, 2011, the Ministry of Finance
set up Financial Sector Legislative Reform
Commission (FSLRC) to review and rewrite the
legal-institutional architecture of the Indian
financial sector. This Commission is chaired by a
former Judge of the Supreme Court of India, Justice
B.N. Srikrishna.
INDIA 3RD MOST PREFERRED DESTINATION FOR FDI
According to a new report by The Economist

Corporate Network Indonesia has overtaken India
to emerge as the second-most attractive destination
in the Asia-Pacific region for foreign direct
investment after China. The report indicates that
12 per cent of companies that were included in a
global survey planned to reduce their level of
investment in India.
The report revealed that this was partly due to
the weak state of the economy, but also the poor
job that policymakers have done in managing the
investment landscape. The report said it was clear
that Western companies looking at Asia are
increasingly picking Indonesia as their second big
bet in the region after China.
Around 53 per cent of the companies that were
covered in the survey said they plan to hike
investments in the South-East Asian country in

2014. FDI inflows have already picked up, with
the country attracting more foreign capital in the
first nine months of 2013 than the whole of 2012,
which was a record year.
Behind China, India and Indonesia, a number
of other South-East Asian countries are also
emerging as popular investment destinations.
Myanmar is fourth in the list of investment
priorities, with the economy opening up, followed
by Thailand and Malaysia in the fifth and sixth
position respectively. But Vietnam is notable for its
fall from fourth place in the 2011 list to seventh
this year. Among developed nations in the list, the
survey found that 10 per cent of countries planned
to trim their investment in Australia.
In 2012, the Asia-Pacific made up 31 per cent
[15]

Given the size of the region and superior growth
rates, this out-performance is expected to continue.
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of the global economy, but managed to attract 36

per cent of FDI flows. Asia, in particular, is
outperforming in its ability to attract investment.
EDPMS
A comprehensive IT-based system called Export

Data Processing and Monitoring System (EDPMS)
will soon be available to banks, which are
authorised to deal in foreign exchange, to report
all the returns/statements relating to export of
goods/services through a single platform.
The system will enable banks to submit various
returns such as export outstanding statements,
export bills negotiated/sent for collection,
realisation of export proceeds, write-off of export
bills, extension of realization of export. As of now,
these returns are being managed on a different solo
application or manually.
In the new system, the primary data on export

transactions, including offsite software exports from
all the sources Customs/Special Economic Zone/
Software Technology Park of India will flow to
the RBI secured server and then the same will be
shared with the respective banks for follow up with
the exporters. Subsequently, the document
submission and realisation data will be reported
back by the banks to RBI through the same secured
RBI server so as to update the RBI database on
real-time basis. The banks are required to download
and upload the data on daily basis.
RBI eases Third Party Export/Import

Payment Norms
With a view to liberalise the procedure, the

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has withdrawn the
limit of $100,000 eligible for third party payment
for import of goods, adding that all other terms
and conditions mentioned in the November circular
however remain unchanged.
In its representation to the RBI, the Federation
of Indian Export Organisation (FIEO) had
requested the need to waive tripartite agreements
for exports. The FIEO held that most exports are
being done on open terms and the dynamics for
the same are dictated/settled by the buyers market
rather than a sellers market.
Conceding the exporters difficulties, RBI vide
its circular on February 4, 2014, on third party
payments for export/import transactions, has
decided that this requirement may not be insisted
upon in case where documentary evidence for
circumstances leading to third party payments /
name of the third party being mentioned in the
irrevocable order/ invoice has been produced.
INDIAS DIAMOND TRADE BEING USED FOR MONEY LAUNDERING FATF

A report by the Financial Action Task Force
(FATF), a Paris-based global body to set standards
to combat money laundering and terrorist
financing, revealed that India is one of the five
[16]
countries where instances have been found that

trade accounts of diamond business are being used
to launder illegal funds to the tune of millions of
dollars.

The report said as there were no set standards
of diamond pricing in the country, agents were
overvaluing the costly and prized gemstones, and
even one such big instance is under the scanner of
financial enforcement agencies.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is an

inter-governmental body established in 1989 by
the Ministers of its Member jurisdictions. The
objectives of the FATF are to set standards and
promote effective implementation of legal,
regulatory and operational measures for
combating money laundering, terrorist financing
and other related threats to the integrity of the
international financial system. The FATF is
therefore a policy-making body which works
to generate the necessary political will to bring
about national legislative and regulatory reforms
in these areas.
The FATF currently comprises 34 member
jurisdictions and 2 regional organisations,
representing most major financial centres in all
parts of the globe. Member countries are:
Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil,
Canada, China, Denmark, European Commission,
Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Gulf Cooperation Council, Hong Kong, China, Iceland,
India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea,
Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand,
Norway, Portugal, Russian Federation, Singapore,
South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey,
United Kingdom and United States.
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The report has been brought out with the

objective to provide a general overview of the global
diamond industry, the way it works and the
characteristics of diamonds as merchandise,
through an anti-money laundering and combating
financing terror lens. The case presented by India
exposes how through over-valuation diamonds
were shipped at a value that was tens of millions
of USD higher than the real value. This kind of
over-valuation cannot be done in goods with a fixed
or even relatively fixed price. Further the report
said this case shows the level of manipulation which
may be conducted through the diamond trade due
to its specific characteristics, such as the very high
value and the lack of known and stable prices which
allow for the manipulation of price.
Fatf
These instances were also reported from four

other countries - Israel, Belgium, Canada and the
US.
GOVT CLARIFIES POLICY ON FDI IN INSURANCE
The Government has clarified that the 26 per

cent cap on foreign investments in the insurance
sector also applies to intermediaries such as brokers,
third party administrators and surveyors. In this
context the cap include foreign direct investment
(FDI), foreign institutional investment (FIIs) and
investment from non-resident Indians (NRIs).
percent FDI in insurance intermediaries, third-party

administrators, surveyors and loss assessors. But
action on this, too, would have to wait. The
companies bringing in foreign investment will have
to obtain necessary licence from the Insurance
Regulatory and Development Authority for
undertaking prescribed activities.
Earlier, the policy only talked about allowing

26 per cent FDI in the insurance sector without
elaborating on what activities were covered under
the cap and how FII and NRI investments were to
be treated.
Insurance brokers are entities which arrange

insurance contracts with insurers or reinsurers on
behalf of their clients. The TPAs help in facilitating
health insurance on behalf of insurers. Surveyors
and loss assessors provide technical services to the
insurance companies.
Indias insurance regulator has set up a

committee to study the option of allowing 100
4 NON-BANK ENTITIES TO SET UP WLAS
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued

certificate of authorization to four non-bank entities
Tata Communications Payment Solutions Ltd.,
Prizm Payment Services Pvt. Ltd., Muthoot Finance
Ltd., and Vakrangee Ltd. to set up white label
automated teller machines (ATMs) in the country.
Most of the ATMs belong to banks, but the cash
dispensing machines which are owned and
operated by non-banking companies are called

white label ATMs (WLAs). Customers of any bank
can use such white-label ATMs, but they will have
to pay a fee for using the service. All transactions
through these ATMs will be charged. These ATMs
will not come under the ambit of the RBI guideline
which mandates five free transactions on ATMs of
other banks. Non-bank entities proposing to set up
[17]

white-label ATMs should have a minimum net
worth of Rs 100 crore at the time of making the
application and on a continuing basis after the issue
of the requisite authorization.
operate ATMs, RBI said, was to enhance the spread

of ATMs in semi-urban and rural areas (mainly in
tier III to VI areas), where bank-owned ATM
penetration was not growing.
In June 2012, RBI issued policy guidelines

permitting non-bank entities to set up and operate
such ATMs. Prior to this, only banks were permitted
to set up and operate ATMs in the country. The
primary objective of permitting non-banks to
Under the new guidelines, certain minimum

number of ATMs need to be installed in these areas
within a year as per the scheme opted by the
respective operators.
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PANEL RECOMMENDS SIMPLIFIED MOBILE BANKING

The huge mobile phone penetration in the
country inspired the Reserve Bank panel to allow
the customers to make payments at merchant outlets
and transfer funds by using mobile numbers. It
also recommended that banks should simplify
system for mobile banking so that the facility could
be availed on any type of phone handsets with
suitable level of security.
For greater adoption of mobile banking in the
country, a Reserve Bank of India panel has
recommended that all mobile network operators
(MNOs) load single mobile banking application on
all new SIMs (subscriber identification modules),
which use encrypted SMS (short messaging service)
for transaction processing.
Alternate channels for mobile number

registration may be made available, such as
interoperable ATM network across banks as well
as the Business Correspondent/ / agent network
using biometric authentication, so that the customer
can register the mobile number conveniently.
The process of M-PIN (mobile personal
identification number) generation may also be
simplified and standardized without necessitating
a visit to the bank branch by the customer, so that
the customer can be on-boarded in an easy manner
and start transacting using mobile payments, and
reduce barriers to entry.
In the case of existing SIMs, the MNOs load the

single mobile banking application in SMS encrypted
environment and the common mobile banking
application can be pushed over-the-air.
For better authentication of the transaction by

the bank, MNOs could facilitate the mobile banking
transaction by providing the mobile number from
where transaction is originated when customers
transact using mobile banking application (Currently
the mobile number in the header is suppressed).
Further, the single mobile banking application

may be pre-loaded in the handset, with the
Government mandating all handset manufacturers
/ resellers in India. Handset manufacturers should
run the application on all new handsets.
For facilitating funds transfer using mobile

banking, the remitting customer may be facilitated
to effect person-to-person funds transfer using just
the mobile number and bank or just the Aadhaar
number of beneficiary.
The RBIs technical committee on mobile

banking suggested that the Government of India
can explore the options of offering fiscal incentives
/ economic subventions to the stakeholders in order
to ensure participation of various players to offer
mobile banking solutions.
To overcome the challenges faced by each bank

in tying up with a large number of MNOs, and to
facilitate the reach and usage of mobile banking
through USSD (unstructured supplementary service
data: a protocol used by mobile phones to
communicate with the service providers
computers), there is a need for common USSD
gateway for mobile banking.
The central bank observed that the

developments in mobile telephony, as also the
mobile phone density in the country, with over 87
crore subscribers, presents a unique opportunity to
leverage the mobile platform to meet the objectives
and challenges of financial inclusion.
The committee, headed by B. Sambamurthy,

Director, Institute for Development and Research
in Banking Technology, recommended that
customers should not be required to visit the bank
branch for mobile number registration.
[18]
A common USSD Gateway based mobile

banking service offers an opportunity to provide
convenient, cost effective and user friendly payment
option for all customers and thus a very convenient
mechanism for banks for furthering financial
inclusion objectives of Government of India.
The committee observed that the limit of
unsecured transaction (without end to end

encryption) may be raised from the existing Rs.
5000 to Rs. 10000, subject to having certain velocity
checks at the bank side.
The banks may take the decision of limit
enhancement depending on their security policy
and internal risk management control measures.
According to RBI the mobile banking has been

reflecting a growing trend with the volume and
value increasing by 108.5 per cent (53.3 million in
2012-13 versus 25.56 million in 2011-12) and 228.9
per cent (Rs 59.9 billion in 2012-13 against Rs 18.21
billion in 2011-12), respectively.
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RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan in September

had set up the committee to expand the reach of
mobile banking to examine possibility of using
encrypted SMS based fund transfer.
The RBI has given approval for mobile banking

services to 80 banks, of which 64 have commenced
operations. The customer base of banks who have
subscribed to mobile banking services stands at
nearly 30 million as of October 2013.
[19]

MINI SATELLITES TO CONTROL SPACE TRAFFIC
that refinement of the orbit of another satellite in
LEO is possible.
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Collisions in space of satellites and space debris

have become increasingly problematic. To help
satellite operators prevent collisions in space, the
Space-Based Telescopes for Actionable Refinement
of Ephemeris (STARE) mission, which will consist
of a constellation of nano-satellites in low earth
orbit (LEO), intends to refine orbits of satellites and
space debris to less than 100 meters. STARE is an
ongoing Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
(LLNL) project led by Wim de Vries, with Vincent
Riot as lead engineer.
The proposed Space-Based Telescopes for
Actionable Refinement of Ephemeris (STARE)
mission, will consist of a constellation of nanosatellites in LEO, which can accurately predict and
refine the orbits of satellites and space debris. A
series of six images over a 60-hour period were
captured from a ground-based satellite to prove
Using the ground-based satellite, the scientists

from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
refined the orbit of the satellite NORAD 27006,
based on the first four observations made within
the initial 24 hours, and predicted NORADs
trajectory to within less than 50 meters over the
following 36 hours. By refining the trajectory of
NORAD 27006 with their ground-based payload,
the team believes they will be able to do the same
thing for other satellites and debris once their
payload is orbiting earth.
The tools and analysis used to capture the
images of NORAD 27006 and refine its orbit are
the same ones that will be used during the STARE
mission. The findings are published in the Journal
of Small Satellites.
[20]
HEALTH
WORLD CANCER DAY
4.
alcohol intake levels will have fallen

significantly.
Populations in the areas affected by HPV and
HBV will be covered by universal vaccination
programmes.
Public attitudes towards cancer will improve
and damaging myths and misconceptions
about the disease will be dispelled.
Many more cancers will be diagnosed when
still localized through the provision of
screening and early detection programmes
and high levels of public and professional
awareness about important cancer warning
signs.
Access to accurate cancer diagnosis,
appropriate cancer treatments, supportive
care, rehabilitation services and palliative care
will have improved for all patients
worldwide.
Effective pain control measures will be
available universally to all cancer patients in
pain.
The number of training opportunities
available for health professionals in different
aspects of cancer control will have improved
significantly.
Emigration of health workers with specialist
training in cancer control will have reduced
dramatically.
There will be major improvements in cancer
survival rates in all countries.
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World Cancer Day 2014 focuses on Target 5 of

the World Cancer Declaration: Reduce stigma and
dispel myths about cancer, under the tagline
Debunk the myths. World Cancer Day is a
chance to raise the collective voices in the name of
improving general knowledge around cancer and
dismissing misconceptions about the disease.
In an attempt to raise awareness about the
cancer, and encourage people about its prevention,
detection and treatment, World Cancer day is
observed on 4th February. This day was founded
by the Union for International Cancer Control
(UICC) to support the goals of the World Cancer
Declaration, written in 2008. The World Cancer
Declaration 2008 is a tool to help cancer advocates
bring the growing cancer crisis to the attention of
health policymakers at national, regional and global
levels. It represents a consensus between
foundations, national and international nongovernmental and governmental organisations,
professional bodies etc. that are committed to the
vision of eliminating cancer as a major threat for
future generations.
The primary goal of the World Cancer Day is
to significantly reduce illness and death caused by
cancer by 2020. Following are the targets by 2020.
1. Sustainable delivery systems will be in place
to ensure that effective cancer control
programmes are available in all countries.
2. The measurement of the global cancer burden
and the impact of cancer control
interventions will have improved significantly.
3. Global tobacco consumption, obesity and
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
WORLD CANCER REPORT
The World Cancer Report released by World

Health Organisations (WHO) specialised cancer
agency, International Agency for Research on
Cancer (IARC) reveals that cancer cases are
expected to increase 57% worldwide in the next 20
years. The agency, which is part of the World
Health Organization, also shed light on the
alarming pace at which cancer cases are growing.
According to IARC, in 2012, the worldwide burden

of cancer rose to an estimated 14 million-a figure
expected to rise to 22 million annually within the
next two decades. Over the same period, cancer
deaths are predicted to rise from an estimated 8.2
million to 13 million per year.
The rising incidence of cancer, brought about
chiefly by growing, aging populations worldwide,
[21]
IARC
The International Agency for Research on
Cancer (IARC) is the specialized cancer agency
of the World Health Organization. The objective
of the IARC is to promote international
collaboration in cancer research. The Agency
identifies the causes of cancer so that preventive
measures may be adopted and the burden of
disease and associated suffering reduced. A
significant feature of the IARC is its expertise in
coordinating research across countries and
organizations; its independent role as an
international organization facilitates this activity.
The Agency has a particular interest in conducting
research in low and middle-income countries
through partnerships and collaborations with
researchers in these regions.
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will require a heavier focus on preventive public

health policies. The report said about half of all
cancers were preventable and could have been
avoided if current medical knowledge was acted
upon. The disease could be tackled by addressing
lifestyle factors, such as smoking, alcohol
consumption, diet and exercise; adopting screening
programs; or, in the case of infection-triggered
cancers such as cervical and liver cancers, through
vaccines. More than 60% of the worlds cases and
about 70% of the worlds cancer deaths occurred
in Africa, Asia, and Central and South America.
The World Cancer Report published about once
every five years, involved a collaboration of around
250 scientists from more than 40 countries. This
report helps to find out a global report on cancer,
including cancer patterns, causes and preventions.
AIZWAL, CAPITAL OF CANCER INCIDENCE IN INDIA
In the latest report of the Indian Council of

Medical Research (ICMR), Aizawl, the capital of
Mizoram, has the highest incidence of cancer in
India. According to the report, Northeast takes the
top three slots for the incidence of cancer among
both men and women. The age adjusted rate, a
statistical tool to compare incidence among different
communities at particular ages for all cancers
among men is 273.4 per 100,000 population in
Aizawl, followed by Meghalayas East Khasi Hills
district (216), the rest of Mizoram state (189.5),
and Kamrup Urban in Assam (185.7).
The report states:
1. For women, Aizawl reported the highest
incidence at 227.8 cases per 100,000
population, followed by Kamrup Urban
(156.3), Mizoram state (153.7), and Bangalore
(137.2).
Data from state population-based registries
show that cancers of the lung, mouth, oesophagus,
stomach and nasopharynx are the most common
among men. Among women, cancers of the breast,
cervix, uterus, oesophagus and lung are the most
common.
1. Among the metros, Delhi is on top of the list
for men with 125.2 cases per 100,000
population; Bangalore tops for women
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
(137.2).
Lung cancer is the most common cancer
among men in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and
Chennai. Delhi, with 13.9 cases per 100,000
population, has reported the highest incidence
of lung cancer in the country.
In Bhopal and Ahmedabad, mouth cancer is
the most common.
In Ahmedabad, tongue and lung cancer are
the second and third most common
respectively.
Prostrate, tongue and mouth cancers are the
most common after lung cancer in Delhi and
Mumbai; stomach cancer is the second most
common among men in Bangalore.
Among women, breast cancer remains the
most common everywhere except in Barshi,
Maharashtra, where cancer of the cervix is
most common, followed by cancers of the
breast and oesophagus.
Delhi has, however, seen a recent spurt in gall
bladder cancer, which has jumped to third
place at 9.2 cases per 100,000 population,
pushing ovarian cancers to fourth (8.2).
ANNUAL MEASLES DEATHS REACHED HISTORIC LOWS

The World Health Organisations (WHO) new
mortality estimates show that annual measles
deaths have reached historic lows, dropping 78%
[22]
from more than 562 000 in 2000 to 122 000 in

2012. During this time period, an estimated 13.8
million deaths have been prevented by measles

on time. The Region of the Americas has achieved
measles elimination and continues to maintain this
status while the Western Pacific Region is
approaching its target.
Routine measles vaccination coverage is an
important progress indicator towards meeting
Millennium Development Goal Four because of its
potential to reduce child mortality and widely
recognized as a marker of access to childrens health
services.
Without improved immunization coverage both
through routine services and mass campaigns,
outbreaks will continue to occur, hampering efforts
to meet global elimination targets and prevent
additional deaths. The ability to contain outbreaks
by improving routine coverage and, when
necessary, implementing high quality vaccination
campaigns requires countries to place a high priority
on elimination goals and to invest heavily in health
systems improvements.
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vaccination and surveillance data showed that

reported cases declined 77% from 853 480 to 226
722.
These gains are a result of global routine
measles immunization coverage holding steady at
84% and 145 countries having introduced a routine
second dose of measles vaccine to ensure immunity
and prevent outbreaks. In addition to routine
immunization, countries vaccinated 145 million
children during mass campaigns against measles
in 2012 and reached more than 1 billion since 2000,
with the support of the Measles & Rubella Initiative.
Despite the impressive gains made, progress
towards measles elimination remains uneven with
some populations still unprotected. Measles
continues to be a global threat, with five of six
WHO regions still experiencing large outbreaks and
with the Region of the Americas responding to
many importations of measles cases. The African,
Eastern Mediterranean and European regions are
not likely to meet their measles elimination targets
Large measles outbreaks in 2012 by WHO region :
The Measles & Rubella Initiative
Launched in 2001, the Measles & Rubella

Initiative is a global partnership led by the
American Red Cross, United Nations Foundation,
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC), UNICEF and WHO.
The Measles & Rubella Initiative is committed
to ensuring that no child dies from measles or is
born with congenital rubella syndrome; reducing
measles deaths by 95% by 2015; and achieving
measles and rubella elimination in at least five
regions by 2020. The WHO Region of the Americas
has sustained measles elimination since 2002 and

WHO Western Pacific Region is on track to reach
its goal. All six regions have established measles
elimination goals.
The latest data is published in this weeks CDC
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report and WHO
Weekly Epidemiological Report.
The Measles & Rubella Initiative join others in
celebrating World Immunization Week, April 2430 to promote one of the worlds most powerful
tools for health the use of vaccines to protect
people of all ages against disease.
[23]
GOOD IMMUNITY FIGHTS BLOOD CANCER CELLS

The discovery could lead to the development of
an early-warning test that identifies patients at high
risk of developing B-cell lymphomas, enabling
proactive treatment to prevent tumours from
growing. It seems that our immune system is better
equipped than we imagined identifying and
eliminating cancerous B cells, a process that is
driven by the immune T cells in our body. The
research would enable scientists to identify precancerous cells in the initial stages of their
development, enabling early intervention for
patients at risk of developing B-cell lymphoma.
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In a research, scientists have found that our

immune system constantly work to prevent cancer
by eliminating certain potentially cancerous
immune cells in their early stages. The whole idea
is to improve immunity levels so that the
surveillance system can work at its best in killing
cancerous immune B cells before they developed
into B-cell lymphomas - blood cancer in the lymph
glands. This immune surveillance accounts for
what researchers call the surprising rarity of Bcell lymphomas in the population, given how often
these spontaneous changes occur.
[24]
NEWS IN BRIEF
NEWSMAKERS
N. Srinivasan
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N. Srinivasan will head the ICC Board, the apex

decision making body of the world cricket. He will
be assisted by a new Executive Committee chaired
by Wally Edwards from Cricket Australia and the
Finance and Commercial Affairs Committee
chaired by Giles Clarke from the English cricket
Board.
his contribution towards creation of the Indian

military justice system.
This team will oversee the affairs of international

cricket in the two year transition period till 2016.
Later on, the full members of the ICC will elect a
new Chairman while BCCI, CA and ECB - will be
represented on both sub-committees, along with two
representatives of the other Full Members who will
be elected by the Board.
Justice A K Mathur
Former Supreme Court judge Ashok Kumar

Mathur has been appointed as the chairman of
Seventh Central Pay Commission. Apart from
Mathur, who is also a retired chairman of the
Armed Forces Tribunal, petroleum secretary Vivek
Rae has been appointed as the full-time member of
the panel Rathin Roy, director, National Institute
of Public Finance and Policy will be part-time
Member and Meena Agarwal, officer-on-special
duty in the department of expenditure will be its
secretary.
The Commission has been mandated to submit

its report in two years time and its
recommendations would be implemented from
January 1, 2016.
Starting his career as advocate at Rajasthan
High Court, Mathur was appointed as deputy
government advocate in 1969 and government
advocate in 1977. Later Mathur was promoted to
additional judge in 1985 and was made permanent
judge of Rajasthan High Court in 1986.After
serving as Chief Justice of MP High Court from
1996-99 and CJ of Calcutta High Court from 19992004, Mathur was made judge in SC in 2004. Along
with it, he was also the first chairperson of the
Armed Forces Tribunal and is being regarded for
N. Ramachandran
World Squash Federation president N.

Ramachandran was unanimously named as the
new president of the IOA in the elections held in
the presence of three observers from the
International Olympic Committee (IOC) Pere
Mir, IOC Director of NOC Relations, Jrme
Poivey, Head of Institutional Relations in the NOC
Relations Department, and Robin Mitchell, head of
the IOC delegation.
Most of the office-bearers, including secretary
general Rajeev Mehta, were elected unopposed,
barring the vice-presidents.
The IOA was suspended in December 2012 after
it went ahead with elections despite IOCs
reservations, electing Abhay Singh Chautala and
Lalit Bhanot as president and secretary respectively.
Both have been charged by a court of law.
Under the new constitution, any member
against whom charges have been framed by a court
of law for an offence that carries imprisonment of
more than two years will not be allowed to contest
elections and the case will be referred to the IOA
Ethics Commission.
New WWF chief appointed
Marco Lambertini is appointed as directorgeneral of WWF International, a global conservation

organisation. Dr. Lambertini, who has 25 years of
experience as a global conservation leader, will begin
his new role with WWF International on May 1.
He is at present chief executive of Bird Life
International.
Prior to his current role as chief executive of
Bird Life International, he was global director of
Network and Programme for over a decade. That
role saw him broaden BirdLifes global reach and
relevance, and develop decentralized structures for
most effective global conservation impact.
[25]

Dr Marco Lambertini was closely involved in a
number of international bird conservation projects
directly related to AEWA (African-Eurasian
Waterbird Agreement), such as the development
and coordination of the Single Species Action Plan
for the critically endangered Northern Bald Ibis
(Geronticus eremita) the Wings Over Wetlands
(WOW) UNEP-GEF African-Eurasian Flyways
Project, and World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD).

After being the Director of LIPU (Italian Society for
the Protection of Birds - BirdLife Italy) and the
Director of Network and Programme at BirdLife
International, Dr Lambertini has been the Chief
Executive of BirdLife International since 2009.
At WWF, Lambertini will replace Jim Leape who
led the organization for over eight years.
OBITUARIES
In two dozen books and hundreds of articles,
Professor Dahl wrote about foreign policy,
Congress, welfare, the Constitution and more. He
was an early proponent of using real-world data
and empirical analysis in the study of politics, but
did not shrink from making judgments on large
issues.
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Juthika Roy
Renowned bhajan singer Juthika Roy passed

away at the age of 93 after a brief illness. Even
though the present generation seems ignorant about
Roy, her career was at its peak during 1930 to
1950.
The illustrious list of admirers of her bhajans

included Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru.
Gandhi would listen to her bhajans every day
before his prayers. She was then known as the
'Adhunik Meera' after Meera Bai. When Nehru was
on his way from Teen Murti Bhavan to Red Fort in
Delhi to hoist the flag of an independent India on
August 15, 1947, Roy's bhajans were being
broadcast live on All India Radio (AIR). As she
finished singing and was about to leave the station,
AIR officials told Roy, then 27, Prime Minister Nehru
wanted her to continue till he unfurled the flag.
Juthikha Roy who was born at Amta in
Howrah district on April 20, 1920, recorded her
first album at the age of 14. Initially, a music
company was hesitant to record her songs and but
recorded them on insistence of poet Kazi Nazrul
Islam, who was also her mentor. She was also a
student of the famous Bengali music director Kamal
Dasgupta and gave her voice to at least two Bengali
films. Her career was at its peak during 1930-50.
Juthika Roy was honoured with Padma Shri
in 1972 by the Union government. She continued
singing till the 1970s and in her five decades of
singing career, she had over 200 records in Hindi
and about 100 in Bengali. She lent voice to some
Urdu and Tamil renditions.
Robert Dahl
Robert A. Dahl, an esteemed political scientist

who was widely regarded as his professions most
distinguished student of democratic government,
died in Hamden, Conn. He was 98. Professor Dahl,
the foremost political theorist of this generation,
taught at Yale for 40 years.
[26]
Perhaps Professor Dahls best-known work was

one of his earliest: Who Governs? Democracy and
Power in an American City (1961) in which he
examined the political workings of New Haven. In
contrast to the view that power in American society
was concentrated in business elite, he depicted a
multitude of groups competing for influence.
Instead of a single center of sovereign power, he
wrote, there must be multiple centers of power,
none of which is or can be wholly sovereign.
Professor Dahl initially defended pluralistic
competition as inherently democratic, but in later
books he theorized that powerful, politically agile
minorities could thwart the will of other minorities
and, indeed, majorities. He particularly worried that
corporate managers could dictate the direction of
their companies, often without reference to
shareholders. He advocated giving outsiders,
including government and interest groups like
consumer representatives, a greater role in corporate
governance.
He also wrote that citizens in recent years have
had less influence over the political process, even
as they have demanded more of it. He pointed to
growing economic inequality as a threat to the
political process. And he criticized the Constitution
as undemocratic, saying it disregarded population
differences in guaranteeing at least one
representative and only two senators to each state.
Professor Dahl was chairman of the political
science department from 1957 to 1962. In 1968, he
led a committee that recommended that Yale
become one of the first American universities to
establish an undergraduate major in AfricanAmerican culture. In 1972, he headed a committee

that recommended that Yales four-year course of
study be cut to three and that majors be abolished.
Those proposals were rejected.
Professor Dahl was president of the American
Political Science Association in 1967. He was a
member of the National Academy of Sciences, the
American Philosophical Society and the American

Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was a
Guggenheim Fellow twice. In 1995, he was the first
recipient of the Johan Skytte Prize in Political
Science, an award given by Uppsala University in
Sweden to the scholar who has made the most
valuable contribution to political science.
AWARD/PRIZES
DMRC Awarded For Carbon Mitigation
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26th Moorti Devi Award

Vice-president Mohd. Hamid Ansari presented
the 26th prestigious Moorti Devi Award to noted
Odia poet and critic Dr Haraprasad Das. He was
selected for the prestigious award for his book,
Vamsha, a recreation of Mahabharata in a brilliant
poetic form.
The award was announced in September last
year.
The 68-year old Das has had a distinguished

career as a civil servant and is known for his
unconventional and even rebellious ways of
interpreting life and literature. Known as one of
the leading contemporary Indian poets, Dr Das has
13 collections of poems, a compilation of short
fiction, four collections of essays, one volume of
ethnic history, three works of translation to his
credit.
Although known primarily as a poet, he is a

prolific writer of prose as well and has been a
columnist, critic and an influential commentator
on the medieval, modern and contemporary Odia
literature and society.
The Moortidevi Award is an annual literary
award in India presented by the Bharatiya Jnanpith
organization for a work which emphasizes Indian
philosophy and culture. The prize includes an
amount of Rupees four lakh, a plaque, a statue of
Saraswati, and a shawl.
The Delhi Metro has become the first rail system

in the world to be awarded the Gold Standard
foundation -- a globally accepted certification
standard for carbon mitigation projects. The Delhi
Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) registered for the
certification as the energy efficiency measures
undertaken in 51 of its stations in phase II qualified
under the criterion verified by the auditors.
According to the DMRC, the energy efficiency
measures have been undertaken primarily in the
heating, venting and air conditioning systems,
lighting system and other energy efficient measures
of station buildings. All these steps lead to
tremendous amount of energy savings and is more
efficient than phase I and thus results in reduction
of carbon dioxide emissions by at least 25 per cent.
Compared to the United Nations rate for one
carbon credit (70 cents), the Gold Standard carbon
offset carries a price premium (4-5 Euros).
In 2008, the DMRC was registered by the UN
under the clean development mechanism which
has enabled it to earn over Rs.9.5 crore as carbon
credits through measures like regenerative braking,
wherein the kinetic energy released from the
application of brakes is used to accelerate the train.
With the Gold Standard registration, the DMRC
is hoping to earn around 7,500 credits annually for
the next ten years.
MISCELLANEOUS
Delhi Sustainable Development Summit
The Delhi Sustainable Development Summit

(DSDS) is held annually to provide an international
platform for the exchange of ideas regarding
sustainable development. Starting out in 2001, the
Summit has been attended by 33 Heads of State
and ministers from over 43 countries. Many highlevel individuals from industry and academia are
invited to present their ideas on sustainable
development. The 2014 Delhi Sustainable

Development Summit (DSDS) focus on "Attaining
Energy, Water, and Food Security for All". The
objectives of the conference are:
to provide an interdisciplinary forum on global
sustainable development for practitioners and academics;
to foster dialogue among various stakeholders,
including senior level policy makers, academics, and
practitioners;
[27]

to propose multidisciplinary strategies for
economic, sociopolitical, cultural, and institutional
changes;
to discuss the practical challenges encountered

in promoting sustainable development and the
solutions adopted; and
to allow stakeholders to share their experiences

and research results about all aspects of sustainable
human and social development;
to find global partners for future business or

research collaboration
SPORTS
ICC approves new model of Governance
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The International Cricket Council (ICC) in its

Board meeting in Singapore took number of key
decisions. A new model of Governance, finance and
competition was approved by voice vote. Pakistan
and Sri Lanka abstained from the vote saying they
need more time to consult their boards.
some significant decisions which will ensure a

better governance of world cricket in the years to
come.
Among other decisions, the full members will

get a larger share of revenues based on their
contribution towards the game, particularly in terms
of finance, their ICC history and their on- field
performances in the three formats of the game. The
World Test Championship will be replaced with an
ICC Champions Trophy in 2017 and 2021. A Test
Cricket Fund will be set up to promore test cricket.
The fund will be available to all Test playing nations
except India, England and Australia. All full
members will enter into contractually binding
bilateral agreements to ensure that Future Tours
Program schedule is maintained till 2023. Besides,
the winner of the next ICC Intercontinental Cup
will be entitled to take part in a play-off against the
bottom-ranked Full Member and, if successful can
obtain Test status. The Associate and Affiliate
members stakes would also be protected. ICC
President Alan Isaac said that the Board has made
Indian boxers bag four medals
Boxer L Devendro Singh won gold at the

Bocskai Invitation Tournament held in Debrecen,
Hungary. With this medal India finished with four
medals in the event. Indians won gold and silver
each along with two bronze medals.
Devendro overcame a Kazakh opponent 3-0 to
clinch the gold while Manoj Kumar lost out in a
close final and had to settle for silver.
Karnataka win Ranji Trophy
Karnataka won their seventh Ranji Trophy title

after beating Maharashtra by seven wickets on the
fifth and concluding day of the final match. Chasing
a modest victory target of 157 in little over two
sessions, Karnataka batsmen reached the destination
with ease as they knocked off the runs in 40.5 overs.
With the win, Karnataka, who last won the
trophy in 1998-99, are now joint second with Delhi
while Mumbai top the list with 40 crowns. For twotime winners Maharashtra it was another chance
lost to lift the trophy they had won last in 1940-41.
[28]
EDITORIALS
IN DEFENCE OF PRIVATE PARTICIPATION
Since 2001, the private sector has displayed
capability in the complete product life cycle for
advanced systems such as missile launchers, rocket
launchers, land-based as well as naval engineering
systems, sensors such as radars and sonars, avionics,
secure communication, and aircraft sub-systems.
Over time, these units produced equipment,

systems and consumables based on transfer of
technology (ToT) acquired mainly from the Soviets,
without developing any know why. It was only
in the early 1970s that the Defence Research and
Development Organisation (DRDO) was created
with a mandate to develop indigenous products
and systems.
With world-class skills in IT, ITeS and

manufacturing, the private sector has augmented
Indias indigenous defence production capability.
The private sector has also built up extensive
infrastructure without waiting for any orders from
the Ministry of Defence (MoD). Despite this track
record, the Indian private sector does not enjoy a
a level playing field vis--vis foreign equipment
makers and defence PSUs.
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After Indias independence, defence production

was restricted to the public sector. Poor industrial
infrastructure prompted the government to create
defence public sector units as system integrators
along with ordnance factories, which were meant
to produce defence hardware.
But since then, a lot has changed.
Private participation
A battery of challenges
The public sector was unable to cope with the

increasing operational requirements of our armed
forces. Spares and upgrades were not made
available in critical situations, leading to rising
imports.
Some of the disadvantages include nomination

preference to PSUs, disadvantages in taxation
through differential exemption regimes, no
compensation for exchange rate variations, lack of
support for export orders, and procedural delays.
Hence, the government in 2001 decided to open

up the sector to private entities subject to licensing,
and allowed foreign direct investment up to 26 per
cent.
It was in 2005 that the Vijay Kelkar committee

emphasised self-reliance, active private sector
participation, a long-term product strategy and
identification of system integrators in the form of
Raksha Udyog Ratnas (RURs) or Champions of
Industry from private sector, which would be on
par with DPSUs.
The policy intent has not been matched by

implementation, affecting our technology
upgradation and indigenisation plans.
Private sector participation in Indias defence

sector has led to fruitful results. The involvement
of Tata Power SED in building the Samyukta
Indias first major electronic warfare system and
L&Ts contribution to the nuclear submarine
programme are noteworthy examples. The
government issued a notification, referring to the
Tata Power SED as a gazetted work centre for
the Samyukta.
Similarly, L&Ts in-house development of hull
construction technologies for submarines gave the
company an opportunity to participate in building
INS Arihant Indias first nuclear submarine
despite severe sanctions.
However, the MoD has jettisoned the concept

of RURs. The nomination of defence PSUs remains
the preferred route.
Almost every policy of defence production and
acquisition refers to the need for self-reliance. While
Defence Procurement Procedure-2013 has
enumerated the different procurement categories,
giving highest priority to indigenous products and
relegating imports to last preference, it is for the
MoD to implement these policies in right earnest.
However, the MoDs apathy towards selfreliance and state-of-the-art defence technology
clearly demonstrates the governments lack of faith
in the private sector. The much talked about FICV
[29]

project, which had shortlisted four developmental
agencies, has been retracted with no news of its
revival.
The TCS (Tactical Communication System)
programme is moving at a snails pace. This sends
negative signals not only to the industry but also to
their foreign technology partners.
This will open more avenues for public-private

partnership, promote indigenisation, create the
much needed defence industrial base and generate
economic spin-offs.
The defence sector should learn from the
phenomenal success that India achieved in the
strategic nuclear and space sectors.
The Nuclear Power Corporation of India
(NPCIL) and the Indian Space Research
Organisation (ISRO) recognised the strengths of
private industry and involved them during the
initial stage, not as vendors but as risk-sharing
partners.
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Another recent example, which has dented

private sector confidence, is the IAF Avro
replacement programme. This was the first Buy &
Make programme, where the MoD decided to have
the ToT for the Make part to be transferred only
to Indian private players and establish a second
line of aircraft production in India. Recently, this
programme has run into rough weather.
FICCI urges the government to repose trust in

Indian private companies, stop nomination of major
projects to PSUs and introduce competitiveness in
the defence sector.
Hitting confidence
The government is yet to walk the talk on

allowing private player to play a strategic and
leading role. The Indian private industry is willing
to invest and play a major role in defence
indigenisation. But the government has to create
the right conditions on the ground. Corporates are
answerable to their boards and cannot invest
indefinitely in an unpredictable environment.
As a result, India sustained its capabilities even

under the sanctions. Industrys partnership with
ISRO and NPCIL is a shining example of PPP,
which also needs to be emulated by the defence
and aerospace sectors.
A POWER SHIFT TOWARDS EMERGING MARKETS
The size of the global economy doubled in the

decade preceding the 2008-09 financial crisis,
increasing from $31 trillion in 1999 to $62 trillion
in 2008. The growth encompassed dozens of
developing countries and emerging economies.
Currently, the emerging market economies continue

to account for the bulk of global growth. India seeks
a financial system that is balanced and driven by ethics.
The rise of India along with other major

emerging economies coincided with their push into
the worlds richest markets in the US and Europe,
and the creation of new ties of goods, money, people
and ideas across and within countries and regions.
In 2012, the G20 (excluding the European

Union) comprised about 62 per cent of the worlds
population; of this the G8 countries constituted only
about 12.6 per cent. In the same year, India
accounted for 17 per cent of the population, much
more than that of the G8 countries put together.
However, it lagged behind China, which accounted
for 19 per cent.
Prior to the global crisis, India along with other

emerging economies had made a concerted effort
to build interconnectivity within the developing
world, fostering new ties around the exchange of
goods, capital, people and ideas.
After the global financial crisis, there emerged

a need for global forums such as the G 20 to cobble
together a coordinated policy response. The
emerging economies contributed to global recovery
after the crisis. India too became more active in
advocating reforms in the global architecture, at
the G20 as well as the UN and other platforms.
Various economic developments have made India
more visible and hence enabled international
collaboration between India and other economies.
[30]
Looking for balance
The demographic significance the G20 countries

such as India and China is likely to continue. Indias
GDP grew at 4.8 per cent during the third quarter
of 2013. Indias current account deficit was at $5.2
billion in the same period on the back of a
turnaround in exports and decline in gold imports.
While in the short-term Indias economic growth
and inflation will remain a challenge, the longterm fundamentals appear strong. Indias industrial
growth is expected to expand and sectors such as
infrastructure have immense scope.
Global context
The G20 countries, excluding the EU, accounted
for 77 per cent of world GDP in 2012. In the total
share of 77 per cent, G8 countries accounted for
about 49 per cent, the being contributed by 11 other
member countries. Chinas share was 12 per cent,
Indias 3 per cent.
Active engagement
Indias share in world merchandise exports has
been fast rising since 2004, reaching 1.3 per cent in
2009 and 1.5 per cent in 2010. It increased to 1.9 per
cent in the first half of 2011, mainly due to relatively
higher Indian export growth of 55 per cent compared
to the 23.1 per cent world export growth.
Global GDP growth over the next decade will
be divided equally between developed and
developing nations, with the western world
providing a steady engine of stability, and the
developing countries the acceleration and the
opportunity for change. India will be a key player
amongst the developing countries.
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The Indian economy is one of the fastest growing

in the world. In terms of purchasing power parity
(PPP) India ranks third largest in the world, after
the US and China (2012 figures). According to the
PwC report, World in 2050 The BRICs and beyond:
prospects, challenges and opportunities, India is
expected to remain in third place in 2030 and 2050
in terms of GDP at purchasing power parity (PPP)
terms. It is expected to become a bigger consumer
market as real wages increase and real exchange
rates appreciate.
witnessing annual growth rates of more than 20

per cent.
The G20 countries, excluding EU, accounted for

60 per cent of world trade in 2012. Trade grew at
an compound annual growth rate of 12.2 per cent
during 2000-08 with more than 20 per cent
compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) in the
case of G20 countries such as China, India and
Russia. After a decline in 2009 due to the economic
crisis, global trade recovered in 2010 and mid-2011
After the global financial crisis, capitalism is

being redefined and socialism altered across the
globe. Its effect is being felt in countries such as the
US and China. Mixed economies such as India are
going to play a balancing role in global governance.
Therefore, as a member of the G20, India will be
actively engaged in global economic governance
and in shaping the world order.
A NEW FRAMEWORK FOR MONETARY POLICY
The merit of the Urjit Patel Committee Report

to Review and Strengthen the Monetary Policy
Framework (January 2014) is its analytical rigour
and clear recommendations on improving the
efficacy of monetary policy. The Patel Report would
become the locus classicus on monetary policy in
India.
Key Recommendations
The key recommendations of the Committee are:
(i) The headline Consumer Price Index (CPI)

should be the nominal anchor for monetary
policy and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)
should make this the predominant objective.
17. Administered prices, wages and interest

rates are impediments to transmission of
monetary policy and should be eliminated.
(iv) Monetary policy decisions should be vested

in a Monetary Policy Committee (MPC)
comprising the Governor, the Deputy
Governor and Executive Director in charge
of monetary policy and two external full-time
members. The decisions of the MPC will be
by voting. Members will be accountable for
failure to attain the targetfailure being
defined as inability to attain the target for
three successive quarters.
(ii) The nominal anchor for inflation should be

set for a two-year horizon at 4 per cent with
a band of plus or minus 2 per cent. Since the
present CPI inflation is 10 per cent the
Committee recommends a glide path of 8
per cent for January 2015 and 6 per cent for
January 2016.
(iv) The real policy rate should be positive. In the

first phase the weighted average call rate
would be the operative target and the repo
rate would be the single policy rate. The funds
available at the repo rate would be restricted
and increasingly liquidity would be provided
at the 14 day term repo; longer-term repo
auctions should be introduced.
(iii) The Central Government needs to reduce the

fiscal deficit to 3.0 per cent of GDP by 2016-
(v) In the second phase, the 14-day repo rate

would be the operative target and recourse
[31]

to outright two-way open market operations
(OMO) would determine liquidity. OMO
should not used to manage yields on
government securities.
(vi) There should be a remunerated standing
deposit facility at the RBI to sterilise excess
liquidity.
(vii) With an independent debt management
office, the market stabilisation scheme and
cash management bills should be phased out.
The Financial Sector Legislative Reforms

Commission (FSLRC), in its Report (March 2013),
envisaged a MPC with two RBI members and five
external members nominated by the government;
besides the Finance Secretary or Secretary
Economic Affairs would also be a non-voting
member of the MPC. Such a structure would make
the RBI into a vassal state.
The implications of the key recommendations

are discussed below.
There are media headlines that the Patel

Committee advocates full autonomy on interest
rates. If the RBI is to be accountable it should have
some degree of flexibility to attain its objectives. C.
Rangarajan has argued that all the autonomy the
RBI needs is headroom to operate monetary policy.
The RBI would do well to recall the dictum that
autonomy is never given, it is earned and taken.
Nominal Anchor
The anatomy of the RBI
The CPI inflation is quite clearly the appropriate

anchor. Those apprehensive of a strong and
effective monetary policy will try to stall this
recommendation. The RBI should unequivocally
emphasise, in its policy statements, that CPI
inflation would be its nominal anchor. The gliding
to the 4 per cent plus or minus the CPI nominal
anchor would be non-disruptive and the RBI
should, continue to stress the 8 per cent CPI
inflation for January 2015 and 6 per cent for
January 2016.
The RBI could explore the scope for converting

the present Technical Advisory Committee into a
five member MPC with voting by members as
envisaged by the Patel Committee, with two
External Members who could be members of the
RBI Board. This could obviate the need for legislative
changes which could take years. The Patel
Committee endorses the setting up of an
independent Debt Management Office (DMO), but
rightly cautions that the RBIs OMO should be
strictly limited to liquidity requirements and not be
a vehicle for enabling government borrowing at
low interest rates.
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(viii) All sector specific refinance should be phased

out as committed to the Asian Development
Bank in 1992.
The Patel Committee recommends a remunerated

standing deposit facility which, unlike the reverse
repo, would not require government securities as
collateral. While this would allow sterilisation of
capital inflows, without any limit it would be
detrimental to the RBI balance sheet as there is no
provision in the law to ensure that all losses of the
RBI will be met by the government. In the absence
of such a legislative clause it would be hazardous to
introduce a remunerated standing deposit facility.
The structure and composition of the MPC are
pre-eminently suitable. The MPC will have two
external full-time members with a fixed three year
non-renewable term. There could be some
hierarchical problems about these members
questioning executive decisions. The RBI should
study the experience of Korea and other countries
which have full-time members in the MPC.
The FSLRC recommendation that RBI should

be a member of the DMO Council as also the
Management Committee is flawed as the Chairman
of the DMO is enjoined to obtaining unanimous
decisions which would make the RBI monetary
policy subservient to the DMO.
There should be an open and constructive
debate and the FSLRC Report should not be treated
as the holy grail. While the Report attempts to
provide a legislative framework, the Patel and Mor
Committees set out the policy objectives, and hence
all three Reports should be examined in a coordinated manner.
UKRAINES SEARCH FOR A POLITICAL IDENTITY
Back in 2011, I spent just over two weeks

travelling round Ukraine, the second largest country
by area in Europe after the Russian Federation,
which has grabbed global attention in recent
[32]
months following a wave of demonstrations in the

capital, Kiev, against the government of President
Viktor Yanukovych.

While it was towns and cities popular with
tourists that I visited, the deep divisions that existed
in society became quickly evident, particularly
attitudes towards the former Soviet Union.
Gripped by unrest
Ten years on from the Orange Revolution that
many had hoped would help the country put its
troubled past behind it, the country is once again
in the grip of political unrest. A protest movement
triggered by Yanukovychs decision in November
to back out of an agreement that would have
strengthened ties with the EU and (a month later)
his $15 billion aid deal with Russia, has swiftly
gathered pace.
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The Ukraine has long been valued for its

strategic position and enormous natural wealth: it
was known as the bread basket of the Russian
empire, more than fifty per cent of its land remains
under highly productive agriculture, and it possesses
extremely rich and complementary mineral
resources, including iron ore, coal and some of the
worlds richest deposits of manganese-bearing ores.
that the city or country would once again be part

of Russia and glorious again. If a tourist could
glean the tensions so easily on a brief trip, they
must be particularly deep and persistent.
Not surprisingly, over recent centuries Ukraine

has found itself caught up in conflict, often being
passed from one power to power, whether Russia,
Romania or Poland. However, its relationship with
Russia and the former Soviet Union has proved
particularly divisive. Horrors such as the
Holodomor, the name for the period in the early
1930s when millions starved to death in a famine
instigated by Josef Stalins collectivisation policies,
led to deep-seated hatred of the Soviet Union in
the western part of the country. During the Second
World War, as the country became the frontline of
the battle between the Red Army and the Nazis,
and the Germans took over Kyiv, some Ukrainians
collaborated with the Nazis in the hope of
achieving independence.
Memories of USSR
That this antipathy to Russia, particularly in

Western Ukraine, had lingered into the post-Soviet
era became obvious to us as we travelled about. In
the ancient city of Lviv, near the Polish border, we
saw numerous billboards equating the hammer and
sickle with the swastika. The Nazis gave our
children chocolates but the Soviets killed them,
declared a young taxi driver, seemingly oblivious
to the well-documented war crimes committed by
the German army during occupation (eight to ten
million Ukrainians are estimated to have died
during this period).
Others we came across in the city were
particularly optimistic about the impact that Euro
2012 football championship could have the
following year on relations with Europe, with Lviv,
as a host city, set to welcome visitors from across
the region.
Things couldnt have been more different further

south in the port city of Sevastopol, still home to
Russias Black Sea Fleet, where that countrys White,
Blue and Red flag adorned many buildings and
cars, and where people spoke to us of their hope
Government buildings in Kiev have been

occupied and several protestors have died in clashes
with police. Tensions remain high despite the
withdrawal of recently introduced protest laws and
the resignation of the entire government of Prime
Minister Mykola Aazarov. Yanukovychs offer of
the posts of Prime Minister and Deputy Prime
Minister to the opposition has been rejected.
While an optimist could argue that the crisis
should provide an opportunity for the country to
tackle its deep-rooted problems, theres reason for
caution. For one thing, there is little unity within
the opposition, despite public displays of it, argues
Lilit Gevorgyan, an analyst at IHS Global Insight.
They have not come up with a way forward, or
a solution to the countrys deep-rooted problems.
Among the most urgent of these is tackling the
countrys inefficient, highly subsidised economy
(Ukrainian consumers pay just a fifth of the cost of
natural gas, with the rest borne by the state) and
its precarious financial situation.
Tumbling currency
The countrys foreign currency reserves have

been rapidly depleted, and while the first tranche
of the Russian aid has been disbursed, the
programme was recently suspended until the
resolution of the crisis. The currency, which has in
the past been strongly supported by the central
bank, has also tumbled in recent days. Corruption
is also rife: Ukraine ranks 144 out of 175 nations
on Transparency Internationals 2013 Corruption
Perception Index.
The highly populist nature of politics gives little
hope that any of these problems will be addressed
by either side, argues Gevorgyan. As in the past,
Ukraine seems to have been caught up in a larger
[33]

conflict. While the EU has been playing down
Russian accusations of interference in Ukraines
affairs, the importance of its role in a country that
is a major gas transit route for Europe is
undeniable. Germanys foreign minister has raised
the prospect of sanctions should the political
impasse not be resolved.
EUs involvement
And of course there is Indias burgeoning

relationship with the country. Indo-Ukrainian
trade, dominated by pharmaceuticals, iron, steel,
and fertilisers, reached a value of $3.1 billion in
2012-2013, boosted by a visit by Yanukovych to
India two years ago. There are also strong defence
links between the two nations: Ukraine is involved
in modernising Indias military transport aircraft
and provides engines for naval vessels along with
military spares.
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The EU, already a major aid donor to the

country, is mulling extending this, potentially in
partnership with the US. A steady stream of
European Commission officials have visited the
country during the crisis, including its Foreign Policy
chief Catherine Ashton who returned this week.
said President of the European Commission Jose

Manuel Barroso back in December. Russia has
meanwhile warned Europe to stay out if it, accusing
governments of playing a role in the protest
movement.
For the EU, the political crisis has provided an

opportunity to flaunt the virtues of a united Europe,
even as cynicism builds in its own member states.
Those young people in the streets of
Ukraineare writing the new narrative of Europe,
Some 5,000 Indians, including students, are

estimated to be living in the country. There are clear
possibilities for an enhanced Indian profile in Ukraine.
But much depends on how the current situation in
the country plays out in the months to come.
WEATHERING THE EMERGING STORM
The events of the past fortnight have shown

that India is not insulated from crises that engulf
emerging markets (EM) even if it is economically
less vulnerable than some others in this grouping.
Global investors do not appear to differentiate
between stronger and weaker EM economies when
driven by an overwhelming urge to sell what they
perceive as risky assets and move their money to
safer havens. While Argentina and Turkey may
have had issues specific to their economies resulting
in a steep erosion in the value of their currencies,
concerns over slowing growth in China have led
to the perception that EMs are a risky category in
general. This, despite the fact that not all EM
economies are commodity exporters and heavily
reliant on the Chinese market. These fine
distinctions which ought to actually favour a
largely commodity-importing country such as India
simply dont seem to matter today. The last week
of January alone when it all really exploded
saw more than $6 billion being pulled out of global
EM equity funds.
Foreign institutional investors (FII) in India, too,
have pulled out over $2.1 billion since January 24,
after having pumped in some $3.65 billion from
the start of the year. While only a third of the total
withdrawal may have been on account of equities,
the excessive dependence of our stock markets on
FII purchases has resulted in the Sensex and Nifty
shedding roughly five per cent since the global EM
[34]
sell-off began. The US Federal Reserve announcing

a further $10-billion reduction of its monthly bondbuying programme has clearly had an adverse effect
this time round unlike in December when the
first instalment of tapering was unveiled. Although
the harm to India from the Fed action along with
the current EM sell-off has been limited mainly to
its stock markets and not the rupee a marked
contrast to June-August 2013 the fact of our
basic vulnerability to global capital movements
remains. The Reserve Bank of India Governor
Raghuram Rajans complaints about the
breakdown
in
international
monetary
cooperation, as reflected in the US unilaterally
pressing ahead with its monetary stimulus
unwinding, only reinforces this unfortunate truth.
For now, India has very few options but to ride
it out. The things going right are its vastly improved
macro-stability indicators on the fiscal, inflation and
balance of payments fronts. Besides, nearly 85 per
cent of the cumulative $173 billion of FII funds in
India are parked in equities and only the balance in
debt instruments. FIIs have already sold a big chunk
of their debt holdings, which tend to be more volatile
and short-term in nature. Equity investors typically
have longer term horizons and look primarily at
growth rates that an economy offers. That is what
our policymakers should also focus on.
WELCOME TO THE HALAL ECONOMY

Come November and Dubai will play host to
the 10th World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF).
This is not just another attempt by the emirate to
push itself as an alternative to the much larger
version which takes place (minus the slamic tag)
in Davos every year. Nor is it just an attempt to
snag a few more petrodollars to boost its flagging
growth.
This is what Hamad Buamim, President and

CEO, Dubai Chamber, had to say about what
Dubai hopes to get out of hosting the WIFE: This
initiative, launched by His Highness Sheikh
Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum (UAE Vice
President and Prime Minister and the ruler of
Dubai), seeks to develop the broader halal
industries, including food, tourism, leisure,
education and standardisation.
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The 10th WIFE, Dubai is hoping, will provide

the springboard needed to achieve its much larger
ambition of becoming the Islamic financial capital
of the world.
assume that halal just refers to food, and more

specifically, to meat and poultry. In reality, halal
has expanded to cover a whole host of products
and services, from food products to hospitality and
travel.
Some of its more grandiose architectural

projects, like the Burj Dubai, or its even more
extravagant go at terraforming its environment and
creating made-to-order islands for the worlds very,
very rich, may have given some the mistaken notion
that Dubai is yet another petro-dollar driven flash
in the pan, bound to burn itself out when the
dinosaur remains-to-dollars pipeline runs dry.
The trade and finance hub
It is nothing of the kind. For starters, Dubai has

no oil to speak of, and hasnt had any for some
time. Instead, it has used its traditional skills in
trade and finance, and its centuries-old linkages
with both the Islamic world and the secular
economies of the occident and East Asia, to develop
itself into the premier trade and finance hub of
West Asia.
It is a status which its neighbours many with

rapidly depleting oil reserves, and most with
arguably better slamic credentials than
cosmopolitan Dubai also covet. But, as many have
consequently discovered, Dubai did not get to
where it is by accident. The global financial crisis
of 2008 and the subsequent meltdown did cause a
hiatus. But the timetable has only been reset, not
dumped altogether.
Dubai has always been a financial hub for the
region. But the emirate now sees a much larger
story unfolding, which goes well beyond the
boundaries of mere Islamic banking or finance.
India needs to look more carefully at what is

happening in Dubai and its neighbourhood. The
canny emirate has time and again demonstrated
that it has the ability to spot an emerging trend
and exploit it to its fullest. From retail to real estate,
and logistics to luxury goods, Dubai has been an
early entrant in growth sectors and reaped the
benefits.
The opportunity
The scale of the opportunity in the Islamic

economy is astonishing. According to the Thomson
Reuters report on the global Islamic economy, the
total value of Islamic business stands at $6.7 trillion.
Only the US and China have bigger GDPs.
The size of the Islamic financial assets market
was estimated by former Malaysian finance minister
Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah at $1.6 trillion in a
recent analysis and growing at between 16 per
cent and 20 per cent a year.
The UK will become the first Western nation to

offer a sukuk bond. Under Islamic law, since
interest is not permissible, a sukuk Arabic for
certificate is rented to investors for a predetermined fee and period, after which the issuer
buys back the sukuk at par.
Dubai wants to set the standards for what is

Islamic and what is not. In other wards, to become
the worlds halal an Arabic word which
variously translates as lawful or permitted
standards authority.
According to a study by the Dubai Chamber of

Commerce and Industry, Sukuk activity continues
to gather pace in other less familiar markets West
(Turkey, Jordan, Egypt and Sudan) and East
(Indonesia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangladesh,
Pakistan and China) of the Gulf Cooperation
Council, while centres as far afield as Bermuda are
now supporting Sukuk.
By now, almost everyone is familiar with the

term itself, but most, including in India, mistakenly
And companies from around the world are

beating a path to Dubais door to get in on the
[35]

the world of Islamic finance. The time is right, since
there is considerable difference of opinion, possibly
driven by the need to grab a share of the market,
between Islamic countries on definitions, standards
and operations of Islamic finance.
Bahrain, for instance, has come up with its own
takaful rules (for Sharia compliant insurance) and
merged some with sukuk rules, with an aim to
grab a share of Dubais pie.
India has the talent, the Islamic scholarship and
the financial acumen required to come up with, if it
wishes, an alternative model for the Islamic world.
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action. The Dubai International Financial Centre

now has more than a thousand firms operating
out of it. Registrations grew at the fastest since the
2008 meltdown.
India nurses ambitions of becoming an Asian
financial hub. Even more ambitious plans exist (on
paper at least) to make Mumbai into a global
financial centre. But Asian or world ambitions
cannot be met without tapping into the Islamic
finance pool.
It is here that policy makers, monetary
authorities, as well as market players need to come
together to develop a coherent strategy to tap into
WHY THE FUSS ABOUT COST AUDIT?
The latest debate in certain quarters on the Draft

Companies (Cost Records and Cost Audit) Rules,
2013, issued by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs
(MCA) shows a clear lack of conceptual
understanding of the issue and challenges the very
concept of corporate governance.
The key word is accountability. A strong
auditing system both financial and cost
ensures an efficient corporate reporting system. Cost
audit, supported by cost accounting standards,
provide relevant and credible cost and revenue data
to regulators as well as revenue authorities to
support their decisions. Cost audit provides relevant
reports to the board of directors to strengthen its
oversight function.
The J J Irani Committee felt that Cost Records
and Cost Audit were important instruments that
would enable companies make their operations
efficient and exist in a competitive environment.
Then what is the issue? Why is its applicability
periodically questioned by interested quarters?
Just a myth
Few will disagree that the discipline of cost

accounting was not invented just to bolster
administered pricing. Free market does not mean
an unregulated market that throws away all societal
control over enterprises, leading to automatic selfregulation.
It is a myth to claim that what form of
accounting records and controls need maintaining
is best decided by the shareholders through the
board of directors. Otherwise there would not
have been such a much hue and cry about corporate
governance and we would not have experienced
Satyam, for example.
The International Federation of Accountants has
observed that financial reporting satisfies compliance
[36]
requirements but falls short of performance-based

reporting for improved governance. Costing
methodologies applied in organisations measure the
consumption of economic resources and support
the accountability of business performance. The
argument that cost audit is not a global practice is,
at best, ill-made or has mischievous intent.
Each countrys cost and management
accounting practices depend upon the maturity
level of its economy. When framing laws and
regulations, governments take into account the
ground reality prevailing in the country.
Nuisance quotient
Honestly, all audits financial, cost or

management are a nuisance. No one wants his
business to be audited by others, leave alone by a
professional agency. For that matter, who wants
to pay taxes, indirect or direct, to the government?
Companies accept financial audit and tax audit
because it is mandatory, and not as a voluntary
act. Assuming that Indian industry will do
something voluntarily is a utopian idea.
Only a statutory diktat will ensure the
maintenance of structured cost records, and cost
audit will ensure the availability of certified cost
data to all stakeholders. Possibly, making such data
available to revenue and other authorities is
bothersome to some. The disclosures made in any
annual report is pursuant to some mandatory
provision of law and is not voluntary.
As far as small and medium enterprises (MSMEs)
are concerned, it is important to note that the
maintenance of cost accounting records prior to June
2011 was applicable to companies with a turnover of
Rs 10 crore in prescribed sectors; excluded SSIs.
In June 2011, uniform cost accounting records
rules and new cost audit report rules were
introduced after detailed deliberations in the expert

group consisting of all national-level industry
associations and professional bodies.
The group endorsed the new mechanism under
which cost records were mandated for the
manufacturing sector with a turnover of Rs 20 crore
or more. SSIs got automatically excluded.
New mechanism
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The mechanism moved away from the straitjacketed formats of the controlled regime and
introduced the dynamic, forward-looking mechanism
of integrated accounting with no additional
compliance cost of a separate set of cost accounts.
Cost audit was ordered for companies in
specified products/industries with a turnover of
Rs 100 crore or more. This totally excluded medium
enterprises from the ambit of cost audit.
The suggestion that cost audit covers umbrellas,
sticks, chappals, honey extraction and so on emanates
from a complete lack of understanding of the rules.
The draft rules show coverage of 28 sectors only
in name. Its mainly government and semigovernment bodies, trusts and/or societies outside
the application of the Companies Act that are
engaged in a majority of these sectors. Most
surprisingly, the draft rules nullify the application
in other sectors and excludes almost the entire
private sector. This goes against the spirit of the

Companies Act, 2013. Cost audit data is used to
deal with the following cases: valuation of goods
under anti-dumping; verifying transfer pricing
adopted in related party transactions; checking
cases of predatory pricing and unfair trade practices
such as price-rigging, cartelisation, over-charging,
discriminatory pricing, profiteering, siphoning of
funds, and so on. Both the Central Excise and
Income Tax authorities use cost audit reports
extensively to prevent tax evasion.
With the introduction of Revised Schedule VI,
the cost audit report is the only source of authentic
quantitative data of production and sales which is
essential to safeguard revenue. Cost accounting
records and audit ensure a structured and
systematic inventory valuation; it is a potent tool
for detecting and preventing frauds essential to
support the functions of the Serious Fraud
Investigation Office (SFIO), which has been
strengthened by the Companies Act, 2013.
No matter how a section of industry looks at it,
the absence of cost audit will make a mockery of
corporate governance. It will put well-governed
companies in a disadvantageous position vis--vis
undergoverned entities within the same industry.
ARE OUR LABOUR MARKETS LESS SEGMENTED NOW?
[37]

Caste and other forms of social discrimination
have a long tradition in India, and they have
interacted with capitalist accumulation to generate
peculiar forms of labour market segmentation that
are unique to Indian society.
Most empirical studies, including those using
large-scale sample survey data as well as micro
case studies, have found that social categories are
strongly correlated with the incidence of poverty
and that both occupation and wages differ
dramatically across social categories.
The wages here refer to wages received by casual

labourers in all rural activities across all age groups.
The wages of other groups are expressed as a
percentage of the wages received by males who
are not from Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe or
Other Backward Classes (from 2004-05 only).
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Thus, the National Sample Surveys reveal that

the probability of being in a low wage occupation
is significantly higher for STs, SCs, Muslims and
OBCs (in that order) compared to the general caste
Hindu population.
Indian by social category suggests that this overall

picture may be changing, albeit to a limited extent.
Chart 1 tracks the difference between wages (across
all activities and all education levels) by gender
and social category, as revealed by the large surveys
of the NSSO since 1993-94.
This is only partly because of differences in

education and level of skill, which are also
important and which in turn reflect the differential
provision of education across social categories. Such
caste-based discrimination has operated in both
urban and rural labour markets.
Gender-based differences in labour markets and

the social attitudes to womens paid and unpaid
work are also reflections of this broader tendency.
There is a widespread perception that womens
work forms an addition to household income,
and therefore commands a much lower reservation
wage. Women workers within Dalit or other
discriminated groups typically receive even lower
wages for similar work.
It has even been argued that capitalism in India,

especially in its most recent globally integrated
variant, has used past and current modes of social
discrimination and exclusion to its own benefit, to
facilitate the extraction of surplus and ensure
greater flexibility and bargaining to employers
when dealing with workers.
So social categories are not independent of
the accumulation process rather, they allow for
more surplus extraction, because they reinforce low
employment generating (and therefore persistently
low wage) tendencies of growth.
The ability to benefit from socially segmented

labour markets in turn has created incentives for
absolute surplus value extraction on the basis of
suppressing wages of some workers, rather than
requiring a focus on relative surplus value
extraction resulting from productivity increases.
Changing picture
However, recent evidence of the wage gaps in
[38]
This Other category tends to be dominated

by upper caste Hindus, although of course it
contains some other categories, and so this provides
an indication of the extent to which labour markets
reflect wider social discrimination.
It is immediately evident from Chart 1 that such
wage differentials are very significant in rural India.
Gender discrimination is clearly the strongest
feature that emerges, as female wages for all
categories are lower than the lowest male wages,
received by SC men. This is well known, of course,
but the chart also points to some reduction in gaps
after 2004-05 for ST men and more particularly for
women across all social categories. The biggest
relative improvement has been recorded for women
from SC and OBC groups.
There was quite a sharp improvement for
women in the Other category in 2009-10, with a
slight setback thereafter, but even so, the gap in
2011-12 (with such womens wages at 67.1 per
cent of Other male wages) was 6.4 percentage
points lower than it was in 2004-05.
Better deal?
What explains this improvement? Some point

to rapid economic growth as the main force that
has been undoing the socially-driven patterns of
wage and occupation discrimination.
However, the income growth process has not
been accompanied by significant increases in
employment, other than in a few sectors like
construction. In fact, aggregate recorded
employment has actually declined for women over
this period, mostly because of declining selfemployment and less engagement in casual labour.
So the standard notion that higher growth has
generated more demand for labour and thereby
led to higher wage rates is complicated by the lack
of increase in aggregate employment.
However, one other big change in rural India

over this period has been the expansion of
employment in public works, most of all the works
resulting from the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural
Employment Guarantee Act.
Other implications
It is evident that the relative improvements since
2004-05 have been most marked for male workers.
Since this relates to casual work, the impact of
factors such a reservation in certain types of public
employment is not relevant here.
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Because of the wage and work norms that are

defined in the Act, it has the potential to stabilise
rural wages at levels that are at least close to the
legal minimum and even to increase them beyond
this in some cases, to reduce the extremely
exploitative working conditions that prevail in rural
labour markets in many parts of India, and to
provide work on relatively equal terms to women
and workers from Scheduled Castes and Tribes who
are routinely discriminated against in rural labour
markets.
of Other women casual workers since 2004-05,

and only OBC women workers show some
improvement. Indeed, womens wages still remain
pathetically low relative to men workers in urban
India.
Positive evidence
While there are many criticisms of the uneven

and often inadequate implementation of the Act,
there is some evidence that this positive effect has
indeed been realised to some extent. Chart 2 (which
covers workers in the age group 15-59 years) shows
that rural wage gaps for casual labour in public
works (including MNREGA) are significantly lower
than for all rural casual workers.
The difference is sharpest for women workers,

who are clearly the disproportionate beneficiaries
of the public works in terms of improving wages.
However, it is interesting to note that even in
urban India there has been some reduction in some
of the prevailing wage gaps by social category,
even though there are no public works that could
have delivered this positive impact. Chart 3 covers
all urban casual workers of all ages.
Here, the impact on women workers is marginal

there is no change at all in the relative position
However, it is possible that in urban areas, the

recent pattern of growth and in particular the
huge role played by the construction boom has
had an effect in reducing wage gaps for male
workers in particular (since women are less
employed in construction as it becomes more
mechanised).
As construction had also become the most
indeed, the only dynamic employer among
sectors in urban India, this probably drove the rise
in real wages that has been observed over this
period.
If this is the case, then the recent evidence of
the bursting of the urban real estate bubble and
stagnation or decline in construction activities across
many parts of India is likely to have labour market
implications as well.
The reduction in wage gaps and the rise in real
wages are unlikely to be sustained in urban India
in the absence of any other economic stimulus or
public intervention to guarantee some urban
employment in some form.
INVESTMENT ATROPHY
The scaling down of last fiscals GDP growth

to 4.5 per cent, from the earlier 5 per cent estimate,
could well be the precursor to an equally depressing
set of national income data figures for 2013-14.
But even the 4.5 per cent number, low though it is,
fails to capture the real crisis that relates to gross
capital formation (GCF): the stock of fixed assets
added to an economy and contributing to its future
production growth. A characteristic feature of any
dynamic emerging economy is that the
accumulation of such capital stock from factories
to roads and power plants by it increases at a
faster rate than GDP.
The period from 2004-05 to 2010-11 for India

witnessed an average annual GCF growth of 15.2
per cent, well exceeding the GDP increase of 8.5
per cent a year. This trend has, however, reversed
subsequently. The dip in GCF growth to 6.4 per
cent in 2011-12 and a mere 2.4 per cent in 201213 has been more than the corresponding fall in
GDP rates to 6.7 and 4.5 per cent. But the actual
extent of drying up of investments can be gauged
only from examining the components within GCF.
Most significant is decline in fixed capital formation
by the corporate sector in real terms, by 0.1 per
cent in 2011-12 and 3.6 per cent in 2012-13. Equally
[39]

revealing is that GCF in manufacturing has
recorded negative growth of 17.5 and 13.2 per cent
respectively. It is mainly sectors such as trade, road
transport and real estate that have posted high or
reasonably positive growth in capital formation.
These, unlike manufacturing, dont require much
by way of machinery and capital stock. Besides,
there is enough evidence now of the slowdown in
growth and investments spreading to even services;
this might well show up in the data for 2013-14.
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The short point that emerges from all this is

that the current slowdown is primarily about a
collapse of investments. When corporates began
going slow in putting up new manufacturing
facilities around mid-2011, the effects of it were
felt on job creation, incomes and consumption over

time. We are clearly in a situation where no growth
pick-up is possible without a resumption of the
stalled capital accumulation process. The Centre
has a crucial role in this respect and it is not limited
merely to expediting statutory clearances, important
though this is. What it must do is invest directly in
select railway, roads and other infrastructure
projects that have a high multiplier effect. The
money can be found if there is a more serious
attempt to rationalise subsidies and place a firm
check on wasteful consumption expenditure. The
savings from this are best directed towards growthpromoting investments.
TWO AGENCIES ON A COLLISION COURSE
The Central Bureau of Investigations decision

to chargesheet a former Special Director of the
Intelligence Bureau (IB) (whose rank is that of a
DGP in the State Police cadre) and three serving
officers of the same bureau in the sensational Ishrat
Jahan case in Gujarat should shock us. It is a sad
day for both the organisations whose support to
the cause of national security and the upholding of
the rule of law hardly needs overemphasising.
Although their respective territories are demarcated,
the two are now on a collision course. This is despite
the fact that they need each other, and that
whenever they have worked in harmony, they have
achieved the near impossible. Since they have
undoubtedly lent great stability to our polity, to do
anything that would dent their image is a sacrilege.
Need for balance
I would like to make it clear that berating the

CBI and IB as being handmaidens of the
government is being unfair to the many dedicated
officers who serve them. Even their most ardent
supporters will admit that the two bureaus are not
without their faults. Perhaps, they have much to
hide especially the CBI, which is always in the
public eye and is under immense judicial scrutiny.
On the contrary, the IB is a low profile outfit which,
unlike the CBI, has no legal status or authority. I
know that both have their detractors who are ready
to throw the first stone at them at every conceivable
opportunity. Some are only too delighted to be able
to drive a wedge between them. We should not
allow them to succeed. The Ishrat Jahan case
provides these forces an opportunity to do this.
This is why what has happened in the Ishrat Jahan
[40]
case demands both responsible comments and a

balanced perspective.
There are some basic facts on which there can
be no disagreement. No democracy can condone
the killing of any of its innocent citizens by a state
agency. And when the victim happens to be a
woman, the crime gets compounded a million
times. This is what is being alleged by the CBI. The
four IB officers did not by themselves kill Ishrat
Jahan. But they did a lot to facilitate the crime
committed by some Gujarat policemen. What drove
them to carry out this barbaric act is anybodys
guess. According to press reports, the CBI charge
sheet is silent on this. Now that the court concerned
is to take cognisance of the CBI charge sheet, it
would be extremely inappropriate for any of us to
comment on the CBIs controversial decision or any
evidence adduced by it.
I am happy that an aggrieved IB, true to its
wont, has not gone to town with its point of view.
All its entreaties to the Ministry of Home Affairs
(MHA) and the CBI for a review of its resolve to go
ahead with the charges against the four IB men
have been in vain.
Compliance with law
Despite some occasional differences there is

nothing here to suggest that the CBIs action was
motivated by its animus toward the IB. Also, in a
court-monitored case, the investigating agency has
no option to overlook the misdemeanour of another
public organisation. Compliance with settled law
overrides every other consideration, including the
morale of the national security agencies. This is
what has happened here. The judiciary was

breathing down the CBIs neck giving it little room
for manoeuvre to accommodate the IBs sensitivities.
The pressure of human rights activists is another
factor that would have weighed heavily on the
CBIs mind in making the move. In my view, this
is one of the few occasions on which activists have
been on the right course, and we must compliment
them for their vigilance.
Neighbourhood threat
In the final analysis, the lesson will not be lost
on those in the neighbourhood. What is happening
in Pakistan and Afghanistan is a matter of concern.
The unabashed appeasement of the two Taliban
groups through the opening up of a dialogue either
openly or covertly (as in Afghanistan) is a warning
that the Taliban will not be averse to training its
guns on us through their affiliates. No less an expert
than M.K. Narayanan, former DIB and National
Security Adviser, had expressed concern over this.
Therefore, the Ishrat prosecution has come at a
wrong time. This is not fanciful. I would like to
challenge anybody who disputes this unintended
connection between a demoralised security agency
and a terror outfit that has very recently received
a boost by bringing two troubled Constitutional
governments to their knees. We will have to keep
our fingers crossed and do everything possible to
restore the morale of Indias premier intelligence
agency. The judiciary cannot also be impervious to
this task of a delicate fusing of the rule of law and
national security.
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From the IBs point of view, the Ishrat

investigation is a blow to its morale. Its long-term
impact is incalculable. It is conceivable that few IB
operatives will hereafter venture to go beyond their
routine and stick their necks out in a questionable
extralegal operation. This negativism will definitely
spell doom for innovation and daring, the hallmarks
of an outstanding intelligence officer. No amount
of incentives will restore their zest for
counterintelligence work. This is true even if one
concedes that Rajinder Kumar and his three junior
colleagues who stepped out of the routine and
assisted the Gujarat Police in pursuing terrorist
elements were possibly overzealous and reckless.
After all, what is the dividing line between
unbridled enthusiasm and a conformity to the law?
This is particularly so when the transgressors of
the law and the perceived code of conduct are not
guilty of looking for personal gain or
aggrandisement. This is the tragedy of the whole
episode. The law cannot possibly discriminate
between those who have committed downright
criminal acts and those who have abetted them,
except in terms of severity of penalty. If during the
trial, it is decisively proved that Rajinder Kumar
and his three IB juniors were guilty not of personal

ill-will but were simply misguided and reckless, the
court could take a lenient view while sentencing
them. But this is only wishful thinking in the
interests of an organisation that has done yeoman
service to stabilise the security situation in the
country.
Source: The Hindu
PARALYSIS IN SCIENCE POLICIES
In the last few years, the government has

announced a number of policies in science and
technology which include bills on patents,
specialised innovation universities and regulatory
measures. These are supposed to power Indias
growth engine via science and technology and, at
the same time, enable the country to keep pace
with the comity of nations. Unfortunately, the
Manmohan Singh governments policy paralysis is
not just confined to the social and economic sectors,
but also manifests itself quite prominently across
various segments of science and technology
institutions including research in universities. The
failure of the government in this area stems from
poor governance mechanisms, as from low priority
accorded to science and technology in the overall
budget.
Falling behind R&D
Ever since the United Progressive Alliance

(UPA) came to power, Dr. Singh has promised to
increase the gross domestic expenditure on research
and development (GERD). He committed two per
cent of GDP and reiterated it every year since 2007
at the annual session of the Indian Science Congress
Association (ISCA). In the last nine years, Indian
GERD to GDP either stagnated at 0.9 per cent or
even relatively declined adjusted to inflation; 58
per cent of GERD is consumed by the strategic
sectors (atomic energy, defence and space research)
and about 29 per cent is met by the private sector.
So, what is left for civilian R&D, spanning a dozen
or so science agencies, is rather pathetic. Look at
what is happening in Asia! The Chinese GERD
witnessed a dramatic increase from one per cent to
[41]

dismal 4.1 per cent of GERD. In fact, this has been
the case for six decades since independence.
Universities in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) 25 countries
accounted for 20 per cent and Japanese universities
accounted for around 15 per cent of GERD in the
last decade. Even Chinese universities increased
their share of GERD from five per cent in the 1990s
to 12 per cent currently. The neglect of research in
higher education has led to very low research
intensity; 90 per cent of our universities end up as
teaching institutes where research is given a low
priority for lack of funds. Policy measures to
increase research intensity in universities and
nurture them to attain world-class standards in
China, South Korea, Singapore and Japan were a
part of their respective national innovation strategies
since the 1990s. Such policies enabled two to six
universities in these countries to be listed in the
Worlds Top 100 University Rankings in recent
years. India could not register even one. Just four
to five universities figure in the list of 400 or 500.
STIP 2013 is silent on strengthening research in
higher education. Ninety per cent of the National
Knowledge Commissions recommendations remain
unimplemented as much as the proposal to create
14 innovation universities. Until the higher
education sector is given its due importance in the
national innovation system and allocated at least
10 per cent of GERD, it will continue to remain
sub-critical at the national level and we will fall
behind our Asian neighbours.
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1.84 per cent of GDP in the last decade. In 2012,

Japan spent 3.26 per cent, South Korea 3.74 per
cent, and Singapore 2.8 per cent. After a decade,
the government announced a new Science,
Technology and Innovation Policy 2013 or STIP
2013. The scientific community and the nation were
left disappointed as the government had failed to
fulfil its earlier commitment. There has been no
commitment to increase public R&D. The
government will only match the private R&D
investment to bring it to the level of two per cent
of GDP. When is this going to happen?
Realistic goals?
The new policy envisages positioning India

among the top five global scientific powers by 2020,
increasing the number of full-time research and
development personnel by two-thirds within five
years, and increasing publications from the current
3.5 per cent of global share to around seven per
cent by 2020. Not only this, the policy aims at
increasing the publication record in the worlds top
one per cent of journals fourfold. India has already
fallen behind China and emerging economies on
these indicators. For instance, India produced three
times the science output of China in the 1990s with
a comparable GERD. Today, China has overtaken
India by more than three times. It is the same in
the case of patents. Why have we fallen behind so
much? This is not unrelated to massive R&D
investments by China in the last decade. The
continuing policy paralysis in science and
technology is visible across various segments of S&T.
Even after the Fukushima disaster, Dr. Singh has
been relentlessly batting for new nuclear plants
costing several billions of dollars in the coming
decade. The newly inaugurated plant complex at
Gorakhpur, Haryana, is estimated at Rs.23,502
crore. According to research studies, just 25 per
cent of the future nuclear budget for renewable
energy sources (wind, solar, biomass etc) will
generate almost double the energy planned in a
more sustainable manner. Ninety per cent of water
in India is consumed by agriculture, yet we have
no inclusive energy-water policy. The list runs
across several sub-sectors. Let us look at two of
them.
R&D in higher education has been the prime
victim of policy paralysis. There are over 600
universities and 30,000 colleges with a GERD of
around 18. Though universities contributed 52 per
cent of the total national research publication
output in the last decade, they were allocated a
[42]
Innovation
After the President of India declared 20102020

the Decade of Innovation, STIP 2013 proposed
new schemes such as the Risky Idea Fund and
Small Idea Small Money. The government
launched the India Inclusive Innovation Fund (IIIF)
under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model,
with the government chipping in with just two per
cent of the budget. But private partners have hardly
evinced any enthusiasm to invest in this scheme. Is
the government serious? The policy paralysis in science
and technology innovation can be seen from the
dismal amount of money allocated to a dozen
innovation schemes under the Department of Science
and Technology (DST) and the Department of
Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR). Out of the
total budget of Rs.2,998 crore given to the DSIR in
2011, only Rs.155 crore went to innovation schemes.
And, of the Rs.2,349 crore given to the DST in 2012,
only Rs.57 crore went to innovation schemes.

the overall intake capacity of 75,000. With the
growing demand for technicians and an expanding
informal sector, one can imagine the task ahead.
Long-term solutions to problems here are so
complex and are becoming even more
interconnected. We have so far failed to evolve any
strategy to connect with these schemes at the
bottom of the pyramid. IIIF is a good scheme if
it gets off the ground with a full budget. In any
case, such schemes managed by corporate fund
managers are relevant more at the middle of the
pyramid and not the bottom. We urgently need
to build and strengthen intermediary institutions
to forge linkages between formal and informal
institutional structures. It is time the government
wakes up to addressing the impending S&T policy
paralysis before it is too late.
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With 90 per cent of Indian labour in the

informal sector and faced with dwindling fortunes
of rural agricultural activity, millions will migrate
from the rural to urban areas in the coming decade.
The UPA government launched a number of
schemes such as the Mahatma Gandhi National
Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme; Bharat
Nirman; Indira Awaas Yojna; Jawaharlal Nehru
National Urban Renewal Mission; Health Mission,
among others. Besides problems underlying their
governance and implementation, which are well
known, they lack an institutional framework to
infuse employment potential with skills, training
and grass-root innovation. There is hardly any
serious policy perspective or thinking to create
institutional avenues for vocational training to infuse
skills to labour in the informal sector. There are
about 7,500 Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) with
Source: The Hindu
A RETROGRADE AND INCOHERENT LAW
After inter-governmental consultation and

scrutiny by the Ministry of Law, the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities Bill, 2013 stands approved
by the Union Cabinet. What has the Cabinet
approved? Is it the same legislation formulated by
a joint committee of civil society, States and Union
Ministries in 2011 and settled upon after a
nationwide consultation in every Indian language?
Is it the legislation displayed on the website of the
Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment since
2012? Or has the government been able to get away
from fulfilling its constitutional and international
obligations, while the nations media looked the
other way?
Dilutes rights
India ratified the United Nations Convention

on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
(UNCRPD) in 2007. Since then, the wheels have
been in motion, to bring Indian laws in line with
our international obligations, which is to recognise
autonomy and dignity for all persons with
disabilities in the country. The disability sectors
motto has been, most aptly, nothing about us,
without us. The Bill was originally drafted
following a thorough pre-legislative deliberative
process with civil society. Yet, the legislation
approved by the Cabinet has no relationship at all
with the drafts which had been circulated,
discussed and published. It denies people with
psychosocial disabilities the right to make their own
life decisions, by permitting plenary guardianship;
allows discrimination on grounds of disability if it
is appropriate to achieve a legitimate aim; it runs

counter to the Supreme Courts own decision by
returning to the concept of identified posts for
reservation in employment; it systematically dilutes
and undoes all of the rights, entitlements and
remedies that the original Bill envisaged. A
progressive, rights-based law has been transformed
into an anachronistic, welfarist legislation through
bureaucratic fiat, and democratic law-making
suffers silently, as a consequence.
With the general election just round the corner,
the disability sector is now torn between rejecting
outright a Bill that does not reflect its aspirations
and assembling a few non-negotiables to have
the Bill passed by the Lok Sabha. It is unlikely that
the introduction of a few progressive provisions in
a law that is as ill-drafted as this one would serve
the ends of the community. In 1995, in a scenario
where there was no law, the disability sector had
importuned a boycotting Opposition to return to
the House to pass the Disability Act without debate,
in the hope that inadequacies would be remedied
with amendments. But amendments are hard to
come by. The government set up a committee to
suggest amendments to the Persons with Disabilities
(Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full
Participation) Act, 1995 within three years of its
enactment. Despite unanimous endorsement by civil
society, not a single amendment was made. In 1995,
there was a legal vacuum and since half a loaf was
better than no bread, such a strategy had to
adopted. Since then, even as legislative initiative
failed, the courts have poured constitutional steel
[43]

into the Persons with Disabilities (Equal
Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full
Participation) Act, 1995 as disability rights activists
worked at upgrading an inadequate law.
Thus, enacting a retrograde and incoherent law,
now, would fly in the face of years of advocacy for
change and indicate that we have learnt nothing
from experience.
Unresolved questions
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What are the likely consequences of passing

such a hastily drawn up legislation, within the span
of a few days? The most obvious consequence, of
course, is that the needs of those persons with
disabilities who could not make their voices heard
in such a short timespan (inevitably, the most
disadvantaged) are unlikely to be addressed. This
is evidenced by the fact that, in the list of nonnegotiables drawn up, the provision on the right to
legal capacity is just the text of Article 12 of the
Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities (CRPD) pasted into the legislation;
without stating what happens to existing laws
denying legal capacity or how people in
guardianship are to enter full personhood. How
will the interests of the doubly disadvantaged
women with disabilities be taken on board? How
does the constitutional mandate of life, liberty,
mental and bodily integrity become real for persons
with intellectual, psychosocial and developmental
disabilities? These, among others, are real questions
that are yet to be resolved.
patchwork law is that, for the interpretation of

such a legislation, persons with disabilities will have
to knock at the doors of the judiciary endlessly
a process that is both expensive and enormously
time-consuming, even if one were to presume that
everyone has access to the countrys higher
judiciary. Of course, one cannot ever be certain
that the judiciary would interpret the law in favour
of persons with disabilities. Legal interpretation is
influenced and circumscribed by the language and
the general import of the law in question: even
progressive provisions can fail to see adequate
implementation when embedded in a regressive law.
It would be infinitely preferable to build consensus
around a robust legislation instead of spending the
next few decades hoping for positive judicial
interpretation and clamouring for legislative
amendments.
The other necessary ramification of passing a
At the most basic level, this cloak and dagger

method of passing legislation runs counter to the
very conception of participative democracy. If the
law is to be enacted in the current session then one
can say with complete certainty that there will be
no time for a draft to be circulated. Millions of
people will be held hostage to a law that they
played no part in creating and did not even read
in its final formulation; while the law they did come
together to draft lies discarded. In passing a Bill as
shrouded in secrecy as this, a potentially inclusive,
transparent and empowering legislative process
would be reduced to a matter of political
connections and empty rhetoric.
Source: The Hindu
PUTTING A FULL STOP TO DEATH SENTENCE
The recent decision of the Supreme Court of

India in Shatrughan Chauhan v. Union of India is a
remarkable example of how innovative judicial
craftsmanship can lead to the upholding of
constitutional values, while humanising capital
punishment. The judgment has arrived just when
there was a feeling among a number of human
rights lawyers and public interest advocates that
the death penalty debate has reached some sort of
a saturation point. Prior to this judgment, it was
well settled that once the courts have awarded the
death sentence in the rarest of rare cases, the
process surrounding the execution of the sentence
is entirely in the domain of the executive, with any
reform of this process on humanitarian grounds
being left to the wisdom of Parliament. But the
status quo has been challenged quite effectively in
this landmark judgment.
[44]
From 1997 to 2007, just one mercy petition was

decided by the Executive, with the fate of the other
petitioners left hanging in the balance. From 2007
to 2013, there was a drastic change with more
than 40 petitions being decided, out of which more
than 20 petitions were rejected. Such inordinate
delays in taking a decision relating to the petition
to the President for pardon tantamount to torture
and an inhumane form of punishment. As the
Supreme Court has observed: Keeping a convict
in suspense while consideration of his mercy
petition by the President for many years is certainly
an agony for him/her. It creates adverse physical
conditions and psychological stresses on the convict
under sentence of death. Indisputably, this Court,
while considering the rejection of the clemency
petition by the President, under Article 32 read

in deciding whether delay in execution ought to be
considered for commutation. The Court, in
Shatrughan Chauhans case, clearly observed that
considerations such as the gravity of the crime,
extraordinary cruelty involved or some disastrous
consequences for society caused by the offence are
irrelevant after the Constitution Bench decision in
Bachan Singhs case in 1980. The Court observed,
all death sentences imposed are impliedly the
most heinous and barbaric and rarest of its kind.
The legal effect of the extraordinary depravity of
the offence exhausts itself when the Court sentences
the person to death for that offence. Law does not
prescribe an additional period of imprisonment in
addition to the sentence of death for any such
exceptional depravity involved in the offencewe
are of the view that unexplained delay is one of
the grounds for commutation of sentence of death
into life imprisonment in all types of cases including
the offences under TADA This is indeed a
significant part of the judgment as the brutality of
the crime is often put forth as an argument for
undermining the constitutionally protected rights
of those sentenced to death.
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with Article 21 of the Constitution, cannot excuse

the agonizing delay caused to the convict only on
the basis of the gravity of the crime. The judgment
emphasises the need for accountability in exercising
constitutionally enshrined powers in a responsible
manner. Although the Court refrained from
commenting on instances of arbitrariness in exercise
of pardon powers, there was an omnipresent
notion of seeking accountability and ensuring
responsibility while acting on the basis of the
constitutional mandate. In this regard, the Court
observed: if there is undue, unexplained and
inordinate delay in execution due to pendency of
mercy petitions or the executive as well as the
constitutional authorities have failed to take note
of/consider the relevant aspects, this Court is well
within its powers under Article 32 to hear the
grievance of the convict and commute the death
sentence into life imprisonment on this ground
alone
Power of pardon
Re-examining the power of pardon through the

fair, just and reasonable doctrine: There has been
a rich array of judgments, which have evolved over
the years, on the nature and scope of the powers
of pardon by the President of India under Article
72 or the Governor of a State under Article 161 of
the Constitution of India. However, this judgment
has emphatically observed that the powers that
ought to be exercised under these provisions of the
Constitution expects and necessitates a fair, just
and reasonable process. The Court observed: It is
clear that after the completion of the judicial
process, if the convict files a mercy petition to the
Governor/President, it is incumbent on the
authorities
to
dispose
of
the
same
expeditiouslyThe procedure prescribed by law,
which deprives a person of his life and liberty must
be just, fair and reasonable and such procedure
mandates humane conditions of detention,
preventive or punitive This provides guidance
to the executive in relation to the exercise of the
powers of pardon, and a failure to adhere to this
guidance will lead to the decision-making process
being subject to judicial review so as to ensure that
it was not in any way arbitrary.
Eliminating distinction in death penalty cases
due to the depravity of the crime: One of the
anomalies in the implementation of the death
penalty after the judgment of the Supreme Court
in Devender Pal Singh Bhullars case was about
the consideration of the gravity of crime as a factor
Moratorium
Opportunity for the executive to consider

moratorium on death penalty: While the judgment
has done what it was expected to do, which is to
provide a legal and constitutional basis for infusing
fairness into the procedure and process relating to
the execution of the death penalty, it remains to be
seen what the government can do towards
generating a serious debate on the death penalty
in light of this judgment.
It is indeed worthy to consider the fact that
one of the ways by which countries can respond to
the need for greater accountability in the process
of both the imposition and execution of the death
penalty is to have a moratorium for a fixed period
of time. During this moratorium, a systematic
analysis of the death penalty as a form of
punishment may be undertaken with the necessary
empirical evidence on its implications for crime
prevention, deterrence as well as other objectives
that are pursued for retaining capital punishment
on the statute books. What augurs well for India is
that there have been a few State governments,
which have passed legislative Assembly resolutions
against the imposition of death penalty in relation
to a few individuals. While this alone may not be
sufficient for assessing the political will to abolish
the death penalty, it does provide a basis for seeking
[45]

a moratorium on carrying out executions for a
period of time. This is also in line with the most
recent U.N. General Assembly resolution dated
December 2012 calling for a moratorium on the
death penalty with the ultimate objective of its
universal abolition. This was adopted by a record
111 member states, a feat that once again reiterates
growing international consensus relating to the
abolition of the death penalty.
Towards abolition
The Court has extensively referred to its

expanding and evolving jurisprudence under
Article 21, thereby committing itself to the deeper
values of constitutionalism embedded in the
provisions relating to the fundamental rights
enshrined in the Constitution. The values of
constitutionalism are not shaped by the exigencies
of current situations, political considerations or, for
that matter, public perception; they are based upon
a deeper commitment to the societal values that
are inherent in the Constitution.
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Impetus to civil society for seeking the abolition

of capital punishment: The most recent judgment
of the Supreme Court has reiterated the importance
of human rights struggles and the need for pursuing
them with determined effort. It also demonstrates
the continuing ability of institutions to respond to
constitutional issues with a deeper recognition of
human rights as the basis for the protection of
freedoms. Indian democracy needs to move towards
abolishing the death penalty as a form of
punishment for all offences. Civilised societies cannot
retain the death penalty for any offence and enough
empirical evidence is available from around the
world to support the view that the death penalty
cannot be administered in a manner that does not
attract some form of injustice. Professor Roger
Hood of the University of Oxford, in his seminal
work entitled: Towards Global Abolition of the
Death Penalty: Progress and Prospects, has
observed through his systematic empirical analysis
that capital punishment all over the world is in
ever rapid retreat. This was further confirmed in
the U.N. Secretary Generals Report on the Status
of Capital Punishment (2010).
implementation of capital punishment. It creates

new forms of the accountability of the executive at
all stages of the pardon process, right from the
level of the Ministry of Home Affairs all the way
up to the office of the President of India. It will no
longer be possible for the executive to give excuses
for the delay in taking a decision on pardon
petitions.
The Supreme Courts recent judgment is indeed

a first and important step towards humanising the
Source: The Hindu
HEAVY BURDEN ON THE YOUNG
With one million more young people joining

the ranks of the jobless in 2013, the worlds youth
are facing a disproportionate burden, says the latest
report of the International Labour Organisation.
The Global Employment Trends report 2014 also
records slow progress of late in reducing levels of
vulnerable employment and working poverty, a
result of the continued impact of the 2007-08
financial and economic crisis. The 13.1 per cent
rate of unemployment in the 15-24 years age-group
globally is more than twice that among the adult
population. This is a particular concern in India
where people below 25 years of age constitute more
[46]
than 50 per cent of the population. Equally

worrying is the finding that the number of youth
who are neither in employment nor in education
or training is on the rise in many countries. Again
for India, the overwhelming majority (around 90
per cent) of the workforce in the unorganised sector
lacks even the basic social protection that is
necessary for the reproduction of labour. The whole
scenario has to be viewed against the ILOs
projection that employment will continue to expand
at a slower pace than the labour force, resulting in
a shortfall of some two million jobs annually over
the next five years. As much as 45 per cent of all

new job-seekers will be from East and South Asia,
the region that already lags behind on several
indicators that are critical to human development.
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The year 2013 seems to have been especially

bad, with as many as five million people joining
the ranks of the jobless. The figure also lends greater
substance to claims regarding uneven recovery from
the crisis in the last decade. One comparison in the
report is instructive: whereas monetary stimulus in
the aftermath of the crisis induced aggregate
demand, a rising share of the additional liquidity
has not been feeding into the real economy. It is
almost axiomatic that slow growth and low levels
of job creation reinforce one another, a fact
overlooked by fiscal conservatives. If anything, the
need to make provision for unemployment and

other relevant benefits for large segments of society
that are out of work put paid to attempts by
governments to balance budgets not to mention
other deleterious consequences. Strong social
protection measures will not only promote the
overall interests of the workforce and the economy
in general in the medium term, they will also lay
the foundation to face the demographic transition
over the next two decades. This is expected to result
in a large increase in the numbers of the elderly as
a proportion of the overall population, presenting
new challenges for policymaking.
Source: The Hindu
CONDEMNED TO DIE, BUT NOT TO WAIT
On Tuesday, January 21, 2014, a three-judge

bench of Indias Supreme Court reaffirmed the
value in due process of law, even in its application
to those whom we as a society have shunned, by
commuting to life imprisonment the sentences of
15 convicts on the death row. The commutations,
in Shatrughan Chauhan v. Union of India, were
primarily ordered on grounds of delays by the
President in disposing of petitions filed by felons
praying for mercy. The Court held that to execute
a person who has been kept on death row for years
on end with no answer to his or her plea for
clemency, is an act of torture that violates the
prisoners fundamental right to life. Such acts of
clemency would have hardly occasioned in most
other civilised societies where the death penalty
has been abolished. However, given that the cry
for capital punishment keeps cropping up in India
like some unkillable movie gorgon, to borrow a
phrase once used by Nicholas Jenkins in The New
Yorker, the decision is a welcome reminder of the
constitutional values that we most cherish.
Assimilation of settled law
The legal issue at stake in Chauhan was simple:

are the powers of pardon vested in the President
and the Governors under Articles 72 and 161 of
the Constitution amenable to judicial review? The
Court held that these powers carried with them a
concomitant constitutional duty for the authorities
exercising the powers to conform to due process.
Therefore, in exceptional cases, where the authority
concerned may have abdicated its responsibility in
acting contrary to requirements of due process, its
decisions would be amenable to judicial scrutiny.
In Chauhan, the Court was confronted with

instances where mercy petitions filed before the
President and various Governors had been kept in
abeyance for several years, with no answer
forthcoming from the authorities. There were also
other cases where the convict in question had
developed serious mental illness during the period
of his or her incarceration, raising substantial doubts
over the fitness of the prisoner to be subjected to
an execution. The Court ruled that such delay or
mental
illness
constituted
supervening
circumstances, requiring the President or the
Governors to exercise their constitutional duty in
granting pardon. When they fail to do so, as was
the case with 15 convicts on death row, it becomes
incumbent upon the Court to intervene in the
interests of preserving the due process of law.
In many ways, this conclusion in Chauhan is

not particularly novel; it is rather an assimilation
and reaffirmation of settled law, specifically as laid
down by the Supreme Court previously in T.V.
Vatheeswaran v. State of Tamil Nadu (1983) and
Triveniben v. State of Gujarat. But Chauhan makes
the important point that an inordinate and
inexplicable delay in execution would preclude
carrying out the sentence even in cases where the
convict in question had committed an offence of
terrorism. In so deciding, the Court has overruled
its own recent decision in Devender Singh Bhullar
v. State of NCT Delhi. In Bhullar, decided in May
2013, a two-judge bench had ruled that a delay in
disposing of a mercy petition was, by itself,
insufficient ground for commuting the sentence of
those convicted to death under anti-terrorism
statutes. In correcting this anomaly, Chauhan
reiterates a long-standing constitutional value: the
[47]

mercy petition filed by a convict on the death row
would be an infraction of that right. It is easy to
wonder why the most brutal of men and women
deserve the protection of the law; but when due
process is disregarded for monstrous criminals, it also
becomes simpler to disregard it for the rest of us.
Internal conflict
The decision in Chauhan, while a timely
reminder of the importance of preserving our most
cherished ideals, however also reveals a glaring
internal conflict in the Courts approach to civil
rights jurisprudence, particularly in its application
of comparative constitutional law. It seems, as the
law scholar Nick Robinson has previously argued,
there are many Supreme Courts of India. This is
most evident when the approach in Chauhan is
compared to the decisions in Bhullar and more
recently inSuresh Kumar Koushal v. Naz Foundation,
which concerned the criminalisation of homosexual
acts. In Chauhan, the Court was visibly receptive
to protecting the human rights, even of condemned
prisoners (including convicted terrorists), and
considered foreign legal precedent with an open
mind. In fact, the Court went as far as to find that
decisions of the United Kingdoms Privy Council
have received the same respectful consideration
as the decisions of the Indian Supreme Court. In
contrast, in Bhullar, the Court spoke deprecatingly
of the bandwagon which espouses the cause of
terrorists and raises the bogey of human rights.
And in Koushal, the Court similarly chastised the
Delhi High Court for extensively relying upon the
judgments of other jurisdictions in its anxiety to
protect the so-called rights of LGBT persons.
This fractured and vacillating approach of the
Supreme Court is of grave concern, especially given
that it affects the most crucial aspect of its judicial
function: the protection of our fundamental rights.
As the highest constitutional court of the country,
it is imperative that the Court adopts consistent
practice in its adjudicating; one way to achieve
this is to ensure that important constitutional
questions are settled by a bench of no less than five
judges of the Supreme Court. For now, however, it
appears that we must make the best of what
appears to be a one step forward, two steps back
approach of the Supreme Court.
Source: The Hindu
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Constitution demands that the state treats all those

subject to its powers as having equal status; when
there is no constitutional basis for differentiating
between convicts found guilty of offences such as
murder and convicts found guilty of terrorism
offences, any delay in execution is to be treated
equally, as a violation of due process, irrespective
of the offence committed.
At the core of the Courts finding is the now
well-established notion that to keep a death row
convict inordinately waiting for his or her turn to
enter the gallows is an act of torture in this
case, an act, virtually, of state-sanctioned torture.
Take, for example, Praveen Kumar, 55, one of the
writ petitioners before the Supreme Court. He had
been convicted of a quadruple murder and had
been sentenced to death in February 2002. In
October the following year, the Supreme Court
confirmed his sentence. Soon after the sentence had
reached finality, Kumar petitioned the President
seeking mercy on the grounds that he had been
subjected to solitary confinement ever since the trial
court had found him guilty. In December 2003, the
Presidents office forwarded Kumars request to the
State Governor concerned for consideration under
Article 161. The Governor, having reviewed the
various judgments of the courts, declined to exercise
his power by a decision dated September 30, 2004,
following which the President was once again
seized of the petition. It ultimately took the
President until March 26, 2013 to decide and
dismiss the plea for mercy. As a result, Kumar,
who had been sentenced to death in February 2002,
had spent 11 years and 10 months in custody at
the time of filing his writ petition. Capital
punishment, in most civilized societies is regarded
rightly as an abomination; but to keep a
prisoner sentenced to death for an additional period
of punishment is neither envisaged by law nor is it
protected by the Constitution. As the Court rightly
held in Chauhan, the right to life and personal
liberty guaranteed by Article 21 includes within it
a right to be treated with a certain dignity, even if
you are a convict on the death row. Article 21
which now by interpretive design recognises a right
to due process is applicable not merely to you,
me and every other average citizen, but also to
those condemned to the gallows. Any inordinate,
unexplained delay in determining the merits of a
INTERPRETING A FEDERAL CONSTITUTION
The Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill, 2013,

which creates the State of Telangana, has been
decisively rejected by the Andhra Pradesh
[48]
Legislative Assembly and Council. This rejection,

together with the recording of 9,072 amendments
and expression of views on its various clauses by

However, to treat the States views as carrying
merely formal value, as has been widely suggested,
would render the constitutional process of
consultation entirely nugatory in a matter of
national importance. The current proviso to Article
3 was introduced by the Constitution (Fifth
Amendment) Act, 1955. Before this amendment,
the President could only introduce an Amendment
Bill in Parliament after referring it to the State
legislatures concerned for their views. This was a
time-consuming process, allowing States to vacillate
in responding, thereby frustrating the efforts of the
government of India. This amendment was
necessary to lay the groundwork for the smooth
passage of the States Reorganisation Commission
Report that recommended a radical redrawing of
State boundaries and creation of new States. By
adequately circumscribing State power, it was felt
that no single State could hold up the process of
reorganisation.
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its MLAs, and 1,157 like suggestions by its MLCs,

has brought the process of the creation of new States
in India into renewed focus. As has been opined
previously in the pages of this newspaper, the
constitutional position in this context is
straightforward: Article 3 of the Constitution vests
Parliament with the power to form a new State,
provided that the Bill creating such a State is
introduced on the recommendation of the President
and he has referred it to the legislature of the affected
State for expressing its views thereon. This would
suggest that the views of the Andhra Pradesh
Assembly will have no legal effect; the formation of
Telangana is solely the prerogative of the government
of India. While this may indeed be the position of
the law as it stands today, the unprecedented nature
of the rejection of the Bill by the Andhra Pradesh
Assembly requires the legal interpretation of Article
3 be reconsidered. Such reconsideration is also
prompted by the changing nature of Indian
federalism, aptly demonstrated by the curious
situation of a Congress government at the State level
defying its counterpart in power at the Centre.
Unprecedented rejection
The key distinction between this instance and

earlier disputes raised in relation to the formation
of a new State lies in the fact that never before has
an Amendment Bill been rejected by the State
legislature in question. Both in Babulal Parate
(Supreme Court) and Pradeep Chaudhary (Supreme
Court, 2009) seminal judgments of the Court
dealing with the creation of Bombay and
Uttaranchal respectively, the issue before the Court
was whether it was open to Parliament to amend
the final Bill after the State legislature had expressed
its views on an earlier, unamended version. In both
cases, the Supreme Court, adopting a literal
interpretation of Article 3, held that there was no
requirement that an amendment to a Bill forming
a new State would also have to be referred to the
State legislature concerned. Such interpretation is
arguably correct the proviso to Article 3 simply
states that the Bill must be sent to the State
legislature concerned for expressing its views within
a specified period. The provision is silent on whether
later amendments have to be referred, as well as
on the effect that the views of the State legislatures
will have. Thus read literally, even a wholesale
rejection of the Bill can be ignored by Parliament,
since Article 3 merely gives State Assemblies a
consultative role their views are not binding on
Parliament in any way.
But what if a State rejected the proposal to

create a new State outright? Both the proviso to
Article 3 as well as the Rajya Sabha debates prior
to its passage are silent on this specific question.
The reason for such silence is aptly demonstrated
in a speech by MP Professor N.G. Ranga who said
in the House, I am glad really now that this Bill
has come to be introduced instead of the
Congress Party trusting itself to its capacity to get
the local majorities, which are also Congress
majorities, to express the views of the legislatures.
(Rajya Sabha Debates, December 15, 1955). The
proviso was thus brought in at a time when such
disagreement between the Centre and States was
not a real possibility. Neither did Parliament
envisage nor did it legislate for such a situation.
The rejection of the Telangana Bill by the Andhra
Pradesh Assembly is evidence of a dramatically
changed time. For the legal interpretation of Article
3 to ignore such change would be an anachronism.
It would also be inconsonant with the Supreme
Courts characterisation of the Constitution as a
living tree capable of continuous growth with
concomitantly changing scenarios.
Bommai case
Such reinterpretation of provisions of the

Constitution that have bearing on its federal
character has precedent. In terms of the legality of
the imposition of Presidents Rule in States under
Article 356, the Supreme Court in S.R. Bommai v.
Union of India (Supreme Court, 1994) overruled its
[49]

having valid visas for travel in India, such a
reworked understanding of federalism in India is
both realistic and pragmatic.
Towards a new federalism

In the face of such changes, to merely parrot
an originalist constitutional vision of a strong Centre
while interpreting legal provisions is to take a
blinkered view. The centralising tendency in Indias
federal structure was adopted at a time when it
was necessary to weld Indias disparate elements
together into a nation. This was a task for which
the government of India was uniquely positioned
and required a supporting constitutional
architecture. Thus, the federal provisions of the
Constitution were as much lofty vision as political
strategy. Such strategy now requires a careful
recalibration since such a tool for nation-building,
if used unthinkingly, will be seen purely as central
hegemony. Such forced unitarity will be more
harmful than a genuine recognition of a more equal
federal structure that is perfectly consonant with
the idea of India.
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own precedent in the case of State of Rajasthan v

Union of India (Supreme Court, 1977). While
holding that the power of the President to impose
Presidents Rule is not above and beyond judicial
review entirely, the Court narrowed down the
circumstances and the manner in which such
powers could be exercised. The premise of this shift
in constitutional jurisprudence was that the
principle of federalism was part of the basic
structure of the Constitution, and this principle
could only be deviated from in exceptional and
extraordinary
circumstances,
i.e.
where
constitutional rule was not possible in the State. In
doing so, the Court recognised the pitfalls of a literal
minded construction of the Constitution as was
done in theRajasthan case. In the absence of any
checks on the exceptional power of the President
to impose Presidents Rule and give federalism a
go-by in the name of upholding the Constitution,
the Court recognised that the Constitution itself
could be subverted.
The Supreme Courts course correction in

Bommai has a deeper lesson. That Indias
constitutionally envisaged federal structure has a
strong centralising tendency is beyond question.
Such a tendency is not unique to India. Federal
states the world over Canada, the United States,
Australia all display discernible centripetal forces
irrespective of differences in their federal structure.
But the decision inBommai and now the Andhra
Pradesh Assemblys rejection of the Telangana Bill
marks a significant change in this dynamic. It
provides recognition to a more balanced union, with
Centre and States seen increasingly as coordinate
entities. At a time when the Chief Minister of West
Bengal trumps the decision of the government of
India to sign an international accord, the sole
prerogative of the Central government, and the
Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu prevents Sri Lankan
cricketers from playing in Chennai despite them
This does not in any way mean that the Andhra

Pradesh Assemblys views on the Telangana Bill
should be the last word on the matter. Such an
inference would be plainly unconstitutional.
However, it is necessary that the Central
government be required in law to adequately take
into consideration the reasons why the Andhra
Pradesh Assembly rejected the Telangana Bill. This
obligation should be discharged in writing,
demonstrating a proper application of mind with
accompanying reasons as to why each
recommendation has been accepted or rejected.
Without such consideration, the Andhra Pradesh
Reorganisation Bill, 2013, if passed, would seriously
lack legitimacy and be inconsonant with the
dynamic federal spirit of the Constitution.
Source: The Hindu
INTEGRATING IT AND BT
Beyond the rhyming of the terms IT

(Information Technology) and BT (Biotechnology),
there can indeed be a valuable integration between
the two which is yet to be optimally exploited
in the country. Many government departments deal
with these sectors together, but essentially without
any connection. IT, at least to start with, grew with
initiatives in the private sector, whereas the growth
of BT has been mostly due to government support.
There was hype around BT at one stage to the
extent that parents were prepared to pay expensive
[50]
fees to get their children admitted to BT courses,

only to find that their employment opportunities,
unlike in the IT sector, did not hold much promise.
The backlash led to such courses losing their sheen.
There were not many industries to absorb the
candidates, who were also found to be
unemployable in terms of knowledge and training.
However, the sector seems to have now stabilised
and is on the growth path. The BT industry is
growing at around 20 per cent which is quite
significant in the context of a general industrial

deceleration. The present turnover is estimated at
$5 billion with a projection of $100 billion by 2025.
The IT industry is valued at $100 billion with a
projection of $300 billion by 2025. However, the
scope of the BT sector is very large and can even
eclipse the IT sector in terms of employment
opportunities and reach to the economy and social
sectors. The sector permeates health and disease,
food and agriculture, environment and industry.
A more appropriate strategy would be to integrate
IT and BT seamlessly, wherever applicable, and
aim for the $500 billion mark by 2025.
such as the Small Business Innovative Research Initiative

(SBIRI) and the Biotechnology Industry Partnership
Programme (BIPP) in the last seven or eight years.
Academia-industry link
In innovation
The limitations are raw material, technology and

skilled human resource. Both raw material and
technology need to be imported. Unlike the software
industry, available human resource is not skilled
enough to compete with the Asian giants in the
field. Interestingly, BT is grounded in a hardware
equivalent, be it vaccines or drugs, or diagnostics
or monoclonal antibodies or agri-biotech or biomassbased products including the energy sector.
The integration of IT and BT will help India

make a mark in the innovation space. New drug
discovery is one such major area which will help
India move beyond Generics/Biosimilars.
Bioinformatics is one such area, which can help in
drug design. Unfortunately, most IT professionals
have very little appreciation of biology. There are
a large number of steps that need to be taken before
the molecule designed on the computer can become
a drug. This needs a full appreciation of the
biological/clinical aspects involved. But, with the
evolution of systems biology (mathematical biology)
and synthetic biology, an entirely new horizon is
being made available to discover new drugs or do
pathway engineering to design new microbial/
plant products. This is, perhaps, the approach that
would be needed to study brain function or evaluate
biodiversity potential in nature.
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There is a fundamental difference between the

two sectors in India. The IT/ITes (IT-enabled
Services) industry has become a major growth
engine for the countrys economy. It is stated that
it contributes to around 5.6 per cent of GDP and
direct employment to 2.3 million people and much
more indirectly. The projection is to provide jobs to
20 million people by 2020. The main verticals
utilising IT are BFSI (banking, financial services and
insurance), telecom, manufacturing, media,
construction and utilities, airlines and
transportation, health services, etc. The fulcrum is
services, be it IT or ITes/BPO (Business Process
Outsourcing based on Internet) or engineering
services. India is identified with software services
and there is now an effort to generate products
(software) and work out strategies for the global
and internal markets. To remain competitive,
strategies like cloud computing and Platform-BPO
strategies are becoming the options. The weakest
link is hardware, be it the IT or electronics sectors.
More recently, all these initiatives, along with

additional ones, have come under the Biotechnology
Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), a
Section 25 company set up by the DBT. There are
around 400 biotech companies in the country and
the numbers are growing. BIRAC supports around
300 projects with loans and grants to around 180
companies. A positive development is the evolving
strong academia-industry interaction and
intellectual property rights (IPR) filing in these
projects, that has already led to development of
some innovative products. A few representative
examples are JE/pneumococcal/rotaviral vaccines,
follicle stimulating hormone for infertility treatment,
a microPCR platform diagnostic kit for parasite/
viral infections, integrated navigation and training
platform for tumour ablation, and a software
platform for using mobile phone to analyse blood
glucose strips. The vaccine sector is growing very
strongly with a potential for India to assume global
leadership. As is the case with the drug sector,
where generics (out of patent drugs) are our
strength, the BT sector is dominated by Biosimilars
(erythropoietin, growth factors, monoclonal
antibodies, insulin, industrial enzymes, etc.) besides
conventional and recombinant vaccines. The only
product in agri-biotech is Bt cotton. Many
indigenous molecular diagnostic kits have been
developed. There is perceptible activity in terms of
medical instrument development.
The establishment of the National Biotechnology

Board in 1982 that led to the establishment of the
Department of Biotechnology (DBT) in 1986 by the
government of India is primarily responsible for
the growth of life sciences and biotechnology in
the country. The initial phase of building
competence in academia is now leading to
resurgence in the industry. The best thing that
could have happened is the starting of the schemes
[51]

An analysis of complex variables is needed for
successful stem cell therapy or to understand cancer
prognosis or evaluate QTL (Quantitative Trait Loci)
in crops that govern yield, pest and drought
resistance, etc. While BT can develop simple
diagnostic tools, automation and telemedicine will
be needed for village communities to reap the
benefits. If stethoscopes can become outdated, the
day is not far off when portable ECG and MRI
machines can reach the bedside. IT and BT need to

integrate to streamline the manufacturing process
of biotech products. We need integrated manpower,
since skilled human resource is scarce in the area.
The need of the hour is the evolution of IT (Dry
lab) and BT (Wet lab) integrated companies in the
areas of health, agriculture and industrial products.
Source: The Hindu
BETTER SENSE PREVAILS
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The blind resistance to genetically engineered

crops may finally be easing up. First, Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh, in his address to the Indian
Science Congress in Jammu, backed the careful use
of biotechnology to deliver high-yield crops resistant
to weather, parasites and vectors. Now, affirming
his commitment to resuming GM field trials,
Environment Minister Veerappa Moily has spoken
of the need for good processes, which do not mean
personal prejudices or likes and dislikes.
Fears about genetically engineered plants have

been persistently disproved by science, whether the
worry is about pesticide-resistant superweeds, or
such plants contaminating their natural
neighbours and eradicating biodiversity. But the
politics around GM crops has remained stubborn
in India, even though the global movement is
now running on fumes and there have been public
recantations. Peer-reviewed scientific evidence is
dismissed, every advocate of GM food written off
as a corporate puppet, regulation pre-emptively
declared untrustworthy, and selective facts
marshalled by NGOs and taken at face value by
many policymakers. Previous environment ministers
have gone to the extent of instituting public hearings

where activist prejudices were given the same
credence as rigorously tested scientific evidence, and
imposing a moratorium on Bt brinjal. Politics has
surfaced even in the technical expert committee
pondering the question of field trials. Anxieties
persist even though India has been a big biotech
beneficiary during the Green Revolution, and even
though improved yields and resistance to pests have
made many farmers opt for Bt crops, even pirating
them when they are not available. Bt cotton is what
converted India into a cotton-exporting country.
Now, to break the impasse, a committee of
secretaries of stakeholder ministries, the cabinet
secretary and the PMO will file a joint affidavit in
the Supreme Court. Hopefully, this will be the
beginning of scrupulous and scientific farm
evaluations, a way to impartially test industry data
as well as NGO orthodoxy. What is needed is
comprehensive, case-by-case study of each GM
crop. Given the rising demands of food security
and the promise of GM, it is important that the
debate shift to one about optimal regulation.
PUBLIC HEALTH FIRST
After the fourth unit of Ranbaxy Laboratories

was banned from shipping to the US, its Food and
Drug Administration commissioner is set to visit
India to resolve several of these persistent
contentions with the health ministry. Other Indian
pharmaceutical companies, like Wockhardt and
RPG Life Sciences, have also received notices from
the US regulator about their shoddy manufacturing
practices.
When the Ranbaxy scandal first broke, the
commerce ministrys first reflex was denial, or to
see this in nationalist terms alone, as a Big Pharma
plot to undermine Indias plucky and successful
businesses. While India does have economic interests
in the success of this $15 billion export industry, it
[52]
needs solid regulation to ensure this success is

sustainable.
In response to the FDAs monitoring of Indian
firms, the Central Drugs Standards Control
Organisation (CDSCO) fought for the right to check
manufacturing facilities abroad, apparently to make
sure that drugs coming into India meet quality
standards. This claim would be taken more
seriously if the CDSCO had not been such a visible
failure a parliamentary standing committee on
health in May last year laid out the remarkable
chaos in domestic drug regulation, even in terms
of granting licences.
Manufacturing laxity aside, it found that many

drugs were being marketed before being put
through the required clinical trials and drugs
banned in other markets were available here.
Regulatory dossiers were missing for several drugs,
and in many cases, approvals were granted by nontechnical staff. Expert testimonials were suspiciously
similar in many cases. State issued licences operated
in their own orbit, and these authorisations were
not sent back to the central regulator.
The US FDA has a strength of some 14,000

people, while the Indian regulator had 327 in 2012.
While the pharma industry is exploding, and the
CDSCOs workload is growing by 20 per cent every
year, it lacks the staff and infrastructure, advisors
and independent testing labs to do its job. That
needs to change first, if the government is serious
about a regulatory overhaul.
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The Centre has moved a new drugs and

cosmetics amendment bill, which conceives of a
professionally managed Central Drugs Authority
like the FDA, to swallow the existing CDSCO. But
it will take more than surprise inspections to
change this regulatory culture it will involve

breaking the collusion between certifiers and
companies, and more than anything, it will require
greater investment.
ON THE LEEWARD SIDE
Several emerging markets (EMs) are in crisis

mode again. Argentina and Venezuela have been
forced to devalue their currencies, the Turkish lira
has depreciated against the US dollar, and so has
the South African rand.
The rupee, on the other hand, is holding up

relatively well so far. Recall the three tempestuous
months for the rupee, from June to August last
year? This was due to rising expectations of the
United States Federal Reserve tapering its monthly
purchase of bonds (the taper). India was one of
the Fragile Five (Brazil, Indonesia, India, Turkey
and South Africa): economies whose currencies
were expected to weaken significantly when the
taper eventually started.
This was attributed not just to their high current

account deficits and dependence on foreign capital,
but also because all of these economies are facing
political uncertainty: all five are headed for elections
this year. For India, most market commentators
were talking of a recurrence of the currency crisis
of 1991.
The taper started in December and, indeed, in
the last three months, four of the Fragile Five
currencies are down 10 to 15 per cent against the
US dollar. The market capitalisation in US dollars
for Brazil and Turkey are back to the lows seen in
July-August last year. Even markets in South Africa
and Indonesia have fallen close to their lows.
However, the fifth, the Indian rupee, is down a
mere 3 per cent, and total market capitalisation of
the Indian markets is almost 30 per cent higher
than the lows seen in August last year. The sense
of crisis prevalent in markets like Argentina, Turkey
and Brazil is therefore absent in India.
What has made India stand out thus far among
emerging markets, and can the rupee and the

economy withstand the current turmoil in the
global economy? Of several possible reasons, there
are only two that matter in my view: the first, a
sharp decline in the current account deficit, and
the second, the remarkable $34 billion that flowed
in through the measures taken by the RBI towards
attracting NRI deposits and banking capital. Both
demonstrate the core strengths of India, despite all
the negative publicity around unhappy
corporations, noisy democracy and governments
which act only with their backs against the wall.
Indias trade deficit has shrunk dramatically
over last year, and by far the most among all
emerging markets. From a monthly run rate of close
to $17 billion in the run-up to the crisis period last
year, it has been averaging about 10 billion a month.
Of this $7 billion fall in the monthly rate, only
about $3 billion is due to the decline in gold imports,
and the rest due to other factors. While a large
part of the decline in gold imports is indeed due to
the quantitative restrictions placed by regulators
(considered non-fundamental by many), a
meaningful part of the decline in gold imports is
also due to lower gold prices. They are down from
an average of $1660 an ounce in the last financial
year to about $1250 an ounce currently, a 25 per
cent decline.
The larger part of the decline in the trade deficit
is instead coming from a rise in exports and a fall
in (non-gold) imports, as the weak currency and
rising domestic surpluses have allowed Indian
manufacturers and farmers to gain competitiveness
(The upside of the falling rupee, IE, October 4,
2013, goo.gl/Zfgm3u). Farmers in particular have
been the strongest beneficiaries of the weak
currency, as they have the largest proportion of
[53]

their costs in rupees. Weakness in the domestic
economy is also doing its bit for the decline in
imports, as demand for items like capital goods
and steel scrap has come down sharply, and that
for crude oil is not growing.
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But any amount of fundamental improvement

cannot prevent speculative moves on the currency.
Near-term movements in pricing are almost always
driven by sentiment. This is where the three-year
deposits that flowed into India from NRIs till
November come in: they reduced the liquidity risk
for the currency. The difference between solvency
risk and liquidity risk needs some explanation.
While the economys dollar liabilities have risen
sharply in the last decade, as a percentage of
domestic output they are still low. This means
solvency risk is low.
The coming weeks are likely to be turbulent,

with some uncertainty from the crisis-like situations
in many emerging markets, a narrowly averted
default in China of a wealth management product
and a temporary slowdown in global output
growth. India is likely to be buffeted by the
turbulence elsewhere. After all, Indias global
linkages have increased significantly in the last two
decades, from the perspective of trade as well as
capital flows. Redemption pressure on broader EM
funds, for example, could cause capital outflows
from India, pressuring domestic markets, even if
only temporarily. Or, commodity producers in India
could be hurt by falling prices as global growth
gets affected by the uncertainty. Sentiment about
India may also be affected by changing forecasts of
the electoral prospects of various parties in the
upcoming general elections.
However, the liquidity risk was high: a large

part of the debt is short-term in nature, implying
that if all these lenders were to ask for their dollars
back at the same time, India would be in a spot of
bother. Liquidity risk can sometimes drive solvency
risk, as at the time of greatest need, even longer
duration dollar debt becomes unavailable.
The deposit scheme encouraged and supported

by the RBI brought in $34 billion, close to a full
years current account deficit (as per the current
run rate), and thus helped reduce the liquidity risk
for the economy, strengthening the currencys
position against speculative attacks.
However, short of a full-blown default

somewhere in the EM universe, which can create
systemic stress in the global economy, in our view
a crisis in India is unlikely. Thus far, a pattern has
emerged that the currencies and stock markets of
EMs that have seen declines in their trade deficits
have held up, and those that havent improved or
deteriorated are under stress. Indias improved
trade balance and steady medium-term growth
prospects
should
ward
off
calamitous
developments.
BUILDING A SCHOOLING SYSTEM THAT DELIVERS
Over the past few weeks, this newspaper (and

its online edition) has witnessed a spirited debate
on the crisis in Indian schools, focusing on the kind
of reforms that can help the country improve its
abysmal learning outcomes. Although there is some
disagreement on the role of private versus public
schools in improving educational attainments of
schoolchildren, everyone agrees that learning
standards have fallen in India over the past few
years even as public spending on schools has
increased.
The latest Annual Status of Education Report

(ASER) report released last month by nongovernmental organization (NGO) Pratham shows
that more than half of children in Class V are
unable to read a Class II-level text. Even as
enrolment rates have shot up, learning levels have
dropped. Studies other than ASER have also drawn
similar conclusions about the poor learning levels
of Indian schoolchildren. Even students in the
[54]
relatively better performing states of Himachal

Pradesh and Tamil Nadu were placed near the
bottom of international rankings in a 2009 study
by the Programme for International Student
Assessment.
The average reading and arithmetic skills of
children have in fact dropped sharply since 2009,
when the right to education law was passed, as
ASER reports since then show. The rot is deepest
in state-funded schools, which have seen an
unprecedented infusion of funds over the past
decade. In an interview to Mint on 29 January, a
key spokesperson of the United Progressive Alliance
(UPA) government and the minister for rural
development, Jairam Ramesh, acknowledged that
learning outcomes in schools across the country
had declined over the past few years but held state
governments responsible for the decline. Nothing
could be further from the truth. The problem with
schooling lies not just in the faulty implementation

of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA). The root of
the problem lies in the very design of the SSA
programme and its thrust on inputs and quantity
instead of the quality of education.
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The misplaced thrust of SSA stems from the

faulty design of the Right to Education law. Like
other key social sector interventions of the UPA,
the Right to Education Act has been poorly
designed, and has led to a gigantic waste of public
resources over the past few years. According to a
study by the accountability initiative group of the
Centre for Policy Research, an increase of Rs1,000
in per-student allocations raised the proportion of
students in Class III-V who can read a Class I
textbook by a mere 0.2%. The education law may
have been initiated with the noble intention of
promoting learning levels but since we measured
only enrolment rates, we achieved success only on
that score.
mistakes of the past; else we will keep throwing

good money after bad. In a country such as India,
state funding will continue to play a major role in
ensuring access to basic quality education. But to
make sure that the increased spend is put to good
use the school system needs a radical overhaul.
Over the past few years, salaries of teachers in
public schools have risen substantially. Yet,
increasing number of parents in rural India seem
to be deserting government schools for more
expensive private ones, where teachers are less
qualified but work harder. The reason why
government school teachers do not teach well, or
teach well only in their private tuition classes is the
utter lack of accountability in the public schooling
system.
Although policymakers pay lip service to

measuring outcomes, we still continue to focus
largely on inputs. It is the centre rather than states
that must bear the blame, given that it is the centres
thrust on measuring inputs such as school
infrastructure and the number of teachers which
shape the priorities of state governments. Had the
centre initiated rigorous assessments of learning
outcomes in each state and district of the country,
and had it linked funding to outcomes, states would
have focused on delivering quality education.
Building a school system that actually delivers
will require us to honestly acknowledge the
A change in school strategy that entails the use

of school vouchers funded by the state, and involves
private schools, is required to change the status
quo. Public funding of private schools and
improvement of schooling standards in state-run
schools should be seen as complementary strategies
rather than mutually exclusive ones. But reforms
in public schools will require realigning incentives
of teachers, and linking pay to performance. Finally,
both public and private schools will be able to
deliver better once our education policy starts
putting greater focus on improving pedagogy and
learning outcomes rather than on just schooling
inputs and physical infrastructure.
Source: Mint
THE TROUBLE WITH EMERGING MARKETS
The financial turmoil that hit emerging market

economies last spring, following the US Federal
Reserves taper tantrum over its quantitative easing
(QE) policy, has returned with a vengeance. This
time, the trigger was a confluence of several events:
a currency crisis in Argentina, where the authorities
stopped intervening in the forex markets to prevent
the loss of foreign reserves; weaker economic data
from China; and persistent political uncertainty and
unrest in Turkey, Ukraine and Thailand.
all have twin fiscal and current account deficits,

falling growth rates, above-target inflation, and
political uncertainty from upcoming legislative or
presidential elections this year. But five other
significant countriesArgentina, Venezuela,
Ukraine, Hungary, and Thailandare also
vulnerable. Political and electoral risk can be found
in all of them, loose fiscal policy in many of them,
and rising external imbalances and sovereign risk
in some of them.
This mini perfect storm in emerging markets

was soon transmitted, via international investors
risk aversion, to advanced economies stock
markets. But the immediate trigger for these
pressures should not be confused with their deeper
causes: Many emerging markets are in real trouble.
Then, there are the over-hyped BRICS countries,

now falling back to reality. Three of them (Brazil,
Russia, and South Africa) will grow more slowly
than the US this year, with real (inflation-adjusted)
gross domestic product (GDP) rising at less than
2.5%, while the economies of the other two (China
and India) are slowing sharply. Indeed, Brazil,
India, and South Africa are members of the Fragile
The list includes India, Indonesia, Brazil, Turkey,

and South Africadubbed the Fragile Five because
[55]

Five, and demographic decline in China and Russia
will undermine both countries potential growth.
Nonetheless, the threat of a full-fledged

currency, sovereign debt, and banking crisis
remains low, even in the Fragile Five, for several
reasons. All have flexible exchange rates, a large
war chest of reserves to shield against a run on
their currencies and banks, and fewer currency
mismatches (for example, heavy foreign currency
borrowing to finance investment in local-currency
assets). Many also have sounder banking systems,
while their public and private debt ratios, though
rising, are still low, with little risk of insolvency.
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The largest of the BRICS, China, faces additional

risk stemming from a credit-fuelled investment
boom, with excessive borrowing by local
governments, state-owned enterprises, and real
estate firms severely weakening the asset portfolios
of banks and shadow banks. Most credit bubbles
this large have ended up causing a hard economic
landing, and Chinas economy is unlikely to escape
unscathed, particularly as reforms to rebalance
growth from high savings and fixed investment to
private consumption are likely to be implemented
too slowly, given the powerful interests aligned
against them.
until after elections; and incumbent governments

have been similarly wary of the growth-depressing
effects of tightening fiscal, monetary, and credit
policies. Indeed, the failure of many emergingmarket governments to tighten macroeconomic
policy sufficiently has led to another round of
currency depreciation, which risks feeding into
higher inflation and jeopardizing these countries
ability to finance twin fiscal and external deficits.
Moreover, the deep causes of last years turmoil

in emerging markets have not disappeared. For
starters, the risk of a hard landing in China poses
a serious threat to emerging Asia, commodity
exporters around the world, and even advanced
economies.
At the same time, Feds tapering of its longterm asset purchases has begun in earnest, with
interest rates set to rise. As a result, the capital
that flowed to emerging markets in the years of
high liquidity and low yields in advanced
economies is now fleeing many countries where
easy money caused fiscal, monetary, and credit
policies to become too lax.
Another deep cause of current volatility is that
the commodity super-cycle is over. This is not just
because China is slowing; years of high prices have
led to investment in new capacity and an increase
in the supply of many commodities. Meanwhile,
emerging-market commodity exporters failed to
take advantage of the windfall and implement
market-oriented structural reforms in the last
decade; on the contrary, many of them embraced
state capitalism, giving too large a role to stateowned enterprises and banks.
These risks will not wane any time soon.
Chinese growth is unlikely to accelerate and lift
commodity prices; Fed has increased the pace of
its QE tapering; structural reforms are not likely
Over time, optimism about emerging markets is

probably
correct.
Many
have
sound
macroeconomic, financial, and policy fundamentals.
Moreover, some of the medium-term fundamentals
for most emerging markets, including the fragile
ones, remain strong: urbanization, industrialization,
catch-up growth from low per capita income, a
demographic dividend, the emergence of a more
stable middle class, the rise of a consumer society,
and the opportunities for faster output gains once
structural reforms are implemented. So it is not
fair to lump all emerging markets into one basket;
differentiation is needed.
But the short-run policy trade-offs that many
of these countries facedamned if they tighten
monetary and fiscal policy fast enough, and
damned if they do notremain ugly. The external
risks and internal macroeconomic and structural
vulnerabilities that they face will continue to cloud
their immediate outlook. The next year or two will
be a bumpy ride for many emerging markets, before
more stable and market-oriented governments
implement sounder policies.
Source: Mint
WHY WE NEED PSU BANK REFORMS
Foreign investors gave a cold shoulder to State

Bank of Indias Rs.8,000 crore mega share sale last
week. Had Life Insurance Corp. of India not come
to its rescue by picking up more than one-third of
the shares in the so-called qualified institutional
placement, it would have been a huge
[56]
embarrassment for Indias largest lender, which,

along with its associate banks, has about a 20%
share of Indiasbanking assets. There is only one
truth emerging from this episode: Foreign investors
are not enamoured of Indias state-run banks, which
are in dire need of reforms.

a public sector bank board, particularly when it
does not have any director on a private bank board?
A representative of the regulator being present on
the board of a regulated entity is a clear conflict of
interest and its high time RBI withdrew all its
directors from public sector bank boards. If the idea
behind keeping an RBI representative on a bank
board is to ensure that the bank follows all
regulations diligently, it doesnt always serve the
purpose. A former RBI deputy governor who was
on the board of State Bank of India could hardly
play any role in its policy decisions, pushed by the
banks aggressive CMD.
Similarly, why should the regulator be involved
in the process of appointment of the CMD in a
public sector bank while it stays away from private
banks? An RBI representative is an integral part of
the selection panel of public sector banks where
there is no set norm and the entire process is often
marred by political interference. By being part of
this process, the regulator loses its credibility. It
should be entirely left to the owner of the banks,
the government. Its another matter that the
government needs to overhaul the entire selection
process by being transparent and looking for ideal
candidates in the open market.
Finally, the concept of fit and proper does not
exist for public sector bank boards. This criterion is
not applicable to any director of the board, including
the CMD and executive directors. Barring the
representatives of shareholders and an RBI nominee,
all directors on a public sector bank board are
nominees of the government. They represent
different interest groups such as agriculture, small
scale industries, information technology and so on,
and most of them are political appointments. Nobody
ever checks whether they are fit and proper
candidates to be on a banks board. As a result of
this, there is very little contribution from such
directors in terms of strategy and direction to a public
sector bank, where the CMD rules the roost.
It is clear that there is no level-playing field for
private and state-run banks, but its not necessarily
true that because of this state-run banks always
have had an advantage over their counterparts in
the private sector. For instance, unlike private
players, public sector banks are subject to
investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation
and the Central Vigilance Commission. They are
also covered by the Right to Information Act. All
these inhibit the decision-making process in a public
sector bank. Public sector banks should be freed
from these shackles to be able to take decisions
without fear.
Source: Mint
CH
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Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor

Raghuram Rajan has taken the first step by setting
up a committee to review the governance of the
boards of Indian banks. The eight-member
committee, headed by P.J. Nayak, former chief of
Axis Bank Ltd, is expected to submit its report
within three months of holding its first meeting.
The terms of reference of the committee include a
review of the regulatory compliance requirements
of banks boards; analysis of the representation on
the banks boards to see whether they have the
right mix of capabilities and the necessary
independence to govern the institutions;
investigation of possible conflicts of interest in board
representation,
including
among
owner
representatives and regulators; examination of
whether adequate time is devoted to issues of
strategy, growth, governance and risk
management; and assessment and review of the
so-called fit and proper criterion for all categories
of directors of banks, among other things.
The key reform in public sector banks, which
roughly account for three-fourths of the Rs.82trillion Indian banking industry is acceptance of
the fact that regulations should be ownershipneutral. This is not the case now. Private banks
and public sector banks are two different animals
governed by different sets of regulations.
For instance, a public sector bank is headed by
a chairman and managing director, or CMD, while
in a private bank the top post is split between a
chairman and a managing director. As a result of
this, in a private bank, which is entirely boarddriven, the chairman lends the vision and the chief
executive officer and managing director is in charge
of execution of the strategy laid down by the board.
In contrast, in a public sector bank, the CMD is the
last word on anything and everything. Indeed,
there are executive directors (most public sector
banks have two executive directors) but their role
is vague.
This is certainly not an ideal situation,
particularly when the boards are weak and there
arent too many directors with expertise and
strategic vision to guide the CMD. Splitting the top
post in a public sector bank is a critical component
of reform along with strengthening the board. The
chairman should be in a non-executive role and
the managing director should be a hands-on
professional, supported by executive directors. This
should be the administrative structure of State Bank
of India as well as other state-run banks, although
they are governed by separate Acts of Parliament.
A relevant question in this context is: Why
should the Reserve Bank have its representative on
[57]
THE I.M.F. NEEDS A RESET

The overwhelming majority of I.M.F. member
states approved the changes, but more than three
years later the quotas and votes remain unchanged
because the United States Congress has still not
approved what the executive branch agreed to.
Without congressional approval the whole
readjustment remains paralyzed.
But the I.M.F. is experiencing a crisis of

governance. The governments of big developing
countries have become frustrated with the
unwillingness of Western countries to adjust the
distribution of power in the fund in line with their
rising economic weight. Frustration has encouraged
some to explore bypass institutions, such as the
development bank and the currency-pooling scheme
being negotiated among the BRICS (Brazil, Russia,
India, China, South Africa).
The deeper problem is that the 2010 accord is

a one-off. I.M.F. member states say that the fund
should agree on a formula for the adjustment of
quota shares going forward, but the executive board
has repeatedly missed deadlines for doing so. Most
members agree that quotas and votes should be
based on a countrys G.D.P., in the interests of
simplicity and consistency. But the Europeans insist
they should be based not only on G.D.P. but also
on openness. In response, some developing
countries argue that if measures beyond G.D.P. are
to be included, criteria like contributions to global
growth should be among them.
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For all the criticism that has been directed at it

over the decades, the International Monetary Fund
provides vital services to the world economy. In
particular, it acts as the nearest thing to an
international lender of last resort to countries
experiencing external financial crises and thereby
helps to maintain international financial stability.
Today the four big BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India,

China) have a combined share of world gross
domestic product of 24.5 percent, compared with
the 13.4 percent share of the four big European
economies (Germany, France, Britain, Italy); but the
four BRICS countries have a combined share of
votes of only 10.3 percent, compared with the four
European nations share of 17.6 percent.
In 2010 the funds board of governors agreed
on a package of governance reforms, subject to
ratification by the I.M.F.s member countries.
Members would increase their quota subscriptions
(similar to credit union deposits), raising the funds
resources. At the same time 6.2 percent of voting
shares would be shifted in favor of dynamic
emerging-market and developing countries.
The I.M.F.s managing director at the time,

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, called the accord the
most fundamental governance overhaul in the
funds 65-year history and the biggest-ever shift of
influence in favor of emerging-market and
developing countries to recognize their growing role
in the global economy.
But the small print revealed that the agreed
vote shift from developed countries to emergingmarket and developing countries was only 2.6
percent, the rest being adjustments within the
category of emerging-market and developing
countries from overrepresented ones to
underrepresented ones. Even if implemented, the
2010 reforms would leave large discrepancies
between a countrys share of economic weight and
its share of voting power.
[58]
The upshot is stalemate. This lack of agreement

suits the Europeans well, for it protects their current
overrepresentation in the I.M.F.
To unblock the stalemate, the board of governors
should agree to amend the funds constitution to
delink the reallocation of quotas and votes from
increases in total financial subscriptions. The I.M.F.s
constitution says that a member state can veto any
loss of quota and votes. In practice this means that
a reallocation can only occur when there is also a
large net increase in financial subscriptions. By
separating the two issues, the fund could institute
a routinized adjustment of voting power as
countries relative economic weight changes,
without the changes always being held hostage to
governments willingness to make new capital
contributions.
This would remove the fiscal component of the
reforms and go a long way to disarm its opponents
in the Republican Party. The remaining parts of
the 2010 reform might even make them happy to
come on board. The United States would keep its
solitary veto over super-majority decisions requiring
85 percent of votes, such as changes to the funds
constitution. And an agreement by the United
States would open the way to changes that
substantially cut Europes overrepresentation,
making space for increased representation for
emerging-market economies a long-standing
American objective.

2014 is the 70th anniversary of the Bretton
Woods conference at which the International
Monetary Fund and World Bank were founded.
Breaking the deadlock in I.M.F. governance reform
would help to ensure that emerging-market and
developing countries see the fund as a cooperative
of states and no longer a device for Western
countries to impose their conditions on others. It

also would boost the prospects for international
financial stability, and not incidentally, constitute
a triumph for President Obama and the I.M.F.s
current managing director, Christine Lagarde.
Source: The New York Times
TIME FOR A CEASEFIRE

the American math wars of the 1980s pitted
traditionalists, who emphasised fluency in pen-andpaper calculations, against reformers led by the
countrys biggest teaching lobby, who put realworld problem-solving, often with the help of
calculators, at the centre of the curriculum. A
backlash followed as parents and academics
worried that the new math left pupils illprepared for university courses in mathematics and
the sciences. But as many countries have since
found, training pupils to ace exams is not the same
as equipping them to use their hard-won
knowledge in work and life.
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IF THE worlds education systems have a

common focus, it is to turn out school-leavers who
are proficient in mathematics. Governments are
impressed by evidence from the World Bank and
others that better maths results raises GDP and
incomes. That, together with the soul-searching
provoked by the cross-country PISA comparisons
of 15-year-olds mathematical attainment produced
by the OECD, a club of mostly rich countries, is
prompting educators in many places to look afresh
at what maths to teach, and how to teach it.
Todays reformers think new technology renders

this old argument redundant. They include Conrad
Wolfram, who worked on Mathematica, a program
which allows users to solve equations, visualise
mathematical functions and much more. He argues
that computers make rote procedures, such as long
division, obsolete. If it is high-level problem-solving
and critical thinking were after, theres not much
in evidence in a lot of curriculums, he says.
Those countries languishing in the league tables

fret about how to catch up without turning
students off the subject with boring drill. Top
performers, most of them Asian (see chart), fear
that their focus on technical proficiency does not
translate into an enthusiasm for maths after leaving
school. And everyone worries about how to prepare
pupils for a jobs market that will reward creative
thinking ever more highly.
Maths education has been a battlefield before:
Estonias government has commissioned Mr

Wolframs consultancy in Oxfordshire to modernise
maths courses for secondary-school pupils. Starting
this month, it will pilot lessons built around openended problems which have no single solution. One
example: Whats the best algorithm for picking a
romantic date? (Possible answer: go on more dates
with a lower quality threshold to maximise the
chance of success.) Another: Am I drunk?, which
leads into quantitative analysis involving body
masses, rates of alcohol absorption and other
variables.
Some PISA stars are also seeking a new
approach. Singapores government commissioned
David Hogan, an Australian maths educator, to
assess its syllabus. It wants pupils to be able to
explain what they know to their classmates, and
to apply it in unfamiliar situations.
Israel is also experimenting, aware of the
imminent end of the windfall provided by the
arrival of many mathematicians from the former
[59]

that they are therefore no longer worth teaching.
A third of pupils tested in Shanghai, which tops
the PISA maths tablesand where pupils drill in
mental arithmetic, start algebra young and learn
formulae by heartcan apply their knowledge to
novel and difficult problems, compared with 2-3%
in America and Europe.
Youngsters, in China and elsewhere, need to
have the grounding to assess whether a computergenerated answer is close to right before they start
to rely on whizzy technology. Then they can
happily abandon the drill in long division and
quadratic equations. For the majority of maths
moderates, the good news is that both sides in the
fruitless trench warfare between progressives and
traditionalists look ready for a ceasefire.
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Soviet Union. Some Israeli maths lessons from

primary school onwards will soon be taught using
inexpensive tablets, an approach inspired by
Shimon Schocken. An academic at Herzliya
University, from 2005 he has created a large online
group of self-learners who build computers and
programs from scratch. Pupils are encouraged to
visualise their calculations, not just to get the right
answers. (Your correspondent, raised on algebra
worksheets, found an iPad exercise that involved
grouping sheep in holding pens embarrassingly
hard.)
Andreas Schleicher, the statistician in charge

of the PISA studies, agrees that many of the
algorithmsrote procedures for solving familiar
problemsthat children have traditionally spent
years mastering are now easy to digitise, automate
and outsource. But he cautions against concluding
[60]
CHRONICLE
IAS ACADEMY

10TH FEBRUARY 2014 TO 16TH FEBRUARY 2014
Call: 9953120676, 9582263947

CONTENTS
TOPICS
Pg. No.
National .......................................................................................................................... 4-9

International .............................................................................................................. 10-16
Economy ..................................................................................................................... 19-24
Health .......................................................................................................................... 27-29
News in Brief ........................................................................................................... 30-33
Editorials .................................................................................................................... 37-57
*
Unravelling in the sky ..................................................................................................................... 35
A toxic employment benefits regime ........................................................................................... 36
Internet realpolitik ........................................................................................................................... 37
Not hiring now .................................................................................................................................. 38
Silencing of liberal india ................................................................................................................. 39
At a standstill .................................................................................................................................... 40
With an eye on inflation .................................................................................................................. 41
Halfway right .................................................................................................................................... 43
Into the melting pot ......................................................................................................................... 43
A chance not to be squandered ...................................................................................................... 45
Retrograde avatar of repressive tradition .................................................................................... 46
Life on the razors edge ................................................................................................................... 47
Changing landscape of free speech .............................................................................................. 49
Crickets moment of truth ............................................................................................................... 50
A decade on the rails with UPA .................................................................................................... 51
Challenges for a new IOA ............................................................................................................... 53
Dealing with new lows .................................................................................................................... 54
Fusion, ultimate green energy source .......................................................................................... 54
Spectrum of success ......................................................................................................................... 55
A war on jobs .................................................................................................................................... 56
Developing and regulating a profession ..................................................................................... 57
MGNREGA: A tale of rural revival ............................................................................................... 59
Death by financialization ................................................................................................................ 60
Payment banks as financial levelers ............................................................................................. 61
NATIONAL
BEES NEW NORMS FOR FUEL EFFICIENCY
order to achieve greater fuel efficiency, which, in
turn, will have an impact on their profit margins.
The BEE notification has sent shock-waves

across the auto belt. Industry sources say that not
only has BEE brought forward the implementation
dates of these stringent norms by a year, but they
would also impact manufacturers marketing and
sales plans. These norms, which are set to start
one year of earlier timeline, are likely to be effective
from April 1, 2016 onwards.
As per the original plan, BEE was to give a onestar rating for the least fuel efficient vehicles and
five stars for the most efficient in their respective
weight class. Vehicles with a higher star rating are
expected to be more expensive. BEE had earlier
formulated similar standards and star labels for
electrical appliances such as air conditioners and
refrigerators.
The fuel efficiency norms are part of the

demand management that the government had
professed for years in order to regulate the volume
of oil imported. It also feeds in to the Energy
Efficiency mission under the National Action Plan
on Climate Change. The ministry of road transport
and highways will implement the standards under
the Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989.
Chassis dynamometer is a device that measures

the amount of power translated from the wheels to
the racing surface. These energy consumption
standard are for the motor vehicles using petrol,
diesel, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and
compressed natural gas (CNG).
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The Bureau of Energy Efficiency has issued

stringent fuel emission norms. The move to enforce
stringent fuel-efficiency norms is significant in the
context of higher oil prices, a weaker rupee and
efforts to contain pollution in the country. India
imports around 80% of its oil requirement and
spent $144.293 billion on oil imports in the last
fiscal year.
Initially, the first phase was to be launched

from 2015, and the second from 2020. But a delay
in notifying the norms has led to the years being
pushed to 2016 and 2022, respectively. Under the
new norms, the industry will have to ensure that
the mileage of cars on Indian roads improves by
10% by 2021. The second phase, for which the
government did not specify a deadline, will begin
from 2022 and will target a fuel efficiency
improvement by 30%.
Carbon dioxide emissions by vehicles, after the
implementation of the new norms, are projected
to come down from 142gm per km in 2010-11 to
129.8gm by 2021-22 and 113gm 2022 onwards.
This would mean that the car makers will have to
make further investments in new technologies in
[4]
Failure to comply will invite a penalty. Under

the Energy Conservation Act, 2001, car makers
that fail to meet carbon emission norms will be
fined Rs.10 lakh initially and asked to pay a
penalty of Rs.10,000 a day till their car models
meet the norms.
The power ministry has derived a formula based

on the average fuel consumption standard, where
the mileage will be decided on the basis of litres of
fuel consumed by a vehicle to run 100km. In the
first phase, the government expects the cars to
consume 5.49 litres of fuel on average to cover
100km by 2016, thus increasing the average mileage
to 18.2km per litre from 16.5km in 2010-11, when
the norms were initially proposed.
In the second phase, the consumption of fuel
will come down to 4.77 litres for 100km, increasing
the mileage to 21km per litre. Since fuels such as
CNG, LPG and diesel offer better mileage for
passenger vehicles, the ministry has notified
guidelines that make these fuels equivalent to the
petrol proportionately. The average vehicle weight
for this class of vehicles for the first phase will be
1,037kg, which will be increased to 1,145kg.
Weekly Current Affairs 10th February to 16th February, 2014
Bureau of Energy Efficiency
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The Bureau of Energy Efficiency is an agency

of the Government of India, under the Ministry
of Power created in March 2002 under the
provisions of the nations 2001 Energy
Conservation Act. The agencys function is to
develop programs which will increase the
conservation and efficient use of energy in India.
The government has proposed to make it
mandatory for all appliances in India to have
ratings by the BEE starting in January 2010. The
mission of Bureau of Energy Efficiency is to
institutionalize energy efficiency services, enable
delivery mechanisms in the country and provide
leadership to energy efficiency in all sectors of
the country. The primary objective would be to
reduce energy intensity in the economy.
POSSIBILITY OF MAJOR QUAKES IS LESS IN N-E REGION
A new finding based on GPS measurements

has shown that the risk to a major earthquake is
low in north east region, particularly in Manipur,
Nagaland and Mizoram, apart from the general
perception that the entire North East region faced
high seismic hazard. Dr.Vineet Gahalaut, who is
heading the team of GPS group at National
Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI), which is
studying seismic activity across different regions in
the country sorted the lowered risk in NE regions.

Using GPS measurements, the seismologists found
that in North East India the relative plate motion
between Indian and Sunda plates occurred along
a fault named as Churachandpur Mao Fault.
However, it was not experiencing strain build-up
due to slippage on a continuous basis. As a result,
the possibility of occurrence of a major or great
earthquake in the Indo-Burmese arc was very low.
WEB PORTAL, EASY ACCESS TO LABOUR LAWS
Union Labour & Employment Minister, Shri

Oscar Fernandez has inaugurated a unified single
portal which will facilitate ease of reporting at one
place for various Labour Laws, consolidated
information of Labour Inspection and its
enforcement. The Web Portal will enhance
convenience of reporting, transparency in Labour
Inspection and the monitoring of Labour
Inspections based on key performance indices and
provide an effective Grievance Redressal System
hyperlinked with Department of Administrative
Reforms & Public Grievances (DARPG) portal.
The portal is being developed and maintained
by the National Informatics Centre. This integrated

portal will operate through a Unique Labour
Identification Number and the employers will be
allotted LIN (Labour Identification Number) after
registration on web portal. The enforcement agency
will upload the data of inspection on the web portal
which will be updated periodically.
The Ministry had selected the Chief Labour
Commissioner (Central) organisation, the
Employees State Insurance Corporation and the
Employees Provident Fund Organisation to start
with. Other statutes and State Governments could
also join this unified single Web portal subsequently.
NSC SUGGESTS PLAN TO PROTECT INTERNET USERS
In a bid to protect data of Indian Internet users,

the National Security Council (NSC) has proposed
a three-pronged action plan, including asking all
email providers to set up local servers, creating an
Indian email service and making it mandatory for
Government officials to use the email provided by

the National Informatics Centre. This is an outcome
after recent media reports on how US security
agencies were snooping user data generated by
platforms such as Google and Facebook.
[5]

The NSC wants all data related to
communication between two users in India to
remain within the country. The National Security
Advisor has asked the Department of Telecom to
look at the possibility of making it mandatory for
all telecom and Internet companies to route local
data through the National Internet Exchange of
India.
In addition to this, the NSC has said that the

Government must facilitate the establishment of an
Indian email service that would compete in terms
of quality and technical sophistication with foreign
players. The objective is to wean users from
companies that do not conform to the requirements
of Indias security.
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However, foreign email service providers such

as Google are not required to connect to exchange
or keep data within India as they are governed by
the laws of their respective home countries. Some

of these service providers have a mirror server in
India but data are available in the primary servers
located in a foreign country.
SC GUIDELINES TO CONTROL AD-HOC APPOINTMENTS
The Supreme Court has issued guidelines for

high courts and trial courts to curb the menace of
ad hoc appointments and to ensure availability of
staff. A Bench led by Justice B S Chauhan said all
posts shall be filled by issuing advertisements in at
least two newspapers, one of which must be in a
regional language with wide circulation. The
exercise to fill vacancies at the earliest must start in
advance to ensure the selected person joins
immediately on availability of the post, and hence,
there may be no occasion to appoint any person
on ad hoc basis for the reason that the problem of
inducting daily labourers who are ensured of a
regular appointment subsequently has to be
avoided and a fair procedure must be adopted

giving equal opportunity.
The Bench asked high courts and subordinate
courts to undertake the exercise of recruitment on
a regular basis at least once a year for existing
vacancies or vacancies likely to occur within a said
period. The order came on a bunch of petitions
relating to appointment of class IV employees in
courts subordinate to the Delhi HC. The dispute
had arisen over the continuity of employees
appointed on ad hoc basis for 89 days, which
would extend for the same period after the same
interval.
SPECIAL LEGISLATION TO PROTECT THE GANGA
This is the first time a separate law has been

sought to protect the Ganga. After successive
governments spent more than Rs.5,000 crore over
28 years on failed Ganga cleanup plans, the Prime
Ministers Office (PMO) has finally directed the
environment ministry to frame legislation that
would protect Indias national river from pollution
and keep it flowing.
The competent authority in the PMO has

approved the proposal for framing a draft legislation
on the national river Ganga for strengthening
efforts to make the river pollution free and to ensure
its continuous flow.
The PMO also directed the ministry to set up
an inter-ministerial committee (IMC) with the
environment secretary as its chairman.
The Ganga is spread over 2,525km, passes

through five states and has 14 tributaries. The first
attempt to clean the river was made in 1986 when
the Ganga Action Plan (GAP) was launched by
Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. But the project failed
to deliver because there was no co-ordination
[6]
between the central government and states. While

the central government was to release the funds,
the work was to be implemented by the state
governments, but that did not happen.
The World Bank had in 2011 granted a loan of
approximately Rs.4,600 crore for cleaning the
Ganga. In 2008, the central government created
the National Ganga River Basin Authority
(NGRBA), headed by the prime minister, to clean
up the river.
The draft law would include measures to ensure
that a minimum flow is maintained at different
locations in different seasons along the entire length
of the Ganga as well as its tributaries. It would
also try to promote sustainable farming and wateruse efficiency.
The biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) levels
in the Gangaan indicator of the health of a
riverare six times what they should be. While
the safe limit is less than 3mg per litre (mg/l), the
BOD levels of the Ganga are 17-18mg/l.
The proposed law will give authorities the

power to monitor and regulate the discharge of
wastewater, industrial effluents and management
of municipal solid waste through the imposition of
penalties and damages.
The draft law will create new mechanisms for
implementing preventive and corrective
approaches, and also integrate existing authorities

such as the Water Quality Assessment Authority,
Central Ground Water Board and the Central
Pollution Control Board. The document states the
government will consider creating a separate fund
called the Ganga River Basin Management Fund.
INDIAS SLIPS BY 2 SPOTS IN GII

knowledge. Since its inception over 1,85,000 ideas,
innovations and traditional knowledge practises
from over 555 districts across the country have
come.
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As per Global Innovation Index (GII), Indias

innovation index 2013 ranking declined by two
ranks as compared to the previous year. Indias
rank as per GII 2012 was 64 out of 141 countries/
economies and now India is ranked at 66th out of
142 countries/economies as per Global Innovation
Index (GII (2013) co-published by Cornell
University, USA, European Institute of Business
Administration ( INSEAD) and World Intellectual
Property Organisation (WIPO).
Top Ten Countries
Rank
Country
1.
Switzerland
2.
Sweden
Minister for Science and Technology, Jaipal

Reddy said that change in the relative position in
GII rank is attributed to the addition of one more
country coupled with revisions and adjustments
made in GII framework. This implies that year-onyear comparisons are not necessarily valid or
straight forward.
3.
United Kingdom
4.
Netherlands
5.
U.S.A
6.
Finland
7.
Hong kong
8.
Singapore
Though, the National Innovation Foundation

(NIF) has been set up by the Department of Science
and Technology as an aided institute to support
grassroot innovations and outstanding traditional
9.
Denmark
10.
Ireland
INDIA AT 140TH PLACE IN REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS
In the Press Freedom Index published by

Reporters Without Borders, India ranked 140th out
of 180 countries. This was a one-point jump from
the countrys 2013 ranking, when it recorded its
steepest fall on the annual-list since 2002.
The authors of report singled out the revolt in

the disputed territory of Kashmir, where channels
of communications, including telephone lines,
satellite televisions and the Internet, are routinely
suspended in response to unrest, as well as the
killings of eight journalists in 2013, for Indias lowly
press freedom ranking.
The Indian government has also been under
fire in recent years for its media. Indias Supreme
Court for instance is currently hearing a defamation
suit against tech giants Google and Facebook, a
case thats been pending before courts since 2011.
And in 2012, the government sought to block
Twitter accounts of some prominent journalists
and news organizations, arguing the content was
stoking communal tensions.
The same year, a Mumbai court charged

cartoonist Aseem Trivedi, who likened the national
Parliament to a toilet on his website, with sedition,
a charge that was later dropped. These, among
other reasons, led to India slipping nine places to
140th in Reporters Without Borderss 2013 press
ranking, which surveyed 179 countries.
The 2014 list was topped by Finland for at least
the third time in a row, followed by the
Netherlands, Norway and Luxemburg. Of the five
classifications ranging from good to very
serious, India fell into the difficult second from
the bottom category. India fared better than
neighbors Pakistan (158th), Sri Lanka (165th) and
China (175th), but ranked lower than countries
such as Afghanistan (128th) and Bangladesh
(146th.) Eritrea, a small country in the Horn of
Africa, had the worst rating at 180th in this years
list.
Reporters Without Borders (RWB) is a Francebased international non-profit, non-governmental
[7]

organization that promotes and defends freedom
of information and freedom of the press. The
organization has consultant status at the United
Nations. It has two primary spheres of activity:
one is focused on Internet Censorship and the New
Media, and the other on providing material,
financial and psychological assistance to journalists
assigned to dangerous areas. Its missions are to:
1. continuously monitor attacks on freedom of
information worldwide;
3. act in cooperation with governments to fight

censorship and laws aimed at restricting
freedom of information;
4. morally and financially assist persecuted
journalists, as well as their families;
5. offer
material
assistance
to
war
correspondents in order to enhance their
safety.
The bottom 10 countries with worst press
freedom
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The top 10 countries that have more press

freedom
2. denounce any such attacks in the media;
1) Finland
180) Eritrea
2) The Netherlands
179) DPRK
3) Norway
178) Turkmenistan
4) Luxembourg
177) Syrian Arab Republic
5) Andorra
176) Somalia
6) Liechtenstein
175) China
7) Denmark
174) Vietnam
8) Iceland
173) Islamic Republic of Iran
9) New Zealand
172) Sudan
10) Sweden
171) Laos
LICENSED PRIVATE ARMS ACCESSIBLE IN HALF OF THE COUNTRY

It has been found that the Governments across
the country have issued 19.80 lakh private gun
licences in 324 districts, or in just under half the
countrys 671 districts. States that have suffered
terrorism and those with poor social indicators top
the list. Uttar Pradesh, which has 16.50 per cent of
the countrys population, has issued 11.23 lakh
private licences, according to a government
affidavit filed in the Allahabad High Court last
year. The district-wise data were received over four
years from queries sent to 600 districts; many didnt
respond. For the 324 that did, the average works
out to 6,113 licences per district.Of the 50 districts
on top of the list, 21 are in UP. These include
Lucknow, Varanasi, Moradabad, Ghaziabad,
Muzaffarnagar, Meerut, Bareilly and Azamgarh.
Punjab accounts for another 11 of these 50
districts. These include Patiala, Tarn Taran,
Ferozpur, Ludhiana, Hoshiarpur, Sangrur and
Jalandhar and Muktsar Sahib. The figures are for
non-prohibited bores, issued by district
administrations. Licences for prohibited bores are
issued by the Centre.
The court found that at least 6,000 persons
facing criminal trials have also been issued arms
[8]
licences in UP. Besides, the state declared 50,000

applications are pending with the district
authorities in Lucknow. District authorities in this
state are known to get recommendations from
politicians for licences to be issued to certain people.
Lucknow district alone has 48,436 licensed
weapons, a number that not only outmatches
Gujarat, where the statewide total is 44,882, but
also dwarfs Thiruvananthapuram district in Kerala,
which has 595 as per replies from the district
authorities.
When one applies for a private licence, the cause
cited is invariably self-defence and the licence is
eventually granted on the ground. Once the arms
and licences were in hand, they were used to
commit at least 2,012 murders in the five years
from 2008 to 2012, National Crime Records Bureau
data show.
Approaching every states director general of
police and home department, only Gujarat,
Haryana, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Andaman &
Nicobar, Delhi and Tripura provided the numbers,
while UPs figure comes from its affidavit. Most
other states suggested that district magistrates be

The data eventually collected for this report comes
after 700 RTI applications to district administrations
over four years.
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approached instead. The Election Commission,

which calls for surrender of licensed weapons
during polls, forwarded the queries to the states.
[9]
INTERNATIONAL
FAO: FALL IN GLOBAL FOOD PRICES
2013.Meat prices, which had strengthened over the
past few months, fell slightly in January.
The only exception in January was a rise in
dairy prices. The FAO dairy price index registered
a 1.3 per cent increase in January to 267.7 points,
largely reflecting strong demand, especially from
China, North Africa, the Middle East and the
Russian Federation.
Strong harvests and stable demand from major
consumers like China, Thailand, and Indonesia
helped push prices for rice and other cereals and
grains down 1.3% in January. Meats (down 1%)
and oils and fats (down 3.8%) were also lower, but
the biggest mover was for sugars the smallest
component in the index - which saw prices fall
5.6% in January. The FAOs World Food Outlook
is based on a basket of 55 goods and 73 price
quotations in five major food commodity groups.
FAO Food index in January 2014
the prospect of record soybean supplies in

South America weakened the prices for other
vegetable oils, also weighing on the index.
4. The FAO Dairy Price Index averaged 267.7
points in January, a rise of 3.5 points, or 1.3
percent, over December. Demand for all dairy
products remains firm, especially from China,
North Africa, the Middle East (SMP and WMP)
and the Russian Federation (butter). Seasonal
production is shifting from the southern to
the northern hemisphere. Therefore, overall,
there are only limited supplies available, which
have lent support to prices.
5. The FAO Meat Price Index averaged 185.2
points in January, down slightly, by 1.7 points,
or 1 percent, from December. Prices for pig
meat and sheep meat moved lower, mainly
related to good availability, while prices of
bovine meat and poultry rose marginally:
demand from China and Japan have resulted
in beef prices showing consistent growth
since the middle of 2013.
6. The FAO Sugar Price Index averaged 221.6
points in January, down 13.2 points, or 5.6
percent, from December. Decembers decline
represents the third consecutive monthly fall
in sugar prices, driven by large export
surpluses on the back of bumper crops in
leading sugar producing countries.
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United Nations food agency, The Food and

Agricultural Organisation (FAO) estimates that the
Global food prices fell in January, led by decline in
the costs of sugar, vegetable oils, and cereals. The
Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) price
index measures monthly price changes for a basket
of cereals, oilseeds, dairy products, meat and sugar.
The index, based on prices of a basket of globally
traded food commodities, averaged 203.4 points in
January, down 1.3 per cent from December and
4.4 per cent below levels in January 2013.
According to the UN body, the biggest fall was
in prices of sugar and vegetable oils. Sugar and
vegetable oils took downward turns of 5.6 per cent
and 3.8 per cent, respectively. Meanwhile, bumper
cereal crops helped to bring down cereal prices,
which were down 1.6 per cent from December and
as much as 23 percent lower than in January
1. The FAO Food Price Index averaged 203.4

points in January 2014, down 1.3 percent
from December and 4.4 percent below
January last year. Except for the FAO dairy
price index which rose, the values of other
indices that make up the FAO Food Price
Index declined in December, in particular
sugar and vegetable oils, which dropped by
5.6 percent and 3.8 percent respectively.
2. The FAO Cereal Price Index averaged 188.4
points in January, down 3 points, or 1.6 percent,
from December and as much as 56 points, or
23 percent, below January 2013. Bumper crops
in 2013 helped to boost inventories, which,
along with large export supplies, have pushed
down international prices of cereals to well
below their high levels in 2012 and early months
of 2013. With early prospects for 2014 crops
also favourable, prices of most cereals declined
further in recent weeks.
3. The FAO Vegetable Oil Price Index averaged
188.6 points in January, down 7.4 points (or
3.8 percent) from December. The drop mainly
reflects developments in the palm oil market,
where large supplies and slow export demand
led to concerns over growing inventories, thus
driving down prices. Furthermore, large export
availabilities of sunflower and rape seed and
[10]
IRAN DENIES INCLUDING TEHRANS BALLISTIC MISSILES IN

N-TALKS
Iran has rejected to include Tehrans ballistic
missiles in the nuclear talk, signaling differences
between the two countries. It has fended off an
attempt by the United States to include Tehrans
ballistic missiles within the ambit of an on-going
nuclear dialogue.
The delicate balancing act was evident when

Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) reached a seven-point agreement entailing
practical steps that Tehran would undertake prior
to May 15, in order to build confidence about its
nuclear intentions. But the Iranians have insisted
that access to the Parchin military facility, which
the IAEA has been seeking in the past, will not be
granted.
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A nuclear deal, signed in November, resulted

in the commencement of a dialogue between Iran
and its interlocutors United States, Russia,
Britain, France and Germany which envisions
lifting of all sanctions against Tehran within six
months, provided it could be verifiably ascertained
that Iran was not in pursuit of atomic weapons.
Ballistic missiles can be used for delivering nuclear
warheads.
2,000 km. Analysts say that Iran is adopting a

tough posture, but, which, at the same time, is
finely regulated to ensure that there is no
breakdown in talks.
But Iran insists that its missile programme does

not have a nuclear dimension as it is not developing
atomic weapons. Iran has developed a series of
missiles, some of which may have a range above
Reinforcing his countrys finely tuned line, the

head of the AEOI, warned that in case the six
global powers failed to abide by their commitments
under the Geneva nuclear deal, Iran could return
to its original nuclear activities in a matter of
hours.
CHINA, TAIWAN HAD TALKS AFTER 6 DECADES
Taiwan and China held their highest level talks

for more than six decades, marking the first
government-to-government contact since the pairs
acrimonious split in 1949. Wang Yu-chi of Taiwans
Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), which oversees
the islands China policy, met with his mainland
Chinese counterpart Zhang Zhijun, of Chinas
Taiwan Affairs Office.
After the meeting, Chinas state news agency
Xinhua has disclosed that the two sides had agreed
to open a regular communication channel. Previous
contact between the two sides has been conducted
through semi-official foundations or through
political parties, not by government ministers acting
in their official capacities.
For creating better understanding between the
two sides, Wang had invited Zhang to visit Taiwan.
The meeting took place in Nanjing, which was the
seat of government under the Kuomintang or
Nationalist party before a civil war with the
Chinese Communists forced Nationalist forces to
flee to Taiwan in 1949.
China considers Taiwan to be a part of its
territory that must eventually be reunited. It has
reacted angrily in the past to steps seen as moving
the self-governed island toward formal
independence.
In 1995 and 1996, it fired missiles into waters
around Taiwan ahead of its first democratic

presidential election, and it regularly denounced
Chen Shui-bian, Taiwans independent-leaning
president from 2000 to 2008.
Since the 2008 election of President Ma Yingjeou, who favors closer ties with the mainland,
Beijing has taken a more conciliatory approach.
Cross-strait trade has nearly doubled over the
course of Mr. Mas presidency, reaching $197 billion
last year. Nearly three million Chinese traveled to
Taiwan last year, constituting the largest single
group of visitors after Taiwans easing of restrictions
on mainland arrivals starting in 2008.
The two sides signed a landmark trade
agreement, the Economic Cooperation Framework
Agreement, in 2010. Those negotiations were carried
out by semiofficial bodies: Taiwans Straits
Exchange Foundation and Chinas Association for
Relations Across the Taiwan Straits.
A follow-up agreement to the trade accord that
lifts barriers on cross-strait trade in services has
been held up in Taiwans legislature as it debates
possible effects on Taiwanese companies.
Until now, representatives of China and Taiwan
had met only through unofficial organizations or
through retired officials, as Beijing has resisted any
steps that might be seen as recognizing Taiwans
sovereignty.
[11]
RIVAL KOREAS BREAK THE ICE IN 7 YEARS

North and South Korea held their first highlevel talks in seven years on their fortified border,
exploring ways to improve ties while the South
and the United States geared up for military
exercises that have angered the North.
After this, an event took place where there were

reunions of family members separated since the
Korean War at the Mount Kumgang resort just
inside the North, which is considered a major
humanitarian event by the South.
The North has also called the annual military
exercises between South Korean and U.S. forces a
rehearsal for war despite repeated assertions by
Seoul and Washington that the drills are routine
and defensive. The United States has about 28,500
troops stationed in South Korea.
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The meeting was set up with unusual speed

and great secrecy at the Norths suggestion, the
latest example of conflicting signals coming from
North Korea that included an abrupt cancellation
of an invitation for a U.S. envoy to visit.
ranking official in the ruling Workers Party

department charged with ties with the South.
The two sides met at the Panmunjom truce

village on the border with no pre-arranged agenda
and discussed a range of issues including reunions
of families separated during their 1950-53 Korean
War. The North has demanded that the South and
the United States scrap the military exercises, but
both sides have plenty of incentives to seek a deal
that could break their long stalemate.
The South Korean delegation was led by
President Park Geun-hyes deputy national security
adviser. North Korea has sent the second-highest
South Korea stopped all trade and most

investment with the North in May 2010 after the
sinking of one of its warships, which it blamed on
Pyongyang. A joint factory project in the Norths
border city of Kaesong, which generates about $90
million annually in wages for the impoverished
state, is the last remaining symbol of economic
cooperation between the two Koreas.
GM CROP SEEMS TO GET APPROVAL IN EU
The European commission seems to give green

signal to the pest-resistant maize Pioneer 1507 to
the continent, despite the majority of EU member
states opposing the proposal.Only five countries in
the European Council including the UK voted
in favour of the introduction of the crop, which is
developed by Dupont-Pioneer and Dow Chemical.
The remaining 19 member states opposed its rollout.
Four countries, including Germany which has
the biggest voting weight in the ministerial council
did not vote.
Maize Pioneer 1507 is an insect-resistant crop.
If approved, it will be the second to be given the
green light for human consumption in Europe, after
the Monsanto-owned MON 810.
Five EU countries, Estonia, Finland, Sweden,

and in particular Spain and UK, are advocating
GM crops, pointing out it would be tough for their
farmers to compete with rivals from those nations
where growing GM crops is legal. European
agricultural producers generally do not approve of
genetically modified crops, which are widely
cultivated in both Americas and Asia, due to health
and ecological concerns. Yet one GM modification
[12]
of maize, MON 810 made by US-based

biotechnology giant Monsanto, is grown in the EU.
According to the European Commission, MON 810
maize occupies only 1.35 percent of the EUs total
maize-growing area, mostly in Spain, with 116,306
hectares.
At the same time 49 varieties of GM crops,
mostly maize, Pioneer 1507 included, are approved
for animal feed in the EU. The European
Commission fully backs this type of GM crop,
saying extensive scientific research has confirmed
that modern GM crops are safe. Meat of GM-raised
animals is already being sold in Europe without
restrictions.
Genetically modified crops are developed to be
resistant to pesticides and herbicides. DuPont and
Dow Chemicals Pioneer 1507 maize begets a
pesticide toxin itself and is also resistant to a weedkiller called glufosinate ammonium.
Greenpeace, the environmental group, claims
that glufosinate ammonium is harmful to butterflies
and moths and will be banned in the EU by 2017
due to its toxicity.
U.S. PLANS CYBER SECURITY

In an attempt to ensure cyber security for safe
Internet access for developing and under-developed
countries, the United Nations is planning for transnational global cooperation in the area of cyber
security. Dr. Vivek Lall, a renowned aerospace and
cyber expert, will help to meet security challenges
across the globe.
A recent study states that threats to cyberspace

have increased dramatically in the past year
afflicting 431 million adult victims globally or 14
adult victims every second, one million cyber crime
victims every day. Cyber crime has now become a
business which exceeds a trillion dollars a year in
the form of online fraud, identity theft, and lost
intellectual property, affecting even the
governments of every nation.
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Ambassador Francis Lorenzo, Deputy

Permanent Representative to the UN has said that
Dr. Lalls activities will focus on bringing global
attention to the importance of Broadband services
in developing countries around the world and the
cyber security challenges associated with achieving
those objectives. His operational involvement will
include the introduction of new initiatives as well
as providing advisory support to a number of

existing Broadband and South-South programmes.
Ambassador Lorenzo has been advancing the
implementation of the Millennium Development
Goals through the sharing of best practices in the
area of South-South and triangular cooperation.
GLOBAL IMBALANCE AFFECTING PUBLIC HEALTH
University of Solo Commission of Global

Governance for Health report published in The
Lancet journal validates the observation and explains
how the current global inequities negatively affect
the health of people in the developing countries. It
brings to the fore the issue of how globalisation
has influenced some of the important determinants
of health beyond the control of even the
governments.
The report highlights seven policy interventions

where the existing system of global governance has
failed to promote or protect health or address
health inequities. The seven interventions are
financial crisis and austerity measures, intellectual
property, investment treaties, food, corporate
activity, migration and armed violence.
There are numerous examples to show how the
restrictive global governance system affects the
health of people, particularly the poor people in
developing countries.
For instance, despite the global food production

standing at 120 per cent of the worlds dietary
needs, about 820 million people across the world
are chronically hungry due to lack of access to
safe food. One in six children in these countries is
underweight, and malnutrition causes more than
one third of deaths in children aged below five
years. The difference in life expectancy between
the highest-ranking and lowest-ranking countries
is as much as 21 years, the report states.
But there have been instances when policy

interventions by some countries have successfully
averted or reduced health inequities. Indias
decision last year to issue a compulsory licence to
Natco Pharma Ltd to manufacture a generic version
of Bayers Sorafenib cancer drug is one of the
examples cited by the report. Indias bold decision
helped cut the cost of the drug to patients from
$5,000 a month to just $160 a month a drastic
97 per cent reduction in cost.
This became possible following the 2001 Doha
Declaration on TRIPS (Trade Related Aspects of
Intellectual Property Rights) and Public Health
where it was agreed by all the WTO member
countries that TRIPS does not and should not
prevent members from taking measures to protect
public health.
That there are ways by which developing
countries are arm-twisted by countries that own
intellectual property rights despite the Doha
Declaration becomes eminently clear in the case of
bilateral trade agreements between two countries.
More than pharmaceutical companies, the tobacco
companies use the bilateral trade agreements to
their advantage to force the developing countries
to implement more restrictive and tougher
conditions at the cost of public health.
[13]
LANCET STUDY-SEXUAL VIOLENCE BY ACQUAINTANCE IS COMMON

In a study published in the medical journal,
The Lancet, examined just over 7% of women
globally and 3% in South Asia have experienced
sexual violence at the hands of a non-partner. The
research has found that both globally and in South
Asia alone, rape by an intimate partner or member
of the household is far more common than that by
a stranger.
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Researchers examined studies between 1998 and

2011 to construct a globally comparable dataset of
women who had experienced non-partner sexual
violence. After adjusting for variations in the type

of question and methodology, they found that rates
of prevalence varied widely by region, from 3.3%
in South Asia (India and Bangladesh) to 21% in
sub-Saharan Africa. Globally, one out of 14 women
over the age of 15 reported having experienced
non-partner sexual violence. Womens rights
organisations in India have long been asking that
a victimisation survey be added to Indias official
crime data collection system, as is done in countries
like the United Kingdom.
UN -PROGRESS HAS BEEN UNEQUAL AND FRAGMENTED
In 1994, 179 countries met in Cairo for the

United Nations International Conference on
Population and Development (ICPD). The
Conference adopted a 20-year Programme of Action
(POA), which acknowledged gender equality,
eliminating violence against women and the
provision of comprehensive sexual and reproductive
health services as cornerstones of population and
development policies.
As the programmes twenty year anniversary

approaches, the UN General Assembly passed
resolution that established the roadmap for
achieving the vision of ICPD beyond 2014. The
resolution mandates that UNFPAin cooperation
with relevant UN agencies, international
organizations, institutions and expertsundertake
an operational review of the implementation of the
Programme of Action (PoA). A key outcome from
the review will be a special report with
recommendations for action from the UN Secretary
General to be presented to the UN Conference on
Population and Development in 2014.
U.N report states the status of women has

improved worldwide but growing inequalities will
undo the significant gains made in health and
longevity. Maternal mortality has come down by
half; skilled birth attendance has increased by 15
per cent since 1990; more women have access to
education, work and political participation; and
fewer adolescent girls are having babies.
But a closer look at the reports numbers reveals
marked disparities. For instance, in the poorest
communities, womens status, maternal death,
child marriage and other indicators of womens
well-being have seen little progress in the last 20
years.
[14]
In poor countries, for instance, pregnancy and

childbirth are the leading cause of death among
young women between ages 15 to 19. Women
continue to be paid less and they are more likely to
work in jobs that are less secure and with fewer
benefits, according to the report, by the United
Nations Population Fund.
The gains were most striking in education. In a
majority of countries, there was gender parity in
primary education, though there were abiding gaps
in secondary schools and college. Maternal
mortality fell by 47 percent over the last 20 years,
though, the report pointed out, 800 women
continue to die every day while giving birth. Global
fertility rates fell by 23 percent between 1990 and
2010, reflecting rising education, life expectancy
and access to contraception.
The changes have come at a time when the
world has prospered over all, though women in
the poorest countries, along with poor women in
some richer countries, have not seen their lives
improve, the report said.
The report repeatedly cites growing economic
inequality worldwide, pointing to a recent Credit
Suisse study that shows that fewer than 1 percent
of adults worldwide control 41 percent of the
wealth, while more than two-thirds of the worlds
adults control only 3 percent of the wealth.
The report also documents a marked
demographic tilt, with much of the industrialized
world inexorably aging and the worlds youth
concentrated in the developing world. Indeed, 90
percent of people between the ages of 10 and 24
live in the developing world.
Despite plummeting fertility rates and the

graying of Europe and East Asia, there has never
been a larger generation of young people. That age
group accounted for 28 percent of the global
population in 2010 and higher in South Asia
and Africa.
The ICPD Beyond 2014 Review is an

opportunity to influence the future of global
population and development policy at national,
regional and global levels. It provides a once in a
generation chance to define what needs to be done
to deliver a more equal, more sustainable world
for the 7 billion people - and more - who share it.
The Review helps in identifying the progress
and achievements towards the goals set out in
the landmark International Conference on
Population and Development, when 179
governments committed to a 20-year Programme
of Action to deliver human rights-based
development.
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The Cairo Programme of Action has

significantly contributed to tangible progress.
Population growth has slowed partly as a result of
the new approach, which emphasises individual
decision-making in population trends. But it argues
that to sustain these gains, governments must pass
and enforce laws to protect the poorest and most
marginalised, including violence-hit adolescent girls
and women and rural populations.
ICPD Beyond 2014
The report is the first truly global review of

progress, gaps, challenges and emerging issues in
relation to the landmark Cairo ICPD. It gathers
data from the countries, alongside inputs from civil
society and comprehensive academic research.
Yet the report warns that these successes are
not reaching everyone equally. In the poorest
communities, womens status, maternal death, child
marriage and many of the concerns of the Cairo
Conference have seen very little progress in the
past 20 years. In some instances, the progress has
even been reverse.
Evidence of what has worked and where

challenges remain will be collected from
governments, civil society organizations and
partners using the ICPD Global Survey, civil society
consultations and a series of thematic conferences.
The Beyond 2014 Review process engage
world leaders from governments and civil society
and create a renewed consensus and global
commitment to create a more equal and more
sustainable world.
BELGIUM LIFTED BAN ON CHILD EUTHANASIA
After passing the legislation, Belgium has

become the first country to allow euthanasia for
terminally ill children of any age. By doing so it
became the second country after Netherlands to
allow mercy-killing for children and the first to lift
all age restrictions. This action of legalizing death
for the children came 12 years after the country
legalized euthanasia for adults. The Parliament of
Belgium took the decision in spite of opposition
from the Church and some paediatricians.
Under the approved legislation by the
Parliament, a young child will be allowed to end
its life with the help of a doctor. The legislation has
not fixed any age limit for minors suffering from a
terminal illness to opt for the death by use of a
lethal injection.
Belgian lawmakers have voted overwhelmingly
to extend the countrys euthanasia law to children
under the age of 18. The 86-44 vote in the House
of Representatives with 12 abstentions, followed
approval by the senate.
The law lifts Belgiums age restrictions on
euthanasia and can sanction it where children have
a terminal and incurable illness, are near death,
and suffering constant and unbearable physical

pain, and where parents and professionals agree
to the choice.
The law will come into effect when signed by
Belgiums monarch, King Philippe, who is not
expected to oppose the measure. The decision to
proceed with each proposal of euthanasia will also
have be agreed by a treating physician and an
outsider brought in to give a second opinion.
Children will have to be interviewed by a
paediatric psychiatrist or psychologist, who must
determine that the child possesses the capacity of
discernment, and then certify that in writing.The
childs physician must meet the parents or legal
representatives to inform them of the outcome of
the consultation and ensure they are in agreement
with the childs decision. The request for euthanasia,
as well as the agreement by parents or legal
representatives, must be delivered in writing, and
the child and family must be given psychological
care if wanted.
Since 2002, adult Belgians have been legally free
to choose physician assisted suicide (PAS) or
[15]

euthanasia if their pain is greater than they want
to bear. Belgium considers the new law to be a
humane alternative to forcing minors to suffer
through constant pain as they await their certain
deaths. Other European countries that allow active
About Euthanasia
1. Refers to the practice of intentionally ending
a life in order to relieve pain and suffering.
4. Passive euthanasia: when the patient dies

because the medical professionals either dont
do something necessary to keep the patient
alive, or when they stop doing something
that is keeping the patient alive.
5. Jurisdictions where euthanasia or assisted
suicide is legal: the Netherlands, Belgium,
Luxembourg, Switzerland, Estonia, Albania,
and the US states of Washington, Oregon
and Montana.
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2. Forms of euthanasia: Active and passive

euthanasia
euthanasia are Luxembourg which Permits active

euthanasia for over 18 years in age and
Switzerland, where doctors help adult patients to
commit suicide.
3. Active euthanasia: when the medical

professionals, or another person, deliberately
do something that causes the patient to die.
3. Illness must be terminal.
Conditions for Child Ethunasia
1. Patient must be conscious of their decision.
2. Request must be approved by parents and

medical team.
4. Patient must be in great pain with no

treatment available to alleviate their distress.
[16]
INDIA AND THE WORLD

INDIA, THE NETHERLANDS SIGN MOU ON CLEAN ENERGY
research institutions. A number of private
companies including DSM, Thermax India and
PwC were also present at the moment.
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India and the Netherlands signed a

memorandum of understanding for cooperation in
renewable energy. The Dutch Ambassador
Alphonsus Stoelinga and the Secretary, Ministry of
New and Renewable Energy, Satish Balram
Agnihotri, signed the MoU. Under this agreement,
an Indo-Dutch Joint Working Group will be set up
and the exchange of technical and institutional
knowledge on clean energy will be facilitated. The
cooperation will specifically focus on wind and solar
energy, biomass and smart grids.
New and Renewable Energy Minister, Farooq

Abdullah said the decision to enhance cooperation
in the renewable energy field between the two
countries is a big positive and hoped that this
would just only be beginning of a symbiotic and
mutually beneficial wave of cooperation in the clean
energy sector. He also said about Indias plans to
add over 30 GW of renewable energy to its energy
mix in the next five years. He dwelt on the success
of the wind programme as well as the significant
cost reductions in solar energy through the
Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM).
Dutch Ambassador expressed hope that the
MoU would encourage cooperation not only at the
official and governmental levels but also between
leading Indian and Dutch private companies and
The Netherlands aims to have a sustainable,

reliable and affordable energy system by 2050. As
part of this, the Dutch aim to cut CO2 emissions
by half, and to generate some 40 per cent of
electricity from sustainable sources such as wind
at sea and biomass by that time. The Dutch have
leading expertise in areas such as offshore wind
energy, co-combustion of biomass in coal-fired
power plants, methods to pre-treat biomass and
smart grids. Indian expertise in turn excels in
applying these high tech solutions in a cost-effective
manner.
Clean Energy
Clean energy is energy produced from

renewable resources in a way that does not create
environmental debt. It may refer to energy
processes that pollute less or, alternately, to energy
that doesnt pollute at all and doesnt use resources
that cant be easily renewed. The basic forms of
clean energy are often cited as those that come
from water, wind, or sun (solar).
CABINET APPROVED INDIA-ASEAN FTA
India-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement has got

the government approval. The India-ASEAN Free
Trade Agreement in services and trade will allow
India to leverage its competitive offerings in IT,
finance, among other fields. But the pact has proved
elusive so far due to the open squabbling between
ministries. The deal now looks set to come through
only after the new government takes over.
The two sides were expected to sign the

proposed pact on the sidelines of WTO meeting in
Bali in December last year, but the process was
delayed due to want of clearance from the Cabinet.
The Minister said that both the sides have
negotiated an agreement on trade in services and

an annex on movement of natural persons as
part of the pact. The annex clearly defines the
various kinds of natural persons e.g.: business
visitors, contractual service suppliers and intracorporate transferees. Most of the ASEAN member
states have taken commitments in the schedule of
specific commitments for some of these categories
of natural persons. The pact is expected to facilitate
the movement of Indian professionals in ASEAN.
Trade between India and ASEAN was about
USD 76 billion in 2012-13. Both the sides aim to
increase it to USD 100 billion by 2015. India has
[17]

implemented in 2011 a comprehensive free trade
pact with Japan. India has so far concluded 10
FTAs with Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand,
Singapore, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, IndiaSAFTA and India-ASEAN.
Free Trade Agreement is a Treaty between

two or more countries to establish a free trade
area where commerce in goods and services can
be conducted across their common borders,
without tariffs or hindrances but capital or labor
may not move freely.
was formed on 8 August 1967 by Indonesia,

Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
Since then, membership has expanded to include
Brunei, Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, Laos, and
Vietnam. Its aims include accelerating economic
growth, social progress, cultural development
among its members, protection of regional peace
and stability, and opportunities for member
countries to discuss differences peacefully.
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ASEAN: The Association of Southeast Asian

Nations is a political and economic organisation
of ten countries located in Southeast Asia, which
INDIA, CHINAS 17TH ROUND OF TALKS
The 17th round of talks between the Special

Representatives of India and China ended on the
constructive note talks that included exchanges
on their long-running boundary dispute with an
agreement that peace and tranquility along their
common borders was a cornerstone of expanding
bilateral ties.
India hosted the 17th round of talks at the level
of special representatives in New Delhi with
National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon
heading the Indian side and state councillor Yang
Jeichi leading the Chinese delegation.
The talks, which were held in a candid,
constructive and forward looking atmosphere,
reviewed recent developments in the India-China
border areas, especially in the Western Sector.
Implementation of the Border Defence Cooperation
Agreement (BDCA), additional confidence building
measures and further steps for maintaining peace
and tranquility were also discussed.
The BDCA was signed during Prime Minister

Manmohan Singhs visit to Beijing last October
just a few months after an incursion by the soldiers
of the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army and
paramilitary Peoples Armed Police Force at
Depsang Bulge in Ladakh triggered a three-weeklong stand-off along the western sector of the LAC.
India in January 2014 sent a proposal to China for
a meeting between its Director General of Military
Operations and his counterpart in the communist
country to find out more effective ways to avert or
deal with incursions by each others troops across
the disputed LAC.
The special representatives agreed that a strong
and expanding India-China partnership bodes well
for peace and stability in the region and the world.
These measures promise well for building the habit
of regular discussions between the two sides which
will enhance trust and understanding.
INDIA, US DRUG REGULATORS CONDUCT JOINT AUDITS
US and Indian drug regulators has decided to

conduct joint audits and inspections of
pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities in India.
Margaret Hamburg, the FDAs commissioner,
pursued a dialogue with the Central Drug Standard
Control Organization in India that led to regulatory
decision. The move has positive results for both
parties, with Indian companies now a step closer to
being held to the same international standards of
many western drug producers. In the long run, the
US hopes that patients in will have access to higher
quality Indian drugs. The general consensus in the
industry is that India currently favors quantity over
quality when it comes to drug manufacturing.
In 2013, Ranbaxy agreed to pay a fine of $500
million to US authorities after pleading guilty to
felony charges relating to the manufacturing and
[18]
distribution of some adulterated drugs made at its

Paonta Sahib (Himachal Pradesh) and Dewas
(Madhya Pradesh) units. Other Indian drug makers
have also faced penal action by FDA for not
complying with prescribed standards. Indian
officials feel that the punishments for violating US
regulation were too extreme. They hope that the
new agreement with the US will lessen the number
and severity of fines from the FDA.
The US is the largest market for Indian
pharmaceutical firms. In the last fiscal year, Indias
pharma exports increased 10% to $14.6 billion, with
shipments to the US accounting for about 26%. India
is the largest exporter of generic drugs to the US by
volume. It has around 320 FDA-approved pharma
facilities, the largest number outside the US.
ECONOMY
INTERIM RAIL BUDGET 2014
10. More Jan Ahaar outlets, escalators at stations
11. Annual Rail Plan envisaged at Rs 64,305 crore
with a budgetary support of Rs 30,223 crore
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Presenting the interim budget for four months

in the Lok Sabha, railway minister Mallikarjun
Kharge said an independent Rail Tariff Authority
is being set up to rationalize fares and there was a
proposal to expand dynamic pricing of tickets in
line with the airline industry. He also talked about
plans about involvement of private sector and FDIs
as part of efforts to modernize the largest transport
network in the country.
But there was no hike in passenger fares which
would have run the risk of upsetting commuters in
a crucial election year. The government limited itself
to announcing some people-friendly measures
without increasing fares.
Here are some of the key announcements made
in the interim rail budget.
1. The minister announced starting of more

high-speed trains and said the ministry was
exploring low-cost option of semi high-speed
trains on select routes moving at 160-200 km
per hour.
2. The budget did not touch upon passenger

fares or freight rates.
3. No increase in passenger fares and freight
charges
4. 17 new premium trains, 38 express trains and
10 passenger trains to be launched
Premium AC trains with dynamic fares on

Delhi-Mumbai route with shorter advance
reservation period
5. Passenger rail service to

Vaishnodevi to start shortly
Katra
and
6. Railways to expand services to Meghalaya

7. More high-speed trains to be launched
8. Railways exploring low cost option of 160200 kmph speed trains on select routes
Mumbai to get AC EMUs in July
9. Trains to display info on next stations, arrival
times
12. Surveys for 19 new lines and 5 doubling of

tracks
13. Railways to encourage transportation of milk

14. Steps to reduce running of empty freight
carriages
15. An independent Rail Tariff Authority being

set up to advise the government on fixing
fares and freight rates, a step that would help
rationalize fares in the coming years.
16. System of passenger upgrades to be extended
to second-class sitting, AC chair car and
executive chair car.
17. Online booking of retiring rooms at important
railway stations.
18. Online booking of meals on trains at several
stations.
19. Mobile phone ticketing to be started in the

unreserved segment.
20. Increasing the number of automatic ticket
vending machines.
21. Indian Railways considering proposal to

allow foreign direct investment.
22. Green Curtains to be set up at railways
stations in Agra and Jaipur as a pilot project,
which would involve constructing a boundary
wall and landscaping around railway tracks .
23. Increasing the reach of a new bio-toilet design

that has been introduced in about 2,500
coaches.
24. Portable fire-extinguishers to be kept in

railway coaches and induction-based cooking
to be introduced in pantry cars.
25. Train Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) and
other improved safety systems to be
introduced.
[19]
At a glance: Numbers
1. 2013-14: Gross traffic receipts to be lower
than budgeted at Rs. 1,40,499 crore on back
of lower than expected passenger revenues
2. Freight earnings of Rs. 94,000 crore. Rs. 500
crore higher than budgeted by carrying 50
million tonnes extra cargo
Railways have decided to run 17 premium AC

trains - Jai Hind Express- on busy corridors under
the dynamic fare mechanism, on the lines of the
airlines, following the success of such a train
between Delhi and Mumbai. The premium train
between Delhi and Mumbai, run to handle the
extra rush during Christmas and New Year, had
led to increased earning of 48% to the transporter.
These trains, which would cater to passengers
willing to pay more, are expected to bridge the
huge financial loss of about Rs 25,000 crore on
account of cross-subsidization of passenger fares.
Regular passenger fares will not be applicable in
Jai Hind Express trains as fares will be based on
demand.
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3. Operating ratio worsens; 90.8% against a

target of 87.8%. Operating ratio is money
spent to earn a rupee
Dynamic fares on 17 new trains
4. 2014-15: Gross traffic receipts target of Rs.

1,60,775 crore of Rs. 1,05,770 crore will be
from freight and Rs. 45,255 crore from
passenger segment.
5. To pay Rs.7814.14 crore dividend to
Government, Rs.1,590 crore more than budgeted
Some unfulfilled promises 2013-14
1. Loco factories in Marhowra and Madhepura

yet to be awarded despite multiple bidding
rounds
2. Station modernisation plans through PPP not
moving ahead
3. Logistics Corporation of India yet to be
operational
4. Parcel Express yet to be operational
5. No sign of signalling equipment factory on

PPP basis in Chandigarh
6. Coach factory unit in Sonepat, Haryana, not
up yet
The base fares for these trains will be higher or

equal to the fare of Tatkal tickets of other trains.
However, Railways would fix a higher limit. Most
of these trains will be weekly or bi-weekly and
would run on routes such as Howrah-Pune,
Howrah-Mumbai, Kamakhya-Chennai, KamakhyaNew Delhi, Mumbai-Patna, Nizamuddin-Madgaon,
Sealdah-Jodhpur, Ahmedabad- Delhi Sarai Rohilla
and Trivandrum-Bangalore.
The pilgrimage town of Katra, the base camp
of Vaishno Devi shrine, gets special attention. As
rail connectivity to the holy town is expected to be
commissioned soon, the budget announced three
trainsBandra-Katra,
Katra-Howrah
and
Yesvantpur-Katra to ensure hassle-free travel for
pilgrims.
FOODGRAIN OUTPUT WITNESSED NEW RECORD
As per the estimate put out by Union

Agriculture Ministry, 263.20 million tonnes of
foodgrain has been produced this year, 3.91 million
tonnes more than the 259.29 million tonnes
produced in 2011-12, making it the highest ever
foodgrain production in the country.
Record production of rice, wheat, oilseeds and

cotton has contributed to the overall rise in
foodgrain output this crop year. The production of
rice, wheat, maize and pulses, such as tur and
gram, are likely to rise to a new record this year.
Rice production is pegged at 106.19 million tonnes,
while output of wheat a key winter crop that has
been planted on a record acreage of 31.53 million
hectares is projected to touch 95.60 mt.
Higher soil moisture coupled with comfortable
water levels in reservoirs had led to record planting
[20]
of winter or rabi crops boosting

prospects. The bumper foodgrain
lifting farm sector growth rate to
cent this fiscal, more than double
1.9 per cent.
record harvest
harvest is seen
around 4.6 per
than last years
The Government has forecast tur output to

touch 3.34 mt, higher than last years 3.02 mt.
Production of gram or chana is projected to hit a
new high of 9.79 mt against the previous high of
8.83 mt. The output of urad is projected to decline
about 16 per cent to 1.59 mt, over last years 1.90
mt, while that of moong is projected to reduce
marginally to 1.28 mt against 1.19 mt.
Production of oilseeds mainly groundnut is
set to double to 9.14 mt over last years 4.69 mt.
The output of rapeseed-mustard another key oilseed
is also set to increase marginally to 8.25 mt over

last years 8.20 mt. However, soyabean output has
seen a decline to 12.44 mt against last years 14.66
mt, while castor seed production is also projected
to decline to 1.64 mt against last years 1.96 mt.
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The rising foodgrain output in the recent years

has helped India emerge as the largest exporter of
rice, while wheat shipments have also gained

momentum. With the Government announcing
incentive for raw sugar exports recently shipments
of the sweetener are also expected to gain
momentum.
SEBI MANDATED CORPORATE GOVERNANCE NORMS
SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India)

has approved a series of decisions to increase
transparency in corporate governance. It has
mandated that there should be more disclosures
about the remuneration of senior executives and
also asked companies to put in place a system to
evaluate the performance of independent directors
and other board members. The board also approved
the long-term policy for mutual funds where it has
recommended the government to provide additional
tax incentive on investment of Rs 50,000 in mutual
fund-linked retirement plan.
The SEBI board took several decisions in a bid
to align the listing agreement norms with the
Companies Act 2013 as there were several gaps.
The announcements will come into effect from
October 1, 2014. While it prohibited independent
directors from taking stock options in the
companies, the Securities and Exchange Board of
India also directed them to hold a separate meeting
among themselves.
The market regulator also reiterated that there
should be at least one woman director on the board
of every company, something already mandated

under the Companies Act. The regulator removed
some of the contradictions in Sebi rules and the
New Companies Act and, in some cases, the new
provisions are even stricter for listed entities.
The SEBI board also approved the proposal for
a compulsory whistle-blower mechanism in every
company and to expand the role of the audit
committee. It also prohibited offering stock options
to independent directors, and asked companies to
have separate meetings of independent directors and
put in place a stakeholders relationship committee.
SEBI said that a person can be an independent
director in seven companies at the most and three
in case he or she is already a whole-time member
in a listed company. It also capped the total tenure
of an independent director to two terms of five
years each. However, if a person who has already
served as an independent director for five years or
more in a listed company as on the date on which
(this amendment) becomes effective, he shall be
eligible for appointment for one more term of five
years only.
[21]

In addition, SEBI made regulations for relatedparty transactions stricter. It said that companies
should seek prior approval of the audit committee
for all material related-party transactions. Besides,
they should also seek the nod of shareholders for
all material related-party transactions through a
vote on a special resolution in which all the related
parties should not participate.
SEBI has also recommended the implementation

of several measures to the government, including
additional tax sops on investment in long term MF
plans. It has proposed to the government to either
provide an additional tax incentive on investment
of Rs 50,000 in mutual fund-linked retirement plan
under section 80C of Income Tax Act or enhance
the investment limit under Section 80C from Rs 1
lakh to Rs 2 lakh to make mutual funds as priority
for investors.
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SEBI also mandated that all companies should

have nomination and remuneration committees,
with the chiefs of such committees being
independent directors on the board of the
companies.
SEBI also made it compulsory for fund houses

to disclose separately the breakup of assets under
management (AUM) for various categories of
schemes such as equity, debt, etc. It also asked
them to disclose their AUM from smaller towns
and cities (popularly called B-15 cities), contribution
of the sponsors and their associates in the AUM of
schemes of each fund house, AUM garnered
through sponsor group/ non-sponsor group
distributors, etc.
The SEBI board also increased the minimum

net worth of mutual funds to Rs 50 crore. It also
asked all the fund houses to invest at least 1% of
the amount raised in each open-ended scheme from
their own corpus. As of now, of the 42 fund houses
only a select few invest their own money in each
of the funds they manage.
SEBI TURNS CONSERVATIVE ON SPENDING
Market regulator SEBI has formed a special

panel to recommend ways to control expenses
without compromising on regulatory goals. It is
the result as SEBI has spent so much on a
promotional and expansion spree that it may find
it difficult to pay staff and manage basic
operational costs.
In the past year, SEBI has opened new offices,

increased headcount and launched promotional
campaigns to improve investor awareness, in the
process, running up a revenue deficit. This is the
first time SEBI has been forced to form a committee
exclusively to suggest ways to balance revenue and
expenditure.
As per the sources, if expenditures are not
controlled at this juncture, it may be difficult to
[22]
sustain basic fixed infrastructure and operational

costs. According to a SEBI board note the regulator
has revised its income estimate for 2013-14 down
to Rs.350.11 crore from the Rs.359.08 crore
expected in April 2013. The total expenditure
estimate was revised up to Rs.479.10 crore from
Rs.467.18 crore. The deficit estimate rose
consequently to Rs.128.99 crore from Rs.108.10
crore for the year.
Although SEBI has seen shortfalls in the past,
the deficit never reached a point where the regulator
had to worry; typically, its actual income would
exceed and the spending fall short of original
estimates. This year the trend has reversed, forcing
the audit committee to raise a red flag.
To be sure, this might have been the case in

2012-13 also. That year, SEBI had estimated its
income at Rs.347.84 crore and expenditure at
Rs.623.35 crore. It isnt known whether the
regulator ended up with a deficit because revised
numbers are yet to be released. However, that was
the year that SEBI launched a drive to expand,
upgrade systems and launch mass media
campaigns.
Taking note of the surge in expenditure, SEBI

has already started controlling costs. Recently, the
regulator cancelled plans to open a new regional
office for the western region at a cost of Rs.25 crore.
It also dropped a plan to spend Rs.7.5 crore on the
so-called SUPER-D project, a unified platform for
electronic reporting and dissemination.
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In 2011-12, SEBI revised its income estimate to

Rs.363.47 crore from a budget estimate of Rs.337.06
crore. It also revised its expenditure estimate down
to Rs.259.16 crore from an original Rs.377.80 crore.
In 2010-11 too, SEBI revised its income estimate up
to Rs.337.62 crore from Rs.272.75 crore, and
expenditure estimate down to Rs.179.70 crore from
Rs.323.29 crore.
deficit has swelled because it has gone overboard

in spending, according to the board note. In the
event of serious funding issues, SEBI can ask seek
the governments help, as a last resort.
Fees from market intermediaries and public

issuances are SEBIs primary source of income. Tepid
market conditions and a decline in interest rates
on investments have hurt SEBIs income. But the
SEBI has also cut down the amount it will draw

from its investor protection and education fund, or
IPEF account. SEBI receives money from IPEF
primarily to spend towards investor education
activities. Instead of an original budgeted
expenditure of Rs.50 crore on awareness
programmes through media, the fund is likely to
see an outgo of only Rs.25.50 crore for the fiscal
year.
THE DARK SIDE OF WLAs
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued certificate

of authorization to four non-bank entities, including
Tata Communications Payment Solutions and
Muthoot Finance, to set up white label automated
teller machines (ATMs) in the country. The other
two non-bank entities to which RBI has issued the
certificate for setting up and operating white label
ATMs are Prizm Payment Services and Vakrangee
Ltd. While Tata, Muthoot and Prizm have already
launched their services, Vakrangee is likely to
commence its service shortly. Most of the ATMs
belong to banks, but the cash dispensing machines
which are owned and operated by non-banking
companies are called white label ATMs.
services. Under the new guidelines, certain

minimum number of ATMs need to be installed in
these areas within a year as per the scheme opted
by the respective operators.
The central bank first issued draft guidelines

on white-label ATMscash machines operated by
non-bank entitieson 14 February 2012, inviting
comments and suggestions. In June 2012, it released
the final guidelines allowing non-bank entities to
set up white-label ATMs. The aim of these guidelines
was to increase the footprint of ATMs in semiurban and rural areas, where ATM penetration is
low. These entities have a mandate to deploy 67%
of ATMs in rural locations (tier III-VI) and 33% in
urban locations (tier I and II cities).
The finance ministry wanted the interchange

rate to go even lower to Rs.10 because it wanted to
rescue government-owned banks that were paying
huge interchange amounts to private banks.
However, since white-label ATMs were a pet project
of RBI, the central bank intervened and the rate
was kept at Rs.15.
In June 2012, when the guidelines were issued,

13 companies were given in-principle approval;
they were among 19 that sought it. The latest
announcement shows that only four companies have
got the licenceof these, three have rolled out
The other side of White label ATMs: When

the draft guidelines were issued in February 2012,
the interchange rate that card-issuing banks pay to
another bank whose ATM the customer uses was
Rs.18 for withdrawal and Rs.8 for balance enquiry
and other services. So, as soon as the guidelines
were issued on 20 June 2012, 19 companies
approached RBI for approval. But in August 2012,
the interchange rates were slashed to Rs.15 and
Rs.5, respectively.
Security costs are another inhibiting factor. The

presence of a security guard has been made
mandatory for all ATMs and, according to Indian
Banks Associations estimates, it will cost an
additional Rs.4,000 crore per year for the banking
industry to run the nearly 140,000 ATMs across
the country.
In addition, white-label ATM operators will
have to pay a fee for the cash that the sponsor
[23]

bank deploys in the ATMsan extra burden for
white-label ATM operators as banks do not pay a
charge for the cash that they put in their own
ATMs.
White-label ATMs are similar to other ATMs

in that they can be used by any domestic debit,
credit or prepaid cardholder to withdraw cash,
make a balance inquiry, change the personal
identification number or ask for mini statements.
Charges for customers remain the same as those
levied by a card-issuing bank. So, the first five
transactions in a month are free at these ATMs
too. The card issuing bank will pay the interchange
fee for the free transactions, but will charge
you for anything beyond that limit.
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Moreover, if white-label ATM operators do not

enter a contract with a bank with a pan-India
presence, they cannot roll out the service across
the country as regional banks will only be able to
provide cash in their particular region. However,
sponsor banks are allowed to tie up with other
banks to provide cash at locations in which they
do not have a presence. This essentially means that
a white-label ATM operator may have to enter into
multiple contracts with regional banks if it is does
not find a bank with a national presence.
Functioning of White-label ATMs
Further, even after getting the in-principle

approval, an entity needs to get the required
approval from the Foreign Investment Promotion
Board, and a certification from NPCI, among other
clearances. Whereas, banks on their part will be
happy to have more white-label ATMs as it will
save them the cost of running their own ATMs,
but they are reluctant to become sponsor banks.
[24]
White-label ATM operators need a sponsor

bank to operate the machines. According to RBI
rules, these sponsor banks will be liable to settle
transactions and maintain cash at these ATMs.
Maintenance and servicing will be the white-label
ATM operators job.

PROTEINS ESSENTIAL FOR LTM DISCOVERED
they spur normally-folding proteins to misfold, and
for this reason, they are notorious for their
destructive power, interfering with cellular function
as they spread without control. Mad cow disease,
for example, is a prion disease.
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Scientists led by Dr. Kaushik Si from the

Stowers Institute of Medical Research in the U.S.
have gained insight into the mechanism by which
the brain is able to selectively retain some
information as long-term memory. Not all
experiences form long-term memories (LTM), so
how do our brains decide which events to
remember and which to forget? Scientists have
identified the proteins essential for creating and
maintaining long-term memories. Moreover, they
have discovered some proteins act in a manner
similar to prions while others function as regulators
within our neural circuitry. Their new research
which sheds light on the molecular processes
underlying recollection appears in PLOS Biology.
Brain cells or neurons are connected to each
other at points called synapses. The lifespan of a
memory depends on how strong and long-lasting
these connections are, which in turn depends on
their chemical composition. A class of proteins
called Cytoplasmic Polyadenylation Element
Binding (CPEB) proteins is a key ingredient. The
unique feature of CPEB proteins is their ability to
enter a prion state where they are able to stack
up to form a chain or an oligomer.
A protein is a large biological molecule made

up of a chain of amino acids. The sequence of
amino acids determines how an individual protein
is folded, and in turn, this folded structure
influences the proteins activity. The word prion
derives from the words protein and infectious. Prions,
then, are infectious agents composed of a protein
in an abnormally folded form, and they cause
damage to the structure of neural tissue. In fact,
It is astonishing, then, for CPEB to possess prionlike abilities that appear to be essential to forming
long-term memory though such abilities do not cause
damage to the brain. This protein is not toxic. He
noted that, for this protein to be both effective and
safe, it would somehow have to limit memory
creation to the appropriate neural circuits.
In 2012, Sis group demonstrated that in fruit
flies, the prion-forming protein Orb2 is necessary
for memories to persist. Flies that produce a mutated
version of Orb2 that is unable to form prions learn
new behaviours, but their memories are short-lived.
In the new study, Si wanted to find out how this
process could be controlled so that memories form
at the right time.
Si and his colleagues knew that Orb2 existed in
two forms - Orb2A and Orb2B. Orb2B is
widespread throughout the fruit flys nervous
system, but Orb2A appears only in a few neurons,
at extremely low concentrations. Once it is
produced, Orb2A quickly falls apart; the protein
has a half-life of only about an hour. Researchers
found that when a protein called TOB associates
with Orb2A, it becomes much more stable, with a
new half-life of 24 hours. This step increases the
prevalence of the prion-like state and explained how
Orb2s conversion to the prion state can be confined
in both time and space.
JADE RABBIT IS NOT FADE, SHOWING SIGNALS
Chinas Jade Rabbit moon rover was in trouble,

following technical malfunctions the lunar rover
had lost communication with mission control but
now the rover is fully awake and has returned
to its normal signal-receiving status. Scientists on
the ground are still trying to pinpoint the problems
that caused the rovers mechanical malfunctions,
but Yutu also known as Jade rabbit can now receive

signals normally.
The rover had been scheduled to become
dormant for 14 days during the lunar night, when
there would be no sunlight to power its solar panel.
There were concerns the six-wheeled vehicle did
not power down properly and so would not be
[25]

able to protect itself from the moons frigid
temperatures. The rover had come back to life
soon after despite space experts earlier concerns
that it might not survive the extremely low
temperatures of the lunar night, when the
temperature drops to -180C (-292F).
The rover has over 300,000 followers on the

Chinese Twitter-like social media site, some of
whom celebrated the lucky robots resurrection.
However, the robot has given its fans in China and
around the world hope that it will resume its
planned three-month mission and continue
examining the moons surface for potential
resources.
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The rover is part of Chinas Change-3 mission,

which is designed to test new technologies, gather
scientific data and build intellectual expertise. The
mission is proving a popular success for Chinas
military-backed space programme. The Jade Rabbit,
or Yutu in Chinese, was deployed on the moon on
December 15 and was a huge source of pride in
China, which is only the third country to complete

a lunar rover mission after the United States and
the former Soviet Union.

[26]
HEALTH
INDIA LAUNCHES THIRD LINE DRUG FOR HIV PATIENTS
expensive therapy will be provided free.
Announcing these measures at the launch of
the National AIDS Control Programme Phase IV
(2012-2017), Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi
Azad said the third-line therapy would enhance
longevity and improve the quality of life of patients.
For receiving free ART, the minimum CD4-count
limit had been reduced from 500 to 350. The count
is a measure of the viral load.
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After First & Second line drug Therapy, India

initiated third-line drug therapy for people living
with HIV/AIDS and extended free anti-retroviral
therapy (ART) to more of them by revising the
eligibility norm. The third-line therapy, sometimes
called salvage or rescue therapy, is prescribed for
people who have limited drug options left after
the failure of at least two drug regimens and with
evidence of HIV resistance to at least one drug in
each line or the latter cause alone. The highly
NACP Fourth Phase
The government also launched the fourth phase

of the National AIDS Control Programme (NACP)
at a whopping cost of Rs.142.95 billion. Promotion
of female condoms, scaling up of the second line
of the Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) and social
protection for ending discrimination are some of
the key initiatives of the programme, 63 percent
of which will be funded by the government. The
programme will focus on preventing new
infections, preventing parent to child transmission,
creating awareness among the general population
and reducing stigma and discrimination.
India has shown an overall reduction of 57

percent in the annual new HIV infections (among
adult population) from 2,74,000 in 2000 to
1,16,000 in 2011. The adult HIV prevalence has
decreased from 0.41 percent in 2001 to 0.27 percent
in 2011. Besides, the estimated number of people
living with HIV (PLHIV) has decreased from 2.4
million in 2000 to two million in 2011.
The NACP-IV has been designed based on the
lessons learnt from previous phases. It aims to
accelerate the process of epidemic reversal and
further strengthen the epidemic response in India
through a cautious and well defined integration
process over the five-year period.
ANTIBODIES CAN BE HARMFUL
In 34th T.S. Srinivasan Endowment Oration,

Professor Angela Vincent, Emeritus Professor of
Neuro immunology at Oxford University said that
in India, probably 10 patients per million per year
could be diagnosed with diseases caused by
antibodies. Autoimmune diseases are the result
when antibodies, a class of proteins generated by
the immune system to neutralise foreign bacteria
and viruses, attach themselves to the membrane
protein of a human cell and try to destroy it.
Some brain diseases caused by antibodies come

on quite quickly and can become severe quickly.
But they can be treated, and the patient gets better.
Sometimes, the disease burns itself out and the
patient can even go off treatment. About
myasthenia gravis, marked by weakness of select
muscles, in this disease antibodies bind themselves
to acetylcholine receptors, which lead to reduced

signalling between nerves and muscles. Patients
have mobility problems, sometimes they cant keep
their eyes open, in some cases they cant swallow
or drink. But with treatment, under which the
patients blood is removed through a centrifuge and
put back minus the plasma containing the
antibodies, there can be a remarkable improvement
in just two days.
While in some patients tumours, a preceding
infection or a preceding allergic reaction is thought
to have led to the disease, this may not always be
the case. It may just be bad luck if you make one
of these particular antibodies, she said.
One interesting question researchers are now
looking into is how frequently antibodies are the cause
of common diseases such as epilepsy or dementia.
[27]
MAMMOGRAPHY IS GETTING DUBIOUS

One of the largest and most meticulous studies
of mammography ever done, involving 90,000
women and lasting a quarter-century, has added
powerful new doubts about the value of the
screening test for women of any age.
MAMMOGRAMS and cancer WITH

MAMMOGRAMS
44,925 women received breast exams and
mammograms
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It has found that the death rates from breast

cancer and from all causes were the same in women
who got mammograms and those who did not.
And the screening had harms: One in five cancers
found with mammography and treated was not a
threat to the womans health and did not need
treatment such as chemotherapy, surgery or
radiation.
The findings will not lead to any immediate

change in guidelines for mammography, and many
advocates and experts will almost certainly dispute
the idea that mammograms are on balance useless,
or even harmful.
The study, published in The British Medical

Journal, is one of the few rigorous evaluations of
mammograms conducted in the modern era of more
effective breast cancer treatments. The study seems
likely to lead to an even deeper polarisation
between those who believe that regular
mammography saves lives, including many breast
cancer patients and advocates for them, and a
growing number of researchers who say the
evidence is lacking or, at the very least, murky.
3,250 women had diagnoses with breast cancer

500 women died from breast cancer
WITHOUT MAMMOGRAMS
44,910 women received breast exams
3,133 women had diagnoses with breast cancer

505 women died from breast cancer
The death rate from breast cancer was the same

in both groups, but 1 in 424 women who had
mammograms received unnecessary cancer
treatment, including surgery, chemotherapy and
radiation.
DCGI APPROVES PHASE-II TRIALS FOR CSSK DRUG
Clot-specific Streptokinase (CSSK), a drug that

breaks down blood clots, developed by an arm of
the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
(CSIR), has been cleared by the office of the Drug
Controller General of India (DCGI) for phase two
human clinical trials. The drug molecule has been
tested on animals and healthy humans. In phaseII, it will be tried on patients. The clot buster has
been prepared by Chandigarh-based Institute of
Microbial Technology (IMTECH) of the Council of
Scientific & Industrial Research.
If this phase succeeds, phase-III trials will be
conducted on a larger sample of human patients.
The institute has already filed for patent for the
drug.
Clot Specific Streptokinase (CSSK) is a biotherapeutic drug, developed using bacteria. It is
third generation drug to fight clot formation in veins
of heart, a condition responsible for heart attacks.
The earlier two drugs developed by IMTECH had
side effects and had to be administered slowly
through intra-venous therapy. The new drug
attacks directly at the clot and can be administered
through normal syringe. Thus, the infrastructure
[28]
needed would be much less and outcomes better.

Similar therapy available in India currently is
tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) which is also a
bio-therapeutic drug, but uses human tissue. It
functions the same way and costs around Rs 50,000
per injection. If everything goes fine, the product is
expected to be out in the market by 2016.
IMTECH is carrying out the project in
collaboration with Nostrum Pharmaceuticals which
will be responsible for conducting clinical trials and
bringing finished product to the market.Work on
the drug began seven years ago under a partnership
between the CSIRs Institute of Microbial
Technology (IMTECH), Chandigarh, and Nostrum
Pharmaceuticals LLC of the US.
The effort to develop an affordable, safe clotbusting drug in India dates back to 2002 when
Cadila Pharmaceuticals Ltd commercialized the
first clot- buster drug and sold it for about $20 per
dose. Chennai-based Shasun Chemicals and Drugs
in 2009 launched recombinant streptokinase for
around $50 per dose in the open market. Both drugs
were developed by IMTECH.

Since 2006, the drug has cleared tests performed
on primates and been put through human safety
studies in phase one trials. The drugs showed no
side-effects, a major achievement for a clot-busting
drug. The phase two human efficacy trials, which

will begin in a few weeks, will test the drugs
efficacy in treating heart attacks.
Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
The Strategic Road Map designed for CSIR as

it stepped into the new Millennium envisaged:
1. Re-engineering the organisational structure;
2. Linking research to market-space;
3. Mobilising and Optimising the resource base;
4. Creating an enabling infrastructure; and
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The Council of Scientific & Industrial Research

(CSIR)the premier industrial R&D organization
in India was constituted in 1942 by a resolution of
the then Central Legislative Assembly. It is an
autonomous body registered under the Registration
of Societies Act of 1860.CSIR aims to provide
industrial competitiveness, social welfare, strong
science & technology base for strategic sectors and
advancement of fundamental knowledge.
5. Investing in high quality science that will be

the harbinger of future technologies.
[29]
NEWS IN BRIEF
NEWSMAKERS
Sushil Koirala
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Sushil Koirala, the Nepali Congress President

has become the Prime Minister of Nepal after
defeating his rival former Prime Minister Sher
Bahadur Deuba by a margin of sixteen votes. Nepali
Congress emerged as the largest party in the
November elections with 196 seats in the 601member Constituent Assembly that also acts as the
parliament. Nepals interim constitution mandates
for a national consensus government failing which
a majority government will be formed. Koirala, the
sole contestant in the premier race, was elected
with 405 votes in the 601-member Constituent
Assembly.
Constitution and the mandate expressed by the

people in the election.
After the results, CPN-UML had pressed for

new elections for president and vice president. Both
the parties had reached a consensus and CPN-UML
standing committee decided to give support to
Nepali Congress (NC).The standing committee of
the CPN-UML - the second largest party which
has 173 lawmakers - backed Koirala for the top
post after the party reached a six-point deal with
the NC, which as 194 lawmakers.
Under the six-point agreement, they agreed to
promulgate the new constitution within a year and
to hold elections for the posts of president, vice
president and chairman of the Constituent
Assembly after it approves the new constitution.
The agreement also mentioned about taking

ownership of the past agreements of the dissolved
Constituent Assembly regarding the drafting of the
constitution. They also agreed to draft the
Constitution according to the 12-point agreement
that was reached in New Delhi in 2005, the
Comprehensive Peace Agreement, the Interim
Mukul Mudgal
Mukul Mudgal, the former Chief Justice of

Punjab and Haryana has been chosen as the new
chairperson of Broadcasting Content Complaints
Council (BCCC), a self- regulatory body for nonnews channels. The board of directors of Indian
Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) had approved the
[30]
KOIRALAS POLITICS GRAPH
1. He entered politics in 1954 inspired by the

social-democratic ideals of the Nepali
Congress.
2. He was in political exile in India for 16 years
following the royal takeover of 1960. While
in exile, Koirala was the editor of Tarun, the
official party publication.
3. He also spent three years in Indian prisons

for his involvement in a plane hijacking in
1973.
4. He has
Working
and was
party in
been a member of the Central

Committee of the party since 1979
appointed General Secretary of the
1996 and Vice President in 1998.
5. In 2001, he lost the contest for the Nepali

Congress Parliamentary Party leader to Sher
Bahadur Deuba.
6. He was appointed acting President of the
party in 2008 by President Girija Prasad
Koirala. On September 22, 2010, the 12th
general convention of the Nepali Congress
elected him as party President.
7. The Nepali Congress emerged as the largest

party in the 2013 Constituent Assembly
elections under Koiralas leadership. He was
elected leader of the Nepali Congress
Parliamentary party securing 105 out of 194
votes against former Prime Minister Sher
Bahadur Deubas 89 votes and elected as
5th prime minister of republic Nepal.
appointment of Justice Mudgal as chairperson of

BCCC.
Justice Mudgal, who had chaired a committee
appointed by the Supreme Court to look into Indian
Premier League match-fixing allegations, succeeds
Justice (retd) Ajit Prakash Shah, who demitted
office after being appointed chairperson of the 20th
Law Commission in November 2013.

He is a BSc (Hons) graduate from Delhi
Universitys Hindu College and LLB from Law
Faculty, DU, he has a lot of interest in classical
music, sports and reading. He was appointed the
Judge of Delhi High Court on Delhi on 2 March,
1998 and elevated as the Chief Justice of Punjab
and Haryana High Court on 5 December, 2009

from where he retired on 3 January, 2011.After
retirement, he chaired a committee set up by the
Ministry of Information & Broadcasting to propose
changes in the Cinematograph Act, 1952.
OBITUARIES
government. Since then he has been chosen as the
best cinematographer for many times in various
Indian films, winning the national award for
cinematography twice.
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Balu Mahendra rests in peace

Balu Mahendra, the famous Filmmaker has died
after the cardiac arrest. He was born in 1939 and
started his career in the tinsel world as a
cinematographer and later went onto direct some
of the most memorable movies including the award
winning Moondram Pirai and Veedu. He recently
released his directorial venture Thalai Muraigal
which depicts the relationship between a
grandfather and his grandson, in which he played
the role of a protagonist.
A native of Amirthakali near Mattakalappu in
Sri Lanka, came to India to study at the Film and
Television Institute of India in Pune. He studied
cinematography as he could not get admission in
the other specialisations offered and graduated with
a gold medal in 1969.
Balu Mahendra started his career in the industry
as a cinematographer for the Malayalam movie
Nellu in 1974. The film earned him the best
cinematographer award from the Kerala
Mahendra is considered to be among the first

to pioneer innovative camera style for colour in
South India besides drawing acclaim for use of
natural lighting as much as possible in his frames.
He made his directional debut in 1977 through the
Kannada film Kokila, wielding the megaphone in
over 20 films in Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and
Hindi.
While his movies Veedu (1988) and Vanna Vanna
Pookkal (1992) won the national award for the best
feature film in Tamil, Sandhya Raagam (1990) won
the award for best film on family welfare. Awardwinning filmmaker and cinematographer Balu
Mahendras masterpieces Azhiyatha Kolangal,
Moondram Pirai, Veedu, Sandya Ragam and
Vanna Vanna Pookal left an indelible mark on
the Indian film industry.
MISCELLANEOUS
Assam, the first state to legally ban smokeless

tobacco
Assam has become the first state to legally ban

consumption of all forms of smokeless tobacco,
including pan masala containing tobacco and
nicotine. Taking note of the fact that smokeless
tobacco accounts for 90% of oral cancers, the act
also bans the manufacture, advertisement, trade,
storage, distribution and sale of the substances.
Currently, sale, manufacture and storage of pan

masala and gutka containing tobacco and nicotine
have been banned for a year with effect from
March 8, 2013, under the Food Safety and Standards
(Prohibition and Restriction on Sales) Regulation,
2011. Though several states have imposed similar
bans under the food safety regulation, Assam will
be the first to impose the ban through legislature.
Violators shall be punished with imprisonment

up to seven years and a fine between Rs 1 lakh
and Rs 5 lakh. Consumption or possession of zarda,
gutka and pan masala containing tobacco shall be
punished with a fine of Rs 1,000 for the first offence
and Rs 2,000 for each subsequent offence.
[31]

with imprisonment up to 7 years and fine
between Rs.1 lakh and Rs. 5 lakh.
Provisions of (Ban on Smokeless Tobacco)

Act
1. Ban on all kind of advertisement, distribution,
promotion, production, sale, trade and
business. Any thing which promotes tobacco
consumption is come under this act.
2. Any forms which contain tobacco are
prohibited in the state viz. pan masala,
gutkha, khaini, etc.
Though many states have imposed similar bans

under the food safety regulation, Assam would be
the first to impose the ban through legislature.
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3. For violating the law, one shall be punished
4. Consumption or possession of zarda, gutka

and pan masala containing tobacco shall be
punished with a fine of Rs. 1000 for the first
offence and Rs. 2000 for each subsequent
offence.
SPORTS
Om Prakash bags gold at Asian

championship
Om Prakash clinched the gold medal after

throwing the iron ball to a distance of 19.07m in
the 6th Asian indoor athletics championships that
concluded in Hangzhou, China. This is his second
medal at these championships after his silver medal
in the 2008 edition at Doha.
The other Indians who impressed at the meet
were Anilda Thomas who finished fourth in the
womens 400m with a time of 56.08 seconds.
Hurdler Arumugam Suresh, running his first-ever
Indoor race, finished first in the 60m hurdles in
the B race, meant for those who were not able to
make it to the finals. The other Indians who
competed were Khyati Vakharia who finished fifth
in womens pole vault while Nellickal Sheena came
seventh in the womens triple jump.
The Asian Indoor Athletics Championships

were held for the first time in 2004. Run by the
Asian Athletics Association, the championships
take place biennially in different cities all over Asia.
The 2014 Asian Indoor Athletics Championships
was the sixth edition of the international indoor
athletics event between Asian nations. It took place
at the Vocational and Technical College Athletics
Hall in Hangzhou, China, between 15 and 16
February. The city was confirmed as the host in
September 2013 at the 77th Council Meeting of
the Asian Athletics Association. This was the
second time the city held the event, successively
following on from the 2012 Championships. A total
of 28 nations were represented at the tournament
comprising 26 track and field events.
Karnataka wins Irani cup 2014

Karnataka clinched Irani Cup 2014 after
[32]
defeating Rest of India. The last seven Rest wickets

tumbled in an hour-and-a-half on the fourth
morning, leaving the home side winner by an
innings and 222 runs at the M. Chinnaswamy
Stadium. Shreyas Gopal administered the final rites
with a hat-trick, only the seventh Karnataka bowler
to take one in first-class cricket. The victory made
Karnataka the first Ranji Trophy champion in the
last eight seasons to win the Irani Cup, a measure
of the sides dominance this season. Karnataka
captain Vinay Kumar lauded his players for their
effort an eighth outright win in nine matches
this season. Karnataka last won the Irani Cup in
1998 at the same venue, under Venkatesh Prasad.
Chhetri is AIFF player of the year
Indian national football team captain, Sunil

Chhetri has been awarded the All India Football
Federation (AIFF) Player of the Year prize by the
federation for the third time. Besides the trophy,
he was presented with prize money of Rs.2 lakh.
The Indian captain had won this award in 2007
and 2011 also. He is currently the highest Indian
goalscorer in international football with 43 goals.
The All India Football Federation (AIFF) is the
organisation which manages the game of
association football in India. It administers the
running of the Indian national football team and
also controls the I-League, Indias premier domestic
club competition, in addition to various other
competitions and teams.
The AIFF was founded in 1937, and gained
FIFA affiliation in the year 1948, after Indias
independence in 1947. India was one of the
founding members of the Asian Football
Confederation when it was set up in 1954.
Moreover, The All India Football Federation has
been named as the best National Sports Federation

with the honour ahead of the other nominees, which
included National Rifle Association of India (NRAI),
Federation of Motor Sports Club of India and the
Billiards and Snooker Federation of India.
The Federation also won the bid to host the

2017 Under-17 FIFA World Cup during FIFAs
Executive Committee Meeting in Brazil in
December 2013.
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The jury chose AIFF for their sustained

involvement in the grassroot levels along with the
setting up of AIFF regional academies with world
class infrastructure and support staff and its
professional functioning manner from the
headquarters, Football House in the Capital.
In 2013, AIFF was nominated among the topthree for the AFC Grassroots MA of the Year Award
and finished second behind eventual winners
Japan. Currently, the AIFF Grassroots Development
Programme is running in as many as six states
across the country.
8. FICCI awards: Sportsperson of the Year:

Deepika Kumari (archery)
AIFF awards:
1. Player of the Year: Sunil Chhetri
2. Woman Player of the Year: Oinam Bembem

Devi
3. Emerging Player of the Year: Jeje Lalpekhlua
4. Best grassroots development programme:
Mizoram FA
5. Award for long-time contribution to Indian

football: Tata Football Academy.
9. Coach of the Year: Baldev Singh (hockey)
10. Breakthrough Sportsperson of the Year: P.V.

Sindhu (badminton)
11. Comeback of the Year: Rani Rampal
(hockey)
12. Paralympics Sportsperson of the Year:
Devender Jhajharia (javelin).
6. Best Referee: Pratap Singh
13. Team of the year: Indian womens archery

team.
7. Best Assistant Referee: Biplab Poddar.
14. Lifetime Achievement award: Rahul Dravid.
[33]
EDITORIALS
JOINING HANDS, AND DREAMS
forums and on other multilateral occasions. The
launching of the year of China-India friendly
exchanges in 2014 will surely take our relations
to a new height.
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I am glad to once again come to the beautiful

city of New Delhi to co-host the 17th special
representatives meeting for the boundary question
and inaugurate the year of China-India friendly
exchanges in commemoration of the 60th
anniversary of the announcement of the five
principles of peaceful coexistence.
Sixty years ago, the Chinese and Indian leaders,

embracing the trend of the times, jointly
championed the five principles of peaceful
coexistence, thus opening a new chapter in
international relations. Since then, these principles
have served as the basic norms governing
international relations and contributed greatly to
world peace and stability, and human progress.
While much has changed in the world, these
principles have remained as relevant as ever.
Seizing the historic opportunity presented by

accelerating economic globalisation, China and
India have achieved sustained economic growth
and become the most dynamic emerging markets
and new powerhouses of the Asian economy. We
have not only made life better for our two peoples,
but are making new contribution to global peace
and development. The ancient Chinese and Indian
civilisations are full of new vigour.
Early in the new century, China and India

established a strategic and cooperative partnership
for peace and prosperity and have gained much
new ground in promoting friendly exchanges and
mutually beneficial cooperation. The two-way
trade, which was just $2.9 billion in 2000, surged
to $65.4 billion in 2013, increasing over 20 times.
Our two countries have established the strategic
economic dialogue and other cooperation
mechanisms, and we have put forward important
cooperation initiatives such as the building of the
Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar
economic
corridor. People-to-people and cultural exchanges
are expanding and the friendship between our
peoples is flourishing. China and India have worked
together to tackle climate change, food security,
energy security and other global challenges, and
have maintained close cooperation at Brics and G20
[34]
The significant growth of China-India relations

is the result of our shared pursuit of the five
principles of peaceful coexistence. We have always
respected each other and worked to increase
strategic mutual trust. As a result, our bilateral
relations have become more mature. We have
worked for mutual benefit and greater exchanges
and cooperation, benefiting the 2.5 billion people
of our two countries. We have developed a new
model of relations that enables us to advance
bilateral ties by accommodating each others
concerns and properly handling differences. More
importantly, following the trend of history and the
changing world, we have always approached our
relations as ones of global and strategic importance.
We both share the belief that the world is big
enough for China and India to grow together and
that the world needs the development of both China
and India.
China and India are partners of cooperation.
The growth of the China-India strategic and
cooperative partnership not only serves the
fundamental interests of our two countries and
peoples, but will also boost peace and prosperity of
the world.
In his meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh last October, Chinese President Xi Jinping
said that Chinese and Indian dreams are
interconnected and mutually compatible. Both
Chinese and Indian dreams are about enhancing
national strength, achieving national prosperity and
pursuing national renewal, and they represent the
shared aspiration of the 2.5 billion people of our
two countries and that of the developing world.
China and India are both major ancient civilisations
and the two largest developing countries and
emerging markets in the world. As such, every step
forward in both our respective development and
our bilateral relations will bring greater benefits
and hope for the people of both countries, contribute

more to world peace and security, create more
opportunity for cooperation and promote the
progress of human civilisation.
The Third Plenum of the 18th Central
Committee of the Communist Party of China held
last November made an important decision on
comprehensively deepening reform in China. India
is also committed to advancing reform and
achieving inclusive growth. There is therefore
enormous potential for growing bilateral ties and

tremendous room for boosting cooperation. Looking
ahead, the Chinese and Indian dreams are well
within our reach. When China and India join hands
and pursue peaceful, cooperative and common
development, we can certainly realise our respective
dreams of national renewal. This will also be a
true blessing to both Asia and the world.
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UNRAVELING IN THE SKY
The US Federal Aviation Administrations

(FAAs) downgrade of Indias aviation safety rating
couldnt have come at a worse time just when
India was creating a positive investment climate in
its aviation sector with several far-reaching reforms.
Barely 16 countries are in Category II, which India
has just been included in. Bangladesh, Belize, Ivory
Coast, Congo, Gambia, Haiti, Nauru, Swaziland
and Zimbabwe are some of the other countries in
the category.
January 31, 2014 will be remembered as a black

day in the history of Indian aviation. Ironically,
Indias downgrade happened in the month when
the aviation world was celebrating the centennial
of the worlds first commercial airline flight.
The last two years have seen a series of aviation
sector reforms. The biggest gamechanger was
allowing 49 per cent FDI by global airlines in Indian
carriers. Other important reforms include lifting the
ban on Airbus A380s, allowing the direct import
of aviation turbine fuel, allowing external
commercial borrowings for maintenance, repairs
and overhaul (MRO), removing import duties on
aircraft parts, opening up Indias bilateral rights to
low-cost carriers, abolishing the aircraft acquisition
committee, privatising leading Indian airports, etc.
The safety ratings downgrade may set us back
several years.
Sanctions by aviation regulators under the
International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO)
norms typically have a domino effect. So far,
thankfully, we havent seen a similar downgrade
in other key regions like the EU, Singapore, Japan
or the UAE. There are, however, reports of a likely
increase in the scrutiny of Indian aircraft landing
in these regions.
Should a global downgrade happen, the

outcome will be significant. The benefits of Air India
joining the Star Alliance may diminish, since its
alliance partners may be prohibited from
codesharing with it. Jet Airways plans to expand
its global footprint through the Abu Dhabi hub

may suffer. IndiGo and SpiceJet may not be able to
expand their international services. Start-up airlines,
like Tata-SIA and AirAsia, may not be able to fly
internationally, even if the rule stating that an
Indian carrier must be at least five years old and
have 20 aircraft in its fleet to fly abroad is abolished.
The global downgrade may also negatively
impact our airports and air cargo, MRO, general
aviation, tourism and hotel industries. Global bids
for airports in India may be affected. Aircraft lease
rents and insurance premiums may rise, hurting
Indian carriers. The bottomline is that its time for
decisive action on a war-footing.
But how did we get to this point? Indias
aviation industry witnessed phenomenal growth
over the last decade. It now boasts of several worldclass airports and airlines. Global players entered
sub-sectors like cargo, MRO, aerospace
manufacturing, ground-handling, training, etc. All
this enhanced the scale, complexity and reputation
of the Indian aviation market.
Somewhere along the way, ICAO regulations
on safety didnt receive enough attention. These
regulations judge sovereign safety regulators on
eight key parameters legislation, organisation,
licensing, operation, airworthiness, accident
investigation, air navigation and aerodromes. The
ICAO has on several occasions since 2009
highlighted shortcomings and the corrective action
needed but some of this went unheeded.
To be fair to the Directorate General of Civil
Aviation (DGCA), it scores high on most parameters.
The DGCA seems to have scored low on organisation
and licensing, which are critical requirements. In
the end, after repeated interventions, the FAA
decided to take the extreme step of a downgrade.
We have the option of either correcting our
shortcomings or playing the victim and retaliating.
Though the latter could be counterproductive, it can
be used tactically at a later stage.
[35]

what the DGCA needs. The Civil Aviation
Authority Bill has been hanging fire for various
reasons. The passage of the bill should be expedited.
The shortcomings of regulation and oversight
procedures should be addressed immediately.
Perhaps we waste too much time on pointless
debates till things reach breaking point. Well, times
run out now.
We may do well to learn from Mexicos

example. We should work closely with the ICAO
and FAA, identify remedial actions, the person
responsible for affecting them, and the deadlines
for the same. Flight operations inspectors should
be hired from Indian carriers and the defence forces,
and trained immediately. Many countries that have
a large aircraft fleet but few local inspectors depend
on global contractors. We should explore that
option as a short-term measure. We can always
phase them out later.
The reaction of the Indian media has been quite

mature. There have been no jingoistic editorials.
Instead, most have been critical of the Indian
authorities. Once India is back in Category I,
hopefully in the next six months or so, we need a
thorough post-mortem of this episode. Heads need
to roll.
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In the past, the FAA has downgraded US allies

like the Philippines (January 2008), Israel (December
2008) and Mexico (July 2010), which proves that
the FAAs actions are independent of US foreign
policy interests. While Mexico bounced back to
Category I in a record six months, Israel took four
years. The Philippines continues to be in Category
II.
The necessary funds must be allocated by the

government on a priority basis. The financial losses
stemming from the downgrade are several times
The FAA and ICAO, for their part, should assist

the DGCA in the spirit of collaboration. Keeping
India down is not in the best interests of the global
aviation, aerospace and defence industries. After
all, India is a responsible democracy, a large market
and an emerging aviation power.
A TOXIC EMPLOYMENT BENEFITS REGIME
Indias economically questionable employee

benefits regime means that the take-home salary of
someone earning Rs 55,000 per month is only 9
per cent less than their gross salary, while the takehome salary of a person who earns Rs 5,500 a
month is 49 per cent less than their gross salary.
While labour law reform is often equated with

the ability of employers to freely hire and fire their
employees, India will benefit more from fixing the
current regressive benefits regime, which requires
six-times greater deductions for a person earning a
10-times lower salary, is not competitive, and has
ensured that 100 per cent of net job creation since
1991 has taken place in the informal sector. This
war on formal employment has poisonous
consequences lower tax collection, uneven
productivity, poor working conditions, lack of
minimum wage enforcement and small firm size
(80 per cent of Indias garment production takes
place in units employing less than 15 people while
80 per cent of Chinas takes place in units with
more than 200 employees). Formal employment
growth will be explosive if only five changes are
made.
One, the mandatory 12 per cent
provident fund contribution must be
That provident funds are a means of
social security is a myth. The median
[36]
employee
abolished.
providing
retirement
amount in India is Rs 25,000. Poor management

and harassment by the Employees Provident Fund
Organisation (EPFO) has created 50 million orphan
accounts and unclaimed balances that are no longer
being credited with interest. The myopia
argument that low wage workers need to be
protected from themselves is superfluous because
payroll deduction rates cant be higher than the
savings rate. Instead of raising the salary cap,
abolishing this 12 per cent will raise take-home
incomes and eliminate employees reluctance for
formal employment.
Two, the employee pension scheme must be
scrapped and we must move back to the pre-1995
status. In 1995, the EPFO diverted 80 per cent of
employer contributions towards the poorly designed
employee pension scheme (EPS). EPSs liabilities
were, at last count, officially estimated at Rs 50,000
crore more than its assets. The EPFOs attempts to
fill this hole by reducing benefits are a default, and
employees should be allowed to opt out of EPS
and revert back to pre-1995 defined contribution
accounts. EPS not only has the birth defect of
benefits and contributions being defined but it also
provides a lower monthly pension relative to a
deferred annuity from LIC or bank interest on the
retirement lump sum. Making the minimum
pension Rs 1,000 as was done last week is

election politics. It will only make things much
worse.
Benefits regimes are innovating globally because

of demographic challenges and a realisation that
employee benefits are not over and above gross
salary but come out of it. Chrysler is owned by
retirees who got their stake in lieu of unfunded
pensions. Britain recently introduced a new
employment contract for employee owners who
surrender the right to redundancy payments in
exchange for capital gains-exempt equity. This
scheme will probably fail for reasons similar to why
equity for land failed in India what the price
should be, who bears project-failure risk, who gives
liquidity, etc. But policymakers trying to catalyse
job creation in France, Spain, USA, Japan, Brazil
and China agree that one size does not fit all and
are experimenting with giving employees more
control over how they are paid.
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Three, employees must be allowed to choose

between the EPFO and the national pension
scheme. The EPFO is the most expensive
government securities mutual fund in the world
with costs equivalent to 4.4 per cent of
contributions. Most gilt funds even public sector
ones charge 0.25 per cent of contributions. Giving
employees an option to pay their monthly
provident fund dues to either the EPFO or the
national pension scheme will create a portable backpack pension with higher competition and lower
costs.
the employment contract has morphed from a

lifetime contract to a taxicab relationship, most
employees with short tenures do not get gratuity
benefits. The political optics of abolishing gratuity
make that infeasible. It is better to remove the fiveyear limit and create a monthly or annual payment
option to create transparency and fairness since
gratuity is built into most cost-to-company
calculations.
Four, employees must be allowed to choose

between the Employees State Insurance
Corporation (ESIC) and health insurance. The
health insurance programme run by the ESIC
provides poor value for money, with only 48 per
cent of contributions being paid out as benefits.
Most private and public health insurance plans
have a 100 per cent-plus claims ratio. The unfair
payout ratio has allowed ESIC to unfairly
accumulate Rs 28,000 crore in reserves, which are
currently invested in government securities and
bank deposits. Employees must be given an option
to opt out of the ESIC programme and pay their
monthly contributions to any IRDA-regulated
health insurance plan.
Five, the five-year limit must be abolished or
gratuity must be removed. Gratuity is a defined
benefit lump sum payable at the time of retirement
to the employee. It gives the employee 15-days of
salary for every year of service. But this benefit is
only applicable after five years of service, and as
Informal employment is the slavery of the 21st

Century. Only 8 per cent of Indias labour force
gets minimum wages, employment benefits, safe
working conditions and leave benefits. Increasing
formal job creation is Indias biggest challenge and
the right place to start that tricky journey is fixing
our toxic employment benefits regime.
INTERNET REALPOLITIK
In his article In strategic interest, and for selfrespect (IE, January 30), Hardeep S. Puri has
underscored why we need to discuss internet
governance, cybersecurity and related issues
threadbare, and among a much larger set of
stakeholders. This intrinsically democratic and most
accessible medium has witnessed a disappointingly
muted debate within India on its governance and
regulation. Some key aspects highlighted in Puris
article must be discussed further.
First, it must be understood that from a practice
and policy perspective, surveillance, cybersecurity
and internet governance are immiscible. Espionage
is unlikely to cease irrespective of who governs the
internet, who allocates domain names and who
assigns addresses. The existence of PRISM and

other such programmes is not a reflection of the
state of global internet governance, but rather
demonstrates the political intent, technological
capability and institutional capacity of nations to
interlope, acquire and illegally monitor information
and data.
Indias subdued opposition to the revelation of
PRISM was because, as the external affairs minister
put it, we have similar systems in place called
NETRA and the Central Monitoring System. All
countries with means and capacity will keep tabs
on adversaries and on activities they perceive as
threats. No international agreement or legislation
will change that. When such attempts to spy are
[37]

exposed, as by Snowden, there will be a degree of
furore and then it will be business-as-usual.
Therefore, even as India rightly seeks greater voice
and weight in institutions that manage the internet,
it must be very careful not to conflate internet
governance with either cybersecurity or
cyberespionage.
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Second, on internet governance, the Tunis

Declaration of 2005 is indeed important. We must
strive for multilateral, transparent and
democratic systems of governance as against
ceding disproportionate weight and voice to one
nation. Unilateralism, or even plurilateralism, is
unacceptable, and countries like India and Brazil
must ensure the digital world does not get carved
up among a group of US-led Western nations on
the one hand and the Chinese and Russians on the
other. India, in a manner of speaking, is a swing
state and how it acts now may influence the
narrative decisively. India needs to do more. It will
be the most digitally engaged actor among the
liberal and democratic nations that seek a free and
fluid internet. There must be no governance veto
for the US, Russia or China and any framework
must have India at the high table. At the same
time, there must be no G-77 for the digital world
with India at its helm. The stakes are too high for
India to adopt self-aggrandising idealism. We need
to engage on realistic terms with the key
stakeholders.
states and may arguably have a greater impact on

the future of the digital medium. How India engages
with this new landscape is the most relevant
question. Does India see the internet as an aid to
emancipate its people or a means to control them?
Does it see this medium as an opportunity to create
wealth and reach prosperity and services to its
people, or should we imagine it as another 20th
century security discourse? Does it see its private
sector as offering the country greater agency, or
does it view the private sector in contention with
the state?
Alongside this realism, we also need to accept

another fact. This is no longer just a debate on
unilateralism, plurilateralism and multilateralism;
it is as much a debate on multistakeholderism and
multilateralism. The Tunis Declaration, when first
written in 2005, had a very different context. There
were less than a billion internet users compared to
2.7 billion today, and there were less than two
billion mobile users as against seven billion today.
In 2005, Google was in its early years, Facebook
had not moved out of the college campus, and
Twitter had not even been conceived. Today, these
and other corporations and civil society
collaborations are arguably weightier than nation
If the answer is the former to each of the posers,

then any governance framework must
accommodate the voice of consumers, private-sector
companies and other stakeholders. It also implies
India help shift the discourse towards
multistakeholderism. Telecom companies and IT
enterprises have been Indias interlocutors in these
sectors at a time when government was illequipped to be the voice. These corporations created
jobs, ensured growth and connected India to the
world under governance regimes emanating from
Western centres that were also their markets. They
must be co-opted as India engages on these issues
today. The consumers/ users must also have a
significant voice. This is logical and achievable, as
long as we do not mix our approaches to espionage,
security and governance of the internet.
Our strategic interest will be served when
we acknowledge where our current and future
interests lie, in terms of economy and politics.
Thereafter, we must negotiate Indias role at
institutions that govern the internet, be it ICANN,
IANA or any other body. Our self-respect will
be enhanced when we negotiate this role from a
position of strength, a factor of our economic
weight, which in turn is a factor of our privatesector successes, entrepreneurship and large
consumer base. The government, like some other
smart nations, must let its enterprises and people
speak for it, as it will lend it greater credibility.
NOT HIRING NOW
The recently released Employment and

Unemployment Situation in India report of the NSS
68th round (2011-12) highlights some sobering facts.
Labour force participation rate decreased for rural
males by 1 per cent between 1993-94 and 2011-12
and increased by a meagre 2 per cent for urban
males. Womens participation rates declined across
[38]
both rural and urban areas. Given the increase in

Indias working-age population, these trends are
disquieting.
India adds one million people to its workingage population each month. Its demographic
advantage can make it an economic powerhouse,

but only if employment growth can be revived.
Given that the unemployment rate among the
youth (15 to 29 years) is significantly higher
5 and 8 per cent for rural and urban males
respectively than the overall rate, and
unemployment among educated youth 8.1 and
11.7 per cent for rural and urban males respectively
is even higher, slow employment growth is a
matter of grave concern. It will be one of the biggest
challenges for the next government.
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While the need for labour law reform is widely

acknowledged, even though it continues to be stalled
by the lack of political will, other roadblocks to
employment generation that lie in areas such as
infrastructure, finance and the myriad interactions
of the state with firms are not yet fully understood,
much less addressed. The growth of firms translates
into the growth of employment in an economy,
and not just of large manufacturing firms.
Power, water, roads, ports and airports are all

of vital importance to the growth of firms. Without
the means to access markets, trade and commerce
will not be able to thrive. Similarly, without access
to finance, businesses cannot get working capital
or ramp up investment. Indian finance offers little
scope of non-collateralised funding for firms with
promising but untested business models. Indias
public sector-led, heavily regulated banking
industry, which has to lend to priority sectors and
buy government bonds, has little to offer to the
risky borrower.
Millions of small and medium-sized firms across

the country need to be encouraged to grow, to be
part of the organised sector, access formal finance
and adopt modern technologies.
Employment growth will require reform not just

in labour laws, but in finance and infrastructure
investment as well. These are huge challenges, but
if the next government is unable to face them up
front, we will continue to witness the low
employment growth of the past. Importantly, with
a growing number of young and educated workingage citizens, unemployment has the potential to
cause even greater social and political distress.
SILENCING OF LIBERAL INDIA
Yet another book withdrawn and pulped by

the publisher under pressure. The pulping of
Wendy Donigers book, The Hindus: An Alternative
History, is the pulping of liberal India. The
agreement by the publisher to withdraw it is like
putting a contract out on free expression. In India
you publish at your peril. It is in a shockingly long
line of books and art withdrawn from free
circulation one way or the other, sometimes against
the law, sometimes in the garb of law.
India is a democracy, but its reputation as a
bastion of liberal values is dimming by the day.
The argumentative Indian is being replaced by the
offended Indian, the tolerant Indian by the
intolerant mob, the reflective citizen by the hurt
communal mobiliser, the courageous Indian by the
cowardly thug who needs the state to protect it
against every argument, the pious Indian by the
ultimate blasphemer who thinks he needs to protect
the gods rather than the gods being there to protect
him. Whether this is a tiny minority or represents
the majority is beside the point. The point is that
the assault on free expression is winning. How is
liberal India being silenced?
Liberal India is being silenced because its joy at
exposing hypocrisy is far greater than its
commitment to defending freedom. Every time a
book is under assault, the same tiresome argument

breaks out. Oh, you did not speak when so and
so was banned. You did not speak when Taslima
Nasreen was the target, or when Jitender Bhargava
was ordered to withdraw his book on Air India.
Or there is the partisan division: you did not object
to what the Congress did to Salman Rushdie, or
the CPM in West Bengal.
The point is that we spend all our psychic
energies in exposing each other, not in defending
values. If freedom is to survive, we have to set
aside this debate on hypocrisy. It devours all energy.
But it also legitimises the disposition that is at the
heart of banning books: a fragile ego that takes joy
in revenge, rather than taking pride in freedom.
Let us get on with the task of defending the core
values.
Liberal India has been silenced because it never
understood that toleration does not, to use Govind
Ranades phrase, come in halves. You cannot pick
and choose when to be tolerant. You cannot choose
to be tolerant along partisan lines. Neither can you
choose to be tolerant based on what you think are
distinctions between good and bad scholarship,
serious and scurrilous books. These distinctions are
a good basis for criticism; they are not the best
basis for deciding whom the law will protect. And
[39]

Maharashtra stood up for the rights of scholars.
As a result of the James Laine episode, most
publishers do not want to even touch books on
Shivaji.
Liberal India has been silenced because the one

institution that needs to protect it constantly fails:
the courts. Civil society and politics have a lot to
answer for. But the incentives to mobilise around
the banning of books have largely been created by
the laws and by the convoluted jurisprudence of
the courts. A law that signals that it is open to
banning books will incite mobilisations to ban books.
If the state gives the category of taking easy
offence such aid and succour, offence will be
easily taken.
The BJPs relationship with groups that initiate

these mobilisations has often been one of plausible
deniability. It gives aid and succour to vicious
offence mongering, it legitimises this contrived
narrative of Hindu hurt. All it needs to do to
overcome these suspicions is come clean and
emphatically state that it does not support the
withdrawal of books. We do not need political
parties that take on the garb of liberalism by
avoiding issues; we need political parties that
actually defend liberal values.
In the case of Donigers book, there seems to

have been no threat of the book provoking largescale violence. Despite protest and criticism, the
book has been in circulation. But more importantly,
the courts have sown the seeds of further confusion.
For example, the Bombay High Court judgment on
the Bhasin case upheld the idea that it is no
defence that the writing contains a truthful account
of past events or is supported by good authority.
Courts uphold the idea that the criticism of religion
must only be academic, whatever that means.
Lampooing is part of legitimate criticism.
Liberal India has been let down by its

publishers. If major presses like Oxford University
Press (OUP) and Penguin cave in to the threat of
litigation so easily and fail to take matters up to
the Supreme Court, it will become easier for people
to intimidate. Recall OUPs conduct in the case of
the Calcutta High Court banning a scholarly
monograph by Hans Dembowski on the judiciary.
Indian business is supine because it feels politically
vulnerable at so many different levels.
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R.V. Bhasin, author of a banned book on Islam,

will be protected as much as Wendy Doniger. And
so it should be. If you want a hundred flowers to
bloom, a few weeds will grow as well.
While banning the novel, Dharamkaarana, they

showed no regard for the artistic integrity of the
work. Courts should be the bully pulpit of
constitutional values. They should draw strong lines
protecting freedom. No wonder liberals worry that
the court will not rescue them. No wonder the
mere threat of litigation is a dampener on free
expression.
Liberal India has been silenced by professional

offence-mongers. Those who now claim to speak
on behalf of communities use every trick they can
to silence. There is often the threat of violence. The
use of law is not, in this instance, an exercise of
citizens rights. It is the use of law as a tactic of
intimidation. Often, these groups have the implicit
backing of political parties. No political party in
Liberal India has been silenced by its educators.

The extraordinary failure of the project of liberal
education is manifesting itself in the pathology of
liberal institutions. If so many of Indias educated
middle classes, which inhabit key institutions like
the judiciary, bureaucracy, media, are so confused
about basic constitutional values, if they are so
content at liberty being abridged, one by one, you
have to wonder about liberal education.
The fact that universities themselves did not
remain exemplars of criticism, that they banished
a healthy engagement with tradition has meant
that the most ignorant and violent have now
become the custodians of tradition. Wendy Doniger
could not have damaged Hindus. But if Liberal
India dies, Hinduism will die as well.
AT A STANDSTILL
There has been serious opposition from the

disability rights movement to the current draft of
the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill (RPD
bill) and the governments resolve to pass it during
the ongoing session of Parliament. I will focus on
two main problems with the bill, though this does
not mean that it is acceptable in other respects.
[40]
The two concerns that I highlight, however, go

to the root of the issue of equal protection and full
participation of persons with disabilities.
The main drawback of the Persons with the
Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of
Rights and Full Participation) Act (PWD act), 1995,
which is currently in force, is that it defines a person

with disability as someone who has 40 per cent or
more of any of the seven enumerated disabilities
blindness, low vision, hearing impairment,
locomotor disability, mental illness, mental
retardation and leprosy. This definition stems from
a medical model of disability and is highly
problematic.
Even under the RPD bill, HIV/AIDS has not

been included as a benchmark disability. Benefits
under the bill should not be restricted only to
persons with benchmark disabilities. If the bill is
passed in this form, the law would have failed to
internalise the key message of the disability rights
movement that disability has to be understood
from the perspective of a social model and that
there cannot be discrimination amongst persons
with disabilities.
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First, it does not recognise that disability is not

just about impairment but about the manner in
which the social environment disables individuals.
Second, you cannot always diagnose whether an
individual has 40 per cent of a disability this
is especially true for intellectual and psycho-social
disabilities. Third, it leaves people with disabilities
at the mercy of the state because they have to obtain
a disability certificate verifying that they are more
than 40 per cent disabled. The new RPD bill
unfortunately reproduces this medical model of
disability in its definition.
disabilities, HIV/AIDS, even dwarfism, which have

been recognised as disabilities by Indian courts. If
we limit the legal definition to 18 benchmark
disabilities, we will eventually be confronted with
the same situation as new disabilities are recognised
thanks to medical developments.
The world over, most progressive laws have

adopted definitions of disability that stem from
social models that define it as any long-term
physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairment,
which in interaction with various other barriers
may hinder participation in society on an equal
footing with others. The RPD bill adopts this
definition selectively for clauses related to nondiscrimination but where positive benefits are
involved, such as reservation in education and
employment, a medical definition of benchmark
disabilities is used. The RPD bill has expanded
the number of benchmark disabilities from seven
to 18 and has retained the 40 per cent requirement.
These benchmark disabilities include learning

disabilities, multiple sclerosis and thalassemia,
among others. The benefits under the RPD bill, such
as the right to free education up to 18 years of age,
provision of reasonable accommodation, 5 per cent
reservation of seats in higher education institutions
and government jobs, schemes for the allotment of
land at concessional rates, and other affirmative
action programmes are only provided to persons
with benchmark disabilities.
In 1995, when the PWD act was drafted, only
seven specific disabilities were listed under it. Now,
after 18 years of it being in force, we have realised
that there are several others, such as learning
The other loophole in the RPD bill is that it

does not provide for reservation of jobs in the
private sector. The bill, which was submitted by
the committee set up to draft it had specifically
included job reservation in both public and private
establishments. Even in the National Federation for
the Blind vs Union of India and Others judgment,
the Supreme Court, relying on an earlier version of
the draft RPD bill, observed that the legislature
should ensure 5 per cent representation of persons
with disabilities in both the public and private
sectors.
The RPD bill, however, does not contain any
such provision and merely increases the percentage
of reservation in government establishments from
3 per cent, which is mandated in the PWD act, to
5 per cent. Presently, even the 3 per cent reservation
in public sector jobs is not being implemented.
Increasing it to 5 per cent is merely lip service.
Job reservation in the private sector is nonnegotiable if we are to guarantee true equality for
persons with disabilities. Employment is one of the
main ways in which persons with disabilities can
fully participate in society. This will only happen if
we also mandate reservation in the private sector.
This will, in turn, create demand for accessible
transport, roads and reasonable accommodation.
Unless these two provisions are seriously
reconsidered, the RPD bill will just be old wine in
a new bottle.
WITH AN EYE ON INFLATION

India is the only large emerging market (EM)
that doesnt currently have a monetary policy
framework. Other than China, which targets the
exchange rate, all large EMs target inflation. This

is one of the main reasons why India saw a rise in
inflation after the global financial crisis, while other
[41]

framework have been enjoyed by emerging
economies. While all EMs are suffering from a
slowdown in demand, India is suffering from
stagflation. None of the other large EMs is
experiencing such high inflation. None of them has
such unanchored inflationary expectations.
India has chosen these two corners of the trinity

and this allows it to have an independent
monetary policy. The lack of a monetary policy
framework is a recipe for high inflation, low growth
and highly volatile business cycles. The Urjit Patel
report to revise and strengthen the monetary policy
framework has recommended that the RBI adopt
flexible inflation targeting.
Some people suggest that GDP growth should

serve as the nominal anchor. But this is not possible.
If it were, several countries would have already
targeted growth and become rich. Countries with
the highest inflation, like Zimbabwe, would also
have been the fastest growing ones. An inflationtargeting framework takes into account the effect
of various demand and supply shocks on inflation,
output and exchange rates, and accordingly
forecasts inflation, which the central bank then tries
to bring back to the target rate in the medium run.
For those interested in the details, Rudrani
Bhattacharya and I have a recent paper on how
an inflation-targeting framework would work in
India (goo.gl/UeCZFm).
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EMs experienced a downward pressure on prices.

It is clear to students of monetary economics that
an inflation-targeting framework is the way
forward for India, which is opening up its capital
account and moving towards a flexible exchange
rate regime.
What are the main elements of inflation

targeting? First, a monetary policy framework
requires a defined nominal anchor. There are many
factors that determine the relative price of any two
goods, while the nominal anchor determines the
general level of prices. So, for example, if there are
only two goods in an economy, and one costs
double the other, what determines whether the
prices are Rs 10 and 20 or Rs 100 and 200? When
economies started using paper money, it became
possible to create an unlimited amount of money.
But this could cause these prices to rise to Rs 1,000
and 2,000 or any other such combination.
When paper money was anchored to gold or

silver, or, in some cases, to the sterling or dollar,
this used to determine the general level of prices.
However, when these systems ran into trouble,
countries chose a general price level as the anchor,
with some allowance for changes in relative prices.
A small amount of growth in the general price
level allows for smooth changes in relative prices.
Thus, the price level and a small, specified increase
in it became the nominal anchor. This was the
inflation target.
Such an anchor incentivises households to save.
It allows businesses to plan, knowing how their
cost structure will evolve over the years. After 1990,
inflation targeting was adopted by 34 countries.
The OECD countries were among the first to adopt
it and, after 2000, a number of emerging economies
such as Brazil, Chile, Colombia, South Africa,
Thailand, South Korea, Mexico, Peru, the
Philippines, Indonesia, Turkey and many east
European countries followed suit.
More recently, after the global financial crisis,

even developing countries started adopting this
framework. After 2008, we have seen countries like
Georgia, Moldova, Albania, Botswana and, in 2011,
Uganda adopt inflation targeting. The fruits of the
[42]
The paper presents a typical forecasting and

policy analysis model, which shows how an
inflation-targeting framework takes into account
various cyclical factors that impact aggregate
demand and supply to forecast inflation. One of
the main problems with the public discourse on
inflation targeting is that it assumes inflationtargeting central banks only look at past inflation
and adjust rates accordingly, rather than figuring
out how demand, supply and expectations impact
inflation. As the Urjit Patel report argues, while
there is a tradeoff between inflation and growth in
the short run, there is no tradeoff in the medium
run, and cross-country evidence suggests that low
and stable inflation is, in fact, better for growth.
No country has given up on an inflation forecast
in its monetary policy framework.
The proposed flexible inflation-targeting
framework also takes into account the difficulties
India faces due to high and volatile food prices. In
other emerging economies also, food accounts for
a high proportion of the consumption basket. The
report argues for the consumer price index, of
which food is a large component, to be used as the
measure of the nominal anchor. A CPI inflation
target of 4 per cent, which can be breached by 2
percentage points on either side, will allow the RBI
not to respond if inflation is above 4 per cent but
within the target band, as long as this is because of
supply shocks that will not persist. With the
inclusion of food inflation in the target, its spillover
into non-food inflation will reduce, keeping overall

CPI inflation in check even if there are spikes in
food inflation.
However, it should be elected representatives,
and not unelected central bankers, who decide
what the nominal anchor and monetary policy
framework should be. Once decided, the central
bank should be given the power to pursue these
objectives and it should be made accountable to
the democratic representatives of the people.
Eventually, in India too, as in most other countries,
the monetary policy framework must be enshrined

in law. This was also the opinion of the Financial
Sector Legislative Reforms Commission. In the
meanwhile, the proposed framework is a huge step
forward. It is in accordance with the voluntary
adoption of governance-enhancing principles that
regulators are embracing till the Indian Financial
Code is legislated upon.
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HALFWAY RIGHT
SEBI has issued new regulations on corporate

governance. While some of these are welcome,
others are questionable. Further, the regulationmaking process in Sebi does not appear to have
undergone any change, as it should have, following
the governance enhancing principles Sebi has signed
up to in the Financial Stability and Development
Council.
There is a long tradition of abusing the interests

of public shareholders in India when individual
entrepreneurs, business families or the government
promote companies. There has been a two-pronged
movement on strengthening the rules: one from
the department of company affairs and another
from Sebi. On February 13, Sebi announced a batch
of reforms of the corporate governance framework,
which will come into effect from October 1. Many
of the proposed changes are on the right track.
These include a separate meeting of

independent directors, the establishment of a
whistle blower mechanism, and greater scrutiny
and disclosure of related-party transactions. For the
biggest companies of India, these are likely to
increase the confidence of shareholders and thereby
make possible increased financing from the public.
Honest and ethical companies will find it easy to
meet these requirements. Crooked companies will
find that life is now more difficult for them

which is a good thing.
But the Sebi announcement also includes some
dubious proposals. For instance, Sebi now requires
that every company have at least one woman
director. There is no link between the empowerment
of women and Sebis objectives (of consumer
protection and micro-prudential regulation). Once
activism in favour of womens rights is acceptable
in economic policy, more problematic demands
could follow. Another group of restrictions that
call forth scepticism has to do with the number of
boards independent directors can sit on and and
their length of tenure. Precise numbers are being
prescribed by Sebi which cannot have a rational
foundation. This raises the question of whether
Sebis regulation-making process has changed at
all. Under the handbook on adopting governance
enhancing measures of the draft Indian Financial
Code, every regulation must emanate from a formal
process of proving a market failure, demonstrating
that the stated intervention solves this failure. Sebi
is a signatory to the handbook as are all five
financial agencies. Sebi needs to now follow this
process while issuing new regulations about
corporate governance, as it has committed itself to.
INTO THE MELTING POT
ZADIE SMITH, a novelist born to a black

Jamaican mother and a white British father, recently
recalled that when she was growing up in Willesden
Green, a London district with a large immigrant
population, nothing could be more normal than a
mixed-race girl. The surprise, she said, was
entering publishing and finding that people thought
it unusual. Nobody could get that impression now:
Britons are mixing at extraordinary speed.
The 2011 census revealed a country that is
decreasingly white and British: Englands ethnicminority population grew from 9% of the total in
2001 to 14%. But the biggest single increase was in
the number of people claiming a mixed-ethnic
background. This almost doubled, to around 1.2m.
Among children under the age of five, 6% had a
mixed backgroundmore than belonged to any
other minority group (see chart). Mixed-race
children are now about as common in Britain as in
Americaa country with many more non-whites
and a longer history of mass immigration.
[43]
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says Shamit Saggar at the University of Essex.
As Britains mixed-race population swells,

another group appears destined to shrink. The
Labour Force Survey reveals that 48% of black
Caribbean men and 34% of black Caribbean women
in couples are with partners of a different ethnic
groupwith higher proportions still among
younger cohorts. Black Caribbean children under
ten years old are outnumbered two-to-one by
children who are a mixture of white and black
Caribbean.
Rob Ford of Manchester University points out

that Caribbean folk are following an Irish pattern
of integration, in that their partners are often
working-class. The Irish parallel also suggests they
will eventually be fully absorbed into the British
population. Polls show that adults who are a
mixture of white and black Caribbean tend to see
themselves not so much as black, Caribbean or even
as British, but rather as Englishthe identity of
the comfortably assimilated.
Indians, who began arriving in large numbers
in the 1960s, were slower to mix. They are now
doing sobut along Jewish, rather than Irish, lines.
For them, assimilation follows education: according
to research by Raya Muttarak and Anthony Heath,
Indians with degrees are far more likely to marry
whites. Indians are not so much marrying into the
white majority as into its suburban middle class,
[44]
Their children are quietly transforming Britains

suburbs and commuter towns. Whereas Asians are
still concentrated in cities such as Leicester and in
London boroughs like Tower Hamlets and Harrow,
mixed Asian and white children are widespread
(see maps). In Chiltern, an affluent commuter
district in Buckinghamshire, 5% of children under
five years old were mixed Asian and white in
2011more than in most of London. Their parents
may have met at university or while working in
the capital. Within Birmingham, too, mixed Asian
and white children are especially common in the
largely middle-class white suburbs of Edgbaston,
Moseley and Harborne.
Still warming up
Pakistanis and Bangladeshis mostly remain in

cities, and are mixing more slowly. Just 8% of
Pakistani men and 7% of Bangladeshi men in
couples are with people of a different ethnic group,
and the proportions for women are smaller. Oddly,
older Pakistani men are more likely to have partners
of another ethnicity, perhaps because many early
migrants were single men. But even these groups
are assimilating: another study finds that Pakistanis
and Bangladeshis born in Britain are far likelier to
socialise with whites than their parents were.
Britains newer minorities are blending into the
larger population, too, but in ways that defy easy
categorisation. Mixed black- African and white
children are particularly common in working-class
suburbs and commuter towns such as Croydon and
Southend-on-Sea, possibly because black Africans
are rarely tied to city centres through social-housing
tenancies. They are also mixing with new
immigrants from continental Europe. Most of the
21,000 children born to Polish mothers in 2012 had
Polish fathers; but of the rest, 23% had African or
Asian fathers.
Such esoteric partnerships can confuse the
authorities. Last November the Home Office invited

journalists to accompany officers on a raid of an
apparent sham wedding between an Italian man
and a Chinese woman in north London. After
interrogating the bride, groom and guests, the
officers emerged sheepishly to admit that the union
was probably real.
Most of all, the rise of mixed-race Britain shows

that Britain is capable of absorbing even large
numbers of newcomers. For the young, who are
used to having people of all backgrounds in their
midst, race already matters far less than it did for
their parents. In a generation or two more of the
melting pot, it may not matter at all.
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As race becomes less clear-cut, schools, hospitals

and police forces, which record peoples ethnic
identity at almost every opportunity, will have to
deal with more fragmented definitions. So too will
researchers trying to measure racial injustices.
Confusingly, police officers now record the ethnicity
of the people they stop and search according to
two separate systems: observed ethnic appearance
(which does not include a mixed-race category)
and self-identified ethnicity (which does).
have already built power bases that do not depend

on ethnic block votes (see Bagehot). Speeches such
as the one made by Tony Blair in 2007 about the
culture of black youth violence will look silly when
so many black teenagers have white parents too.
Crude racist politics, thankfully now rare in Britain,
ought to become almost impossible as more white
families acquire non-white members. Englishness,
which has remained distinctly a white identity for
many, may become less exclusive.
Politicians in the habit of treating Britains ethnic

groups as distinct communities will also have to
adapt. The shrewder black and Asian politicians
A CHANCE NOT TO BE SQUANDRED
The Bill now placed before Parliament is the

best chance yet to enact a ground-breaking law for
an estimated 70 million people with impairments
an overwhelming majority of whom, and their
care-givers, live in conditions of abject poverty and
deprivation. The definition of disability in the Bill
is a big departure: it means all long-term physical,
mental, intellectual and sensory impairments
which, in interaction with barriers in the
environment, hinder persons effective participation
in society on an equal basis. As many as 19
impairments are sought to be accorded legal
protection, as opposed to seven under the 1995
Persons with Disabilities Act. Correspondingly, the
proportion of reservations is proposed to be
increased to 5 per cent from the existing 3 per
cent. The provision to ensure that the disabled enjoy
legal capacity on an equal basis with every other
person is a strong protection, especially for people
with mental retardation. And finally, the
incorporation of penal provisions to ensure
accountability for law enforcement a lacuna in
the current law could potentially bridge the gap
between professed intentions and practice.
The issue of disabilities has seldom in the past
been regarded as politically divisive and the Bill
stands a fair chance of mustering the support of
parties across the political spectrum. Moreover, the
constituents in the Bharatiya Janata Party-led
National Democratic Alliance government were

instrumental in the incorporation of the question
on disability in the 2001 decennial population
census. This was a step that perhaps has
permanently reversed the earlier exclusion of this
segment from a crucial national exercise in postIndependence India. Similarly, the political parties
of the Left had always supported the passage of
important social legislation. Members of both
Houses should demonstrate a strong sense of
purpose, urgency and sensitivity to make a new
law a reality during the current term of Parliament,
overcoming the continuing impasse on various other
counts. While the concerns expressed by wellmeaning non-governmental organisations may be
valid in principle, they should weigh the huge
practical gains to be made from seeing through
this Bill, rather than wait for eternity for the perfect
piece of legislation. Parliament could consider
incorporating a provision in the new law,
mandating that revenues from the levy on corporate
social responsibility be channelled to promote
employment for the disabled. The disabled are said
to constitute the single largest minority in society,
as per the World Health Organization and the
World Bank report of 2011. Legal protections would
go a long way to promote their full participation in
society as equal members.
Source: The Hindu
[45]
RETROGRADE AVATAR OF REPRESSIVE TRADITION

Each time a political leader makes a benign
comment on North Indias infamous khap
panchayats, it gives these archaic residues of
community-based justice systems a life-saving
booster shot. This time it is the turn of the party
with a difference. The Aam Admi Party (AAP)
turned a soft gaze on them when its leader, Arvind
Kejriwal, said recently that there is no need to ban
these bodies because they serve a cultural purpose.
In the olden days, khap panchayats were more

inclusive and Sarvkhaps comprised people of all
castes and communities. Today, with their clout
diminished to the realm of social traditions, marriage
practices and customs, khap panchayats represent
the dominant Jat community in Haryana and parts
of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. They have become
undemocratic, oppressive and in conflict with the
law. But because Jats comprise almost 25 per cent
of the population in Haryana, political parties are
indulgent towards them. The AAP which aims
to form a government in Haryana later this year
it turns out is no different from the other parties in
this respect.
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He was countered by Union Finance Minister

P. Chidambaram, who, while speaking to students
of the Shriram College of Commerce said that khap
panchayats are retrograde organisations that
cannot be a part of Indias culture. I am appalled
to see somebody say it is a part of Indias culture,
he said. But his fellow Congressman and the Chief
Minister of Haryana, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, was
quick to defend these bodies that have drawn
adverse national attention on his State time and
again through their approval of honour killings and
misogynistic diktats. Mr. Hooda told reporters at a
function in Haryana that khap panchayats are
like NGOs who work in the social sphere, and are
certainly a part of our culture.
courts for legal relief.
Political indulgence
Both Mr. Kejriwal and Mr. Hooda, who hail

from Haryana the State that has the largest and
most belligerent concentration of khaps know
what they are talking about because khap
panchayats have certainly been around since the
Seventh century and perhaps even earlier. They
are said to have coronated the 12-year-old
Harshavardhan, who in turn gave them their
saffron flag with a deep red sun in the middle. In
the 13th century, khap panchayats came to the
aid of Raziya Sultan and helped her fight off an
attack from her rebellious Turkish nobles. She
rewarded them with 60,000 buffaloes. Her tomb
lies on the outskirts of Kaithal, deep in Haryanas
khap country. Khaps are also believed to have given
men and materials to the Marathas against Ahmed
Shah Abdali, during the third battle of Panipat.
They came up as dispute resolving, village-based
bodies, dispensing cheap and quick justice in
matters relating to debts, contracts, adultery and
inheritance of property. Their decisions were taken
as the voice of god, but all that changed when,
in the second half of the 19th century, the British
displaced them by establishing statutory, local, selfgoverning bodies at the village level and judicial
[46]
To say that they serve a cultural purpose is

debatable in the modern, liberal democratic country
that India now is. The politicians who are soft on
khap panchayats with an eye on Jat votes have
perhaps forgotten the 2011 judgment of the
Supreme Court that declared these bodies as
illegal and unconstitutional.
Besides approving honour killings, in recent

years, khap panchayats have mounted a campaign
against the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act
2005 that gives equal inheritance rights to women.
Last July, akhap in Jhajjar forbade a farmer from
giving his daughter some money in return for
withdrawing a legal case that she had filed to get
her share of the familys ancestral land. The
reasoning being that it would embolden other girls
to follow suit. Activists in Haryana have for long
been saying that the opposition to same gotra or
inter caste marriages by khaps is actually aimed at
preventing the economic empowerment of girls
because those who choose their own marriage
partners are more likely to go on and demand their
share of ancestral land.
Against the marginalized
At the height of the Manoj and Babli honour

killing case, when the khaps threatened to disrupt
law and order in Haryana if the mastermind behind
the killings was arrested (he was honoured with
the award of Jat Gaurav) they got their first taste
of the political clout they have come to wield. A
helpless administration watched a succession of
khap panchayats being held in support of the
killers. But the adverse publicity that the khaps
got as a result of their support for honour killings,
triggered some course correction and there is now,

a conscious effort to refurbish their much dented
image by projecting a socially responsible facade.
But this change is more cosmetic than fundamental.
Last year, after a couple was brutally hacked

to death in Rohtak for defying marriage norms, a
large khap panchayat banned girls in their area
from using mobile phones and wearing jeans. The
khap heads decided that such a restriction will end
honour killings as it will prevent young girls from
interacting with boys. No such restrictions are
imposed on the boys.
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One such effort was undertaken last June in

Bibipur village in Jind district where the local
sarpanch held a women driven sarvkhap panchayat
comprising several major khaps of Haryana. The
agenda was to combat female foeticide and scores
of women were invited to participate. But as soon
as some women activists tried to raise the issue of
equal share of girls in ancestral property and how
women are being denied this right, they were
shooed off the stage. It is another matter that Mr.
Hooda presented the Bibipur panchayat with Rs.
one crore for its efforts. A spate of similar
panchayats on female foeticide followed, prompting
Dada Baljeet Malik, head of the Malik khap to say,
We hope that now none will term us as Talibanic
or kangaroo courts. Some khaps have also
decreed against extravagant marriages and
alcoholism.
violence against Dalits that took place in Haryana

in the last few years. Says D.R. Chaudhary,
academic and prominent crusader against khaps,
Mere passing of resolutions against social evils will
not make a difference. Instead of imposing
restrictions on girls, khap panchayats should fight
the anti-social elements responsible for crime against
women and support the right of girls to choose
their life partner and ensure them a share in their
parental property.
But when it comes to substantial issues of

womens rights, or to supporting the case of an
oppressed woman against her husband and family
members, khap panchayats almost always take the
patriarchal view. Neither does a khap panchayat
ever oppose Dalit oppression or atrocities against
the marginalised. On the contrary, khaps have
stood against Dalits in the couple of incidents of
So, whenever a politician justifies their activities

by terming them as cultural institutions rooted in
the past, s/he gives them a new lease of life. What
was a dying institution a decade ago, has been
revived and given some legitimacy by vote bank
politics to enable it to emerge in a retrograde avatar.
Now, Mr. Kejriwal too has a hand in this
endeavour.
Source: The Hindu
LIFE ON THE RAZORS EDGE
When 69-year-old British Pakistani, Mohammad

Asghar came to Rawalpindi in 2010, he was
shocked to find that one of the two properties he
owned there was occupied by a notorious land
grabber. He filed a complaint against him before
leaving for the Haj pilgrimage but it was Asghar
who was arrested on his return. His crime was
that he claimed to be the Holy Prophet and wrote
letters in his name and even printed visiting cards,
for which he was charged with blasphemy, a
criminal offence punishable with death under
Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).
While awarding the death sentence on January

23, 2014, the sessions court which conducted the
trial in Adiala jail disregarded his extensive medical
records from Scotland in which it is evident he
was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. An
affidavit in June 2011 submitted to the court by
Dr. Jane McLennan, a consultant psychiatrist of
Royal Victoria Hospital in Edinburgh, where Asghar
lived with his family, says that he was her patient
in February and March 2010. Records showed that
in 1993, he was first referred to psychiatric services

and treated for depression. In 2000 he suffered a
cerebrovascular stroke and as a result walked with
a limp, needing the support of a walking stick. He
also suffered from psychiatric symptoms after the
stroke which included depression and delusionary
beliefs of a paranoid and grandiose nature. He had
auditory hallucinations and persecutory delusions,
believing that his home was bugged by the Pakistani
and international media and that he was being
persecuted for having written to Prime Minister
Blair and President Bush, telling them the Iraq war
was wrong, the affidavit said.
He was admitted to a psychiatric hospital on
February 17, 2010, under an emergency detention
certificate after expressing paranoid delusions
regarding a Pakistani TV network and the police.
He was diagnosed as suffering from paranoid
schizophrenia by Dr. McLennan when he was
admitted to the Royal Victoria Hospital. She stressed
that though he presented a good social facade, those
without sufficient professional training might miss
[47]

the indicators of his illness. This does not detract in
any way from the severity of his illness or nullify
the mental illness diagnosis, she said. He also had
no insight into his illness and did not think he
needed treatment and could not see his beliefs and
actions were not rational.
This is not the first case where a mentally ill

person has been convicted for blasphemy. Two
years ago, a mentally ill girl Rimsha Masih was
sentenced to death for blasphemy but she was
finally acquitted by the court in 2012 and granted
asylum in Canada. Her fellow Christian neighbours
were forced to flee their homes in Meherabad and
live in precarious housing conditions in Islamabad.
Rimshas persecutor, a cleric, was acquitted in 2013
of filing false charges.
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When he was discharged from hospital on

March 18, 2010, he required vigorous and ongoing
treatment as he remained mentally unwell.
However, neither he nor his family had any insight
into his mental illness and the need for treatment
and neither he nor they engaged with ongoing
treatment. When he was visited by his community
psychiatric nurse in March 2010, he was clearly
exhibiting symptoms of paranoid psychosis. Dr.
McLennan said that it seems unlikely that Asghar
continued with his medication after he travelled to
Pakistan. Even during his time in the Scotland
hospital, he often referred to himself as being a
very holy man. If his condition worsened, as it
seems to have done, he may have described himself
in more exaggerated terms, while not meaning to
commit blasphemy, she said.
Other convictions
He was receiving basic medication and his

condition would deteriorate as long as he remained
in prison, she pointed out in the affidavit. The
probability of him attempting to take his own life
is significant and may be increased if he remains in
prison, she added, while recommending a
comprehensive treatment and rehabilitation plan.
Sure enough, Asghar tried to commit suicide on
January 8, 2012 and had to be hospitalised.
However, the trial court did not take evidence from
the hospital into account, and a hastily summoned
medical panel certified him as normal. His lawyers
were thrown out in October 2013 and not allowed
to be present when the verdict was pronounced.
There has been much outrage in the U.K. and
elsewhere after this latest conviction. Under Section
295-C of the PPC Whoever by words, either spoken
or written, or by visible representation or by any
imputation, innuendo, or insinuation, directly or
indirectly, defiles the sacred name of the Holy
Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) shall be
punished with death, or imprisonment for life, and
shall also be liable to fine. Asghars lawyers say
that all the evidence against him was produced by
the complainant in the form of letters and visiting
cards in which he claimed to be the Holy Prophet.
While an appeal against the conviction has been
filed in the Islamabad High Court, there are serious
concerns about his health after his lawyers finally
managed to meet him in jail.
[48]
Aasia Bibi, a Christian from the Punjab province,

became the first woman in the countrys history to
be sentenced to death for blasphemy in 2010,
according to Human Rights Watch. In 2011, Punjab
Governor Salman Taseer and former federal
minister, a Roman Catholic, Shahbaz Bhatti were
killed for anti-blasphemy law statements and for
supporting Aasia Bibi who continues to languish
in jail. Her appeal is yet to be heard by the High
Court. Taseers killer, Mumtaz Qadri, is lodged in
the same jail as Mr. Asghar and his death sentence
is yet to be confirmed by the High Court. Former
U.S. Ambassador Sherry Rehman faced threats after
she proposed a bill banning the death penalty for
blasphemy.
Targeting minorities
According to media reports, over 1,200 people

have been charged with blasphemy from 1986 till
2010. The Human Rights Watch World Report 2014
says that abuses are rife under the countrys
blasphemy law, which is used against religious
minorities, often to settle personal disputes. Dozens
of people were charged with the offence in 2013.
At least 16 people remained on death row for
blasphemy, while another 20 were serving life
sentences.
In its State of Human Rights in 2012 report, the
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP)
says, Abuse of the blasphemy law continues to
take a heavy toll in terms of human lives and
harassment of citizens. A well thought-out plan
should be put into place to make the citizens aware
of the havoc that the abuse of this law has caused
and how important it is to insert safeguards that
can prevent that abuse. Sections 295 to 295-C of
the PPC are generally referred to as the blasphemy
code. The punishments for offences under these
provisions include death (under Section 295-C), life
imprisonment, imprisonment for various periods
and a fine. Pakistan has not executed anyone under

Section 295-C. However, many of the accused have
been killed by extremists outside the courts or in
prisons, according to the HRCP.
Speaking up against the blasphemy law often
has fatal consequences and the few who do speak
up, face death threats. With little chance of the

law being amended, minorities and those who stand
up for them continue to live on an unrelenting
razors edge.
Source: The Hindu
CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF FREE SPEECH

Penguin countenanced backing down. What was
at stake, Mayer recognised, was much more than
simply the fate of this one book. How we responded
to the controversy over The Satanic Verses would
affect the future of free inquiry, without which
there would be no publishing as we knew it, but
also, by extension, no civil society as we knew it.
It is an attitude that now seems to belong to a
different age. The contrast with Penguins decision
this week to withdraw all copies of Donigers The
Hindus is striking. Unlike in the case of The Satanic
Verses there has been so far no state ban. But, the
publisher has crumbled in the face of groups
shouting offence.
Peter Mayer and the old Penguin belonged to a
world in which the defence of free speech was
seen as an irrevocable duty. We all came to agree,
Mayer told me, that all we could do, as individuals
or as a company, was to uphold the principles that
underlay our profession. We were publishers. I
thought that meant something. We all did. He
took his cue from Baal, the irreverent, satirical poet
in The Satanic Verses. A poets work, Baal
observes, To name the unnameable, to point at
frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the
world and stop it from going to sleep.
Todays Penguin, like many publishers, like
many liberals, takes Baals observation to be not
self-evident but shockingly offensive. To such an
extent has the Rushdie affair transformed the
landscape of free speech that what many fear today
is precisely the starting of arguments. What they
most want is for the world to go to sleep.
Self-censorship, the Muslim philosopher and
spokesman for the Bradford Council of Mosques
Shabbir Akhtar claimed at the height of the Rushdie
affair, is a meaningful demand in a world of varied
and passionately held convictions. What Rushdie
publishes about Islam is not just his business. It is
everyones not least every Muslims business.
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Twenty five years ago on February 14, the

Ayotollah Khomeini issued his fatwa on Salman
Rushdie, for the blasphemies of his fourth novel,
The Satanic Verses. It is perhaps disturbingly
apposite that this should also be the week in which
Penguin, the publishers of The Satanic Verses, should
so abjectly surrender to hardline Hindu groups over
Wendy Donigers book The Hindus: An Alternative
History, agreeing to withdraw it from publication
in India. The contrast between the attitude of the
old Penguin and that of the new Penguin tells us
much about how much the Rushdie affair itself
has transformed the landscape of free speech.
Thanks to the Ayatollahs fatwa, the Rushdie
affair became the most important free speech
controversy of modern times. It also became a
watershed in our attitudes to freedom of expression.
Rushdies critics lost the battle The Satanic Verses
continues to be published (though, of course, not
in India). But they won the war. The argument at
the heart of the anti-Rushdie case that it is
morally unacceptable to cause offence to other
cultures is now accepted almost as common
sense.
In 1989, after the fatwa, Rushdie was forced
into hiding for almost a decade. Translators and
publishers were assaulted and even murdered. In
July 1991, Hitoshi Igarashi, a Japanese professor of
literature and translator of The Satanic Verses, was
knifed to death on the campus of Tsukuba
University. That same month another translator of
Rushdies novel, the Italian Ettore Capriolo, was
beaten up and stabbed in his Milan apartment. In
October 1993, William Nygaard, the Norwegian
publisher of The Satanic Verses, was shot three times
and left for dead outside his home in Oslo.
Bookshops were firebombed for stocking the novel.
And yet, except where there were state bans,
Penguin refused to withdraw the book.
Peter Mayer was the CEO of Penguin at the
time. He was subject to a vicious campaign of
hatred and intimidation. I had letters delivered to
me written in blood, he remembered. I had
telephone calls in the middle of the night, saying
not just that they would kill me but that they would
take my daughter and smash her head against a
concrete wall. Vile stuff. Yet neither Mayer nor
Cultural pain
Increasingly, politicians and policymakers,

publishers and festival organisers, liberals and
conservatives, in the East and in the West, have
come to agree. Whatever may be right in principle,
[49]
Plural societies and free speech

The never give offence brigade imagines that
a more plural society requires a greater imposition
of censorship. In fact it is precisely because we do
live in plural societies that we need the fullest
extension possible of free speech. In such societies,
it is both inevitable and important that people
offend the sensibilities of others. It is inevitable,
because where different beliefs are deeply held,
clashes are unavoidable; and we should deal with
those clashes openly and robustly rather than
suppress them. It is important because any kind of
social change or social progress means offending
some deeply held sensibilities. Or to put it another
way: You cant say that! is all too often the
response of those in power to having their power
challenged. To accept that certain things cannot be
said is to accept that certain forms of power cannot
be challenged.
The notion of giving offence suggests that certain
beliefs are so important or valuable to certain
people that they should be put beyond the
possibility of being insulted, or caricatured or even
questioned. The importance of the principle of free
speech is precisely that it provides a permanent
challenge to the idea that some questions are
beyond contention, and hence acts as a permanent
challenge to authority. Once we give up on the
right to offend in the name of tolerance or
respect, we constrain our ability to challenge those
in power, and therefore to challenge injustice. The
right to subject each others fundamental beliefs
to criticism is, in other words, the bedrock of an
open, diverse, just society.
Shabbir Akhtar was right: what Salman
Rushdie says is everybodys business. So is what
Wendy Doniger says. It is everybodys business to
ensure that no one is deprived of their right to say
what they wish, even if it is deemed by some to be
offensive. If we want the pleasures of pluralism,
we have to accept the pain of being offended.
Source: The Hindu
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many now argue, in practice one must appease

religious and cultural sensibilities because such
sensibilities are so deeply felt. We live in a world,
so the argument runs, in which there are deepseated conflicts between cultures embodying
different values. For such diverse societies to
function and to be fair, we need to show respect
for other peoples, cultures, and viewpoints. Social
justice requires not just that individuals are treated
as political equals, but also that their cultural beliefs
are given equal recognition and respect. The
avoidance of cultural pain has, therefore, come to
be regarded as more important than the abstract
right to freedom of expression. As the British
sociologist Tariq Modood has put it, If people are
to occupy the same political space without conflict,
they mutually have to limit the extent to which
they subject each others fundamental beliefs to
criticism.
The consequence of all this has been the creation
not of a less conflicted world, but of one that is
more sectarian, fragmented and tribal. As the
novelist Monica Ali has put it, If you set up a
marketplace of outrage you have to expect everyone
to enter it. Everyone now wants to say, My feelings
are more hurt than yours. The more that
policymakers give licence for people to be offended,
the more that people will seize the opportunity to
feel offended. It leads to the encouragement of
interest groups and the growth of sectarian conflict.
Nowhere is this trend clearer than in India.
There is a long history, reaching back to British
rule, of applying heavy-handed censorship
supposedly to ease fraught relationships between
different communities. It is a process that in recent
decades has greatly intensified. Hand-in-hand with
more oppressive censorship has come, however, not
a more peaceful society, but one in which the sense
of a common nation has increasingly broken down
into sectarian rivalries, as every group demands its
right not to be offended. The original confrontation
over The Satanic Verses was a classic example of
how in encouraging groups to feel offended, one
simply intensifies sectarian conflict. Penguins
capitulation over the Doniger book is another step
down that road.
CRICKETS MOMENT OF TRUTH
The true merit of the insightful report of the

Justice Mudgal committee appointed by the
Supreme Court lies not only in its factual findings,
but in the compelling case it presents for a thorough
clean-up of cricket in the country. The main reports
authors, Justice Mukul Mudgal and L. Nageswara
Rao, have avoided the beaten path of giving clean
[50]
chits to top administrators or finding scapegoats,

and laid bare the facts in an orderly way. The
report provides a sound basis as well as an
opportunity to address the malaise the game suffers
from in terms of business practices that lack
transparency, unbridled commercialism that ignores
obvious conflicts of interest, and an overall

findings of guilt in respect of criminal offences. The
separate report by the committees third member,
Nilay Dutta, does not agree that Mr. Meiyappan
could be considered the teams owner, although he
was an official under the Operational Rules. Also,
he does not want to accept the allegation of betting
against Mr. Meiyappan, unless taped conversations
relating to this were proved authentic. He favours
a comprehensive investigation into the entire issue
of betting and fixing in cricket. It is clear that the
present measures undertaken by the BCCI in
combating sporting fraud are insufficient. Going
beyond its terms of reference, the main report has
flagged the conflict of interest involved in Mr.
Srinivasan being head of the cricket board as well
as being associated with a franchise owner. It is a
moment of truth for Indian cricket, and the Mudgal
committee has presented to the Supreme Court
weighty reasons to undertake a thorough cleansing
of the sport.
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atmosphere conducive to venality. It rejects the

stand of Board of Control for Cricket in India
president N. Srinivasan and India Cements, which
owns Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier
League, that Gurunath Meiyappan was not its
owner or principal, and the astounding claim that
he was no more than an enthusiastic follower of
the team. By describing him as the face of the
franchise and undoubtedly a team official, and
concluding that he had indulged in betting and
passing on information, the report has rendered
the CSK franchise liable to termination under
certain clauses in the Franchise Agreement and the
IPL Operational Rules. These clauses cast a
responsibility on the franchise to ensure that each
of its officials complied with all rules, including the
anti-corruption code. The report recommends
further investigation into allegations of betting and
spot fixing against Raj Kundra of Rajasthan Royals.
Of course, it has to be borne in mind that the
main report bases its conclusions on police records,
and that these are not meant to be treated as
Source: The Hindu
A DECADE ON THE RAILS WITH UPA
When the Railway Minister presented the Voteon-Account in Parliament on February 12, for the
first time in more than three decades, Indian
Railways (IR) would have completed almost 10
years under one political dispensation, albeit a
coalition. How far has this decade of relative
political stability impacted positively (and
negatively) on the performance of the Railways?
Further, at a time when most of the major political
parties must be honing their election manifestos
ahead of the election in April/May 2014, are there
any lessons for the new government that will be in
power after the general election this year?
IRs performance has become closely linked to

the personality of its political head, namely the
Minister of Railways. Continuity at that level
therefore becomes crucial for any meaningful
enunciation of long-term goals and implementation
strategies. While the tenure of the first incumbent
lasted the full term of UPA-1, thereafter the
turnover has been rather rapid for various reasons,
progressively reducing from two years to an
average of about seven months each for the four
ministers that followed. One minister was
unceremoniously sacked in the midst of a budget
session for daring to raise passenger fares. Another
had to step down in ignominy under a cloud of
corruption charges; surely not the ideal way a
crucial economic ministry and the countrys premier
transport organisation should have been handled.

Any future government needs to treat the railways
portfolio with greater seriousness and certainly not
as a sop for managing coalition pressures.
Impressive performance, but
Despite the relative turbulence at the top,

particularly over the last five years, the physical
performance of IR has not been inconsiderable.
Compared to 2004-05, originating freight loading
is set to increase by 74.4 per cent in 2013-14, freight
net tonne km by 62 per cent and passenger km by
93.9 per cent. 712 trains were extended and
frequencies of 306 trains were increased. All this
while the track km increased by 38 per cent and
the route km by only 3.1 per cent, indicating a
thrust on doubling rather than new lines. The
number of accidents dropped sharply by 48 per
cent from 234 during 2004-05 to 121 in 2012-13
and 87 up to December 2013.
The performance appears impressive, yet when
viewed against Railways own Vision 2020, it lags
far behind (except in the case of accidents). For
example, Vision 2020 had projected an originating
freight loading of 2,165 MT by 2019-20, which
means an asking rate of about 150 MT incremental
loading annually from now till 2020 a virtual
impossibility. The case was similar for other
performance parameters.
[51]

promise made, but never fulfilled (fortunately) by
successive Railway ministers, was to fill all
vacancies within a particular time frame, say one
year. It may be relevant to mention that the increase
in traffic over the last decade referred to earlier
was handled even as the staff on roll reduced from
14.2 lakh in 2004-05 to 13.1 lakh by March 31,
2013, a reduction of more than 1 lakh.
Why is it that despite a fairly impressive
performance in physical terms there is a persisting
dissatisfaction with the Railways performance
amongst the public?
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The decade that has gone by has perhaps seen

a record number of reports by various Committees
and sundry other documents. Starting with the One
Man Committee (2004) on the Godhra train fire
(Disclosure: this writer was one of the technical
experts that assisted that Committee) whose final
report (2006) has never seen the light of the day,
there was Vision 2020 (2009), a White Paper (2009)
to clean up the accounting legerdemain of the
previous regime, the Kakodkar Committee Report
on rail safety (2012), closely followed by the Sam
Pitroda Committee on modernisation of Railways
(2012). Going back a few years, there was the
Rakesh
Mohan
Committee
Report
on
organisational restructuring and the report of the
Railway Safety Review Committee (Khanna
Committee) around the turn of the millennium,
apart from a clutch of Status Papers and White
Papers. All the wisdom necessary is available in
these reports.
Lesson for any new government: Do not appoint
any more committees and waste public funds. Also
never appoint a committee to score political points.
Nothing exposed the influence of politics recent

popular lore as the turnaround miracle of the
organisation, roughly spanning the period 20052008. A spurt in the freight earnings by loading
wagons beyond their marked carrying capacity was
celebrated as a revolutionary breakthrough and
management wizardry, instead of seeing it as what
it essentially was: an emergency one-time measure
that boosted freight earnings over a limited period.
Unfortunately the success of this initiative also
spawned some very imaginative accounting
practices that culminated in projecting a cash
surplus of almost Rs.90,000 crore at the beginning
of 2009. It is another matter that the regime that
followed commissioned a White Paper exposing the
discrepancies in the accounting procedures.
Further, amidst the euphoria generated, two
important factors that helped the turnaround were
ignored (i) the fact that the extra loading would
have been unthinkable had the huge backlog of
track renewals not been overtaken by that time,
helped to a large extent by the extra funds made
available through the Special Railway Safety Fund,
a singular initiative of the preceding administration
and; (ii) the wholly fortuitous circumstance of a
booming economy.
The fickleness of the turnaround was quickly
exposed once the impact of the Sixth Pay
Commission began to be felt accompanied by a
downturn in the global economy. An oft-repeated
[52]
There are several reasons: Poor quality of service

in terms of cleanliness, punctuality, promptness,
courtesy and disaster management; inadequate
capacity on the passenger front, which hopefully
will ease somewhat with the commissioning of the
Dedicated Freight Corridors; and the eagerness to
introduce new train services, which has stretched
the Railways resources literally to breaking point.
While it may be politically inexpedient to put a
total embargo on new trains (as recommended by
the Kakodkar Committee), it will be a wise policy
for the new government to restrict the number to
the bare minimum each year with the condition
that a new service will be introduced only after a
corresponding withdrawal of poorly patronised
train services.
Three recent reports that deal with investments
are the Vision 2020 (2009), the Kakodkar
Committee Report (2012) on rail safety and the
Sam Pitroda Committee Report on modernisation.
The first two reports envisage an annual Gross
Budgetary Support (GBS) from central exchequer
of Rs.60,000 crore. With the highest GBS received
so far (2013-14) being a little over Rs.27,000 crore
(less than 50 per cent of the projected figure), the
impracticality of the projections made in these two
reports should be obvious.
The looming crisis
Finally, a note of warning for the immediate

future: gear up for a major financial crisis in the
Railways around 2016-17 when the effects of
recommendations of the 7th Commission will kick
in. While the Dedicated Freight Corridor projects
need to be progressed on top priority, it is highly
unlikely that the boost in freight revenues therefrom
will be available in time to neutralise the effects of
the 7th Pay Commission recommendations. So,
prepare right now for a bail-out package, as was
done through the Special Railway Safety Fund
more than a decade ago.
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Source: The Hindu
CHALLENGES FOR A NEW IOA
For more than 14 months, the Indian Olympic

Association (IOA) stubbornly refused to listen to
reason. It engaged in a no-win stand-off with the
International Olympic Committee (IOC), staking the
countrys Olympic future. It drew contempt for its
officials amidst a power struggle, before accepting
the inevitable. Suspended by the IOC in December
2012 for violation of the Olympic Charter, the IOA
eventually bowed to every diktat of the former in
holding fresh elections on February 9 under IOCdictated rules. This has paved the way for Indias
return to the Olympic fold. What started off as a
tussle between the Union government and the IOA
regarding the implementation of the National Sports
Code, ended up in a cleansing operation that kept
out officials charge-framed by courts from the

elections ordered by the IOC. The IOC advocates
principles of good governance while the IOA has
through the years tried to hide behind the cloak of
autonomy ordained in the Charter. The
government, faced with criticism both within and
outside Parliament about poor administration of
sports in the country, had started tightening the
rules governing the IOA and the national
federations, when the IOC slapped the suspension
on India.
The quick response of the IOC in lifting the
suspension to enable the Indian tricolour to be flown
at the recently concluded Winter Olympics at Sochi,
[53]

banks, is much against the provisions in the
Olympic Charter, and the wishes of the IOC and
the government. National federations in boxing,
fencing and taekwondo remain suspended by the
respective international federations and were barred
from voting in the recent IOA elections. The IOA
needs to facilitate their quick return to international
sports. Faction feuds within federations should be
tackled urgently, and so too questions related to
the democratic functioning of the sports bodies that
have come up in court cases. The IOA chief, N.
Ramachandran, who represents a new phase and
has taken over in challenging circumstances, has
his task cut out.
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Russia, showed that it was completely satisfied

with a repentant IOA. The IOC might have
managed to push through more stringent clauses
than that could have been possible in other times
while demanding clarity to the IOA constitution.
But problem areas still remain. The IOA could be
expected to bargain hard with the government in
order to retain what is left of its autonomy and
that of the national federations when the draft
National Sports Development Bill is amended. The
25 per cent representation in the Executive to
Athletes Commission members, as incorporated in
the draft, is far from reality. The continuation of
State Olympic associations as voting-members in
the IOA, in a clear attempt to manipulate vote
Source: The Hindu
DEALING WITH NEW LOWS
Even for a country with a long and unedifying

history of parliamentary pandemonium, nothing
can be as shameful and disgraceful as the use of
pepper spray by a member on his peers to disrupt
proceedings. Vijayawada MP Lagadapati
Rajagopal, one of six Congress lawmakers expelled
for disorderly behaviour earlier, wielded this
weapon in the Lok Sabha in a desperate bid to
stall the introduction of the Telangana Bill. The
Speaker herself was affected by the lachrymatory
substance, and quite a few members required
medical attention. Mr. Rajagopals claim that he
used pepper spray in self-defence is absurd.
Another member has been accused of brandishing
a knife, but he has denied it, claiming what he was
holding was a microphone, probably one wrenched
from its fixture. Parliamentary security was perhaps
prepared for what many saw as the final battle for
Telangana as the time came to introduce the
contentious Bill that will pave the way for the
reorganisation of Andhra Pradesh. One MP had
threatened to set himself on fire if the Bill was
introduced, but no one could have expected that
assorted weaponry would find its way inside for
actual use. Many a distressed observer of bedlam
in the House had been dreading such an incident,
and it was only a matter of time before a desperate
member went beyond routine ruckus. Speaker
Meira Kumar should no more restrict herself to
feeble entreaties to maintain decorum but adopt

sterner measures, ranging from ordering eviction
to allowing criminal prosecution in select instances.
Legislative business is often the casualty of
unseemly behaviour and even though Home
Minister Sushilkumar Shinde managed to introduce
the Telangana Bill, the principal opposition, the
Bharatiya Janata Party, doubts whether it had been
introduced at all. The incident raises the question
whether Parliament should go the way of State
legislatures and resort to eviction of unruly members
to ensure the smooth functioning of the House. En
masse eviction of whole groups of legislators is quite
common in State Assemblies. Parliament has been
more democratic and tolerant but this restraint has
often led to a small group of obstreperous members
blocking key legislation, such as the womens
reservation bill. The Congress must bear
responsibility for the present logjam, as it has been
unable to build enough support through
discussions. The BJPs stand has been ambiguous:
it supports the formation of Telangana in principle,
wants the concerns of Seemandhra to be addressed,
blames the UPA for the mess in Parliament and
has demanded that there should first be order in
the House. Political consensus may be the ideal
way, but legislative activity cannot forever be
hostage to deliberate disorder.
Source: The Hindu
FUSION, ULTIMATE GREEN ENERGY SOURCE
Scientists have moved a step closer to achieving

sustainable nuclear fusion and almost limitless clean
energy. U.S. researchers have achieved a world first
in an ambitious experiment that aims to recreate
[54]
the conditions at the heart of the sun and pave the

way for nuclear fusion reactors.
The scientists generated more energy from fusion
reactions than they put into the nuclear fuel, in a

small but crucial step along the road to harnessing
fusion power. The ultimate goal to produce more
energy than the whole experiment consumes
remains a long way off, but the feat has nonetheless
raised hopes that after decades of setbacks, firm
progress is finally being made.
Omar Hurricane, the lead author of the report,

said the latest improvement came by controlling
the implosion of the spherical pellet more carefully.
In previous experiments, the pellet distorted as it
was crushed, which seemed to reduce the efficiency
of the process. By squashing the fuel more softly,
helium nuclei that are produced in the fusion
reactions dump their energy into the fuel, heating
it up even further, and driving a cycle of ever more
fusion.
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Fusion energy has the potential to become a

radical alternative power source, with zero carbon
emissions during operation and minimal waste, but
the technical difficulties in demonstrating fusion in
the lab have so far proved overwhelming. While
existing nuclear reactors generate energy by splitting
atoms into lighter particles, fusion reactors combine
light atomic nuclei into heavier particles.
Results from the NIF facility will help scientists

work out how to build a fusion reactor, but the
centre is funded primarily to help the U.S.
understand how its stockpile of nuclear weapons
is ageing. The experiments help to verify computer
models that are used in place of nuclear tests, which
are now banned.
In their experiments, researchers at the National

Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory in California use a bank of 192 powerful
lasers to crush a minuscule amount of fuel so hard
and fast that it becomes hotter than the sun.
Complex process
The process is not straightforward. The lasers

are fired into a gold capsule that holds a 2mmwide spherical pellet. The fuel is coated on the inside
of this plastic pellet in a layer as thin as a human
hair.
When the laser light enters the gold capsule, it

makes the walls of the gold container emit x-rays,
which heat the pellet and make it implode with
extraordinary ferocity. The fuel, a mixture of
hydrogen isotopes called tritium and deuterium,
partially fuses under the intense conditions.
The scientists have not generated more energy
than the experiment uses in total. The lasers unleash
nearly two megajoules of energy on their target,
the equivalent, roughly, of two standard sticks of
dynamite. But only a tiny fraction of this reaches
the fuel. Writing in Nature, the scientists say fusion
reactions in the fuel released at best 17 kilojoules of
energy.
Though slight, the advance is welcome news

for the NIF scientists. In 2012, the project was
restructured and given more modest goals after six
years of failure to generate more energy than the
experiment consumes, known as ignition.
We are finally, by harnessing these reactions,

getting more energy out of that reaction than we
put into the DT fuel, Mr. Hurricane said. The
report appears in the journal Nature.
A long way to go
The dream of controlled fusion remains a distant

hope, and Mr. Hurricane said it was too early to
say whether it was even possible with the NIF
facility. The researchers need to get a hundred times
more energy from the fusion reactions before the
process can run itself, and more for it to deliver an
overall surplus of energy.
Steven Cowley, director of the Culham Centre
for Fusion Energy near Abingdon in the U.K., said
the study was truly excellent and began to
address the core challenges of what is known as
inertial fusion in the lab. He said the team may
need a bigger laser, or a redesigned capsule that
can be squashed more violently without becoming
unstable. Livermore should be given plenty of time
to develop a better capsule. We have only just
begun to understand the fusion regime, Mr.
Cowley said.
The Culham lab has taken a different approach,
called magnetic confinement. The engineering
milestone is when the whole plant produces more
energy than it consumes, Mr. Cowley said.
Source: The Hindu
SPECTRUM OF SUCCESS
After the two relatively unsuccessful attempts

to sell 2G spectrum in November 2012 and March
2013, it was a case of third time lucky for the
government as it hit pay dirt with the latest round
of auctioning that ended on recently. With all the

spectrum on offer in the 900 MHz band sold out
and 80 per cent of that offered in the 1800 MHz
band sold for a total of Rs.61,162 crore which
[55]

will be lost. This is exactly what happened in the
3G arena where companies outbid each other
paying big bucks for spectrum, only to discover
that the market was not willing to absorb the high
tariffs. The net result is that 3G services have not
taken off in a big way. The signals on tariff now
are mixed, with the operators complaining about
the money they had to cough up for the spectrum
which they are bound to anyway but they
have stopped short of saying that tariffs will rise.
The competition in the market will probably ensure
that tariffs do not shoot up immediately, at least
for voice telephony. Groaning as they are under
high debt levels, it is unlikely that telecom
companies will be able to convince banks to lend
more to them now; banks are under pressure from
the RBI anyway as they are over-exposed to the
sector. It remains to be seen how these companies
manage their funds. Yet, all things considered, the
bottomline is this: the auction and the money put
on the table by the operators prove, yet again, the
attractiveness of the telecom market in the country,
notwithstanding the fact that it is already 900
million connections strong.
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is substantially higher than the reserve price the

government is patting itself on the back for what
it calls a big success. Yet, this has to be viewed in
the backdrop of a couple of issues. First, this
auction was critical for two of the biggest telecom
operators in the country, Bharti Airtel and
Vodafone, because their licences are set to expire
later this year, and to continue in business they
had to pick up spectrum irrespective of the price.
So, an element of desperation was built into the
bidding from the moment it began, pushing up
valuations. With a new entrant in the form of
Reliance Jio Infocomm queering the pitch by adding
to the competitive element, it is not surprising that
the final values of the 900 MHz spectrum for Delhi
and Mumbai were 105 per cent and 72 per cent
more than the reserve price. Of course, it could be
argued that this is exactly how markets work and
as the owner of the spectrum the government is
entitled to get the best price.
That brings us to the second point. The auction
can be truly termed as successful only when telecom
services develop at affordable prices for the
consumer. If the high spending by operators in the
auction forces them to raise tariffs, the objective
Source: The Hindu
A WAR ON JOBS
In the ongoing saga of the Affordable Care Act,

oddly referred to by Democrats as the law of the
land even as it is amended at will by presidential
fiat, we are beginning to understand the extent of
its war on jobs.
First, the Congressional Budget Office triples its
estimate of the drop in the workforce resulting from
the disincentive introduced by Obamacares
insurance subsidies: 2 million by 2017, 2.3 million
by 2021.
Democratic talking points gamely defend this

as a good thing because these jobs are being given
up voluntarily. Nancy Pelosi spoke lyrically about
how Obamacare subsidies will allow people to leave
unfulfilling jobs to pursue their passions: Think of
an economy where people could be an artist or a
photographer or a writer without worrying about
keeping their day job in order to have health
insurance.
Nothing so lyrical has been written about work

since Marx (in The German Ideology) described a
communist society that makes it possible for me
to ... hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon,
rear cattle in the evening, criticise after dinner.
Pelosis vision is equally idyllic except for one
[56]
thing: The taxes of the American factory worker

grinding away dutifully at his repetitive mindnumbing job will be subsidising the voluntary
unemployment of the artiste in search of his muse.
A rather paradoxical position for the party that
poses as tribune of the working man.
In the reductio ad absurdum of entitlement
liberalism, Jay Carney was similarly enthusiastic
about this Obamacare-induced job loss. Why
Obamacare creates the opportunity that allows
families in America to make a decision about how
they will work, and if they will work.
If they will work? Pre-Obama, people always
had the right to quit work to tend full time to the
study of butterflies. Its a free country. The twist in
the new liberal dispensation is that the butterfly
guy is to be subsidised by the taxes of people who
actually work.
In the traditional opportunity society,
government provides the tools education,
training and various incentives to achieve the
dignity of work and its promise of self-improvement
and social mobility. In the new opportunity society,
you are given the opportunity for idleness while
living parasitically off everyone else. Why those

everyone elses should remain at their jobs hey!
I wanna dance, too! is a puzzle Carney has yet
to explain.
The honest liberal reply to the CBO report is
that a disincentive to work is inherent in any
means-tested government benefit. Its the
unavoidable price of helping those in need because
for every new dollar you earn, you lose part of
your subsidy and thus keep less and less of your
nominal income.
But doesnt this undermine the whole idea of

universal health coverage? Of course it does, but
Obamacare was so structured that it is crushing
small business and killing jobs. It creates a major
incentive for small businesses to cut back to under
50 employees to avoid the mandate. Your business
becomes a 49er by either firing workers or reducing
their hours to below 30 a week. Because that doesnt
count as full time, you escape both the employer
mandate to buy health insurance and the fine for
not doing so.
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Thats inevitable. And thats why we have

learned to tie welfare, for example, to a work
requirement. Otherwise, beneficiaries could choose
to live off the dole forever. Thats why the 1996
Gingrich-Clinton welfare reform succeeded in
reducing welfare rolls by two-thirds. It is not
surprising that the same Obama administration that
has been weakening the work requirement for
welfare is welcoming the disincentive to work
inherent in Obamacare.
year.
But Obamacares war on jobs goes beyond

voluntary idleness. The administration is now
conceding, inadvertently but unmistakably,
Obamacares other effect involuntary job loss.
On Monday, the administration unilaterally
postponed and weakened the employer mandate,
already suspended through 2015, for yet another
With the weakest recovery since World War II,

historically high chronic unemployment and a
shockingly low workforce participation rate, the
administration correctly fears the economic
consequences of its own law and of the political
fallout for Democrats as millions more Americans
lose their jobs or are involuntarily reduced to parttime status.
Conservatives have been warning about this for
five years. This is not rocket science. Both the
voluntary and forced job losses were utterly
predictable. Pelosi insisted we would have to pass
the law to know whats in it. Now we know.
Source: The Hindu
DEVELOPING AND REGULATING A PROFESSION
Indian society, like any other, has been

witnessing a proliferation of professions. Their
influence in the making of the society and the
economy has been growing over the years.
Given the growing complexity and importance
of services, professionalisation to a large extent
determines the competitive edge of nations and
sustainability of prosperity.
The general framework for governance of
professions has been establishment of an authority
with twin responsibility of developing and
regulating a profession.
For example, an authority, namely, the Institute
of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) has been
established for regulation and development of the
profession of company secretaries. This is so because
regulation and development feed on each other in
a virtuous circle. This framework, however, requires
periodic review to keep the professions relevant in
the emerging environment.
profession has been imparting education. This is

not the exclusive domain of the authority
responsible for the profession. Nor does the
authority only have the capability to undertake this.
Education options
A profession is all about appropriate response

to situations. If this response could be standardised,
this can be programmed and delivered by machines.
A major component of development of a

For example, a student of company secretary

course is required to have knowledge of capital
markets. ICSI is not the only or the best agency
with the authority or ability to impart education
on the subject. Many agencies, domestic and
international, are equally capable. ICSI may merely
prescribe the syllabus keeping in view the
requirement of the profession. It may collaborate
with any other agency or even compete with other
agencies to impart education on the subject.
Now that massive open online courses (MOOCs)
like Coursera and Edx or educational websites like
Khan Academy provide free world-class education
for anyone anywhere, authorities like ICSI may,
perhaps, need to underplay their traditional role in
imparting education.
[57]

profession are becoming complex and it is beyond
the capability of an individual professional to meet
the needs of a client fully. The authorities must
promote members of different professions coming
together to provide integrated professionals services.
There is increasing organisation of economic
activity. We have over 10 lakh companies and 10
lakh not-for-profit organisations. The State does not,
and cannot have capacity to, exercise oversight on
this burgeoning number of organisations.
It is increasingly using professionals on its behalf
to exercise oversight on these organisations. The
examples are financial audit, internal audit,
secretarial audit, signing and filing of various forms
and certificates, due diligence under the securities
laws, etc. A professional is obliged to report fraud
when she comes across any, in the discharge of
her functions.
These are second order state functions
undertaken by a professional in public interest even
though she is paid for her services by her client or
employer. Her private interest may occasionally get
precedence over the public interest which is her
duty. Therefore, a professional needs to subject to
an appropriate accountability framework, including
an objective, transparent and accountable
disciplinary mechanism.
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Take the example of traders in stock market. They

were sought after and highly paid professionals.
They used to apply complicated mathematics and
algorithms to arrive at trading strategies. Now,
machines do this.
Similar is the case of cashiers in banks who
have been replaced by ATMs. Much of the work
which was earlier done by professionals is now
being done by technicians. What is left for
professionals now is what cant be programmed
and what requires application of mind, though an
ethical mind. But what requires application of mind
today may be programmed and delivered by
machines tomorrow.
So the authorities have to continuously move
the students and members of the respective
professions up in the value chain.
Regulatory challenges
The authorities are monopolists in the space of

regulation. For example, ICSI is the only authority
responsible for developing secretarial standards. It
is exclusively responsible for laying down the
standards of services rendered by company
secretaries and the code of conduct for them.
It is also solely responsible for penalising the
company secretaries who have failed to comply
with the applicable laws. Since they are the
exclusive authorities for regulation, they must have
adequate capacity and capability to regulate the
respective professions.
The frontiers of knowledge are expanding. What
one had learnt a decade back has become
redundant today. The Companies Act, 1956, which
has been the bible for last 60 years for company
secretaries, gave way recently to the Companies
Act 2013. Simultaneously, the old environment is
also disappearing.
For example, dematerialisation of securities came
in; with this the work relating to transfer of shares
disappeared. The new knowledge and new
environment is forcing professionals to be always
on the learning curve. The authorities, in their
regulatory role, should require the members of the
profession to continuously learn, unlearn and
relearn, and in their non-exclusive developmental
role, provide opportunities for such learning.
There was a time when broking was a
profession dependant on skills and expertise of an
individual. Now individuals are practically
prohibited from undertaking broking. It has become
an institutional business. A similar trend is observed
in case of medical or legal professions.
This is essentially because both business and
[58]
Adapting all the time
The governance of the authority responsible for

the development and regulation of every profession
must be similar to modern regulators with
legislative, executive and judicial functions. It must
have similar internal safeguards and processes and
similar arrangements for autonomy and
accountability. It needs to set standards which
would require continuous modification to meet
changing needs.
The law may enable expeditious formulation of
regulations, without requiring government
approval. The authority may have an empowered
wing to conduct inspection, audit, inquiry and
investigation effectively to arrive at the facts and
present the same before an empowered disinterested adjudication panel seeking appropriate
sanctions.
It must focus on regulation and value-added
developmental role and zealously safeguard the
reputation and integrity of the profession. Since
these are public goods, its income and wealth may
be exempt from tax, similar to that of SEBI.
Source: BusinessLine
MGNREGA: A TALE OF RURAL REVIVAL

A recent study conducted by the Consultative
Group to Assist the Poor (C-GAP)World Bank
(2013) in Andhra Pradesh shows that MGNREGA
became a major source of income for poor
households (40% of their income) in the lean
agricultural season (May-June), saving them from
falling back into poverty.
The third claim is that MGNREGA has
undermined rural prosperity by cornering
resources that may have been better utilized in
projects such as rural roads, water systems, (or
by creating) durable assets that could spur rural
growth on a sustainable basis. All the works under
MGNREGA are for building rural infrastructure.
Rural roads account for 15%, land development
25% and most visibly, water conservation structures
for 50% of MGNREGA. The works may be of
varying quality in different states, but they are there
for everyone to see.
The editorial also argues that the money spent
on MGNREGA could have been used to build
roughly 45,000km of rural roads. This is a facile
argument for the simple reason that the other major
programme of the ministry of rural development
the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojanahas, over
the last 10 years, led to the construction of
267,000km of all-weather roads in rural India. To
consider a rural employment programme and a
rural roads programme as alternatives instead of
being complements shows a limited understanding
of the dynamics of rural India today.
It is nobodys case that MGNREGA does not
have issues such as delays in wage payments, asset
quality, leakages and other weaknesses. But this
calls for identifying the problems through
concurrent evaluations and feedback from the field
and constructively addressing them, not closing
down the scheme itself.
It is because of the endeavour to constantly
improvecheck leakages, streamline money flows,
institute more transparency, etc.that detailed
management information systems have been put
in place that can track every worker and every
work undertaken under MGNREGA.
MGNREGA has been a strong pillar on which
the foundation of rural prosperity of the last decade
has been based. One in four rural households have
benefited from it, with at least 50% beneficiaries
being women, scheduled castes and scheduled
tribes. Of course, rural India needs more than just
MGNREGA. But the contribution of this
programme to the India story, and to rural revival
in the last decade cannot be dismissed cavalierly
and without recourse to evidence.
Source: Mint Money
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If some recent news articles are to be believed,

the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment
Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), a scheme that costs
less than 0.35% of Indias gross domestic product
(GDP), has crashed the countrys economy. The
latest to join this bandwagon of criticism is an
editorial in Mint. (MGNREGA: A tale of wasted
efforts, 7 February). The editorial makes a
sweeping assertion that the scheme represents
Rs2.3 trillion spent on wasteful rural consumption.
While a healthy debate on the subject is welcome,
indeed, desirable, the piece seems to be an
assortment of unsubstantiated claims. No evidence
has been used to support the claims, which is
disappointing, given the plethora of independent
evaluations of MGNREGA done by researchers
from across the world over the last few years.
It has been asserted that such populist schemes
helped raise wages without raising productivity.
The piece also argues that the increase in rural
wages has had little to do with interventions like
MGNREGA. To begin with, if indeed MGNREGA
has been able to increase rural wages, it has been
worth every paisa spent. Several studies, over many
decades, have shown that there is a strong
correlation between rural agricultural wage rates
and rural consumption/rural poverty. In fact, rural
wages remained stagnant between 2000-01 and
2005-06 and it was after implementation of
MGNREGA (from 2005-06 to 2010-11) that the
growth rate of agricultural wages increased to 2.7%
per annum for men and 3.7% for women.
Raising agricultural productivity is one of the
fundamental objectives of MGNREGA. Works such
as land levelling, making of embankments, droughtproofing, etc., have been undertaken on lands of
lakhs of small and marginal farmers. Another recent
study across six states showed that 85% of small
and marginal farmers saw an improvement in land
quality as a result of MGNREGA. Other
independent studies also confirm that MGNREGA
have led to an improvement in soil fertility and
agricultural production and productivity.
It has also been claimed that MGNREGA has
contributed more to inflation than to rural
wealth. There is no direct evidence linking
MGNREGA to inflation. In fact, the scheme gives
the poorest households the ability to withstand
economic shocks and deal with inflation
something they dont otherwise have. Almost Rs1.55
trillion (65% of the total expenditure on MGNREGA
since its inception) has been credited directly into
the accounts of the MGNREGA workers through
banks and post offices. A study by Crisil in 2012
shows that the increase in rural consumption seen
in the last few years is partially due to MGNREGA.
[59]
DEATH BY FINANCIALIZATION
macroeconomic volatility. Instead,
accomplished pretty much the opposite.
it
has
We have long known that portfolio and shortterm inflows fuel consumption booms and real
estate bubbles, with disastrous consequences when
market sentiment inevitably sours and finance dries
up. Governments that enjoyed the rollercoaster ride
on the way up should not have been surprised by
the plunge that inevitably follows.
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How quickly emerging markets fortunes have

turned. Not long ago, they were touted as the
salvation of the world economythe dynamic
engines of growth that would take over as the
economies of the US and Europe sputtered.
Economists
at
Citigroup,
McKinsey,
PricewaterhouseCoopers, and elsewhere were
predicting an era of broad and sustained growth
from Asia to Africa.
But now the emerging market blues are back.
The beating that these countries currencies have
taken as the US Federal Reserve begins to tighten
monetary policy is just the start; everywhere one
looks, it seems, there are deep-seated problems.
Argentina and Venezuela have run out of

heterodox policy tricks. Brazil and India need new
growth models. Turkey and Thailand are mired in
political crises that reflect long-simmering domestic
conflicts. In Africa, concern is mounting about the
lack of structural change and industrialization. And
the main question concerning China is whether its
economic slowdown will take the form of a soft or
hard landing.
This is not the first time that developing

countries have been hit hard by abrupt mood swings
in global financial markets. The surprise is that we
are surprised. Economists, in particular, should have
learnt a few fundamental lessons long ago.
First, emerging market hype is just that.
Economic miracles rarely occur, and for good
reason. Governments that can intervene massively
to restructure and diversify the economy, while
preventing the state from becoming a mechanism
of corruption and rent-seeking, are the exception.
China and (in their heyday) South Korea, Taiwan,
Japan, and a few others had such governments;
but the rapid industrialization that they engineered
has eluded most of Latin America, the Middle East,
Africa, and South Asia.
Instead, emerging markets growth over the last

two decades was based on a fortuitous (and
temporary) set of external circumstances: high
commodity prices, low interest rates, and seemingly
endless buckets of foreign finance. Improved
macroeconomic policy and overall governance
helped, too, but these are growth enablers, not
growth triggers.
Second, financial globalization has been greatly
oversold. Openness to capital flows was supposed
to boost domestic investment and reduce
[60]
Third, floating exchange rates are flawed shock

absorbers. In theory, market-determined currency
values are supposed to isolate the domestic economy
from the vagaries of international finance, rising
when money floods in and falling when the flows
are reversed. In reality, few economies can bear
the requisite currency alignments without pain.
Sharp currency revaluations wreak havoc on a
countrys international competitiveness. And rapid
depreciations are a central banks nightmare, given
the inflationary consequences. Floating exchange
rates may moderate the adjustment difficulties, but
they do not eliminate them.
Fourth, faith in global economic-policy
coordination is misplaced. Americas fiscal and
monetary policies, for example, will always be
driven by domestic considerations first (if not second
and third as well). And European countries can
barely look after their own common interests, let
alone the worlds. It is nave for emerging market
governments to expect major financial centres to
adjust their policies in response to economic
conditions elsewhere.
For the most part, that is not a bad thing. Feds
huge monthly purchases of long-term assetssocalled quantitative easing, or QEhave benefited
the world as a whole by propping up demand and
economic activity in the US. Without QE, which
Fed is now gradually tapering, world trade would
have taken a much bigger hit. Similarly, the rest of
the world will benefit when Europeans are able to
get their policies right and boost their economies.
The rest is in the hands of officials in the
developing world. They must resist the temptation
to binge on foreign finance when it is cheap and
plentiful. In the midst of a foreign-capital bonanza,
stagnant levels of private investment in tradable
goods are a particularly powerful danger signal
that no amount of government myth-making
should be allowed to override. Officials face a
simple choice: maintain strong prudential controls

on capital flows, or be prepared to invest a large
share of resources in self-insurance by accumulating
large foreign reserves.
The deeper problem lies with the excessive
financialization of the global economy that has
occurred since the 1990s. The policy dilemmas that
have resultedrising inequality, greater volatility,
reduced room to manage the real economywill
continue to preoccupy policymakers in the decades

ahead.
It is true, but unhelpful, to say that governments
have only themselves to blame for having recklessly
rushed into this wild ride. It is now time to think
about how the world can create a saner balance
between finance and the real economy.
Source: Mint Money
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PAYMENT BANKS AS FINANCIAL LEVELERS

The Nachiket Mor committee on financial
inclusions recommended objective of banking for
all by 2016 is a tall order. There is no doubt about
the need for that goal, but Indias record on
achievement of such objectives has been dismal.
Education for all and health for all are two striking
examples where the goal post kept shifting by 10
years, till eventually the field was changed.
Moreover, often government mandated services are
converted into achieving hard parametershow
many new accounts, new branches, new agents,
etc. Soft parameters such as the quality and usability
of services are overlooked. The recommendation to
introduce payment banks to enable ubiquitous
access and creation of universal electronic bank
accounts is an opportunity for banks to genuinely
transform financial inclusion and recognize the high
aspirations of persons with small wallets. The new
banks should aim to service all Indians and channel
their aspirations: reduce risk and stress, help stretch
budgets, and support a better future. There are
some things that need to be done to achieve all
this.
the pricing of products. Quality, reassurance and

flexibility are universally appreciated. People
willingly pay for useful services that address their
concerns. Disrupt pricing; take hints from prepaid
packs offered by mobile network operators and socalled freemium models of Internet companies.
Dont obsess about offering lowest prices, and
certainly dont hammer low-income customers with
this message.
For starters, consumers need to be given all

options. Instead of differentiating customers into
different categories, all those who want to be
banked, should be given all options. Low income
shouldnt mean no-frills.
Digitized financial services wont make cash go

away. With 600,000 villages to cover and banking
to be brought within 15 minutes of walking distance
of all Indians, there is enough of a pie to be shared.
The
independent
white-label
business
correspondent network envisaged by the Reserve
Bank of India (RBI) will make an effective medium
especially for first-generation banking customers to
get acclimatized. But banking correspondent
networks are hungry beasts: economics will make
sense only at substantial transaction volumes.
Sharing such representatives between banks makes
sense if one has to achieve scale; banks can
differentiate in more interesting ways than mere
availability of cash points. Rather than fighting
cash, it is important to make persons comfortable
crossing the physical-digital divide.
Product miniaturization is another area that

needs to be addressed. In India, remittances are
small, but volumes are large. India Post alone
handled 96 million money orders having a total
value of about Rs 75 billion in 2009 but the average
size of remittances is about Rs780. Why limit
accounts to either zero balance or a minimum of
Rs 5,000-10,000. Slabs for Rs 100, Rs 150, etc.,
should be introduced. Similarly, credit needs differ
across income groups. Introducing credit facilities
offering Rs. 500 or Rs. 1,000 for seven days make
more sense than those that offer Rs 50,000 for 20
days.
The new banks also need to carefully design
Technology can be another aid for levelling and

inclusion. The new banks need to go mobile, go
online and take advantage of the sense of
immediacy that mobile phones deliver while
ensuring reduced credit risk of real-time payments.
Take the case of ING Directa branchless retail
bank that successfully provided a range of banking
products only through call centres and Web access.
The advantage of having a branchless bank is that
it leads to a higher return on investment and low
capital expenditure. The immediate payment
service for online transaction saw close to two
million transactions in December 2013 through 55
million mobile money IDs.
Profitability comes from credit and payments.

Banks have to capture the savings of customers.
[61]

Observing how individuals manage their money is
the first step in that direction. For instance, persons
who make payments electronically also hold their
money electronically. Savings is the engine that
turns other financial products into cogs. Bottom
line: banks wont make money on empty accounts,
no matter what.
Source: Mint Money
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Finally, it is important to emphasize the scale

of operations. It has been estimated that in India
the value of domestic remittances is about $13
billion, with 80% being directed to rural areas.
Embracing scale is imperative for success on a

mobile-led strategy: digital payment services are
premised on network effects, and banking
correspondent networks are premised on economies
of density. Systems need to perform robustly at
scale, and processes need to be streamlined to avoid
bottlenecks). There are many technically and
commercially smart ways of doing all of this. The
developing world needs to draw inspiration from
successful mass-market banks.
[62]
CHRONICLE
IAS ACADEMY

17 FEBRUARY 2014 TO 23RD FEBRUARY 2014

TH
Call: 9953120676, 9582263947

CONTENTS
TOPICS
Pg. No.
National ....................................................................................................................... 4-25

International ............................................................................................................. 26-30
Economy .................................................................................................................... 33-36
Health ......................................................................................................................... 39-42
News in Brief........................................................................................................... 43-48
Editorials from Newspapers ................................................................................49-81
Indias Maritime Gateway to the Pacific ....................................................................................................... 49
Telangana at Last ..................................................................................................................................................50
Syrian rebels or international terrorists ..........................................................................................................51
For an unfettered internet ..................................................................................................................................53
A Glimmer of Syrian hope ................................................................................................................................. 55
Above politics and passion ................................................................................................................................. 56
Vaticans moral Imperatives ............................................................................................................................... 56
Anchors to protect sailors ................................................................................................................................... 57
The Challenge of Bad loans ............................................................................................................................... 59
Our ingrained VIP culture ..................................................................................................................................59
Scottish independence, a tough call ................................................................................................................60
Textiles: spools of opportunity for India ........................................................................................................62

The next farm challenge .....................................................................................................................................64
A new state, in the dark ....................................................................................................................................64
Moving to the city .................................................................................................................................................65
Family Matters........................................................................................................................................................66
How to build new cities ......................................................................................................................................67
Justice more efficient ............................................................................................................................................68
Dont wait for a Magic wand ...........................................................................................................................68
Interim budget that delivers ...............................................................................................................................69
When the state listens ..........................................................................................................................................70
Unshackling Prasar bharati ................................................................................................................................72
Another shot in the dark ....................................................................................................................................73
Incomplete agency .................................................................................................................................................74
Million dollar question .........................................................................................................................................75
Rural India shining at last ..................................................................................................................................76
The coming Chinese sneeze ...............................................................................................................................77
Medicine avec frontieres ......................................................................................................................................78
The parable of Argentina....................................................................................................................................80
NATIONAL
ABYSMAL POLICE-POPULATION RATIO IN INDIA
to the woes. According to the home ministry data,
against a sanctioned strength of 4,730 IPS officers,
government has been able to fill only 3,637 posts.
Maharashtra, which has witnessed some of the
deadliest terror attacks, is one of the worst
performing states in terms of IPS vacancies. With
33% vacancies on sanctioned strength of 302 officers,
it is among the top five poor performers.
While a serious augmentation in the strength

of police forces on the ground is the need of the
hour given Indias poor police-population ratio, the
government has been unable to fill even the existing
vacancies. Indias sanctioned police-population
ratio is 145 (still well below UN recommendation)
but the actual ratio (106) suggests massive number
of vacancies on the ground.
Nagaland with 50% vacancies and Odisha with

45% vacancies are top of the list. Kerala (35%) and
Karnataka (34%) closely follow in terms of IPS
vacancies.
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At a time when the crime rate is increasing

and spectrum of terror attacks keeps security
agencies on the toes, India stares at an abysmal
police-population ratio of 106 policemen per one
lakh people less than half of the UN
recommended figure of 222. According to the latest
government data even at the senior level, 1093 IPS
posts are lying vacant.
Bihar, UP, West Bengal, Odisha and Madhya

Pradesh have the worst police population ratio
ranging from 54 to 75. The only states that do
better than the UN recommendation are those
affected by militancy in the North East and Jammu
and Kashmir. Only Delhi, Goa and Chandigarh
stand out as exceptions with over 200 to 300
policemen per one lakh of population.
Thats not all. Severe shortage of officers adds
To make matters worse, fate of 255 officers who

had cleared the Limited Competitive Exam for IPS,
a 2010 home ministry scheme that allowed officers
from other forces to enter IPS, is hanging in balance
due to UPSCs reluctance to declare the results.
While UPSC argues it has stalled the results due to
litigations from IPS associations and individual
petitions, aspirants say the UPSC is dragging its
feet despite the Central Administrative Tribunal
disposing of all the petitions. UPSC had earlier even
objected to the scheme for various reasons ranging
from issues of quality of service to depletion of
middle-ranking officers.
DECLINING STRENGTH
AT THE SENIOR LEVEL, 1,093 IPS POSTS HAVE BEEN LYING VACANT
IPS VACANCIES
STATES
[4]
POLICE-POPULATION RATIO
SANCTIONED VACANCIES
STRENGTH
STATES
SANCTIONED ACTUAL
Nagaland
70
35
Bihar
69.76
54.73
Odisha
188
84
W. Bengal
100.58
61.59
Kerala
163
57
UP
160.93
67.76
Karnataka
205
70
Odisha
81.05
71.24
Maharashtra
302
101
MP
90.97
75.19
All India
4,730
1,093
All India
145.02
106.79
Weekly Current Affairs 17th February to 23rd February, 2014
PARLIAMENT PASSES WHISTLEBLOWER PROTECTION BILL

Further, he said based on some recommendations
of Parliamentary Standing Committee and other
members, who had sought to bring some
amendments. However, since it was sessions last
day, he was not pushing them as the bill would
lapse. But appropriate steps will be taken to address
concerns of members within constitutional methods
in 10 days.
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Finally, the Rajya Sabha cleared the

Whistleblower Protection Bill two years after it was
passed by the Lok Sabha. The bill seeks to establish
a mechanism to register complaints on any
allegations of corruption or willful misuse of power
against a public servant. It also provides safeguards
against victimisation of the person who makes the
complaint. It also provides adequate protection to
persons reporting corruption or willful misuse of
discretion which causes demonstrable loss to the
government or commission of a criminal offence
by a public servant.
While the measure sets out the procedure to

inquire into the disclosures and provides adequate
safeguards against victimisation of the whistle
blower, it also seeks to provide punishment for false
or frivolous complaints.
Protection to whistleblowers is endorsed by
United Nations-adopted the Convention Against
Corruption. This convention has been signed by
140 nations, including India.
The need for a bill to protect whistleblowers

was realised after murder of Satyendra Dubey, an
Indian Engineering Service officer who was killed
after he tried to reveal corruption in the Golden
Quadrilateral highway construction project in 2003.
Minister of State for Personnel V. Narayanasamy said the legislation would supplement the
RTI Act in checking corruption in the country.
The bill was passed by Lok Sabha in 2011 and

was taken up by the Upper House in 2012 for
consideration. However, it could not be passed
because of the death of Union Minister Vilasrao
Deshmukh.
To a suggestion that steps should be taken to
protect those who had blown the whistle on
corrupt practices prior to the bill being passed,
Narayanasamy said the government has already
brought a resolution in 2004 under which the CVC
was empowered to protect the whistleblowers.
The definition of disclosure has also been
amended to include wilful misuse of power or
wilful misuse of discretion which leads to
demonstrable loss to the government or
demonstrable gain to the public servant or any
third party.
The definition of competent authority to
which a complaint can be made has also been
expanded.
TRAIS SUGGESTIONS ON FM RADIO PHASE 3 POLICY
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India

(TRAI) in its FM radio Phase 3 policy recommends
that the methodology for determining the reserve
price for fresh cities in Phase-III should be
reconsidered, as the current methodology might
jeopardise the auction.
The importance of keeping reserve fees low has
been prominently brought out in the recent 2G
auctions. After two successive failures in November
2012 and March 2013, largely because of the high
reserve fees, TRAI had recommended a nearly 50%
cut in reserve fees. The other point made by TRAI,
is to repeat its earlier recommendation of April 2012
that the separation between two adjoining
radio frequencies should be reduced from 800 KHz

to 400 KHz, thus potentially doubling the
availability of channels. Since radio listening is
mostly on digital devices, mobiles, car stereos and
so on, there is no reason to keep the separation at
800 KHz. Industry sources say that for some
bizarre technical reasons, the government has
still not accepted this recommendation, thus
becoming guilty of wasting precious spectrum. If
the government now accepts this TRAI
recommendation, it would mean more FM
channels, hence more programming options for
broadcasters, more variety for listeners and
importantly, more licensing revenues for the
government itself.
[5]

Another recommendation by TRAI is to grant
incumbent licence holders new licences for a period
of 15 years.
TRAI has not accepted this, but has instead,

suggested two different ways of calculating the
renewal fees, the higher of which would be
applicable.
To avoid this situation, TRAI has proposed that

auctions conducted in cities (called reference cities)
where scarcity conditions do not exist, should
become the basis for charging renewal fees. The
reference cities for Delhi, for example, would be
other A category towns like Kanpur, Lucknow
and Hyderabad. Whatever the market premium
over the reserve fees for these markets, the same
premium would be charged over the reserve fees
in Delhi.
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TRAI has also suggested a formula for

calculating the migration or renewal fees, i.e,
the fees to be paid by broadcasters to get the new
15-year licences. The FM industry had cited their
poor financial conditions, especially after the
slowdown of the last few years, to demand that
the renewal fees should be the average of Phase-2
bids. In Phase-2, the auction methodology was
tendering and different bidders had won licences
at different bids.
The reason for this complex formula is the

scarcity of spectrum in most cities. For example, in
a city like Delhi, there is only one frequency
available for auction under Phase-3. Clearly, any
auction under scarcity conditions is fraught with
the risk that the final price would be irrational
rather than fair. How can the eight incumbent
broadcasters in Delhi be made to pay this for
renewal?
The first is to take the highest bid of Phase2 and to increase it by a certain percentage
that would depend on the bidding in other
similar reference cities.
The second is simply 50% more than the
average bid of Phase-2.
However, broadcasters point out that this

complex formula needs to be evaluated and stressed
that there is a real risk that if the bidding in the
reference cities goes haywire, then cities like Delhi
could become unviable.
MAHARASHTRA TO GET NATIONS FIRST REAL ESTATE REGULATOR

The Maharashtra Housing (Regulation and
Development) Act, 2012 recently received the
Presidential assent provides for the real estate
regulatory body. The Act makes it mandatory for
developers to disclose property title and layout and
completion plans to buyers. The project details have
to be registered with the regulatory authority and
will be displayed on its website.
Developers will be responsible for fixing major
defects that crop up in the building during the first
five years and may have to refund buyers for
delayed projects. The regulator has the powers of
a civil court and can impose fines of up to Rs. 1
crore and prison terms up to three years.
But the critics argue that the housing regulator

does not address the critical issue of pricing.
Activists feel the new law does not improve on the
[6]
existing Maharashtra Ownership Flats Act, 1963,

much. The earlier legislation allowed for criminal
complaints against developers. The new Act allows
for imprisonment only if the orders of the regulator
are not complied with. This weakens the
consumers position.
The Act excludes large housing stock from its
purview: houses built by the State-run Maharashtra
Housing and Development Authority (MHADA)
and City and Industrial Development Corporation
of Maharashtra (CIDCO). Also, the rehabilitation
component of redevelopment projects, which form
the bulk of construction in the city.
Builder groups are unhappy with additional
regulation. They say this will delay projects and
raise costs.
REALTY CHECK FOR HOUSE BUYERS

The Maharashtra Housing Regulation and Development Act, 2012, to be forwarded to
President
IMPACT OF THE ACT
Maharashtra will
become first state
to have a real estate
regulator body
Builders must disclose

title, layout, construction schedule and date
of possession
Regulators
website will
carry all
project detalls
Developers could face 3 year prison fines

of up to Rs. 1 crore for non-compliance
with regulators directives
WHAT CRITICS SAY

Flat-owners
consent a
must before
alterations
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In case of delay in construction,

regulator can hand project over to
competent authority
Developers will
be pulled up for
misleading
claims
New regulator has similar features

to existing Maharashtra Ownership
of Flats Act
No control on pricing of
flats
Sale component of
redevelopment projects
to be excluded.
New law provides for
imprisonment only in
cases of non-compliances,
no criminal proceedings
as in earlier law.
WHAT CRITICS SAY
Regulator will delay projects and increase

costs.
Consumer courts capable of

handling complaints.
Central law on housing

regulation under construction.
There is possibility of Parliaments approval

(on the central law on national housing
regulator) during the last session. Therefore,
Union Minister Girija Vyas has accepted our
request to clear the Maharashtra Act.
Prithiviraj Chawan
DONT JUST PROMISE, EXPLAIN THE WAYS & MEANS: EC
Political parties draft their election manifestos VIII in the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) that say
to woo voters through mere promises, even if some manifestos will not just have to reflect the
of them are seen as
rationale for
EC for making e-filing of nomination mandatory
populist
or
a promise but
unrealistic. But the The Election Commission of India will allow candidates contesting will also have
recent guidelines Lok Sabha elections to electronically file their nominations as well to broadly
issued
by
the as affidavits containing financial, educational, and legal information indicate the
Election Commi- on their backgrounds and will consider making e-filing mandatory ways
and
ssion of India will for wide dissemination of all information related to candidates. means to meet
make the false Addressing the two-day 10th annual national conference on the financial
promises made by electoral and political reforms organised by the Association for requirements
the political parties Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW), for it. Stating
in the election Election Commissioner H.S.Brahma said, While the Election that the trust
manifesto a thing of Commission officers are often pressed for time to verify the details of
voters
past.
be
submitted in affidavits by candidates a few days prior to elections, should
making
this
information
available
online
will
allow
other
individuals
sought
only
on
Before announcing the schedule and organisations to access this information, and this may make those promises
verification quicker.
which
are
for the Lok Sabha
polls, the Election Responding to questions on a series of criminal cases of corruption possible to be
Commission has against Rajya Sabha candidates from Jharkhand, Brahma said the fulfilled, the
government should consider making a minimum period of prior new guidelines
included
fresh
residence in a State a criterion for accepting nominations.
say
that
guidelines as Part
[7]

political parties should avoid making those
promises which are likely to vitiate the purity of
the election process or exert undue influence on
the voters in exercising their franchise.
manifestos-related guidelines in the MCC is that it

may not be possible for political parties to work
out in advance, minute details of the financial
impact of the promises being made.
According to officials the move follows a

Supreme Court direction and consultations with
all recognised national and state political parties
and is essentially targeted to ensure free and fair
polls.
Agreeing in principle that framing of manifestos

is the right of political parties, the EC has said it
cannot overlook the undesirable impact of some
of promises and offers on the conduct of free and
fair elections and maintaining level playing field
for all political parties and candidates.
The Model Code of Conduct for guidance of
political parties and candidates is a set of norms
that has been evolved with the consensus of political
parties who have consented to abide by the
principles embodied. This code also binds political
parties to respect and observe it in its letter and
spirit. The Election Commission ensures its
observance by political parties in power, including
ruling parties at the Centre and in the states and
contesting candidates.
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The Supreme Court had in 2013 directed the

Election Commission to frame guidelines regarding
the contents of election manifestos in consultation
with all recognised parties. Conflicting views had
emerged during the ECs recent meeting with
parties on the subject. While some parties had
expressed support for such guidelines, some others
were of the view that it was their right and duty
towards voters to make such offers and promises
in manifestos in a healthy democratic polity.
The
main
argument
against
including
81.4 CRORES VOTERS TO CAST VOTE IN LS ELECTION
According to electoral data released by the

Election Commission based on summary rolls
revision for 2014 about 81.4 crore registered voters
will be able to cast their votes in the forthcoming
Lok Sabha elections. The latest figures revealed that
the 28 States account for 98.27 per cent of the
electors, while the seven Union Territories account
for the remaining electorate. Uttar Pradesh with
13.43 crore electors accounts for 16.49 per cent of
the total electorate. It has the largest number of
voters, while Sikkim with about 3.62 lakh voters
has the smallest number of electors,
Out of a total of 814,591,184 electors in the
country there are 23,161,296 electors aged between

18 and 19 years, thus constituting 2.8% of the
national electorate. Among the 28 states and 7
union territories, Dadra & Nagar Haveli has the
highest proportion of newly eligible electors at
9.88%, followed next by Jharkhand at 9.03%.
Andaman & Nicobar Islands at 1.12% has the
lowest proportion of newly eligible electors,
followed next by Himachal Pradesh at 1.33%. In
absolute numbers, Uttar Pradesh tops the list with
more than 38.1 lakh electors aged between 18 and
19 years, followed next by West Bengal with around
20.8 lakh electors in this age group.
DISTRIBUTION OF NEWLY ELIGIBLE INDIAN ELECTORS ACROSS STATES AND UNION TERRITORIES
State / UT
18 19 Years of Age Above 19 Years

No: of Electors
% of Total Electors
No: of Electors
% of Total
Electors
Total No:
of Electors
Andaman &
Nicobar Islands
2,899
1.1%
254,957
98.9%
257,856
Andhra Pradesh
1,544,203
2.5%
60,841,746
97.5%
62,385,949
Arunachal Pradesh
30,399
4.0%
722,817
96.0%
753,216
Assam
657,190
3.5%
18,065,842
96.5%
18,723,032
Bihar
1,654,602
2.7%
60,453,845
97.3%
62,108,447
Chandigarh
18,170
3.1%
562,530
96.9%
580,700
Chattisgarh
867,099
4.9%
16,654,464
95.1%
17,521,563
[8]

State / UT
18 19 Years of Age Above 19 Years

No: of Electors
% of Total Electors
No: of Electors
Total No:
% of Total of Electors
Electors
18,655
9.9%
170,128
90.1%
188,783
Daman & Diu
8,778
8.6%
93,482
91.4%
102,260
Goa
23,985
2.3%
1,019,319
97.7%
1,043,304
Gujarat
948,242
2.4%
38,923,329
97.6%
39,871,571
Haryana
349,239
2.2%
15,245,188
97.8%
15,594,427
Himachal Pradesh
62,133
1.3%
4,612,054
98.7%
4,674,187
Jammu & Kashmir
148,480
2.1%
6,784,638
97.9%
6,933,118
Jharkhand
1,802,248
9.0%
18,146,435
91.0%
19,948,683
Karnataka
804,786
1.8%
43,889,872
98.2%
44,694,658
Kerala
417,490
1.8%
23,374,780
98.2%
23,792,270
Lakshadweep
2,050
4.3%
45,922
95.7%
47,972
Madhya Pradesh
1,593,519
3.4%
45,951,128
96.6%
47,544,647
Maharashtra
1,075,376
1.4%
77,891,266
98.6%
78,966,642
Manipur
40,191
2.3%
1,698,814
97.7%
1,739,005
Meghalaya
63,018
4.1%
1,490,010
95.9%
1,553,028
Mizoram
37,375
5.4%
659,073
94.6%
696,448
Nagaland
36,159
3.1%
1,138,504
96.9%
1,174,663
NCT OF Delhi
226,833
1.9%
11,833,660
98.1%
12,060,493
Odisha
784,677
2.7%
28,096,126
97.3%
28,880,803
Puducherry
29,187
3.3%
856,271
96.7%
885,458
Punjab
485,488
2.5%
18,721,742
97.5%
19,207,230
Rajasthan
2,041,271
4.8%
40,518,272
95.2%
42,559,543
Sikkim
11,715
3.2%
350,611
96.8%
362,326
Tamil Nadu
1,199,309
2.2%
52,553,373
97.8%
53,752,682
Tripura
121,114
5.1%
2,258,427
94.9%
2,379,541
Uttar Pradesh
3,814,180
2.8%
130,537,117
97.2%
134,351,297
Uttarakhand
161,512
2.4%
6,624,882
97.6%
6,786,394
West Bengal
2,079,724
3.3%
60,389,264
96.7%
62,468,988
Total
23,161,296
2.8%
791,429,888
97.2%
814,591,184
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Dadra & Nagar

Haveli
Data Source: Election Commission of India (data as on 14th February, 2014)
[9]
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MALE ELIGIBLE VOTERS STILL OUTNUMBER FEMALES
The Election Commission of India recently

released new election data which revealed that
despite a steady improvement in the sex ratio of
Indias electorate, there are still more male voters
being registered than female voters. Male voters
make up 52.4% of the countrys electorate while
the female component is 47.6%. Women formed
just 41 per cent of first-time voters aged 18-19,
though they make up 47 per cent of the population
in that age group and those belonging to the
category Others, or trans-genders, constitute
0.0035%. As many as 17 states/UTs have electors
belonging to the Others category, with Karnataka
having the largest number of such electors, followed
next by Uttar Pradesh.
According to the Summary election data 96 lakh
[10]
women aged 18-19 have been registered to vote,

compared with 1.4 crore male voters.
Other finer points of the Electoral Data released
by EC are as follow:
Nagaland is the only State where the newly

registered female voters aged 18-19 outnumber male voters.
Haryana has the most adverse sex ratio in

this segment (just 28.3 per cent of the
registered 18-19 year olds are female),
followed by Maharashtra (35.5 per cent) and
Punjab, Chandigarh and Gujarat (36.2 per
cent). But, interestingly, Haryana has shown
the highest growth in female electorate over
the last five years, at over 30%.

Women electors grew by 26% in Madhya

Pradesh and by 20.2% in West Bengal in last
five year.
The female electorate showed a decline over

the last five years in Lakshadweep and
Nagaland.
As many as eight states Puducherry, Kerala,

Manipur, Mizoram, Daman & Diu, Meghalaya,
Goa and Arunachal Pradesh now have a
larger percentage of women voters that male.
While Puducherry, with 52.01% female
voters, has the highest proportion of women
in its electorate, followed by Kerala with
51.9%, Manipur 51%, Mizoram 50.9%,
Daman & Diu 50.5%, Meghalaya 50.4%, Goa
50.1% and Arunachal Pradesh 50.1%.
Delhi disappoints with the lowest proportion

of women voters in the country at 44.6%,
followed by Uttar Pradesh where females
constitute 45.4% of the electorate.
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Mudit Kapoor and Shamika Ravi, assistant

professors at the Indian School of Business,
Hyderabad, analysed 50 years of Election
Commission data for the Assembly elections
between 1962 and 2012 in 16 major States. They
found that the sex ratio of voters the number of
women voters for every 1,000 men voters
improved substantially from 715 in the 1960s to
883 in the 2000s.
States that added more women voters than

male electors since 2009 include West Bengal,
Kerala, Puducherry, Goa, Arunachal Pradesh,
Lakshadweep and Daman & Diu.
[11]
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MCKINSEY REPORT FROM POVERTY TO EMPOWERMENT
A Global consultancy firm pegged a new level

for poverty or empowerment line at Rs 1,336
per month per person as against the poverty line
prescribed by the government at around Rs 870
per month per person. According to the report,
the Empowerment Line is a measure of individual
consumption, yet the ability or willingness to spend
is not wholly sufficient, in itself, to guarantee a
decent life. Households also need access to basic
services, such as health clinics and schools, at a
community level, as well as electricity, drinking
water, and improved sanitation within their homes.
To this end, the McKinsey Global Institute
(MGI) has created the Empowerment Line, an
analytical framework that determines the level of
consumption required to fulfill eight basic needs
food, energy, housing, drinking water, sanitation,
health care, education, and social securityat a
level sufficient to achieve a decent standard of living
rather than bare subsistence. In applying this metric
to India, MGI report found that
[12]
In 2012, 56 per cent of the population lacked

the means to meet essential needs. By this
measure, some 680 million Indians
experienced deprivation, more than 2.5 times
the population of 270 million below the
official poverty line.
The Empowerment Gap, or the additional
consumption required to bring these 680
million people to the level of the
Empowerment Line, is seven times higher
than the cost of eliminating poverty as defined
by the official poverty line (exhibit).
Indian households, on average, lack access
to 46 per cent of the basic services they need,
and it identifies wide geographic disparities
in the availability of social infrastructure.
India can bring more than 90% of its people
above the empowerment line in a decade by
implementing inclusive reforms. Steps are
needed to stimulate investment, job creation,
farm productivity and improve the delivery
of basic services.
These reforms could potentially allow India

to achieve an average GDP growth of 7.8%
between 2012-22. This could lift 580 million
people above the empowerment line, leaving
100 million or 7% of the population below it
in 2022 and 17 million or about 1% below
the official poverty line.
But, if inclusive reforms do not happen, the
report said, around 470 million Indians or
36% of the population would remain below
empowerment line in 2022 and 12% of the
population would be languishing below the
official poverty line.
If inclusive reforms are implemented, 115
million non-farm jobs would be created by
2022, which will increase the spending power
of those persons who migrated from
agricultural sector.
The inclusive reforms will also increase the
farm productivity from the present level of
2.3 tonnes per hectare to about 4 tonnes per
hectare by 2022.
However, the inclusive growth, cannot be
realized without public spending going up
substantially. According to the report, the
public spending on social services must double
from Rs 5.7 lakh crore in 2012 to Rs 10.9

lakh crore in 2022 to fill the critical gap in
the social infrastructure.
Using census data, MGI also estimated the
availability of basic services at the district level
by compiling an Access Deprivation Score.
Bihar had the highest level of deprivation
with an ADS score of 62 per cent (the
average resident lacked access to 62 per cent
of services) followed by Uttar Pradesh,
Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Assam.
Himachal Pradesh had the lowest access
deprivation at 28 per cent followed by Punjab,
Uttarakhand, Kerala and Tamil Nadu among
the big States.
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A Novel Benchmark
MGI
Planning
Commission
Urban Poverty line
Rs, 1,692
Rs. 1,000
% urban poor
44%
25.7%
Number of urban poor 17.1 crore
5.31 crore
Rural poverty line
Rs. 1,228
Rs. 816
% rural poor
61%
13.7%
Number of rural poor 50.9 crore
27 crore
% overall poor
56%
21.92%
[13]
BILL PASSED TO PROTECT LIVELIHOODS OF STREET VENDORS

(v) Where the numbers of street vendors
identified are more than the holding capacity
of the vending zone, the Town Vending
Committee (TVC) is required to carry out a
draw of lots for issuing the certificate of
vending for that vending zone and the
remaining persons will be accommodated in
any adjoining vending zone to avoid relocation.
(vi) Those street vendors who have been issued a
certificate of vending/license etc. before the
commencement of this Act, they will be
deemed to be a street vendor for that category
and for the period for which he/she has been
issued such certificate of vending/license.
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The Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and

Regulation of Street Vending) Bill, 2014, which
provides for protection of livelihoods rights, social
security of street vendors was passed by the
Parliament. The Bill provides for protection of
livelihoods rights, social security of street vendors,
regulation of urban street vending in the country
and for matters connected therewith or incidental
thereto. The Lok Sabha had passed the Bill on 6th
September, 2013.
There are more than 10 million urban street
vendors in India, and most of them lead a handto-mouth existence. Many are migrants to towns
and cities and face harassment at every step.
Main features of the Street Vendors (Protection

of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending)
Bill, 2014 are as follows:
(i) The Bill provides for constitution of a Town
Vending Authority in each Local Authority,
which is the fulcrum of the Bill, for
implementing the provisions of the Bill.
(ii) In order to ensure participatory decision

making for aspects relating to street vending
activities like determination of natural market,
identification of vending zones, preparation
of street vending plan, survey of street
vendors etc. the TVC is required to have
representation of officials and non-officials
and street vendors, including women vendors
with due representation from SC, ST, OBC,
Minorities and persons with disabilities. It has
been provided that 40% members of the TVC
will be from amongst street vendors to be
selected through election, of which one-third
shall be women.
(iii) To avoid arbitrariness of authorities, the Bill
provides for a survey of all existing street
vendors, and subsequent survey at-least once
in every five years, and issue of certificate of
vending to all the street vendors identified in
the survey, with preference to SC, ST, OBC,
women, persons with disabilities, minorities
etc.
(iv) All existing street vendors, identified in the
survey, will be accommodated in the vending
zones subject to a norm conforming to 2.5%
of the population of the ward or zone or
town or city.
[14]
(vii) It has been provided that no street vendor

will be evicted until the survey has been
completed and certificate of vending issued
to the street vendors.
(viii) It has also been provided that in case a street

vendor, to whom a certificate of vending is
issued, dies or suffers from any permanent
disability or is ill, one of his family member
i.e. spouse or dependent child can vend in
his place, till the validity of the certificate of
vending.
(ix) Thus the mechanism is to provide universal
coverage, by protecting the street vendors
from harassment and promoting their
livelihoods.
(x) Procedure for relocation, eviction and
confiscation of goods has been specified and
made street vendor friendly. It is proposed to
provide for recommendation of the TVC, as
a necessary condition for relocation being
carried out by the local authority.
(xi) Relocation of street vendors should be

exercised as a last resort. Accordingly, a set
of principles to be followed for relocation is
proposed to be provided for in the second
Schedule of the Bill, which states that (i)
relocation should be avoided as far as possible,
unless there is clear and urgent need for the
land in question; (ii) affected vendors or their
representatives shall be involved in planning
and implementation of the rehabilitation
project; (iii) affected vendors shall be relocated
so as to improve their livelihoods and
standards of living or at least to restore them,
in real terms to pre-evicted levels (iv) natural
markets where street vendors have conducted

business for over fifty years shall be declared
as heritage markets, and the street vendors
in such markets shall not be relocated.
(xv) The Bill provides for time period for release

of seized goods, for both perishable and nonperishable goods. In case of non-perishable
goods, the local authority is required to release
the goods within two working days and in
case of perishable goods, the goods shall be
released the same day, of the claim being
made.
(xvi) The Bill also provides for promotional
measures to be undertaken by the
Government, towards availability of credit,
insurance and other welfare schemes of social
security, capacity building programmes,
research, education and training programme
etc. for street vendors.
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(xii) The Local authority is required to make out

a plan once in every 5 years, on the
recommendation of TVC, to promote a
supportive environment and adequate space
for urban street vendors to carry out their
vocation. It specifically provides that
declaration of no-vending zone shall be
carried subject to the specified principles
namely; any existing natural market, or an
existing market as identified under the survey
shall not be declared as a no-vending zone;
declaration of no-vending zone shall be done
in a manner which displaces the minimum
percentage of street vendors; no zone will be
declared as a no-vending zone till such time
as the survey has not been carried out and
the plan for street vending has not been
formulated. Thus the Bill provides for enough
safeguards to protect street vendors interests.
officers to maintain impartiality towards

grievance redressal of street vendors.
(xiii) The thrust of the Bill is on natural market,

which has been defined under the Bill. The
entire planning exercise has to ensure that
the provision of space or area for street
vending is reasonable and consistent with
existing natural markets. Thus, natural
locations where there is a constant
congregation of buyers and sellers will be
protected under the Bill.
(xiv) There is a provision for establishment of an
independent dispute redressal mechanism
under the chairmanship of retired judicial
(xvii) Section 29 of the Bill provides for protection

of street vendors from harassment by police
and other authorities and provides for an
overriding clause to ensure they carry on their
business without the fear of harassment by
the authorities under any other law.
(xviii)The Bill specifically provides that the Rules
under the Bill have to be notified within one
year of its commencement, and Scheme has
to be notified within six months of its
commencement to prevent delay in
implementation.
The Bill is aimed at creating a conducive
atmosphere for street vendors to do their business
in dignity and is likely to help in giving livelihood
protection to about 1 crore families.
NGO BOOM IN INDIA
Though India has one policeman per 943

people, it has one NGO (non-governmental
organisation) per 600 people. The Central Bureau
of Investigation conservatively estimating 20 lakh
of them already are operating in states and union
territories. But, there is an accountability deficit
among the NGOs. And thats how CBI got into the
picture as the Supreme Court responded to a PIL.
Many dont submit details of receipt of grant and
spending to income tax authorities.
On the SCs order, the CBI sought information

from the states and UTs about operation of NGOs
and status of audit of their funds. Major states
Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Haryana, Karnataka,
Rajasthan, West Bengal, Odisha, Tamil Nadu,
Chhattisgarh and Himachal Pradesh have

provided no data about the number of NGOs
operating in their territory.
Without the statistics from these major states,
the CBI was informed by other states about the
existence of 13 lakh NGOs making the agency
conservatively estimate that their number could
well be over 20 lakh. In Uttar Pradesh alone
5,48,194 NGOs are operating. Kerala had 3,69,137
NGOs, Maharashtra 1,07,797, Madhya Pradesh
1,40,000 and Gujarat has 75,729 NGOs. While
Kerala and Maharashtra have given details of
finances of the NGOs operating in their area,
Madhya Pradesh gave partial information about
their funding. Gujarat was completely silent.
[15]

According to information received through RTI
queries by Asian Centre for Human Rights, the
Union and state governments between 2002-09
released Rs 6654 crore to various NGOs, averaging
almost Rs 950 crore per year. For the financial year
2010-11, available data show that about 22,000
NGOs received a total of more than $2 billion from
abroad, of which $650 million came from the US.
In two years, the trust spent Rs 63,243 on

paying honorarium, Rs 20,347.50 was accounted
towards travel expenses and Rs 6,487.50 was spent
on printing and stationery. This means, of the Rs
1 lakh granted for watershed development in three
villages, the trust spent Rs 90,078 on honorarium,
travelling and printing and stationery.
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On a PIL filed by advocate M L Sharma alleging

misuse of funds by Anna Hazares NGO Hind
Swaraj Trust (HST), a bench headed by Justice H
L Dattu had last year asked additional solicitor
general Sidharth Luthra to engage the CBI to find
out details of the funding of NGOs across the
country and whether these were filing their income
tax returns.
CAPART had given a grant of Rs 1 lakh to

Hazare-led HST for watershed development in three
villages in 1999-2001, but more than 90% of the
money was spent on honorarium, travelling,
printing and stationery, the Supreme Court was told.
From the information made available by the

state governments and presented in tabular form
by the CBI to the Supreme Court, it was apparent
that most NGOs had not filed income tax returns
regularly.
CAPART functions under the ministry of rural

development and assists over 12,000 voluntary
organizations across the country in implementing
a wide range of development initiatives.
Responding to Sharmas PIL alleging that large

amounts of government funds were being doled
out without taking proper account of utilization of
grants by NGOs, Council for Advancement of
Peoples Action and Rural Technology (CAPART)
in an affidavit denied any wrongdoing by HST and
annexed an audited account for the utilization of
Rs 1 lakh.
INDIA, THE 4TH LARGEST GM CROP GROWING NATION
According to the International Service for

Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA),
that tracks the GM acreages, the global acreages
under GM crops continued to expand through
2013, albeit at a sluggish pace of around 3 per
cent. Acreage under GM crops increased to 175.2
million hectares in 2013, about five million hectares
more than last year.
Following the same trend, the acreage under
GM crops in India also expanded. Even India has
overtaken Canada to emerge as the fourth largest
country to grow biotech or genetically modified
(GM) crops in 2013 as farmers planted Bt cotton in
about 11 million hectares. In the previous year,
farmers in India had planted Bt cotton the only
approved GM crop for commercial cultivation
in about 10.8 m ha.
The US continued to be the largest country
under GM crops, accounting for 40 per cent of the
total planted area globally, followed by Brazil with
[16]
40.3 m ha. and Argentina with 24.4 m ha. While

Egypt has stopped planting GM crops, reducing
the total number of countries to 27, countries such
as Canada saw a decline in area.
Of the 27 countries that planted GM crops last
year, 19 were developing nations and eight were
industrialised countries. Developing nations planted
more GM crops than their developed counterparts
the second consecutive year with farmers in Latin
America, Asia and Africa accounting for 54 per
cent of the 175 million hectares.
Bangladesh approved the commercial planting
of Bt brinjal, while the situation in Egypt put
planting on-hold, pending a Government review,
ISAAA said. Panama and Indonesia were two
other nations that approved cultivation of biotech
crops.
About 18 million farmers planted the biotech
crops in 2013 compared with 17.3 million in 2012.

Besides economic gains, farmers benefited
enormously from at least a 50 per cent reduction
in the number of insecticide applications.
In the European Union, five nations Spain,

Portugal, Romania, Czech Republic and Slovakia
planted 15 per cent more area than last year at
1.48 lakh hectares under Bt maize.
Rising global area of GM crops

2011
2012
2013
Crops
USA
66.8
69
69.5
70.1
Maize, soyabean, cotton, sugarbeet, papaya, squash, canola
Brazil
25.4
30.3
36.6
40.3
Soyabean, maize, cotton
Argentina 22.9
23.7
23.9
24.4
Soyabean, maize, cotton
India
9.4
10.6
10.8
11
Cotton
Canada
8.8
10.4
11.6
10.8
Canola, maize, sobbean, sugarbeet
China
3.5
3.9
4.0
4.2
Cotton, papaya, poplar, tomato, sweet pepper
Total
148
160
170.3
175.2
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SCRAP 15 OF 44 DAMS PLANNED ACROSS SIANG: CWC REPORT

The Central Water Commission in its recent its Forest Advisory Committee before it assesses the
report has recommended scrapping of 15 of the 44 controversial 700-MW Tato II project, which the
dams planned across the Siang river in Arunachal central government has pushed hard to clear. But
Pradesh. It has also suggested stricter regulations the CWC report notes that the downstream impact
for the ones that are to be built in future. The report of the dams will be felt all the way to Guwahati.
has warned that the proposed 44 dams, meant to
The report notes: Siang Lower HEP (2,700
establish a capacity of 18,293 MW, will affect the MW), Siang Upper Stage II (3,750 MW) and Siang
river ecology and biodiversity and the region all
Upper Stage I
the way down
(6,000 MW) are
Central Water Commission
to
Assam.
planned
to
Central Water Commission is a premier Technical Organization cover almost
Cumulatively,
entire
the projects will of India in the field of Water Resources and is presently functioning the
impact
more as an attached office of the Ministry of Water Resource. The length of the
than 500 km of Commission is entrusted with the general responsibilities of initiating, Siang in India.
river stretch. Of coordinating and furthering in consultation of the State Governments 208.5 km of the
this, 353 km concerned, schemes for control, conservation and utilization of water river will be
will
be resources throughout the country, for purpose of Flood Control, converted into
converted into Irrigation, Navigation, Drinking Water Supply and Water Power one continuous
reservoirs, and Development. It also undertakes the investigations, construction and reservoir as all
three projects
water will travel execution of any such schemes as required.
are
planned
through tunnels
Central Water Commission (CWC) is headed by a Chairman,
b
a
c
k
t
o-back
for
another with the status of Ex-Officio Secretary to the Government of India.
without
any
160.8 km. More The work of the Commission is divided among 3 wings namely,
flowing
than
18,000 Designs and Research Wing (D&R), River Management Wing (RM) free
intermediate
hectares
of and Water Planning and Projects Wing (WP&P). Each wing is placed
river stretch.
forests will be under the charge of a full-time Member with the status of Ex-Officio
The report
impacted.
Additional Secretary to the Government of India and comprising of
only
asks for
The Union number of Organizations responsible for the disposal of tasks and
the
smaller
Ministry
of duties falling within their assigned scope of functions.
capacity dams,
Environment
National Water Academy located at Pune is responsible for with a total
and Forests will training of Central and State in-service engineers and it functions
capacity
of
consider
the directly under the guidance of Chairman. Altogether there are
473.5 MW, to
report at the Nineteen organizations located at headquarters in New Delhi and
be done away
next meeting of thirteen organizations spread over various locations in India.
with.
[17]

It is strongly recommended that after dropping
these projects, these river reaches should be kept
free. These projects should not be re-allotted by
altering their features, locations and names. Also
on other free stretches/tributaries, no further
hydropower projects should be planned/allotted
in the entire Siang basin even if they are small (less
than 25 MW) and do not fall within the purview
of the EIA notification, says the report.
The Ministry has decided to assess the Tato II
project for clearance, claiming it is the first project

in the river basin, though it assessed the 1,000-MW
Siyom (Middle Siang) project for environmental
clearance as far back as 2004-05.
The Ministrys panel for forest clearances will
also review the Lower Yamne State I and II projects,
which fall in the Siang river basin and add up to
184 MW. The CWC report has assessed this subbasin to be of the highest biodiversity value in the
overall Siang basin.
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FROM REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY TO A PARTICIPATORY

DEMOCRACY
Though opposed by some departments, the

Centre has decided to make pre-legislative
consultation (PLC) mandatory. With this, India
joins the club of nations like USA, UK, Canada,
Switzerland and South Africa where such practice
is followed.
proactively disclose the details of the proposed

legislation on the internet as well as through other
means, giving at least 30 days to the public to give
its views. The public would also be given an
explanatory note about the important provisions
of the proposed legislation in simple language.
Following the decision taken by a committee of

secretaries headed by the Cabinet Secretary, the
Union law ministry has sent a communication to
all ministries and departments asking them to
involve as many stakeholders, particularly the
common man, while finalising draft laws and
amendments to existing laws. Such a policy of
consultation would take the country from a
representative democracy to a participatory,
deliberative democracy.
Once the consultation process is complete, the

law ministry would vet the proposed law by
including suggestions of the public that find favour
with the concerned department.
The existing procedures dont provide for prelegislative consultation. It is learnt that during
discussions, many departments expressed
misgivings about the workability of the process,
with many secretaries referring to practical
difficulties in implementing it.
As per the decision of the committee of
secretaries, every department would have to
Representative Democracy
A form of govern-ment where the powers of

the sovereignty are delegated to a body of men,
elected from time to time, who exercise them for
the benefit of the whole nation.
Participatory Democracy
In a participatory democracy, also called a

direct democracy, every citizen plays an active
role in the government. It also allows citizens to
prioritize what is important to them, rather than
relying on representatives to address issues for
them and decide what is important.
SC VERDICT GRANTED RELIEF TO RAJIV CASE CONVICTS
The Supreme Court in its recent landmark

verdict commuted the death sentence of three
convicts Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan in
the Rajiv Gandhi assassination. While commuting
the death sentence of three into life, the Supreme
Court rejected the contention of the Centre that
the trio did not deserve any mercy as they never
showed remorse for killing the former Prime Minister.
A three-judge Bench of Chief Justice P.
Sathasivam and Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Shiva
Kirti Singh also gave a ray of hope for their release,
saying that the Tamil Nadu government could
[18]
exercise its remission powers under Section 432 and

433 Cr.P.C. and following the due procedure in law.
The Bench said, Following the rejection of
[their] mercy petitions by the Tamil Nadu Governor
on April 25, 2000, these petitions were forwarded
to the Ministry of Home Affairs on May 04, 2000.
After an unreasonable delay of five years and 1
month, on July 21, 2005, the Ministry of Home
Affairs submitted the petitioners mercy petitions
to the President for consideration.
The court said there was delay even thereafter.
In February 2011, the MHA recalled the mercy
New norms on mercy pleas

The clemency procedure under Articles 72 (by
the President) and 161 (by Governors) of the
Constitution provides a ray of hope to condemned
prisoners and their family members for
commutation of death sentence into life
imprisonment. The executive should step up and
exercise its time-honoured tradition of clemency
power one-way or the other within a reasonable
time, the Supreme Court has held.
Furthermore, it said: Such imprisonment,

occasioned by inordinate delay in disposal of mercy
petitions, is beyond the sentence accorded by the
court and to that extent is extra-legal and excessive.
Therefore, the apex constitutional authorities must
exercise the power under Article 72/161 within
the bounds of constitutional discipline and should
dispose of the mercy petitions filed before them in
an expeditious manner.
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Writing the judgment, the CJI said: The fact

that no time limit is prescribed to the President/
Governor for disposal of the mercy petition should
compel the government to work in a more
systematised manner to repose the confidence of
the people in the institution of democracy.
Constitution and the dehumanising effect is

presumed in such cases.
The Bench reiterated that exorbitant delay in

disposal of mercy petition renders the process of
execution of death sentence arbitrary, whimsical
and capricious and, thereby, violates procedural
due process guaranteed under Article 21 of the
petitions from the President. Here also there was
a delay of five years and eight months. Ultimately,
the President, on September 12, 2011, rejected these
mercy petitions after a delay of more than 11
years, the Bench said.
On the argument that the petitioners were

under legal obligation to produce evidence of their
sufferings and harm caused to them on account of
prolonged delay, the Bench said: It is unknown to
law and will be misinterpretation of the ruling in
Shatrughan Chauhan judgment. Such a prerequisite
would render the fundamental rights guaranteed
under the Constitution beyond the reach of deathrow convicts and will make them nugatory and
inaccessible for all intent and purposes.
It said it was indisputable that the delay was
inordinate and unreasonable and not caused at
the instance of the petitioners, warranting
commutation of their death sentence life
imprisonment.
ARE INDIAN UNIVERSITIES SECOND-GRADE ?
National Assessment and Accreditation

Councils (NAAC) in its recent assessment found
that higher education institutions are no better as
90% of colleges and 62% of universities accredited
are average or below average. According to NAAC
the real numbers are likely to be even worse as so
far just only 179 universities and 5,224 colleges
currently have valid accreditation over a total of
nearly 630 universities and 33,000 colleges.
According to professor A N Rai, director,

NAAC, Only 11% of accredited institutions are A
grade, while 71% are in B grade. Rest 18% of the
accredited colleges and universities are in the lowest
grade that is C. This definitely shows the quality
of the institutions. Further he said there is a need
to consider various parameters of the process. As
most of the institutions are government run, there
is serious finance and infrastructure crunch which
adversely affects the assessment and lowers the grade.
However from this year, accreditation had been
made mandatory by the ministry of human resource
development and had been linked to funding under
Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA).

Following this NAAC has witnessed a huge rush
for accreditation with 2,978 universities and colleges
in the present cycle.
With the just one-sixth of the colleges accredited
and less than 30% of the universities accredited,
NAAC officials believe, the real quality scene will
be revealed only after these institutions which had
shies away from the accreditation process so far
are assessed.
Accreditation and grading are indicators of
quality and more so as the higher education sector
is on the verge of massive expansion. Eighty
additional state universities are expected to be
created under RUSA during the 12th Plan by way
of converting either autonomous colleges or colleges
in a cluster. Around 100 new colleges which include
various technical as well as professional colleges
are to be established and 54 current colleges are to
be converted to degree colleges. In fact by the end
of the 13th Plan period in 2022, 388 new colleges
and 278 new universities are expected to be created.
[19]
RUSA
Setting up of higher education institutions in

unserved and underserved areas.
Improve equity in higher education by
providing adequate opportunities to socially
deprived communities; promote inclusion of
women, minorities, SC/ST and OBCs as well
as differently-abled persons.
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Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA)

is a new Centrally Sponsored Scheme spread over
two plan periods, for improving access, equity and
quality in the state higher education system. With
over 96 percent of students enrolled in the state
higher education system, there is a need for State
colleges and universities to be strengthened through
strategic Central funding and implementing certain
much needed reforms. RUSA also aims to
incentivize States to step up plan investments in
higher education.
institutions in rural and semi urban areas as

well as creating opportunities for students
from rural areas to get access to better quality
institutions.
The important objectives of the scheme are:
Improving the overall quality of existing state

higher educational institutions by ensuring
conformity to prescribed norms and standards
and adoption of accreditation as a mandatory
quality assurance framework.
Correct regional imbalances in access to
higher education through high quality
Ensure adequate availability of quality faculty

in all higher educational institutions and
ensure capacity building at all levels.
Create an enabling atmosphere in higher
educational institutions to devote themselves
to research and innovation.
Integrate skill developments efforts of the
government with the conventional higher
education system through optimum
interventions.
IRRESPECTIVE OF RELIGIOUS BACKGROUND ONE IS FREE TO

ADOPT CHILD: SC
The Supreme Court Bench headed by Chief
Justice P Sathasivam in its verdict said that
irrespective of their religious background, people
are free to adopt children. The verdict paved the
way for adoption of child by persons hailing from
Muslim community even though it is not allowed
under their personal law.
Holding that Juvenile Justice (Care and
Protection of Children) Act is a small step
towards the concept of Uniform Civil Code, the
apex court held that the law entitles adoption by
people belonging to any religion and any person,

who does not submit himself to personal law, can
adopt a child.
The Act does not mandate any compulsive
action by any prospective parent leaving such
person with the liberty of accessing the provisions
of the Act, if he so desires, the court said. The
Bench said the Act is an enabling legislation that
gives a prospective parent the option of adopting
an eligible child by following due procedure.
ODIA GETS CLASSICAL LANGUAGE STATUS
Odia became the sixth language of the country

and the first language from the Indo-Aryan
linguistic group to get classical language status.
The criteria for declaring a language as classical
mandates:
High antiquity of its early texts/recorded

history over a period of 1,500-2,000 years,
A body of ancient literature/texts which is
considered a valuable heritage by generations
of speakers
A literary tradition that is original and not
[20]
borrowed from another speech community.
Also since the classical language and literature

is distinct from the modern, there can also be
a discontinuity between the classical language
and its later forms or its offshoots.
Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and

Malayalam are other languages which have already
in the league of classical language status.
The classical language status to Odia will give
impetus to scholarship in this language. Besides, it
will also get the following benefits.

Two major annual international awards for
scholars of eminence in the concerned
language.
A Centre of Excellence for Studies in Classical
Languages can be set up.
The University Grants Commission can be

requested to create, to start with at least in
Central Universities, a certain number of
professional chairs for classical languages, for
scholars of eminence in the concerned
language.
LS PASSES AMENDED NDPS BILL, 2011

centres in the country that store and prescribe
opiates for treating chronic pain in terminally ill
cancer and AIDS patients.
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The Lok Sabha passed the Narcotic Drugs and

Psychotropic Substances (Amendment) Bill, 2011,
simplifying the regulations for procuring and
possessing narcotic drugs when used for medicinal
purposes. The amendments will prescribe the forms
and conditions of licence or permits for the
manufacture, possession, transport, import interState, export inter-State, sale, purchase,
consumption or use of essential narcotic drugs and
charge a fee for that.
Once passed by the Rajya Sabha also, it would
bring relief to thousands of cancer patients in the
country who use opioid for acute and chronic pain
relief.
The draft law simplifies licensing procedures

for storage of morphine. If the Rajya Sabha clears
it, cancer patients in India will have easier access
to morphine for the first time since 1985 when the
country enacted its narcotics law.
Due to the lack of access to morphine, the

science of pain relief or palliative care is not taught
in Indian medical colleges as a specialised degree.
At present, the All India Institute of Medical
Sciences (AIIMS) and Safdarjung Hospital are the
only two hospitals in Delhi and among the few
Morphine, derived from opium, is the only

analgesic to manage pain in terminally ill cancer
patients. While India is the leading producer of
morphine it accounts for 90% of the worlds
production less than 4% of the people in India
who need it have access to the medicine. The
Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act
prohibits, except for medical and scientific purposes,
the manufacture, production, sale and use of
opiates. According to existing laws, use and storage
of opiates and narcotics for medicinal purposes
requires up to six licenses for every consignment of
morphine procured one reason why most
hospitals in the country do not store the opiate.
If the amended legislation is enacted, it will
create a national law. Currently, each state has a
different law for opiates. Further, hospitals
procuring morphine will need a single permit
instead of the six required now. The licence will be
granted by the state drug controller.
Currently, Kerala is the only state that
streamlines access to morphine for medicinal use.
CCEA ENDORSES NATIONAL MISSION FOR A GREEN INDIA
In order to improve and increase Indias

diminishing forest cover the cabinet committee on
economic affairs approved a Rs.46,000-crore
scheme known as the National Mission for a Green
India. The new scheme envisages an expenditure
of Rs.13,000 crore in the 12th five-year plan period
ending in March 2017, and a total cost of Rs.46,000
crore over the next 10 years.
The Green India Mission is one of eight missions
under the National Action Plan on Climate Change.
It aims to increase forest cover on 5 million hectares
(ha) of forest/non-forest land and improve the
quality of forest cover on another 5 million ha.
Funding for the scheme will come from the Plan
outlay and convergence with the Mahatma Gandhi
national rural employment guarantee Act, the

compensatory afforestation management and
planning authority, and the national afforestation
programme.
The Union government will provide 90% of the
funds for implementing the scheme in the northeastern states, and 75% of the funds for other states.
State governments will meet the balance
requirement.
The new mission will involve grassroots-level
organizations including gram sabhas (village
councils) and joint forest management committees
(JFMCs). A governing council chaired by the
environment minister and a national executive
council chaired by the environment secretary at
[21]

the national level will facilitate implementation of
the mission.
Apart from afforestation, the mission will also
focus on adaptation of forest-dependent
communities. It aims to improve the livelihoods of
about 3 million households living in and around
forest areas.
gram sabhas through FRA, and on other hand, it

continues with the status quo on JFMCs and forest
bureaucracy.
But, according to forest rights activist Tushar

Dash, the mission goes against the Forest Rights
Act (FRA) by seeking to empower the JFMCs instead
of the gram sabhas. In many areas, JFMC are
conflicting with FRA. It appears that there are two
sets of framework coming from the Central
governmenton one hand, they want to empower
P.J. Dilip Kumar, chairman, Sustainable

Forestry Association, a non-governmental
organization based in Bangalore, said as far as the
FRA is concerned, it is important that land which
was under cultivation needs to be identified and
allocated to cultivator and boundary must be
demarcated urgently.
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There will be an effective Central-level

monitoring system. There will be third party
monitoring system also.
Another likely problem is that plantation of

trees under the new mission might encroach over
land cultivated by tribals. Restoration of ecosystem
is one thing and plantation is another. Further
Tushar said the same land that is used by adivasis
(tribals) to cultivate food crops might be taken over
if the focus is on plantations by the forest department.
RAJYA SABHA ALSO PASSES T-BILL
After Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha also passed the

Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill, 2014 to create
Indias 29th state by a voice vote. With a population
of 35 million, Telangana will comprise 10 of Andhra
Pradeshs 23 districts, including the city of
Hyderabad.
The suspense over the Andhra Pradesh
Reorganisation Bill, 2014 came to an end with the
Prime Minister announcing a six-point development
package for successor state of Andhra Pradesh,
including grant of special category status that
provides for tax incentives to Seemandhra.
The upper house also saw a heated debate

spanning
around
three
hours
despite
unprecedented protest with members of TMC, TDP
and Shiv Sena storming the well with huge placards
sometimes even overshadowing the Chair.
AP reorganization Bill: The AP reorganization
Bill envisages Hyderabad as the common capital.
The Andhra Pradesh Governor will be Governor
for both successor States of Andhra Pradesh and
Telangana. Some other salient features are:
residuary Andhra Pradesh and 17 Lok Sabha

seats to Telangana.
Residuary Andhra Pradesh will get 175

Legislative Assembly seats and Telangana 119.
Existing admission quotas in all government

or private, aided or unaided institutions of
higher, technical and medical education shall
continue for 10 years during which common
admission process shall continue.
The Polavaram Irrigation Project will be
declared as a national project and the Centre
will take under its control the regulation and
development and the Tungabhadra Board
will continue to monitor the release of water
to high level canal, low level canal and
Rajolibanda diversion scheme.
The High Court at Hyderabad will be

common for both States till a separate High
The common capital includes the existing area

notified as Greater Hyderabad Municipal
Corporation. Centre shall form expert
committee to suggest a new capital of
Andhra Pradesh within 45 days.
The Centre will set up an apex council for
the supervision of Krishna and Godavari
rivers on water sharing.
25 Lok Sabha seats to be allocated to
[22]

Court is set up for residuary Andhra Pradesh.
Any dispute, regarding financial assets and
liabilities, shall be settled through mutual
agreement failing which by the Centres order
on the advice of the Comptroller and Auditor
General.
All properties situated outside existing Andhra
Pradesh will be apportioned between the
successor States on the basis of population ratio.
Greyhound and OCTOPUS forces of the

existing Andhra Pradesh will be distributed
after seeking opinions from the personnel and
each of these forces.
The award made by the 13th Finance
Commission to the existing State of Andhra
Pradesh will be apportioned between the
successor States by the Centre on the basis of
population and other parameters.
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15TH LOK SABHA: A MISSED OPPORTUNITY
The 15th Lok Sabha was an unusually painful

chapter in Indias legislative history. It will go down
in the history as the most disrupted in independent
India so far, including the pepper spray incident
which marked a new low in parliamentary
conduct.
Disruptions were the order of the day, so much

so that the Lok Sabha witnessed almost a full
session being washed away on the issue of JPC in
the 2G spectrum scam. This was unprecedented.

Besides, political storm over Telangana Bill, there
was a huge uproar on the demand for the
resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in
the coal block allocation scam.
The table in the Well, which is an extension of
the Chair, where the Secretary General and other
officials are seated, also came under increasing
attack with papers being virtually snatched from
[23]

them. It happened in both the Lok Sabha and
the Rajya Sabha. It prompted the ruling party
members to form a security cordon around the top
leaders inside the two Houses.
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It is a pity, that just 24% of the 15th Lok

Sabha's time was spent on business and the rest on
unseemly squabbles. The 15th LS passed 177 Bills,
but over 60 legislations remained undone. These
lapse with the end of this session. It confirms that
this was the worst performing LS. According to a
research conducted by Resource Research
Foundation Lok Sabha was the worst hit with loss
[24]

of 834 hours while Rajya Sabha lost 600 hours.
The report states that whenever there is a coalition
government, the Parliament functioning is disrupted
often.
Going forward, it should be obvious for the

incoming government to avoid the mistakes of the
15th Lok Sabha. Second, it has to strive for a
bipartisan consensus on a basic agenda of
governance driven by an agree-to-disagree
philosophy. Finally, it should take up a proposal,
suggested by someone with close working
knowledge of Parliament and from within the
political establishment: evolve a calendar of business
for Parliament, which in turn defines the calendar
for the entire countrynot only will it prevent the
Lok Sabha from having to squeeze its schedule to
work around public holidays, it will also lead to
national discipline and emphasize that its the House
that sets the agenda for India.
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According to report, the concluded Lok Sabha

has created a record of parliamentarians having
raising the most number of questions but the effect
of it is very less. Starred questions numbered 6181
and supplementary queries were 590 which led to
a half-hour discussion seven times and elicited 1720
assurances from ministries.
concluded budget session, it was only marginally

better at one-fifth.
Consequently, every advancing session turned

out to be worse than the previous one. The last
winter session, which concluded in December, saw
the Lok Sabha use up less than one-tenth of its
allotted time because of disruptions; in the just-
[25]
INTERNATIONAL
UKRAINE USHERS IN A NEW ERA
culminated in a dizzying flurry of historic changes
recently that saw parliament sideline the proRussian head of state and call a new presidential
poll for May 25.
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A new era dawned in Ukraine as parliament

appointed Oleksandr Turchynov a pro-Western
interim leader after ousted president Viktor
Yanukovych fled Kiev to escape retribution for a
week of deadly carnage. Turchynov immediately
vowed to draw up a government of the people
and warned Russia that he expected the Kremlin
to respect his countrys pivot. New interior minister
Arsen Aviakov announced the launch of a probe
into police killings of protesters in a week of carnage
that turned Kievs heart into a war zone.
Yanukovych was dealt another blow when his
own Regions Party condemned him for issuing
criminal orders that led to so many deaths.
Parliament also voted to dismiss Ukraines

Foreign Minister Leonid Kozhara after sacking the
federal police chief and prosecutor general.
Ukraines tumultuous three-month crisis
Kiev Accord
Ukraine opposition leaders signed an EUmediated peace deal with President Viktor
Yanukovich, before he fled from Kiev, aiming to
end a violent standoff that has left dozens dead
and opening the way for an early presidential
election this year.
Yielding to hard Western pressure, Ukraines
embattled President Viktor Yanukovych has agreed
to call early presidential election, cede key powers
to Parliament and form a coalition caretaker
government.
The three opposition leaders, Arseny Yatsenyuk,

Vitaly Klitschko and Oleh Tyahnibok, approved the
deal after consulting protesters in the streets.
However, the extremist Right Sector group and
the far right group rejected the accord.
Lawmakers then went a step further by

approving the release from her seven-year jail
sentence of former Prime Minister Yulia
Tymoshenkoa star of the 2004 Orange Revolution
who was thrown behind bars less than a year after
Yanukovych came to power in 2010.
Ukraine stands on the precipice of a default. It
owes nearly $13 billion in debt payments this year
money it cannot drum up on financial markets
because of prohibitively expensive borrowing costs.
Western countries gave cautious but vital
backing to the sweeping changes in Ukraine, while
Russia once again confirmed that the remaining
$12 billion in Moscows assistance package is on
hold until the political situation in Kiev clears up.
Yanukovych gave no timeline for the proposed
steps, but the Parliament has already started
implementing the accord. Legislators voted in the
evening for reverting to the 2004 Constitution,
which took away from President and gave to
Parliament the right to appoint Prime Minister and
the cabinet. The Constitution was scrapped after
Yanukovych won presidential elections in 2010.
According to Vladimir Oleynik, a senior
lawmaker from the Presidents Party of the Regions,
a coalition government is to be formed within 10
days and new presidential elections will be held
before the end of the year, about six months earlier
than scheduled.
Later, the Ukrainian Parliament voted to call
off an anti-terrorist operation the security forces
had launched recently to clear central Kiev of
protesters. All riot police were withdrawn from
the scene of recent fighting.
BRAIN DRAIN IN REVERSE

Institute of International Educations Project
Atlas database revealed that China has now become
the third most favoured nation of international
[26]
students after the US and UK. According to data

put together by the Institute of International
Education on international student mobility in 2012,

there are many more foreign students in China
(3.28 lakh) than in Australia or Germany. South
Korea continues to send the maximum number of
students to China (21.3%), but a close second is
the US (8%).
India: A sleeping giant: India has not been as

significant a host for students from other countries.
It's due in large part to the quality and capacity
issues of its higher education sector that lead so
many Indians to seek educational opportunities
elsewhere. Though students from 195 countries
come to India for undergraduate, postgraduate and
research programmes, they total around 27,000.
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When this decade opened, China was not on

most students' radar; now, having made rapid
strides in the unlikely field of higher education, it
is attracting several thousand foreign students every
year. Most of them are studying humanities,
followed by medicine.With China pushing France
to number four, the top three nations have now
captured 35% of the international student market,
which is growing at a feverish pace. Since 2000,
the number of students leaving home in pursuit of
higher education increased by 65%, totalling about
4.3 million students globally.
India, which currently has 22,385 students in

the UK and 96,754 in the US, is home to merely
about 27,000 international students. Experts say
the country will have to build a standard operating
procedure to lure the brightest if it wants to
transform itself into an international classroom.
Clearly, international education has turned into

an export house, a fertile ground where share
among nations is constantly alteringthe rise of
Canada and China, the drop in the US's singular
hold, the UK finding it difficult to add big numbers
and smaller Asian nations like Singapore marching
in for space.
Project Atlas follows the worldwide migration

trends of millions of international students and
provides a global picture of international student
mobility for major sending and host countries.
Speaking of the rise of the Asian region, Rajika

Bhandari, Raisa Belyavina and Robert Gutierrez in
their work, 'Student Mobility and the
Internationalization of Higher Education' note,
"While this has resulted in a somewhat smaller
market share for top host countries, it is nonetheless
a positive development as it has brought more
countries into the field of international education
and has changed the relationship between sending
and receiving countries from a unidirectional 'brain
drain' type of mobility to one of dynamic, mutual
exchange."
The trio feels the journey from being a nation
which sees its scholars leave the shores for greener
academic pastures to becoming a magnet for
students from around the world, is a long one,
fraught with challenges.
According to Bhandari, Belyavina and

Gutierrez the rising Asian countries are likely to
face the dilemma of how to increase the capacity
of their higher education systems to provide
adequate opportunities for their expanding collegeage population while also accommodating incoming
international students and engaging in the type of
international educational exchange that is necessary
in today's globally competitive world.
Asian tigers
China seeks to host 5,00,000 international

students by 2020.
Singapore has been making rapid strides

with the establishment of Education
Singapore, a new agency charged with
promoting and marketing Singapore and
attracting 1,50,000 foreign students by 2015.
Malaysia seeks to attract

international students by 2010.
Japan has set a goal of hosting 3,00,000

international students by 2020.
80,000
[27]
POPULATION EXPLOSION, A SOCIAL TIME-BOMB FOR EGYPT

In the past three years the Egypts population
has increased multifold. Egypt is struggling to
contain population explosion that are exacerbating
many of the social tensions which indirectly led to
the 2011 uprising.
Under Morsi, population control was seen as

an attempt to disrupt traditional family life, which
did not play well with his socially conservative
Muslim Brotherhood. According to calculations by
Hussein Sayed's colleagues, the MPs elected to the
Islamist-dominated parliament of 2012 each had
an average of five to six children, "which means
that they were not keen on programmes that
encourage people to stop at two children".
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The number of births in Egypt in 2012 was

560,000 higher than in 2010, according to the most
recent statistics. It is the largest two-year increase
since records began. The rise keeps Egypt on course
to overtake countries such as Russia and Japan by
2050, when forecasters predict it will have more
than 137.7 million people. It's the highest spike ever
in all Egyptian history.
was elected in 2012, that negligence became official

policy. His administration publicly declared that
population control was not a government concern.
Between 2006 and 2012 there was a 40%

increase in the number of births. This means you
need 91,000 new classes just to keep the same
average class size, which is already very high at
least 40, and in some governorates it's at 60.
According to Magued Osman, director of
Egypt's leading statistics firm, Baseera, and former
head of a government thinktank, the rising
population is seen as a social time-bomb which, if
not tackled, will exhaust Egypt's depleted resources,
worsen a dire jobs market, and contribute to yet
more social frustration. With 60% of Egyptians
under 30 already, a bulging population will further
reduce the limited opportunities for young people.
Every year, more than 800,000 young Egyptians
join the job market which already has an
unemployment rate of 13.4%. With an unchecked
birthrate and a falling death rate, joblessness is
expected to rise quickly, inevitably leading to further
public anger.
An expanding population will also drain Egypt's
natural resources. The country already faces severe
water, energy and wheat shortages and lacks the
foreign currency reserves needed to fund the import
of extra supplies. It's an issue that cuts across
everything in Egypt.
Experts say population control, which was

relatively successful during the 80s and 90s, started
to fall off the agenda during the last years of Hosni
Mubarak's government and was largely ignored
in the chaos that followed his removal in 2011.
And after Mohamed Morsi, a religious conservative,
But according to Osman, a heightening of

conservative values over the past few decades is
just one explanation for the population explosion.
Changes to housing regulations in the 90s made it
easier for couples to marry and move in together
perhaps leading to a surge in pregnancies. Low
female employment may have also led to a greater
focus on motherhood.
More recently, the administrative chaos that
followed the 2011 uprising led to a drop off in
contraception-related awareness programmes. But
now the cogs are slowing turning again at
government level, Youssef reports. Family planning
awareness programmes are back in motion
though Youssef is keen to emphasise their voluntary
nature, for fear of causing offence in a conservative
society.
About 65% of Egyptian women use some form
of contraception. But Youssef hopes still more will
follow if they are made aware of the economic and
health benefits of having fewer children.
In Egypt's rural south, where literacy rates are
lower, locals form only 25% of the total population,
but contribute to 41% of new births, according to
Baseera highlighting the need for better
awareness programmes.
But contraception would just be one part of a
successful population strategy. Egypt's estimated
86 million inhabitants live on no more than 8% of
its mainly desert landmass, according to Osman,
so overcrowding could be eased by encouraging
moves to lower density areas. The country also
needs more jobs, as well as improved healthcare
and education.
CHINA-PAK SIGN PACT ON ECONOMIC CORRIDOR
During the official visit of Pakistan President

Mamnoon Hussain to China, both the nations
signed agreements for building an airport at the
[28]
strategic Gwadar port and extend Karakoram

highway as part of efforts to realise their "game
changing" Economic Corridor project through PoK
brushing aside India's concerns.

Finalising plans to build rail, road and gas
pipelines in the proposed Sino-Pakistan Economic
Corridor through Pakistan- occupied Kashmir
(PoK), the two countries signed agreements which
included second phase of the extension of
Karakoram Highway up to Islamabad and building
of an international airport at Gwadar connecting
the corridor between them.
Terming China-Pakistan Economic Corridor

through PoK as a "game changer" for the region,
Pakistan Minister for Planning, Development and
Reforms Ahsan Iqbal, who led the Pakistani
delegation at the talks said it could also facilitate
trade between India and China. The project
includes a 200 km tunnel.
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The corridor will link China's volatile Muslim

Uighur- majority Xinjiang province, which has
witnessed a spate of terror attacks in recent times,
with Pakistan's Gwadar port to provide road access
to the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean.
pipeline projects to be established through the

Corridor as well as other projects between the two
countries on the sidelines of Hussain's first visit
abroad.
Earlier, the Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC)

between the two countries discussed the
infrastructure projects like road, rail and gas
India has conveyed its concerns to China which

in turn went ahead arguing that it could bring
about stability to Pakistan as it provides enormous
economic benefits for the country and the region.
RUSSIA, ESTONIA SIGN HISTORIC BORDER PACT
After 23 years of negotiation Russia and Estonia

have signed the border pact in Moscow. Estonia is
the last of the three Baltic states to have legalised
its border with Russia.
It is the second time the two countries finalised

the pact. The first time they signed it in 2005, but
Russia recalled its signature after Estonian
Parliament added a preamble referring to a longdead 1920 treaty between Russia and then
independent Estonia. The mention of the treaty
opened the way for Estonia to advance territorial
claims to two Russian border towns.
Estonia eventually backed away and dropped

any mention of the controversial treaty. Russia also
insisted on including a pledge that the two countries
have no territorial claims to each other.
Estonia sends more than 18 per cent of its farm
exports to Russia and is keen to attract more
Russian tourists. Estonia, now, hope that Russia
would now lift its restrictions on Estonian food
exports to Russia imposed in early 2013.
Baltic States
The Baltic countries (also known as Baltic

States) is northeastern region of Europe containing
the countries of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia on
the eastern shores of
Baltic
Sea.
Baltic
countries have its name
for being bounded on
the west and north by
the Baltic Sea. Baltic
countries usually are
referred to the territories
east of Baltic Sea which
gained independence
from
the
Russian
Empire in the wake of
World War I.
The republics of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania,
which became constituent republics of the former
Soviet Union in 1940, regained their independence
in 1991.
PHILLIPINES TOP COURT UPHOLDS CYBER LIBEL LAW
The Philippines top court ruled that a

cybercrime law penalising online libel is
constitutional. This disappointed the critics who
argue it could curb Internet freedom in one of Asias
most freewheeling democracies.
The Cybercrime Protection Law was passed in

2012 to stamp out online scourges such as fraud,
identity theft, spamming and child pornography,
but its implementation was suspended after coming

under challenge from various groups.
The Supreme Court said however that the
section which penalises cyber libel is not
unconstitutional, because only the sender of the
material faced prosecution and not the recipient.
The court also upheld provisions penalising cybersquatting, computer fraud, identity theft and
gaining illegal access through a computer.
[29]

President Benigno Aquino signed the law in
2012 but opponents quickly said it gave the
government wide powers to curb Internet freedom
due to provisions that impose heavy prison terms
for online libel.
Tuesday partially granted the relief sought by

the laws opponents, when it ruled as unlawful a
provision giving the Justice Department powers to
shut down websites or record Internet traffic data
in real time.
The law also gives the state power to shut down

websites and monitor online activities, in a country
where major protests have been organised through
Facebook and Twitter.The Supreme Court on
But Terry Ridon, a congressman representing

the youth sector in parliament, said they were
unhappy with the ruling and vowed to challenge
it. While the high court entertains appeals, it rarely
reverses decisions.
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IRAN, WORLD POWERS AGREE ON FRAMEWORK FOR N-TALKS

Iran and six world powers have agreed on a
timetable and framework for negotiating a
comprehensive agreement to end the confrontation
over Irans nuclear program and would meet again
17th March in Vienna.
The
United
States,
Russia,
China,
Britain, France and Germany want a long-term
agreement on the permissible scope of Iran's nuclear
activities to lay to rest concerns that they could be
put to developing atomic bombs. Tehran's priority
is a complete removal of damaging economic sanctions against it.
The negotiations will probably extend at least

over several months, and could help defuse years of
hostility between energy-exporting Iran and the
West, ease the danger of a new war in the Middle
East, transform the regional power balance and open
up major business opportunities for Western firms.
The six powers have yet to spell out their precise

demands of Iran. But Western officials have
signalled they want Iran to cap enrichment of
uranium at a low fissile purity, limit research and
development of new nuclear equipment and
decommission a substantial portion of its centrifuges
used to refine uranium.
Such steps, they believe, would help extend the
time that Iran would need to produce enough fissile
material for a bomb. Tehran says its programme is
peaceful and has no military aims.
The talks could also stumble over the future of
Iran's facilities in Arak, an unfinished heavy water
reactor that Western states worry could yield
plutonium for bombs, and the Fordow uranium
enrichment plant, which was built deep
underground to ward off any threat of air strikes.
[30]
INDIA AND THE WORLD

ADB & INDIA SIGNED 3 LOAN AGREEMENTS
increase capacity and operational efficiency in the
electricity transmission and distribution system in
Madhya Pradesh.
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The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the

Government of India has inked three pacts
amounting to $605.2 million for road
development in the north-eastern region, power
distribution in Madhya Pradesh and improvement
of railways services in the country.An agreement
of $125.2 million was signed between the central
government and ADB for upgradation of roads in
the north-eastern region. Upgradation of these
roads will improve mobility and accessibility for
many communities that will help provide new
economic opportunities, boost growth and reduce
poverty. Better roads in the region will also
significantly improve the investment climate for the
private sector, both domestic and foreign. The
project is expected to be completed by September
30, 2019 with improvements to more than 236 km
of roads in Assam, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura.
Another agreement of $350 million loan was

signed for transmission and distribution systems
for the growing power demand in Madhya Pradesh.
It will fund about 1,800 circuit km of transmission
lines and more than 3,100 circuit km of distribution
lines, as well as building or upgrading transmission
and distribution substations. The project will help
ADB has also agreed to tender $130 million

loan to help India improve rail services along some
of its busiest and most critical freight and passenger
transport routes. The second tranche loan is part
of the $500 million Railway Sector Investment
programme approved by ADB in 2011, and will
finance track components for 840 km of additional
tracks along existing railway lines.On rail project,
ADB said the infrastructure will help deliver more
energy efficient, safe, reliable, and environmentally
friendly services along key routes. This will result
in direct and indirect economic opportunities for
about 210 lakh people in programme areas who
will benefit from faster travel times, lower costs
and improved links to markets, production centres
and social service facilities.
The investment programme targets busy freight
and passenger routes in Chhattisgarh, Odisha,
Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh,
including the critical Golden Quadrilateral corridor
that connects Chennai with Mumbai.
INDIA-BAHRAIN BILATERAL CO-OPERATION
Bahrain King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa during

his three-day official visit to India signed three
agreements with India to expand cooperation in
key areas, including trade and business. After
delegation-level talks between the two leaders, both
sides signed three agreements in the fields of
economic engagement and sports and to ensure
cooperation between the Foreign Service Institute
of the External Affairs Ministry and the Diplomatic
Institute of the Bahrain Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The leaders reviewed bilateral trade, and agreed
to boost economic cooperation in diverse sectors.
Bahrain has been seeking investments from Indian
firms in various sectors.
The memorandum of understanding in the fields
of youth and sports aims at strengthening bilateral
cooperation through institutional exchanges.

Another one is to establish a high-level joint
commission for bilateral cooperation to replace the
Joint Committee for Technical and Economic
Cooperation established in 1981.
SIDBI signs pact with BDB
The government-run Small Industries

Development Bank of India (SIDBI) signed an
agreement with Bahrain Development Bank
(BDB) to assist small businesses in establishing
operations. The MoU, which will be valid for three
years, will help Indian micro, small and medium
enterprises to expand their business to Bahrain.
As per the agreement, SIDBI would provide
technical assistance and facilitate activities of BDB
[31]

Group in the areas of risk management and credit
appraisal. It will also provide training to BDB
Group officials in SME credit risk appraisal and
related areas, in framing a suitable monitoring
policy and NPA management system and in
exploring tie up of Indian micro, small and
medium enterprises with SMEs in Bahrain for

mutual benefit.
SIDBI is responsible for development, promotion
and financing of micro, small and medium
enterprises in India, while BDB is Bahrain's leading
Development Financial Institution.
INDIA HARDENS STANCE AGAINST US

support local industries and may discriminate
against US imports, investment and jobs. In
addition, there is focus on foreign direct investment
(FDI) and intellectual property rights (IPR).
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The government is set to ask all its officials to

stay away from any interaction with a delegation
from the US International Trade Commission
(USITC), a quasi-judicial agency, probing the impact
of Indias trade and investment on the American
economy in what is seen as the latest sore point in
economic ties between the two countries.
The move follows a meeting in the ministry of

external affairs and comes after the government
took the view that its laws and policies are its
sovereign functions, while the US actions are
unilateral. According to Indian officials the hearings
relate to Indias patents regime and industrial and
trade policies, which are governed by multilateral
agreements, of which the US is also a signatory.
So, if there is a dispute, it has to be settled at a
multilateral forum like the WTO. No country can
apply its own law extra-territorially.
As a result, it has been decided that the USITC's
request for meetings with officials in close to a
dozen departments will be turned down, leaving it
with the option to hold talks with private companies
and industry bodies.
Following an authorization by the Senate
Finance
Committee and
the
House
of
Representatives' Ways and Means Committee,
USITC is on a "fact-finding" mission and is looking
at all Indian policies and tariffs since 2003 that
IPR has been a special focus area for US drug

majors as they have been hit by India's insistence
that it will only grant patent protection for products
where a "genuine" invention has taken place and
not for mere modification of an existing item. There
is widespread annoyance with patent revocations
on these grounds. Similarly, Big Pharma is
complaining about the decision to waive the patent
for a cancer drug and let an Indian company
manufacture it at a substantially lower cost.The
government has maintained that Indian laws are
compliant with WTO rules and there was nothing
wrong with them. Separately, the US Trade
Representative is scheduled to listen to the
arguments of Alliance for Fair Trade in India
(AFTI), comprising American lobby groups, as part
of the hearings for the Special 301 Report, an annual
listing of IPR and trade practices in other countries.
AFTI comprises groups that represent sectors such
as pharma, solar energy, telecom equipment,
biotech and music-all areas where the American
industry complains that India has "engaged in a
persistent pattern of discrimination that is hurting"
manufacturing and services industries and jobs in
the US.
[32]
ECONOMY
NOW, A UNIQUE IDENTITY CODE FOR JEWELS
The concept of hallmarking is voluntary and is
catching up, mainly in Southern and, to some
extent, Western India.
Further, in a bid to ensure that more jewellers
take up hallmarking, the BIS has decided to reduce
the licensing charges mainly for the smaller towns
and cities.
Against the quarterly licensing charges of Rs
20,000, jewellers in towns with less than a
population of three lakh will now have to pay Rs
2,500 for the BIS licence. Similarly, jewellers in cities
with population of between 3-10 lakh will now
have to pay Rs 5,000 as licensing charges.
The proposed move by BIS to provide unique
identity number was one of the consumer and
industry-friendly steps being taken by the standards
body.
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The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) proposes

to introduce a nine-digit alpha numeric unique
identity number (UIN) as a component of hallmark
to ensure traceability of such certified articles in a
bid to protect consumers from being cheated. Sunil
Soni, Director-General, BIS, said the UIN concept
in jewellery is expected to be operational later this
year. It will also help the standards body take action
against the unscrupulous manufacturers misusing
the ISI mark/hallmark.
Each high value jewellery piece of over 10 gram

will come with a card carrying the UIN and the
code can be read with a quick response (QR) reader
or a mobile application that will be developed. BIS
will be working with an IT vendor to develop the
software and implement the system.
GOVT RELEASES TELECOM M&A GUIDELINES
Recently, the government released mergers and

acquisition (M&A) guidelines for the telecom sector
that clears the way for consolidation among the
telcos. The guidelines issued by government largely
focus around spectrum held by companies as there
are two set of companies at present - one which
hold spectrum allocated at old rate of Rs 1,658
crore and other set which hold spectrum purchased
through recent auctions at over 5 times this price.
The rules have allowed only those companies
to participate in M&A activity who have either
purchased spectrum through auction or paid onetime spectrum fee to bring old spectrum rates at
par with latest market determined price.
particular band for telecom services under

the rule.
In case the merger or acquisition or

amalgamation proposals results in market
share in any service area (s) exceeding 50 per
cent, the resultant entity should reduce its
market share to the limit of 50 per cent within
a period of one year from the date of approval
of merger or acquisition or amalgamation by
the competent authority.
The M&A guidelines say that acquirers of

companies holding 4.4 Mhz spectrum,
allocated at old rate, will have to pay to the
government the difference between the initial
amount (Rs 1,658 crore for pan-India as per
2001 auction) and the market rate determined
through the latest auction.
The market rate determined through auction

will remain valid for a period of one year.
Thereafter, additional price calculated based
on prime lending rate of State Bank of India
will be added on to determine the market
rate.
The guidelines say,

Companies looking at M&As will have to

ensure that the market share of the merged
entity remains below 50 per cent in all circles
in terms of spectrum assigned as well as
subscriber base.
The merged entity will be allowed to hold a

maximum of 25 per cent spectrum allocated
in a service area and 50 per cent in a
[33]

If companies holding spectrum at the old rate
opt for buying another company they will
have to submit one-time spectrum fee as bank
guarantee to the Department of Telecom.
To determine the market share, subscriber

base and adjusted gross revenues of licensee
in the relevant market shall be considered.
In the case of CDMA spectrum (800 MHz

band), held by firms like Tata Teleservices,
Sistema Shyam and Reliance Communications, the government has fixed the upper
limit of the total spectrum holding at 10 MHz.
The lock-in condition bars telcos from

transferring equities within three years of
buying spectrum from an auction.
The lock-in will apply in respect of new shares

that might be issued in respect of the resultant
company.
The long-awaited guideline is expected to pave

the way for fresh investments through
consolidation activity in the industry, which has
12 telecom service providers. While, Bharti acquired
Loop Mobiles subscribers and assets in the Mumbai
circle for Rs 700 crore, firms are also interested in
buying majority stake in Aircel and Tata
Teleservices but were waiting for the release of the
final guidelines. Both companies have, however,
denied they plan to exit the sector. Analysts do not
see full benefits coming out of these guidelines.
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A merged entity will be allowed to hold a

maximum of 2 blocks of 3G spectrum in a
service area.
Telecom firms can enter into M&As within
the lock-in period that bars new entities from
selling equity for three years.
DGCA REVISES AIRLINE LICENSING NORMS
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation

(DGCA) has revised airline licensing norms,
restricting foreign carriers from having management
control in domestic airlines. The amended rules also
allow airlines to carry out maintenance and repairs
and training of pilots and engineers at facilities
belonging to other airlines. This change will benefit
both Tata Singapore Airlines and AirAsia, which
could use their bases in Singapore and Malaysia
for training and engineering functions.Earlier
rules stipulated that the Chairman and two-third
of an airlines board members are Indian citizens
and that effective control and substantial ownership
is vested with Indians. The revised rules state
domestic airlines shall not enter into an agreement
with a foreign airline or a foreign investor, which

may give the latter the "right to control the
management'' of the domestic airline.
The other modifications in the rules include the
need for prior security clearance of the chief
executive officer, chief financial officer, and chief
operating office of an airline if the post is held by
a foreign national. Another clause says: All foreign
nationals likely to be associated as a result of
investment by foreign airlines shall be cleared from
a security viewpoint before deployment.
The recent controversy over the issue of Etihads
control over Jet Airways seems to have prompted
the DGCA to revise its rule.
G-20 BACKS EMERGING MARKETS DEMAND
In the two-day G20 (Group of Twenty) meeting

of Finance ministers and central bank governors
held in Sydney countries agreed to calibrate
monetary policy actions in their countries, taking
into account spillover effects on other economies, a
key demand of emerging market economies,
including India, that are affected by large-scale
capital outflows because of the tapering of the US
monetary stimulus programme.
Many emerging market economies including
India saw their currencies coming under pressure
after the US announced it will gradually reduce its
bond purchase programme.
The Indian rupee neared a record low of 69 to
a dollar in August, but has since stabilized due to
[34]
steps taken by the government and Reserve Bank

of India to reduce the current account deficit and
encourage long-term capital flows.
Since January, the US Federal Reserve (Fed) has
reduced its $85 billion a month bond-buying
programme twice by $10 billion each, triggering
massive declines in currencies of Argentina, South
Africa and Turkey.
During the meeting of finance and central bank
deputies, India had stressed the need for a forward
guidance by the Fed to minimize the impact on
emerging market economies and the need for
determining an optimal level of stimulus
withdrawal.

World finance ministers also urged the US to
ratify the International Monetary Fund (IMF) quota
reforms that were approved in 2010. India and
China have been pushing for IMF quota reforms
that will give them higher voting shares and larger
access to funds. Backing the need for reforms at
the IMF, managing director Christine Lagarde said:
We need to have an institution that is
representative of the current reality in the world
economy.
The meeting also set ambitious growth targets

for the world. The finance ministers also agreed to
plug loopholes in the tax system to ensure that
multinational companies are not able to avoid
paying taxes in nations from where they derive
their profits. G20 members will also automatically
start sharing tax-related information from 2015, a
move that will make it easier for countries such as
India to get access to information about its citizens
financial dealings.
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NEW OECD NORMS TO COUNTER TAX EVASION
Offshore tax evasion remains a serious problem

for countries and jurisdictions worldwide, with vast
amounts of funds deposited abroad and sheltered
from taxation when taxpayers fail to comply with
obligations in their home countries.
Responding to a mandate from G20 leaders to

reinforce action against tax avoidance and evasion
and inject greater trust and fairness into the
international tax system, the OECD has unveiled a
new single global standard for the automatic
exchange of information between tax authorities
worldwide.
Under the single global standard authorities

obtain information from their financial institutions
and automatically exchange that information with
other jurisdictions on an annual basis. It sets out
the financial account information to be exchanged,
the financial institutions that need to report, the
different types of accounts and taxpayers covered,
as well as common due diligence procedures to be
followed by financial institutions. It consists of two
components: a) the CRS, which contains the
reporting and due diligence rules to be imposed on
financial institutions; and b) the Model CAA, which
contains the detailed rules on the exchange of
information.
The new Standard draws extensively on earlier
work of the OECD in the area of automatic
exchange of information. It incorporates progress
made within the European Union, as well as global
anti-money laundering standards, with the
intergovernmental implementation of the US
Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA)
having acted as a catalyst for the move towards
automatic exchange of information in a multilateral
context.
To prevent taxpayers from circumventing the
CRS it is specifically designed with a broad scope
across three dimensions:
The financial information to be reported with

respect to reportable accounts includes all
types of investment income (including
interest, dividends, income from certain
insurance contracts and other similar types
of income) but also account balances and
sales proceeds from financial assets.
The financial institutions that are required to

report under the CRS do not only include
banks and custodians but also other financial
institutions such as brokers, certain collective
investment vehicles and certain insurance
companies.
Reportable accounts include accounts held by

individuals and entities (which includes trusts
and foundations), and the standard includes
a requirement to look through passive entities
to report on the individuals that ultimately
control these entities.
The CRS also describes the due diligence

procedures that must be followed by financial
institutions to identify reportable accounts.
The CRS will need to be translated into domestic
law, whereas the CAA can be executed within
existing legal frameworks such as Article 6 of the
Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative
Assistance in Tax Matters or the equivalent of
Article 26 in a bilateral tax treaty. Before entering
into a reciprocal agreement to exchange
information automatically with another country, it
is essential that the receiving country has the legal
framework and administrative capacity and
processes in place to ensure the confidentiality of
the information received and that such information
is only used for the purposes specified in the
instrument. Where this is not the case, automatic
exchange is not appropriate.
The standard will be complemented by a
detailed commentary as well as technical solutions
[35]

to implement the actual information exchanges
which are on track for delivery in time for the
September G20 Finance Minister meetings. The
commentary to the CRS and the CAA is designed
to ensure a consistent application and operation of
the standard. The technical solutions cover IT
aspects, in particular the presentation of the
information (including schema and user guide) and
standards on the secure transmission of the
information.
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At the same time countries will need to change

their domestic legislation to adopt the CRS,
conclude CAAs with other participating countries
(based on the model CAA) and let their financial
institutions introduce necessary changes to their IT

systems and client on-boarding procedures for
implementing the CRS. They will also need to put
in place the necessary administrative procedures
and IT systems to exchange information with other
participating countries and to process the
information they will be receiving from those
countries under the standard.
More than 40 countries have committed to early
adoption of the standard. The Global Forum on
Transparent and Exchange of Information for Tax
Purposes, hosted by the OECD, brings together 121
jurisdictions worldwide. It has been mandated by
the G20 to monitor and review implementation of
the standard.
SALARY CREDIT TO NRE A/C NOT TAXABLE
The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT)

which adjudicates tax matters, in a recent decision,
has held that merely because the salary was credited
by the foreign employer company to the NRI
employee's NRE bank account in India, it will not
trigger a tax incidence in India. The ITAT sought
to distinguish between 'income' received in India
and an 'amount' received in India. The ITAT relied
on earlier judicial pronouncements and held that
salary income is a compensation for services
rendered by an employee. Thus, salary income in
the hands of the non-resident employee cannot be
taxed in India, if the services are rendered outside
India. The place of receipt of the appointment letter
is immaterial.
However, the income tax authorities pointed
out that the money was received in India, as the
salary cheques were credited by foreign employer
to the NRE (non-resident external rupee) account
maintained by the NRI employee in Mumbai. Thus,
it should be taxable in India in his hands. Under
tax laws, the tax incidence is based on the concept
of residence, which in turn depends on the number
of days stayed in India. A tax resident of India is

subject to tax on his global income. However, a
non-resident is subject to tax in India only under
two situations, one of them being that income
received in India is taxable in India. In this case,
the employee who was working on a ship plying
on international routes was a non-resident as he
had spent less than 182 days in India during the
relevant financial years relating to the matter being
heard by the ITAT. The ITAT rejected the
contention of the tax department that the salary
amount credited to the bank account in India
should be subject to tax. It observed that the
employee had a lawful right to receive the salary
amount at the place of employment (which is the
location of the foreign employer outside India).
India, with 1.42 crore migrants, is among the
leading exporters of manpower, according to latest
UN statistics. A large chunk of them constitute bluecollar workers. The practice of a salary credit either
in full or in part to a bank account in India is more
common in case of highly skilled workers.
[36]

SOLAR IMPULSE TO VISIT INDIA
The plane, weighing around 2,740 kg, will be
powered by 12,000 solar cells and can fly at the
speed of 70 km per hour. The aircraft will be
powered by solar cells as thin as a hair. Solar
Impulse solar cells are only 135 microns thin, like
an average human hair. Around 144 ribs have been
carefully placed at 50 cm intervals by the company
engineers. The upper surface of the wings of the
aircraft is made of solar panels and the lower part
with an ultra light fabric. The wing spar is entirely
made of carbon fibre honeycomb sandwich panels.
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Switzerland based Solar Impulse is worlds first

day and night-abled solar-powered aircraft. Termed
as Signature in the Skies, the flying laboratory
will fly into India as part of its round the globe
journey in April 2015. It will provide Indian clean
energy and aviation enthusiasts a lifetime
experience.
Although the landing place and schedules are

yet to be finalised, Solar Impulse CEO, Andr
Borschberg told that the plane would enter Asia
through India from the West coast. The Indian city
where the aircraft will make the first stop is yet to
be finalised and the company was on the lookout
for Indian partners. Following this the plane will
make another halt in an airport towards the Eastern
coast in India before leaving for Myanmar.
It is for the first time in history that an airplane
has succeeded in flying night and day without fuel,
powered by only solar energy. Record-breaking
flights across Europe, the Mediterranean Sea and
the United States brought worldwide attention to
the Solar Impulse endeavour, launched by Bertrand
Piccard and Borschberg, proving the enormous
potential of clean technologies to protect the natural
resources.
The around-the-world journey will be for three

months, with the total flight time being 20-25 days
and nights. The journey will begin somewhere in
the Middle East and the flight's first destination
will be India. We are hopeful to having two stops
in India. One of the West Coast and the other on
the East Coast before the aircraft flies off to
Myanmar. The longest non-stop flight of five days
and five nights will be across the Pacific Ocean.
In its quest for the ultimate in technological

innovation and symbolic force, Solar Impulse has
set out to attempt what still seems impossible today:
a round-the world flight powered by the sun.
SCIENTISTS GROW HUMAN LUNGS IN LAB
Growing organs may seem like science fiction,

but for the first time, US scientists have grown
human lungs in a lab, an advance in regenerative
medicine that aims to address the problem of organ
donor shortage.
The most exciting part is to shorten the time
people have to wait for an organ transplant," said
Dr Joaquin Cortiella from the University of Texas
Medical Branch (UTMB).
Researchers at University of Texas Medical
Branch (UTMB) used a damaged lung and removed
the cells and materials until only the skeleton or

scaffold of the organ was left. Then they added
back cells from another lung that couldn't be used
for transplant but still had some viable cells in
it. They immersed the structure in a large chamber
filled with a liquid that provided nutrients for the
cells to grow. After about four weeks, an engineered
human lung emerged.
The scientists think it will be another 12 years
or so until they will be ready to try using these
lungs for transplants. Before researchers experiment
on humans, they'll try out lab-made lungs on pigs.
[37]
EMAIL MILES, THE MAIL TRACKER

the screen alongside a map. The system does all of
its time and distance calculations using the internet
and a coordinate mapping system.
Inventor Jonah, a design lecturer, said he hoped
that it would remind people how quickly they can
communicate in a digital world. The system also
shows how indirect the route of many emails can
be.
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Email Miles, invented by Jonah Brucker-Cohen,

is a new system to calculate the number of miles
an email has travelled before reaching an inbox
has been developed. The system uses Global
Positioning System (GPS) technology and internet
tracking to determine where a message was sent
and where it was received. It then calculates the
total distance between the two and displays it on
SCIENTIST DEVELOPS SOMAH SOLUTION
An Indian origin cardiovascular surgeon at

Harvard University Dr Hemant Thatte has worked
out a 21-chemical solution called as SOMAH
solution. The SOMAH solution could preserve a
donated organ for up to a week before a transplant.
be transported across a large country or half-way

across the globe. In technical terms, the preservative
slows down the process of cell deterioration.
Somah's biggest advantage is that it can be used at
room temperatures.
At present, organs, retrieved from brain-dead

persons, like hearts and lungs need to be
transplanted within 4-6 hours of being recovered
from a brain-dead donor, the liver within eight
hours and kidneys within a little more than 24
hours. Dr Thatte said if the transplant surgery
cannot take place within that time, the available
organ cannot be used. Moreover, the available
organs cannot be transported long-distance for
transplant and have to be made available locally.
In October 2009, Dr Thatte had published a

paper in the medical journal Circulation, comparing
SOMAH to a widely-used preservation solution to
show how the rate of cell death was lower in the
former. This research suggested hearts kept in
SOMAH could be stored for up to a week. Dr Thatte
has worked in Harvard for more than two decades.
Over a decade ago, he synthesized a solution called
GALA that could preserve blood vessels used as
bypass channels during heart surgeries. GALA is
in use across the US and France.
SOMAHthe Sanskrit name for the elixir of

immortalitycan preserve organs long enough to
[38]
HEALTH
GOVT LAUNCHED 3 INDIGENOUS KITS
also to avoid iron dosing in conditions where iron
accumulates in the body; for instance due to
repeated blood transfusions in cases of Thalassemia,
Haemophilia and others. According to the studies,
the present estimates of anaemia due to iron
deficiency in different groups vary widely from 5%
to 50%. Besides this variation, there are large
numbers of adolescent boys and girls who are
anaemic. As per National Family Health Survey,
56% of girls and 30% of boys in 10-19 years are
anaemic. In India anaemia control strategies are
based on haemoglobin levels. However, estimation
of serum ferritin has been found to be the specific
diagnostic tool for early detection of iron deficiency
leading to anaemia. Therefore, a ferritin test helps
to diagnose with certainty and the extent of iron
deficiency in the body thus avoiding unnecessary
iron supplementation. It is based on ELISA principle
and is specific, very accurate, cost effective and
convenient method comparable to other
commercially available kits. This technology is
useful for treating physicians, policy makers,
Programme Managers at Central, State and District
level for formulation of appropriate intervention
strategies and for monitoring the effect on these
interventions.
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The Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare,

Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad launched three indigenous
kits developed by the National Institute of Nutrition
(NIN) Hyderabad. These include three different kits
for detection of food borne pathogens, diagnosing
iron deficiency anaemia and diagnosing VitaminA deficiency.
Pathogen Detection Kit: The indigenously
manufactured food and water-borne pathogen
detection kit will help in determining what causes
food poisoning and common food-borne infections,
and water-borne infections. It will detect five
pathogens Salmonella, Staphylococcus aureus,
Listeria,Vibrio cholerae, Vibrio parahaemolyticus.
The kit will bring down the cost to less than 30 per
cent as compared to the imported systems being
used now.
Prepared by the National Institute of Nutrition,
the technology has been transferred to Bio-Serve
Biotechnologies, which is experienced in dealing
with molecular reagents.
This easy, user friendly and rapid detection

system will be useful not only for maintaining the
food safety standards but also to the Integrated
Disease Surveillance Programme, which reports on
food poisoning outbreaks and to diagnostic
laboratories in government as well as private sector.
In India, it is very difficult to estimate the extent

of the problem of food-borne diseases and only the
information on food poisoning outbreaks is
available. However, studies show that about 13 per
cent of deaths among children are due to diarrhoea,
which is caused essentially by consumption of
contaminated food and water.
Use of the kits by the food industry will not
only help domestic consumers in having safe food
but also helps reducing export rejections on account
of microbiological contamination.
Anaemia Diagnosis Kit: This kit estimates the

quantity of ferritin and helps in diagnosing iron
deficiency anaemia individually as well as for mass
level screening. This test will be useful to decide
supplementation of iron according to the need and
Vitamin-A Deficiency Diagnosis Kit: The third

kit diagnose the Vitamin-A deficiency. The dried
blood spot collection system for Plasma Vitamin-A
estimation is a simple system that allows the blood
to be collected on a special type of filter paper
which can be stored for 7 days at room temperature
and for several days at refrigerated temperature. It
will be valuable for mass screening for deciding on
Vitamin-A supplementation as and when required.
It is a field friendly method for blood sample
collection and transportation from remote areas to
screen population for sub-clinical vitamin A
deficiency. This system will reduce the
inconvenience to children, cost of blood collection,
storage and transportation associated with
conventional vein puncture method of blood
collection.
[39]

The Government of India has already
implemented programmes for overcoming problems
of anaemia and vitamin- A deficiency. There is a
renewed
weekly
iron
and
folic
acid
supplementation (WIFS) programme launched by
the Health Ministry in January, 2013, to give iron
supplementation to 13 crore young girls and boys
to overcome the problem of anaemia. Also a
national prophylaxis programme to prevent and
control night blindness due to Vitamin A deficiency
was first started in 1970, under which children

aged 1 to 5 years are administered vitamin A at six
monthly intervals. Currently, 30 million children
in the country are receiving vitamin-A
supplementation under this programme, which is
linked with DPT and oral polio under universal
immunization to increase the coverage. The
launching of new kits will help better
implementation of the national programmes going
on in these directions.
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USE OF STEM CELL IN PATIENTS IS RESEARCH NOT THERAPY

According to fresh national guidelines, from
now on, any use of stem cell in patients will be
considered research, and not therapy. In this
context, the Indian Council of Medical Research
and the Department of Biotechnology said,
according to this stringent definition, every use of
stem cells in patients outside an approved clinical
trial shall be considered a malpractice. It is hoped
that this clear definition will serve to curb the
malpractice of stem cell therapy being offered as
a new tool for curing untreatable diseases.
The decision to drop the word therapy has
been taken on the recommendation of a joint
drafting committee of the ICMR and the
Department to emphasise the fact that stem cells
are still not part of standard care. Hence, there can
be no guidelines for therapy until efficacy is proven.
These guidelines are intended to cover only stem
cell research, both basic and translational, and not
therapy. Any stem cell use in patients other than
for haematopoietic (producer of red, white blood
cells and platelets) stem cell reconstitution for
approved indications is investigational at present.
The guiding philosophy of the new guidelines
is to promote scientific and ethical stem cell research
while preventing premature commercialization and
potential exploitation of vulnerable patients.
The guidelines reiterate that the general principles
of biomedical research involving human
participants shall also be applicable to all human
stem cell research. The guidelines have been
prepared to ensure that research with human stem
cells is conducted in a responsible and ethical
manner and complies with all regulatory
requirements pertaining to biomedical research in
general and of stem cell research in particular.
These guidelines apply to all stakeholders
including individual researchers, organizations,
sponsors, oversight/regulatory committees and any
others associated with both basic and clinical
[40]
research on all types of human stem cells and their

derivatives. However, these guidelines do not apply
to research using non-human stem cells or tissues.
Further, they do not regulate the use of
haematopoietic stem cells for treatment of various
haematological, immunological and metabolic
disorders which has already been established as a
standard of medical care. As per the guidelines,
research is prohibited in research related to human
germ line gene therapy and reproductive cloning;
in vitro culture of intact human embryos, regardless
of the method of their derivation, beyond 14 days
of fertilization or formation of primitive streak,
whichever is earlier; clinical trials involving transfer
of xenogeneic cells into a human host (any clinical
research on Xenogeneic-Human hybrids is also
prohibited); research involving implantation of
human embryos (generated by any means) into
uterus after in vitro manipulation, at any stage of
development, in humans or primates; and breeding
of animals in which any type of human stem cells
have been introduced at any stage of development,
and are likely to contribute to gonadal cells.The
guidelines on stem cell research, still in its nascent
stage, is of utmost importance as some clinicians
have started exploiting hapless patients by offering
unproven stem cell treatments prematurely. Such
fraudulent practices had to be stopped urgently,
while ensuring that scientifically designed and
responsible research on stem cells is not hindered.
It was under this background that the ICMR and
DBT jointly released Guidelines for Stem Cell
Research and Therapy, way back in 2007, which
has now been revised to reflect new scientific and
clinical findings that have significantly changed the
scope of stem cell research and possible translation.
The present guidelines have retained the earlier
classification of stem cell research into three
categories, namely Permitted, Restricted and
Prohibited categories; an additional layer of

oversight, besides the Institutional Ethics Committee
(IEC), in the form of Institutional Committee for
Stem Cell Research (IC-SCR) and National Apex
Committee for Stem Cell Research and Therapy
(NAC-SCRT) has been introduced. This mechanism
of additional review has been accepted by the

scientific community in the country and the
required NAC-SCRT has become operational. The
role and functioning of these committees is being
streamlined.
LONELINESS, THE BIGGEST KILLER, SAYS STUDY

connectedness, which comes from having face-toface contacts that are mutually rewarding; and
collective connectedness, which comes from feeling
that you're part of a group or collective beyond
individual existence. But some aspects of aging, such
as blindness and loss of hearing, place people at a
special risk for becoming isolated and lonely.
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John Cacioppo, professor of psychology at the

University of Chicago who conducted the study,
said the impact of loneliness on premature death is
nearly as strong as the impact of disadvantaged
socioeconomic status, which they found increases
the chances of dying early by 19%.
The consequences of loneliness on health are
dramatic. E.g. Feeling isolated from others can
disrupt sleep, elevate blood pressure, increase
morning rises in the stress hormone cortisol, alter
gene expression in immune cells and increase
depression and lower overall subjective well-being.
The research has identified three core

dimensions to healthy relationships intimate
connectedness, which comes from having someone
in your life you feel affirms who you are; relational
The study should come as an eye opener for

Indian families as data from India's health ministry
show the number of people in the 60-plus age group
in country is expected to increase from 100 million
in 2013 to 198 million in 2030. India's Planning
Commission says the country's elderly population
will rise to 12% of the total population by 2025,
10% of which would be bedridden, requiring
utmost care.
RESEARCHERS PREPARED RUTF TO TACKLE SAM
Professor Dr H N Mishra led four-member team

of IIT researchers prepared the ready-to-eat
therapeutic food (RUTF) products as part of medical
nutrition therapy for management of severe acute
malnutrition (SAM) children. The researchers
developed five varieties of RUTF based on peanut,
potato and Bengal gram (chana) to suit different
tastes and nutrient needs of malnourished children.
These RUTF can be sold in pouches as food paste.
It has all the vitamins, minerals, nutrients and
protein which a malnourished child needs. It is
also easily digestible.
may not be accompanied by swelling of the body

from fluid retention. The afflicted have been tagged
as the most vulnerable people in the world.
According to WHO, severe acute malnutrition

is when children suffer severe wasting that may or
IIT Kgp has tied up with Delhi-based Gattapu

Chemicals as industry partner which would have
the rights to sell the formulation.
Out of the 20 million children worldwide

afflicted with SAM (mainly in sub-Saharan Africa
and south Asia), India is home to 8.1 million SAM
children.
Since the product targeted the underprivileged
section of the society, the cost of production was
low and could be sold by the industry profitably at
Rs 50-60 a kg.
OPTION B PLUS BRINGS DOWN PERINATAL HIV TRANSMISSION

To reduce mother-to-child transmission of HIV,
three southern States and Maharashtra have
adopted Option B Plus, a new drug regimen as
part of the National AIDS Control Programme. The
new Option B Plus brings down transmission levels
from 30 per cent to just two per cent, the World

Health Organisation says. Other advantages are
the mother need not compulsorily undergo a
C-section and she can breastfeed the baby without
fear of transmitting the virus.
[41]

The Union government recently announced
implementation of Option B Plus in India under
the fourth phase of the AIDS control programme.
States other than Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh,
Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have yet to launch it
because of inadequate drug stocks and lack of
training of the implementation personnel.
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Earlier, HIV-positive mothers had to undergo

C-section to avoid transmitting the virus. With this
drug regimen, they have the option of a normal
delivery. Since the infant is also put on medication,
the mother can breastfeed it without fear. Under
Option B Plus, all HIV-positive pregnant women
will be put on lifelong anti-retroviral therapy.
Previously, the therapy was discontinued once the
woman stopped nursing, resulting in immunity to
the drug.
population and (b) High-Risk Groups (HRGS)

with a focus on behaviour change and
demand generation.
NACP IV
National AIDS Control Programme Phase-IV

(NACP IV) will integrate with other national
programmes and align with overall 12th Five Year
Plan goals of inclusive growth and development.
Having initiated the process of reversal in several
high prevalent areas with continued emphasis on
prevention, the next phase of NACP will focus on
accelerating the reversal process and ensure
integration of the programme response.
iii. Increasing access and promoting comprehensive Care, Support and Treatment (CST)
iv. Building capacities at National, State, District
and facility levels
v. Strengthening
Strategic
Management Systems.
Information
Background
The main objective of NACP IV is to:
i. Reduce new infections by 50 percent (2007

Baseline of NACP III).
ii. Provide comprehensive care and support to

all persons living with HIV/AIDS and
treatment services for all those who require it.
This will be achieved through the following

strategiesi. Intensifying and consolidating prevention
services with a focus on (a) high-risk groups
and vulnerable population and (b) general
population.
ii. Expanding Information, Education and
Communication (IEC) services for (a) general
In 1992, the Government launched the first

National AIDS Control Programme (NACP I) and
in 1998 NACP II was initiated. Based on the
learning from NACP I and II, the Government
designed and Implemented NACP III (2007-2012)
with an objective to "halt and reverse the HIV
epidemic In India" by the end of the project. There
is a steady decline in overall prevalence and nearly
50 percent decrease in new infections over the last
ten years. NACP IV aims to consolidate the gains
of NACP III.
NACP III has given desired results and has been
quoted as a global success.
[42]
NEWS IN BRIEF
NEWSMAKERSS
N Kiran Kumar Reddy
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Matteo Renzi
39 year old Matteo Renzi sworn in as the Italys
youngest-ever Prime Minister. He is also considered
as the least experienced Prime Minister of Italy. In
his 16-strong cabinet, half of the new ministers are
women and with an average age of 47.8 years
it is the youngest government in Italys history.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar

Reddy resigned from his post and quit Congress to
protest Centre's decision to carve out separate state
of Telangana. Reddy tried to thwart division of
Andhra Pradesh by ensuring rejection of the
Telangana bill by the legislature.
Renzi ousted the Enrico Letta, who led the third

largest economic power in Europe for just 10
months. In a vote at a party meeting on 13
February, Renzi becomes the third Prime Minister
in succession to be appointed without winning an
election. The Italian constitution allows for this
transfer of power, but not having a voter mandate
is considered a liability, especially in light of the
tough reforms most agree must be on his agenda.
Kiran Kumar Reddy was elected to Andhra

Pradesh Legislative Assembly in 1989 after his
father's death. He served as member of the Public
Undertakings Committee and Assurance
Committee. He was elected to the state assembly
from Native Vayalpadu in 1989, 1999 and 2004.
He lost in 1994 when Congress was routed in
Chittoor district. He won from Pileru in 2009 after
Valmikipuram got merged into Pileru constituency
under delimitation. Kiran Kumar Reddy was
unanimously elected as Speaker of the 13th Andhra
Pradesh Assembly in June 2009. Kiran Kumar Reddy
was chosen to be the new Chief Minister of Andhra
Pradesh after incumbent K Rosaiah resigned citing
personal reasons, by the Congress Legislature Party
and authorised party in 2010.
Renzi made a name for himself as the mayor of

Florence. He has, however, never been elected to
parliamentary position or served in any capacity
for a national government.
OBITUARIES
Jnanpith Awardee Amarkant passes away
Noted Hindi Litterateur and Jnanpith awardee

Amarkant passed away at the age of 89. Born in
1925 in Ballia district of Uttar Pradesh, Amarkant
took active part in the Quit India Movement of
1942. He completed his graduation from Allahabad
University and pursued his career as a journalist
with a number of local Hindi newspapers.
He was noted for his authentic portrayal of
lives of common men through his short stories and
novels. Kant's prominent novels are Inhin
Hathiyaron Se, Katili Raah ke Phool, Sookha Patta,
Kale Ujle, Beech ki Deewar' and Khudiram. His
other story collections are Zindagi Aur Jonk, Desk

Ke Log, Maut Ka Nagar, Mitra Milan and Kuhasa.
His works are often being compared to that of
the legendary Prem Chand. He received the Sahitya
Akademi award in 2007 for his novel Inhin
Hathiyaron Se, a voluminous work set against the
backdrop of the Quit India Movement. The book
also earned him the Vyas Samman in 2009. In 2009
he was also being conferred with the Jnanpith
Award alongside reputed Hindi satirist Shree Lal
Shukla of Raag Darbari fame. Besides, he was
also awarded with Uttar Pradesh Hindi Sansthan
Award, Maithli Sharan Gupta Award, Amarkant
Keerti Samman from Madhya Pradesh government.
[43]
AWARDS/PRIZES
BAFTA Film Awards 2014
Winners for the 2014 Bafta Film Awards are
British Short Film: ROOM 8
British Short Animation: Sleeping With The
Fishes
Production Design: The Great Gatsby
Wes Andersons Grand Budapest Hotel, the

festival opener, took home the Silver Bear grand
jury prize, while the Ethiopian film Difret, based
on a real case of bride abduction in Ethiopia, bagged
the audience award. Some 400 films have been
screened during the 11-day festival, 23 of them in
the competition category. Veteran French director
Alain Resnais bagged the Alfred Bauer Prize for
work of particular innovation for his film Life of
Riley.
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Sound: Gravity
the Japanese movie Chiisai Ouchi (The Little

House).
Editing: Rush
Documentary: The Act Of Killing
Make Up & Hair: American Hustle

Costume Design: The Great Gatsby
Original Music: Gravity
Animated Film: Frozen
Outstanding Debut By A British Writer, Director

Or Producer: Kieran Evans (Director-Writer) Kelly
+ Victor
Supporting Actor: Barkhad Abdi, Captain
Phillips
Cinematography: Gravity
Supporting Actress: Jennifer Lawrence, American

Hustle
Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema
Award: Peter Greenaway
Original Screenplay: American Hustle
Adapted Screenplay: Philomena
International Gandhi Award 2013
President Pranab Mukherjee presented the

International Gandhi Award for the year 2013 to
Dr. Vijaykumar Vinayak Dongre and Prof.
Guocheng Zhang for making outstanding
contribution in the field of leprosy on February 15,
2014 at Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi.
Both Dongre and Zhang dedicated several
decades of their lives to eradicating leprosy through
treatment, training and research.
The International Gandhi Award was instituted
by the Gandhi Memorial Leprosy Foundation to
commemorate Mahatma Gandhis service and
scientific approach towards leprosy. The two
awards are given every alternate year to
individuals/institutions for making outstanding
contribution in the field of leprosy.
EE Rising Star: Will Poulter
Special Visual Effects: Gravity
Film Not In The English Language: The Great

Gatsby
Leading Actor: Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years A

Slave
Director: Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity
Leading Actress: Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine

Best Film: 12 Years A Slave
BAFTA Fellowship: Helen Mirren
Bai Ri Yan Huobags Golden Bear at Berlin
The Chinese film Bai Ri Yan Huo (Black Coal,

Thin Ice) has won the Golden Bear for best picture
at the 64th Berlin international film festival. Liao
Fan won the prize for best actor in the same film,
while Haru Kuroki won best actress for her role in
[44]
National Tourism Award 2012-13
Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh shared

the tourism award 2012-13 for the best state, while
Kerala and Gujarat bagged the second and third
slot respectively. Kerala won three more individual
awards in various categories and the private players
grabbed four awards. The first edition of the mega
art event, held during December 2012-February
2013, won the award in the niche tourism segment.
Besides, the ministry conferred the award under
several other categories.
List of winners of National Tourism Award for
2012-13 are as follow:
Best State/UT under the North-East and J&K
Region: Jammu & Kashmir
Best Civic Management of a tourist destination
in Category A city: Kumbh Mela, Allahabad, UP

Most Innovative and Unique
Project: Kochi-Muziris Biennale
Tourism
Best state for implementing Rural Tourism

Projects: Sikkim
Lake Palace, Udaipur

Best Heritage Hotel in Grand category: Fateh
Prakash Palace, Udaipur.
Best Eco-friendly hotel: ITC Maurya, New Delhi
Civic Management of a Tourism Destination in

India: Kumarakom grama panchayat
Best Lady Chef: Ms. Arti Thapa, Food Craft

Institute, Hoshiarpur
Most Innovative Use

Technology: Kerala Tourism
Lifetime Achievement Award: Hugh and

Colleen Gantzer, who are Indian, writerphotographer, and husband-and-wife team. They
launched the first travel column in a national daily
in India in August, 1977.
of
Information
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Best Tourism Film Award: M.P.State Tourism

Development Corporation TV Commercial Rang
Hai.
Best Film Promotion-friendly State: Andhra
Pradesh
Best Airport (Class X cities): Rajiv Gandhi

International Airport, Hyderabad
Best Tourist Friendly Railway Station: Bangalore

city Railway Station
Best Domestic Tour Operator (Rest of India)
category: M/s Yatra Online Pvt. Ltd
Best Hotel in Five-Star Deluxe Category: Taj
The Lifetime Achievement Award in the

Hospitality Sector: Historians Aman Nath and late
Francis Wacziarg for their pioneering work in
creating international consciousness on the heritage
of Shekhavati and also restoring some 30 properties
across 10 States in India.
The National Tourism Awards are given
annually by the Ministry of Tourism to felicitate
outstanding work both in the public sector and the
private sector under different fields associated with
tourism.
CULTURE/HERITAGE
IPRAA seeks GI tag for Narasingha pettai

nagaswaram
Narasinghapettai nagaswaram, a classical

music instrument, stands before the Geographical
Indications (GI) Registry for getting a tag that will
give legal protection to the artisans who are known
for its craftsmanship. Inheriting the skill of making
from predecessors, only a few artisans have been
chiselling
the
wooden
instruments
in
Narasinghapettai, a nondescript village situated a
few kilometres from the temple town of
Kumbakonam. According to the artisans, it takes
three days and three artisans to make one
nagaswaram.
The ancient instrument went through many
changes, resulting in the creation of the presentday pari (long) nagaswaram, which replaced its
predecessor, the thimiri, the short instrument
producing a sharp and high pitch with a shruthi
of three.
Nagaswaram, also known as nadhaswaram
is a double reed instrument with a conical bore,
which gradually enlarges towards the end. The
instrument is made of wood taken from old houses
or acha maram traditionally.
The instrument has five additional holes drilled

at the bottom that are used as controllers. It has a
range of two and a half octaves like the flute. The
applicant said an inspection body comprising of
experts and artisans would be formed to strictly
regulate the quality and parameters of the pith
works.
The Thanjavur District Fine Arts Protection
Society, facilitated by Intellectual Property Rights
Attorneys Association (IPRAA), has filed a formal
application before the GI Registry. According to P.
Sanjay Gandhi, president of IPRAA, if this GI tag
is granted to the Society, it will confer legal
protection to the artisans and their products and
prevent unauthorised use of the brand name by
others.
2,300 year old village discovered near

Jerusalem
Israeli archaeologists have discovered the

remnants of a 2,300-year-old rural settlement near
the Burma Road, a makeshift pathway to
Jerusalem built during the 1947-49 War of
Independence. The excavation uncovered 750
square meters of a settlement with stone houses
[45]

and narrow alleyways that were occupied for an
estimated two centuries during the Second Temple
period, from 530 B.C.E. to 70 C.E. Each house has
several rooms and a courtyard.
The rooms generally served as residential and
storage rooms, while domestic tasks were carried
out in the courtyard, said the digs director, Irina
Zilberbod.
The 30 monuments will be now available to

viewers on GoogleMaps and on the World Wonders
site, part of Google Cultural Institute.
Initiative to restore Bhagat Singhs

house & school
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According to the Israel Antiquities Authority

the site was most developed during the Hellenistic
period in the third century B.C.E., following the
reign of Alexander the Great. The settlement was
dated with the help of more than 60 coins spanning
the period from Seleucid King Antiochus III to
Hasmonean King Alexander Jannaeus. It was
abandoned at the end of the Hasmonean dynasty.
Basalt and limestone tools for domestic use were
discovered, as were pottery cooking pots, jars and
oil lamps.
Qutub Minar complex last year in October.

Following this the company created a "virtual
walkthrough" application using its 'Street View
Trekker' technology for the first time in India.
Among the 30 monuments are Agra Fort, Fatehpur
Sikri, Agha Khan Palace, Bibi ka Maqbara, Fort St
George, Nagarjuna Hill, Raigad Fort.
Its not clear why the settlement was

abandoned, but scholars say it was a gradual
process stemming from economic changes rather
than a sudden violent event such as a conquest.
ASI-Googles 360 degree project goes live
A 360-degree panoramic imagery of 30 out of

100 "nationally-important monuments" can now
be viewed online. This could be possible by a
memorandum signed between Google, search
engine giant and the Ministry of Culture at the
The government has allocated Rs 80 million for

restoration of the house and school of freedom
fighter Bhagat Singh. The amount will also be spent
for the uplift of Singh's village where clean drinking
water is not available and drainage system is in
bad shape.
The revolutionary was born September 28, 1907
at Bangay village, Jaranwala Tehsil in the Faisalabad
(then Lyallpur) district of the Province. Singh's
village, Bangay, some 150 kilometres from Lahore,
would also become a tourist attraction for people,
especially Indians, once his house is restored.
Singh's village is just 35 kilometres from Nankana
Sahib. It could be another point of attraction for
the Sikh pilgrims. The government has also planned
to shift Singh's belongings from Faisalabad Museum
and Library to his house.
DEFENCE
Akash Test Fired
The Army successfully flight-tested Akash, the

surface-to-air missile developed by the Defence
Research and Development Organisation, from the
Integrated Test Range at Chandipur, Odisha.
The Akash weapon system is an all-weather,

air defence system for defending valuable assets
from aerial attacks. The missile can engage
adversarial aircraft flying at a distance of 25 km. It
can target fighter-aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles,
helicopters and cruise missiles.
The missile boasted of a command and guidance
unit, a proximity fuse and an on-board computer,

all developed by the Research Centre, Imarat,
situated on the outskirts of Hyderabad. The RCI is
a key missile centre of the DRDO. Besides, the RCI
developed the gyroscope package, the telemetry
system, the missile launch processor and the launch
software for Akash.
The advantages of Akash are that it thrusts all
the way to intercept the enemy aircraft; it can
engage multiple targets; it can be transported by
rail, road and air; and it boasts of C4I, that is,
command, control, communication and computers,
and intelligence.
COMMITTEE/COMMISSION
K T Thomas Committee
The former Supreme Court judge, K.T. Thomas,
[46]
will head the eight-member search committee to

select the names for various posts of Lokpal, the
anti-corruption ombudsman. The other members

chosen for the search committee are eminent jurist
and senior advocate Fali S Nariman; the former
Chief Election Commissioner, S. Y. Quraishi; the
principal of Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi,
Meenakshi Gopinath; educationist Mrinal Miri; the
former Chief Secretary of Andhra Pradesh, Kaki
Madhava Rao; and senior journalist and Rajya
Sabha Member H.K. Dua.
Besides Gopalakrishna, the committee has eight

other members, including Mohan V Tanksale, Chief
Executive, Indian Banks Association, Ranjan
Dhawan, Executive Director, Bank of Baroda, and
K Ram Kumar, Executive Director, ICICI Bank.
The Committee is expected to submit its
recommendations by April 30.
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This committee will scrutinise the more than

300 applications received for the post of chairperson
and eight members (four judicial and four nonjudicial) and forward the names to the selection
committee.
role and also identify qualifications relevant to

specific areas of operation in banks and non-banks.
Further, it will evolve methodologies for prescribing
certification for required qualifications.
The chairperson can be a serving or former

Chief Justice of India, a sitting or former judge of
the Supreme Court or a person of impeccable
integrity and outstanding ability.
RBI Panel for Capacity Building in Banks
The Reserve Bank of India has decided to

constitute a committee to examine the
recommendations of the Financial Sector Legislative
Reforms Commission (FSLRC) relating to capacity
building in the banking sector.
Bezbaruah Committee
A committee has been constituted under the

chairmanship of M.P. Bezbaruah, Member, North
Eastern Council and other members to look into
the various kinds of concerns of the persons hailing
from the North Eastern States who are living in
different parts of the country, especially the
Metropolitan areas, and to suggest suitable remedial
measures which could be taken by the
Government.
The Terms of Reference of the Committee shall
be as follows-
The committee headed by G Gopalakrishna,

Executive Director, Reserve Bank of India will
examine if the members on bank boards need to be
certified by way of say, an appropriately
designed course which could be made mandatory
for every individual before appointment to the
board of a bank. The committee has been tasked
with the responsibility of identifying capacity
building requirements keeping in view the role of
financial sector and what it should deliver.
(iii) To suggest measures to be taken by the

Government to address these concerns.
The panel will examine the skills required at

various levels/operations to deliver on the required
(iv) To suggest legal remedies to address these

concerns.
(i) To examine the various kinds of concerns,

including the concerns regarding security, of
the persons hailing from the North Eastern
States.
(ii) To examine the causes behind the attacks/

violence and discrimination against the
people from the North-Eastern States.
MISCELLANEOUS
First Braille-signage train
In a first of its kind, the Railways has

manufactured an AC three-tier coach with Braille
signages to be operational shortly in the Delhi-Puri
superfast Purshottam Express as part of its social
commitment to make trains and stations more
friendly towards specially-abled passengers. The AC
coach is equipped with Braille-embedded signages
on berths, toilets, wash basins and doors as well.
At present, coaches are provided with signages,

instructions, seat numbers, etc, which are mostly
in the form of vinyl stickers or metallic plates and
have no Braille characters and cannot be read by

visually-impaired passengers. It costs about Rs
40,000 to make a coach visually-challenged friendly
as Braille printing are superimposed on the stickers
which can be used by both a person with normal
vision as well as a visually impaired person. With
embedded pictures or characters, there would not
be any defacing even on repeated contacts or
rubbing.
The first coach with Braille signages is
manufactured at Integrated Coach Factory in
Chennai. The visually-impaired friendly AC coach
[47]

was made with the inputs received from Research
Designs and Standards Organisation, Railways
research arm, and consultation with blind
associations.
It was announced in the Rail Budget of 201314, that Braille stickers will be introduced for
visually-challenged passengers.
IRCTC launched E-Wallet Scheme
In the first global league table of LGBT (lesbian,

gay, bisexual and transgender) inclusion in the
armed forces Indian armed forces ranked 71st with
34 out of 100 scores. The index mapped the
situation of LGBT participation in the 103 armed
forces on a global scale. Every country was ranked
on the basis of the implementation of different
combination of policies based on inclusion,
admission, tolerance, exclusion, and persecution.
Indian armed forces are among the world's least
gay-friendly while Britain's are the second most
gay-friendly, according to LGBT military index of
Hague Centre for Strategic Studies. New Zealand
topped the index and the Netherlands and UK
ranked joint second with Sweden coming in fourth.
The US, at 40th, ranked below Romania. Nigeria
came last in the survey.
CH
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E-wallet Scheme has been launched by Indian

Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation
(IRCTC), a public sector undertaking of the Ministry
of railways, to make the payment process fast and
to reduce transaction failures due to bank payment
related problems. Under this scheme, user can
deposit money in advance with IRCTC which can
be used as a payment option along with other
payment options available on IRCTC website for
paying money at the time of booking tickets. This
scheme is available for PAN verified user
only. Names of all the passengers booked on a
fully waitlisted e-ticket are dropped at the time of
preparation of reservation charts and fare is
refunded automatically. In this regard, there is no
difference between e-tickets booked through Ewallet scheme or those booked through other
payment
options
available
on
website
www.irctc.co.in.
LGBT Military Index
Chandoli, Indias First Minority Cyber Village
Indias first Minority Cyber Village has been

inaugurated in Chandoli, which falls under Alwar
district of Rajasthan. Chandoli has been selected
as the first village for the pilot project as it holds
more than 80 per cent of minority population and
also because the minorities of the Mewat region is
still backward in education. The Cyber village
project will provide computer education to people
in the age group of 15 to 59. Institution under the
project will be instituted in the villages with
substantial population of minority.
SPORTS
ITF silver certification for India
The All India Tennis Association (AITA)

announced that it was the first country in Asia to
get an ITF silver certification for its coaches
education system. The secretary general of the
AITA, Bharat Oza, who had initiated the coaches
education in the country way back in 2000,
addressed the media and said that it was a proud
moment for India.

The certification from the International Tennis
Federation (ITF), not only meant confirmation of
quality education of the coaches, but it would also
help India cater to the region for coaches education.
It will be less expensive as national tutors can
conduct the course.
[48]
EDITORIALS
INDIAS MARITIME GATEWAY TO THE PACIFIC
making it extremely viable for the fishing industries
of nearby countries. Furthermore, value-added
production (canning, filleting, fresh, frozen and
chilled processing) has translated into valuable
foreign exchange earnings and job opportunities
for countries in the region. However, China has
been imposing fishing rules to operate in the
disputed waters, resulting in serious maritime
security concerns and objections from other
claimant states. Recently, Chinas new fishing rules
which came into effect on January 1, 2014 raised
questions about its efforts to exercise jurisdiction
over all fishing activities in the disputed waters.
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Being one of the most important seas of the

world, geopolitically, economically and strategically,
the South China Sea (SCS) attracts considerable
attention in the strategic community in India. It
continues to be seen as one of the most difficult
regional conflicts in the Asia-Pacific and an arena
of escalating contention. India has vital maritime
interests in the SCS. Around 55 per cent of Indias
trade in the Asia-Pacific transits through the SCS
region. In fact, in recent times, New Delhi has
become more active in expressing its interest in the
freedom of navigation in the SCS and the peaceful
resolution of territorial disputes between Beijing and
its maritime neighbours.
Strategic importance
The SCS is an important junction for navigation

between the Pacific and Indian Oceans. It connects
with the Indian Ocean through the Malacca Strait
to the southwest, and commands access to the East
China Sea to the northeast. The sea lane running
between the Paracel and Spratly Islands is used by
oil tankers moving from the Persian Gulf to Japan
as well as by warships en route from the Indian
Ocean to the Pacific. Security in the SCS is a
concern both for regional countries such as China,
Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, as well as the extraregional countries, including India, due to their
strategic and economic interests in this region. Any
conflict in the SCS will pose a threat to regional
and international security.
Territorial sovereignty, contention on energy,
significance of the geographic location, threat to
maritime security and overlapping maritime claims
are at the core of the SCS dispute. Some scholars
suggest that for the next 20 years, the SCS conflict
will probably remain the worst-case threat to
peace and security in the ASEAN region.
The SCS, an integrated ecosystem, is one of the

richest seas in the world in terms of marine flora
and fauna, coral reefs, mangroves, seagrass beds,
fish and plants. The sea accounts for approximately
10 per cent of the annual global fisheries catchment,
Furthermore, the region richly laden in both oil

and natural gas has led to speculation that the
disputed territories could hold potentially significant
energy resources. According to the U.S. Energy
Information Administration (EIA) estimates, the
SCS contains 11 billion barrels of oil and 190 trillion
cubic feet of natural gas in proved and probable
reserves. EIA has difficulties in making accurate
estimates of oil and natural gas in the area because
of the lack of exploration and territorial disputes.
Hence, reserve estimates in the area vary greatly.
According to the Chinese Ministry of Land and
Resources, the SCS oil reserves are estimated to be
around 23 to 30 billion tonnes and 16 trillion cubic
metres of natural gas. There may also be additional
hydrocarbon reserves in underexplored areas of the
sea. Most notably, the SCS occupies a significant
geostrategic position in terms of international
shipping as a majority of energy shipments and
raw materials have to pass through it.
Undoubtedly, the SCS is a critical corridor
between the Pacific and Indian Ocean for
commercial and naval shipping. In view of the
emerging challenges in the region, India is
strengthening its engagement with the ASEAN
region steadily. New Delhi recognises the strategic
importance of Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean
for defence of the Indian peninsula. Indias
prosperity is dependent, almost exclusively, on sea
trade. Land routes from the Indian subcontinent
are few and provide little facility for commerce.
[49]

Safeguarding the sea lanes is therefore indispensable
for Indias development as its future is dependent
on the freedom of the vast water surface. A secure
and safe sea lane is important for Indias industrial
development, commercial growth and a stable
political structure.
There are some apprehensions in New Delhi

about Beijings ambitions in the SCS. Chinese
assertiveness and her tendency to unilaterally seek
to change the status quo has the potential to
impinge upon Indias commercial and strategic
interests in the SCS. Though military conflict over
freedom of navigation and access to maritime
resources is neither necessary nor inevitable, it is
natural for India to address Chinas threat
perception and to promote its national interest.
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There are compelling reasons for India to protect

the sea lanes in the SCS. First, it considers an
unimpeded right of passage essential for peace and
prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region. Second, India
favours peaceful resolution of the dispute, in
accordance with international law, including the
United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea,
as opposed to the use of threat in resolving
competing claims. Access to resources such as oil,
natural gas, food and minerals is now high on the
agenda of global issues to be faced in the years
ahead. Indias increasing involvement in the SCS
region illustrates the relationship between its
strategy and the need for resources, and for the
routes and logistical systems necessary for their
transportation.
Roadblocks
India has a legitimate interest in safeguarding

the sea lanes and access to maritime resources. With
a considerable expansion of Indias engagement
with the SCS littoral states, India appears to be
emerging, genuinely so, as an indispensable element
in the strategic discourse of this region. India could
be a valuable security partner for several nations
in the Asia-Pacific region, provided it sustains a
high economic growth rate and nurtures the
framework of partnership that it has enunciated in
the region.
Source: The Hindu
TELANGANA AT LAST
After years of struggle, and several rounds of

agitation, Telangana is set to come into being as
the 29th State of India. That some pain and suffering
would accompany the bifurcation was, perhaps,
inevitable; but a great deal of the violence and
acrimony could have been avoided had the
Congress and the Central government acted with
greater sensitivity and understanding of the hopes
and fears of the peoples in the two regions. But
now is the time to look ahead, and try and fulfil
the aspirations of the people of Telangana and allay
the apprehensions of those of Seemandhra, or the
residual Andhra Pradesh state. The residual state
is to get special category status for the purpose of
Central assistance, and its backward regions will
be eligible for a special development package. But
concerns still persist about the security of lives and
livelihoods of non-Telangana people in Hyderabad,
which will be the joint capital of both the states for
10 years. The decision to invest special law and
order powers in the Governor to ensure the safety
of the residents of Hyderabad goes some way in
addressing the apprehensions of those from
Seemandhra seen as outsiders in the capital. But
doubts have been raised about the propriety of such
an arrangement: whether an appointee of the
[50]
Centre who is not democratically elected by the

people of either state could have control over what
is essentially a state subject. This arrangement is a
compromise between designating Hyderabad as a
Union Territory (as demanded by those representing
Seemandhra) and making it the capital of
Telangana alone. The model is that of Chandigarh,
the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana, where
the Administrator-cum-Punjab Governor and the
Adviser to the Administrator are in charge of law
and order. In effect, Hyderabad will be akin to a
union territory like Chandigarh in the matter of
handling of law and order.
While the creation of Telangana draws the
curtains on a long struggle for statehood, disputes
and conflicts over sharing of resources and
reallocation of personnel loom ahead. The creation
of a new capital for the residual state will in no
way limit the interests of the people of Seemandhra
on Hyderabad, which has drawn investments from
people of both regions. There could have been no
solution that was agreeable to both sides, but the
Centre could have worked out some compromises
in consultation with all the stakeholders instead of
imposing a reorganisation that merely defers the
problems to a later date. Although politically the

Congress appears to have put all its eggs in the
Telangana basket, the Centre must ensure that the
concerns of the Seemandhra people are addressed
satisfactorily. Financial packages alone would not

solve the problems.
Source: The Hindu
SYRIAN REBELS OR INTERNATIONAL TERRORISTS?

collapse of the government withdraw as the Syrian
Army takes Jarajir, along the Lebanon border.
Islamists groups continue to fight against each other
in the north, weakening their firepower as the
Syrian army watches from the sidelines. The
emboldened Syrian government has now stepped
up its rhetoric about this war being essentially one
against terrorists with affiliation to al-Qaeda. Ears
that once rejected this narrative in the West and
Turkey are now increasingly sympathetic to it. As
the Islamists suffocate the rebellion, it becomes hard
to champion them against the government. Focus
has moved away from the prisons and barrel bombs
of the government to the executions and social
policies of the Islamists.
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Geneva 2s mood mirrored the sound of mortar

and despair on the ground in Syria. Not much of
substance came of the former, as the U.N.-Arab
League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi tiredly indicated
that diplomacy continued despite the lack of a
breakthrough. He hoped that the United States and
the Russians would pressure their clients to remain
at the table, from where, for three weeks, little of
value has emerged. No agreement can come of these
peace talks for at least two reasons. First, the
government of Bashar Assad and the rebel coalition
do not agree on the interpretation of the conflict.
Mr. Assad argues that this is a war against terrorism
(Al-Qaeda), while the rebels argue that this is a
war against authoritarianism (the Assad
government). Second, the rebels themselves are
deeply fractured, with the Islamists in Syria who
are doing the brunt of the fighting indisposed to
any peace talks.
Mr. Brahimi hoped that humanitarian relief

would be the glue to hold the two sides together.
Residents in the old city of Homs and in the
Palestinian neighbourhood of Yarmouk in
Damascus have been under siege for two years. It
was hoped that safe passage could be provided for
food and medicine, but this was not accomplished.
U.N. and Islamic Red Cross workers bravely
avoided snipers and shells to transport food and
medicines to the Syrians; children among them
stared at fresh fruit, unsure of what to do with it.
Absent momentum from Geneva, the options for a
regional solution are back on the table.
Role for India, China?
In 2012, Egypt convened the Syria Contact

Group that comprised Iran, Saudi Arabia and
Turkey unlikely partners. Pressure from the U.S.
and Russia at that time closed down the Group.
Today, the regional partners seek an exit from their
exaggerated postures over Syria, but there is no
diplomatic space for them to act. It falls to powers
that are untainted by the war, perhaps China and
India, to call for a meeting a Beijing or New
Delhi summit to craft a serious agenda to pressure
all sides to a ceasefire and a credible political process.
The war is now fought less on the ground and
more over its interpretation. Expectations of a hasty
A year ago, the West and Turkey would have

scoffed at talk of terrorism as the fantasy of the
Assad government. The West and the Gulf Arabs
had opened their coffers to the rebels, knowing full
well that they were incubating the growth of the
Islamist factions at the expense of the secular
opposition. Turkeys government of Recep Tayyip
Erdog an micromanaged the opposition, provided
bases in Turkey and allowed well-armed fighters
to slip across the border into Syria. By early 2012,
it had become a common sight to see well-armed
Islamist fighters in the streets of Antakya and in
the refugee camps in Hatay Province. The seeds of
what was to come the entry of al-Qaeda into
Syria was set by an opportunistic and poorly
conceived policy by Erdog ans government. It did
not help that his otherwise well-spoken and highlyregarded Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu began
to refer to Syrias Alawites (Mr. Assads community)
as Nusayri, a derogatory sectarian term. Turkey
joined U.S., Europe and Gulf Arab calls for
Mr. Assads departure well before the numbers of
those dead climbed above the thousands.
Nervousness about the spread of al-Qaeda to Syria
has made the rebels patrons edge closer to the
Damascus narrative. The U.S. government wishes
to arm the Iraqi government with Hellfire missiles
and drones to combat the Islamic State of Iraq and
al-Sham (ISIS) in Iraqs Anbar Province. Britain has
said that any fighter who comes back from Syria
will be arrested (recently, a Sussex man Abu
Suleiman al-Britani conducted a suicide operation
[51]

in Aleppo). The Saudi Royal Court decreed that
any Saudi found to have waged jihad abroad could
spend up to 20 years in prison.
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General Mansour al-Turki of the Saudi Interior

Ministry said: We are trying to stop everyone who
wants to go to Syria, but we cant stop leaks. The
Turkish Armed Forces fired on an ISIS convoy on
January 28 inside Syria, and told the government
in a report prepared jointly with the Turkish
National Intelligence agency that al-Qaeda had
made credible threats on Turkey. Mr. Erdog an
hastened to Tehran to meet the new Iranian
leadership their public comments were on trade,
but their private meetings were all on Syria and
the need to combat the rise of terrorism. What Mr.
Assad had warned about in 2012 came to pass
for whatever reason and led to a loss of
confidence among the rebels patrons for their
future. Even al-Qaedas putative leader, Ayman alZawahiri, has sought to distance himself from ISIS.
These signs indicate that on Syria, the terrorism
narrative has come to dominate over the
authoritarian regime narrative.
The FSA troops either joined up with the

Islamists, continued to fight in small detachments,
or linger precariously as twice defectors who are
now homeless. The barbarism of the ISIS pushed
other Islamists with Gulf Arab support to
form the Islamic Front. The hope was that this
group would run ISIS back to Iraq and remove the
stigma of al-Qaeda from the Syrian rebellion. The
problem is that one of the constituents of the Islamic
Front Jabhat al-Nusra, arguably the most
effective of its fighting forces sees itself as the
Syrian franchise of al-Qaeda and has largely
abjured the fight against ISIS. Another problem is
that the in-fighting on the ground seems to have
tapered off one of the Islamist groups, Suqour
al-Sham signed a truce with ISIS and pledged to
work together.
Islamic Front
The fractious Syrian opposition that came to

Geneva does not represent the main columns of
rebel fighters on the ground. These are mainly
Islamists with the al-Qaeda wing represented
by ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra, and the rest
represented by the Islamic Front. They have no
appetite for negotiation. Mr. Abu Omar of the
Islamic Front said that Syrias future would be
created here on the ground of heroism, and signed
with blood on the frontlines, not in hollow
conferences attended by those who dont even
represent themselves. A U.S. intelligence official
told when the U.S. went into Afghanistan in 2001,
We smashed the mercury and watched it spread
out slowly in the area. Al-Qaeda was not
demolished in Kandahar and Tora Bora. Its
hardened cadre slipped across to Pakistan and then
onwards to their homelands. There they regrouped,
reviving the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, alQaeda in Yemen, Ansar al-Sharia, Ansar Dine, and
ISIS. The latter slipped into Syria from an Iraq
broken by the U.S. occupation and the sectarian
governance of the current government. There they
worked with Jabhat al-Nusra and fought alongside
other Islamist currents such as Ahrar ash-Sham. It
was inevitable that these battle-tested Islamists
would overrun the peaceful protesters and the
defectors from the Syrian Army the Free Syrian
Army (FSA) who scattered to the wind in 2012.
[52]
By early 2014, these groups found their supply

lines cut off. Iraqs attack on ISIS began to seal the
porous border that runs through the Great Syrian
Desert. Jordan had already tried to close its border
since early 2013, having arrested over a hundred
fighters who have tried to cross into Syria.
Lebanons border has become almost inaccessible
for the rebels as the Syrian Army takes the roadway
that runs along the boundary line. Last year, Turkey
closed the Azaz crossing once it was taken over by
the radical Islamists.
On January 20, the rebels attacked the Turkish
post at Cilvegz-Bab al-Hawa, killing 16. This is
what spurred the Turkish Army to attack the ISIS
convoy a week later.
As the Islamists saw their supply lines closed
off, the U.S. announced that it would restart its
aid to the rebel fighters. On February 5, the Syrian
Coalition chief Ahmad Jabra told Future TV that
his rebels would get advanced weapons likely
from the U.S. The FSA announced the formation
of the Southern Front with assistance from the
West to revive the dormant fight in Syrias southwest. All this took place during Geneva 2, signalling
confusion in U.S. policy. Does Washington still
want to overthrow the Syrian government? Would
it live with an Islamist government on Israels
borders? Or, perhaps, the U.S. is eager for a
stalemate, as pointed out by former CIA analyst
Bruce Riedel, The rebels lack the organisation and
weapons to defeat Assad. The regime lacks the loyal
manpower to suppress the rebellion. Both sides
external allies are ready to supply enough money
and arms to fuel the stalemate for the foreseeable
future. This is a cruel strategy. It offers no hope
of peace for the Syrian people.
Road ahead for Syria group
If the Syria Contact Group is to re-emerge, it

would need to be incubated by pressure from China
and India, two countries that are sympathetic to
multipolar regionalism.
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A senior military official in West Asia said that

one of the most overlooked aspects of West Asia
and North Africa is that the military leaderships of
each country maintain close contacts with each
other. During Turkeys war against the Kurdish
rebellion in its eastern provinces, the military
coordinated their operations with the Syrian armed
forces. These links have been maintained. When it
became clear that Mr. Erdog ans exaggerated
hopes for Syria failed, and with the growth of the
Islamists on Turkeys borders and the Kurds in Syria
having declared their independence, the Turkish
military exerted its views. The Iraqi armed forces
had already begun their operations against ISIS.
Additionally, Egypts new Field Marshal Sisi
overthrew the government of Mohamed Morsi
when the latter encouraged jihadis to go to Syria.
This was anathema to the Egyptian military who
acted for this and other reasons to depose Mr.
Morsi. The military view of the political situation
leans naturally toward the terrorism narrative.
Iran, Iraq, and Turkey. With Egypt, these three

states would be the core of a rejuvenated Syria
Contact Group. The 2012 group also had Saudi
Arabia, which might be enjoined to come back to
the table if they see that their outside allies
notably the U.S. are averse to a policy that
would mean Jabhat al-Nusra in power in
Damascus. Without Saudi Arabia, and perhaps
even Qatar, the Syria Contact Group would be less
effective.
It appears now that the regional states are no

longer agreed that their primary mission is the
removal of Mr. Assad. This view shared by the
militaries is evident in the political leadership in
Thus far, neither China nor India has taken an

active role in the Syrian conflict, content to work
within the United Nations and to make statements
as part of the BRICS group. But the failure of the
U.S. and Russia and the paralysis of the U.N.
alongside the continued brutality in Syria require
an alternative path to be opened up. Egypt, Iran,
Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey have
indicated willingness for a dialogue China and
India need to offer them the table.
Source: The Hindu
FOR AN UNFETTERED INTERNET
A global debate has been raging on the issue of

the mechanisms and principles of Internet
Governance (IG) ever since the expos that the
United States and the National Security Agency
(NSA) were engaged in wide-ranging mass
surveillance of international traffic. Brazil is holding
a global multistakeholder meeting in April on this
issue, while the European Union (EU) has released
a communiqu on Europes Role in Shaping the
Future of Internet Governance. The issue boils
down to the mechanisms and the role of various
stakeholders in this space.
The International Telecommunication Union
(ITU) pegs Internet reach at 40 per cent of all
households in the world and 2.7 billion people
online. The good news is nearly 1.3 billion are
women; the Internet has bridged the gender divide
with nearly an equal number of women as men
being online. About 200 million are in India with
Internet penetration being a measly 11.4 per cent;
95 per cent use social media online, with roughly
90 million being Indians. The Internet has become
an intrinsic part of our daily lives in our pursuit of
knowledge, information, innovation, entertainment

and in articulating dissent.
The year 2013 will widely be known as the one
in which whistle-blower Edward Snowden told us
that powerful governments had pierced the cover
of privacy that is so dear to us and which is at the
core of free expression. The Indian governments
position, in 2011, at the United Nations General
Assembly (UNGA), and yet again in November
2013 in another U.N. meeting, has been to demand
a multilateral body for the formulation of
international Internet related public policies. The
government would like this body to be under the
aegis of the U.N. with all stakeholders and relevant
international organizations in advisory capacity
within their respective roles.
There is no denying that the current Internet
Governance (IG) framework is imperfect, especially
with the U.S.s strong influence and legal proximity
to IG-related mechanisms all these need to be
transformed for the Internet to become more
democratic and inclusive. Given the emerging issues
and the changing nature of the conflicts, and the
[53]

fact that the discourse within the IG space is broken,
these existing processes cannot address these
concerns sufficiently. A lot of fixing, enabling and
rethinking and even strengthening is required. The
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers (ICANN), is a good place to start;
decentralisation and renegotiating ICANNs cozy
relationship with the U.S., as rightly pointed out
by the EU, are some of the steps that need to be
undertaken. However, the position taken by India
will only take global IG out of the frying pan into
the fire, from the influence of one country to the
control of global governments who, consistent with
the U.N. Charter, will make all decisions behind
closed doors, with hardly any voice for other
stakeholders or participation in active, meaningful
dialogue, leave alone decision-making.
representatives, have the primary responsibility to

make national laws which govern Indian citizens.
Any such proposal that sits atop Parliaments
lawmaking privilege should have its approval. This
doesnt.
While the U.N. does excellent work in

peacekeeping and developing friendly relations
among nations, it has severe limitations of expertise,
speed, and above all, transparency, when it comes
to decisions related to Internet policy.
Next, an intergovernmental body, from within

or outside the U.N., is not obliged to engage any
stakeholder. While Indias position relegates them
to an advisory role, the U.N. body, when formed,
will make its own rules. Who participates, when
and with whose approval even in an advisory
capacity would be subject to the decision of
governments who alone can be members of such a
body.
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The Internet today is also the worlds largest

media bigger than any newspaper or television
channel. Any decision or treaty by a U.N. body
which has the memberships of authoritarian
regimes and dictatorships on an equal footing,
can easily ensure excessive powers to the State on
censorships, takedowns and blockings. This goes
against the heart of free speech and human rights
another reason why a U.N. body with
government bureaucrats alone should not make
such decisions without the presence of civil society,
media and free speech activists.
Key reasons for a review
Here are a few key reasons why Indias position

needs to be reviewed.
First, the Internet belongs to all, connects 2.7

billion people, and is a premier source of
information, knowledge and communication.
Therefore, all decisions regarding the Internet must
involve multistakeholder groups, representing
government, industry, academia, technical
community, civil society, media and the youth, on
an equal footing. Every stakeholder contributes to
the growth of the Internet. No serious stakeholder
should be denied access to either dialogue or
decision-making. This is an impossibility under a
U.N. body, whose Charter prohibits membership
beyond member states (governments only). Even
reaching Geneva or New York for a U.N. hosted
meeting would require government approval before
issuance of a visa. Since a vast majority of
governments are flawed democracies, authoritarian
and dictatorships, access for multistakeholders
under a U.N. body is all but blocked.
Second, the U.N. body makes policies and laws

which take the form of treaties and conventions.
Following this, national laws such as the Indian
Telegraph Act, the TRAI Act and the IT Act need
to be amended and future legislation will need to
ensure compliance. This supersedes the rights and
duties of our MPs and Parliament, who, as elected
[54]
One of the most spectacular values of the

Internet is permissionless innovation. Technical and
commercial decisions are made in Internet time,
which ensures that the web meets and exceeds user
expectations. A government body that too
following U.N. processes, notwithstanding its good
intentions will be farthest from swift decisionmaking, multistakeholder collaboration or
innovation. Even with high-level policy decisions,
such a body could unintendedly harm the Internet,
through delays and conventional thinking.
Then, there is the issue of expertise. Unintended
but bad policies related to IG can adversely impact
its day-to-day functioning. Expertise from multiple
sources is key to the Internets growth. What forms
a broad policy mandate for a bureaucrat is
everyday work for an Internet techie or a free
speech activist. Internet policy decisions therefore
need to include the view of: the private sector,
which invests thousands of crores each year, in
telecom, Internet social media infrastructure,
technology, mobile devices and spectrum, etc.; a
stable environment from a policy perspective which
reflects the domestic ethos and which is a
prerequisite for fuelling innovation and growth of
and through the Internet for India; civil society

child pornography, jurisdiction disputes and a few
orphan issues, where gaps exist. It is not that
multistakeholders must sit and weigh in on all these
meetings. But these form a small part of the overall
IG space. They need to be addressed, but not at the
cost of destroying an inclusive, transparent,
multistakeholder decision-making process which
upholds the core Internet values of a universal,
equitable Internet for common good, empowerment
and justice for all.
In this regard, broad global IG principles which
lead to a democratic, collaborative, transparent and
inclusive decision-making process are perhaps a
good place to start with. Brazil and the EU have
taken the lead. India, as the worlds largest
democracy, must review its stance and claim its
rightful position in the world as a leader which
gave the world new ideas of resilience, non-violence
and truth. It is time for change; to put the public
back in public policy and IG with the least amount
of government control for an unfettered, spirited
and vibrant Internet of the future of the people,
places and things that India dreams of, and to
facilitate access and celebrate diversity, cherish
pluralism and the multiplicity of opinion and voices.
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which protects free speech, privacy and human

rights; the technical community which ensures that
the web works like clockwork every time; and
academia and the media, who are not only one of
the biggest users of the Internet, only second to the
youth, but in fact provide valuable inputs in keeping
it democratic, free and effective. These stakeholders,
especially those who represent a developing
countrys perspective and who possess the
expertise need to be at the table and not kept
waiting to be called, as advisers.
Finally, there is the issue of recourse against
badly drafted laws, a case in point being the
draconian Section 66A of the Information
Technology Act. In India, a domestic law such as
the IT Act and Rules can be appealed, and courts
will take cognisance and even jump to protect the
individual rights of citizens, free speech and
privacy. However, if an international treaty allows
for example blocking of content based on cultural
sensitivity, then the bureaucracy can interpret it
broadly as it wishes without any recourse for Indian
citizens under the Indian legal system.
There is admittedly a need for intergovernmental
dialogue and decisions in areas of cyber security,
Source: The Hindu
A GLIMMER OF SYRIAN HOPE
The Geneva II conference on Syria ended

recently in a predictable standoff between President
Bashar al Assads regime and a section of the
opposition National Council for Syrian
Revolutionary and Opposition Forces (SNC), but it
was remarkable that the talks, held indirectly with
United Nations and Arab League mediator Lakhdar
Brahimi moving between the two sides, took place
at all. The conflict will enter its fourth year on
March 15; it has so far killed 136,000 people and
displaced over two million amid atrocities by all
involved. Even a short truce a few days ago for the
residents of the besieged city of Homs to leave or
acquire food was negotiated not in Geneva but by
the Homs Governor, Talal al Barazi, and the UNs
resident coordinator, Yacoub El Hillo. Meanwhile,
positions at Geneva II where the parties were to
start implementing the plan reached at Geneva I
on June 30, 2012 remain bitterly entrenched.
Damascus brands the opposition terrorists and
insists that Mr. Assad will not step down; the SNC,
for its part, only attended under pressure from its
Western and West Asian allies and after a series of
internal disagreements. Of its 119 members, only
75 attended the vote in Istanbul, voting 58-14 to go

to Geneva II; the representatives of Syrias 10 per
cent Kurdish minority also boycotted the Swiss
talks. Any chance of wider participation had ended
on January 16, when the officially sanctioned
opposition National Coordination Committee
(NCC) said it would not attend.
Even worse complications obtain. The Syrian
situation has been called a proxy war involving
the West, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar on the opposition
side, and Russia and Iran plus the Hezbollah on
the regimes side, but certain opposition leaders
resent being used thus, and government officials
speak of being treated like vassals by Iran, Russia,
and the Hezbollah. In addition, the al Qaeda-linked
faction, the Islamic State of Iraq and al Shams (ISIS),
holds the provincial capital of Rakka in central
Syria, and serves a purpose both for Damascus,
which tells the West that if the government fell al
Qaeda would win, and for the SNC, which
submerges its internal differences to fight ISIS.
Furthermore, Iran, which could well have some
leverage on Mr. Assad, had no option but to pull
[55]

out of Geneva II when Washington stated the
precondition that Mr. Assad step down in any
transition process. The one glimmer of hope in all
this is that since October 2013, opposition and
government members have been meeting privately
at the Chteau de Bossey in Switzerland. As the
United States and Russia will almost certainly back

any agreement they reach, it is imperative that those
involved continue talking and that all others stay
away.
Source: The Hindu
ABOVE POLITICS AND PASSION

from any discussion on the roles played by
Murugan and Santhan, both committed LTTE
members, or Perarivalan, an Indian national.
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It is a sign of the expanding vision of the Indian

judiciary that it has reaffirmed the law relating to
the correct and constitutional use of sovereign
clemency powers without being weighed down by
the political and high-profile nature of the Rajiv
Gandhi assassination case. The court has stuck to
its humanitarian outlook, placing emphasis on the
continued relevance of fundamental rights even
after a convicts death sentence has been confirmed
and mercy petitions rejected. Coming less than a
month after a three-judge Bench unequivocally laid
down that unexplained delay on the part of the
executive in disposing of mercy petitions is a
supervening circumstance warranting commutation
of death sentences to life terms, the Supreme Courts
latest verdict extending that relief to V. Sriharan
alias Murugan, T. Suthendraraja alias Santhan and
A.G. Perarivalan is least surprising. There was very
little scope for it to deviate from its sound and
well-reasoned earlier verdicts. It was quite obvious
that the passage of 11 long years since their mercy
pleas first reached the President would render any
move to execute them unconstitutional. The court
has also clarified that life imprisonment means
[until the] end of ones life, but has noted that the
life term would be subject to provisions relating to
remission by the appropriate government under the
Code of Criminal Procedure. It has wisely refrained
One unsavoury aspect needs to be taken note

of. There was an attempt in Tamil Nadu to give an
ethno-linguistic angle to the campaign to save the
three convicts from the gallows. The humanitarian
demand to abolish capital punishment was
overshadowed by efforts to portray the three men
as innocent Tamils. It is good that the court had
laid down a sound jurisprudential foundation for
its verdict well before it granted relief to the Rajiv
Gandhi case trio, lest someone read in it any unseen
influence of emotions whipped up by some political
elements. There is bound to be a view that the
states failure to execute convicted killers and
conspirators may mean that justice had not been
fully rendered to those killed or maimed in the
blast. Rather than looking at it as inadequate justice,
an enlightened citizenry should see conviction and
imprisonment as sufficient punishment that would
give true closure to a dastardly offence, and not
execution, which even in the case of the most brutal
offences would not be in keeping with the values
of a civilised community. Verdicts such as this
would create a humane atmosphere and pave the
way for the eventual abolition of the death penalty.
Source: The Hindu
VATICANS MORAL IMPERATIVES
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child

has in a report indicted the Catholic Church for
acts of clerical child abuse, a scandal that has
dogged it for more than a decade now. Acting
under the authority of the UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child, to which the Vatican is a
signatory, the panel has recommended that the
Church remove priests suspected or known to have
resorted to abuse, open its records on abusers and
the bishops who covered up for them, and turn
the cases over to the civil justice system rather than
let the Vaticans own justice department handle
them behind closed doors. The committee has
[56]
blamed the Vatican for valuing its own reputation

above the protection of child-victims, and
maintaining a code of silence. It has also urged
the Holy See to ensure that issues of reproductive
health, including access to information about
contraception and preventing HIV, are included in
the curriculum in Catholic schools, and to use its
moral authority to condemn discrimination against
children raised by same-sex couples. The Vatican
promptly hit back, accusing the committee of
exceeding its mandate and adopting the
prejudiced positions of anti-Catholic advocacy
groups. Reacting to the recommendation that the

Church amend canon law to allow abortion in some
cases, it complained that religious freedom was
being trampled upon, saying that the committee
had gone beyond its competence and interfered
in the moral and doctrinal positions of the Catholic
Church. The Vatican accused the committee of
having ignored its unique status and its efforts to
address the abuse crisis.
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Even more problematic is the Vaticans effort

to wash its hands of broader responsibility for the
staggering scale of priestly misdeeds. The argument
is that the Church is not comparable to a global
business operation and cannot be expected to keep
in check all clergymen in all parts of the world.
This is a dodge. The committee has rightly said
that by ratifying the convention the Vatican

committed itself to implementing the convention
not only on the territory of the Vatican City state,
but also as the supreme power of the Catholic
Church through individuals and institutions placed
under its authority. Pope Francis has generated
hopes of a new dawn, but on the question of abuse,
he is simply not there yet, although last year he
termed it the shame of the Church. His
predecessor Benedict XVI apologised to abuse
victims and called for zero tolerance, but rhetoric
seems to have outstripped real action. The Church
hierarchy should appreciate the urgency of the
issue. There will be a heavy moral cost involved if
it insists on looking for legal loopholes.
Source: The Hindu
ANCHORS TO PROTECT SAILORS
Late on the night of March 29, 2010, as the

merchant ship Iceberg was just ten nautical miles
from the port of Aden, a small boat pulled up
alongside, almost invisible in the dark, carrying men
with assault rifles in their hands. For the next 33
months, the men on board would be held at the
Somali village of Garaad, as the ships owners,
Dubai-based Azal, stonewalled ransom demands
for its multinational crew and its multi-million dollar
cargo of industrial equipment. The pirate cartel
holding the ship wanted $8 million, and when they
didnt get it, started torturing the crew.
They started beating us, and denying us food
and water, recalled Mumbai resident Santosh
Yadav, who had married just ten days before he
shipped out. We were allowed to sleep only for
six hours over a few days. His ship mate Wagdi
Akram committed suicide.
Now, as New Delhi and Rome engage in the
latest of their periodic diplomatic skirmishes over
the prosecution of two Italian marines charged with
shooting dead two fishermen off the Kerala coast
in 2012, theres an elephant in the room: how are
at-risk merchant crews to be guarded?
For the most part, a misplaced hypernationalism has coloured the Italian marines debate
the case wasnt and isnt about white men armed
with guns shooting at brown men without them.
Though governments across the world have been
signing off on protecting crews with guards, India
has resisted, in part, because of the public outrage
provoked by the Enrica Lexie case.
The dogs of war
Ever since 2009, when armed guards stationed

on board the Maersk Alabama successfully
defended the ship against pirate attack, the highseas mercenary business has flourished: last year,
the industry is estimated to have generated upwards
of $1 billion. In 2011, the U.S. and the U.K. began
allowing private guards on ships. European states
like Italy resisted the tide, but started stationing
some numbers of military personnel on ships
like the two sailors now living in the Italian
ambassadors home in New Delhi, awaiting trial
for murder.
India has opposed security guards on ships,
private or governmental, saying it doesnt want
armies running amok on the high seas. It has
pointed to the risks of terrorists posing as private
security contractors. For its part, the Indian Navy
has flatly refused to station guards on ships, saying
it doesnt want to risk having officers prosecuted
in foreign countries.
However, even as the government takes this
principled stand, Indian crews and ships are
signing up for protection from mercenaries. Largely
stationed in Sri Lankas Galle, and mainly drawn
from that countrys retired naval personnel, private
contractors guard hundreds of Indian ships headed
to ports from Salalah to Dar es Salaam. The Sri
Lankan government licences a corporation to
transfer the guards weapons in floating armouries
as ships arrive, and then handed back as they leave
offshoring the lethal part of the business. No
[57]

one knows for certain just how often the ancient
right of merchant ships to defend themselves from
attack has been exercised. In 2012, one contractor
alone reported 18 exchanges of fire with pirates.
Experts say the attraction of armed guards is

simple. Not one ship with guards on board has
ever been hijacked, says former naval officer and
analyst Shishir Upadhyay. For crews and owners,
thats a pretty compelling argument.
There are other compelling arguments.
Insurance costs have soared for all the traffic
passing west of Mangalore, which is now
designated vulnerable. Indias shipping industry
estimates that the country is losing Rs. 1-2 crore a
day in additional insurance. Escaping the high-risk
zone doesnt come cheap either rerouting costs
the global shipping industry between $486-$680
million a year.
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Estimates from industry sources suggest

upwards of 3,000 guards are now employed by up
to 140 firms. Eighteen ships are operating floating
armouries in international waters one was held
off Chennai last year when it accidentally drifted
into Indian territorial waters. Though about a
quarter of ships transiting the Gulf of Aden have
officially disclosed that they are carrying armed
guards, sources in the industry say the practice is
in fact far more pervasive.
Nigeria, and in the South China Sea. Bangladesh

pirates killed four Indian sailors in 2012. This
armada approach to piracy, says the bluntspeaking former naval commander and expert C.
Uday Bhaskar, is just nonsense.
Abiding threat
Its tempting to look at the numbers and

conclude that the dogs of war have been unleashed
by fear, not risk. The London-based International
Maritime Bureaus authoritative figures show piracy
has reached a six-year low. In 2013, the IMB
recorded 264 pirate attacks, a 40 per cent drop
since Somali piracy peaked in 2011. Fifteen incidents
were reported off Somalia in 2013, down
dramatically from 75 in 2012 and 237 in 2011.
The single biggest reason for the drop in
worldwide piracy is the decrease in Somali piracy
off the coast of East Africa, said Pottengal
Mukundan, IMBs director.
The fall, Indian officials say, is proof that
structured government intervention is working.
Three international maritime task forces are now
operating in an estimated 40 warships very
roughly, the size of Indias entire western fleet
along with patrol aircraft and helicopters, to secure
shipping routes.
In addition, 10 independent national flotillas

are in operation. The opacity of defence costing
makes it hard to say precisely how much this
multinational effort costs. However, experts say the
size of the fleet indicates costs of some $2 billion a
year. Thats a third of Indias entire naval budget
for 2012-13, Rs. 36,343.5 crore.
Impressive as these figures might be, it isnt clear

if theyre the cause for the fall in piracy. It also
isnt clear how long cash-strapped governments will
prove willing to pay these bills. The U.S.
Government Accountability Office estimated in
March 2011 that it would take 83 warships, with
a full complement of helicopters, to provide a halfhour response to a distress call.
From the data, it is also clear that sailors are at
risk in other oceans. The IMBs live piracy map
shows a heavy cluster of attacks off the coast of
[58]
And then the issue of the ransoms the price of

the life and freedom of a sailor. The UkrainianflaggedFaina, carrying tanks and anti-aircraft guns,
fetched for Somali pirates $3.2 million. Pirate cartels
in the Somali ports of Eyl, Xharadhere, Garard and
Ras Asir were good for an estimated $176 million in
2010, and close to $160 million in 2011. Oceans
Beyond Piracy, a watchdog that researches the issue,
estimated the total economic costs of piracy at between
$6.6 and $6.9 billion. Insurers slash premiums for
ships that carry armed guards. Each complement of
four guards typically costs $2,500 per trip; many
shippers have also invested in armoured safe-rooms
for crew. Though the costs arent small change, theyre
a lot cheaper than hijacking.
Long-term solutions to the problem, everyone
acknowledges, are needed. Somalia has had no
government since 1991. Foreign trawlers began to
prey on coastal fishing grounds with impunity,
destroying a traditional source of livelihood. The
flooding of the region with assault rifles and rocketpropelled grenade launchers led many young men to
turn to the pirate cartels that sprang up from 2005.
Somalias western-backed administration, under siege
from the powerful jihadist group al-Shabaab, has no
influence outside the capital, Mogadishu.
Puntland, the quasi-independent region that is
home to many pirate ports, has been trying to deal
with this through retaliatory action. Its forces
organised an attack to release the sailors of Iceberg.
But not every country is willing to pay the price in
cash and blood, needed to restore full order in
Somalia, and a dozen other lawless states, where
pirates flourish.
Source: The Hindu
THE CHALLENGE OF BAD LOANS

make up for their impaired capital has become a
major issue, especially at a time when all banks
have been asked to move towards global norms of
capital adequacy. For the government-owned
banks, now listed on the Indian stock exchanges,
there are special challenges. To preserve their public
sector character, they have been asked not to dilute
the government shareholding to below 50 per cent
of their paid-up capital. So for all practical purposes
they have to turn to their majority owner, the
government, for additional capital. However, while
recognising the banks predicament, the Finance
Minister has made a niggardly allocation of
Rs.11,200 crore in the interim budget for bank
recapitalisation, below last years Rs.14,000 crore
and well below the current requirements of PSBs.
Even in the few cases where the capital market
could be accessed, investor response has been
lukewarm, as the best-run PSB, State Bank of India,
found recently with its qualified institutional
placement. Second, the disadvantages of
government ownership extend to recovery. Public
sector bankers have less flexibility in dealing with
problem loans. Finally, who can deny political
interference in sanctioning loans as well as in their
recovery?
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Arising tide of bad loans threatens the ability

of banks to continue their business as usual. The
problem is particularly severe with public sector
banks. Results for the December quarter show their
financial position in poor light. Each one of them
has been reporting a higher level of non-performing
assets and making larger provision against possible
loan losses. Not only is their profitability affected
but also the increased provisioning ties up their
capital. The financial position of United Bank of
India, a Kolkata-based public sector bank (PSB), is
said to be so acute that the Reserve Bank of India
had to step in and impose severe restrictions on its
lending. While some reckless lending in the recent
past has landed this bank in trouble, the economic
slowdown has stressed the balance sheets of almost
every PSB, even those with a stronger tradition of
lending and better track record in managing their
books. If the slowdown persists, the bad debts will
increase and the chances of recovery will diminish.
The RBI is naturally concerned. Having flagged the
issue of NPAs long before it became a general
concern of banks and their stakeholders, the
banking regulator has, however, given a clean chit
to banks including PSBs from the stability angle.
Two sets of related problems confront policy
makers. First, the question of recapitalising PSBs to
Source: The Hindu
OUR INGRAINED VIP CULTURE
One of the much-debated subjects of late has

been the VIP culture. From red beacons to inyour-face security, from renovation of bungalows
in salubrious Lutyens Delhi to special treatment
for the members of Parliament at airports, the angst
and opposition voiced on these issues suggest that
we, as a society, are against VIP culture.
The relevance of the debate, therefore, cannot
be questioned. But what can be and should be
questioned is: Are we addressing the disease or
merely the symptoms?
Supreme Court verdict Take the case of red

beacons: The Supreme Court recently ruled that
only high dignitaries who hold a constitutional
office or position could use red beacons. The SC
judgment, however, did not elaborate on the clear
or present necessity (that exists in case of the men
in uniform, ambulance, fire brigade, etc.) which
would justify use of beacons by the so-called high
dignitaries.
The game-changing question raised in the case,

which was left unanswered by the court, was
whether the entitlement of red beacons and similar
symbols of authority is contrary to the basic feature
of republicanism enshrined in our Constitution?
The question was not about who should be allowed
to use red beacons but about why anybody should
use it at all.
A facility, devoid of necessity, is a privilege
and the debate about VIP culture is essentially
about privileges. Post SC decision, the privilege of
red beacon has not ended; only the list of who will
have that privilege has been slightly curtailed.
But isnt it a flawed approach? A dignitary who
is not on the list will ask: if others can have it, why
cant I? If only the Supreme Court had answered
the larger question, the paradigm would have
changed. Thankfully, a new SC bench has recently
agreed to examine constitutional validity of the term
high dignitaries (a creation of the Motor Vehicles
Act which allows use of red beacons).
[59]

Another aspect, which is crucial to the debate,
is about whom we are targeting. We always, rightly
but not surprisingly, associate VIP culture with the
political class. The VIP privileges that they enjoy
and seek invoke within us a sense of outrage. But
one can argue that our real grouse is against
inefficiency and egregious corruption in the system.
If the credibility of our politicians was not so low,
perhaps there would not be such strong resentment
against VIP culture. Therefore, the larger question
is whether we are against VIP culture per se.
So while an airport can have amenities and

recreational facilities made available to those who
can pay, for certain purposes an airport ought to
be equal to all. For example, no one should be
allowed to fast track through airport security.
Security check at airports is a matter of national
defence, not an amenity, and hence, all air travellers
should be treated equally.
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At the heart of VIP culture debate is equality.

And by equality we mean not merely formal
equality (of equality before the law and the equal
protection of the laws). There is a moral facet to it
as well. The argument, which has a moral force, is
that in a democratic republic like ours, all citizens
rich or poor ought to be treated alike, at least
in certain respects.
A brilliantly analysed topic in the book is about

jumping the queue. By taking real life examples,
Sandel makes a moving argument about how the
ethic of the queue first come, first served has
an egalitarian appeal. He bids us to ignore
privilege, power, and deep pockets at least for
certain purposes.
Consider the most recent controversy about

DGCA directing airline companies to extend certain
courtesies to MPs. Those against the move argued
as to why our netas should be allowed any special
treatment. The counterview was: there are people
(frequent/premier class flyers) who do enjoy certain
special treatment at airports. The rejoinder was
and this is important that those who enjoy special
treatment pay for it.
Culture of privileges: Should ability to pay be the
decisive factor? This ought to be the nub of our debate.
Legendary philosopher and Harvard professor

Michael J Sandel has addressed this issue in his
seminal work What Money Cant Buy (the book is
really about what money shouldnt buy). Some of
the issues discussed in the book squarely impinge
on our VIP culture debate.
The queue is just a symbol. Jumping the queue

is symptomatic of a larger attitude problem of
VIP mindset. It is like this: no matter how
important or rich you are, you cannot be allowed
to buy a red beacon for your car, period.
We can extend the same logic to sale of special
number plates for private vehicles and the payand-join the VIP line practice followed at some of
our temples and other public places. These may
appear trivial but they manifest the VIP mindset,
which has pervaded our society.
Nobody likes to wait in the line. When you
allow somebody, who can pay, to jump the queue,
our MPs and MLAs, who are also somebody in
their own right, also want the same privilege. Since
they cannot pay, they demand it. You can say that
the politicians will demand VIP treatment
regardless. But then that would be a more brazen
ask which, hopefully, our politicians might eschew.
SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE, A TOUGH CALL
On September 18 this year, British,

Commonwealth and EU citizens resident in
Scotland will vote on a single question: Should
Scotland be an independent country?
It is not the first vote on Scotlands place in the

UK a previous referendum triggered the political
devolution that created the Scottish Parliament
but will be the most significant.
Should the yes campaign, led by the ruling

Scottish Nationalist Party, have its way, the
European Unions 29th member State and the UNs
194th may come into being by March 2016, undoing
the 1707 Act of Union between Scotland and
England.
[60]
After a measured start, when the British Prime

Minister made an emotional appeal to the people
of Scotland that the UK would be deeply
diminished without them, the debate has rapidly
become more heated.
In an unusual display of unity, the three main
political parties in Westminster have teamed up
against independence, wielding the most powerful
weapon they have to hand: the pound. The ruling
Conservatives and Liberal Democrats as well as
Labour have all insisted that none would allow an
independent Scotland to adopt the pound.
Keeping the currency and the Bank of England
was a key part of the blueprint for the independent

state outlined by the Scottish National Party late
last year, along with the 90 per cent of North Sea
oil revenues generated within its borders. Also
weighing-in in recent days is the European
Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso who, in a
BBC interview, warned that an independent
Scotland desirous of joining the EU would struggle
to receive support from member states, especially
those worried about separatist movements in their
own countries, such as Spain.
While an independent Scotland could have

other options such as a currency peg, similar to
that of the Hong Kong dollar to the US one, it
would still be far from ideal, leaving it without any
say over monetary policy.
The tone of the debate has further descended
with each side rattling out figures to show how
much more it has contributed to the union over
the past decades. We have contributed more in
taxes per person than the rest of the UK for every
single one of the last 32 years, declared Alex
Salmond recently. The Treasury, by contrast, has
shown the region has a higher spend on public
services per head than the rest of the union
(Cameron had previously highlighted the
contribution of Scottish industry, including the 135
a second added to the UKs balance of payments
by Scottish whisky).
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The wheels are falling off the independence

wagon, triumphantly declared Alistair Darling,
Britains former Chancellor of the Exchequer and
now head of the Better Together campaign to
keep Scotland in the UK.
The same poll, conducted by TNS, found that

a combined 36 per cent of Scottish residents believed
the economy and currency were the most important
and determining issues.
The SNP has hit back forcefully: its leader Alex

Salmond, accusing the Westminster government of
bluff, bluster and bullying, has insisted that if an
independent Scotland cannot use the pound then
it will not accept UK liabilities, including its share
of public debt.
If there is no legal basis for Scotland having a
share of the public asset of the Bank of England,
there is equally no legal basis for Scotland accepting
a share of the public liability of the national debt,
he said recently.
Business of separation
Taking aim at the increasingly antiindependence rhetoric emerging from British

business, the Scottish government has published
analyses suggesting that forcing a separate currency
for Scotland could cost UK businesses around 500
million (Rs. 5,200 crore) a year through the costs of
importing to and exporting from it. (British business
groups in turn warned that such costs were far
outweighed by the problems arising from an
unstable currency union.)
Despite the bravado, the latest developments
should have the yes campaign worried.
Recent polls indeed suggested increasing

support for independence 28 per cent intend to
vote yes and 30 per cent are undecided, according
to a January poll but that was before the latest
blows over the pound and EU membership. While
some have suggested, somewhat in jest, that the
aggressive negative campaigning in Westminster is
exactly the boost that the yes campaign needs,
its hard to ignore that the nationalists are yet to
provide a convincing answer to the single-most
important and decisive question of all.
Costly for students
In another petty move, the SNP courted

controversy by insisting that Scotland, which unlike
England does not charge university students tuition
fees, would charge UK students, despite the free
education mandated for EU citizens (these
comments have swiftly backfired, with an EU
official declaring any such move illegal).
Getting lost in the debate are the several
important issues raised by Scotland in its
independence plan: Currently home to just 5 million,
it has made no bones about the fact that it needs,
and intends to take steps to attract more skilled
migrants, including offering incentives to those
willing to work in its remoter parts. It would also
encourage foreign students, whose numbers are
declining in the UK and Scotland following
strict measures imposed by the UK government,
allowing; Scotland intends to allow them to stay
and work in the country for a period after.
The Scottish government also signalled that
alongside changes to bolster the welfare system,
cut back by Westminster, it would introduce probusiness policies such as slashing the corporate tax
rate several points below that of the UK. Scotland
has already succeeded well at attracting FDI
Ernst & Youngs 2013 UK attractiveness survey
found that after London, Scotland attracted the
second largest number of FDI projects.
[61]

Some in Scotland are clearly fed up with the
debates recent descent: businessman and
entrepreneur Tom Hunter has set up a project
ScotlandSeptember18 to provide a forum for a
grown-up, informed, respectful debate, pointing
out that the nation does not yet have adequate

information to decide which way to vote. UK
citizens can only hope that this is an approach
that will soon be adopted by their politicians too.
TEXTILES: SPOOLS OF OPPORTUNITY FOR INDIA
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For many years now, developing countries have

dominated the trade in textiles. The relative labour
intensity of parts of the textile value chain has
combined with low barriers to entry into the
industry to give poorer countries an advantage in
production and trade. This has held even when a
few global majors dominate the value chain leading
up to the supply of textiles to retail markets in the
US and the European Union. Even they must locate
the cutting, sewing and trimming operations in the
garment industry in low-cost locations, often fed
with cloth imports from abroad.
But with design, value chain management and
retail distribution under the control of major global
players, margins for most developing country
producers remains low. Especially for those that
have not managed to vertical integrate production
and establish a textile production complex.
For countrys performing well in this business,

the rewards have been significant in recent years.
Cotton yarn production in 40 leading producers
rose, according to Euromonitor International (using
UN data), from 31 million tonnes in 2008 to 46
million tonnes in 2013 or at 8.4 per cent per annum
(Chart 1). Production was dominated by China and
India, partly because these countries were
important suppliers to both world markets and their
own substantial domestic markets (Chart 2). This
domination at the yarn production stage is of
considerable relevance, even though discussions on
the geography of the textile business have focused
on the trade.
The global textiles and clothing market rose in
value from $480 billion in 2005 to $708 billion in
2012. That performance, over a period when much
of the world economy was mired in recession, is
remarkable given that the global textile market has
been quite volatile (Chart 3). The late 1980s were
a golden age for the textiles trade, after which
growth rates have fallen and averaged between 5
and 7 per cent between 2000 and 2012. However,
2010 and 2011 were remarkable growth years.
Although 2012 was once again a bad year,
possibly influenced by the crisis in Europe that
resulted in a sharp fall in imports to that region,
the evidence points to a recovery in 2013.
Bouncing back
An October 2013 estimate by PCI Fibres
[62]

suggested that the apparel trade by weight, which
was down 2 per cent in 2012, was likely to bounce
back by 4 per cent to reach 16.5 million tonnes in
2013. In the case of textiles, defined as spun yarns,
fabrics for onward processing, and household and
technical articles, growth across all the fibre types
was expected to rise by an estimated 7.5 per cent,
to reach some 24.7 million tonnes.
Turkey has been the second largest exporter to

the EU since 2000. Interestingly, it does not feature
in the list of the top 10 suppliers to the US. This is
also true of Tunisia and Morocco. That is because,
besides geographical proximity, preferential market
access is a factor explaining market shares in the EU.
Differential ability
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Most developing countries have a special

advantage in apparel exports. Globally, these grew
in value from $278 billion in 2005 to $412 billion in
2012. The top ten developing country suppliers
accounted in 2012 for 58 per cent of those exports.
The most important global markets were the EU
(38.5 per cent of total imports, with 20.3 per cent
being extra EU), the US (19.9 per cent) and Japan
(7.7 per cent) which, between them, accounted for
66 per cent of global imports of clothing in 2012.
While other markets such as Canada, Russia, Korea,
Australia and Switzerland have grown in
importance over time, they accounted for just 8.3
per cent of the total in 2012.
perhaps the relocation of EU producers to

peripheral countries explains the significant share
of intra-EU exports.
Dramatic changes
However, success in the apparel trade does not

reflect the strengths that can prove crucial in the
long run. While the leading exporters of apparel
were often also the leading exporters of textiles,
there have been some exceptions. On the one hand
China, India, Turkey and Pakistan have been
significant exporters of textiles, besides garments,
whereas Vietnam and Bangladesh have not been
so. This points to the differential ability of
developing countries to exploit the benefits of
having a textile production complex and
appropriating an increasing share of value added
in the global value chain.
There have been dramatic changes in the

relative position of individual countries in the global
apparel trade league table. For example,
Bangladesh, which was the 76th largest clothing
exporter in 1980, has become the fourth biggest
garment exporter currently. But the change in
geography is quite generalised. This comes through
from an analysis of the changing sources of
developing country supplies in apparel exports to
the US and the EU.
This ability to create a textile production

complex partly explains Chinas long-term resilience
in the global textiles market. That ability is in turn
related to the large domestic market that helps build
the foundation for a strong industry. According to
the China National Textile and Apparel Council
(CNTAC), the size of the Chinese domestic apparel
market doubled between 2005 and 2011, increasing
in value terms from 700 billion yuan to 1,400 billion
yuan.
Consider the US. In 1970, Japan, which had

joined the OECD in 1964, was the leading apparel
exporter to the US. Hong Kong, South Korea, the
Philippines, Mexico and Israel were among the top
10 exporters to that country. By 1980 Canada, the
UK and Israel made way for China, India and
Singapore. The Dominican Republic and Indonesia
appeared among the top 10 in 1990 and Japan
and Singapore exited. By 2000 Bangladesh and
Thailand were present and were joined by Vietnam
in 2012. There have been significant changes in
ranks as well. The only element of relative stability
has been that since 2000 China has topped the list
of leading apparel exporters. It is possibly time for
a change there. In the EU, while developing country
apparel exporters have gained dramatically, some
countries in the region such as Turkey and the
peripheral countries of Europe have also benefited.
Geographical proximity seems to matter here and
Often margins in these markets are also higher,

especially for domestic producers able to access these
markets by themselves without being subject to
pricing pressure from aggressive global buyers.
These are factors explaining Chinas long-term
success. India too has many of these advantages. It
has a large market for textiles, which has been
growing rapidly, driven by a high-spending middle
class and a large population.
Advantage India?
Yarn production rose from 4 billion kg in 2000

to 5 billion kg in 2013, and cloth production from
39 billion metres in 2000 to 63 billion metres in
2013. India was the sixth largest developing country
exporter of garments to the US and fourth largest
to the EU. It has an important presence in global
yarn production. So it is in a position to expand its
[63]

presence in the global textiles market and increase
its market.
This is a real possibility also because rising
labour costs in China are likely to erode its
competitiveness. According to the Bureau of Labour
Statistics of the US, average hourly compensation
costs in Chinese firms rose from $0.60 in 2002 to
$1.74 in 2009 with much of the increase occurring
in recent years.
We should not be surprised, therefore, if new

changes in the geography of textile production
occur, with China losing its position at the top of
the export league table and giving way to India in
a labour-intensive sector such as textiles.
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On the other hand, labour compensation

(including pay for time worked, directly-paid
benefits excluding payment in kind social
insurance expenditures, and labour-related taxes)
in Indias organised manufacturing sector has only
risen from $0.68 an hour in 1999 to $1.46 in 2010.

The rise among production workers (as opposed to
all employees) has been lower, from $0.53 to $0.92
per hour. This could give India a competitive edge
in industries such as textiles.
THE NEXT FARM CHALLENGE
One sector in which the United Progressive

Alliance (UPA) can claim some success during its
10 years in power is agriculture. Between 2003-04
and 2013-14, Indias foodgrain output rose from
213.19 million tonnes (mt) to 263.20 mt. Production
of pulses and oilseeds has also gone up from under
15 and 25 mt to nearly 20 and 33 mt respectively,
after registering near stagnation in the previous
decade. Even more impressive is the performance
in crops such as maize, soyabean, cotton, potato
and onion, where output increases have ranged
from 55 to 220 per cent. The fact that the last 10
years have also seen agricultural exports soar from
$7.5 billion to $45 billion, annual tractor sales
roughly treble to 5.5 lakh units, and rural poverty
rates decline nearly a third faster than in urban
areas is further indication of progress on the farm
front.
The question that one may still ask is: to what
extent can this success be attributed to policy
interventions by the UPA government? With the
exception of wheat and rice, for which government
procurement happens at minimum support prices
(MSP), increased realisations for most crops reflect
an improvement in the terms for trade for the
farmer. The reason for this is not policy, but largely
the demand pull resulting from rising incomes in
an economy experiencing overall growth
acceleration. Also, while there have been
technological breakthroughs, especially Bt cotton
and single-cross hybrids in maize, their impact

cannot be compared with the high-yielding semidwarf wheat/paddy varieties and the diffusion of
tube-well irrigation that powered the Green
Revolution from the late sixties to the eighties. At
best, one can say that the last 10 years have
reversed the trend of agricultural stagnation of the
nineties and the early 2000s. The credit for this
goes to market forces rather than prescient policymaking.
But the next few years arent going to be easy.
A slowing domestic economy, coupled with the
end of a global bull cycle in agri-commodities, is
bound to put pressure on crop realisations. The
next government is unlikely to have the fiscal
resources for sustaining either large MSP hikes or
fertiliser subsidies. A world where price increases
arent automatic and subsidies are bound to be
phased out is something farmers will need to accept
sooner than later. This transition can happen
relatively painlessly if the government redirects
resources away from subsidies and marketdistorting price supports to agricultural research,
rural roads, irrigation and other investments, which
would help raise crop yields and bring down costs
for the farmer. The one mistake of the UPA that
the next government shouldnt repeat is to ignore
the potential of agri-biotechnology. Not harnessing
it is a luxury the country can no longer afford
A NEW STATE, IN THE DARK
The Telangana issue is, arguably, one of the

toughest confronting our nation. The Srikrishna
Committee report guides us through the complexity
[64]
of the big policy question what is the best way

to ensure development and good governance in
the region? The constitutional questions, flowing

from Article 3 of the Constitution, are equally
complex, going to the heart of Indias federal
design. These questions revolve around the
constitutional significance of a state legislatures
rejection of a carve-out, the first such rejection in
the history of our republic, and the extent to which
this should have constrained the powers of
Parliament.
On constitutionality, Article 19(1)(a) of our

Constitution, which protects freedom of speech and
expression, also protects the publics right to acquire
information, as the information we are privy to
shapes the way we act and express ourselves,
especially in choosing our elected representatives.
The Supreme Court has deployed this right to
receive information as a reason for judicial
interference when state-controlled channels try to
filter content (Manu bhai Shah, 1992). It also
attaches special significance to public scrutiny and
information when this impacts elections. As Justice
M.B. Shah observed in PUCL vs Union of India
(2003), the right to vote would be meaningless
unless the voters are well informed about all sides
of the issues, in respect of which they are called
upon to express their views by casting their vote.
So people have a right to the uninterrupted and
contemporaneous broadcast of legislative
proceedings, not only to make up their minds about
the Telangana issue, but also to decide on who to
vote for, based on a legislators position on the issue
or even her conduct in Parliament. It would also be
worth considering whether this right imposes a
parallel duty on the Lok Sabha speaker to adjourn
proceedings the moment the broadcast blackout is
brought to her knowledge, regardless of the cause.
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Such questions, and the far-reaching

implications of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation
Bill, 2013, should have been extensively debated
in the Lok Sabha before the bill was passed.
Moreover, these deliberations should have been
broadcast to the public. On February 18, however,
the bill was pushed through in the Lok Sabha on a
voice vote, without any contemporaneous broadcast.
TV would be both undemocratic and

unconstitutional. It would be undemocratic because
deliberative democracy involves public deliberation.
Opacity reduces autonomy, as preferences are seen
to be externally imposed, instead of being shaped
by reasoned debate.
Two vital ingredients that give legislative

decisions legitimacy in a representative, deliberative
democracy were missing. The first was deliberation.
Democracy is not about decision-making in a
manner that crudely aggregates popular will
through legislative balloting. The will of the
majority, if it is not tempered by reason, resembles
majoritarian tyranny, and the idea that inclusive
dialogue is the most effective way of arriving at a
rational consensus for the common good is as old
as the idea of democracy itself.
Further, the Lok Sabha ought to have
deliberated not only on the policy question, but
also on the nature and extent of its own powers
under Article 3, and how much weight it should
give to the state assemblys rejection of the bill.
While the ultimate responsibility of interpreting the
Constitution rests with the Supreme Court, its duty
to interpret is not exclusive, even if it is final. It is
entirely compatible with our constitutional scheme
to demand that each of the three arms of our
government make judgements on their powers, in
order to ensure that constitutional morality does
not lose out to political expediency. Swearing
allegiance to the Constitution brings with it a
shared duty for our legislators to engage with, and
arrive at an understanding of, its meaning.
The second missing element was the broadcast
of Lok Sabha proceedings, though the blackout
was later attributed to a technical glitch. It should
be noted that a deliberate blackout of Lok Sabha
These factors do not impact the constitutional

validity of the final statute in a manner that makes
it amenable to judicial review. The actual impact is
on the perceived legitimacy of Parliament as an
institution and, more importantly, on the perceived
legitimacy of the statute itself. Not only will it raise
doubts for those undecided on the Telangana issue,
it may have serious fallouts for the law-and-order
situation in Andhra Pradesh. A hastily enacted
statute, shielded from the public eye and perceived
to have been pushed through for political gain
alone, may prove to be a pyrrhic victory for those
who support the creation of Telangana.
MOVING TO THE CITY

Both government and opposition failed
miserably in the recent days in taking on board
popular anxieties about the bifurcation of Andhra

Pradesh. Much of the concern in the region in
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in. In fact, this failure is evident in the competing
claims from the Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra
regions that Kurnool and Visakhapatnam be the
capital of Seemandhra.
Indeed, that these cities are thirsty for an
upgrade, that the lack of an urban vision has kept
a dynamic stretch of the eastern seaboard looking
inwards, highlights a larger malfunction. Indias
politics has miserably failed to factor in urban
governance. It is not a coincidence that its regional
capitals are its most economically and socially
vibrant hubs in their respective states, with
politicians loath to cede urban magnets to local
governance away from the state capital, for fear of
losing avenues for patronage. Therefore, cities are
prevented from finding their own momentum, and
new businesses and industrial centres find it easier
to affix themselves to already sprawling mega-cities.
It would be a valuable beginning, therefore, if this
crisis over Hyderabad were to be used as an
opportunity to unveil a more modern template:
planning a new state capital and simultaneously
upgrading other cities as business and educational
hubs.
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the proposed state of Telangana and Seemandhra

centres on the status of Hyderabad, and the
legislative diktat about the transition status of the
city as a joint capital is unlikely to address worries
on either side of the divide. Hyderabad has been
one of the most dynamic hubs of economic and
social change, post-liberalisation, and the
proprietary demands by people from Telangana
and Seemandhra are depressingly easy to
understand to lose a connect to Hyderabad is
seen as being cut off from avenues to fulfil
individual aspirations. It is unfortunate that the
Central government is still addressing the capital
city tussle as crisis management, instead of
articulating it as an opportunity to upgrade cities
across the state, even build new ones.
Andhra Pradesh has been a fit case for
imagining and building urban hubs. In a state that
gets so much of its economic vitality from the
coastal belt and the Krishna-Godavari basin a
factor in Telanganas demand for separation it
has been a failure of planning to disregard urban
renewal. Hyderabad, like most of Indias other mega
cities, has grown in size on account of both the
force multiplier of existing infrastructure and the
absence of other urban avenues to set up business
FAMILY MATTERS
The Supreme Courts order giving religious

minorities the right to legally adopt children, even
if it contradicts personal laws, is a heartening step
towards choice and freedom. So far, Muslims,
Christians, Parsis and Jews were allowed to be
guardians, not legal parents, and their children
could not inherit property. Biological parents could
assert their rights over the child. Now the court
has affirmed that under the Juvenile Justice (Care
and Protection of Children) Act amended in 2006,
adopted children have the same rights, privileges
and responsibilities as biological children, and
Indian citizens of any religion can legally adopt them.
The judgment has clarified that personal laws

cannot override civil laws and the rights they
guarantee. Personal beliefs and faiths, though
must be honoured, cannot dictate the operation of
the provisions of an enabling statute, ruled a bench
headed by Chief Justice P. Sathasivam. This is a
useful direction to set, at a time when talk of a
uniform civil code tends to fall into pre-set political
templates. While the BJP and other rightwing voices
insist on effacing minority personal family laws,
given that Hindu law has already been brought in
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line, minorities see it as an attempt to erase their

right to live by the tenets of their religion, and their
cultural distinctiveness. Political parties that are
sensitive to minority rights often defend this point
of view, even when it comes to siding with the
patriarchs and elders as happened in the Shah
Bano case. Given that much family law effectively
hinges on the control and conduct of women, their
rights to property, and matters of marriage, divorce
and maintenance, abiding wholly by personal law
often means depriving them of equality before the law.
Some have argued that it was unfair to burden
Muslim women, for example, with the directive to
choose between community and gender identities,
and that there needs to be a stress on internal
reform, apart from pressing for formal rights.
Instead of contending with a strict binary of
uniform civil code versus personal law, however, it
may be more useful to approach specific issues as
they arise, and weigh in between the demands of
identity and of equal rights as the Supreme Court
has now done.
HOW TO BUILD NEW CITIES

us to suggest that India does not need to feed its
hungry or give them employment. It certainly does.
If not for moral or ethical reasons, then for the
reason that hungry and illiterate people can neither
participate in nor contribute to a growing economy.
But similar objectives can be achieved for one third
their present cost, provided we scale down our
desires somewhat and abandon age-old shibboleths.
The basic proposition is that subsidies be limited to
BPL families and small and marginal farmers. Here
again, we repeat Harry Potters exercise. If we were
to give the approximately six-seven crore BPL
families an annual subsidy of Rs 5,000 to buy food,
the bill would still be a third of the current cost of
food security. Whats the balance being used for?
To support organisations like the Food Corporation
of India (FCI) and its operating costs.
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Indias rapidly urbanising population needs

space to live in, and providing that space in the
form of new cities is easily within reach, provided
we change our mindsets. No fresh resources are
needed other than what is available within Indias
Plan budget. But in order to see those resources,
we should desire what Harry Potter figured out in
the Room of Requirement the object alone, and
not how to do it or what can be done with it. It is
the desire to control all processes and be the prime
mover that renders us unable to see what should
otherwise be evident. Lets see what it would take
to create 200 new cities over the next five years.
Four cities in the periphery of every large one, only
at a distance of, say, 50 km, so that people need
not live in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai or
Hyderabad; they can merely commute and still lead
a life of dignity and better in quality. It would take
an average investment of Rs 2,000 crore per new
city, or say Rs 400 crore every year for five years.
The total bill comes to about Rs 80,000 crore per
year for 200 cities.
How would we acquire the land, given its
astronomical costs? You would not acquire any land
at all, but merely propose a business model in which
every group of landholders able to provide 500
hectares of land would be given 50 per cent equity
in the venture that is a new city. The other 50 per
cent would belong to the government. That way,
the farmer would get a real share of the return on
investment and a steady yearly income. Once it is
clear to the farmer that the government is not
planning to take away his land at rock-bottom
prices to gift it to a real estate major for a
commission, there would be a queue of farmers
lining up, asking the government to develop their
spaces into a liveable city. This is the kind of model
used by Magarpatta City, a township next to Pune,
spread over 430 acres and owned by 120 farmers,
each a shareholder in proportion to his landholding.
In Magarpatta City, farmers came together on their
own and did everything by themselves. With some
help from the government, the experiment could
be widely replicated. The rub is that there is no
agency that would benefit from such a proposition:
only the people. Perhaps this is why no one has so
far proposed what should be otherwise evident.
The next question is where the Rs 80,000 crore

would come from. It would come from two sources.
The first is the cost of food security for the nation
and the second is the MGNREGA. Far be it from
The food subsidy bill is the operational deficit

of the FCI, or the amount spent by it on market
operations and buffer stocking over and above its
sales realisation. This bill in the last budget was
around Rs 90,000 crore. These operations serve dual
objectives: to provide market support to farmers
and also to subsidise consumers through the present
public distribution system. If we were to provide
cash subsidies for food to all BPL families, a similar
objective could be achieved at Rs 35,000 crore, and
if we were to further provide cash subsidies to all
small farmers even of Rs 2,000 per tonne for up
to 30 million tonnes per annum as support against
low market prices, it would take another Rs 6,000
crore. What you would not get would be the huge
buffer stock India has been building for the last so
many years.
This buffer stock, as also the FCI, is simply a
relic of a time when the fear of famine dominated
our mindset. The memory of PL 480 is bitter indeed,
but surely we are long past that barrier now. Our
cash reserves are no longer rock bottom. If needed,
we can still engage in market operations to provide
food. But leaving market operations to private
traders does not mean abandoning all interest in
the food market.
In return for dismantling the FCI, what the
government would need to do is bring about
transparency in food pricing and set about
eliminating the hidden costs in food prices. The
way is not difficult: set up internet-enabled markets
in all cities for foodgrain and for fruits and
vegetables, remove inter-state restrictions on
[67]

rural BPL population accounted for only 34 per
cent of total employment generated by the scheme.
Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, which account
for only 8 per cent of the rural BPL population,
provided 23 per cent of employment generated.
Such anomalies can be sorted out only by restricting
the MGNREGA to districts where its really needed.
This would halve the MGNREGA bill of Rs 33,000
crore as per the last budget and free up scarce
resources.
Doing these is not so difficult. This is far more
a question of mindset than anything else. The great
desire to control all decisions and the sneaking
desire to make a private profit are the only obstacles
that prevent us from building new cities, from
making the investment in infrastructure that India
really needs.
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movement of farm produce, impose checks on

hoarding, abolish the agricultural produce market
committees that function in the interests of traders
and not farmers, and keep detailed records of
transactions and markets. Removing all these
hidden costs would bring down food prices far
more effectively than any FCI or food security bill.
These are the tasks the government seems unwilling
to do. Surely, it is the governments job to keep
detailed records, conduct market regulation, preempt artificial scarcities and remove restrictions
rather than be the prime mover.
As far as the MGNREGA is concerned, the

recipe is even simpler. The scheme should be
restricted to only the poorest districts. Thats the
only way one can prevent it from interfering with
the farm economy. A recent study shows that while
Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and West
Bengal which account for 59 per cent of the
JUSTICE MORE EFFICIENT
The Supreme Courts decision to consider the

delay in adjudicating a trial as a mitigating factor
while deciding the quantum of sentence
acknowledges the reality of the enormous backlog
in the lower courts. It offers some relief to those
who lose their legal battle after spending a large
part of their lives, and resources, in court complexes.
In the present instance, the court came to the
rescue of a retired bureaucrat, who, after being
accused by the CBI of accepting a bribe of Rs 265
in 1984, spent nearly two decades fighting his case
until the Delhi High Court dismissed his appeal
last year. The SC reduced his term of imprisonment
to the three months already served, levying a
penalty of Rs 50,000 for the offence. While current
public discourse has veered towards harsher
punishment for corruption, the SC freed the ageing
bribe-taker from jail, while maintaining the
conviction.
The courts magnanimity, however, cannot be
deployed as a quick-fix for the institutional problem
of judicial backlog. If trials are to be expedited, then
systemic changes, involving efficient case-load
management, lesser number of adjournments and
an attitudinal change among judges, are necessary.
If those found guilty after a protracted legal

battle could benefit from this verdict, there is still
no system of reparation in place for persons who
are found innocent after similarly long and possibly
vexatious litigation against them. Superior courts
must also take care to ensure this verdict does not
play into the hands of lawyers who have on
behalf of well-heeled clients gamed the criminal
justice system to postpone their trials on procedural
grounds.
In recent times, parallel adjudication in the
form of fast track courts has been set up for
special offences and cases involving sexual assault
and corruption. While these concerns are
undoubtedly grave, it is important to understand
that the judiciary cannot treat normal cases with
indifference.
The vast majority of civil and criminal cases,
many of which result in undue delays and hardship
to litigants, still belong to the mainstream judicial
process. If the human costs of accessing justice are
to be reduced and not simply waived off at the
discretion of courts then the judiciary must tackle
its problem of case backlog systemically.
DONT WAIT FOR A MAGIC WAND

This article does not aim to extol or excoriate
the contentious disability rights bill introduced in
the Rajya Sabha. Rather, it discusses the lives of
[68]
people with complex, frequently intractable

disabilities and their families, who are also
disabled by endless care and the prospect of an

uncertain future. In the heated debates within the
disability sector around the bill, the voices of these
segments have been lost.
So is life for such families unremittingly bleak?

Obviously, families with better access to
information, services and counselling are likely to
cope better with a childs disability and provide a
better quality of life to their children. The
combination of poverty, disability, lack of access
and social support is devastating.
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This article reflects my observations as the

mother of a teenager with autism and a researcher
exploring the lived realities of families of children
with this condition.Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder affecting the core capacities
of language, social communication and
imagination, the causes of which are as yet
unknown. In India, awareness about the condition
is limited and a diagnosis is hard to come by.
Parents have to run from the paediatrician to the
neurologist to the psychiatrist with a terrified child
in tow, only to be told that theirs is a hopeless
case and they had better try again for a socalled normal child. These children may be turned
away from normal schools because they are
believed to be violent, disruptive and hyperactive;
teachers complain that they neither sit still, nor
pay attention nor engage in social play with peers.
If they are more manageable, they may be
allowed to attend school, but run the risk of
bullying and possible abuse. Of course, much of
this discrimination stems from a lack of awareness.
In many special settings too, their unique needs
and challenges are neither understood nor
accommodated. The lack of education or
vocational/ skills training renders them unfit for
the job market and so they are considered
burdens to be borne by the beleaguered family.
their childs future. Non-disabled siblings learn early

that they may have to be the surrogate parents of
their autistic sibling when their parents age and
die. However, the complex and stigmatising nature
of the disorder mean they may find this difficult to
deal with.
Disability is never an individual condition. It

affects the life-chances and experiences of the entire
family. The greatest stigma is usually borne by the
mother; in a patriarchal society that valorises her
mothering role, she is seen as being responsible for
her childs condition. If she works, she is accused
of neglect. The childs special needs and quality of
care become her biggest responsibility; from
rendering assistance with feeding and cleaning to
teaching, training and playing with a child who
no one else wants to engage with. Fathers,
especially if they are the sole bread winners, must
reckon with keeping the family afloat and plan for
Autism Spectrum Disorder did not find mention

in the Persons with Disability Act of 1995. The
new bill does include it in the list of disabilities to
be notified and therefore eligible for state assistance.
Official recognition opens access to services and
creates awareness and knowledge. The healthcare
and teaching professions will have to factor in these
newly notified disabilities in their professional
practices and competencies, thereby opening doors
to those who desperately need services. Once a
social group is granted recognition as a category
that merits rights and entitlements by the state,
societal attitudes too undergo a change. Of course,
no law in the world can act like a magic wand
and completely change a landscape of stigma and
discrimination. But it is certainly a beginning.
Within the disability community, the marginalised
amongst the marginalised have waited patiently
for a new law to be enacted. While those with
physical disabilities can vocally lobby for their
interests, persons with autism and intellectual
disabilities, because of the very nature of their
impairment, may find it hard to do so. Their parents
and allies must stand firmly with them, waiting
for the time when, empowered with rights and
supported by a caring society, they will find their
voices and advocate for themselves. Perhaps then,
the slogan of the disability rights movement,
nothing for us without us, will resonate with
greater authenticity.
INTERIM BUDGET THAT DELIVERS
In an election year, where the regular budget is

to be presented by a new government, the Vote on
Account was not expected to come out with major
policy announcements. That said, however,
industry is pleased that the finance minister took
note of the urgent need to counter slowdown in
growth, investments and manufacturing and came

out with strong steps in the interim budget. For
industry, the two issues of concern were revival of
growth, particularly manufacturing, and fiscal
consolidation. The interim budget delivers on both
fronts.
[69]

The macroeconomic situation of growth
deceleration, coupled with a spike in the fiscal deficit
and the current account deficit (CAD), has been of
concern. The data presented in the interim budget
was reassuring. The GDP is expected to register
growth of 5.2 per cent during the second half of
the year, which means deceleration has bottomed
out and the economy is now on an upward
trajectory.
We were also happy to note the stress on skill

development. The finance ministers speech
mentioned the progress made in certified skills,
where the CII too has played a part. The target is
to skill 500 million people by 2022, and the
additional allocation under this head will prove a
boost.
However, we would have liked skill
development to be linked with the MGNREGA to
achieve the challenging target.
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Most of all, the strict adherence to the fiscal

deficit for 2013-14, at 4.6 per cent, highlights the
fact that the government is serious about fiscal
rectitude and has taken strong measures to prevent
the fiscal gap from spiralling out of control. This
was a challenging task, observed closely by
stakeholders across the board, especially in terms
of impact on Plan expenditure. It is remarkable
that the compression in the fiscal deficit has been
achieved without pressure on urgent Plan outlays.
The FM also reiterated the commitment to bringing
down the fiscal deficit further to 4.1 per cent next
year, and reducing the revenue deficit to 3 per
cent. This would set an excellent benchmark for
the next government. The containment of the CAD
at $45 billion too is an achievement, given the
vulnerabilities of the global economy. It is
commendable that exports will cross the target at
$326 billion for FY 2014. The management of the
exchange rate during the US taper has been
prudent and volatility has been avoided.
Three more economic corridors are underway,

which should help boost the manufacturing sector
and exports.
On the industry side, recent data has pointed

to an entrenched slowdown, with manufacturing
contracting during the first nine months of the year.
The Vote on Account does well to recognise this
could not wait until the presentation of the regular
budget. The unexpected slashing of excise duty for
capital goods from 12 to 10 per cent is a great
relief. More important was the deep cut in excise
duties for the auto sector with respect to small cars,
SUVs and large cars across the board. This will
greatly incentivise the demand for passenger cars
and help kickstart a new cycle of growth for
upstream and downstream sectors. Apart from this,
the budget also mentioned progress on the National
Investment and Manufacturing Zones (NIMZs).
The 10-point agenda for the future indicates

the areas the next government would need to
address urgently. Fiscal consolidation would have
to remain at the top in order to make available
investible resources to industry and to contain
inflation. The commitment to attracting foreign
funds was welcome, as India needs to evolve into
a destination for overseas investors. The stress on
infrastructure, with private-sector participation, as
also the rationalisation of import duties to promote
manufacturing, are prudent intentions. There is no
alternative to strengthening the manufacturing
sector to create the millions of jobs that will be
required by Indias growing working-age
population. In this regard, urbanisation and skill
development are rightly mentioned as two major
challenges. The government would need to develop
long-term strategic plans to leverage the
opportunities arising out of these areas, particularly
in creating smart new cities along the proposed
NIMZs.
A noteworthy point was the intent to expand
Aadhaar as a platform for delivery of direct
transfers. We hope the next government will
increasingly shift to Aadhaar to target subsidies
better, reduce wastage and lower subsidy
outlay.Industry could not have expected more
from an interim budget. The Vote on Account sets
a solid foundation for the next governments
finances.
WHEN THE STATE LISTENS
The committee of secretaries chaired by the

cabinet secretary has decided that all bills proposed
by the government should go through a process of
pre-legislative scrutiny. This follows the
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recommendation of the National Advisory Council,

which had suggested that all bills be taken through
this process in order to garner public feedback at
an early stage.

Let us quickly review the process by which
government bills are passed. Each bill is drafted by
the concerned administrative ministry in
consultation with the law ministry and other
relevant ministries. During this process, the ministry
may consult experts and various stakeholders
this is not mandatory.
In Britain, the government publishes a list of all

bills it proposes to introduce at the beginning of
each year. (Note that a parliamentary session lasts
a year in the UK, and we follow a similar system
of publishing a list at the beginning of each session
of Parliament.) The draft versions of bills are then
sent to a parliamentary committee, which takes
public comments and consults experts. Its report is
then made available to the government, which may
make suitable changes before introducing the bill
in Parliament.
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In some cases, the ministry publishes a draft

bill for public feedback (as, for example, in the cases
of the right to education and land acquisition bills).
Then the bill is taken to the cabinet for approval.
The minister introduces the bill in Parliament, when
it may be referred to a standing committee for
examination. This is not a mandatory step, and as
for now about two-thirds of all bills are referred to
the committee. Then the bill is taken up for
consideration and passing in each House, where
there is detailed discussion and amendments are
made. Finally, the bill is sent to the president for
his assent, and thereafter deemed to be an act of
Parliament.
through a private members bill. That this system is

not used the last such bill was passed in 1970
is the subject of another article. The prelegislative process can be extended to Parliament,
as has been done in the UK.
The process of pre-legislative scrutiny decided

by the committee of secretaries adds a mandatory
step at the initial stage. It requires the
administrative ministry to proactively publish
proposed legislation on the internet and other
media. This publication should include the draft
bill as well as a brief justification for such
legislation, essential elements, broad financial
implications and an assessment on environment,
fundamental rights, lives and livelihoods of affected
people, etc. This note should be made available for
at least 30 days for public feedback. The summary
of the feedback should be published for public
comments, and made available to the standing
committee of Parliament when it examines the bill
after introduction. There may be exceptional
circumstances when this process cannot be followed,
and in such cases, the ministry must record the
reasons for not doing so.
This is an excellent first step to increase
transparency in the law-making process and
increasing public participation in it. This recognises
the fact that it is much easier to make changes to
a proposed law at an early stage than at a later
stage in Parliament, when various political parties
have taken a stance and may find it difficult to
change their positions. That said, the government
can make more changes to strengthen the process.
The key fact to recognise is that it is Parliament

that makes law. The government only proposes any
new law and in theory, any MP may do so
The pre-legislative scrutiny is not done for every

bill, and there is a demand by several British MPs
that it should be taken up for all bills other than
those that make minor changes. It is also important
to note that each bill, including those that went
through the pre-legislative scrutiny by a
parliamentary committee, has to be examined by a
parliamentary committee in each House of
Parliament. This is a mandatory step before the bill
is taken up for discussion in the House.
It may be useful to include two steps in our
process of enacting a new law. First, there should
be pre-legislative scrutiny by standing committees
of draft bills. A start could be made by taking up
this process only for bills seen to have a significant
social or economic impact. Second, the process of
scrutiny by standing committees could be made
mandatory for all bills.
In order to strengthen the process, a few other
changes are required. Committees need to be
provided with specialised research staff. With many
new laws being technical in nature, it is important
that parliamentarians be provided with research
support that helps them understand the nuances
of various issues and enables them to take informed
decisions in order to balance conflicting interests.
It is also important that MPs judge each issue
on its merits and according to their conscience,
and that they are not bound by party diktat. While
most standing committees have followed this
principle, we have seen instances where they have
chosen to abide by the party line. The public
accounts committee and joint parliamentary
committee that examined the allocation of 2G
spectrum come to mind. For the process of
examination and recommendation by the
[71]

committee, it is essential that each MP onthe
committee take an independent view.
Laws enacted by Parliament can have a major
impact on the lives of citizens. It should be made
incumbent on the government to explain the gaps
it is trying to fill and how the proposed legislation
does so, and engage with the public in the drafting
process. Close parliamentary scrutiny and debate

are also essential for ensuring that the objectives
and proposals have wide acceptance. The proposed
pre-legislative process is a good step in this direction,
but Parliament needs to do more to strengthen its
processes.
UNSHACKLING PRASAR BHARATI

aspirations in order to become a genuine public
broadcaster rather than remain a government
broadcaster.
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India is in dire need of broadcast autonomy,

especially in the form of a truly autonomous, even
if state-assisted, public service broadcaster. This was
a promise made by Nehru to Parliament in 1948.
But it is yet to be redeemed. The post-Emergency
1977-78 broadcast autonomy committee, in its
report Akash Bharati, presented a blueprint for
autonomy. That was dumbed down by the Janata
government and a Prasar Bharati bill was finally
enacted in 1990, brought into force in 1997 and
emasculated almost ab initio.
What the government wanted, with cross-party
political support, was some kind of official trumpet.
Despite brave efforts to make something of it, Prasar
Bharati (PB) has not lived up to its charter that
few, if any, have even read. PBs biodata makes for
dismal reading.
It is probably the largest public broadcaster in

the world, with a staff of 31,621 full-time and 7,269
part-time (mostly government) employees. DD
operates 21 channels and AIR has a network of
326 broadcast stations. The engineering and
technical services are numerically dominant and
no more than 15 per cent of the budget is devoted
to programme content, as against 60-80 per cent
by other major international broadcasters. Radio
has been downgraded and AIR reduced to a poor
relative.
The country has over 800 TV channels and 500
FM channels that are only permitted limited news
coverage. Community broadcasting, long
discouraged, is only now coming into its own. It
was, therefore, with much hope and expectation
that the appointment of a new expert committee
was announced, under Sam Pitroda and seven
domain experts, a year ago. That report is now in,
but has been virtually ignored in public discussion.
The main recommendation is that PB needs to
be adequately empowered and enabled with
independent professionals and financial self-reliance
to unleash its creative forces beyond the market
as a true voice of India, its ethos, culture and
[72]
Stress is rightly laid on appropriate mechanisms

to confer financial and personnel autonomy on PB.
There is gross overstaffing and staff must become
employees and not allowed to remain government
servants, a pernicious legacy of official control. The
board should be professionally managed; there must
be a complete transfer of ownership and
management of all assets and human resources to
PB to make it independent; funding should come
from the government, internal resource mobilisation,
including monetising the tremendous archival assets
of AIR and DD; private investment in production;
and by co-opting industry through CSR budgets.
There is need to digitise radio and TV; create a
world-class broadcast service with a global
outreach; and set up an autonomous third arm,
PB Connect, to manage social media. Many of
these recommendations are well taken, but there
will be reservations on others. Constituting a
parliamentary oversight committee to ensure that
PB discharges its duty in accordance with the
provisions of the act and government-defined
duties is a recipe for political interference. PB is
accountable to Parliament through its annual report
and budget via the ministry of information and
broadcasting and, where needed, through
questions. A Regulatory (Complaints) body as a
sub-committee of PB is also not a good idea. This
should be an independent body and should also
cover private broadcasters so as to avoid different
rulings by parallel authorities.
The plea to encourage outsourcing of content
creation to external producers needs to be treated
with caution. PB must develop in-house talent while
not baulking at hiring producers from the market.
This was the position earlier, but has been
subverted by overly embracing the market.
Likewise, the report does not go far enough in
urging PB to share its huge infrastructure with the

market. One committee had, years ago,
suggested hiving off the engineering, technical and
R&D wing of PB into a transmission corporation
as an independent profit centre, since its land,
buildings, transmitters, studio facilities, relay
stations and towers have considerable idle capacity
that could service private and especially local and
community broadcasting. This proposal should not
be discarded without deeper study. The broadcast
receiver licence fee, paid once at the purchase point,
has most unwisely been relegated as an unsavoury
tax. This calls for review.
the managerial takeover of editorial responsibilities,

paid news and similar dubious dealings like private
treaties have all combined to undermine media
integrity. Allegations masquerade as charges and
subvert public discourse and result in media trials.
Another recommendation that must be queried

is that, since the state has to communicate messages,
there should be a separate state broadcasting setup that should use the existing public and private
broadcasting infrastructure. This appears to be
creating avoidable redundancy and encouraging a
propaganda machine. PB can and should do the
job as a public service above all. The expert report
does not make as strong a case for public service
broadcasting as merited. Current media trends in
India in the wake of the continuing
communications
revolution
and
market
deregulation are a matter for concern.
All consumers are citizens but not all citizens

are consumers. As India is in transition from rural
to urban, agriculture to industry, feudal submission
to protest, local to global, little identities to
fraternity, information is the key to empowerment,
equality, gender justice and social awareness. Who
more than PB can afford to speak to and for all the
people in their myriad languages and dialects?
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The failure to regulate the media the Press

Council is a broken reed and the fragility of selfregulation have deeply undermined media
credibility. It is in this milieu that a true public
service broadcaster has a duty to, and can, set
standards. It is not commercially driven, as are
private channels.
Cross-media holdings, the corporatisation and

politicisation of the media, advertising pressures,
Nevertheless, the expert committee report does

constitute a good basis for debate and reform. This
Parliament is done and legislation must await the
new government after the general elections. This
gives time for a national debate. Let us use that
time purposefully.
ANOTHER SHOT IN THE DARK
Transformative change is so difficult to achieve

in practice that we often settle for piecemeal
improvements. However, incremental reform, even
if well-intentioned, is always dissatisfying and often
counterproductive. The changes made to the
scheme and structure of the civil services
examination (CSE) between 2011 and 2013 squarely
illustrate how even overdue improvements can have
unintended consequences that act as a drag on the
larger reform project. While the first change, in
2011, did not attract too much dissent since it
modified only the qualifying preliminary
examination scheme, last years changes led to more
concerted protests as they affected the main
examination stage, which actually counts when the
final merit list for some of the most prized jobs in
government is drawn up.
No one can deny that these jobs hold prestige
and attraction for a large swathe of the aspirational
Indian middle class. There is also anecdotal evidence
that candidates spend many years preparing for
the exam, and the inevitable rush to implement
reform by modifying the examination pattern
perhaps did not adequately account for the

vehement social and political opposition that this
could potentially draw from candidates and their
well-wishers.
The clamour for postponing the effects of the
reform received wide publicity, recently, the Central
government approved two additional attempts for
all categories of candidates, with effect from 2014,
and with consequential relaxation of the maximum
age limit, if required. Now, a general category
candidate can make six attempts at the examination
between the ages of 21 and 32 (as counted on
August 1 of the exam year).
Candidates belonging to other categories are
allowed different and somewhat more relaxed
upper age limits. It is now possible for a general
candidate to enter service at the age of 33, while
relaxed provisions in particular cases can
theoretically allow a candidate pushing 40 to join
as a civil service probationer (in CSE 2011, about
13 per cent of the successful candidates across all
categories were above 30).
[73]

credentials would be denied an opportunity to
enter the civil service if the upper age limit were
kept too low, as it was pre-1970s (24, for general
category).
Without adequate data, the debate between
these two positions is potentially endless. The ARCs
pragmatic recommendation was to adopt 25 as the
upper age limit for general candidates, allowing a
relaxation of three and four years for OBC and
SC/ ST/ differently-abled candidates respectively.
This was based on the need to avoid three
undesirable outcomes of late entry: one, it works
against the interests of the weaker sections in the
long run; second, it does not enable recruitment of
the best candidates at a malleable age; finally, it
puts a premium on rote learning and coaching
institutes.
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Individual and perhaps even deserving

cases apart, the concern with age limits and number
of chances is motivated first by fears about the
trainability of older qualifying candidates. For
example, a report of the second administrative
reforms commission (ARC) held that around the
age of 23-24, an individual makes the transition
from an open and receptive phase in life to a phase
where she gets set in her views, which makes
it difficult for a civil servant entering at a later age
to adapt to and internalise the core and intrinsic
values demanded of a civil service.
More pragmatically, it has been argued that
late entry impedes a civil servant from reaching
the top of the pyramid (the grail of secretary to the
government of India) since she has fewer years of
experience to show in a merit-cum-seniority scheme,
when it comes to the crunch (this is demonstrably
more so for SC/ ST officers, some of whom may
have entered at an even later age). It has been
argued that this, in turn, discourages altruism and
could even encourage the pursuit of selfaggrandisement and private profit.
On the other hand, the poor access of
candidates from rural and backward areas and
communities to educational facilities and
infrastructure, in comparison with their urban
counterparts, makes it necessary to offer
countervailing relaxations in the interests of equity,
diversity and representativeness. It is also certainly
true that late blossomers (Kothari Committee,
1976) and others who wish to improve their
What has been lost through the relaxation of

the upper age limit and the increase in the number
of chances is the opportunity to minimise these
undesirable outcomes. In privileging the reform of
examination content over process, and indeed, in
even segregating the two and pushing one without
due consideration for the impact this will have on
the other, another opportunity to institute
meaningful reform appears to have been wasted.
CSE reform ought to have been an easy enough
place to begin the arduous task of administrative
reform. It turns out, on the contrary, that it is one
of the hardest.
INCOMPLETE AGENCY
Three years after then finance minister Pranab

Mukherjee first announced the setting up of the
Public Debt Management Agency (PDMA) during
his budget speech in 2011, Finance Minister P.
Chidambaram has reported that the PDMA bill is
ready but that the agency will be set up as a nonstatutory body, and will start functioning in the
coming financial year. A broad majority, including
the Financial Sector Legislative Reforms
Commission, has come out in favour of divesting
the RBI of government debt management and
handing it over to an independent agency. But given
that the long-delayed proposal will now be revived
through executive order, there are questions of its
scope and the turf wars it could potentially trigger.
As the regulator of the banking sector and given
its control over monetary policy and therefore
on interest rates and inflation the RBI is
[74]
implicated in a conflict of interest if it also manages

government borrowings. A central banks incentives
are not aligned or internally consistent if it is
charged with accessing low-cost debt on behalf of
the government on one hand, and has to raise
interest rates in response to inflation on the other.
Or, if it can corner banks into holding more
government bonds by adjusting the statutory
liquidity ratio upwards as a part of its regulatory
powers. And while a central bank acting as a debt
manager may hope to reduce the governments real
debt burden by encouraging inflation in the
economy, it is also supposed to be on guard against
price rise.
By curtailing the role of the RBI and the finance
ministry, an independent PDMA will also discipline
the government by forcing it to face the bond
market more fully. But by establishing the agency

through administrative notification rather than an
act of Parliament, it is an open question whether it
can still be vested with the originally envisaged
scope and powers. Given that the RBI maintains
that, at least as of now, it alone has the capability
to manage the governments debt portfolio and
Governor Raghuram Rajans belief that the conflict
of interest issues are overstated, the lack of statutory
backing for the agency may touch off a turf war.

As seen in the case of the Pension Fund Regulatory
and Development Authority, even if the agency
gets off the ground without Parliaments nod, the
government will ultimately have to seek its approval
to shore up its powers.
51 MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION

agriculture into more productive sectors, which will
raise the per-person farm income and benefit the
economy. The inability to do so will increase
disguised unemployment and limit productivity
improvement.
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In his budget speech, the finance minister rightly

highlighted the need to create several million new
jobs in the manufacturing sector the Achilles
heel of the Indian economy over the coming
years. India adds one million people to its workingage population every month. Thats right, every
month. Not everyone looks for a job, though.
Labour force participation is around 58 per cent
this means, of every 10 lakh persons between the
age of 15 and 59, only 5.8 lakh will actually seek
a job every month. The others would mostly be
studying or working at home. Even with such low
labour force participation, our calculations show
that the number of job seekers would have risen by
a whopping 51 million during the seven fiscal years
leading up to 2018-19. In the global context, India
will have to create 16.6 per cent of the additional
jobs that are needed each year across the world.
Its a staggering number and challenge.
Creating adequate employment opportunities

for new entrants in the job market, especially in
the non-agricultural sector, will be a stiff task for
policymakers as growth slows down. Successful
employment generation is, of course, vital for
equitable growth. If India is unable to generate the
required number of new jobs, its much-vaunted
demographic dividend will morph into its bugbear.
A recent CRISIL study estimates that the nonagricultural sector (industry and services), which
now accounts for 86 per cent of the GDP, will add
only 38 million jobs between 2011-12 and 2018-19
a quarter less than the 52 million jobs that were
added during the preceding seven-year period.
With not enough opportunities outside the
agricultural sector to absorb the 51 million new job
seekers, an additional 13 million people will be
forced to either depend on low-productivity farms
for work or remain unemployed. Thats the opposite
of what happened between 2004-05 and 2011-12
during this period, 37 million people migrated
out of agricultural employment.As the economy
develops, surplus labour needs to shift out of
Indias growth prospects as well as its ability to

translate growth into employment have been
curbed in recent years. The economy grew at 4.5
per cent during the last fiscal year, and is unlikely
to do much better in the current one. What is clear
is that India will have to live with diminished
growth expectations for the coming years. We
expect the economy to expand at a lower average
growth rate of 6 per cent during the seven fiscals
up to 2018-19 compared with 8.5 per cent between
2004-05 and 2011-12. The 250 basis point decline
will be due to the sluggishness in industry and
services, assuming that agriculture grows at its trend
rate of around 3 per cent. Slower non-agriculture
growth, in turn, will mean fewer jobs being created.
Aggravating the slowdown is the sharp decline
in the employment elasticity of the GDP, which is
defined as the percentage increase in employment
for every percentage point increase in the GDP.
The number deteriorated sharply to 0.38 per cent
between 2004-05 and 2011-12, from 0.52 per cent
in the five preceding years, for the non-agricultural
sector.
Two factors were responsible for this jobless
nature of growth. First, the growth in the GDP has
been driven by the services sector, which is less
labour-intensive than industry. And even within
the services sector, growth is driven increasingly
by less labour-intensive services, such as finance,
real estate and business services, including
information technology and information technology
enabled services.
For example, in 2011-12, these services, which
account for 19 per cent of the GDP, employed only
3 per cent of the workforce. These sectors grew at
over 11 per cent per year. In contrast, the more
[75]

labour-dependent service sub-sectors, such as
health, education and recreation services, which
require 6.5 times as many people to produce output
worth Rs 1 million, grew at below 7 per cent
annually during the seven fiscals leading to 2012.
Within services, politicians should also focus on

developing the health and education sectors. This
will not only create jobs as they are labour-intensive
services, but also raise Indias growth potential by
making the workforce healthy, skilled and
educated.
And finally, we need to focus on physical
infrastructure and the construction sector. This
sector not only has high employment elasticity but
can also absorb low-skilled labour from the
agricultural sector.
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Second, the ability of labour-intensive sectors

such as manufacturing to absorb workers has
declined considerably. The employment elasticity
of manufacturing fell sharply to an average 0.17 in
the seven fiscals leading to 2012 from 0.68 in the
five years up to 2004-05. Inflexible labour laws and
increasing automation have resulted in the largescale substitution of labour by capital. Automation
is part of technological progress and is inevitable.
And restrictive labour laws are speeding up the
process of automation, which is an unhealthy
development for an economy endowed with a large
and fast-expanding workforce.
Bangladesh beats India on most social indicators

despite having a lower per capita income.
It is imperative for the government not only to

push growth up but also to arrest the pace of decline
in employment elasticity. For this, it will have to
raise the labour dependency of the manufacturing
sector by simplifying labour laws and encouraging
the growth of labour-intensive industries such as
textiles, gems and jewellery, handicrafts and food
processing.
There is an emerging export opportunity in
some of these low-cost/ labour-intensive sectors,
such as textiles, as wages in China rise and
businesses there start exiting these segments.
Bangladesh is a good example of an economy that
took advantage of its low-cost structure and
developed its textile sector. This not only created
jobs but also improved social indicators. Today,
Construction has the highest employment

elasticity among non-agricultural sectors a
percentage point growth in the construction sector
raises employment by more than 1 per cent. No
wonder the number of people employed in the
construction sector went up by 25 million, in
contrast with only six million in manufacturing, in
the seven fiscals leading to 2012, even though both
sectors grew at a similar rate of around 9 per cent
per year. More than 65 per cent of the labour force
used in construction is unskilled or semi-skilled
a key characteristic of people coming out of
agriculture. A fast-growing construction sector can
therefore
create
significant
employment
opportunities for low-skilled surplus labour in
agriculture.
Cutting to the chase, policymakers have their
task cut out. Inaction will be perilous as it will
transform Indias potential demographic dividend
into a demographic liability.
RURAL INDIA SHINING AT LAST
As the national election looms large in the minds

of citizens, one big question begs an answer: How
well, or how badly, did the Indian economy fare
under 10 years of United Progressive Alliances
(UPA) rule? While a large part of the debate has
focused on the performance in terms of growth
rates and the worsening of macroeconomic
conditions, the discussion remains centred on issues
concerning the middle-classes and the urban areas.
The reality, in particular about what happened to
the majority of population in rural areas, suggests
a lesser degree of pessimism than what is portrayed
using aggregate data. It will not be too much of an
exaggeration to say that during the last 10 years,
rural areas of the country have seen a kind of
[76]
transformation not witnessed since economic

reforms began. In fact, on some metrics they have
been the best since independence.
This is not only true of income indicators,
whether in terms of income accruing to farmers or
the wages of casual workers in rural areas, but
also for other markers of social development such
as educational enrolment and health indicators. A
better than average growth rate of agricultural
output, at more than 3.5% per annum certainly
helped. But thanks to the rising minimum support
prices (MSP) and a general movement of terms of
trade in favour of agriculture, farmers are now
getting much more for their produce than during
the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) rule from

1998 to 2004. In those years the terms of trade
moved against agriculture, resulting in one of the
worst crisis in agriculture that the country faced
since independence. Agriculture and non-agricultural casual wage workers also gained: their wages
grew at the highest rate, at more than 6% per annum
in real terms during the UPA period as against a
near stagnation of wages during the NDA regime.
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Farmers and casual wage workers account for

roughly 90% of the working population in rural
areas and a healthy growth rate of income certainly
helped them deal with the negative impact of
inflation since 2009. What was less noticed, however,
was also the fact that for the first time, rural
incomes/expenditures grew faster than urban areas.
good with job creation slowing sharply during this

period, rural areas have gained from a
transformation of the workforce structure. Not only
did the percentage of workers in the non-farm
sector increase sharply after 2004, for the first time
since independence rural areas also saw an absolute
decline in number of workers in the lowproductivity agricultural sector by 34 million
between 2004-05 and 2011-12. Thus, the growth
rate of agricultural output per worker was higher
than ever.
In fact, evidence of increased prosperity in rural

areas has now been confirmed from many sources,
including the estimates of poverty which suggest a
faster reduction since 2004. At a time when the
sale of automobiles is showing signs of deceleration,
there is increase in sales of tractors and twowheelers, largely consumed in the rural areas. So
much so, that the increase in rural prosperity has
often been blamed for the overall inflation in the
economy.
A large part of the poverty reduction in rural

areas after 2004-05 is due to the increased public
spending. The case of increased transfers through
public distribution system (PDS) and the Mahatma
Scheme (MGNREGS) are well known, but there
has also been a step-up in expenditure on rural
roads and housing along with other transfers such
as social pensions. While a large part of the
expenditure on rural development schemes is the
outcome of increased Union government funding,
the expansion in PDS is due to innovative and
expansive approach by various state governments.
While the case of employment generation is not so
Unfortunately, a large part of the debate on

the performance of the economy has ignored some
of these fundamental and structural changes. While
high pitched rhetorical debates are common in a
charged electoral atmosphere, they also tend to blur
the distinction between fact and fiction. So much
so that the so-called Gujarat model of development,
which has been touted as a role model for India,
actually turns out to be among the worst performing
state not only on most rural development indicators
but also on issues of governance such as MGNREGS
and PDS. Not only have wages grown much slowly
in Gujarat than the rest of the country but it is also
among the states with highest leakage in PDS going
by 2011-12 data. Despite all the evidence that the
UPA has contributed to a rural resurgence not seen
earlier and definitely much better than the NDA,
it finds itself unable to take credit for it. Part of the
reason for it is that in many states, the stellar
performance owes itself to the policies and
leadership of the state governments and not of the
Union government.
While this may partly be the reason,
understanding the dynamics and the details of the
rural resurgence are as much important for the
political debate as much as they are for the revival
of the countrys economy.
Source: Live Mint
THE COMING CHINESE SNEEZE
It is an interesting time to take stock of the

global economy. It used to be said that when
America sneezes, the rest of the world catches cold.
The events of last year suggest anything but the
same. It is now the case that when America
recovers, the rest of the world catches cold. This
reversal is due to the fact that good news for the
American economy is bad news for global liquidity.
The Federal Reserve strengthens its resolve with
each piece of good news to taper its
unconventional monetary policy. In turn, as treasury
yields rise, asset managers retrench from higherWeekly Current Affairs 17th February to 23rd February, 2014
yielding assets towards safe havens.
While the Fed taper is what seems to have been

the proximate cause of the recent turbulence, most
notably in the emerging markets and their
currencies, the growth prospects for the emerging
markets less affected by the taper also deserve
careful scrutiny. Of these markets, China merits
attention. The debt binge in China is beginning to
cast a perilous shadow on the health of the global
economy. Indeed, one can argue this to be the most
significant long-run threat to growth.
[77]

In the fall of 2008, global trade appeared to
have come to a screeching halt with the collapse of
large parts of the financial sector in Western
economies. Besides Western economies, such a halt
would have been disastrous for an export-driven
economy such as China. As regulators in the
Western economies put in place rescue packages to
heal their financial sectors, the Chinese put in place
a massive stimulus programme to keep pushing
investment even further in the domestic economy.
Trusts are set up by banks themselves and the

trust liabilities are perceived to be ultimately those
of the sponsoring banks.
Rapid investments of such scale are sustainable
only when consumption grows at the same pace.
But the Chinese economy has done less well on the
latter front and the result has been excess capacity
in pretty much all spheres of the Chinese economy.
This misallocation of resources is now running its
inevitable course. Municipal debts are a question
mark, several trusts are unable to meet their
promises causing strains on bank liquidity and
inter-bank markets, and all this off-balance-sheet
mess is putting further strain on banks which are
already facing losses on non-performing loans on
balance-sheets.
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State-owned banks have always been an

attractive tool worldwide for such stimulus. The
Chinese state-owned banks expanded their debt
dramatically to fund this stimulus. Why debt? The
reason is simple. While shareholders of state-owned
banks are by and large wiped out when such banks
become distressed, their debt promises are generally
fulfilled by the state. In anticipation of these
government guarantees, debt financiers do not
adequately charge for the risks undertaken by stateowned banks.
investments being safe, akin to the implicit wont

break the buck promise of the money-market
funds. Further, these shadows touch the feet of the
banks.
The state-owned banks can finance pretty much

any project they wish to, or are directed to. As
long as no shareholder capital is put at stake, it is
a bet in which heads I win, tails the taxpayers lose.
In addition, the deposit rate-ceilings in China
prevented bank depositors from demanding higher
rates in the first place. Such repression of the
households has had two pernicious consequences.
One, this lack of market discipline allowed banks
to grow their asset bases into highly risky, and
now ghost-town real-estate and infrastructure
investments. Second, the unintended consequence
of rate-ceilings has been to create a shadow-banking
world in which banks compete for household funds,
but outside of the regulated perimeter of banks,
and lend to municipalities for infrastructure and
real-estate development.
Much like the growth of the money-market

funds in the US in response to the Regulation Q
that limited bank deposit rates, trust funds and
wealth-management products have sprung up in
Chinese shadow banking to the tune of over $2
trillion. They offer rates higher than bank deposits
with marketing language that has the flavour of
The Chinese stimulus of the past five years has

been a big driver of the global rebound from the
abyss of fall 2008. As the stimulus subsides and the
Chinese government looks for a shift from
investment-driven growth to consumption-driven
growth, the rest of the world cannot escape a
difficult adjustment.
Commodity producers in Australia, Canada and
Africa and their currencies will be hit hard. And
as bank lending rates rise in China, so will the
costs of its exported goods and feed into all other
economies.
The Chinese slowdown may be relatively good
news for some parts of the deleveraging economy
of the US, the less debt-reliant growth engine of
India, and perhaps even Japan. It is also a blessing
in disguise that much of the Chinese debt is local,
ruling out a direct contagion to the other financial
sectors. Nevertheless, the slowdown is likely to cast
a prolonged shadow on global growth in the years
to come. This, rather than the Feds taper or
Europes reluctance to solve its structural problems
head on, remains a key risk the world should
prepare for.
Source: Live Mint
MEDICINE AVEC FRONTIERES
Clare Morris hardly noticed when she tore the

meniscus in her knee while dancing. The pain
started only when she heard that repairing the
damage at a hospital in South Carolina, where she
lives, would cost $15,000. With limited insurance,
[78]
she would have had to pay much of that herself.

But after shopping around she found that she could
have her knee repaired at a good hospital in Costa
Rica for $7,400and take a holiday, too.

Just a decade ago, stories like hers seemed to
point to the future of health care. If a person could
save thousands by shopping in the global health
market, the reasoning went, insurers and
governments could save billions. A knee
replacement costs $34,000 in America, but just
$19,200 in Singapore, $11,500 in Thailand and
$9,500 in Costa Rica, according to Patients Beyond
Borders, a consultancy. Even within Europe savings
are to be found: a hip replacement is $4,000 cheaper
in Spain than in Britain.
The legwork required also turned out to be

formidable. Insurers had to choose foreign hospitals,
negotiate contracts and malpractice insurance, and
arrange follow-up care with American providers.
They also risked upsetting the locals who would
continue to take most of their custom. By the time
the battle over Obamacare distracted them from
contemplating transnational forays, most seemed
to have concluded that they would not be
worthwhile anyway. Companion Global Health
Care, a subsidiary of Blue Cross Blue Shield, is the
only big medical-tourism offshoot of an American
insurer.
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In the mid-2000s American insurers set out to

find these savings by touring foreign private
hospitals. They found that many were as good as
their rich-world counterparts, and far cheaper. A
big shake-up seemed likely. In 2008 Deloitte
predicted an explosive boom in medical tourism,
saying that the number of Americans going abroad
for health care would grow more than tenfold by
2012.
by American insurers went on the kind of nonurgent procedures that might be moved abroad.
It did not happen. Poor data were part of the

problem: whereas Deloitte counted 750,000
American medical tourists in 2007, McKinsey,
another consultancy, found at most 10,000 a year
later. It is generally agreed that the number of
medical tourists has grown since thenThailands
Bumrungrad hospital, which is popular with
foreign patients, reports steady growth. But the
data are still fuzzy. Patients Beyond Borders
estimates that as many as 12m people globally now
travel for care, perhaps 1m of them Americans.
Industry insiders admit that growth has not
matched the initial heady expectations.
Patient interest also turned out to be lower than
predicted. Though some patients in the rich world
seek out deals, most receive adequate health care
at a manageable price and would prefer to stay at
home. Potential savings are often insufficient to
trump concerns about quality and the lack of
recourse if something goes wrong. In 2008
Hannaford, an American supermarket chain,
offered to pay the full cost of hip and knee
replacements for its employees, including travel and
patients usual shareprovided they would go to
Singapore. None took up the offer.
The predicted growth depended on medical

tourism evolving from an individual pursuit to a
cost-saving measure embraced by insurers and
governments. But without reliable projections,
insurers were reluctant to invest in the idea, says
Ruben Toral, a health-care consultant. And cooler
measures of the size of the opportunity dimmed
their ardour. In 2009 Arnold Milstein of Stanford
University estimated that less than 2% of spending
Governments have shown a similar lack of

enthusiasm, perhaps because state promotion of
medical tourism is usually seen as an admission of
policy failure. In 2002 Britain allowed patients facing
long waits to seek treatment elsewhere in Europe.
Liam Fox, the shadow health secretary at the time,
called the decision humiliating and criticised the
government for not spending more at home. In
Germany patient advocates blame government
stinginess for the fact that some retired people
choose, for reasons of cost, to live in eastern
European care homes. Overall, only 1% of public
health-care spending in Europe now crosses
borders.
But the mere possibility of medical tourism is
starting to change health care in unexpected ways.
The biggest gains have gone not to patients, insurers
or governments, but to hospitals, which have
calculated that they could win more business by
reversing the trend and going abroad to find
patients. Americas Cleveland Clinic will open a
branch in Abu Dhabi next year. (It already manages
Sheikh Khalifa Medical City, a 750-bed hospital in
Abu Dhabi.) Singapores Parkway Health has set
up hospitals across Asia. Indias Apollo Hospitals,
a chain of private hospitals, has a branch in
Mauritius.
And though American firms and insurers have
mostly stopped scouring the globe for bargains,
some have negotiated bulk rates with top-notch
hospitals at home. Lowes, a home-improvement
firm, offers workers all around the country in need
of cardiac care the option of going to the Cleveland
Clinic in Ohio. PepsiCo, a food giant, made a deal
with Johns Hopkins in Maryland. Other firms are
said to be working on similar schemes. The future
of medical tourism may be domestic rather than
long-haul.
[79]
THE PARABLE OF ARGENTINA

interwar years. It relied too heavily on Britain as a
trading partner. The Perns were unusually
seductive populists. Like most of Latin America,
Argentina embraced the Washington consensus in
favour of open markets and privatisation in the
1990s and it pegged the peso to the dollar. But the
crunch, when it came in 2001, was particularly
savageand left the Argentines permanently
suspicious of liberal reform.
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A century ago, when Harrods decided to set

up its first overseas emporium, it chose Buenos
Aires. In 1914 Argentina stood out as the country
of the future. Its economy had grown faster than
Americas over the previous four decades. Its GDP
per head was higher than Germanys, Frances or
Italys. It boasted wonderfully fertile agricultural
land, a sunny climate, a new democracy (universal
male suffrage was introduced in 1912), an educated
population and the worlds most erotic dance.
Immigrants tangoed in from everywhere. For the
young and ambitious, the choice between Argentina
and California was a hard one.
There are still many things to love about

Argentina, from the glorious wilds of Patagonia to
the worlds best footballer, Lionel Messi. The
Argentines remain perhaps the best-looking people
on the planet. But their country is a wreck. Harrods
closed in 1998. Argentina is once again at the centre
of an emerging-market crisis. This one can be
blamed on the incompetence of the president,
Cristina Fernndez, but she is merely the latest in
a succession of economically illiterate populists,
stretching back to Juan and Eva (Evita) Pern, and
before. Forget about competing with the Germans.
The Chileans and Uruguayans, the locals
Argentines used to look down on, are now richer.
Children from both those countriesand Brazil and
Mexico toodo better in international education
tests.
Why dwell on a single national tragedy? When
people consider the worst that could happen to
their country, they think of totalitarianism. Given
communisms failure, that fate no longer seems
likely. If Indonesia were to boil over, its citizens
would hardly turn to North Korea as a model; the
governments in Madrid or Athens are not citing
Lenin as the answer to their euro travails. The real
danger is inadvertently becoming the Argentina of
the 21st century. Slipping casually into steady
decline would not be hard. Extremism is not a
necessary ingredient, at least not much of it: weak
institutions, nativist politicians, lazy dependence on
a few assets and a persistent refusal to confront
reality will do the trick.
All through my wild days, my mad existence
As in any other country, Argentinas story is

unique. It has had bad luck. Its export-fuelled
economy was battered by the protectionism of the
[80]
Ill fortune is not the only culprit, though. In its

economy, its politics, and its reluctance to reform,
Argentinas decline has been largely self-inflicted.
Commodities, Argentinas great strength in
1914, became a curse. A century ago the country
was an early adopter of new technology
refrigeration of meat exports was the killer app of
its daybut it never tried to add value to its food
(even today, its cooking is based on taking the
worlds best meat and burning it). The Perns built
a closed economy that protected its inefficient
industries; Chiles generals opened up in the 1970s
and pulled ahead. Argentinas protectionism has
undermined Mercosur, the local trade pact. Ms
Fernndezs government does not just impose tariffs
on imports; it taxes farm exports.
Argentina did not build the institutions needed
to protect its young democracy from its army, so
the country became prone to coups. Unlike
Australia, another commodity-rich country,
Argentina did not develop strong political parties
determined to build and share wealth: its politics
was captured by the Perns and focused on
personalities and influence. Its Supreme Court has
been repeatedly tampered with. Political
interference has destroyed the credibility of its
statistical office. Graft is endemic: the country ranks
a shoddy 106th in Transparency Internationals
corruption index. Building institutions is a dull,
slow business. Argentine leaders prefer the quick
fixof charismatic leaders, miracle tariffs and
currency pegs, rather than, say, a thorough reform
of the countrys schools.
They are not the solutions they promised to be

Argentinas decline has been seductively
gradual. Despite dreadful periods, such as the
1970s, it has suffered nothing as monumental as
Mao or Stalin. Throughout its decline, the cafs of
Buenos Aires have continued to serve espressos
and medialunas. That makes its disease especially
dangerous.

less hungry for raw materials, their weaknesses
could be exposed just as Argentinas was. Populism
stalks many emerging countries: constitutions are
being stretched. Overreliant on oil and gas, ruled
by kleptocrats and equipped with a dangerously
high self-regard, Russia ticks many boxes. But even
Brazil has flirted with economic nationalism, while,
in Turkey, the autocratic Recep Tayyip Erdogan is
blending Evita with Islam. In too many parts of
emerging Asia, including China and India, crony
capitalism remains the order of the day. Inequality
is feeding the same anger that produced the Perns.
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The rich world is not immune. California is in

one of its stable phases, but it is not clear that it
has quit its addiction to quick fixes through
referendums, and its government still hobbles its
private sector. On Europes southern fringe, both
government and business have avoided reality with
Argentine disdain. Italys petulant demand that
rating agencies should take into account its
cultural wealth, instead of looking too closely at
its dodgy government finances, sounded like Ms
Fernndez. The European Union protects Spain or
Greece from spiralling off into autarky. But what if
the euro zone broke up?
The bigger danger, however, lies in the emerging

world, where uninterrupted progress to prosperity
is beginning to be seen as unstoppable. Too many
countries have surged forward on commodity
exports, but neglected their institutions. With China
The lesson from the parable of Argentina is that

good government matters. Perhaps it has been
learned. But the chances are that in 100 years time
the world will look back at another Argentinaa
country of the future that got stuck in the past.
[81]
CHRONICLE
IAS ACADEMY

24 FEBRUARY 2014 TO 2ND MARCH 2014

TH
Call: 9953120676, 9582263947

CONTENTS
TOPICS
Pg. No.
National ....................................................................................................................... 4-12

International ............................................................................................................. 13-18
Economy .................................................................................................................... 23-27
Health ......................................................................................................................... 31-35
News in Brief........................................................................................................... 36-43
Editorials from Newspapers ................................................................................44-79
In Search of open skills............................................................................................ 44
Against the flows
45
Easier said
46
Still a question mark
47
When caution trumps opportunity
48
Perils of restraints
49
New winds from Arabia
51
The right judge for the job
52
A policy of activism and restraint
53
Why a Telangana weakens federalism
54
Bit of a problem
55
Fed Taper is case of Unitaterism
56
Should the centre have sunk the navy chief?
57
Misplaced concern over our IPR regime
59
Rising from the Syrian ashes
60
The inevitability of South Asia
61

Time to speed up this trial
63
Politicking on capital punishment
64
From austerity to growth
65
When parliament fails to act
66
Sindhuratna and beyond
68
Changing contours of censorship
69
The danger in precedents
71
Regulating genetic modification
73
Realigning governance
75
The tragedy of the high seas
76
Faultlines fester in Asia
77
Can international law save Syria?
78
NATIONAL
GREEN SIGNAL FOR GEO-SCIENTIFIC DATA COLLECTION
up the project. The service provider shall complete
the survey within two years.
The agreement with the service provider will be
valid for 12 years, wherein the service provider will
be free to licence the data to prospective exploration
and production companies. The project fees will be
$10,000 for two years. The survey period can be
extended by a maximum of 12 months by paying
60 per cent of the project fees. A data delivery bank
guarantee of $100,000 will have to be provided by
the service provider to the DGH.
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The Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas,

M Veerapa Moily, has given his nod to the new
policy for geo-scientific data generation for
hydrocarbons. Under the policy, permission for
conducting geo-scientific survey will be granted
by way of a non-exclusive multi-client survey
agreement. This policy replaces the earlier model
of profit sharing after cost recovery with a onetime project fee.
The Directorate-General of Hydrocarbons
(DGH) will administer this policy. The regulator
will call for bids from companies interested in taking
Hydrocarbon Vision 2025
A ministerial group set up by the Prime

Minister to give focus on long-term energy
security for India has developed the
following vision for the next 25 years.
To assure energy security by achieving selfreliance through increased indigenous
production and investment in equity oil
abroad.
To enhance quality of life by progressively
improving product standards to ensure a
cleaner and greener India.
To develop hydrocarbon sector as a globally

competitive industry this could be benchmarked
against the best in the world through
technology up gradation and capacity building
in all facets of the industry.
To have a free market and promote healthy
competition among players and customer
service.
To ensure oil security for the country keeping
in view strategic and defense considerations.
Focus on oil security through intensification
of exploration efforts and achievement of
100% coverage of unexplored basins in a
time bound manner to enhance domestic
availability of oil and gas.
Secure acreages in identified countries

having high attractiveness for ensuring
sustainable long-term supplies.
[4]
Pursue projects to meet the deficit in demand

and supply of natural gas, and facilitate
availability of LNG.
Maintain adequate levels of self sufficiency in
refining (90% of consumption of middle
distillates).
Establish adequate strategic storage of crude
and petroleum products in different locations.
Create additional infrastructure for
distribution and marketing of oil and gas.
Open up hydrocarbon market so that there is
free and fair competition between public sector
enterprises, private companies and other
international players.
Create a policy framework for cleaner and
greener fuels.
Have a rational tariff and pricing policy,
which would ensure the consumer getting the
petroleum products at the most reasonable
prices and requisite quality, eliminating
adulteration.
Announce a long-term fiscal policy to attract
required investments in hydrocarbon sector.
Restructure the oil sector PSUs with the
objective of enhancing shareholder value and
disinvest in a phased manner in all oil sector
PSUs.
To develop regulatory and legislative
framework for providing oil/gas security for
the country.
Weekly Current Affairs 24th February to 2nd March, 2014

According to the Ministry, the new policy has
been launched in view of the requirement for
generation of geo-scientific data to support
exploration and production activities and to make
the speculative survey model more attractive and
easier to implement.
This calls for an increased emphasis on

domestic hydrocarbon exploration and production.
A significant part of the Indian sedimentary basins
still remain unexplored. Inviting private investors
for exploration is handicapped due to non
availability of data for such unexplored areas.
Hence there is a pressing need to acquire geoscientific data in respect of all the sedimentary
basins so as to accelerate Exploration and
Production (E&P) operations.
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The hydrocarbon sector plays a vital role in the

economic growth of the country as oil and gas
continue to play a pre-eminent role in meeting the
energy requirements of the nation. The India
Hydrocarbon Vision 2025 outlines the overall
prospective and vision for this purpose. The growth
of the economy would automatically lead to growth
in energy consumption. The gap between demand
and supply of crude oil, natural gas and petroleum

products from indigenous sources is likely to
increase over the years.
NBWL COMES INTO FUNCTION SOON
The government has revised the names of the

non-government officials and organisations on the
board to announce the National Board of Wildlife
(NBWL) soon. The board (NBWL), a statutory body
under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, is supposed
to oversee implementation of the law and the
wildlife policy. A sub-set of the board, the standing
committee, chaired by the environment minister and
comprising of several non-government members and
officers, is required under Supreme Court orders to
appraise all projects falling within protected wildlife
areas or within 10 kilometres distance of any such
zones.
The non-government members are nominated
on to the board and it has always been considered
a coveted position by some conservationists and
naturalists. The tenure of the last board had lapsed
in September 2013 and it had been pending
renomination while an array of projects got queued
up for clearance for the boards standing
committee, including some coal projects. The PMO
has been pushing hard since 2012 that the standing

committee meet at least once a month to appraise
projects regularly.
Even as the boards creation remained stuck,
the ministry moved to reduce the size of the legally
protected area around wildlife zones to avoid
seeking clearance for the boards standing
committee for hydroelectric projects in Sikkim.
Several projects in wildlife areas had been
objected to by the last wildlife board which also
asked for serious reforms in the way the board and
the standing committee functioned. With the
standing committees views being recommendatory
and not the final word the non-government
members several times were over-ruled or their
agenda not followed upon by the ministry. The
formal notification of the board and its standing
committee is likely to be soon followed up by an
early meeting of the latter to clear the pending
projects.
NAS VS ASER
Recently reports have been released on the

Students learning ability. According to the National
Achievement Survey (NAS) 2014 by the National
Council of Educational Research and Training
(NCERT) almost two-thirds of the students in Class
3 can read and understand simple text, and do
basic math such as addition and subtraction. The
surveys aim is to measure the improvement in
learning outcomes by assessing student abilities in
language and mathematics.
In general, though, NCERTs outcome measures
have always shown India faring better than nongovernment organization Prathams Annual Status
of Education Report (ASER) studies. While ASER
is conducted on households, NCERTs surveys are
conducted in schools.
In NCERTs surveys, in language, students are
tested on their ability to read and understand text
and to listen to and recognize words. In
mathematics, students are required to perform basic
functions. The survey was based on information
gathered from a sample of more than 104,000
[5]

students in 7,046 schools across 34 states and union
territories. Two in three students were able to listen
to a passage and understand it but only three in
five students were able to read a passage and
comprehend it. And while two in three students
were able to solve problems relating to simple addition,
subtraction, multiplication, geometry and measurement,
the number of students who could perform division
was just slightly more than one in two.
Within Language, children were scored on their

ability to listen to and understand a passage,
recognise words and read a passage. 86% nationally
were able to recognise words, 65% to understand
a passage they had listened to and 59% to
understand a passage they had read. According to
the ASER report for 2013, on the other hand, just
63% of children in class III could recognise words,
and just 21% could read a class II-level paragraph.
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Maharashtra and the four southern States,

Tripura, Mizoram and Manipur perform better than
the national average on both tests. The findings of
the third cycle of the National Council of Education
Research and Trainings (NCERT) National
Achievement Survey (NAS) for Class III show that
the national average score on a series of questions for
language is 257 out of 500 and that for mathematics
is 255 out of 500. Madhya Pradesh was the only
Indian state where girls lagged boys in the learning
outcome in language. In Kerala, girls outperformed
boys in both language and mathematics. The ruralurban divide also seems to have been bridged with
most of the Indian states showing no significant
disparity between rural and urban students.
1 lakh class III students in their classrooms in both

rural and urban India, and tested them on graderelevant questions only.
ASER, prepared by the non-profit Pratham

Education Foundation, has been highlighting the
worsening quality of the Indian education system.
The report, released recently, had pointed out that
the quality of learning, measured by reading, writing,
and arithmetic, had either shown no improvement
or actually worsened in the nine years of the United
Progressive Alliance governments rule.
ASER 2013 covered 3 lakh households in rural
India alone, is carried out at the home and is
administered to all school-going children to
determine their minimum abilities. The NAS covered
[6]
For Mathematics, children were tested on their

ability to perform simple calculations, do simple
geometry and detect patterns, among others. The
NAS results say that 65% were able to do
subtractions and 57% division, while ASER found
just 26% able to do subtractions in class III and
just 7.4% able to do divisions.
Tamil Nadu, which ranks as the worst state for
language and second worst for math according to
ASER, is Indias best state for mathematics and
third best for language, according to the NAS.
The ASER report showed that the proportion
of all children in Class 5 who can read a Class 2
level text has declined by almost 15 percentage
points since 2005. Similarly, the portion of students
in Class 8 who can do divisions has declined by
almost 23 percentage points during the same period.
The NAS survey also revealed significant
disparities across states. States like Bihar,
Chattisgarh, Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttarakhand
lagged the national average score in both language
and mathematics. Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, Kerala
and Karnataka were some of the states that
outperformed the national average.
A BOOST TO VULTURE CONSERVATION PROGRAMME

In an attempt to save the endangered species
of vulture, the government is expanding its vulture
conservation programme across eight more centres.
The move to follow successful vulture breeding and
rescue centre in Pinjore comes ahead of the
ambitious plan to release these birds, bred in
captivity, into the wild by 2016-17.
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Six hundred pairs of each of the three critically

endangered species white backed, long billed
and slender billed will be released. For this
purpose, 25 pairs of the three species will be needed
to breed in each of the eight centres.
Since the early 1990s, populations of the

Oriental White-backed, Long-billed and Slenderbilled Vultures, have declined by 97%. In the case
of the Oriental White-backed Vulture, once thought
to be the most common large bird of prey in the
world, the population decline reached an alarming
99.9% in the last 20 years. These declines have
been quicker than that of any other wild bird,
including the Dodo, and all three species face the
imminent threat of extinction. The declines are the
result of accidental poisoning by the drug diclofenac,
widely used across south Asia to treat livestock,
but causing death in vultures that feed on the
carcasses of treated animals.
At a meeting recently, officials from Central

Zoo Authority, zoo directors, chief wildlife wardens
and forests officers involved in the Vulture
Conservation Breeding Programme agreed to send
captive-bred vultures to Rani in Assam;
Rajabhatkhawa in West Bengal; Nehru Zoological
Park, Hyderabad; Van Vihar National Park & Zoo;
Bhopal; Sakkarbaug Zoo, Junagarh; Muta Zoo,
Ranchi; and Nandankanan Zoo, Bhubaneswar.In
fact, vultures, in 19 other zoos in India, will also
be soon shifted out to these centres.
Vultures play a vital role in the ecosystem,

cleaning the environment of rotting carcasses. A
group of vultures can strip and animal carcass to
the bone in less than half an hour natures very
own waste disposal mechanism.
The SOS - Save Our Species project,

implemented by the Royal Society for the Protection
of Birds (RSPB), will establish and support four
Vulture Safe Zones in India. These will be large
areas of 100km radius where diclofenac use will be
reduced through local advocacy, awareness raising
and the promotion of alternative drugs that are
safe for vultures.
The overall objective of this project is to reduce
the presence of diclofenac in the food supply of vultures
in four Vulture Safe Zones across India. In the future,
and once these areas can be declared safe for vultures,
these sites will be the focus areas of vulture
reintroductions from a captive breeding programme.
JATS GETS IN OBC CATEGORY
The government has decided to include Jats in

nine states in the central list of OBCs for reservation
in central government jobs and educational
institutions. With this, Jats will be the 69th
community to be included in the category. The
decision on Jat reservation comes two months after
the cabinet asked the National Commission for
Backward Classes (NCBC) to fast track its opinion
on the matter without waiting for the results of
the survey being undertaken by the Indian Council
for Social Science Research (ICSSR) for this purpose
since last year.
The notification mentions that Muslim Jats in
Gujarat are also included in the central list, but in
other states of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh,
Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh,

Bihar and Delhi, there is no mention of communal
identity.
The NCBC, which had earlier rejected the
proposal, has now given a favorable decision, paving
the way for the long pending demand to be finally
accepted. The NCBC had approached ICSSR in May
last year to conduct a Jat Baseline Survey to
determine socio-economic conditions of the
community in six states where they are the most
numerous, in order to ascertain the authenticity of
the demand to include them among the OBCs for
quotas in central government jobs and educational
institutions.
REVISED NORMS FOR PERSON WITH DISABILITIES

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs
has approved revised benefits under the Scheme
of Assistance to Disabled Persons for Purchase/

Fitting of Aids/Appliances (ADIP). The new norms,
[7]

proposed by the Department of Disability Affairs,
will be effective from April 1.
Under the revised norms, the income eligibility
ceiling for 100 per cent concession, from the existing
Rs. 6,500 per month, has been enhanced to Rs.
15,000 per month and for a 50 per cent concession
from Rs. 15,001 to Rs. 20,000 per month.
The main objective of the ADIP Scheme is to

assist the needy disabled persons in procuring
durable,
sophisticated
and
scientifically
manufactured, modern, standard aids and
appliances that can promote their physical, social
and psychological rehabilitation, by reducing the
effects of disabilities and enhance their economic
potential. The aids and appliances supplied under
the Scheme must be ISI marked.
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User-friendly mobile phones will be provided

once in five years to visually-challenged students
of age 18 years and above. Laptop and Braille Note
Taker will be given to school-going disabled students
(Class 10 and above), once in 10 years.
The subsidy for motorised tricycles and

wheelchairs has also been enhanced from the
present Rs. 6,000 to Rs. 25,000 for the severely
disabled. This will be provided to those aged 18
and above once in 10 years. The provision for
cochlear implant for 500 children per year has also
been increased with a ceiling of Rs. 6 lakh per unit.
Also, cost ceiling for aids and appliances have

been revised from Rs. 6,000 to Rs. 10,000 for single
disability and from Rs. 8,000 to Rs. 12,000 for
students with disabilities. Ceiling of cost of medical/
surgical correction, has been revised from Rs. 500
to Rs. 1,000 for hearing and speech challenged;
from Rs. 1,000 to Rs. 2,000 for visually challenged,
and from Rs. 3,000 to Rs. 5,000 for orthopedically
challenged.
Eligibility of the Benificiary
A person with disabilities fulfilling following

conditions would be eligible for assistance under
ADIP Scheme through authorized agencies:
i) He/she should be an Indian citizen of any
age.
ii) Should be certified by a Registered Medical

Practitioner that he/she is disabled and fit to
use prescribed aid/appliance.
iii) Person who is employed/self-employed or
There is a wide range of disability-related

financial support, including benefits, tax credits,
payments, grants and concessions.
getting pension and whose monthly income

from all sources does not exceed Rs. 10,000/
- per month.
iv) In case of dependents, the income of parents/

guardians should not exceed Rs. 10,000/- per
month.
v) Persons who have not received assistance
from the Government, local bodies and NonOfficial Organisations during the last 3 years
for the same purpose. However, for children
below 12 years of age this limit would be 1
year.
SC DIRECTED PRIVILEGES MERELY FOR PARLIAMENT WORK
The Supreme Court has stated that the privileges

granted to legislators are only meant to help
Parliament and state assemblies to function
smoothly and cannot be used by them outside the
legislatures. The important judgement will have a
bearing on matters of privilege raised by Members
of Parliament (MPs) and legislative assemblies
(MLAs), particularly over police or legal action
taken against them.
Lokayukta in Madhya Pradesh against a decision

of the Speaker of the state legislature to initiate
action against the anti-corruption body alleging
breach of privilege. The Lokayukta had registered
a case against the assembly secretary and some
other officials for irregularities in construction
works in the Assembly premises. The Speaker then
sent notices to the Lokayukta saying it had breached
the privileges of the Assembly officials.
Members often raise any police action or alleged

misbehaviour by officials as matters of privilege in
the legislature. Presiding officers then refer the
matter to the Privileges Committee which studies
and suggests actions.
The order pointed out that rulings by various

presiding officers have held that an assault on or
misbehaviour with a member unconnected with
his parliamentary work or discourtesy by police
officers are not matters of privilege and such
complaints should be referred by members to the
ministries directly.
This is an outcome of a petition filed by the

[8]
TROPEX
The massive month-long naval combat exercise
in the Bay of Bengal has ended. In the exercise
Indias first-ever military satellite, Rukmini of GSAT7, which is seamlessly networked around 60
warships and 75 aircraft has validated its network
centric warfare capabilities, with its effective
utilization.
INS Chakra adds some desperately-needed

muscle to underwater combat arm at a time when
the Navy is grappling with just 13 ageing dieselelectric submarines, three of which are stuck in
life-extension refits. Another one, INS Sindhuratna,
will now have to undergo repairs after the mishap
that killed two officers and injured several others.
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The location of the exercise Tropex, or the

theatre-level readiness and operational exercise, was
significant since India is steadily bolstering military
force-levels on the eastern coast and Andaman and
Nicobar archipelago to counter Chinas strategic
moves in the critical Indian Ocean Region (IOR).
of enemy warships and submarines, apart from

being capable of firing land-attack cruise missiles.
The exercise saw the western and eastern fleets

amassing across the Bay of Bengal for the intensive
combat manoeuvres in all the three dimensions of
surface, air and underwater.
The geostationary naval communication and
surveillance satellite, which has a 2,000-nautical
mile footprint over the IOR, beams signals from its
UHF, S, Ku and C-band transponders to network
all warships and aircraft with operational centres
ashore through high-speed encrypted data-links.
Apart from GSAT-7, the exercise this year also
saw the maiden participation of nuclear-powered
submarine INS Chakra, on a 10-year lease from
Russia for $1 billion, and the newly-acquired P-8I
long range maritime patrol aircraft.
While the over 8,000-tonne INS Chakra is not
armed with long-range nuclear missiles because of
international treaties like the Missile Technology
Control Regime, it serves as a potent hunter-killer
As for the P-8Is, the Navy has till now inducted

three of the eight such sensor and radar-packed
aircraft ordered in 2009 for $2.1billion from the
US. Also armed with potent anti-submarine warfare
capabilities, the P-8Is are working in conjunction
with medium-range Dorniers and Israeli SearcherII and Heron UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) to
create a three-tier surveillance grid in the heavilymilitarised IOR. India, in fact, is in the process of
ordering another four P-8I aircraft.
GSAT-7
GSAT-7 or INSAT-4F is a multi-band

communication satellite developed by ISRO. It is
the sixth among the stack of seven INSAT-4 series
communication satellites which was designed,
developed and fabricated by India. The Indian
Navy would be the user of the multi-band homebuilt communication spacecraft. According to
defense experts, the satellite will enable the navy
to acquire blue water capabilities and need not
depend on foreign satellites like Inmarsat, which
provide communication services to its ships.
UGC FINDS DISPARITY IN MALE & FEMALE STUDENT
In the Saksham report released by UGC it has

been found that in institutions there are differences
in the policies for male and female students. Higher
educational institutions are not only indifferent to
the rights and safety of women, but indulge in
moral policing and are ignorant of even what
constitutes a gender-related course.
Most of the responses came from Maharashtra,
with 275 higher educational institutions responding
to the questionnaire, followed by Karnataka at 266.
Of the 2,410 colleges and 55 universities in Tamil
Nadu, only 84 responded. The report said that
83.5% of institutions that responded to the
questionnaire denied having received any sexual
harassment complaints.
Asked about existing arrangements on

campuses, close to half the respondents said that
they had set up a committee (including anti-ragging
committees). Around 10% said they had installed
CCTV cameras, 18.5% mentioned female security
guards, 26.6% a vigilance committee and 10.9%
patrolling guards. Only 4% had a helpline number
that women students and faculty could call, and
8.3% had a complaint box.
The responses showed a majority of the
campuses have got their priorities wrong. Around
9% of the institutions mentioned a separate
common room for girls, and a few even separate
staircases for women. Asked for ways to prevent
sexual harassment, colleges predominantly
[9]

suggested improvement in security and surveillance
such as raising boundary walls, more security and
installing CCTV cameras. Others called for dress
codes for women, and self-monitoring among
students. Some even suggested that parents and
guardians need to be brought into the picture and
should be the first to be informed about any
problem on campus.
The report said that around 44% of the

institutions said that they had differential policies
and rules for men and women students staying
out in the evenings. Some said that women had to
give notice well in advance to a warden or proctor
for staying out.
SEEMANDHRA ENJOYS SPECIAL CATEGORY STATUS

in Odisha and the Bundelkhand special package in
Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
The proposal includes a six-point development

package for Seemandhra like tax incentives. These
will include the four districts of Rayalaseema and
three districts of north coastal Andhra to put the
states finances on a firmer footing. The Bill already
provides for a special development package for
backward regions of successor state of Andhra
Pradesh, in particular for the districts of
Rayalaseema and North Coastal Andhra Pradesh.
The development package will be on the lines of
the KBK (Koraput-Bolangir-Kalahandi) Special Plan
The Union Cabinet decision would help

Seemandhra access a major chunk of Central funds
in the form of grants instead of loans. This is seen
as an effort by the Congress-led government to
placate leaders from Seemandhra, who were
opposed to the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.
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The Union cabinet has given a nod to grant

special category status to Seemandhra region for
five years. The cabinet also approved two
amendments to the just-passed Andhra Pradesh
Reorganisation Bill to address the concerns of the
respective regions. While the first amendment deals
with resettlement and rehabilitation of those
displaced due to Polavaram power project, the
second relates to sharing of electricity generated by
central units like NTPC between Telangana and
Seemandhra.
The Cabinet also decided to bring an

amendment under which 85 per cent of the
electricity generated by central units will be
allocated to the two states as per population and
only 15 per cent will be allocated based upon their
actual consumption pattern of the last five years.
In the Bill, it is proposed that power will be
distributed on the basis of energy consumption in
the last five years.
The status enables a state to avail 90 per cent

of Central funds in the form of grants and 10 per
cent as loan. For other states, the ratio is 70 per
cent in loans and 30 per cent grants.
EC ISSUED GUIDELINES SAY NO TO FREEBIES
The Election Commission has issued guidelines

to the political parties and ask them to make only
those promises in their manifestos that they can
fulfill and also asked to refrain from announcing
freebies. The panel has also asked parties to broadly
indicate the ways and means to meet the
financial requirements to fulfil these promises.
The commission said manifestos shall not

contain anything repugnant to the ideals and
principles enshrined in the Constitution and that it
shall be consistent with the letter and spirit of other
provisions of the Model Code of Conduct.
The guidelines also asked the party in power to

ensure that its actions do not give any cause for
complaint that it used its official position for the
purpose of election campaign. Ministers have also
been asked not to combine official visit with poll
work. They cannot use official machinery or
[10]
personnel for election-related work. The guidelines

stated that the government transport, including
official aircraft, vehicles, machinery, and personnel
shall not be used for furtherance of the interest of
the party in power.
The commission has also waved the red flag at
issuing advertisements at the cost of the public
exchequer for partisan coverage of political news
and publicity of achievements.
The commission had earlier circulated draft
guidelines in this regard and drew out the views of
parties. Parties, during their meeting with the
commission, had expressed divergent views and
most of them were against issue of such guidelines
saying making promises to the electorate was their
right.
On the general conduct of the parties, the EC

has directed that no party or candidate indulge in
any activity that may aggravate differences or create
EC guidelines for social networking sites

The Election Commission also issued the
guidelines for the social networking sites:
To maintain expenditure incurred by the
political parties and individual candidates on
advertisements so that they can be produced
to the Commission when requested for.
or malicious or violative of the model code of

conduct.
To get the approval and then publish the
election advertisements. To obtain certificate
for contents of political advertisements before
putting them in public domain. If unlawful
comments are present, violating the rule, the
EC would take action to remove them.
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To ensure that contents displayed by them

during the electoral process was not unlawful
mutual hatred among castes and communities.
MEHAIR GETS PUBLIC IN MUMBAI
The Maharashtra Tourism Development

Corporation (MTDC) and Maritime Energy Heli Air
Services Pvt Ltd (MEHAIR) launched the first
seaplane service of Maharashtra in Mumbai. The
companys amphibian planes will eventually
connect Mumbai with state tourist destinations
adjacent to suitable water bodies even though there
are no runways at these destinations.
In the first phase, Mehair has plans to link five

destinations with Juhu, which include Aamby
Valley, Nashik, Lonavla, Lavasa and Panchgani,
all around 30 minutes flying distance from Mumbai.
The air charter service also has plans to operate
flights to Nariman Point and its planes will land in
the sea at Girguam Chawpatty ferrying passengers.
A ride will cost Rs. 750.
In the second phase, the company has plans to
link five more destinations in Maharashtra. The
company will take delivery of a nine-seater
seaplane to add to the existing four-seater Cessna
206 amphibian aircraft. It has plans to induct 25
seaplanes in five years linking destinations in
Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Karnataka and Gujarat, he
added. A seaplane service in Kerala had to shut

down last year due to protests by fishermen.
Maritime Energy Heli Air Services Pvt. Ltd.
(MEHAIR) has pioneered the launch of seaplane
services in India since January, 2011. With the
introduction of small aircraft which can operate
from runways and water-bodies within the course
of the same flight, the company has ushered in a
new and exciting mode of connectivity for the
tourism industry in the country. The companys
current operations are being conducted in the
Andaman & Nicobar islands where the service is
being used by the tourists, locals as well as the
Administration for connecting various island
destinations with the Capital city of Port Blair.
The service will save a lot of travel time for the
users given that the aircraft will take a far lesser
time to connect two points as opposed to road or
rail journeys. MTDC has entered into an
understanding with MEHAIR to launch the service
in the state by extending its full support thus
helping to engulf the vast vision and encumbrance
of this venture.
WATCHDOG TO WATCH WAGE BOARD PLAN EXECUTION
The Union Labour Ministry has set up a

committee to monitor the implementation of
recommendations made by the Justice G.R. Majithia
wage board for newspaper employees that were
upheld by the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court upheld recommendations

made by the Justice Majithia wage board hiking
salaries for journalists and non-journalists in print
media and dismissed challenges filed by the
managements of various newspapers. The
petitioners included Bennett, Coleman and Co. Ltd
(publisher of The Times of India), ABP Pvt. Ltd
(publisher of Anandabazar Patrika) and the Indian

Newspaper Society (INS), among others.
A bench headed by Chief Justice P. Sathasivam
said that the wages as revised/determined shall be
payable from 11.11.2011 when the government of
India notified the recommendations of the Majithia
wage boards. All the arrears up to March 2014
shall be paid to all eligible persons in four equal
instalments within a period of one year from today
and continue to pay the revised wages from April
2014 onwards.
[11]

The petitioners had challenged the wage board
recommendations on account of constitutional
invalidity; improper constitution of the wage board;
irregularity in the procedure adopted by Majithia
wage board; and since it overlooked the relevant
aspects and considered extraneous factors while
drafting the recommendations.
implementation of the wage board in the Supreme

Court.
Under the Working Journalists and other

Newspaper Employees (Conditions of Service) and
Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1955, the Union
government through the ministry of labour in
November 2011 notified recommendations
increasing the salaries paid to all staff.
The Government of India constituted two wage

boards (Majithia Wage Boards), one for working
journalists and other for non-journalists newspaper
employees in 2007 as sixth Wage Board under the
Chairmanship of Justice Majithia as per the
provisions of The Working Journalists and Other
Newspaper Employees (Conditions of Service) and
Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1955. The Majithia
Wage Boards submitted their final report to the
Government of India on 31st Dec., 2010.
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The Delhi Union of Journalists (DUJ) welcomed

the judgement. It is a step in the right direction.
We hope that the INS and all other news
publications are helpful in implementing this
judgement.
The latest Majithia wage board recommended

that salaries be increased, in some cases to 200% of
prevailing levels, causing chaos from publishers and
prompting many newspaper firms to challenge the
2014 ELECTIONS TO WITNESS LARGE NO. OF YOUNG VOTERS
This Lok Sabha election is likely to reflect almost

90,000 voters between 18 and 22 years of age. They
will be eligible to vote for the first time in each Lok
Sabha constituency this year as per the latest data
from the Election Commission. This underlines the
importance of the young voter often seen as
impatient and aspirational for all parties.
The elections will see over 1.79 lakh new voters

on average in each constituency. Of them, about
24 per cent, or around 43,000, will be first-time
voters, in the 18-19 age group. Thats a significant
figure, as the winning margin was less than this in
226 Lok Sabha constituencies in the 2009 elections.
If one includes those till the age of 22 who
wouldnt have been eligible to vote in 2009, this
number comes to 90,000 people per constituency
who will be voting for the first time. Additionally,
there will be voters between 22 and 23 who can
vote this time, too.
According to the revised electoral roll statistics

with the Election Commission, as of January 1 this
year, over 42,000 voters between the ages of 18
and 19 were registered on an average in each Lok
Sabha constituency.
In six states Rajasthan (25 seats),
Chhattisgarh (11), Madhya Pradesh (29), West
Bengal (42), Uttar Pradesh (80) and Assam (14)
which account for 201 Lok Sabha constituencies,
the number of voters between 18 and 19 years of
age per constituency is higher than the national
average.
Around 81.5 crore people are eligible to vote in
the 2014 elections, up from the 71.7 crore voters
registered in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, a jump of
about 13.6 per cent. In overall number terms,
around 2.32 crore voters this time will be between
18 and 19, accounting for 24 per cent of the
increase. Those between the ages of 18 and 23 are
estimated to be 4.87 crore.
[12]
INTERNATIONAL
GLOBAL WARMING RAISING WARNING SIRENS
with the most vulnerable regions including East,
South and Southeast Asia.
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As per the draft UN report, Global warming

will reduce the worlds crop production by up to
two percent every decade and cause $1.45 trillion
of economic damage by the end of this century.
The document is the second volume in a longawaited trilogy by the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC), a Nobel-winning group of
scientists. The trilogy is the IPCCs first great
overview of the causes and effects of global
warming, and options for dealing with it, since
2007.
According to the draft, if global temperatures
rise by 2.5 degrees Celsius (4.5 Fahrenheit), the
worlds aggregated gross domestic production will
fall by 0.2 to 2 percent, the mass circulation said.
That would translate into 15 trillion yen to 148
trillion yen ($147 billion to $1.45 trillion) in
economic losses, calculated against the worlds total
GDP in 2012.
The planets crop production will decline by up

to two percent every decade as rainfall patterns
shift and droughts batter farmland, even as demand
for food rises a projected 14 percent.
Other effects from global warming include the
loss of land to rising sea levels, forcing hundreds of
millions of people to migrate from coastal areas,
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate

Change (IPCC) is the leading international body
for the assessment of climate change. It was
established by the United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological
Organization (WMO) in 1988 to provide the world
with a clear scientific view on the current state of
knowledge in climate change and its potential
environmental and socio-economic impacts. In the
same year, the UN General Assembly endorsed
the action by WMO and UNEP in jointly
establishing the IPCC.
The draft report calls for mitigation measures

to reduce the vulnerability of environments to
climate change such as flood protection projects
and research on the prevention of infectious
diseases.
In the first volume of the trilogy, the IPCC said
it was more certain than ever that humans were
the cause of global warming and predicted
temperatures would rise another 0.3 to 4.8 degrees
Celsius (0.5-8.6 degrees Fahrenheit) this century.
Heatwaves, floods, droughts and rising seas are
among the threats that will intensify through
warming.
The IPCC has delivered four previous
assessments in its 25-year history. Each edition has
sounded an ever-louder siren to warn that
temperatures are rising and the risk to the climate
system is increasing.
The projections for this century are based on
computer models of trends in heat-trapping
greenhouse gas emissions, especially from coal, oil
and gas, which provide the backbone of energy
supply today.
The IPCC is an intergovernmental body. It is

open to all member countries of the United
Nations (UN) and WMO. Currently 195 countries
are members of the IPCC.
Thousands of scientists from all over the
world contribute to the work of the IPCC on a
voluntary basis. Review is an essential part of the
IPCC process, to ensure an objective and complete
assessment of current information. IPCC aims to
reflect a range of views and expertise. The
Secretariat coordinates all the IPCC work and
liaises with Governments. It is supported by WMO
and UNEP and hosted at WMO headquarters in
Geneva.
[13]
TURKISH PREZ PUT STAMP ON CONTROVERSIAL BILL

Turkeys president Abdullah Gul has approved
a controversial bill that limits the powers of the
judiciary as the government struggling with new
corruption allegations that have directly implicated
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Before the revision, the telecommunications

authority could have forced Internet providers to
hand over users data without a court decision.
The government has already removed
thousands of police officers, judges and prosecutors
from their posts since the scandal blew up in
December.
The latest development and the governments
rapid response to the allegations have generated
protests. Some 1,000 opposition party supporters
protested in central Istanbul. The gesture was to
mock Erdogan, who according to the unconfirmed
audio recordings leaked on the internet, instructed
his son to reduce to zero large amounts of money
by distributing them to businessmen and other
people apparently close to the family.
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The legislation, which gives the Justice Ministry

increased control over a council that appoints and
oversees judges and prosecutors, is one in a series
of contentious measures rushed through by the
government as it attempts to limit fallout from a
corruption and bribery scandal that has already
forced Erdogan to dismiss four ministers.
court order to access records of user activity.
Parliament approved a watered-down version

of a new Internet law that would give Turkeys
telecommunications authority the power to shut
down websites for privacy violations, although it
would have to obtain court approval within 24
hours. The authority would also have to obtain a
PAKISTAN DISCLOSES INTERNAL SECURITY POLICY
Pakistans interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali

Khan presented the governments new internal
security strategy calling for a national consensus
on tackling the lethal Taliban insurgency. The
Pakistani government welcomed the move to
further strengthen the governments fight against
militancy.
Under the new strategy, the government will

improve intelligence-sharing and strengthen coordination among security agencies, undertake
legal reforms and construct a national narrative
against the extremist mind-set in six months.
The policy will also integrate seminaries and
mosques into the national education system over
the next year and will end their foreign funding.

A comprehensive review of the countrys
existing legal framework, particularly of the
criminal justice system, will also take place.
The National Counter-Terrorism Authority
(NCTA) will take over as the premier counterterrorism authority, while a Joint Intelligence
Directorate will be set up to effectively manage
the countrys intelligence agencies.
The directorate will have an intelligence and
analysis centre that will comprise four intelligence
groups: Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Military
Intelligence, federal law enforcement agencies and
police intelligence departments.
UGANDAN PRESIDENT APPROVE ANTI-GAY BILL
Ugandas president Yoweri Museveni has

signed anti-homosexual bill into a law imposing
harsh penalties for homosexuality, defying protests
from rights groups, criticism from Western donors
and a U.S. warning that it will complicate relations.
The new bill strengthened existing punishments
for anyone caught having gay sex, imposing jail
terms of up to life for aggravated homosexuality
- including sex with a minor or while HIV-positive.
It criminalized lesbianism for the first time and

made it a crime to help individuals engage in
homosexual acts. Gay and lesbian organisations
[14]
fear the bill will encourage other governments to

strengthen penalties, increase harassment,
discourage people from taking HIV tests and make
it impossible to live an openly gay life. Earlier drafts
of the bill made it a crime not to report gay people
- in effect making it impossible to live as openly
gay - but this clause has been removed.
Homosexuality is taboo in almost all African
countries and illegal in 37 - including Uganda,
where rights groups say gay people have long
risked jail. Fear of violence, imprisonment and loss
of jobs means few gays in Africa come out.
Ugandas anti-homosexuality act

Life imprisonment for gay sex, including oral
sex
Life imprisonment for aggravated
homosexuality, including sex with a minor
or while HIV-positive
Between five and seven years in jail or a

$40,700 (24,500) fine or both for the
promotion of homosexuality
Businesses or non-governmental organisations
found guilty of the promotion of
homosexuality would have their certificates
of registration cancelled and directors could
face seven years in jail
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Life imprisonment for living in a same-sex

marriage
Seven years for attempting to commit

homosexuality
AL-SISI DECLARES HIS CANDIDACY FOR PRESIDENT
The Egypts government unexpected resignation

has paved the way for army chief Field Marshal
Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to declare his candidacy for
president of a strategic U.S. ally gripped by political
strife. Former Prime Minister Hazem al-Beblawi was
appointed in the days following the removal of
Mohamed Morsi last July, was meant to head
Egypts government until the election of a new
president, but resigned all of a sudden. But the
resignation effectively opened the way for Sisi to
run for president since he would first have to leave
his post as defense minister in any case. Criticism
of Beblawi government had peaked in recent weeks
amid large strikes in industrial cities, and

widespread electricity blackouts.
Field Marshal Al-Sisis candidacy has long been
seen as a forgone conclusion, following a series of
statements and leaks by officials that strongly suggest
he wants to succeed Mohamed Morsi, the man he
ousted from office last July, as Egypts head of state.
But he had never himself made an official statement
through state media about whether he definitely
intends to run for office. But now he has given his
clearest sign yet that he will run for Egypts
presidency, a race he is widely expected to win.
CHILD OBESITY GETTING A NEW NORM IN EUROPE
According to a new report published by the

WHO, being overweight is so common that it risks
becoming a new norm in the region. The World
Health Organization has announced that over 27%
of 13-year-olds and 33% of 11-year olds are
overweight in Europe. Among 11-year-old boys and
girls, the prevalence of overweight was highest in
Greece (33%), Portugal (32%), Ireland (30%) and
Spain (30%) and lowest in the Netherlands (13%)
and Switzerland (11%). In 23 out of 36 countries,
more than 30% of boys and girls aged 15 years
and over are not getting enough physical activity.
Among adults, womens rates of insufficient
physical activity range from 16% in Greece and
17% in Estonia to 71% in Malta and 76% in Serbia.
Its believed that lack of exercise, as well as the
disastrously effective marketing of unhealthy
foods, high in fat, sugar and salt, has led to a sharp
rise in obesity and overweight in recent decades.
From 2002 to 2010, the number of countries

where more than 20 percent of 11-, 13- and 15year-olds are overweight rose from 5 to 11.
WHO recommended in its report that National
governments should enforce legislation, and insist
on informative labeling, nutrient profiling and

regulated marketing, requiring the food industry
to take responsibility.
In Britain, where according to official statistics
most people are overweight or obese, (this includes
61.9 percent of adults and 28 percent of children
aged between two and 15), on average the
population consumes too much saturated fat.
Intakes of the so-called non-milk extrinsic sugars
exceed the recommended level for all age groups,
most notably for children aged 11-18, where mean
intakes provided 15.3 percent of food energy,
according to the UK National Diet and Nutrition
Survey.
The epidemic of overweight and obesity
threatens childrens health, since childhood obesity
goes hand in hand with an increased risk of
cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, orthopedic
problems, mental disorders, underachievement in
school, as well as lower self-esteem.
Over 60 percent of children who are overweight
before puberty will be so as young adults. Such
children are three to seven times more likely to be
overweight adults. Childhood obesity is one of the
[15]

most serious public health challenges of the 21st
century. Globally, in 2010 the number of overweight
children under the age of five, is estimated to be
over 42 million. Close to 35 million of those live in

IRAN-PAKISTAN GAS PIPELINE PUT ON HOLD

The $1.3 billion Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline has
been shelved because of sanctions against Tehran,
dealing a blow to Islamabads efforts to access
cheap energy sources to overcome a crippling
of the pipeline were inaugurated by former

president of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari and
former
president of Iran Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad. According with Javad Owji,
managing director of the National Iranian Gas
Company, the pipeline in Pakistan is expected
to be constructed in 22 months with the
participation of Iran.
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Time line:
power crisis. The agreement for the pipeline was

signed in 2009 but work on the project inside
Pakistan could not be started. The pipeline cannot
be completed until sanctions against Iran are lifted.
Discussions between the governments of Iran

and Pakistan started in 1994.
A preliminary agreement was signed in 1995.
This agreement foresaw construction of a
pipeline from South Pars gas field to Karachi
in Pakistan.
Later Iran made a proposal to extend the

pipeline from Pakistan into India. In February
1999, a preliminary agreement between Iran
and India was signed.
In 2004 the project was revived after the
UNDPs report Peace and Prosperity Gas
Pipelines by Pakistani petroleum engineer,
Gulfaraz Ahmed, was published in December
2003. The report highlighted benefits of the
pipeline to Pakistan, India and Iran.
In February 2007, India and Pakistan agreed

to pay Iran US$4.93 per million British
thermal units (US$4.67/GJ) but some details
relating to price adjustment remained open
to further negotiation.
In April 2008, Iran expressed interest in the
Peoples Republic of Chinas participation in
the project. In August 2010, Iran invited
Bangladesh to join the project.
In 2009, India withdrew from the project over

pricing and security issues, and after signing
a civilian nuclear deal with the United States
in 2008. However, in March 2010 India called
on Pakistan and Iran for trilateral talks to be
held in May 2010 in Tehran.
On 4 September 2012, the project was
announced to commence before October 2012
and be completed by December 2014.
On 30 January 2013, the Pakistans federal

government approved a deal with Iran for
laying the Pakistans segment of a pipeline.
On 27 February 2013, the construction of the
Pakistani section was agreed.
On 11 March 2013, inauguration of the
construction works on the Pakistani section
[16]
On 27 May 2013, Iranian deputy minister for

petroleum, A. Khaledi, in a letter to the
Pakistan government expressed concern over
the delay in the start of the Pakistani portion
of the pipeline. He said that after a
government-to-government
agreement
between the two countries, they were
supposed to select entities for the construction
of the latter part of the pipeline. Pakistan still
hasnt officially nominated Tadbir Energy and
local sub-contractors to begin work on the
Pakistani half of the pipeline.
On 12 June 2013, the newly elected prime
minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, allayed
any fears regarding the abandonment of the
project and said that the Pakistani
government is committed to the fulfillment
of the project and targets the first flow of gas
from the pipeline in December 2014. The
premier also stated that his government is
planning to commit to the TurkmenistanAfghanistan-Pakistan-India gas pipeline
project as well.
On 25-Feb-2014, Minister for Petroleum and
Natural Resources Pakistan, Shahid Khaqan
Abbasi told the National Assembly that the
project for the moment is off the table, he
cited international sanctions as the issue. He
said that in the absence of international
sanctions the project can be completed within
three years, but the government cannot take
it any further at the moment because
international sanctions against Iran are a
serious issue. Pakistan will face the penalty if
it failed to lay its side of pipeline till December
2014.

The projects design is complete and bids were
floated but nobody participated.
Former president Asif Ali Zardari and his then
Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had
announced the project in February last year. At
the time it would be completed in 15 months.
Analysts doubted the current PML-N governments

sincerity in following up the venture because of close
ties between the partys leadership and Saudi Arabia,
which is reported to be against the project. Pakistan
will have to pay a penalty if it fails to lay the pipeline
within its territory by December.
IRAQ TO BUY ARMS FROM IRAN

community wants to see Iran a neutral and
democratic country, not interfering in internal
matters of its neighboring countries.
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Iraq has signed a deal worth $195 million to buy

weapons from Iran, a move that would break a UN
embargo on weapons sales by Tehran. According to
Reuters news agency, the agreement was signed in
November last year, just weeks after Iraqi Prime
Minister Nuri al-Maliki returned from the US.
The Iraqi prime minister has been lobbying for
weapons and ammunition from the US but officials
are of the view that Iraq has made a weapons deal
with Iran owing to prolonged delay with the US
for any such deal. However, media reports suggest
that the Obama administration has agreed to
provide Hellfire missiles and surveillance drones to
Iraq during Malikis visit to the US.
However, Iraq may be in need of quick supply
of the weapons to deal with insurgents and
militants who have caused havoc across the
country. Some in Washington remain skeptical
about the sale of latest weapons to Iraq, owing to
its close relations with Iran. So, at this time when
the international community is negotiating a
nuclear deal with Iran, the agreement of weapons
sale with Iraq appears to be a roadblock in way of
the negotiations.
Iran, a Shiite country, has been supporting the

Iraqi and Syrian regimes against the insurgents but
it has led to sectarian wars in both the countries as
well. On the other hand, the international
Contracts signed with Iran
The official documents showed that six of eight

contracts were signed with Irans Defense Industries
Organization to supply Iraq with light and medium
arms, mortar launchers, ammunition for tanks as
well as artillery and mortars.
A final two contracts were agreed to with the
state-owned Iran Electronic Industries for night
vision goggles, communications equipment and
mortar-guiding devices.
One of the contracts includes equipment to protect

against chemical agents. An Iraqi army major with
knowledge of procurement issues said that would
include items such as gas masks and gloves, as well
as injections. Baghdad has expressed fear the militants
will use such agents against its forces.
A spokesman for the Iraqi prime minister has

neither denied nor confirmed the report about the
weapons deal with Iran. He, however, said that
Iraq has been fighting against militants and
terrorists, so it needs weapons to tackle them. The
country is gripped in ethnic and sectarian clashes
as Sunni insurgents usually target Shiite majority
areas. The government security forces have been
struggling to contain the militants but so far nothing
concrete has been achieved.
On the other hand, the State Department
spokesperson, Jen Psaki, told a news briefing that
any transfer of arms from Iran to any third country
is in direct violation of UNSCR1747. She said the
State Department is seeking clarification from the
Iraqi government on the matter and to ensure that
Iraqi officials understand the arms embargo placed
on Iran.
The US has been closely monitoring all the
developments in the Middle East and playing its
parts to restore peace and stability in the region.
Washington has been struggling to restore peace in
Syria and reach a permanent peace deal between
Israel and Palestine.
The eight contracts signed with Iran are as

follows:
* Ammunition for light and medium weapons:
$75 million
* Ammunition for tanks artillery and mortars:
$57.178 million
* Light and medium weapons and mortar
launchers: $25.436 million
* Artillery ammunition type 155 mm: $16.375 million
* Day and night vision goggles and mortar
guiding devices: $7.320 million
* Protective equipment against chemical agents:
$6.676 million
* Communications equipment: $3.795 million
* M12 USA ammunition 20 X 102 mm: $3
million
[17]
PAKISTAN WITNESSES HIGH INFANT MORTALITY RATE

In Pakistan fewer than half of women had a
skilled health worker present at birth. The report
said attempts to improve this have been determined
by delays in the salary disbursements, stock-outs
of medicines, unavailable and dysfunctional
equipment, and an unhelpful referral system. Lack
of knowledge about expecting mothers health and
proper care is the biggest reason for such high
infant mortality rate in Pakistan.
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A survey reveals high infant and child mortality

in Pakistan. It shows that one in every 14 Pakistani
children dies before reaching the age of one and
one in every 11 does not survive his or her fifth
birthday. With infant and under five mortality rates
at 74 and 89 deaths respectively per 1000 live births
in the five -year period before the latest 2012-2013
Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (PDHS),
the countrys chances of meeting the Millenium
Development Goals (MDGs) looks very dim.
More than one million babies die worldwide
each year on their first day of life, according to
new research published by the British charity Save
the Children.
The report, Ending Newborn Deaths, said in
2012 Pakistan had the highest rate of first day
deaths and stillbirths at 40.7 per 1,000 births,
followed by Nigeria (32.7), Sierra Leone (30.8),
Somalia (29.7), Guinea-Bissau (29.4) and
Afghanistan (29.0).
One of the reasons behind it is that although

the government has set up hospitals, appointed
doctors and midwifes but there is no monitoring in
the rural health units where expecting mothers and
newborns do not get the care they need. According
to the report, 86 babies died below the age of five
per every 1000 live births in Pakistan during the
year 2012. The figure comes from 409,000 babies
dying below the age of five out of 4,604,000
newborns in 2012.
[18]
INDIA AND THE WORLD

INDIA, SAUDI SIGN DEFENCE PACT
been anchored, de-hyphenated from Riyadhs longstanding ties with Islamabad.
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India and Saudi Arabia has signed a defence

cooperation pact to take their strategic partnership
further in areas of security. The pact was signed
between Saudi Arabias Crown Prince Salman bin
Abdulaziz Al Saud and Vice President Hamid
Ansari during which a range of bilateral, regional
and international issues figured. The defence
cooperation pact will allow exchange of defencerelated information, military training and education
as well as cooperation in areas varying from
hydrography and security to logistics.
It is highest level political visit to India from

Saudi Arabia after the landmark visit of King
Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud in January 2006.
The visit by King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz in 2006,
which was followed by Prime Minister Manmohan
Singhs trip to Riyadh four years later. Dr. Singhs
2010 visit resulted in the signing of the Riyadh
Declaration, which proclaimed that a strategic
partnership between New Delhi and Riyadh had
been established, spanning diverse fields including
energy security, information technology and outer
space. The document did not exclude a security
element either, signalling that a standalone
relationship between India and Saudi Arabia had
The signing of a defence pact during the Crown

Princes visit implies that the focus imparted to
military ties, during Defence Minister A.K. Antonys
visit to Saudi Arabia in 2012, has been emphatically
retained. An acknowledgement that a new thrust
on promoting investments is required augurs well
for the evolution of a substantial, multifaceted
relationship. Saudi Arabia is Indias fourth largest
trade partner with bilateral trade recording at $43
billion in 2012-13. Saudi Arabia is also Indias
largest crude oil supplier accounting for about onefifth of its total imports in 2012-13.
Indias exports to Saudi Arabia include mineral
fuels, cereals, steel, iron ore and organic chemicals,
while imports comprise crude oil, plastics and its
articles, fertilisers, aluminium and leather. Indians
form the largest expatriate community in Saudi
Arabia and their contribution in the progress and
development of their host country is well recognised.
There are over 2.88 million Indian nationals now
working in Saudi Arabia.
INDIA- DUBAI AIR SERVICES PACT
The civil aviation ministry has revised the

bilateral air traffic entitlements with Dubai, allowing
them a 20 per cent increase in seats to India. Dubai,
which had asked for 50,000 additional seats a week,
has been granted 11,000 seats for allocation in three
phases. Dubai has not been granted any additional
port of call (destination) in India. The agreement
will be effective immediately.
Change-of-gauge will allow Indian airlines to
change their aircraft at the Dubai airport before
proceeding onward to a third country. Of the
11,000 seats, 5,500 seats would be allocated in the
summer schedule of 2014 and 3,300 seats will be
made available in winter schedule later this year.
The remaining 2,200 seats would be given in the
summer schedule of 2015.
The Indian side is satisfied that after years it

was finally able to convince Dubai to allow gauge
conversion. That is, permitting Indian carriers to
fly small aircraft from various cities in India to
Dubai and then transferring flyers on to larger
aircraft to fly them to any part of the globe.
The latest agreement states that gauge
conversion is allowed in the territory of the UAE,
which many in the Indian side are also interpreting
to mean that a domestic carrier can change aircraft
not only at the existing Dubai International Airport,
but also at the new Dubai Central Al Makhtoum
Airport.
However, currently, only Air India and Jet
Airways have a mixed fleet of large and small
aircraft. So only they stand to benefit from the latest
[19]

relaxation, as a large volume of Indian outbound
traffic is to the UK, Canada and the US, and these
routes require large aircraft.
Government has lifted the ban on operations of the

worlds largest commercial jet, the Airbus A-380,
to India.
In the first phase, airlines from India and Dubai

can fly 5,500 additional seats every week. The
number of additional seats at the eight metros,
including Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore
and Chennai, has been capped at 3,000. In addition,
airlines from Dubai have been permitted to operate
not more than 900 seats a week to Kochi and 660
to Thiruvananthapuram.
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Also, no additional flights have been allowed

to three cities to which airlines from Dubai already
operate. However, even with these caps, Dubaibased Emirates could benefit, as the Indian
CHINA BECOMES INDIAS TOP TRADE PARTNER
China has come out Indias biggest trading

partner in the current fiscal according to a study
conducted by PHD Chamber of Commerce. It has
replaced the UAE and pushed it to the third spot.
India-China trade has reached $49.5 billion
with 8.7% share in Indias total trade, while the
US comes second at $46 billion with 8.1% share
and the UAE third at $45.4 billion with 8% share
during the first nine months of the current fiscal.
Indias trade (exports and imports) with China

was only of $7 billion in 2004 which rose to $38
billion in 2008 and to $65 billion in 2013. However,
with the revival of demand in advanced economies,
the US has re-emerged as Indias top exports
destination. Indias exports to the US during AprilDec 2013 stood at $29.3 billion followed by the
UAE at $22.3 billion and China at $10.8 billion. In
the 2012-13 fiscal, UAE was Indias top exports
destination followed by the US and Singapore.
Besides, UK and Germany have come down in
the list of the top export destinations, while Belgium
and Italy are out of the list. On the other hand,
Saudi Arabia and Netherlands have made it to the
list of top ten export destinations. One significant
development in Indias import scenario is the
emergence of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar,
Iraq and Switzerland amongst the countrys top
ten import sources.
INDIA, RUSSIA TO START JOINT STUDY GROUP
India and Russia have agreed to a proposal for

setting up a Joint Study Group for studying the
scope of CECA (Comprehensive Economic
Cooperation Agreement) with member-countries of
the Customs Union viz Russian Federation,
Kazakhstan and Belarus. Keeping in view of the
support of the Russian side on the idea of setting
up a JSG for CECA between India and the CU,
Russian side was requested to steer the process for
CECA within the Eurasian Economic Commission.
Russian Side also conveyed the resolution of

issues pertaining to market access of egg powder.
They informed that Indian entities have started
getting the nod for export of egg powder for the
Custom Union Markets. During the India-Russia
Working Group on Trade & Economic Cooperation
(IRWGTEC) (10th 11th September, 2013), the
Russian side had stated that market access can be
[20]
given if the Indian products meet the requirements

and norms of the Custom Union. Russian also
assured to expeditiously resolve the issue of
recognition of government approved Indian labs
for enabling export of bovine meat from India.
Both sides also reviewed the progress of
identified priority projects. These projects include
establishment of joint stock Indo- Russian
enterprises for manufacturing light helicopters Ka226T; establishment of joint stock Indo- Russian
enterprises for manufacturing light helicopters Ka226T; JSC United Aircraft Corporation preparation
of participation in tender for Indian program to
develop civil aircraft; plant construction for
manufacturing butyl rubber with capacity of 100000
tons per year at the production site in Jamnagar.
The bilateral trade between India and Russia stood
at $6.52 billion in 2012-13.
INDIA ALL SET TO SHELL OUT $1.5 BILLION

Tehran is allowed to receive $450 million from
India, if it satisfies targets set down in the deal. It
can then receive two further tranches of $550
million without having to meet further conditions.
Payments from April 15 will be contingent on
confirmation that Iran has kept its commitment to
dilute all of its 20 per cent enriched uranium to no
more than 5 per cent enriched uranium.
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India is ready to pay $1.5 billion to Iran to

clear part of a backlog of payments for shipments
of oil following the partial easing of western
sanctions on Tehran. In a deal with six major
powers, Iran won access to $4.2 billion in oil
revenue from a number of countries that has been
frozen abroad. The funds will be paid in eight
transfers on a schedule that started with a $550
million payment by Japan. South Korea is set to
make two payments in March totalling $1 billion
and the next scheduled tranche of oil funds would
come on April 10.
DEVYANI PERMITTED IMMUNITY
Indian diplomat Deyyani Khobragade got

accreditation from the UN in her current posting
at Indias permanent mission paving the way for
full immunity after acknowledgement from the state
department. The diplomat has been allowed
exemption from appearing in court personally.
Khobragade is expected to have full immunity
which will preclude any court jurisdiction over her,
even if the crime was committed before the period
of immunity. This will not be a perpetual benefit
for the diplomat though. In case she continues to
stay back after the expiry of her full immunity, or
comes back to the US in her personal capacity, she
will have to face prosecution.
India is expected to deliver new identity cards
to US consular officials, which will ensure that they
have only consular, and not diplomatic, immunity.
The US sought to draw a distinction between
consular and diplomatic immunity in the
Khobragade case saying that she was entitled to

only consular immunity in her capacity as deputy
consul general. Until now, India had not
differentiated between consular and diplomatic
privileges for US officials and had given diplomatic
immunity to all of them.
Diplomatic Immunity: Diplomatic immunity
is a form of legal immunity that ensures that
diplomats are given safe passage and are
considered not susceptible to lawsuit or
prosecution under the host countrys laws,
although they can still be expelled.
Consular Immunity: Consular immunity offers

protections similar to diplomatic immunity, but
these protections are not as extensive, given the
functional differences between consular and
diplomatic officers.
INDIA US TRADE RELATIONS GETTING TART
The bitter U.S.-India exchange with regard to

trade relations could degenerate with the news that
the U.S. could designate India a Priority Foreign
Country (PFC) or even the more stringent Foreign
Country Watch List inviting unilateral trade
sanctions.
The US Chamber of Commerce ratchets up
pressure on India over intellectual property rights,
in a move that could help prevent Indian companies
from producing cheap generic versions of medicines
still under patent protection.
In a submission to the Office of US Trade
Representative (USTR), the chamber of commerce
requested that India be classified as a Priority
Foreign Country, a tag given to the worst offenders

when it comes to protecting intellectual property
and one that could trigger trade sanctions.
The recommendations were for a document
known as a Special 301 Report prepared annually
by the Office of the United States Trade
Representative. India is on the US governments
Priority Watch List for countries whose practices
on protecting intellectual property Washington
believes should be monitored closely.
India received the lowest score in the trade
groups IP Index, performing poorly in all six rating
categories: patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade
secrets and market access, enforcement, and
[21]

The pharmaceutical sector is one of the targets
and controversial issues include Indias granting
domestic companies compulsory licences (CL) and
refusing evergreening of patents by multinational
companies (MNCs) under Section 3 (d) of the
Indian Patents Act 1970. When companies are
closing in on the expiry of the 20-year run for a
patent, they tweak the formula of the drug and
seek a new licence as a new product thus
evergreening the patent. In 2013, Bayer and
Novartis patent applications were rejected for their
respective cancer drugs Nexavar and Glivec and
Novartis said it would stop its R&D spend in India.
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membership and ratification of international

treaties. The perspective from India is that many
patented drugs are too costly for most of its people.
The government in New Delhi is pushing to increase
access to life-saving treatments in a country where
only 15% of 1.2 billion people have health insurance.
Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of
America (PhRMA), the US industry trade group
for drug makers, acknowledged in its submission
the challenges India faces in extending healthcare
access to its large and growing population.But
the trade group also is calling for Indias
classification downgraded, to encourage increased
examination of Indias actions and to foster
enhanced bilateral engagement.
Moreover, India has said its patent laws cannot
be successfully challenged by the US either in a
bilateral or multilateral forum as they strictly
comply with the intellectual property agreement of
the World Trade Organization (WTO).
The campaign against India is being led by the
US pharma industry that has been lobbying for a
more favourable IPR regime in India so that it could
get patents for upgraded versions of their drugs
whose patents have expired. Revenues of
pharmaceutical companies worth over $40 billion
will be hit in 2014 because of patent expirations
while in the following year it is likely to cross $50
billion.
The Ministry is not too worried about the

developments, as India amended its patents
legislation in 2005 to bring it in line with the WTOs
Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights. The US
has revoked many more patents, granted more
compulsory licences allowing copies of patented
products and taken action in a greater number of
cases favouring the public over the patent holder
than India.
The US pharmaceuticals industry intensified its
protests against Indian IP laws after India granted
a compulsory licence to Indian company Natco to
manufacture an anti-cancer drug produced by
patent-holder Bayer on grounds of prohibitive
pricing and unavailability.
INDIA INKED THREE MoUs WITH CANADA
India and Canada have signed three pacts for

cooperation in health sector, audio-visual coproduction & skill development. In the pact for
Cooperation in health sector Canada and
Department of Biotechnology will work together
to address the global health challenges especially
for women and child healthcare.
National Skill Development Corporation from
India and Association of Canadian Community
College from Canada will work in skill development
segment and to cooperate and share the information
and learning on this aspect.
The agreement of audio-visual co-production

will enable Indian and Canadian film producers to
utilize a platform for collaboration on various facets
of film making. The agreement is expected to
deepen the engagement between the critical sectors

of the film industries of both countries there by,
providing a new chapter of collaboration. The
agreement was signed by I&B Secretary Bimal Julka
and High Commissioner of Canada to India Stewart
Beck.
Since the agreement is expected to boost
utilisation of Indian locales for shooting, it will
increase visibility of India as a preferred film
shooting destination. The agreement will also lead
to transparent funding of film production and boost
export of Indian films to Canadian market. India
has earlier signed similar agreements with Italy,
United Kingdom, Germany, Brazil, France, New
Zealand, Poland and Spain.
[22]
ECONOMY
GOVT. NOTIFIES CSR RULES
setting up of old age homes, day care centres and
such other facilities for senior citizens would be
considered as CSR work.
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The government has notified the rules for

corporate social responsibility (CSR) spending
under the new companies law. They would come
into effect from April 1. Under the plan, companies
above a certain threshold have to spend 2% of
average profit of the previous three years on CSR
activities specified by the government, which does
not include political funding. Companies that are
unable to do so have to give reasons for falling
short. Companies having net worth of at least Rs
500 crore or having minimum turnover of Rs 1,000
crore or those with at least net profit of Rs 5 crore,
have to make CSR spend.
Areas that have been defined by the government

in the CSR policy include eradicating hunger,
poverty and malnutrition; promoting preventive
healthcare and sanitation; and the Prime Minister
Reliefs Fund, among others. The policy will also
consider measures for the benefit of armed forces
veterans, war widows and their dependents, homes
and hostels for women and orphans, old age homes,
day-care centres and other such facilities for senior
citizens as coming under CSR.
Other CSR activities would be ensuring

ecological balance, protection of flora and fauna,
animal welfare, agro-forestry, conservation of
natural resources and maintaining quality of soil,
air and water.
As per the release, training to promote rural
sports, nationally recognised sports, paralympic
sports and Olympic sports, contributions or funds
provided to technology incubators located within
academic institutions which are approved by the
central government would also be CSR.
Notifications have been issued for Section 135 and
Schedule VII of the Companies Act, 2013, that
relate to CSR spending by companies.
The CSR policy will now be different from

conventional policy statements as the rule stipulates
the requirement of listing the projects/programmes
and also the monitoring process for such
programmes. Livelihood enhancement and rural
development projects, promoting preventive health
care and sanitation as well as making safe drinking
water available would be considered as CSR
activities.
Working towards protection of national

heritage, art and culture including restoration of
buildings and sites of historical importance and
works of art, setting up public libraries, promotion
and development of traditional arts and handicrafts
would also come under CSR ambit. Various
activities aimed at reducing inequalities faced by
socially and economically backward groups have
been included.
Measures for the benefit of armed forces
veterans, war widows and their dependents, setting
up homes and hostels for women and orphans,
[23]
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G20 AIMS TO LIFT GLOBAL GDP BY $2TN
Finance chiefs from the 20 largest economies

have agreed to implement policies to boost the
world economy by more than $2tn over the coming
five years. Finance ministers and central bank
governors from the Group of 20, which accounts
for 85 percent of the world economy, also agreed
to pursue greater transparency about monetary
policy after rifts about the US taper.
They expressed deep regret that reforms to
the International Monetary Fund have stalled,
because the United States Congress has yet to ratify
them. The IMF has said the strategy could add half
a percentage point to global growth annually over
four years starting next year.
The IMF has forecast global growth of 3.75
percent for this year and 4 percent in 2015. Each
country will present a comprehensive growth
strategy to a summit of leaders scheduled for
[24]
November in the Australian city of Brisbane. The

G-20 combines the worlds major industrialised and
developing countries from the United States to
Saudi Arabia and China, representing about 85
percent of the global economy.
Ministers said the figure could be reached by
increasing investment and employment and
enhancing trade, adding that there was no room
for complacency and that addressing the
challenges requires ambition.
Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey, the G20 chair,
had been pushing ministers to agree to faster global
growth targets, with private-sector investment as a
central plank. He stressed the need for structural
reforms to drive growth.
The fallout being felt by some emerging
economies as the US Federal Reserve winds back

its mammoth stimulus programme was another
lightning-rod issue in Sydney.
Acknowledging complaints by emerging
economies that a lack of communication has
worsened the impact on their markets, which have
suffered capital flows and currency volatility, the
G20 agreed to more transparency.
Hockey, who agrees with the US that countries
must make their own reforms to bolster their
economies and blunt the impact of quantitative

easing, said there had been honest discussions
about the impact of tapering.
Emerging-market economies, including China
and Brazil, have complained for years that their
relatively small voting rights in the institution do
not properly reflect their real power in the world
economy.
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RBI GETS CLOSER TO ISSUE LICENCES
A committee headed by former Reserve Bank

of India governor Bimal Jalan on new bank licences
submitted a report to RBI. The report is a
compilation of positive and negative aspects of
granting licences to all 25 applicants without
spelling out its preferences. The ball is now in the
court of RBI governor Raghuram Rajan who has
to decide on the number of licences and the identity
of the licence recipients.
The committee has strictly followed RBIs new

bank licence norms, which had clearly defined the
fit and proper criteria. It had defined fit and
proper criteria as entities/groups should have a
past record of sound credentials and integrity and
be financially sound, with a successful track record
of 10 years. For this purpose, RBI may seek feedback
from other regulators and enforcement &
investigative agencies.
If the recommendations of the Jalan panel are
followed by the central bank, companies whose
names figure in the 2G telecom spectrum scam and
the coal block allocation scam, or those involved in
other investigations will not get licences.
The group comprising former RBI deputy
governor Usha Thorat, former Securities &
Exchange Board of India chairman CB Bhave and
former ICICI Bank executive director Nachiket Mor
examined details submitted by the various
regulatory agencies about these applicants.
Governor Rajan and the finance minister have
been keen on granting licences to new bank
applicants but the process has been delayed given

that all the regulatory agencies have to present their
views on the applicants. There was also political
opposition in the form of a report by the
Parliamentary standing committee on finance
which objected to granting licences in what they
termed as an arbitrary and subjective process.
Bajaj Finserv, Shriram Capital, India Post, LIC
Housing Finance, L&T Finance and Aditya Birla
Nuvo, controlled by the AV Birla Group were
among the applicants. Investors were betting on
some of the applicants getting the licence.
Apart from business houses like Birla, Bajaj and
L&T, micro finance companies Bandhan and
Janlakshmi and non-banking finance companies
including IDFC have applied for the new banking
licence. It is not clear on how many will get the
licence.
In the past 20 years, the RBI has licensed 12
banks in the private sector in two phases. Ten banks
were licensed on the basis of guidelines issued in
January 1993. Kotak Mahindra Bank and Yes Bank
were the last two entities to get banking licences
from the RBI in 200304. India has 27 public sector
banks, 22 private sector banks and 56 regional rural
banks. In the 2001 round of guidelines for new
licences, the committee members were C G Somiah,
former government auditor CAG, I G Patel, former
RBI Governor, and Dipankar Basu, former head of
State Bank of India.
INDIA ONE OF THE BIGGEST MARKET FOR SMART CARDS
India is turning out one of the biggest markets

for smart cards in the world. Insurance companies
under the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY)
and business correspondents for banks are
churning out millions of chip cards every month.
When the RSBY scheme was first announced in
2007 as a cashless mediclaim for the poor, insurers
were sceptical as they felt that the premium

(estimated at Rs 750 per family at that time) would
not be enough to cover the administration cost.
However, today companies are vying with each
other to offer RSBY insurance and have brought
down the premium to a fraction of what was
[25]

originally envisaged. What has enabled coverage is
the smart card which can store all the information
about the insured and can be used for verification
even in an offline mode.
A big boost would come if the government were

to seriously attempt to implement the
recommendations of the Nachiket Mor committee
on financial inclusion. Every adult (Above 18 years)
of our country should have a bank account by
January 1, 2016. This account will be known as
Universal Electronic Bank Account (UEBA).
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Smart Card Information Technology (SCIT), one

of the largest manufacturers of smart cards,
produces close to 35 lakh smart cards a month for
the RSBY scheme. While coverage is provided by
general insurance companies, the enrolment is done
by agencies such as FINO PayTech which specialize
in using technology for financial inclusion. FINO
has enrolled over 25 million families under RSBY.
FINO also uses smart cards for providing banking
services to the excluded. These cards can be used
in handheld devices with the business
correspondent, who acts as a mobile banker.
largest global manufacturer of smart cards is

Gemalto which sells around 1.5 billion chip cards
across the world, including in India.
At present, SCIT does not manufacture debit

or credit cards but is in the process of getting
certification for issue of EMV cards to do so. The
CABINET HIKES DA TO 100%, TAKE OTHER DECISIONS TOO
The cabinet has raised the dearness allowance

(DA) of five million Union government employees
and three million pensioners, and approved a
minimum Rs.1,000 monthly pension, while raising
hopes of a substantial increase in pay packages by
clearing the terms of reference of the 7th Pay
Commission. DA, which is linked to the cost of
living and computed on the basis of the Consumer
Price Index-Industrial Workers, or CPI (IW), was
raised to 100% from 90%. The minimum Rs.1,000
monthly pension would be under a scheme run by
the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO).
The government got the decisions out of the
way before the enforcement of the model code of
conduct, which becomes effective once dates for
the general election are announced. The code bars
governments from announcing financial decisions
that may affect voter behaviour. Facing a tough
electoral battle, the Congress-led United Progressive
Alliance (UPA) government has in recent weeks
announced a raft of populist measures.
The government raised the workdays promised

under its flagship rural employment guarantee
programme from 100 to 150 for tribals, a move
that will benefit 1.4 million families and will take
effect in April. Those tribals who have received
land rights under the Forest Rights Act, 2006, will
be eligible for the additional 50 days of wage
employment under the rural job scheme.
[26]
Earlier, the Rural Development Ministry had

allowed providing additional 50 days of assured
jobs in drought-affected areas. Later, the Ministry
decided to permit additional 50 days of employment
for every Scheduled Tribe household living in forest
areas, provided that these have no other private
property except the land rights given under the
Forest Rights Act, 2006.
This rural job programme, the flagship social
welfare scheme of the United Progressive Alliance
Government, is being implemented from February
2, 2006. It provides at least 100 days of jobs to
every rural household. There is no mechanical job
under the programme and its meant mainly for
unskilled people.
The cabinet also approved the National Mission
for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem, one of
the eight missions under the national action plan
for climate change. The mission will have a budget
outlay of Rs.550 crore for the ongoing 12th FiveYear Plan (201217).
The mission aims to develop capacity to assess
the health of the Himalayan ecosystem and also
assist Himalayan states for implementation of action
plans and enable bodies to formulate policies. The
mission will focus on Himalayan glaciers, prediction
and management of natural hazards, biodiversity
and wildlife conservation and protection, and
traditional knowledge societies.
Other Cabinet and CCEA Decsion

Existing urea units allowed to increase fixed
cost to facilitate their continuing operations
and regular supply of urea.
Continuation of the Integrated Child
Protection Scheme in 12th Plan, with
enhanced financial support of Rs 3,000.33
crore.
Financial assistance and other measures for
HMT machine tools up to Rs 136.04 crore.
Continuation of the central sector Export

Oriented Production, Export Development
and Promotion of spices of Spices Board in
12th Plan with Plan outlay of Rs 670 crore.
River Basin Management Scheme approved
with expenditure of Rs 975 crore to facilitate
optimal development of water resources/
irrigation/multipurpose/river-link/flood
management projects.
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Integrated programme to address water

logging problem in south-west Punjab at total
project cost of Rs 2,246 crore during 12th
Plan.
Providing grant to Hindustan Paper Corp.

for meetings additional operational cost of
Rs 75 crore per annum.
Revision of cost norms in the scheme of

assistance to disabled persons for purchase/
fitting of aids/appliances effective from 1
April.
Desalination Plant at Nemmeli, Chennai to
ensure drinking water security for the city.
Continuation of additional compensation to

Fertilizers and Chemicals Travancore, an
indigenous
manufacturer
producing
phosphatic and potassic fertilizers using
naphtha as feedstock.
Central sector scheme of human resource

development for health research under 12th
plan with cost of Rs 597 crore.
Opening of 54 new Kendriya Vidyalayas
under civil sector in 53 districts in 17 states
at total cost of Rs 927.40 crore.
Voluntary retirement scheme package for the
employees of Hindustan Photo Films
Manufacturing with budgetary support of Rs
181.54 crore.
Interim financial assistance to Indian

Telephone Industries, Bangalore, in form of
soft loan up to Rs 200 crore for mitigating
difficulty in paying salaries to employees.
Scheme to expand number of PhDs in
electronic system design and manufacturing
IT/ITeS sectors.
Broadcasting Infrastructure and Network
Development Scheme to develop All India
Radio and Doordarshan infrastructure at cost
of Rs 3,500 crore.
Approval for six-laning of Eastern Peripheral
Expressway of National Highway 2 in
Haryana and Uttar Pradesh at estimated cost
of Rs 6,284.20 crore.
Establishing four new National Institutes of
Design with financial support of Rs 434 crore.
Setting up of a new rail coach manufacturing
unit at Kolar, Karnataka at estimated cost of
Rs. 1,460.92 crore.
Setting up of International Fund for
Agricultural Development country office in
India.
Setting up of 3,500 model schools at block

level in 27 states and Union territories through
state governments in educationally backward
blocks.
[27]

GET READY FOR FREE INTERNET ACCESS TO ALL
to flow from feeders to the satellites and broadcast
to everyone on earth. MDIF also plans to add the
ability to transmit data from anywhere as well, as
soon as the funds become available.
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Soon all the people on the planet can access

Internet for free. A New York based non-profit
organization, Media Development Investment Fund
(MDIF) has announced the Outernet project
which will provide free Internet access to all,
regardless of their location on earth.
MDIF plans to launch hundreds of satellites into

orbit by 2015 and proposes that hundreds of cube
satellites be built and launched to create a
constellation in the sky, that will allow anyone with
a phone or a computer to access Internet via
satellites and ground stations.
The Project Outernet will allow people from
across the globe, whether from Siberia or remote
villages of Africa, to get the same information as
those in New York. The Outernet will allow data
Highlights
The organisation aims to send a constellation

of satellites in space that would broadcast data,
received in a continuous loop until new fresh data
turns up. Using a technique known as User
Datagram Protocol (UDP) multitasking, which is
the sharing of data between users on a network,
Outernet will beam information to users.
Broadcasting of the data will be done using already
accepted international standards such as UDPbased WiFi multicasting, DVB, and Digital Radio
Mondiale.
The Outernet project Timeline
An ambitious project known as Outernet is

aiming to launch hundreds of miniature
satellites into low Earth orbit by June 2015.
By June of this year the Outernet project aims

to begin deploying prototype satellites to test
their technology.
Each satellite will broadcast the Internet to

phones and computers giving billions of
people across the globe free online access.
In September 2014 they will make a request

to NASA to test their technology on the
International Space Station.
Citizens of countries like China and North

Korea that have censored online activity could
be given free and unrestricted cyberspace.
By early 2015 they intend to begin

manufacturing and launching their satellites.
And in June 2015, they will begin
broadcasting the Outernet from space.
NO MORE SCREENINGS TO DETECT CANCER
An Indian- American scientist at Massachusetts

Institute of Technology (MIT) has developed a
simple, cheap, paper test that could improve cancer
diagnosis rates and help people get treated
earlier.The diagnostic, which works much like a
pregnancy test, could reveal within minutes, based
on a urine sample, the presence of cancer in a
person. This approach has helped detect infectious
diseases, and the new technology allows noncommunicable diseases to be detected using the
same strategy.
[28]
The technology, developed by MIT professor

and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator
Sangeeta Bhatia, relies on nanoparticles that interact
with tumour proteins called proteases, each of
which can trigger release of hundreds of biomarkers
that are then easily detectable in a patients urine.
In 2012, Bhatia and colleagues introduced the
concept of a synthetic biomarker technology to
amplify signals from tumor proteins that would be
hard to detect on their own. These proteins, known
as matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), help cancer

cells escape their original locations by cutting
through proteins of the extracellular matrix, which
normally holds cells in place.
could be analyzed on paper, using an approach

known as a lateral flow assay the same
technology used in pregnancy tests.
The MIT nanoparticles are coated with peptides

(short protein fragments) targeted by different
MMPs. These particles congregate at tumor sites,
where MMPs cleave hundreds of peptides, which
accumulate in the kidneys and are excreted in the
urine.
To create the test strips, the researchers first

coated nitrocellulose paper with antibodies that can
capture the peptides. Once the peptides are
captured, they flow along the strip and are exposed
to several invisible test lines made of other
antibodies specific to different tags attached to the
peptides. If one of these lines becomes visible, it
means the target peptide is present in the sample.
The technology can also easily be modified to detect
multiple types of peptides released by different types
or stages of disease.
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In the original version of the technology, these

peptides were detected using an instrument called
a mass spectrometer, which analyzes the molecular
makeup of a sample. However, these instruments
are not readily available in the developing world,
so the researchers adapted the particles so they
STUDY CONFIRMED EARTHS CRUST 4.4 BN YEARS OLD
A new study by an international team of

researchers led by University of Wisconsin-Madison
geoscience Professor John Valley reveals that the
Earths crust first formed at least 4.4 billion years
ago, just 160 million years after the formation of
our solar system. A time-line of the history of our
planet places the formation of the Jack Hills zircon
and a cool early Earth at 4.4 billion years. With
the help of a tiny fragment of zircon extracted from
a remote rock outcrop in Australia, the picture of
how our planet became habitable to life is coming
into sharper focus.
The study confirms that zircon crystals from
Western Australias Jack Hills region crystallised
4.4 billion years ago, building on earlier studies
that used lead isotopes to date the Australian
zircons and identify them as the oldest bits of the
Earths crust.
The microscopic zircon crystal used by Valley

and his group is now confirmed to be the oldest
known material of any kind formed on Earth.
The study, according to Valley, strengthens the
theory of a cool early Earth, where temperatures
were low enough for liquid water, oceans and a
hydrosphere not long after the planets crust
congealed from a sea of molten rock.
The study was conducted using a new technique
called atom-probe tomography that, in conjunction
with secondary ion mass spectrometry, permitted
scientists to accurately establish the age and thermal
history of the zircon by determining mass of
individual atoms of lead in the sample. The clusters
of lead atoms formed 1 billion years after
crystallisation of the zircon, by which time the
radioactive decay of uranium had formed the lead
atoms that then diffused into clusters during
reheating.
WORLDS LARGEST MASS EXTINCTION ON FAST PACE
MIT scientists have found that the Permian

extinction, which almost annihilated life on Earth
more than 250 million years ago, happened over
the course of 60,000 years - 10 times faster than
earlier estimates.
The largest mass extinction in the history of
animal life occurred some 252 million years ago,
wiping out more than 96 per cent of marine species
and 70 per cent of life on land including the largest
insects known to have inhabited the Earth.
Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT) have determined that the endWeekly Current Affairs 24th February to 2nd March, 2014
Permian extinction occurred over 60,000 years with an uncertainty of 48,000 years - practically
instantaneous, from a geologic perspective.
The new timescale is based on more precise
dating techniques, and indicates that the most
severe extinction in history may have happened
more than 10 times faster than scientists had
previously thought.
The leading theory of what originally triggered
the spike in carbon dioxide, among geologists and
paleontologists has to do with widespread, longlasting volcanic eruptions from the Siberian Traps,
[29]

a region of Russia whose step like hills are a result
of repeated eruptions of magma.
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To determine whether eruptions from the

Siberian Traps triggered a massive increase in
oceanic carbon dioxide, Burgess and Bowring are
using similar dating techniques to establish a
timescale for the Permian periods volcanic
eruptions that are estimated to have covered over
five million cubic kilometres.
In 2006, Bowring and his students made a trip

to Meishan, China, a region whose rock formations
bear evidence of the end-Permian extinction.
Bowring sampled rocks from this area, as well as
from nearby alternating layers of volcanic ash beds
and fossil-bearing rocks. After analysing the rocks
in the lab, his team reported in 2011 that the endPermian likely lasted less than 200,000 years. For
the new study, Bowring and his colleagues
reanalysed rock samples collected from five volcanic
ash beds at the Permian-Triassic boundary.
[30]
HEALTH
ICMR ISSUES GUIDELINES FOR LIFE SCIENCE RESEARCHERS
know. In case there are serious risks that
information or knowledge, intentional or nonintentional, could be readily misused to inflict
serious harm through bio-terrorism or bio-warfare,
bring them to the attention of the appropriate
persons/ authorities.
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With the aim to prevent the use of scientific

research for bioterrorism and bio-warfare, the
Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has
issued a mandatory code of conduct for research
scientists engaged in the field of life sciences. The
aim is to ensure that all research activities, involving
microbial or other biological agents, or toxins,
whatever their origin or method of production, are
only of types and in quantities that have
justification for prophylactic, protective or other
peaceful purposes.
Code of Conduct: In order to prevent the use
of scientific research for purposes of bioterrorism
or bio-warfare, all persons and institutions engaged
in all aspects of scientific research should abide by
this code of conduct which are governed by the
following principles:
1. Principles of non-malficence: It is ensured
that the discoveries of biomedical research scientists
and knowledge generated do no harm to humans,
animals, plants and environment.
i) by refraining to engage in any research that
is intended or likely to facilitate, bio-terrorism or
bio-warfare, and
ii) by not contributing to the development,

production or acquisition of microbial or other
biological agents or toxins, whatever their origin or
method of production, of types and/or in quantities
that have no justification for prophylactic,
protective, therapeutic, or other peaceful purposes.
iii) by taking due precautions to protect self
and others from any harmful effects and reporting
immediately to concerned authorities if any
untoward incident happens or likely to happen.
2. Principles of beneficence: It is ensured that

legitimate benefits are being sought and that they
out-weigh the risks and harms. The scientists work
for the ethical and beneficent advancement,
development and use of scientific knowledge;
3. Principles of risk minimization: Due care
and caution is to be taken to restrict the dual use
information and knowledge to those who need to
4. Principle of Confidentiality: The scientists

uphold the basic principle of maintaining all such
information highly confidential and reveal it to only
legitimate individuals or organizations under a
contract agreement as prescribed by law .
5. Principle of Ethical review: All relevant

research activities are subjected to ethics and safety.
reviews and monitoring to establish their ethical
acceptability and if human or animal subjects are
involved, to ensure that such involvement is ethical
and essential for carrying out highly important
research only for the benefit of the society.
6. Principles of transmission of ethical values:
The ethical principles upon which it is based are
transmitted faithfully to all who are, or may become,
engaged in the conduct of such scientific research.
7. Principles of voluntariness: Researchers are

fully apprised of the research, the impact and risk
of such research, and whereby scientists retain the
right to abstain from further participation in
research that they consider ethically or morally
objectionable.
8. Principles of compliance: Scientists abide
by laws and regulations that apply to the conduct
of science, duties, and obligations embodied in this
code and disseminate the same to all concerned.
9. Principles of institutional arrangements:
Appropriate care is taken to ensure that all
procedures are required to be complied with and
all institutional arrangements are made to assure
bio-safety and biosecurity. Access (which should
be in a transparent manner) is allowed to biological
agents that could be used as biological weapons
only to bonafide scientists who shall not misuse
them and whose work can be monitored by their
Institutions
[31]

10. Principles of totality of responsibility: The
professional and moral responsibility, for the due
observance of all the principles, guidelines or
prescriptions laid down generally or in respect of
the research or experiment in question devolves on
all those directly or indirectly connected with the
research or experiment. Such research shall be duly
monitored and constantly be subjected to review
and remedial action at all stages of the research
and experiment for its present and future use.
Bioethics has emerged as a new discipline over

the past couple of decades and is poised to become
a multidisciplinary specialty. Institutional review
boards and ethics committees have evolved as
conscience keepers of professionals with the view
to safeguarding the welfare of members of society
against any possible harm from scientific advances.
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11. Principles of research integrity: Scientists

are expected to adhere to highest professional
standards in proposing, doing and reporting of
research results to ensure reproducibility. The
proposing and conduct of research should be done
with due regard to accepted global professional
codes, norms and guidelines besides adhering to
the national and, wherever applicable, international
rules and regulations. During the conduct of
research, data should be collected, collated,
analyzed and reported with honesty and integrity.
During publication, unethical practices as
fabrication, falsification, plagiarism etc. should be
avoided and appropriate credit be given to
collaborators who have contributed to the
intellectual content of research being reported as

reflected in the authorship of manuscripts sent for
publication. The interests of young scientists should
be especially protected while according credit and
they should also be provided appropriate guidance
and imparted with the value system of research.
Advances in laboratory technologies have

created new and complex ethical dilemmas.
Laboratory services are an integral part of disease
diagnosis, treatment, response monitoring,
surveillance programmes and research.
Therefore, personnel working in clinical and/
or research laboratories should be aware of their
ethical responsibilities. It is necessary to comply with
the ethical code of conduct prescribed by national
and international organisations, and address the
emerging ethical, legal and social concerns in the
field of biological and biomedical sciences.
SUPERMUM HANDWASHING CAMPAIGN GIVES RESULTS
Global Hand Washing Day is observed every

year on 15th of October with a motive to improve
health as it is a key approach to disease prevention.
In a research it has been analysed that emotional
messages overruled health messages and changes
hand
washing
behavior.
SuperMum
handwashing campaign reveals for the first time
that using emotional motivators, such as feelings
of disgust and nurture, rather than health messages,
can result in significant improvements in
handwashing behaviour, and could help to reduce
the risk of infectious diseases. Every year, diarrhoea
kills around 800,000 children under five years old.
Handwashing with soap could prevent perhaps a
third of these death.
An evaluation of the behaviour-change
intervention, published in The Lancet Global Health
journal, shows that six months after the campaign
was rolled out in 14 villages in rural India, rates of
handwashing with soap increased by 31%
compared with communities without the
programme.
In this cluster-randomised community trial
across 14 villages, researchers from the London
[32]
School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and St

Johns Research Institute, with communications
consultants Centre of Gravity in Bangalore, India,
tested whether a village intervention designed to
increase handwashing with soap in southern
Andhra Pradesh, India, was successful in bringing
about behavioural change.
The team adapted an open access global toolkit
and targeted emotional drivers found to be the most
effective levers for behaviour change: disgust (the
desire to avoid and remove contamination), nurture
(the desire for a happy, thriving child), status (the
desire to have greater access to resources than
others), and affiliation (the desire to fit in).
As part of the SuperAmma intervention,
promoters put on community and school-based
events involving animated films, comic skits, and
public pledging ceremonies during which women
promised to wash their hands at key occasions and
to help ensure their children did the same.
At the start of the study, handwashing with
soap was rare in both the intervention and control
groups (1% vs 2%). After six weeks, handwashing
was more common in the intervention group (19%

vs 4%), and after six months, compliance in the
intervention group had increased to 37% compared
with 6% in the control group. One year after the
campaign, and after the control villages had
received a shortened version of the intervention,
rates of handwashing with soap were the same in
both groups (29%).

The SuperAmma campaign appears to be
successful as it engages people at a strong emotional
level, not just an intellectual level, and thats why
the behavioural change was long-lasting.
SKIN CANCER RISK AFFECTING DARK SKIN TOO

Genetic evidence suggests that about 1.2 to 1.8
million years ago Africans living in the hot, open
savannah that has highest levels of UVB radiation
throughout the year were under selective pressure
to retain a variant of MC1R gene that encodes for
effective dark colouration of the skin (melanization).
But the key notion that skin cancer served as a
selective force for the development of dark skin
has been dismissed on the grounds that lethal skin
cancer is rarely seen in young people during the
reproductive years.
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It is general belief that the people with fair skin

can easily exposed to skin cancer. Besides, it is also
only generally believed that the development of
dark skin by people in Africa was an adaptive
response to protect them from the damaging effects
of UV rays. Also, the harmful impact of UV rays
in the survival and/or reproductive fitness of
individuals is uncertain.
A paper published in the Proceedings of the Royal
Society B reports evidence that dark skin evolved in
early humans living in Africa to protect them from
the damaging effects of UV radiation. It provides
proof that skin cancer can affect young people in
the reproductive age.
Unlike light-skinned people, dark-skinned

people have relatively lesser risk of suffering from
skin cancer. And even if they do have skin cancer,
it is typically restricted to the soles and palms that
are less pigmented. The reason the presence of
brown/black eumelanin in dark-skinned people
that filters out the UV radiation. So much so that
dark-skinned people enjoy a 500- to 1,000-fold
protection compared with light-skinned people.
The prevalence of skin cancer in African albinos

in low latitude countries like Tanzania, Cameroon,
and Nigeria is high and it occurs at an early age.
While focal skin lesions can be seen in children as
young as five years, overt skin cancer can be seen
in most albinos by the age of 20 years. Albinos in
several other low-latitude countries like India,
Papua New Guinea and Panama run the same high
risk of developing skin cancer. Albino mice exposed
to UV radiation suffer similarly.
PALLIATIVE CARE ADDS QUALITY IN THE LIFE OF PATIENTS
The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines

palliative care as an approach that improves the
quality of life of patients and their families facing
the problems associated with life-threatening illness,
through the prevention and relief of suffering by
means of early identification and impeccable
assessment and treatment of pain and other
problems, physical, psychosocial, and spiritual.
Unfortunately palliative care does not feature
among the top priorities of Indian doctors who are
too busy battling disease to worry about offering
pain relief or emotional balm.
Of the 9 million estimated deaths every year,

almost 6 million are said to need palliative care.
This includes almost all cases of cancer (80% of the
1 million new cases in India come for treatment at
an advanced stage). Then there are conditions
AIDS, muscular dystrophy, dementia, multi-organ
failure, Alzheimers, Parkinsons disease, end-stage
renal disease, heart diseases, those who are

permanently bed-ridden and people with
neurological problems.
The biggest role of palliative care is pain
management because it is common and debilitating.
WHO considers morphine the gold standard for
treating moderate to severe pain, especially in
cancer. The Narcotic Substances and Psychotropic
Substances (NDPS) Act of 1985, meant to curb illicit
drug use, put in place a cumbersome process of
getting five to six licences to procure morphine.
You have generations of doctors who have not been
trained in dosage or its role in pain management.
Hence, most doctors dont dare prescribe it.
The demand for palliative care is expected to
explode with increasing life span and a shift from
acute to chronic illnesses. In India, most patients
cannot afford institutionalised care. Moreover most
[33]

people are most comfortable at the end of their
lives at home surrounded by their family. Homebased palliative care is also more cost effective.
In India, Kerala is the only state with a policy
which integrates palliative care with the public
health system and is decentralized down to the
Palliative Care
affirms life and regards dying as a normal

process;
intends neither to hasten nor to postpone
death;
integrates the psychological and spiritual
aspects of patient care;
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Palliative care is an area of healthcare that

focuses on relieving and preventing the suffering
of patients. Palliative medicine is appropriate for
patients in all disease stages, including those
undergoing treatment for curable illnesses and
those living with chronic diseases, as well as
patients who are nearing the end of life. Palliative
medicine utilizes a multidisciplinary approach to
patient care, relying on input from physicians,
pharmacists, nurses, social workers, psychologists
and other allied health professionals in formulating
a plan of care to relieve suffering in all areas of a
patients life. This multidisciplinary approach allows
the palliative care team to address physical,
emotional, spiritual and social concerns that arise
with advanced illness.
primary care level. The state accounts for 80% of

all palliative care services in the country and reaches
30% of those who need it. Even Tamil Nadu and
Karnataka have substantially more palliative care
units than any other state.
Palliative care:
offers a support system to help patients live

as actively as possible;
offers a support system to help the family
cope;
uses a team approach to address the needs
of patients and their families;
will enhance quality of life;
is applicable early in the course of illness, in

conjunction with other therapies that are
intended to prolong life, such as
chemotherapy or radiation therapy.
provides relief from pain, shortness of breath,

nausea and other distressing symptoms;
VINEGAR AIDS IN FIGHTING AGAINST MYCOBACTERIA : STUDY

In a new study scientists found Vinegar a high
powered weapon for drug-resistant tuberculosis
(TB) bacteria, Mycobacteria. Acetic acid can
effectively kill mycobacteria, even highly drugresistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis, according to
an international team of researchers from
Venezuela, France, and the US. It might be used as
an inexpensive and non-toxic disinfectant against
drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) bacteria as well as
other stubborn, disinfectant-resistant mycobacteria.
For thousands of years, vinegar has been used

as a common disinfectant, but its potential role as
a high-powered weapon against drug-resistant
mycobacteria represents an important new finding,
particularly for developing countries.
Acetic acid less toxic and corrosive than

bleach is also cheaper than other commercial
disinfectants that kill tuberculosis, making it
perhaps an appealing and effective disinfectant
for hospitals, doctors offices and labs in developing
countries, where funds are low and mycobacteria
are especially prevalent.
Work with drug-resistant tuberculosis bacteria
carries serious biohazard risks. Chlorine bleach is
often used to disinfect TB cultures and clinical
samples, but bleach is toxic and corrosive. Other
effective commercial disinfectants can be too
expensive for TB labs in the resource-poor
countries where the majority of TB occurs.
29% OF THE GLOBAL NEWBORN DEATHS OCCUR IN INDIA
An NGO, Save the Children report reveals that

globally India reports 29 per cent of the global
deaths of newborns on their very first day of birth.
This is the matter of concern for country like India
[34]
which is one of the fastest growing economies of

the world. About half the first-day deaths around
the world could be prevented if every mother and
baby had access to free and quality health care
and skilled
birth attendants.
Weekly Current Affairs 24 February to 2 March, 2014
th
nd

The report, however, said India has made
considerable progress in the arena of healthcare
during the past decade but glaring inequalities still
rule the roost. These inequalities stem from
geographical, social, cultural, and economic factors.
According to Save the Children global report

Ending newborn deaths, ensuring every baby
survives, the National Capital shows the worst
Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) among the four
metropolitan cities between 2010 and 2012 with
30 newborns dying for every 1,000 live births. A
substantial 64 per cent die within the first 28 days
of their birth.
Though the IMR has come down to 25 per 1,000
live births in the past months, the progress in
reduction of neo-natal mortality rate (NMR) has
been slower. In 2012, three million babies died
within the first 28 days of their birth and a million
babies died within the first 24 hours of their birth.
In comparison, Chennai recorded the lowest IMR
of 15 per 1,000 live births and in Mumbai and
Kolkata it was 20 per 1,000 live births.
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Save the Childrens report also shows that neonatal mortality rate (NMR) varies widely across
social strata. Among the wealthiest (20%) Indians,
NMR is 26 per 1,000 babies, while among poor
households 56 per 1,000 babies die within the first
month. The report says four essential areas of
neonatal care need to be looked atwarmth, initial
breast feeding, hygiene and resuscitation. NMR is
the lowest in Kerala (7) and highest in Madhya
Pradesh and Odisha (39). The countrys average is
29.
Among metros Delhi records highest IMR
At the same time, the newborn mortality rate

over the same period has come down from 51 per
1000 live births to 31 but again it is much higher
among the poor. Pakistan is ranked among the
countries with the highest stillbirth rates at 40.7
per 1,000 births, followed by Nigeria (32.7), Sierra
Leone (30.8) and Somalia (29.7).
The report, titled Ending Newborn Deaths,
said 6.6 million children around the world died in
2012 before their fifth birthday, mostly from
preventable causes.
In respect to Delhi, where 50 percent of the

children live in slums and 14.71 per cent of its
population is below poverty line the focus of
National Health Mission on maternal and child
health, and especially new born by providing
adequate number of skilled frontline health workers,
building community mechanisms for monitoring and
a stronger health system will enable the state to
lead on tackling new born child survival.
While there has been significant progress on
ensuring child survival in India, the fact that nearly
40 per cent of neo-natal deaths occur on the 1st
day of birth in India is stalling progress on achieving
Millennium Development Goal- 4 (reducing IMR).
[35]
NEWS IN BRIEF
NEWSMAKERSS
Ibrahim Mahlab
Arturo Licata, an Italian has been crowned

worlds oldest living man by the Guinness Book of
World records. He belongs to Enna, Sicily and has
been awarded the title after reaching the age of
111 years and 302 days by crosschecking his birth
papers and marriage records.
Ibrahim Mahlab, a former member of Hosni

Mubaraks political party has been appointed as
Egypts new prime minister, a day after the cabinet
announced its resignation. Mahlab, who was
housing minister in the previous administration,
will head Egypts sixth government since the 2011
uprising that toppled the autocratic Mubarak,
beginning yet another chapter in the chaotic postMubarak era.
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Auturo Licata
He was born in Enna in May 1902, three

months before Edward VII became king, and has
joined an elite league of super centenarians, the
people who have passed their 110th birthday.
Signor Licata was born in the same year the worlds
first cinema opened in Los Angeles and the world
speed record set by a car was 74mph. The year
1902 also saw Cuba gain independence from the
USA and the formation of Real Madrid and
Norwich City football clubs.
He is the oldest of only three men alive today
known to be over the age of 110 compared with 65
women. The previous holder of the title, Salustiano
Shorty Sanchez, died in September last year aged
112 years 97 days.
The worlds oldest woman is Misao Okawa

from Osaka, Japan, who was born on March 5
1898.The greatest authenticated age to which any
human has ever lived is 122 years, 164 days by
Jeanne Louise Calment of France, who died in 1997.
Licata was one of four brothers and two sisters
and went to work in sulphur mines in Sicily aged
just nine. He went on to work as a security guard
and in a pharmacy where he would accompany
children suffering form tuberculosis to hospital in
Palermo.
Signor Licata joined the Italian army in 1921 at
the age of 19 and served for 18 years, including
during the 1936 Italian invasion of Ethiopia. His
military service finished just as World War Two
began in 1939. Signor Licatas wife Rosa died in
1980 when he was 78 and the couple had seven
children, eight grandchildren and four greatgrandchildren.
[36]
Mahlab once belonged to Mubaraks National

Democratic party, and is the former CEO of Arab
Contractors, one of the regions largest construction
firms. He is expected to lead an interim government
at least until the election of a new president likely
to be army chief Abdel Fatah al-Sisi and perhaps
even until the installation of a new parliament.
Opponents of the government criticised Mahlabs
appointment because of his connection to the
Mubarak era, and to business elites.
Beblawy was blamed for failing to dealing with
a rise in the number of workers strikes, electricity
shortages and a spiralling economy problems that
have blighted Egypt for years and which the new
government is unlikely to solve.
Admiral D.K. Joshi
Indias Navy Chief Admiral DK Joshi has

resigned after a submarine accident off the Mumbai
coast. He has taken the moral responsibility for the
accidents and incidents which have taken place
during the past few months. The Defence Ministry
accepted his resignation. Till a new chief is
appointed, vice-admiral R K Dhowan will take the
charge.
Admiral Joshi is the first military chief to resign.
He took charge in 2012 and was left with more
than a year in his retirement. This is the 10th
mishap involving an Indian Navy asset and the
third submarine accident in the last seven months.
The accidents involved the Russian kilo-class
submarine INS Sindhuratna in which seven sailors

have been injured and two are missing, is the
second major mishap involving this class of
submarines in less than a year.
Admiral Joshis tenure would be known for

accidents. The other goals, like pushing through
the modernisation of the Navy, remained a work
in progress.
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The lowest point in his career came last year in

August when the Navy experienced one of its worst
peacetime tragedies with the sinking of INS
Sindhurakshak. Taking on the critics, Admiral Joshi
had claimed that the Navy was more concerned
about finding what caused the explosions than
anyone else. The Navy lost 18 personnel and also
a battle-ready submarine.
warships. The Navy tried hard to explain that each

incident was isolated and cannot be clubbed
together.But the fact remained that the accidents
were repeated with alarming frequency. Drastic
action was taken and as many as three
commanding officers of front-line warships INS
Talwar, INS Betwa and INS Airawat - all involved
in accidents or incidents - were sacked.
The Sindhurakshak accident was followed by a

series of accidents/incidents involving various
OBITUARIES
Alain Resnais
Alain Resnais, 91, the French arthouse

filmmaker passed away. He was a star of the New
wave movement with close to 50 movies to his
name. He was known for his classics such as
Hiroshima, Mon Amour, Last Year at
Marienbad and the documentary Night and Fog
about Nazi concentration camps. Recently, Resnais
play-within-a film Life of Riley won a prize for
innovation at the Berlin Film Festival.
He was born in 1922 in northwestern France
and started his career with mid-length films in the
1940s, rose to fame with Night and Fog and
Van Gogh, a short that won an Oscar in its
category in 1950.
Memory and the tricks it plays was key to his
work, and in 1959 the feature film that established
him as a major voice, Hiroshima mon amour
broke him internationally. He followed that in 1961
with Last year in Marienbad, equally successful,
if baffling for some.
He was well on the way to reinventing cinemas
narrative structure, and until 1968 made a series
of political films tackling Algeria, Vietnam and
other sensitive issues. After that he made sciencefiction, the memorable and rarely-seen I love you,
I love you, drama, comedy, and adaptations.
1977s Providence, his first film in English, put
John Gielgud and Dirk Bogarde together; 1980s
My American Uncle was a popular success.
He then began to progressively integrate

elements of theatre into his work, and took the use
of music beyond mere background scene-setting,
making the score into a character in its own right.
In 1989 he even took on the world of cartoons

and comic books with I want to go home as he
continued to trawl deeply into popular culture. He
owned the largest private collection of comics in
France.
Having filmed in English, he then turned his
attention to a British writer, the playwright Alan
Ayckbourn, for a series of films, putting difficultto-adapt theatre material onto the screen. 1993s
Smoking/No smoking compressed Ayckbourns
Intimate exchanges, previously thought
unfilmable. Two of his favourite actors, Sabine
Azma and Pierre Arditi, played all the roles.
His last film, yet to be released, is Aimer, boire,
chanter, based on Ayckbourns Life of Riley.He
won two Cesars, (the French Oscar), and two prizes
in Venice, Berlin, and Cannes, which awarded him
a Lifetime achievement prize in 2009.
G.K.Chadha
The first president of the SAARC established

South Asian University, Professor G.K.Chadha died
after the cardiac arrest at the age of 76. He was
renowned economist and academician and was
associated with the university since its inception in
2008. He was also the former vice chancellor and
professor emeritus of the Jawaharlal Nehru
University. He had also served as member of the
Economic Advisory Council to the prime minister
and chaired the UGC Pay Review Committee (Sixth
Pay Commission) for university and college
teachers.
Prof. Chadha has written 16 books besides
contributing 98 research papers to national and
international research journals on various
[37]

development issues relating to India and other
developing countries of Asia, notably South-Asia,
Indonesia and China. He was also appointed a
member of the search committees for central
universities of Rajasthan and Punjab.
South Asian University
De Lucia was awarded the Spanish Culture

Ministrys Fine Arts Gold Medal in 1992 and the
prestigious Prince of Asturias prize for the Arts in
2004. He was granted a Doctor Honoris Causa
degree by Berklee College of Music in 2010. His last
studio album, Cositas buenas (Good Things),
earned him his first Latin Grammy in 2004, while
his 2012 live recording En Vivo (Live) received a
second.
CH
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South Asian University (SAU) is an

International University sponsored by the eight
member states of the South Asian Association for
Regional Cooperation (SAARC). Afghanistan,
Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal,
Pakistan and Sri Lanka are the eight countries. At
the Thirteenth SAARC Summit held in Dhaka, in
November 2005, Indian prime minister Dr.
Manmohan Singh proposed the establishment of a
South Asian University to provide world-class
facilities and professional faculty to students and
researchers from SAARC member countries. The
Inter-governmental
Agreement
for
the
Establishment of the South Asian University was
signed at the 14th SAARC Summit. And the
SAARC member states also decided that the
University would be established in India. Prof. G.K.
Chadha, member of Economic Advisory Council
and former vice chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru
University, was formally appointed the CEO of the
project.
During the 1960s and 1970s, he formed an

extremely popular duo with late flamenco singer
legend Camaron de la Isla, with the two working
together on 10 records. His 1973 rumba Entre Dos
Aguas (Between Two Waters) became one of the
most popular recordings in Spain.
Paco de Lucia
Paco de Lucia, one of the worlds greatest

guitarists died due to heart attack. De Lucia, whose
real name was Francisco Sanchez Gomez was bestknown for flamenco but also experimented with
other musical genres. One of his most famous
recordings was Friday Night in San Francisco,
recorded with fellow guitarists John McLaughlin
and Al Di Meola in 1981.
De Lucia was immersed in flamenco music from

an early age, with his father, Antonio, and two
brothers playing guitar and a third brother an
accomplished flamenco singer. He took his artistic
name from that of his Portuguese mother, Lucia.
Although de Lucia had no formal musical
training, from an early age he impressed people
with his remarkable dexterity, hand strength and
technique that allowed him to produce machinegun-like picado riffs characteristic of flamenco
guitar.
Arguably the most influential flamenco artist
ever, he infused new life into the traditional form
and is credited with modernizing it by introducing
influences from other musical forms such as jazz,
bossa nova, classical and salsa, sometimes drawing
criticism from flamenco purists.
His own sextet, formed in 1981, includes bass,
drums and saxophone. In addition to his work with
McLaughlin and Di Meola, his high-profile
collaborations included work with guitarist Larry
Coryell and pianist Chick Corea, who joined Pacos
sextet for the album Zyryah in 1990.
AWARD/PRIZES
Gandhi peace prize 2013
A pioneer of Chipko movement, eminent

Gandhian and environmentalist Chandi Prasad
Bhatt has been selected for Gandhi Peace Prize
2013. The decision was taken by the jury headed
by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The
announcement has put Bhatt in a list that includes
the likes of Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu,
who were earlier vested with the prestigious award.
[38]
Gandhi Peace Prize is an award that is given to

individuals and organizations for their contributions
towards social, economic and political
transformation through peace and other Gandhian
methods. Bhatt, who was born on June 23, 1934,
was one of the pioneers of Chipko movement,
adopting non-violence in preventing deforestation
in the Garhwal Himalayas by hugging trees to
prevent them from being felled during the early
70s.

For his contribution towards the movement
which later spread throughout the country, he was
awarded the Raman Magsaysay Award for
Community Leadership in 1982. In 2005, he was

conferred the Padma Bhushan, the third highest
civilian award in the country.
International Gandhi Peace Prize
is open to all persons regardless of nationality, race,

creed or sex.
A jury consisting of the Prime Minister of India,
the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, the
Chief Justice of India and two other eminent
persons decides the awardee each year.
Only achievements within 10 years immediately
preceding the nomination are considered for the
award; an older work may, however, be considered
if its significance has not become apparent until
recently. A written work, to be eligible for
consideration, should have been published.
CH
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The International Gandhi Peace Prize has been

named after Mahatma Gandhi. It is awarded
annually by the Government of India. The
Government of India launched the International
Gandhi Peace Prize in 1995 on the occasion of the
125th birth anniversary of Mohandas Gandhi. This
is an annual award given to individuals and
institutions for their contributions towards social,
economic and political transformation through nonviolence and other Gandhian methods. The award
carries Rs. 10 million in cash, convertible in any
currency in the world, a plaque and a citation. It
Indian scientist bags Science Award
Madan Babu, an Indian-born scientist, won the

Protein Science Young Investigator Award for 2014
at Cambridge, UK. The Protein Science Young
Investigator Award is given by the Protein Society
for important contribution made in the study of
proteins.
The award recognises an important contribution

to the study of proteins by a scientist still in the
early stages of an independent career. The Society
represents a global community of researchers
dedicated to the understanding of proteins.
Madan received the award for his contributions

to the understanding of the principles of regulation
in biological systems, especially in the fields of
intrinsically disordered proteins and gene
regulation. With this award, he became the first
scientist of Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB)
to win the award.
Dr. Madan took his B. Tech from Anna
University in Chennai in 2001. He was appointed
in 2006 as one of the youngest independent group
leaders in the Structural Studies Division at the
LMB. He currently heads the group on Regulatory
Genomics and Systems Biology.
COMMITTEES/COMMISSIONS
Rakesh Mohan Committee on Transportation
The National Transport Development Policy

Committee (NTDPC) led by former deputy
governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Rakesh
Mohan, has recommended the creation of a
national pipeline grid on the lines of the national
electricity grid. In its report, the committee has
recommended creation of a new body to promote
the logistics industry in the country and
establishment of a new logistics hub.
It has also said that around 15 to 25 logistics
parks should be established and should be located
at major transportation hubs, including at the origin
and destination points of the dedicated freight
corridors. The committee also advocates the creation
of an expert authority to regulate and monitor
public-private partnership projects.
In the aviation sector, the committee wants both

the airports regulator and safety regulator to be
amalgamated into the proposed civil aviation
authority (CAA).
This is a change of stance from the current plan,
which is to replace only the DGCA by CAA and
Airports Economic Regulatory Authority continues
to operate separately. The CAA Bill, which was
not passed by the Lok Sabha, does not envisage
any economic regulation powers to the CAA.
The committee has placed greater emphasis on
importance of human resources development in the
transport sector. It has suggested scholarships,
opening up of new institutes to ensure that a career
in the transport sector remains attractive.
Among other recommendations, the committee
suggest a unified ministry of transport with roads,
[39]

railways and ports as its departments and raising
the road cess on petrol to Rs 4 a litre from the
existing Rs 2 a litre.
operations and has failed to invest in technology
need to retain its competitiveness.
The National Transport Development Policy

Committee (NTDPC) headed by Rakesh Mohan,
the former deputy governor of Reserve Bank of
India recommended that the government reduce
its stake in Air India to 26 per cent over five years.
The committee was constituted in 2010 and
comprised representatives from government
ministries involved in transportation and the private
sector. In its three-volume report, the committee
has said it does not see any reason for the
government to continue with its exclusive
ownership in the national carrier.
The government, in April 2012 approved

financial support of over Rs 30,000 crore to the
airline to be spread over a period of nine years till
2020-21. The national carrier has already received
Rs 12,000 crore in the first two years and the
government, in its interim budget, has another Rs
5,000 crore for FY15.
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Rakesh panel recommended reduced govt

stake
The committee has observed that the airline need

to be recapitalised, restructured organisationally,
its working capital debt burden written off and
some divisions made independent and corporatised
with government retaining perhaps a 26 per cent
stake. The report mentioned that the Air Indias
future prospects remain precarious as the airline is
overmanned and unproductive with sub-par
Air India has shown revenue increase and

reduction in losses but continues to lose around Rs
10 crore a day. The airline is also trying to monetise
its assets. The recommendations assume significance
since a section of the government is also talking
about privatising Air India. In other
recommendations, the committee also wants the
government to rationalise tax on jet fuel, a longpending demand of the aviation industry. Tax on
jet fuel in India is as high as 33 per cent and the
airlines have been petitioning the government for
bringing it down to 4 per cent.
Kiran Aggarwal Committee on IAS Training

Period
in the district and the relatively higher utility of

independent charges for on-the-job learning.
A Committee constituted by the Department of

Personnel and Training (DoPT) has recommended
that the total training period for IAS officers should
be brought down from two years (103 weeks) to
one-and-a-half years (75 weeks), despite opposition
from the director of the Lal Bahadur Shastri
National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA)
towards the move.
It has been argued that, given the rising median

age of IAS officer trainees (around 28 years), the
training duration must be reduced as many enter
service with significant work experience and less
potential years of service. Introduction of a
structured mid-career training programme and
opportunities to avail short-term refresher courses
after four years of service have also been cited to
back the case for the reduction in training period.
It has also been argued that any reduction in
training or probation period would be welcomed
by state governments given the general shortage of
junior-level IAS officers. This would allow for
longer tenures of IAS officers as SDMs.
The Kiran Aggarwal Committee, tasked with

reviewing the content and duration of induction
training of IAS officers, has recommended reducing
the district training from the current 54 weeks to
33 weeks. The strong feedback has been received
from recent batches of IAS officers about the
relatively sub-optimal effectiveness of attachments
MISCELLANEOUS
Malappuram first in India to bag ISO tag
Malappuram municipality has become the first

municipal body in the country to win an ISO
certification for quality management. The ISO 90012008 certificate has added another feather to the
cap of Malappuram, which was chosen the States
[40]
second best municipality last year.
Although Namakkal municipality had won ISO

14001-2004 certification a few years ago, it was
exclusively for environment-friendly services.
Malappuram municipality has been on a track
of fast reforms for the past couple of years. Last

year, it achieved the distinction of having zero
pendency of files, and the municipal authorities
had announced prizes for those who pointed out
about files pending beyond a specified time. None
won the prize apparently.
Govts nod to Nalanda Varsity Amendment

bill
The government has given its nod to bring
some amendments to the Nalanda University
(Amendment) Bill, 2013, as suggested by a
Parliamentary Panel to further streamline the
governance structure of the proposed university
in Bihar.
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In spite of frequent political interventions and

the lax attitude of government officials, the
municipality achieved the certification by ensuring
quality services and other facilities for the public.
The TQ Services has given the municipality the
ISO certification after a years training in proper
documentation, which conformed to the standards
specified by the certification agency.
Non-Ionising Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) in 2008,

which were further reduced to one-tenth of the safe
limit prescribed by ICNIRP with effect from 2012.
The municipality currently offers 70-odd services

of various types. Different services have different
time limit in delivery, with the maximum for some
services being a month.
Website will aid to know EMF radiations
The High Level committee formed by the

Department of Telecom (DoT) on the orders of
Allahabad High Court to look into issues of
electromagnetic field (EMF) radiation, has
recommended that a dedicated website be set up
to let the public know, how much emission occurs
from every tower in the country.
India has over 5.5 lakh towers and over 100

crore active mobile handsets. The panel has said
that the DoT should create a national EMF Web
portal to provide the public access to the status of
compliance with the prescribed EMF norms of all
BTSs [base transceiver stations that produce
electromagnetic fields] and mobile towers and
related relevant information.
The DoT has been asked to continue the extensive
audit of self-certificates being provided by the telecom
service providers in order to ensure compliance with
the prescribed stricter norms of EMF radiation. At
present, the department has no permanent
mechanism to check emissions on a daily basis and
it depends on self-certification from the operators.
It carries out random checks and penalises operators
whose towers emit excess radiation.
The DoT adopted the EMF radiation limits

prescribed by the International Commission on
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on

External Affairs had suggested several amendments
such as making the governing board a sevenmember body instead of five, one each nominated
by seven participating and non-participating
countries of the East Asia Summit (EAS).
The committee had also suggested inclusion of
words such as non-state, non-profit, self-governing
international institution having academic freedom
for attainment of these objectives. It had suggested
among others that the Vice Chancellor shall also
perform the role of member secretary of the
governing board.
The Amendment Bill, 2013, designed to further
streamline the governance structure of the
University and provide it the financial support
required for the establishment of a world class
institution of high learning, was introduced in the
Rajya Sabha in August 2013.
According to the statement, non-participating
countries of the EAS will be allowed to collaborate
in developing the university as an international
centre of excellence. The President will be the Visitor
of the university and there would be retrospective
application of the universitys statutes, ordinances
and regulations.
The Centre has already approved an expenditure
of Rs 2727.10 crore for the period 2010-11 to 202122 to meet the universitys budgetary requirements
during its establishment phase. A number of
participating countries, such as China, Thailand,
Laos, Singapore, Australia, and Japan have either
made or offered voluntary contributions.
SPORTS
South Africa wins U-19 world cup

South Africa defeated Pakistan in ICC U-19 by
six wickets in World Cup final match and has
become the world champion. In the match Pakistan

won the toss and chose to bat first. Pakistan were
bowled out for 131 runs in 44.3 overs with right
arm medium pacer Corbin Bosch grabbing four for
[41]

15 in 7.3 overs. In reply, South Africa chased down
the target in 42.1 overs with Aiden Markram (66)
and Greg Oldfield (40) being the chief contributors.
For the first time South Africa captured the
ICC Junior World Cup previously, South Africas
best results were runners-up finishes in 2002 and
2008. Captain Aiden Markram leadership proved
successful, who was named Player of the
Tournament, the Baby Proteas bowlers dominated
the final, but their batsmen were made to work
hard for victory by Pakistan.
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The 2014 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup

was a one-day cricket competition for sixteen
international U-19 cricketing teams which was
played in the United Arab Emirates. This was the
tenth edition of the tournament. Sixteen nations
competed: the ten Test-playing teams, the United
Arab Emirates as hosts, and five additional
associate and affiliate qualifiers (Afghanistan,
Canada, Namibia, Papua New Guinea, and
Scotland). India entered the tournament as
defending champions, having won the title in 2012
in Australia under the captaincy of Unmukt
Chand.
points through potting. Two useful breaks of 62

and 56 helped Aloks cause.However, an unnerved
Kothari shrugged off a potting mistake and scored
an important break of 73 and fought back in style.
Kothari, leading 104-39 in the third, could not pot
his cue ball and Alok banked on the opportunity
to garner a break of 112 points. Two healthy
accumulations (68 and 83) and a blunder from Alok
then helped Kothari go one frame up. Third
position was secured by B. Bhaskar who beat Dhruv
Sitwala.
ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup
The ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup is an

international cricket tournament contested by
national Under-19 teams. The tournament was not
staged after its first edition in 1988 till 1998 and
since then has been organised by the ICC as a
biennial event. The number of competing teams in
the tournament has increased from eight in 1988
to the present 16 giving an opportunity for a
number of associate and affiliate teams to showcase
their talent.
Sourav Kothari wins National Billiard

Championship
Sourav Kothari after defeating Alok Kumar

lifted his maiden title in the National Billiards
Championship. Kothari clinched the title in great
style, with an unbeaten break of 126, that left Alok
stranded on three national titles. Sourav Kothari
and Alok Kumar both play for Petroleum Sports
Promotion Board (PSPB).
Notwithstanding the end result, the two cueists
deserved admiration for their resilience and ability
to withstand pressure. In the morning session, both
had won four-hour semifinal duels to reach the
final. Alok Kumar, the defending champion
focused hard and collected the maximum of his
[42]
Somdevs victory over Aleksandr in DLTA
Somdev Devvarman won his first singles title

in more than three years after breezing past
Kazakhstans Aleksandr Nedovyesov 6-3, 6-1 in the
final of the Delhi Open Challenger. Somdev, who
last won at Izmir Challenger in 2010, rolled over
the top seed 6-3, 6-1 in one-sided affair that lasted
for less than an hour. He took home 100 ranking
points and a $14,400 winners cheque. In the
womens event, Chinese eighth seed Qiang Wang
outplayed third seeded Yulia Beygelzimer of
Ukraine 6-1, 6-3 to clinch the crown. Aleksandr
started off with three winners and a neat drop
shot to seal the first game at love. The Indian
responded in a similar fashion to begin strongly.
Overall, Somdev lost only 10 points on his service
games. He also displayed certain accuracy in his
shot placement.
Sochi Winter Olympic 2014
The host nation, Russia won maximum medals

in the Sochi Winter Olympic 2014. Russia took hold
of 33 medals in totality. The 22nd Winter Olympic
Games was conducted in the Black Sea resort town
of Sochi, Russia. It was the first Olympics in Russia
since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. The
Soviet Union was the host nation for the 1980
Summer Olympics in Moscow. The closing
ceremony took place at Fisht Olympic Stadium, the
same site of the opening ceremony for the 17-day
winter sports extravaganza.
The Mascots were Polar Bear, Hare, Leopard.

Under the slogan Hot, Cool, Yours, the Sochi
Olympics brought together nearly 3,000 athletes
from a Winter Games record 88 countries, who
competed for 98 gold medals in 15 disciplines in
seven sports. Russia led all nations with 13 gold
medals and 33 medals in total, topping the Winter
Olympics medal table for the first time since 1994.
Norway came second with 26 medals(11 gold, 5
silver, 10 bronze) and Canada finished third with

25 medals( 10 gold, 10 silver and 5 bronze). The
next Winter Olympics will be held in 2018 at
PyeongChang, South Korea.
The athletes represented India at 2014 Winter

Olympics:
In Alpine Skiing, Himanshu Thakur finished
the giant slalom competition in last place
out of the competitors who finished the race.
In Cross-country skiing, Nadeem Iqbal, the
first athlete from Jammu and Kashmir finished
the mens 15 km classical race in 85th
position (out of 87 competitors who completed
the race) nearly 17 minutes behind the winner
Dario Cologna of Switzerland.
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The lead-up to the 2014 Games was marked by

several major controversies. These included
allegations of corruption leading to the
aforementioned cost overruns and concerns for the
safety and human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual,
and transgender (LGBT) athletes, spectators and
supporters during the Games due to the countrys
recently adopted propaganda law, which led to
ongoing, Olympic-focused protests. There were also
protests by ethnic Circassian activists over the site
of Sochi, where they believe genocide took place,
and various security concerns over threats by
jihadist groups tied to the insurgency in the North
Caucasus.
reinstated the Indias NOC after they held an

election, allowing the two athletes that still had
competitions planned to compete under the Indian
flag rather than as independent athletes.
The arrangements made at the Sochi village for

the athletes were also appreciated by the Chinese
officials at the time of their visit. The
accommodation offer convenience in every aspect
to the athletes stay. The Chinese delegations were
highly impressed by the proximity between the
village and competition venue. China sent a 139member delegation that included 66 athletes for
the Games in the Black Sea resort city.
India at the 2014 Winter Olympics: Three
athletes represented India at the 2014 Winter
Olympics. They initially entered the competition as
Independent Olympic participants, competing
under the Olympic flag, as the Indian Olympic
Association had been suspended by the IOC since
2012. However, on 11 February 2014 the IOC
In Luge, Shiva Keshavan in mens luge

singles event finished the four runs of the
event in 37th position out of 39, marking his
worst ever performance at the Winter
Olympics.
Medal Tally
Country
Gold
Silver
Bronze Total
Russia
13
11
33
Norway
11
10
26
Canada
10
10
25
United States
12
28
Netherlands
24
Germany
19
Switzerland
11
[43]
EDITORIALS
IN SEARCH OF OPEN SKIES
The ministry of civil aviation should consider
implementing the open skies policy, say, for a fiveyear period, extendable by another five years. If
the worst happens, we can always roll back the
policy it is Indias sovereign right. Global airlines
will be hurt, but after a few angry statements, they
will simply move their fleet elsewhere. The
experience with the US proves that most of our
fears are unfounded.
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Bilateral airline seat quotas have their origin in

the Chicago Convention of 1944, held towards the
end of World War II. With leading nations trying
to rebuild their economies, protectionist policies
were incorporated, under which no scheduled
international air service could be operated over or
in the territory of a contracting state without its
permission. Seven decades later, one needs to
question the relevance of these quotas. In the
globalised world of 2014, most countries, beset with
sluggish economies and rising unemployment, are
wooing leading airlines. Aviation and tourism have
a significant multiplier effect both for the
economy and employment, especially for semiskilled and unskilled people.
India is no stranger to the concept of an open

skies policy. In 2005, India signed an open skies
agreement with the US, resulting in unlimited seat
quotas between the two countries. This replaced
the Indo-US agreement of 1956, which had placed
restrictions on destinations, aircraft, pricing etc. The
2005 agreement also provided for seamless codesharing between Indian and US carriers. Contrary
to fears, it did not lead to a complete domination
of the Indo-US routes by US carriers.
Unfortunately, we do not have open skies

agreements with other countries. Every time a
foreign airline reaches its quota limit and wants to
enhance frequency, the knives come out. Increasing
quotas for one country while not increasing them
for another creates further controversy.
Seven decades of protectionism has not helped

Indian aviation. We lack a strong, dominant
national carrier. Our airports, despite a large
population, handle just a fraction of the traffic that
the worlds leading airports deal with. Our aviation
turbine fuel is one of the costliest in the world. Our
aerospace manufacturing, aviation training facilities
etc need strengthening. Foreign tourist arrivals in
India are an abysmal seven million per year. The
only way out is rapid globalisation, a level playing
field and transparent policies. We need disruptive
strategies the incremental case by case
approach will not work.
[44]
There is a genuine apprehension that certain

global carriers enjoy sovereign support, subsidised
fuel, low airport charges and non-unionised staff,
that they may offer dirt-cheap fares and kill the
interests of Indian carriers. There are adequate
regulatory provisions in India to prevent such anticompetition tactics. We can block the quotas of
foreign carriers in the name of protecting domestic
airlines. We can wait till private Indian carriers
build a large fleet of wide-body aircraft and exhaust
the Indian part of the bilateral quotas. But that
may take years to achieve.
Sectors that were opened up have seen quality
standards improve and prices fall. Indian
companies in sectors like telecom, banking,
hospitality, automobiles have become world class.
Many of them are now acquiring global brands
like JLR, Novelis, Tetley, Zain, Orient Express,
Ssangyong. Ironically, we applaud when an Indian
company acquires a global brand, but feel very
threatened when a global competitor enters our
backyard. We need to believe in our innate
strengths.
The open skies policy will lead to an increase
in flights operated by global airlines to and from
India. Since these airlines will have to fill up their
aircraft during lean seasons, they will run joint
promotion campaigns with the Indian government,
like Singapore Airlines promoting Australia. Global
carriers may snatch some traffic from Indian
competitors, but they will also bring global traffic
to India. Many foreign tourists skip India in favour
of destinations in the ASEAN because of Indias
poor air connectivity with the rest of the world.

Indian carriers will retain the competitive
advantage of having non-stop flights to their global
destinations. This is something that global carriers
cannot provide, since they are required to have a
stopover in their country of origin. Since global
carriers may serve only the largest airports in India,
flights to smaller locations will be handed over to
their Indian partners through code sharing. All
parties gain.
Allowing open skies also lets our trade

negotiators achieve greater access in global markets
for Indian products, services and professionals. India
has the potential to be the third-largest aviation
market by 2020 and may even have a shot at the
top slot by 2030. Provided we focus on
experimentation, self-belief and bold thinking.
Today.
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AGAINST THE FLOWS

The recent troubles with emerging market (EM)
currencies have been accompanied by the usual
recriminations. The affected governments have
accused the US Federal Reserve of being insensitive
to them, whereas commentators in developed
countries blame the EMs for economic
mismanagement and political instability. This
glosses over the fundamental risks from liberalised
cross-border capital flows.
Conventional wisdom has pushed developing
countries to liberalise their capital account to
supplement local capital and to deepen and broaden
domestic financial markets. In India too, multiple
committees on financial sector reforms have
recommended a phased progress towards full
capital account liberalisation (CAL). In recent years,
India has progressively loosened capital controls,
mainly to help corporates access low-interest foreign
capital and to attract capital to shore up a declining
rupee.
But the global financial crisis has unsettled

several macroeconomic policy orthodoxies,
including the consensus on capital flows. In late
2012, the IMF acknowledged the significant risks
posed by cross-border capital flows, magnified by
gaps in countries financial and institutional
infrastructure. Arguing that full liberalisation need
not be an appropriate goal for all countries at all
times, it supported context-specific capital flow
management measures. The recent currency
market turmoil lends credence to the long list of
arguments against liberalising capital flows.
To start with, episodes of capital inflows, sudden

stops and outflows, triggering sharp currency
devaluations, have become very frequent. Further,
once the tide of capital flows is reversed, most often
due to global factors beyond the control of the host
country, the potential downside pressures on the
currency can be disproportionately greater than the
fundamentals of the economy would warrant. As
economists Barry Eichengreen and Poonam Gupta
show, at such times, economic fundamentals do

not provide any insulation and countries with large
and liquid financial markets suffer the most. If the
markets perceive any political instability or
macroeconomic weakness, both always likely even
in the better governed countries, the downside risks
get amplified.
For example, despite a temporary worsening of
the current account deficit, Indias export receipts
and foreign exchange cover for external debt service
are among the lowest for EMs. Among 18 large
EMs, only China and Russia have a lower external
debt to GDP ratio than India, and this has been
low and stable for a decade. Nevertheless, driven
mostly by market perceptions, the rupee has
experienced relentless pressure.
Two, several studies, including those by IMF
economists, have shown that after controlling for
various factors, there is little to suggest any causal
relationship between CAL and economic growth.
It also has no correlation with lower inflation or
higher investment rates.
Three, there is a fundamental risk management
problem with external debt financed investments
by corporates in infrastructure and non-tradeable
sectors. It leaves borrowers exposed to currency
risk due to the mismatch between the rupee cashflow and dollar repayments. Accordingly, in the
aftermath of the recent decline in the rupee, many
large Indian corporate groups, especially
infrastructure firms, face massive unhedged
currency risks.
Four, effectively managing a liberalised capital
regime is extremely difficult for most developing
economies. Indias most recent experience with
cautiously phased liberalisation of external
commercial borrowings shows that it is impossible
to prevent the build-up of highly risky, mostly
unhedged, short-term private debt. Since 2007, the
medium and long-term external borrowings by
[45]

Indian corporates have nearly doubled to almost
$185 billion by end-2013, and short-term debt,
mostly private, has risen steeply by nearly 170 per
cent to $96 billion.
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In this context, the standard insurance

mechanisms against currency runs are not likely to
be very effective. In the aftermath of the currency
crisis in 1997, many East Asian economies have
tried to insure against future crises by building up
massive foreign exchange reserves. But as the
examples of Malaysia and Thailand highlight, large
reserves have not been able to prevent pressures
on their currencies.
Finally, it is questionable how much large

countries like India can rely on foreign capital. In
fact, one of the distinguishing features of the East
Asian economies, including Japan and China, has
been the limited dependence on foreign capital,
aside from foreign direct investments. We need to
undertake reforms that stem our alarming decline
in savings rates and encourage citizens to save
using financial instruments, rather than in
unproductive assets like gold and real estate.
Further, there is no evidence that India has escaped
the original sin problem that developing
countries will experience difficulty in borrowing in
foreign currency.
Five, there is also little evidence that CAL leads

to stronger domestic bond markets. Here, the
limited success of Latin American countries even
after three decades of text-book phased reforms is
instructive. Large-scale privatisation of state-owned
enterprises massively expanded the depth of equity
and bond markets, while privatisation of social
security schemes generated demand for these
securities. And both these reforms were
complemented by the latest capital market
regulation and CAL. Despite these best practice
reforms, the non-financial bonds outstanding were
just 2 per cent of the GDP in 2010 and pension
funds invest mostly in government bonds.
Further, a 2011 McKinsey report shows that

bond markets channel a very small share of nonfinancial firms debt, not only across EMs but also
in many developed countries. Even in
infrastructure, domestic bank loans dominate, and
less than 5 per cent of all global financing in 2011
came from long-term bonds.
If the domestic currency is strong and stable,

and the countrys institutional systems are effective,
then more often than not, capital flows can be a
force for good. But, as the IMF rightly
acknowledges, in most developing countries, and
India is no exception, these are questionable
assumptions.
Markets overreact when countries respond to
signs of currency trouble by reintroducing capital
controls. It makes the original decision on
liberalisation all the more critical. It is no surprise
that China, which had strong capital controls all
along, has been the only country to escape all the
currency crises of the past decade and a half. All
this should be reason enough for India to pause on
its pursuit of full CAL.
EASIER SAID
At its meeting in Sydney, the G-20 put in place

targets and proposed policies for both advanced
and emerging economies based on a paper prepared
by the IMF. The paper argues that global activity
has picked up, largely on account of the advanced
economies. At the same time, in many emerging
markets, despite a boost to output from stronger
exports, domestic demand has been weaker than
expected, reflecting in part tighter financial
conditions. After the US Federal Reserves taper
talk in May, there was a new bout of financial
volatility. The paper argues that emerging
economies with relatively high inflation and current
account deficits saw the largest asset price declines
initially. More recently, markets are showing signs
of stabilising, on the back of actions by key emerging
[46]
economies to shore up confidence and strengthen

their policy commitments. India, for instance, has
seen a focus on fiscal consolidation and forex
reserve buildup.
In terms of the forecast, it is believed that in the
advanced economies, less fiscal consolidation and
relaxed financial conditions will support growth
this year, while the near-term prospects for the
emerging economies are broadly unchanged. Thus,
global growth is projected to increase to about 3.75
per cent in 2014 and 4 per cent in 2015. But the
recovery is still weak. Capital outflows, higher
interest rates and sharp currency depreciation in
the emerging economies remain key concerns and
persistent tightening of financial conditions could
undercut investment and growth in some countries.

While no one doubts the wisdom of better
cooperation and reforms, there is little in the G-20
framework to, for instance, make the Fed take
account of the impact of its actions on the emerging
markets. The primary responsibility of the Fed is to
meet its domestic targets. While it can give better
forward guidance, cooperation is a different game.
Similarly, the emerging markets can undertake fiscal
consolidation and build infrastructure but there are
political difficulties in this strategy and in a time of
slow growth, which is likely to continue, these
choices will not be easy, howsoever obvious they
sound in the G-20 policy announcements.
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The G-20 needs cooperation to promote financial

stability and ensure a robust recovery. It is argued
that the advanced economies should avoid the
premature withdrawal of monetary accommodation
and cooperate on unwinding quantitative easing. In
the emerging market economies, credible
macroeconomic policies and frameworks are
recommended. Further policy actions should be
undertaken to reduce unemployment and strengthen
medium-term growth, while making it more
balanced. Competition-enhancing product market
reforms, infrastructure investment and labour
participation reforms can ensure sustainable
medium-term growth.
STILL A QUESTION MARK
Nine years ago, social activist Shabnam Hashmi

had filed a PIL in the Supreme Court, seeking a
direction to the Central government to enact a
general law of adoption that would be applicable
to all. After a long delay, the court disposed the
matter on February 19, 2014. No such direction
was issued, but the court emphasised that the
provisions relating to adoption under the Juvenile
Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000,
can be availed by any person, notwithstanding the
position of adoption under a personal law.
There is no general adoption law in India.

Successive governments have been reluctant to
enact such a law in view of the opposition from
certain sections of society on religious grounds. The
enactment of a general adoption law has been
vehemently opposed by Muslims and Parsis. While
the latters religion prohibits the assimilation of an
outsider into a Zoroastrian family, the former
believe that their religious law totally prohibits
adoption. This belief has not been dislodged in any
of those Muslim countries that have reformed and
codified Islamic family law the only two
exceptions are Turkey and Tunisia, where adoption
has been permitted by law, subject to certain
restrictions meant to accommodate clear provisions
from the Quran. I have always held that opposition
to a secular adoption law is irrational because such
a law would only be an enabling legislation. It
would not force anyone to adopt against the
dictates of their religion. In the early 1970s, when
a secular adoption bill was being considered, I had
publicly favoured it and also registered my views
with the parliamentary select committee working
on the bill. This had met stiff resistance from
Muslim religious circles.
Under the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance

Act, 1956, which is the only law on the subject in
the country, only a Hindu can adopt a child and
only a Hindu child can be adopted. In the absence
of any general law, foreigners wishing to adopt an
Indian child have been taking the circuitous route
of securing guardianship of the proposed adoptee
under the Guardians and Wards Act, 1890, taking
her to their home country, and procuring adoption
orders from courts there under the local law. To
make things easier in this context, the Supreme
Court issued a set of guidelines for inter-country
adoption, with a direction that it be followed strictly
until Parliament enacts a proper law on the subject.
The United Nations promulgated a Convention
on the Rights of the Child in 1989. India ratified it
in 1992, and in response to its demands, enacted
the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of
Children) Act, 2000, which provides a machinery
to ensure the welfare of children in need of care
and protection or in conflict with law. The act
made a brief provision for adoption under Section
41, which was amended in 2006. Under its present
version, a child who is orphan, abandoned or
surrendered can be given in adoption by a court
after it is satisfied that investigations have been
carried out. This act is a general law that does not
exclude any section of persons from its ambit.
In the Shabnam Hashmi case, the Supreme
Court has so emphasised the enabling nature of
the provision: The act does not mandate any
compulsive action by any prospective parent leaving
such person with the liberty of accessing the
provisions of the act, if he so desires. Such a person
is always free to adopt or choose not to do so and,
[47]

instead, follow what he comprehends to be the
dictates of the personal law applicable to him.
Since the court had permitted the board to make

an intervention, its response to the plea should have
been made clear.
What the court has said about the prospective
adoptive parents in the context of Muslim law is
unassailable but its silence about the proposed
adoptees governed by that law is, to say the least,
inexplicable.
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Very true indeed, but an important aspect of

the issue has not been addressed by the court. The
act requires the statutory child welfare committees
set up under its provisions to certify in every case
that the child proposed to be adopted is legally
free to be adopted. If it is true that Islamic law
prohibits adoption, then a Muslim child, as long as
she is governed by Islamic law, will not be legally
free to be adopted. Intervening in the case, the
All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB)
wanted the court to issue appropriate directions to
the child welfare committees to keep in mind and
follow the principles of Islamic law before declaring

a Muslim child available for adoption under the
act. The courts judgment refers to this plea of the
AIMPLB but totally ignores it.
WHEN CAUTION TRUMPS OPPORTUNITY
Genetic engineering in agriculture raises

contentious politics unknown in other applications
of molecular technology. The pivot is risk. In
pharmaceuticals, medicine and industrial
applications, recombinant DNA technology has
been widely accepted as providing useful tools; in
agriculture, products using these same tools have
been coded as producing GMOs, evoking almost
universally an aura of unique risk and special
regulation. Science is invoked and attacked as
providing sufficient evidence for assuring safety in
the use of GMOs.
Though associated with wealthy economies

historically, genetically engineered crops grown in
developing countries in 2012 exceeded total acres
grown in the so-called developed countries for the
first time. India was the 16th country to approve
a genetically engineered crop: Bt cotton in 2002.
Controversy over Indias second Bt crop brinjal
was intense, centred on the adequacy of science
in assessing risk. Risk is an elastic and elusive
concept. In common use, risk is part of everyday
life but seldom formalised.
In normal science, risk has a precise but
deceptively simple meaning: risk equals the
probability of some hazard. Anyone booking a
flight, taking prescription drugs or scheduling
surgery recognises potential hazards. We regularly
take some risks because of expected benefits, or
because the risk of doing nothing is higher. The
question is always: compared to what? Ideally,
regulation of any technology would reach some
threshold of acceptable risk balanced with
benefits for a whole society.
Conceptually simple, these comparisons are

devilishly difficult. Often neither hazard nor
[48]
probability is known, or cannot be measured. The

economist Jack Knight wrote in the 1920s that this
situation is one of uncertainty, not risk. In the world
of uncertainty, risk is of necessity a social
construction. The common cellphone is a good
example: there is some evidence of hazard, no proof
of hazard and no estimate of probabilities, but such
obvious utility that hypothetical risk is discounted
by nearly everyone.
Science cannot assess uncertainty, nor determine
appropriate risk preferences; these are of necessity
political decisions. For agricultural biotechnology,
the precondition for risk regulation would ask of
science: do transgenic plants produce more hazards
than cultivars bred by other means? Though there
may well be new hazards, none has been
demonstrated in mainstream science to date.
The European Commission Directorate-General
for Research assessed available regulatory science
for environmental and food-safety risks in A Decade
of EU-funded GMO Research (2001-2010): The
main conclusion to be drawn from the efforts of
more than 130 research projects, covering a period
of more than 25 years of research, and involving
more than 500 independent research groups, is that
biotechnology, and in particular GMOs, are not
per se more risky than, [for example], conventional
plant breeding technologies (page 16).
Like China and Brazil, India supported
biotechnology for its potential benefits and
established institutions of state science to assess
risks. Bt cotton utilised an insecticidal protein
derived from a common soil bacterium, Bacillus
thuringiensis, hence Bt, to control pests in cotton
with less pesticide; the results dramatically
demonstrated benefits. The same technology

Developmental states embrace some uncertainty:
continuation of the status quo likewise entails
uncertainties, and often known hazards.
Precautionary states, in contrast, privilege caution
over opportunity; uncertainty is coded as
unacceptable risk. States are divided between these
approaches; the location of official science in the
state then fundamentally affects outcomes.
Ministries of environment tend to be preservationist,
hence precautionary. Ministries of agriculture or
science and technology have different missions,
more in common with the logic of
developmentalism. Exactly this division appeared
in India over Bt brinjal; as environment held the
decisive voice, the crop was not approved.
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applied to brinjal raised the risk bar because it is a

food crop. The Genetic Engineering Approval
Committee (GEAC), after nine years of tests
involving seven government agencies and
departments, approved release of the crop by both
the private and public sectors, based on
comparative assessment of options. Hazards to both
farmers and consumers were documented in
current practices of heavy pesticide application
some unapproved for food crops. No hazards from
the insecticidal protein were found through
standard safety protocols; GEAC findings
conformed to the EUs general conclusions.
This statutory state science was not decisive,

however. Then minister for environment, Jairam
Ramesh, concluded that the GEAC studies were
inadequate; risks to food safety and the
environment were posited. Neither hypothetical risk
was explicitly compared to known hazards of
existing
practices;
uncertainty
trumped
demonstrable risk. Food safety was the most telling
example. Only one study, not peer-reviewed and
funded by an international campaigner against
biotechnology, was cited as evidence of hazard:
organ damage and death.
However, Professor Gilles-Eric Sralinis claims

about Bt proteins had been rejected by the GMO
Panel of the European Food Safety Authority; his
most recent article positing cancer risks was
retracted after publication by Food and Chemical
Toxicology a rare and embarrassing step for a
journal. With GMOs, as with climate science, there
coexists a core of scientific consensus and persistence
of denialism in the scientific community.
The ministers logic was precautionary,
consistent with one line of international practice.
This is a global pattern of conflicting logics of
developmental states and precautionary states.
This dialectic of risk and benefit encounters the

Goldilocks Paradox of all regulation; the level of
cautionary restriction should be not too much, not
too little, but just right. Excessive regulation is
suffocating and adverse to equity. Too little
precaution might produce hazards that entail
unacceptable risk. The strictest regulation enables
multinational life science corporations with capacity
and connections to win at the expense of small
firms and public science. Bio-safety regimes
empower officials over farmers; scarce public
resources are wasted in surveillance and control
rather than innovation. Investment in both public
and private sectors is depressed.
If effective technologies are blocked, agriculture
is needlessly crippled. It is ethically difficult to justify
depriving farmers of the same technical progress
urban people take for granted. Finally, with climate
change continually producing new challenges to
agriculture, ruling out any tools for response is itself
a risky proposition.
PERILS OF RESTRAINTS
At a time when millions of orphans await

legitimate adoption, the Supreme Courts judgment
in Shabnam Hashmi versus Union of India and
Others is managerial, howsoever cleverly crafted.
It takes the small step of recognising adoptions
under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of
Children) Act, 2000, and the rules flowing from it,
especially the amendments of 2006. Now, Indian
Muslims may adopt Muslim children.
The act does not mandate any compulsive

action by a foster or adoptive parent. It is wholly
facilitative and no person violates any obligation
to adopt, simply because there is no duty imposed

on any one. As with the Special Marriage Act,
1954, very few Muslims would take recourse to the
Juvenile Justice Act for adoption.
More striking is the courts refusal to recognise
that the right to adopt is an integral part of Article
21, which guarantees the rights to life and liberty.
After nearly two decades of social action litigation,
which has expanded the judicial role in almost
every sphere of national life, to say that the
Supreme Court has no constitutional responsibility
to discharge the obligation under Article 44 to strive
[49]

towards the enactment of a uniform civil code
(UCC) is not convincing. The court had the
opportunity to do a repeat of the larger benchs
decision in the Shah Bano case, however meagre
and provocative it might have been.
Whether Quranic verses on adoption articulate

this distinction is the question that the court should
have confronted. Many Muslim-majority countries
(such as, Malaysia, Somalia, Tunisia, and Turkey)
have deemed adoption legal. Algeria, Jordan and
Morocco also allow for the adjustment of the Kafala
system to render Muslim foreign adoptions valid.
Whatever the justification for legislative inaction
earlier, had the Supreme Court consulted the 2011
report of the Global Muslim Womens Shura
Council, an organisation based in the United States,
the reasoning and the result in this case would
have been vastly different. The council finds that
instead of banning adoption, Islamic sources have
brought various ethical restrictions to the process,
condemning dissimulation and foregrounding
compassion, transparency, and justice. And these
restrictions closely resemble what is known today
as the practice of open adoption, that is, where
adoption does not result in the severance or erasure
of genetic ties.
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Instead, the Supreme Court now says that the

elevation of this right to the status of a
fundamental right under Article 21 will have to
wait for another day. The court stresses that it is
for Parliament to meet the constitutional obligations
of Article 44, that it is for future generations to
craft a UCC once there is a dissipation of
conflicting thought processes prevailing in the
country. Judicial self-restraint stands commended;
judicial activism stands downgraded.
will: all conflicting and customary interpretation

must then cease.
One may still ask the court: How long will

Indian Muslim children have to wait till they can
rightfully be adopted by other pious Muslims? Is
nearly 65 years of the Indian republic not long
enough to fulfil the obligation of a UCC? Is the All
India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) to be
the decisive voice for them or the Constitution of
India, which gives them the freedom of both
conscience and religious beliefs and practice, as well
as the right to complex equality? How about Indias
own obligations under the United Nations
Convention on the Rights of the Child? What
happens to Indian law, policy and administration
in that context? Finally, what would happen if
succeeding generations were to ignore, or find it
even more difficult to implement, the judicial advice
so mildly expressed in the judgment?
The court does not pay much heed to the

AIMPLBs argument that Islamic personal law only
follows the system of Kafala, under which foster
care is permitted for Muslims but not adoption.
The AIMPLB asked the court to direct authorities
acting under the juvenile law to take full note of
that position. The court refused to oblige, though
reiterating that a UCC could only be achieved by
the collective decision of succeeding generation(s)
to sink conflicting faiths and beliefs that are still
active.
The court had no inclination to note that many
a Muslim jurist is, after all, interpreting Fiqh
(jurisprudence). This is distinct from the Sharia,
which is defined as divine in origin. If you follow
the maxim that the law is a matter of divine reason,
which can be interpreted by humans who have
been given the gift of reason, even the Sharia
remains a matter of conflicting human
interpretation. Such interpretation is not permissible
only when the commandment emanates from divine
[50]
Accordingly, when all efforts to place

orphaned children with their extended family have
been exhausted, open, legal, ethical adoptions can
be a preferable, Islamically grounded alternative to
institutional care and other unstable arrangements.
Thus, a modified Kafala system in which the state
and the law have more than a facilitative role is
not anti-Islamic. It carries forward the imperative
of international human rights namely, the best
interests of the child in state and civic enterprise.
In the second decade of the 21st century, the
court is clearly at a crossroads. Its present judgment
as well as the recent judgment re-criminalising
same-sex relations as against nature appeals
to Parliament to perform its constitutional
obligations. Yet, given electoral arithmetic and the
politics of human rights, the legislature is unable to
engage with constitutionally legitimate law reform.
At the same time, the court adores Article 21s
right to liberty, both to render complete justice
and to enhance its own jurisdiction. It thus counsels
self-restraint and judicial activism at the same time.
In itself, the judicial preference for legislative action
is understandable, but the court also legislates in
the interests of governance, development and justice.
In the charismatic moment that saw the
inception of social action litigation, the court carved
out a social niche for epistolary jurisdiction for the
disenfranchised, the dispossessed and the

disadvantaged in India. In that moment, the
Supreme Court became, in Justice Goswamis
immortal words, the last refuge for the bewildered
and the oppressed.
Todays court seems to fail not just episodically
but also structurally. It needs a cohesive
collectively disciplined adjudicatory leadership.
At least, the sorry spectacle of smaller benches

ignoring the decisions of larger benches should now
end. The court should take a more determined
stance when any personal law system violates the
norms of gender justice and the human rights of
sexual minorities.
NEW WINDS FROM ARABIA

and political Islamist who founded Pakistans
Jamaat-i-Islami party and who inspired Islamist
thinkers from Egypt to Iran, including those who
ultimately advocated violent insurrection.
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The recent visit of Saudi Crown Prince and

Defence Minister Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud to
New Delhi is likely to bear all the hallmarks of the
usual Saudi royal visit: a large delegation filling up
five-star hotels, business leaders paying their
respects to visiting ministers in hopes of securing
petro-dollar contracts, political leaders rolling out
the reddest of red carpets and the sprinkling of
Saudi charity largesse to local causes.
The crown prince, in a sense, represents this
familiar image of the senior Saudi royal on tour.
But look again and listen closely to what the crown
prince and King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia are
saying, and youll see something new and
profoundly important for the Muslim world,
particularly South Asia. The prince lands in India
after previous stops in Pakistan and Japan. During
those visits, he consistently laid out a vision of Islam
that includes dialogue and cooperation while
eschewing extremism and conflict. While this
message may seem trite, the messenger is not trivial,
and the words have been backed by significant
actions.
It is difficult to overestimate the influence Saudi

Arabia wields in the broader Muslim world,
particularly in lands far away from the Arab centre
South and Southeast Asia, in particular. If any
outside state can influence South Asian Islam, it is
Saudi Arabia. Unfortunately, for far too long, in
the 1980s and 1990s, Saudi Arabias influence was
negative. They funded madrassas in Pakistan that
ultimately spawned the Taliban. Saudi-funded
organisations such as the World Assembly of Muslim
Youth (WAMY) and the Muslim World League
(MWL) propagated a narrow, literalist
interpretation of the faith from India to Indonesia,
which failed to understand the many colours and
complexities of a cosmopolitan Islam in practice.
Even the more liberal institutions supported a

revivalist political Islam. In 1979, the first ever
service to Islam prize, given by the relatively
moderate King Faisal Foundation, was given to
Abul Ala Maududi, the South Asian theologian
Maududi died in 1979 a fateful year for the

Islamic world. The 1979 Iranian Revolution ushered
in a rigid theocracy on a population more in tune
with the ambiguities of Sufi poetry. That same year,
the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, spawning
a jihad that inspired tens of thousands of Muslim
fighters to travel there. The Iranian Revolution, in
particular, spooked the House of Saud. Even worse,
the seizure of the Grand Mosque of Mecca in that
same year by a group of militants pushed the Saudi
leadership into full defensive mode.
In response, as if to show their true Islamic
colours, the ruling al-Sauds robustly supported
some of the more radical currents in Afghanistan
and embraced Osama bin Ladens jihad of the
1980s. At home, they handed over the education
ministry and judiciary to narrow-minded Wahabist
preachers. In order to push back Arab nationalist
currents, Saudi Arabia had, for years, been
importing Muslim Brotherhood teachers and
professors from the Arab world. This WahabiBrotherhood duo made for a toxic mix at home.
Out of that poisonous crucible, 15 Saudi hijackers
emerged to follow in the violent vision of bin Laden
and crash those planes into Americas twin towers
on that terrible Tuesday in September 2001, and
ultimately challenge the Saudi state violently from
2003-06. That Wahabi-Brotherhood mix also
infected Saudi-funded pan-Islamic institutions active
across South Asia.
What a difference a decade makes. King
Abdullah has used his near-decade on the throne
to confront what he calls Islamic deviants, who
use violence and intolerance to promote conflict.
He has not only called for a dialogue of faiths, but
pushed some of Saudi Arabias leading religious
scholars to lead the effort. This is critical: after all,
its easy to put liberals on CNN to talk of dialogue,
but forcing Wahabi theologians to shake hands with
[51]

priests and rabbis at international conferences is
far more powerful. A close reading of King
Abdullahs speeches reveals a man deeply troubled
by Islamic deviancy and deeply moved to counter
it.
The king has also reached out to Shia leaders

in substantive ways, but unfortunately, Saudi
society and media have not followed: there is still
far too much anti-Shia sentiment among ordinary
Saudis, and few Saudi intellectuals have mustered
the courage to push back against this current. Saudi
Arabia, as home to the holiest mosques of Islam,
might be considered the heart of the Islamic world,
but its demographic heart is in South and Southeast
Asia. The drying-up of Saudi petro-dollars for
radical groups over the past decade has been good
for South Asia. It is vital that these new winds
blowing from Arabia prove to be more than a
temporary change in temperature.
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The king has launched an extraordinary

initiative, the King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz
International Centre for Interreligious and
Intercultural Dialogue, based in Vienna, Austria,
which hosts men and women of faith from Islam
(both Shia and Sunni), Judaism, Christianity,
Hinduism, Buddhism and other faiths to engage in
serious interfaith dialogue. The king has also
become what some call the Education King,
leading one of the worlds most ambitious
scholarship programmes, with some 1,50,000 Saudi
students studying in universities across the globe.
At home, new universities have proliferated,
including the prestigious King Abdullah University
of Science and Technology, which the king has
called a House of Wisdom that harks back to
Islams golden age of enlightenment and
cosmopolitanism in the ninth through 13th
centuries.
by his appointments. The king has appointed an

unprecedented 30 women to the Majlis al-Shura, a
consultative council, and virtually all of his
appointments of leading ministers have been
reformists and technocrats. For both the king and
the crown prince, their closest advisers tend to be
cosmopolitan men of the world, rather than rigid
Wahabist thinkers, though both are widely seen as
pious a critical factor of legitimacy in a society
that is still conservative.
Whats more, you can tell much about a man
THE RIGHT JUDGE FOR THE JOB
On February 14, the Supreme Courts collegium

withdrew from the law ministry the names of 12
persons recommended by the collegium for
elevation as judges of the Madras High Court. The
panel may have brought to a halt the controversy
over the merits of the proposed nominees. But it
has done little to address the problems of opacity
and inconsistency in the present procedure for
appointing judges.
In January, a senior advocate, R. Gandhi, had

filed a PIL in the Madras High Court, questioning
the list of persons nominated for elevation by the
courts collegium, which was also apparently vetted
by the Supreme Courts panel. It argued that the
list and the process of appointing judges
suffered from a lack of transparency. But the real
issue at stake was casteism in the selection process.
After the Madras HC granted an interim order
of status quo, effectively forbidding the ministry
from processing the list of nominees, the registrar
general of the court moved the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court transferred the matter to itself
and vacated the high courts interim order. This,
on paper, enabled the government to proceed with
appointing the persons nominated by the collegium.
[52]
But now, the Supreme Courts collegium has

retracted the list altogether, adding another layer
of opacity to an already secretive process. The
retraction would seem to be an admission of the
failings of its own selection procedure.
Consider what the Constitution tells us, in broad
terms: judges to a high court are to be appointed
by the president in consultation with the chief
justice of India (CJI), the governor of the concerned
state and the chief justice of the concerned high
court. Read simply, the prerogative lies with the
executive, that is, the president, who ought to act
according to the advice of the council of ministers,
which is based, no doubt, on consultations with
other such persons as mandated. In the initial years
after the Constitution came into force, the executive,
as a matter of convention, made appointments only
with the concurrence of the CJI. But the government
slowly began to tweak this tradition: while the CJI
was consulted, his concurrence wasnt always
sought.
In 1981, a bench of seven judges of the Supreme
Court sanctioned this trend in S.P. Gupta vs
President of India and Others, holding that the
opinion of the CJI was not binding on the

government. The executive, according to the court,
held the trumps. The decision may have upheld
the basic text of the Constitution, but it also proved
calamitous. In the aftermath of the decision in S.P.
Gupta, appointments were routinely made with
blatant disregard for the CJIs opinion. To correct
this anomaly, the Supreme Court, in 1993,
reconsidered its decision. But in doing so, the court
virtually rewrote the provisions of the Constitution,
fashioning its own system of appointments, which
has proved extraordinarily obfuscatory.
high court would nominate prospective appointees,

together with his or her two most senior colleagues.
In Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record

Association vs Union of India, the court assumed
the power to appoint judges to the higher judiciary.
The authority was vested with the CJI, who, it
held, would have primacy on all matters of
appointment and would be assisted by two judges
of the Supreme Court. The decision was reaffirmed
in 1998, in the presidential reference case, albeit
with minor modifications. The primacy now shifted
from the CJI to a collegium of judges, comprising
the CJI and his or her four most senior colleagues.
A similar collegium was also established for high
courts, where the chief justice of the concerned
The
proposed
judicial
appointments
commission, which will replace the collegium
system, if passed by the Lok Sabha, is also not the
answer to our problems. We need a system closer
to the British model, where a commission
independent of both the executive and the judiciary
selects candidates based solely on merit. We should
be striving towards a system of judicial
appointments that keeps faith with both the
independence of the judiciary and the principle of
separation of powers, on which our Constitution
rests.
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As is apparent, the system maintains no fidelity

to the text of the Constitution. But what is most
disappointing is the Supreme Courts failure to
structure a system that would lend credibility to
appointments: a transparent, institutionalised setup, where merit (which, no doubt, will have to be
carefully defined) will be the sole criterion. What
we have today is a system, which, on top of being
extra-constitutional, is also deeply flawed.
A POLICY OF ACTIVISM AND RESTRAINT
In the realm of disability rights, the events of

the last month have been controversial. The
government obtained cabinet approval for the
Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill, 2014, which
does not meet the standards prescribed under the
UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities (CRPD), as it reinforces popular
stereotypes instead of challenging them, and
permits discrimination rather than prohibiting it.
It also moves backwards on questions of
autonomy, choice and liberty. Due to these
regressive features, segments of the disability sector
have criticised the bill. The bills supporters pointed
to its inclusion of 13 new impairments and the
enhanced percentage of job reservation. Since the
losses were outweighing the gains and many
provisions required fixing, the chairperson of the
Rajya Sabha referred the bill for consideration by
a House committee the most appropriate
solution.
The dust had barely settled on this decision
before another controversy engulfed the disability
rights legislation. There are rumours that the
government is planning to enact the bill as an
ordinance. Two questions are being raised: one,
can the government enact the bill through an
ordinance after referring it to a House committee?

And two, should the government take this route?
Under Article 123 of the Constitution, the
president has the power to make law through
ordinances, provided that first, both Houses are
not in session and second, the president is satisfied
that circumstances exist which render it necessary
that immediate action should be taken. Insofar as
the two Houses are not in session, the first condition
is satisfied. However, the second condition is not
met. The bill was sent to a House committee because
it needed more work. It was only introduced in the
House and sent to the committee, and no urgency
to enact the bill was expressed or shown.
Any effort now to enact the bill as an ordinance,
after it has been referred to the House committee,
would, in light of the Supreme Courts ruling in
D.C. Wadhwa vs State of Bihar, be seen as a
colourable exercise of power and a fraud on the
Constitution. On a plain reading of the Constitution
and by relying on judicial decisions, it can be stated
that the president cannot enact the bill by
promulgating an ordinance.
It is also important to ask whether the
government should enact the bill by using an
ordinance. While considering this question, we
[53]

should appreciate that disability rights is not an
unoccupied field. The Persons with Disabilities
(Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full
Participation) Act, 1995 already controls the area.
If the new bill is promulgated as an ordinance, it
cannot become operable unless the act of 1995 is
repealed. The act of 1995 has empowered a series
of individual bodies and authorities to implement
the statute.
It is important that all disabilities are similarly

positioned so that they can work on the passage of
a robust CRPD-consonant legislation. This is a
situation of inequity which needs to be remedied.
Since the two Houses are not in session and the
enactment of the new law will necessarily take
some time, the government should use its power
under Article 123 to amend the 1995 act to include
the new impairments that would have obtained
inclusion if the new bill were passed. At the same
time, the inadequacies of the new bill should be
rectified by the House committee. By adopting this
policy of activism and restraint, the government
could do right by all sections of the disability
community.
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All these entities would become dysfunctional

if it is repealed. But there would be no time to
establish and render functional new authorities,
because an ordinance can be operable for a
maximum of seven and a half months without
obtaining parliamentary approval. Going the
ordinance route would not benefit the freshly
included impairments, but would create an
enforcement vacuum even for the disabilities
already included in the 1995 act. Enacting the
disabilities bill through the ordinance route would
usher confusion and chaos, and could cause all
disabilities to lose legislative protection.
disadvantage. Since 1999, when a committee set

up to suggest amendments to the 1995 act
highlighted the need for inclusion, the battle has
been on to recognise excluded impairments. The
disabilities included in the 1995 act await the
passage of the new law while continuing to obtain
the benefits and entitlements provided earlier. But
the disabilities not so included get nothing.
With the bill referred to the House committee,

the newly included disabilities are at a special
WHY A TELANGANA WEAKENS FEDERALISM
Barring a last minute political turnaround,

Telangana will become Indias 29th State in early
2014, which may bring to an end a story whose
beginnings had kick-started the first phase of state
reorganisation in Independent India. Telangana will
be carved out of the State of Andhra Pradesh,
which had been created in 1953 by combining the
Telugu-speaking areas of the erstwhile States of
Hyderabad and Madras; Telangana corresponds to
the area formerly in Hyderabad State. The creation
of Andhra Pradesh was at the origin of movements
for the formation of other states on linguistic
grounds, which led to a large-scale reorganisation
in 1956.
In the last couple of years, the growth and

eventual success of the demand for Telangana has
revived the movements for statehood in many
different parts of the country. The most prominent
of these are the movements for Bodoland,
Gorkhaland, and Vidarbha, but there are several
other demands: Koshal, Harit Pradesh,
Bundelkhand, Purvanchal, Vindhya Pradesh, Kuki,
Tulu Nadu, and the list goes on.
Strengthening the Indian Union

While at first glance the multiplicity of such
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demands and indeed their success in Telangana

and possibly elsewhere appears to represent a
further federalisation or decentralisation of the
Indian polity, it in fact fits into the underlying
narrative of centralisation in India. Counterintuitively, the next level of political fragmentation
after the initial empowerment of regional politics
tends to strengthen the Indian Union. There are
several reasons for this. First, the possibility of the
dismemberment of a state threatens the very
existence of its political identity, simply because this
identity is co-extensive with its territory. The Centres
power to unilaterally redefine the boundaries of a
state and create new ones is not found in most other
federal countries. The clearest example of a federation
where the federal authority has consistently created
new sub-national units is that of Nigeria (from three
states to 36; however, much of this reorganisation
took place under military dictatorships.
In India, Article 3 of the Constitution itself
allows Parliament to alter the boundaries of a state
or create new states by a simple law. There is a
procedure under which the President seeks the
opinion of the State Legislative Assembly on any
such proposed law, but the Assemblys
recommendations are not binding.

Statehood demands can push the process of
sub-state devolution, distributing power from the
state government to other administrative units. A
prime example is the creation of a semi-autonomous
administrative entity in the Gorkhaland region.
A different centralization
Central power
Centralisation due to a political homogeneity

between the Centre and the states may be termed
a top-down centralisation; the same political party
being in power at both levels of government is the
classic example. But the era of coalition politics is
now seeing a different kind of centralisation, one
where national politicians are more likely to pay
attention to local demands, bypassing the state
level.
Finally, the binary nature of federalism means

that weakened states create a stronger Centre. If
demands for the creation of new states succeed,
the reduced size of a state has a direct impact on
political equations at the Centre-state level. For
example, in terms of representation in Parliament,
the composition of the Rajya Sabha and the Lok
Sabha involves the attribution of seats to the states
and their constituencies in proportion to their
population. Smaller states get fewer seats, reducing
the influence of state-level politicians. On the other
hand, the possibility of new constituencies with
direct Parliamentary representation is itself an
incentive for local leaders to press demands for
statehood.
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Second, and less obvious, the movement toward

general economic, cultural, and ethnic criteria for
state formation, as opposed to purely linguistic
criteria, represents an overall weakening of state
political power.
The demands for new states, even when

unsuccessful, gnaw away at the influence of political
actors at the state level by encouraging local politics
and promoting regional elites against the state-level
elite; this may be seen as a bottom-up form of
political pressure.
Even political groups previously acting

nominally in state interests are obliged to further
the interests of regional groups. Linguistic identity
rarely engenders political movements as powerful
as those arising from a sense of ethnic/historical
identity and a shared perception of economic
backwardness and/or discrimination. Politicians
are always bound to represent their constituencies,
but the impact of this on state-level politics becomes
magnified when the constituencies represented do
not seek state-level action in their favour, but ask
rather for a division or dismemberment of the state
itself.
Taken together, these dynamics create an

accumulation of central power that, unlike the topdown version, draws energy from a multiplicity of
local, unconnected processes in many places
throughout the country. The possibility of the
creation of new states and the strength of regional
demands can, in themselves, be seen as contributing
to a bottom-up centralisation in the federal system.
The Telangana movement has revitalised these local
energies, and could thus signal a new phase of this
process.
BIT OF A PROBLEM
The implosion of MtGox, the oldest and largest

exchange for bitcoins, highlights the fundamental
risks that users and traders of cyber-currencies are
exposed to, notwithstanding their perceived appeal
as an alternative to regular fiat currencies. Even
before it closed down, MtGox was subjected to
hacker attacks forcing it to halt trading more than
once. While one such assault was said to be behind
the suspension of payments earlier this month, the
latest development the exchange going offline
suggests outright fraud. Apparently, some
744,000 bitcoins worth over $400 million were
siphoned off from the Tokyo-based exchange, where
people could turn in the digital currency for dollars
or yen and also store it in virtual wallets.
Those transacting in bitcoins were aware, or

should have been aware, of the underlying risks.
Given the large community of professional and
amateur hackers trolling the internet, the software
controlling trading in bitcoins was always
vulnerable to malware injections by such cybermiscreants. Even if the software of the exchanges
is sufficiently protected, the users computers could
be hacked by accessing passwords and emptying
their bitcoin wallets. But the problem is not just
one of software. If only the bitcoin ecosystem had
the sanction of a government or monetary
authority, even stolen digital money could be
reported and recovered. In the case of bitcoins, the
fact of being a computer-generated currency not
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subject to regulation by a central bank, was touted
as a unique selling point; it not only enabled
speedier transactions at lower cost, but also
guaranteed anonymity that many (including online
drug traffickers) sought. But now, the very absence
of that regulation has turned out to be its biggest
liability. Those who traded in MtGox are today left
with no recourse but to quietly bear the loss.
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A related issue highlighted by the MtGox failure

is the anarchic manner in which crypto-currencies
are traded. Anyone with access to a computer can
buy and sell bitcoins or even set up exchanges.
One study in mid-2103 found that out of the 40
bitcoin bourses established over the last three years,
18 had shut shop, wiping out customer account

balances. Many more could have gone the same
way since then; MtGox just happens to be the
largest one. The authorities in India have been
reasonably alert to these dangers. The Enforcement
Directorate, in December, raided the offices of two
bitcoin bourses for violating official foreign
exchange regulations. Following this, most
exchanges operating out of India have suspended
operations. While many die-hard crypto-currency
supporters think the MtGox debacle is part of a
natural evolutionary process, the episode will inject
a sense of much-needed caution.
FED TAPER IS A CASE OF UNILATERALISM
Retrogressive as it may sound, the time might

be right for the Reserve Bank of India to reconsider
some regulatory measures, especially those
launched in the wake of the 2008 global financial
crisis. This should be viewed as a course correction
in RBIs regulatory growth.
After 2008, the developed world used the
multilateral G20 platform which included emerging
economies such as India and China to frame a
new financial architecture that would not only get
the global economy back on the rails but also install
risk mitigation measures.
The platform required these economies to

coordinate their financial regulatory and
supervision actions with the rest of the developed
world. In good faith, India implemented many
policies that may have not been entirely necessary
for its financial landscape. But that faith has now
been shattered: Once the US economy stabilised
somewhat, the Fed failed to coordinate its tapering
programme as it should have with the rest of
the G20 members, resulting in havoc for countries
from Turkey to Brazil, and Indonesia to Argentina.
So much for a global financial architecture.
Need to roll back
Some of the G20 measures, conceived as

solutions to excesses in western financial markets,
can be immediately rolled back.
One of the prominent decisions was to regulate

bankers compensations. This made sense in the
context of a rapacious Wall Street, but is
inconsistent in the Indian financial system where
over 70 per cent is controlled by public sector banks.
It can be argued that compensation controls should
be introduced for private sector and foreign banks
[56]
as a measure of abundant caution. However, if

non-performing loans are used as a yardstick for
mismanagement, the RBI data for 2012-13 shows
that a bulk of NPAs (compared to total assets)
originated in PSU banks: 4.1 per cent as against 2
per cent for private sector banks and 2.9 per cent
for foreign banks.
Another G20 decision was to tighten regulation
for shadow banks or financial institutions such
as Lehman Brothers which thrived in the cracks
between regulatory jurisdictions. They were neither
banks that could be regulated by Fed or pure
securities brokerages directly under the SECs
regulatory thumb. However, this inadvertently
tightened the noose around Indian non-banking
financial institutions (NBFCs) which were, in any
case, subject to RBIs gimlet regulatory gaze. NBFCs
perform many important functions, including
providing the last mile link between banks and
borrowers, especially MSME clients. Eager to show
off its multilateral credentials, the RBI squeezed
the NBFC sector.
Anomalous decisions
Many other policy decisions were similarly

prompted, such as harmonising Indian accounting
standards and reforming OTC derivatives trading.
These were anomalous from an Indian standpoint:
they were designed to rescue crisis-ridden western
economies while India (and other emerging
economies) needed forward-looking development
and growth-oriented policies.
There were other aberrations as well. When a
new IMF chief was selected in 2011, the developed
world opted for the old formula of a European as
president, while reserving the World Bank top-job

for a US citizen. This, despite claiming to have an
open, transparent and merit-based selection
process.
The Feds unilateral action in the global financial
markets has even led Governor Raghuram Rajan
to lament in an interview: International monetary
cooperation has broken down.
One reason for the panic in July-August 2013

was the perceived shortage of foreign exchange in
the Indian market, prompting foreign investors to
crowd the exit. If the RBI had had some foreknowledge, it would have (apart from the other
measures it initiated) bought dollars in the spot
market and sold in the forward market. There
would have been a steady supply of dollars over
all time periods.
Caught unawares, the RBI could not exercise
this option because if it started buying dollars in
the spot market, along with other competing forces,
it would have further damaged the rupee value. It
is quite likely that global coordination would have
also helped some of the other emerging markets to
neutralise volatility.
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There is more than one reason for Rajans

outburst; he was a co-author of a September 2011
report that not only advocated the setting up of an
International Monetary Committee comprising
representatives from major central banks, but also
recommended that mechanisms should be adopted
to allow central banks of large developed economies
to internalise the spillover effects of their monetary
policies.
Caught unawares
This is exactly what did not happen when Fed

started thinking aloud about tapering in May 2013.
The 2008 Washington communique promised,

among other things: Regulators should take all
steps necessary to strengthen cross-border crisis
management arrangements, including on
cooperation and communication with each other
and with appropriate authorities.
Had Fed adhered to the G20 spirit, it would
have coordinated its actions with the RBI and
others.
This would have allowed the RBI to forestall

the egregious impact of tapering. Withdrawal of
monetary easing threatened to tighten liquidity in
the global financial markets and.
This combined with the twin fiscal and
current account deficits roiled the Indian
currency markets with the rupee plummeting
sharply, taking its dollar exchange rate to almost
Rs 69. This could have been avoided if the RBI,
forewarned and forearmed, had sold dollars in the
forward market.
Unfortunate situation
It is unfortunate that some western

commentators have not fully understood the impact
of Feds unilateral action in a multilateral world.
Economists Dani Rodrik and Arvind Subramanian
claim that emerging markets are only reaping what
they sowed. They are right India has allowed its
economy to slide into a morass of inaction,
corruption, inflation and stagnation but only
partially. They have conveniently glossed over the
relevant G20 communiques.
A communiqu from the latest G20 meeting in
Australia says: All our central banks maintain their
commitment that monetary policy settings will
continue to be carefully calibrated and clearly
communicated, in the context of ongoing exchange
of information and being mindful of impacts on
the global economy. Hopefully, this too wont
remain lip service.
SHOULD THE CENTRE HAVE SUNK THE NAVY CHIEF?
Controversy surrounds the resignation of Navy

chief Admiral DK Joshi in the wake of the latest
submarine disaster which resulted in two naval
officers being killed.
Admiral Joshi may have held up the highest
traditions of the Navy in owning moral
responsibility for the mishap but one wonders
whether there is more to it than this. After all,
despite the fact that Indian Air Force aircraft crash
from time to time, the Chief of Air Staff has never
offered to resign. Nor does the Chief of Army Staff
feel the need to quit because soldiers lose their lives

in counter-insurgency operations every now and
then.
The mishap that occurred on board the
submarine INS Sindhuratna, which was on postrefit trials, needs to be viewed from a wider
perspective of civil-military relations and not as a
narrow Naval matter alone.
The fact that the government readily accepted
the admirals resignation over the tragedy in itself
[57]

suggests that civil-military relations are not healthy.
The Navy is a technology-intensive service and,
therefore, involves the taking of several financial
and administrative decisions, which the government
alone is empowered to exercise.
Such critical decisions have been needlessly
deferred time and again, adversely impacting the
operational preparedness of the combat
organisation.
and was aimed to increase their operational life.

These modifications are necessary because
submarines are seaworthy only for 20 years owing
to corrosion through constant contact with saline
air and water, leading to deterioration of cables,
surface plates and hulls.
Vulnerability quotient
High maintenance
Interestingly, only Navy chiefs have proved

vulnerable in both India and Pakistan. Vice-Admiral
HMS Choudhri of Pakistan was sacked in the late
1950s when he demanded better pay for his sailors.
Considering the Army is the senior service in both
these countries, the Navy assumes a peripheral role
in the political consciousness.
The submarine is a maintenance-intensive vessel.

In order to spend nine months at sea, it has to
undergo six months of maintenance refits.
Therefore, naval dockyards or public sector
shipyards need to develop the necessary refit
expertise both as an art and a science.
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Ideally, the government would like to have a

pliant Navy chief, which explains the untimely exit
of Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat in December 1998.
Evidently he did not fall in line with the political
leadership over the procurement process for
hardware acquisitions. Further, he questioned
certain appointments made in the navy, all of
which made the government uncomfortable.
The government should therefore ensure that

timely financial sanctions are made to enable
periodic replacement of submarines, rather than
compel the Navy to undertake upgrades to extend
operational life. But the government has chosen to
drag its feet on the Scorpene deal with France
that would add six submarines as well as Project
75 to design submarines in India with Russian
assistance that would add 18 submarines to the
fleet. This is indicative of its lackadaisical approach
to the matter. Also, the Navy got only four of the
six HDW submarines from Germany.
Both, New Delhi and Islamabad would be wary

of acting against their Army chiefs. It would
provoke unfavourable reactions and make things
uncomfortable for the political leadership.
Even the US and Russian navies have had

submarine accidents but their chiefs have not
resigned from service. The difference is that a
number of Western and Russian political leaders
have done military service and are, therefore,
militarily literate, unlike our netas. Clearly, the
nature of military service, which involves training
during peacetime, is risky and fatal casualties often
occur, though a good commander seriously attempts
to follow safety protocols to the extent possible to
avoid them.
Smoked out
INS Sindhuratna was forced to surface after

smoke was detected on the vessel. Only last August,
unexplained
explosions
sank
the
INS
Sindhurakshak and killed 18 crew members.
Significantly, both the Russian-made Kilo class EKM
877 Sindhuratna and Sindhurakshak had recently
undergone modifications to upgrade their weapons
systems. This minimally altered the original design
[58]
This requires technologies such as tooling, jigs

and fixtures, besides the human resource expertise
in specialised welding and so on.
The lack of consistency on the part of the
political leadership, which first opted for HDW
submarines, then Kilo class submarines and finally
French Scorpene submarines, only weakens the
maintenance refit capabilities of the Navy.
To that extent, neither the UPA nor the NDA
governments have bothered about maritime
security, and in the process, as a former Navy chief
Admiral Arun Prakash has highlighted, New Delhi
remains sea-blind and ignores the nuances of
long-term naval planning.
Today, the submarine arm comprises only nine
Kilo class and four HDW class boats, besides two
nuclear-powered submarine, the INS Chakra II and
the INS Arihant. This does not augur well for
maritime security capabilities, given that the
Chinese navy aims to develop blue-water
capabilities. New Delhi needs to shed its seablindness and support the countrys naval
ambitions.
MISPLACED CONCERN OVER OUR IPR REGIME

The global scenario on intellectual property
rights (IPR) has been changing fast due to many
reasons, a key factor being the pressure of
competition.
A noteworthy case, which has missed the

attention of the global community, is the one
relating to Ericsson vs Micromax on standard
essential patent owned by Ericsson. Ericcson moved
the Delhi High Court, arguing that Micromax was
violating patents pertaining to 2G and 3G
standards.
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India has ensured that all its IPR laws are in

tune with the agreement on Trade Related Aspects
of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). The country
is a member of many international treaties and
agreements related to IPR.
Therefore, the provision in our laws mandating

enhancement of efficacy is logical and scientific.
The Supreme Court in the case of Novartis vs Union
of India had upheld the decision of the Indian
Patent Office and the Intellectual Property Appellate
Board denying a patent to Novartis for a polymorph
of its drug Glivec.
Of late, some developments in India in the IPR

area have drawn some criticism. These are often
based on perceptions rather than fundamentals and
ground realities.
Recently, Global Intellectual Property Centre

(GIPC), a US-based agency, published its IPR
ranking of countries the International IP Index
2014, triggering some concern among Indian
industry.
The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) feels

that the indices are mostly perception-based as they
have failed to take cognisance of Indian IPR laws
and other developments. CIIs assessment is that
Indias ranking should be much higher.
In addition, issues have been raised about

Indian laws, concerning patentability, compulsory
licences, online piracy, cross border measures and
regulations on drugs. CII has examined all these
issues and will depose before the United States
International Trade Commission (USITC) soon.
Prohibiting patenting
Section 3(d) of the Indian Patent Act prohibits

patenting of new forms of a known substance such
as polymorphs, isomers, esters, particle size and so
on, if the new form does not yield improved/higher
efficacy than the known substance. It does permit
incremental inventions if they meet the criteria of
efficacy.
Thus, the level of inventiveness has been raised
which cannot be considered TRIPS-plus (in
addition to TRIPS requirements); TRIPS-only states
that a discovery should be inventive or non-obvious.
Patents on polymorphs, isomers etc. are termed

as secondary patents and lead to follow on drugs
helping drug companies enhance the life of existing
drugs. There is little evidence to show that
polymorphs and isomers of a known substance
would necessarily enhance efficacy.
The Delhi High Court has passed orders

protecting Ericssons interest and the defendant,
Micromax, has been directed to make the necessary
deposits.
Drug companies have been sceptical about the
compulsory license awarded to Natco for a cancer
drug whose patent is held by Bayer, fearing that
there would be many more such decisions. It must
be recognised that this was the first compulsory
license awarded in India. One should take note of
a recent case in which a compulsory license was
denied to an Indian company seeking license from
Bristol Meyer.
There is a need to have faith in the Indian
judicial system. The process of issuing CL is complex
and many factors need to be evaluated before a
decision is arrived at.
Everyone is looking towards effective
implementation of the recently issued CL. CII
recommends a close monitoring of post compulsory
license actions taken by the licensee.
Indias amended Copyright Act adequately
addresses issues related to online piracy, digital
rights management and technological measures.
The concept of liability of internet service
provider has been introduced. But at the same time,
the Indian creative industry has concerns over
millions of dollars of lost revenues as a result of
piracy of television content and music, being hosted
on websites based in the US.
Enough cover
It will be incorrect to say the Indian legal system
has not provided adequate protection for IP. The
Indian enforcement system, especially courts, are
[59]

rising to the occasion; in recent years many cases
have been handled by Indian courts.
institutions to continually evaluate the Indian IPR

system.
CII is clear that IPRs help industries and

companies enhance economic position, competitive
advantage, business, growth and investment in
research and development. The management of
IPRs in India is at its early stages of development
and there is a need for consolidated efforts by
government, industry, civil society and research
IPR jurisprudence is yet to make the desired

impact on social, cultural, economic and political
fronts. India is sincere to its global commitments on
this front and Indian industries are partners to the
government in this effort.
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RISING FROM THE SYRIAN ASHES

In late February, Filippo Grandi, the
Commissioner General of UNRWA, the United
Nations agency tasked with the welfare of the
Palestinians, visited Yarmouk, a neighbourhood in
Damascus, Syria. When he entered Yarmouk, the
people came to greet him and to collect muchneeded supplies. They emerged, he said, like
ghosts from the depths of Yarmouk, as if from a
medieval siege. For months, the residents of this
neighbourhood had eaten animal feed and burnt
furniture to survive. The stark greyness of the
people reminded Mr. Grandi, who has worked
at UNRWA for a decade, of black and white
archival pictures of the 1948 expulsion of the
Palestinians from their land.
unemployment rate now near fifty per cent. Half of

Syrias children have dropped out of school, with
many Syrians unable to access health care. In the
second quarter of 2013, Syria lost 174 per cent of
the equivalent gross domestic product of 2010. Six
and a half million Syrians out of 21 million are
internally displaced; two and a half million are
refugees (UN High Commissioner for Refugees
Antonio Guterres told the Council that Syrians will
soon overtake Afghans as the largest refugee
population). When Mr. Grandi says that the people
of Yarmouk seemed to appear from a medieval
siege, he is not exaggerating. Many people now
say that Syria has precipitously in a thousand
days slid backwards centuries.
Mr. Grandi and his team visited Yarmouk days

after the United Nations Security Council
unanimously passed resolution 2139, a detailed
text that lays out specific measures that the Syrian
government and the rebels need to take to ensure
unhindered humanitarian access to the Syrian
people. It is the first major unanimous resolution
from a Council divided about Syria. The resolution
was not passed under Chapter VII of the UN
Charter, which would have allowed military action
if the parties failed to uphold its recommendations.
It mentions particular areas that have languished
under siege, such as the Old city of Homs and
Yarmouk, and underscores the need for the
parties to agree on humanitarian pauses, days of
tranquility, localised ceasefires and truces. It is
such a localised truce that allowed Mr. Grandi
and the UNRWA team to enter Yarmouk.
It is this situation that pushed the UN Security

Council to finally act. UN Security Council chair
Raimonda Murmokaite (Lithuania) said this
resolution albeit overdue provided a moment
of hope for the people of Syria. The war in Syria
is messy, with no clear battlefield or frontline. It is,
as Mr. Grandi put it, a mosaic of areas, the control
of which is fluctuating. To expect a UN resolution
to have an impact in such a chaotic battlefield is
idealistic. Nonetheless, it has sent a clear message
to Damascus and to the Syrian opposition that
humanitarianism must be a key consideration;
whether this will have any impact on the local
commanders is another matter. Whether this will
even be a consideration for the radical Islamists is
an even greater concern.
The war toll
The Syrian civil war is like a massive tidal wave

which swept across the country leaving behind
widespread devastation. Buildings bear the physical
marks of the damage. More than half of the Syrian
population now live in poverty, says a study by
the Syrian Centre for Policy Research, with the
[60]
Short-lived ceasefires
Over the past few months, there have been

almost 50 significant local ceasefires that have lasted
from a month to a week. These ceasefires emerged
for a variety of reasons, notably the sheer exhaustion
of the parties to the conflict and the rapid
ascendancy of one side over the other. While these
ceasefires have been essential for delivery of
humanitarian aid and for the evacuation of trapped

Syrians, they have not been forged on the basis of
a commitment to peace. Warfare remains the
dynamic in Syria. These local ceasefires are useful,
Mr. Grandi notes, because they create a pattern,
a frame of mind that promotes trust amongst the
people. He says that the Yarmouk ceasefire came
about as civilians thrust themselves forward against
the combatants. But this has been a volatile ceasefire,
with the civilians in a subordinate position to the
logic of war and its adherents.
Importance of small gestures

UN resolution 2139 recognises that the only way
forward is a political solution. Everything else
local ceasefires,. humanitarian access, humanitarian
distribution points are the triage necessary to
stop the bleeding. They will not heal the situation.
Local ceasefires, however, are a valuable
mechanism to help reinsert non-combatant civilians
into the political process, people who had been
sidelined by the fighting. These small gestures are
capable of building the confidence of people who
have otherwise lost the will to believe in a Syrian
future. The UN resolution by itself will of course
not do any of this, Mr. Grandi says, but its
importance will filter down to the local level
combatants. And the local truces in some parts of
the country might send a message to the leadership
of all sides and their foreign backers that Syrians
no longer wish to destroy their lives for the agenda
of others. Syria is, to paraphrase the poet Agha
Shahid Ali, a shadow chased by searchlights in
search of its body. The UN resolution and the local
ceasefires are torches to light its way.
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In Rif (rural) Damascus, local ceasefires have

held for several months, largely because both sides
seem to have come to see the warfare as futile.
Ziad Haydar of As-Safir reported (on February
24) that the fighters were exhausted. A total
incapacity has struck the armed men at the front.
Despair that the stalemate will not shift and
concern at the infiltration of the armed radicals
has led to a situation where yesterdays enemies
will turn into tomorrows allies, reports Haydar.
Others are not so optimistic. Some sense that the
overall war in Syria might go on for a decade,
much like the war in Algeria in the 1990s. In the
interstices of the war, these small ceasefires will
allow people to survive. It is a morbid thought. It
suggests that the logic of war continues to dominate
in Syria. The leadership of all sides believe that
they can either win or can inflict further grievous
harm on their enemies. It is at the local level that
such confidence has begun to falter. That is why

local truces have been relatively easier to establish
than country-wide ceasefires.
Source: The Hindu
THE INEVITABILITY OF SOUTH ASIA
Using the name of historical India to serve for

that of the independent nation state was a
monumental decision whose reverberations
continue six decades after the British departed the
Subcontinent. While the country with New Delhi
as its capital inherited the mantle of India as
also the largest by population, geography,
demographic diversity and politico-economic
prowess much of the rest of the historical India
was left in suspended animation.
Secure in his/her national identity, the Indian
citizen is largely unaware of the discomfiture
elsewhere. Pakistan and Bangladesh today make
up the sixth and eighth largest countries
respectively on the planet by population, small only
in comparison to India with its 1.24 billion people.
The citizens there have the same history in their
blood, but India is no longer theirs.
In each country of the neighbourhood,

including India, the decades have been spent
constructing xenophobic nationalism. As happens
in newborn nation states, the citizens are

straitjacketed into allegiance to national identities
in monochrome. This exclusivity is a bane and has
introduced subliminal angst all over, and it fails in
the managing of myriad self-ascriptions that jostle
for space within each of us.
The individual person is linked to family, clan,
ethnicity, caste, faith, language, village, district, city,
province and nation state and that is where we
are asked to stop the progression. But we are also
South Asian, the broadest identity that links us to
our past and to each other across the recently
created frontiers. There is no doubt about it;
ultranationalism has to be challenged with a
campaign for cross-border loosening.
South Asian Mahatma
To put a spin to the argument: retroactively

speaking, Mahatma Gandhi was a South Asian for
most of his life, i.e. a national of the India before
Partition. He was citizen of the nation state for
[61]

five-and-half months, between August 15 and his
assassination on January 30. Once we make the
conceptual jump from India to historical India,
there can be no question about a Sylheti running
an Indian restaurant in New York City, or a Lahori
doing the same in Paris. Indian cuisine was
developed long before the nation state.
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If India had been left to its pre-Partition and

even pre-colonial avatar, there would have been
no reason to take recourse to the dry, a-historical,
geographical South Asia. The term was
introduced by western geo-strategists after 1947,
when the need was felt to address this part of
Asia. It was not long before some in South Asia
too sensed the requirement.
reassuring that regionalism does not presume a

centralised South Asia with single capital, currency
and administration not even a commonwealth
of nations. That may well happen over time, but
there are other ways to comprehend the South
Asian space for example, to regard bilateral and
trilateral activities as also regional; to include
Myanmar and Tibet even as they fall within
adjacent regions; and to go to the subunits (states
and provinces) of the two largest countries as the
functional components of regionalism, in addition
to the sovereign smaller nation states.
Addressing asymmetry
The South Asian Association for Regional

Cooperation (SAARC) was kick-started in 1985 and
it signified acceptance of the concept of cross-border
regionalism by all the national establishments. But
that is as far as it went, with SAARC unable to
loosen frontiers or facilitate commerce. Instead, in
the interim, concertina wires have come up along
the India-Bangladesh and India-Pakistan dividing
lines. Hobbled by a restrictive mandate and small
budget, the SAARC organisation is kept on a tight
leash by eight different ministries of foreign affairs.
Meanwhile, civil society efforts at South Asian
togetherness have foundered, and the activists are
today a dispirited lot. Their appeal was to shared
history and culture, but the strain of fledgling
nationalism proved overpowering. Also,
ingenuously, the activists followed the SAARC
formula of regional cooperation, their South Asia
being an agglomeration of nation states rather than
a wide habitat of diverse communities and
requiring more nuanced definitions.
What has been missing in implementing South

Asian regionalism is the appropriate formulae. The
asymmetry of the Subcontinent, with the
overwhelming presence of big India at the very
centre, the size disparity among the other countries,
the demographic diversity within each, plus the
variegated culture and collective history all of
this can hardly be addressed by the eight-member,
capital-centric SAARC definition. Parallel and
complementary definitions, in the plural, are a must.
Rather than try to copy the ASEAN or European
Union models, an understanding is required that is
tailored to history, place and populace.
The eight national establishments do need
[62]
This focus on regionalism is not part of a mushy

bhai-bhai agenda meant to delight peaceniks. More
than a call to dreamy togetherness, South Asian
unity is essential if we are to deliver an improved
quality of life to hundreds of millions, through
growth made possible by economic efficiencies and
commerce.
Arc of poverty
We would first have to agree that regionalism

softening borders, easing visa regimes, lifting
trade barriers will lead to improved livelihoods
in the most deprived parts of the Subcontinent.
There is an arc of poverty that goes east-west
from the Sunderban through Sindh, the
uninterrupted plain from the Ganga-Brahmaputra
delta to where the Indus meets the sea. This swathe
is home to more that 300 million of the worlds
poorest, with a good majority inhabiting the Indian
stretch.
While cultural and historical continuity provide
the bedrock for cooperation, it is mutual economic
interdependence that builds trust. The India-Sri
Lanka Free Trade Agreement points to the course
to be taken. All of South Asia must learn from the
reality of the historically evolved open land frontier
between Nepal and India. One just has to compare
the cacophony and energy at the SunauliBhairahawa border with the sanitised crossing at
Wagah-Atari the nicely built arrival hall on the
Pakistani side echoes like an abandoned airport
terminal.
The South Asian wheel does turn slowly, which
is why New Delhi and Islamabad must allow the
Lahore-Amritsar relationship to act as a booster.
The two Punjabs, province and state, are each
powerful within the individual countries, have
suffered more than others during Partition, and
are tied through a rich strain of culture including
the Sufi lilt, Sikh shrines and shared spoken tongue.

The Punjabi ethos and dynamism will likely
provide the most effective path to India-Pakistan
rapprochement. That, in turn, will give traction to
South Asian regionalism, as extra wealth is created
when sovereign Bangladesh interacts with the
Indian Northeast and West Bengal, sovereign Nepal
with Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, Sindh with
Rajasthan and Gujarat.
Breakfast in Lahore
Today, South Block is running a programme

on Environmental governance in South Asia, and
it was Dr. Singh who backed the establishment of
the South Asian University and its campus in New
Delhi (though the model of a centralised university
for the unique, far-flung region seems a bit off).
The buzzword among bureaucrats who have
worked with the Prime Minister of India in seeking
to jump-start regionalism is connectivity across
the national frontiers, in energy, transport,
telephony, tourism and trade.
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While Punjab-Punjab amity will provide the

glue and catalyst, the nuts and bolts even between
these two would have to be commerce. Appeals to
cultural ties, one has learnt from experience, do
not stand a chance against ultranationalism, that
too when laced with religious chauvinism. Only a
commercial meshing can generate hard-nosed
stakeholders among the investors, industrialists,
traders and service providers. It is they who will
act as buffer in times of geopolitical turbulence,
giving backbone to the politicians who need to fight
populism and make the tough decisions.
battle has been won, and the opinion-makers of

New Delhi no longer purse their lips at references
to South Asia.
Back in January 2007, Prime Minister

Manmohan Singh envisioned a South Asia where
he could have breakfast in Amritsar, lunch in
Lahore and dinner in Kabul. He has not made much
headway in the half-dozen years since, and perhaps
we should learn to be patient. At least, the semantic
Historical India had a ruler, back in the early1500s, who understood all about the advantages
of connectivity for the populated expanse between
the Brahmaputra and Indus. Sher Shah Suri
emerged from Bihar to bequeath historical India its
state administration, currency and land revenue
systems. He regularised what came to be known as
the Grand Trunk Road, from Bengal to Khyber,
knowing that commerce has the power to both
enrich and bind. Therein lies the inevitability of
South Asian regionalism: we have to do what is
good for the people at large rather than for the
nation states and the capitals.
Source: The Hindu
TIME TO SPEED UP THIS TRIAL
Indias pragmatic decision not to invoke its antipiracy law against two Italian marines accused of
killing two Indian fishermen off the Kerala coast in
February 2012 sets the stage for some tangible
judicial progress in the case. Italys diplomatic
pressure, especially a dramatic move to recall its
Ambassador in New Delhi for consultations, may
have spurred the government to make up its mind
after considerable dithering. Ultimately, the decision
is reasonable as it is difficult to characterise the
shooting, which happened on the basis of the
impression that the fishermen were pirates, as an
unlawful act that threatened navigation security.
For far too long, the legal process has been delayed,
initially on the question of jurisdiction and later on
whether the Centre should allow the National
Investigation Agency to proceed against the marines
under the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against
Safety of Maritime Navigation and Fixed Platforms
on Continental Shelf Act, 2002 which prescribes
the death penalty for those causing death during
an act of violence against any ship or vessel. The
NIA, which has a charge sheet ready and was

waiting only for the outcome of the petition before
the Supreme Court, may have to rework the final
report, as SUA has been dropped and fresh penal
provisions may have to be incorporated. Having
given an assurance against awarding capital
punishment earlier, it would have been
unacceptable for India to apply a law that provides
for mandatory death sentence.
The delay itself was due to a legal dilemma
that the NIA faced. The Act that gives statutory
status to the NIA has a schedule of offences it can
investigate, and SUA is one of them. Further, the
shooting incident took place in the Contiguous
Zone, bringing the matter into the realm of maritime
security and conferring the requisite jurisdiction to
the agency. Without SUA, the NIA would
undoubtedly be handicapped in its prosecution.
Invoking the law, on the other hand, was
unpalatable for Italy, as it felt that it will amount
to classifying the country as a terrorist state. The
next legal battle is already on, as the marines have
[63]

now challenged the jurisdiction of the NIA to
prosecute this case, and the court will hear the
matter shortly. The process would be more
purposive if this aspect is not actively pursued, as
the NIA took up the probe only after the Supreme
Court ruled that only the Union government had
the jurisdiction to investigate it, and not the Kerala
police. What is required now is an expeditious trial

and a tangible outcome and not further rounds of
legalistic hair-splitting. The right balance should be
struck between bringing about a sense of closure to
the victims, and maintaining cordial diplomatic
relations.
Source: The Hindu
POLITICKING ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

question of the abolition of capital punishment
from the statute has remained at best marginal,
even as the appeal from various political parties
for clemency for the death row population has
invoked principles of humane and humanitarian
law.
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Under very different circumstances, the

European Court of Human Rights 2013 verdict
that whole-life sentences without review and the
prospect of release amounted to cruel and
degrading punishment might have been cited
enthusiastically in support of the Tamil Nadu
governments bid to release the seven convicts in
the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. But it is hard
to attribute noble motives of respect for human
rights standards in a case where the remission of
a life sentence was announced within hours of the
commutation of the death sentence against three
of them. On the contrary, such a hurried move
raises a legitimate concern that the potential
implications of the step for other cases may not
have been factored into this politically calculated
decision.
None of the parties that initiated or endorsed

the move to secure the release of the seven convicts
has categorically come out on the larger controversy
over the abolition of capital punishment in India.
At the very least, such an intervention in that more
fundamental debate in all these 16 years might have
pushed the country towards the establishment of a
moratorium on executions. That would have earned
a reprieve for scores of convicts who languish in
jails around the country and not just these seven
who have been incarcerated for 23 long years and,
three of them spending 16 years on death row. But
a reference to respect for the sentiments of the
Tamils and the views of political leaders is all that
is contained in the 2011 Tamil Nadu Assembly
resolution seeking the commutation of the death
sentences against Murugan, Santhan and
Perarivalan.
Marginalised issue
The larger question of the resort to capital

punishment is but a part of the continuing saga of
competitive (and at times communal) politics that
vitiates the debate over resolving the vexed issue of
extraordinary delays in the disposal of mercy
petitions. Unsurprisingly, but ironically, the
[64]
To be sure, selective appeals for the

commutation of death sentences do bring reprieve
for individual convicts. But when orchestrated with
an eye on partisan political ends, questions of a
fundamental nature, namely the arbitrariness and
the retributive character of this barbaric
punishment are seldom addressed. Similarly, the
inconsistency between the states power to take
an individuals life a defining aspect of capital
punishment and the inviolability of the
constitutionally-ordained right of every person to
his life, are entirely irrelevant to pleas from political
parties to secure reprieve for particular convicts.
In contrast are the clemency petitions pursued by
civil rights organisations such as the Peoples
Union for Civil Liberties. Pleas from a human
rights standpoint typically foreground the
extenuating circumstances of the convict, an area
the Supreme Court has elaborated and steadily
expanded over the decades, besides invoking the
broader objectives of criminal jurisprudence
mentioned above.
Last years 16 to 1 ruling of the Strasbourg
court returned to the spotlight last week when
the U.K. Court of Appeals upheld whole-life
sentences. The details of that decision need not
detain us here. Of relevance to the current debate
in India is the European courts emphasis that the
possibility of a review of a life sentence did not
imply the prospect of imminent release. Whether
or not they should be released would depend on
whether there were still legitimate penological
grounds for their continued detention and
whether they should continue to be detained on
grounds of dangerousness.
Given that many terrorism-related offences in
India, often high-profile cases, attract the ultimate

influences. Only thus could the focus shift onto the
real issues of respect for the rights of detainees,
securing time-bound convictions and delivering
speedy justice.
Source: The Hindu
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punishment, the field is wide open for competitive

pressures and populist posturing in the various
stages leading upto the pronouncement of a verdict
of guilt. The abolition of the death penalty by law
may contribute substantially to rid the domain of
criminal justice administration of such extrajudicial
FROM AUSTERITY TO GROWTH
In a noticeable change in its stance, the G-20,

comprising the worlds biggest economies, at the
recent meeting in Sydney decided to shift emphasis
from championing austerity to promoting growth
at a time when the financial crisis in seen to be

receding. Towards that end, Finance Ministers and
central bank governors of the G-20 agreed to target
reforms aimed at adding more than $2 trillion to
[65]

to lift the collective GDP to 2 per cent above the
trajectory implied by current policies, over the
coming five years. The fixing of a numerical target
for future growth is considered significant. In the
past, the G-20 has shied away from fixing numbers
in such areas as fiscal adjustments. Indias strong
views on the deleterious consequences of the U.S.
Federal Reserves ongoing taper process were
accommodated in the final communique, which
calls for a continuous calibration of monetary policy
settings by individual countries and their
communication to one another. Another of Indias
key concerns the reform of the IMF quota system
to give developing economies a greater say was
also taken on board. The G-20, comprising the
biggest industrialised and developing countries
accounting for 85 per cent of the world economy,
might have regained some relevance which it was
fast losing as countries went their own ways,
However, even its most notable success
persuading members to shift gears from austerity
to growth has met with scepticism from certain
key members, who have termed the numerical
targets aspirational rather than realistic.
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the global economy over five years. Political leaders

from the bloc who will meet in November are
expected to outline what reforms they expect to
implement to achieve the target. Yet the tasks of
identifying reforms and implementing them in a
synchronised manner among countries are not easy.
For one, the worlds biggest economies are not a
homogenous lot. Even the traditional categorisation
such as advanced and developing economies falls
flat when individual countries in each sub-group
exhibit diverse characteristics. Among advanced
economies, the U.S. is ahead with recovery
gathering steam. Countries of the EU, on the other
hand, are still struggling to come out of the
recession, although they have put their worst days
behind them.
Another important development often

highlighted by institutions such as the IMF is that
while in the early post-recovery period, China and
India along with a few other developing countries
were spearheading global growth, the position is
now reversed with the advanced economies led by
the U.S. emerging in the forefront. All these explain
why the joint G-20 communique cannot be anything
but bland. It talks of ambitious but realistic policies
Source: The Hindu
WHEN PARLIAMENT FAILS TO ACT
The demand for ordinances to be promulgated

on consensus legislations such as the Grievance
Redressal Bill, has to be seen in the context of the
failure of the 15th Lok Sabha to function. In the
midst of statements from some Opposition parties
that the government should not promulgate
ordinances, there is a persistent demand from some
peoples movements and campaigns that consensus
legislations should be promulgated as ordinances.
One of the major reasons for using the ordinance
provision of the Constitution with caution is to
make sure the government does not use it to impose
a law that Parliament may have disapproved of.
The ordinance as a short route has therefore often
been criticised, even by us for bypassing Parliament.
In this case it does not. On the contrary, it takes
already deliberated and examined Bills on which a
consensus has been reached, but is marred by
Parliaments failure to legislate.
Lapsed Bills as betrayal
There are no absolutes in procedure, so long as

they do not violate laws, and the Constitution.
According to the rule book, Bills pending that were
initiated in the Lok Sabha have lapsed. The cost of
[66]
the loss to human effort, money, and time especially

in cases where there is broad agreement on the
laws, is colossal. The passage of these laws would
on the one hand have benefitted everyone,
including the most marginalised, and on the other
not wasted the efforts of parliamentary process:
endless presentations in front of standing
committees and hours spent on formulating and
drafting and redrafting them.
The provision of Article 123 of the Constitution
states that ordinances can be passed when
Parliament is not in session and circumstances
exist which render it necessary for him (the
President) to take immediate action. We believe
that when the people of India have been faced
with a Parliament that has been deliberately nonfunctioning, they have no choice left but to demand
that the government and President use these
provisions to bring in laws on which there was a
clear consensus. This demand is made in a context
where Parliament has barely functioned for five
years and met in its last special session essentially
to adjourn. The contentious Telangana Bill, and a
few other important Bills were passed with great
difficulty; 68 Bills lapsed with the proroguing of

within and outside Parliament Bills going back
and forth between Parliament and the Government
were all going to be lost. As a country, we were
facing a completely unjustifiable legislative vacuum.
In the last week of the final session of Parliament,
the coalition for passage of consensus laws began
to demand ordinances in the event that Parliament
failed to carry out its promise.
Article 123 must be seen as a recourse open to
people just as much as it is open to the government
of the day. Therefore, to project this only in political
terms as we approach an election is unfair to the
justified demands of people waiting for legal
recourse. Not passing a law in a matter like
Grievance Redress is a huge loss to uncountable
citizens, many lives and an entire generation.
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the parliamentary session. The demand for

ordinances is limited only to a few Bills. A coalition
of citizens groups actually implored Parliament to
at least pass those in which there was agreement.
By not passing the Grievance Redressal law for
example, every Indian citizen will continue to be
frustrated by an unaccountable delivery system with
no redress or recourse. Many of these concern life
and livelihood issues such as food, water, health,
education, etc.
Not by choice
Interestingly, within this Parliament and

outside, the Grievance Redressal law had the
greatest support. It went through every process of
consultation including full discussion in the
Standing Committee which unanimously and
strongly recommended immediate passage. All of
Parliament included this as a part of the sense of
the house resolution a solemn assurance from
Parliament that along with the Lokpal, a Citizens
Charter and Grievance Redressal Bill would be
passed with urgency. Continual pressure then led
to passage of the Lokpal Act. Members across
parties called upon the government to pass both
the Whistleblowers Protection Bill and Grievance
Redressal law without which they pointed out that
the passage of the Lokpal would be incomplete.
Not passing these consensus Bills amounts to a
betrayal of the people.
Parliament carries a solemn responsibility to

carry out its mandate of making laws that are
needed. The demand from the coalition was for a
full-fledged legislation; not an ordinance. Seeking
recourse to the exceptional route of the ordinance
is not by choice.
Not a permanent fiat
Why did Parliament fail to pass these laws? All

through this last session, going from one party to
the next, leaders expressed support and agreed that
there was a pressing need for passage, while they
blamed other parties for not cooperating. There was
a definite sense that petty politics and political oneupmanship were holding the immediate legislative
needs of the people to ransom. Day after day, with
the clock ticking, the desperation of citizens groups
mounted as it seemed clear that assurances outside,
and behaviour on the floor of the house did not
match. Years of work, discussion on every point
While making this demand for an ordinance,

one must also recognise that it is not a permanent
executive fiat. In fact, even more than in a case of
an executive decision which the government of the
day is free to continue with or change, an ordinance
is necessarily subject to parliamentary approval. If
ordinances are promulgated, when the 16th Lok
Sabha reconvenes, it will immediately have to
examine them and ensure that the law is enacted
or amended as per laid down parliamentary
process. By promulgating an ordinance now,
citizens could begin to use the provisions to access
their entitlements, seek redress, and even point out
possible shortcomings that the law might have.
Those shortcomings could be removed by the 16th
Lok Sabha.
The President has expressed anguish at the nonfunctioning of Parliament. Unfortunately,
Parliament paid no heed to the appeal from him or
anyone else. The President now has an opportunity
to send a clear message that if Parliament fails to
legislate, people will demand their right to legal
remedies. It is now incumbent on the government
and the President to meet that demand.
Passing an ordinance in this case does not
subvert the parliamentary process. In an
incremental process of building law and
subordinate legislation, this would only be one
tentative step forward. For the citizens right to the
redress of their grievances, not having the ordinance
would be six steps backwards.
Source: The Hindu
[67]
SINDHURATNA AND BEYOND

are yet to be clarified, but it seems that two officers,
both with brilliant service records, pushed the
sailors out of the stricken compartment, and shut
the compartment on themselves to fight the fire.
Both succumbed to the fumes in an act of coldblooded gallantry. The Sindhuratna survived the
fire and will be back in service in a few months,
but the Navys front line strength of submarines
will be depleted.
The accident raises issues that go beyond the
gallantry and competence exhibited by the crew of
the submarine. The resignation of a serving chief,
with more than 15 months of residual service, is a
traumatic event for the service.
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Submarining has always been a dangerous

profession, meant only for volunteers drawn from
serving navy personnel. It is also a relatively young
mans profession, with commanding officers of
conventional submarines going over the top in
their late thirties, into staff jobs. The selection is
strict and the training rigorous. New entrants are
carefully screened in psychological tests to survive
in close proximity, under difficult conditions, with
other human beings, for long periods of time. Not
surprisingly, the camaraderie is close and
submariners make friends for life.
The Indian submarine service commissioned its

first submarine in 1967 and the pioneers realised
the imperative of laying down the strictest standards
of safety right at the beginning. The explosion on
Sindhurakshak occurred in 2013, after years of
accident-free service. TheSindhuratna fire, close on
the heels of the earlier explosion, poses a huge
leadership challenge to senior naval officers in
assuring serving submarine personnel that their
weapon platforms are reliable weapons to fight
with. The Kilo, as these submarines are referred
to in the West, and Project 877 in Russia, are
formidable weapon platforms, but have a
reputation for being difficult to operate. They were
the first submarines to be acquired, covered fully
by anechoic rubber tiles and had a reputation for
running silently in combat.
Cry of despair
The Indian Navy never fielded a Kilo in joint

naval exercises with other navies for precisely that
reason and their reputation remains an undisclosed
secret. Their role in war in South Asia is all the
more formidable being armed with supersonic land
attack missiles that can be used punitively or to
influence the course of events on land.
If submarining is a demanding profession, it is

partly because a submarine emergency is truly a
terrible event, particularly when it occurs in a
submerged submarine. The Sindhuratna faced such
an event a hundred miles west of Mumbai, and
put into practice the hours of drilling that
submarine crews undergo, while dealing with
emergencies. The Kilo has a high resistance to
flooding and fire as it is divided into watertight
compartments. A damage control drill requires a
damaged compartment to be isolated and the
unspoken anxiety is, of course, the fate of the crew
who are isolated. InSindhuratnas case, all the events
[68]
It is normally not only an act of honourable

exit but a cry of despair, signalling to the service
and the government that he was not permitted to
hold himself to the same standards as those he
demanded from his officers.
Since 1952, the services have laboured under a
dysfunctional government Rules of Business
which declares that the Ministry of Defence, under
the secretary, is responsible for the Defence of India
not the armed forces, and certainly not the chiefs.
Under this excuse, the services have the
accountability; the Ministry has the power to create
innumerable hurdles in the path of each service
getting financial approval for anything from a
battery to a ship. There is good reason to believe
that theSindhuratna was operating with over-aged
batteries which give off vast amounts of explosive
hydrogen, because the replacement batteries were
held up in contractual red tape. The Board of
Inquiry will bring out the truth but is unlikely to
apportion blame to the Ministry of Defence, whose
lackadaisical performance has crippled more than
one armed service in the past.
Series of delays
Questions arise that can only be answered by

persons well above the level of the service Board of
Inquiry, headed by a Rear Admiral. Why was the
Navy forced into operating a 26-year-old submarine
with over-aged batteries? Because the replacement
submarines the Scorpne class French-origin
submarines were six years in the choosing under
Defence Minister A.K. Antony, and were thereafter
delayed by another four years contractually on
account of the Ministrys decision-making.
The Chief of the Navy has taken full moral

the vast reaches of the Indian Ocean, the slow pace
of transit of conventional submarines make them a
liability, which can only be overcome by acquiring
larger numbers. A far more elegant solution is the
nuclear propelled SSN, which is normally twice as
expensive as a conventional submarine but is far
more effective than two conventional boats.
The indigenous route to nuclear SSNs is some
years away since SSNs require more powerful
reactor plants than the missile-armed Arihant.
Indias submarine community also needs to arrive
at an intellectual consensus on the merits of
transiting to an all nuclear submarine force and
communicating that decision to the government.
The government on its part needs to help the Indian
shipbuilding industry and the Department of
Atomic Energy by looking for strategic partnerships
involving the building of nuclear propelled
submarines an activity not under the purview
of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
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responsibility, but his act is more a cry of despair

that he has been unable to represent the interests
of his service with an unresponsive and callous
ministry which has been warned repeatedly by the
Naval Headquarters of the depleting force levels of
submarines in the Navy. The government had, many
years back, approved the Navys plans for a 24submarine force as the ideal. Considering that in
peacetime, no more than 60 per cent of submarines
can be kept operational, the levels today have fallen
to parlous numbers. In past instances, the
resignation of a service chief has prodded
unresponsive governments into reviewing its
policies and procedures. In the Indian case, the
Naresh Chandra committee report is still in limbo,
according to the same Ministry of Defence.
Going nuclear
What can be done by the government to honour

the sacrifice of Admiral D.K. Joshi and not merely
send him on pension? Building of the Scorpne
class is in progress but six submarines will join the
Navy only by 2022. An immediate step could be
the acquisition of two more nuclear submarines of
the Akula class on lease from Russia. The Russians
were willing to lease another submarine in any
case following the handing over of the INS Chakra,
but considering the good relationship between the
Russian and Indian navies it might be possible to
persuade President Putin to part with two more
Akulas, until the Indian indigenous building project
catches up. The only major navies still operating
conventional submarines are China and Japan. The
others have shifted to an all-nuclear submarine
force and India should go down the same route. In
In the decades to come, the Navy will become

the prime service as India dumps its anxieties over
territorial integrity and pursues its global selfinterest. The Navy must also shift its strategic
thinking from antiquated ideas of coastal defence
and a Karachi blockade to an oceanic maritime
strategy that is in line with Indias status in the
region and its interests overseas. A good beginning
was the seminar on nuclear submarines conducted
in Visakhapatnam by the Commander-in-Chief to
help the submarine community come to grips with
future submarine policy. The Navy must now speak
with one voice in favour of nuclear submarines.
Source: The Hindu
CHANGING CONTOURS OF CENSORSHIP
A professor at the University of Chicago, the

Sanskritist Wendy Doniger has become the latest
victim of Indias rambunctious politics of free
expression. Her 2009 volume, The Hindus: An
Alternative History, was recently withdrawn and
pulped by Penguin Books, in an out-of-court
settlement with a Hindu group that had protested
against its supposedly insulting and salacious
content. Indias media and intelligentsia are
regularly flung into controversy over such incidents
of censorship and even violence against authors,
artists or film-makers. Indeed a couple of years ago,
the same Hindu outfit had forced Delhi University
to withdraw from its curriculum an essay on the
Ramayana by another University of Chicago
professor, the late A.K. Ramanujan.
While censorship and threats to expression in

India have a long history going back to colonial
times, they have also undergone many changes
through this period. During the Cold War for
instance, when the country was still relatively
closed, politically as much as economically, these
controversies were rare and the state chiefly
responsible for bans. But since Indias liberalisation
in the 1980s, and the emergence of powerful new
corporations, political parties and social movements,
the fight over free expression has altered
considerably. For one, the state no longer plays the
primary role in initiating censorship, and indeed
often remains silent when religious groups demand
the withdrawal of an offending work. Provincial
governments or even the courts accede to them.
[69]
Defined by publicity
Of course Indias Muslims have not been shy to

protest some hurt to their sentiments, and to avenge
what they take to be insults against their religion
in violent ways. But instead of blaming one religious
community or another for them, it behoves us to
ask what makes these claims possible in the first
place. The laws that religious groups wish to
enforce against literary and artistic works they
consider offensive are colonial in origin, and
presuppose the existence of an alien society driven
by primordial identities, one that can only be
managed by the state acting as a neutral arbiter.
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With the expansion of private television stations

in particular, these controversies have also come to
be defined by publicity, even more than by the
offending item that some would proscribe and
others defend. Certainly, a number of minor and
hastily put-together religious outfits have managed
to achieve national and sometimes even
international fame by attacking writers like Taslima
Nasreen or artists such as M.F. Husain. And this is
to say nothing about those who attack ordinary
people for doing things like celebrating Valentines
Day which they consider foreign and lascivious.
Such threats, in other words, are produced by the
very globalisation against which they are so
selectively directed, and are often deployed as
temporary advertisements for protesting groups
rather than as sustained attacks on free expression.
active. More important, however, might be the way

in which Islam serves to globalise a very Indian
controversy, and situate it within a narrative that
is internationally recognised. This is a way of tying
India to the West as an embattled society in which
Muslims, or those like them, pose the real threat.
So, Hindu protesters themselves often claim that
they must behave like Muslims, if only in order to
best them.
On free expression
Yet, despite these changes, the debate on free

expression remains curiously unvarying in India,
its reference being the clich-ridden history of
liberalisms rise from 17th Century Europes
religious wars, when secularism was allegedly
pitted in a metaphysical battle against theological
obscurantism. This stereotyped narrative is so
powerful that in the current controversy over Dr.
Donigers book, only Arundhati Roy has addressed
the issue in the form of a question, rather than
treat it as something about which everything is
already known. Ms Roy points out that an election
campaign has informally begun in India, one that
by the summer is expected to bring the Hindu
nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party to power. And
it is with an eye to their fate under the new
dispensation, she suggests, that publishers and
media houses are voluntarily muzzling their writers
and journalists, even without the threat of law or
violence.
But is this situation best described as a

metaphysical battle between religion and
secularism, or is such an endlessly repeated
narrative itself a theological one? Interesting is the
fact that so many defenders of free expression have
theologised the Doniger controversy by describing
her Hindu opponents as issuing a fatwa, and
citing the protests over Salman Rushdies The
Satanic Verses as a precedent for their actions. A
few commentators have pointed out that this resort
to references like Talibanisation amounts to
Islamising an issue in which Muslims are not
[70]
So, religion and secularism here are not

opposed so much as dependent each one upon the
other. In the Doniger case, for example, the
offended Hindu group not only ventilated its hurt
sentiments, but also, and in consonance with the
law, claimed that her book was calculated to sow
discord between Indias religious communities, to
avoid which it had to be banned. In other words,
a religious group was here speaking in the name of
the secular state, asking for its intervention, so as
to prevent a threat to public order posed by those
who might use Wendy Donigers book to provoke
Hindus.
The colonial model of censorship, of course, was
as concerned with secular subjects like state
secrets and sedition as with religious ones. And
this is true even in todays India, many of whose
districts are routinely subjected to very severe forms
of state repression that criminalises any expression
of dissent. Yet, every great controversy over free
expression, in terms of the popular mobilisation
and media attention it receives, has to do with the
religious rather than political or even corporate
threats to expression, both of which are far from
uncommon. This is a very different state of affairs
than in Europe or America, despite the Rushdie
affair and other controversies about religion there.
For none of these detract from debates over the
states control of information that are in our day
associated with figures like Julian Assange, Bradley
Manning or Edward Snowden.
Debates internal to secularism
Moreover, as Jonathan Shainin has pointed out

in The New Yorker, the notice sent to Dr. Doniger
and her publisher accuses the book of propounding
what some academics would call Orientalism,
which the late Columbia University professor
Edward Said described as a form of scholarship
premised upon the systematic denigration of nonwestern cultures for imperialistic purposes. So, Dr.
Doniger is held to be motivated by a Christian
missionary impulse, to selectively focus on aspects
of Hinduism that are intended to humiliate its
followers, and to view the religion from a sexual
perspective that goes against the views of its
devotees.
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Is it perhaps the case that defenders of free

expression in India must endlessly rehearse the
metaphysical conflict that constitutes its founding
script, and by equalising all religious threats to
refuse any real analysis of each one? Indian liberals
focus on fellow citizens as posing the real threat to
free expression, with the state condemned only for
its inaction or appeasement of their religious
demands. In their obsessive need to see in every
such threat the battle between religion and
secularism, these liberals adopt the perspective of
the colonial state, for which only subjects could
represent an injury to freedom of expression. It is
certainly true that mobilisations over religion have
in modern India been the ones to imperil public
order and give rise to large-scale violence, so this
obsession is not entirely unwarranted. The
metaphysical character of the conflict it envisages,
however, is what is telling, since there is nothing
particularly religious about the arguments of
Hindu, Muslim or indeed Christian protesters in
India.
great, controversies of this kind seem to take Indias

plural society for granted, though they would
redefine it in ever more hierarchical ways that are
eerily congruent with the institution of caste.
Unlike American debates about issues like

abortion or evolution, no community of protesting
Indians ever makes theological arguments or even
truth claims about its beliefs. All they do is refer to
deceptively delicate hurt sentiments and threats
of disorder, without asking for the legal recognition
of any doctrine, as, for instance, happens in
neighbouring Pakistan with the Sharia. Even in their
violence, therefore, which can sometimes be very
Crucially, the notice against Dr. Doniger and

her publisher serves to demonstrate that conflicts
over free expression in India are not metaphysical
battles waged between religion and secularism,
but instead debates internal to the latter. Indeed it
is remarkable how much the far Right in India,
like so many of their peers elsewhere, has taken
from erstwhile progressive notions. Without being
cognisant of this situation, the defenders of free
expression end up representing the theological
position they would condemn, with their own
protests taking the form of so many ritual laments
and imprecations.
Source: The Hindu
THE DANGER IN PRECEDENTS
The recent judgments of the Supreme Court

have shifted the focus back to capital punishment
in India. The jurisprudence of death penalty is as
inconsistent as it is confounding in most cases. The
recent cases have, however, tried to usher in greater
clarity in dealing with the death penalty law and
its execution. The decision of the Tamil Nadu
government to set free the assassins of former Prime
Minister Rajiv Gandhi has added another dimension
to the debate. In the light of these developments, it
is important to take stock of the evolution of capital
punishment in India while evaluating the probable
ramifications of the Tamil Nadu governments
decision.
The rarest of rare test

The rarest of rare test was laid down by the
Supreme Court in 1980 in the Bachan Singh case.
The judgment also made it incumbent on the state

to adduce sufficient evidence that there is no scope
of reform for the accused in the slightest. Further,
an analysis of the aggravating and mitigating
circumstances must be made to ascertain if death
alone is the most appropriate punishment in a given
case. Therefore, the significance of the judgment
also lay in seeking to strike a balance between the
crime and the criminal in doling out the sentence
by the courts. However, as was pointed out by the
Court in Santosh Bariyar (2009), many subsequent
cases have focused only on the crime while looking
away from the criminal while awarding the death
penalty. The Supreme Court felt in Gurvail Singh
(2013) that the time was ripe to develop the legal
position to be socially more accommodative, while
moving a step away from the principled stand
as propounded in the Bachan Singh case. Gurvail
[71]

Singh has been referred to in the Ram Singh case,
dealing with the December 16 Delhi gang rape,
where the sessions court took note of the exceptional
depravity and extreme brutality of the crime which
aroused intense and extreme indignation of
society. The extreme misery suffered by the victim
and grave impact of the crime on the social order
were stated as the reasons behind the ruling. The
result is that there is a tilt towards the crime as
compared to the criminal.
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On the other hand, the Supreme Court in the

Sushil Sharma case held that death penalty is
entirely avoidable given that there are grounds of
reform available for the convict. In the case of
Shatrughan Chauhan, the Court has concluded that
inordinate delay in the rejection of mercy petitions
of death row convicts amounted to torture.
However, the case of Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar
took the death penalty jurisprudence to another
level in ruling that there was a difference in
treatment to be meted out to convicts under the
Indian Penal Code and those convicted under
special terror laws. For the latter, undue delay
cannot be a valid ground to commute the death
penalty.
If there is relaxation shown to a criminal convicted

of something as deplorable as the assassination of
the former Prime Minister, then it begs the question
as to what could be an effective deterrent for
criminals in the future. This stand puts our internal
security at peril, when communal and left wing
forces are on the rise, in addition to the sustained
terror threats from across the border. Against this
backdrop, it is important to consider the cases of
Ajmal Kasab and Afzal Guru. Both these cases
marked a break in the so-called self-imposed
moratorium on death penalty by the Indian
judiciary. And both cases involve matters of national
security and instances of terrorism. This itself proves
that accompanied with executive expediency, death
penalty has been justified for the perpetrators of
grave criminal and terrorist activities at least till
the time that it exists in our legal system.
In 2012, 14 retired judges asked for 13 cases of

the death penalty to be commuted after admitting
that the original sentence was handed down per
incuriam. It is noteworthy as it buttresses the
extremely high limit set to achieve the threshold of
rarest of rare, albeit implicitly. From the above
discussion on judicial precedents, it is evident that
there is great subjectivity involved in deciding what
constitutes the gravest of circumstances that could
justify the state to take away life.
The Tamil Nadu government has decided to set

free the convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination,
exercising its power under Sections 432 and 435 of
the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. This assumes
further significance as Section 435 mandates
consultations with the Union government when
the conviction is under central laws.
Acknowledgment of the grave injustice in the
undue delay in execution by the highest court of
the country does not wash away the fact and
gravity of their crime that has been proved beyond
reasonable doubt. In deciding to release them, the
Tamil Nadu government is surely entering a risky
territory which may set loose a politically-charged
atmosphere and set a dangerous precedent.
The governments concerned must handle such
cases with astute political wisdom and maturity,
as it is their responsibility to ensure citizens safety.
[72]
Retention of death penalty
A key question to ask at this juncture is whether

it is too ambitious to expect a correlation between
the crime rate and death penalty in a jurisdiction
where the wheels of justice are eternally slow. For
us to be able to fairly introspect on the justifiability
of the death penalty, a lot rests on the executive
promptness in dealing with existing cases. By
creating an additional ground for commuting the
death sentence solely because of the lack of
executive promptness, the Supreme Court may be
subtly pushing India into a territory of no capital
punishment, but the legislative intent is ostensibly
at deviance. India voted against the Record of Votes
on the U.N. General Assembly Moratorium
Resolution, 2012, just as it had in the past. The
Human Rights Council recommended in its
Universal Periodic Review 2012 that India should
establish an official moratorium on execution. While
trying to move towards abolishing the death penalty
completely, India should also commute all death
sentences into life imprisonment terms and ratify
the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR. Both
of these recommendations India did not agree with.
There seems to be greater judicial clarity in cases
of mandatory death punishments in India. Recently,
the Bombay High Court ruled in the India Harm
Reduction Network case that the mandatory death
penalty for drug offences was unconstitutional.
However, instances of specific legislations still
upholding death penalty still subsist. For example,
the Piracy Bill has a provision of death penalty, as
does the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic
Substances Act of 1985. Clearly, the Union

Legislature seems decided about retaining capital
punishment, at least for the time being.
Every time a crime captures the national
imagination, there is a hue and cry to overhaul the
legal system, and bring in place more stringent
norms. But what is often not really emphasised is
the lax implementation. There is hardly a sustained
clamour for a better managed police system of the
country. There is no serious effort at a fast-paced
judiciary to clear the immense backlog of cases. It

is this laidback implementation that is often hidden
behind the grandiose idea of rule of law.
Accountability of public institutions and
functionaries needs to be strengthened.
It is only when we have a highly efficient and
time-bound justice delivery mechanism that we can
proceed to judge the merits of death penalty.
Source: The Hindu
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REGULATING GENETIC MODIFICATION
It is 61 years since the beginning of new genetics

based on the discovery of the double helix structure
of the DNA molecule. It is also 31 years since the
production of transgenic plants. The first patent
for a living organism went to Dr. Anand
Chakraborty who, through recombinant DNA
technology, developed an organism to clean up oil
spills. The fields of medicine, industry, environment
and agriculture have reaped the benefits of the
science of molecular genetics. In medicine, it has
led to new vaccines, insulin and genetic medicine.
The major concern in medical genetics is one of
ethics, an example being the application of
recombinant DNA technology for reproductive
cloning.
Therapeutic cloning, on the other hand, has
been welcomed. Growing pollution of ground and
river water has created great interest in
bioremediation methodologies in the field of
environmental biotechnology. It is only in food and
agricultural biotechnology that there are concerns
about biosafety, environmental safety, biodiversity
loss and human and farm animal health.
In technologies which share benefits and risks,
it is important to have regulatory mechanisms
which can help to analyse risks and benefits in an
impartial and professionally competent manner. It
is the same in the case of nuclear energy. This is
why the government introduced a Biotechnology
Regulatory Authority Bill in Parliament.
Unfortunately, the validity of this Bill has now

expired with the conclusion of the 15th Lok Sabha.
This gives the Indian Council of Agricultural
Research (ICAR), Department of Biotechnology
(DBT), Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR),
Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR),
the Ministry of Environment and Forests and other
agencies a chance to revisit the text of the Bill and
get a new Bill prepared for introduction as soon as
the new Parliament convenes. An academy may
be set up to prepare a new text which is likely to
have greater political, public, professional and

media acceptance.
Addressing concerns
The Agricultural Biotechnology Committee

which I chaired in 2003 and which submitted its
report early in 2004 had recommended a
Parliament approved regulatory agency as well as
the necessary infrastructure for conducting all India
coordinated trials with genetically modified
organisms (GMO). The necessary precautions, such
as the needed isolation as well as demonstration of
the importance of refuge, should be undertaken
under this project. As 10 years have passed since
this recommendation was made, we should lose
no further time in implementing it. There must be
a trial and safety assessment system which answers
the concerns of anti-GMO non-governmental
organisations. The present moratorium on field trials
with recombinant DNA material is a handicap as
well as a disincentive in harnessing the benefits of
the wide array of transgenic material available with
various research organisations and universities.
Many of the GMOs in the breeders assembly line
have excellent qualities for resistance to biotic and
abiotic stresses as well as improved nutrition. Much
of this work has been done in institutions
committed to public good. Also, much of the work
has been done by young scientists, discouraged now
because of the lack of a clear official signal on the
future of genetic modification.
As agriculture is a state subject, State
agricultural universities and State departments of
agriculture should be involved in the design and
implementation of field trials. It takes nearly 10
years time for a new variety to be ready for
recommendation to farmers. Therefore, speed is of
the essence in organising field trials and getting
reliable data on risks and benefits.
[73]
Public-private partnership
Translational research needs greater attention

for converting scientific know-how into farmers
do-how. Culinary and organoleptic characteristics
of new varieties should be examined with the help
of home science colleges. There is increasing interest
in organic farming. Organic farming certification
procedures permit the use of marker assisted
selection.
Several States want to become organic farming
states. ICAR should explain the pre-requisites for
successful organic farming, such as the availability
of adequate organic manure and plant protection
measures which do not need synthetic pesticides.
There has to be a methodology to face the challenge
of the unholy triple alliance of pests, pathogens
and weeds on organic farms.
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The return from investments in biotechnology

research is very high. Bt cotton research might have
resulted in a profit of over Rs.50,000 crore, as
compared to the total expenditure of about Rs.100
crore in such research. Public sector institutions
should concentrate on the development of high
yielding and disease resistant varieties, while
obviously the private sector will only produce
hybrids whose seeds will have to be brought every
year by farmers. A joint strategy by public and
private sectors will help to ensure the inclusiveness
of access to improved technologies among all
farmers.
there is no other way of achieving the desired

objective.
Nutrition security involves paying attention to

balanced diets (both macro and micronutrients),
clean drinking water, sanitation, primary health
care and nutrition literacy. While the Food Security
Act 2013 will ensure that all needing social
protection against hunger will be able to get the
needed calories, other nutritional problems such as
protein hunger and hidden hunger caused by the
deficiency of micro-nutrients will need similar
attention. Thus, while working for nutritional
security, both food and non-food factors,
particularly drinking water and sanitation, will
require concurrent attention.
Biofortification also needs our attention.

Naturally biofortified crops like yellow flesh sweet
potato, drumstick, amla, breadfruit, etc should be
popularised in nutrition gardens and agroforestry
systems. Biofortified crops developed by selection
and breeding like iron rich bajra should also become
available. On my suggestion, the Finance Minister
provided in the budget for 2013-14, Rs.200 crore
for promoting nutri-farms in districts where there
is a high malnutrition burden. We should launch a
programme this year, as also the International Year
of Family Farming, to develop every family farm
into a nutri farm, so that agricultural remedies can
be applied to the major nutritional maladies
prevalent in the area.
Promoting research
There is need for a pan-India political support

to promote genetic engineering research. Every
research institution should have a project selection
committee to examine whether recombinant DNA
technology is necessary to achieve the desired
breeding goal. In many cases, marker assisted
selection would be adequate for developing a
variety with the necessary characters. Recombinant
DNA technology should be resorted to only when
[74]
Biodiversity is the feedstock of the biotechnology

industry. Therefore, the conservation and
sustainable and equitable use of biodiversity should
be a major concern of biotechnologists. Krishi
Vigyan Kendras should have the capability of
offering scientifically credible advice to farmers on
GMOs. The academy should set up two committees
on the public understanding of science and the
political understanding of science on the pattern
of such committees set up by the Royal Society of
London.
Disseminating information
Media resource centres should be set up to give

up-to-date scientific information to media
representatives. Village knowledge centres should
be utilised for spreading correct information on
GMOs.
Countries like the United States have effective
regulatory mechanisms supported by scientific
infrastructure. In the U.S., three agencies The
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Food and
Drug Administration (FDA) and Agricultural Plant
Health Inspection Service (APHIS) are concerned
with regulations and work as a team while
examining and clearing the safety aspects of GMOs.
It is time that we also have a professionally managed
and coordinated efficient regulatory mechanism.
The academy should facilitate the early removal
of the moratorium on field trials by ensuring that
such trials will be conducted under safe conditions.
The academy could also develop a statement on new
technologies for small farmers to be considered for
inclusion in the election manifestos of political parties.
Source: The Hindu
REALIGNING GOVERNANCE
from intent to implementation.
The point is that, whatever the policy priorities
and agenda of the next government may be, they
will remain theoretical unless the constraint of
interministerial co-ordination is dealt with. There
are many issues relevant here, but let me highlight
one essential requirement for this to happen - an
inviolable closure rule. A proposal should be treated
as acceptable if a request for views is not responded
to within a fixed time frame - a direct application
of the speak now or forever hold your peace
principle.
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In its essence, governance is about alignment.

Multiple groups, each with its own menu of
interests, some coherently articulated and others
not, demand recognition and satisfaction from the
government. Areas of commonality need to be
found and reinforced, while differences need to be
reconciled, not by the domination of one group
over another, but by the power of persuasion. There
is a greater good to be achieved by compromise
and the costs incurred by each group now will be
more than compensated for by gains in the future.
In this context, a governance crisis reflects a

breakdown in the governments ability to achieve
and sustain alignment. Stakeholder groups with
bargaining power become more and more assertive
as to their interests because the message about the
greater good and future gains loses credibility. In
these circumstances, the government is compelled
to pander to the interests of the more powerful
groups at the time, inevitably at the expense of
others.
Many people would argue that India is facing
a governance crisis today. Virtually everybody
would agree with the proposition that the system
is under serious stress. Crisis or not, there is no
doubt that the next government is going to have to
do a serious repair job to get the critical alignment
function working again. I find it useful to think
about this process in terms of four broad interfaces
between interest groups. Here are some examples
of the alignment issues involved in each interface.
Within government: All significant policy

measures require effective co-ordination between
different ministries and departments. One might
think that, being part of the same structure, they
would all be bound by some commitment to the
larger goals of policy. One would be wrong. Every
ministry functions as a representative of the interest
group that it has jurisdiction over. This is not
necessarily a bad thing if the alignment process is
working effectively. Everybody has the reassurance
that their concerns are being adequately projected.
The challenge is to ensure that the alignment
mechanism is working. We have so many processes
in place that are supposed to perform this function
- groups of ministers, some of which are
empowered to take final decisions, Cabinet
committees and, finally, the Cabinet itself. The policy
paralysis critique is essentially that none of these is
working with the efficiency necessary, with the
result that no significant policy measures make it
Between Centre and states: I recently

interacted with a group of MLAs from several
states, who were participating in a programme on
state finances organised by the Parliamentary
Research Service(PRS). Technical issues on deficits,
transfers and so on over and done with, the
discussion turned to centrally sponsored schemes.
I had a few slides on independent reviews of some
flagship schemes. Before I got to them, I asked the
participants what they thought of these
programmes. I expected a blanket condemnation,
but, instead, I got a very balanced set of critiques,
providing reasons for why some of them were
working reasonably well and others failing
miserably. When I put up the slides, they were
struck by the similarities between their assessments
and those of the reviews.
The main point that many of the MLAs made
was the difficulty that local conditions posed in
implementing programmes that were basically
designed by the Centre. The intention expressed in
the interim Budget to transfer greater responsibility
to the states for design and implementation is a
welcome response to this general concern.
However, capacity to design, let alone implement
effective programmes in different conditions, may
currently not exist at the state level. The move
towards decentralisation needs to be supported by
creating the right kinds of knowledge and capacity
generation and sharing mechanisms. Having been
associated with the consultancy business for some
time, I was struck by the fact that in most
assignments for state governments, a lot of person
hours were spent trying to find out what other
states were doing. Surely, this should be public
knowledge and the central government can create
and manage platforms on which it is effectively
shared.
[75]

Between public and private sectors: The
reforms of the 1990s fundamentally redefined the
relationship between the public and private sectors,
to the huge benefit of the economy. However, a
more recent phase of this relationship, the pubicprivate partnership (PPP) strategy for infrastructure
development, has clearly hit some severe roadblocks.
The cost and revenue assumptions of many projects
have been completely violated, leading to enormous
financial stress, which is spilling over into the
banking sector as well.
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One way of looking at the problem is that the

PPP framework resulted in an unsustainable
distribution of risks between the partners. The
question is whether any arrangement that
redistributes risks to the public sector denies us the
potential efficiency gains in project execution and
management that the private partners were
expected to bring in. But, whatever the diagnosis,
there is no question that the infrastructure gap will
only widen without a solution; no infrastructure,
no growth.
Between state and citizen: Examples of

alignment failures abound. One important instance
is the persistent increase in rice prices over the past
year and a half - around 15 per cent per year despite the massive stocks in the possession of
government. Sale of stocks would bring down prices
and presumably be welcomed by consumers. But,
of course, this would upset farmers. Given that
inflation is one of the top two issues of concern the other being corruption - listed by citizens in
responses to voter surveys, one would think that
bringing rice prices down would be a politically
prudent act. Apparently not.
Some alignment issues could probably be
resolved by simply doing things differently within
the existing system. Others will require reforming
the system itself. The effort required and the risks
of doing this are high. But the rewards will be high
and, most importantly, so will the costs of not doing
so.
source: Business Standard
THE TRAGEDY OF THE HIGH SEAS
IN 1968 an American ecologist, Garrett Hardin,

published an article entitled The Tragedy of the
Commons. He argued that when a resource is
held jointly, it is in individuals self-interest to
deplete it, so people will tend to undermine their
collective long-term interest by over-exploiting
rather than protecting that asset. Such a tragedy is
now unfolding, causing serious damage to a
resource that covers almost half the surface of the
Earth.
The high seasthe bit of the oceans that lies

beyond coastal states 200-mile exclusive economic
zonesare a commons. Fishing there is open to
all. Countries have declared minerals on the seabed
the common heritage of mankind. The high seas
are of great economic importance to everyone
fish is a more important source of protein than
beefand getting more so. The number of patents
using DNA from sea-creatures is rocketing, and
one study suggests that marine life is a hundred
times more likely to contain material useful for anticancer drugs than is terrestrial life.
Yet the state of the high seas is deteriorating.
Arctic ice now melts away in summer. Dead zones
are spreading. Two-thirds of the fish stocks in the
high seas are over-exploited, even more than in the
parts of the oceans under national control. And
strange things are happening at a microbiological
[76]
level. The oceans produce half the planets supply

of oxygen, mostly thanks to chlorophyll in aquatic
algae. Concentrations of that chlorophyll are falling.
That does not mean life will suffocate. But it could
further damage the climate, since less oxygen means
more carbon dioxide.
For tragedies of the commons to be averted,
rules and institutions are needed to balance the
short-term interests of individuals against the longterm interests of all users. That is why the
dysfunctional policies and institutions governing the
high seas need radical reform.
Net loss
The first target should be fishing subsidies.

Fishermen, who often occupy an important place
in a countrys self-image, have succeeded in
persuading governments to spend other peoples
money subsidising an industry that loses billions
and does huge environmental damage. Rich nations
hand the people who are depleting the high seas
$35 billion a year in cheap fuel, insurance and so
on. The sum is over a third of the value of the
catch. That should stop.
Second, there should be a global register of
fishing vessels. These have long been exempt from
an international scheme that requires passenger and
cargo ships to carry a unique ID number. Last

collective self-interest over the individual interests
of its members, what is it good for? Such an
organisation would have the job of streamlining
the impenetrable institutional tangle. But it took 30
years to negotiate the law of the sea. A global oceans
body would probably take longerand the oceans
need help now.
Third, there should be more marine reserves.

An eighth of the Earths land mass enjoys a
measure of legal protection (such as national-park
status). Less than 1% of the high seas does. Over
the past few years countries have started to set up
protected marine areas in their own economic
zones. Bodies that regulate fishing in the high seas
should copy the idea, giving some space for fish
stocks and the environment to recover.
So in the meantime the law of the sea should

be beefed up. It is a fine achievement, without
which the oceans would be in an even worse state.
But it was negotiated in the 1970s before the rise
of environmental concerns, so contains little on
biodiversity. And the regional fishing bodies,
currently dominated by fishing interests, should be
opened up to scientists and charities. As it is, the
sharks are in charge of the fish farm.
But reforming specific policies will not be

enough. Countries also need to improve the system
of governance. There is a basic law of the sea signed
by most nations (though not America, to its
discredit). But it contains no mechanisms to enforce
its provisions. Instead, dozens of bodies have sprung
up to regulate particular activities, such as
shipping, fishing and mining, or specific parts of
the oceans. The mandates overlap and conflict.
Non-members break the rules with impunity. And
no one looks after the oceans as a whole.
This would not solve all the problems of the

oceans. Two of the biggestacidification and
pollutionemanate from the land. Much of the
damage is done within the 200-mile limit. But
institutional reform for the high seas could cut
overfishing and, crucially, change attitudes. The
high seas are so vast and distant that people behave
as though they cannot be protected or do not need
protection. Neither is true. Humanity has harmed
the high seas, but it can reverse that damage. Unless
it does so, there will be trouble brewing beneath
the waves.
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December maritime nations lifted the exemption

a good first step. But it is still up to individual
countries to require fishing boats flying their flag
to sign up to the ID scheme. Governments should
make it mandatory, creating a global record of
vessels to help crack down on illegal high-seas
fishing. Somalis are not the only pirates out there.
A World Oceans Organisation should be set up

within the UN. After all, if the UN cannot promote
FAULTLINES FESTER IN ASIA
New fault lines have emerged in Asia that

signal increasing geopolitical risks, including for
global markets.
These risks have been highlighted by the recent

comments of both Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo
Abe who noted that Britain and Germany went
to war in 1914 despite being economically
interdependent in the same way Japan and China
now are and Philippine President Benigno
Aquino, who compared Chinas territorial creep
with Nazi Germanys expansionism.
International spotlight on Asias dramatic
economic rise has obscured the serious challenges
it confronts. These challenges range from
recrudescence of territorial and maritime disputes
and increasingly fervent nationalism to sharpening
competition over natural resources and harmful
historical legacies that weigh down its major
interstate relationships.
The future will not belong to Asia merely
because it is the worlds most-populous and fastestdeveloping continent, where GDP continues to
grow by more than 5% each year. Asias deepening
challenges actually call into question the assumption
of some analysts that its continued rise is
unstoppable and the Wests decline inevitable.
Two fault lines in particular are putting Asias
sustained rise at risk, with the adverse geopolitical
trends carrying significant ramifications for global
markets. With Asias political integration badly
lagging behind its economic integration, one fault
line is represented by the widening gap between
politics and economics. Asia is the only continent
other than Africa where political integration has
failed to take off.
The other fault line is represented by the socalled history problem or how the past threatens
to imperil Asias present and future. Historical
distortions and a failure to come to terms with the
past have spurred competing and mutually
[77]

reinforcing nationalisms. Asia must find ways to
get rid of its baggage of history so as to chart a
more stable and prosperous future.
Respect for boundaries is a prerequisite to peace
and stability on any continent. Europe has built its
peace on that principle, with a number of European
states learning to live with boundaries that they
dont like. But in Asia, renewed attempts to disturb
territorial status quo are stirring geopolitical tensions
and fuelling rivalries.
Europe 100 years ago was even more integrated

by trade and investment than Asia is today, with
its royal families interrelated by marriage. Yet
Europes disparate economic and political paths led
to World War I.
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In particular, an increasingly muscular China

harps on historical grievances real or imaginary
to justify its claims to territories and fishing areas
long held by others. Whether it is strategic islands
in the South and East China Seas or the resourcerich Himalayan Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh,
China is dangling the threat of force to assert its
claims.
which have made war there unthinkable today,

the wars in Asia in the second half of the 20th
century only sharpened rivalries, fostering a bitter
legacy. Several interstate wars have been fought in
Asia since 1950, when both the Korean war and
the annexation of Tibet started, without resolving
the underlying disputes.
Aquino, drawing an analogy between Chinas

territorial assertiveness and the failure of other
powers to support Czechoslovakia against Hitlers
territorial demands in 1938, pointedly asked this
month: At what point do you say, enough is
enough?
At the root of rising geopolitical tensions is the

fact that Asia is coming together economically but
not politically. Indeed, it is becoming more divided
politically. Even as the regions economic horse
seeks to take it towards greater prosperity, its
political horse is attempting to steer it in a
dangerous direction.
This dichotomy is a reminder that economic

interdependence and booming trade by itself is no
guarantee of moderation or restraint between states.
Unless estranged neighbours fix their political
relations, economics alone will not be enough to
stabilize their relationship. Slowing of Asian
economic growth underscores the risks arising from
this fault line. These risks are heightened by Asias
lack of a security framework, with even its regional
consultation mechanisms remaining weak.
One central concern is that, unlike Europes

bloody wars of the first half of the 20th century,
Abe was thus right to warn that economic

interdependence cannot by itself prevent war. But
by implicitly comparing China with pre-1914
Imperial Germany, Abe sought to gain the moral
high ground by depicting Japan as a democratic
state that, like Britain a century ago, is seeking to
checkmate the expansionist ambitions of a rapidly
rising authoritarian power.
The paradox is that China, with its aggressive
modernization strategy, appears to be on the same
path that made Japan a militaristic state a century
ago, with tragic consequences for the region and
Japan itself. Japans Meiji Restoration (1868 to 1912)
created a powerful military that eventually became
so strong as to dictate terms to the civilian
government. The same could unfold in China,
where generals are becoming increasingly powerful
as the Communist Party becomes more and more
beholden to the military for retaining its monopoly
on power.
Make no mistake: risks inherent in the present
Asian trends can be contained only by bridging
the gulf between politics and economics. Resurgent
territorial and maritime disputes underscore that
securing Asian peace and stability hinges
fundamentally on respect for existing borders.
Unless that happens, it is far from certain that Asia
will be able to spearhead global growth or shape a
new world order.
CAN INTERNATIONAL LAW SAVE SYRIA?
Thousands of lives and three years too late,

world leaders came together to Save Syria, as
the United Nations (UN) and Arab Leagues special
envoy on Syria Lakhdar Brahimi said. But,
unsuccessfully. Can international law save the
Syrian people? Are there provisions in the
[78]
international legal system to address the concerns

of those suffering with no recourse from their own
governments? The answer to both questions is yes.
The humanitarian response

International humanitarian law was put to

the worst human tragedies unfolding in Syria, it is
time to reinforce the international communitys
obligation by extending support to Syrian refugees.
International justice for the Syrian people?

What is the purpose of international law if not
to serve international justice for the people it
protects. This is the mandate of the International
Criminal Court (ICC) created in 1998 as a treaty
body effective from 2002. Its mandate covers only
the four crimes of genocide, war crimes, crimes
against humanity and war of aggression, the last
of which is yet to be defined. But one of the
unending and ongoing debates in international law
is that of justice vs. peace. It will remain the fate
of the people of Syria as wellit will be either
justice or peace, probably neither but not both.
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paper for this very reasonto ameliorate the

scourge of war. The four Geneva Conventions of
1949 are foundational to international humanitarian
law. These conventions, signed by 194 states
including Syria, cover international conflict
meaning war between states. They do not dictate
if countries can go to war but how a war should
be fought. The conventions detail ways and means
of helping and protecting the war wounded,
prisoners of war, the sick and civilians. This first
step towards putting people at the centre of
international relations was taken as far back as
1864 with the original Geneva Convention for
amelioration of the condition of the wounded in
armies in the field. This was the brainchild of the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
and its founder Henry Dunant. ICRC remains the
guardian of the Geneva Conventions and
International Humanitarian Law. It is government
neutral, owing allegiance to no government.
So too in the case of Syria, ICRC has been

providing humanitarian assistance, even in most
critical areas such as the city of Homs. At the
Second Humanitarian Pledging Conference held in
Kuwait in January, ICRC president Peter
Maureremphasised the need to do more. The shortlived humanitarian corridor to HomsGeneva IIs
only successwas the answer to Maurers prayer.
But international humanitarian law and the
authority it bestows on ICRC, however strong, only
go so far. This is where we cross over into the
contentious zone of international human rights law.
Saving the Syrian exodus
The 1951 convention relating to the status of

refugees lays the legal foundation to defining a
refugee, their rights and the obligation of states to
refugees. According to the UNHCRthe principal
UN agency for refugeesover two million Syrians
have been forced to flee their country since the
conflict began in 2011. UNHCR has called it the
largest exodus in recent history. States that have
signed and ratified the Refugee Convention are
obligated to help the Syrian refugees especially if
they have somehow landed in respective states.
India is not a party to the Refugee Convention. But
India has been open to refugees irrespective of its
international stand. However the same cannot be
said of countries such as the UK or Australia
both signatories. It was only recently after much
cajoling, and mostly a Labour debate on the matter,
that UKs conservative coalition agreed to resettle
some Syrian refugees.
The UNHCR claims that 80% of the worlds
refugees are in developing countries. With one of
In December 2013, the UN implicated Bashar al

Assad for war crimes in Syria. A UN Commission
of Inquiry found evidence for the authorization of
war crimes at the highest level. In Assads case, if
there is ever one, intent would be easy to prove.
But, firstly arresting the perpetrator once a warrant
is issued is not easy. The Syrian administration or
other states party to the Rome Statute that governs
the ICC should be willing to arrest and hand over
Assad to the ICC. Secondly, though not an agency
of the UN, the UN Security Council (UNSC) can
stay an investigation of the Court under article 16
of the Statute. All this is done in the interests of
justice, which is the third point. This get-out-of-jail
card is tucked away in Article 53. The implication
is that peace is in the interest of justice and where
the latter can compromise the former, especially in
ongoing conflicts or peace processes, such as the
Geneva II talks on Syria.
Limits of international law
International law is created by the international

community of states; then, adopted by the very
same states. They are self-imposed obligations with
as much binding force as a safety pin. The lack of
an overarching enforcing authority is clear. The
UN is not that authority. Yet again, it is an
organization constituted by the very same
community of states. Its authority is only as much
as the statesespecially the five UNSC permanent
membersdeem it to have. This is not to label
international law, pertaining to humanitarianism
and human rights, useless. But that it is nascent;
has immense potential and has shown the
occasional tooth. The international community has
only to reinforce its own obligations and enforce
its responsibility to protect and save Syria.
Source: Live Mint

[79]
CHRONICLE
IAS ACADEMY
MOMENTUM
3RD MARCH 2014 TO 9TH MARCH 2014
Call: 9953120676, 9582263947

CONTENTS
TOPICS
Pg. No.
National ........................................................................................................................ 4-8

International .............................................................................................................. 9-12
India and the World ............................................................................................ 13-14
Economy ................................................................................................................... 15-16
Science & Technology ......................................................................................... 17-19
Health ....................................................................................................................... 19-21
News in Brief ......................................................................................................... 22-27
Editorials from Newspapers .............................................................................. 28-63
Commissions and their Omissions
28
A prescription for the ailing education sector
29
Lessons from a lost war
31
Pakistans terror conundrum
33
Towards fair regulation
35
Schools without children, children without schools
36
No lasting action
36
Smoothening out cross-LoC trade
37
Caught between Russia and the EU
38
Cold war redux
40
Global warming amplifying malaria risk
41
Safeguarding the many histories of India
41
A quiet revolution in governance
42
Monsoon uncertainties
44
Emerging economies in a vulnerable phase
44
In defence of private participation
46
CSR still has some grey areas
47
Ukraine lessons
48
Learning to expect the unexpected
49
Pieces of eight
50
Living up to the cold war stereotype
51
No escape from freedom
52
Balancing act
53
Why grievance redress cannot wait
54
Crisis in crimea
56
Outside the patent monopolies
57
The real naval disaster
58
Clearing the air
59
The stage is set
60
Back with a vengeance
61
Special, strategic relationship
62
!!!
NATIONAL
INDIA LEADS IN GBBC
the US (638), India (544), Costa Rica (508), Colombia
(424), Australia (383), Panama (371) and Peru (325).
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Preliminary findings of Great Backyard Bird

Count jointly organized by the Cornell Lab of
Ornithology, the National Audubon Society and
the Bird Studies Canada have put India on top of
the list of 127 countries.
Final results of the four-day Great Backyard
Bird Count (GBBC), held between February 14 and
17, are yet to be announced but the data analyzed
and updated till February 28 shows that the final
order may not change Indias position.
A US newspaper, The Kansas City Star,

flagged the preliminary findings of the global bird
count first on February 22. In its report, Want to
see a wide variety of birds? Head to India, put
India on top with 765 species. The US came second
with 637 species (till February 22).
Latest updates, however, showed that though
the US slipped to third spot a week after the
American daily first flagged the preliminary results,
India continues to maintain its lead.
Bird watchers from all seven continents had

last year reported and documented 4,258 species
from about 180 bird families. Mexico had topped
the 2013 GBBC list with 645 species followed by
The second version of the global bird count,

updated till February 28, however, showed that
participants from 127 countries this time found
4,296 species with India reporting the highest
number of 819 species followed by Mexico (683),
USA (644), Costa Rica (609), Australia (501),
Colombia (397), Panama (278) and Peru (138).
The event was launched in 1998 as the first
online citizen-science project to collect data on wild
birds and to display results in near real-time.
Participants during the event period send snapshots
of birds as their entries which are subsequently
analyzed and documented by the organizers before
displaying final results of the GBBC. The US and
Canada have been participating in the event since
1998, the first ever such global bird count was
organized in 2013 when participants from 110
countries sent their entries during February 15-18
last year.
The participants will unite once again next year
during February 13-16 to see how many of the
worlds 10,240 bird species can be found.
INDIA MAKES MANDATORY OPV FOR TRAVELERS
Though India has reported no case of polio in

last three years, it faces threat of virus from its
neighbor Pakistan and Afghanistan and other
countries - Ethiopia, Syria, Kenya, Somalia and
Nigeria. To allay this fear, since March 1 India
makes oral polio vaccine (OPV) mandatory for
India-bound travelers from seven countries Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Syria, Kenya, Somalia,
Nigeria and Pakistan where polio cases are still
reported. Indians headed for these countries will
also be administered the vaccine.
Years of efforts and huge financial resources
have been invested by India in stopping polio in
India. It cannot risk importation of polio virus,
which is getting bigger and bigger with the recent
outbreaks in the Middle East and earlier in the
[4]
Horn of Africa. This new preventive measure has

been initiated as per the recommendations of the
national and international expert bodies and the
guidelines of the World Health Organisation.
While declaring India a polio-free nation WHO country
head, Dr Nata Menabde, warned against complacency
as the risk of importation persists from polio-endemic
nations Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria.
Six countries were re-infected in 2013 and there
were major polio outbreaks in the Horn of Africa
and the Middle East. In view of the threat, the
Independent Monitoring Board of the Global Polio
Eradication Initiative recommended in October 2013
that International Health Regulations be used to
ensure all travellers from polio-endemic countries
are vaccinated prior to travel.
Weekly Current Affairs 3rd March to 9th March, 2014

In May 2013, the India Expert Advisory Group
on Polio Eradication recommended that the country
promote the current WHO immunisation
recommendations for travellers to and from polioendemic or infected areas. It said the most
significant risk was importation of poliovirus from
countries with endemic circulation. The possibility
of outbreaks in non-endemic countries spreading
to India could also not be discounted.
India has set up continuous immunisation posts

along the borders with Pakistan, Nepal,
Bangladesh, Myanmar and Bhutan. This year their
number went up to 102, with nearly 4.2 million
children immunised in the past two years.
Poliomyelitis
! Polio cases have decreased by over 99% since

1988, from an estimated 350 000 cases then,
to 223 reported cases in 2012. The reduction
is the result of the global effort to eradicate
the disease.
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Polio is a highly infectious disease caused by

a virus. It invades the nervous system, and can
cause total paralysis in a matter of hours. The
virus enters the body through the mouth and
multiplies in the intestine. Initial symptoms are
fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, stiffness in the
neck and pain in the limbs. One in 200 infections
leads to irreversible paralysis (usually in the legs).
Among those paralysed, 5% to 10% die when their
breathing muscles become immobilized. There is
no cure for polio, it can only be prevented. Polio
vaccine, given multiple times, can protect a child
for life.
India has declared that any case of poliovirus

will be treated as an emergency. Emergency
preparedness and response capacity are being
reviewed on an-ongoing basis.
Key facts
! Polio (poliomyelitis) mainly affects children

under five years of age.
! One in 200 infections leads to irreversible
paralysis. Among those paralysed, 5% to 10%
die when their breathing muscles become
immobilized.
! In 2013, only three countries (Afghanistan,

Nigeria and Pakistan) remain polio-endemic,
down from more than 125 in 1988.
! As long as a single child remains infected,
children in all countries are at risk of
contracting polio. Failure to eradicate polio
from these last remaining strongholds could
result in as many as 200 000 new cases every
year, within 10 years, all over the world.
! In most countries, the global effort has
expanded capacities to tackle other infectious
diseases by building effective surveillance and
immunization systems.
Source: WHO
PVT HOSPITALS STOP CGHS CASHLESS SCHEME
With effect from March 7, private hospitals

stopped CGHS cashless scheme. The move affected
50 lakh serving employees and over 30 lakh
pensioners, as well as their family members. At a
conservative estimate, the total number of persons
affected could well be over two crore.
Providers India (or AHPI, the nodal body of private

empanelled hospitals) the move was necessary for
several reasons, but the main ones being CGHS
owes these hospitals around Rs 200 crore in unpaid
services as well as unreasonably low CGHS tariffs
that havent been revised for the last four years.
Patients will henceforth have to pay hospital charges

and later claim the amount from the government.
Also, AHPI says CGHS makes illegal

deductions of 10% on all payments leading to losses
for member hospitals. AHPI claims the amount runs
up to Rs 180 crore.
According to the Association of Healthcare
SUITABILITY OF JUDGE CANDIDATES CANNOT BE CHALLENGED: SC
Taking note of the fact that the list of 12 names

sent by the Madras High Court had been returned
for fresh consideration, a Bench of Justices B.S.
Chauhan, J. Chelameswar and M.Y. Eqbal said that
the suitability of a candidate for appointment as
judge of a High Court cannot be questioned because

the recommendation of its collegium is not subject
to any judicial review. Further the Bench said
judicial review is permissible only of assessment of
eligibility, and not of suitability.
[5]

deserves to be observed, uninfluenced by mere
considerations of individual opinions. It is for this
reason that collective consultative process as
enunciated in the aforesaid decisions has been held
to be an inbuilt mechanism against any
arbitrariness. Further the Bench said, It is not a
case wherein the writ petitioners could not wait
till the maturity of the cause i.e. decision of the
collegium of this court. They took a premature step
by filing writ petitions without further waiting for
its consideration by the Supreme Court collegium.
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S. Prabhakaran, senior counsel [appearing for

senior advocate R. Gandhi] submitted a writ petition
mentioning that the advocates-recommended were
not suitable for appointment as judges of the
Madras High Court. Accepting Mr. Prabhakarans
submissions, the Bench said: Appointments cannot
be exclusively made from any isolated group, nor
should they be predominated by a narrow group.
Diversity therefore in judicial appointments to pick
the best legally trained minds, coupled with a
qualitative personality, is the guiding factor that
MOEF TRIMS W.GHATS NO-GO ZONE
The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests

decided to free up around 3,115 sq km from the
states protected zone. Hence, the centre will, now,
earmark a 9,993.7 sq km area in Kerala as ESA as
against its earlier order demarcating 13,108 sq km
(nearly one-third of the states total area) as
protected zone.
panel, either at the Centre or in the six States, from

entertaining proposals for new polluting industries,
mining, thermal power plants or large construction
projects in the villages.
Habitations, plantations and agricultural areas

in the 123 villages falling within the Western Ghat
eco-sensitive area will be taken off the protective
zone as demanded by the Kerala government.
The Ministrys November 2013 orders had

specifically mentioned that agricultural, rural
livelihood and plantation practices would not be
banned. But that offer did not assuage the
sentiments of powerful sections in Kerala which
also found political support to mount pressure on
the centre to step back.
To do justice to the five other States Gujarat,

Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu
in the Western Ghats region, the Ministry opened
the space for them to approach the Centre. It has
also been decided that the MoEF will consider
recommendations of the other States in the Western
Ghats region, based on a similar on-ground
exercise, if such proposals are forwarded to the
MoEF within 60 days of issuance of the draft
notification.
While the new Minister, M. Veerappa Moily,

did make a noise initially in favour of easing the
orders, the Ministry was in a bind in an ongoing
case before the National Green Tribunal. The
Tribunal had warned that any complete
withdrawal of the orders could lead to
implementation of the Madhav Gadgil Committees
report, which recommended far wider areas in the
six States and stricter regulations than what the
Kasturirangan Committee did.
In November 2013, the Ministry passed two

orders for implementing the Kasturirangan
Committees report. One of the orders, accepting
the report in principle, said a formal draft
notification demarcating the geographical
boundaries of the ESA under the Environment
Protection Act, 1986, would shortly be put out for
comments. Under the law, the draft notification
would have been open for comments for two
months before it was notified after amendments
that the Centre may accept based on inputs.
At the last hearing, the Tribunal gave the

ministry a month to take a clear stance. Unlike the
Madhav Gadgil Committees report, the
Kasturirangan Committee demarcated cultural
landscapes from natural landscapes, reducing the
proposed protected area to 60,000 square kilometres.
The Kasturirangan Committee kept out these
cultural landscapes (area with a high population
density), stating close to 60 per cent of the Western
Ghats region is under cultural landscape humandominated land use of settlements, agriculture and
plantations. But this still did not find acceptance
with lobbies in Kerala.
In a parallel second order, the Ministry banned,

with immediate effect, any environmental clearance
OVER 50% VOTERS IN 18-19 AGE GROUP NOT TO CAST VOTE

In spite of several initiatives by the Election
Commission, over 50 per cent voters in 18-19 age
[6]
group could not be registered as voters. Of the over

5 crore people in this age group, as per Census

2011, only 2.31 crore have registered in the electoral
rolls revision. This means that 50,000 youths in
the 18-19 age group, on an average, will not be
casting their vote in each constituency in the
coming Lok Sabha elections.
The EC has initiated several programmes to

educate people of their voting rights, partnering with
government departments, NGOs, the media, the PSUs
and also the private sector. Electoral literacy has been
made part of the Adult Education Programme and
is being included in school curriculum.
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Of the nearly 2.73 crore 18-19 year olds who

havent registered, around 62 lakh are from Uttar
Pradesh. Other states with a large proportion of
such youths are Bihar (27 lakh), Rajasthan (11
lakh), Delhi (4 lakh), Haryana (7.5 lakh) and
Punjab (6 lakh). Though the process of revision of
voters list is still on, new voters cannot be
registered now.
But according to the Chief Election

Commissioner (CEC) VS Sampath though only
around 45 per cent of the youths between the ages
of 18 and 19 have registered as voters, it is
reasonably good achievement as in increased from
just around 8-10 per cent of coverage in this age
group four years back.
ASI REVISED ITS CONSERVATION POLICY
The culture ministry has approved the National

Policy for Conservation of Ancient Monuments,
Archaeological Sites and Remains, which will
govern the upkeep of 3,600-plus centrally-protected
monuments. The revised conservation policy
outlines new conservation principles, role of
building craftsmanship in conservation,
illumination guidelines and rules for public-private
partnership in heritage management.
The policy states:

! A monument should be subject to minimum,
and only necessary, intervention to maintain
its authenticity and integrity.
! Conservation
should,
under
no
circumstances, be based on any conjecture
or artistic imagination and should be based
on reliable documentary evidences and/or
in situ archaeological evidences.
! Restoration, consolidation, reproduction and
retrofitting should, as far as possible, be
clearly discernible as a later alteration/
repair/restoration to clearly identify them
from the original fabric of the monument.
! The policy also stresses on safeguarding
monuments through regular monitoring,
documentation, conservation and site
management plans.
! The policy stresses on ornamentation work
in ancient structures.
! Highest attention should be paid to
conservation of fragile ornamentations

embellishing a monument. All efforts should
be made to protect and preserve them in situ.
And if such efforts fail, an assessment
should be made to remove and place them
in a safe environment while replacing them
with reproductions of the same profile to
maintain architectural integrity. This has to
be done in the rarest of rare cases.
! The policy also states It is important to
respect various additions/alterations in time
or layers of history that have contributed to
the development or evolution of a monument.
! In terms of visitors and tourism management,
the policy says the carrying capacity of a
monument, especially popular ones, should
be determined.
! To better protect and preserve such
monuments, the number of people visiting
them should be managed, and if needed,
these may have to be limited temporarily,
especially in such areas or parts that are
highly vulnerable to decay or deterioration.
In its revised conservation policy,
Archaeological Survey of India has remained true
to its first principles, favouring in situ
conservation of built heritage to restoration
through reconstruction. The principal was laid
down in the agencys John Marshall guide
prepared in the 1920s.
1% OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN INDIA REPORTED TO POLICE: LANCET
The latest edition of British medical journal,

The Lancet in its report Sexual Violence and Rape
in India, written by Anita Raj and Lotus
McDougal revealed that sexual violence affects as
many as 27.5 million women in India, though only
one per cent of the victims report the crime to police.

According to the report, rape incidents in India are
receiving extensive media coverage in the aftermath
of the December 16, 2012 gang rape and murder
case and the recent gang rape of a young woman
[7]

! Adolescent wives are most vulnerable,
on the order of the village panchayat.
reporting the highest number of marital sexual

violence in any age group.
Other findings are:

! Low reporting of sexual violence might in
part be because marital rape is not a crime in

India.
! Adolescent girls also account for 24 per cent
of rape cases in the country, although they

represent only 9 per cent of the total women
population.
! Most sexual violence in India occurs in
marriage with 10 per cent of married women

reporting sexual violence from husbands.
! An estimated 25 million adolescent girls
[between 15 and 19 years] are victims of

sexual violence in India.
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Sexual violence against women in India
Reported rapes are the number of rapes (non-marital) reported to police.4 Estimated number of
females affected by sexual violence (marital or non-marital) used population estimates from the World
Population Prospects.2,6
* Women aged 1418 years.
Women aged 1450 years.
INDIA RANKS 111TH IN IPU LIST
India is placed at 111th position out of 189

countries in a list prepared by Inter Parliamentary
Union (IPU), an international organization that
ranks nations on the number of women
representatives in parliament.
While preparing the list IPU has found that

while more and more women are being elected to
parliaments across the world, the trend has not
come to in India. In the Lok Sabha, out of the 544
members, only 60 are women. The Rajya Sabha
has only 26 women MPs out of 241 members. This
means that only about 1 in 10 parliamentarians in
India (11.4%) are women.
In Nepal almost 30% of MPs are women. It is

ranked 33rd on this list. Pakistan on the other hand
is ranked 72 with 21% of parliamentarians in the
Upper House and 17% in Lower House being
women. Bangladesh is ranked 74th in this list with
20% female representation in parliament. China is
61st with nearly 25% MPs being women.
The only south Asian neighbour worse off that
India in the list is Sri Lanka - ranked 133th with
only 13 women MPs out of 225.
Rwanda consolidated its number one status as

the country with the highest percentage of women
MPs - 63.8% following elections in September 2013.
It is the first time ever women account for more
than 60% of MPs in a parliament anywhere.
Indias neighbours are also far ahead in making
more women enter politics.
[8]
!!!!!
INTERNATIONAL
CHINAS NOVEL SYSTEM TO STRIKE AIRCRAFT CARRIER
International Strategic and Security Studies
Programme said the system will serve as a credible
deterrent against American intervention in Chinas
maritime disputes, of which it has several with its
Asian neighbours. In other words, the ASBM had
shaken the traditional view of the U.S. Navys
unassailable superiority in the Pacific.
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According to assessments published by team of

Indian analysts at the National Institute of
Advanced Studies in Bangalore, China has
established a constellation of satellites and at least
one over-the-horizon radar which give its AntiShip Ballistic Missile (ASBM) system the capability
to work out the position of U.S. aircraft carriers at
sea. Land-based ballistic missiles, carrying
manoeuvrable warheads with conventional
munitions, could then, if needed, target the aircraft
carriers at a distance of about 2,000 km.
A group of experts with the Institutes
China pledges reforms & stable growth
While delivering the annual government work

report Chinese Premier Li announced a 7.5 per
cent growth target for the coming year, and
pledged to take forward a number of
administrative and financial reforms to boost
innovation, support private enterprises and enable
cleaner growth.
To begin with, the government would add 200
administrative approvals to a list of 416 that were
abolished earlier this year with the aim of
reducing bureaucracy.
The report also referenced more sweeping reform

moves such as long-discussed measures to give banks
more say in setting interest rates, and to weaken
the monopolies of State-run companies by allowing
private participation in restricted sectors of the
economy such as railways, banking and energy. It
did not, however, mention a time-frame.
The report also appropriated 210 billion yuan
($34 billion) for environmental protection a 7.1
per cent increase with the Premier declaring
war against pollution to combat the spreading
smog problem.
The measures follow a key economic meeting
in November, when Chinas ruling Communist
Party approved a broad reform blue print.
The work report also announced a 12.2 per
cent hike in defence spending to $ 130 billion in
Chinas constellation of Yaogan military

satellites includes those for electronic intelligence
(ELINT) gathering that detect radio signals and
other electronic emissions from an aircraft carrier
and its associated warships. China currently has
the coming year. According to Chinese military
analysts the 12.2 per cent hike is driven by the
demand to tackle the rising territorial tensions with
many of its neighbours.
A draft budget report, which is expected to
be approved during the week-long annual session
of the National Peoples Congress (NPC) or
Parliament proposed a 12.2 per cent hike in
defence spending to 808.2 billion Yuan, or $132
billion. This reflected an $18 billion rise from the
previous year, when the budget rose by 10.7 per
cent and the highest percentage increase since
2011, when spending was hiked by 12.7 per cent.
While Chinese officials said the increase was
in keeping with the size of Chinas growing
economy and in line with what most countries
spend in terms of percentage of GDP, the 12.2
per cent hike is certain to stir the attention of the
region, and particularly Chinas neighbours.
Chinas spending now dwarfs that of most
countries in the region, and is second only to the
United States, which spends more than $600
billion on defence.
Last month, India announced a 10 per cent
hike in military spending during the interim
budget. On account of the weakening rupee,
however, Indias effective defence spending in
dollar terms actually fell from last year, down to
$36.2 billion from $37.5 billion.
[9]

three clusters of ELINT satellites that provide global
surveillance. In each cluster, there are three satellites
that maintain a triangular formation in orbit and
can locate ships producing radio signals with an
accuracy of 25 km to 100 km, according to him.
He and his colleagues also found that China

could modify its proven DF-21 ballistic missile to
carry a manoeuverable warhead. With an onboard
radar, the warhead could, as it is descended
through the atmosphere, precisely locate the moving
aircraft carrier and then adjust its trajectory to
strike the ship with conventional munitions.
Their analysis of openly accessible images of
the DF-21D indicated that this missile variant met
the dimensional requirements for such a mission. It
could hit ships that were about 2,000 km from the
Chinese mainland.
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The Yaogan constellation also includes radar

satellites as well as satellites with optical sensors
that can establish the position of the aircraft carriers
with much greater accuracy. In the course of a
single day, the current Yaogan constellation can
provide about 16 targeting opportunities for ballistic
missile launches when the uncertainity in an aircraft
carriers position will be less than 10 km.
gain the flexibility to launch the ballistic missiles

whenever they choose, he pointed out.
Although the land-based ballistic missiles can

target aircraft carriers using just the Yaogon
constellation, the numbers of targeting opportunities
become fewer if cloud cover obscures the view of
satellites with optical sensors, observed Prof.
Chandrashekar. By incorporating over-the-horizon
radar that can continually track aircraft carriers
up to a distance of about 3,000 km, the Chinese
The F-18 Super Hornet, the U.S. Navys main

carrier-borne attack aircraft, has a mission radius
of about 750 km. China would therefore want to
prevent Americas formidable Carrier Strike Groups
from venturing within 1,000 km of its coast, their
report observed.
NEW IMMIGRATION NORMS COMES INTO EFFECT
The Indian government has introduced a new

immigration form bearing additional fields for
declaration of prohibited and dutiable goods for
passengers flying into India. An Indian citizen
would now need to fill up the immigration form
only when he or she goes out of the country. Indian
citizens returning from abroad are not required to
fill the immigration form, which came into force
recently.
Passengers coming to India will have to declare

Indian currency exceeding Rs 10,000 being carried
by them in the new Indian Customs Declaration
Form. This form has an additional field for
declaration of baggage (including hand baggage).
Travellers will be declaring any prohibited
articles, gold jewellery (over free allowance) and
gold bullion. Passengers will also have to give details
of countries visited in the prior six days.
Old fields like declaration of satellite phone,
foreign currency exceeding $5,000 or equivalent,
aggregate value of foreign exchange, including
currency exceeding $10,000 or equivalent, meat,
meat products, dairy products, fish or poultry
products and seeds, plants, fruits, flowers and other
planting material have been retained in the new
form.
Passengers of Indian origin and foreigners of

over 10 years of age residing in India and coming
[10]
from Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and China are

eligible for a duty-free allowance of Rs 6,000. A
duty-free allowance of Rs 35,000 can be availed by
such passengers in case they are coming from any
country other than the above four.
As per rules, a tourist of foreign origin gets a
duty-free allowance of Rs 8,000. An Indian
traveller, who has been residing abroad for over a
year, can get gold jewellery worth Rs 50,000 (for
man) and Rs 1 lakh (for woman) without paying
import duty.
All passengers are also eligible to bring with
them liquor or wine up to two litres, 200 sticks of
cigarettes, up to 50 cigars or 250gm of tobacco.
Passengers of 18 years and above can also bring
one laptop or notebook computer without payment
of customs duty, the rules said.
Customs duty is leviable at the rate of 36.05
per cent (including education cess) on the value of
dutiable goods that is in excess of the duty-free
allowance.
There are 19 international airports in the
country Srinagar, Amritsar, Jaipur, Delhi,
Ahmedabad, Guwahati, Nagpur, Mumbai, Kolkata,
Hyderabad, Goa, Bengaluru, Chennai, Calicut,
Coimbatore,
Tiruchirapalli,
Kochi,
Thiruvananthapuram and Port Blair.
SEYCHELLES, MAURITIUS TO JOIN TRILATERAL MARITIME GROUP

Background: India, Sri Lanka and Maldives
launched the Trilateral Cooperation in Maritime
Security in October 2011 at the first NSA-level
Trilateral Meeting on Maritime Security Cooperation
in Maldives. At the second meeting in Colombo in
July 2013, the three countries agreed on a roadmap
for cooperation in maritime security, comprising the
following three categories of activities:
During the third NSA-Level meeting in Delhi,

the participants reviewed and expressed satisfaction
over the progress in the implementation of various
activities in the identified areas. They also discussed
new areas of cooperation including hydrography;
training in Visit, Board, Search and Seizure
Operations; training on board Indian Sail Training
Ships; exchanges between think tanks; and joint
participation in adventure activities. India is one
of the worlds leading countries in hydrography
capabilities.
! Initiatives to enhance Maritime Domain
Beginning in 2011 as a concept, the trilateral

has reached a state of preparedness from where it
is capable of responding to illegal activity such as
piracy. By training people to work together, the
trilateral has also built up capacity in responding
to search and rescue and oil spills. Sri Lanka and
India have also expanded their joint naval exercises
to include Maldives.
maintaining lines of communication on illegal

maritime activities, formulation of marine oil
pollution response contingency plans and
cooperation in legal and policy issues related
to piracy.
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India hosted the third National Security

Advisor-level Trilateral Meeting on Maritime
Security Cooperation between Maldives, Sri Lanka
and India on 6 March 2014 in New Delhi.
Mauritius and Seychelles were invited as observers
this time. Both the nation said they were very
interested and would like to join Indian Ocean
Maritime group soon.
Awareness (MDA) through access to systems

run under the aegis of the International
Maritime Organization (IMO), such as Long
Range Identification and Tracking (LRIT)
services and sharing of Automatic
Identification System (AIS) data;
! Training and capacity building initiatives in
areas of MDA, Search and Rescue, and Oil

Pollution Response; and
! Joint activities including trilateral exercises,
LHASA-SHIGATSE RAIL LINE WILL COMPLETE SOON
China will complete the extension of the highaltitude Qinghai-Tibet railway line to Shigatse, a
town near the Nepal border, by October. The line
will reduce the travel time from Lhasa to the border
town to only two hours from over five hours,
enabling China to move resources more quickly to
remote Tibetan areas.
The Lhasa-Shigatse (Xigaze in Chinese) line will
extend over 253 km, carrying trains at 120 km per
hour through valleys and over three bridges that
run across the Brahmaputra river, or Yarlung
Zangbo as it is known in China.
China has proposed extending the line from

Shigatse to the border with Nepal. The Chinese
side has also thought to have offered financial
support to extend the line into Nepal, although
Kathmandu has, so far, responded cautiously to
the offer considering Indias sensitivities.
Shigatse is an important monastery town home
to the Tashilhunpo monastery that has been the
seat of the Panchen Lamas, and is an important

centre of pilgrimage for many Tibetans.
The announcement of the railway line extension
came as the China-backed 11th Panchen Lama,
Gyaincain Norbu, attended the opening of an
annual session of Chinas Parliament, or National
Peoples Congress (NPC). He serves on the Standing
Committee of the Chinese Peoples Political
Consultative Conference (CPPCC), a top political
advisory body that is convened annually along with
the NPC.
Norbu was controversially chosen as the 11th
reincarnation of the Panchen Lama the second
most important figure for the Gelugpa or Yellow
Hat sect of Buddhism after the Dalai Lama in
place of Gendun Choekyi Nyima, who was chosen
with the Dalai Lamas approval but subsequently
disappeared. He is thought to be under the custody
of Chinese authorities.
[11]
MUI ISSUED FATWA AGAINST WILDLIFE TRAFFICKING

trafficking of animal parts. As a result, every one
of the four species of Indonesian mega fauna: the
tiger, rhinoceros, elephant and orangutan, is today
on the critically endangered list.
The fatwa was inspired by a field trip to
Sumatra for Muslim leaders in September last year,
co-organised by Indonesias National University,
WWF Indonesia and the U.K.-based Alliance of
Religions and Conservation. It quotes various verses
from the Koran in support of its conclusion. For
example: There is not an animal [that lives] on
the earth, nor a being that flies on its wings, but
[forms part of] communities like you. Nothing have
we omitted from the Book, and they [all] shall be
gathered to the Lord in the end [QS Al Anam
[6] :38]. With a population of 250 million, the
majority of whom are Muslim, Indonesia is the
worlds most populous Muslim country.
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A first of its kind Indonesias top Muslim clerical

body issued a fatwa against illegal wildlife
trafficking. The Indonesian Ulema Council (Majelis
Ulama Indonesia - MUI) have made public their
opinion that illegal hunting or trading of
endangered species is haram, or forbidden by Islam.
The context for this ruling is an alarming depletion
in recent decades of the Indonesian archipelagos
once-abundant forests. The clearing of forests by
business interests linked to paper and pulp, as well
as the palm oil industry, has resulted in large-scale
habitat desiccation. According to the NGO
Greenpeace, an area equivalent to more than nine
Olympic swimming pools is still cut down every
minute in the country.
The fatwa supplements Indonesian law on the
matter, and is not enforceable in courts.
Habitat loss is exacerbated by poaching and
CRIMEA VOTES TO JOIN RUSSIA
Crimeas parliament unanimously declared they

wanted to join Russia and would set a referendum
in 10 days time and Russian lawmakers pushed
a bill to facilitate a handover. For Putin, Crimea
would be a dazzling acquisition, and help cement
his authority with a Russian citizenry that has in
recent years shown signs of restiveness and still
resents the loss of the sprawling empire Moscow
ruled in Soviet times. The peninsula was once
Russias imperial crown jewel, a lush land seized
by Catherine the Great in the 18th century that
evokes Russias claim to greatness as a world
power.
The EU condemned Russian actions in Crimea
as illegal, voiced support for Ukraines territorial
integrity but took only minor steps suspending talks
with Moscow on visas and a new investment pact
while warning of tougher steps if there is no

negotiated solution within a short period.
In a signal to Moscow, Obama announced plans
to punish Russians and Ukrainians involved in
what he called threatening the sovereignty and
territorial integrity of Ukraine.
The crisis began in November when Ukrainian
President Viktor Yanukovich, under Russian
pressure, turned his back on a trade deal with the
EU and accepted a $15 billion bailout from
Moscow. That prompted three months of street
protests leading to the overthrow of Yanukovich
on February 22.
Moscow denounced the events as an illegitimate
coup and refused to recognize the new Ukrainian
authorities.
!!!!!
[12]
INDIA AND THE WORLD

IPI PEACE PIPELINE REMAINS A VIABLE OPTION
Union Cabinet has already earmarked $100 millions
for the development of the port in anticipation of
Iran agreeing to involve India in developing the
port as well as utilising a north-bound route that
enters into Afghanistan and Central Asia.
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Though India was looking for an undersea route

to source gas from Iran, bypassing Pakistan in the
process, official sources suggested that this pipeline,
which would bypass Pakistan, was now technically
feasible after the success of the North Sea undersea
pipeline.
If Iran was looking at the cheapest way to get

gas to customers, it would prefer European
customers. But what Iran had in mind was
providing spillover benefits of the surface pipeline
to the region it passes through, especially the
Makran Plateau common to both Pakistan and Iran
and where poverty has fuelled subversive
tendencies.
And, the sources suggested that the future of

the IPI (India-Pakistan-Iran) pipeline was
intertwined with the Chah-bahar port as Iran was
keen to ensure that this town and the surrounding
region of Sistan-Baluchistan Province also gained
from the availability of gas. The benefits will cross
the border as development of industry due to
availability of energy would give more employment
opportunities to Pakistani youth. Interestingly, this
is Indias approach too. Its officials began two days
of talks with their Pakistani counterparts recently
on exporting electricity.
Just 72 km from the Pakistani port of Gwadar
being built with Chinese help, the first phase of
developing the Chah-bahar port is nearly over. The
India and Iran have held several rounds of talks

on sharing operations and developing the port.
After the latest conversation between the Iranian
and Indian Foreign Ministers, official sources said
Tehran will get back before Nauroz holidays
(Persian New Year) with answers to queries raised.
But the next government will have to work on
several other fronts before Iran agrees to give India
access to a port that faces the open sea unlike the
bigger Iranian port of Bandar Abbas which is in
the Persian Gulf.
Iranian Foreign Minister as well as other
interlocutors have indicated that Iran is in no hurry
to get the money back, held up due to sanctions by
the US and the European Union. It would want
this money, even if it accumulates further, to be
utilised as export credit for some big ticket joint
venture projects, possibly even a refinery at Chahbahar which is just 900 km away from Gujrats
Mundhra Port.
The biggest problem is despite deep energy and
civilisational links, India and Iran are unfamiliar
with each others processes and systems of doing
business in other areas.
[13]
NO VISA REQUIRED FOR PIOs COMING FOR SURROGACY

will confirm that the couple had taken the required
permission and certificates for commissioning
surrogacy, and liabilities due to the surrogate
mother have been settled. The office will retain a
copy of the birth certificate.
The wife of a foreign national or an OCI/PIO
cardholder who is not involved in the treatment
may not require a specific medical visa.
However, foreigners will have to continue
obtaining a visa.
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The Indian Home Ministry in its recent order

says a couple with an OCI or PIO card, married
for at least two years, would have to take
permission only from the Foreigners Regional
Registration Office (FRRO) or the Foreigners
Registration Office (FRO). They must, however,
carry a letter from their country, issued by the
Foreign Ministry or the Embassy here, saying it
recognised surrogacy and that the child born thus
would be permitted entry as the couples biological
offspring.
The couple should furnish an undertaking that
they would take care of the child. Treatment should
be done only at registered assisted reproductive
technology clinics recognised by the Indian Council
of Medical Research. The couple will have to
produce a notarised agreement between them and
the prospective surrogate mother.
Before granting the child exit, the FRRO/FRO
The OCI card is issued to persons who migrated

from India after 26th January, 1950, except those
from Pakistan and Bangladesh. The PIO card is
issued to a person of Indian origin who is a citizen
of any country other than Pakistan, Bangladesh,
Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Afghanistan, China or Nepal
or who has held an Indian passport at any time or
is the spouse of an Indian citizen or a Person of
Indian Origin.
!!!!!
[14]
ECONOMY
PANEL TO AID BANKS COMPLY WITH BASEL-III NORMS
with a single view of all financial asset classes, as
announced in the Vote of Account for 2014-15.
Besides, the Sub Committee discussed the report of
the Working Group on Resolution Regimes in India
(chaired by Anand Sinha and Dr. Arvind
Mayaram) and deliberated on the next steps in
setting up an effective resolution regime for the
financial sector.
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A sub-committee meeting of FSDC (Financial

Stability and Development Council) was held under
the chairmanship of Reserve Bank of India (RBI)
Governor Raghuram Rajan. In the meeting the
decision was taken to form a high-powered
committee under the Financial Stability and
Development Council (FSDC) has been set up to
find ways for the banking sector to comply with
Basel-III capital norms.
The Sub Committee had fruitful discussions on
various issues like the implementation of the nonlegislative recommendations of the FSLRC and
setting up of a repository for providing investors
What are the Basel-III norms?
These are rules written by the Bank of

International Settlements Committee on Banking
Supervision (BCBS) whose mandate is to define the
reform agenda for the global banking community
as a whole. The new rule prescribes how to assess
risks, and how much capital to set aside for banks
in keeping with their risk profile.
What are the changes which have been made

to the way in which capital is defined?
Going by the new rules, the predominant

component of capital is common equity and
retained earnings. The new rules restrict inclusion
of items such as deferred tax assets, mortgageservicing rights and investments in financial
institutions to no more than 15% of the common
equity component. These rules aim to improve the
quantity and quality of the capital.
What do these new rules say?
While the key capital ratio has been raised to

7% of risky assets, according to the new norms,
Tier-I capital that includes common equity and
perpetual preferred stock will be raised from 24.5% starting in phases from January 2013 to be
completed by January 2015. In addition, banks will
have to set aside another 2.5% as a contingency
for future stress. Banks that fail to meet the buffer
Further, the Sub Committee deliberated on

various inter-regulatory issues including certain
areas where greater harmonisation of regulations
across segments for similar activities was desirable.
would be unable to pay dividends, though they

will not be forced to raise cash.
How different is the approach now?
The new norms are based on renewed focus of

central bankers on macro-prudential stability. The
global financial crisis following the crisis in the US
sub-prime market has prompted this change in
approach. The previous set of guidelines, popularly
known as Basel II focused on macro-prudential
regulation. In other words, global regulators are
now focusing on financial stability of the system as
a whole rather than micro regulation of any
individual bank.
How will these norms impact Indian banks?
According to RBI governor D Subbarao, Indian

banks are not likely to be impacted by the new
capital rules. At the end of June 30, 2010, the
aggregate capital to risk-weighted assets ratio of
the Indian banking system stood at 13.4%, of which
Tier-I capital constituted 9.3%. As such, RBI does
not expect our banking system to be significantly
stretched in meeting the proposed new capital rules,
both in terms of the overall capital requirement
and the quality of capital. There may be some
negative impact arising from shifting some
deductions from Tier-I and Tier-II capital to
common equity.
[15]
CHINA IS INDIAS TOP TRADE PARTNER

According to a study conducted by PHD
Chamber of Commerce, China has emerged as its
biggest trading partner replacing the UAE and
pushing it to the third spot. In the current fiscal
India-China has reached $49.5 billion with 8.7%
share in Indias total trade, while the US comes
second at $46 billion with 8.1% share and the UAE
third at $45.4 billion with 8% share during the first
nine months of the current fiscal.
Besides, UK and Germany have come down in

the list of the top export destinations, while Belgium
and Italy are out of the list. On the other hand,
Saudi Arabia and Netherlands have made it to the
list of top ten export destinations.
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The UAE was Indias biggest trading partner

in the 2012-13 fiscal. Indias trade (exports and
imports) with China was only of $7 billion in 2004
which rose to $38 billion in 2008 and to $65 billion
in 2013.
Indias top exports destination. Indias exports to

the US during April-Dec 2013 stood at $29.3 billion
followed by the UAE at $22.3 billion and China at
$10.8 billion. In the 2012-13 fiscal, UAE was Indias
top exports destination followed by the US and
Singapore, the study pointed out.
However, with the revival of demand in

advanced economies, the US has re-emerged as
One significant development in Indias import

scenario is the emergence of Saudi Arabia, UAE,
Kuwait, Qatar, Iraq and Switzerland amongst the
countrys top ten import sources.
!!!!!
[16]

SCIENTIST DEVELOPS NEW MATERIAL FOR FAST DATA STORAGE
require the use of rare earth metals. This makes
them cheaper and better for the environment, and
therefore more suitable for use in computers.
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While the laptop or computer stores files, it

creates a code consisting of zeroes and ones. These
are actually tiny magnetic poles (spins) that can
point in one of two directions: the zero state or
the one state. Switching these spins using a
magnetic field is a relatively slow, energy-intensive
process. To improve this, scientists have developed
an alternative to switch them using light, which
was first achieved by Radboud University
Nijmegen in the Netherlands six years ago.
However, optical switching is only possible in

special magnets, called ferrimagnets. However,
these magnets are made of expensive rare earth
metals, which are also difficult to produce at the
nano-scale. Now, Professor Theo Rasing at Radboud
University Nijmegen came up with a synthetic
ferrimagnets material for optical data storage, an
advance that brings the much cheaper method for
storing data using light a step closer.
Other than with normal ferrimagnets, the
production of synthetic ferrimagnets does not
Ferrimagnets have the unusual property that

the spins are not all of the same magnitude. They
are similar to anti-ferromagnets, in which the spins
are found in pairs with opposite directions.
However, because the magnetic poles have different
magnitudes, ferrimagnets have a net magnetic
moment. This can be simulated by antiferromagnetically coupling thin layers of iron with
a spacer layer.
According to Rasing, The iron is ferromagnetic
- all the spins have the same magnitude and
direction. It is therefore possible to create a net
magnetic moment by combining two layers of
different thicknesses and opposing magnetisation
directions. Coupling the spins works in a very
similar manner, in the same two-step process that
we previously developed for the normal
ferrimagnets.
GAS STATION IN SPACE TO BE REALITY
To reduce the fuel a spacecraft need to carry

from Earth so that a rocket could launch heavier
payload scientists from the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology (MIT) have proposed plans. They
proposed for fuel depots to be stationed at Lagrange
regions in space between the Earth, moon, and
sun that maintain gravitational equilibrium. Objects
at these points remain in place, keeping the same
relative position with respect to the Earth and the
moon. This will allow future space missions to dock
at a fuel depot somewhere between the Earth and
the moon and pick up extra rocket fuel before
making their way to the lunar surface.
According to MIT engineers with the setting
up of fuel depots orbiting way stations could reduce
the fuel a spacecraft needs to carry from Earth
and with less fuel on board a rocket could launch
heavier payloads. They have also floated the idea
of stock piling. Spacecraft heading to the moon
would carry contingency propellant and drop the
tank at a depot on the way back to Earth if its not

needed. Over time, the depot builds up a large fuel
supply. This way if a large lunar mission launches
in the future its rocket wouldnt need a huge fuel
supply to launch the heavier payload. Instead, it
can stop at the depot to collect the stockpiled
propellant to fuel its landing on the moon.
Over the last few decades, scientists have proposed
various designs, such as building a fuel-manufacturing
station on the moon and sending tankers to refill
floating depots. But most ideas have come with hefty
price tags requiring long-term investment.
The MIT team came up with two cost-efficient
depot designs that do not require such long-term
commitment. Both designs take advantage of the
fact that each lunar mission carries a supply of
contingency propellant. In most cases, this backup
fuel goes unused and is either left on the moon or
burned up as the crew re-enters the Earths
atmosphere.
[17]

The main drawbacks for both depot designs
include maintenance; keeping depots within the
Lagrange point and preventing a phenomenon
called boil-off in which fuel thats not kept at cold-
enough temperatures can boil away. If scientists

can find ways around these challenges gas stations
in space could be an efficient way to support large
lunar explorations.
ERWIN, A ROBOT WITH FEELINGS

Computers and robots, on the other hand,
generally operate according to rational rules, which
make them seem very far removed from us.
Introducing cognitive bias to a robot and giving it
personality traits will render it more human-like
ability to recognize users emotions and to form
along-term relationship with its users. ERWIN can
express five basic emotions whilst interacting with
human being.
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The University of Lincoln has developed ERWIN

(Emotional Robot with Intelligent Network) in its
attempt to understand how long-term relationships
may be forged between humans and androids.
These durable relationships could be important in
cases where a robot operates as a personal aid or
companion, for example when providing care for
the elderly or support for people with autism.
According to Biswas the key obstacle in forming
a bond with a robot may lie in flawed thought
processes of human being. Human beings have the
tendency to use certain illogical patterns of thought,
or cognitive biases, when making judgements about
the world and other people around them. People
do this because these shortcuts allow them to make
quicker decisions and free up their limited mental
space for dealing with unfamiliar input. Biases
shape peoples personality, and these biases what
make one human.
Alongside ERWIN, the researchers will be

looking at the responses people have towards
another robot, named Keepon. It is non-emotive,
but is humanoid in appearance. By comparing how
people react to ERWIN and Keepon, the researchers
hope to discover which type of robot is more
effective in engaging with humans, and which is
more conducive to creating a long-term relationship.
SPACE COPS TO CONTROL TRAFFIC IN SPACE
The findings published in the Journal of Small

Satellites said a team of scientists from Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory are using minisatellites that work as space cops to help control
traffic in space. The scientists used a series of six
images over a 60-hour period taken from a groundbased satellite to prove that it is possible to refine
the orbit of another satellite in low earth orbit.
LLNL project led by Wim de Vries, with Vincent

Riot as lead engineer.
Collisions in space of satellites and space debris

have become increasingly problematic. To help
satellite operators prevent collisions in space, the
Space-Based Telescopes for Actionable Refinement
of Ephemeris (STARE) mission, which will consist
of a constellation of nano-satellites in low earth
orbit, intends to refine orbits of satellites and space
debris to less than 100 meters. STARE is an ongoing
By refining the trajectory of NORAD 27006 with

their ground-based payload, the team believes they
will be able to do the same thing for other satellites
and debris once their payload is orbiting earth. The
tools and analysis used to capture the images of
NORAD 27006 and refine its orbit are the same
ones that will be used during the STARE mission.
Using the ground-based satellite, the Livermore

team refined the orbit of the satellite NORAD
27006, based on the first four observations made
within the initial 24 hours, and predicted NORADs
trajectory to within less than 50 meters over the
following 36 hours.
!!!!!
[18]
HEALTH
REDUCE DAILY SUGAR INTAKE, SAYS WHO
Free sugars include monosaccharides and
disaccharides that are added to foods by
manufacturers, cooks or consumers, and sugars
naturally present in honey, syrups, fruit juices and
fruit concentrates.
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World Health Organisation, the United Nations

health agency, in its draft guidelines on sugar
consumption recommended that adults should eat
less than the equivalent of 6 teaspoons of sugar a
day if they are to avoid health risks such as weight
gain and tooth decay linked to sugary diets. Five
per cent of total energy intake is equivalent to
around 25 grams or around 6 teaspoons of
sugar a day for a normal weight adult.
The WHO recommendation is a response to the

growing obesity epidemic, which is a cause of
increased heart disease, strokes, type 2 diabetes
and some cancers, and also tooth decay.
MMR & IMR RATES DROP IN NINE STATES
Recently released Annual Health Survey (201213) by the Office of Registrar General & Census
Commissioner revealed that infant and maternal
mortality rates dropped significantly in nine states.
The nine States for which AHS is conducted
Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar,
Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh
and Assam have 50 per cent of the countrys
population, 60 per cent of births, 71 per cent of
infant deaths, 72 per cent of under 5 deaths and
62 per cent of maternal deaths. The reference period
for the current round is January to December 2011.
But, the disparity between these rates in urban

and rural areas as well as between different states
hasnt decreased. The rural-urban divide (for crude
birth rate or birth rate every 1,000 persons a year)
is highest in UP and MPUP 26.4 rural & 19.6
urban, and MP 26.7 & 19.8, respectively. In the
baseline, too, MP recorded the highest rural-urban
divide with 27.3 and 20.4 for rural and urban
regions, respectively, the survey said.
The performance of the states in terms of
women and infant health indicators is still poor as
compared to the national average. The national
average for infant mortality is 42 deaths, while the
Millennium Development Goals have set a target
of 29.
While 246 districts recorded lower infant
mortality rate in 2012-13 from 2011-12, 22 districts
recorded an increase in infant mortality and 16
districts showed no change. Jharkhand recorded
the lowest infant mortality rate at 36 deaths per

1,000 live births, and Uttar Pradesh the highest at
68. 9 districts Purbi Singhbhum, Dhanbad,
Bokaro, Giridih and Kodarma (Jharkhand);
Chamoli, Rudraprayag, Pithoragarh and Almora
(Uttarakhand) have already achieved the
Millennium Development Goal-4 national target of
28. During the first update and baseline, there were
7 and 6 districts respectively. Another 11 districts
Ranchi, Deoghar, Hazaribagh and Garhwa
(Jharkhand), Nainital, Bageshwar, Champawat,
Udham Singh Nagar and Dehradun (Uttarakhand),
Patna (Bihar), and Durg (Chhattisgarh) are in
closer vicinity of achieving the target.
Importantly, 100 districts account for 52 per
cent of under-5 mortality rate whereas it was 63 at
the baseline. In U5MR, 15 districts Pithoragarh,
Almora, Rudraprayag, Chamoli, Nainital,
Bagheswar,
Dehradun
and
Champawat
(Uttarakhand) and Purbhi Singhbum, Hazaribagh,
Dhanbad, Bokaro, Girdih, Deoghar and Kodarma
(Jharkhand) have already achieved the MDG
national level target of 42. During the first update
and baseline, there were 12 and 7 districts.
Champawat, Hazaribagh, Dhanbad, Bokaro,
Kodarma (first update), Giridih, Deoghar and
Dehradun (second update) are new additions.
Another 11 districts Ranchi and Garhwa
(Jharkhand); Durg (Chhattisgarh); Udham Singh
Nagar and Pauri Garhwal (Uttarakhand); Dhemaji
and Kamrup (Assam); Indore (M.P.); Kota
(Rajasthan); Jharsuguda (Odisha); and Patna
[19]

(Bihar) are in closer vicinity. Chhattisgarh and
Bihar recorded the highest fall (7), while UP and
Uttarakhand recorded the lowest (3) from the
baseline to the second update round.
More female infants die, compared with males.
In Rajasthan, the female IMR is 60, compared with
51 for males, the difference is the highest.
In the baseline also, Rajasthan recorded the
maximum difference with female IMR as 65
compared with 55 for males.
With respect to sex ratio at birth, 36% of the

districts have sex ratio at birth less than 900 females
per 1,000 males, whereas it was 44% in the baseline
year. Assam recorded the maximum rise in sex ratio
at birth at 22, while Madhya Pradesh recorded the
minimum increase of one.
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The worst performing districts are still the worst

performing and there is no movement in the
indicators in these districts. While Uttarakhand has
the lowest maternal mortality rate at 165 deaths
per 100,000 live births, it also showed the lowest
decrease from the baseline year 2011-12, when it
was 188.
mortality from the baseline year when it recorded

a mortality rate of 331, to 208 in 2012-13. Despite
improvement from the previous survey, maternal
mortality in all nine states ranged from 165 to 391,
most of them much higher than the national
average of 178. The millennium development goal
target is 109.
Rajasthan showed the highest fall in maternal
MMR: Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) is the

annual number of female deaths per 100,000 live
births from any cause related to or aggravated by
pregnancy or its management (excluding
accidental or incidental causes). MMR includes
death of a woman while pregnant or within 42
days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of
the duration and site of the pregnancy, from any
cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy
or its management but not from accidental or
incidental causes.
IMR: Infant mortality rate (IMR) is the number
of infants dying before reaching one year of age,
per 1,000 live births in a given year.
This was the last annual health survey

conducted since it was conceived in 2005 to monitor
the performance of health interventions carried out
under the National Rural Health Mission at annual
intervals. The health ministry decided to do away
with the AHS to avoid duplication of data.
Crude Birth Rate: The crude birth rate is the
number of live births occurring among the
population of a given geographical area during a
given year, per 1,000 mid-year total population of
the given geographical area during the same year.
The Crude Birth Rate is called crude because it
does not take into account age or sex differences
among the population.
Crude Death Rate: The crude death rate is

the number of deaths occurring among the
population of a given geographical area during a
given year, per 1,000 mid-year total population of
the given geographical area during the same year.
India needs additional $12 bn to slash MMR & IMR
Bain & Company in its annual India

Philanthropy Report which was prepared in
association with Dasra, a philanthropic foundation,
revealed that India will need to spend another $12
billion on public health to meet health goals for
women and children, which includes slashing the
maternal mortality rate by 60% and the child
mortality rate by over 70% by 2035.
Doubling the current share of contributions to
health through mandated CSR and HNIs can
garner an extra $2.7 billion while multilateral and
bilateral agencies are unlikely to increase their

current annual giving of about $0.7 billion, said
the report. The report says that the shortage of
$8.6 billion in funding needed by 2035 will need to
come from private foreign donors, such as the Bill
and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The report recommends increased contributions
from private foreign donors and stronger
coordination between the government, private
organizations and global philanthropists to achieve
this goal.
WARMING TAKES MALARIA RISK TO HILLY AREAS

According to World Health Oraganisation each
year 219 million cases of malaria are estimated to
[20]
occur around the world and 660,000 deaths occur

each year, mostly in children under five years of

age. What is more worrying is that those living in
the mountains or higher altitudes across the world
will soon face the wrath of the worlds deadliest
vector borne disease malaria. Researchers
estimated that a 1 degree celsius temperature
increase could result in an additional 3 million
malaria cases annually, in under-15 population.
Based on an analysis of data from highlands of

Ethiopia and Colombia, the study suggests that
future climate warming will result in a significant
increase in malaria cases in densely-populated
regions of Africa and South America, unless disease
monitoring and control efforts are boosted and
sustained.
Scientists from the University of Michigan found
that the median altitude of malaria cases shifted to
higher elevations in warmer years and back to
lower elevations in cooler years.
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Researchers have debated for more than two

decades the likely impacts of global warming on
the worldwide incidence of malaria, a disease that
infects more than 300 million people each year.
Now, ecologists have found the first hard evidence
that malaria does creep to higher elevations during
warmer years and back down to lower altitudes

when temperatures cool.
GOVT LAUNCHES WELFARE SCHEMES FOR MINORITIES
Government has launched two new initiatives

Mulana Azad Sehat Scheme and Nalanda Project
for the welfare of minorities in the country. Under
the Maulana Azad Sehat scheme, Sehat Card
would be issued to every student of the Institution
financially aided by MAEF (Maulana Azad
Education Foundation). Preventive Health Checkup Camps would be organized by the Institute
twice in a year, through Government/Private
Hospitals/Nursing Homes.
In exceptional and deserving cases for serious

ailments, the poor students belonging to notified
minorities would be provided financial assistance
for treatment in Government/Recognized Hospitals.

Serious ailments of Kidney, Heart, Liver, Cancer
and Brain or any other life threatening diseases
including Knee surgery and Spinal surgery would
be covered.
Nalanda Project is an innovative Faculty
Development Program of Ministry of Minority
Affairs, Government of India, under its Information,
Education and Communication (IEC) strategy for
awareness, orientation and development of faculties
of Minority Universities/ Minority Managed Degree
Colleges (MMDCs) and higher educational
institutions located in minority concentration areas
in the country.
!!!!!
[21]
NEWS IN BRIEF
NEWSMAKERS
Misao Okawa
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Misao Okawa, a Japanese woman believed to

be the worlds oldest person, turned 116. Okawa
was born in 1898. Okawa has been dubbed the
worlds oldest living person since the June 2013
death of 116-year-old Jiroemon Kimura, also
Japanese. Okawa married in 1919. Two of her three
children are still alive, both of them in their 90s.
She is the tenth person verified to have reached
116 and the third oldest Japanese person ever.
him of rape, sexual slavery and using child soldiers

in the attack.
Japan is one of the worlds most long-lived

nations, with nearly 54,400 centenarians as of
September 2013, according to the health ministry.
Germain Katanga
The verdict was only the ICCs third since

opening its doors more than a decade ago, and the
first involving sexual violence charges. Katanga
becomes just the second person to be convicted by
the court since it was set up in The Hague in 2002.
Katanga, known to his men as Simba,
meaning lion, was convicted of being an accessory
to an attack on Bogoro that took place on 24
February 2003, killing more than 200 people. In a
majority verdict, the judges said he had helped plan
the attack, and procure the weapons used, but they
acquitted him of direct involvement.
His is one of the longest-running cases at the ICC.
Congolese ex-militia leader Germain Katanga

was convicted for war crimes and crimes against
humanity for 2003 village massacre but acquitted
In July 2012, Thomas Lubanga, a rival militia

leader in Ituri, was sentenced to 14 years in jail by
the ICC for recruiting and using child soldiers.
SAARC
SAARC. Afghanistan has been accessed as the

member nation only in 2007.
The South Asian Association for Regional

Cooperation (SAARC) is an economic and
geopolitical cooperation among eight member
nations Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives,
Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan. The
idea of regional political and economical
cooperation in South Asia was first coined in 1980
and the first summit held in Dhaka on 8 December
in 1985 which led to its official establishment.
Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal,
Pakistan, Sri Lanka are founding member of
Arjun Bahadur Thapa
Nepals former Foreign Secretary Arjun

Bahadur Thapa succeeds Ahmed Saleem of
Maldives and became 12th Secretary General of
the South Asian Association for Regional
Cooperation (SAARC). Thapa, 58, was appointed
to the position by the 30th Session of the SAARC
Council of Ministers held in the Maldives on
February 20. The council endorsed his nomination
and approved his appointment for a threeyear
term commencing from March 1.
[22]
The SAARC with its headquarter in

Kathmandu aims to promote welfare economics,
collective self-reliance among the countries of South
Asia, and to accelerate socio-cultural development
in the region. On annual scheduled basis, the
official meetings of leaders of each nation are held;
meetings of foreign secretaries, twice annually.
The 18th SAARC Summit would be held at
Kathmandu, Nepal in November 2014
Previously, Thapa had served as Foreign

Secretary of Nepal as well as charge de affairs of
the Permanent Mission of Nepal to the United
Nations.
This is the second time Nepal assumed the top
post of the regional body since its establishment in
1985. Former Foreign Secretary Yadav Kanta Silwal
held the post from January 1994 to December 1995.
Coincidentally, Kathmandu will host the 18th
SAARC Summit in November this year, when the
chairmanship of the regional body will go to Nepal.
AWARD/PRIZES
86th Academy Award
Visual Effects: Gravity, Tim Webber, Chris

Lawrence, David Shirk and Neil Corbould
Animated Short Film: Mr. Hublot
Documentary Short Film: The Lady in Number
6: Music Saved My Life
Live-Action Short Film: Helium
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12 Years a Slave won the coveted best picture

86th Academy Award while Gravity won seven
awards. Gravitys Alfonso Cuaron became the first
Latin American to win the best director award,
adding to the films six Oscars for technical
achievement - film editing, sound mixing, sound
editing, cinematography, visual effects and original
score. It is the second consecutive year the best
director and best picture prize have been awarded
to different films.
Sound Mixing: Gravity, Skip Lievsay, Niv

Adiri, Christopher Benstead and Chris Munro
Here are the winners for the 86th Academy

Awards:
Best Picture: 12 Years a Slave
Actor: Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers

Club
Actress: Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
Supporting Actor: Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers

Club
Supporting Actress: Lupita Nyongo, 12 Years

a Slave
Director: Alfonso Cuarn, Gravity
Adapted Screenplay: John Ridley, 12 Years a

Slave
Original Screenplay: Spike Jonze, Her
Documentary Feature: 20 Feet from Stardom
Foreign-Language Film: The Great Beauty

(Italy)
Animated Feature Film: Frozen
Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki, Gravity
Costume Design:
Catherine Martin
The
Great
Gatsby,
Film Editing: Gravity, Alfonso Cuarn and

Mark Sanger
Makeup And Hairstyling: Dallas Buyers Club,

Adruitha Lee and Robin Mathews
Original Song: Let It Go from Frozen, music

and lyrics by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert
Lopez
Original Score: Gravity, Steven Price
Production Design: The Great Gatsby,

Catherine Martin (production design) and Beverley
Dunn (set decoration)
Sound Editing: Gravity, Glenn Freemantle
Stree Shakti Puruskar 2014
On the occasion of International Womens Day

President Pranab Mukherjee conferred Stree Shakti
Puruskar to six illustrious women in recognition of
their achievements.
The following are the recipients of the six
awards:
1. Manasi Pradhan from Odisha has been
honoured with Rani Lakshmibai Award for the
year 2013 for her work in the field of womens
empowerment.
2. Dr. M. Venkaiah from Andhra Pradesh has
been honoured with Rani Rudramma Devi Award
for the year 2013 for his contribution in the field of
womens health.
3. Bina Sheth Lashkari from Maharashtra has
been honoured with Mata Jijabai Award for the
year 2013 for her achievement in the field of
education and training.
4. T. Radha K. Prashanti from Andhra Pradesh
has been honoured with Kannagi Award for the
year 2013 for her achievement in the field of
providing support to orphans, visually impaired,
handicapped and destitute women.
5. Vartika Nanda from Delhi has been
honoured with Rani Gaidinliu Zeliang Award for
the year 2013 for her creating awareness on
womens issues through media.
6. Dr. Seema Sakhare form Maharashtra has
been honoured with Devi Ahilyabai Holkar
Award for the year 2013 for her contribution in
the field of womens rights, gender issues, legal
counselling and institutional support to women and
girls.
The awardees for the Stree Shakti Puruskar are
nominated by state governments, MPs, VIPs and
on suo-moto basis, and selected by a national level
Screening Committee.
[23]

There are six awards instituted in the name of
six eminent women personalities in the Indian
history, who are famous for their personal courage
and integrity. They are Devi Ahilya Bai Holkar,
Kannagi, Mata Jijabai, Rani Gaidinliu Zeliang,
Rani Lakshmi Bai and Rani Rudramma Devi
(for both men & women)
The first four awards are given to women
who have done work in any of the following
areas.
Environment protection
Empowerment of Women for community
and political participation:
Health performance including though
propagation of indigenous systems of
medicine
Creating awareness and consciousness on
womens issues though the arts, media
(including electronic and mass media),
community based programmes etc
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Support and rehabilitation of women and

children
in
especially
difficult
circumstances like destitute women and
children, widows, victims of atrocities and
conflicts disabled women and children,
aged women etc.
rural industry including promotion of

technology to reduce drudgery.
Education and training
Promoting self help groups
Support to women in agriculture and
Rani Laxmi Bai award is given to

recognize the spirit of courage and the
personal achievement of a woman in difficult
circumstances, who has established this spirit
of courage in her individual or professional life.
Each award carries a cash prize of Rs. 3 lakh
and citation.
DEFENCE
INS Sumedha commissioned
The largest indigenously built INS Sumedha

was officially commissioned by the Indian Navy in
Goa. Designed and built by Goa Shipyard Limited
(GSL) is the countrys most advanced class of
offshore patrol vessel (OPV).
105m long this vessel is the third of GSLs Saryu
Class patrol vessels commissioned by the Indian
Navy after INS Saryu and INS Sunayna. It is built
to accommodate eight officers and 105 sailors. The
ship will help meet the Indian Navys requirements
for undertaking ocean surveillance and surface
warfare operations in order to prevent infiltration
and transgression of maritime sovereignty. It is
suitable for escorting high value ships, monitoring
sea lanes of communication, defence of offshore oil

installations and other critical national assets.
The warships armament consists of one 76.2mm
super rapid gun mount (SRGM), AK360 close-in
weapon system guns and six kavach chaff launchers.
It is also designed to operate one chetak helicopter.
On commissioning, the vessel will join the Eastern
Naval Command at Vizag, the sword arm of the
Indian Navy.
Sumedha is 200th ship indigenously built by
GSL. GSL is the only yard which has delivered four
classes of OPVs to both Navy and Coast Guard.
INS Sumedha is the third of the new 105 meter
class of NOPV and the largest ship constructed by
GSL for the Indian Navy.
TERMINOLOGIES
5/20 Rule: 5/20 is an anti-competition policy.

According to 5/20 rule Indian carriers wanting
to fly on international routes need to have a fleet
of at least 20 aircrafts and must have operated for
at least five years. This rule works against the
interest of Indian carriers. Presently, a one-day old
airline registered abroad with a one-aircraft fleet
[24]
can fly into India, no holds barred. Hence, the

aviation ministry is pushing for it to scrap the rule.
Under the proposed new rule, an Indian carrier including a startup - would only require the
Directorate General of Civil Aviations (DGCA) nod
to fly abroad.
MISCELLANEOUS
2014 World Reputation Rankings
None of Indias 700 universities and 35,539
colleges found place in the top 100 list of 2014
World Reputation Rankings released by the UKbased Times Higher Education. Though the list is
dominated by the American and British institutions,
it also had a few universities from Asian nations
like China, Japan, South Korea and Singapore.
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The US has the most representation with more

than 45 institutions figuring in the top 100 followed
by the UK with 10 institutions, Germany with six
and Japan and Australia with five. India is the
only BRIC country that is not represented in the
top 100 list. China has two of its institutions on the
list while Brazil and Russia have one each.
Singapore topped 131 cities globally to become

the worlds most expensive city to live in 2014,
according to the economist intelligence unit (EIU).
Singapore had a cost-of-living score of 130, meaning
its cost of living is 30% higher than in New Yorks.
Mumbai, which came in last at 131st on the list,
had a cost-of-living index of 39. Last year, Mumbai
tied with Karachi at 130th, each with an index of
44. This year, Karachi is still 130th leaving
Mumbai to claim the bottom spot, 131, all by itself.
Punjab University found a place in the

unranked section of 226 - 300. It is followed by the
IITs in Delhi, Kanpur, Kharagpur and Roorkee
between ranks 351 and 400. Indian Institute of
Science, Bangalore is ranked highest among Indian
institutions, at just below 200, from its 130th place
last year. IIT-Bombay figures among the 210-220
group, and IIT-Delhi and IIT-Kanpur are ranked
below 250.
The ranking, drawn on the findings of an

invitation-only academic opinion survey, is based
on the subjective judgment of around 60,000 senior,
published academics considered as the people best
placed to know the most about excellence in our
universities.
Besides Singapore, cities making up the top five

most expensive cities to live in are Paris, Oslo,
Zurich and Sydney, with Tokyo falling to sixth
place.
The rankings are part of a study by the U.K.based Economist Group that compares 131 cities
world-wide based on information on the cost of
more than 160 items-from food, toiletries and
clothing to domestic help, transport and utility bills
in every city. It calculates a cost-of-living index
with New York as the base of 100. More than 50,000
individual prices are collected in each survey round.
The 10 least expensive cities
1. Mumbai (India)
2. Karachi (Pakistan)
3. New Delhi (India)
4. Damascus (Syria)
5. Kathmandu (Nepal)
6. Algiers (Algeria)
7. Bucharest (Romania)
8. Panama City (Panama)

9. Jeddah (Saudi Arabia)
10. Riyadh (Saudi Arabia)
Worldwide Cost of Living 2014 index
In the new Worldwide Cost of Living 2014

index Mumbai has emerged as the worlds cheapest
city to live in. While Mumbai has emerged as the
country with the best value for money spent, Delhi
has emerged the third cheapest, placing it right at
the bottom of the worlds most expensive cities.
[25]
India, 3rd Most Dangerous Country

According to the latest data released by National
Bomb Data Centre (NBDC) show that India is
among the most dangerous places in the world as
far as bomb blasts per year are concerned - next
only to Iraq and Pakistan, with even war-torn
Afghanistan and Syria doing better.
Among states Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand,

Meghalaya, West Bengal, Nagaland and Karnataka
have all witnessed a spurt in terror attacks through
blasts while 15 other states including Manipur,
Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Tamil Nadu and
Odisha witnessed a declining trend.
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Latest data from NBDC show that India

suffered 212 bomb blasts in 2013 more than
double of what Afghanistan (with 108 blasts)
suffered. Facing internal strife, Bangladesh with 75
blasts and Syria with 36 blasts have done better.
While the number of blasts in India decreased from
241 in 2012 to 212 in 2013, casualties went up
with 130 deaths and 466 injuries last year as
compared to 113 deaths and 419 injuries in 2012.
An analysis of the attacks in India shows that

its North East region (Assam and Manipur worst
affected) and Maoist areas (Bihar, Chhattisgarh and
Jharkhand registering most blasts) have contributed
to over 80% of IED attacks even though Jammu
and Kashmir witnessed a 50% rise in bomb blasts
last year as compared to 2012.
Analyzing the frequency of IED blasts in the

country over the past decade, the document says
between 2004 and 2013 there have been an average
of 298 blasts and 1,337 casualties in India. This is
again higher than Afghanistan which in the past
five years witnessed a maximum of 209 such
attacks in 2010.
In fact, along with Pakistan and Iraq, India
accounts for almost 75% of bomb blasts in the
world. However, India has done slightly better than
the rest of the world in terms of the share of attacks
targeted at common public. While in the rest of the
world, 69% of attacks are directed towards public,
India registered 58% in this category with the rest
being targeted at the security forces and
government property.
But even these figures could change. While
security forces managed to decrease attacks on them
by almost 40% last years as compared to 2012,
attacks on public remained almost the same. This
is due to improved drills and alertness of security
forces. A similar alertness and training is not there
with the people, said an officer of the security
establishment.
SPORTS
Hockey India accorded status of National

Sports Federation
The government has accorded the status of a

National Sports Federation (NSF) on Hockey Indias
(HI). HI, which was derecognised by the Union
Sports Ministry in 2012 for not adhering to
government guidelines, internal disputes and
mismanagement, have finally been recognised as
the sole body for the promotion of hockey in the
[26]
country by the government. The Sports Ministry

said with this status, now, Hockey India is made
responsible and accountable for the overall
management, direction, control, regulation,
promotion and development of the sports discipline.
The Ministry also said that the Hockey India will
have to follow the guidelines of the government
and National Sports Development Code to get
assistance and continued recognition.

The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports,
Government of India recognises the importance of
the sport of hockey in India, its popularity among
the masses and medal prospects of India in various
international events. Keeping these factors in view,
the Ministry realises the need to quickly resolve the
long-pending issue of granting recognition to a
federation as NSF for the sport of hockey.
The AIBA has suggested that a new national

federation be floated to revive the countrys relations
with the international boxing community. The
suspended Indian Boxing Federations President
Abhishek Matoria said in New Delhi that it cannot
make sense of the unfair decision and will take up
the matter with the IOA.
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After a careful and detailed examination of the

documents on record and keeping in view all the
relevant factors, Government of India, Ministry of
Youth Affairs and Sports has reached the
conclusion that Hockey India may be given
recognition as the National Sports Federation for
governing the sport of hockey (both men and
women) in India.
terminated the Indian Boxing Federation, IBF citing

that the current set of office-bearers were damaging
the image, reputation and interest of the sport. The
boxers and coaches will, however, continue to
remain unaffected by the development and can
participate in international events under the AIBA
flag till the time the crisis is unresolved.
AIBA derecognises Indian Boxing Federation
After provisionally suspending the IBF on

December 6, 2012, AIBA promised to review the
situation when the Indian Olympic Association
(IOA) had its suspension lifted by the IOC.
The International Boxing Association, AIBA, has
Five Indians in AIBA top three
Though the world boxing body, AIBA

suspended the Indian Amateur Boxing Federation
(IABF), Indian boxers continue to make their
presence felt in the world stage by occupying top
three AIBA world ranking. Five Indian boxers,
three female and two male, are among the worlds
top three in AIBA latest world rankings (March 1,
2014) in their respective categories.
Pinki Jangra is the highest ranked Indian among

these five, listed second in womens 45-48 kilos
behind Josie Gabuco of Philippines. Kavita Chahal
(81-plus kgs) and male boxers L Devendro Singh
(46-49 kgs), Shiva Thapa (56kgs) are others in the
top three AIBA rankings dated March 1, 2014. M.C.
Mary Kom, London Olympics bronze medalist and
five-time world womens boxing champion, occupies
the third spot in womens 51kgs.
Arvind Bhat wins German Open title
34-year-old veteran Indian shuttler Arvind Bhat

defeated 12 seed Dane Hans-Kristian Vittinghus to
clinch German Open Grand prix ending a sevenyear title drought.The former national champion
dug from his huge reservoir of experience to outlast
the Dane, who he was facing for the first time in
his long career.
The first game itself turned out to be a battle of
attrition as the two shuttlers matched each other
point for point. But it was Bhat who turned out to
be the more enterprising of the two by converting
the only game point he earned after his rival had
Rankings as follows:
WOMEN
45-48 kgs: 1. Josie Gabuco (Philippines) 2.

Pinki Jangra (India) 3. Shiqi Xu (China).
51 kgs: 1. Cancan Ren (China) 2. Nicola Adams
(England) 3. M C Mary Kom (India).
81+ kgs: 1. Yunfei Li (China) 2. Lazzat
Kungeibaevya (Kazakstan) 3. Kavita Chahal
(India).
MEN
46-48 kgs: 1. Birzhan Zharypov (Kazakhstan)

2. David Ayrapetan (Russia) 3. L Devendro Singh
(India).
56 kgs: 1. Robeisy Ramirez Carranza (Cuba)
2. John Michael Conlan (Ireland) 3. Shiva Thapa
(India).
frittered away four. The second game followed a

similar pattern but it was Vittinghus, who came
out trumps this time by converting one of the two
game points he earned.
But the Dane lost steam in the decisive third
game as the Indian reeled off 11 consecutive points
to seal the issue and record a memorable triumph.
Arvind has won six International titles,
including the Scottish Open 2004 and the Czech
International 2007. He participated in the 2010
Asian games in Guanzhou, China and was in the
Indian team for Sudirman Cup 2011.
!!!!!
[27]
EDITORIALS
COMMISSIONS AND THEIR OMISSIONS
the work of five commissions and reveals serious
shortcomings. A social audit on state human rights
commissions by Human Rights Law Network
(HRLN) last year also throws light on their
institutional and infrastructural problems.
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What did international pressure and

globalisation have to do with the setting up of
commissions for human rights and socially excluded
sections? A lot. Under pressure from countries and
businesses wanting to engage with India as it
opened its doors to the market economy, the idea
of setting up commissions was first mooted in 1992.
In fact, it was in that year that the then Union
Home Minister S.B. Chavan informed the Rajya
Sabha about the proposed human rights
commissions. He said they were to be set up to
counter the false and politically motivated
propaganda by foreign and Indian civil rights
agencies. So, even at the very outset, the primary
intent was to keep the West happy rather than
improve the rights situation within the country. If
some pluses have accrued they are just incidental.
So, thanks to the global community, the

Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993 (PHRA)
became a reality, broadly applying the Paris
Principles laid down by the UN Commission on
Human Rights and the UN General Assembly. With
the PHRA in place came the Human Rights
Commissions, followed by, among others,
Commissions for Minorities, Scheduled Castes,
Scheduled Tribes, Women, Children and People
with Disabilities at the national and state level. It
was implicit that these bodies would serve to
provide India the pro-human rights image that it
sought on the global front. Though these quasijudicial outfits were government-sponsored and
government-funded, there was a feeling that their
citizen-centric functions would steer them towards
their stated goal of providing quick redress to
marginalised citizens in the face of extensive red
tape and tedious court proceedings in the country.
As a result, each time blatant violations take place,
be it custodial torture or rape, caste or class
atrocities, or farmer suicides, citizens look towards
these institutions for justice.
But on the ground have the national and statelevel commissions delivered? A recently released
report by Poorest Areas Civil Society (PACS) and
Participatory Research in India (PRIA) documents
[28]
Through data, material available in the public

sphere, and filing of RTIs, the studies have collected
a wealth of information which point to systemic
bottlenecks that have rendered these vital
institutions largely ineffective, save for some
exceptions. For instance, the PACS-PRIA report
notes that the offices of these commissions are
mostly located amidst government offices in state
capitals or bigger cities far removed from the
districts where their presence is more required. The
second Administrative Reforms Commission, 2009,
in its 12th report had earlier observed that the
commissions have not been able to accomplish the
mandates to a meaningful extent, and called for
making the institutions more vibrant, responsive
and accountable.
So what are the inbuilt constraints eating into
these institutions that on paper have immense
potential? HRLNs social audit, Rugged Road to
Justice, says that the commissions in India are
heavily under government patronage, whether at
the Centre or in the States. As a result, instead of
being answerable to an independent authority as
laid out in the Paris Principles, they report to the
Ministry of Home Affairs. At the national level, the
Ministry is also in-charge of the police, immigration,
laws for terrorism and insurgency, security and
communal harmony. The complaints made to the
commission by stakeholders most often deal with
these very authorities. There has been no recorded
evidence of the National Human Rights Commission
(NHRC) or the State Human Rights Commissions
(SHRCs) taking suitable action against the
government of the day or of moving a court to
action, the audit report reveals. And this brings
to the fore the basic question of the independence
of the institutions.
Arbitary appointments
The studies also pointed out that often

stakeholders get confused on who to approach as
the commissions have overlapping scope. As a
result those seeking relief were shunted from one
to another. A Scheduled Caste Muslim woman
belonging to three socially excluded groups must
get her rights and entitlements without any
inconvenience due to confusion between
commissions about their scope of work. The
minority commission should not send her to a
womens commission and a womens commission
must not send her to a Scheduled Caste commission
for claiming her entitlements. There needs to be
clarity on which commission would serve as her
ultimate recourse, Sister Sudha Varghese, vice
chairperson, State Commission for Minorities, Bihar,
reiterated at the national consultation.
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As far as these statutory bodies are concerned,

their independent functioning is further corroded
by the way appointments of chairpersons and
members of the commissions are made, which is
often according to the whims and fancies of the
government of the day. It is also often a parking
ground for retired judges or civil servants who are
appointed instead of persons with professional
experience and track records in particular fields.
Rights commissions depend on government
budgetary allocations. It was found that this varies
drastically from state to state and it has been
suggested that commissions prepare a five-year plan
with clear deliverables and budgets. During the
study, PACS and PRIA found that the National
Commission for Women with a nation-wide
mandate received a budget of over one crore in
2010-11, while the Madhya Pradesh State Womens
Commission received the same amount in 2009-10.
In contrast, Bihar and Odisha were struggling with
limited allocations of Rs 30 lakh and Rs 55 lakh
respectively. Further, the report pointed out that a
detailed analysis of budgetary provisions in all
commissions revealed that most of the funds were
spent in running offices, paying salaries and
meeting administrative expenses. The actual
activities and the mandate of the commission utilised
a very limited proportion of the funds.
accomplishments of these commissions were

carefully studied.
Another serious lacuna facing all the

commissions was that of institutional capacity. It
was found that in most cases, the staff of the
commissions comprised largely of peons, drivers
and assistants. Specialists who can deliver on the
mandate of the particular commission were
conspicuous by their absence. This serious lack of
competencies in jurisprudence, investigation, data
collection, documentation, communication and
capacity development were visible when
Many of the commissions were also found to

be faulting on their public disclosures. A large
number of them did not bother to update their
websites or uplink annual reports. The PACS and
PRIA study, while looking at Scheduled Caste
commissions in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya
Pradesh, found that no annual report was available
for Uttar Pradesh or Bihar, while for Madhya
Pradesh, the latest available report was as old as
2009-10.
At the very root of the problem is that the
commissions do not perceive themselves as
independent, nor do they seek the autonomy that
the Paris Principles wanted to bestow on them.
They believe they are answerable to governments
and not to citizens. Unless this mindset changes,
there is very little hope that things will change for
the better.
Source: The Hindu
A PRESCRIPTION FOR THE AILING EDUCATION SECTOR
The Supreme Courts 2014 new year order in

the form of a University Grants Commission (UGC)
review of 44 deemed universities has ensured more
mental trauma for lakhs of students and applicants.
Though it has not approved or disapproved of the
infamous Tandon Committee, it has made a
statutory body, the UGC, subservient to the Ministry
of Human Resources Development (MHRD).
In June 2009, the MHRD rightly empowered
the UGC, which had inspected the deemed
universities before, to review the maintenance of
standards in these institutions. The UGC had

appointed different committees consisting of former
vice-chancellors, senior professors from IITs and
nominees from relevant statutory bodies. The
committees visited all the deemed universities, and
after a comprehensive analysis, submitted detailed
reports on each university to the UGC. The
inspection reports were accepted in the UGCs
meetings in October and November 2009, and
copies were sent to the concerned universities for
immediate follow-up action and compliance within
[29]

three months. The joint secretary of the MHRD
represents the Ministry at the UGC meetings and
is party to all these proceedings.
An arm-chair report
Unfortunately, the Thakur Committee did not

set right the deficiency by recategorising the
deemed universities based on the new scoring.
Having reduced the maximum possible score from
45 to 36, the committee stunned everyone by
choosing to retain the Tandon Committees
minimum score of 30 for A, 18 for B and less
than 18 for C. This was supported by unacceptable
and inaccurate theories and clearly indicated that
the committee did not wish to alter the findings of
the Tandon Committee. Will anyone accept a theory
where the maximum marks are reduced
considerably but the passing mark is not reduced
in the same proportion?
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Despite the UGC having solitary statutory

power as specified in the UGC Act of 1956 to review
functioning of universities, including the deemed
universities, the MHRD arrogated itself the
authority, and during July 2009, constituted the
Tandon Committee comprising four retired
academics. The Tandon Committee directed the
deemed universities to make an oral presentation
in New Delhi for 20 minutes and interacted for
about 10 minutes with the representatives. The
committee considered nine parameters for review
and awarded scores of 5, 3, 1 and 0. It did not visit
any institution and, on an arm-chair basis,
categorised the universities as either A (scores
greater or equal to 30), B (greater or equal to 18),
or C (less than 18).
of assigning 5, 3, 1, 0 weights to the four grades,

4, 3, 2, 1 weights have been assigned to all the
points calculated for the 126 deemed universities.
The details of the entire process was not shared

with the universities. Only when the committee
recommended withdrawal of the deemed university
status for those placed in the C category were the
universities rudely informed of the decision. They
immediately filed writ petitions in the Supreme
Court in 2009 challenging the constitution of the
committee and the method adopted by it in
awarding grades, alleging arbitrariness and
discrimination. The Supreme Court restored status
quo ante in its order in January 2010. Since then,
the matter has been heard over 20 times and over
two dozen interim orders have been passed with
no conclusive decision in sight.
Based on one of the orders passed by the Court

in April 2011, the MHRD constituted another
committee the Thakur committee headed by
the Secretary of the Ministry, Ashok Thakur, to
individually review the 44 deemed universities and
submit a report. The MHRD ensured that the
process adopted by the Thakur Committee had the
direct effect of the Tandon Committees findings.
This was a rude shock to all the deemed universities
as the Thakur Committee pointed out a
fundamental flaw in the Tandon Committees
scoring. It wrote in its report: The rationale of
weight of 5, 3, 1 and 0 for very good, good, fair
and unsatisfactory was also looked into carefully.
Since this had a deficiency that [the] fair grade
was only one point ahead of the unsatisfactory
grade whereas other grades had a two-point
difference with their next lower grade instead
[30]
Acting strange is not new for the MHRD which

embedded the innocuous Thakur Committee report
as a bystander entity in the Tandon Committees
chaotic report of glaring arbitrariness and bias,
some of which have been highlighted.
An institution which was conferred with the
deemed-to-be-university status in March 2009 was
granted the A grade (maximum score of 5 for
admission), even when it said voluntarily that it
did not admit any students under the deemed
university mode. Likewise, in the research
parameter criterion, impact factors or h-index are
taken into account along with SCOPUS/SCI data
for assessing an institution for its research output.
The Tandon Committee conveniently ignored
these parameters and awarded institutions with
higher impact factor and/or h-index scores of 3
and 1 and those with lesser impact factor with a
maximum score of 5. The partisanship continues.
In the case of one deemed university, a member of
the committee declared it unfit to be granted that
status and asked for it to be an autonomous
institution. However, to everyones shock, the
university was placed in the A category.
The entire Tandon Committee mechanism was
kick-started because of a media sting operation
exposing the admission malpractice in two deemed
universities in Tamil Nadu, now being investigated
by the Central Bureau of Investigation. To these
universities, the committee awarded the B grade
for their admission procedure. The ongoing second
review to upgrade them from B to A, despite the
matter being sub judice, is liable for contempt of
court, and is also infested with faults.
The Supreme Court missed an opportunity to

clean the dirt that stains the university system
public & private. Passing an interim order on
January 9, 2014, the Court ordered review of the
44 C category universities and made it abundantly
clear that the MHRD is not bound by the UGC
review findings, thus reducing the UGC, a statutory
body, to an advisory one. It may be legally correct
but it has provided the much needed oxygen for
the Tandon Committee, which submitted its
resignation.
Source: The Hindu
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The country needs a systemic overhaul. The

Supreme Court has prolonged the issue without
reaching any finality. The MHRD must order for
review of all the deemed universities, as undeserving

ones have been placed in the A category and
deserving ones in the B and C categories. Also,
the Tandon Committees report is not an elixir of
immortality. It has expired but is still used, causing
damage to policy making. Before policy making
dies of harmful dosage of expired academic
steroids, the MHRD must provide the antidote and
reform the entire deemed universities and public
universities system. The right prescription needs to
be written.
LESSONS FROM A LOST WAR
Twenty-five years ago last month, Marshal Boris

Vsevolodovich Gromov walked the last few metres
over the bridge from Afghanistan to the Soviet
Union, at the very tail of the army he had
commanded. Mr. Gromovs son, Maksim, had stood

watching as the great convoy of tanks and
armoured personnel carriers thundered by, waiting
for his father with a fistful of carnations. The
[31]

Marshals own father had died in 1943, when he
was just a few months old, battling Nazi troops on
the Dneiper river. The story of this soldier and son
had a happier ending.
Fourteen thousand, four hundred and fifty-three
other Soviet soldiers, though, came home in black,
zinc coffins. Perhaps 7,000 were maimed. No one
knows how many Afghans died in the war for
sure; estimates run up to 1.2 million.
In March 1979, a massive revolt erupted in the

town of Herat, led by junior officers of the Afghan
Armys 17th Division, including Ismail Khan,
Alauddin Khan and Abdul Ahad. More than a
dozen Soviet advisers posted in Herat and members
of their families were hacked to death. Afghan
forces responded with massive force, using their
Soviet-provided aircraft to bomb Herat. Ismail
Khans counter-revolution spread to Jalalabad and
its surrounding countryside.
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Now, as another great army prepares to retreat

from Afghanistan, the lessons of that last conflict
are worth remembering. Hundreds of thousands
more have died in the wars that followed the war
Mr. Gromov commanded. The end of this war, too,
is unlikely to herald the coming of peace.
the payment of dowries incensed the clerics and

tribal leaderships which held power in rural
Afghanistan.
Great power competition is toxic
From the Soviet war in Afghanistan, the first

lesson is this: geostrategic competition had toxic
impacts. Long before Soviet troops landed at Kabuls
airport on Christmas eve in 1979, Moscow and
Washington had all competed for influence in the
country. The Soviet Union sought political stability
in its immediate neighbour, and feared the prospect
that it could be used as a base for western shortrange missiles or air assets. The United States, in
turn, worried that Afghanistan could become a
launch pad for Soviet expansion towards the oilrich Persian Gulf.
The regional powers leveraged the anxieties of
the superpowers to pursue their own interests
certain that their clients would protect them from
the consequences of adventurism.
In July 1973, the regime of Muhammad Daud

Khan laid claim to ethnic-Pashtun enclaves in
north-western Pakistan. Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali
Bhutto responded by backing the Islamists who
would become prominent in the course of the antiSoviet jihad, notably Gulbuddin Hekmatyar,
Burhanuddin Rabbani and Ahmed Shah Masud.
In the summer of 1975, Pakistans Inter-Services
Intelligence (ISI) funded and armed an abortive
Islamist coup against Dauds government.
Daud responded to these pressures by seeking

a rapprochement with Pakistan in turn
precipitating what led to the 1978 communist coup
that claimed his life. Islamists responded by
escalating their war against the new government
in Kabul, with Pakistani backing.
Kabuls efforts to bring about land reform,
ensure that girls received an education, grant
women the right to marry by choice, and proscribe
[32]
From declassified material, it is now known the

U.S. began funding these Islamist insurgents fighting
the new communist government in July 1979
months before the Soviet intervention. Zbigniew
Brzeziski, President Jimmy Carters National
Security Adviser, told the French newspaper, Le
Nouvel Observateur in January 1998 that we didnt
push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly
increased the probability that they would.
We now have the opportunity of giving to the
USSR its Vietnam War, Mr. Brzeziski wrote to
Mr. Carter as the Soviet 40th Army finally rolled
across the Amu Darya river. He was right but
as 9/11 demonstrated, the policy wasnt cost-free.
Withdrawal does not end wars
The second lesson from the Soviet war is this:

superpower withdrawal from a war doesnt end
the carnage. In a March 15, 1985 meeting with the
Afghan President, Babrak Karmal, Soviet leader
Mikhail Gorbachev made it clear that Soviet troops
cannot stay in Afghanistan forever. General
Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, Pakistans military ruler,
was given the same message. Later that year, a
massive surge of troops followed, but failed to end
the fighting. In November 1986, the first seven
Soviet formations perhaps 7,000 troops pulled
out of Afghanistan. In February 1988, Mr.
Gorbachev announced his intention to end Soviet
military involvement.
Like many do now, all parties believed the troop
withdrawal would make a negotiated peace deal
between the parties possible. In April 1988, the
United Nations brokered the Geneva Accords,
which should have provided a road map for peace.
It didnt. The ISI pushed its Islamist clients to
take advantage of the Soviet withdrawal by staging
an offensive towards Jalalabad, in the hope of
seizing territory and founding a parallel

government. President Muhammad Najibullah,
aided by Soviet military advisers and aid, held off
better than expected. The mujahideen rejected offers
for a broad-based client and Najibullahs own
position hardened, especially after a March 1990
coup attempt by his defence minister, Shahnawaz
Tanai.
The U.S. also agreed that all military assistance

to the Afghan jihadists would be routed through
Pakistans ISI. In practice, this meant that while
the U.S. would pay for the Islamist kite flying in
Afghanistan, Pakistan would hold the string.
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Late in 1991, though, a collapsing Soviet Union

cut off aid to Najibullahs government crippling
his air force, cutting off fuel supplies to the military,
making payments to troops impossible.
He leveraged the situation to win strategic

leverage against India. The scholar Hassan Abbas
has observed, he was quite clear that he too was
opting to be a tool of the United States. He
dismissed successive offers of military and civilian
aid, amounting first to U.S. $150 million and then
U.S. $400 million eventually getting $3.2 billion,
and a generous component of F-16 combat jets,
from President Ronald Reagan
The only states which stood by him were the

former Soviet republics in Central Asia that had
no desire to see the rise of an Islamist state on their
borders. They provided Najibullah with six million
barrels of oil, and some 5,00,000 tons of wheat
but this was too little.
Faced with recognition of the Islamists by
Moscow, Najibullahs aides deserted him. He spent
his last four years in a United Nations compound,
before finally being publicly tortured and executed
by the Taliban.
In 1988, there was no agreed mechanism in
place to share power nor a coercive apparatus
to bring all parties to the table, and keep them
there. There still isnt.
War destabilises the region
For India, there is a third, particularly important

lesson: distant as the crisis in Afghanistan might
seem, it has the proven potential to destabilise the
region. In late November 1979, the relationship
between the U.S. and Pakistan was at an all-time
low. A radical Islamist group from Iran occupied
the Kaaba, the heart of the city of Mecca. For
reasons which are still not clear, General Zia-ulHaq informed the assembled crowd that the United
States had engineered the occupation. Furious mobs
torched the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad.
It is no exaggeration to say, Brigadier

Mohammad Yousaf, General Maliks subordinate
in charge of Afghan operations has written, that
by the time I left the ISI in 1987, at least 80,000
Mujaheddin had received training in Pakistan over
a four-year period, and many thousands more had
done so in Afghanistan.
Patronage from the U.S. helped Pakistan launch

a covert war against India in Punjab something
certain to have invited Indian military retaliation
otherwise and led on to its backing of jihadists
in Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistans key role in
shaping Afghan events gave it the confidence it
could secure similar outcomes in Kashmir, as well
as a covert war apparatus to underpin its plans.
The water in Afghanistan, General Zia-ulHaq had told his spymaster in December 1979,
must boil at the right temperature. India still has
time to learn from the lessons of the war that was
lost 25 years ago, and work to make sure the pot
doesnt boil over. It needs to ensure there is a
multilateral international mechanism in place to
negotiate Afghanistans political future, and funding
to ensure a viable national state with a functional
military. It must, most importantly, consider what
to do in the worst-case scenario.
Source: The Hindu
PAKISTANS TERROR CONUNDRUM
Despite being a country subject to and used to

frequent terror attacks, the alarming upsurge in
terror-related violence in January in Pakistan made
people sit up. Nearly 40 personnel of the army and
other security forces were killed in terror attacks
between January 19 and 22, including one near
the GHQ in Rawalpindi; 24 Shias were killed near
Quetta by Sunni extremists on January 21. Daily
killings in Karachi and attacks against polio

vaccinators continue. These incidents are a
reminder, if one was needed, of the enormity of
Pakistans terror conundrum. Yet, a large section
of Pakistans political class believes that the terror
challenge can be met through dialogue.
[33]
Slow track to dialogue
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A conditional offer of talks by the Tehreek-eTaliban Pakistan (TTP) in the last quarter of 2012
was grabbed by political parties with significant
electoral stakes in the Pashtun belt. However, there
were no developments of note because of the
impending elections. The TTP threatened the
election rallies of all liberal parties, giving an edge
to the conservative political segment. The approach
of dialogue gained momentum after the May 2013
election, backed by the ruling PML-(N), Imran
Khans PTI, the JUI (F) and the Jamaat-e-Islami.
An all parties conference convened by the Nawaz
Sharif government on September 9, 2013 adopted
a resolution calling for an initiation of dialogue
with all stakeholders forthwith and describing
respect for local customs and traditions, values
and religious beliefs as its guiding principle. The
resolution was criticised in the liberal media for its
cravenness, particularly in legitimising the TTP as
a stakeholder. Heightened terror activity,
including the killing of a major general followed,
but was dismissed as being the handiwork of
foreign forces by the votaries of dialogue.
capability to wage a decisive battle against the

militants in the north-west. It conducted two major
operations, in SWAT and South Waziristan in 2009,
both in response to grave provocations. Its activities
in other parts of FATA have essentially seen
militants slipping away to other areas. A sizeable
number of troops remain bogged down there. The
army has also stonewalled repeated U.S. demands
to conduct a military operation in North
Waziristan, home to a veritable melange of
Pakistani and foreign militants, including the armyfriendly Haqqani network. Its reluctance has
stemmed from not wanting to unsettle the
Haqqanis and the uncertainty of success. According
to Mr. Imran Khan, the army has told the
government that an operation would have less than
a 40 per cent chance of success.
Even as the government was trying to bring

the TTP to the dialogue table, its head, Hakimullah
Mehsud, was killed in an American drone strike
on November 1, 2013. Forgetting that he had the
blood of several innocent Pakistanis on his hands,
the religious parties described him as a martyr.
Though a setback, his killing did not end
government efforts to engage with the TTP.
Mounting expectations of military action following
the spurt in violence in January were dashed when
Mr. Nawaz Sharif announced on January 29 his
intention to give peace another chance and the
formation of a four-member committee to talk to
the TTP.
Initial exchanges, surrounded by much
uncertainty about the scope and content of
dialogue, have ended abruptly because of the
renewed terror activity, that resulted in the killing
of over 30 security personnel. The army has carried
out some air raids against militant hideouts. In a
press conference on February 20, the Interior
Minister was very hopeful of the dialogue process
getting back on track!
The army leadership has been chary of talks

with the TTP in order not to give them a breather
to regroup and rearm. It is also because the army
has lost many officers and men fighting the TTP.
However, it has shown neither the will nor the
[34]
Mr. Nawaz Sharifs pursuit of dialogue is first

and foremost the result of his desire to avoid a
terror backlash in his home province of Punjab,
which has remained relatively quiet since 2010, as
a result of an operation against the TTP. He also
has an eye on the sizeable conservative religious
segment in his support base and the growing
challenge from right wing parties, notably the PTI,
who seek to exploit anti-American sentiment in
Pakistan.
Terror groups and equations
The dialogue approach is underpinned by the

fallacious belief of many Pakistanis that terrorism
will end when their country pulls out of the U.S.
War on Terror. Its efficacy remains highly suspect
for various reasons. Having repeatedly
demonstrated its ability to mount high-profile terror
attacks at will all over the country, the TTP seeks
to dictate terms to the government. Moreover, it is
very difficult to make headway with this
conglomerate of at least 40 terrorist, criminal and
sectarian groups. Each time some factions have
shown the willingness to talk, others have
sabotaged the move by staging brutal terror attacks.
More importantly, the TTPs aim is not to take
Pakistan out of the War on Terror or establish its
own system of governance in a limited area, but,
endorsed by al-Qaeda, is to take control of the
Pakistani state to use it as a base to spread its
obscurantist ideology to other countries. The TTP,
therefore, seeks complete surrender by the state.
Pakistans response to terrorism thus continues
to be characterised by confusion, an absence of
national consensus on a way forward, a lack of
will and capacity to fight the menace and the

military/police action against militant groups. An
attempt to buy peace with the anti-Pakistan groups
by offering them a secure foothold in a part of the
country, for jihad outside Pakistan, will not succeed,
because the prize they seek is the Pakistani state
and there is the unbridgeable trust deficit between
them and the army. That leaves us with the ongoing
scenario of inaction and confusion. This can result
only in greater instability in Pakistan, which will
not leave us untouched. So, what can we do? An
obvious answer is to keep our counter-terror
machinery in top gear. Beyond that there are no
clear-cut options.
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consequent creeping surrender of the state to

extremists and terrorists. Besides the TTP, which
targets the Pakistani state, there are groups
indulging in sectarian violence, those targeting India
and others focussed on Afghanistan. Regardless of
their motivation and orientation, all of them are
ideologically and operationally fused. Meaningful
action has not been possible against terrorists in
Pakistans west because of the armys reluctance to
wage a conclusive battle against them, its
unwillingness to target groups such as the Quetta
Shura and the Haqqani network, and now the
backing by a large section of the political class of
dialogue. Anti-India groups in the east have not
been touched because the army regards them as
assets. Robust action has not been possible against
the extreme Sunni groups as they have political
links and have been used by the security
establishment to settle scores with Baloch
nationalists. If this situation persists, the result
cannot but be a state of paralysis, greater instability
and mounting lawlessness in the country. Growing
instability apprehended in Afghanistan post-2014
will feed into this trend.
Implications for India
What does it all mean for us? India-centric terror

groups have naturally been our prime focus.
However, they are a part of Pakistans larger terror
conundrum, which we can ill-afford to ignore as
an immediate neighbour. The success or failure of
the Pakistani state in dealing with this existential
threat would impact not only its own future, but
also the security and stability of our entire region.
What is needed is decisive and across-the-board
Because of the nature of our relationship with

Pakistan over the years, we have developed little
positive leverage to influence Pakistans policy
choices. However, there is now a growing and
increasingly vocal section of people in Pakistan who
are questioning the past policies of their country
that have brought untold misery. They recognise
that the use of terror against others has
boomeranged on Pakistan and wish to engage with
India constructively. They see the advantages of
growing trade and economic links with India.
Voices within this section of opinion have been
questioning the wisdom of making a compromise
with the Taliban. Such thinking must gain influence
in Pakistan if it is to become a state at peace with
itself and its neighbours. Therefore, our policy must
not overlook the need to engage with this
constructive segment in Pakistan, even as we
contain and counter the dangers emanating from
there.
Source: The Hindu
TOWARDS FAIR REGULATION
The importance of a strong regulator and evenhanded regulation cannot be overemphasised in a

critical sector such as power which is faced with
numerous regulatory issues holding back its
development. Two recent moves of the Central
Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), which
regulates all central generation and transmission
utilities and projects that sell electricity in more
than one State, show that it is possible for a
regulator to be practical and pragmatic while
simultaneously protecting the interests of the
consumer. Tata Powers 4,000 MW ultra mega
power project (UMPP) in Mundra that depends on
imported coal has been facing an existential
challenge ever since the Indonesian government
decided to charge an export tax on coal the
company imports all its coal from Indonesia

which made fuel costs prohibitively expensive. This
badly hit the economics of the Mundra project, the
first UMPP to have been commissioned, because
the company cannot pass on the higher fuel cost to
consumers as per the norms on which the project
was awarded. Tata Power had to take an
impairment charge on its balance sheet last year
and ironically, the state-of-the-art power plant,
which was commissioned on schedule, converted
a profitable company into a loss-making one. It is
in this backdrop that the company sought CERCs
permission to pass on the higher fuel cost to
consumers.
In what is a balanced decision, the regulator
granted permission recently to Tata Power to
[35]

aim to increase operating efficiencies and lower
tariffs. For instance, the NTPC will find its
incentives falling because the regulator has now
linked them to capacity utilisation, which is a
change from the current practice of linking them
to the availability of generating stations. As a
consequence of the new norms, tariffs could fall
even as the generating stations are forced to
improve operating efficiencies. The utilities may
have to sacrifice a part of their margins in the short
term but will stand to gain in the long term as a
result of higher efficiencies.
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charge a tariff of Rs.2.78 a unit, marking an increase

of 52 paise from the originally contracted price.
The regulator could have argued that the company
should have anticipated such exigencies while
bidding for the UMPP and on those grounds said
no to higher tariffs. But that would have forced
Tata Power to stop generation and cut losses and
there would have been no winners. While the higher
tariff will now cover most of the increased fuel
costs for Tata Power, the final price is still
affordable for the consumer. The regulator has also
notified new tariff norms for the next five years for
central generation and transmission utilities which
Source: The Hindu
SCHOOLS WITHOUT CHILDREN, CHILDREN WITHOUT SCHOOLS
On the day the Chhattisgarh government issued

a statement emphasising how the Prime Ministers
adviser, T.K.A. Nair, praised the efforts to educate
children, 32 students of Koynapada primary school
in Darbha block in Bastar district did not attend
school. In fact, they could not as the school does
not exist. An official confirmed that the
disappearance of the school establishes how
employees attached to the education department
are benefiting from the insurgency.
Since 2007, Rs. 6.45 lakh has been given to the

Gram Panchayat to construct the single-storied
school building of Koynapada. The Panchayat may
say that the rebels are not allowing the construction
but there are no Maoists in Koynapada, the official
says. Meanwhile, the school receives Rs. 3.95 per
day for each of the 32 kids enrolled there. Around
mid-day, a wooden pedal for husking, a few metal
pots and a robust rooster alone occupy the the
makeshift classroom, which can barely
accommodate 10 children. Students have eaten and
left, says the head teacher, Ghasiram More. The
funds for the school have come from the
governments flagship programme, Sarva Shiksha
Abhiyan. Mr. More says several such schools exist
on paper around Koynapada.
Why funds are given to non-existent schools
remains a mystery but Mr. Mores repeated appeals
to convert a school on paper to a real one have
fallen on deaf ears.
Chintagufa residential school in Sukma district

has a different problem. While the school has 200
students on paper, hardly 40 are to be seen. One
teacher provides an explanation for this: Some
are unwell and [the] rest are on study leave.
Interestingly, in March last year, The Hindu visited
the schools twice. On both occasions, there were
[36]
no more than 50 students there. The school gets

Rs. 950 for each of the students every month under
the Rajiv Gandhi Shiksha Mission (RGSM). So, on
paper, the school receives nearly Rs two lakh for
the maintenance of children every month. Even if
the school enrols 100 students, Rs. 95,000 cannot
be accounted for every month. Sixty such
residential schools are funded by the RGSM in
Bastar division.
No lasting action
There is similar mismanagement in Chintalnar

residential school, a few kilometres west of
Chintagufa. Soon after a report in The Hindu last
year, 10 teachers were sacked and a new singlestoried building was constructed. Despite this,
corruption in the name of tribal education takes
place. A septic tank that was being constructed
with poor quality material collapsed at Chintalnar
during construction, says one of the teachers. The
toilets are dysfunctional, forcing students to relieve
themselves in front of the school at night and in
the forest in the morning. The floor of the new
building is peeling off, again because of poor quality
material, state the building contractors. One
contractor says 30 per cent of the fund goes to the
officials as bribe.
Realising that it is beyond their capacity to
eradicate corruption, the RGSM has decided to
restrict the fund flow. We released only Rs. 15
crore of the Rs.100 crore given to us in the last
financial year. We are concerned about this
pilferage, Reena Kangale, chief of RGSM in
Chhattisgarh, said.
But then Rs 15 crore is just the proverbial tip of
the iceberg. In the budget, the State government
allocated 12 per cent of the outlay a whopping

Rs. 6,559 crore out of the total Rs. 54,661 crore
for school education. While a large portion of the
budget will be used to pay salaries, at least Rs 2,000
crore will be spent on tribal education, said the
Minister of School Education and Tribal
Development, Kedar Kashyap.
Teachers are a rarity in all these schools. At

any given point of time, it is impossible to find
more than 30 per cent of them in any school, unless
the schools are located in district headquarters or
around the main cities. The head teachers of the
two dozen schools visited by this correspondent
have never been available in the last few years.
The three oft-cited reasons for their unavailability
were: they have gone to the district headquarters
to receive or deliver mails, theyve gone for
training or the naxalites are harrassing them.
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Anganwadis (day care centres for children) fare

equally poorly. The day the States Economic Survey
predicted a massive surge in GDP, the children of
at least two anganwadis in south Bastar spent
another day going hungry. The two childcare
centres in the villages of Pinnabheji and Misma in
Sukma district saw a complete failure of
programmes designed to combat malnutrition.
While the centres are supposed to provide rice, lentil
soup, grams, beans and molasses, none of these is
available. The food from the local distribution
society has not been arriving for the last two
months, says Jayanti Biswas, a teacher at the
Pinnabheji centre. The children wear tattered
clothes and worn-out reading material hangs from
the wall. In addition, a tribal woman working in
the centre as an assistant to Ms Biswas has not
received her monthly salary for the last two years.
The blame for this is attributed to paperwork, but
the woman seems unaware of this. The anganwadi
next to Pinnabheji, Misma, is better maintained,
but has no food either.
problems in schools.
Social and psychological issues
Other factors affect the children of Bastar too.

The old practice of tribals of keeping children in
residential schools is debatable as a large number
of them miss their families and often slip into
depression. However, they never receive
psychological support. UNICEF began working with
them but also left the project mid-way, doing more
harm than good, says one of their former project
coordinators. Moreover, several cases of sexual
violence have surfaced and the removal of two
clinics of the International Committee of Red Cross
from Sukma and Bijapur has intensified health
Being aware of the mismanagement and

corruption, two schools in Chintalnarh and in
Chintagufa offered any amount to this
correspondent. That is the norm here, one of the
head teachers said apologetically.
The Ramakrishna Mission of Narainpur (RKM),
established in 1985, runs schools in the interior
areas. The Maoists, in 1980, warned the swamijis
to avoid them. The rebels have never harmed
anyone in the organisation in the past three decades.
However, after the last Assembly election, the RKM
was warned by the rebels for housing paramilitaries
in one of their schools in Kundla in Abujhmarh.
We told them [the Maoists] that we did not initiate
lodging [of forces] but it created severe problems,
said sources in the Mission. Housing the
paramilitary forces in the schools, especially during
elections, has forced the Maoists to issue a
permanent embargo on the construction of schools,
the officials feel. However, there is enough evidence
to suggest that the teachers are never hurt or
harassed by the rebels.
The good news is that even after all this
corruption and mismanagement, the tribals of
Bastar continue to send their children to study in
government schools. In a way, the conflict has
provided an opportunity for the State to enhance
the quality of education.
Source: The Hindu
SMOOTHENING OUT CROSS-LOC TRADE
In January, trade across the Line of Control

(LoC) came to a standstill after a truck driver from
the Pakistan side of Kashmir was arrested on a
charge of carrying 110 packets of brown sugar.
About 48 trucks were stranded on the Indian side
while 27 Indian trucks were held back, as Pakistan
demanded that the driver be handed over so that
the case could be investigated. It was argued that
the driver could not be arrested given the terms of

the trade and the fact that he enjoyed diplomatic
immunity. Trade resumed over a month later. An
extraordinary session of the Joint Working Group
on Cross-LoC Confidence Building Measures
(CBMs) on March 4 discussed the streamlining of
standard operating procedures and introduction of
scanners, and a suggestion that all stakeholders
[37]

should be present at the loading and unloading
points. The introduction of banking facilities would
also help the trade, which is now conducted on
barter basis. The bus service between the two sides
of Kashmir had resumed on humanitarian grounds
to avoid inconvenience to the people, even as the
standoff continued.
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Cross-LoC trade, which began in 2008 through

Salamabad in Uri and Chakan-da-Bagh in Poonch
district with two trade facilitation centres, is an
important CBM, and both India and Pakistan need
to learn the lessons from this episode. After an
initial standoff, both sides did show a willingness
to resume trade, but it is important to work out
fool-proof systems to avoid any more rounds of a
blame game. In the past, trade across the LoC has
witnessed interference from armies from both sides,
and tensions between the two countries also had
their impact. For the CBM to work, there is a need
to ensure the smooth flow of goods and also create
an atmosphere conducive to the building of trust.

If trucks and people from either side are treated
with suspicion, it defeats the very purpose of a
confidence building measure. Scanning the goods
and initiating a joint mechanism to check them at
crossing points, as has been proposed during the
meeting of the JWG, would help. It should not take
over a month of protracted discussions to restore
normalcy. A prompt system of redress needs to be
put in place so that livelihoods and cross-LoC travel
are not held up while the two countries dispute
threadbare the details of standard operating
procedures as in this case. Neither should it be the
case that an offence, if established beyond
reasonable doubt, goes unpunished. Any future
steps will have to incorporate measures that would
prevent such incidents and tackle them without
any disruption of trade or bus services.
Source: The Hindu
CAUGHT BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE EU
The political crisis in Ukraine, that has now

entered its fourth month, is rapidly reaching a point
of no return. Territorial fissures in the country along
political, linguistic and ethnic lines, the real
possibility of civil war, and the emergence of the
southern (autonomous) Ukrainian republic of
Crimea as a potential, international military
flashpoint, are among the different aspects of the
current situation in the country, which is the second
largest state in Europe.
The focus has shifted from Kiev to the southern

province of Crimea where the interim government
that deposed former President Viktor Yanukovych
has not been recognised. With its complex ethnic
mix and historical past, the region has traditionally
had strong ties with Russia.
Russia has stepped up its military presence in
Crimea it already has a treaty with Ukraine
that allows it to station its Black Sea Fleet in
Sevastopol, and its Parliament recently passed a
resolution reserving the right for limited military
intervention to defend the rights of 1.5 million
Russians in Crimea.
The western bloc has accused Russia of the

armed seizure of Crimea, and Washington is
putting together legislation for a package of
sanctions against Russia that could include trade
restrictions, visa bans and asset freezes. These
countries have withdrawn from preparations for
the G8 Summit that is to be held in Sochi, the
[38]
venue of the Winter Olympics.
Euromaidan and agreement
The background to the crisis goes back to the

three month occupation of the Euromaidan in Kiev
which grew out of opposition to President
Yanukovychs decision to postpone signing an
Association Agreement with the European Union
(EU).
The protests and sit-ins rapidly spiralled into
pitched battles between protesters and police. Police
reprisals against protesters of whom a large
section were armed with deadly weapons including
Molotov cocktails to force entry into government
buildings resulted in 85 deaths.
In the face of escalating street clashes, and
increasing pressure from the EU and the United
States to accommodate the oppositions demands,
Mr. Yanukovych was forced to sign an EU-brokered
agreement with his Maidan opponents on February
21.
The agreement represented the first real
breakthrough in the deadlock, as it had the support
of all the players in the conflict including the
western bloc and Russia. Mr. Yanukovych promised
a return to the 2004 Constitution within 48 hours,
the setting up of a government of national unity,
and presidential elections between September and
December of this year.

The opposition parties and their backers,
however, clearly had a bigger agenda. A day later
they broke the agreement and seized power in Kiev.
This sent the deposed President, who now faces
charges of mass murder, into refuge in southern
Russia.
A stream of high-profile figures from the EU

and the U.S. visited the Maidan actively stoking
dissent, actions that would not be tolerated in
any western capital where anti-government
protests are taking place. The visitors included
Special Representative of the EU, Baroness
Ashton; former U.S. presidential candidate John
McCain; and the U.S. Assistant Secretary
General for Europe and Eurasian Affairs,
Victoria Nuland. In fact, the substantial part of
Ms Nulands infamous leaked conversation with
U.S. Ambassador Geoffrey Pratt which the
western media swooped on for her abusive
dismissal of the EU has only lent credence to
the allegation of U.S. micromanagement of
regime change in Kiev.
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Ukraine is now facing an acute economic crisis

as well. It is close to bankruptcy with a debt of
nearly $73 billion. In December, President
Yanukovych had secured a bailout deal with
Russia, which offered to buy $15 billion of
Ukrainian debt in two-year bonds, plus a $3.5 billion
discount on natural gas purchases. The offer stands
withdrawn in the light of the recent political
changes.
also agreed to an interim government ahead of an

advanced schedule of elections.
With elections announced for May, the new

government is seeking a $35 billion aid package
from the International Monetary Fund, which, if it
does come, will have unpopular strings attached
in the form of harsh austerity measures. The U.S.
government has also offered $1 billion in immediate
aid.
Two perspectives
History shows how swiftly the root causes of

international conflict often get buried under the
layers of subsequent events. This seems to be fast
happening in the Ukrainian crisis with the ground
now shifting to the Crimean crisis, and the Russian
military threat there.
Nevertheless, the two perspectives on the

conflict remain unchanged. Europe and the U.S.
view regime change in Kiev as the outcome of a
democratic revolution and President Yanukovych
as a corrupt and tyrannical surrogate for Russian
President Vladimir Putin. This view permeates most
sections of the western media. The Euromaidan
reportage continued to see the protest as popular
and spontaneous long after its leadership had been
infiltrated by avowedly right wing and neo-Nazi
nationalist groups. The overt western support for
the protests was at best glossed over and at worst
justified. The resistance to the new Kiev government
in the Crimea and eastern regions, which derives
from a complex play of factors, is still presented as
Russia-sponsored dissent.
The other perspective sees regime change in Kiev
as a coup, funded by the West, with right-wing
forces firmly in the driving seat.
The regime of President Yanukovych was

undoubtedly authoritarian and corrupt but he was
not only a democratically elected President, but had
Western-backed coup
Without doubt a western-backed coup, is

how Marcus Papadopoulos, London-based
Editor of Politics First magazine, described the
political change in Ukraine. Ukraine is an
independent country. How has the U.S. and the
EU respected its independence? By joining the
protests that they called a pro-democracy
movement, he told The Hindu. Ukraine has a
huge industry-military complex. Forty per cent
of south and east Ukraine are Russian-speaking,
and Russia will seek to protect them. It has a
right to make sure its economic interests are
protected. It does not want a country on its
borders that is illegitimate.
In 1997, Russia and Ukraine signed an
agreement on the division of the Black Sea Fleet,
with 81 per cent going to Russia along with
Sevastopol and other military installations in the
Crimea. In return, Moscow compensated Kiev with
a large sum of money as well as writing off a large
amount of Ukrainian debt. Russia also pays
Ukraine an annual fee.
After its independence in 1991 from the former
Soviet Union, Ukraine has swung between its desire
for integration into the European Union and keeping
friendly ties with Russia, which continues to be its
largest single trading partner that it depends on
for cheap energy resources.
According to Mr. Yanukovych, integration into
the EU through a Deep and Comprehensive Free
Trade Agreement (DCFTA) would have cost the
Ukrainian economy $20 billion.
[39]
Restrictive trade policy

This is a highly restrictive and bullying trade
policy by the EU, said Robert Oulds, Director of
the Bruges Group, a London-based think-tank.
When President Yanukovych postponed signing
an Association Agreement in late 2011 it did not
create a political issue. This time the EU and the
U.S. whipped up opposition to him, he said.
Meanwhile, the interim government in Kiev has

announced elections on May 25, an exercise that
Crimea has already said it will boycott and replace
by a referendum on whether to stay within Ukraine.
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According to Mr. Oulds, Mr. Yanukovych had

strong reasons for caution as 75 per cent of the
United Kingdoms industrial exports go to Russia,
and a major part of Ukraines export is to the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
Ukraine cannot be part of an EU Free Trade
Association and also be part of the Russian[-led]
Customs union. An EU agreement will put quotas
on Ukraine, the highest being on agricultural goods
like sugar and wheat. The quota for wheat is limited
to 20,000 tonnes [subsequently negotiated to two
million tonnes], whereas globally, Ukraine exports
10-15 million tonnes. European integration will
result in huge job losses owing to the closure of
many businesses because of higher EU regulations.
For Ukraine it is a very bad deal, he said.
and priorities of the Eastern Partnership, it states.

They involve creating around the EU a belt of
democratic, prosperous and stable states sharing
common values forming a security area around
it and expanding its sphere of influence to the South
and East. The EU is interested in Europeanising
Ukraine, introducing the European norms and
standards to its domestic and foreign policy.
Clearly, the EUs vision for the integration of

Ukraine has ramifications beyond the economic as
it seeks to draw Ukraine into a defence, security
and political framework that would give it strategic
importance as a pro-NATO state on the very
borders of Russia.
A policy paper prepared by the Razumkov
Centre, a pro-EU think-tank located in Kiev, set
this framework out clearly.
The EUs interests (that condition its actions

and influence with respect to Ukraine) ensue from
the ideology of the European Neighbourhood Policy
In the Kiev ministry, 10 key posts have gone to

the Fatherland Party of former Prime Minister Yulia
Tymoshenko, including President Olexander
Turchyonov and Prime Minister in the interim
government Arseniy Yatsenyuk. Of significance
however is the presence of the far-right parties,
who acted as the steel fists of the Euromaidan
movement. The neo-Nazi and Russo-phobic
Svoboda Party is not far behind with major
portfolios including defence, economic affairs,
education, ecology and agriculture. Also
represented are members of the Right Sector party,
another far-right outfit.
Tetyana Chornovol, portrayed as a crusading
journalist, but who has also been involved with
the ultra-right Ukrainian National Assembly, was
named chair of the governments anti-corruption
committee.
Ukraine threatens to become the Syria of
Eastern Europe. And like Syria, civil war could
ultimately decimate a vibrant and ethnically diverse
society, and a rich civilisational legacy.
Source: The Hindu
COLD WAR REDUX
Russias de facto annexation of the Crimea

which President Vladimir Putin says is a
humanitarian intervention has exposed ugly
motives all round. On February 22, Ukrainian
President Viktor Yanukovych, panicking over public
protests calling for early elections and a return to
the 2004 Constitution, abandoned his violent
crackdown on the protesters and fled the capital,
Kiev. The national parliament voted to remove him
from office and impeach him; Speaker Oleksander
Turchynov took over as interim president, and the
assembly decided to hold elections on May 25. Mr.
Turchynov has since then made political
[40]
appointments by decree, and some of his choices

have extreme right-wing and anti-Semitic
backgrounds. On March 1, Russian troops moved
into the eastern province of Crimea, without facing
any resistance; the Russian military had, in any
case, retained their Sevastopol naval base and
various airfields under an arrangement made after
the Soviet Union was abolished in 1991; there are
now 16,000 Russian troops in the region. The West
could only watch as a candidate for EU and NATO
membership faced what could end up as a Russian
takeover, or partition, or possibly a new status on
the front-line of a fresh Cold War.

Washington also needs EU support for sanctions
against Moscow, but many EU countries reject
sanctions. Secondly, several western governments
are implicated in the Ukrainian crisis; some of Mr.
Yanukovychs assets are owned by British-registered
companies. Thirdly, NATO has tried to implement
detailed plans for former Soviet republics like
Georgia and Ukraine to join it. Moscow sees that
as highly provocative; furthermore, by acting
through NATO, western governments are all but
eliminating accountability to their own legislatures
and publics. While the legality of the Russian moves
in the Crimea is at best uncertain, the West for its
part needs to learn the lessons of the Cold War.
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The western Ukrainian public were shocked by

revelations of Mr. Yanukovychs kleptocracy, which
funded an opulent mansion and a country estate
with an artificial lake, a full-size replica galleon,
and a zoo; their eastern compatriots, mainly ethnic
Russians, seemed to be disturbed less by the arrival
of Russian troops than by a new law from Kiev
abolishing the official status of the Russian language
in their area. Moreover, Mr. Yanukovych resurfaced
in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and,
according to a Russian diplomat, said he had asked
Moscow for help; the U.S. reaction had already
bordered on the surreal, with Secretary of State
John Kerry, apparently forgetful of his own
countrys conduct over Iraq, telling Russia not to
invade a sovereign state on a trumped-up pretext.
Source: The Hindu
GLOBAL WARMING AMPLIFYING MALARIA RISK
Global warming will expose millions of more

people to malaria as parasite-bearing mosquitoes
move to higher altitudes, according to new research
into the health perils from climate change.
Tropical highland areas in Africa, Asia and

central and southern America are particularly at
risk, a study in the U.S. journal Science said recently.
Malaria, which killed an estimated 620,000

people in 2012, is among a host of diseases that
researchers warn will spread more easily thanks to
global warming. Menno Bouma of the London
School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a
team scrutinised malaria records from the highland
regions of Colombia from 1990 to 2005 and
Ethiopia from 1993 to 2005.
They found that in warmer years, people living
at higher elevations experienced more malaria
infections than they do in cooler years.
This is indisputable evidence of a climate

effect, said University of Michigan ecologist
Mercedes Pascual.
The main implication is that with warmer
temperatures, we expect to see a higher number of
people exposed to the risk of malaria in tropical
highland areas like these. People in areas previously

unaffected by malaria never built up immunity,
and will be particularly vulnerable. Mr. Bouma said
other tropical highland areas surrounded by
malaria-endemic regions are likely to be affected
by a similar principle as found in the study. These
included parts of Peru, Ecuador, Kenya, Uganda,
Tanzania, Madagascar, Pakistan, India, Nepal and
Papua New Guinea. But Mr. Bouma said the study
did not automatically imply a higher malaria risk
for all countries at higher altitudes, as a special
mix of climate and socio-economic conditions had
to be present. Malaria is not the only threat to
human health receiving a boost from global
warming.
Many of the major killers such as diarrhoeal
diseases, malnutrition, malaria and dengue are
highly climate-sensitive and are expected to worsen
as the climate changes, according to the World
Health Organisation (WHO). The health risks from
climate change loom large in an upcoming report
by the U.N.s Nobel-winning Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Source: The Hindu
SAFEGUARDING THE MANY HISTORIES OF INDIA
Its hard to tell the truth, harder still to accept

it. The truth by its very nature is neither polite nor
palatable. But for a country that equates the truth
with victory, we seem to be increasingly intolerant
of it. A growing conservatism seems to be upon us
with the intention to reduce our ability to debate,
argue and differ. The recent out-of-court-settlement
between Penguin India and a right wing Hindu

outfit that resulted in the decision to pulp a
scholarly work on Hinduism by Wendy Doniger
signals the growing dominance of a conservative
and intolerant section of Indian society.
This conservatism can be traced as far back as
the ban on Salman Rushdies The Satanic Verses.
[41]

The ban is significant because it provided political
legitimacy to intolerance and censorship. The
fundamentalists were quick to realise the need to
manufacture intolerance and attack our diversity
and freedom of expression, their arch enemies, on
the basis of religion. Not surprisingly, since then,
the attacks on our cultural freedoms have only
increased.
Groups like Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti

must be made to realise that this form of cultural
bullying or censorship is acutely un-Indian and will
not be tolerated. In India, we have always had
many histories. Far from being a source of conflict,
these have strengthened our diversity and
philosophical thinking. Where others see conflict,
we have seen interdependence and tolerance an
idea deeply embedded in the Indian nation.
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A quick skim through recent acts of cultural

intimidation is revealing. Oxford University Press,
a leading academic publisher, buckled rapidly
under pressure and withdrew an excellent
academic book on Shivaji because it hurt regional
sentiments. Indias noted painter M.F. Hussain lived
and died in exile, hounded by fundamentalists
because of what he painted decades ago. But the
most recent and shameful act was when Indias
celebrated poet academic A.K. Ramanujans work
on the Ramayana was removed from the Delhi
University syllabus and later withdrawn from print
by OUP.
should be challenged in court and outside to assert

our identity as a diverse and tolerant people who
celebrate not silence but alternative histories and
perspectives.
Disallowing diversity
What do we learn from these arbitrary acts of

censorship, cultural intimidation and bullying? That
most institutions charged with protecting our
diversity of thought and freedoms of expression
are buckling under this conservatism. How can a
leading publisher acquiesce so easily to bullying or
the possibility of an adverse court ruling? By
choosing to pulp or withdraw their books they seem
to agree that an alternative narrative cannot exist.
Clearly, they have abandoned their role as
guardians of ideas and the written word.
Yet, is the publisher alone to blame? The courts

of late seem strangely inclined towards
conservatism. Politicians, across the board, lead this
conservatism. They want to regulate the media,
censor books and ban movies. But most
disturbingly, we as a people seem least interested
in the truth and comfortably numb in our pursuit
of attainment and entertainment. What should we
as a liberal, secular and tolerant India do?
Protest. This book was Penguins to protect but
the freedom of expression is ours to safeguard. Our
responsibility here is collective and so should be
our response. Authors and writers have already
urged Penguin to take this matter to a higher court.
This settlement and every other act of oppression
These groups, who also misrepresent Hinduism,

must be made to realise that their action is also
deeply un-Hindu. The religion has within itself
sufficient conflicting history, ideology and
philosophy. While there are commonalities, no
single deity, book or idea defines Hinduism. Hence,
there can never be one Hindu way or one Hindu
history. To try and reduce the religion to a single
history is to insult Hinduism itself. Every Hindu
must speak up to defend the plurality and
inclusiveness of this religion.
Defence against offense
Finally, to ban or withdraw any book, without

sufficient discussion or dissent, is to diminish and
offend the reader. Such an action seems to suggest
that either the Indian reader does not have the
capacity to handle diverse ideas of religious history
or should not have access to diverse and alternative
histories. We must protest to defend our right to
read and independently judge the truth and merit
of each argument because our right to ideas is the
most fundamental freedom any civilised society
offers.
This conservatism that arm-twisted Penguin
into pulping this book must be made to realise that
Indias diversity is non-negotiable. If we dont fight
this, our ability to debate and argue will slowly
vanish. We will then be left with only one version
of history and a broken idea of Indianness, because
its not about Hinduism or Doniger but what we
represent as a people. If we cannot exist with
tolerance and diversity, what else defines being
Indian?
Source: The Hindu
A QUIET REVOLUTION IN GOVERNANCE

As heirs to one of historys greatest social
[42]
movements, we understandably bristle at the


reminder that India was once a colony. But although
the colonial power withdrew, the rhinoceros
remained in the room the machinery of
government.
Jawaharlal Nehru alone among Indias
politicians dared to question the rationale of the
so-called steel frame. During the national movement
he had quipped that the Indian Civil Service was
neither Indian nor pre-disposed to serve the interests
of the country.
A superintendent recommended to his superior

that the applicants case was genuine. Subsequently,
there was SMS after SMS informing the applicant
that the response to the show cause notice had
been received, reviewed and accepted, and the
passport was being despatched that very day. It is
difficult to imagine a more citizen-friendly response.
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He refused to believe that his project of taking

forward a moribund economy was dependent upon
the civil service. He set up the Planning Commission
and built up a large body of public sector
enterprises. Most of them were relatively free of
the machinery of government, though they were
formally answerable to their parent ministries. This
plan had spectacular initial success.
As I was temporarily absent from the address

given in the application the police submitted an
adverse report, and a show cause notice was
issued with a summons to the local passport office.
The meeting, however, turned out to be an eyeopener.
By the early 1960s HMT had generated enough

surplus to build a second factory. Air India was in
surplus for long after nationalisation of the original
Tata airline, and public-sector enterprises increased
their savings faster than the private corporate
sector.
After Nehru no politician had the gall to remind
the public sector that its raison detre is the public
interest and that it must continuously prove itself
by delivering on its mandate.
Indira Gandhi altered the equation by striking
a compact between public sector employees and
the bureaucracy. This stalled the progress of
democracy and development for 50 years. The
bureaucracy ceased to be accountable.
Smart change
But now a quiet revolution appears to be in

evidence with respect to governance. The green
shoots may be few, but they are there, nevertheless.
Two experiences of this writer are worth highlighting.
The first concerns the process of applying for a

passport, something that has undergone a sea
change in the direction of simplification, speed and
efficiency. The brief interview after the application
is accepted is actually a pleasure as you deal with
a young and techno-savvy staff.
This stage of the process has been outsourced

to Tata Consultancy Services in a PPP arrangement.
Then comes the police verification which can be a
tricky affair. The citizen will find, in true colonial
form, that in any interaction with the police all
rights reside firmly with the latter.
Better access
Another example of improved delivery of public

services is the Election Commission. The whole
process of enrolling yourself as a voter has been
simplified so much that it can deter only the least
citizen-minded person. On the ECs website you
can first check whether your registration is active
and then, in principle at least, track your name
down to the voters list for the concerned polling
booth.
In my experience the latter was not possible,
but a mere phone call to the office of the Chief
Electoral Officer elicited a phone number to which
ones voter card number could be sent by SMS.
Within seconds a response was received giving
details of the polling booth and serial number on
the voters list.
Of course, a fundamental change in the
environment is the emergence of information
technology as an enabler. However, it must be
acknowledged that to have leveraged it effectively
to provide a service reflects a rare shift in the
attitude to governance.
In the very limited spheres that we have looked
at here, the government agencies have adopted as
their mandate the expeditious delivery of service.
Enabled to vote
Nothing would seem more important in a

democracy than enabling an individual to vote.
Similarly, in a country with so much poverty we
cannot be faulted for expecting a public sector to
be devoted to the improvement of our material
conditions, for which read the economy.
Often in our concern for the poor we assume
that we must target poverty directly in order to
eliminate it, as though its existence is independent
[43]

of the economy. Our aim, rather, should be to
multiply the livelihood opportunities of the poor.
In a market economy the demand for labour is
a derived demand. To raise the demand for labour
we must render the potential activity profitable and
the worker more productive. These require the
provision of physical infrastructure to firms and
social infrastructure for workers.
Much of the opportunity and the responsibility

for providing these services resides with public
agencies.
How much better Indias economy would
perform if these were more efficient! .
MONSOON UNCERTAINTIES
But even if one concedes the worst-case scenario
delayed or weak monsoons there is no need
to press the panic button. For one, the country has
received good rains not just during the main southwest monsoon in 2013, but even from the
subsequent north-east and winter season
precipitations. This, apart from ensuring a bumper
agricultural crop in 2013-14, has also resulted in
water levels in major reservoirs currently being
roughly 30 per cent higher than their last 10-year
average. For another, global prices of most agricommodities be it wheat, corn, palm/soya oil or
sugar are ruling below last years levels; that
applies to both current as well as futures quotes.
The FAO Food Price Index is now nearly 15 per
cent lower than its February 2011 peak. A bad
monsoon is not going to have the same effect as in
2009, when world commodity prices were still on
the rise. The effects this time will be largely on
prices of vegetables and fruits, which are not
importable and also vulnerable to domestic supply
chain inefficiencies. Either way, the mere probability
of a monsoon failure shouldnt be cause for kneejerk reactions such as export bans or an increase in
interest rates. Right now, we dont quite know how
the monsoon will turn out and policy-making
cannot be based on mere assumptions.
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Global climate models are increasingly suggesting

that 2014 could be an El Nino year. El Nino an
abnormal warming of the east-central tropical Pacific
Ocean waters, resulting in increased evaporation and
migration of cloud-forming activity towards the
Americas and away from Asia is associated with
poor monsoons in India. The country had severe
droughts in 1987, 2002 and 2009 all three El
Nino years. The World Meteorological Organisation,
the US Climate Prediction Centre and Australias
Bureau of Meteorology, among others, have warned
about El Nino making a return after five years.
Others, including weather agencies in Europe and
Japan, have specifically forecast below-normal
monsoon rains for India during the crucial JuneAugust kharif sowing period.
These predictions are cause for worry but not
for alarm. To start with, the intensity of a likely El
Nino is still unknown. The general view is that a
weak El Nino will develop around the middle of
2014. Moreover, while drought years in India have
often been El Nino years, the reverse does not hold.
The year 1997 saw a strong El Nino, yet the
country recorded surplus monsoon rains. So, even
if we have El Nino this time, there could be other
meteorological phenomena that may well neutralise
its impact. The south-west monsoon is, after all,
the product of complex atmosphere-land-ocean
system interactions that go beyond El Nino.
EMERGING ECONOMIES IN A VULNERABLE PHASE
The Fed taper is not the only problem. The

rebalancing of US-China trade poses its own
challenges.
The general consensus seems to be that most

emerging markets are in for a bit of a rough ride
in the coming year. The economic recovery in the
North is still weak and quite fragile, subject to all
sorts of risks that may not be so easy to deal with.
And, as Chart 1 shows, despite all talk of
decoupling, global output is still highly
synchronised. So changes in GDP across developed
[44]
and developing countries are still broadly in the

same direction over the different years.
Partly this is due to the effect of trade, which
has become the major driver of economic expansion
across the developing world. While South-South
trade is increasing, North-South trade still occupies
a significant role in total world trade, at around 40
per cent. And since much South-South trade is in
intermediate goods with final demand in the North,
there is an important indirect effect as well.

danger of financial crisis because of internal
concerns, such as currency and maturity
mismatches in external borrowing and domestic
financial bubbles. Some asset bubbles (in stock
markets and real estate) have already started to
subside in some countries, while others may burst
more roughly. Both have adverse implications for
financial stability, especially since the financial
interconnectedness has grown greatly because of
shadow banking and other tendencies.
Third is the continued prospect of volatility in
global markets for food, fuel and currencies because
of the unpredictable role of financial investors who
continue to have significant involvement. Even very
short-term movements that are later reversed in
direction can have significant and unpleasant effects
within developing countries, adding to both
financial and real economic fragility.
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The other important reason is capital flows,

which have become drivers of volatility in the
emerging countries, even if they are not always
responsible for more investment or output growth.
Chart 2 shows that net financial flows to developing
countries have been falling since 2010. Both
portfolio capital flows and other net investment
(such a commercial lending) were negative in 2013,
while in any case net inflows were dwarfed by the
continued build-up of external reserves by
developing countries as a group. While such reserve
accumulation has come down a bit since its peak
in 2010, it was still very large at about $550 billion
in 2013. But capital flows may reverse even more
once developed countries start to tighten their
monetary policies.
The other impact comes from primary
commodity prices, which affect developing
countries as both exporters and importers. Other
than for crude petroleum prices, most primary
commodity prices have been coming down from
the most recent peak of 2011. However, while the
commodity super-cycle may now be on the
downtrend, such prices remain volatile because of
the continued involvement of financial players in
such markets. Meanwhile, exporters of raw
materials and minerals face lower prices than
earlier. However, manufactured export prices have
been flat for some years now, reflecting some
overcapacity among manufactured goods exporters
of developing countries in the context of the global
slowdown.
Emerging economy risks
So what are the short-term risks for developing

countries in the volatile global economy? Four risks
need to be highlighted because they are common
to several of the major emerging economies,
including India.
Impact of rebalancing
Fourth is the fact that export markets of most

developing countries are likely to be increasingly
constrained. Manufactured exporters are already
facing stagnant prices (falling in real terms) and
shrinking markets, with heightened competitive
pressures. Primary commodity exporters are also
facing falling and volatile prices. The rebalancing
of the global economy is very much under way,
with the US trade deficit falling rapidly and the
Chinese trade surplus also coming down. The
consequences for other countries are not easy,
because this means net declines in export markets
at a time when many countries face balance of
payments and currency pressures.
First is the possibility of disorderly adjustment

(which could even lead in some cases to exchange
rate or balance of payments crises) to the tightening
of monetary policy in the US and Europe. The
extraordinary measures that were put in place
by the US Federal Reserve in terms of huge
expansion of liquidity and near-zero interest rates
have already begun to be reversed, or tapered.
This has already created two episodes of capital
flight from emerging markets, an unpleasant
foretaste of what may be in store when the
tightening begins in earnest.
In particular, the impact of Chinese rebalancing

is likely to be very significant for other developing
countries because China has become the most
significant trade partner for most developing
nations. There are already signs of the start of a
shift at the margin in China, away from investment
and net exports towards household consumption.
This will affect Chinas imports, with a possible
reduction in the share of iron ore, copper and
machinery and electrical goods and parts. However,
given the continued pace of urbanisation and
infrastructure development in China, this change
will be relatively slow and may not be so acute for
particular products. But Chinas trading partners
will need to consider how to alter their own export
composition to cater to the new patterns of demand
emanating from within the country.
Second is the fact that most of the major

emerging market economies are themselves in some
So there is a formidable set of economic

challenges for developing countries in the near
[45]
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future. The surprise is that so far at least, this does

not seem to be factored into economic policies in
most countries.
IN DEFENCE OF PRIVATE PARTICIPATION
After Indias independence, defence production

was restricted to the public sector. Poor industrial
infrastructure prompted the government to create
defence public sector units as system integrators
along with ordnance factories, which were meant
to produce defence hardware.
Over time, these units produced equipment,

systems and consumables based on transfer of
technology (ToT) acquired mainly from the Soviets,
without developing any know why. It was only
in the early 1970s that the Defence Research and
Development Organisation (DRDO) was created
with a mandate to develop indigenous products
and systems.
But since then, a lot has changed.
The public sector was unable to cope with the

increasing operational requirements of our armed
forces. Spares and upgrades were not made
available in critical situations, leading to rising
imports.
Hence, the government in 2001 decided to open
up the sector to private entities subject to licensing,
and allowed foreign direct investment up to 26 per
cent.
The policy intent has not been matched by
implementation, affecting our technology
upgradation and indigenisation plans.
Private sector participation in Indias defence

sector has led to fruitful results. The involvement
of Tata Power SED in building the Samyukta
Indias first major electronic warfare system and
L&Ts contribution to the nuclear submarine
[46]
programme are noteworthy examples. The

government issued a notification, referring to the
Tata Power SED as a gazetted work centre for
the Samyukta.
Similarly, L&Ts in-house development of hull
construction technologies for submarines gave the
company an opportunity to participate in building
INS Arihant Indias first nuclear submarine
despite severe sanctions.
Since 2001, the private sector has displayed
capability in the complete product life cycle for
advanced systems such as missile launchers, rocket
launchers, land-based as well as naval engineering
systems, sensors such as radars and sonars, avionics,
secure communication, and aircraft sub-systems.
With world-class skills in IT, ITeS and
manufacturing, the private sector has augmented
Indias indigenous defence production capability.
The private sector has also built up extensive
infrastructure without waiting for any orders from
the Ministry of Defence (MoD). Despite this track
record, the Indian private sector does not enjoy a
a level playing field vis--vis foreign equipment
makers and defence PSUs.
A battery of challenges
Some of the disadvantages include nomination

preference to PSUs, disadvantages in taxation
through differential exemption regimes, no
compensation for exchange rate variations, lack of
support for export orders, and procedural delays.
It was in 2005 that the Vijay Kelkar committee
emphasised self-reliance, active private sector
participation, a long-term product strategy and

identification of system integrators in the form of
Raksha Udyog Ratnas (RURs) or Champions of
Industry from private sector, which would be on
par with DPSUs.
However, the MoD has jettisoned the concept
of RURs. The nomination of defence PSUs remains
the preferred route.
The government is yet to walk the talk on

allowing private player to play a strategic and
leading role. The Indian private industry is willing
to invest and play a major role in defence
indigenisation. But the government has to create
the right conditions on the ground. Corporates are
answerable to their boards and cannot invest
indefinitely in an unpredictable environment.
FICCI urges the government to repose trust in
Indian private companies, stop nomination of major
projects to PSUs and introduce competitiveness in
the defence sector.
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Almost every policy of defence production and

acquisition refers to the need for self-reliance. While
Defence Procurement Procedure-2013 has
enumerated the different procurement categories,
giving highest priority to indigenous products and
relegating imports to last preference, it is for the
MoD to implement these policies in right earnest.
Hitting confidence
However, the MoDs apathy towards selfreliance and state-of-the-art defence technology
clearly demonstrates the governments lack of faith
in the private sector. The much talked about FICV
project, which had shortlisted four developmental
agencies, has been retracted with no news of its
revival.
The TCS (Tactical Communication System)
programme is moving at a snails pace. This sends
negative signals not only to the industry but also to
their foreign technology partners.
Another recent example, which has dented
private sector confidence, is the IAF Avro
replacement programme. This was the first Buy &
Make programme, where the MoD decided to have
the ToT for the Make part to be transferred only
to Indian private players and establish a second
line of aircraft production in India. Recently, this
programme has run into rough weather.
This will open more avenues for public-private

partnership, promote indigenisation, create the
much needed defence industrial base and generate
economic spin-offs.
The defence sector should learn from the
phenomenal success that India achieved in the
strategic nuclear and space sectors.
The Nuclear Power Corporation of India
(NPCIL) and the Indian Space Research
Organisation (ISRO) recognised the strengths of
private industry and involved them during the
initial stage, not as vendors but as risk-sharing
partners.
As a result, India sustained its capabilities even
under the sanctions. Industrys partnership with
ISRO and NPCIL is a shining example of PPP,
which also needs to be emulated by the defence
and aerospace sectors.
CSR STILL HAS SOME GREY AREAS
The much-awaited corporate social responsibility

rules have been notified by the Ministry of
Corporate Affairs and they allay many, but
unfortunately not all, of industrys concerns. For
instance, exempting overseas branch profits from
the calculation of net profit is an equitable step.
Similarly, the clarification on excluding

independent directors in the formation of CSR
committees for private and unlisted public
companies is a huge relief for companies that are
not required to appoint such directors under the
law.
There are numerous companies in India which

already have CSR initiatives in crucial sectors of
the economy such as health, education,
environment and so on.
However, when the rules come into force on

April 1, 2014, around 8,000 companies in India
will fall under the ambit of the CSR provision. This
mandate will translate into an estimated CSR
spending of $1,954-$2,442 million annually.
Therefore, the implementation aspect of the CSR
provision is very significant; if implemented in the
right spirit, CSR will facilitate the desired
investment in human development.
India is one of the first countries in the world
to have legislated this provision; it is a positive step
paving the way for the corporate sector to play a
larger and more conscious role in shaping
communities and participating in the social side of
the economy. The areas covered under the Revised
Schedule VII such as healthcare, education, gender
[47]

equality, environmental sustainability and rural
development are critical for inclusive growth.
CSR is increasingly being viewed as an

important part of business operations. The growing
importance of CSR has rewritten the relationship
of business not just with shareholders but also with
its stakeholders, including employers, supply chain
partners, government, creditors, customers and
communities.
Even though the list is wide and covers a lot of

sectors that have been neglected so far, industry
expects that the implementation of the CSR
provision will allow boards reasonable flexibility to
decide their own CSR activities. Such flexibility will
certainly facilitate greater participation and
engagement of the private sector.
However, as a concept it will evolve over a

period of time. In order for it to be able to make a
genuine social impact, it is important to integrate
it with the model of shared value.
Industry has been a responsible proponent of

CSR, called by whatever name, for decades.
However it should be seen in the context of building
deeper trust in society through a structured
approach; it should also help institutionalise the
practice as opposed to discretionary participation.
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Rewriting business
Act is to promote self-regulation, non-intrusion and

accountability. However, the rules have limited CSR
expenditure to the activities listed under Schedule
VII.
An increasing number of companies in India

and abroad are making this concept an integral
part of their strategy and the benefits accruing from
this integration are manifold.
On the one hand, it enhances the

competitiveness of a company while simultaneously
advancing economic and social wellbeing in
communities, therefore increasing the long-term
sustainability of the company. On the other hand,
it enhances the possibility of cooperation between
business, society and government.
Corporate social responsibility in the form of
shared value creation is the key to establishing a
symbiotic link between corporations and
communities and in taking forward the India
growth story.
But for that, CSR should be embedded in the
corporate culture which, in turn, requires
inspiration from the leadership and commitment
across the organisation.
Going forward, we hope the concept of shared
value in the CSR Rules is captured.
Being non-intrusive
The Minister for Corporate Affairs Sachin Pilot

has, on various occasions, assured industry that all
steps will be taken by his Ministry to ensure that
CSR expenditure does not impose itself as a kind
of tax.
Industry views this with great optimism and
hopes that the finance ministry will find it fit to
ensure CSR spend remains tax-deductible, more so
since this spend is a part and parcel of doing
responsible business. India Inc anxiously awaits
clarity and certainty on this matter.
While most concerns on CSR provisions have
been attended to, there remain practical concerns
on flexibility within legitimate boundaries, and how
the monitoring and interpretation of companies
efforts will take place.
The government has, till date, been receptive to
legitimate concerns but will need to ensure a
conducive environment so that companies can
sincerely adapt to the new requirements.
The underlying intent of the new Companies
UKRAINE LESSONS
Just when tensions over Iraq are easing and

threats of all-out Western invasion of Syria have
receded, a fresh geopolitical risk for the global
economy has arisen in the form of Russian troop
deployment in Ukraines Crimean peninsula. Its
effects have been felt in stocks tumbling worldwide
on Monday and gold prices crossing $1,350-anounce levels for the first time in over four months,
with investors flocking to safe-haven assets. But
[48]
the crisis in Ukraine has the potential to cause more

than temporary market jitters. The country is the
worlds third largest exporter of corn and fifth
biggest of wheat, with estimated quantities of 18
million and 10 million tonnes respectively in 201314. Not surprisingly, Chicago corn and wheat
futures rose by 4-5 per cent recently amid fears of
disruption to shipments from the Black Sea
region.

be the worst thing to happen now. Thats not good
for the world at a time when there is growing
evidence of a Chinese economic slowdown.
It is in everybodys interest for both sides to
stay calm and it is welcome that Russia has ordered
forces near the border to return to their bases.
Moscow may have legitimate concerns about the
security of the Russian-speaking majority in the
east of Ukraine, but has no justification to despatch
some 16,000 troops to Crimea in the name of
establishing peace and order. The sudden flare-up
in Ukraine is a reminder that external shocks
affecting the Indian economy can come from
completely unpredictable geopolitical factors. The
important thing is to recognise that this may happen
and not to lose focus on macroeconomic stability,
which will provide relative insulation against capital
outflows triggered by such shocks.
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But of even greater concern is the possible

impact on oil and gas prices. Russia supplies
roughly 30 per cent of Europes natural gas, half of
which goes through pipelines via Ukraine. The
worst-case scenario is that the current development
leads to the US and the European Union imposing
sanctions on Russia. The latter could well respond
by cutting gas supplies to Europe. Coupled with
trade/financial sanctions making it difficult for
Russia to export oil the country is the worlds
largest producer the result could well be a fresh
spike in international prices. This scenario is rather
far-fetched though, given the costs involved. Export
of gas to Europe fetches Russia about $100 million
a day; half of its budget revenues come from oil
and gas. Nor is it easy for Europe to find alternatives
to Russian gas: Norway or Qatar cant really fill
the void. For the US, trade with Russia may be
inconsequential. But for Europe, which is recovering
from a deep recession, spiralling energy prices could
LEARNING TO EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED
Every company which has to do business in a

competitive marketplace, innovates. If it doesnt, it
finds that it is no longer in the marketplace
competitive or not. The Japanese even invented a
term and a method to do this. They called it
kaizen, or continuous improvement.
Every company takes pride in its innovations.

These innovations not only save money or add to
profits, they help build brand image with its
stakeholders.
This is why you will often find that such
innovations occupy a disproportionate share of the
bandwidth whenever managements talk with
stakeholders whether to customers via
advertising and marketing outreach, or to investors
at shareholder meets and via annual reports.
So why is it, then, that some companies continue
to find themselves being pushed out of the
marketplace, their competitive edges eroded and
their margins under increasing pressure? Why is it
that every once in a while, a perfectly good,
innovative, profitable company suddenly finds itself
out of business, displaced by something completely
unexpected?
Welcome to the world of disruptive innovation.
Disruptive innovation, a term first coined by

Harvard Business School professor Clayton
Christensen in his book The Innovators Dilemma,
describes a process by which a product or service
takes root initially in simple applications at the
bottom of a market and then relentlessly moves

up, eventually displacing established competitors.
In fact, Christensen originally termed this
disruptive technology but updated it in his next
book to disruptive innovation. He rightly felt that
technologies by themselves are not disruptive, but
the uses to which they are put are the real
disruptors.
The Congress and the BJP found this out to
their cost in the recent Delhi elections. The idea
of corruption being against public good is nothing
new. The BJP and the Congress, and indeed all
political parties, have chapter and verse about it in
their manifestos. The idea of anti-corruption as a
political stance is also not new. Jayaprakash
Narayan used it back in the 1970s, successfully.
However, the Aam Aadmi Party used it in a
disruptive way, while linking it to its own
innovation of crowd funding elections and
captured the imagination of the electorate.
Unexpected threat
The trouble with disruptive innovation as

opposed to mere disruptive technology, which often
dies a premature death because of the innovators
inability to sustain it in the marketplace is that
often, one cannot see it coming.
At a recent conference for chief information
officers of companies, technology intelligence and
consultancy IDCs Sandra Ng pointed out one such
[49]

example of a disruptive innovation which had the
capacity to disrupt the market for two completely
different companies, both, in themselves, market
leaders and technology innovators of no mean calibre.
The question, is, what do you do about not

falling victim to the next iPad or Netflix or Google
Lens? One solution, suggests Ng, is to look for
internet partners who can provide web- and
mobile-based apps and use the environment to
provide social contextualisation of your business.
Mehta feels that companies also need to invest in
understanding their customers better, and learn to
identify and cater to unmet demand.
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The innovation she cited was Googles smart

lens, a soft contact lens with an inbuilt sensor and
a chip which can monitor the glucose level in your
tears and wirelessly transmit that information. With
the help of other, innovative apps, this information
could be used for everything from sugar control in
diabetics to optimising workout routines for athletes.
And, correct your vision.
the third platform is full of services such as Reuters

Market Light, which takes information directly to
farmers (and disrupts media intermediaries), or
Lenovos social media feedback platform, which is
disrupting even product development. Mehta
argues that the third platform will change the
skills requirement for 95 per cent of IT roles over
the next three years.
At one stroke, two innovative market leaders

healthcare major Johnson & Johnson, leaders in
blood glucose monitoring systems, and
Coopervision, leaders in soft contact lenses found
their business being threatened, and from a
completely unexpected quarter. After all, most of
the world still thinks of Google as a search engine
and free email company!
This is the marketplace of tomorrow, Ng
warned. Everything online, everything and
everyone being watched, a world of borderless
connections and things talking to things.
IDC calls this the third platform of the

information technology world. If the first platform
was created by giant mainframes, and the second
by a world wide web of servers and clients, the
third is based on mobility, the cloud, big data and
analytics, and social business, where the
borderlines between, creator, intermediary and
consumer blur into one.
Third platform
According to IDCs India head Jaideep Mehta,
Outplay the disruptors
But beyond all this, companies, particularly

Indian corporates, need to redefine what they mean
by innovation. It is not for nothing that most of the
breakthrough innovations to have emerged in this
country have been of the jugaad type. The organised
sector has been woefully inadequate when it comes
to path-breaking innovations of the kind which
transform balance sheets.
Innovation is no longer all about kaizen.

Innovation is about learning to expect the
unexpected.
As the Aam Aadmi Party has demonstrated,
this doesnt require special technology, or even tons
of money. All it needs is the ability to spot the gap
in the field.
PIECES OF EIGHT
Newsweek, which vanished into the ether last

year, returned to print with a cover story
unmasking Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous
creator of the algorithm which generates Bitcoins.
Too bad that this was the 10th Nakamoto to be
unmasked, all in error. And though this candidate
was the first to be born named Satoshi Nakamoto,
the real creator of Bitcoin surfaced on the net to
trash the Newsweek story, posting from an
authentic ID that had gone silent five years ago.
The fascination with the identity of the creator

of an anonymous currency is ironic. It has
distracted attention from the real Bitcoin story
its runaway success shows that there is a demand
[50]
for a completely dematerialised currency which is

not based on physical value but only on the calculus
of scarcity, and which can be transmitted across
the internet, bypassing formal banking channels.
A market for such currencies obviously exists, and
nations should collaborate to regulate them rather
than driving them offshore and underground.
In the media, Bitcoin coverage has been driven
by the fear of the unknown. Stories highlight the
popularity of Bitcoin with internet escrow services
which facilitate peer to peer trades in drugs and
other contraband. They neglect to mention that
Bitcoin powers a tiny fraction of the global
contraband trade, almost all of which is transacted

in paper currencies like dollars and euros. Gleeful
reports abound about excessive Bitcoin volatility,
about China banning the currency to prevent
offshoring, about the biggest Bitcoin agency being
hacked and filing for bankruptcy. Bitcoin is indeed
hard to track but if a market exists, it should be
regulated rather than demonised. Wild West

curiosities today, digital currencies will be as
mainstream as plastic money in the very near
future.
LIVING UP TO THE COLD WAR STEREOTYPE

of ministers led by Prime Minister Arseniy
Yatsenyuk. Moscow viewed these developments as
a coup manufactured by radical Ukrainian
nationalists with full support of the US and Europe.
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The spectre of a new Cold War is haunting

Europe. The crisis in Ukraine, exacerbated by
Crimeas parliament vote in favour of joining
Russia, threatens to evolve into the classic,
stereotypical West versus the Kremlin confrontation.
To understand what the possible outcomes could
be, it is important to recount how matters reached
this stage and Moscows perception of these
developments.
In November 2013, then Ukrainian President
Viktor Yanukovych (still accepted by all parties as
democratically elected) decided not to sign the
association agreement with the EU. Instead, he
opted for the Russian economic bailout package
$15 billion plus natural gas at discounted prices.
Protests ensued, with thousands occupying central
Kiev. Initially, there was a carnival air about the
protests fiery speeches, foreign dignitaries,
including ministers mingling with and speaking to
the protesters. Senior US officials were
photographed distributing sandwiches to antigovernment demonstrators.
The protests spread to other towns in western
Ukraine, with government buildings being occupied
with muscle provided by rightwing and neo-Nazi
outfits. In Kiev, meanwhile, Yanukovych decided
by mid-February that it was time to clear the
demonstrators from the streets. Police action started.
Nearly 100 people were reportedly killed. (Latest
reports indicate that many of these deaths were
the result of work by snipers from the opposition
forces.)
Mysteriously, the police action was halted and

the opposition invited for talks. The negotiations
resulted in an agreement on February 21 that was
a virtual surrender by Yanukovych. The agreement,
countersigned by three European foreign ministers,
was summarily dismissed by the protesters, who
were by now led by radical nationalists. No one,
including the three ministers, appeared to object.
Yanukovych fled the capital, surfacing later in
southern Russia. The Ukrainian parliament,
meanwhile, anointed an interim president,
Oleksandr Turchynov, and subsequently a cabinet
The Kremlin fears that Kiev will now pursue

aggressive pro-Western policies not only looking
for economic integration with the EU but also
seeking membership of Nato, discarding the
neutrality it undertook to maintain in 2010. Moscow
also fears that Ukraine may seek to reopen the
question of the Crimean port of Sevastopol being a
base for Russias Black Sea fleet. Russia fears that
the loss of the Crimean base will alter the strategic
balance, making the Black Sea a large Natodominated lake.
Given this background, Moscow moved swiftly
to secure Crimea, which neither Russia nor most
Crimeans have ever accepted as being part of
Ukraine. Crimeas gifting to Ukraine in 1954 by
Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev had little
significance while the USSR existed, but became a
contentious issue with the collapse of the Soviet
Union. Russia will not withdraw from Crimea
without significant concessions from Kiev, which
the current dispensation in the Ukrainian capital is
unlikely to agree to. The best-case scenario for
Ukraines territorial integrity would be a
confederacy with Crimea. If not, in all likelihood
Crimea will be absorbed into the Russian
Federation. The Crimean parliament vote is a
precursor to this eventuality.
Russia is unlikely to repeat the Crimean scenario
in eastern and southern Ukraine, primarily because
this would lead to a long and bloody war, which
will inevitably draw in the West. If the authorities
in Kiev do not show adequate statesmanship and
tolerance, a humanitarian refugee crisis may
develop in Russias neighbouring areas.
Ethnicity is an important aspect in the crisis.
Kievan Rus is the cultural inheritance claimed
by eastern Slavs. It was the first confederation of
east Slavic tribes in the territory from the Baltic to
the Black Sea. It was in Crimea that Prince Vladimir
in the 10th century accepted Christianity,
[51]

converting the entire population of Kievan Rus.
Indeed, Ukraine means border lands or lands
at the edge clearly an apt description when
viewed from Moscow.
What should India do? India would do well to

follow developments closely and analyse the
interplay between big states and smaller
neighbours. India is not a player in the current
Ukrainian crisis, although it has good relations with
all parties involved and significant strategic
partnerships with some of them. Therefore,
following the adage that one can never be hurt
by what one has not said may be the most sensible
policy for New Delhi.
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A solution to the Ukrainian imbroglio lies in

shedding old Cold War stereotypes and treating
the crisis as an opportunity to complete the
unfinished business of establishing geopolitical
equilibrium in the former Soviet space. In the
triumphalism after the collapse of the Soviet Union,
evolving and institutionalising the new rules of
engagement in the post-Soviet space was forgotten.
Russia believes that it has a natural sphere of
influence that the rest of the world must recognise.
Finland is probably the example that Russia would
like the states on its borders to emulate economic
engagement with the West if desired, but military
neutrality.
Whatever the outcome, it is not going to be

business as usual. The spectre of a full-blown Cold
War will unlikely materialise probably a Cold
War-lite, with continuing cooperation between
Russia and the West in crucial areas like Syria,
Iran, Afghanistan and North Korea.
NO ESCAPE FROM FREEDOM
In his article, Against the flows Gulzar

Natarajan said capital controls were good and
necessary. Liberalising our capital account, he
claimed, will not benefit India either through higher
growth or investment. It will only result in currency
crises and higher risks, which we cannot manage.
India must, therefore, not liberalise its capital

account even the IMF has endorsed this line of
reasoning according to Natarajan. But this
argument ignores Indias de facto capital account
openness, the aspirations of a young and ambitious
country, which does not want to go back in time,
and the enormous body of evidence on the failure
of capital controls as a tool of macroeconomic
policy.
Economists like to think that there is a debate

about capital account openness and that a decision
about whether it should be open or closed is yet to
be made. But this is not what happens in the real
world. In the real world, a maturing country
develops a capable financial system and
sophisticated firms. It develops a liberal democracy,
where the government is unable to interfere in the
freedom of citizens. Once a country reaches this
state of maturity, the capital account is de facto
open.
Whether some economists think it should be
open or not, in the eyes of the top 10 per cent of
India which makes decisions for the bulk of the
economy the capital account is open. To close
it requires intruding on personal freedoms, inflicting
harm on internationalised firms, and damaging the
[52]
financial system.
When some Indian bureaucrats have argued in

favour of a closed capital account at international
forums, they have faced amusement from the
audience. No country has taken this idea seriously.
This so-called lesson from the global financial
crisis is something no one is interested in learning.
There has been no reduction in capital account
openness either among advanced countries or
among emerging markets after the crisis. The
free movement of goods, services, ideas, capital and
enterprise across national borders is an integral part
of modernity.
Capital controls in emerging economies, where
they exist, are like tariff or non-tariff barriers that
can be switched on and off. They can be price- or
quantity-based. Most evidence shows that these
controls have little usefulness, both in terms of the
time period for which they are actually effective,
and in terms of their macroeconomic impact, which
is limited and short-lived.
Advocates of capital controls have argued that
their failure to deliver results is because they have
been temporary. It is contended that permanent
controls, which intrude deeply in the functioning
of the economy, would work better. India is a rare
laboratory that permits restrictions on capital flows.
The present Indian framework is a complex
licence-permit raj. It is unlike what is found almost
anywhere else in the world. We, in India, know
that complex licence-permit systems always work
badly, and are almost allergic to the thousands of

pages of detailed restrictions.
This takes us to the territory of technical

questions that generally do not fit neatly in opinion
pieces. What does prudent foreign borrowing
mean? Should rupee-denominated debt continue
to be more restricted than foreign currencydenominated debt? How can companies be
encouraged to hedge their currency risk? How can
we help markets for hedging develop? And so on.
These are the interesting questions in the field of
capital controls not ideological sloganeering
about whether capital account liberalisation is good
or bad.
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Have Indian capital controls been effective? The

effectiveness of controls is an often-misunderstood
concept. We should measure whether they were
able to achieve the objective that they were imposed
for. If the all-in-cost ceiling for external commercial
borrowings (ECB) was reduced from Libor plus 400
basis points to Libor plus 200 basis points, then the
question to be asked is not whether borrowing went
down. Instead, it should be whether this decision
was able to achieve the objective of the restriction
for example, to reduce net inflows. All too often,
companies respond to controls by simply changing
the garb in which the same capital flows.
plane crashes, and the country will need to develop

the institutional capability to respond to crises. It is
interesting and important to understand the
regulatory framework required for aircraft and
airports. But surely, nobody would propose that
we should not have planes.
If companies moved from pure debt under ECB

to foreign currency convertible bonds, the same
money would come into India under a different
name. One could then wrongly argue that the
controls were effective because flows under ECB
declined after restrictions were imposed. But the
original objective reducing overall inflows
was not met. Careful analyses of effectiveness have
demonstrated that the Indian framework has not
delivered on the objectives of macroeconomic
policy.
Natarajans article is about the least interesting

end of the capital account openness puzzle. There
are two interesting questions to be asked. First, in
what order and sequence should controls be
removed? Second, what auxiliary actions should
India undertake in order to become resilient to the
new challenges that an open capital account
introduces? If you have air travel, you will have
To a significant extent, this is about generational

change. One generation ago, it was interesting and
fashionable to discuss whether India should
liberalise its capital account or not. Things have
changed. We are now a $2 trillion economy, with
capable global firms, with aspirations for a
sophisticated financial system, with a liberal
democracy that makes it infeasible for the
government to arbitrarily restrict the freedoms of
citizens. In such a country, what merits attention
is the sequence and timing of capital account
liberalisation, and the establishment of institutional
capability for fiscal, financial and monetary policy.
BALANCING ACT
Two important visitors to the capital recently

Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz of Saudi
Arabia and Irans Foreign Minister Mohammad
Javad Zarif, underlined the extraordinary
opportunities and challenges that await India in a
region that does not always get the political
attention it deserves in New Delhi.
As the principal source of our rapidly growing

energy imports, a major trading partner, and an
important destination for expatriate labour, the
weight of the Gulf region can only continue to grow
in Indias national security calculus. Meanwhile,
the growing political rivalry and sectarian tension
between the regions two most important countries,
Saudi Arabia and Iran, is destabilising the Gulf
and undermining the subcontinents security
environment.
The positive tone in Indias conversations with

Crown Prince Salman and Zarif should not mask
considerable asymmetry in Delhis ties with Riyadh
and Tehran. Indias relations with Saudi Arabia
have seen significant expansion since the visit of
King Abdullah in 2006 and Prime Minister
Manmohan Singhs return visit in 2010. Over the
last decade, Delhis traditional wariness about
Riyadh has yielded to political warmth, with Saudi
Arabia offering effective cooperation in countering
terrorism, opening the door for defence engagement
and signalling neutrality in Indias disputes with
Pakistan.
If Indias relations with the Kingdom are better
than ever before, its ties with the Islamic Republic
have been set back over the last decade because of
Tehrans conflict with the international community
[53]

over its controversial nuclear programme. Sanctions
against Tehran resulted in a decline in Indias oil
imports from the country and constrained its ability
to expand economic ties with Iran. Fortunately,
greater flexibility on the part of Irans new
president, Hassan Rouhani, has raised hopes for
ending the nuclear dispute and lifting international
sanctions.
Both have a big influence in shaping the

evolution of Pakistan and Afghanistan in the
coming years. Delhi will be right to avoid being
drawn into the disputes between Riyadh and
Tehran. But a responsible Indian approach to the
Gulf must include a quiet effort to encourage the
Kingdom and the Republic to seek an enduring
reconciliation.
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But the very prospect of a nuclear reconciliation

between Iran and the US has generated deep
concerns in Saudi Arabia, which fears Shia Iran is
out to destabilise the Sunni Arab kingdoms. As
Riyadh and Tehran both look to India to improve
their regional and international positions, Delhi has
a delicate balancing act at hand. Both countries

are critical for Indias energy security. Over the
near term, Saudi Arabia will loom larger in Indias
economic calculus, but Irans long-term potential is
immense.
WHY GRIEVANCE REDRESS CANNOT WAIT
The lack of an effective mechanism to deal with

everyday grievances of people is amongst the
biggest weaknesses of governance in India today.
This was recognised and acknowledged by MPs
cutting across party lines when they spoke in
favour of adopting the Sense of House resolution
in 2011, wherein Parliament collectively promised
people a framework for citizens charters.
Despite the critical nature of The Right of

Citizens to Time-bound Delivery of Goods and
Services and Redressal of their Grievances Bill, the
15th Lok Sabha ended its last session in February
2014 without enacting the legislation. The bill was
introduced in response to widespread public
demand for a decentralised mechanism for redress
of day-to-day complaints of people regarding nondelivery of essential goods and services.
According to available data, the 15th Lok Sabha
has been the least productive in the history of
independent India. The right and ability to disrupt
Parliament has been claimed by most political
parties, including members of the ruling alliance.
One of the greatest casualties of the resulting
parliamentary paralysis has been the grievances
redressal bill that, despite enjoying the support of
all major parties including the UPA and the BJP,
could not be taken up for consideration and
passage.
The grievances redressal bill, which is now set
to lapse with the dissolution of the Lok Sabha,
mandated all public authorities to develop and
publish justiciable citizens charters. Any violation
of the charter would constitute a grievance. It
provided every person the right to make a complaint
and created an architecture for them to receive a
[54]
time-bound written reply. If the concerned officer

failed to effectively redress complaints in a timebound manner, it provided for imposition of a
penalty to be paid from the officers pocket.
The bill had the potential to hold both the
implementing functionary and the supervisory
structure accountable. It sought to make the
supervisory superstructure the linchpin for the
redress of grievances, by holding supervisors
(grievances redressal officers) accountable for not
sorting out peoples complaints. The bill had the
potential to ensure the delivery of public services,
rights and social sector entitlements to the people
of the country.
The current proposal of the government, to
promulgate an ordinance on grievances redressal,
has met with a mixed response with several parties
opposing it. The key concern with bringing a
legislation through an ordinance is that it should
only be done under special circumstances by
invoking the powers given in Article 123 of the
Constitution. An ordinance prevents debate and
public consultation on important issues as it
bypasses the normal parliamentary procedure. It
prevents political parties and citizens from
expressing legitimate concerns and dissent about
the legislation, its provisions and impact.
These concerns are well founded and have, in
fact, been the reason why citizens groups have
opposed ordinances in the past, such as the recently
proposed ordinance to amend the RTI Act. But the
moot question is what can be a greater
emergency in a parliamentary democracy than the
non-functioning of Parliament itself? A critical bill,
supported by all major political parties, has failed

to get enacted only because Parliament did not
function due to disruptions. While the government
failed to move the bill through Parliament,
Parliament as a whole has failed in delivering on
its promise made to the people in the Sense of
House resolution.
Further, as per the provisions of the

Constitution, any ordinance that is promulgated
will have to be ratified by Parliament within six
months of its promulgation or within six weeks of
the commencement of its next session, whichever
is earlier. Parliament, when it reconvenes after the
elections, will have the opportunity to again discuss,
debate and change the provisions of the bill.
The grievances redressal bill is a landmark
legislation as it has the potential, like the RTI Act,
to fundamentally transform the relationship
between a citizen and the bureaucracy, which is
tasked with delivering essential services to people.
People should not be made to indefinitely await
access to justice, which can be initiated through
this law.
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The grievances redressal bill has gone through

a detailed deliberative process. The bill, after being
introduced in the Lok Sabha, was referred to the
Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel,
Public Grievances, Law and Justice, which had
representation of MPs from across party lines. The
committee held several consultations where
different individuals and citizens groups presented
oral evidence on the bill. People from different parts
of the country deposed before the standing
committee and sent their written suggestions to it.
After rigorous debate, the committee gave a detailed
report with several key recommendations for
strengthening the bill.
LOSING THE BAY OF BENGAL
Prime Minister Manmohan Singhs visit to Nay

Pyi-Taw recently to attend a regional summit brings
his decade of leadership of Indian diplomacy to a
virtual close. His first trip abroad after he became
prime minister in 2004 was to Bangkok to attend
the first summit of the very same organisation with
the rather ungainly name, the Bay of Bengal
Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic
Cooperation (BIMSTEC). His last foreign tour to
the BIMSTEC summit in Myanmar is a good
moment to reflect on the gap between Singhs
ambitious regional vision and the difficulties he has
had in implementing it.
When the BIMSTEC was set up in 1997, it

seemed a huge opportunity for India to break out
of the stagnant regionalism in the subcontinent. If
the South Asian Association for Regional
Cooperation (SAARC) was hobbled by Pakistans
hostility towards India, the BIMSTEC was to
provide an alternative route to regional integration
between the eastern subcontinent and Southeast
Asia. But the BIMSTEC today remains as ineffective
as the SAARC. Delhi must own a lot of the blame.
Consider, for example, the question of transborder connectivity, which has become a buzz
word in Indian diplomacy over the last few years.
Singh has made connecting Indias Northeast to
Southeast Asia through Myanmar a major strategic
objective. India is also the coordinator for
connectivity projects in the BIMSTEC. Delhi has
sought to promote two different important trans-
border transport projects. One would link the

Indian mainland to the Northeast through
Myanmar with a multi-modal transport corridor.
By skirting the long Siliguri Corridor, the project
would provide the Northeast much-needed access
to the Bay of Bengal. The second was to develop
an overland highway between Indias Northeast
and Thailand through Myanmar. After more than
a decade of talk, both projects remain unfinished.
Thailand has also been knocking at Indias door
for another trilateral project, which would build a
sea/ land corridor across the Bay of Bengal, from
Chennai to Dawei on the southern tip of Myanmar
and then on to Bangkok. The Asian Development
Bank has been eager to support connectivity projects
within the subcontinent and between South and
Southeast Asia.
Japan would like to build networks linking
peninsular India to Southeast Asia. China has been
pressing India to join in the construction of
overland connectivity between southwest China,
Myanmar and Bangladesh the so-called BCIM
corridor. The United States has extended strong
political support to developing horizontal
connectivity between India and East Asia. Many
international investors have shown interest in
developing a trans-shipment hub in the Andaman
and Nicobar Islands, which sit at the very heart of
the Bay of Bengal and right on top of one of the
worlds busiest sea lines of communication.
[55]

Never before have so many different
international actors both friends and rivals
been so eager to promote strategic connectivity
between India and its eastern neighbourhood. Yet,
Delhi has failed to capitalise on the opportunities
that have presented themselves over the last decade.
Where it did make the right moves, for example
with Dhaka, the UPA government lost its political
nerve at the last moment, thereby squandering the
possibilities for comprehensive transit arrangements
with Bangladesh.
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As India dithered, China deepened trans-frontier

economic integration with most member states of
the BIMSTEC, especially Thailand, Myanmar,
Bangladesh and Nepal. Bhutan and India are the
only exceptions. Sri Lanka, where China is building
much infrastructure, is now central to Beijings
grand objective of building a maritime silk road. If
Indias projects have languished for more than a
decade, China has built oil and gas pipelines linking
its Yunnan province to Myanmars Arakan coast
in barely four years.
For one, the next government must recognise

that the Bay of Bengal is no longer a backwater
but a strategic hub connecting the Indian and
Pacific Oceans as well as China and the Bay of
Bengal. Delhi must match its rhetoric on transborder connectivity with much needed political will
and administrative competence. The foreign office
can set the right goals, but it is up to the rest of the
government to deliver. Indias talk on trans-national
corridors will remain meaningless if it cant improve
connectivity within its border regions. The expansive
goals for rail and road connectivity in the Northeast,
for example, remain largely on paper.
Meanwhile, Chinas Qinghai-Tibet Railway is

ready to move towards Nepal. Beijing has plans to
build high-speed train links from Yunnan into
Thailand, Myanmar and Bangladesh. It is of little
consolation to recall that the Indian Railways,
under the British Raj, was the first to survey the
route for a rail road through Burma to Yunnan in
the late 19th century.
As China transforms the economic and political

geography of the Bay of Bengal, Delhi seems
trapped in a strange lassitude. In urgently
addressing the challenges in the Bay of Bengal,
Singhs successor must focus on a few corrective
policies.
Delhi will have to put in place effective

mechanisms for the timely implementation of key
infrastructure projects, within its frontiers and
across them. Chinas spectacular success in
developing trans-border connectivity is only an
extension of its effective infrastructure development
in its border regions. If the public sector that India
has relied on for implementing strategic projects
across borders has repeatedly disappointed, private
corporations have not shown great enthusiasm
either. Those that did venture across, found
themselves trapped in the domestic political turmoil
of the neighbouring countries and have complained
of a lack of sufficient diplomatic support from
Delhi.
To avoid further marginalisation in the Bay of
Bengal, Delhi needs a strong leadership that can
effectively combine a vigorous strategy for domestic
growth and the rapid development of its border
regions with the imperatives of Indias economic
regionalism. The rest of the world is ready to chip
in.
CRISIS IN CRIMEA
Without a shot being fired, the Crimean republic

in Ukraine is de facto under Russian military control.
With Russian President Vladimir Putin acquiring
parliamentary sanction to invade Ukraine, and with
Ukraine mobilising in response, Europes biggest
military crisis since the Yugoslav wars is unfolding
on the peninsula. Moscow has vowed to keep its
boots on the ground to protect Russian citizens
(including ethnic Russians) and interests.
In other words, Putin is not going to make his

peace with the ouster of his protg, Viktor
Yanukovych, from the Ukrainian presidency. The
lack of leadership from the interim government
makes it difficult for Kiev to deal with what it calls
[56]
an act of war.
The Crimean danger speaks less of the

peninsulas centuries-long history of being the casus
belli between big powers than of the regions
geostrategic significance for modern Russia. After
the Soviet break-up, the Russian navy kept its Black
Sea Fleet at Sevastopol and the Crimea persisted as
Russians favourite holiday destination. In keeping
with his assertiveness in Russias own backyard,
Putin would be loath to let go of this jewel in Czarist
Russias crown. Moreover, Russias interests in its
near abroad are much larger than those of the US
and EU in Ukraine. The Ukrainian economy is in
dire straits.

Moscow is unlikely to honour its $15 billion
bailout agreed with Yanukovych. So the IMF will
have to ensure Kiev gets around $25-30 billion
urgently. Militarily, Ukraine is no match for Russia.
given how intricately Russias economy is tied to

the EUs from Russian gas to its oligarchs billions
in European banks Moscow fears little on this
count too.
The Wests options are limited. Natos inability

to respond beyond words of condemnation during
Russias war against Georgia in 2008 may have
convinced Moscow that if it annexed the Crimea
now, little would actually be done to stop it. The
threat of economic sanctions is the best tool, but
Therefore, Russia and the West must choose to

talk and work out a formula that preserves
Ukraines sovereignty and unity, while
guaranteeing the rights of ethnic Russians and
Russian citizens in eastern and southern Ukraine.
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OUTSIDE THE PATENT MONOPOLIES
Recently, there were rumours that the United

States Trade Representative (USTR) was getting
ready to announce trade enforcement actions or
sanctions against India over its intellectual property
rights regime. The Obama administration has been
under pressure from the US Chamber of Commerce
and lobby groups, like the Pharmaceutical Research
and Manufacturers of America, to take a tough
stance against Indian rulings that have vetoed
several multinational pharmaceutical company
patents.
The lobbyists are pushing for India to be
classified as a priority foreign country, a label
associated with the worst offenders of patent law.
The row blew over, but not before the USTR had
filed a case at the World Trade Organisation (WTO)
against Indias domestic content requirements for
its solar programme.
In the last few years, the Indian government
and judiciary have taken up major cases on patent
protection for life-saving cancer drugs. Novartiss
drug Glivec was denied patent protection by the
Supreme Court and India granted a compulsory
licence to Bayers drug Nexavar, which treats
kidney and liver cancer.
Compulsory licences are a provision in
international patent norms, including the WTOs
TRIPS agreement, under which a government
permits someone else to manufacture the patented
product without the consent of the patent owner,
usually to lower prices of life-saving drugs and
increase access to them.
This is not the first time that India has taken a
strong stance in the pharmaceutical patent wars.
In 2001, Indian generic manufacturers played a
crucial role in slashing prices of anti-retroviral
(ARV) drugs used against HIV, bringing down the
cost of the drugs per patient per year from around
$15,000 to about $300. Today, the cost of ARV
drugs is as low as $60 per patient per year. This
remarkable achievement was only possible because

at the time, India was not party to WTO
agreements on patent protection.
Indian generic manufacturers were able to
disregard patents, and ended up supplying over
80 per cent of all ARV drugs purchased in the
world. India was recognised as playing a leading
role in providing quality healthcare to people in
It is evident that Indias role in the
pharmaceutical patent wars has great implications
for poor peoples access to healthcare, not just at
home but around the world. Emerging economies
like Brazil and South Africa follow the Indian model
when they modify their intellectual property laws
in order to bar awards to frivolous and obvious
patents, and to allow pre-and post-grant challenges.
For instance, Brazils proposed changes to its patent
policy quote provisions in Indias Patents
(Amendment) Act, 2005. Doctors Without Borders,
meanwhile, has publicly encouraged South Africa
to borrow from India when drafting its new patent
policy.
With markets in the developed world becoming
saturated, multinational drug companies are
increasingly looking to emerging economies with
large populations for sales expansion and growth.
However, their model of intellectual property
protection as an incentive for innovation is running
into obstacles in low- and middle-income countries.
Supporters of the pharmaceutical industry believe
that without patent protections, there will be no
breakthrough innovations and no new life-saving
technologies.
They argue that the high costs of research and
development for new drugs can only be
compensated by patent monopolies that allow
expensive drug prices. Yet, developing economies
are keen on providing affordable healthcare
products for their citizens. The developed world
[57]

itself is beset with unsustainable rising healthcare
costs and is looking for cost-effective innovation. A
reassessment of patent monopolies, especially in the
case of life-saving products, is essential if healthcare
access is to be broadened beyond wealthy patients.
Millions of patients are suffering from many

other poorly managed or untreatable diseases, such
as diabetes or dengue fever. They would greatly
benefit if companies were incentivised to create
therapies at affordable prices that were widely
accessible. India must not slow the pace of
developing new therapies, nor shy away from the
difficult work of making healthcare available to
all. The rest of the world is watching.
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Some new models of incentivising medical

research are being proposed. Since large funds are
required for the development of new medical
technologies, scholars have proposed the creation
of attractive prizes, along the lines of the XPrize,
which was instituted to encourage space exploration
by giving successful teams up to $10 million in
awards. The idea behind prizes is that the winning
team receives a large one-time payment, but it
cannot patent the solution, which ensures that the
technology remains in the public domain.
Other models of funding innovation have

already seen success in the marketplace, such as
the public-private partnership that created a new
rotavirus vaccine. This vaccine, called Rotavac, is
now sold in India and other developing countries
by Bharat Biotech, at profit, for about $1 per dose.
THE REAL NAVAL DISASTER
Beginning in August 2013, when the Indian

naval submarine Sindhurakshak sank, stories have
been appearing about naval disasters,
culminating with the fire on the Sindhuratna,
another submarine of the same class, which
resulted in the death of two officers. This led to the
resignation of the naval chief, Admiral D.K. Joshi,
owning moral responsibility for all the incidents.
This is only the second time that a naval chief

has demitted office before time. In the case of
Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat in 1998, while the
majority view of the navy, including retired officers,
was that the manner in which he was dismissed
was wrong, some believed that he was too
autocratic and had overstepped his authority. In
Joshis case, however, there is unanimity that he
was not to blame but has taken a bold, honourable
and courageous step on his own, setting a fine
example for all.
Amidst the noise and hullabaloo, the disasters
have not been critically examined to see whether
they deserve to be termed as such. Let us get an
obvious error out of the way: the incident of the
empty gunshell fired from ICGS Sangram that hit
the Western Naval Command headquarters in
February 2014. Sangram is a vessel of the Coast
Guard, which is an independent service and has
nothing to do with the navy.
Coming to the navy, the collision of INS Talwar

with a fishing vessel in December 2013 could only
have been due to misjudgement on the part of the
ships staff or negligence of the fishing vessel crew.
Pending completion of a board of inquiry, the
commanding officer has been suspended. For all
[58]
we know, he may be exonerated, but if found guilty,

will be punished. Similarly, the brush of INS
Tarkash with the jetty was due to human error,
but it was no disaster.
Ships have been having arguments with jetties
from the days of Lord Nelson, and there will be
any number of such cases filed away in the archives
of not only the Indian navy but navies all over the
world. The grounding incidents of Sindhughosh,
Betwa, Vipul, Mysore and Airavat look big taken
collectively but are not uncommon individually.
A ship can be blamed for grounding if it strays
from a marked channel or goes into a charted
navigational hazard. But if the incident is
attributable to an underwater and unidentified
object not marked on the chart, perhaps as a result
of silting and lack of dredging, it will be most unfair
to levy any blame on the ships staff.
All these incidents have been or are being
examined thoroughly by the navy and disciplinary
or corrective action has or will be taken on
completion of the boards of inquiry. In none of the
cases discussed so far does the buck travel any
further than the captain of the ship.
Here, it is essential to point out that the captain
of a ship is a prize appointment and the individual
is selected by top officers of the navy after a detailed
examination of his service record and proficiency.
However, there is no escape from human error.
According to reports, the navy chief had already
taken corrective action by ordering a reappraisal
of the performance of key officers and affected
many transfers.

The collision with the jetty and the groundings
were not disasters, either in the manner in which
they happened or for the damages caused, which
were not substantial except maybe in one case.
These incidents should not even have found their
way to the media. The navy would do well to
investigate how this has happened. This is not to
suggest that they should have been brushed under
the carpet.
The submarines are old and well past their sellby date. The navy has repeatedly apprised the
defence minister and the MoD of this. The case for
replacement of submarines is at least 10 years old.
This is the true disaster, which has only now
been highlighted because these accidents have
occurred. It remains to be seen if the MoD makes
fast progress on the acquisition of submarines so
that such disasters, or worse, do not take place.
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Proper procedure must be followed and

necessary action taken, but unnecessary reporting
in the media and painting a frightening picture of
naval disasters is wrong. Admiral Joshi quite
rightly spoke of them as minor incidents, and
neither the media nor the ministry of defence had
cause to disbelieve him.
Commodore Commanding Submarines and his

inspection team. Any charge of negligence is
therefore incorrect. We should avoid passing
judgement till we get to the bottom of the matter.
We are now left with three incidents that are

of a serious nature. The fire on INS Konkan seems
to be an isolated incident and one does not have
any details to comment on it. It is, however,
pertinent to note that this happened on the east
coast and, therefore, should not be held against
the C in C Western Naval Command, who seems
to be in the line of fire. The Sindhurakshak and
Sindhuratna incidents have both occurred on Kiloclass submarines and can be grouped together,
although the cause may not be the same.
In fact, full details are not yet known beyond
the fact that there were some explosions on the
former and smoke in a compartment on the latter.
The Sindhuratna was on post-refit trials and had
on board the Western Naval Command
On one issue, however, the navy can be faulted.

Content with the belief that the incidents were of
a minor nature, it allowed the media to hype them
and did not make timely efforts to clear the air. Its
public relations machine is to blame. To draw an
analogy, when a number of MiG-21 incidents were
taking place not too long ago, the aircraft were
labelled as flying coffins. But nobody was calling
for the heads of the air force hierarchy.
The mystery behind Admiral Joshis resignation
remains. What triggered his resignation when he
had recently dismissed most of these incidents as
minor? One can only conjecture that the MoD,
if not the minister himself, and the media were
hounding him and he was bearing everything
manfully till the Sindhuratna incident proved to be
the last straw.
CLEARING THE AIR
A growing public obsession with air pollution,

which experts have likened to a nuclear winter,
appears to have prompted Chinese Premier Li
Keqiang to declare war on the toxic quality of
air found across Chinese cities. At the opening of
the annual meeting of the largely rubber-stamp
legislature, Li acknowledged that Chinas
environmental problems have hit crisis levels, and
that its growth model would have to be adjusted
to account for the alarming degradation of air and
water quality.
India, which was recently clubbed with China
in the levels of PM 2.5 in its urban centres fine
particulates that can penetrate the lungs and
contribute to asthma, cancer and heart trouble
could also do with a renewed focus on air pollution.
When the annual Yale Environmental

Performance Index in January ranked India a
dismal 174 (out of 178) on air quality, the official

response was, predictably, to question its
methodology and squabble over reports that Delhis
PM 2.5 concentration had surpassed Beijings.
But Indias own Central Pollution Control Board
in 2011 found that nearly all cities were in violation
of national standards for respirable particulate
matter. Various studies have detailed the health
costs of such pollution, with one even suggesting
that air pollution is the fifth-largest killer in India
and another estimating a loss of 3.3 years from life
expectancy at birth for the millions who breathe
dirty city air. Ignoring the data will not reduce the
severity of the problem or the scale of the challenge.
Yet the debate on air quality in this country
as on a range of environmental issues has been
derailed by a whimsical politics and ideological
posturing, especially by those in charge of the
[59]

crucial environment ministry. A paralysing
confrontation has been set up between
environmental concerns and growth, a false choice
that has hurt both growth prospects and the vital
project to protect the environment. The
environment debate needs to be rescued from its
contrived oppositions in order to explore the

opportunities that are created when industry is
greened and growing incomes open up spaces for
the adoption of more eco-friendly policies.
THE STAGE IS SET

Foremost among them is an unprecedented
awakening among the youth and women in the
wake of the creation of a voter education division
in the EC. Its programme, SVEEP (systematic voters
education and electoral participation), has
metamorphosed voter apathy into a participation
revolution. Four years ago, only 10 to 12 per cent
of young voters who were 18-19 years old were
enrolled. Now, the figure has gone up by an
impressive margin. National Voters Day (NVD),
observed on January 25, was specifically created to
awaken the youth and women. The four NVDs
that have been held so far have achieved enormous
voter registration. The addition of over 100 million
voters is largely a result of youth mobilisation
through the NVDs.
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So India is all set to witness the biggest-ever

election. With 81 crore voters and 11 million
personnel conducting the polls at 9.36 lakh polling
stations using 1.4 million EVMs, the Indian election
is considered the biggest such event in the world.
This is a management event that expects zero error
and 100 per cent success. For the Election
Commission, a 60 per cent successful election, or
even 80 or 90 per cent success, is not an option.
The EC is now a very experienced institution,

with a well-oiled machinery. Its foremost concern
every time is, of course, a peaceful poll. The safety
of voters, of polling staff and even of security forces
is always an overriding concern. We cannot afford
to lose any lives. The muscle power of the proverbial
bahubali or strongman is now history. Vulnerability
mapping, deployment of paramilitary forces and
the 247 video watch on them ensures that they
behave.
The other ongoing issue concerns the Model
Code of Conduct (MCC). This is the most dreaded
weapon in the hands of the EC. Every leader worth
his salt shudders even at the thought of receiving
a model code notice. Many citizens, however, feel
disappointed that all that the EC does against
defaulters is issue warnings, reprimands,
condemnation or censure. They probably expect
drastic action like the cancellation of elections,
derecognition of the political party concerned or
even the registration of criminal cases. They go to
the extent of calling the EC toothless. This perception
is absolutely flawed. The MCCs moral authority is
extremely high. The fact that even the issue of a
notice hits the headlines and becomes a subject of
editorial comment for days on end is a major
punishment for the defaulting politician, who
cannot afford to lose even 1 per cent of public
support. Have you seen any hate speech in the last
few years? Personal attacks have become a rare
occurrence. The abuse of government facilities by
the ruling party has been reduced to zero.
There have also been new developments in the
last few years. The impact of these will be seen in
the forthcoming elections for the first time.
[60]
Voter turnout has also increased phenomenally

in the 22 states that went to polls in the last two
years. Fourteen of these recorded their highest ever
turnouts. In 17 of the 22 states that went to polls
after the introduction of SVEEP, women outvoted
men, despite an adverse gender ratio.
The none of the above (NOTA) option will
be used for the first time in a general election,
though it was used in the five state elections held
over November-December 2013. Since this has not
created the right to reject, I do not expect to see
many people using it.
A significant new element would be the voter
verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT), though it will
be implemented in just about 20,000 polling stations
because of manufacturing constraints. Indian EVMs
are absolutely reliable and, as Chief Election
Commissioner V.S. Sampath said, they have stood
the test of time. Yet a VVPAT answers the demands
of the last of the doubting Thomases.
Another game-changer will be the distribution
of voter slips by the EC itself. Ever since it was
introduced in the Bihar assembly election in 2010,
it has significantly enhanced voter turnout, by
making it convenient for voters to locate their
booths and their serial number on the electoral roll.
It is also accepted as an alternative ID. Since it is
issued just a few days before the polls, it has become
the most dependable ID.

Another first will be the induction of IPS officers
as police observers, a practice first tried in the 2011
West Bengal assembly elections to great effect.
Earlier, only IAS officers were deployed as general
observers and IRS officers as expenditure observers.
Since the SVEEP is a major trust area, as Sampath
announced, Indian Information Service officers will
now be sent to see that awareness generation
activities are on track too.
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The EC is a very dynamic organisation and is

always learning. The fact that a whole army of
bright bureaucrats works overtime behind the scenes
ensures the constant flow of new ideas. One such
idea came from a young woman collector in

Arunachal Pradesh a live webcast from some of
the remotest polling booths. It was so effective that
the EC made it an all-India practice. One interesting
point to be noted about this greatest man-made
exercise is that it is conducted entirely by the muchderided bureaucracy. An election is their
opportunity to prove their competence, as they do
every time. When insulated from political pressures,
they work under the hawk eye of the EC to conduct
an event that Hillary Clinton recently described as
the global gold standard.
BACK WITH A VENGEANCE
THE second chapter of South Sudans civil war

began with characteristic brutality on February
18th. The White Army, an ethnic Nuer militia,
announced its return to Malakal, the capital of oilproducing Upper Nile state, with the wholesale
slaughter of civilians. Shocked aid workers reported
marauding gunmen raping and murdering the
patients at the towns only functioning hospital.
The partial recapture of Malakal confirmed

what many observers had feared: the January 23rd
ceasefire was used to regroup and rearm. The forces
are scrambling for territory before the rainy season
in April closes nearly two-thirds of the countrys
roads and tracks to vehicles. Although 10,000
people have died and three-quarters of a million
more have been displaced since fighting began on
December 15th, no meaningful solution has been
mooted.
The political power struggle between Salva Kiir,

South Sudans president, and Riek Machar, his
sacked former vice-president, has degenerated into
fighting that often pits their respective communities,
the Dinka and Nuer, against each other. The men
appear to be contemplating a long war. A report
released by the UN on February 21st accused both
sides of perpetrating atrocities against civilians.
Government forces are accused of ethnically
targeted mass killings in the capital, Juba, as well
as razing Mr Machars home town of Leer.
Meanwhile, mass graves and streets littered with
bodies have been discovered in the strategic town
of Bor, which has changed hands four times in the
conflict.
Much-heralded negotiations in neighbouring
Ethiopia have so far brought only a hollow ceasefire
that has been flouted continually. The talks have
been an exercise in distracting the outside world
while the battle rages, says a diplomat. Observers
from IGAD, a club of East African nations, who
were meant to oversee the ceasefire, have been
ineffective. Mediation efforts are hamstrung by the
presence of Ugandan troops fighting on the side of
Mr Kiirs forces. Mr Machar has demanded their
withdrawal. The American government has
rebuked Uganda and warned of the potential for
regional conflict. Sudan, the rump country that
remained after the 2011 north-south break-up, has
so far stood on the sidelines. But with oil
production, on which both countries rely, down
by almost a half since December, it may choose to
intervene.
UNMISS, the UN mission in South Sudan, has
been reinforced but is struggling to protect more
than 75,000 civilians who are sheltering in its bases.
[61]

Fighting recently broke out between different ethnic
groups in the Malakal camp. At another, in
Rumbek, UN trucks have been used to ring the
fence and prevent locals throwing rocks at those
sheltering inside. And there are desperate scenes
of suffering in Unity State. Thousands of civilians

have fled into remote swampland where
humanitarian workers say they are surviving on
water-lily roots.
SPECIAL, STRATEGIC RELATIONSHIP

nations for generations to come.
So what should we strive to accomplish, given
what we have already forged? During his trip,
Biden articulated a vision of a half trillion dollars
of bilateral trade, quintupling our current levels.
We must strive to create more open and transparent
trade and investment regimes that make all our
citizens more prosperous. Stronger enforcement of
intellectual property and patent protection is not
just good for American companies but will also
protect Indias entrepreneurs, content creators and
investors. We should strive to conclude a bilateral
investment treaty that will greatly boost our ability
to achieve the ambitious goal set forth by Biden.
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US vice-president Joseph Biden declared last

July that India and the US will shape peace and
prosperity in the 21st century. Through hard work
and firm commitment, we have established a lasting
partnership that is equipped to meet not just todays
news but tomorrows global challenges.
Our successes are significant: a nearly fivefold

expansion of US-India trade between 2000-12 to
reach almost $100 billion, a thriving defence
relationship that is founded on a common strategic
vision and a commitment to expand our partnership
across most fields of human endeavour from
education to innovation, intelligence sharing to
counterterrorism, space collaboration to energy
cooperation including in areas that once seemed
impossible given where our relations were just a
few short years ago.
That does not mean our relationship does not
have real challenges to overcome. Given recent
events, many wonder whether US-India ties have
plateaued. Participatory democracy prides itself in
the rough-and-tumble of open discourse across our
vibrant media and our respective political cultures.
When differences of opinion arise, we sort through
them in a healthy, open, vigorous public debate
that befits our values.
I assure you the challenges to the bilateral
relationship pale in comparison to the strength of
our enduring commitment. As Indias ambassador
to the US eloquently noted just two weeks ago,
The grand strategy underwriting our ties is
fundamentally sound.
It is becoming widely accepted that our
converging interests will shape Indo-Pacific strategic
and economic geography, and with it the future of
the 21st century and half the worlds population
that call this region home.
Our counterterrorism, intelligence and law

enforcement cooperation will keep our peoples more
safe; our diplomatic and service-to-service
partnership in the Indian Ocean will keep vital sea
lanes free for navigation and commerce; and the
co-development and co-production of defence
platforms will enhance the security of both our
[62]
In a globalized world, a relationship like ours

cant be focussed on developments in Delhi and
Washington only, nor can it be limited to our
bilateral interests. India is an essential partner in
Americas broader engagement with Asia, where
our interests naturally converge.
Over the course of this century, our governments
need to work with partners across the Indo-Pacific
region to ensure that all countries can enjoy the
benefits of peace, stability and freedom that come
with open societies and open markets. To that
purpose, we should seize the historic opportunity
afforded by Myanmars opening to connect South
and Southeast Asia into an integrated economic
landscape. Through our trilateral dialogue with
India and Japan, we are doing just that.
We are similarly working together to ensure a
prosperous, stable, secure future for Afghanistan
by working to connect the economies of South and
Central Asia. India has committed more than $2
billion in aid to increase prosperity and stability in
Afghanistan. It has improved its transit trade with
Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The US is helping Afghanistan access regional
energy supplies through efforts to advance the
CASA-1000 hydropower initiative and the TAPI
natural gas pipeline. We are also helping increase
regional trade through rail and road connectivity.
In short, we are helping link up the markets of
the least economically integrated neighbourhood

in the world to India, one of the most dynamic
economies in Asia.
monsoon forecasting, water resources, forestry and

agriculture and space research.
At its core, our relationship is between our two

peoples and our societies. Our educational
institutions, research facilities, corporate
boardrooms, families, media and state- and locallevel governments are forging strong, diverse
linkages that buttress the work governments are
doing.
Working together, we have advanced the USIndia relationship in ways that will deliver
undeniable benefits for both our peoples. We have
forged a partnership that advances our values and
interests even as we witness the emergence of a
truly globalized world brought closer by
technology and innovation, but still contending
with the ills of inequality, conflict and
environmental degradation.
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Our landmark civil nuclear agreement will

enable American companies to assist India in
building state-of-the-art reactors, capable of lighting
cities and powering factories even through the
hottest of Indias summers or coldest of winters.
We are also pioneering cooperation in areas such
as sustainable and renewable energy, weather and
And at this strategic moment, the opportunity

for the US and India to work together to improve
lives in both our countries and the world has never
been more important.
!!!!!
[63]
CHRONICLE
IAS ACADEMY
MOMENTUM
10TH MARCH 2014 TO 16TH MARCH 2014
Call: 9953120676, 9582263947

CONTENTS
TOPICS
Pg. No.
National ........................................................................................................................ 3-4

International................................................................................................................ 5-7
India and the World ................................................................................................ 8-9
Economy ................................................................................................................... 10-15
Health ....................................................................................................................... 18-19
News in Brief ......................................................................................................... 20-29
Editorials .................................................................................................................. 30-58
In search of a second revolution ................................................................................ 30
Book the law not the victim ....................................................................................... 31
Leave the RBI alone ..................................................................................................... 32
West is responsible for Ukraine crisis ..................................................................... 33
Farming happiness ...................................................................................................... 35
Mini capitals for mega development ....................................................................... 35
Cheering is no duty, jeering is no crime .................................................................. 37
Nalanda is not about nostalgia ................................................................................. 38
Small states, big problems ......................................................................................... 38
Regulating stem cell therapy ................................................................................... 40
No room for complacency .......................................................................................... 41
North easts Myanmar connect ................................................................................. 41
The many shades of grey in Ukraine....................................................................... 43

The poor without the benefits .................................................................................... 45
Why RBI should be buying more dollars ............................................................... 47
Catalytic change to planning ..................................................................................... 47
The worlds changing energy map .......................................................................... 49
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Clearing the water ....................................................................................................... 50

Banking on insecurity ................................................................................................. 51
In the dark ..................................................................................................................... 52
Score one for CCE ......................................................................................................... 52
Humanity denied ......................................................................................................... 53
Law and lag .................................................................................................................. 54
Irresolute on Colombo ................................................................................................. 55
Choice in Crimea .......................................................................................................... 56
One report card is not enough ................................................................................... 56
Weekly Current Affairs 10 March to 16 March, 2014

th
th
[3]
NATIONAL
UN WOMEN UNVEILS REPORT ON INDIAN WOMEN
transformative, changes in their lives over the
past decade compared to previous
generations.
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A new UN Women report titled Hearts and

Minds: Women of India Speak revealed that
women across India have unanimously opined that
there is a direct relation between gender-based
violence and alcoholism and dowry.
The survey that was conducted in 5 states
Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh,
Odisha and Rajasthan found that while there
was greater awareness about HIV and AIDS in
select quarters in rural India, the awareness level
remains very low and associated stigma and
discrimination is very high.
The survey was conducted over a year in 5
states where women were spoken to individually
and in groups. Based on their views the report
found that
! Some women felt they were more aware of
their rights and more were reporting violence

to the police than before.
! Child marriage was cited as common as
female foeticide, though it reduced from the

earlier level due to legislation that has made
sex-determination illegal.
! In terms of womens empowerment, most
feel that there have been positive, even some
! They said they had greater visibility, more
education and employment, better healthrelated access, facilities and social security
cover especially for pregnant and lactating
mothers, among other things.
! However, they raised many issues that remain
unaddressed such as access to water and
sanitation, housing, roads, electricity, lack of
employment options and skills training.
! In many rural families in India, there is still a
preference for investing in education for boys
as compared to girls, especially beyond the
primary level
The report ensures that the voices of those who
remain socially and economically marginalised are
meaningfully reflected in India's policies and the
emerging global Post-2015development agenda. The
Gender Equality Goal, developed by UN Women
calls for increased participation of women in
decision-making. In the context of the upcoming
elections, this is a pertinent issue as despite the
advances made through Panchayats, women
account for only 10 per cent of seats in Parliament.
SC SETS DEADLINE FOR CASES AGAINST MPs, MLAs
A Supreme Court Bench headed by Justice R.M.

Lodha directed the lower court to wrap up trials
within a year of framing of charges in cases
involving sitting MPs and MLAs. Further the Bench
said that if the case is not completed within a year
the trial courts will have to give explanation to the
Chief Justice of the respective High Court. The
bench, however, said the period can be extended
by the Chief Justice of the High Court if he is
satisfied with the reason given by trial judge for
not completing the trial within this period.
With this, the SC has closed the option for

politicians to enjoy membership of the legislative
body despite being charged in a heinous offence.
It said all such proceedings involving

lawmakers must be conducted on a day-to-day
basis in order to expedite the trial.
The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR),

a not-for-profit organization that analyses elections
and candidates, says 1,460 serving MPs and state
[4]
The court passed the order on a PIL filed by an

NGO, Public Interest Foundation, seeking its
direction for expeditious trial in cases involving
lawmakers. The NGO contended that MPs and
MLAs continue to be Members of Parliament and
Assembly for a long time due to delay in
proceedings.

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legislators are facing criminal charges. ADR
prepared the data based on information provided
by politicians to the Election Commission before
submitting themselves to the electorate. Data
revealed that the current Lok Sabha has 162 MPs

with criminal cases against them. More than half
of these MPs have an average pendancy of more
than seven years.
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDICATORS

IMPROVING IN BIMARU STATES
cent of all the SCs, 52 per cent of all the STs
and 44 per cent of all Muslims in the country.
! The importance of good governance and
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According to the latest data released by the

Institute of Applied Manpower Research (IAMR)
the human development indicators across poorer
states with a high concentration of SCs and STs
are now catching up with the national average.
However, when comparing the Scheduled Castes
and the Scheduled Tribes with Muslims in terms of
human development input and outcome indicators,
Muslims have consistently improved better than
other marginalised groups.
massive social mobilisation by State

governments gets reflected in the performance
of all the social groups. For instance, the SCs
and the OBCs in Delhi, Himachal Pradesh,
Tamil Nadu and Kerala are better off than
the upper castes in Bihar, Chhattisgarh and
Uttar Pradesh in terms of various health
indicators.
Findings of the report:
! Socially disadvantaged groups are starting to
! The SCs in Delhi and Kerala have higher
literacy rates than the upper castes in Bihar

and Rajasthan.
share benefits of the process of human

development.
! The
eight poorer States Bihar,

Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh,
Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and
Uttarakhand are home to nearly 48 per
Bimaru States
! Muslims in Jammu & Kashmir and A.P. are
better than Hindus not only in their own

States but also in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya
Pradesh, Bihar and Gujarat in terms of some
health outcomes.
! As the mainstream population in the
The BIMARU states are four northern Indian

states - Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and
Uttar Pradesh. BIMARU is an acronym formed
from the first letters of the names of the states. It
was coined by Ashish Bose in the mid-1980s.
BIMARU has a resemblance to a Hindi word
"Bimar" which means sick. This was used to
describe the bad state of economy in backward
states Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar
Pradesh. Later Odisha was included in the list
resulting in BIMAROU. Several studies, including
those by the UN, showed that the performance of
the BIMARU states affected the GDP growth rate
of India. Some of these states are also a part of Red
Corridor. Since some of these states have now
started to advance faster than some of the
developed states, the concept of BIMARU is starting
to become outdated.
northeast, the STs have social indicators that

are a lot better than the forest dwelling STs
in the central and eastern belt of India.
! The STs, especially in States affected by
extremist violence, are only worse off than

other social groups not only in their respective
States but also their counterparts in the rest
of the country
The report an updated version of the Human

Development Report-2011: Towards Social
Inclusion ranks Delhi, Kerala, Himachal
Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab among the best
performing States in human development
indicators, while Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Madhya
Pradesh, Jharkhand and Odisha are the worst
performers. Most other States, including Gujarat,
have more or less remained the same.
!!!!!

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[5]
INTERNATIONAL
US TO CEDE CONTROL OF ICANN
towards the privatisation of internet management.
It had a contract with the US Department of
Commerce to run the DNS.
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Recently, Washington announced that it would

soon cede control over a core function of the
internet leading to reorganization of the institution.
Since the revelations by Edward Snowden on the
extent of American spying on governments and
individuals, there has been worldwide clamour to
end US dominance over the internet.
Recently, the commerce department announced

that it would not extend the contract to the ICANN
when it expires in September 2015. It has asked
ICANN to prepare a transition plan for more broadbased governance of the DNS system, through
consultations with all global stakeholders. The US
decision to widen the base of internet governance
was not unexpected.
The non-profit organisation called the Internet

Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
(ICANN) located near Los Angeles can be
conceived as a massive post office that lets zillions
of information bits go from a point of origin to an
The pressure for reorganising internet
intended destination. At the heart of it is the domain management has come not only from countries like
naming system (DNS), a method of sorting mail in
China and Russia, but also
a post office.
ICANN
from American partners
This
involves
organising a code that
lends a unique identity
to each user and
facilitates easy communication among them.
The DNS is what makes
the internet tick, by
adjudicating potential
disputes and maintaining the master list of
various addresses and
dividing them into
different categories.
This system was
initially run by one
man, an American
scientist,
Jonathan
Postel, in the University
of Southern California,
on a part-time basis
under a contract with
the Pentagon. The
organisation he ran, the
Internet
Assigned
Numbers Authority
(IANA), was put under
ICANN, established in
1998, as the first step
[6]
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names

and Numbers (ICANN) headquartered in the Playa
Vista section of Los Angeles, California, is a nonprofit organisation that coordinates the Internets
global domain name system. The Internet Assigned
Numbers Authority (IANA) a department of
ICANN is responsible for managing the DNS Root
(Domain Name System Root) and the numbering
system for IP addresses.
ICANN was created on September 18, 1998,

and incorporated on september 30, 1998.
ICANN is responsible for the coordination of
maintenance and methodology of several databases
of unique identifiers related to the namespaces of
the Internet, and ensuring the networks stable and
secure operation. ICANN maintains registries of
Internet protocol identifiers, and the management
of the top-level domain name space (DNS root
zone), which includes the operation of root name
servers. ICANNs primary principles of operation
have been described as helping preserve the
operational stability of the Internet; to promote
competition; to achieve broad representation of the
global Internet community; and to develop policies
appropriate to its mission through bottom-up,
consensus-based processes.
Source: Wikipedia
like Brazil and allies in the

European Union. In fact,
late last year, the small club
of technical organisations
that runs the internet
called for cutting the
internets umbilical cord
with the US government.
These included ICANN,
the Internet Engineering
Task Force, the Internet
Society, the Internet
Architecture Board, and
the World Wide Web
Consortium. Meanwhile,
the International Telecommunication Union
(ITU), which has long
regulated global telephony,
has become the venue for
a determined bid by
countries such as China,
Russia and Saudi Arabia to
end American primacy
over the internet and
significantly expand the
role of governments.
The US is seeking to
pre-empt this by agreeing

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to relinquish its control over ICANN but setting
the terms for a new arrangement. Announcing the
decision on ICANN, Washington said it would not
accept the replacement of its supervisory role by
another government or an intergovernmental
organisation.
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There will be hard bargaining among key

governments,
the
technical
community,
corporations and civil society groups in finding a
new way to manage the DNS. Seeking to build a
new consensus, ICANN is all set to open
international consultations, which will begin shortly
in Singapore. ICANN is also supporting the
Brazilian government in organising a major
international conference of all stake holders shortly
in Sao Paolo. The ITU members are set to gather
later this year in Busan, South Korea. The stage is
set for a big political battle for the future of the
internet.
not, in the 1970s, India opposed, at the UN, the

direct broadcast satellite technology in the name of
protecting its territorial sovereignty. With an IT
sector that is deeply integrated with the global
economy and contributing nearly 8 per cent of
Indias GDP as well as the worlds third-largest
group of internet users, India does not have the
luxury of idealistic pursuits. Delhis negotiating
position must be rooted firmly in Indias economic
interests. Issue-based coalitions with countries,
companies and civil society groups are critical
for ensuring the best possible outcomes.
Indias interest: India rightly considered

building domestic capabilities as more important
than grandstanding on the global stage about
internet governance. Now, as jostling for internet
management gets rough, India will have to move
with some speed to secure its interests and gain
some say in the ordering of the DNS. At the
international level, India has regrettably been
sending mixed signals on its approach to internet
governance.
India has a long record of posturing at

multilateral forums and shooting itself in the foot
when it comes to national interest. Believe it or
Internet governance is also about Indias

democratic political values.
Indias challenges in negotiating a new
framework for internet governance do not lend
themselves to the old clichs of Indian diplomacy.
Instead, India must strive to find the appropriate
balance between the multiple antinomies that define
the debate. These include tensions between freedom
and state control, human rights and public order,
privacy and collective security, intellectual property
rights and fair use of information, corporate
imperatives and public interest, technical efficiency
and international legitimacy, and multilateralism
and multi stakeholder-ism that brings non-state
actors into the equation.
In the end, governments should and will get
some new responsibilities in the management of
the internet. But India certainly has no interest in
seeing the current universal internet broken into a
splinternet of separate sovereignties.
DEBATE OVER ASSISTED SUICIDE IN SCOTLAND
Recently, the Assisted Suicide (Scotland) Bill was

presented before the House of Lords to legalise
assisted dying. If the bill is supported in the
upper House, it will then pass to the Commons. To
obtain public opinion Scotland has initiated a
parliamentary scrutiny process on the Bill. This
follows a call for views on the legalization of such
a procedure, being published by the Scottish
parliaments health and sports committee.
This issue has polarized opinion in Scotland
and there are clearly strong views on both sides of
the debate. The 11 medical experts are backing a
bill proposed by MSP Margo MacDonald which
would change the law in Scotland. The group also
stated that they believed that the proposals had
sufficient levels of safeguards in place to prevent a
doctor feeling coerced into participating in the process
without being fully convinced of a cases merits.

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In November, 2013 MSP Margo MacDonald

relaunched the Bill before the Scotland government.
A previous attempt to pass the bill was voted down
by MSPs in 2010.
Under the proposed legislation,
! Only those who are terminally ill or who are
suffering from deteriorating progressive

conditions which make life intolerable will
be able to seek assisted suicide.
! Any requests to GPs must be backed up by a
second professional opinion and followed by

a 14-day cooling-off period.
! This process is then repeated again with a
second request, after which one of the doctors

concerned would supply a licensed facilitator
with a prescription to enable assisted suicide
to take place.
[7]

! This facilitator, or friend at the end, has
ASSISTED SUICIDE
Assisted suicide is suicide committed by
someone with assistance from others, typically to
end suffering from a severe physical illness. It is
often confused with euthanasia (sometimes called
mercy killing). Euthanasia is the killing of another
in order to relieve terrible suffering, whereas
assisted suicide is a practice in which an individual
provides a competent patient with assistance, but
where the individual brings about their own death,
such as when a physician provides a prescription
for a lethal dose of medication, upon the patients
request, which the patient intends to use to end
his or her own life.
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no relationship with the patient and is given

the task of collecting the prescription and
agreeing the process of assisted suicide,
including whether the person wishes to say
goodbye to their family and friends.
! If the prescription is not used within 14 days,
it must be returned to the chemist.
Care Not Killing, an umbrella organisation coordinating opposition to the proposed bill, said a
recent survey of members of The Royal College of
General Practitioners (RCGP) suggested that the
vast majority were against the change in the law.
They feel it would be detrimental to the doctorpatient relationship and shift the focus away from
investing in palliative care and treatments for
terminal illnesses. A spokesman for Care Not Killing
said It is reassuring that so many of our doctors
and medical professionals want to focus on good,
compassionate care and not to open their profession
up to the deliberate ending of patients lives.
The Scottish Council on Human Bioethics

(SCHB) expressed concern about the move.
Professor Calum MacKellar, director of research at
SCHB, said, It is inevitable that assisted suicide
would put the most vulnerable people in Scotland
Assisted suicide is legal in Luxembourg, the

Netherlands and Belgium as well as Switzerland.
under pressure to end their lives because they are

afraid of being a burden.
The proposed legislation would provide
protection against criminal and civil liability for
those providing such assistance. Under the 1961
Suicide Act, it remains a criminal offence carrying
up to 14 years in jail to help someone to take their
own life.
SYRIA ADOPTS NEW ELECTION LAW
As President Bashar Assads seven-year term

come to an end on 17th July, 2014 Syria Parliament
has approved a new election law that allows
multiple candidates to run for the post of President.
The new law was formulated on the basis of the
new constitution that was passed in a referendum
in March 2012 that allows multiparty political
system in Syria and multiple Presidential candidates.
The new law provides
! Only Syrian nationals or other person who
have lived in Syria for minimum 10

consecutive years to run for the Presidential
election.
! The Presidential polls will be held between
60 and 90 days before the end of term of
Assad.
! Presidential candidates must be older than
40, must be Syrian, of Syrian parents... must
not have been convicted for a crime... must
not be married to a non-Syrian.
Parliament still has to approve other parts of
the new law relating to legislative and municipal
elections. However, the new law prevents exiled
[8]
opposition leaders from running against President

Bashar al-Assad, as it stipulates candidates must
have lived in Syria for 10 consecutive years.
Khalid Saleh, a member of the main Westernbacked opposition group, the Syrian National
Coalition, while opposing the candidature of Assad
in the presidential elections said the election law
adopted by parliament was illegitimate. The
opposition members also strongly reject its members
participation as candidates against Assad in the
election, as this would imply recognition of the
legitimacy of Assads presence in the elections.
The opposition has categorically refused the
notion of presidential elections being held in Syria
under the current circumstances. The coalition has
called on Assad to step down in favor of a
transitional governing body that would administer
the country until free presidential and parliament
elections can be held.
The Syrian conflict, now entering its fourth year,
has killed more than 140,000 people, sent more
than 2.5 million fleeing for neighboring countries
and destroyed entire blocks in opposition-held areas
of the country.
!!!!!

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INDIA AND THE WORLD

INDIA TO CUT IRAN OIL IMPORTS
Tough international sanctions over the past two
years have cut Iran's oil exports in half, measures
that starved it of hard currency and helped lead it
to the nuclear deal last November. While relaxation
of sanctions has made oil exports easier to arrange
and buyers no longer have to keep reducing
purchases, they were meant to keep import volumes
unchanged from the end of last year.
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India has to cut its Iranian oil imports by nearly

two-thirds from the first quarter after the United
States asked it to hold the shipments at end-2013
levels, in keeping with the nuclear deal easing
sanctions on Tehran. India, with the increases
already made in the January-March loading plans
from Iran, has to cut its purchases of the crude to
about 110,000 barrels per day (bpd) to drop its
intake average to 195,000 bpd for the six months
to July 20.
Under the November 24 agreement between

Iran and six world powers, the OPEC member was
to hold oil exports at "current volumes" of about 1
million bpd, and a message delivered by a top U.S.
energy policy official to Indian ministries in
February was the first clear sign of low tolerance
for any increases.
Since the interim deal was signed, purchases of
Iranian oil by its top four buyers - China, India,
Japan and South Korea - have been creeping up
and together they have taken 1.25 million barrels
per day (bpd) in January against a daily average of
about 935,900 bpd for all of 2013.
Tehran and Western world powers are working

through a landmark deal that runs from January
20 to July 20 that requires Iran to curb its nuclear
program in return for a calibrated release of $4.2
billion it is owed in back payments for its oil.
India, though, is already on track to average

crude loadings of 322,200 bpd from Iran in the
first quarter, according to loading figures provided
by one of the sources. The figures included lifting
plans for 345,000 bpd during January. The sources
said the loading increases mean Indian refiners have
to cut their buys of Iranian oil to about 110,000
bpd over the April 1-July 20 period to meet the
ceiling of 195,000 bpd.
Private refiner Essar Oil will be the biggest
Indian buyer of Iran's oil this financial year,
replacing state-owned Mangalore Refinery and
Petrochemical. A jump in Essar's Iran oil imports
comes as Iran is giving India a discount on crude
and offering free delivery. Essar has offered to take
about 5.36 million barrels in March from Iran,
taking its annual purchases to 105,000 bpd. MRPL's
oil imports from Iran will average about 84,000
bpd this fiscal year versus contract levels of 80,000
bpd.
INDIA'S $1B LOAN OFFER TO BANGLADESH
India has offered another $ 1 billion line of

credit to Bangladesh at higher interest rate for
implementing Bangladeshs priority development
projects. The country has also offered to provide
additional 500 megawatt electricity to Bangladesh
if infrastructures are improved. The offers were
made during a two-day joint secretary level meeting
of the joint working group on trade that ended in
Dhaka. The interest rate of the proposed credit to
be funded by Indian Exim Bank and operated
through its commerce ministry may be LIBOR

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(London Interbank Offered Rate) plus 2 per cent to

2.50 per cent. Commerce ministry officials said that
the Indian team has just made the offer that
Bangladesh can borrow from the fund which is
kept for all South Asian countries, but the team
did not disclose the terms and conditions of the
proposal. The interest rate for the proposed credit
is much higher than the rate for $ 1 billion line of
credit the country is providing to Bangladesh.
In 2010, India announced $ 1 billion credit for
Bangladesh for implementing 14 development
[9]

projects, mostly related to development of
infrastructures to provide transit to India, at an
interest rate of 1.75 per cent. Later in 2011, the
Indian government announced $ 200 million of the
$ 1 billion credit as grant and cut down the interest
rate for the $ 800 million to one per cent. Till now,
India disbursed only one-third of the loan. India
was ready to provide the proposed loan for 5 years
to 15 years term and Bangladesh can utilise it in its
priority projects as India has no conditions
regarding use of the credit.
The Bangladesh side asked its counterpart to

effectively eliminate non-tariff barriers to goods
from Bangladesh to India, upgrade infrastructure
in land customs stations on the Indian side and
recognise the certification issued by BSTI against
food items, withdrawal of countervailing duty on
Bangladeshi readymade garments export to India
and not imposing any ban on export of Indian
essential commodities to Bangladesh.
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Regarding electricity India decided to raise

energy trade with Bangladesh to 1,000 MW from
the existing 500 MW and it is possible through
improving existing infrastructures through some
small investments.
train service, coastal shipping service, motor vehicle

service between the two countries and both the
sides discussed the way forward on these issues.
They also discussed establishing border Haats at
Bangladesh-India (Meghalaya) border, development
of infrastructure and quality of services at
Benapole-Petrapole land port, implementation of
cooperation agreement between Bangladesh
Standard and Testing Institute and Bureau of
Indian Standard.
At the meeting, India stressed on finalising some

agreements for quick implementation of container
INDIA TO PROVIDE RS 4500 CR TO BHUTAN
Government of India (GOI) announced to

provide 4500 crore rupees Assistance Package to
Bhutan for its 11th Five Year Plan. The 11th Five
Year Plan will cover the period 1 July 2013 to 30
June 2018. The package will help the landlocked
country to implement major projects over the 11th
Five Year Plan that will improve the livelihood of
its people.
(PTA), 850 crore rupees as Small Development

Projects and 850 crore rupees as Development
Subsidy or Program Grant to boost the Bhutanese
economy and help the RGOB to tackle the liquidity
shortage. In addition, Government of India agreed
to provide as Rs. 500 Crore as Economic Stimulus
Package, to boost the Bhutanese economy and help
the RGOB to tackle the liquidity shortage.
The decision was taken at the first meeting of

the Small Development Project Committee (SDP).
The Committee reviewed the SDP activities of the
10th Plan and expressed satisfaction with their
positive impact on the livelihoods of the people in
rural Bhutan. Out of 4500 crore rupees, 2800 crore
rupees will be contributed as Project Tied Assistance
Indias assistance to the Eleventh Five Year

Plan (2013-2018) to Bhutan
! Project Tied Assistance (PTA)- Rs. 2800 crore.
! Small Development Projects- Rs. 850 crore.
! Development Subsidy or Program Grant-
Rs. 850 crore.
INDIA, SUDAN CO-OPERATION TO BOOST RENEWABLE ENERGY
In a bilateral meeting for promoting cooperation

in renewable energy, India offered assistance to
Sudan for developing renewable energy resources
in the African country. It was also extended support
for resource assessment and training in wind and
solar energy sectors through technical institutions
viz. Centre for Wind Energy Technology, Chennai
and the National Institute of Solar Energy, Gurgaon.
Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency
(IREDA), the Indian green energy financial
institution, would provide knowledge and technical
appraisal assistance in developing renewable energy

projects on a commercial basis.
The talks focused on the areas of possible cooperation especially in the development of wind energy,
solar energy, biomass and small hydro resources.
Union Minister of New and Renewable Energy,
Dr. Farooq Abdullah said a team comprising
officials from Ministry of New & Renewable Energy,
IREDA, CWET and NISE would soon visit Sudan
to discuss a framework for further cooperation
between the two countries.
!!!!!
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ECONOMY
REPORT ON THE STATE OF INDIAN FARMER
Transfer scheme. Nonetheless, 34% farmers
support the idea of subsidy benefits going
directly to their bank accounts.
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The study Report on the State of Indian Farmer

conducted by the Centre for the Study of
Developing Societies (CSDS), revealed some
alarming facts about the conditions of the farmers
in the country. The survey, based on the interview
of 11,000 farmers of about 5,000 farm households
in 274 villages of 137 districts across 18 States, says
that 76 per cent farmers would prefer to do some
work other than farming. Sixty-one per cent of these
farmers would prefer to be employed in cities
because of better education, health and employment
avenues there. Forty-seven per cent of those
surveyed believing that the overall condition of the
farmers in the country was bad.
The CSDS survey, which also interviewed 4,298
women, found that 67 per cent of them felt that
income from agriculture was not sufficient to fulfil
the livelihood needs of their families. Of the 2,116
youth interviewed, only 20 per cent said they would
continue farming.
Key findings of the survey are:
! Minimum Support Price (MSP) of most of the
food-grains has been increased by over 100%
in the past 10 years, but it failed to benefit
farmers in eastern and central India.
! 62% of the respondents (of sample size of
11,000 farmers across 18 states) are not aware
of the MSP. Among those who heard of MSP,
64% are not satisfied with the system of
procurement.
! Lack of awareness on MSP was largely found
in Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and Uttar
Pradesh to an extent.
! Most respondents feel that only rich farmers
get the benefits of government schemes.
! Only 10% respondents feel that the
government schemes benefits poor and small
farmers.
! Approximately 85% of the farmers have
heard about MGNREGA. But 51% among
them did not get work under this scheme.
! 70% have not heard about Direct Cash

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! 19% said that the subsidy should continue as

!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
it is. Rest wants more or in different ways.

53% of farmers had heard of the loan waiver
scheme implemented by UPA government in
2008, while just 10% actually benefitted from
it.
27% of the farmers have heard about Land
Acquisition law. 57% of them said the farmers
will stand to lose from this law.
83% of the farmers have not heard about
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
Among those who have heard of FDI, 51%
said that FDI should not be allowed in the
agriculture sector.
40 % of the landless farmers supported the
idea of FDI in agriculture.
Approximately 15% farmers heard about
suicides in their area.
41% respondents report domestic problems
as most important reason for suicide cases;
35% because of credit/loan followed by 14%
because of crop failure.
76 % would prefer to do some other work
rather than farming.
61% farmers will leave farming if they get an
employment opportunity in the city.
47% of farmers said that the overall condition
of farmers in the country is bad.
74% of the surveyed farmers said that they
do not get any farming related information
from agriculture ministry officials, while just
3% said that they get it on a regular basis.
It showed that 40% of farmers felt that their
economic condition has improved in the last
five years (2009 to 2014), while 37% said
there was no change. Around 42% of total
surveyed farmers were optimistic about the
economic condition to improve in the coming
years.
[11]

! Over half of those surveyed 57 per cent
felt that no political party cared about

farmers interests. About 16 per cent felt that
BJP cared about farmers interest, while 13
per cent opted for Congress.
! In terms of vote intention, a majority (31 per
cent) were undecided about their political

choice. About 30 per cent seemed to be in
favour BJP, while 20 per cent favoured others

mainly the regional parties. About 17 per
cent said they were in favour of Congress,
while the Left parties attracted interest of only
2 per cent.
The survey commissioned by Bharat Krishak
Samaj and conducted by CSDS has tried to capture
the opinion, perceptions, attitudes, anxiety and
aspirations of the farming community.
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THE STATE OF INDIAS FARMERS
With nearly 50% of the Indian

population dependent on agiculture
for a livelihood, farmers are a key
electoral constituency. Ahead of the
Lok Sabha election, a survey
conducted by the Centre for the
Study of Developing Societies (CSDS)
for Bharat Krishak Samaj, a farmers'
association, provides insight into the
social economic conditions and
aspirations
of
the
farming
community based on a survey of
5,350 households in 18 states.
[12]

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[13]
CHINA APPROVES TO SET UP PRIVATE BANKS

on lending rates offered by financial
institutions last year, a key step towards
liberalising interest rates.
! In September, China launched a free-trade
zone in Shanghai where controls on key
sectors will be eased. Measures to be trialled
inside the zone include market-driven interest
rates. More policies will be issued to support
banking reform in the Shanghai free trade
zone, said CBRC
The move by China comes at a time of growing
concerns over the rise of shadow banking in the
country. Over the past few years lending by nonbanking companies has grown rapidly in China,
fuelling a surge in debt levels in the world's secondlargest economy.
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Prompted by the growing concerns of shadow

banking in the country, China has launched a pilot
project to establish five banks owned entirely by
private companies such as Alibaba and Tencent.
The banks will be allowed to operate on a trial
basis under the supervision of Chinese banking
authorities. Private finance will be used to either
restructure existing banks or set up new ones
"bearing their own risks". The banks would be set
up in the cities of Shanghai and Tianjin and in the
provinces of Guangdong and Zhejiang.
Allowing private ownership in the traditional

banking sector is a significant move to liberalise its
financial sector. China Banking Regulatory
Commission (CBRC) said "Strict procedures and
standards will be set for the pilots, with demanding
set-up criteria, limited licenses, enhanced
supervision and a risk handling system". The CBRC
also said that it would explore lowering the
threshold for foreign banks to enter the industry.
Faced with a slowdown in its growth rate,

Beijing has been looking to loosen its grip on the
financial and capital markets. Many analysts have
said that opening up the sectors is key to China's
future growth. In this direction numbers of
initiatives have been undertaken. They are:
! In December, China's central bank said it will
allow banks to trade deposits with each other,

using a financial product called certificates
of deposit.
! The interest rate on the certificates will be
determined by the market, unlike ordinary
deposits, which are subject to rate caps in China.
! The central bank also scrapped the lower limit
Critics have argued that shadow banking poses

a major risk to China's economic growth and also
makes credit less transparent. Prompted by these
concerns, Chinese policymakers have drawn up
new regulations for the sector. According to the
Financial Times report the new privately owned
banks will be subject to the same regulations as
Chinas large, state-owned institutions but will be
encouraged to focus on lending to small and
medium-sized enterprises.
Though a traditional banking system, shadow
banks play a positive role in serving the real
economy and enriching investment channels for
ordinary citizens, but they pose complex and
hidden risks. Besides, as the 2008 global financial
crisis demonstrated, vulnerabilities in shadow
banking can emerge suddenly and spread easily
causing systemic problems.
SEBI TIGHTENS ANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING NORMS
Aimed at preventing money laundering and

terror financing through the capital market, the
market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of
India (SEBI) tightened norms in its recently released
circular. It asked market entities to conduct detailed
risk assessment of their clients, including those
linked to countries facing international sanctions.
SEBI said registered intermediaries will have to
"identify, assess and take effective measures to
mitigate its money laundering and terrorist financing
risk with respect to its clients, countries or
geographical areas, nature and volume of
transactions, payment methods used by clients, etc."
[14]
The risk assessment would include, among

others, any country-specific information circulated
by the government and SEBI as well as an updated
list of individuals and entities facing sanctions.
As per the new norms,
! A company can designate its managing
director or a whole-time director to ensure

compliance with the regulations.
! A partnership firm can appoint its managing
partner, while a trust can place its managing

trustee as the designated director.
! The director of the FIU-IND can take
appropriate action, including levying a

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All about Bitcoin

The term Bitcoin is believed to be derived from
bit as in a unit of data in computing. Unlike
traditional currencies issued by central banks,
Bitcoin has no central monetary authority. Instead
it is under-pinned by a peer-to-peer computer
network made up of its users machines, on the
lines of networks like BitTorrent, a file-sharing
system, or Skype, the audio, video and chat service.
The worlds first Bitcoin ATM went live in

Vancouver in October last year, allowing people to
exchange cash for the digital currency. In November
last year, British billionaire Richard Bransons Virgin
Galactic announced it started accepting the currency
for flights to space. And on November 28, the
University of Nicosia, Cyprus, said it will start
accepting Bitcoin for tuition fees .
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Bitcoins are mathematically-generated by

computers in the network executing complex
number-crunching tasks, a process termed as
mining. The mathematics of the Bitcoin system
aims at a scenario where it becomes progressively
more difficult to mine Bitcoins over time.
On November 28, 2013 Bloomberg reported that

BitPesa Ltd, a Kenyan start-up, has announced
plans to enable Kenyans working abroad remit in
Bitcoins.
How many Bitcoins are in circulation?: First

appearing in 2009, there are more than 12 million
Bitcoins in circulation, according to Bitcoincharts,
a website that tracks activity across exchanges. The
system is set up so that it becomes increasingly
difficult to produce them, with a maximum limit
of 21 million expected by around 2140. Bitcoin
keeps a public register of every unit in existence
and the network means that there is no need for a
central authority.
The computing power required to carry out the
mathematical tasks is so great that it is currently
impossible for any single computer to create Bitcoins
on its own, ensuring that the network remains in
control. The entire network is used to monitor and
verify both the creation of new Bitcoins through
mining, and the transfer of Bitcoins between users.
A log is collectively maintained of all transactions.
Who invented Bitcoin?: The online software

launched in February 2009 was credited to a certain
Satoshi Nakamoto. For years, it was widely
assumed that the name was just a pseudonym, but
an story in Newsweek recently claimed that it had
discovered the real Satoshi Nakamoto, a JapaneseAmerican ex-physicist aged 64 living in California.
He, however, denied any part in floating the
currency.
What are its uses?: Bitcoin allows users to make

purchases from anyone who accepts Bitcoins and
can also be exchanged against real currencies. At
present, around 20,000 merchants accept Bitcoins
worldwide. In some countries, though, it has
become possible to pay for a taxi in Bitcoins or
even transfer remittances home.

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What value is a Bitcoin?: The value has been

subject to sharp fluctuations, particularly over the
last year. Several platforms offer different values at
the same time. On March 7, at 1200 GMT, an
average of five platforms put the value of one
Bitcoin at $650. When it was first launched, it was
worth only a few cents, with its peak value soaring
to over $1,000 last year.
How can one acquire it?: There are three main
routes. Purchasing them at a Bitcoin exchange or
exchanging Bitcoins with other individuals are the
traditional routes. The third route is through mining.
What are the risks?: A Bitcoin is not backed by
a financial authority or real asset, which is why
transactions are not subject to the same regulations
as other currencies. While every single transaction
made using Bitcoin is posted publicly, the identity
of the user remains anonymous making it hard
to track perpetrators in the case of theft. According
to the Bitcoin website, the most common
vulnerability is user error. Similar to physical cash
stored in a digital form, Bitcoin wallets can be
accidentally deleted, lost or stolen.
Has the currency run into major controversy?:
The biggest controversy by far has been the one
involving Mt Gox, a Bitcoin exchange based in
Tokyo that had emerged as its largest trading
platform. It was launched in July 2010, and by
2013 was handling an estimated 70 per cent of all
Bitcoin transactions. In February 2014, it suspended
trading, closed its website and exchange service,
and filed for bankruptcy protection. It said that
around 850,000 Bitcoins belonging to customers and
the company were missing and likely stolen, an
amount valued at more than $450 million at the
time.
[15]

monetary penalty, on the designated director
for failure of the intermediary to comply with
any of the obligations.
closed. So far, client details had to be

preserved for 10 years.
! Details that now need to be stored include
depositories to amend the bye-laws, rules and

regulations in this regard to monitor
compliance with these norms through halfyearly internal audits and inspections.
evidence of the identity of clients and their

beneficiary owners, such as copies of
passports, driving licenses and other identity
cards, and account files and business
correspondence.
! In the case of mutual funds, SEBI said
! Market intermediaries can use a third party
compliance would be monitored by the

boards of the asset management companies
and the trustees.
to carry out due diligence and determine the

identity of clients and the beneficial owners
of funds being handled by them.
! Norms for record-keeping by market entities
! Sebi asked market intermediaries to "maintain
have been streamlined and would require

client details to be "preserved and
maintained" for five years after the business
relationship has ended or the account is
and preserve" for five years records related

to transactions, attempted or executed, that
are reported to the FIU-IND (Financial
Intelligence Unit - India).
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! The market regulator asked bourses and
!!!!!
[16]

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WEB-GIS TOOL GET PUBLICIZED
The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) has
unveiled the first-ever cloud based open-source
Web-GIS tool for estimating rooftop solar power
potential for Indian solar cities. The main objective
of this initiative is to develop a high performing
and flexible Web-GIS tool to estimate the rooftop
solar power potential for Indian cities. The webGIS tool will be launched in Chandigarh followed
by other cities.
! It will enable user to estimate the rooftop solar
This initiative is being supported by Shakti

Sustainable Energy Foundation (SSEF), with
strategic support from the Chandigarh Renewable
Energy Science and Technology Promotion Society
(CREST), the Ministry of New and Renewable
Energy (MNRE), the Solar Energy Corporation of
India (SECI), and the Confederation of Indian
Industry (CII).
! Will help users to estimate potential green-
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power potential of selected area or, buildings

for a particular location with respect to
various SPV technologies such as, crystalline,
thin-film etc.
With increasing industrialization and

mechanization of the planet, the need for energy
has only skyrocketed. Sustainable energy resources
solar, wind and ocean tides are increasingly being
looked at as the energy of the future. Countries are
investing in this sector because it is beneficial to
the environment and also saves on energy costs. In
Germany, about 25 per cent of energy generation
comes from solar power and other countries too
are investing in renewable energy. At this moment,
solar energy potential is only available for the city
of Chandigarh, India and TERI plans to roll it out
for more cities in the future. This tool is part of the
Renewable Energy Geo-Spatial Gateway of India.
This tool will have the following benefits:
! Will act as a Decision Support System (DSS)
to carry out the pre-feasibility assessment of

putting rooftop PV system for a particular
location.
house gas (GHG) mitigation through solar
rooftop route for a given location/building.
! Assess the viability of any rooftop projects
based on possible business models and

financial Schemes available.
TERI: The Energy and Resources Institute,

commonly known as TERI (formerly Tata Energy
Research Institute), established in 1974, is a research
institute based in New Delhi focusing its research
activities in the fields of energy, environment and
sustainable development. According to Think Tanks
and Civil Societies Program (TTCSP) at the
International Relations Program, University of
Pennsylvania, TERI was ranked 20 in the list of
top global think tanks on environment and 16 in
top global think tanks on science and technology.
GIS: A Geographic Information System or "GIS"
is a collection of computer hardware, software, and
geographic data for capturing, managing,
analyzing, and displaying all forms of
geographically referenced information.
WORLDS FIRST SOLAR-POWERED LAVATORY
The worlds first revolutionary waterless toilet

powered by the sun is set to launch in India. It is
developed with the aim to help some of the 2.5
billion people lacking safe and sustainable
sanitation around the world. It is designed and
built using a $7,77,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation. It is the self-contained, waterless

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toilet with its innovative technology converts

human waste to biochar, a highly porous charcoal.
The toilet has the capability of heating human waste
to a high enough temperature to sterilise it and
create biochar, a highly porous charcoal. The
biochar has a one-two punch in that it can be used
to both increase crop yields and sequester carbon
[17]
Solar Composting Advanced Toilet

The Solar Composting Advanced Toilet is
designed to recycle human excrement and urine
into a relatively dry and deodorized compost which
can be safely and easily applied to the immediately
surrounding landscape.
material over the stall provides ample light during

the day. Passive solar heat enhances evaporation
to dewater the compost pile. Ventilation is provided
by convection currents through a storm-proof
ventilator.
The S.C.A.T. is a self-contained freestanding

structure using inexpensive convenient organic
materials such as peat moss or sawdust to promote
effective composting. Earthworms provide mixing
and aeration, eliminating the need for a rotating
drum. A durable watertight plastic bin in the solar
chamber has enough capacity for 4-6 persons in
daily use. Easy access to the compost bin simplifies
emptying at 6-12 month intervals, depending on
loading.
No foul odors: Composting is an aerobic

process in which microorganisms convert organic
material into soil. By-products are heat, water vapor
and carbon dioxide. Screened vents exclude insects.
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Environmentally safe: There is no leachate to

contaminate nearby ground or surface waters.
Pathogens are removed by heat and aging.
Portability: Built on a 4'X8' platform and

weighing 300 pounds, the completed S.C.A.T. can
be transported by pickup truck, trailer, or barge.
Alternatively, the use of screw fasteners allows
prefabrication of panels for simple onsite assembly.
No electric hook-up: Translucent roofing
dioxide, a greenhouse gas. The project is part of

the Gates Foundation's "Reinvent the Toilet
Challenge," an effort to develop a next-generation
toilet that can be used to disinfect liquid and solid
waste while generating useful end products, both
in developing and developed nations. Since the
2012 grant, Linden and his team have received an
additional one million dollars from the Gates
Foundation for the project, which includes a team
of more than a dozen faculty, research professionals
and students, many working full time on the effort.
Linden's team is one of 16 around the world funded
by the Gates "Reinvent the Toilet Challenge" since
2011. A sun powered composting toilet is another
innovation from our generations fast developing
technology. It is a structure that can compost
human manure and urine without wasting water
Handicap accessible: Construction plans for

the optional handicap model include a self-closing
36" wide door, extra-large stall for a wheelchair,
and sturdy grab bars to assist users with physical
limitations.
Low maintenance: Construction materials are
durable and easily cleaned. Modular design
simplifies damage repair.
and energy. This unique and useful product has
an average capacity usage of four adults daily. It
involves no water and no electricity. Therefore, it
is not connected to any tank or plumbing. It also
has the capacity to eliminate any unpleasant odor
and it will produce a dry and odor-less, ready-touse compost.
In todays world, water crisis and
environmental pollution are the biggest problems
threatening the existence of living beings on this
wonderful planet. A composting toilet can
definitely help in solving these issues to some extent.
Waterless toilets are a rather odd concept to most
people. However, you cannot get any more
environmentally friendly or cost effective than a
waterless composting toilet.
!!!!!
[18]

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HEALTH
A STUDY TO DETECT EARLY SIGNS OF CVD
specific changes a field of study known as
proteomics.
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A new study is trying to reveal the early signs

of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in order to create
drugs to treat the condition before symptoms have
developed. Despite being the biggest killer in the
Western world the individual causes of the various
types of CVD: coronary heart disease, heart attack,
heart failure and stroke, are still largely unknown.
As part of a new 6 million study, researchers

at the University of Glasgow are joining forces with
colleagues from across Europe to try to identify the
early signs of physiological change in the body that
indicate nascent CVD.
The problem with cardiovascular disease is that
it often develops unnoticed over years before
becoming a serious problem. We all know that
smoking, over-consumption of alcohol and a highfat diet can increase the risk of developing CVD
but we currently know very little about the earliest
stages of the disease, which at are at least in part,
reversible.
In order to understand what transformations
do take place in the body in the early stages of
CVD, the scientists will closely study the proteins
expressed by different genes and look for disease-
Identifying a range of biomarkers involved in

CVD could ultimately lead to treatment tailored to
an individuals own body heralding a new era of
personalised medicine. In future cardiovascular
disease may be treated before it is even noticed by
the patient and has had the chance to cause
permanent damage.
The four-year study, entitled Systems Biology
to Identify Molecular Targets for Vascular Disease
Treatment (SysVasc), is being coordinated by
Professor Burkert Pieske at the Medical University
of Graz in Austria. It is funded through the Seventh
Framework Protocol (FP7) of the European
Commission and involves 30 leading scientists from
10 different countries who will examine thousands
of samples and data-sets. For the first time in a
large research consortium, SysVasc uses modern,
systematic medical approaches that can contribute
to early and individual diagnosis and treatment
through the use of new biomarkers from blood and
urine. As a consequence of this ground-breaking
research, completely new pathways in
pharmaceutical development can be pursued.
CHRONIC KIDNEY DISEASE GETTING COMMON
One in every 10 adults in India suffers from

chronic kidney diseases (patients who are suffering
for more than 3 months) and this figure is expected
to increase. Indians are clearly at a higher risk of
developing kidney diseases because of the surge in
the number of patients suffering from diabetes and
high blood pressure. 60% of the patients suffering
from chronic kidney diseases in India are either
diabetic or suffer from high blood pressure.
The disease is more common than stroke and
diabetes, and of a magnitude almost equal to
diabetes. The cost of treatment for an average
patient is many times more than treating diabetes
and stroke. However, just two simple tests to check
the level of protein in urine and a blood test for

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measuring serum creatinine once a year can help

prevent the disease. If the tests are normal, they
can be repeated after a year, and if there is any
abnormality, preventive care at the early stage can
be helpful.
The tests costs just Rs.100 in a private laboratory
and the facility is available even in small towns.
Most people do not even know that the two most
common causes of the disease are diabetes and high
blood pressure.
With constant lifestyle changes amongst teens
and youngsters is leading to an early onset of kidney
related ailments. Consumption of fast food,
sedentary way of living with little or no exercise is
an important cause for the rise in cases of diabetes,
[19]

hypertension, gastrointestinal problems and obesity
in our country and this in turn has led to increasing
incidence of kidney disease.
a. Simpler and shorter procedure for a kidney

transplant as the delay leads to fatal
situations.
People suffering from diabetes and blood

pressure are especially vulnerable to kidney diseases.
It's unfortunate that many are clueless about the
deadly association of diabetes and chronic kidney
diseases. With a little bit of awareness and
education, people with diabetes will have the
power to control their condition and enjoy a full
life.
b. Countrywide awareness about lifestyle

disorders like diabetes, high blood pressure,
gastrointestinal problems, use of drugs
specially painkillers without prescriptions.
c. Accurate screening programs for lifestyle
diseases.
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d. Educating kids about healthy food, eating

habits, should be made part of the school
syllabus.
The need of the hour is strong proactive steps

taken by Government which can help in bringing
the increasing number of people suffering from
kidney ailments:
e. Government should increase parks and

jogging tracks and introduce cycle tracks and
should spread awareness about health living.
!!!!!
[20]

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NEWS IN BRIEF
NEWSMAKERS
In 2000 Ricardo Lagos, the candidate of the
Coalition of Parties for Democracy, a group of
centre and centre-left parties, was inaugurated as
Chiles first socialist president since Salvador Allende
in 1973, and Bachelet was appointed health
minister. In 2002 she became the first woman to
lead the Defense Ministry.
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Michelle Bachelet
Michelle Bachelet has sworn in as the president
of Chile for second time. She has returned to power
after four years with a reform agenda to reduce
social disparities in this prosperous South American
country. Bachelet accepted the presidential sash
from Senate head Isabel Allende, the daughter of
late socialist President Salvador Allende, whose
overthrow in 1973 ushered in the 17-year
dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.
Ms Bachelet won 62% of the vote in the second
round of the presidential election in December, well
ahead of the 38% cast for Evelyn Matthei. She
campaigned on a promise to spend $15bn (9.2bn)
on reforming education, improving health care and
reducing income disparity. She also wants to
increase taxes to offer free university education and
reform political and economic structures dating
from the 1973-1990 dictatorship of Gen Pinochet.
Chile is one of the richest countries in Latin

America, but tens of thousands have staged protests
over the past few years to push for a wider
distribution of wealth and better education. She
has already served one term as president from 2006
to 2010. Under Chile's constitution she was banned
from running for a second consecutive term, even
though her popularity ratings remained high.
She was the first female president of Chile and
the first popularly elected South American president
whose political career was established
independently of her husband. After Augusto
Pinochet was ousted from power in 1990, she
became active in politics, particularly in the medical
and military fields.
In 1994 she was appointed an adviser to Chiles
minister for health, and she subsequently studied
military affairs at Chiles National Academy of
Strategy and Policy as well as the Inter-American
Defense College in Washington, D.C. Bachelet also
was elected to the central committee of the Socialist
Party (Partido Socialista).

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In 2005 Bachelet was selected by the CPD as its

presidential candidate. Her campaign focused on
meeting the needs of the countrys poor, reforming
the pension system, promoting the rights of women,
and recognizing constitutionally the rights of the
indigenous Mapuche people. She led the first round
of voting in December 2005 but failed to receive a
majority, which was required to win outright. In
the runoff on January 15, 2006, she defeated the
conservative candidate Sebastian Pinera, winning
53 percent of the vote, and she was sworn in as
president.
Months after taking office Bachelet faced
domestic difficulties. Students who were dissatisfied
with Chiles public education system staged massive
protests, and labour unrest resulted in
demonstrations and a strike by copper miners.
In 2007 Santiagos new transportation system,
a plan formulated by former president Lagos, was
introduced and proved chaotic, sparking much
criticism. Bachelets popularity fell sharply amid
the series of problems, but it rebounded during the
second half of her term, largely because of her
economic policies. In 2010, with the end of her
term approaching, she oversaw relief efforts after
a magnitude-8.8 earthquake struck Chile, causing
extensive damage
Salvador Sanchez Ceren
Salvador Sanchez Ceren has won the

presidential election in El Salvador by very thin
margin. He beat rightist Norman Quijano by less
than half a percentage point. Norman Quijano had
earlier called for a new poll after preliminary results
indicated a margin of victory of fewer than 7,000 votes.
[21]

merged to form the Farabundo Marti Liberation
Front (FMLN).
B.N. Srikrishna
Retired Supreme Court judge BN Srikrishna
has been appointed as the Chairman of Financial
Planning Standards Board India (FPSB). He will
succeed Dhirendra Swarup, the former chairman
of Pension Fund Regulatory and Development
Authority (PFRDA). The former Supreme Court
judge was also the chairman of the Sixth Central
Pay Commission apart from being the chief justice
of the Kerala High Court. He has also served as
the Chairman of the Financial Sector Legislative
Reforms Commission (FSLRC) set up in March 2011
by the Union Ministry of Finance.
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Ceren would be the first ex-rebel to serve as

president. He became vice president of El Salvador
in 2009, while Mr Quijano was the mayor of the
capital, San Salvador.The Supreme Electoral
Tribunal announced that Mr Sanchez Ceren, a
member of the Farabundo Marti Liberation Front
(FMLN), had won 50.11% of the vote after a
manual count whereas Quijano, of the conservative
Arena party, won 49.89%. Quijano is not satisfied
with the results as he has said he will dispute the
results because he alleged there was fraud in the
vote. He has presented no evidence so far. The
election body has already rejected calls from Mr
Quijano's party for a rerun.
Ceren became politically active in the late 1960s
when he was a student at Alberto Masferrer School.
He was not part of any political organization until
he was introduced to the Unified Popular Action
Front (FUAR).The FUAR exposed him for the first
time to the political arena and allowed his
involvement in the student movement.
He was a member of the PRAM, a political
party that was against the dictatorship and
advocated anti-imperialism. Then he joined (UDN)
Union Democratica Nacionalista and PAR (Partido
Accion Renovadora). He was also a participant of
the (UNO) Union Nacional Oppositora as member
of the UDN. In essence his experience and the
things he learned in San Salvador at Masferrer
school from his peers he took back to his town and
began to implement it.
In the 1970s he joined the Farabundo Mart
(FPL), one of the five left-wing organizations, all of
differing Marxist-Leninist tendencies, that later
Financial Planning Standards Board India

(FPSB) is a PublicPrivate Enterprise and a
Professional Standards setting body for Financial
Planners in India. FPSB India proactively guides
the development and promotion of standards for
financial planning professionals to benefit and
protect the public in the country. FPSB India closely
works with all the stakeholders viz. the
Government, the Regulators, the Industries/
Associations, the Corporate, the Media and the
General Public to achieve its objectives.
FPSB's members are nonprofit organizations
from 25 territories around the world. The territory
members include 24 countries and 25th territory is
Israel, which is its Associate member. SBI, LIC,
ICICI, Axis Bank, UTI AMC are among the
financial institutions that has established it.
OBITUARIES
Ahmad Tejan Kabbah
Sierra Leone's ex-president and war-time leader

Ahmad Tejan Kabbah has died at the age of 82
after a long illness. Kabbah was praised for his
leadership during and after Sierra's Leone's decadelong civil war. The rebel Revolutionary United
Front's trademark was to hack off the hands or
feet of their victims. The conflict officially ended in
2002 after foreign forces intervened to help defeat
the rebels.
He was first elected president in 1996, ending
a decade of military rule. He was briefly ousted in
a military coup the following year before being
restored to power by a West African regional force.
He won a landslide victory in the 2002 elections
[22]
and was praised for maintaining peace and

establishing democratic institutions, although he
was also criticised for failing to tackle poverty.
Kabbah has spent nearly his entire career in
the public sector. He served in the Western Area
and in all the Provinces of Sierra Leone. He was a
District Commissioner in Bombali and Kambia
(Northern Province), in Kono (Eastern Province)
and in Moyamba and Bo (Southern Province). He
later became Permanent Secretary in various
Ministries, including Trade and Industry, Social
Welfare, and Education.
He was an international civil servant for almost
two decades. After serving as deputy Chief of the
West Africa Division of the UN Development
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Programme (UNDP) in New York, he was
reassigned in 1973 to head the Programme's
operation in the Kingdom of Lesotho, as Resident
Representative. He also headed UNDP operations
in Tanzania and Uganda, and just before
Zimbabwe's independence, he was temporarily
assigned to that country to help lay the groundwork
for cooperation with the United Nations system.
John, who had won 124 games prior to the

operation, went on to pitch 14 years after the
procedure, compiling 164 more victories without
ever missing a start due to elbow problems. Since
then, Dr. Jobe performed hundreds of similar
surgeries on pitchers, helping to resurrect the
careers of countless baseball players. He taught the
procedure to more than 250 orthopedic fellows at
the clinic he operated with Dr. Robert Kerlan, the
Dodgers' team doctor when Dr. Jobe joined him in
1964. He took over as Dodgers physician in 1968
and held the job of medical director until 2008
when he retired from active practice, according to
a statement from Major League Baseball (MLB).
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After the military coup in 1992, he was asked

to chair the National Advisory Council, one of the
mechanisms set up by the military to alleviate the
restoration of constitutional rule, including the
drafting of a new constitution for Sierra Leone. He
reputedly intended his return to Sierra Leone to be
a retirement, but was encouraged by those around
him and the political situation that arose to become
more actively involved in the politics of Sierra Leone.
diagnosed with a ruptured medial collateral

ligament in his left elbow, previously a careerending injury. Dr. Jobe performed an experimental
procedure in which he transplanted a tendon from
John's wrist to replace the torn ligament, and in so
doing repaired the lefthander's elbow.
Joe McGinniss
An American non-fiction writer and novelist

Joe McGinniss died from complications related to
his disease. Last year he had been diagnosed with
inoperable prostate cancer. He first came to
prominence with the best-selling The Selling of the
President 1968 which described the marketing of
then-presidential candidate Richard Nixon, and
from that time until his death he authored eleven
works. His last book was The Rogue: Searching for
the Real Sarah Palin, an account of Sarah Palin, the
former governor of Alaska who was the 2008
Republican vice-presidential nominee.
McGinniss had early dreams of becoming a

sports reporter and wrote books about soccer, horse
racing and travel. But he was best known for two
works that became touchstones in their respective
genres campaign books ("The Selling of the
President") and true crime ("Fatal Vision"). In both
cases, he had become fascinated by the difference
between public image and private reality.
Frank Jobe
Frank Jobe, MD, an orthopedic surgeon and

sports medicine pioneer acclaimed for his "Tommy
John" surgery, died at the age 88 in Santa Monica,
California. Tommy John was a pitcher with the
Los Angeles Dodgers in 1974 when he was
The 1974 operation took 4 hours. It can now be

performed in an hour. Though Dr. Jobe initially
thought John had little chance of pitching again,
he later estimated that 92% to 95% of patients can
return as good, if not better, than prior to the
surgery.
The surgery has since become common practice
for pitchers and players at every level of baseball.
Some pitchers have signed multiyear contracts just
months after they have the surgery in expectation
of a high-level return. As of 2013, more than 1000
major league players most of them pitchers have
undergone the ulnar collateral ligament (UCL)
reconstruction.
Since 1974, Jobe had performed hundreds of
Tommy John surgeries on pitchers. Jobe co-founded
the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopedic Clinic along with the
late Dr. Robert Kerlan in 1965. Jobe had also been
the orthopedic consultant for the PGA Tour for
more than 25 years.
Born in 1925, Jobe joined Army at 18 and served
as a medical staff sergeant in the Army's 101st
Airborne Division during World War II. After the
war, Jobe completed his undergraduate degree and
went on to attend medical school at Loma Linda
University.
TERMINOLOGIES
El Nino
Chinas meteorological department has said
that El Nino, a weather phenomenon that can
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cause climatic changes is likely to occur this spring.

The National Marine Environmental Forecasting
Centre (NMEFC) has found that the temperature
[23]

of the central and eastern tropical Pacific was
neutral this spring, predicting it will turn warm in
summer and is likely to develop an El Nino. El
Nino is a weather disturbance first noticed (and
named) by fishermen off the coast of South America
centuries ago.
the central and eastern Pacific Ocean

! Trade winds in the south Pacific weaken or
head east
! Warm air rises near Peru, causing rain in the
northern Peruvian deserts

! Warm water spreads from the west Pacific
and the Indian Ocean to the east Pacific. It

takes the rain with it, causing extensive
drought in the western Pacific and rainfall in
the normally dry eastern Pacific.
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What is it?: Under normal weather conditions,

trade winds ferry warm ocean currents westwards,
from the eastern and central Pacific towards
Indonesia and Australia. Warmer ocean waters in
these regions then heat up the air above, leading to
cloud formation and triggering the prodigious
monsoon.
! Fall in air pressure over Tahiti and the rest of
But in the years where the El Nino takes shape,

eastern and central Pacific regions experience
abnormal warming of the sea. This leads to
increased cloud formation and torrential rains in
Peru and some sections of America. The ocean
currents in the western Pacific remain cool, which
means weak monsoon rains in Indonesia and
Australia and sometimes in India.
Why is it important?
The El Nino usually occurs once in every 3 -7
years. Its effect tends to be felt in India around
August, bang in the middle of the south-west
monsoon. As a bountiful south-west monsoon is
critical for Indias main kharif crop, El Nino is a
dreaded word for Indian farmers.
A weak monsoon directly impacts agricultural
output. The government may be forced to raise
support prices of crops to incentivise farmers to
plant more.
In 2002, an El Nino year, average rainfall

dropped 20 per cent below normal and foodgrain
production dropped almost 18 per cent. Usually,
lower farm output feeds directly into inflation.
Then lower agricultural production results in
slower GDP growth too, as agriculture makes up
18 per cent of GDP. Rural incomes may also
moderate, in turn reducing demand for everything
from two-wheelers to shampoos.
Droughts in India have usually coincided with

an El Nino effect, all El Nino years have not resulted
in droughts for India. In the previous 10 El Nino
years, India suffered a rainfall deficit of 10 per
cent or more only in six. 1997, for instance, was a
year where the El Nino was strong, but the
monsoon gods were generous; rainfall was 2 per
cent higher than normal
The first signs of an El Nino:
! Rise in surface pressure over the Indian
Ocean, Indonesia, and Australia

[24]
Dogecoin
Dogecoin is a cryptocurrency similar to Bitcoin.

It works in a similar way, however Dogecoin is
more accessible and deals with larger numbers and
less value, making it ideal for small transactions. It
is a decentralized digital currency that enables
instant payments to anyone, anywhere in the
world. Dogecoin uses peer-to-peer technology to
operate with no central authority: managing
transactions and issuing money are carried out
collectively by the network.
It features a Shiba Inu from the "Doge" Internet
meme on its logo. Doge is a slang term for dog and
the meme is primarily assoiated with pictures of
Shiba Inus dogs which have been enhanced with
text (in the Comic Sans font) which is said to
represent the inner voice of the dog. It was
introduced on December 8, 2013. The person who
managed to bring an internet meme about a dog's
inner thoughts together with bitcoin was Jackson
Palmer, an Australian who by day works at Adobe's
marketing department in Sydney. Meanwhile, on
the other side of the world in Portland, Oregon,
Billy Markus was struggling away trying to
program his own crypto-currency, when he
stumbled across Dogecoin.com and decided this was
for him. Palmer and Markus got in touch and within
a week of the idea first forming, Dogecoin coin
was born.
Compared to other cryptocurrencies, Dogecoin
has a fast initial coin production schedule: there
will be approximately 100 billion coins in circulation
by the end of 2014 with an additional 5.2 billion
coins every year thereafter. While there are currently
few commercial applications for Dogecoin, the
currency is gaining traction as an Internet tipping
system, in which social media users grant Dogecoin
tips to other users for providing interesting or
noteworthy content.
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AWARDS/PRIZES
Tomas Halik Bags Templeton prize
Science and Art for his literary, scholarly and

pedagogical activity
! 2010: The Romano Guardini Prize for
outstanding
merits
in
interpreting
contemporary society, Germany (Laudator:
Karel Schwarzenberg, Foreign Minister of the
Czech Republic)
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Tomas Halik joins Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu

after winning Templeton Prize. A Czech Catholic
priests theology of paradox invites believers and
atheists to dialogue has made him won the 2014
Templeton Prize, worth $1.83 million, for his work
affirming the spiritual dimension of life.
! 2007: The Prize of the Czech Society for
Tomas Halik, who worked underground to

promote democracy and morality before
communism fell in Czechoslovakia in 1989, has
"continuously opened vistas that advance
humankind.
The award is one of the world's richest, worth
more than the $1.2 million the Nobel Prize
committee paid to its 2013 laureates. It honors a
person who has contributed to "affirming life's
spiritual dimension" through insights, discoveries
or practical work.
Previous winners include the Dalai Lama, South

Africa's Archbishop Desmond Tutu and British
astrophysicist Martin Rees. Since 1989, Halik has
pursued his mission of dialogue with other believers
and non-believers through his Czech Christian
Academy, his work as chaplain at Prague's Charles
University and his 17 books translated into 18
languages.
Tomas Halik has received many distinguished
awards for his merits in inter-religious dialogue,
for his scholarly and pedagogical activity, for his
promotion of spiritual freedom and human rights,
and also awards for literature, including:
! 1997: The prize of the Masaryk Academy of
Arts for creative activity (Prague)
! 2002: The Andrew Elias Human Tolerance
Award for outstanding services in

disseminating the values of tolerance and
spiritual and intellectual freedom (USA)
! 2003: The Cardinal Konig Merit Award for
defence of human rights and spiritual

freedom, Austria
! 2006: The Literary Award of the Czech
Literary Fund for the book Night of the

Confessor
! 2007: The Fenix Prize of Polish Booksellers
for the best book by a foreign author, for the

Both Called and Not Called book (Poland)
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! 2010: The Golden St. Adalbert medal for
extraordinarily efficient explanation of

religion to fellow citizens, Prague
! 2010: Medal for outstanding services to inter-
religious and inter-cultural dialogue
! 2011: Honorary title Man of Reconciliation
2010 for outstanding services to dialogue

between Christians and Jews (The Polish
Council of Christians and Jews, Warsaw)
! 2012: The Knights Cross of the Order of
Merit of the Republic of Poland by decision

of the Polish President
! 2014: Templeton Prize
Templeton Prize
The Templeton Prize is an annual award

presented by Templeton Foundation. The award
was established in 1972 by the late Sir John
Templeton. It is awarded to a living person who
has made an exceptional contribution to affirming
life's spiritual dimension, whether through insight,
discovery, or practical works. The Prize is a
monetary award of 1.1 million Euros and is the
largest annual award in terms of cash in the world.
The first winner of Templeton was Mother Teresa
in 1973. The two recent winners were Nobel Peace
Prize laureates Desmond Tutu in 2013 and the Dalai
Lama in 2012.
Folio Prize 2014
American writer George Saunders has won the

inaugural Folio Prize for his short story collection,
Tenth of December. The Folio Prize 2014, worth
40,000, aims to recognise and celebrate the best
English-language fiction from around the world,
published in the UK during a given year, regardless
of form, genre or the authors country of origin. It
is the first major English-language book prize open
to writers from all over the world. This is the
inaugural year. The Folio Prize is sponsored by The
[25]

Folio Society, the celebrated publisher of beautiful
editions of the worlds greatest books.
Saunders' works include the story collections
CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, Pastoralia and In
Persuasion Nation. He is also the author of a bestselling children's book, The Very Persistent Gappers
of Frip, and a book of essays entitled The BrainDead Megaphone.
The award in the form of a casket containing

an engraved copper plaque, a shawl and a cheque
for Rs. 1,00,000 which has been presented to the
authors of these books at a function organised by
the Sahitya Akademi in the Capital.
This year, M. N. Paloor (Malayalam) for his
autobiography, Sureshwar Jha (Maithili) for his
memoirs and Bijoy Misra (Odia) for his play have
been honoured.
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Tenth of December, a New York Times bestseller,

was shortlisted for the 2013 National Book Award
and also won this year's Story Prize. The author,
who teaches creative writing at Syracuse University
in New York, was named in Time magazine's 2013
list of the 100 most influential people in the world.
the basis of unanimous selections made by the jurors

on the basis of majority vote. The awards relate to
books published during the three years immediately
preceding the year of award.
Formerly known as the Literature Prize, the

Folio Prize was first announced in 2011 amidst a
row in literary circles over the decision by that
year's Man Booker judges to focus on
"readability".The Folio Prize joins a literary awards
landscape that already contains the 50,000 Man
Booker, the 30,000 Bailey's Women's Prize for
Fiction (formerly the Orange Prize) and the new
10,000 Goldsmiths Prize. In September last year it
was announced the Man Booker Prize which had
only considered works from the Commonwealth,
Ireland or Zimbabwe would open up to authors
around the world in 2014.
Sahitya Akademi awards presented
An overwhelming number of Sahitya Akademi

Awards 2013, have been bagged by poets,
including Bollywood lyricist Javed Akhtar, Bengali
poet Subodh Sarkar and Sanskrit poet Radhakant
Thakur.
Apart from eight books of poems, the Sahitya
Akademi awards, recommended by jury members
representing 22 Indian languages, have gone to four
books of essays, three novels, two each of short
stories and travelogues.
Famous poets honoured with the prestigious

award this year are famous Bollywood poet Javed
Akhtar (Urdu), Subodh Sarkar (Bengali), Anil Boro
(Bodo), Sitaram Sapolia (Dogri), Ambika Dutt
(Rajasthani), Radhakant Thakur (Sanskrit), Arjun
Charan Hembram (Santali) and Namdev
Tarachandani (Sindhi).
Noted novelists Mridula Garg (Hindi),

Manmohan (Punjabi) and R.N. Joe D Cruz (Tamil)
are among those honoured with the Sahitya
Akademi Awards.
The Executive Board declared the awards on
[26]
C.N. Ramachandran (Kannada), Tukaram

Rama Shet (Konkani), Satish Kalasekar (Marathi)
and Katyaynai Vidmahe (Telugu) got the award
for their books of essays. While Temsula Ao (English)
and Mohi-ud-Din Reshi (Kashmiri) have been
honoured with the award for their books of short
stories, Makhonmani Mongsaba (Manipuri) and
Man Bahadur Pradhan (Nepali) have bagged the
award for their travelogues.
Sahitya Akademi
The Sahitya Akademi was formally inaugurated

by the Government of India on 12 March 1954. As
a national organization it is responsible to work
for the development of Indian letters and to set the
literary standards in all the Indian languages. It
functions as an autonomous organization. It was
registered as a society on 7 January 1956, under
the Societies Registration Act, 1860.
Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honor in
India which Sahitya Akademi, India's National
Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of
the most outstanding books of literary merit
published in any of the major Indian languages
recognised by the Sahitya Akademi.
The award comprises a plaque and a cash prize
of Rs. 100,000. The award's purpose is to recognize
and promote excellence in Indian writing and also
acknowledge new trends. The annual process of
selecting awardees goes on for the preceding twelve
months.
Windham Campbell Literature Prize
Indian writer Pankaj Mishra is one of eight

writers from seven countries winning a $150,000
Yale University prize each in recognition of their
achievements and to support their ongoing
work.Mishra is an Indian essayist, memoirist, travel
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writer and novelist, won the Windham Campbell
Literature Prize in non-fiction category.
In addition to a novel, The Romantics, Mishra
has published four works of nonfiction: Butter
Chicken in Ludhiana: Travels in Small Town
India; An End to Suffering: the Buddha in the
World; Temptations of the West: How to Be
Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet, and Beyond; and
From the Ruins of Empire: The Intellectuals Who
Remade Asia.
All eight writers will accept the prize in person

at a ceremony at Yale on Sep 15. The ceremony
will be followed by a three-day literary festival
celebrating the work of the prize recipients.
The Donald Windham Sandy M. Campbell
Literature Prizes are a series of literary awards
established by Yale University. Administered by the
Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, they
recognize English language authors in fiction, nonfiction and drama. The mission of the prizes is to
call attention to literary achievement and provide
writers the opportunity to focus on their work
independent of financial concerns. Up to nine
prizes are awarded annually. Winners receive a
citation and an unrestricted award of $150,000.
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From the Ruins of Empire, his most recent

book, attempts a re-visioning of the geo-politics of
the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries from
multiple Asian perspectives. His literary and
political essays and long-form journalism regularly
appear in The New York Review of Books, The
London Review of Books, The Guardian, The Hindu
and elsewhere.
Aslam (Pakistan), and Jim Crace (United Kingdom);

in nonfiction John Vaillant (United States/
Canada); and in drama, Kia Corthron (United
States), Sam Holcroft (United Kingdom) and Noelle
Janaczewska (Australia).
Other winners in the three categories are: in

fiction, Aminatta Forna (Sierra Leone), Nadeem
CULTURE
Nominations for World Heritage Site Status
This year India has nominated Rani-ki-Vav, a

11th-century step well located in Patan, Gujarat,
and the Great Himalayan National Park in
Himachal Pradesh as candidates for UNESCOs
World Heritage Site status. The World Heritage
Committee, which will convene in Doha, Qatar, in
June, will review the nomination and take a final
decision.
Conferring the World Heritage status is a threestep process. Countries first create an inventory of
potential monuments and natural sites and include
them in the Tentative List. From this, they select a
few sites and nominate them for final inscription,
every year. UNESCO appoints advisory committees
to evaluate the nominations.
As early as 1998, the Indian government had
proposed Rani-ki-Vav as a potential candidate for
the World Heritage status and included it in the
tentative list. However, it did not significantly
pursue the case after that.
It was not the same with the Himalayan

national park. This site, included in the tentative
list in 2009, was submitted for UNESCOs
consideration last year. But the International Union
for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which
evaluated it for UNESCO, did not recommend the

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park for World Heritage status. It appears that the

government has incorporated the suggestions made
by IUCN and resubmitted the nomination.
Rani- Ki- Vav: It is a famous stepwell situated
in Patan town in Gujarat in India. During the
period of the Solanki or Chalukya, the stepwell
called the Rani ki vav, or Ran-ki vav (Queens step
well) was constructed. A stepped corridor
compartmented at regular intervals with pillared
multi-storeyed pavilions is a unique feature. It was
one of the largest and the most sumptuous
structures of its type.
This magnificent step well is said to been
constructed by Queen Udayamati wife of King
Bhimadeva I (A.D. 1022-1063). This is the highest
watermark of Solanki architecture. It is 64 m long
and 20 m wide. It was originally constructed of
seven stories of which only five are now preserved.
The shaft of this step well is 27 m deep. The step
is oriented in east-west directions. The step well
has long stepped corridor descending down to the
underground tank, it is having four compartmental
multi-storeyed pillared pavilions with circular draw
well at rear end. The corridor walls, pillared
pavilions and inner side of well are embellished
with fine sculptures. Nearly 400 sculptures have
survived out of the original estimated 800
sculptures, which comprise of Hindu gods and
goddesses, apsaras and miscellaneous themes.
[27]

The Great Himalayan National Park: The
Great Himalayan National Park is a natural site
spread over an area of 754 square kilometres. It is
located on the western part of the Himalayan
Mountains in Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh,
and is known for its biodiversity. The Great
Himalayan National Park is a habitat to numerous
flora and more than 375 fauna species that

comprises nearly around 31 mammals, 181 birds, 3
reptiles, 9 amphibians, 11 annelids, 17 mollusks
and 127 insects. They are protected under strict
guidelines of Wildlife Protection Act of 1972, hence
any sort of hunting is not permitted.
MISCELLANEOUS
Centre for Development of Telematics, allows the
government direct, unlimited and real-time access
to a wide variety of electronic communications
without relying on internet service providers.
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Enemies of Internet: US, UK, India worst
US' National Security Agency, Indias Centre

for Development of Telematics, and the UK's GCHQ
have been named among the worst online spies by
a non-profit group for implementing censorship and
surveillance.
Three of the government bodies designated by

Reporters Without Borders as 'Enemies of the
Internet' are located in democracies that have
traditionally claimed to respect fundamental
freedoms. Besides these, the report names several
government bodies from other countries. These
include Pakistan's Telecommunication Authority,
North Korea's Central Scientific and Technological
Information Agency, Vietnam's Ministry of
Information and Communications and China's
State Internet Information Office.
The NSA in the United States, Government
Communications Headquarters in the United
Kingdom and the Centre for Development of
Telematics in India are no better than their Chinese,
Russian, Iranian or Bahraini counterparts.
The NSA and GCHQ have spied on the

communications of millions of citizens including
many journalists. They have knowingly introduced
security flaws into devices and software used to
transmit requests on the Internet.
This year's "Enemies of the Internet" report,
which Reporters Without Borders publishes every
year on World Day against Cyber-Censorship,
spotlights the government units and agencies that
implement online censorship and surveillance.
In its report, it asserted that the Indian

government carefully refrained from joining the
wave of condemnation that followed Edward
Snowden's revelations of the scandalous scale of
NSA surveillance.
The extensive Indian surveillance system has
been expanded since the Mumbai attacks in 2008.
The Central Monitoring System, developed by the
[28]
The existing Indian laws give the authorities a

free hand to mount major surveillance operations
against users of the web and other
telecommunication technology. While one section
of the Indian law authorises heavy financial
penalties against any individual who refuses to
provide any document, return or report to the
government; it also authorises the interception of
any information transmitted by computer.
Likewise, any person who refuses to decrypt his
private information upon official request faces up
to seven years in prison.
Assam, Nagaland to issue Plastic Photo IDs
Nagaland and Assam has become the first two

states to be issued with Plastic Photo Identity Card
for elections in India. The voters of Nagaland and
Assam will be using the cards for the first time in
the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. In an order to
avoid duplicacy, the Election commission decided
to provide plastic Electors Photo Identity Card
(EPIC) instead of laminated paper card to voters in
India.
The Plastic Photo Identity Card will be issued
through the Common Service Centre of the central
government's Information Technology department.
Earlier, there was use of "money power" in elections
in Nagaland. ECI is aware of it. Election
Commission has set-up flying squad, static
surveillance team and election expenditure
monitoring committees to curb the use of money
power during elections. ECI has declared Nagaland,
Arunachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka,
Punjab and Tamil Nadu as the most expendituresensitive states and a committee has been
constituted for Election Expenditure Monitoring
(EEM). A committee has been constituted for the
monitoring of election expenditure.
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NZ Prime Minister plan to hold referendum
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Prime Minister of New Zealand, John Key has

announced the plan to hold a referendum on
changing the National Flag by 2017. The decision
to hold referendum on changing National Flag was
taken in lieu of many citizens feeling that it is a
relic from the colonial past. The current flag depict
the Southern Cross star constellation and includes
Britain's Union Jack in the top left corner. Many
opined that the current flag is too similar to Australia's
flag and doesn't reflect New Zealand's independence
from former colonizer Britain. But many who have
served in the military oppose a change.
The change in the design of flag it would not

signify an end to the South Pacific nation's
Constitutional ties to the British monarchy or
participation in the Commonwealth group of
countries. For instance, Canada's 1965 decision to
embrace a distinctive maple leaf design did not led
to its severance of ties with British monarchy or its
participation in Commonwealth group of countries.
Yet for many, a new flag would represent another
small step by New Zealand toward disentangling
itself from its British past. In 2004, for instance, the
country established a Supreme Court to replace
Britain's Privy Council as the final court of appeal.
SPORTS
Indian Archers win gold in Asian Event
Indian archers won two gold and one silver in

team events in the ongoing 1st Asian Grand Prix
Archery Championships.
Compound women team of Gagandeep Kaur,
V Jyothi Surekha and P Lily Chanu defeated Iran
in the final team event and took the first gold for
the country by a margin of 15 points (219 vs 204).
They eliminated Taipei team (224 vs 220) in the
semifinal and Lao (224 vs 214) in the quarterfinal.
In compound men section, Indian team of

Abhishek Verma, Sandeep Kumar and Rajat
Chouhan missed out on a gold narrowly against
Iran. They lost 227-232 against Iran in the final to
bag a silver. Recurve women team lost to Japan in
the bronze medal match.
Recurve men trio of Jayanta Talukdar,

Tarundeep Rai and Kapil clinched the gold by
thrashing Taipei in a one-sided final (6-0) in set
system. The Indian combination reached the final
after victories over Japan in the semifinal and
Malaysia in the quarterfinal. Recurve women team
lost to Japan in the bronze medal match.
Asian Air Gun Championship
India finished second in the medal tally with 5

gold, 6 silver and 8 bronze behind China, who
won 11 gold, 8 silver and 6 bronze in the seventh
Asian Championship held in Kuwait from 9th
12th March.
India's 5 gold medals came in Women's 10m

Air Rifle, Women's 10m Air Pistol, Men's 10m Air
Rifle, Junior Men's Tem Air Pistol and Youth
Women's Team Air Pistol.
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India won silver in Men's Team Air Pistol,

Women's Team Air Pistol, Youth Men's Team Air
Rifle, Junior Men's Air Rifle, Junior Women's Team
Air Pistol and Youth Women's Air Pistol event.
Indian youngsters picked up 2 of the 4 quota
places available to them for the 2014 Nanjiing
Youth Olympics.
Pooja Ghatkar defeated Du Bei of China to
clinch the gold in womens air rifle. The team
consisting of Ghatkar, Apurvi Chandela and
Ayonika Paul won the bronze medal. The gold
medal was won by China, while Saudi Arabia
bagged the silver.
India's other ace shooter Heena Sindhu
produced some excellent shooting to clinch the air
pistol women's gold medal. And the team consisting
of Heena (386), Shweta Chaudhary (378) and
Harveen Srao (374) won the silver medal in team
event with a total score of 1138/1200.
In the women's air pistol team event, there was
tie with China who also had identical total score
but on the basis of inner 10 score, the Asian giants
won the gold. The bronze medal was won by
Chinese Taipei with a total score of 1134/1200.
In men's air rifle event Chain Singh bagged the
yellow metal with a score of 206.
In the men's team event, Chain Singh (619.6),
Ravi Kumar (620.7) and PT Raghunath (615.8) won
the bronze medal. The gold and silver medals were
won by China and Iran.
In mens air pistol, in which the Chinese swept
all the three medals, Samaresh Jung and Prakash
Nanjappa did well to make the final. Jitu Rai missed
the final by one point.
[29]

In the mens air pistol team event the Indian
men with total score of 1732 managed to get the
silver behind China (1759). Saudi Arabia clinched
the bronze with a score of 1716.
North-East grabs Santosh Trophy
With this win of the Santosh Trophy, Mizoram

bagged 5 lakh rupees, while Railways as the
runners-up got 3 lakh rupees. This years game
was played under a new format in which 10 teams
qualified from the Zonal Qualifiers of which two
each from the North, West, South, East and
Northeast Zones. Each of the qualified teams was
clubbed into two groups in which they played
against each other. Top-two sides from each Group
progressed into the semifinals and the winners
played in the summit clash. Group A includes
Services, Kerala, Mizoram, Uttarakhand and
Maharashtra whereas Group B includes West
Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Railways, Punjab and Goa.
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Mizoram Bagged Santosh Trophy by winning

the National Football Championship on their
maiden appearance in the final. They pumped in
three goals past the Railways without reply at the
Kanchenjunga Stadium to become the second team
from the North-East, after Manipur, to win the
Santosh Trophy. First and second goal was made
by captain of Mizoram, Zeco Zoram Sanga and
the third goal was scored by Lalrin Puia. Railways
for the last time bagged Santosh Trophy in 1966
and since then it has never won a single trophy.
!!!!!
[30]

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EDITORIALS
IN SEARCH OF A SECOND REVOLUTION
model is efficiency in scale of operations. This model
is suitable for large cooperatives and corporates.
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India has retained its leadership as the worlds

largest milk producer for the last 15 years. This has
been made possible by Operation Flood which
ushered in the White Revolution in India.
Production estimates stand at 132.43 million tonnes
for 2012-13, accounting for approximately 17 per
cent of global milk production. Unlike the other
major milk producing countries, the growth story
in India was driven largely by small scale farmers.
Eighty per cent of Indian cattle is owned by
farmers with a herd size of up to four animals. But
a number of factors impact the sustenance of these
traditional small farms, such as the subsidiary
nature of dairying as an activity, stagnant yields,
rising feed/fodder costs and a shift in rural areas
towards other vocations.
Parallel to the supply side challenges, India is
slated to witness a boom in dairy demand of over
6 per cent annually. However, the average annual
growth in supply is only a little over 4 per cent per
annum. The demand-supply interplay effect is
evident in steadily rising milk prices in the recent
past. We clearly need a Second White Revolution.
One of the most effective means to bridge the

demand-supply gap is an innovative approach to
commercial dairy farming models so that they are
sustainable, inclusive and scalable. Some of these
possibilities are explained below.
Large scale dairy farms
Large scale integrated dairy farms can house

over 1,000 high yielding cross bred cows, with
automated milking, feeding, milk processing,
integrated feed production and in-house breed
improvement. The ownership and responsibility for
the operation and maintenance of the farm lies
with an anchor processor, who may enter into
contract farming model with the farmers for
procurement of green fodder, a key input for
enhancing milk yield of cattle.
The milk is either sold to other dairies or used
for processing into value added milk products at
ones own plant(s). The significant benefit of this

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Hub and spoke model
The main farm (hub), owned by an anchor has

all the integrated facilities for milking, feed
production and milk processing with a cattle count
of over 500 cows. The connected/ satellite farms
(spokes), with 50 to 200 cattle each, have basic
infrastructure for milking and cattle management
and are owned by progressive dairy farmers in close
proximity to the main farm. The anchor provides
technical support (veterinary care, feed
management, and training) to the satellite farms.
This model offers the benefits of product and
process control, with low capital expenditure by
the anchor. Critical to this model are the control
systems that need to be put in place to ensure that
farm management administration is of desired level
and that milk output quality adheres to the set
standards. Further, the land requirement is
distributed over multiple locations. The model is
socially inclusive and lends itself to quick scale-up.
Progressive dairy farmer
With some support from an anchor processor,

a number of progressive farmers may scale up their
herds to establish mid-sized dairy farms with 200300 cattle. Farms in this case are semi automated
for milking and feeding. This is an entrepreneurship
model where the anchor without incurring
substantial capital expenditure benefits from an
assured supply of milk of traceable, consistent and
good quality.
The anchor provides technical support
(veterinary care, feed management, training) and
financial support (directly or through financial
institutions) to the farms. This model is constrained
by way of limited capital investment capability of
the progressive farmers and is also challenging in
terms of the anchors ability to monitor farm
operations.
However, if replicated, this can be an excellent
[31]

partnership model between farmers and processors
and a win-win for all stakeholders.
breeding, feeding and milking under a cooperative/

producer company model shall be applicable here.
This model is based on the concept of building

hostels for cows. This helps farmers achieve
economies of scale and results in superior dairy
management systems.
A number of such farms within a restricted

geographical periphery can avail of technical
support services on a pooling basis. Farmers and
are not restricted to sell their milk to a specific
entity. Milking machines, equipment, bulk coolers
and milk storage facilities are owned by the
community.
The strategy going forward to address the
supply demand challenge needs to be aimed at
strengthening supply systems which are sustainable
and scalable. Drivers of success for each model need
to be tested on the ground. Due to the current
diversity in nature of farming systems, sociocultural realities and climatic patterns, no single
model can emerge as the answer to the search for
a second White Revolution.
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This model envisages investment in farm

infrastructure by an anchor. Cow stalls are leased
out on nominal charges to farmers, who are
responsible for housing of cows and managing them
under guidance of the anchor. The automation level
of the farms can depend on the farm size. The milk
would be purchased under a buy-back arrangement
by the anchor. This model enables the smallest dairy
farmers to avail the benefits of technology, scale
and systems.
Community Model Community ownership and
management of common infrastructure for housing,
BOOK THE LAW NOT THE VICTIM
It was bound to become a sort of moral hazard.

Once Penguin had caved in, others would follow.
The organisation that had lodged the plaint against
Penguin Publishers would have smelt blood with
its first major scalp.
It would probably have done a Google search

and found Aleph Book Company also had a book
on Hinduism by Wendy Doniger. Last week, the
entity promptly issued a warning to Aleph, asking
it to withdraw and pulp the book by March 10.
On March 10, a news report quoted the
chairman of Aleph saying the book was out of
stock and would not be reprinted until the
offending passages had been examined to
determine how best to resolve the situation.
A situation it certainly is. And we still dont

know how the resolution will pan out. But the
publishers tactful response must be disappointing
to those who had protested Penguins caving in to
a plaintiff that many thought had no case.
But to expect mainstream publishers to carry
the torch of freedom like the samizdat dissident
publishers in censor-thick societies or those small,
struggling ones in western societies that braved
conventional morality codes to publish the likes of
Henry Miller, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and James
Joyce is to bark up the wrong tree.
Victims of orthodoxy
What is common between Penguin, Aleph,
[32]
rationalist Sanal Edamaruku and Karthik, a student

from Hyderabad? Sanal was recently hauled over
the coals by Catholic organisations in Mumbai for
casting doubts on a miracle at the foot of a
cement crucifix in Bandra. Kartik questioned the
existence of God on a Hanuman Jayanthi day, and
claimed a constitutional right to his opinion.
All of them were victims of groups that do not
think there is any such thing as freedom of
expression on religious orthodoxy. What they do is
reach out for Section 295A of the Indian Penal
Code to snuff out all the views that challenge
orthodoxy.
And, sadly, these groups get all the help they
need in the law, specifically Section 295A that
leaves the door wide open for bullies of all sorts to
run riot on Indias fragile social space of free speech.
Draconian law
Its worth citing the Section 295A in the IPC in

some detail to get a sense of its lethal potency:
Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage
religious feelings, or any class by insulting its
religion or religious beliefs whoever, with
deliberate and malicious intent of outraging the
religious feelings of any class of citizens of India,
by words, either spoken or written, or by signs or
by visible representations or otherwise, insults or
attempts to insult the religion or the religious beliefs
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ambiguities can stifle any contrarian view about
established religious orthodoxy. That is pretty
evident in the instances cited above.
As American philosopher Martha Nussbaum

pointed out recently, the notion of group
defamation a touchy subject in Europe with its
growing minorities seems to drive the sentiment
of this law.
What is not so obvious and certainly more lethal

are the laws ambiguities and absolutist
interdictions; they allow the state not just to snuff
out contrarian views but public conversations on
religious beliefs.
But this is not an Indian law in the strict sense

of the word. It is a colonial one framed as part of
the IPC in 1860. That date is important. The IPC
came into being three years after the Mutiny, a
truly national uprising to overthrow colonial rule
by force. Determined to check its repeat, a new
discourse on governance was introduced.
For a society with so many communities staying

cheek by jowl, it is surprising that there is barely
any communication, conversations between them,
conversations that led in pre-British times to a great
flowering of the inner life for millions.
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of that class, shall be punished with imprisonment

of either description for a term which may extend
to three years, or with fine, or with both.
India, it was held, was a land of warring

communities, in permanent conflict with one
another and it was only the British rule that could
enable them to live together in an uneasy peace.
We inherited the law and its false premise of a
Hobbesian society pulling itself asunder but for the
mediation of the state; a society at war with itself,
a land of not just famines and pestilence but of
communities engaged in perpetual conflict.
These two discourses on Indian society and the

state operate as the guiding lights of Section 295A.
The law is deliberately and ominously ambiguous
using words such as feelings insults, outrage
as punishable offence invests the state with the
authority to step in, break up a fight.
Outraged feelings are assuaged by either a

prison sentence, fine or, if it serves state power,
broken bones and vandalised property. Needless to
say, such lawlessness would only strengthen that
fiction of a society at war with itself and the role
of the state as the arbiter of peace and its freedoms.
295A and conversations
But the real threat to freedom in society, in

fact, flows from the law itself. Its ominous
Conversations allowed the argumentative

Indian deep insight into her countrys religions
through an expanding inclusive social space.
Section 295A virtually put a stop to these
exchanges by demonising the value of free exchange
and thus narrowing the social space for the
argumentative Indian. In fact, the hidden yet blatant
interdictions are the prime functions of the law: to
prevent outrage to religious feelings yes, but
primarily to discourage the free flow of discourse
on matters of religion. Section 295A ghettoises
conversations on religions within respective
communities first and then snuffs them out by
deifying orthodoxy alone.
Section 295As Hobbesian view of society
actually promotes dysfunctional communities, like
couples sharing the same house with their
unspoken unshared hatreds and prejudices.
The fear of outraging prevalent dogmas even
turns the intellectual space sterile. Serious studies
on Indian or Indic religions are to be found in
western groves of academe, not so much in Indian.
Finally, Doniger or Penguin suffer the bigotry
of the law as much as the followers of multiple
orthodoxies denied the fresh air of dialogues and
conversations with each other.
LEAVE THE RBI ALONE
The turf war between the government and the

RBI seems to be intensifying. The government is
readying its arguments for serious modifications in
the recommendations of the Urjit Patel committee;
this is with respect to the composition of the
monetary policy committee (MPC) which sets policy
rates. It seems to have reservations on RBI
appointing the two external members out of the
proposed five-member team to the MPC.

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The MPC is to include the RBI governor as

chairman, the deputy governor as vice-chairman
and three additional members, one of whom would
be an RBI Executive Director.
The governments argument is that there should
be more external members in the MPC and they
should be nominated by the Centre. It also says the
inflation target for the rule-based monetary policy
should be set by the government and not the RBI.
[33]

This missive highlights the discord between the
Finance Ministry and RBI. Implicit in the
governments bid is the assumption that current
decision-making powers vested in the RBI governor
will be strengthened if the governor decides on
MPC members as well. If the government appoints
external members to the MPC, it is assumed to
provide for a more balanced decision-making
process a euphemism for a more compliant RBI.
Undermining role
Third, the governments role in the banking
sector in general and PSBs in particular has
subordinated the interest of minority shareholders;
the banks have emerged as big value destroyers for
investors. For example, the banks are burdened with
the objective of growing agri-lending at more than
25-30 per cent despite rising indebtedness and the
sector growing at a meagre 3 per cent, resulting in
a moral hazard problem. The postponement of
government subsidy payments funded by PSBs is
another burden. Further, these banks have had to
absorb the impaired credit of government utilities.
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In contrast, the Urjit Patel committee seeks to

broaden the decision-making process. This is the
practice with inflation-targeting central banks
around the world. The Patel committee says that
in nearly half the central banks in the world, the
government does not have representation in MPC.
In some cases (Israel, Serbia, South Africa), MPC
members are decided by the central banks and in
others, they are appointed by the government (UK,
Poland, Mexico, Indonesia).
contribute 80 per cent of banking business in India,

and restoring countrys financial stability, is far
greater than RBIs. Hence, the issue of conflict of
interest is evident.
No government, please
The governments inherent lack of faith in the

RBIs ability to select the right candidate for its
MPC and manage financial stability and inflation
isnt justified. The boot, in fact, is on the other foot.
For one, the persistence of high inflation is
attributable to large fiscal expansion and proinflation food policies.
We had a similar policy slant from March 1996

to April 1999 when food inflation averaged 9.3 per
cent. RBI governors have expressed their concern
over the fact that profligate fiscal policies have
eroded the Central banks ability to attain price
stability.
Second, there is a serious risk to financial
stability arising from the persistent rise in impaired
assets of public sector banks and the resulting
erosion of banking capital. Our firms 2012 estimates
placed the recapitalisation requirement of PSBs at
$30 billion or close to 2 per cent of GDP. The IMFs
recent study estimate is even higher, at 2.1-5 per
cent of FY13 GDP. It is clear that governments
responsibility in recapitalising PSBs, which
Four, the banks statutory liquidity ratio (SLR)

requirement, which currently stands at 23 per cent
of deposits, has long served as a captive investor
base for funding fiscal profligacy. It will be a glaring
case of conflict of interest if government insists on
appointing the MPC members.
The RBI Act gives specific powers to the RBI to
determine the reserve ratios (Section 42) and also
deal exclusively in repo, and reverse repo
transactions (Section 12AB). In light of these
provisions it is difficult to understand how an
external body can have the right to appoint
members to a decision-making body and not just
an advisory body.
If the government agrees that price stability is
the RBIs central objective, it should leave it to the
Central bank to decide how it will attain that
objective. The Urjit Patel committee has laid out
the monitoring mechanism. It will be better if the
government concentrates on establishing its
credibility in fiscal management.
It is high time policymakers realise that growth
isnt going to return if RBI cuts interest rates. Macro
cyclical and structural adjustments are necessary
for rates to start declining.
WEST IS RESPONSIBLE FOR UKRAINE CRISIS
In January 1954, Soviet leader Nikita

Khrushchev who was born on Russias borders with
Ukraine and married to a Ukrainian, transferred
Russias Crimean region to the then Ukrainian
Soviet Socialist Republic. This was ostensibly to
mark the occasion of the 300th anniversary of its
[34]
unification with Russia. Khrushchev obviously did

not foresee the collapse of the indestructible Soviet
Union which had only two major southern ports
Sevastopol and Odessa. When the Soviet Union
collapsed, the supreme council of the Russian
republic decided in 1992 that the Crimean region
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would be renamed as the autonomous Republic of
Crimea. Sevastopol and Odessa became part of
Ukraine.
More importantly, Yanukovych signed an

agreement with Russia extending the lease of the
Sevastopol port for use by Russias Black Sea Fleet
from 2017 to 2042, with the option of further
extension till 2047. This could not have pleased
those in Washington keen on the strategic
containment of Russia.
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Not content with the break-up of the Soviet

Union, the US and its NATO allies decided that
Russian power had to be contained. The expectation
was that Russias far-flung Muslim-dominated
Caucasian republics would wear out the Russians
with armed struggle, and that its western, southern
and Baltic neighbours would be gradually weaned
away and integrated into the European Union and
the NATO military alliance. The ultimate aim was
clearly to contain a resource rich and militarily
capable Russia.
have had a much closer relationship with Russia

and benefited from extensive trade, energy and
commercial ties across the eastern borders of the
country.
This plan seemed to be proceeding successfully

during the rule of the occasionally sober Boris
Yeltsin. The Muslim separatist armed rebellion was
liberally funded by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, its
leaders such as Shamil Basayev and Zelimkhan
Yandarbiyev were considered kosher in Western
capitals and operated periodically from bases as
far away as Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.
The hardnosed Vladimir Putin soon emerged

as the greatest obstacle to these grandiose Western
plans. He ruthlessly crushed the uprising in
Chechnya though sporadic unrest continues in the
Caucasian region triggered by Islamist insurgents
and suicide bombings. This was evident from the
bomb blasts in Volgograd on the eve of the Winter
Olympics in Sochi. Saudi Intelligence chief Prince
Bandar bin Sultan is reported to have offered Saudi
support to quell the uprisings in the Caucasian
region in return for Russia ending support for the
Assad regime in Syria a proposal reportedly
rejected by Putin.
No lessons learnt
Moreover, the West appears to have learnt no

lessons from the swift Russian military intervention
in South Ossetia and Georgia in 2008, following illadvised efforts to persuade an ever-willing Georgian
President Mikheil Saakashvili to join NATO,
thereby making Russias southern frontiers
vulnerable.
The present crisis has also arisen from efforts
by the US and EU to undermine a constitutionally
elected government: Ukrainian president Viktor
Yanukovych had been offered a partnership
agreement with the EU to precede full membership.
Support for a closer association was strong in the
western parts of Ukraine. Those in eastern Ukraine,
which has a huge Russian-speaking population,

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When Yanukovych preferred Russian economic

support to an association with the EU, a virtual
siege was mounted on the capital, Kiev, by crowds
largely drawn from western Ukraine, with muscle
power provided by extreme rightwing elements.
The demand was for immediate resignation of the
president. Eastern Ukraine, from where
Yanukovych drew his political support, was largely
quiet. But the presidents ostentatious lifestyle and
maladministration did not exactly endear him to
his countrymen.
Ouster and after
While European representatives were

endeavouring to negotiate the establishment of a
wider coalition in the government, it appears the
hawks in the US state department would settle for
nothing less than Yanukovychs ouster. The
recorded telephone conversation between the
assistant secretary of state Victoria Nuland and the
US Ambassador in Kiev, Geoffrey Pyatt, clearly
indicated that the state department was not
interested in constitutional niceties.
Moreover, the violence escalated despite an
agreement being reached on February 21 for
establishing a transitional set-up and early
presidential elections. Sensing that his life was in
danger, Yanukovych fled to Russia.
The Russian reaction was immediate and
predictable. The Russian population in eastern
Ukraine was motivated to seize control of the
headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. The
entire Crimean region came under the control of
Russian-speaking demonstrators resident there,
backed by armed personnel quite evidently from
across the border. The elected regional assembly
voted 78 to 1 for a referendum on the future of the
Crimean Autonomous Region on April 16. The
people will vote overwhelmingly for merger with
Russia.
[35]
Sanctions, predictably
As a federal parliamentary democracy, India

will find this proposal reasonable and realistic.
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While the Americans, the British and smaller

EU countries call for sanctions against Moscow,
mature leaders such as Germanys Chancellor
Angela Merkel believe that given the need for
Moscows cooperation in energy supplies and its
position as a permanent member of the Security
Council, the only way forward is through realistic
dialogue. Not surprisingly, China has signalled that
its interests lie in backing Russia on these
developments, averring: Russian resistance to the
West has global significance. Supporting Russia
consolidates Chinas major strategy.
noted: The outlines of a compromise (on Ukraine)

are clear. A federal structure for Ukrainian
institutions and a switch to a parliamentary
system in place of a presidential one would
enable the people of each region to make their own
choices over language and cultural allegiance.
Ownership and control of the gas transportation
system should be shared between Ukraine and its
neighbours. The country should be allowed to
participate both in Russias Customs Union and
the EU association deal.
Russian scholar Sergey Karaganov from the

National Research University in Moscow recently
FARMING HAPPINESS
A significant 72 per cent of farmers like farming

as a profession, according to a recent nationwide
survey conducted by the Centre for the Study of
Developing Societies (CSDS). This is greater than
the 60 per cent figure reported in an official 2003
National Sample Survey round. True, the two
surveys may not be entirely comparable in terms of
their sampling methodology. Yet, with almost
three-fourths of farmers showing interest in farming
and 50 per cent saying they are satisfied about
their present economic condition, the findings
suggest things arent as gloomy in the Indian
countryside as commonly believed. In fact, the
CSDS survey of 5,350 farming households across
18 states found that only 15 per cent of farmers felt
their situation had worsened over the last five years.
The survey findings are in line with increasing
evidence that the farm sector has staged a
turnaround of sorts in the last decade. These gains
resulting both from higher output growth rates
for most crops as well as improved terms of trade
for agriculture may have not accrued uniformly.
The CSDS survey reveals that the proportion of
those who like farming is much higher among
medium/large farmers (85-86 per cent). Also, the
satisfaction level with their present condition is 71
per cent for farmers in central India, while only 35
per cent for their eastern counterparts. Similarly,
78 per cent of farmers in West Bengal have an
overall negative assessment of their situation,
whereas the corresponding ratios are just 16, 22

and 23 per cent in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh
and Gujarat.
The major conclusion one may draw from the
survey, along with other ground-level reports, is
that the size of landholdings matters a lot today.
The reason that small and marginal farmers who
are more preponderant in eastern India are less
happy is that their holdings have become
fragmented to the point of becoming unviable. These
farmers want to exit and they should be
encouraged to. The right way to do it is by creating
more non-farm jobs in food processing, construction,
manufacturing and services, while simultaneously
promoting an active market in the leasing of land.
Many states now do not even permit such leasing,
which happens illegally. If farmers with small
holdings can legally lease these out with assured
resumption of possession at the end of the tenancy
contact period, their interests will be fully secured.
The ones leasing in land can farm larger plots and
reap the gains from economies of scale and
mechanisation just as in other industries. India can
well do with fewer farmers wanting to farm more,
while those not in a position to are given viable
alternatives that makes them happier than now. It
requires fundamentally new land reforms focused
on minimum holdings size rather than ceilings.
MINI CAPITALS FOR MEGA DEVELOPMENT
In another three months, the residual State of

Andhra Pradesh will not have a capital of its own.
The location of the new capital city is yet to be
[36]
settled and the search is on. If the reports to

develop about ten cities as specialised mini
capitals rather than investing only in one mega
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capital city are anything to go by, it appears that
a good solution is in sight.
This approach continues, and the mega city

model has not yet changed. For instance, the
steering committee on urbanisation for the Twelfth
Five Year Plan has recommended that the
government develop satellite towns and twin cities
near existing metropolises to manage growth. It is
silent on dispersing urbanisation. In this context,
the proposal to develop medium-sized towns in
the residual State of Andhra Pradesh assumes
significance and could mark the beginning of the
much-needed course correction.
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The proposal is to develop multiple urban nodes

such as Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada and Chittoor
on an equal footing and make one of them an
administrative headquarters. This might be a
political necessity in order to placate the people of
the region angry at the loss of Hyderabad, but it is
a sensible move. This network cities model can
ensure balanced and dispersed development, and
its successful implementation is not only important
for the residual State of Andhra Pradesh but also
to other States, which are grappling with the issue
of rapid urbanisation.
cities as destinations of global and domestic capital.

Policymakers overlooked the rich urban diversity
and gravitated towards mega cities. Consequently,
as a study by Eric Denis et al (2012) showed,
though substantial urban growth remained outside
large cities, the state paid less attention to them.
The economic potential of these smaller centres
remained inadequately harnessed.
Over the past few years, urban policy in Andhra

Pradesh and other places had gone wayward.
Resources and attention were bestowed only on
one alpha city usually the capital creating a
humongous urban agglomeration at the expense of
other potential urban centres. For instance,
Hyderabad had grown to become the largest urban
centre in the State with a population of about 7.75
million while the next big city, Visakhapatnam, has
a population of only 1.73 million. Though historic
reasons and location advantage contributed to the
differences in growth, myopic policies have
exacerbated it and skewed the urban pattern.
Policies that failed
Since the 1980s, various policies have been

insisting on developing small and medium towns.
The plan was to improve infrastructural facilities
and employment opportunities in these towns and
make them centres of growth. The reasoning was
that developing carefully chosen places would fairly
disperse urbanisation. State and central
governments together spent about Rs. 1,600 crore
on improving 1,854 towns, but it did not yield the
desired result. In 2005, the governments concluded
that big cities continued to dominate the spatial
pattern of urbanisation. They gave up the policy to
develop small and medium towns and started to
fund only urban services projects in these places.
They blamed the lack of availability of land,
inadequate funds and inability of local bodies to
execute the schemes for the failure, but never
admitted that their own ad hoc actions undermined
the project. Since the 1990s, after economic
liberalisation set in, the policies and programmes
clearly shifted in favour of promoting metropolitan

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The residual State has a better distribution of

urban centres than Telangana. There are about 32
towns with a population of more than one lakh
compared to the 14 towns in Telangana. More
importantly, if one leaves Hyderabad aside, eight
of the nine large cities, which have a population of
more than 4 lakh, are in the residual State. Most of
these towns have registered more than 20 per cent
growth in their population between 2001 and 2011,
and possess great potential to emerge as important
urban centres in future.
The way forward
Developing them is critical to ensuring that the

benefits of economic growth reach vast rural
hinterlands. Drawing from evidence across the
world, scholars of urbanisation such as Cecilia
Tacoli have emphasised that the growth of
intermediate urban centres is particularly important
at times when the process of globalisation is
justifying concentration of activities in the large
cities, increasing the already significant regional
differences in living conditions and productivity.
The way forward is to carefully select cities to
network and plan them well to provide good
quality of life; emphasise public transport, social
housing and environmental protection; put in place
a good governance structure; and empower local
bodies.
Source: The Hindu
[37]
CHEERING IS NO DUTY, JEERING IS NO CRIME

IPC in 1870 as Section 124A. Subsequently it proved
a useful tool for a colonial administration to keep
order among restive natives.
It came in handy in 1908 to put Bal Gangadhar
Tilak on trial in the Bombay High Court for his writings
in the Kesari. Despite being defended by M.A. Jinnah,
Tilak was convicted by a 6-3 majority jury.
In independent India, even after the constitution
came into force, the crime remained on the statute
book to be invoked against dangerous dissenters.
While introducing the first amendment to Indias
constitution which imposed restrictions on free
speech, Pandit Nehru said: ...Take again Section
124A of the IPC. So far as I am concerned, that
particular Section is highly objectionable and
obnoxious and it should have no place both for
practical and historical reasons in any body of
laws that we might pass. The sooner we get rid of
it the better.
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This writer belongs to that generation of Indian

cricket enthusiasts which is still traumatised by
Javed Miandads last ball six in Sharjah, 1986. Now
28 years on, Shahid Afridis two sixes off Ashwins
last over in Dhaka have led to sedition charges
against and the expulsion of 67 Kashmiri students
from a private university in Meerut. While I
understand the motivations, the actions of the
university and the police authorities are certainly
not lawful.
Celebrations by some ended with the Meerut
police wrongly invoking criminal charges of sedition
under Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code. A
court could not have taken cognisance of those
charges without an express sanction by the State
government under Section 196 of the Code of
Criminal Procedure. In this case, the State
government seems to have decided to drop charges
rather than grant such sanction.
Sedition is easy to allege but difficult to

prosecute. Nationalism is easy to profess but difficult
to define. Shouting Pakistan hai hai through a
match is cheap nationalism, but fun nevertheless.
One can be a nationalistic cricket lover, but can
abhor supporting a team which has Ishant Sharma
bowling the death overs. One cannot be a genuine
cricket lover without appreciating the greatness of
a batsman who annihilates the opposition in the
last ball of the last over. Similarly, like the Chennai
crowd of 1999, one can even cheer the winning
cricket team of a country that has gone to war
with your own and yet not be seditious in law.
Sedition in the statutory sense requires a
perpetrator who brings or attempts to bring into
hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite
disaffection towards the government established by
law in India. Hatred or contempt of a sports team
is simply not covered by the section.
A crime short of treason
Sedition in the criminal sense began to be

defined in the Elizabethan era as a crime short of
treason but as a notion of inciting by words or
writings disaffection towards the state or constituted
authority. Some Commonwealth countries like
New Zealand have abolished sedition as a crime.
The events of 9/11 and other terrorist threats have
seen Australia and others strengthen legislation in
this regard and persist in its continued, though
sparing, use.
With British India facing an incipient Wahabist
threat, sedition as a crime found its way into the
[38]
Despite Nehrujis protestations, the law

remained in the statute books. It was invoked
against sundry communist speeches and
communalists of all hues. Doubts arose about the
constitutionality of the Section after the
fundamental right to freedom of speech was
guaranteed by the constitution in 1950.
Answering these doubts in 1962, in Kedarnath
vs Union of India, the Supreme Courts Constitution
bench ruled: The provisions of the sections read
as a whole, along with the explanations, make it
reasonably clear that the sections aim at rendering
penal only such activities as would be intended, or
have a tendency, to create disorder or disturbance
of public peace by resort to violence It is only
when the words, written or spoken, etc. which
have the pernicious tendency or intention of creating
public disorder or disturbance of law and order
that the law steps in to prevent such activities in
the interest of public order. So construed, the
section, in our opinion, strikes the correct balance
between individual fundamental rights and the
interest of public order.
When dissent becomes seditious
The Supreme Courts balancing act has,

however, been largely ignored by administrators
when it comes to enforcement. Every person whose
inconvenient view sparks outrage ends up being
charged under this section or Sections 153A and
295A. However, most of these prosecutions are
withdrawn or fail when faced with strict legal
scrutiny from a superior court.
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or disturbance. Much as we think otherwise, legally
speaking, cricketing or cinematic heroes are not
the nation, nor do they symbolise it. Their achievements may bring joy or sorrow. But there is no
duty in law to cheer, nor is there a penalty for jeering.
India losing a close match is a cricketing tragedy
and just that. Those who cheer such an event may
lack discretion and taste but their conduct is not
seditious. In other words Jeetega bhai jeetega,
Pakistan jeetega is not seditious but Kashmir
banega Pakistan definitely is. Wisdom lies in
ensuring that those Indians who scream the first
slogan are not pushed to screaming the second.
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Cartoonist Aseem Trivedis innocuous cartoons

during the Anna agitation saw the Maharashtra
government invoke this section to curb dissent. The
Advocate General of the State later withdrew these
charges in court. Arundhati Roy and Syed Ali Shah
Geelanis speeches at a Delhi conference in October,
2010 resulted in prosecution for sedition on the
orders of a trial court. Binayak Sens possession of
Naxal literature was the basis of his conviction and
life sentence under this section by a Chhattisgarh
sessions court. The Supreme Court later granted
him bail pending an appeal to the High Court.
The test of sedition must be to invoke or excite
a hatred or contempt, or disaffection towards the
government or nation resulting in public disorder
Source: The Hindu
NALANDA IS NOT ABOUT NOSTALGIA
It is only appropriate that a government that is

actively seeking overseas collaboration in the arena
of higher education should be steadfast in its
support for an inclusive and ambitious model of
global partnership. The Union Cabinets approval
of the amendments proposed by a Standing
Committee on External Affairs should settle once
and for all the question of the status of Nalanda
University at Rajgir in Bihar as an
international institution. As per the proposed
amendments, the preamble to the 2010 Act would
characterise Nalanda unambiguously as a nonstate, non-profit, self-governing international
institution. Such a stipulation should put an end
to attempts to depict the modern avatar of the
historic centre of learning as a central university,
thus saving the government the embarrassment of
having to clarify its position to other participantcountries in this unique project. Indeed, the
Standing Committee has proposed the insertion of
a clear reference in the relevant law to the 2013
intergovernmental memorandum of understanding
that has entered into force. Significantly, the latter
provides for the involvement of any country that
subscribes to the objectives of Nalanda. Russia, the
United States, Australia and New Zealand have
already expressed their commitment at various
levels.
The transnational composition of the modern
Nalanda was only to be expected. For the states of

the second East Asia Summit (EAS) in 2007 saw
the revival of this ancient seat of learning as being
central to realising the concept of an Asian
community and strengthening regional educational
cooperation. A capacity to attract students and
faculty from across geographical boundaries was
one of the hallmarks of this great and ancient seat
of learning. It would have therefore seemed rather
odd for the architects of Nalandas new version
appearing not keen to foster a cross-cultural and
cosmopolitan spirit of intellectual and cultural
exchange. In the context of the relatively backward
State of Bihar, the creation of state-of-the-art
infrastructure and improved overall connectivity
would prove an immense boon. The Universitys
Chancellor, the Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, has
repeatedly emphasised his commitment to
promoting the highest academic standards, as well
as ensuring equity in the recruitment and
admissions processes. These are worthy objectives
that Indias public institutions generally, and those
in the field of education in particular, must foster
at every level. If indeed the 21st century is critical
to the future of Asia, then Nalanda is potentially a
great platform to create that future. It could prove
no less a model for the promotion of international
understanding.
Source: The Hindu
SMALL STATES, BIG PROBLEMS
Smaller States have been the new political mode

of addressing basic issues that were otherwise left
unresolved. However, fighting for a new state and
reconstructing on a more sustainable democratic
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content are undoubtedly two different issues all

together. One does not automatically promise the
other, if there is anything to learn from the previous
history of smaller States in India.
[39]

development where growth can be achieved in spite
of these handicaps. This, as we witnessed with the
examples of the three smaller States, results in an
unprecedented exploitation of raw materials such
as the mining of minerals instead of the creation of
industry, wanton land deals, a boost to the
construction industry and the conversion of fertile
agricultural land into speculative real estate
transactions, since agriculture in any case was
untenable and non-profitable.
Alongside these possibilities, Telangana has also
been a haven for liquor contractors since a large
chunk of State revenue is from liquor contracts.
Civil, liquor and mining contractors have come to
constitute the dominant, economic elite and the
political class. Added to this speculative nature of
the economy especially in the case of Telangana
is the excessive concentration of resources in the
capital city of Hyderabad. Since Hyderabad is
already well-developed in terms of infrastructure,
there remains little possibility of developing other
smaller towns for the purpose of economic
investments. It is precisely for this reason that the
clamour over Hyderabad is detrimental to the
interests of other backward districts in the region.
Therefore, it is reasonable to bring into question
how such a model of growth will be able to address
the aspirations of the various social groups that
have mobilised themselves relentlessly in a struggle
for a separate state of Telangana. Will this model
be able to address the impending agrarian crisis
that has resulted in scores of farmer suicides? Will
it provide employment to the students who formed
the backbone of the movement? Will it provide relief
to artisans and other nascent non-farm sectors in
the rural hinterland? Finally, will it be able to create
new avenues to stop massive migration that many
districts of Telangana have witnessed in the last
three decades?
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The premise of carving out smaller States in

India shifted from the formation of linguistic states
to one of, since the 1990s, rearranging them on the
basis of backwardness and a lack of development.
However, even a cursory look at how Uttarakhand,
Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand have fared will tell
us how the mere formation of a smaller State is no
guarantee for better lives for those social groups
for whom these States have been created.
Uttarakhand continues to be at the lower end in
the Human Development Index. There was abject
callousness in dealing with the recent floods,
focussing solely on how to make it more touristfriendly rather than planning for the rehabilitation
of displaced residents. There was little concern
demonstrated for the local people in whose name
the State was created.
Chhattisgarh has witnessed the largest
displacement of tribals in recent times. There have
been sustained attempts to dispossess them of their
land which they have inhabited for centuries in
order to extract mineral wealth. Even as tribals
were ostensibly empowered by the Panchayats
(Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act (PESA),
there were attempts to invoke the clause of Eminent
Domain, in the name of national interest. The
displacement of tribals was in fact outsourced
by the State to vigilante groups formed through
what was depicted as a spontaneous uprising called
Salwa Judum in effect an organised effort by
non-tribals and traders from outside the State. How
did they get the better of the tribals in whose name
the State was created? Jharkhand turned out to be
perhaps the worst of the three. With hardly any
agenda of development worth mentioning, the State
turned into a mining hell of predatory growth,
eventually resulting in a series of scams and criminal
proceedings being initiated against the first tribal
Chief Minister of the State. Thus, how optimistic
can one get about Telangana?
Questionable model of growth
When States remain backward for long, they

are ushered in to create new growth in order to
catch up with the rest. While this kind of growthcentric discourse has been the rhetoric of the neoliberal economy for the last three decades, it neatly
overlaps with the aspirations that lie behind the
creation of smaller States. However, the nature of
the economy in these States remains distinct, since
they are latecomers. The lack of industry, an
agrarian crisis and a low level of infrastructural
facilities push such States into adopting a model of
[40]
Politics of polarisation
On the political front too there are many

challenges that Telangana will have to face, and
this dream of a New Telangana that was ushered
in by the leaders needs closer introspection
something that has been missing so far from the
discourse. With a clear possibility of an alliance,
after Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leader K.
Chandrasekhar Rao rejected the idea of a merger
between the TRS and the Congress, there will be
no regional alternative left in the State except for
the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) that has not done
well electorally in the last decade or so. This will
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undoubtedly open up new space for the Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) that has also championed the
cause of Telangana.
In fact, when Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao once

recalled the legacy of the Nizam, which was in
any case problematic, it led to massive disapproval.
The history of the Telangana struggle of the 1940s
and the popular memory of the atrocities committed
by the Razakars, the private army unleashed by
the Nizam, continue to haunt public and political
debate in the region, conveniently forgetting that
the landlords who sided with the Razakars belonged
to the now dominant Reddy and Velama castes.
Much of the public campaign of the BJP in the
region, alongside the demand for Telangana, was
fashioned around this selective construction of
history. Another Muzaffarnagar or a Gujarat cannot
be ruled out in the near future in the New
Telangana.
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Telangana was ruled by the Nizam, and most

of the districts have a Muslim population not less
than 13-14 per cent. Added to this is the
imagination among the Muslim population that
they once upon a time in history belonged to the
ruling elite. It is this imagination that is always
invoked by the likes of All India Majlis Ittehadul
Muslimeen (MIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi and his
brother, Akbaruddin Owaisi. While as rhetoric it
might provide a sense of security for the Muslims,
it also creates fertile ground for the agenda of
Hindutva and a politics of polarising Hindus and
Muslims along religious lines. In fact, the BJP sees
Telangana as its second stop in South India, after
Karnataka. While the dominant castes of Reddys
and Velamas constitute the leadership of the TRS
and the Congress, there is a distinct possibility of
the BJP shifting ground to mobilise the Other
Backward Classes, weaning them away from the
TDP. Along with the conservative Brahminical
social elite, OBCs and even Dalits could be the social
base of the BJP to pursue its Hindutva dream,
leaving Telangana with no democratic social force
that could counter its divisive agenda.
The sentiment of being deprived in a backward

region and culturally subjugated and victimised are
grounds for the demand for a separate state that
can very easily be mobilised, once a new State is
formed, against imagined aggressors within the
State. It is for this reason that the MIM has been
opposed to the demand for a separate State an
issue that was put on the back burner by the leaders
championing the cause of Telangana, never looking
for ways of addressing it.
Source: The Hindu
REGULATING STEM CELL THERAPY
A revised set of guidelines on stem cell research

was recently released by the Indian Council of
Medical Research and the Department of
Biotechnology, seven years after an earlier one was
issued. Despite claiming that the revision was
necessitated by a need to reflect new scientific
and clinical findings that have changed the
landscape of stem cell research being undertaken
in the country and its possible translation, there is
a glaring omission that reflects a lack of application
of the mind. The guidelines make it abundantly
clear that any use of stem cells in patients except
to treat various haematological, immunological and
metabolic disorders using haematopoietic stem cells
should, by default, be considered as clinical trials.
The exemption is on the grounds that the use of
haematopoietic stem cells to treat the said disorders
has been established as a standard of medical
care. Of course, the use of bone marrow
(containing haematopoietic stem cells) to treat
diseases like leukaemia has been in vogue in India
since the 1960s. But what has been overlooked in
the new guidelines is that treating damaged corneas

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by limbal transplantation for limbal stem cell

deficiency should also be considered as an
established method of care; limbal stem cells are
transplanted from the healthy eye to the damaged
eye of the same patient to treat an affected cornea.
No other alternative method is currently available
to treat such cases. For the last few years, a handful
of tertiary eye hospitals in India have been treating
such cases using limbus stem cells; since 2001, one
institute alone has treated nearly 1,000 patients.
Though the use of limbus stem cells is not as old as
haematopoietic stem cells, about 1,500 patients with
corneal damage have been treated so far; there is
also sufficient evidence to prove its safety. Hence,
there is a compelling reason for the ICMR and the
DBT to apply the same yardstick and correct the
anomaly.
Though belated, the decision to call all the
untested therapies offered to gullible people as
clinical trials is indeed commendable. This would
end the rampant exploitation of patients by some
doctors. Many untested and unproven stem cell
treatments are being offered as a magic bullet for
[41]

many types of diseases and conditions. Similarly,
several untested techniques to separate, grow and
expand specific stem cells are available in the
country. Besides failing to produce the promised
benefits, there is a real possibility of causing greater
harm to patients when stem cells are manipulated
in the laboratory. But with many clinics and

hospitals already offering stem sell therapy for a
wide variety of conditions, it remains to be seen
how swiftly they can be regulated under the new
guidelines.
Source: The Hindu
NO ROOM FOR COMPLACENCY

14.8 per cent as against an increase of 10.4 per
cent in the third quarter of 2012-13. The decline
was mainly due to a sharp fall in gold imports
which added up to $3.1 billion as compared to
$17.8 billion a year ago. All these helped in
contracting the merchandise trade deficit by about
43 per cent to $33.2 billion. The vast improvement
in the current account is at the centre of a smart
recovery in Indias external account. The rupee has
remained stable for a fairly long time and foreign
investors with a higher risk appetite are sensing
better opportunities in India. However, while due
credit should be given to the government and the
RBI, there is a need for continued vigilance. Lower
non-bullion imports reflect the ongoing economic
slowdown. The governments clampdown on gold
imports through tariffs and administrative
measures might have paid off, but there is enough
evidence that a part of the gold trade has moved
underground with large-scale smuggling starting
again. Two other areas of concern are that iron ore
exports are still restricted while coal imports have
increased dramatically, aggravating the trade
deficit. These are structural problems, and as long
as they exist the external economy will remain
vulnerable. Any pick-up in growth would see a
rise in imports, and export performance needs to
remain robust.
CH
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Indias balance of payments (BOP) improved

dramatically in the third quarter (OctoberDecember 2013) of the current financial year. In
releasing the data a full three weeks before the
scheduled date in end-March, the Reserve Bank of
India has, though not for the first time, broken
with convention to share the good news with the
markets as soon as it could. The significant piece of
news in the BOP data for the third quarter is the
dramatic narrowing of the current account deficit
(CAD) to $4.2 billion (0.9 per cent of GDP) from
$31.9 billion (6.5 per cent) in the same period last
year. Even compared with the preceding quarter
(July-September) when the CAD was $5.2 billion
(1.2 per cent), the performance is impressive.
Clearly, the positive trends in Indias BOP are
getting entrenched and do not represent a one-off
development. On a cumulative basis, during the
nine months of 2013-14, the CAD at $31.1 billion
(or 2.5 per cent) marks a big improvement over the
corresponding period last year when it was $69.8
billion (or 5.2 per cent).
The lower CAD was primarily on account of a

decline in the trade deficit as merchandise exports
picked up and imports, especially of gold,
moderated. There is no doubt at all that the rupee
depreciation has helped in boosting exports they
clocked 7.5 per cent growth in the third quarter.
On the other hand, merchandise imports fell by
Source: The Hindu
NORTH EASTS MYANMAR CONNECT
Walking around the Bagyoke Aung San Market

in Yangon gives one a personal sense of the cultural
affinity between Myanmar and northeast India.
Goods are stacked in a way peculiar to the
northeast region and the similarity in the products
on display is unmistakable. Every now and then
one can hear people speaking in Mizo or some
other common language. The traditional Burmese
dress is worn just the way it is in the northeast
and the street food and traditional food items of
both the regions bear a close resemblance too. The
saying that Southeast Asia begins in northeast India
[42]
takes credence. The way the people of Myanmar

have taken to the use of chopsticks seems like a
natural phenomenon and the adoption of Indian
food, including the biryani, which is believed to
have travelled here with the khansamas of Bahadur
Shah Zafar makes it truly a place that author Thant
Myint-U calls, Where China meets India.
Yet, India and Myanmar have not been able to
exploit these close historical and cultural
connections. Recent writings and research overflow
with expositions on the opportunities that exist in
the developing of connectivity infrastructure, but
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Northeast India and Myanmar also share
similar economic and business structures. The
economy, which is largely agrarian and dependent
on the export of unprocessed primary commodities
and in which micro, small and medium enterprises
are prevalent, provides for the basis of industrial
development.
Trade imbalance
Yet the facts of history and the reality of borders
cannot be wished away. Currently, there is trade
imbalance in favour of Myanmar. Given that the
development of a goods export-oriented economy
may take some time to develop in the northeast,
there is opportunity to step up trade in services.
This is a sector where, following the relaxation of
the movement of people across the border, a large
number of people from Myanmar have come to
educational institutes and healthcare facilities in
the northeast.
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the gap between the purported potential and what

has been realised remains enormous. What is also
true is that the northeastern part of India and the
western part of Myanmar consisting of Chin,
Sagaing
and
Kachin
states
are
both
underdeveloped. The neglect leading to low
economic and social development in the region has
often been cited as one of the causes for the
insurgencies raging on both sides of the border.
Indeed, even as there are shared opportunities,
both regions share very similar risks and challenges.
Stagnant economy
Some of the key reasons the northeast is unable

to move from a largely subsistence agricultural
economy to a production and manufacturing
economy include the lack of scale economies,
constraints in the supply chain of raw materials
and the lack of access to a market, mainly
emanating from poor infrastructure and restrictions
across the border. The way out of this is to explore
greater collaboration with Myanmar. The weaving
industries in northeast India or the food processing
industries, both in Myanmar and northeast India,
have not been able to grow in a limited market.
The expansion of this can provide a wider consumer
base that these industries desperately need to ensure
profitability and sustainability.
This has to go hand in hand with the
development of supply chain hubs that will foster
manufacturing units across the region. These will
produce goods that can be consumed within the
larger region and beyond. The rest of Asia has
developed a strong network of supply chain and
manufacturing hubs which in turn would augur
well for governments and entrepreneurs of the two
regions to link with. Japan, and to a lesser extent
South Korea, have been particularly significant in
developing the manufacturing and production
networks across Southeast Asia. According to
forecasts by the Japan Bank for International
Cooperation, India and Myanmar are on a
trajectory which is predicted to see increased
economic engagement with Japan. Today,
significant investments have been made by Japan
in Myanmar to help the country develop its
infrastructure and in the northeast, it is one of the
few countries which has been invited by the Indian
government to undertake large scale investments.
Singapore is another country which has significant
investments in Myanmar. It is also a country that
India is comfortable with inviting to invest in the
northeastern part of the country.

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Then there are concerns related to border

management and security. There is a border dispute
that needs to be settled by the highest levels of
both governments. Even as goods move across the
borders, so do drugs and arms. Human trafficking
is another major issue. A secure and clearly defined
border is a precursor to a peaceful and prosperous
border region.
Scholars and policy makers in Naypyidaw are
deeply aware of the need to engage with India.
They have expressed the need to utilise well the
northeast India-Myanmar connectivity project. This
is however being jostled between limited capacity
and multiple priorities. Indias own capacity and
political will to see through the numerous projects
that have been touted is under question. Yet the
sense of urgency and the realisation that there is a
limited window of opportunity to catch up with
the rest of the world is discernable among
stakeholders in Myanmar. In the northeast,
stakeholders led by political leaders need to
understand the opportunities that the reforms in
Myanmar have presented. India and Myanmar
must implement projects within their regions in a
collaborative effort, while taking regional
governments into confidence. They must settle
outstanding border disputes.
A Manipuri folklore talks about prosperity that
will fill the lands once the eastern gates are
opened. Perhaps this foretells what is in store in
the future.
Source: The Hindu
[43]
THE MANY SHADES OF GREY IN UKRAINE

military in the driving seat. The street thugs of Pravy
Sektor or Right Sector a collection of hardcore
neo-Nazi groups were particularly prominent.
In normal circumstances Western commentators
would have denounced their presence on the streets
of Kiev; because they played a useful role in the
overthrow of Mr. Yanukovich, the fascists thugs
have been accepted with a shrug.
For many in the West, Russias operations in

Crimea bear comparison to Hitlers annexation of
the Sudetenland in 1938. Others fear that Vladimir
Putin is launching a new Cold War. Russian
commentators, in the meantime, accuse the West
of helping overthrow an elected government in the
Ukraine, and of supporting a fascist putsch.
If the protests were, at least partly, progressive

and democratic, the regime that has replaced the
Yanukovich government is neither. It was put
together largely by the Foreign Ministers of
Germany, Poland and France who helped organise
the negotiations between Mr. Yanukovich and the
opposition.
What is rarely acknowledged in this war of

words is that the conflict in Ukraine is far messier
than how many wish to paint it. Consider, for
instance, three of the key questions that lie at the
heart the struggle in Ukraine.
The new government has shown itself to be as

authoritarian as the old one. One of its first acts
was to deny regions the right to give official status
to languages other than Ukrainian. The prospective
law was eventually vetoed by the interim President;
it was, nevertheless, a hugely symbolic move in a
nation in which 40 per cent of the population
speaks Russian, and another 5 per cent other nonUkraine languages.
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When is an invasion not an invasion? When is

sovereignty not sovereignty? When is an unelected
regime more legitimate than an elected
government? The answer, it seems, is when we are
discussing Ukraine. The crisis in Ukraine has swiftly
turned into a global stand-off. It has also become
the focus for a war of words about the meaning of
freedom, democracy, legitimacy and sovereignty.
Revolution or coup?
Were the events in Kiev that led to the crisis a

revolution or a coup?
Many Western commentators see the protests

that led to the overthrowing of President Viktor
Yanukovich as a revolution. Russian commentators
view it as a fascist coup. Neither is the case.
Mr. Yanukovichs government was corrupt,

authoritarian and brutal. It was also democratically
elected. The fact that Mr. Yanukovich was
democratically elected does not mean that he
should not have been challenged outside of the
ballot box. Democracy is not just about placing a
cross on a ballot paper. It is also about the creation
of a robust public sphere, of a polity that is contested
as much in the streets and the workplaces as in the
polling station.
The protests against Mr. Yanukovich that
erupted in Kievs Maidan, or Independence Square,
and that eventually led to his downfall, were as
much part of the democratic process as was the
election of the President in the first place. They
were expressions of popular unrest, no different to
the mass protests against President Mohammed
Morsy that engulfed Egypt last year. But the
weakness of Ukraines liberal opposition allowed
the far right to take a leading role, just as in Egypt
a similar weakness of liberal organisation put the
[44]
While the overthrow of Mr. Yanukovich was

clearly no fascist putsch, the new government is,
nevertheless, disproportionately influenced by the
far right. Representatives of two neo-fascist parties,
Svoboda and Right Sector, now occupy seven
ministerial posts, including that of Deputy Prime
Minister and national security. Svoboda is a party
that traces its roots to a Second World War partisan
army allied to the Nazis and is part of the far-right
Alliance of European National Movements, whose
members include the British National Party (BNP);
Jobbik, Hungarys neo-fascist, anti-Semitic party;
and the French Front National. Svoboda leader Oleh
Tyahnybok has denounced in Parliament the
Muscovite-Jewish mafia that he claims controls
Ukraine.
All of Ukraines fascists are not simply on one
side. The pro-Russian side has been pouring out
anti-Semitic propaganda, claiming that the protest
leaders are all Jews, and that if European liberalism
gains sway, their children would be turned gay.
What is particularly troubling, though, is that those
who support the supposedly progressive, proEuropean cause can acquiesce so easily to the
presence of fascists in their midst.
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Referendum in Crimea
Should Crimea be allowed to secede from
Ukraine?
Russia insists that the coming referendum in
Crimea to determine whether or not it wishes to
join the Russian Federation is an expression of
democracy and self-determination. Western
commentators condemn it as an illegal vote
contrary to international law and the Ukrainian
Constitution.
Ukraine is a divided nation. If many in western

Ukraine express their disenchantment with corrupt,
undemocratic governance through greater support
for the EU, many in eastern Ukraine and in Crimea
do so through a yearning for closer ties with
Moscow. Such pro-Russian sentiment is as
important a part of Ukraines democratic voice as
are the calls for greater integration with Western
Europe. Western politicians refusal to take seriously
the pro-Russian sentiment, and their support for
an unelected government in Kiev that many in
Ukraine despise and even fear, can only exacerbate
tensions and make more likely the disastrous breakup of Ukraine.
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The referendum takes place against the

background of what is effectively a Russian invasion
of Crimea. The presence of Russian forces and
government control of the media make unlikely the
possibility of a clean vote.
Ukraine wanted closer ties with Russia, whereas

fewer than one in five preferred the EU.
The break-up of Ukraine would be potentially

disastrous, threatening bloody sectarian violence
and entrenching ethnic animosities. Many groups
in Crimea, Muslim Tartars in particular, are rightly
fearful of the Russian embrace. Yet, the Western
condemnations of the Crimean referendum miss
the point. It ill-behoves governments that recently
helped circumvent the Ukrainian Constitution to
get rid of Viktor Yanukovich and install an
unelected government to dismiss the referendum
as unconstitutional. Nor does it help that those
Western powers now insisting on the territorial
integrity of Ukraine and defending Ukrainian
sovereignty from foreign interference are the same
nations that in a series of conflicts from the Balkans
to Afghanistan to Iraq have helped undermine
notions of national sovereignty and territorial
integrity in the name of a greater good when it
suited them to do so.
It is not surprising that Russian President

Vladimir Putin should use the language of
protection, self-determination and opposition to
fascism to justify his military intervention in
Crimea. Mr. Putins absurd self-justifications should
not be taken seriously. But the fact that he can use
such justifications reflects the way that Western
actions over the past two decades have helped
shape the language of humanitarian intervention.
Western politicians fail to recognise the strong
sentiment that exists in large parts of Ukraine in
support of close ties with Russia. A poll conducted
by Kievs independent Razumov Centre in January
last year revealed that only a third of Crimeans
viewed Ukraine as their homeland, while half
wanted independence. Seventy per cent wanted
closer ties to Russia, compared to 20 per cent who
favoured the European Union (EU). Nor are such
sentiments exclusive to Crimea. The same poll found
that more than half the population in eastern

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Is the struggle in Ukraine a struggle between

Russia and the West?
The roots of the current conflict lie in the
struggle between Russia and the West for influence
in Kiev. Many in the West have come to see that
struggle for influence as synonymous with the
struggle for liberal democracy. Greater Russian
control is certainly likely to lead to greater
repression. It is far from clear, though, that greater
Western influence will in itself necessarily lead to
greater liberty and democracy.
Western powers, while often being the loudest
voices in proclaiming the virtues of democracy, have
often taken an instrumental view of its desirability,
preferring to prop up dictators when it suits their
needs. Take, for instance, the Wests attitude
towards Bahrain, a state that has, with considerable
bloodshed, and not a little help from neighbouring
Saudi Arabia, viciously suppressed the local
movement for democratic change. Bahrain and
Saudi Arabia are, however, important Western
allies, particularly in the war on terror. So the
Bahraini opposition movement has been largely
ignored, while a regime far more dictatorial than
that of Victor Yanukovich continues to be showered
with Western favours.
The key struggle in Ukraine is not between
Russia and the West. It is for democracy and for
those values often associated with the West, but
not always promoted by the West. That is why,
while we need to oppose Russian strongarm tactics,
we need also to be sceptical of Western interference.
What is black and white in Ukraine is the need
for a liberal democratic society, free from corruption
and external interference. But the reality of the
conflict on the ground is shrouded in many shades
of grey.
Source: The Hindu
[45]
THE POOR WITHOUT THE BENEFITS

cereals does not allow the extremely poor as much
flexibility in choosing their consumption bundles
as it allows the not-so-poor. Reports that some
recipients of the subsidised rice sell it off to flour
mills at below market prices only reinforce this view
as they are merely attempts to purchase a more
preferred consumption bundle.
Since the impact of the price subsidy on the
consumption and welfare of the not-so-poor is the
same as that of revenue neutral, direct,
unconditional income transfer but not so in the
case of the extremely poor, the price subsidy is
regressive in the sense that it is equivalent to smaller,
direct, unconditional income transfers for the
extremely poor. This regressive nature of the price
subsidy made available under NFSA seems to have
escaped the attention of experts and policymakers.
For instance, Drze and Sen in their book oppose
price subsidies on diesel and petrol on the ground
that they are regressive, but forcefully support NFSA
as if it were not.
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The National Food Security Act (NFSA), passed

recently by Parliament, offers 5 kg per person a
month of cereals at highly subsidised prices to more
than the bottom two-thirds of the population. It
has been rightly hailed as the largest welfare
programme ever undertaken in a country to provide
nutrition and food security to its poor. Passed in
an election year, it is supposed to deliver rich
political dividends to the party of the government
of the day, but the huge bill for the subsidy
(estimated to be Rs.1.15 lakh crore a year and rising)
will have to be footed by future governments. Given
its political message, future governments will have
little option but to reform the programme and make
it better targeted and fiscally less burdensome.
Since the programme covers both the extremely

poor and the not-so-poor, those eligible can be
divided into two groups: the not-so-poor, who,
irrespective of the subsidy would consume at least
5kg a month of cereals, and the extremely poor
who would consume less than 5kg a month if no
subsidy was available. Such a division of the people
covered is implied by the fact that cereals are a
normal good, that is consumers with higher
incomes consume more of the good, and thus it is
the extremely poor who would consume less than
5kg a month in the absence of the subsidy.
Regressive subsidy
The subsidy available under NFSA will impact

the welfare and the consumption of the not-sopoor, who would consume at least 5kg a month
even in the absence of the subsidy, in exactly the
same way as direct, unconditional, income transfers
equal to the cost of the subsidy, since they will
substitute kilogram for kilogram their open market
purchases of cereals with the subsidised cereals and
use the cash so saved to purchase more of other
goods such as edible oils, pulses and vegetables,
etc. as well as some more cereals. But the impact
on the extremely poor, who would consume less
than 5kg a month in the absence of the subsidy,
will not be the same as that of direct unconditional
transfers, since they will not be able to substitute
their open market purchases with subsidised cereals
to the same extent as the not-so-poor and therefore
may have to consume less of other goods and more
of cereals than they prefer. In other words, unlike
direct unconditional income transfers, the price
subsidy on a limited amount of 5kg a month of
[46]
Actually, the price subsidy should be regressive,

since it is not regressive only if incomes of everyone
are high enough such that everyone would consume
more than 5 kg a month of cereals in the absence
of the subsidy. In that case, the price subsidy would
impact consumption and the welfare of everyone
in exactly the same way as direct, unconditional
income transfers equal to the cost of subsidy. The
price subsidy, as a device for reducing hunger,
would not achieve anything more than direct
income transfers, but the government would
unnecessarily incur huge costs of distributing cereals
through the public distribution system (PDS). The
case for direct unconditional income transfers in
place of the price subsidy then becomes even
stronger.
Coarse grains
To keep the arguments simple, the discussion

earlier abstracted away from the fact that the price
subsidy under NFSA is available on three different
varieties of cereals, namely, rice, wheat and coarse
grains and one of them is not even a normal good.
In fact, coarse grains, unlike wheat and rice, are
an inferior good, that is consumers with lower
incomes consume more of them, and consumed
mostly by the extremely poor, who are habituated
to an ancient diet. They are mostly cheaper than
wheat and rice, but not less nutritious. In fact, a
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can also be criticised on the ground that there is no
guarantee that they will indeed lead to higher food
consumption by the poor. Given these concerns
regarding direct income transfers, restricting the
price subsidy to coarse grains alone will not only
work better from both the fiscal and equity points
of view but also weaken the incentives for graft,
since pilfering and fraudulently obtaining the
relatively cheaper coarse grains would be
significantly less rewarding but not less risky. Such
a policy would also lead to better targeting and a
lower fiscal burden as many among the not-sopoor who do not really need the subsidy would
voluntarily opt out of the programme. It would
effectively reduce the coverage to much less than
two-thirds of the population. Moreover, coarse
grains, though an inferior good, are not less
nutritious than wheat and rice.
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body of science asserts that some varieties of coarse

grains are even more nutritious than wheat and
rice. If the price subsidy were available only on an
inferior good such as coarse grains, then, by the
same reasoning as earlier, the subsidy would not
be regressive. Thus, restricting the price subsidy to
coarse grains alone will work better from both the
fiscal and equity points of view without
compromising on the amount of nutrition made
available. Taking note of some additional facts
concerning coarse grains vis--vis wheat and rice
only reinforces this view and suggests how the
programme may be reformed to make it more
effective and better targeted. First, the impact of
the green revolution large increases in production
and yield seem to be now giving way to wheat
and rice. In comparison, yields for coarse grains
have been growing much faster. Unlike rice and
wheat which require lots of water to grow, they
are hardy and can flourish in relatively dry weather.
Policies (support prices, procurement, and
distribution) to induce greater consumption of coarse
grains can raise incomes of farmers in the arid
zones lacking irrigation who have remained
relatively poor as they could not benefit from the
green revolution. Second, the nutrient contents of
some coarse grains such as jowar, bajra and ragi
are not less than those of wheat and rice. In fact,
they are richer in proteins, calcium and iron and
many of the poor are habituated to consuming
them. Their consumption in place of wheat and
rice can improve health as is being gradually
realised. Thus, there is every reason to promote the
production and consumption of these neglected
grains.
Issue of reforms
Though, as reasoned earlier, replacing the price

subsidy with revenue neutral direct unconditional
income transfers would benefit the extremely poor
more, there are significant challenges to doing that.
At the minimum, the poorest must have access to
bank accounts or other money solutions. Also,
direct, unconditional income transfers, even if
possible, may provide stronger incentives for graft
and corruption as gains from that would be
significantly higher than diverting subsidised cereals
for resale in the illegal market. Moreover, if the
poor receive a fixed sum in place of physical
transfers of food, their food security could be at
risk if the prices of cereals spike in certain regions
and seasons. Direct, unconditional income transfers

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Such a reform of the programme, however, may

be considered too drastic and politically unwise.
Moreover, the amount of coarse grains currently
procured and distributed through the PDS is
minuscule. Therefore, restricting the price subsidy
to coarse grains alone can be done only gradually.
A start can be made by raising the entitlement for
coarse grains to 6kg per person a month but keeping
the entitlements for wheat and rice unchanged, if
not reduced, as that would be more equitable and
provide more food and nutrition to the extremely
poor, who need help the most and prefer to
consume coarse grains, without affecting those who
have strong preferences for wheat or rice.
Reforming the programme in this way would not
impose an additional fiscal burden as the relatively
higher entitlement for coarse grains would induce
many beneficiaries to voluntarily switch to
consuming them in place of the more-costly-tosubsidise rice and wheat. Over time, as more people
opt for coarse grains and their cultivation,
procurement and distribution through the PDS rise,
the price subsidy would effectively become a
subsidy on coarse grains. This process can be
accelerated by gradually reducing the price subsidy
on wheat and rice from a suitable point of time
onwards.
That would induce the not-so-poor even more
to not avail the subsidy and eventually lead to a
better targeted and fiscally less burdensome
programme. In addition, it would indirectly reduce
poverty among relatively poor farmers in arid zones
engaged in the cultivation of coarse grains.
Source: The Hindu
[47]
WHY RBI SHOULD BE BUYING MORE DOLLARS

Asian currencies have rallied against the dollar
in the past couple of weeks. The rupee has gone
up more than all regional peers other than the
Indonesian rupiah. Only the Chinese renminbi has
fallen as its central bank tries to unsettle traders
with one-way bets on a renminbi appreciation.
Two, India needs to build defences against the

next round of global volatility. Central bank
governor Raghuram Rajan has spoken about the
need to build a bullet-proof national balance sheet.
The attractive swap offered to banks getting in
dollar deposits has helped him rebuild reserves lost
during the defence of the rupee last year. He now
needs to buy more dollars from the market if capital
inflows are in excess of the current account deficit;
India has already reported a capital account surplus
in the quarter ended December. A lot also depends
on election results, and some economists warn that
investors could pull money out of India if the polls
result in a confused mandate. In that case, storing
up dollars now is prudent.
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The rupee owes its rise to two factors: strong

capital inflows and a shrinking current account
deficit. Most economists had predicted in the
beginning of the fiscal year that India would end
up with an annual external deficit of around $85
billion. The actual number will now be closer to
$40 billion thanks to the sharp reduction in gold
imports as well as the recovery in exports. The
import bill has reduced even if the diversion of
gold imports to the old smuggling channels is taken
into account.
Consumer spending will still be important though

there are signs of spending fatigue because of high
inflation. The latest quarterly corporate results also
show that exports have been doing well after the
rupee depreciated in the second half of 2013. An
appreciation right now could halt the export
recovery in its tracks.
India should have no problem funding such an

external deficit. The economists advising the prime
minister had said in their September report that
they expect net foreign direct investment this fiscal
year to be around $21.7 billion. So this most stable
source of foreign capital will on its own cover more
than half the external deficit.
It is quite likely that strong capital flows will
continue to exert upward pressure on the rupee.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) should react to
such appreciation rather than repeating the mistake
it made in 2010 and 2011, when it allowed the
rupee to rise. A look at the data on the six-country
real effective exchange rate of the rupee shows that
the currency was overvalued during these years,
which in turn priced Indian exports out of the
market.
There are two reasons why the central bank
must begin to buy dollars from the foreign exchange
market to prevent the rupee from appreciating.
One, robust exports are currently the best bet

as a driver of an economic recovery. The investment
cycle is unlikely to turn in the coming quarters
because the private sector will wait for the election
results while the government is squeezing its own
capital spending to meet its fiscal deficit target.
The problem is that the Indian central bank is

now committing itself to targeting inflation, while
the rupees depreciation could push up prices of
imported inputs. A reflationary depreciation of the
rupee will then have to be balanced by a
deflationary increase in domestic interest rates. The
intervention in the foreign exchange market to keep
the rupee down will also have to be sterilized to
prevent excess rupee liquidity in the domestic
money market.
The task before the monetary authority is a tricky
one, because keeping a depreciation bias in the
external value of the rupee with a tightening bias
in domestic monetary policy will require a
balancing act.
But the current economic circumstances are
such that there are strong reasons for some active
management of the exchange rate if the mistakes
of 2010 and 2011 are to be avoided.
Source: Live Mint
CATALYTIC CHANGE TO PLANNING
Some institutions rise. Some win laurels. Then

many rest on them. Till several rust on them. Some
institutions stand out and lead others to rise too.
While many get dragged into the system and these
[48]
are no longer system reformers. Some institutions

stand out in India today: the Supreme Court, the
Election Commission, the Comptroller and Auditor
General, and the Competition Commission of India.
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The country needs many more. The Planning
Commission, according to its critics and according
to its chairman, the Prime Minister himself, has
been rusting for too long. It has to reform itself and
reform systems around it as well.
The third is the manner in which the

Commission improves the states performance.
Annual meetings to approve the states plan sizes
with admonishments about their poor performance
are not very effective. Rather the states want the
tools to improve their own performance and
knowledge of best practices adopted by other states.
The Commission has designed a process to support
the states and has begun implementing it too. This
process must be strengthened and the orientation
of the Commissions state plans division must be
changed accordingly.
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The Planning Commission must become a

dynamic knowledge organization and an effective
facilitator of implementation. Meanwhile the
planning ministry within it will have to continue
performing legacy services to the government of
allocations and approvals until these processes are
re-engineered. A plan has been drawn up to enable
the Commission to change its orientation. A
committee chaired by C. Rangarajan has also
proposed some changes: remove the distinction
between plan and non-plan funds; shift budget
management responsibilities to the finance ministry;
and lift the Planning Commissions function to
overall strategic guidance of the economy. These
are in line with the plan made by the Commission
internally.
can be reached through, including social media

where appropriate.
Archimedes said: Give me a place to stand

and a lever long enough and I can move the world.
The Commission must establish pivot points within
itself from which it can leverage resources outside.
Four pivot points have been located.
The first is that the Planning Commission must
be a node within a national knowledge network.
The metaphor for managing flows of knowledge
today is cloud computing not computer
mainframes. The Commission should not be
designed like a mainframe with all resources housed
in it. It does not need many experts within itself.
Rather, it must access the vast network of
knowledge available outside and channel expertise
to address the countrys needs. For this, it should
have a small, dynamic cell within it to stimulate
the formation of a network of think tanks and
establish learning processes between policymakers
and knowledge providers.
The second is a unit dedicated to develop and
use modern methods of planning and
communication. The Commission has begun the
use of scenario planning to provide the radar that
stakeholders have requested. It has conducted the
largest consultation process with citizens ever to
prepare the 12th Five-Year Plan and the scenarios
that accompany it. Almost 1,000 civil society
organizations, scores of business associations, and
dozens of think tanks participated in the exercise.
The Commission has begun to map the diverse
audiences it must persuade and the channels they

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Indias progress has slowed down impeded by

thousands of bottlenecks, at the centre, in the states,
and in the cities. Contention amongst stakeholders
stall policies and projects. Confusion results in long
delays and wasted resources. The fourth pivot is a
movement the Commission launched a few months
ago called the India Backbone Implementation
Network (IbIn). It is spreading around processes
and tools to convert contention to collaboration and
confusion to coordination so that plans can be made
and implemented. Other countries, such as Korea,
Malaysia, Germany, China and Japan, are using
such techniques. These are being brought to India.
Indian best practices are also being discovered and
deployed.
The rollout of IbIn is modelled on the total
quality management (TQM) movement which
transformed Japanese industries in the 1970s.
Techniques by which teams could improve the
performance of their system spread around Japan.
TQM was not a government programme. Many
partners, from the private sector, academia and
government, stirred and spread the movement
across Japan.
The Planning Commission does not require a
large number of experts to make these four critical
changes. They are small but pivotal to change the
Commissions orientation. However it will be more
difficult to change the large planning ministry to
which the members of the Commission are
attached. The ministry is embedded within the
inertia of the larger government machinery: its
service rules, transfer systems, and its archaic
systems of file movements. The Planning
Commission must be a leader in government in
applying modern methods of work that enable
systemic and faster decisions. There is no law that
says that cross-divisional teams of the Commission
[49]

cannot have a dialogue face-to-face to produce a
national view instead of writing their narrow
divisional perspectives in files that meander around.
Finally, it is not necessary and hardly feasible
to change the people to change nations and

institutions. Change the way people work and
think, and institutions and nations will change.
Source: Live Mint
THE WORLDS CHANGING ENERGY MAP

region is at best an insurance policy. Chinas room
for diplomacy and political manoeuvre is much
greater. It can calibrate its policies to its interests to
a degree that India can only imagine. Loosening of
Americas grip is not really a blessing, as far as
India is concerned.
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In the last one month, the centrality of energy

security driving global geopolitical equations has
been demonstrated beyond any doubt. From North
Dakota in the US (the site of one of the biggest
shale deposits in North America) to Ukraine to Bab
al Mandeb in the Persian Gulf, it is the changing
energy production and export pattern that is
leading to changing geopolitical equations.
Three trends in the worlds energy geopolitics

are visible. The first is the shale oil (and gas)
revolution in the US. Since 2007, the US has begun
exploiting the untapped resource to potentially
become an energy giant. Hydrocarbons, primarily
oil and gas, trapped within fine grained
sedimentary rocks, were once thought to be
unrecoverable with existing drilling techniques.
Extraction was also considered expensive and
unviable. Modern methods have changed all that.
Between 2007 and 2012, US shale gas production
rose by over 50% each year, and its share of total
US gas production jumped from five% to 39%. US
imports of crude oil from the Middle East went
down from 2,505 thousand barrels per day in 2004
to 2,163 thousand barrels per day in 2012.
While the US is still the largest importer of crude
oil in the world, it is steadily focusing on becoming
self-sufficient. The US aggressive push to increase
its oil and gas production has larger geopolitical
advantages besides the obvious economic benefits.
One region where this is visible is the Middle

East. The region is witnessing a quiet American
withdrawal. The US reluctance in engaging with
Syria; its newfound enthusiasm for nuclear
negotiations with Iran, and a somewhat lukewarm
attitude towards Israel would be inexplicable were
it not for its increasing energy independence from
this region.
This has created a new version of the Gold Rush
in the Middle East. The field has been opened for
energy-hungry countries such as India and China
for this oil and gas. The Indian and Chinese
situations and approaches could not be more
different. India is largely dependent on the Middle
East for its energy security; for Chinawith a much
more diversified energy sourcing patternthe
[50]
Finally, if there is one quiet factor at work in

how the world in general, and Europe and the US
in particular, are responding to the Ukrainian crisis,
surely it is the energy dynamics in the northwestern
corner of Eurasia. What explains European
pusillanimity in confronting the Russian fait
accompli Crimea? Why is Germany, the most
powerful country in Europe, quiet about this
situation? Western Europe depends heavily on
energy from Russia and vital pipeline networks that
pass through Ukraine. On two previous occasions,
in 2006 and 2009, Russia has flexed its energy
muscles in this very region.
One lesson is clear: Spreading the supply risks
is important if countries and regions are to resist
aggression (Europe and Ukraine are good examples)
or prevent any future hostile alignments (this is
particularly important for India with respect to
China). This is a strategy best demonstrated by
China, which is the second largest importer of crude
oil in the world. Like India, its biggest supplier is
the Middle East. And yet, that number is just 28%
of its oil imports, as opposed to 60% for India,
which consumes a fraction of the amount of crude
oil China does. China also has the largest shale gas
reserves in the world. But its production capacity
is nowhere close to that of the US. This is a great
source of comfort. For now though, it makes much
more economic sense for China to import and slowly
try to expand its shale gas production. Additionally,
China has cultivated friendly relationships with all
the Middle Eastern countries and has backed them
through and through. India is, meanwhile, sticking
to the middle ground as always while increasingly
being dependent on these countries.
All the major powers in the world are modifying
their geostrategic outlook in tandem with their
changing needs and interests. India seems to have
neither a strategy nor a vision for its interests in sight.
Source: Live Mint
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CLEARING THE WATER

keep them in active service well beyond 30 years.
Aircraft carrier Viraat is over 50 years old. As rightly
pointed out by Admiral Arun Prakash, by
international standards, the Indian navy is young,
with a large proportion of modern and newly
constructed ships, with some approaching middle
age and others nearing their stipulated retirement
age. Moreover, 45 newly constructed warships will
join the fleet in the coming decade. The Indian
navy presently has 13 conventional submarines in
its inventory, excluding Sindhurakshak. The
Perspective Plan envisages a fleet of 18-24
submarines.
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The resignation of the naval chief with 15

months of service remaining is unprecedented and
laudable, and represents the highest standards of
professionalism. The spate of accidents, however,
raises questions that the stepping down of the naval
chief is unlikely to lay to rest. The theatre of the
absurd that followed in terms of ill-informed
comment has muddied the waters and threatens
to undermine the reputation of a first-rate navy.
Speculating on the causes of an accident,
especially one that claims lives, before a board of
inquiry has submitted its report borders on the
reckless. In the case of the Sindhuratna, much
attention was focused on the batteries. The
preliminary finding reportedly is that the problem
was not with the batteries but in the concealed
life-cable of the submarine. Confirmation will have
to wait until the final report.
Speculation and ill-informed analyses have led

to allegations being made in three categories. One,
that an apathetic civil bureaucracy and an
indifferent political class have starved the defence
forces in general and the navy in particular of
much-needed funds. Two, there have been
inordinate delays in ordering replacements,
resulting in force levels being reduced to dangerous
levels and that our young men and women have
been given substandard equipment that endangers
their lives. And three, the entire civil-military
relationship has broken down.
Each of these allegations merits examination.

The defence budget, presently at Rs 2,03,672 crore
(US $37.4 billion) has been on the rise. The Indian
navys share has been around 16-17 per cent.
Clearly, the navy would want, and perhaps
deserves, more. It has pegged its demands for
several years at 18-20 per cent. Funds, on the other
hand, are not unlimited and need to be prioritised.
The navy recently acquired the 44,500-tonne aircraft
carrier, the Vikramaditya, the erstwhile Gorshkov,
for a whopping $2.5 billion. It has an expensive,
leased nuclear-powered submarine and the
indigenously produced Arihant presently
undergoing sea trials. Clearly, therefore, the
allegation of the navy being deprived of funds does
not wash.
The navy has a total of 138 platforms, both
ships and submarines, almost 50 per cent of which
are 20 years old. Ships and submarines are
periodically refitted and modernised in order to

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In July 1999, the Cabinet Committee on Security

had approved a 30-year plan for a comprehensive
Submarine Construction Programme. As part of
the 30-year plan, 12 conventional submarines were
to be constructed during 2000-12. Not a single
conventional submarine was delivered to the Indian
navy during this period due to delays in the
envisaged projects. Since the present Raksha Mantri
has been in position for eight of the last 10 years,
he cannot escape responsibility. On this point alone,
asking for his resignation is fully justified.
Six submarines of the French Scorpene design
are being constructed at Mazagon Dock Limited
(MDL), Mumbai, in collaboration with DCNS,
France. The case for further construction of six
submarines is being processed for approvals, four
of these will be constructed indigenously and two
abroad in order to compress delivery timelines.
It is the job of the bureaucracy, in both the
ministries of defence and finance, to raise questions
when expenditure of a magnitude that requires
their approval is concerned. It is the responsibility
of the political leadership to overrule the
bureaucracy when it becomes asinine. Corruption
has to be fought, but to use the fear of corruption
to allow the countrys fighting capability to be run
down reflects mismanagement and incompetence.
The present defence minister has allowed his
penchant for fighting corruption to get the better
of his professional judgement, which should have
been guided by the need to ensure minimum force
levels.
An ageing fleet, by definition, requires a higher
revenue budget. The revenue budget, which looks
after repairs and the fit of ships, submarines, etc,
has stagnated around Rs 11,000 to 12,000 crore.
The cost of batteries on submarines is debitable to
[51]

The MDL, on average, has been taking twice the
time to produce warships at twice the cost. The
overall responsibility for this would again appear
to lie with the political class and the senior
management of the defence ministry, which has
allowed the situation to deteriorate in the last 10
years. For this again, the UPA government is solely
responsible.
The navy, for its part, needs to reassure itself
about its training and operating procedures and
the maintenance of equipment.
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the revenue budget and is only Rs 12 crore. The

batteries on the Sindhuratna not the cause of
the fire were well within their life cycle. Focusing
on the batteries and suggesting that they were the
cause of the fire is designed to divert attention from
the real causes, which will become clear when the
board of inquiry report is received. The accident
on board the INS Kolkata on March 7, which
claimed the life of a naval commander, the
engineering officer, could have been avoided if
prescribed operating procedures had been followed
and he had worn a gas mark.
The navy and defence ministry need to take a
good, hard look at its production and repair
facilities, the MDL, a PSU, and the naval dockyard.
There should be zero tolerance for deviations,

and responsibility should be fixed for improper
certifications.
BANKING ON INSECURITY
Last year, a virtual currency (bitcoin) boomed

from $13 to $1,250 per unit value, reaching over
Rs 63,000 in the Indian market along its
rollercoaster ride. There came a bump on the road
when the Reserve Bank of India issued a notification
on December 24, 2013, cautioning users, holders
and traders of virtual currencies (VCs), including
bitcoin, about the potential financial, operational
and legal, customer protection and security related
risks that they are exposing themselves to.
On February 12, in reply to a question posed to

him at the annual Nasscom India Leadership
Forum, the RBI governor said that he has worries
about the underlying fluctuations in the price of
bitcoin and also the maintenance of its value. The
concern shown by the governor is in light of the
fact that any currency gets its value from its
stability, which is not the case with virtual
currencies. He also said that the RBI is
understanding virtual currencies better and will
come out with a more considered view.
In this context, it is important to note that
virtual currency is a currency that relies on
cryptography, peer-to-peer networking and
decentralisation. In some cases, like bitcoin, a proofof-work scheme is used to create and manage the
currency. These currencies, especially bitcoin, boast
of many exciting features that make it the perfect
digital currency. Some of these features are
frictionless, anonymous and cryptographically
secure. Given that bitcoin is invisible to law
enforcement agencies and taxation departments,
its growing appeal is understandable.
[52]
But if these currencies are so good, why are

governments and central banks not encouraging
such trading? Are they pretending to be advocates
of a free market economy while still wanting to
keep their monopolistic positions in the currencies
market?
First, it is important to address the volatility in
bitcoin, as it results in high risk for investors. The
RBI is concerned about probable losses to investors
due to volatility in virtual currency markets. The
analysis of data from bitcoinscharts.com suggests
that the bid-ask spread has a high range, between
310 for GBP and 55,490.7 for the rupee. However,
does the RBI always protect investors in all high
volatility markets, including the stock and
derivatives markets?
Second, the RBI also has concerns relating to
taxation. Taxes are seen as the medium of providing
growth to the economy and virtual currencies like
bitcoin are a threat to the federal taxation system
due to their intrinsic quality of not identifying the
person transacting in the currency. But is a ban on
bitcoin likely to solve this concern?
A third concern is security. There could be
security risk in transactions relating to trading in
virtual currencies like bitcoin, but one must not
forget that this kind of risk is built into any
transaction done through internet or, for that
matter, plastic money as well. Thus, if the argument
holds true for virtual currencies, it also holds true
for plastic money and e-wallets. At least, bitcoin
has a proof-of-work scheme to prevent it.
Fourth is the concern about money laundering.
There had been strong opposition to the activities
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of money laundering, which is said to pose a threat
to the federal economic system due to its links to
black money and support for anti-national activities.
The authorities have strongly acted against hawala
transactions where identifying transacting parties
had been easy, but it may take new shape through
virtual currencies like bitcoin.
The RBI must not throw the baby out with the
bathwater. If it desires to counter the rise of these
currencies, it must take some intelligent steps like
lowering the transaction fee; accelerating the
process of receiving payments through cards or the
banking system, etc. The RBI could also try to
incorporate virtual currencies in their framework
for typical transactions like forex, which may
counter the typical problems of current account
deficit. People invest to earn and if they think
bitcoin helps earnings, they will trade in it; if not,
bitcoin will perish automatically.
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Given the over-protective approach of the

regulator, it is likely that its considered view is going
to lean towards a ban on transactions in virtual
currency. Such trade cannot be stopped by a
command-and-control approach alone. If the
authorities really want to stop trading in virtual
currencies like bitcoin, they may have to ban the
internet.
Is that even feasible?
IN THE DARK
Chinas exports fell dramatically in February in

spite of an uptick in the US economy. And while
the 18.1 per cent year-on-year fall is being explained
away last years numbers were littered with
fabricated trades and the lunar new year holiday
in February resulted in fewer working days there
is no denying the general slowdown.
At 7.7 per cent in 2013, its growth rate is already

at its lowest since the late 1990s. It is clear that
Chinas grand reorientation from an exportdriven economy to a consumption-based one is
not going to be smooth. Questions are rightly being
raised about the impact of this realignment on the
global economic recovery. But the threats posed by
Chinas shadow banking sector are far more
ominous for the world economy.
Shadow banking is an umbrella term that
encompasses a variety of non-traditional lending
activities designed to function outside normal
regulatory control. According to JPMorgan, the
Chinese shadow banking sector doubled between
2010 and 2012 to $6 trillion or about 70 per cent
of the GDP.
Shadow banking fulfils the demand for credit
from ventures, including highly risky ones, that may
not get bank finance in part due to excessive

regulation and political interference and is
partially responsible for the surge of debt in the
economy. But the fact that the sector is harbouring
toxic assets was most recently demonstrated
recently, when a solar energy equipment
manufacturer defaulted a first for Chinas
corporate bond history.
In January, China Credit Company, a shadow
banking firm that had loaned $500 million
marketed by the Industrial and Commercial Bank
of China to an unlisted coal company, was about
to default. While a bailout package was eventually
arranged in this instance, incidents such as these
can touch off an unravelling of the sector.
It is doubtful whether policymakers, who may
not even know the extent of the risk, can curtail
shadow banking without cutting off the supply of
finance to a large subsection of the economy. While
the Chinese financial system doesnt have the kind
of interlinkages that Western systems responsible
for the 2008 meltdown do, the effects of an
implosion would be catastrophic on global recovery
and investor sentiment.
SCORE ONE FOR CCE
The CBSEs decision to allow students in

affiliated schools to skip Class X board exams from
2011 on was controversial, to say the least. Part of
the school boards plan to revamp its methodology
for student assessments, the awkwardly named
Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE)

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format was criticised for sacrificing academic rigour

in a bid to reduce student stress.
But a newly released CBSE report on CCEs
years of implementation vindicates the boards
decision, finding that the first clutch of students
who chose not to take the Class X boards performed
[53]

better than peers who did, in terms of both highest
and average scores. The overall pass percentage of
students appearing for the Class XII boards also
rose by 2 percentage points.
Even the CCE framework, under which the final

exam is replaced by a series of ongoing assessments
that should provide continuous insight on each
students needs while maintaining longitudinal
records of their performance from Class I to VIII,
is heavily reliant on the instructors discretion.
But teachers are rarely trained to design
appropriate mechanisms to test conceptual
understanding, or to address individual learning
needs. Better learning outcomes will be more
enduring if the government commits to focused
improvements in the teacher-student interaction.
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The government must now build on this impulse

to emphasise the quality of learning in schools. The
abysmal performance of Indian schoolchildren in
third-party assessments of learning levels, such as
Prathams Annual Status of Education Report
(ASER), suggests that our school system is currently
ill-equipped to judge whether students are actually
earning.
consequence, as ASER found, only one out of every

two Class V students can read textbooks prescribed
for those three years their junior.
The rigidity of the end-of-year examination

rewards rote memorisation and surface-level
understanding. It can also be gamed. As a
HUMANITY DENIED
No city worth its name wants to be seen as a

den of injustice and exploitation. Cities compete to
show how they are modern, dynamic, open
minded, just and world class. They establish
museums, civic spaces, plural institutions for
governance and push for technology-driven
approaches to designing better buildings, transport
networks and delivery of services.
The hallmark of a modern city is its
technological advancement as well as its capacity
to enable all of its residents to meet their full human
potential.
Indias treatment of its manual scavengers

fundamentally denies Indian cities the right to claim
the label of just city. As the recent death of two
sanitation workers in Mumbai and the lack of
outrage and public concern shows, such
tragedies are occurring right in front of our eyes in
Indias most modern cities. These forgotten
people are not yet protected by Indias vast
scaffolding of laws, including the recent Prohibition
of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their
Rehabilitation Act, 2013.
These two men suffocated to death while trying

to repair a clogged drain under Mahatma Gandhi
Road. Their deaths, along with those of many others
like them, did not lead to candlelight vigils, social
media uprisings or incessant chatter on TV
networks. Instead, they were simply not noticed
and the city moved on.
Can a city be just if a significant segment of its
population is condemned to live in conditions of
[54]
forced labour akin to slavery? Can a city be just if

this forced labour is enforced through social norms
and government neglect of a deeply dehumanised
population?
Can a city be just if vast technological
accomplishments, economic success and cultural
advancements coexist comfortably with premodern conditions of work in sanitation? Can a
city be just if the many are unaware of or ignore
the humanity of the few? Can a city be just if
discrimination and untouchability continue to deny
humanity to a section of its citizens?
The 2013 law passed by Parliament was an
improvement on the previous 1993 law, which had
failed to force India to overcome its shame, as
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh put it. But there
are signs that it will be just another unenforced
law. It will simply be another piece of evidence
trotted out by Indias elites that caste discrimination
is a thing of the past, that India is a modern,
technologically sophisticated country with a deeply
humanistic culture.
The rules framed under the law have raised
deep concerns and state governments have not even
carried out the surveys of manual scavengers that
they were mandated to before the deadlines. The
law sees rehabilitation as an issue of one-time
compensation, and not in terms of accumulated
injustice and structural weakness in the labour
market. This law does not seem to be a major
electoral issue even for political parties which are
supposedly pro-Dalit.
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But the 2013 law is also a weak attempt to deal
with the condition of manual scavengers in cities
a condition of denied humanity as well as
economic entrapment. To eradicate it, there is a
fundamental need to focus on economic justice.
The struggle of the manual scavengers is, at base,
the fight of the poor working class to discover better
options for earning a dignified wage and living.
Instead, a modern city should have an

aggressive,
reparations-based
economic
empowerment programme for all manual
scavengers, who should be surveyed by a
designated national agency. All sanitation work
should be handled by advanced technology and,
where necessary, by well-trained and certified
workers who are not always identified from their
traditional castes.
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Indeed, from the Memphis sanitation workers

strike that Martin Luther King, Jr led and supported
to the struggles of sanitation workers who have
gone on strike in Rio de Janeiro to demand better
wages and conditions of work, thus leaving heaps
of trash on the lovely Ipanema beach, economic
justice has always been central to the sanitation sector.
all manual involvement in sanitation work and

mechanising the whole process of waste
infrastructure. The new law allows the employment
of manual scavengers as long as they are provided
protective gear. This approach will continue to
condemn them to the perils of their traditional
occupation for generations to come.
Indias sanitation workers suffer from a denial

of economic justice as much as a denial of equality
and dignified treatment. At base, both economic
and racial/ caste injustice rest on the denial of the
humanity of manual scavengers. This has not
changed as India has become more urbanised.
A serious approach to eradicate manual
scavenging in Indias cities would begin by banning
The repeated enunciation in words and

complete repudiation in practice of elementary
notions of humanity and equality in Indias cities is
the stark reality that we confront. The fate of
forgotten manual scavengers is an everyday
reminder of how Indias cities continue to be unjust.
LAW AND LAG
Given that lengthy political trials often lend

themselves to pressure from powerful quarters, the
Supreme Courts order asking lower courts to
complete those involving MPs and MLAs accused
of serious offences within a year is welcome. Timebound criminal trials of legislators could reduce,
though they will not eliminate, the scope for undue
influence in the judicial process.
For starters, they would ensure that in most
cases, a single judge or court presides over the entire
duration of the trial. Regular hearings, especially
of high-profile politicians, would keep the public
gaze fixed on them, aided by media coverage. An
expedited criminal trial, therefore, would also
promote transparency. Even a casual glance at the
statistics involving legislators facing criminal
charges underlines the need to complete their trials
at the earliest.
The 15th Lok Sabha was populated by a
sobering number of legislators hauled up under
various criminal laws. About 23 per cent of
Congress MPs faced criminal charges, while the
figure was 41 per cent for the BJP.
That said, however, a quicker justice at the
lower court level alone is inadequate to uphold the
rule of law. Through a July 2013 ruling, the SC

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stripped all convicted legislators of their seats,

without due consideration of their right to appeal
the trial courts verdict. If politicians have retained
their seats by taking advantage of delays in
appellate courts, it is for the higher judiciary to
ensure that hearings are completed within a
reasonable timeframe.
Only in November last year while hearing a
criminal case that took 12 years for the high court
to decide the SC held the delays in the appellate
process to be disturbing. Summary disqualification of legislators based on lower court rulings
does not take into account the fact that an
overwhelming number of trial court verdicts are
reversed on account of their unsoundness in law,
underlining the importance of the appeals process.
The stability of governments and continuity of
political representation are arguably also at stake
in cases that involve legislators. While they must
submit to the rule of law, it is the responsibility of
the courts to ensure that the process of justice that
brings them to book is purposive and efficient. Even
as they take a broom to clean up politics, the courts
must address the lag and backlog within.
[55]
IRRESOLUTE ON COLOMBO
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh brushed aside
pressures from parties in Tamil Nadu to meet Sri
Lankas President Mahinda Rajapaksa on the
sidelines of the BIMSTEC summit in Myanmar. But
the approaching United Nations Human Rights
Council (UNHRC) meet struck a sour note.
Embracing this situation does not mean hiding

or not sending out clear signals. For India, the
UNHRC vote is an opportunity to strengthen its
links with potential partners such as the US. But
by participating in the wrap on the knuckle,
India could take on the responsibility of the region,
and keep outside powers from wearing that mantle.
That would be a clear sign of much-needed regional
leadership in South Asia.
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Singh did not give Rajapaksa any assurances

about Indias stance on the UNHRC resolution on
Sri Lanka. Once again, Sri Lankan state actors may
be led to conclude India isnt a reliable partner in
international forums.
establish accountability and transparency in postwar processes. India cannot wash its hands of this
mandate. Coalition politics often destabilises Indian
foreign policy decisions, but it also democratises
foreign policy, making it informed by the
sentiments of smaller vote bases. This is something
India has to embrace, not struggle with.
The Draft Resolution HRC25/1, Promoting

reconciliation, accountability and human rights in
Sri Lanka, is sponsored by six countries: the US,
the UK, Montenegro, Macedonia, Northern Ireland
and Mauritius. This is the third year running that
the Sri Lankan state is being questioned by the
international community on its post-war processes.
For the Sri Lankan state, the UNHRC resolution is
about saving face. It does not present any
formidable challenges to the China- and Russiabacked state. But it shows that international powers
are displeased with Sri Lankas actions and
attitudes.
A continued rejection of the existing grievances
in the country will only lead to more such
pressures. The resolution welcomes UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillays
recommendation on the need for an independent
international investigation. Though it doesnt state
specific reprisals if expectations are not met, it puts
the Sri Lankan authorities under considerable
strain.
How is the UNHRC vote significant for India?
The Tamil Nadu factor and domestic politics
influence its foreign policy decisions on Sri Lanka.
Relations with the US, the UK and other potential
allies are also important. Another issue that India
has to grapple with is the Chinese influence in the
Indian Ocean region (IOR). To prevail as a regional
power, India must have a firm hand and a friendly
handshake when needed. So the vote has many
implications for India.
India must realise that national stakeholders,

such as political parties and the people of Tamil
Nadu, are firmly invested in the Sri Lankan political
process. Any government will have to reckon with
the fact that the state must take a firm stance against
human rights abuses in Sri Lanka and try to
[56]
If India can cultivate effective communication

with its Sri Lankan counterparts and provide
certain assurances, it could pave the way for
leverage with Sri Lanka. This is crucial for India to
ensure its influence in the IOR. Otherwise, India
becomes the unreliable partner and China the stable
friend for the Sri Lankan government.
Sri Lankan responses to the perceived Indian
betrayal are worrying. India was a trusted friend
in the war against the LTTE for more than two
decades. But amnesia seems to have set in among
senior Sri Lankan officials and intellectuals.
Reactions from the state media and government
representatives have hardly been constructive. Most
news items and speeches emphasise Western
hypocrisy and moral bankruptcy instead of focusing
on the real issues on the ground.
In some extreme cases, fears have been created
about alleged Western efforts to use the
international pressures to depose the current
government and install a Western friendly
regime. And India is constantly identified as a
fellow conspirator. Without adequate damage
control, India, which has already voted against Sri
Lanka twice, is hardly going to win trust overnight.
At a meeting of the Foreign Correspondents
Association in Colombo, a week before he met
Singh, Rajapaksa said that he understood the
Indian leaderships compulsions to vote on the Sri
Lanka resolution in an election year. Though this
shows understanding on the part of the Sri Lankan
leadership, it is questionable how long such cordial
feelings will last if the situation is not handled
sensitively.
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With its present strategy, India can neither
achieve firm promises on improving conditions for
minorities in Sri Lank, nor can it tackle the China
factor in the region. And neither of these objectives
can be achieved without trust and commitment
from the Sri Lankan government. Even if India were
to vote against Sri Lanka, it must be done in a way
that helps it achieve multiple objectives. For, unlike

the Western allies that support the resolution, Indias
objectives are multi-dimensional, with implications
at the national, regional and international level. Its
actions should demonstrate that nuance.
CHOICE IN CRIMEA
$1 billion loan guarantee to Kiev. But given the
centrality of Crimea to Russias sense of history
and strategic calculations, even the growing
uncertainty about Junes G8 meet in Sochi is not
diluting Russias firmness.
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US President Barack Obamas meeting with

acting Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk
at the White House recently was the most
demonstrably public show of support for Kievs
interim government from Washington. On Sunday,
ethnic Russian-majority Crimea votes in a
referendum on whether to remain in Ukraine or
join Russia, with nobody doubting the outcome.
The West has warned that the referendum violates
the UN Charter and is illegal. Obamas threat of
imposing costs on Russias continued occupation
of Crimea echoed a G7 warning of further sanctions
against Russian officials and entities.
From Russian President Vladimir Putins
perspective, Moscow is fully in control of the
situation, or opportunity, it has created out of an
adversity former Ukrainian president Viktor
Yanukovychs exit. The current pace of events suits
Moscow and Putin can anticipate the sanctions.
The EU plans to sign a political agreement with
Kiev shortly and the US Senate has authorised a
As US Secretary of State John Kerry meets

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov he would
do well to keep in mind the Obama administrations
initial missteps in handling the crisis. Antagonising
Russia isnt the key to securing Ukraines
sovereignty and territorial integrity. Rather,
Moscows pressure point is Berlin and German
Chancellor Ankela Merkels steadily toughening
stance. The two economies are intricately linked,
but that also implies economic sanctions will hurt
not only Russia but also the West, particularly a
Germany dependent on Russian oil and gas. Efforts
must be made to begin a serious dialogue between
Kiev and Moscow and resolve the crisis
diplomatically. Doubtless, it will involve
compromises and costs on both sides.
ONE REPORT CARD IS NOT ENOUGH
If education were only about schools, physical

infrastructure and ensuring universal enrolment,
then India has succeeded spectacularly. Every large
habitation has a school, most schools have buildings
and teachers assigned, students have study
materials. The first step, schooling, has been taken.
It was hoped or assumed that once the schooling
inputs were in place, education and learning
outcomes would follow automatically. However,
that learning outcomes are woefully deficient has
been established by numerous Indian and
international assessments. The next step is to turn
schooling into real education.
The 12th Five Year Plan acknowledges this
learning deficit and targets improvement of
education quality as its priority. It seeks to introduce

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a system-wide focus on learning outcomes that

are assessed through classroom-based Continuous
Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) independently
measured, monitored and reported at the block/
district/ state levels. It also advocates the
articulation of clear learning goals at the end of
each class that are understood by parents and
teachers, as well as its bottom-up communitydriven monitoring. We propose a three-fold
scheme of measurement of learning outcomes to
turn that agenda into action.
A major impediment to moving learning
outcomes to primacy over inputs in the politics,
policy, and practice of education is disagreement
on the assessment and measurement of student
learning. What doesnt get measured doesnt get
[57]

different audiences should be informed in different
ways.
Two, information on learning outcomes should
serve as decision-support and not merely become
an end in itself. Accordingly, supervisors, already
over-burdened with large numbers of schools in
their jurisdiction, should be able to utilise this
information to allocate their scarce inspection and
review times to assist schools and teachers who
need the greatest support with overcoming learning
gaps.
Three, information should be rendered in the
simplest and most cognitively striking manner.
Measures that seek to capture everything run the
risk of communicating nothing. Four, any
assessment framework, for teachers, supervisors
and parents, should be designed with the typical
not extraordinary stakeholder in mind.
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done. But part of the debate about assessment is a

fear that measuring learning will create too much
high stakes pressure. This fear is odd because
there already is lots of measurement, creating
information that is collected, analysed and reported.
The current state and district elementary education
report cards, to tell us where we stand, have
824 separate pieces of information for each district.
We can know the number of classrooms with a
ramp, the number of classrooms needing minor
repair, the number of students that are blind. But
the current report cards on schooling are completely
silent on education.
Suppose we do decide to measure progress on

learning, a fundamental principle of economics is
that achieving optimal results requires as many
instruments as targets. If you want to kill two birds
you almost always need two stones, as two birds
with one stone is dumb luck, not a plan. There has
been too much fruitless debate about the one best
way to measure and report on learning fruitless
because there is no one best way. There are different
purposes of assessing learning and hence different
approaches are necessary, even if all agree on the
conceptual base.
There are three audiences for information on

learning: educators, who need information to guide
their day-to-day and year-to-year instructional
activities; government officials, who supervise the
system and who need information to understand
how the overall system is progressing; and parents
and citizens, who need to know how their child,
their school, their locality, their state and their
country are doing.
Measuring and rendering learning outcomes in
a manner that resonates cognitively with the three
separate audiences of educators, supervisors/
officials and parents/ citizens is a formidable
challenge.
A few principles should underpin any such

effort.
One, the National Curriculum Framework

(NCF) and CCE are already adopted and are in
place and provide an excellent platform to initiate
this process. However, the inherent complexity
several competencies for each subject in each grade
and the multiple learning milestones for each child
in each academic year while perhaps necessary
to guide educators, headmasters and teachers on
day-to-day instructional activity, cannot be the sole
way in which supervisors and parents are informed.
So, we should assign instruments to targets, and
[58]
We propose not a perfect approach but a

workable one, with three different ways of reporting
information. This is a three-pronged strategy,
where each prong is not a competitor but rather a
complement to the other. Empowering teachers,
supervisors and parents with information on
learning levels is central to this strategy. The
classroom teacher needs to track the learning
trajectory of each student, no less, so as to enable
them to achieve their grade-specific competencies.
However, to achieve this, while in the long run the
full NCF might be used, given the existing lags in
learning, teachers are likely to fall short. Therefore,
to start the use of CCE for a practical and fieldtested set of basic competencies, situated within
the NCF, can be the first step towards bringing
ambitious yet achievable learning outcome objectives
into schools.
Though school supervisors require much less
information, with decreasing granularity up the
hierarchy, they need it to improve the quality of
monitoring. Rather than continuous measurement
of all learning objectives, supervisors can use
periodic rounds of dipstick evaluations. Done with
rigour in assessing chosen basic competencies as
proxies for the larger agenda, these can become
benchmarks for supervisors in monitoring learning
levels within and across schools.
Finally, parents need this information to be
aware of their childs learning level. Simple and
cognitively striking report cards, which render the
childs learning trajectory in each subject against
competency benchmarks as well as the classroom
median, can keep parents informed and create
demand-side pressures for accountability.
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An information cascade that appropriately
integrates the varying requirements of all three
stakeholders can be a powerful force to improve
student learning outcomes. The illusion of one best
way of assessing all student learning should not

block movement towards multiple ways of good
measures, adapted to their purpose.
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[59]
CHRONICLE
IAS ACADEMY
MOMENTUM
17TH MARCH 2014 TO 23RD MARCH 2014
Call: 9953120676, 9582263947

CONTENTS
TOPICS
Pg. No.
National ........................................................................................................................ 3-6

International ................................................................................................................ 7-9
Economy ................................................................................................................... 12-14
Health ....................................................................................................................... 17-18
News in Brief ......................................................................................................... 19-21
Editorials .................................................................................................................. 22-36
On, intellectual property, a new strategy ............................................................... 22
1963, still ........................................................................................................................ 23
Spending wont make it better .................................................................................. 23
A grand bargaining on energy ................................................................................. 25
UK to study resettlement of Chagos islands........................................................... 26
Declining sex ratios seen in gender scorecard ....................................................... 26
TB control: five key reasons to engage the private sector .................................... 28
Road to urban future ................................................................................................... 29
Employer of the last resort ......................................................................................... 30
Why Russia needs Crimea ......................................................................................... 31
Give nuclear security a chance .................................................................................. 33
Crimea: Dawn of a new cold war era? .................................................................... 35
Checkmating The West ............................................................................................... 35
NATIONAL
INDIAS TOURISM INDUSTRY TO GROW IN 2014: WTTC
with 5.1% a year ago, driven by increasing domestic
travel, growth of low-cost airlines and upgraded
airport infrastructure. International tourist arrivals
are expected to touch 13.43 million in 2024, up
from 7.36 million in 2014 and expenditure is
projected to increase to Rs 1.74 lakh crore at the
rate of 4.3 % in 2024.In 2013, the travel and tourism
industry contributed Rs 2.17 lakh crore or 2% to
the country's GDP. This is expected to rise to Rs
4.35 lakh crore in 2024.
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World Travel & Tourism Council reported that

Indias travel and tourism industry is set to grow
by about 7.3% in 2014, better than last year but
much lower than other countries, like China,
which grew at 9.2% in 2013 and is anticipated to
grow at 8.3% in 2014. Average spending by
foreigners travelling to the country is projected to
decline sharply from 6.2 % in 2013 to 2.3% in
2014. India generated Rs 1.1 lakh crore from foreign
visitors in 2013. However, revenue from domestic
tourism in 2014 is expected to grow 8.2% compared
GOVT. ISSUES GUIDELINES FOR HANDLING OF RAPE VICTIMS
The Union Ministry of Health has notified

guidelines for care, treatment and rehabilitation of
the survivors of sexual violence translating into
practice the recommendations of the Justice J S
Verma committee regarding dealing with the
victims of sexual assault. These guidelines conform
with the WHOs guidelines for medico-legal services
for victims of sexual violence.
The guidelines can be summarized into

following points
! The guidelines make it mandatory for the
public hospitals to treat victims free of charge
and every private hospital is asked to provide
for free treatment of rape victims as part of
their corporate social responsibility.
! Police requisition is made non mandatory for
medical examination and care of a rape
survivor unlike in the past. The doctors
should examine such cases with the informed
consent of the victim even without an FIR if
the survivor reports to the hospital first. The
hospital has to inform the police, parents and
guardians in case the patient is below 12
years or not in a position to give her consent.
! All hospitals are directed to set up a
designated room for forensic and medical
examination of victims of sexual assault and
to ensure that no third person except a
female attendant incase the examining doctor
is male are present in the room at the time
of medical examination.

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! The guidelines say that doctors are required
to give the patient a structured explanation

regarding what the medical examination
comprises and how the various procedures
are to be carried out in a manner and
language which a victim can understand.
The two-finger test that was earlier used by
doctors to opine whether the girl is habituated
to sexual intercourse or not, has been
outlawed dubbing it as unscientific.
The hospital treating victims of sexual assault
must provide comprehensive care addressing
issues like physical injuries, STDs, HIV,
Hepatitis B, etc.
The patient shall be provided counselling,
social support and appropriate referrals to
overcome psychological trauma.
It has been mandatory to indicate names of
medical samples, purpose of their analysis on
the form before sending it to FSL (forensic
science lab) to avoid inadequate preservation
of sample and analysis of sample for wrong
purpose. A provision for DNA analysis is
made and a separate form for medical
management as a check list has been provided.
Doctors are asked not to use word rape in
their opinion, as it is a legal definition and
not a medical diagnosis and are required to
state precisely the reasons for each conclusion
while sending the forensic medical report.
[3]
DISQUALIFYING POLITICIANS ON FRAMING OF CHARGES: PANEL

whichever is earlier. It also recommended that,
persons with charges pending on the date of the
law coming into force must be disqualified from
contesting future elections, unless such charges are
framed less than one year before the date of scrutiny
of nomination papers or the person is a sitting MP
or MLA at the time of enactment of the Act. The
Supreme Court has accordingly accepted Law
Commissions suggestion and passed an order
directing that all pending trials against MPs/MLAs
be completed within a year. The Law Commission
has also suggested punishment to sentence of two
years for filing of false affidavits by politicians and
disqualification on such conviction under the
Representation of the People Act, 1951.
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The Law Commission headed by Justice A.P.

Shah, former Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court
in its 244th report titled Electoral Disqualifications
submitted to the Union Ministry of Law and Justice
has recommended disqualification of politicians
from contesting elections once charges are framed
against them in the court for curbing the spread of
criminalization of politics. It has also suggested
substantial safeguards to prevent misuse of this
provision like bringing only those offences which
have a punishment of five years or above within
the remit of disqualification, disqualification only if
the charges are filed one year before the scrutiny
of the nominations, and operation of disqualification
till an acquittal by the trial court, or for six years,
MANY WOMEN HAVE NO SAY IN MARRIAGE
The National Council for Applied Economic

Research (NCAER) released the India Human
Development Survey (IHDS) covering economic
data on income and expenditure, development data
on education and health, and sociological data on
caste, gender and religion based on data collected
during 2011-12. As per the survey India has made
progress in child marriage, with 48% of women
over 25 reporting in 2011-12 that they were married
before the age of 18 as opposed to 60% in 2004-05.
Though the practice of marrying a cousin or relative
is becoming less common, over 20% in Andhra
Pradesh and Karnataka still marry relatives and
41% of women had no say in their marriage while
just 18% knew their husbands before marriage.
However this situation is improving particularly in
southern states due to rising level of education,
income and urbanisation .The fertility rate has come

down with average number of children that
women (over 40) reported they had coming down
slightly to 3.55. 60% of women including 59% of
forward caste Hindus and 83% of Muslim women
practiced some form of `purdah' or `ghunghat'.
The average Indian family is reported to pay over
Rs. 30,000 in cash as dowry and 40% admitted to
giving large items like TVs and cars as dowry.
Wedding expenses ranged from nearly Rs 1 lakh in
the poorest village to Rs 1.7 lakh in small cities, a
big jump over the 2004-05 survey. Kerala and Delhi
it found had the most expensive weddings. The
survey found that practice of giving large items as
dowry was most common among forward caste
Hindus and lowest among Muslims.
PANEL CLEARS TRIALS FOR 11 GM CROP VARIETIES
The Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee

(GEAC) revalidated permission to Multinational
seed Companies for field trials on 11 varieties of
genetically modified (GM) crops which among them
included four varieties of rice, two each of wheat(
first time in the country) and cotton, and one each
of maize, sorghum and groundnut. These
companies will now have to go to the states to get
an NOC (no-objection certificate) before they can
begin these trials as it is mandatory for companies
to take State governments approval since
[4]
agriculture is a state subject. Andhra Pradesh,

Gujarat, Punjab and Haryana have allowed
confined field trials in the past, but Kerala, Tamil
Nadu, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh,
Bihar, West Bengal and Rajasthan do not allow
trials. GM crops are controversial because their
opponents say they can harm agriculture, the
environment and human health. However all GM
crops field trials in India are subject to stringent
norms which include conducting the trials in
isolation and at a distance from other fields with
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similar crops; planting biological barriers of border
rows all around the experimental plot; erecting
physical barriers around the experimental plot; and
designating a lead scientist who would be
responsible for conducting the trial. The norms also
deal with post-harvest management and requires

burning the border rows and leftover plants and
plant parts from the entire experimental plot, and
prohibiting the use of trial sites for planting the
same plant species.
EC DIRECTIVES TO SOCIAL NETWORKS

incurred by the political parties and individual
candidates on advertisements so as to produce to
the Commission when requested for. The
Commission also directed that contents displayed
by the social networking sites during the electoral
process should not be unlawful or malicious or
violative of the model code of conduct. The
candidates have also been directed to provide the
details of expenses incurred on social media sites
while filing their nominations.
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With political parties using social networking

sites such as Twitter and Facebook in a big way for
campaigning in Lok Sabha polls, Election
Commission has issued detailed guidelines
regarding political advertisements on social
networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook as
a part of its efforts to address the problem of paid
news. As per the guidelines social networking sites
has been directed to take pre-certification from
Media Certification and Monitoring Committees at
district and State levels, maintain expenditure
MIND THE GAP: 1 MP FOR 16L VOTERS
In the upcoming general elections, over 84 crore

registered voters figures will elect 543 members of
Parliament (MPs) with each MP on an average
representing over 15.5 lakh voters almost four and
a half times the number of voters per MP
represented in the first Lok Sabha constituted after
the first general elections held in 1951-52. India
comes first when it comes to number of voters
represented by each Member of Parliament followed
by US where the average number of voters per
House of Representatives member is about 7 lakh.
In terms of individual states an MP from Rajasthan
will represent nearly 18 lakh voters on average,
while one from Kerala will represent just 12 lakh
voters, four to eight lakhs in north east 50,000 as
in Lakshadweep. In the 2008 delimitation,
standardization of constituencies did not take place
as it would have meant creating more
constituencies in states like Rajasthan or Bihar with
higher population growth rates, and cutting down
in states like Tamil Nadu or Kerala with lower
population growth.
How many electors does an MP represent?
1951
1971
1991
2009
2014
Seats
Total Electors
(crore)
Av. Electors
per MP (lakh)
489
518
543
543
543
17.3
24.4
49.8
71.7
83.9
3.5
5.3
9.2
13.2
15.5
Electors per MP in some countries
Country Name of House
UK
House of Commons
US
House of Representatives
Brazil
Chamber of Deputies
Russia
State Duma
Indonesia House of Representatives
France
National Assembly
Italy
Chamber of Deputies
Pak
National Assembly
Avg Electors/
Member
70K
7.1L
2.6L
2.4L
3.1L
80K
74K
2.5L
NEW SET OF GUIDELINES FOR ISPs BY DOPT
Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has

asked all Internet Service Providers (ISPs) using fixed
line broadband to adopt new internet security
guidelines issued by it to deal with cyber-attacks
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and hacking. This follows the trend of hackers to

exploit vulnerabilities in the ADSL (asymmetric
digital subscriber line) modems, those normally
installed by broadband service providers at homes
[5]

changing the DNS entries in the modem. In other
instructions, the ISPs have been asked to devise a
mechanism to upgrade the firmware of the ADSL
modems remotely by ISPs, which is not possible in
the present system of ADSL modem design. The
DoT has also asked the ISPs to tell their customers
to check their online daily usage, and to report to
them if any unexpected high usage of data is
noticed, they may bring it to the notice of the ISP
concerned. Customers should also be advised to
switch off their modem when not in use. The DOPT
has directed the ISPs to implement the guidelines
by May 2014 to ensure security of almost 1.5 crore
fixed-line broadband users.
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and offices to implant malware and manipulate

data. The ADSL modems are presently supplied by
vendors with default set up of user ID and
password as admin. The guidelines asked the
service providers to help customers to replace
default password by a strong password by customer
at the time of installation of modem to avoid
unauthorized access to modem. The guidelines said
that the protocol ports in ADSL modem on WAN
side [for example, FTP, TELNET, SSH, HTTP,
SNMP, CWMP, UPnP] must be disabled since these
ports may be used by the hackers to enter into the
ADSL modem to misuse/compromise the ADSL
modems by way of implanting the malware,
!!!!!
[6]

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INTERNATIONAL
PUTIN SIGNS CRIMEA TREATY
rallying strongly on 17th March, and the rouble
rose after Putin said Russia would not seek to further
divide Ukraine. Investors noted the initial sanctions
did not target businesses or executives.
He dismissed Western criticism of Crimean

referendum in which residents of the strategic Black
Sea peninsula overwhelmingly backed breaking off
from Ukraine and joining Russia as a manifestation
of the West's double standards. But the Russian
leader insisted his nation has no intention to invade
other regions of Ukraine.
Accord on international monitors for Ukraine
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Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a

treaty in Moscow making Crimea part of Russia
again and described the move as correcting past
injustice.
Ukraine's new government called Putin a threat

to the whole world and the US and Europe imposed
further sanctions against Moscow. But, Russian
politicians responded to the sanctions with defiance.
The State Duma, or lower house, adopted a
statement urging Washington and Brussels to
extend the visa ban and asset freeze to all its
members.
The White House said leaders of the world's
leading industrial democracies would hold a Group
of Seven meeting without Russia on the sidelines
of a nuclear security summit in The Hague to
consider further responses to the crisis.
Despite strongly worded condemnations,
Western nations have been cautious in their first
practical steps against Moscow, both to leave the
door open for a diplomatic solution and out of
reluctance to endanger the world economic
recovery.
Russian stocks gained another 2 per cent after
The Organisation for Security and Co-operation

in Europe (OSCE) approved a 100-strong mission
for Ukraine in a consensus decision by its 57
members. Russia had demanded that the mission
be deployed, not only in Russian-speaking southeastern regions as proposed by Ukraine, but also in
the countrys west, where far right groups have
been asserting their authority. Russia had also
objected to the missions mandate to cover Crimea,
which was formally absorbed into Russia.
In the final version, the OSCE document says
that the Kiev-based mission will be initially
deployed for six months in nine places in eastern
and western Ukraine. Its stated aim is to contribute
to reducing tensions and fostering peace, stability
and security. The OSCE Standing Committee may
increase the mission strength to 500 monitors,
deploy it to other places and extend its duration.
Crimea is not mentioned in the mandate, but
the United States insisted it had the right to go to
the peninsula. However, the Russian Foreign
Ministry said in a statement that the missions
mandate reflects the new political and legal
realities and does not cover Crimea and Sevastopol,
which have become part of Russia.
THAI GOVERNMENT LIFTS TWO-MONTH-OLD EMERGENCY
As the political violence against the government

eased Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra
lifted a nearly two-month-old emergency in
Bangkok and its surrounding areas and replaced it
with Internal Security Act (ISA).
key intersections and government offices for 60

days. The emergency was due to expire on March
22. The emergency had expanded the power of
security forces to issue orders and search, arrest
and detain people.
The state of emergency was declared in the

Bangkok area on 22 January after protesters
threatened to shut down the capital by blocking
Violence had erupted in Bangkok and other

parts of the country ahead of and during the
February 2 snap polls, boycotted by main opposition

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[7]

Democrat Party demanding the ouster of Prime
Minister Yingluck.
Twenty-three people were killed and more than
700 were wounded in the political conflict since
November.
According to Department of Special

Investigation Chief Tarit Pengdith, a member of
the Centre for Maintaining Peace and Order, the
ISA enforcement will continue till April 30.
BY 25, 3.4BN TO LIVE IN WATER-SCARCE WORLD

the Aral Sea and the Ganges-Brahmaputra River,
Indus River and Mekong River basins.
The Ganges-Brahmaputra and Indus River
basins are crucial for India, Pakistan, Bangladesh
and China as far as distribution and sharing of water
resources among these countries are concerned.
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The United Nations report published on the eve

of the World Water Day has predicted that as many
as 3.4 billion people will be living in water-scarce
countries by 2025. The situation will deteriorate
further in the next 25 years, culminating into
human conflicts in many parts of the globe. Though
the report has not specifically mentioned the
possibility of country-wise conflict, it identified river
basins in the region which may pit India against
Pakistan, China and Bangladesh over the issue of
water sharing by 2050.
The report indicated that the Indian subcontinent may face the brunt of the crisis where
India would be at the centre of this conflict due to
its unique geographical position in South Asia.
The report, which factored in scientific data

and findings of various research institutions, said
that Asia will be the biggest hotspot for bust-ups
over water extraction, where water sources straddle
national borders. It said, Areas of conflict include
KENYA LEGALIZES POLYGAMY
To legalise polygamy for men Kenyas

parliament has passed a Bill allowing men to marry
as many women as they want. The Bill, which
amended existing marriage legislation, prompted a
furious backlash from female lawmakers who
stormed out.
About 30 of Kenya's 69 female MPs were in the
349-member chamber for the debate but were
outnumbered by their male counterparts.
The proposed Bill had initially given a wife the

right to veto the husbands choice, but male
members of parliament overcame party divisions
to push through a text that dropped this clause.
Women are not allowed to marry more than
one man in Kenya.
Other finer points of the Kenyas Marriage Bill
are as follow:
! Bans marriage for those under 18.
! All marriages - even customary unions - must
be registered.
[8]
! Legalises polygamy, allowing men to marry
without consulting other spouses.

! A woman entitled to 30% of matrimonial
property after death or divorce.
! Specifies that marriage is between a man and
a woman, but does not explicitly ban custom
of an infertile woman marrying a younger
woman(a customary arrangement practised
among Kenya's Kalenjin encompassing the
Nandi, Kipsigis, and Keiyo Kuria and
Akamba communities.)
! It would have allowed a woman to seek
maintenance for herself and any children of

the union had the man left. (Under current
Kenyan law, a woman must prove her
contribution to the couple's wealth.)
! A clause in which a partner who had
promised marriage but then backed out of
the wedding could face financial damages
was also dropped.
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! Plans to ban the payment of bride prices were
dropped.
! There was also a proposal to recognise co-
habiting couples, known in Kenya as "come-
we-stay" relationships, after six months, but

this too was dropped.
The Bill now passes to the President to sign
before it becomes a law.
INEQUALITY IS INCREASING IN UK: OXFAM

agency is also asking all parties to audit how their
emerging manifesto policies would affect economic
inequality in the UK. Economic inequality is far from
being a UK only problem - a similar picture of a
rapidly increasing gap between rich and poor can
be seen in most countries across the globe. An
Oxfam report published ahead of this year's World
Economic Forum in Davos revealed that the richest
85 people on the planet own the same amount
between them as half the world's population - 3.5
billion people. The report warned that extreme
inequality is creating a vicious circle where wealth
concentrated in the hands of a few is used to buy
political influence which is used to rig the rules in
favour of a small elite and perpetuate
inequality. Such extreme inequality is to the
detriment of social mobility and is also increasingly
understood to undermine both the pace and
sustainability of economic growth.
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The widening gap between the rich and poor

in UK was highlighted in the new Oxfam research
report, Working For The Few. The report revealed
that over the past two decades the wealthiest, who
constitute 0.1 per cent of total UK population, have
seen their income grow nearly four times faster
than the poor 90 per cent of the population.
Oxfam said the wealth gap in the UK was

becoming more entrenched as a result of the ability
of the better off to capture the lion's share of the
proceeds of growth. Since the mid-1990s, the
income of the top 0.1% have grown by 461 a
week or 24,000 a year. By contrast, the bottom
90% have seen a real term increase of only 2.82
a week or 147 a year.
The charity said the trends in income had been

made even more adverse by increases in the cost of
living over the past decade.
The report said, for the first time more working

households were in poverty than non-working ones,
and predicted that the number of children living
below the poverty line could increase by 800,000
by 2020. It said cuts to social security and public
services were meshing with falling real incomes
and a rising cost of living to create a "deeply
damaging situation" in which millions were
struggling to get by.
To narrow this gap, Oxfam is calling on the
Government to re-balance the books by raising
revenues from those who can most afford it, starting
with the redoubling of efforts to clamp down on
companies and individuals who avoid paying their
fair share of tax and setting out a long-term strategy
to raise the minimum wage to a living wage. The
Oxfam
Oxfam was originally founded in 1942 as the

Oxford Committee for Famine Relief by a group of
quakers, social activists and Oxford academics. It
is an international confederation of 17 organizations
working in approximately 90 countries worldwide
to find solutions to poverty what it considers as
injustice around the world. In 1965 it changed its
name to Oxfam.
Oxfam's stated goal is to help people directly
when local capacity is insufficient or inappropriate
for Oxfams purposes, and to assist in the
development of structures which directly benefit
people facing the realities of poverty and injustice.
PARIS PREPARES FOR PARTIAL CAR BAN
Paris launches alternate driving days for the

first time in nearly 20 years to tackle dangerous air
pollution levels. Electric and hybrid cars will be
exempted from the ban as well as any vehicle
carrying three people or more.
The restrictions will be reviewed on a daily basis
to determine if an extension is necessary. The ban
means that drivers can only use their cars or
motorcycles every other day. All public transport was

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made free over the weekend to persuade residents to

leave their cars at home. It will remain free as long
as the alternate driving days remain in force.
The government made the announcement after
pollution particulates in the air exceeded safe levels
for five straight days in Paris and its environment.
It is only for the first time since 1997 that the French
authorities have ever resorted to such a drastic
measure.
[9]
INDIA AND THE WORLD

INDIA & CHINA SIGN MOU ON IT CO-OPERATION
speeds on three lines, between New Delhi and
Agra, Kanpur and Chandigarh. Chinese rail
officials, in response to this, said they could help
raise speeds from the current 130 kilometres per
hour to 160 or even 200 kilometres per hour.
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In the third Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED)

India and China signed a memorandum of
understanding on IT cooperation to promote Indian
software companies, which have largely struggled
to obtain contracts from Chinese state-run
companies.
India also sought Chinese support in
substantially raising the speed on three rail corridors
and in developing modern stations.
India has asked China to expand market access

for software and pharmaceutical companies, and
to take steps to narrow the record $35 billion trade
deficit.
China has rapidly modernised its rail network,

which only three decades ago lagged behind Indias.
Today, express trains run at 200 to 250 kilometres
per hour, up from 110 kilometres per hour, while
the government has revamped stations to build a
network of modern, airport terminal-like rail hubs.
The country has also built the worlds biggest highspeed rail network, where trains run at 350
kilometres per hour on 13,000 kilometres of newlylaid track, running entirely separately from the older
rail network. India has sought assistance in raising
Ahead of the talks, five working groups

covering different areas finalised the details for the
high-level economic and trade dialogue between
the two countries. The working groups covered
areas like infrastructure, mainly the railways and
operationalise the agreement for service centres to
be set up in India for Chinese power equipment,
environment and resources protection, water
management and policy coordination, collaboration
on planning and urbanisation, cooperation in high
technology, including the IT sector.
UK TO HONOUR THE INDIAN SOLDIERS OF WWI
The United Kingdom decided to honour Indian

soldiers, who took part in World War I, through a
series of events commemorating the 100th
anniversary of WWI this year. The events will be
organized by the British High Commission along
with United Service Institution of India.
The aim of these events is to show respect and

gratitude to those who died and to their families,
to ensure that today's young people learn the facts
and the lessons of that conflict and to promote a
common resolve among all nations involved in WWI
to ensure a peaceful and just world for future
generations.
British High Commission officials said the
commemorative events to be organised in the UK,
India and around the world will see the
participation of representatives from every country
[10]
whose soldiers took part in the historic war.

Besides the role of army men, the Indian Navy
also played a significant role during the war.
Indians also served in the Army Flying Corps and
several won military honours including the highest
military honour, Victoria Cross.
Between 2014 to 2018, the British government
plans to honour the memory of all who participated
in the war irrespective of the side they fought on.
One of the major commemorative events would
be organised at the British High Commissioner's
residence here on October 30 in which leading
dignitaries and representatives from India, UK and
other countries involved in WWI will be invited.
In the WWI one million Indian soldiers fought
the war and over 70,000 Indian servicemen died.

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5 INDIAN LANGUAGES REINSTATED IN S. AFRICAN SCHOOLS

CURRICULUM
Giving heed to the demands of nearly 1.4 million
citizens of Indian origin, the South African
government agreed to reinstate Hindi, Tamil,
Gujarati, Telugu and Urdu nearly two decades after
Indian languages were removed from the official
curriculum in South African state schools.
Although some schools have been running

classes in Indian languages, it had not been part of
the official government-approved curriculum. Now
classes will be recognised as official subjects up to
matric level, the final year of the schooling system
in the country. But the subjects will only be offered
at schools where the number of learners make it a
viable option to hire specialist teachers in the
language concerned.
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The languages will at first be offered as an

optional third language for learners only in
KwaZulu-Natal province, where about 70 per cent
of the Indian-origin population resides. The
provincial Head of the Education Department
Nkosinathi Sishi confirmed in a circular to schools
that they could offer what it refers to as Eastern

languages, because Arabic is also offered alongside
the Indian languages.
!!!!!

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[11]
ECONOMY
INDIA RANKS 34TH IN FATF LIST
The extension of the FATF sanction over such
a large swathe of Indias neighbours mean this is
a lethal cocktail for the Indian security agencies.
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Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global

anti-money laundering body, in its recent report
said that India is the one member of the 34-nation
group countries, including Iran, Pakistan,
Afghanistan and Myanmar where progress in
combating money laundering and financial
terrorism has been scratchy. Two other countries
which were under FATF surveillance, Nepal and
Bangladesh have emerged from there as per the
report.
The Indian customs and other border patrolling

agencies have found that the largest source from
where fake Indian currency notes are pushed into
the country is Pakistan. Beyond Pakistan the largest
percentage of the global production of opium takes
place in Afghanistan, and the resultant traffic tends
to land up on the Indian border.
On Pakistan and Afghanistan the report said
these are jurisdictions with strategic anti-money
laundering and combating of financial terrorism
deficiencies that have not made sufficient progress
in addressing those or have not committed to an
action plan developed with the FATF. The biggest
weakness from the point of view of FATF about
Pakistan is its commitment to renew its AntiTerrorism Amendment Ordinance. On Iran, the
FATF is saying that independent of the sanction
issues Iran has been pushing in terror financing
into the global banking chain.
Fortunately the improvements made in Nepal and

Bangladesh has taken some of the pressure of them.
About FATF
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is an

inter-governmental body established in 1989 by the
Ministers of its Member jurisdictions. The objectives
of the FATF are to set standards and promote
effective implementation of legal, regulatory and
operational measures for combating money
laundering, terrorist financing and other related
threats to the integrity of the international financial
system. The FATF is therefore a policy-making
body which works to generate the necessary
political will to bring about national legislative and
regulatory reforms in these areas.
The FATF monitors the progress of its members
in implementing necessary measures, reviews
money laundering and terrorist financing
techniques and counter-measures, and promotes the
adoption and implementation of appropriate
measures globally. In collaboration with other
international stakeholders, the FATF works to
identify national-level vulnerabilities with the aim
of protecting the international financial system from
misuse.
ASYLUM CLAIM IN INDUSTRIALISED COUNTRIES

UP BY 28%: UNHCR
The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, in its recent

report "Asylum Trends 2013" issue revealed that
there was a sharp rise in asylum claims in 44
industrialized countries over the course of last year,
driven primarily by the crisis in Syria.
seekers, ranked third in terms of new claims behind

Syria and the Russian Federation. Among the top10 countries of origin, six are experiencing violence
or conflict Syria, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Somalia,
Iraq and Pakistan.
Reflecting a shifting international dynamic,

Afghanistan, which in the previous two years was
the world's principal country of origin for asylum-
According to the report 612,700 people applied

for asylum in North America, Europe, East Asia
and the Pacific last year the highest total for any
[12]

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year since 2001. For 2013, the biggest increase in

asylum applicants by region was in the 38 countries
of Europe which together received 484,600 claims
an increase of a third from 2012. Germany was
the largest single recipient with 109,600 new asylum
claims. France (60,100) and Sweden (54,300) were
also major receivers.
Turkey, currently the biggest refugee-hosting

country in Europe due to the Syria crisis (a
registered Syrian refugee population of 640,889 as
of March 18) also saw 44,800 asylum claims lodged
last year, mainly from nationals of Iraq and

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Afghanistan. Italy received 27,800 claims and

Greece 8,200.
North America received the second highest
number of asylum claims, amounting to nearly
98,800 in total. Here, however, the main country
of origin of applicants was China. Canada, with
its recent changes in asylum policies, received some
10,400 claims half the number seen in 2012
(20,500). The United States (88,400) has long been
a leading country of asylum in industrialized
countries, and in 2013 was second only to Germany
in the number of applications received.
[13]

In East Asia and the Pacific, both Japan (3,300)
and the Republic of Korea (1,600) received higher
numbers of claims relative to previous years.
Australia (24,300) too saw a significant rise from
2012 levels (15,800), putting it almost on par with
levels seen in Italy.
Source: UNHCR
UNHCR
The Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees was established on
December 14, 1950 by the United Nations General
Assembly. The agency is mandated to lead and coordinate international action to protect refugees and
resolve refugee problems worldwide. Its primary
purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being
of refugees. It strives to ensure that everyone can
exercise the right to seek asylum and find safe
refuge in another State, with the option to return
home voluntarily, integrate locally or to resettle in
a third country. It also has a mandate to help
stateless people.
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Asylum-seekers arriving in industrialized

countries undergo individual assessments to
determine whether they qualify for refugee status.
Consequently their numbers are always higher than
those who eventually get accepted as refugees. For
the 44 industrialized countries mentioned in the
Asylum Trends report, acceptance rates vary widely
and tend to be higher among people fleeing conflict.
and issues a number of reports each year showing

trends worldwide. The three major components of
global forced displacement are internal
displacement, refugee numbers, and asylum-seekers
(together totalling 45.2 million people, as of data
from early 2013).
Acceptance rates for people from Syria, Eritrea,

Iraq, Somalia and Afghanistan, for example are
between 62 per cent and 95 per cent. Acceptance
rates from nationals of the Russian Federation and
Serbia [and Kosovo: Security Council resolution
1244 (1999)] are significantly lower at around 28
per cent and 5 per cent respectively.
UNHCR tracks forced displacement globally
GUJARAT TOPS IN ECONOMIC FREEDOM: SURVEY
In the latest report on Economic Freedom of

the States of India (EFSI)- 2013 Gujarat leads the
economic freedom table, with an index score of
0.65 (on a scale from 0 to 1.0). It has also registered
the fastest rate of improvement. The second fastest
improver is Andhra Pradesh (from 0.40 to 0.50).
In terms of economic freedom Tamil Nadu

remains in second position, but some distance
behind, with a score of 0.54. Next in line come
Andhra Pradesh (0.50), Haryana (0.49), Himachal
Pradesh (0.47) and Madhya Pradesh (0.47).
As per the report, Bihar ranks at the bottom
with a score of 0.31, preceded by Assam (0.32)
and Jharkhand (0.33).
Assam remains at 19th position. Jharkhand has
worsened more than any other state, with its index
score falling from 0.40 in 2005 to 0.33 in 2013.
Because of this, it has slipped from 8th position to
18th.
The biggest improvement has been recorded by

Chhattisgarh, which has moved up from 16th to
8th position. Rajasthan is another state that has
shown much improvement, moving up from 12th
to 7th position. On the other hand, Punjab's rank

has slipped substantially, from 6th to 13th position.
Its score has remained almost unchanged, but many
other states have improved their scores while
Punjab has not.
The report, jointly authored by economists
Ashok Gulati, Bibek Debroy, Laveesh Bhandari and
journalist Swaminathan Aiyar, is based on an index
which takes into account parameters like size of
the government, legal structure and security of
property rights and regulation of business and
labour.
The report, published annually, estimates
economic freedom based on data for 2013, using a
methodology adapted from the Fraser Institutes
Economic Freedom of the World (EFW) annual
reports. The report is published through a joint
effort of the Friedrich-Naumann- Stiftung fr die
Freiheit, the Cato Institute and the Academic
Foundation, New Delhi.
A reading of the index closer to 1 indicates
greater economic freedom and shows the correlation
between economic freedom and the well-being of
citizens.
!!!!!
[14]

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US IS WORLDS LARGEST SPAM EXPORTER
included Mexico, Germany, France, China and the
UK.
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In a recently released Security Intelligence

Report by the Microsoft, India ranked fourth in the
list of nations sending out spam e-mails like ads for
pharma products and sexually explicit material. US
(29,216 IP addresses sending spam) topped the list
followed by China (16,094) and the UK (7,728).
India was also a victim of a number of
cybercrimes, ranking fifth in terms of malware
encounters during January-June 2013. According
to the report, in India, the encounter rate increased
slightly from 29.31 per cent in Q1 2013 to 29.44
per cent in Q2 2013. Autorun (encountered by 7.6
per cent of computers in India in 2Q13), Gamarue
(4.7 per cent) and the virus family Win32/Sality
(4.4 per cent) were among the most commonly
encountered threats.
Encounter rate refers to a percentage of
computers running Microsoft real-time security
products encountering malware during the said period.
The US topped this list too, followed by Brazil,

Russia and Turkey. Other countries in the list
Worms were most prevalent form of attack in

India, followed by trojans and viruses.
Cyber criminals distribute malicious software
or malware which turn a computer into a bot, also
known as a zombie or robot, which makes the
computer perform automated tasks over the
Internet, without the PC owners knowledge.
Determining the originating place of botnet
spam can help governments and industry response
teams better understand the magnitude of security
problems affecting different areas of the globe.
Microsoft, in a separate study last year, had
said computer users will have to spend 1.5 billion
hours and USD 22 billion identifying, repairing and
recovering from the impact of malware. Global
enterprises are also estimated to have spend USD
114 billion to deal with the impact of malwareinduced cyber attacks.
DATURA USED TO SYNTHESISE NANOPARTICLE
In an attempt to develop a low-cost and ecofriendly method for preparing nanoparticle with
anticancer potential, the researchers have used the
leaf extract of Datura inoxia, an Indian medicinal
plant known to possess anticancer properties to
synthesize silver nanoparticles.
They then explored the anticancer properties

of the silver nanoparticles by exposing cultured
human breast cancer cells to different
concentrations of the nanoparticles. The researchers
found that the nanoparticles killed the cancer cells
by generating reactive oxygen species, which
destroyed cellular organelles such as mitochondria.
The DNA content of cancer cells exposed to the
nanoparticles for 24 hours was found to decrease
during the exposure period.
Currently, synthetic anticancer drugs are widely
used to treat various cancers. Although such drugs

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kill cancer cells, they also are harmful to healthy

cells. Besides, the physical and chemical methods
used to produce silver nanoparticles employ toxic
and expensive chemicals.
Hence, the researchers say that the ecofriendly,
simple and efficient method for producing silver
nanoparticles with the use of leaf extract of Datura
inoxia may potentially be used in the
pharmaceutical industry.
Computer model to develop amino acid in space
The researchers performed computer-based
quantum-mechanical calculations to develop
understanding in the chemical processes that
produce amino acid serine in the interstellar
medium. The amino acid serine is produced in the
space between stars, which contains gas and dust
clouds.
[15]

During the research, the scientists found that
serine forms in five steps involving both radical
radical and radicalneutral reactions. The first step
starts with hydrocarbon radicals and carbon
monoxide. The second step results in the formation
of the dehydrogenated form of acetic acid. In the
third step, the product of the second step reacts
with amino and methylene groups, and finally it
reacts with the hydroxyl group to form serine.
The interstellar medium is rich in methanol,

water, carbon dioxide and even amino acids like
glycine. These molecules are thought to hitch a ride
on meteorites, which, when they collide with
planets like Earth, set off reactions that pave the
way for the development of rudimentary life forms.
It is difficult to simulate the formation and reactions
of amino acids and their precursors in the
interstellar medium, as such reactions happen at
extremely low densities and temperatures.
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The researchers say that these results

demonstrate an immediate prospect of obtaining
the many transitions necessary for a definitive

detection of interstellar serine.
!!!!!
[16]

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HEALTH
CHILD SEX RATIO IN NINE STATES DROPS
The latest Annual Health Survey data released
by Registrar General & Census Commissioner of
India revealed that there is a substantial fall in the
sex ratio in the 0-4 years age group in several
districts spread across nine states. Since many of
these are the most populous states, this fall would
account for lakhs of missing girls.
! In Chhattisgarh, the ratio fell in 13 out of 16
In fact, in four of the nine states, it is not just

specific districts but the entire state that has seen
a worsening of the 0-4 sex ratio. What is also
worrying about this trend is that most of these
states have traditionally had better sex ratios than
the national average. The malaise, it appears, is
growing even where it wasnt much in evidence in
the past. In a majority of the districts in these states,
the sex ratio at birth has actually improved. Child
sex ratio in Jharkhand, Rajasthan show maximum
improvement, but about 84 of the 284 districts
recorded a fall, even if in 31 of them the fall was
marginal. The fall in sex ratio in the 0-4 age group
is more widespread, with 127 districts exhibiting
this trend, 46 of them showing a significant drop.
! Uttarakhand had the worst sex ratio among
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districts. As a result, the states 0-4 sex ratio

fell from 978 to 965.
Other finer points of the survey are:
! Jharkhand, which had a relatively better sex
ratio to begin with, and Rajasthan, which

figured at the bottom of the pile, have shown
the greatest improvement in both sex ratio at
birth (SRB) and the 0-4 sex ratio.
! States that started off with high sex ratio in
both categories, such as Chhattisgarh and

Assam, have recorded the biggest declines in
0-4 category along with Bihar and Odisha.
! In UP, 30% of the districts recorded a fall in
the 0-4 age group.
! In Bihar, 21 of 37 districts registered a decline
in 0-4 sex ratio.
! In Orissa, the 0-4 sex ratio declined in 21out
of 30 districts.
these nine states to start with and despite

showing some improvement, it continues to
be the worst.
The census office has been conducting an

annual health survey in nine states Uttar Pradesh,
Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha,
Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Assam.
The reason being, these 9 states constitute 50% of
countrys population, 60% of Births, 71% of Infant
Deaths, 72% of Under 5 Deaths and 62% of
maternal deaths. Besides, there are large interdistrict variations in these states. A baseline survey
conducted in 2007-09 has been followed up by
similar ones in 2010 and 2011.
Lagging Districts
State (no. of
districtss)
sex ratio at
birth
Sex ratio 0-4

yrs
Cgarh (16)
13
Assam (23)
18
Odisha (30)
14
21
Bihar (37)
22
MP (45)
20
18
UP (70)
21
21
NOW, HUMAN EXCRETA TO GENERATE ELECTRICITY
Indian organisation Sulabh International Social

Service Organisation has demonstrated a low cost
toilet model in the Toilet Fair held in Delhi. The
Sulabh flush compost toilet costs less than Rs 2000
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for rural areas using locally available materials. It

consists of a pan with a steep slope especially
designed trap which requires 1 to 1.5 litres of water
for flushing. There are two pits of varying size and
[17]

In the fair Beijings Sunny breeze Technology
Inc has come up with a toilet unit which does not
use water and is solar powered. The water is
substituted with balls that keep the bowl surface
clean by carrying faecal matter out of the toilet
and reducing odour. The pipes leading to the onsite waste processor are solar powered.
Sulabh International Social Service

Organisation
Sulabh
International
Social
Service
Organisation, a non-profit voluntary social
organisation founded in 1970 by Dr. Bindeshwar
Pathak, is dedicated to Gandhian ideology of
emancipation of scavengers. Sulabh has been
working for the removal of untouchability and
social discrimination against scavengers, a section
of Indian society condemned to clean and carry
human excreta manually. Sulabh is noted for
achieving success in the field of cost-effective
sanitation, liberation of scavengers, social
transformation of society, prevention of
environmental pollution and development of nonconventional sources of energy.
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capacity of each pit is designed for 3 years' usage.

In about two years, excreta in the pit get digested
and are almost dry and pathogen free, thus safe
for handling as manure. The NGO has constructed
more than 8,000 public toilets at important places
all over the country which are being used by more
than 15 million people every day. Sulabh has
invented two technologies. One for individual
houses and the other for public places like housing
colonies, high-rise buildings, schools, colleges,
hospitals and public toilets in areas where there is
no proper sewerage system.
Besides providing clean sanitation solutions
Sulabh has invented an efficient design of biogas
plant linked with public toilets. Under this system
only human excreta with flush water is allowed to
flow into biogas plant for anaerobic digestion. The
biogas produced is used for cooking, lighting mantle
lamps, and electricity generation. Cooking is the
most convenient use of biogas. Recently Sulabh has
modified the genset which now runs on 100 percent
biogas. This has made electricity generation from
biogas more sustainable.
Sulabh installed 200 biogas plants in the public
toilets all over the country. The first Sulabh public
toilet linked biogas plant was set up at Adalatganj,
Patna. It produced electricity from biogas which
was supplied to the 3 kms long Bailey Road, Patna.
Another such project is providing electricity at a
small complex in Palam, New Delhi.
The Sulabh model has been adopted by a

number of countries, including China, Bhutan,
Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Ghana,
Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania and
Zambia for expansion and promotion of sanitation
facilities.
Achievements
! 1.3
million
constructed.
Sulabh
household
toilets
! 54 million Government toilets constructed
based on Sulabh design.
! 8,000+ Sulabh community toilet blocks.

! 640 Towns made scavenging free.
! 15 million People using toilets based on
Sulabh design daily.
!!!!!
[18]

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NEWS IN BRIEF
NEWSMAKERS
He allowed the IJA, whose members included
K.S. Shelvankar, Tarapada Basu, and Sundar
Kabaddi, to use the India League office, located
conveniently near Fleet Street and the Indian High
Commission. He also located the India Club, which
he founded, in the same premises.
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Aditi Khanna
The Indian Journalists' Association (IJA) in
London has elected Aditi Khanna as first woman
President and Rupanjana Dutta as first woman
General Secretary in its 67-year history. Aditi
Khanna is the London correspondent for Press Trust
of India, and Rupanjana Dutta is Associate Editor
of Asian Business Publications Ltd.
The IJA was set up in May 1947, with the active
encouragement from V.K. Krishna Menon, who
subsequently became the first High Commissioner
of independent India in Britain.
The IJA has used the India Club premises for

its meetings since then. Now a restaurant and B&B,
its somewhat shabby and fading interiors are
reminiscent of the India Coffee Houses of
yesteryears.
OBITUARIES
Khushwant Singh
Khushwant Singh, author of a classical Train

to Pakistan, passed away at his residence in New
Delhi. He was 99.
Singh, a lawyer-turned-diplomat-turned-writer,
was best known for his trenchant secularism, his
humour, and an abiding love for poetry. He was
editor of several literary and news magazines,
including the Illustrated Weekly of India as well as
two newspapers, the Hindustan Times and the
National Herald, through the 1970s and 1980s. He
also contributed a great deal in non-fictional works
varying from politics, biographical and many
others.
But, Khushwant Singh was well known for
classics like "Train to Pakistan", "I Shall Not Hear
the Nightingale" and "Delhi". His autobiography,
"Truth, Love and a Little Malice", was published in
2002. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1974
but returned it in 1984, in protest against the
storming of the Golden Temple in Amritsar by the

Indian Army. In 2007, he was awarded the Padma
Vibhushan.
Besides literature, he had a brief stint in politics.
Singh was nominated to Rajya Sabha by the
government under late Indira Gandhi. He was a
Member of Parliament from 1980 to 1986.
Luiz Bellini
Hilderaldo Luiz Bellini, captain of Brazils first

world cup winning team, died at the age of 83.
Bellini captained the national team during Brazils
first World Cup win in 1958, in Sweden. In 1962
Bellini was part of the team which successfully
defended the trophy in Chile and he also played at
the 1966 World Cup in England.
During his career Bellini played for Vasco da
Gama, Sao Paulo and Atletico Paranaense.
He was honoured with a statue pose outside
the Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro.
AWARDS/PRIZES
Google Digital Activism Award

Journalist Shubhranshu Choudhary the mind
behind CGNet Swara (Voice of Chhattisgarh), a
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unique grass root communication platform, won

the 2014 Google Digital Activism Award. Other
nominees for the 2014 Google Digital Activism
Award were whistleblower Edward Snowden;
[19]

TAILS operating system, an open-source encryption
tool that helps protect free online communication
between journalists and sources; and Free Weibo,
an uncensored version of Chians largest social
network SinaWeibo.
Choudhary, a Knight International Journalism
Fellow, has worked with the BBC and Guardian
and was also a reporter with Deshbandhu.
Eminent Indian biologist Prof Seyed E Hasnain,

a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences
at Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi was
awarded the Cross of the Order of Merit of the
Republic of Germany in recognition of his
contribution to Indo-German relations. He served
as the founder-Director of Centre for DNA
Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD) and ViceChancellor of University of Hyderabad.
Prof. Hasnain is a renowned microbiologist
especially acclaimed for his path-breaking research
on tuberculosis. He paved the way for the office of
the German Research Foundation in India, which
is one of the key forums for scientific cooperation
between Germany and India.
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In 2004 he launched CGNet Swara, an

indigenous effort to use the internet and the mobile
phone network to get voices of tribals from deep
inside the forests of Chhattisgarh across to the world
outside in the local Gondi language.
Prof Hasnain conferred Order of Merit
The Google Digital Activism Award is a part of

the Index Freedom of Expression Awards,
honouring top achievers in advocacy, arts, digital
activism and journalism.
G D Birla Award
Physicist Prof. Rajesh Gopakumar has been

conferred with 23rd G D Birla award for scientific
research for the year 2013. A theoritical physicist,
Gopakumar has been awarded for his contribution
in the Quantum Field Theory and String Theory.
He is a recipient of several other awards, including
B M Birla Science prize in 2004. Born on December
14, 1967, Gopakumar is presently working as a
theoritical physicist at Harish Chandra Research
Institute, Allahabad.
The G D Birla award for scientific research was

instituted in 1991 by K K Birla Foundation to
recognise significant scientific research undertaken
by Indian scientists below the age of 50, working
in India. The award carries a cash prize of Rs 1.5
lakh and a citation. The selection of the award is
made by a Board comprising of eminent scientists,
including Asis Datta and Anupam Varma. 46-yearold Gopakumar has been awarded for his
contribution in the Quantum Field Theory and
String Theory.
Prof. Hasnain has almost all major Indian

Science Awards to his credit: GD Birla Award,
Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, FICCI Award, J.C.
Bose National Fellow Award, Ranbaxy Research
Award, Goyal Award, Bhasin Award and several
others.
He is the first Indian elected member of the
German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
and one of the youngest to be elected Fellow of
TWAS, Trieste, Italy. Internationally, Prof. Hasnain
is a recipient of the prestigious Humboldt Research
Prize, awarded by the Alexander-von-Humboldt
Foundation, Germany; as well as the very exclusive
Robert Koch Fellowship, of the Robert Koch
Institute, Berlin. Hasnain also got elected as a Fellow
of the prestigious American Academy of
Microbiology recently.
The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of
Germany was instituted in 1951 by Federal
President Theodor Heuss. It is the only honour that
is awarded in all fields of endeavour and is the
highest tribute the Federal Republic of Germany
can pay to individuals for services to the nation.
SPORTS
IHF introduces major changes in Hockey
To make hockey exciting and viewer-friendly,

the International Hockey Federation (FIH)
announced a major rule change in its format. The
FIH said that now hockey would be played in 4quarter format. The four 15-minute quarters would
replace the previous two 35-minute halves. Playing
[20]
time will be maximised, however, with the

introduction of 40-second timeouts following the
award of a penalty corner and the scoring of a
goal. The four-quarter format has already been tried
out in the Euro Hockey League and in India. It will
apply to all continental Olympic qualifying events
as of September 1, 2014.
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The move to make hockey more attractive
became necessary after the game came under the
scrutiny of the International Olympic Committee
(IOC). In 2013, IOC voted to oust wrestling from
the Olympic core sport and hockey barely managed
to save itself. Wrestling, however, was later
reinstated after it came with some rule changes to
make the game more viewer-friendly. FIH president
Major rule overhauls in the sport

over the years
India welcomed the "major change". Former

Indian coach Harendra Singh said the format
would suit the Indian players, but also pointed out
that it would make the job of the coaches more
challenging, but, as far as players are concerned,
this format will suit players from the sub-continent.
The players will get more breaks during the matches
and it will help them start afresh in each quarter.
New Format :
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! Artificial turf replaces grass in the 1970s.
Leandro Negre had then termed the IOC vote as a

"wake up call" for hockey.
! Introduction of floodlights. With growing TV
! Match duration: 60 minutes 4 quarters: Each
coverage of major events, artificial lighting

was introduced during the evening games in
the mid 1970s
! 40 sec timeout: After penalty corner awarded
! Rolling substitution. Two substitutes were
! Two-minute breaks: After the first and third
first allowed in 1973 but once taken off the

field, a player was not allowed back on to
the field (like in football). In 1988/89, three
substitutes were permitted. Since 1992,
multiple, rolling changes were allowed.
! Off-side rule dropped in 1996 in a bid to
ensure more goals during a match.
! A "self-pass" from a free hit was introduced.
It enables the player taking the free hit to

play the ball himself again after taking the
free hit to encourage free-flowing hockey.
! "Own goal" introduced: a goal can be scored
after the ball is touched in the circle by either

an attacker or a defender.
quarter will be of 15 minutes.

and after a goal is scored.
quarters. The existing 10-minute half time

will remain unchanged.
Karnataka wins Vijay Hazare Trophy
After Ranji and Irani Cup, Karnataka lifted

Vijay Hazare Trophy a historic triple crown in the
same season. Karnataka lifted the STAR Sports
Vijay Hazare Trophy for the first time defeating
Railways by four wickets in a low-scoring final.
However, Railways too deserved credit for
putting up a great fight and making a match out
of it in spite of being bowled out for just 157 runs
in 47.4 overs after Karnataka skipper R Vinay
Kumar won the toss and elected to field first.
!!!!!

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EDITORIALS
ON, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, A NEW STRATEGY
a pretext), that it focuses only on pharmaceutical
issues (ignoring the other 25 indicators that do not
relate to this field), etc.
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Back in 2007, when I visited India for the first

time, I had the privilege of meeting some of the
brightest and most talented minds in the fields of
science and technology. I also had the pleasure of
discussing and debating Indias level of intellectual
property (IP) protection. Essentially, what we were
debating boiled down to one major theme: the
extent to which Indias IP environment allows it to
unleash and leverage the huge brain power and
creativity of its citizens, not to mention being able
to attract the knowledge, knowhow and funds of
global innovators. Fast-forward to 2014, and the
answer is still not satisfactory.
Earlier this year, the Global Intellectual Property

Centre released the second edition of the GIPC
International IP Index, Charting the Course. The
GIPC Index measures and compares the strength
of IP environments in 25 countries, including India.
The 30 indicators measured by the index are based
on the rights that have been identified as critical to
a variety of business sectors, such as the music,
content, pharmaceutical and brand industries.
According to the GIPC Index, India was ranked

the lowest among 25 countries surveyed with a
score of 6.95 out of a maximum score of 30.
Interestingly, the discussion in India that followed
the release of the index was characterised by two
distinct reactions, which can be categorised as
contemplative or critical.
Contemplative reactions sought to focus on the

challenges that exist in India with regard to IP, for
example, concerning the relatively weak level of
enforcement of existing rights, as well as the limited
level of protection afforded to the different
technological sectors included in the index. Critical
reactions sought to reject the findings of the GIPC
index altogether, arguing that there is nothing really
wrong with Indias IP environment. In an attempt
to undermine the legitimacy of the GIPC index and
its findings, local critics argued that the index is
biased, that it was a priori designed against India
(and that the other 24 countries were just used as
[22]
But why are local critics so angry with the GIPC

index and its results? One explanation is that Indias
score provides a serious challenge to the narrative
that India has a balanced and adequate IP
environment. According to the index, India falls
short in almost all of the 30 indicators measured,
perhaps even too short to be able to continue and
defend this narrative. Indeed, in India and
elsewhere, there is a growing disconnect between
rhetoric and the increasing amount of empirical
evidence suggesting that by improving its IP
environment a country such as India is likely to
benefit significantly from foreign direct investment,
greater technology transfer flows and economic
growth. OECD modelling, for example, suggests
that, on average, for every 1 per cent increase in
the strength of its IP protection, a country may
expect a 2.5 per cent increase in its FDI inflows.
Critics have also said that it is not
comprehensive enough or out of tune with other
international benchmarks. But looking at the Global
Innovation Index, for example, India was ranked
66th in 2013 hardly a world-beating position to
begin with. This was also two spots lower than in
2012 and four lower than 2011. Indias innovation
score has deteriorated in the last few years, much
like its IP environment.
There were also some attempts to argue that
the GIPC index scores ill capture the level of
protection provided to original medicines in India.
Local critics argue that by refusing to grant IP
protection to such medicines India is actually
protecting true innovations in the field, while
defending itself against trivial innovation. Some
paradoxical arguments were also made stating that,
while these medicines are too trivial to be eligible
for protection, they should nonetheless be subject
to compulsory licensees, since the medicines are
too important to be left in the hand of one company
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(usually an international innovator). But we can
hardly treat breakthrough medicines such as
Glivec, Sutent and Nexavar as trivial. Yet, all
these medicines, as well as others, suffer from a
lack of protection in India in one form or another.
One can like or dislike the GIPC index and its
scores. One can also disagree with its methodology
or analysis. But rather than attacking the messenger
maybe it is also time to consider the message: A

country like India, with its vast technological,
technical and creative potential, should not try to
divorce itself from the global IP system. Rather,
India should consider using IP rights in order to
leverage its huge untapped potential to take its
rightful place as a global leader in innovation. The
time is ripe for charting a new course.
CH
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1963, STILL
Substantial parts of what is said to be the
Henderson Brooks report on military operations
leading up to and during the 1962 India-China
war have been put online, causing a stir. Predictably
so. Ever since Chinese troops breezed across the
McMahon Line into Indian territory before abruptly
withdrawing, Indias sense of vulnerability has not
been mitigated.
The overhang of the episode draws in part from
questions about Indias military preparedness in the
face of Chinas periodic assertions of claims to
Arunachal Pradesh and also the lingering shock of
that invasion. The latter is particularly exacerbated
by the fact that Indias leadership has never quite
levelled with the people in an open accounting for
what exactly happened, and how. The silence of
the political leadership is best evident in the refusal
to declassify the Henderson Brooks report, to even
make available portions of it to scholars.
Neville Maxwell, a journalist who reported on

the war and whose account, Indias China War,
was long believed to have drawn on a reading of
the report, has unilaterally made a copy available.
The report, commissioned in the aftermath of the
war by the then army chief, General J.N.
Chaudhuri, and prepared by Lieutenant General
Henderson Brooks and Brigadier P.S. Bhagat, was
submitted in April 1963.
This is the first time the contents have been

spilt (online, as it happens, and therefore freely
available) and it requires an enlightened response
from the executive and politicians in the midst of
the election campaign. Across time, the lesson that
needs to be taken is not the roll call of culpability
though thats a matter for necessary study.
Nehru, in fact, paid politically for his coteries
Himalayan misadventure, and never recovered his
earlier stature.
There needs, instead, be a thorough reading of
the report and the manner of its eventual public
availability for a tutorial on Indias inexplicably
ostrich-like approach to archival material. If today
we are reacting to the report as if it were still 1963,
given the lack of clarity on military assessment of
operational details, it reflects the states reluctance
to allow access to material essential for proper
history writing, the kind of history without which
there cannot be coherent and informed public
debate.
There is no point in the BJP now holding forth
on why the report was not declassified. In its years
in power (1998-2004), it too did precious little to
open up access to official documents. But then,
why blame the opposition when the Congress-led
government is not doing enough to raise the level
of debate.
SPENDING WONT MAKE IT BETTER
With a new government in the offing, all

suggested agendas for health are talking of an
increase in health budgets and the fact that at 1
per cent of the GDP, government spending on public
health in India is one of the lowest in the world;
the rest is out of pocket expenditure. The US is a
prime example of the fact that an increase in health
budgets is no guarantee of better healthcare. Until
such time as we are able to achieve some

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transparency in pricing and some standardisation

in hospital processes, there is every likelihood that
a mere increase in budgets would only mean
healthier balance sheets for hospitals.
Today, almost 72 per cent of healthcarespending in India is in the private sector, and all
indications are that this is going to be the case in
future too. The private sector today accounts for
almost 52 per cent of all inpatient care and 82 per
[23]

cent of outpatient care. There is nothing wrong in
such a trend: if private hospitals deliver better value
for money, certainly they should be funded.
However, a mere look at how private hospitals and
health insurance function makes this a questionable
proposition.
The world over, research has shown that

meticulous record-keeping and following of
standard operating protocols bring down mortality
rates and infection rates and improve outcomes.
Doctors, nurses and paramedics all have to function
on a zero-error basis. To help things along,
healthcare tries to reduce most tasks to standard
protocols.
The quality of care standards in hospitals rarely
focuses on the patient or functions in the interest
of the patient. From a demand side perspective,
the reason for this could be that we as patients
tend to associate quality with infrastructure.
Commonsense says that an expensive hospital is
better than ones neighbourhood clinic.
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Health premiums have skyrocketed in recent

years. This, however, has not meant that the policy
holders are any better off. Grievances have
increased at practically the same rate as health
premiums. The rise in premiums mostly has to do
with hospitals. Most health insurance companies
in India have adverse claim ratios of over 100 per
cent, which means that the entire premium is
swallowed up in claims. Audit reports routinely
say that the public insurers should reduce the costs
of medical services by standardising procedures
and costs. This is something that neither private
nor public insurers have been able to do.
errors outside the hospital. But surely, the caregivers

should know what went wrong and where.
One reason for this has been that hospital

charges for procedures are not transparent. Hardly
any hospitals have standardised packages for highcost procedures, like bypass surgeries, which include
all costs from start to finish. Unless the consumer
knows for instance that a bypass in a five-star
hospital costs Rs 4 lakh in contrast to Rs 1.5 lakh
in a smaller hospital, there is no way that he can
compare the two. The insurers, for their part, have
clearly said that they are unable to persuade the
hospitals to offer package rates.
Second, and more importantly, even if ones

health insurer is willing to pay Rs 4 lakh for that
heart surgery, the quality of service provided is
uncertain. There is no central data repository in
the government or with the insurers on the relative
health outcomes for these procedures. So we have
no way of comparing the performance of any given
hospital over time to say whether patient survival
rates have improved or whether infection rates have
come down.
Few people know that hospitals simply do not
keep the kind of records that might provide them
feedback on the quality of patient care. For example,
in case any incidence of infection is recorded, it
would be recorded on the case paper of the
individual patient. This information is not filed in
any central registry. Correspondingly, no corrective
action at the institutional level is possible other than
that which the immediate caregivers might offer.
Merely keeping such records would in itself create
an incentive to improve patient care. No doubt,
anonymity should be maintained about medical
[24]
However, health care is so dependent on human

beings that price is no index of quality.
Unfortunately, doctors alone cannot ensure success;
institutional backing is needed. If only hospitals
were to be evaluated just as much on the incidence
of post-operative infections as on the reputation of
the doctor, hospitals would be much safer places
for all users.
From a supply side perspective, hospital
managements do not invest much in observing rules
and protocols. The reason is not so much the cost,
but because it takes much time and there is no law
or rule that mandates this. Unless a hospital is
accredited by a regulator or accreditation council,
insurance companies would not empanel those
hospitals. But in India, there is no such legislation
and insurance companies certainly will not take
on such a burden of their own volition.
Accreditation and benchmarking is far less
about upgrading infrastructure and more about
following standard processes. Small can be beautiful
in healthcare and excellent quality healthcare can
be delivered in low-cost settings too. Most quality
of care standards are rather basic: what is the ratio
of nurses to patients in the ICU; whether the nurses
deployed are actually trained in hospital care; does
the operation theatre have an uninterrupted supply
of power and water; are lab instruments routinely
calibrated, etc.
Few patients realise that many of the
instruments used by hospitals are simply not
calibrated regularly. No wonder patients who go
from one facility to another notice that the results
reported for them vary considerably.
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India needs an independent regulator to
benchmark and grade hospitals. The absence of a
health regulator is something that health insurers
often bemoan, but like all good businessmen,
everyone is waiting for someone else to take the
lead. Given the absence of political consensus on
this issue, state governments are definitely not

interested in taking any lead in this matter. The
result is that, rich or poor, it is the patient who
gets the short end of the stick, regardless of any
increase in budgets.
A GRAND BARGAINING ON ENERGY

gas to global markets so long as its consistent
with our national interests and affect global
markets in ways that could weaken Putinism? You
really want the Keystone pipeline? Fine, Ill give
you all of it. And in return youll give me a bridge
to a secure, clean-energy future for America.
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There are a lot of people who seem intent on

restarting the Cold War in both Moscow and
Washington. I am not one of them. But if were
going to have a new Cold War, then I have one
condition: I want a new moonshot.
The Space Race and the technologies it produced
werent purely an offshoot of the US-Soviet missile
competition, but they were certainly energised by
that competition. Well, if were going to go at it
again, this time I want an Earth Race. I want
America to lead in developing an energy policy
that will weaken the oil-and-gas-autocracy of
Russian President Vladimir Putin, and, as a
byproduct, produce the technologies that will
mitigate climate change, make America a global
technology and moral leader and ensure that the
next generation can thrive here on Earth.
Harvey argues that such a deal should include

the following: First, to ensure that natural gas is a
boon rather than a curse, the oil and gas industry
and the lawmakers they control have to
accept national rules for extracting natural gas
based on known best practices, including strategies
that eliminate the leakage of methane, which is so
much more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon
dioxide.
And as opposed to the stimulus/ deficit debate,

in the energy case, there really is now the raw
material for a Grand Bargain between Democrats
and Republicans if President Obama wants to
try to forge it. Such an energy grand strategy would
be a first. Its shocking how devoid of strategic
intent US energy policy has been. Both political
parties have repeatedly let our economy be hostage
to Middle Eastern and Latin American oil despots
and to energy booms and busts.
Second, we need to set a national clean energy

standard for electricity. One popular approach is
to require utilities to raise the fraction of their
electricity from zero-carbon sources such as wind,
solar or nuclear by, say, 2 per cent per year.
Such a standard creates a market for renewables,
which drives down costs, and helps ensure that
natural gas is a transition fuel that replaces coal,
not solar, wind and other clean power sources.
Thirty states have some variant of this, and it has
been hugely successful in stimulating development
of new technology.
The key ingredients for a new US energy

strategy, argues Hal Harvey, the CEO of Energy
Innovation, is, first, to optimise affordability,
reliability and clean together, rather than one at
the expense of the other. Second, to take
advantage of new technology, we finally have the
capacity to build an energy system we can be proud
of, and by choosing this future, we will stimulate
even more technologies that deliver energy that is
indeed affordable, reliable and clean. And, third,
to ensure that our natural gas bonanza actually
ushers in a truly clean future.
Third, we have to accelerate energy efficiency

and clean power technologies by building up our
research and development programmes to the levels
they merit, probably triple todays levels. This is
the source of our long-term advantage.
I dont like Keystone. Extracting oil from tar
sands leads to even higher carbon emissions than
drilling and devastates the landscape. But, if
approval is the price for a truly transformational
clean energy policy, Im in. Youre not going to
move the vested interests without a trade, but it
has to be a smart trade.
Heres the deal Obama should offer oil-patch

Republicans and Democrats. You really want to
open up the country to the exploration of natural
gas? You really want to be free to export oil and
This is a grand bargain on energy that would

advance our growth, national security and climate
policy. If paired with similar efforts by our Nato
allies, it would, in time, sharply reduce Putins

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ability to blackmail his neighbours using energy. It
would also protect Americans from price shocks,
as both the sun and the wind are free, make our
farmers, our coastal cities and our public health
system much more resilient and tilt our energy
policy toward exploiting our advantage
technology rather than oil.
I would hate to see Obama spend the next two

and a half years just counting healthcare.gov signups. He needs to recognise that Putins Crimea
adventure has created the opportunity for a legacy
project of moving America into a clean energy
future a move that would make us stronger,
Putin weaker and the world safer.
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UK TO STUDY RESETTLEMENT OF CHAGOS ISLANDS

The British government is sending experts to
the Chagos islands to see if it is feasible to resettle
the tropical archipelago from which it evicted
hundreds of families 40 years ago to make way for
a U.S. base.
The coral islands, which have some of the

cleanest waters in the world and half the total area
of high quality coral reefs in the Indian Ocean, are
rich in fish, which would normally form the
economic base of any resident community.
Up to 5,000 U.S. servicemen live on the largest

island, Diego Garcia, and have all their food, drink
and essentials flown in. The remaining 50 islands
and reefs, which stretch over hundreds of square
miles, are now uninhabited and it is the dream of
many Chagossian families living mainly in Britain
and Mauritius to return.
Since Britain established the archipelago as the

worlds largest marine reserve in 2010, it is illegal
to fish there except for the U.S. military who
have been allowed to catch about 50 tonnes of fish
for sport. The setting up of the reserve by the then
Foreign Secretary David Miliband was widely
interpreted as an attempt to prevent resettlement.
The independent consultants, who will not

include Chagossians, have been instructed by the
Foreign Office (FCO) to neutrally examine the
options in establishing several sorts of community
on the outer islands and Diego Garcia. Suggestions
include a modern lifestyle, an eco-village, a pilot
resettlement with some employment on the military
base and a scientific research station.
The terms of reference for the consultants

suggest Britain may be prepared to compromise on
the total ban on fishing. The team has been asked
to consider eco-tourism, fishing, game fishing and
industrial development. If the Chagossians
return, they have said they plan to re-establish
copra production and fishing, and to develop the
islands for tourism.
In 1953, the islands supported more than 1,000

people and the Foreign Office paper suggests a
decision on whether any return to the British
overseas territory will hang on the costs to the
Treasury of maintaining a community and whether
they can be self-sufficient. The costs of setting up
police and health facilities, running water, waste
management, communications and transport will
be considered.
Impact of climate change
A 2003 feasibility study led to the government

concluding resettlement would be costly and
precarious and that sea-level rise was averaging
5.4mm a year twice the global average and
accelerating. This was denied by other scientists.
Source: The Hindu
DECLINING SEX RATIOS SEEN IN GENDER SCORECARD
On International Womens Day, the Election

Commission of India held a special campaign to
bring women voters to the polls. Although men
and women vote at a more or less similar rate in
State elections, women are 6-8 percentage points
behind in the Lok Sabha elections where national
issues dominate. These disparities prompt us to take
a deeper stock of gender inequalities in Indian
society.
[26]
India Human Development Survey (IHDS), a

nationally representative survey of about 42,000
households conducted by researchers from the
National Council of Applied Economic Research
(NCAER) and the University of Maryland, provides
interesting insights for developing a gender
scorecard covering the years of rapid economic
growth between 2004-2005 and 2011-2012. NCAER
is the oldest think tank in India, and the only one
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outside the government which carries out large
independent household surveys on social and
economic issues. The IHDS is carried out under
oversight from an advisory panel comprising
eminent academicians, representatives of civil
society and those of a variety of statistical agencies.
It is the only national panel survey covering the
same households.
While this stagnation in womens ability to

control their own fate is disappointing, some of the
other gender indicators are downright alarming.
During years of rapid economic growth, womens
employment has steadily declined. In spite of the
attempts the IHDS survey made to capture diverse
sources of womens work, womens work
participation rates for those between the ages 1559 dropped from 58 to 54 per cent for rural women
and from 23 to 20 per cent for urban women
between 2005 and 2012. While rising household
incomes may explain some of these declines, the
consequences for womens empowerment are
worrisome.
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When it comes to changes in the nature of

gender relations in India, IHDS records a story of
both progress and disappointments. The scorecard
on gender reflects a broad stagnation in social
mores where some achievements are cancelled out
by backsliding in other areas; broader economic
impacts on gendered outcomes are by and large
negative; and some remarkably successful policy
initiatives have been overlooked in an era of overall
disenchantment with public policies.
last decade, often resorting to illegal sex-selection

practices to ensure the desired sex composition, the
discrimination against daughters in education is
steadily declining.
Social stagnation
On social issues, IHDS paints a picture of

overall stagnation, except for a few bright spots.
The declining gap in school enrolment between boys
and girls is the shining story of the past decade. In
2005, among children aged between 6-14, 88 per
cent of girls and 92 per cent of boys entered school.
By 2012, the percentage for both sexes rose to 96
per cent.
However, if we read this improvement in

womens literacy to indicate an overall
improvement in their status, we are in for a
disappointment. Women remain bound by strict
patriarchal norms that govern where they go (18
per cent dont even go to a Kirana shop), whether
they can venture outside the home alone (50 per
cent do not travel alone by bus/train even for a
short distance), how much input they are allowed
in household decisions vital to themselves and their
children (only 25 per cent have the final authority
on what to do when they are sick) and even
whether they have any input in who they marry
(only 25 per cent actually met their husbands before
marriage). Rising incomes do little to improve
womens status since richer households appear to
be more determined to control their movements
and autonomy than poor households.
Perhaps the greatest area of concern lies in
steadily declining sex ratios. Census 2001 recorded
only 927 girls between the ages 0-6 compared to
1,000 boys. This ratio dropped to 919 in 2011. It is
a paradox that although todays parents are even
more likely to prefer boys to girls than those of the

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Moreover, women remain concentrated in the

agricultural sector. In 2005, 73 per cent of the rural
men did any agricultural work; by 2012 this number
fell to 65 per cent. In contrast, the decline for
women has been smaller, from 91 per cent to 86
per cent. Womens participation in non-farm work
would have been even lesser without the Mahatma
Scheme (MGNREGS). With the slow but steady
migration of men out of agriculture into non-farm
economy, agricultural work is slowly becoming
feminised, leaving women concentrated in an
increasingly smaller portion of the economy.
Public policy successes
What role do government policies play in

shaping gendered outcomes? Here, there are a
number of positive signs. Programmes like Janani
Suraksha Yojana (JSY) have had a tremendous
impact. Hospital delivery rates soared between 2005
and 2012. In 2005, before the implementation of
JSY, which provides cash benefits of up to Rs.1,400
for a hospital delivery, only 50 per cent of the
deliveries took place in a hospital; by 2012, this
had risen to nearly 70 per cent. Implementation of
the no-frills bank account has increased womens
financial inclusion.
The proportion of women with their name on
a bank account has risen from 18 per cent to a
whopping 38 per cent in these seven years. Efforts
aimed at ensuring womens participation in
MGNREGS have also borne fruit. The scheme
mandates that at least a third of beneficiaries should
be women. IHDS records that 44 per cent of the
beneficiaries are women.
[27]

While these major programmes have had an
impact on womens lives, many other schemes have
proven to be remarkably ineffectual.
difficulties; the demand for hospital-based deliveries

has fast outpaced the ability of government hospitals
to deliver reasonable quality care.
Only about one per cent of households have

registered their daughters for the much trumpeted
girl-child schemes that provide cash incentives for
the survival and education of girls. Moreover, even
large schemes often suffer from operational
So how will the women voters react in the 2014

election? Would these policy achievements outweigh
the social stagnation and economic concerns? I
suspect not.
Source: The Hindu
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TB CONTROL: FIVE KEY REASONS TO ENGAGE

THE PRIVATE SECTOR
India accounts for a quarter of the 8.6 million

cases of TB that occur worldwide. India also
accounts for a third of the missing 3 million TB
cases that do not get diagnosed or notified. Not
only is TB not going away, we are now seeing
severe forms of multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB).
diagnosis is made correctly, TB treatment in the

private sector is far from standard. When private
practitioners initiate anti-TB treatment, they tend
to use drug combinations that are not
recommended by the WHO or the Revised National
TB Control Programme (RNTCP).
While the Indian government has done well to

make TB treatment freely available, the public sector
alone cannot control TB. What we need is largescale engagement of Indias massive private health
sector. Here are five good reasons to work with the
private sector for TB control.
Correct treatment should be given in the form

of right anti-TB drugs, in the right dosages, right
combination, and the treatment needs to be taken
for the full 6 months. If not, drug resistance can
emerge, with poor outcomes for the patient and to
the community. So, it is important for private
practitioners to follow international and national
guidelines and use the correct drugs and
combinations.
First, half of all patients with TB seek care in

the private sector, and private healthcare providers
are often the first point of care even for patients
who are eventually treated in the public sector. TB
patients get diagnosed after a delay of nearly two
months, and are seen by 3 different practitioners
(including informal providers)before a diagnosis is
made. During this long process, TB patients can
infect many others in their family and community.
Most poor patients begin seeking care in the
informal private sector, including chemists and
unqualified practitioners. So, if we want to diagnose
TB early and prevent further transmission of the
infection, then engagement of such first-contact
private providers is the key. These providers must
be educated about the importance of considering
TB as the diagnosis in any patient with cough for
two weeks or longer. Early referral for sputum tests
which detect the TB bacteria can greatly help in
reducing diagnostic delays,and help in initiating
the right treatment before more harm happens to
the patient and the community.
Second, there is plenty of evidence that quality
of TB care in the private sector is suboptimal.
Private doctors prefer blood tests for TB and these
are known to be inaccurate and have not been
recommended by any guidelines, including the
World Health Organisation (WHO). Even if
[28]
Adherence needed
Third, even if the correct TB treatment is started,

it is important to make sure patients complete the
full course of TB medications. Adherence will
ensure cure and prevent drug-resistance. Every TB
patient, preferably with close family members,
should receive detailedcounselling from the doctor
at the start of TB treatment, with emphasis on
continuing the treatment till the disease is cured.
However, private practitioners struggle to
ensure adherence in their TB patients. This results
in patients stopping treatment early, or moving
from one doctor to another. Doctors who manage
TB patients have an obligation to monitor their
patients periodically and keep them under
supervision till the stipulated duration of treatment
is completed.
Most private practitioners do not maintain
medical records, and this makes it very difficult to
follow-up patients during therapy.
Unlike the public sector, private practitioners
rarely implement directly observed treatment in
their busy clinical practice, and have little time to
track patients who drop out.
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Thus, in the private sector, there is a need to
create systems to support patients during therapy.
Technologies such as mobile phones could play a
role in reminding patients about medications, and
be used to contact patients who do not return for
follow-up.
Fourth, engagement of the private sector is
necessary to increase rates of TB case notification.
Fifth and last, engagement of the private sector

is critical to detect drug-resistance and ensure that
all patients with MDR-TB get linked to appropriate
second-line treatment. All patients with risk factors
for drug-resistance must be screened for MDR-TB
using WHO-approved tests such as Xpert MTB/
RIF (GeneXpert) which is now more affordable in
over 60 labs via the IPAQT initiative (www.ipaqt.org).
Since MDR-TB requires long-term and specialized
management, patients should be referred to private
chest specialists, or to specific government hospitals
where free MDR-TB treatment is available.
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Since 2012, it ismandatory for all TB cases in

the country to be notified to the RNTCP. Sadly,
even in 2014, most private practitioners and private
hospitals do not notify TB cases.
hospitals and laboratories to notify via websites and

mobile phones.
By notifying TB cases to local health authorities,

private practitioners can get help from the public
sector to help follow up patients who drop out
during therapy, or need special care for MDR-TB.
Notification also helps to understand the true
magnitude of the TB epidemic in India, and to raise
adequate funds.
The RNTCP could make notification of TB cases
more practical and simpler, by allowing the doctors,
Ultimately, TB patients need a complete solution

to their problem, regardless of whether they seek
care in the public or the private sector. Therefore,
it is important for the private sector to work hand
in hand with the RNTCP, and improve the overall
quality of TB care in the country. This will not only
help control TB, but also save lives.
Source: The Hindu
ROAD TO URBAN FUTURE
The grim future of cities played out in Paris

recently. Smog wrapped the city and air pollution
increased beyond safe limits. Pollutants, particularly
particulate matter measuring less than 10
micrometre in diameter (PM) reached unsafe levels
of 180 micrograms per cubic metre, against the
WHOs permissible limit of 50 micrograms per cubic
metre (24-hour mean). Though bad weather
contributed to this high concentration, the principal
cause, as is often the case, was increased fuel
emission. The city authorities had to take drastic
steps to reduce pollution since prolonged inhaling
of particulate matter would cause respiratory
diseases, lung cancer and cardiovascular ailments.
They imposed restrictions on the use of cars,
permitting vehicles with odd and even number
plates to ply only on alternate dates and
encouraging shared use of cars. People were
allowed to use buses, Metro rail and other public
transport, besides shared bicycles, free of charge
during weekends. The reasoning was that
restrictions and incentives would encourage
commuters to shift to public transport, thus
reducing pollution. Initial reports indicated that
these measures worked, and congestion had come
down by 60 per cent. Free use of public transport
cost the city about $5.5 million a day, but
considering the public-health interest it was a
necessary investment.

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There is a lesson or two here for Indian cities.

The Central Pollution Control Board has listed more
than 70 cities that have violated ambient air quality
standards. Places such as Delhi and Ludhiana have
unacceptable levels of PM 198 and 259
micrograms per cubic metre respectively. Mitigation
efforts thus far have been limited to improving the
fuel efficiency of vehicles. Enhancing emission norms
is necessary, but equally critical is the need to
increase the use of public transport. Delhi is a case
in point. The Environment Pollution (Prevention
and Control) Authority for the Delhi region, in a
recent report, stated that all gains made by
converting buses and three-wheelers to Compressed
Natural Gas have been lost to a rapid increase in
the number of private vehicles. The level of
particulate matter has increased substantially over
the years. Though various urban policies have
stated that public transport is a priority, on the
ground, investments have not matched intentions.
The modal share of public transport has steadily
declined in the large cities. It is only in recent years
that State governments are trying to increase
transport options by building metro rail networks.
This alone may not deliver. Integrating city
functions with transport plans and encouraging
non-motorised transport such as cycling are also
critical. The future of Indian cities is inextricably
tied to the improvement of public transport.
Source: The Hindu
[29]
EMPLOYER OF THE LAST RESORT

In an era of growing globalisation and rising
inequality, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural
Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) stands
out as a unique attempt to provide a social safety
net via a massive public works programme. The
government as an employer of the last resort is an
idea that has existed in policy discourse around
the world for much of the 20th century, gaining
most currency during the Great Depression in the
United States. However, MGNREGA takes this
policy to a new realm because of its massive reach,
universal nature, and its initiation during a period
of rapid economic growth.
backward areas, so MGNREGAs success in

achieving this goal is quite remarkable.
It is a good time to explore the reach and

impact of MGNREGA. India Human Development
Surveys of 2004-05 and 2011-12, organised by the
National Council of Applied Economic Research
(NCAER) and the University of Maryland, surveyed
about 27,000 rural households in 2004-05, before
the Act was passed, and in 2011-12 when the
programme was implemented in all districts. Hence,
it provides a unique opportunity to examine
household well-being before and after the
implementation of the Act.
However, even for those households doing

MGNREGA work, the number of MGNREGA
work-days is not very large. About 50 per cent of
participating households work 40 or fewer days.
MGNREGA administrative data shows that less
than 10 per cent of the households complete their
full 100 days; the India Human Development
Survey (IHDS) data record about 15 per cent of
the participating households completing 100 days.
In the run-up to the election, the government has
raised the limits for Schedule Tribes (ST) households
living in forest areas to 150 days, from 100. But 85
per cent of the participating ST households and 95
per cent of all ST households have not exhausted
their current limit of 100 days. When asked by
IHDS interviewers why they had not completed
the full 100 days, 75 per cent of the MGNREGA
participants cited No Work as the primary reason.
It would seem more important to focus on ensuring
the full 100 days of work for everyone than to
increase entitlement to 150 days.
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At the household level, households from the

marginalised communities Dalits and Adivasis
are far more likely to participate in MGNREGA
(36 per cent and 30 per cent respectively) than
other households (20 per cent). At the individual
level, older workers are disproportionately more
likely to participate in MGNREGA than in the
general labour force. Women, too, have higher
participation rates; although only 29 per cent of all
non-agricultural wage workers are women, 44 per
cent of all MGNREGA workers are women.
Our scorecard on MGNREGA focusses on three

issues: (i) The reach and targeting of the
programme; (ii) Experience of the households that
participated in MGNREGA; and (iii) Broader
changes in the rural labour markets between 2005
and 2012.
The MGNREGA website claims that 500 lakh

households about 36 per cent of rural households
obtained employment from MGNREGA in 201112. Our household survey finds only about 25 per
cent of the rural households participating in
MGNREGA. Another independent household
survey, the National Sample Survey of 2009-10,
also finds about 25 per cent of households
participating in MGNREGA.
Well-targeted scheme
Regardless of the discrepancy between

administrative statistics and actual usage, the
programme is remarkably well-targeted. This
targeting operates at three levels. At the village
level, the uptake in villages with low levels of
infrastructure is higher (28 per cent) than in villages
with better infrastructure (21 per cent). It is more
difficult to organise new programmes in more
[30]
For those households that participate in

MGNREGA, the income from MGNREGA forms
about 14 per cent of their total income. While the
Act mandates payment in cash for people who are
not offered work, we found few respondents knew
about this provision and even fewer availed of it.
It is not clear whether MGNREGA is providing
alternative sources of work or attracting people
who were formerly underemployed or disguisedly
employed. The IHDS data document an increase
of just five days of work for men over a 12- month
period in rural areas and four days for women.
This is not a massive increase, suggesting that some
of the MGNREGA work may have replaced rather
than added to former work.
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workers was from Rs. 62 to Rs. 91 and for nonagricultural workers from Rs. 77 to Rs. 111.
These wage increases for women are
particularly interesting. Historically, the lack of nonagricultural work has constrained womens wages.
If MGNREGA is in any way associated with the
growth in womens wages, this is a positive
outcome. But these observations may also point to
a real concern for farmers a possible lack of
availability of agricultural workers and high wages
during harvest time. Rising agricultural wages for
both men and women and simultaneously declining
agricultural wage work suggest that it would be a
sensible precaution to ensure that MGNREGA work
is not timed for the peak agricultural periods.
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The IHDS also documents other changes in rural

labour markets. Among workers, non-farm work
has grown substantially while an exclusive
agriculture focus has declined. The proportion of
individuals who focus solely on agricultural
activities cultivation, agricultural labour, and
animal care has gone down from 51 per cent of
men aged 15-59 to 35 per cent; for women the
drop is from 84 per cent to 66 per cent. Much of
this drop comes from changes in agricultural wage
work and caring for animals; own-account
cultivation is unchanged. While we do not know
that MGNREGA caused these changes, the
alternative non-farm employment is certainly part
and parcel of broader changes in rural labour
markets.
Increase in daily wage
This declining agricultural employment has

accompanied wage growth for daily wage workers,
particularly agricultural labour. For male
agricultural workers, daily wages in constant terms
grew from Rs. 90 a day to Rs. 134; for male nonagricultural workers they grew from Rs.126 a day
to Rs. 155. The growth for women agricultural
The above discussion has noted several concerns

with MGNREGA, particularly the discrepancy
between official data and household reports on
usage as well as the potential wage impact. But we
have also noted that the programme has been
particularly successful in providing employment to
Dalits, Adivasis, and women, thereby serving as
an attractive employer of the last resort to the most
disadvantaged workers.
Source: The Hindu
WHY RUSSIA NEEDS CRIMEA
Crimea voted to split away from Ukraine and

return to the Russian fold. For a vast majority of
Crimeas Russian-speaking population this is an act
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of redressing a monumental injustice that happened

in 1991 when Crimea, which geographically,
ethnically and historically is more Russian than
[31]

many regions of Russia itself, became part of a
foreign state as the Soviet Union broke up along
arbitrarily drawn administrative borders.
However, reuniting a divided people may not
have been the prime motive that forced President
Vladimir Putins hand in Crimea. The Ukraine crisis
is viewed in Moscow as a continuation of the
Western plan to encircle Russia militarily and
torpedo its reintegration efforts in the former Soviet
Union.
There is a move to re-Sovietize the region,

Hillary Clinton said in 2012, when she was still
U.S. Secretary of State. Its not going to be called
that. Its going to be called a Customs Union, it
will be called Eurasian Union and all of that.
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The new leaders in Kiev installed with the Wests

support are the same people who staged the
orange revolution in Ukraine in 2004 and set
Ukraine on the path of NATO membership.
Ukraine, the second most powerful economy in

the former Soviet Union, is a linchpin to Mr. Putins
plan to build the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU),
a Moscow-led version of the European Union. The
U.S. denounced the plan as a disguised attempt to
re-create the Soviet Union and vowed to disrupt it.
Strategic catastrophe
Ukraines induction into NATO would be a

strategic catastrophe for Russia. NATO would come
within 425 kilometres of Moscow, cut off Russia
from the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, and
squeeze it out of the Caucasus.
Conservative Russian philosopher Alexander
Dugin, whose ideas of Russias Eurasianism as
opposed to Western ultra-liberalism increasingly
resonate in the Kremlin, views the current upheaval
in Ukraine as the battle of the unipolar world of
U.S. hegemony against Russia.
Whereas in Libya we shunned the battle,
because we had [President Dmitry] Medvedev at
the helm, in Syria and Ukraine we have taken up
the gauntlet, Prof. Dugin wrote last month.
In Ukraine, Mr. Putin made the same point he

has been driving home in Syria: regime change by
force is illegal. When Western nations hailed the
overthrow of a democratically elected government
in Ukraine as a democratic free choice of the
Ukrainian people, Mr. Putins reply was: Crimea
also has the right to make its own free choice.
The West pushed Mr. Putin too far in Ukraine,

which is more than just a former Soviet state. It is
where the Russian nation was born in medieval
Kievan Rus and it is still part of the Russian
world. The Wests efforts to bring Ukraine into its
orbit were viewed in Moscow as an encroachment
on Russia itself.
For Russia, it is not just a red line; its a solid
double red line that no one is permitted to cross,
said Fyodor Lukyanov, Chairman of Russias
authoritative Council on Foreign and Defence
Policy.
[32]
But lets make no mistake about it, she added.

We know what the goal is and we are trying to
figure out effective ways to slow down or prevent it.
An effective way to wreck Mr. Putins project
was found when the European Union offered
Ukraine an either-or choice between closer ties
with Europe or membership in Mr. Putins EEU.
As former U.S. National Security Advisor Zbigniew
Brzezinski wrote years ago, Without Ukraine,
Russia ceases to be an empire in Eurasia.
Mr. Yanukovych used the E.U. talks for a free
trade and association pact in order to play Europe
against Russia in an attempt to get the best deals
from both sides, but overplayed his hand. When
he scuttled the E.U. pact last November in favour
of a multi-billion Russian aid package, Ukrainians
felt robbed of their hopes for prosperous life in
affluent Europe. It was an illusion assiduously
nurtured by Western politicians and the media, but
Mr. Yanukovychs turnaround triggered mass
protests that eventually brought down his
kleptocratic and inept regime.
Apart from geopolitical compulsions, Moscows
support for Crimeas breakaway bid was driven by
important domestic considerations. The protests in
Ukraine, manipulated as they were by the West,
reflected the rise of grass-root civic activity against
corruption and authoritarianism the same
problems that bedevil Russia and that brought
thousands of anti-government protesters onto the
streets of Moscow two years ago. By intervening in
Ukraine, Mr. Putin sought to stop the surging prodemocracy wave from spilling over to Russia.
Mr Putin is widely expected to seek a fourth
presidential term in 2018. However, the protest
rallies against his return to presidency in 2012 were
a sign of growing wariness with his rule. A poll
conducted by the respected Levada Centre last year
found that half of Russians would like to see a
new leader in 2018. A multi-thousand-strong rally
in Moscow at the weekend showed that anti-Putin
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sentiments are still strong among West-oriented
urbanites.
However, overall, Russians support Mr. Putins
policy on Crimeas reunification. A March survey
showed that Mr. Putins approval ratings rose by
10 per cent in one month and were at the highest
level in years.
The rise of far right and neo-Nazi groups, who

spearheaded deadly clashes in Kiev last month,
widened the chasm between Ukraines pro-Russia
southeast and nationalist west. If Ukraine breaks
up along the east-west divide, its western part will
join NATO. This would be a dubious victory for
Russia.
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Experts said Mr. Putin needs a new agenda to

retain voter support reassembly of lost Russian
lands. Putin has exhausted the limit of peoples
gratitude for having saved the country from chaos
and ruin, said Prof. Dugin. He needs a new
future-oriented strategy to re-establish his
legitimacy. Eurasian integration of the former Soviet
space would give him such strategy.
At the same time there is a risk of Ukraine

sinking into chaos. Mr. Yanukovychs downfall left
Ukraine in shatters. The country is bankrupt and
heading for default. The new authorities shaky
grip on power may weaken further as they embark
on harsh austerity measures to qualify for urgent
assistance from the International Monetary Fund
and Western governments.
Serious risks
Mr. Putins intervention in Ukraine has brought

Russia strategic gains but is fraught with serious
risks.
Crimeas reunification with Russia solves the

problem of the Black Sea Fleet, which Ukraines
new leaders vowed to shut down and for which
there is no other basing location that does not freeze
in winter. Russia retains strategic grip on the region
and ability to project its naval power to the
Mediterranean and beyond.
The Ukraine and Western powers said they

would not recognise Crimeas split from Ukraine,
but Russia argued that Kosovos self-proclaimed
independence from Serbia provided legitimate
precedent. Moscow recalled the 2010 ruling by the
U.N. International Court of Justice, which said that
unilateral declaration of independence by a part of
a country did not violate international law.
The example of Crimea has inspired other

Russian-speaking regions of Ukraine to demand
greater powers from the centre. If Ukraine switches
from a unitary state to a federation, the pro-Russia
regions will get the right to block any sharp swing
of the country towards the West.
Russias relations with the West are fast

deteriorating, but how far they will slide back is an
open question. The West and Russia have sailed
into uncharted waters, said Dmitry Trenin, head
of the Carnegie Moscow Centre.
The analyst predicted that U.S.-Russia
geopolitical rivalry will intensify and affect their
collaboration on Syria, Iran and Afghanistan.
Although the static military confrontation is
unlikely to be resurrected, nuclear deterrence will
be reaffirmed, and competition in the military
sphere will spread to other areas, from cyberspace
to conventional prompt global strike, Mr. Trenin
wrote in Foreign Policy.
Economic sanctions the U.S. and Europe
threaten to impose against Russia will push it further
towards China, experts said. India may also benefit
from Russias pivot to the East, winning greater
access to Russian energy resources and speeding
up talks for a free trade agreement.
It is symbolic that the new round of East-West
confrontation centred on Crimea, home to the 1945
Yalta Conference, at which the Soviet Union made
its World War Two allies recognise its security
interests far beyond its borders.
Source: The Hindu
GIVE NUCLEAR SECURITY A CHANCE
Next week, more than 50 global leaders will

gather in The Hague for the 2014 Nuclear Security
Summit. This years conference marks the
initiatives third meeting since 2010, continuing a
process that seeks to raise awareness about the
threat of nuclear terrorism and catalyze muchneeded action to secure the materials that terrorists

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would need to make a weapon. But time is running

out.
Today, nearly 2,000 metric tons of plutonium
and highly enriched uraniumthe raw materials
of a nuclear weaponare spread across 25
countries. With an amount of plutonium the size
of a grapefruit, or enough highly enriched uranium
[33]

to fit into a five-pound bag of sugar, a terrorist
could make a bomb that could level a city. We
know that Al Qaeda, groups in the Northern
Caucuses, and other terrorist organizations have
tried to acquire these materials.
In other areas where risk is shared globally,

internationally accepted rules and global
accountability and oversight are the norm. Consider
civil aviation: If a state does not comply with the
standards set by the International Civil Aviation
Organization, its aircraft cannot land at another
member states airports. Yet, when it comes to the
worlds most dangerous materials, standardization,
accountability, and oversight are still lacking.
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Despite the acknowledged threat, the

international community still lacks agreement on
the steps that should be taken to secure nuclear
materials. While leaders have met at two previous
summits, they still have not delivered what the
world needs to achieve robust and lasting
confidence: a global system for securing nuclear
materials that holds all states accountable to a set
of common standards and best practices.
Such examples of bilateral nuclear-security

cooperation, along with the International Atomic
Energy Agencys nuclear-security peer-review
service, highlight a promising point: a willingness
to work together on nuclear-materials security need
not compromise sensitive information.
Because governments today generally approach

security independentlydeveloping their own
national standards and regulations, with no
requirement for mutual accountability regarding
implementationthe state of nuclear-materials
security around the world varies widely. In some
places, it is entirely inadequate.
It is time for a new approach. Governments

can no longer act in isolation, as though nuclear
security were exclusively a sovereign
responsibility. States depend on one another for
their nuclear security, and they can be deeply
affected by other states actions. The weakest link
in the security chain threatens everyone, and that
means a system is needed to identify and
strengthen the weak linksa system in which states
take steps to build confidence inand
accountability fortheir security performance.
Critics argue that a global nuclear-materials

security systemone that sets standards, monitors
practices, and holds governments accountable
cannot be achieved without compromising the very
security information that it was designed to protect.
Moreover, they claim that proponents simply seek
access to sensitive information.
But such criticism ignores the fact that states
have already proved capable of cooperation and
mutual assurance regarding their security practices.
For example, over a multi-decade period of
collaboration within the framework of the NunnLugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program and
other strategic agreements, the US and Russia have
devised creative ways to reassure each other about
the status and security of their sensitive nuclear
materials, weapons, and sites.
[34]
In order to address the absence of universal

standards and mutual accountability for securing
nuclear materials, and to reduce the risk of nuclear
terrorism, leaders at this months summit should
seek to establish a global nuclear-materials security
system underpinned by four key principles:
The system should cover all weapons-useable
materials, including nuclear materials used
for military purposes. (Today, only 15% of
nuclear materials are used for civilian
purposes; but no regulatory system can be
effective if it applies to only a small share of
the regulated items.)
The system should employ international
standards and best practices.
All states should commit to measures that
reassure other states that their security
practices are sound, while protecting sensitive
information.
All states should commit to reducingand,
where possible, eliminatingtheir nuclear
weapons-usable materials to minimize the
risks these stockpiles pose. (In the last four
years alone, 10 countries have rid themselves
entirely of their weapons-useable materials.)
Agreement on these four principles and the

commitment to a global system for securing nuclear
materials would be a paramount achievement for
the Nuclear Security Summit process. As our leaders
convene to discuss the issue, let us hold them
accountable for achieving the goal of securing all
weapons-usable nuclear materials before the
summit process ends in 2016. Until that happens,
the threat of nuclear terrorism will persist.
Source: Live Mint

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CRIMEA: DAWN OF A NEW COLD WAR ERA?

The situation in Crimea, or the face-off between
Russia and Ukraine (supported by the EU and US),
has deteriorated so fast that warnings of the reemergence of a Cold War no longer seem just
appropriately sensational headlines.
For Russia, that would mean proceeding with

its aim of preventing a unified anti-Russia Ukraine
within the Nato fold. Or will, as some western
leaders advocate, be there tougher "Iran-type"
sanctions against Russia in response to all this from
the EU and US?
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The situation as of now, roughly, is that Russian

President Vladimir Putin has taken legislative steps
to absorb Crimea into Russia, after recognising the
Crimean "referendum" as a vote of independence
from Ukraine. Kiev and the West have responded
by rejecting that referendum, while the US and EU
have imposed 'sanctions', in the form of travel bans
and asset freezes.
by Moscow and Kiev, will lead to an armed

confrontation. Or whether Putin will be satisfied
by effectively taking control of Crimea and seek to
aid similar moves in eastern and southern Ukraine,
where ethnic Russians resent the nationalist
western pro-EU Ukrainian regime in Kiev.
It may well be true that these sanctions are

toothless, and Russia's reminder to the world of
the US and some EU states' support for a similar
"declaration of independence" situation in Kosovo
in 2008 is justified.
But the big question is whether a spark, a clash
somewhere, with military forces being mobilised
Whatever shape events take, it is clear that forms

of diplomacy are any day better than war. But
Crimea is also about the Putin regime asserting
itself, and keeping pro-western, anti-authoritarian
sections at home in Russia at bay. Being seen as
the strong man who resurrected Russia, and the
person keeping the old "empire" from collapsing,
also helps in that effort.
CHECKMATING THE WEST
The overwhelming vote in a referendum for

Crimea to secede from Ukraine and Russias instant
recognition of that province as a sovereign nation
carry important lessons for world politics.They
draw attention to controversial issues of our time
use of force by great powers,legitimacy of regime
change
carried
out
through
external
intervention,question of selfdetermination for
minorities and utility of economic sanctions.The
Crimean referendum to break away from Ukraine
was conducted under supervision of the Russian
military and its allied self-defence units,evoking
howls of outrage from the United States and the
European Union.German Chancellor Angela Merkel
condemned resort to military means to enforce
Moscows will as outdated geopolitics and
oldfashioned tactics that have no place in the era
of mutual cooperation and globalisation.
Redrawing of borders of a sovereign state through
military assistance from an outside power does go
against the status quo of international order.Yet,in
Crimea,Russian President Vladimir Putin did not
make the first move to illegally dismember Ukraine.
Rather,he reacted after an illegal overthrow of a
friendly regime in Kiev by mobs receiving moral,
diplomatic and financial support from the

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West.From Putins perspective,the Europeans and

Americans who are fulminating against Russia for
egging Crimeas secession from Ukraine were the
ones who created the problem initially by funding
the downfall of a democratically elected proRussian president,Viktor Yanukovych. If
intervention by western powers to topple an elected
president is legal,Putin would contend,how could
Russias attempt to defensively protect Russianspeaking minorities in Ukraine by giving them the
right to self-determination be illegal Two wrongs
may not make a right,but Putin is responding in a
hardnosed tit-for-tat strategy to western moves to
weaken Russias influence over post-Soviet space.His
message to the West is simple: do not mess with
Russian interests using foul means,else i can pay
you back in the same coin.The Crimean episode
illustrates the West cannot claim to be on a moral
high ground and that it must also introspect how
it misplayed its hand in the Ukrainian crisis.At a
broader level,irrespective of Merkels notion that use
of force is obsolete in international relations,the
West has repeatedly used military might to effect
regime changes in Afghanistan,Iraq and Libya,often
bypassing international law.Putins world view is
deeply configured by how the West talks about
[35]

United Nations Security Council (UNSC).Despite
Moscows best efforts,China,which normally votes
in unison with Russia on all major global security
problems,decided to abstain from the vote.With
self-determination movements raging in Chinas
Tibet and Xinjiang regions,an unambiguous No vote
by Beijing to bolster Moscow would have set a
precedent that could be to the detriment of its own
sovereignty one day.Chinas ambivalence forced
Russia to stand out like a sore thumb in the UNSC
and Moscow was alone in vetoing the resolution
critiquing its behaviour.Is Russia internationally
isolated now China has actually tried to reassure
Russia after its UNSC abstention by harping on
western double standards about foreign military
interventions.India,another vital partner of Russia
in the Brics grouping,has called for accepting
Russias legitimate interests in Ukraine.EU and US
leaders are painting the Crimean secession as a
severe affront to global security,but Russia is not
without sympathisers in the international
community who detest western hypocrisy. Hence,
punitive western economic sanctions on Russia
cannot compel Putin to reverse his course.If we
needed proof of a post post-Cold War era in which
western hegemony and capacity to dictate
international outcomes are at rock bottom,Crimea
provides the perfect instance.Ironwilled Putin is
reminding us that unipolarity of the post-Cold War
period is a thing of the past.
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law but relies on military force when it suits

western interests.In 2008,Putin enabled two small
enclaves of Georgia Abkhazia and South Ossetia
to secede and declare themselves as independent
states as a payback for the pro-western Georgian
regimes attempts to enter the North Atlantic Treaty
Organisation (Nato) and use western aid to
undermine Russian security.Crimea today is almost
a carbon copy of the Abkhazian and South Ossetian
experiences,with no lessons learnt by the West
about the costs of provoking the Russian bear in
regions where a post-Soviet sentiment of nostalgia
for mother Russia lingers.Western illusions that
Ukraine and Georgia have to integrate into EU and
Nato for their own good constitute the roots of the
present trouble.In both these countries,consensus
about moving away from Russia and into the arms
of the West is absent.Every time Washington and
Brussels orchestrate regime changes with a view to
push back Russian influence in these
countries,Moscow has no option but to resort to
irredentism,i.e.fan separatism in those sections of
the populations of these nations loyal to the idea of
a Greater Russia,a glorious superpower during the
Cold War era.Although Putin is impervious to
western threats and admonitions,the Crimean
secession has affected his strategic partnership with
China to remake the world order in a multipolar
direction.On the eve of the Crimean referendum,a
western-drafted resolution condemning the act as
illegal and unconstitutional was tabled in the
!!!!!
[36]

th
rd
CHRONICLE
IAS ACADEMY

24 MARCH 2014 TO 31ST MARCH 2014

TH
Call: 9953120676, 9582263947

CONTENTS
TOPICS
Pg. No.
National ......................................................................................................................... 4-9

International ............................................................................................................. 10-12
Economy .................................................................................................................... 16-19
Health ......................................................................................................................... 22-23
News in Brief........................................................................................................... 24-26
Cast the net wide for all its worth
27
No oil in troubled waters
28
The case against inflation targeting
29
Trade scrutiny
31
Economics of ageing
31
Our defence firepower is suspect
32
No let-up in window-dressing
33
Indian cow, may your yield increase
34
Static model
35
How Vladimir Putin became evil
36
A million missing patients
37
An under-defined Constitution
38
Model code as a moral code
39
Gayoom comes back, in style
40
Seeking clarity on human rights
40
The statistics of gender bias
41
A new window into an old world
43
Fair advocacy as a right
44
A disturbing G7 decision
47
On the dilemma over the rhino horn
47
Abstention louder than any vote
49
Striving for a polio-free world
50
An elusive detector for an elusive particle
51
Quest for oil threatens Africas oldest wildlife reserve
53
Friction over drug patents
53
Transitions of the angry middle class
54
A mandate for the UNHRC
56
Food security in the time of inflation
57
Pause and reframe
58
Why bank on EC
59
Rising to the China challenge
59
The challenge is skilling
61
Why TB persists
62
Overtures to Colombo
63
Why the RBI should cut rates
64
Patent opportunism
65
The Election Commission crosses a boundary
66
Improving lawmaking in India
67
A 21st century Planning Commission
69
Universal pension for Indians
70
Indias Stake in Crimea
71
The new world order- Diplomacy and security after Crimea
72
A census in Myanmar: Too much information
74
NATIONAL
NCAER SURVEY FINDINGS ON RURAL EMPLOYMENT
rural employment. According to the IHDS findings,
non-farm work is now a bigger employer for rural
men in Punjab, Haryana, Assam, and north-eastern
States and for both men and women in Kerala and
Tamil Nadu. However, exclusive farm-oriented work
is still the most prevalent form of employment
among rural women, engaging 66 per cent The
IHDS also confirms that daily agricultural labour
wage has nearly tripled for men in the last seven
years, while the non-agricultural wage has more
than doubled. The IHDS as well as the NSSO found
drastic fall in womens participation rate(women
aged 15-59 ) from 47 per cent in 2004-05 to 43.7
per cent in 2011-12 ,while for men it is almost stable
at 78.9 per cent and 77.2 per cent in 2004-05 and
2011-12 respectively. The participation rate
considers all those employed or looking for work.
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NCAER has recently released India Human

Development Survey based on data collected in
2011. It surveyed 42,000 households which were
also surveyed in 2004-05. The survey found that
agriculture employment declined rapidly since
2004-05, the trend that was documented in census
2011 as well. IHDS, the largest independent
household sample survey in the country found that
combination of farm-oriented and non-farm work
is now the most common form of rural
employment in rural india due to sharp fall in
agriculture employment in the last seven years
contradicting the latest data of the governments
National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO),
which shows purely farm-based work as the biggest
employer in the country. In 2004-05, half of all
rural men and 83 per cent of rural women worked
only on farms, making it the most common type of
PARENTS PREFERING PRIVATE SCHOOLS: NCAER
India Human Development Survey (IHDS),

carried out by the National Council for Applied
Economic Research (NCAER) based on a sample
of 42,000 households across the country found that
enrolment in government schools now make up
65 per cent of all school enrolment, down from 72
[4]
per cent in 2004-05 while Private school enrolment

is increasing even though it is five times as expensive
as going to a government school( Rs. 7,000 per year,
per child enrolled in a private school as compared
to less than Rs. 1,400 per child in a government
school ). Household expenditure on private
Weekly Current Affairs 24th March to 31st March, 2014

reaching Class IX, and another 40 per cent of those
who reached Class X said they dropped out within
a year. The NCAER researchers who administered
the test developed by NGO Pratham for its Annual
Status of Education Report (ASER) to assess the
learning of the students found that level of learning
of students enrolled both in public and private
schools continues to be low with just 52 per cent
children between 8 and 11 years could read at a
Class II level, and just 45 per cent could do a basic
mathematical function, subtraction. This is a small
fall since 2004-05 for which the numbers were 54
per cent and 48 per cent respectively.
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schooling ranges from over Rs. 18,000 in Delhi to

just over Rs. 3,500 in Uttar Pradesh. The survey
found that Private school enrolment ranges from
as high as 61 per cent in Jammu and Kashmir and
56 per cent in Uttar Pradesh to as low as 12 per
cent in West Bengal and Odisha and 13 per cent in
Bihar. It is higher among boys, in urban areas and
among richer households. Dropout rates are slightly
higher for girls and far higher in rural areas, and
have reduced very slightly since 2004-05. Bihar
continues to have India's highest dropout rate.
About 40 per cent of teenagers above 15 years who
made it to Class V said they dropped out before
DELHI HAS THE WORST AIR QUALITY ACROSS INDIA
A position paper (2014) on Ambient Air

Pollution and Public Health A Call to Action
released by non-government organisation Public
Health Foundation of India (PHFI) reported that
among the Indian states, Delhi has highest
Particulate Matter 10 (up to 10 micrometer in size)
concentration, Jharkhand maximum sulphur
dioxide level, West Bengal highest nitrogen dioxide
level in the air. Sustained exposure to high levels of
PM10 has severe adverse impact on health making
the people vulnerable to high risk of contracting
bronchitis and asthma in addition to irreversible
deficits in lung capacity/function like chronic
obstructive pulmonary disorder and lung cancer.
According to Environmental Performance Index

study released at World Economic Forum in Davos
India officially has the worst air pollution beating
China, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh. It ranks
last on ambient air quality of all 170 plus countries
surveyed. The study also found that South Asia
has the worlds worst air pollution as a region while
Switzerland tops among 178 countries and regions
for all environmental indicatorsincluding air
quality, water quality, sanitation, forest and fisheries
conservation, climate control policies, and other
measures. The U.S. ranks 33 overall. Bangladesh
ranks lowest overall when both indoor and outdoor
pollution is measured.
STATUS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
Recent National Family Health Survey (NFHS)

data based on survey of more than 83,000 women
aged 15-49 showed show that one in three married
adolescent girls have experienced physical violence
from their husbands ranging from slapping,
punching and twisting of the arm to severe assaults
such as burning, choking or attacks with weapons.

Besides this, nearly 15% have experienced emotional
abuse and 9% sexual violence with the primary
reasons for violence being for dowry followed by
alcoholism, extra-marital affairs, the birth of a
female child, or a womans inability to bear children.
[5]

Women from Domestic Violence Act (DVA) 2005
came into force, there was no separate civil law to
deal with the specifics of domestic violence.
Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act
(DVA) 2005 recognises domestic violence as a civil
offence and widened it to include verbal, economic
and emotional violence, and also takes into account
a womans need for financial support. It also
protects women from being thrown out of homes
through a residence order and has a provision
for an interim order, protection order, orders for
monetary relief and temporary custody of children.
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Shockingly a 2012 report by the United Nations

Childrens Fund (UNICEF) found that 57% of
Indian boys and 53% of girls between the ages of
15 and 19 think wife-beating is justified. A recent
NFHS survey also reported that a sizable percentage
of women blame themselves for the violence
suffered at the hands of their husbands. Another
recent study published in the peer-reviewed
journal Population and Development Review said
women with more education than their husbands
had 1.4 times the risk of domestic violence and
1.54 times the risk of frequent violence, compared
with women with less education than their
husbands. Though
domestic violence was
recognized as a criminal offence in India chargeable
under Section 498-A of the Indian Penal Code in
1983 till October 2006 when the Protection of
The special police unit for women and childrens

website lists seven shelters and six short-stay homes
for women in Delhi. All of these together can
accommodate almost 238 women.
UNDERSEA CABLE LINK TO ANDAMAN
The government has proposed an undersea

cable link to the Andaman and Nicobar islands
mainly to nine main islands at an estimated cost
of Rs. 800 crore To improve telecommunications
connectivity with Andaman and Nicobar.The
project will be implemented by Andaman and
Nicobar Islands Integrated Development Corp. Ltd,
through the Ministry of Home Affairs, with
technical expertise to be provided by the
department of telecommunications. Connecting the
islands which number nearly 600 flanked by
the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal with a

population of 350,000 is key to Indias strategic
interests in the area which is Indias eastern
maritime boundary has vast exclusive economic
zone. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands also sit
at the mouth of the Malacca Strait, which
constitutes one of the busiest shipping thoroughfares
of the world and a key route through which
international energy and commodity trade passes, one
of the reasons why India set up its first tri-service
command in the Andaman in 2001.
INDIAN IT LAWS ILL-SUITED FOR SOCIAL MEDIA
Global Network Initiative (GNI), a multistakeholder group of companies, civil society

organisations, investors and academics dedicated
to protecting and advancing freedom of expression
and privacy in the information and communication
sector in its report entitled Closing the Gap: Indian
Online Intermediaries and a Liability System Not
Yet Fit for Purpose said that The Information
Technology laws currently governing Internet
companies (Information Technology Act and the
2011 Intermediary Due Diligence Rules) in India
are ill-suited to deal with innovations such as social
media and user-generated content as they do not
does not offer adequate protection and legal
certainty to online platforms for user-generated
content. This creates excessive costs for online

intermediaries companies which include search
engines such as Google and social media platforms
such as Facebook. The report also said that online
platforms that support user-generated content can
become an important part of Indias Internet
economy and contribute around Rs.2.49 lakh crore
by 2015 (more than 1.3% of GDP), in addition to
the contribution of other elements of the Internet
economy. India, the world's largest democracy is a
country of particular importance to GNI. As the
world's largest democracy, the country trails only
the US and China in the number of Internet users,
despite an Internet penetration rate of only 10 per
cent.
KOLKATA RANKED 7TH IN NATURAL DISASTER RISK

The report, Mind the Risk: A global ranking
of cities under threat from natural disasters which
assessed 616 cities around the world for five perils
[6]
earthquake, storm, storm surge, tsunami and river

flood ranked Kolkata as the worlds seventh riskiest
city when it comes to being under threat from all

Not a single European metropolitan area is among
the twenty most potentially affected urban
populations.
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types of natural disasters. When the analysis looked

at urban storms only as a form of natural disaster
Mumbai is ranked eighth with an expected 4.3
million people at risk, while Chennai is ranked
ninth most threatened with 4 million people
vulnerable to risk. Of the 616 metropolitan areas
included in the study, river flooding was found to
be a threat to over 379 million residents, higher
than the 283 million potentially affected by
earthquakes and the 157 million people at risk from
strong winds. In contrast, about 33 million people
are at risk from coastal storm surge and 12 million
people from tsunamis because only about 220
million or 13 per cent of the metropolitan areas
residents actually live in coastal plains. With 12
million residents potentially affected, the Pearl
River Delta is the most flood-exposed urban area
in the world. Shanghai (11.7 million) and Kolkata
(10.5 million) follow in second and third place.
SC ORDERS ABOLITION OF MANUAL SCAVENGING, SETS

REHAB NORMS.
The Supreme Court bench headed by CJI P

Sathasivam in response to PILs filed by the Safai
Karamchari Andolan directed all state
governments and Union Territories to strictly
implement the 2013 law for eradicating manual
scavenging in the country and ensure efficacious
rehabilitation of affected people. Manual
scavenging is a term used for the practice of
physically removing human excrement from dry
toilets with bare hands, brooms and metal
scrappers. It also issued directions for rehabilitation
of those involved in manual scavenging which
among them included At least one member of
their family shall be given training in livelihood
skill and shall be paid a monthly stipend during
training, subsidy or concessional loan for taking
up an alternative occupation. It also directed that
the people who were employed as scavengers
should be allotted residential plots or constructed
houses or money for such construction according
to their eligibility and willingness. It said entering
sewer lines without safety gears should be made a
crime even in emergency situations and for each
such death, a compensation of Rs 10 lakh should
be given to the family of the deceased. It also
directed the Railways to undertake time-bound
strategy to end manual scavenging on the tracks
and persons released from manual scavenging.
The court noted that manual scavenging is still

rampant in many states and continuing unabated
despite the existence of the Employment of Manual
Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines
(Prohibition) Act, 1993, which not only banned
manual scavenging but also mandated the
demolition of all dry toilets in the country. There
are currently 96 lakh Dry latrines in India which
are still being cleaned manually by manual
scavengers who mostly belong to the Scheduled
Castes communities. They are estimated to number
more than 1.2 million according to some activists.
According to the 2011 Census, About 750,000
families still work as manual scavengers, and most of
them live in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, Madhya
Pradesh, Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir. In 2003,
the Comptroller and Auditor General evaluated the
National Scheme for Liberation and Rehabilitation
of Scavengers and their Dependents and found that
it had failed to achieve its objectives even after 10
years of implementation. It pointed out that although
funds were available much of it was unspent. In 201112, the Union budget allotted Rs.100 crore to the Self
Employment Scheme of Liberation and Rehabilitation
of Scavengers, but this was subsequently lowered
to Rs.35 crore. In 2012-13, the budget allotted Rs.98
crore for the same scheme.
SC UPHOLDS LAW FIXING JUVENILE AGE AT 18

The Supreme Court rejected two petitions, filed
by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy and parents
of the December 16 gang-rape victim, challenging

the constitutional validity of the Juvenile Justice
[7]

(Care and Protection of Children) Act 2000 which
fixed the age of a juvenile below 18 years. It said
legislature is had acted within the constitutionally
permissible limits to fix 18 years as a age separating
juveniles from adults. It further said that even
otherwise, there is a considerable body of world

opinion that all under-18 persons ought to be
treated as juveniles and separate treatment meted
out to them so far as offences committed by such
persons are concerned.
INDIA & S-E ASIA DECLARED POLIO FREE

in Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan. There have
also been outbreaks in conflict-hit countries such
as Syria and in the Horn of Africa countries
Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia. The WHO had set
the goal of eradicating polio world over by 2018.
Polio is a water borne disease that mainly affects
children under five years old is transmitted through
contaminated food and water, and multiplies in
the intestine. It will then invade the nervous system,
causing paralysis that occurs in one in every 200
infections. The world began the efforts to eradicate
polio in 1988. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative
was launched, which is a partnership between
governments and organisations such as UNICEF,
the WHO and Rotary International. The aim was
to banish polio once and for all.
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India along with 10 other countries in the

South East Asian region have been certified as wild
polio virus free countries by World Health
Organisation making the South-East Asia Region,
the fourth Region to be certified as polio-free, after
the Region of the Americas in 1994, the Western
Pacific Region in 2000 and the European Region in
2002. This certification comes after India officially
recorded three years without a new case of polio.
Other countries in the South East Asia region, such
as Sri Lanka, Maldives and Bhutan, have been free
of the virus for more than 15 years. India embarked
on the programme to eradicate polio 19 years ago
in 1995 and presently 99 per cent of the children
are immunized. 80% of the world is now officially
free of polio, although the disease is still endemic
PROPOSAL TO ENHANCE COMPENSATION TO SEXUAL ASSAULT

VICTIMS
[8]

The DLSA has also proposed a provision for interim
relief to the victim facing extreme hardship or on
the basis of gravity of offence which can be made
payable by the DLSA suo motu or on the certificate
of a police officer or magistrate of the area
concerned, while interim relief of Rs.1 lakh could
be paid to the victims of acid attack in 15 days of
the matter being brought to the notice of DLSA.
The scheme also lists factors to be considered while
awarding compensation which includes gravity of
the offence, severity of mental or physical harm,
loss of educational opportunity or employment as
a consequence of the offence, relationship of the
victim with the offender, whether the victim became
pregnant as a result of the offence or contracted
HIV or any sexually transmitted disease. It also
includes whether the abuse was a single isolated
incidence or whether it took place over a period of
time.
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The Delhi Legal Services Authority (DLSA)

submitted proposals to Delhi government regarding
compensation to be awarded to the victims of sexual
assault. It has proposed to enhance the upper limit
of compensation to rape victims to Rs.5 lakh from
the present Rs.3 lakh and to victims of acid attack
to Rs.7 lakh from Rs.3 lakh. It suggested new
categories of Gang-rape, unnatural sex assault and
disfigurement to be added and proposed a
compensation of Rs.37 lakh for victims of gangrape and Rs.2-5 lakh for the victims of unnatural
sexual assault , in case of disfigurement, it proposed
a compensation of Rs.5-7 lakh in case of more than
50 per cent burns, Rs.2-5 lakh for burns between
20 per cent and 50 per cent and Rs.1-2 lakh for
less than 20 per cent burns. The financial aid for
loss of life has also been proposed to be enhanced
to Rs.7 lakh from Rs. 5 lakh while that to victims
of human trafficking to be increased to Rs.1 lakh.
COAL REGULATORY AUTHORITY LITTLE MORE THAN EYE-WASH

The constitution of a Coal Regulatory Authority
(CRA) has been notified with the CRA be under
the overall administrative control of the Union Coal
Ministry with primary function to advice the
Central Government on the formulation of the
principles and methodologies for determination of
price of raw coal, washed coal and to advice on
the procedure for automatic coal sampling.
Although coal users were keen that the CRA should
have a regulatory role on prices, the government
did not agree as coal prices were deregulated long

ago. However, some stakeholders expressed
disappointment over the proposal to keep the
authority under the coal ministry which also
administers Coal India Ltd., which accounts for
over 85 per cent of the output and enjoys a virtual
monopoly. Members of the CRA who will have
five years tenure will be selected by a committee
headed by chairman of the Public Enterprises
Board.
CENTRAL MINISTRIES TO COME UNDER EPFO AMBIT
Following the findings that over half a dozen

Central government ministries including labour,
commerce and industries and railways are
defaulting on payment of provident fund
contributions to its contract employees, the central
labour commissioner has decided to bring the
ministries under its ambit. Employees Provident
Fund Organisation, presently manages retirement
savings of formal sector non-government
employees. The retirement savings of the employees
on government roles are withheld by the drawing
and disbursing officer (DDO) and deposited with
the General Provident Fund or the National Pension
System. Under the proposal being mooted, the
drawing and disbursing officer (DDO) of each

ministry, who is in-charge of payment of salaries
and pensions to government employees, would be
issued a provident fund code and would withhold
the retirement contributions of the contract workers.
All DDOs in government departments and other
organisations are to be notified as establishment in
respect of employees not getting any PF, pension
or insurance benefits similar to what is done for
permanent employees on government roles whose
retirement savings are withheld by the DDOs and
deposited with the General Provident Fund or the
National Pension System.

[9]
INTERNATIONAL
FIJI SETS DATE FOR RETURN TO DEMOCRACY
Nailatikau bans the military from participating in
political activities. Fijis former registrar of political
parties and acting permanent secretary for justice,
Mohammed Saneem, was appointed to supervise
the polls while two Australians will work as Deputy
Supervisor of Elections and the Director of
Operations in in the Fijian Elections Office. The 59year-old coup leader Voreqe Bainimarama
relinquished his military command will remain as
interim Prime Minister until the vote.
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Fijis military rulers set September 17, 2014 as

the date for the South Pacific nations first
democratic elections in nearly eight years after a
military coup in 2006 led by Mr. Bainimarama
deposed Laisenia Qarase of SDL party which won
the 2006 election narrowly against the Fiji Labor
Party. Mr. Bainimarama later suspended the
islands constitution saying it aggravated racial
divisions between the indigenous majority and
ethnic Indian minority. A nation's new constitution
approved last year by Fiji's President Ratu Epeli
EGYPT REOPENS RAFAH BORDER
Egypt has partially reopened its Rafah border

crossing to Hamasruled Gaza Strip after closing
it for almost two months. Rafah border which is
located in north Sinai was closed following the
killing of scores of military personnel by militants
since ouster of Egypts Islamist president Mohamed
Mursi in July 2013. It is the only outlet to outside
world for Palestinians who leave Gaza each day
through the crossing for medical and other
purposes. Travel through the crossing which was
opened by Egypt three times in recent times to allow

the travel of Palestinian pilgrims to Saudi Arabia
is limited to patients, students, and holders of
foreign passport holders. The crossing has been
repeatedly closed since the Egyptian military
overthrew Islamist president Mohammed Morsi of
Muslim Brotherhood who has close ties with
Hamas which rules Gaza in July. In December,
Egypt designated the Brotherhood as a terrorist
organization.
WTO: CHINA RARE EARTH CAPS 'BREAK RULES'
WTO has on a complaint by US, European

Union and Japan has termed recent restrictions by
China on the export of rare earth material as illegal
as it secures preferential use of the materials to
Chinese manufacturers as US manufacturers has
to pay as much as three times more than what
their Chinese competitors pay for the exact same
rare earths. China which is the largest producer of
rare earth elements in the world however said that
restrictions are aimed at reducing pollution and
conserving resources as mining and processing these
elements generates toxic waste and impacts the
environment. China accounts for more than 90%
of their global production of rare earths which are
used in gadgets such as DVDs and mobile phones,
camera and telescope lenses, catalytic converters,
refining crude oil, magnets and X-ray scanners due
to their unique magnetic and optical properties.
[10]
Over the past decade the demand for rare earths

has increased three-fold to nearly 125,000 metric
tons a year. Chinas share of the global production
of rare earths is now down to as low as 80%, from
95% in 2010. Greenland and Russia both opened
new tracts to rare-earths exploration in the past
year.
The first rare-earth element was discovered

by Finnish chemist Johan Gadolin in 1792 .
The core group of 15 rare earths are known

as lanthanides while Scandium and yttrium
are also considered rare earths as they exhibit
similar chemical properties to lanthanides
These have an atomic number from 57 to 71

and are grouped together in the periodic table
The radioactive element promethium which

was the last to be discovered in 1945 is rarest.
SAME-SEX MARRIAGE BECOMES LAW IN ENGLAND AND WALES

Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill which legalizes
same sex marriages has become law in England and
Wales following the assent of Queen of Britain.
Scotland passed a similar law in February 2014 that
will allow same-sex marriages beginning in October
2014. Under the terms of the Marriage (Same Sex
Couples) Bill, religious organisations will have to
"opt in" to offering weddings, with the Church of

England and Church in Wales being banned in law
from doing so. Britain which banned schools and
authorities from promoting homosexuality until
2003 has been allowing gay couples to enter civil
partnerships, conferring the same legal rights as
marriage, since 2005.
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BASIC HEALTHCARE STATUS IN STATES
State spending on health ranges from 4-6 %

of the total expenditure for all larger states
except Delhi, which allocates 12% of its
expenditure on health. However Delhi has
the highest IMR among all metro cities and
its immunization coverage is barely 72%.
In coverage of immunization, apart from UP

and Bihar with 49% and 40% coverage, several
others states like. Assam, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat,
Jharkhand, Odisha and Rajasthan too don't
achieve the national average of 61.
In terms of percentage of institutional

deliveries, only three states Kerala,
Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh has over
90% institutional deliveries.
Total fertility rate (TFR), for Bihar and UP

TFR is over 3 and even TFR of Gujarat and
Haryana is 2.3, which is above the replacement level TFR of 2.1. The replacement
[11]

rate is the level at which the population
would neither rise nor fall. Just nine of the
21 large states have a TFR of 2.1 or less.
While the National Rural Health Mission
(NRHM) launched in 2005 has ensured a boost in
spending in rural health, especially in terms of
physical infrastructure, the shortfall in the numbers
of sub-centres, primary health and community
health centres in some of the worst performing
states such as MP, UP and Bihar remains huge.
There is massive shortfall in personnel
including nurses, lab technicians, pharmacists
and doctors especially for specialists like
gynaecologists, paediatricians, surgeons and
physicians. Shortage of specialists is well over
90% in states like Haryana, Gujarat, Himachal
and Rajasthan.
Disease in India among adults are vascular

diseases, chronic respiratory diseases,
diabetes, tuberculosis, road traffic injuries and
cancer account for high expenses on
medicines, which comprise almost 75% of
out-of-pocket health expenditure. However,
barring a few states like TN, Rajasthan and
Kerala, the free drug distribution programmes
of most states are riddled with inefficiencies.
In 2010, TN and Kerala spent the highest,
over 12% of their health budget, on
medicines. MP spent 9.3%, Karnataka 6.3%,
Haryana 5.5% and Maharashtra just 5.2%.
Bihar more than doubled the amount it spent
on purchasing drugs - from 3.1% in 2001 to
7.6% in 2010; Gujarat increased it from 3.7%
to 7.6% for the same period, while Bengal
raised it from 4.3% to 6.8%. UP increased it
marginally, from 5.2% to 5.3%.
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RULING COALITION WINS MALDIVES ELECTION
Coalition led by Maldives incumbent President

Abdulla Yameens Progressive Party of Maldives
(PPM) party, has attained majority in controversial
parliamentary elections which saw the removal of
the head and deputy of the countrys Elections
Commission. Of the 85 constituencies, 34 seats were
won by Abdulla Yameens Progressive Party of
Maldives (PPM), while its coalition partners
Jumhoory Party (JP) bagged 15 seats and the
Maldives Development Alliance (MDA) five seats.
Nasheeds Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP),

secured only 24 seats and lost its majority in
parliament. While five independents also won the
election. Mohammed nasheed, the first
democratically elected president of Maldives, an
archipelago in Indian Ocean was forced to step
down in 2012 in a coup led by police and army
officials. Though he got highest percentage of votes
in 2013 elections, that elections was declared by
Supreme Court as void.
JAPAN, BELGIUM AND ITALY AGREE TO REDUCE STOCKPILES OF

N-MATERIAL.
Japan Belgium and Italy has reached agreements
with the US to hand over weapons-grade plutonium
and uranium to the United States for dilution and
disposal, at the start of a global summit on nuclear
security at Geneva aimed at reducing the threat of
nuclear terrorism.Under the agreement, Japan will
ship more than 300kg of plutonium and 200kg of
highly enriched uranium (HEU) from its nuclear
research site. The material would be enough to build
about 40 nuclear warheads. Japans stock of
weapons-grade material has been a source of friction
with China, even though the japan ruled out
development of nuclear weapons in 1967.The
radioactive material is only a small proportion of
Japan's stock, but is in a form that would make it
easy to use in a nuclear warhead. The agreement

with Japan follows President Obamas initiative in
2009.Since 2010, when the first of three nuclear
security summits was held in Washington, 10
countries have rid themselves completely of
plutonium and HEU: Chile, Serbia, Turkey, Austria,
Mexico, Sweden, Ukraine, the Czech Republic,
Hungary and Vietnam.
The two-day meeting in The Hague, involving 53
world leaders focused on improving security for
global stocks of other radiological isotopes including
cobalt 60 and caesium 137 which are used in industry,
research and medicine but which could be used in a
"dirty bomb" to irradiate a large urban area.
IMF MONETARY AID TO UKRAINE

International Monetary Fund has agreed to give
Ukraine between $14 and $18 billion in loans over
[12]
the next two years on the condition that the

Ukrainian Parliament will pass a series of laws

cooking and heating. State energy company
Naftogaz announced that household gas prices
would rise 50 percent beginning May 1. Income tax
rates would rise from 15-17 percent now to up to
25 percent. The harsh economic measures may
further weaken the Ukrainian new authorities
shaky grip on power ahead of presidential elections
scheduled for May 25.
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related to economic reforms like cutting the budget

deficit, raising taxes, shifting to a flexible exchange
rate and increase retail energy tariffs toward their
full cost as it needs $35 billion over the next two
years to avoid default. Floating the hryvnia will
push up inflation, while hiking gas prices will place
a heavy burden on family budgets as gas is
universally used in Ukrainian households for
[13]
INDIA AND THE WORLD

KOMODO EXERCISE
The Sea Phase Search and Rescue Exercise
(SAREX) included cross deck flying/evacuation,
lashing, a man overboard exercise (MOBEX), oil
leakage control, a platform remnant exercise and a
damage control exercise.
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The international multi lateral humanitarian and

disaster relief naval exercise KOMODO involving
the ASEAN and ASEAN plus countries was
conducted at Batan bay, Natuna islands and
Anambes islands in Indonesia. In the six day
exercise (28th March-3rd April) which involved
three phases the harbor phase, sea phase and civic
mission phase, India was represented by INS
Sukanya class vessel INS Sukanya, with integral
Chetak.
During the harbour phase, participants
conducted a table top exercise (TTX) on HA/DR,
a disaster relief command post exercise, and sports
and social interaction.
[14]
In the Civic Mission Phase a land and ship

medical evacuation exercise (MEDEVAC) and
engineering civic action programme (ENCAP) were
conducted by the participating nations.
The participating nations are Indonesia, the US,
China, Russia, New Zealand, South Korea, Japan,
Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand, Vietnam,
Philippines and Laos.
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AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT ON EXECUTIONS IN 2013.
Amnesty international has in its recent report

termed the execution of parliament attack case
convict Afzal guru as unfair on the grounds that
he did not get a experienced lawyer of his choice,
that his family was not informed at the time of his
execution, and refusal of the government to return
his body to family for cremation. The report
mentions that the President of India has rejected
the mercy petitions of 18 death row prisoners in
the year 2013, the highest number of mercy petitions
rejected by the President in the last 25 years. As
per the report, presently, there are 400 people on
death row in India with 72 new death sentences
awarded in 2013. With regard to global data, the
report says that despite a trend towards abolition

of death penalty, globally there was 15 per cent
increase in execution of death sentences in 2013
compared to 2012 primarily due to increase in
executions in Iraq (369) and Iran (169). The report
claims that china accounts for the single largest
number of executions world over and USA is the
only country to have carried out death sentence in
2013. The report further says that number of
countries providing for death penalty decreased
from 37 two decades back to 22 in 2013, with only
nine countries carrying out death sentence year on
year for the last five years.
[15]
ECONOMY
RBI EXTENDS BASEL-III DEADLINE
as per the guidelines the capital requirements may
be substantially lower during the initial years as
compared to later years of full implementation of
Basel III Guidelines. In addition, it also reviewed
certain guidelines relating to the loss absorption
features of non-equity capital instruments. With
regard to dividend distribution, it said, the dividend
on common shares and perpetual non-cumulative
preference shares (PNCPS) will be paid out of
current year's profit only while in case of perpetual
debt instruments it said. If the payment of coupons
on perpetual debt instrument (PDI) is likely to result
in losses in the current year, their declaration should
be precluded to that extent. Moreover, coupons on
perpetual debt instruments should not be paid out
of retained earnings or reserves.
BASEL III
Weighted Assets (RWAs), Supervisory Review

Process, Market Discipline.
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Reserve Bank of India extended the deadline

for banks to implement global capital norms, Basel
III, by a year to March 2019 and along with the
extension, the RBI has also similarly revised
deadline for meeting Minimum Common Equity
Tier 1, the highest form of loss-absorbing capital
which has been raised under Basel III from 2% to
4.5% of total risk-weighted assets and Capital
conservation buffer (CCB) that banks maintain as
a cushion of capital that can be used to absorb
losses during periods of financial and economic
stress. According to RBI's calculation, banks, led
by public sector ones, need a whopping Rs 5 trillion
in fresh capital, of which Rs1.75 billion in core
capital alone, to meet the Basel III norms raising
concerns about its impact on asset quality. However,
Basel III is a comprehensive set of reform

measures, developed by the Basel Committee on
Banking Supervision, to strengthen the regulation,
supervision and risk management of the banking
sector" aim to: improve the banking sector's ability
to absorb shocks arising from financial and
economic stress, irrespective of source, improve
risk management and governance, strengthen
banks' transparency and disclosures.
Basel III is based on three pillars Minimum
Regulatory Capital Requirements based on Risk
Pillar 1: Minimum Regulatory Capital

Requirements based on Risk Weighted Assets
(RWAs): Maintaining capital calculated through
credit, market and operational risk areas.
Pillar 2:
Supervisory Review Process:
Regulating tools and frameworks for dealing with
peripheral risks that banks face.
Pillar 3: Market Discipline:
Increasing the
disclosures that banks must provide to increase the
transparency of bank.
PRESIDENT RE-PROMULGATED SEBI ORDINANCE
The Securities Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2013

was promulgated as an ordinance recently for the
third time by President Pranab Mukherjee on July
17, 2013 and further extended for the second time
in September 2013 following its lapse on January
15, 2014. The Ordinance makes it mandatory for
companies to compulsorily register with SEBI for
pooling of money over 100 crores. SEBI chairman
was also given the powers to order search, seizure,

attachment and recovery of property, going through
call records, attaching bank accounts and property
and even arrest a person for failing to comply with
its orders. The move to arm the regulator with more
stringent powers comes in wake of series of chit fund
scams which duped thousands of investors hundreds
of crores like Rs 2,000-crore Sardhaa chit fund scam.
WTO ASKS INDIA TO REMOVE RAW SUGAR EXPORT SUBSIDY

A few WTO member led by Australia has in
the recent meeting of the Agriculture Committee
[16]
of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva,

have asked India to remove immediately the export

subsidy of Rs.3, 300 notified by the Central
Government on raw sugar shipments undertaken
during the February-March of 2014, on the ground
it distorts the global trade. Australia also claimed
that the amount is equalent to 14-16 % of world
price could potentially harm its exports. Members
also sought to know the legal basis for extending
the export subsidy under the WTO regime. Several
of the members also pointed out that India had
agreed not to subsidise its exports. In its reply, India,

which is the third largest exporter of sugar said
the policy was designed to encourage diversification
away from white sugar to raw sugar. At the
meeting, WTO members also questioned India about
details of its support programmes for rice and
wheat and its stockholding programme for food
security.
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GOVT NOTIFIES MORE SECTIONS OF NEW COMPANIES ACT.

The government has notified more than 180
sections of the Companies Act, 2013 which replaced
the Companies Act 1956, the Act that governs
corporates in the country till now. The new act
provides for strong measures to ensure good
corporate governance as well as to protect the
interest of investors. A part of the legislation which
is spread across 29 chapters, seven schedules and
470 sections had already become effective since
2013 and most of the remaining sections are to
come in to affect on April 1, 2014.
Rules related to corporate social responsibility
(CSR), which make it mandatory for the companies
with a net worth of more than Rs 500 crore or
revenue of more than Rs 1,000 crore or net profit
of more than Rs. 5 crore will have to mandatorily
spend two per cent of their average net profit over
the three preceding years on CSR activities were
notified on February 27, 2014.
New sections notified recently which will come
in to affect since April 1,2014 include some key
provisions related to public and private placement,
allotment of securities, resolutions requiring special
notice, powers to the Serious Fraud Investigation
Office, one-person company, related-party
transaction, audit and auditors, qualification of
directors, board and its powers and revival and
rehabilitation of sick companies, among others.

Also, companies must file returns on public deposits
within three months and reconstitute their boards,
with at least one woman and two independent
directors (IDs) within a year.
The new law has placed stringent norms in
place for IDs, who can be held accountable under
the law for activities in the company. However,
the ministry of corporate affairs (MCA) did not
notify the Sections relating to the National Financial
Reporting Authority (NFRA) and the National
Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) along with those
related to investor protection, winding up of
companies, sick companies, among others. While
the NCLT is under litigation in the Supreme Court,
the NFRA has been facing stiff opposition from the
Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI)
on the grounds that it will lead to multiplicity of
institutions. The MCA has also not notified Sections
relating to transfer of unclaimed dividend and
corresponding shares to the Investor and Education
Fund. Also, the new Act requires valuation to be
done by registered valuers in many cases but the
section for the same is also yet to be notified. Experts
say the new law will bring more transparency in
corporate governance, while allowing flexibility to
companies in exceptional situations.
US GOVERNMENT GUIDELINES ON BITCOIN
Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of the United

States of America (USA) government published
new guidelines treating Bitcoin and other virtual
currencies as 'property' rather than as a currency
for US federal tax purposes. Bitcoin which is a
digital asset with monetary value is not currently
recognised as an official currency anywhere in the
world. Some retailers however accept payment by
bitcoin for goods and services but most traders,
especially in the EU, have not yet put systems in
place to accept them in transactions.
The guidelines also gave clarity on the

following issues:
Transactions in bitcoin will be subject to the

similar taxation like that is levied on those of
trading in stocks or barter.
The usual rules relating to capital gains and

losses will be applied on exchange of virtual
currency for other property and those who
sell or exchange virtual currency will have to
account for gains and losses from that sale or
exchange depending on whether the virtual
[17]

currency is a 'capital asset' or an 'ordinary
asset'.
Payments in bitcoin will be valued at the "fair
market value in US dollars" on the date of
receiving of payment and employers that
pay staff with bitcoin will have to report
those wages in the same way as any other
payment made with property, and bitcoin
income will be subject to the normal federal
income withholding and payroll taxes,
according to the note.
Reporting requirements apply to transactions

in which property valued at $600 or more is
exchanged, and the same reporting
requirements will apply to bitcoin
transactions.
Mining trading and doing business in virtual

currencies will be subject to self-employment
tax.
The guidance applies both immediately and

to past transactions and subject to penalties
unless concerned persons show valid reasons
for violating the guidelines.
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RANGARAJAN PANEL ON POVERTY MEASUREMENT
The Committee headed by prime ministers

economic advisory council chairman C.
Rangarajan set up in May 2012 to review the
mechanism of measuring poverty, is expected to
submit its report in June 2014. C. Rangarajan
committee was appointed following the criticism
of methodology devised by the late economist
Suresh Tendulkar to devise poverty line which
suggested a daily consumption expenditure of
Rs.28.60 in cities and Rs.22.40 in villages as the
poverty line. As per the latest available data based
on the 68th round of consumption expenditure
survey, poverty estimates based on Tendulkars
methodology shows poverty in India declined to a
record 22% in 2011-12 from 29.8% in 2009-10.
The Rangarajan panel is asked to examine the

issue of divergence between consumption estimates
based on the NSSO methodology and those
emerging from the National Accounts aggregates
and to suggest a methodology for updating
consumption based poverty line using the new
consumer price indices launched by the Central
Statistics Office (CSO). It is also asked to review
alternative methods of estimating poverty apart

from examining whether the poverty line should
be fixed solely in terms of a consumption basket or
whether other criteria are also relevant, and if so,
whether the two can be combined to evolve a basis
for estimating poverty in rural and urban areas. It
is also expected to recommend how the estimates
of poverty should be linked to entitlements from
centrally funded welfare programmes. The
methodology for estimating poverty has been
reviewed from time to time by Alagh committee
(formed in 1977) and the Lakdawala panel (1989),
apart from the Tendulkar committee (2005), which
submitted its recommendations in December 2009 .The
Tendulkar panel moved away from a calorie intakebased approach to poverty and included
consumption expenditure on health and education.
Other members of the Rangarajan committee
are Mahendra Dev, director of the Indira Gandhi
Institute of Development Research; K. Sundaram,
formerly of the Delhi School of Economics; Mahesh
Vyas, of the Centre for Monitoring the Indian
Economy; and K.L. Datta, ex-adviser to the
Planning Commission.
FII TRENDS IN EMERGING ECONOMIES
While stock markets of emerging economies

such as China (Shanghai Composite), South Korea
(Kospi), Russia (MICEX) and Brazil have
plummeted by 4-10 per cent in the first three months
of 2014, markets of Thailand, Indonesia and the
Philippines, along with India, have attracted the
lions share of FII money during the first three
months of 2014. Among emerging markets,
Indonesia has topped the charts with FIIs pumping
in $1.98 billion in 2014, closely followed by India at
$1.75 billion. Thailand saw inflows turn positive at
$168 million last month while South Korea, Mexico,
[18]
Bulgaria and Poland have seen outflow of FIIs. This

rally has been dominated by stocks which benefit
from an external pick up in demand such as IT
and pharma etc. In contrast to countries like Brazil,
Turkey and South Africa where incumbent
governments are expected to return to power,
sensex gained in countries where dramatic political
change is expected to speed up reforms needed in
economy like in Indonesia popular Jakarta
Governor Joko Widodo won a nomination to contest
the Presidential elections, Thailand where Prime
Minister Yingluck Shinawatra may step down,

improvement of fundamentals of the economy in
Philippines. In India the gains has been related to
expected change of government with Narendra
Modi expected to win. Apart from politics, a strong

currency, improving current account deficit and
declining inflation have to be brought about.
RESERVE BANK EASES FOREIGN PORTFOLIO INVESTMENT NORMS

the Central Government or any State
government.
Investors in RFPI are also eligible to invest in
government securities and corporate debt,
subject to limits specified by the RBI and SEBI
from time to time, it added. All investments
made by that FII/QFI in accordance with the
regulations prior to registration as RFPI shall
continue to be valid and taken into account
for computation of aggregate limit.
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The Reserve Bank of India simplified foreign

portfolio investment norms by subsuming the
existing portfolio investor classes, namely, Foreign
Institutional Investor (FII) and Qualified Foreign
Investor (QFI) registered with SEBI under Registered
Foreign Portfolio Investor (RFPI).
The guidelines for Portfolio Investment Scheme
for FII and QFI have since been reviewed, and it
has been decided to put in place a framework for
investments under a new scheme called Foreign
Portfolio Investment Scheme.
The guidelines provide for the following:
RFPI may purchase and sell shares and

convertible debentures of Indian companies
through a registered broker on recognised
stock exchanges in India as well as purchase
shares and Investors in RFPI can also acquire
shares or convertible debentures in any bid
for, or acquisition of, securities in response to
an offer for disinvestment of shares made by
RFPI investors would be permitted to trade

in all exchange-traded derivative contracts on
the stock exchanges, subject to the position
limits as specified by SEBI from time to time.
RFPI can offer cash or foreign sovereign
securities with AAA rating or corporate
bonds or domestic government securities, as
collateral to the recognised stock exchanges
for their transactions in cash as well as
derivative segment of the market.
[19]

IITian INVENTS TRUEHb HEMOMETER
haemogram tests in labs, CBC counter which costs
Rs 2-10 lakh, is of huge size at least as twice the
size of a personal computer and needs regular
power supply. TrueHb, on the other hand, works
like a conventional glucometer and works with just
a tiny drop of blood from a pinprick on the
disposable strip. It not only reads the accurate level
within 45 seconds, but also stores up to 1,000 such
readings. It can be charged like a mobile phone
and allows up to 300 tests per charge. The efficacy
of the TrueHb was checked in AIIMS in a limited
number of blood samples in standardized lab
condition and is found very accurate.
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A student of the Indian Institute of Technology

(IIT), Delhi, Ambar Srivastava, has developed a
mobile phone-size haemoglobin metre dubbed the
TrueHb Hemometer to help identify and tackle
anaemia effectively with the help of funding from
the Technology Development Board of the
Department of Science and Technology at IIT's
Centre for Biomedical Engineering, established in
1971 as a joint venture between IIT and AIIMS to
develop healthcare technologies. TrueHb meter
which cost well over Rs 25,000 is expected to be
cheaper than most other similar devices in the
market as well as the current the gold standard for
ARTIFICIAL LIVING CELLS CREATED IN LAB
Scientists led by Lu of Massachusetts Institute

of Technology (MIT) have coaxed experimental
bacterial cells of E. coli to produce biofilms which
included both living and non living materials such
as gold nanoparticles and quantum dots. These
hybrid 'living materials' combine the advantages of
live cells like reacting to environment having
biological processes together with ability to perform
functions like as conducting electricity or emitting
light."The new technique if it succeeds have the
potential to design more complex devices such as
solar cells, self-healing materials or diagnostic

sensors in near future. Bacterium E. coli was chosen
because it naturally produces biofilms that contain
so-called 'curli fibres' - amyloid proteins that help
E coli attach to surfaces. Each curli fibre is made
from a repeating chain of identical protein subunits
called CsgA which can be modified by adding
protein fragments called peptides. These peptides
can capture nonliving materials such as gold
nanoparticles, incorporating them into the biofilms.
ROBOTIC LANDER OF ROSETTA MISSION REACTIVATED
The next phase of a mission to land a spacecraft

on a speeding comet was successful, when the small
robotic lander known as Philae, part of a larger
suite of instruments in the Rosetta Mission, of
European space agency which aims to deposit a
spacecraft onto Jupiter-family comet 67P/
Churyumov-Gerasimenko reported to Earth after
three years deep-space hibernation. Rosetta and
Philae had to be put into hibernation because they
were sent so far away from Earth that their solar
panels could not pick up enough energy to power
all onboard systems. But now, after a 31-month
sleep, the spacecrafts are close enough to the Sun
that they could come out of sleep mode and their
[20]
systems could be restarted. Philae, a 10-instrument

probe, has been riding piggyback on the Rosetta
satellite, which was launched a decade ago from
Kourou aboard an Ariane 5G+ on 2 March 2004.
The 100-kilogram spacecraft will use a system of
harpoons and ice screws to anchor itself to the
speeding comet once Rosetta rendezvous with it
(The comet is so small that it does not exert a
gravitational field strong enough to keep the probe
from flying off of it). Once the probe lands on the
comet Rosetta satellite will escort the comet and
attached probe for a year as it collects data about
the comet's nucleus that will help scientists
characterize the comet's nature and composition.
ARTIFICIAL CHROMOSOME FOR YEAST SYNTHESIZED

because it is one of the smallest of yeast's 16
chromosomes and controls how the cells mate and
experience genetic changes. The genes in the
original chromosome were replaced with synthetic
versions and the finished manmade chromosome
was then successfully integrated into a yeast cell.
The synthesis of chromosome III is the first stage of
an international project to synthesise yeast's entire
genome over the next few years. Another team at
Imperial College London is tackling chromosome
XI, one of the largest with 670,000 base pairs, using
a similar technique of creating "chunks" of bases to
insert into the yeast's genome. Dr Craig Venter
unveiled the first synthetic genome for bacteria in
2010. Dr.craig venter is also the one of the first to
sequence the human genome.
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Scientists have created the first synthetic

chromosome for yeast, first time anyone has built
a chromosome from a eukaryote organism
(branch of life including plants, animals and
fungi)-whose cells have nuclei. Yeast was
first domesticated by humans for wine and alcohol
roughly 4,000 years ago and has been using it
ever since to make bread, wine and beer. To create
the artificial chromosome, known as SynIII which
involved designing and creating 273,871 base pairs
of DNA - fewer than the 316,667 pairs in the
original chromosome scientists used computer
software to design a modified version of yeast
chromosome III, which they called synIII, and
incorporated it into brewer's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae). They chose this chromosome
[21]
HEALTH
INITIATIVES TO TACKLE MDR-TB IN INDIA
estimated 25,000 cases of XDR-TB emerging every
year.
Recently, the Council of Scientific and Industrial
Researchs (CSIR) open source drug discovery
(OSDD) project handed over a new drug
combination also called as PaMZ treatment to the
Lala Ram Sarup TB Hospital in New Delhi to take
it forward for so-called Phase IIB clinical trials to
study the efficacy of the drug that will target multidrug resistant tuberculosis in Indian patients. If
approved, it will be available to patients without
royalty. To treat a MDR-TB patient a combination
of six drugs is used for a period of two years. But
under the OSDD project with the new combination
of drugs it is hoped that the period will be reduced
to four months leading to cheaper treatment.
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Global Tuberculosis Report 2013 by WHO said

that India has the highest number of multi-drugresistant TB patients, numbering 73,000 partly due
to poor disease management by the healthcare
system. Out of this the Union Health Ministry
notified just 2% of these cases as being resistant to
available drugs and just about 1.6% of these MDR
TB patients were enrolled for treatment. The
WHO's Global tuberculosis report, 2012, says that
around 60% of the 3.1 lakh MDR TB cases were
from only three countries - India, China and Russia
at present with less than 5% of the estimated global
burden of MDR TB patients being detected.
According to the new estimates, globally, it is
estimated that 3.3% of all new TB cases had MDRTB in 2009. Each year, about 4.4 lakh MDR-TB
cases are estimated to emerge, and 1.5 lakh MDRTB patients die. 69 countries, including India, have
reported at least one case of extensively drug
resistant TB (XDR-TB) by the end of 2010) with an
The treatment PaMZ was originally developed

by the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development,
but the OSDD now has the rights for it.
MDR-TB
MDR-TB is caused by bacteria that are resistant to the most effective anti-TB drugs (isoniazid and
rifampicin). MDR-TB results from either primary infection or may develop in the course of a patient's
treatment as a result of treatment mismanagement, and is passed from person to person in the same way
as drug-sensitive TB. XDR-TB is on the other hand a form of TB caused by bacteria that are resistant
to isoniazid and rifampicin as well as any fluoroquinolone and any of the second-line anti-TB injectable
drugs (amikacin, kanamycin or capreomycin).
Challenges of monitoring TB
Even two years after the Government made Tuberculosis a notifiable disease in May 2012 to better
manage TB diagnosis and treatment across the country by making it mandatory for doctors in private
practice to report tuberculosis cases, only about 60,000 patients treated privately over the last two years
have been notified with the Government out of an estimated 10 lakh patients who are treated in the
private sector. Some experts opine that Private practitioners may be wary of reporting the disease to the
Government, fearing confidentiality of their patient or that they could be uninterested in undertaking
documentation and paperwork which they feel as un-remunerative.
But what is more worrisome is the dangerously rising incidence of drug-resistant TB. A study
published in The Lancet says one says million children aged below 15 years are annually diseased with
tuberculosis across the world, twice the number of children thought to have tuberculosis in 2010 and
thrice the number of children who were actually diagnosed in 2010. The study further says that number
of children who were diseased with multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) in 2010 stood at about 32,000.
Pediatric TB is also emerging as one of the most neglected areas in tuberculosis; there isn't even special
drugs meant for the pediatric population.
According to Mdecins Sans Frontires (MSF or Doctors without Borders) the unregulated sale and
inappropriate prescription of TB drugs in the private healthcare sector was playing a significant role in
the emergence of drug-resistant TB. Hence, MSF urged the Indian drug regulator to intensify its
monitoring of TB drugs.
[22]
WHO REPORT ON AIR POLLUTION DEATHS

the WHO said. As per the report, poor women
and children are affected mostly from indoor air
pollution due to breathing of smoke and soot from
leaky coal and wood cook stoves, which are up to
100 times more than acceptable levels for particles
that penetrate into lungs. This is the first time that
WHO has directly suggested a link between air
pollution and heart disease, respiratory problems
and cancer.
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World Health Organization (WHO) in its new

report said that air pollution killed 7 million people
in 2012, more people than AIDS, diabetes and road
injuries combined with one in eight deaths
worldwide attributed to breathing polluted air. The
report said that low-and middle-income nations in
Asia accounted for more than 70% of deaths related
to air contamination in 2012. The report said that
indoor smoke killed about 4.3 million people and
outdoor air pollution killed about 3.7 million in 2012,
SHIFTING TO INJECTABLE POLIO VACCINE
The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI),

which coordinates the global fight again polio, has
asked the countries to shift from oral polio vaccine
to injectable inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) in their
routine childhood immunisation programmes by
the end of 2015. The oral vaccine, which is cheap
and easily administered, uses live but weakened
forms of the poliovirus that can gain the ability to
transmit within communities and even pass from
one country to another. Such circulating vaccinederived polioviruses (cVDPV) have struck several
countries, including Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nigeria
and Somalia since the year 2000.
Trivalent Oral polio vaccine, with all three types
of vaccine strains (type 1 , and 3), is to be replaced

by bivalent OPV with only type 1 and type 3
vaccine strains. IPV, which is more expensive, uses
killed forms of the three types of wild viruses and
carries no risk of reversion to virulence, would
provide protection against any type 2 vaccinederived viruses lingering in the environment.
However for IPV to be effectively deployed, routine
immunisation coverage has to be improved.
According to the National Family Health Survey
of 2005-06, while over 80 per cent of children in
Tamil Nadu had received all basic vaccinations,
only 23 per cent of those in Uttar Pradesh and 33
per cent in Bihar were similarly covered.
NO LINK BETWEEN INCOME GROWTH & UNDERNOURISHMENT:

LANCET
The studyAssociation Between Economic
Growth and Early Childhood Undernourishment:
Evidence from 121 Demographic and Health
Surveys from 36 Low-income and Middle-income
Countries published in Lancet Global Health
journal argues that there is no association between
average changes in the prevalence of child undernutrition outcomes and average growth of per-head
GDP. The study said if there was a 5% increase in
GDP per capita, there was a 0.7% chance of a
decrease in the odds of children being stunted
(having low height for age), a likely 1.4% decrease
in the odds of them being underweight (low weight
for age), and a 1.6% chance of decrease in the
odds of them being wasted (low weight for height).
But this was zero for children from the poorest
households. The link between income growth and
undernourishment was insignificant for children

aged 0-11 months. Reason being, the study found:
First, the growth in incomes could be
unequally distributedif poor people are
excluded from the benefits of growth, the
effect of increased prosperity on average could
be low.
Second, even if rising incomes reach most
households, they might not necessarily be
spent in ways that enhance the nutritional
status of children.
The study said, rather a positive association

would depend on how resources are allocated
between food and non-food items, the quality of
food purchased, and the distribution of food within
households.

[23]
NEWS IN BRIEF
NEWSMAKERSS
Justice R.M. Lodha
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Justice R.M. Lodha, the senior most judge of

the Supreme Court has succeeded CJI P.
Sathasivam, as chief justice of India on April 26.
Justice Lodha became judge of the Rajasthan High
Court on January 31, 1994 and Chief Justice of the
Patna High Court in May 2008. He was elevated
as a Supreme Court judge in December 2008.
During the past five years in the apex court, he
has passed several landmark judgments like
banning over-the-counter sale of acid at retail
outlets and ordering a compensation of Rs. 3 lakh
to each acid attack victim. He also held that
approval of the Central Government was not
necessary under Section 6A of the Delhi Special
Police Establishment Act (which governs the CBI)
for probe and prosecution of senior level officials
in a matter where the inquiry/investigation into

the crime under the Prevention of Corruption Act
is being monitored by the court. Justice Lodha
headed the three-member panel which inquired into
the allegations of a law intern against the former
Supreme Court judge, A.K. Ganguly which resulted
in resignation of Justice Ganguly as Chairperson of
the West Bengal State Human Rights Commission.
Jens Stoltenberg
Former Norwegian premier Jens Stoltenberg

who is also the head of Norways Labor Party is
set to succeed Anders Fogh Rasmussen as 28
nations North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato)
Secretary- General from 1 October 2014. He is
economist by training and a radical opponent of
the defence alliance in his youth.
OBITUARIES
Adolfo Suarez
Former Spanish Prime Minister Adolfo Suarez

(81) who won Spain's first democratic elections
after general Francisco Franco's death, died at 81
years in a Madrid hospital after long illness. Suarez
was Spain's first prime minister in the transition to
democracy after the long dictatorship of Francisco
Franco, who died in November 1975.
Phuntso Wangye
Phuntso Wangye, also known as Phunwang,

a once influential former Tibetan Communist leader
died at the age of 92. Phunwang, born in 1922 in
what was then Kham in eastern Tibet todays
Sichuan province founded the Tibetan
Communist Party. He later allied with Mao

Zedongs Communist Party of China (CPC) after
the Peoples Republic was founded in 1949 in the
wake of the Chinese civil war. When the Peoples
Liberation Army occupied Tibet in 1951, Phunwang
became a key interlocutor in talks that later
produced the controversial 17 point agreement.
Despite his Communist leanings, Phunwang was
later persecuted by Maos CPC and jailed for 18
years. He was released following the Cultural
Revolution (1966-76) and rehabilitated in 1978.In
his autobiography Phunwang called on China to
compromise with the Dalai Lama and to allow
the hundreds of thousands of exiled Tibetan
compatriots headed by the Dalai Lama to return
home, live and work in peace.
AWARD/PRIZES
Saraswathi Samman
Renowned Hindi author Govind Mishra is selected
[24]
for Saraswasti samman given by K K Birla

foundation for the year 2013 for his book "Dhool
Paudho Par" which was published in 2008. Mishra

will be the second Hindi author to receive this
honour after Harivansh Rai Bachchan who was
awarded in 1991, the first year of its institution. The
award carries Rs 10 lakh as cash prize along with
a certificate. Mishra's first novel "Wo Apna Chehra"
was published in 1969. His most famous novel "Lal
Peeli Zameen" was published in 1976.
Pritzker prize for architecture
Ritesh Batra directed film lunch box has won the

best film award at Asia Pacific screen awards, an
international cultural initiative of the State
Government of Queensland, Australia to honour
and promote the films, actors, directors, and
cultures of Asia-Pacific which comprises 70
countries and 4.5 billion people. Asia Pacific is
responsible for half of the worlds film output.
Staged for the first time in 2007, APSA collaborates
with UNESCO and FIAPF the International
Federation of Film Producers Associations, which
is the body that recognises international film
festivals. Winners are determined by an
international jury and films are judged on cinematic
excellence and the way in which they attest to
their cultural origins. The FIAPF Award for
Outstanding Achievement in Film was given to
Korean film producer Lee Choon. This award is
given to a filmmaker from the region whose career
and actions strongly contribute to the development
of the film industry.
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Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, a professor at Kyoto

University of Art and Design won 2014's Pritzker
Prize architecture's top prize in architecture. He
helped design "low-cost but dignified housing" for
people in disaster zones, including Japan, Rwanda,
India, Sri Lanka, Haiti, Italy and is currently in the
Philippines. His humanitarian work began in 1994,
in response to the Rwandan genocide that displaced
millions. Outside Ban's humanitarian work, his
projects include the Centre Pompidou-Metz, a
modern art museum Ban, whose work also includes
a paper cathedral in Christchurch, New Zealand.
The prestigious prize comes with a $100,000
(60,500) grant and will be presented at a formal
awards ceremony in Amsterdam.
Asia Pacific screen awards
COMMITTEE/COMMISSION
RBI committee on credit information
The Committee to recommend Data Format for

Furnishing of Credit Information to Credit
Information Companies (CICs) headed by Aditya
Puri, chairman of HDFC has recommended the
banks to provide customers with a free copy of
their Credit Information Reports (CIRs). It said that
it would help create awareness about the need to
have credit discipline, enable customers to correct
their behavior and improve their score well before
they plan to avail fresh credit of any kind. The
committee has also made wide ranging
recommendations on issues relating to credit
information, such as, increasing its coverage, format
of reports and best practices to be followed by credit
institutions, credit information companies (CICs)
and the RBI. The report said that reducing the

information asymmetry between lenders and
borrowers, provides a fillip to the growth of credit
especially among the disadvantaged sections of
society. The Credit Information Bureau (India)
(CIBIL) was incorporated in 2000. Following
enactment of the Credit Information Companies
(Regulation) Act (CICRA) in 2005, three other
Credit Information Companies (CICs) were also set
up. The panel suggested that CICs should have a
common classification of credit scores so they are
easier to understand and interpret. It suggested that
the CIBIL method of calibrating from 300 to 900
may be adopted by other CICs. It further said banks
and financial institutions may report cases of willful
default directly to the CICs.
SPORTS
Jude Felix replaces Bhaskaran

Jude Felix who led the Indian team to win the
Olympic gold in 1980 has been appointed as the
coach of national hockey team. Felix has played

more than 250 international matches and
represented India in two Olympic Games in 1988
(Korea) and 1992 (Barcelona), two World Cups in
[25]

1990 (Pakistan) and 1994 (Sydney), two Asian
Games in 1990 (Beijing) and 1994 (Hiroshima) and
three Champions Trophy in 1985 (Australia), 1987
(Pakistan) and 1989 (Berlin).He is considered to be
one of the most tactically adept coaches in the
country. He has worked as player cum coach with
Racing Club in Paris in 1997 -2000 before being
appointed the coach of Dutch U-18 National Team
in 1997.
The results
Men: Air rifle: 1. Nazar Lougnets (Rus) 209.4 (628.7);
2. Milutin Stefanovic (Srb) 209.3 (625.1); 3. Sergey
Richter (Isr) 186.9 (626.5); 16. Gagan Narang 622.4;
26. Chain Singh 619.9. London Games bronze
medallist Gagan Narang 16th spot.
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Laureus Awards
disqualified owing to the trigger weight of her pistol

exceeding acceptable limits and following a postcompetition inspection respectively.
The four-time Formula 1 world champion Sebastian

Vettel was named World Sportsman of the Year at
the prestigious Laureus Awards while Swimmer
Missy Franklin was declared World Sportswoman
of the Year trophy, the youngest winner of the
award till date.
Women: Air pistol: 1. Antoaneta Boneva (Bul) 203.6

(387); 2. Heena Sidhu 200.8 (386); 3. Zorana
Arunovic (Srb) 180.9 (382); 6. Malaika Goel 119.4
(385). MQS: Annu Raj Singh 381; Rahi Sarnobat
373.
Malaysian Grand Prix
Other awards include:
Action Sports Person of the Year: BMX rider Jamie

Bestwick of Great Britain
World Team of the Year: European football

champions Bayern Munich
Comeback of the Year: Rafael Nadal, 2013 French
Open and US Open winner
Lewis Hamilton won the Malaysian Grand Prix with

Nico Rosberg getting second place. Four-time world
champion Sebastian Vettel was third ahead of
Ferraris Fernando Alonso. Mercedes who have now
won the seasons two opening Formula One races
and secured a first one-two since the 1955 Italian
Grand Prix. This is Hamiltons 23rd grand prix
victory.
Miami WTA
Breakthrough of the Year: Moto GPs Marc

Marquez
World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability:
Skier Marie Bochet
Heena claims World Cup silver
Heena Sidhu won the womens air pistol silver in

the shooting World Cup in Fort Benning, US after
losing to Antoaneta Boneva of Bulgaria by 2.8
points. It was the second silver in a World Cup for
Heena who had won the second place in Beijing
in 2009. She had won the World Cup gold last
year with a final world record. Former World
University Games gold medallist Harveen Srao
former Asian champion P.T. Raghunath were
World number one Serena Williams won the Miami

WTA title for the seventh time with a 7-5, 6-1 win
over after defeating Chinas Li Na 7-5, 6-1 in the
finals. With this victory Serena Williams became the
fourth woman after Martina Navratilova, Chris
Evert and Steffi Graf to win the same tournament
at least seven times.
India beat Pakistan to bag South Asian

Handball title.
India clinched the 3rd South Asian Handball
Championship title after defeating Pakistan 3631
in the final. Five teams Afghanistan, Nepal,
Pakistan, Bangladesh and India took part in the
Championship, which began on March 23.
[26]
EDITORIALS
CAST THE NET WIDE FOR ALL ITS WORTH
There is need for a further push to ensure that
people at the bottom of the pyramid join the formal
financial system and thus add value to Indias
sustainable growth.
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The World Bank Global Financial Inclusion

Database indicates that 2.5 billion adults globally,
about half the total adult population, have no access
to financial services delivered by regulated financial
institutions. While account penetration is nearly
universal in high-income economies, with 89 per
cent of adults reporting that they have an account
at a formal financial institution, it is only 41 per
cent in developing economies. Those in developing
economies have to depend on informal mechanisms
for loans, savings and to protect themselves against
risks such as uneven cash flows, seasonal incomes
and unplanned needs.
The absence of financial inclusion also
contributes to slower economic growth and
persistent income inequality. Allowing broad access
to financial services, without price or non-price
barriers to their use and offered in a responsible
manner, have been shown to benefit poor people
and other disadvantaged groups. Economies with
deeper financial intermediation tend to grow faster
and reduce income inequality.
Measuring inclusion
The global partnership for financial inclusion

(GPFI) developed a comprehensive and holistic set
of financial inclusion indicators with the aim of
deepening the understanding of the financial
inclusion landscape which was endorsed at the G20
meeting in Russia in September 2013.
Financial inclusion is measured in three ways:

(i) access to financial services; (ii) usage of financial
services; and (iii) the quality of products and service
delivery. In India, the number of people with access
to the products and services offered by the banking
system is limited.
According to the World Bank Findex Survey
(2012), 35 per cent of Indian adults had access to
a formal bank account, 2 per cent of adults used
an account to receive money from a family member
living in another area and 4 per cent used an
account to receive payment from the government.
The RBI panel headed by Nachiket Mor recently

came up with some suggestions on financial
inclusion. It covers critical areas such as universal
electronic bank account, ubiquitous access to
payment services and deposit products at
reasonable charges, sufficient access to affordable
formal credit and universal access to a range of
deposit and investment products, and insurance
and risk management products at reasonable
charges.
It also suggests that a special category of banks,
called payments banks, be set up to widen the
spread of payment services and deposit products
to small businesses and low-income households.
Such banks will have a minimum entry capital
requirement of Rs.50 crore, one-tenth of what a
full-service bank requires, since they will have a
near-zero risk of default. Payments banks will be
required to comply with all RBI guidelines relevant
for commercial banks. Existing banks should be
permitted to create a payments bank as a
subsidiary.
The danger
Financial inclusion can be successful only by

imparting financial literacy among the unbanked
and giving confidence to them to use basic banking
services. Banks should approach financial inclusion
as a viable and sustainable business model. Banks
should leverage on technology developments such
as mobile banking. The efforts to drive financial
inclusion can be counter-productive unless handled
well. Without healthy competition and effective
regulation, credit is often overextended to people
not qualified to receive it. And promoting credit
without regard to cost actually exacerbates
financial and economic instability.
The subprime mortgage crisis in the US that
caused the global financial crisis had its origins in
[27]

the forced drive for inclusion. It led governmentbacked agencies to lend to customers with limited
ability to repay.
The dangers of aggressive credit expansion in
the name of financial inclusion should serve as a
cautionary tale for policymakers. Easing access to
credit without addressing real economy constraints

is unlikely to either boost growth or help fight
poverty. Financial inclusion can be a worthy goal
only if it helps reduce poverty levels sustainably.
NO OIL IN TROUBLED WATERS

US provided OVL with an investment foothold by
driving away Western competition. Today, the
separation of South Sudan and its ensuing conflict
have put OVLs oilfields at the centre of instability.
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The outbreak of conflict in South Sudan last

December led to the shut down of Indias multibillion dollar oil project in the young country. The
instability sent Indian diplomats scrambling to play
damage control as ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL), the
international arm of Indias national oil company,
was forced to evacuate its personnel from the
region.
After a decade of rapid growth in the
international oil industry, Indias overseas ventures
are buckling under pressure from unstable politics
and conflict.
Indias experience of investing in oil in Sudan
and South Sudan offers three takeaways. First,
investing dangerously has produced tremendous
payoffs. By entering countries such as Sudan and
Syria, from which American oil companies were
sanctioned and European competition generally
avoided, Indias OVL has become an international
player. Even though ONGC had mulled over
dismantling the subsidiary in the late 1990s due to
its poor performance.
Bold approach
The unorthodox approach and tactic of

investing in oil-producing countries with little
Western competition produced results. OVL went
from holding a single gas project in Vietnam at the
turn of the century, to 32 projects in 16 countries
today. It is now the second largest oil producing
company in India after ONGC. Sudan propelled
OVLs rise. Before South Sudan separated from
Sudan in July 2011, taking 75 per cent of the oil
resources with it, a united Sudan made up an
average of over 46 per cent of the companys
annual oil production. From 2003 to 2010, OVLs
profits increased six-fold from Rs.4,284 million to
Rs.26,905 million.
However, OVLs corporate success is now in
jeopardy. In this context, the second lesson for India
is that local politics in oil-producing countries in
Africa and elsewhere is far from static. A decade
ago, Sudans civil wars and poor relations with the
[28]
The recent shutdown in South Sudan marks

the second time in less than two years that OVL
has been forced to halt its operations. South Sudan
previously turned off its 350,000 barrel per day
(bpd) production in January 2012 in a row with
Sudan over pipeline transit fees. This time around,
a power struggle between South Sudans president,
Salva Kiir, and his former vice-president, Riak
Machar, degenerated into widespread violence
throughout the country.
In the late 1990s, Machar and other Southern
Sudanese militias had sided with the Sudanese
government to protect the oilfields. The support
helped to open up oil areas to exploit. In the current
conflict, Machar and his forces now aim to disrupt
production from the very same oilfields they once
defended. They want to choke off the South Sudan
governments main source of income. And they
have largely succeeded in doing so. In Unity state,
where all of OVLs oil interests are located, the oil
taps were turned off less than two weeks after the
fighting began.
Unstable environment
The repeated instability in Sudan and South

Sudan is the main reason why OVLs total
production has dropped by over a third in the last
three years. But former managing director, DK
Sharraf, now at the helm of ONGC, is confident
that despite these troubles, OVL will rebound in
2014 on the back of new production in Azerbaijan
and Myanmar. The company is trying to
aggressively diversify its international portfolio. But
South Sudan still holds some of the companys
largest assets. Until there is a political solution to
the conflict, OVL will be forced to watch its bottom
line languish for some time to come.
The change in fortune of OVL in Sudan and
South Sudan gives rise to the third takeaway from
Under-exploited
The structures to protect Indias overseas oil
interests have been put in place within the MEA,
but they are not exploited to their full potential.
Minister Salman Khurshids comment that OVLs
troubles in South Sudan were part of life was
out of touch and unhelpful. A constant and highlevel engagement from the Indian government in
Sudan and South Sudan is absent.
The Chinese government is adapting its
diplomacy to protect its economic interests abroad
at a much faster pace than the Indian side. Chinas
special representative on African Affairs, Zhong
Jianhua, was very active in the ceasefire
negotiations. He said the diplomatic involvement
in South Sudan was a new chapter for Chinas
foreign relations, which, for decades, have followed
the policy of non-interference in the domestic affairs
of foreign countries.
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a decade of Indian overseas oil investments. New

Delhi has been helpful in assisting OVL and other
national oil companies enter new markets overseas,
but what is lacking is the Indian governments
ability to ensure the sustainability of such
investments in the face of political upheaval. India
needs to actively shape incentives and support
stability in overseas countries where its companies
are invested prior to the outbreak of conflict or
political change. If not, it will continually engage
in firefighting after much of the damage is already
done.
The ministry of external affairs was quick to

send a team to South Sudans capital Juba to assess
the situation. But while India has made its presence
known, it is still very much on the sidelines of
international efforts to help broker peace in South
Sudan.
India named a special envoy to Sudan and
South Sudan in April 2011. PS Raghavan was the
last diplomat to hold the post. Coupled with his
leadership of the MEAs Development Partnership
Administration, Raghavan was in an excellent
position to advance Indias interests in South Sudan.
But he was named Indias ambassador to Russia in
late 2013. The special envoy position was left
untended.
In India, the clamour to win billion dollar oil

deals against Chinese competition will certainly
continue in the future. But Indias corporate and
political leaders would be wise to take on lessons
learned from the rise and fall of their most coveted
international oil investments in Sudan and South
Sudan. The role of local politics in undermining
Indias global oil rise should not be taken for
granted.
THE CASE AGAINST INFLATION TARGETING
The recent report of a committee constituted by

the RBI has proposed a radical rethink of the goal
of monetary policy and how it ought to be
conducted. Specifically, the committee has
recommended that the RBI target inflation, and that
the means of inflation control be the interest rate
that it directly sets, the so-called repo.
control is being made for the first time. Only,

inflation control had been attempted via control of
the money supply.
If this recommendation is accepted it will imply

a shifting away from the RBIs erstwhile approach
of being guided by multiple indicators, balancing
its growth and inflation objectives. But above all it
begs the question of whether the central bank can
control inflation in India. Two questions come to
mind. The first has to do with the record of inflation
targeting in the countries where it has been
adopted. The second is the relevance of an inflation
targeting central bank for India.
But Thatcher soon discovered that controlling

money supply was not akin to turning on and off
the water tap. She had to resort to fiscal policy, in
itself an acknowledgement of defeat for
monetarism. Inflation did come down in the UK,
but it was pointed out that this was the result of
declining global commodity prices, and not due to
the unemployment that was engineered as a result
of her policies.
To evaluate the argument for inflation targeting

one needs to be aware of the global history of
monetary policy. It is not as if the case for inflation
Low bargaining power
Central banks had targeted money supply

ostensibly as the means to control inflation. Milton
Friedman was the guru of this strategy and
Margaret Thatcher his most zealous shishya.
The American central banker Paul Volcker did

manage to control inflation in the US by ushering
[29]

in the biggest recession since the 1930s and tipping
Latin American economies into a debt crisis due to
the high-interest-rate policy. We see a certain
commonality here. Monetary or even fiscal solutions
to inflation can result in output loss.
After Thatcher and Volcker, neither the UK nor
the US have experienced high inflation, but this is
not so easily ascribed to successful inflation targeting
by their central banks. It has to do with the decline
in union power and the lessened dependence of
both these economies on imported oil.
The government has continuously raised the

farm price for cereals irrespective of its impact on
inflation. In the face of both types of food inflation
supply-demand imbalances and higher producer
prices -- a central bank has no instruments. The
RBIs justification that it anchors inflationary
expectations by raising the interest rate is no more
than whistling in the dark.
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While the US pursued strategic substitution, the

UK stumbled into oil in its backyard. And now
globalisation has further lowered the bargaining
power of labour vis--vis capital as the latter is
mobile while the former is not.
This is due to its weak response to a supplydemand imbalance. Natural factors, poor
infrastructure
and
low
human-resource
development conspire to bring this about. But we
also know that some part of the recent food price
inflation has little to do with supply. It has to do
with the relentless hiking of producer prices even
as public stocks have piled up.
No more credibility
The aspiration for an independent inflationtargeting central bank for India is part of the project
of taking Indias institutional architecture as close
as possible to the Anglo-Saxon one.
After the global financial crisis this no longer
has credibility. The theoretical case for inflation
targeting is built on the assertion that, but for
unanticipated inflation the labour market, and thus
the economy, would achieve an optimum that
cannot be improved upon by policy. So,
unanticipated inflation causes a costly distortion to
be avoided.
As it is held that the central bank is ultimately

the cause of inflation, in this worldview it must be
held to account via an explicit agreement with
government that it will target inflation.
Those who argue for inflation targeting assert

that todays inflation is determined by the
expectation of inflation tomorrow. Asserting further
that the central bank controls inflation, they propose
that the central bank merely needs to announce a
lower inflation target and a rational public will
scale down expectation of inflation and thus lower
its actual level.
This sits uncomfortably with history. An
institution as formidable as the Bank of England
has had to write repeatedly to the government
explaining why it slipped on the inflation targets
agreed upon.
The Indian picture

We now come to India. Despite its shrinking
share the agricultural sector plays an important
role in generating and sustaining inflation.
[30]
As a general rule, attempted monetary solutions

to supply-side inflation result in the inflation rate
being brought down via slowing output growth.
We have seen this in the UK and the US in the
1980s, and we see it in India over the past three
years or so.
Note that the news that inflation is slowing
now must be read along with the information that
manufacturing is struggling to grow. Inflation
control in India must start with fixing the
agriculture price rise. Increasing productivity would
be the sine qua non here.
Does a secondary role, if at all, with respect to
inflation control render the central bank irrelevant
in India? Far from it. A central bank is the main
regulator of the financial system. The RBI has a
pretty good record here. It also has a reputation
for being at arms length with private banks and
finance companies. This is in sharp contrast to the
Greenspan years in the US when Wall Street is
believed to have been treated with kid gloves.
However, there is one area in which the RBI
fails quite miserably: this is in regulating the note
issue on which it has the monopoly. Across India
one is confronted with shabby currency notes and
an endemic shortage of smaller denomination notes
and coins. Attempt to take a taxi-ride or buy a cup
of tea and you find yourself struggling to complete
the transaction.
There is creeping inflation when prices have to
be rounded-off upwards to ensure that exchange
takes place. In sum, the RBI has its task cut out.
TRADE SCRUTINY
to Novartis Glivec. Varying interpretations of
patentability and provisions for compulsory
licensing have resulted in a vibrant domestic generic
drugs industry and threatened the interests of
western pharma majors. This is at the heart of their
lobbying to declare India a serial IPR offender.
What should Indias approach be under the
circumstances? On IPR, it neednt be apologetic.
The countrys current patent regime gives 20-years
exclusive rights for firms to commercially exploit
their inventions, including for products, so long as
these embody genuinely new knowledge. For all
the noise about compulsory licencing, India has
issued this only in the case of a single drug that
too after establishing that the patent-holder wasnt
making it adequately available in the domestic
market. On export subsidies, however, the countrys
case is much weaker. The depreciation of the rupee
has made the bulk of Indian farm exports naturally
competitive without the requirement for any
subsidy. As for sugar, rice and wheat, it may be
claimed that surplus stocks leaves no option but to
subsidise exports. This argument though ignores
the policy distortions high minimum support
prices of fine cereals resulting in these surpluses
getting built in the first place. If these domestic
distortions and politicisation of cane prices go, there
would neither be unmanageable surpluses nor need
for export subsidy.
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Indias agricultural trade and intellectual

property rights (IPR)-related policies have come
under the international spotlight in recent months.
Brazil, Australia and the European Union have
questioned the countrys decision in February to
grant a subsidy of Rs 3,333 per tonne on raw sugar
shipments. The US, Canada and Pakistan have,
likewise, raised concerns at the World Trade
Organisation (WTO) over Indias exports of
subsidised grain from its public stocks. The US
Trade Representative has received submissions from
its top industry associations for designating India
as a Priority Foreign Country, or those with the
most onerous or egregious IPR protection regimes
that could be deserving of trade sanctions.
Such positions are motivated largely by business

interests. As Commerce Secretary Rajeev Kher
pointed out to this newspaper recently, India has
become a significant player in the global farm trade
over the last few years. Since 2009-10, its
agricultural exports have zoomed from under $ 18
billion to reach a likely $ 45 billion this fiscal. India
today is the biggest exporter of rice and beef and
the second largest in cotton; it is also a major
shipper of soyameal, corn, wheat and sugar. Its
hardly surprising then that western exporters feel
threatened. In the pharma sector, the western
majors are riled by Indias compulsory licence for
the domestic manufacture of Nexavar, a cancer
drug patented by Bayer, and its denial of a patent
ECONOMICS OF AGEING
The passing of the Pension Fund Regulatory

and Development Bill 2011 in Parliament is a
momentous event for Indias elderly. But there is
still more scope for improving their welfare. As a
result of increased life expectancy and medical
advancements, the numbers of the aged have
increased worldwide and will continue to do so.
As a result of this phenomenon, the state has

had to take on more responsibility in addressing
the needs of the elderly, in the form of various
socio-economic programmes. The predominance of
nuclear families, especially in urban areas, has
disturbed the joint familys traditional role of old
age support.
Employment support
An important government scheme is the Indira
Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme

(IGNOAPS), which provides the elderly beneficiary
monetary assistance of Rs. 500 every month.
The beneficiaries of the IGNOAPS scheme have
increased to nearly 1.7 crore in 2010-2011. But this
and other similar schemes are meant only for
families below the poverty line (BPL). Non-BPL
individuals continue to suffer in poverty and lack
of medical help.
Much more needs to be done. For long, it has
been generally held that the elderly are a burden
to society; this is based on the assumption that the
elderly do not contribute to the economy.
However, government statistics on the elderly
clearly show that a significant number of old people
do work till later years, especially in rural areas
and in the unorganised sector, with no retirement
[31]

age or benefits. Their withdrawal from economic
activities is a gradual process. They stop working
only when they are physically unable to carry on.
Interestingly, in many families, aged people also
support a number of dependents in the family,
instead of the other way around. Therefore, it may
be helpful to consider universal pension for all
elderly above a stipulated age. This would help not
only the aged to fight poverty, but also provide
support to the family.
Medical care requires policy attention. The high

cost of medical treatment and non-availability of
health services results in deteriorating health. Those
who can afford these services spend a substantial
proportion of their savings on medical care. For
others, especially those from the unorganised sector,
financial constraints, lack of time, and distance to
the hospital inhibits access to medical care.
Hence, universal coverage of old age health
insurance is worth considering, as health-related
expenditure rises significantly with age.
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Studies have shown that there is a positive

relationship between elderly people being physically
active and their healthy aging.
Medical needs
In view of longer life-expectancy and elders

willingness to remain active, there is need for
various interventions, in addition to pension
schemes. The government could think of extending
the retirement age or providing re-employment
opportunities to elders.
It would get their services at a lower cost and
make them feel secure, socially relevant and
employed in a familiar environment.
The challenge of a rising aged population is

expected to intensify. In order to reach out to the
large number of elderly, the involvement of the
private sector, NGOs and religious institutions also
needs to be considered.
Public-private partnerships can do a world of
good.
OUR DEFENCE FIREPOWER IS SUSPECT
Speaking on the occasion of the 15th

Anniversary of the Pokhran nuclear test last year,
Gujarat Chief Narendra Modi observed: There is
a crucial question we have to answer. How do we
become self-sufficient in defence manufacturing?
This is not only about military power but also about
being self-reliant for our defence equipment.
India has, since 2011, retained the dubious

distinction of replacing China as the largest arms
importer in the world. According to the Stockholm
International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI),
Indias major arms imports surged by 111 per cent
in the last five years compared to 2004-2008.
While Chinas imports have been steadily
decreasing, it has leveraged its arms imports to
reverse-engineer and develop a vibrant defence
industry; it now exports armaments ranging from
fighter aircraft and frigates to missiles and rifles.
Its major markets are in Asia and the Persian Gulf,
with Pakistan topping the list. Pakistans Al Khalid
tank, its frontline JF17 fighter and its recently
acquired frigates are all from China; its nuclear
weapons have been largely of Chinese design; its
main ballistic missiles, the Shaheen 1 and Shaheen
2, are replicas of their Chinese counterparts. China
is a regular supplier of arms to Myanmar,
[32]
Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
The pathetic inadequacies of Indias defence

industry and its pretensions of being an emerging
power were thoroughly exposed when it was
unable to meet Afghanistans wish-list as American
forces prepare to leave. While our missile
development programme gives us pride, our
nuclear deterrent will be credible only when the
Agni V and the navys nuclear submarines become
fully operational. On the flip side, we are not in a
position to export any major weapons platform.
Even the 5.56 mm (INSAS) Automatic Rifle,
manufactured by our ordnance factories, will be
rejected by any modern army. Added to this is the
lack of accountability and bungling in the process
of acquisition and domestic production. The most
classic case of bungling involves the famous (or
infamous) Bofors FH77 155mm howitzer.
The Bofors story
In 1986, India signed a $285 million contract

for the supply of 410 155mm Bofors howitzers.
The contract included a provision for the
manufacture of a further 1000 guns in India. The
Bofors deal complicated already cumbersome
defence acquisition procedures. The government

cancelled the entire contract without either
arranging for domestic manufacture or selecting
an alternative gun. The armed forces pushed for
the import of an alternative. Offers for comparable
weapons systems from Singapore and South Africa
were rejected, on allegations of kickbacks.
Defence production must not involve a

predominant emphasis on imports and assembly,
as at present. There has to be a large measure of
import substitution of a vast array of critical raw
materials, components and sub-systems, amounting
to billions of dollars each year, now imported for
regular production by the defence PSUs, under the
umbrella of licence manufacture. The private
sector, with help from the DRDO, could play a
significant role in this area.
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India would have been hard-pressed to win the

Kargil conflict speedily without the firepower that
the Bofors gun provided. By 1987, India had
received the entire design data and transfer of
technology from Sweden for the manufacture of
the gun. For over 20 years, these designs gathered
dust. It was only when no alternative was available
that these designs were revisited and, after much
procrastination, we commenced assembling them.
submarines to tanks and warships, are being

sourced from the private sector which must be give
a level playing field for competing with defence
PSUs.
While the first test of the indigenous gun

understandably failed, the Ordnance Factory Board
has now successfully moved to commence its
manufacture soon, with a range of 38 km as against
the 30 km range of the Swedish manufactured gun.
We have similarly successfully designed and
developed multi-barrelled rocket launchers. But the
larger issue is: Who is to be held responsible for
mothballing the designs received from Sweden and
why was the task of domestic manufacture not
undertaken earlier?
Problem areas
What ails Indias defence industry is now

common knowledge. There are reports of a number
of committees, including those headed by defence
scientist Rama Rao and by Vijay Kelkar, apart from
the report of the Naresh Chandra taskforce. It is
obvious that some issues need to be clearly and
expeditiously addressed.
First, the restrictions on foreign investment in

high-tech, defence-related industries need radical
liberalisation. Secondly, the monopoly of public
sector institutions in defence production has to end.
Even today, some of the most sensitive and critical
assemblies for equipment, ranging from nuclear
A good starting point for a new approach to

defence production could be with regard to the
light combat aircraft, which has now undergone
substantial trials and could be inducted into service
if it is fast-tracked. By all accounts, both its air
defence version and its naval version will have a
performance comparable to the Swedish Viggen,
which was under consideration for acquisition by
the IAF. There will be the usual breast-beating and
predictable opposition but this process has to be
undertaken once we are assured that the aircraft
will be able to meet any anticipated threat from
across our western borders.
Unlike China, India can get weapons systems
and defence technology from Europe and the US.
We will have to leverage this, together with our
access to weapons from Israel and Russia, to
demand and get the best terms possible for building
an indigenous, high-tech defence industrial base.
Moreover, the present structure of our defence
ministry, which is run by generalist bureaucrats,
needs drastic change. Far greater integration of staff
and procedures between the service headquarters
and the ministry of defence is imperative if we are
to arrest the setbacks of the recent past in civilmilitary relations.
NO LET-UP IN WINDOW-DRESSING
As the financial year draws to a close, the

finance ministry is going all out to contain the fiscal
deficit to its red line level of 4.6 per cent of GDP.
Throughout the year it has engaged in windowdressing to lift receipts and curtail expenditure
the latest such move being a directive to banks to
transfer their TDS receipts to the exchequer in
March itself, that is, by the end of the month, rather
than a month later. This will lift the receipts side
by about Rs.20,000 crore. Indeed, the distortion of

statistics has assumed serious proportions. The
Centre forced public sector units (PSUs) to cough
up a dividend of over Rs.40,000 crore this year,
against about Rs. 13,000 crore last year. The
pressure on corporates to pay advance tax has
increased with every passing year. On the
expenditure side, the outgo of Rs.2.5 lakh crore
towards food, fuel and fertiliser subsidies in 2013[33]

14 may seem like an accurate figure. But almost
half of it was used up in meeting arrears of the
previous year, while this years subsidy is bound to
be more on account of the reduced rupee value.
Therefore, the arrears pushed into 2014-15 will
be higher. The artificial increase in revenue and
understatement of expenditure translates into a
lowering of the fiscal deficit for 2013-14 by over
Rs.1 lakh crore. The real fiscal deficit is, therefore,
closer to 5.6 per cent!
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This messing around with the Budget numbers

must stop. At stake is the credibility of Indias
economic statistics, considered more reliable than
that of other emerging economies, including China.
The markets may for now celebrate a below-5 per
cent fiscal deficit and the rating agencies hold back
their downgrade, but this will not continue if the
figures are exposed as a joke. The way forward is
to amend the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget
Management (FRBM) Act, 2003, to address
transparency to the smallest detail.
As the name of the law suggests, the accent is

on responsibility rather than transparency on
meeting a pre-determined deficit target, no matter
how. As a 2001 report on fiscal transparency, a
precursor to the FRBM law, pointed out, the Budget
should make explicit its assumptions on growth,
inflation, savings-investment rate, trade imbalance
and projected capital inflows. Its been a decade
since the law came into effect, but theres little
transparency along these lines. The medium-term
fiscal deficit document is a welcome addition as is
the information on tax revenues forgone, but it ends
there. The Budget should spell out its assumptions
and the risks. It could indicate a range within
which it will contain the deficit best case scenario,
business as usual and worst case scenario
depending on the level of risk, and drop the idea
of a red line. This system will take away some of
the temptation to fudge. The markets will welcome
it.
INDIAN COW, MAY YOUR YIELD INCREASE
India has the worlds largest livestock

population 58 per cent of buffaloes and 15 per
cent of cattle. Owing to this huge bovine stock,
though India has managed to attain numero uno
position in milk production, the full potential of
Indian milch herd remains unattained.
Over the last three decades (1982 to 2012),
average productivity of Indian cattle and buffaloes
has grown from 1.9 to 3.9 kg per day, and from
3.7 to 6.2 kg per day, respectively.
The average daily milk yield for crossbred cattle

is better at 7.1 kg per day, but still significantly
lesser than the best of global standards UK, US
and Israel are at 25.6, 32.8 and 38.6 kg per day,
respectively.
The major causes of low productivity in India
are both intrinsic (low genetic potential) and
extrinsic (poor nutrition/feed management, inferior
farm management practices, ineffective veterinary
and extension services and inefficient
implementation
of
breed
improvement
programmes).
Breeding initiatives
Government initiatives such as the National

Project on Cattle & Buffalo Breeding (NPCBB) have
contributed significantly to strengthening artificial
insemination (AI) services.
[34]
But lack of focus on progeny testing due to

unavailability of technical manpower, small herd
size and inefficient implementation has been an
impediment.
AI services cover only 25 per cent of dairy
animals. Further, over the years, emphasis has been
on crossbreeding, with limited attention to
improvement of indigenous breeds.
For developing sustainable breeding strategies
it is also necessary to have comprehensive national
level mapping and database development on
number of species of livestock and their breeds,
available animal genetic resources, breeding
infrastructure and development facilities.
Cross-breeding with high yielding exotic breeds
should be encouraged in areas with adequate facility
for feed and fodder as well as suitable agro-climatic
conditions. Genetic upgradation by way of breeding
non-descript cattle with defined indigenous breeds
needs to be encouraged in resource deficient areas.
Need based import of live animals and germ
plasm (semen and embryos) needs to be debated
and facilitated, amidst adoption of scientific bio
security measures.
Feed management
With rapidly shrinking land and natural
resources, availability and quality of feed and fodder

is increasingly becoming a challenge. The current
deficit of green fodder and concentrates is 34 per
cent. Further, there is a supply demand gap for
quality forage seeds as well.
Imbalanced nutrition due to lack of farmers
knowledge about appropriate use of existing feed
resources is also a major factor responsible for low
livestock productivity.
Adoption of better farm management practices

and automation helps in reducing operational cost
and improving milk quality as well as productivity.
Here, collaborative and innovative dairy farming
models have a critical role to play.
There is a need for devising and implementing
low cost technologies (for feeding, healthcare
diagnostics, cow comfort and milking) that are
suited to Indian dairy farming, thereby improving
yields.
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The Ration Balancing Programme of NDDB and

Accelerated Fodder Development Programme of the
Government are commendable initiatives to ensure
better feed availability and improved nutrition.
Farm management practices
Application of newer technology to produce

large scale feed blocks, feed enzymes and other
innovative feed resources, needs to be enhanced.
Development of an innovative silage business model
by way of partnerships amongst seed companies,
operations service providers (for baling and supply
chain functions) and rural retail channels can be a
significant step in this direction.
Veterinary services
High quality veterinary services are an

important enabler for enhancing milk yield.
But currently due to unavailability of trained

manpower and lack of mobility (veterinary service
requirements are normally on short notice and
require attendance in a limited time window at
farm doorstep), the services provided are not able
to create desired impact.
An authentic, concurrently updated database
for prevalence and emergence of diseases is essential
for identification, onward prevention and control.
A fairly large infrastructure of vaccine and

diagnostic production units, semen stations and AI
breeding farms that is largely owned by the
government, can be more efficiently utilised by way
of appropriate participation of the private sector.
Effective delivery of extension services is critical

to achieve higher milk productivity. Extension
activities also need to address farmer education on
preventive measures, improved animal feeding and
farm management practices.
Currently, less than 1 per cent of the total plan
budget for the animal husbandry sector is allocated
for extension activities. Progressive farmers also
need to be trained to act as extension agents for
disseminating technical knowledge.
Indias success in attaining leadership and
contributing 17 per cent to the global milk
production has been achieved more on the strength
of milch animal numbers and less on the back of
yield improvements.
But in order to meet the impending supply
demand gap, it has become imperative to focus on
improving productivity.
A significantly spruced up breeding programme,
efficient feed management interventions, broadbasing the scale and scope of veterinary services,
adoption of superior farm management practices
and an efficient extension network are the five
pillars on which the dairy sector shall be efficiently
poised to achieve the full potential of the Indian
dairy herd.
STATIC MODEL
The Model Code of Conduct, which contains a

long list of dos and donts for governments, parties
and candidates, is essentially meant to ensure a
level playing field during the course of an election.
One section of it titled Party in Power has
prescriptions to prevent those who enjoy official
positions from using it for unfair electoral
advantage. This has gone a long way in curbing
flagrant excesses, witnessed in the past. Given that
even the smallest push may give a decisive edge to
a party in a first-past-the-post system, this code

has been repeatedly tested. This was only to be
expected. What was not and certainly not
envisaged at the time when such a code was
mooted was that it would become an
impediment to the ordinary business of governance
itself.
Yet, this is precisely what is happening. And
in the process, the Election Commission, whose
[35]

The Reserve Bank of India has sought, as a matter
of abundant caution, the Commissions views on
granting new banking licences to private sector
players. Decisions that should be taken as a matter
of course should not be postponed because of the
fear of censure, real or imagined.
The country, and the economy, cannot afford
such delay. Governance must continue whether or
not elections are taking place. It is also singularly
narrow to view the government as consisting solely
of those elected. There has to be a measure of trust
reposed on the bureaucracy, which is charged with
serving the people and not just their elected
representatives. The EC does apply its mind when
reacting to complaints and requests for permission.
But the question in most cases is whether it does
need to apply its mind at all.
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mandate is to ensure the free and fair conduct of

polls, has been called upon to decide on matters
which are not only beyond its constitutional brief,
but also well beyond its competence. (The
restrictions it has imposed on manifestos are a case
in point.) A code of conduct should not be allowed
to bring administration to a halt. Or create a culture
in which the bureaucracy is afraid of taking
decisions for fear of violating the code. It is no
secret that even routine decisions are routinely
forwarded to the EC for clearance. So much so,
the ECs opinion or direction is sought about matters
that should never have come up before it. The Aam
Aadmi Party, for instance, had sought its
intervention in stalling the governments plan to
increase prices for gas produced from the KG Basin,
something that the EC has regretfully agreed to by
ordering the hike be deferred until after the election.
HOW VLADIMIR PUTIN BECAME EVIL
Once again, it seems that Russia and the United

States are finding it difficult to agree on how to
deal with their respective ambitions. This clash of
interests is highlighted by the Ukrainian crisis. The
provocation in this particular instance, as the leaked
recording of a US diplomat, Victoria Nuland,
saying "Fuck the EU" suggests, came from
Washington.
Several decades ago, at the height of the cold

war, George Kennan, a leading American foreign
policy strategist invited to give the Reith Lectures,
informed his audience: "There is, let me assure you,
nothing in nature more egocentric than embattled
democracy. It soon becomes the victim of its own
propaganda. It then tends to attach to its own cause
an absolute value which distorts its own vision
Its enemy becomes the embodiment of all evil. Its
own side is the centre of all virtue."
And so it continues. Washington knows that

Ukraine has always been a delicate issue for
Moscow. The ultra-nationalists who fought with
the Third Reich during the second world war killed
30,000 Russian soldiers and communists. They were
still conducting a covert war with CIA backing as
late as 1951. Pavel Sudoplatov, a Soviet intelligence
chief, wrote in 1994: "The origins of the cold war
are closely interwoven with western support for
nationalist unrest in the Baltic areas and western
Ukraine."
When Gorbachev agreed the deal on German
reunification, the cornerstone of which was that
united Germany could remain in Nato, US secretary
[36]
of state Baker assured him that "there would be no

extension of Nato's jurisdiction one inch to the east".
Gorbachev repeated: "Any extension of the zone
of Nato is unacceptable." Baker's response: "I agree."
One reason Gorbachev has publicly supported Putin
on the Crimea is that his trust in the west was so
cruelly betrayed.
As long as Washington believed that Russian
leaders would blindly do its bidding (which Yeltsin
did blind drunk) it supported Moscow. Yeltsin's
attack on the Russian parliament in 1993 was
justified in the western media. The wholesale
assaults on Chechnya by Yeltsin and then by Putin
were treated as a little local problem with support
from George Bush and Tony Blair. "Chechnya isn't
Kosovo," said Blair after his meeting with Putin in
2000. Tony Wood's book, Chechnya: The Case for
Independence, provides chapter and verse of what
the horrors that were inflicted on that country.
Chechnya had enjoyed de facto independence from
1991-94. Its people had observed the speed with
which the Baltic republics had been allowed
independence and wanted the same for themselves.
Instead they were bombarded. Grozny, the
capital, was virtually reduced to dust as 85 percent
of its housing was destroyed. In February 1995
two courageous Russian economists, Andrey
Illarionov and Boris Lvin published a text in
Moscow News arguing in favour of Chechen
independence and the paper (unlike its Western
counterparts) also published some excellent critical
reports that revealed atrocities on a huge scale,

eclipsing the siege of Sarajevo and the massacre in
Srebrenica. Rape, torture, homeless refugees and
tens of thousands dead was the fate of the
Chechens. No problem here for Washington and
its EU allies.
If the US insists on using the Nato magnet to

attract the Ukraine, it is likely that Moscow will
detach the eastern part of the country. Those who
really value Ukrainian sovereignty should opt for
real independence and a positive neutrality: neither
a plaything of the west nor Moscow.
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In the calculus of western interests there is no

suffering, whatever its scale, which cannot be
justified. Chechens, Palestinians, Iraqis, Afghans,
Pakistanis are of little importance. Nonetheless, the
contrast between the west's attitude to the Chechen
war and Crimea is startling.
Putin, unlike Yeltsin, is refusing to play ball any

more on the things that matter such as Nato
expansion, sanctions on Iran, Syria etc. As a result,
he has become evil incarnate. And all this because
he has decided to contest US hegemony by using
the methods often deployed by the west. (France's
repeated incursions in Africa are but one example.)
The Crimean affair led to barely any loss of life,

and the population clearly wanted to be part of
Russia. The White House's reaction has been the
opposite of its reaction to Chechnya. Why? Because
Source: The Guardian
A MILLION MISSING PATIENTS
to health. Ironically, this complex interplay is what

prevents patients from accessing care early, which
is vital to preventing deaths.
Tuberculosis in India is big: 2.3 million cases,

30,000 deaths, a million missing patients. These
terrifying numbers remind us of a continuing crisis
when every TB death is preventable. Behind
these numbers are innumerable unheard stories of
human suffering of misdiagnosis, inappropriate
treatment and lack of access to care resulting in
chronic illness and death. Why are these stories
not heard? Because TB patients remain silent,
disenfranchised, and find no platform to voice their
issues. And they dont have champions for their
cause.
A complex interplay
Tuberculosis is not just a clinical issue. Its
management requires the interplay of clinical
medicine, social sciences, factors of equity and right
The patient-centred approach is supposed to

be the hallmark of the DOTS system of delivery
under the Revised National TB Control Programme,
RNTCP, where the caregiver becomes entirely
responsible for ensuring that the patient takes drugs
regularly and completes the treatment. However,
the programme has not factored in and adequately
addressed a critical issue a patients right to
choose the provider. Closely linked to this is the
issue of confidentiality, given the stigmatisation of
TB patients in the community and by health
providers themselves. In addition, the public health
system has not taken into account the need for
social and nutritional support. There are structural
issues of delivery as well. TB control services are
delivered through a vertical mechanism that is not
integrated into primary health care delivery, which
is the first point of care in public health services.
This is why despite the RNTCP offering free
diagnosis and treatment everywhere, patients prefer
private providers.
More than 60 per cent of patients choose a
provider from the private sector, most often the
point of first contact. But here they have no
protection against inaccurate testing or irrational
prescriptions. Poor administration of drugs along
with irrational prescriptions and unregulated sale
of anti-TB drugs fuel the transmission of drugresistant TB. Yet, the government seems disinclined
to regulate the private sector.
The silence around these challenges is deafening.
It is disturbing that even with such catastrophic
[37]

impact, few TB patients and activists are
empowered enough to question the quality of
preventive and curative services that exist.
However, until tough questions are asked both in
the public and private sector, TB will continue to
plague us.
There are learnings from experiences in the fight

against HIV/AIDS. Not only were patients
empowered enough to question the credibility of
health systems but they were an integral part of
decision-making processes.
TB could affect anyone, irrespective of social or
economic status as it spreads through the air we
breathe. We need opinion leaders, concerned
citizens and public figures to become champions in
the fight against TB.
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There is an urgent need for activists and patients

to speak up and question approaches to prevention,
diagnosis and treatment. We need to question the
purely clinical approaches. Within the public health
system we also need to demand the inclusion of
civil society in the planning and review of the antiTB programme at the national, State and district
levels. However, for all this, patients and activists
need funding to build empowered communities.
engagement to ensure open participation, empower

the patient, family and community with information
and knowledge to speak out for their rights and
for public health safety.
From the private sector, activists must seek

accountability in the areas of diagnosis and
treatment. Also, serology-based testing for TB should
be banned and mandatory notification of TB cases
made compulsory.
There is a need to strengthen community
As a society and a community we are failing

not only these patients but also ourselves by not
demanding the rights of patients to high-quality
care and management. Until everyone speaks out,
and embarks on collective action to fight TB, India
will continue to lose lives, and the missing million
will not be accounted for.
AN UNDER-DEFINED CONSTITUTION
The draft of a new Egyptian Constitution,

which according to the national electoral
commission was approved by 98 per cent of those
who voted in the January 14-15 referendum, is
more problematic than it seems to be at first sight.
For the record, the turnout of 38.6 per cent, in a
total electorate of 53 million, was higher than the
33 per cent in the referendum held by the elected
and now overthrown President Mohamed Morsy.
The
head
of
the
Supreme
Electoral
Commission,Nabil Salib, hailed the result as an
unrivalled success with an unprecedented
turnout, but the participation rate was lower than
the 41.6 per cent recorded for a similar referendum
after the uprising which removed the dictator Hosni
Mubarak in February 2011. The draft gives the
President up to two four-year terms, and grants
the national Parliament powers to impeach the head
of state. It also guarantees equality between men
and women, and says the state will be bound by
international human rights treaties which Egypt
has ratified. Furthermore, it bans the closure of
media bodies and replaces administrative court
removals of programmes or individuals with
criminal procedures, and in effect ends prison
sentences for press and other public-expression
offences. Significantly, artists, writers, and
filmmakers will no longer be liable to lawsuits by
individuals who find their work irksome.
draft leaves crucial areas under-defined. It gives

absolute freedom of religion and bans political
parties based on religion, race, gender or
geography but the latter may serve to exclude
the Freedom and Justice Party, which has close
links to the banned Muslim Brotherhood. Secondly,
the military will appoint the Defence Minister for
the next eight years; that shows the reluctance of
the military, which forms the current interim
government, to relinquish control. Such nervousness
is underlined by the wider context of the
referendum; 160,000 soldiers and 200,000 police
personnel were deployed during the vote, and
turnout was far higher in northern than in
southern Egypt, where the Brotherhoods support
is the strongest. The new document even keeps
Mr. Morsys clause giving the government legal
powers regulating the right to strike; the trade
unions have strongly criticised this. In addition,
the overall current evidence is not encouraging.
For example, on March 24 a court sentenced 529
Morsy supporters to death for killing a police officer
in August 2013, after the coup which deposed Mr.
Morsy, but 382 of the accused were tried in
absentia, and the defence arguments were not
heard. The verdicts will be appealed. In sum, the
draft Constitution leaves far too much to executive
and legislative discretion.
Source: The Hindu
While such measures have been welcomed, the

[38]
MODEL CODE AS A MORAL CODE

adoption, to regard the model code either as an
impediment or as a subterfuge to settle mutual
political scores.
Statutory backing
Despite its prima facie plausibility, the 2013
recommendation to accord statutory backing to the
MCC, made by a Parliamentary Standing
Committee on Law and Justice, seems erroneous.
The Committee has held that most of the
stipulations of the MCC are already contained in
various laws and are therefore enforceable. To be
sure, the violation of secrecy of voting, causing
enmity among communities, the prohibition of
public meetings 48 hours prior to the conclusion of
polls, besides other offences, are covered by the
Representation of People Act, 1951. Besides,
impersonation at voting, offering inducements to
voters, or accepting gratification to do something
they never intended, amount to bribery under the
Indian Penal Code. To threaten or to intimidate
voters and candidates is an act of interference with
their respective free electoral rights. The
Parliamentary panel further points out that the EC
invokes its 1968 order which pertains to the
allotment of election symbols, either to suspend or
to derecognise political parties for violations of the
code.
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The External Affairs Ministers recent criticism

of the election Model Code of Conduct (MCC), and
the counter from senior leaders of the Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP), is but one more instance of the
ongoing war of words among political parties
during the poll process. There is at another level a
constant tug of war between political parties and
the Election Commission (EC) on the question of
their respective jurisdiction one that extends well
beyond the poll timetable. While the tussle along
these twin-tracks would undoubtedly have
implications for the democratic process, resolving
the latter conflict could well be the more significant.
The burden of Salman Khurshids attack on the
EC in a lecture at Londons School of Oriental
and African Studies was along the following
lines. You should do or say nothing that wins you
an election, he said, meaning that the threemember body would not allow politicians to
perform their normal and legitimate functions
during poll campaigns of making promises, as
prospective representatives, to potential voters.
For his part, the Leader of the Opposition in
the Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley, took exception to
Mr. Khurshids remarks, as also to the fact that
they were aired on foreign soil. The BJPs prime
ministerial candidate Narendra Modi even claimed
that the minister denigrated the image of a
constitutional body.
But both the Congress and the BJP may have

already forgotten that they were on opposite sides
vis-a-vis the EC during the 2013 elections to State
Assemblies. On that occasion, the EC, acting on a
complaint lodged by the Congress, issued a notice
of violation of the MCC against the Madhya
Pradesh Minister of Industries for his remarks on
the code. The commission found the latter guilty of
precisely the kind of routine poll promises that Mr.
Khurshid felt were not illegitimate for candidates
to make.
As one of the custodians of the countrys

democratic institutions, the EC cannot afford to
object to expressions of divergent opinions on either
the code of conduct or its application in specific
instances. Indeed, the core objective of the code is
the conduct of free and fair elections. The model
code of conduct is perhaps best viewed as a moral
code during electioneering and the EC would do
well to err on the side of caution when applying its
provisions. Conversely, it would be a self-defeating
exercise for rival parties who have assented to its
On the basis of the above, the Standing

Committee contends that the MCC as a whole could
not be construed merely as voluntary in its
application. Furthermore, since most of its
provisions are enforceable, the remaining
stipulations in the MCC should also be accorded
statutory backing.
The bar on the ruling party from the use of its
position for electioneering to combine official work
with campaign activity, the exercise of monopoly
over public places and transport facilities are
important non-statutory stipulations in the code. It
is self-evident that the latter are substantially
different from the category of legally defined
violations. Extending these facilities to various
political parties on the same terms and conditions
create a level playing field and increase the efficacy
of the poll process. Conversely, the legal
codification of these norms would be a potential
nightmare, exposing the entire electoral process to
needless litigation. These broad objectives are best
achieved by oversight of an impartial election
watchdog.
[39]
Need for a resolution
Source: The Hindu
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In fact, the Parliamentary Committee makes a

pointed reference to its dissatisfaction with the
existing legal remedy. This pertains to the absence
of a procedure of immediate appeal where the
nominations of candidates are rejected by returning
officers. The decisions of the latter can, under the
current system, only be challenged in the High
Courts after the announcement of election results.
This is an area where, in view of the Constitutional
authority invested in the EC, with quasi-judicial
powers, political parties could work out an
amicable resolution.
It would be fair to say that, with a growing

number of political parties and candidates in the
fray, there is greater need for impartial oversight
of the electoral process today than a few decades
ago. A stronger EC would therefore best serve the
larger purposes of the conduct of free and fair
elections. Parliament could ill-afford to contemplate
a legislation that seeks to accord legal status to the
model code in its entirety. That would inevitably
circumscribe the role and functions of the EC.
GAYOOM COMES BACK, IN STYLE
Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who ruled the

Maldives with an iron hand for three decades before
giving way to more democratic forces, is back. The
party he founded, the Progressive Party of Maldives,
has emerged as the single largest party in a
surprisingly trouble-free parliamentary election in
the Maldives on March 22. More important, the
PPM and its allies have won a nearly two-thirds
majority in the 85-member Peoples Majlis, the
Maldives Parliament. The PPM on its own has 34
seats; the Jumhooree Party, run by a business
tycoon, won 15 seats, and the Maldives
Development Alliance managed five. The Maldivian
Democratic Party, whose nominee, Mohamed
Nasheed, was elected President in the first multiparty elections in 2008, lost its numbers in
Parliament, winning just 24 seats. Islamists have
got representation in the Majlis with the Aadalath
Partys lone success. The elections were held even
as the head and deputy of the countrys Elections
Commission (EC) were removed by the Supreme
Court. Ahead of the polls, there were widespread
complaints of distribution of money and goods. With
no firm law in place, and being virtually headless,
the EC looked the other way, and went ahead with
the polls. Transparency Maldives, which monitored
the polls, said the process was well administered
and transparent but that wider issues of money
politics threaten the democratic process.
This result leaves the PPM now at the helm in

both the legislature and the executive, and with
Gayoom-era judges heading the Supreme Court,
democracy in the Maldives has come full circle.
For Mr. Gayooms half-brother, Abdulla Yameen,
who won the presidency in the 2013 elections, the
victory means freedom to put his agenda into
action. During his campaign, Mr. Yameen, an
economist, had asserted that turning the country
around would be his first task. Ever since February
2012, after Mr. Nasheed stepped down in
controversial circumstances, the Maldives has
slipped from one crisis to another. The economy
has hit the lowest level in decades, and many
multinationals insist on payment in U.S. dollars for
any transaction. Mr. Yameen presides over a
mammoth government: the number of Ministers in
the Maldives is only marginally less than in Sri
Lanka which has the largest number of Ministers
in this region. Public confidence in institutions and
government is at an all-time low. Also, though Mr.
Yameen made his first foreign visit to India, there
is a discernible confidence gap between the two
countries. India is critical to sustaining the
Maldivian economy and Mr. Yameen is aware of
this. In addition to managing relations with India,
he needs to carry all sections with him and work
to improve governance.
Source: The Hindu
SEEKING CLARITY ON HUMAN RIGHTS
The human rights gauntlet that Amnesty

International has thrown down will not be easy to
pass over when Indias political parties seek the
peoples mandate in the coming weeks. The 14-for2014 charter seeks concrete commitments from
prime ministerial hopefuls in the elections to the
[40]
16th Lok Sabha on almost every rights violation

that has shaken the citizens conscience. The legal
prohibition of torture, abolition of the death penalty,
decriminalisation of homosexuality, punishment for
marital rape and a law for migrant labour, figure
in the 16-item questionnaire, seeking a pointed yes

registration of political parties with the Election
Commission is a statutory requirement under the
Representation of the People Act, 1951. This law
also stipulates that the respective party constitutions
are in consonance with the principles of the Indian
Constitution and the composition of the party
structure reflects the democratic spirit. As a
signatory to the 1994 Declaration of Free and Fair
Elections of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, India
regards periodic and genuine elections as a
necessary and indispensable element of sustained
efforts to protect the rights and interests of the
governed. Election 2014 is surely the time for
political parties to renew that pledge in their poll
manifestos. The moral mileage they would gain thus
would be worth a great deal more than they can
either measure or imagine. For the sponsors of
extremist left-wing violence and the far-right
purveyors of ideologies of hate, there is a lesson in
the Amnesty charter, namely, to engage in
democratic dialogue with the political mainstream.
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or no answer from parties and prominent leaders.

A categorical position on these deep moral
questions will determine the depth and direction
of Indian democracy. Election time is when
prospective representatives should make their views
known, and Amnestys questions are timely. The
current prevarication on the question of capital
punishment, under the so-called rarest of rare cases
dictum, may not be tenable considering the extent
to which the issue has of late acquired divisive
political overtones, while the dimensions of ethics
and justice have been rendered marginal to the
entire debate. Similarly, the ball is clearly in
Parliaments court subsequent to the Supreme
Courts retrograde verdict on Section 377 of the
Indian Penal Code. Interestingly, the Election
Commission mentions transgender electors (under
the head of others) who have registered for the
coming elections.
When organised political forces participate in
the poll process, they affirm a commitment to the
constitutional values of justice, freedom, equality
and human dignity, reasons Amnesty. Indeed, the
Source: The Hindu
THE STATISTICS OF GENDER BIAS
Over the next few weeks, there will be many

tussles between our mostly male politicians over
Indias security. But almost no one will ask if a
country can be secure when half its citizens live in
deepening insecurity, threatened not by terrorists
or enemy soldiers but by the society into which
they are born. We seem to forget that Indias
security must encompass the security of 48 per cent
of its citizens women and urgently address
the endemic threats they face, ranging from
entrenched discrimination to violence.
This starts with the mass murder of female
foetuses. In its 2012 report on Gender Equality
and Development, the World Bank estimated that
over the last two decades, around 2.5 lakh girls
were killed in India each year because of their sex.
When infant and child mortality are driven by

biology, fewer girls die than boys, but the third
National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3) found that
the postneonatal mortality rate for Indian girls is
21/1000, compared with 15 for boys. For the age
group 1-4 years, the child mortality rate for girls,
at 23/1000, is 61 per cent higher than for boys, at
14. The World Bank report estimated that, as a
result, India lost another 2.5 lakh girls in 2008.
These figures put us to shame as a society. This
systematic massacre could not happen unless society
accepted it and governments turned a blind eye to

it. Sections 312 to 317 of the Indian Penal Code list
the punishments for causing miscarriage, injuring
unborn children, preventing a child from being born
or causing it to die after birth, and abandoning a
child under 12 years. Over the last 20 years, how
many prosecutions have there been under these
provisions of the law? There should have been 10
million.
Entrenched bias
The extent of the violence against the girl as

foetus and infant shows how deep the bias in India
is against women and why women will be secure
only if we as a nation introspect and change. Not
only is this not happening, but the 2011 census
shows that the sex ratio in the age-group 0-6 had
fallen in 27 States and Union Territories from 2001.
Millions of girls who are allowed to live are fed
and educated less than their brothers. The United
Nations Human Development Report 2013
estimates that 42.5 per cent of our children suffer
from malnutrition (as against 3.8 per cent in China).
There is also great irony in this because NFHS-3
established
that
when
mothers
were
undernourished, 54 per cent of their children were
stunted and 25 per cent wasted. The more educated
[41]

they were, the lower the chance of their children
being either stunted or wasted. By starving millions
of girls so that their brothers can eat marginally
better, and by taking them out of school, we have
condemned each new generation boys and girls
to a fresh cycle of malnutrition.
We also perhaps do not realise how other

problems have a compounding effect. We are, for
instance, the world leaders in open defecation. That
is being perpetuated in most States where, despite
a requirement that all houses built under the Indira
Awas Yojana must have a toilet, very few do. Open
defecation is also an open invitation to rape.
Complaints to the NHRC show how many women
are abducted or raped when they go out into the
fields at night. In many States, teenage village girls
either refuse to go to school or are taken out by
their parents because the building has no toilet and
their right to education suffers.
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The treatment of little girls moulds the psyche

of their brothers, who internalise the view that their
needs as males have preference over those of
their sisters. What we have come to thereby is the
socialisation of violence against women.
in India each year, at least 54,000 women die in

the process.
There are no estimates of the extent of physical

violence against the girl child but it would be
reasonable to assume that it is extensive.
In 2007, the Ministry of Women and Child
Development published a National Study on Child
Abuse, which reported that 53 per cent of the
children interviewed had suffered one or more
forms of sexual abuse. It would be dangerous to
extrapolate from this limited study that over half
our children suffer sexual abuse, but it is clearly
far more widespread than we admit. What should
be of the gravest concern was that in most cases
the children reported that the attack was by
someone they knew, often a close relative.
Data from the National Crime Records Bureau

(NCRB) confirms that this pattern continues as the
girl becomes a woman. Since the NCRB can only
collate cases registered, its data represent just the
tip of the crime iceberg. But it reports that in 2012
there were 24,923 cases of rape registered. In 98
per cent of the cases, the victims knew the offenders.
This is a logical outcome of a nurturing process in
which boys grow up believing, from what they see
in their families, that women exist only to satisfy
the needs of men.
Society still resists change. NFHS-3 found that

the median age for marriage for girls is still just
over 16, and commented that this is an indicator
of the low status of women...it is related to lower
empowerment and increased risk of adverse
reproductive and health consequences. There is
enough data to show how adverse these are.
Women, particularly poor women, are most
insecure in childbirth when they fulfil the role
society has set for them. According to the
Millennium Development Goals, maternal mortality
in India which was 301 per lakh of live births in
2001 should be down to 75 by 2015. This will not
happen. We are perhaps down to a maternal
mortality rate of 200 now. At 27 million live births
[42]
It is sad but to be expected that women have

also been indoctrinated to believe that their security
depends on good behaviour, as mandated by men.
NHFS-3 found that 40 per cent of married women
have been subjected to spousal violence. But it also
found that 54 per cent of the women it surveyed
agreed that wife-beating was acceptable if the wife
went out without telling her husband, argued with
him, refused sex, neglected the children, did not
cook properly, was suspected of being unfaithful
or showed disrespect toward her in-laws. On this,
NFHS-3 said: Violence is more likely to be justified
if the described behaviour violates what is perceived
as acceptable behaviour for women in their
gendered roles as wives, mothers and daughtersin-law.
Obvious acts of violence
And then there are the more obvious acts of

criminal violence against women. There is the
enormous problem of trafficking; the special
insecurities of women in conflict zones. Adivasi
and Dalit women are branded as witches. There
are the continuing tragedies of forced marriages,
of girls being killed for marrying boys of their choice
or for not bringing in enough dowry, the needless
hysterectomies under the Rashtriya Swasth Bima
Yojana.
Within society as between states, security
depends on power. The weakest are the most
insecure. Women in India are insecure and remain
at risk because in this patriarchal society they are
children of a lesser god. For women to be secure,
the country must change there should be more
women in Parliament and in positions of political
and executive authority. Every election brings with
it hope of renewal, but India will not be

transformed, it cannot be secure, developed or
respected if the democracy in which it takes pride
does not bring about urgent and fundamental
change in the lives of its women.

Source: The Hindu
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A NEW WINDOW INTO AN OLD WORLD
On March 17, radio astronomers from the

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics,
Massachusetts, announced a remarkable discovery.
They found evidence of primordial gravitational
waves imprinted on the cosmic microwave
background (CMB), a field of energy pervading
the universe.
A confirmation that these waves exist is the

validation of a theory called cosmic inflation. It
describes the universes behaviour less than onebillionth of a second after it was born in the Big
Bang, about 14 billion years ago, when it witnessed
a brief but tremendous growth spurt. The residual
energy of the Bang is the CMB, and the effect of
gravitational waves on it is like the sonorous clang
of a bell (the CMB) that was struck powerfully by
an effect of cosmic inflation. Thanks to the
announcement, now we know the bell was struck.
Detecting these waves is difficult. In fact,

astrophysicists used to think this day was many
more years into the future. If it has come now, we
must be thankful to human ingenuity. There is more
work to be done, of course, because the results
hold only for a small patch of the sky surveyed,
and there is also data due from studies done until
2012 on the CMB. Should any disagreement with
the recent findings arise, scientists will have to
rework their theories.
Remarkable in other ways
The astronomers from the Harvard-Smithsonian

used a telescope called BICEP2, situated at the South
Pole, to make their observations of the CMB. In
turn, BICEP2s readings of the CMB imply that
when cosmic inflation occurred about 14 billion
years ago, it happened at a tremendous amount of
[43]

energy of 1016 GeV (GeV is a unit of energy used
in particle physics). Astrophysicists didnt think it
would be so high.
Even the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the
worlds most powerful particle accelerator,
manages a puny 104 GeV. The words of the
physicist Yakov Zeldovich, The universe is the
poor mans accelerator written in the 1970s
prove timeless.
At present, the Standard Model of particle

physics, a paradigm of quantum field theory, is
proving to be a mostly valid theory of particle
physics, explaining interactions between various
fundamental particles. The questions it does not
have answers for could be answered by even more
comprehensive theories that can use the Standard
Model as a springboard to reach for solutions.
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This energy at which inflation has occurred has

drawn the attention of physicists studying various
issues because here, finally, is a window that allows
humankind to naturally study high-energy physics
by observing the cosmos. Such a view holds many
possibilities, too, from the trivial to the grand.
Consider this: cosmic inflation is an effect

associated with quantum field theory, which
accommodates the three non-gravitational forces.
Gravitational waves are an effect of the theories of
relativity, which explain gravity. Because we may
now have proof that the two effects are related,
we know that quantum mechanics and relativity
are also capable of being combined at a
fundamental level. This means a theory unifying
all the four forces could exist, although that doesnt
mean were on the right track.
For example, consider the four naturally

occurring fundamental forces: gravitation, strong
and weak-nuclear force, and electromagnetic force.
Normally, the strong-nuclear, weak-nuclear and
electromagnetic forces act at very different energies
and distances.
However, as we traverse higher and higher

energies, these forces start to behave differently, as
they might have in the early universe. This gives
physicists probing the fundamental texture of
nature an opportunity to explore the forces
behaviours by studying astronomical data such
as from BICEP2 instead of relying solely on
particle accelerators like the LHC.
In fact, at energies around 1019 GeV, some

physicists think gravity might become unified with
the non-gravitational forces. However, this isnt a
well-defined goal of science, and doesnt command
as much consensus as it submits to rich veins of
speculation. Theories like quantum gravity operate
at this level, finding support from frameworks like
string theory and loop quantum gravity.
Another perspective on cosmic inflation opens
another window. Even though we now know that
gravitational waves were sent rippling through the
universe by cosmic inflation, we dont know what
caused them. An answer to this question has to
come from high-energy physics a journey that
has taken diverse paths over the years.
Physicists refer to such springboarders as new

physics a set of laws and principles capable of
answering questions for which old physics has
no answers; a set of ideas that can make seamless
our understanding of nature at different energies.
Supersymmetry : One leading candidate of new
physics is a theory called supersymmetry. It is an
extension of the Standard Model, especially at
higher energies. Finding symptoms of
supersymmetry is one of the goals of the LHC, but
in over three years of experimentation it has failed.
This isnt the end of the road, however, because
supersymmetry holds much promise to solve certain
pressing issues in physics which the Standard Model
cant, such as what dark matter is.
Thus, by finding evidence of cosmic inflation at
very high energy, radio-astronomers from the
Harvard-Smithsonian Center have twanged at one
strand of a complex web connecting multiple
theories. The help physicists have received from
such astronomers is significant and will only mount
as we look deeper into our skies.
Source: The Hindu
FAIR ADVOCACY AS A RIGHT
Access to justice essentially means access to a

lawyer. The legal profession has a public character.
A lawyer is placed between the state and the citizen;
therefore, he performs a democratic, libertarian and
emancipatory function. The bar is not a private
[44]
guild. In a celebrated decision in the United States,

Justice Nelson rightly said that there is no other
relation of life involving higher trust and confidence
than that of an attorney and his client (Stockton v.
Ford, 1850).

most sought after and money spinning career in
[the] U.S., but even the lawyers from [the] U.S. are
astonished to hear about the fees charged by some
of the star lawyers in our country. Indian senior
lawyers have come a long way since the days of
legal luminary M.C. Setalvad who had fixed a
standard rate of Rs.1,040 for special leave petitions
(SLPs) and Rs.1,680 for final hearings.
The tragedy is that what the western
democracies start to take as misconduct, is
(mis)taken for eminence in a country that discovered
and aspired for Gandhian jurisprudence. The cost
of good lawyering is too serious a matter to be left
to lawyers alone.
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Canon No.12 of the American Bar Association

Canon of Professional Ethics warns that In fixing
fees it should never be forgotten that the profession
is a branch of the administration of justice and not a
mere money-getting trade. Wesley Romine reminds
us that if the legal profession is to honor its
responsibilities to public service, it is essential that the
society which it serves should not view the professional
abilities of lawyers as representing avaricious and
purely personal efforts to obtain wealth. In Bushman
v. State Bar of California (1974), the demand for excess
fees coupled with misrepresentation and an attempt
to solicit work was the matter in issue. In that case,
a California Court declared the principle of law: It
is settled that a gross overcharge of a fee by an
attorney may warrant discipline. The test is whether
the fee is so exorbitant and wholly disproportionate
to the services performed as to shock the conscience.
Cost of litigation
But rhetoric is not reality. Though there is a

lawyer between the state and the citizen, between
the lawyer and the citizen, there is often the real
obstacle of exorbitant professional fees which in
itself forms the major chunk of the cost of litigation.
Litigation in the Supreme Court is often a multicrore affair. It is so in many of the High Courts as
well. This is the irony prevalent in the constitutional
courts, irrespective of the countrys socialist
preamble to the Constitution. Legal aid for the poor
does not enable the poor to choose the lawyer, nor
the lawyer to choose the poor. Quality advocacy is
an expensive commodity in the legal market.
In V.C. Rangadurai (1978), Justice Krishna Iyer
bothered about the elitist character of the
profession and said that its ethics, in practice, leave
much to be desired. Today, the profession has
assumed a corporate character. A recent study
demonstrates that the Supreme Court is a court
too far away from the common man (Frontline,
April 20-May 3, 2013). The alienation is not due to
geographical or institutional reasons alone.
Lawyering, by and large, has become a big industry.
The distinction between the profession and the trade
is blurred. The pity, however, is that often it lacks
even the fairness of trade.
Ms. Esha Saha, Associate Editor at Live
Law exposes the practice of senior lawyers charging
unbelievably excess fees under various heads like
retainer fee, settlement of brief charges, conference
charges, appearance charges, reading fees, opinion/
consultation fees etc. After indicating the alarming
figures of the fees charged, she says, Law is the
Need for standardisation
The difficulty experienced in an assessment of

fees and the fallibility of anothers judgment
regarding an advocates fees does not justify the
robbery by the robbed brethren. The proportion
between labour and cost is not wholly irrelevant.
Corporatism should not annihilate conventional
values. Experience, specialisation, value of time and
intensity of efforts may be crucial in determining
fees. Also, there are general economic criteria like
demand and availability, material cost,
abandonment of other work, etc. The system of
fixing fees based on the star value of the lawyer
is, however, a dangerous trend for the judiciary as
well as for our democracy.
Though there is a lack of standardisation and
certainty in many areas of legal remuneration, the
levy of shockingly exorbitant fees should lead to
disciplinary action. It needs to be taken as an action
of misconduct that tends to bring reproach to the
profession amounting to professional misconduct
as defined under the Bar Council Rules.
There are state legislations regulating the
lawyers fees in the subordinate courts and even in
the High Court in civil and criminal matters. Often,
those are framed by the High Court by invoking
power under Articles 225 and 227 of the
Constitution. The rules regarding fees payable to
advocates in Kerala designed by the Kerala High
Court after approval by the Governor is a fine
example (Kerala Gazette dated 22.7.1969). It is a
tragedy that the practice of law in the constitutional
courts is not controlled by any law whatsoever.
There is a real need to evolve an Aam Aadmi
movement in Indian constitutional courts, where
people should be able to ask for fair advocacy as a
right.
[45]
Classification of lawyers
Even in decisions dealing with the professional

conduct of lawyers, the Supreme Court has not
focussed on the question of lawyers fees (O.P
Sharma v. High Court of Punjab and
Haryana (2011)
and Supreme
Court
Bar
Association v. Union of India (1998). However, in
an earlier judgment in Bar Council of Maharashtra
v. M.V. Dabholkar (1975), the court indicated that
misconduct is not restricted to technical
interpretations of Rules of conduct. The Supreme
Court added, Professional ethics cannot be
contained in a Bar Council rule nor in traditional
cant in the books but in new canons of conscience
which will command the members of the calling of
justice to obey rules or morality and utility. This
principle should apply to the instances of excess
charges by lawyers, whether they are seniors or
juniors. Since there is a clear deficit in the
legislations, which has the effect of infringing on
the common mans right, the Supreme Court needs
to lay down the law even by way of judicial
legislation as done in Vishaka (1997) and Vineet
Narain (1998).
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Senior lawyers are designated by the court. The

seniorship is either conferred or granted on
application. Section 16(2) of the Advocates Act
states that an advocate can be designated as senior
if the Supreme Court or the High Court is of the
opinion that by virtue of his ability, [standing at
the Bar or special knowledge or experience in law]
he is deserving of such distinction. Note that the
statute does not insist on any ethical parameter in
deciding the question of designation. The prescribed
application in some States inter alia asks for income
tax details. Behind it, there is an incorrect and
unacceptable postulate that the more the income,
the more eminent the lawyer.
issue. Vashi argued that most of the designated

lawyers, by making use of their star value and face
value, charge unfair fees. He submitted that a kind
of monopoly is being created in the business,
detrimental to the interest of the common man at
the other side who is unable to afford such highly
priced lawyers. Unfortunately, the Bombay High
Court was not inclined to accept the contention
and a historical opportunity for institutional
introspection was lost.
Generally speaking, the judiciary in the country

also would find it difficult to indicate instances of
moral and democratic considerations in choosing
the leaders of the bar. It is time the statutory concept
of eminence is radically altered by way of
appropriate amendment. According to Section 16(3)
of the Advocates Act, the Bar Council of India can
restrict senior lawyers in the matter of their practice.
In view of this statutory obligation cast on the Bar
Council, the levy of excess fees also should be
regulated by the Council. I support the suggestion
by Nick Robinson that independent boards should
oversee the profession in the best interest of the
litigants (Failed by the lawyer, The Hindu, July
6, 2013). Chapter II under Part VI of the Bar
Council of India Rules deals with Standards of
Professional Conduct and Etiquette. The rules also
need appropriate amendment encompassing
excessive bills.
Negation of equality
On account of the indiscriminate conferment

of seniorship, there is a clear negation of the
perceived equity and equality among the bar
members. By treating the bench and the bar on a
par with each other, a higher level of internal
democracy was conventionally ensured in the
judiciary. A similar equality among the members
of the profession also is an Anglo-Saxon legacy.
The classification of lawyers envisaged by the
Advocates Act has had the effect of sabotaging the
fundamental uniformity in the bar. In a
Maharashtra case, M.P. Vashi v. Union of
India (W.P.(C) No.632 of 2011), the levy of
exorbitant fees by senior lawyers was the matter in
[46]
It is fallacious to think about popularising the

judicial institutions or legal profession for that
matter. The point is about democratising them. The
right to choose among the capable is the touchstone
of democracy. Like in any other occupation, a
lawyers job too is quite ordinary and terrestrial. It
is high time that the aura surrounding it is removed
and the profession demystified. Litigants, like
patients, make for an unorganised lot. Reformation
in the legal profession is a condition precedent for
judicial reforms which again is indispensable for
democratic reforms. The idolatry within the bar is
detrimental to the majority of the members of the
profession, who do not have any role in the
mischief. It also negates public good. The state
should, therefore, interfere with the legal market
in the country.
Source: The Hindu
A DISTURBING G7 DECISION
Transnistria, where Russian is the official language
and the most widely used one; Moscow rejected a
2006 poll there showing that 96 per cent of the
population favoured joining Russia. NATO,
needless to say, has often tried to justify its own
existence since the Soviet Union collapsed; the
Warsaw Treaty Organisation (the Warsaw Pact)
had a 2004 dissolution date, but NATO has no
such limit. Western militaries and arms
manufacturers also stand to benefit from another
Cold War. Former British Chief of Staff Lord
Dannatt has called for a new brigade of 3,000
troops to be sent to Germany, while current plans
are to remove all 20,000 such troops from that
deployment, which dates from 1945. Given that
European Union countries buy Russian oil and
natural gas for hard currency, anti-Russian
sanctions mean that western oil corporations will
welcome British Prime Minister David Camerons
immediate call for more fracking, which is a highly
controversial activity in his country. Financial
bodies, nevertheless, may not like sanctions; Visa
and MasterCard have resumed services to
customers of Russias SMP Bank. The G7 move, in
sum, is less principled than it might look, and
western legislatures must scrutinise their respective
executives closely over their handling of the Ukraine
crisis.
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The March 24 decision by seven major industrial

countries (the G7) to suspend Russia from the
informal grouping called the G8 is not surprising
in view of Russias annexation of the Ukrainian
province of Crimea. Specifically, the G7 announced
in what it called the Hague Declaration made
on the sidelines of the global Nuclear Security
Summit that it would not attend the forthcoming
G8 summit in Sochi and would instead meet as the
G7 in Brussels; it has also threatened co-ordinated
sectoral sanctions if Moscow continues to escalate
this situation. Russia has been a G8 participant
since 1998, under a general plan to strengthen EastWest relations. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei
Lavrov had earlier shrugged off the possibility of
expulsion, pointing out that as the G8 has no formal
membership no country can be expelled from it; in
addition, the Ukrainian embassy in the Netherlands
has reported Mr. Lavrov as saying Russia had no
intention of using military force in eastern and
southern Ukraine, and that if the situation worsens,
Ukrainian-Russian contacts will occur at the foreign
ministry and defence ministry levels.
The G7 decision is, however, open to
exploitation. To start with, the G7 has apparently
accepted the appointment of many Ukrainian
ministers with neo-Nazi and anti-Semitic
backgrounds. Secondly, NATO has asserted that
Russia plans a Crimea-type move for the
autonomous Moldovan territorial unit of
Source: The Hindu
ON THE DILEMMA OVER THE RHINO HORN
In the luscious wet forests and golden grasslands

of Assam, a keratinous debate is brewing. The
debate is about the Rhinoceros unicornis, the Onehorned Rhino of India, and its single horn. The
rhino, short-tempered and evolutionarily ancient,
is an animal with enigma: one which writer
Rudyard Kipling described as wearing a suit of
armour, a great beast which survived the
Pleistocene Mass Extinction of animals, and whose
single, mounted horn is both a mystery and a
product of exceptional evolution. Tragically, this
defining characteristic is also the reason for the
rhinos continuous decimation: rhinos are poached
for their horns, with mounted, gunned battles
leading to losses of forest guards, conservation
effort, and the very lives of the animals in our states.
The Assam government now has a proposal to
take away the ostensible source of death and illicit
trade: the rhinos horn itself. An expert committee
has been constituted by the State to consider the

feasibility and necessity of de-horning rhinos, in a
move to save them. At the moment, the proposal
suggests that the horns of rhinos that stray outside
protected areas, or rhinos that need to be
translocated, should be trimmed (Assam
Government awaiting expert opinion on trimming
rhino horns, The Hindu, February 13).
At one level, this move signals the desire of the
State to address a long drawn out and exhausting
battle. In Assam itself, rhinos are poached every
few weeks, and 11 have been killed this year.
Poachers are known to carry sophisticated weapons
like AK-47s, and are ruthless. Yet, in the protection
of rhinos, the forest departments role is legendary:
Assam became the first State in India to issue shoot
at sight orders for poachers in Kaziranga National
Park, boosting the rhino population.
[47]
Of one horns and poachers
The ethics of intervention
However, the battle to protect the rhino, whose

horn is seen as nothing less than gold or cocaine in
the illicit market, only starts with healthy
populations. Poachers strike opportunistically. Being
a high stakes and high-risk trade, it is unlikely they
will stop until the last rhino is gone forever.
The debate surrounding rhino conservation in

Assam today is a direct response to the social reality
of rhino poaching. The ecological consideration of
the role of the horn for rhino reproduction and
feeding may not have been the primary deciding
factor in this debate. Indeed, the role of the rhino
horn has been poorly understood.
But field observations confirm that successful
males are also those who have large horns, and
the horn has been seen as used in foraging for
food. Even if we consider a deficiency of data on
the role of the horn while the animal possesses
it it will be difficult to consider the answer to
the opposite question: can the rhino lead a normal
life without the horn?
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And here is where the decision to de-horn rhinos

needs to be put into broader perspective: the
ecological role of the horn, the open question of
addressing poachers as an audience, and the very
ethics of intervention.
Unlike the African rhino, the Indian rhino has

a single horn. This horn is made of keratin and if
cut in a way that includes the skull, it will not
grow back. If cut in a manner which excludes the
skull it is likely to regrow. While the Assam
government stresses that the proposal being
considered is only for temporary trimming, the most
significant question is not whether the horn is
removed temporarily or permanently. Rather, the
essential question is: who is the audience for this
exercise?
The rhino is considered the most coveted animal
in the illegal trade. By removing its horn, we assume
that there is perfect complicity between demand
and supply of this product, the horn. But this is
not the case. Evidence suggests that poachers kill
anyway, being part of a violent, and ultimately
dangerously illegal occupation.
In African countries, where de-horning has

been tried as a measure to protect rhinos, poachers
have killed dehorned rhinos out of vengeance. In
India, poachers have killed female rhinos for their
horns, even though they have horns significantly
smaller than those of males. In a nutshell then,
poachers trap, shoot or kill opportunistically, and
the size of the horn (or even its presence) may not
be a deciding factor.
The second, much more complicated problem

to mull is that of protection of rhinos that dont get
dehorned. This is on the same lines as the first
question: if the audience for the dehorning exercise
is the poacher, then we cannot assume he will leave
poaching altogether because stray rhinos (which
are technically easier to poach) dont have horns.
In fact, this may victimise regular rhinos more, and
it is most likely that rhinos with horns inside
protected areas like Kaziranga, Pobitora and Manas
may be attacked with greater gusto.
[48]
Here is where the most difficult question of all

comes in: the very ethics of our intervention.
Intervening to remove a rhinos horn, in response
to a patently illegal activity, may set a dangerous
precedent. There are several species which are
highly prized in the poaching trade, and these
include tigers, lions, tokay geckos, and elephants.
Tigers and lions are killed for their skins, nails and
bones, tokay geckos for their body parts, and till
recently, elephants were slaughtered in India for
their ivory.
Dehorning rhinos may or may not stem
poaching of rhinos. But it may set a precedent for
similar such exercises, which are seen as a
management tool, but have unknown impacts on
the actual life and ecology of the animal. If we
dehorn rhinos, we may at some time also consider
de-tusking elephants. Finally, the impact intended
on the audience of poachers itself is unknown. In
the absence of rhinos, will poachers pack their bags,
or will they move towards capture of other species?
Animals do not live in the boxes or bestiaries
we make for them. The rhinos horn has been seen
as a symbol of power, and in our human
imagination, the horn has pride of place, as in the
symbol for Assam Oil, and many other Assamese
metaphors. In effect, the rhino did not ask for its
horn to be understood as power, and transference
of this power to humans, whether as a sheath for
a dagger or under Traditional Chinese Medicine.
While proposals for dehorning the rhino
demonstrate intent to solve the rhino poaching
problem, it is also a complete admission of defeat,
and that too, to unregulated forces. These are forces
which we should not buckle to, for reasons both
logical and ethical. The answers will lie in

demonstrating seriousness in solving the actual
problem: through higher conviction rates for
poaching cases, enforcement, vigilance and carrying
forward the commitment the Assam government
has already shown. There is no other means of

saving the unfortunate rhino.
Source: The Hindu
ABSTENTION LOUDER THAN ANY VOTE

acknowledged the progress is a valid assertion of
Indias regional influence.
The third shift, the decision to abstain on a
resolution after having voted with the United States
and the European Union in the past two years,
was because of the language of the resolution itself.
The setting up of an international inquiry
mechanism to inquire into alleged war crimes in
Sri Lanka during the final offensive against the
LTTE is a departure from the texts of the past. For
India, that holds the question of sovereignty so
dear, to have supported such an intrusive
resolution would have set another precedent.
Moreover, the resolution seems to follow a dual
principal: exhorting Sri Lanka to adopt the findings
of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation
Commission (LLRC) (it was appointed by Sri
Lankan President Rajapaksa in May 2010, to look
into allegations of human rights violations by Sri
Lankan forces) while at the same time ordering
another inquiry into the same allegations.
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Sometimes, the loudest sound can emanate from

the sidelines. At the U.N. Human Rights Council
in Geneva recently, Indias abstention vote in a
United States sponsored resolution in the United
Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) against
Sri Lanka for an international probe into alleged
rights violations in the last leg of the civil war
was perhaps its boldest expression of external policy
in recent years, signalling several shifts in decisionmaking in South Block.
Behind the shifts in stance
To begin with, the Indian decision corrects the

aberrations of the past few years. India has an old
policy of not voting on country-specific resolutions,
much less on one against a neighbour. The fact
that India voted in 2012 and 2013 against Sri Lanka
was not just a departure from this practice; it was
a departure based on political considerations. The
United Progressive Alliances (then) ally, the
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and other
parties in Tamil Nadu had claimed that if India
didnt vote for the resolutions, the State would erupt
in violent protests. Since Indias decision was to
abstain from the vote, theres been no such
spontaneous reaction from the streets, laying that
claim bare. It also means that any violence that
breaks out now will be the result of political
instigation. It is unfortunate that the government
didnt try to test that claim in earlier years, instead
bowing to the threat from its former allies in Tamil
Nadu.
The next shift has been Indias acknowledgement
of progress in the Sri Lankan reconciliation process,
with Indias permanent representative to the U.N.
in Geneva, Ambassador Dilip Sinha calling the
elections in the Northern (Tamil) Provinces held in
2013 a significant step forward. Elections in the
Northern Provinces were something Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh had laid stress upon in numerous
meetings with the Sri Lankan leadership, and it was
important to acknowledge the outcome of that
pressure. To have voted against Sri Lanka despite
the elections having being held would have
rendered these efforts meaningless; to have
The text of the UNHRC resolution (A/HRC/

25/L.1/Rev.1) even goes so far as to recount the
recommendations of the LLRC report, that minces
no words about its findings when it says:
Recalling the constructive recommendations
contained in the Commissions report including the
need to credibly investigate widespread allegations
of
extrajudicial
killings
and
enforced
disappearances, demilitarize the north of Sri Lanka,
implement impartial land dispute resolution
mechanisms, re-evaluate detention policies,
strengthen formerly independent civil institutions,
reach a political settlement on the devolution of
power to the provinces, promote and protect the
right of freedom of expression for all persons and
enact rule of law reforms. From the final
resolution of the UNHRC#25.
If the LLRC is in fact constructive and
noteworthy, according to the sponsors of the
resolution, where is the need for another
investigation? Instead, the resolution could have
proposed punitive measures against the Sri Lanka
government until it adopts and acts on the LLRCs
recommendations. In any case, strong measures
[49]

like having an international inquiry are normally
reserved for countries that refuse access to U.N.
delegations. While U.N. High Commissioner for
Human Rights Navi Pillay had many complaints
about her week-long visit to Sri Lanka in August
last year, she was accorded, by her own admission,
access to any place she wished to see on what
was the longest official visit by the HR High
Commissioner to any country.
More about political signals
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While all these points should have been reason

enough for India to make the shift in voting on the
resolution, the unfortunate truth is that it was
political consideration rather than principle and
precedent that decided it. As noted earlier, the UPA
government and the Congress party didnt have to
worry about alliance partners in Tamil Nadu
withdrawing support this time. That worst case
scenario had already been played out in 2013, when
the DMK withdrew support to the government,
not because of Indias vote, but because India had
not enforced more stringent measures against Sri
Lanka in the resolution. India also sought comfort
in numbers, bolstered by the new entry of two
powerful countries, Russia and China, in the
composition of the UNHRC who would clearly have
voted with Sri Lanka and against the West. Had
India voted with the western bloc this time, it would
have been an Asian exception: while countries like
Japan and Indonesia abstained, others like Vietnam,
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and
Pakistan voted against the resolution.
Singhs decision not to travel to Colombo for the

Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting
(CHOGM) summit. In an interview, Union Minister
of External Affairs Salman Khurshid had told CNNIBN, It would be very disappointing if the Prime
Minister doesnt go to Colombo, later admitting
that the decision was forced by domestic politics.
Now, with Indias abstention vote, it would seem
that South Block is wresting back control of its
decision-making authority from that domestic sphere
that has ridden roughshod over several foreign policy
decisions including stopping the Teesta agreement
with Bangladesh, dealing with China, or restarting
talks at a technical level with Pakistan.
Perhaps, the most notable shift has come from

within South Block itself, where recommendations
of the External Affairs Ministry have been sidelined
over the past few years. The unhappiness among
diplomatic officials was evident last year over Dr.
Gauging the move
Criticism of Indias abstention vote includes this

that it would have better suited Indias stature
as a regional leader of 1.3 billion people to have
voted a firm yes or no instead. Amnesty
Internationals official statement says India had
chosen to sideline itself. Even so, the significance
of Indias vote has been lost on no one. President
Rajapaksas decision to free all Indian fishermen in
Sri Lankan custody as a sort of goodwill return
gesture is testament to how important the shift is
being seen in Colombo. The importance can also
be gauged from the fact that international human
rights organisations like Amnesty International and
Human Rights Watch have issued statements
specifically critical of Indias position. One
organisation tweeted that Indias abstention
denoted this a few steps forward and now
several backward for its record on human rights.
Others will see it as Indias foreign policy having
come full circle; an important reset just before the
election brings the next government to power.
Source: The Hindu
STRIVING FOR A POLIO-FREE WORLD
The polio-free certification given by the World

Health Organisation to its 11-nation South-East
Asia Region, which includes India, has become a
beacon of hope at a time when there is much to be
gloomy about in terms of ridding the world of a
virus that has crippled and even killed countless
children. When the nations of the world committed
themselves to eradicating polio in 1988, it was a
goal they intended to achieve by the year 2000.
But the target date slipped repeatedly. The strategic
plan approved last year aims to stop transmission
of all naturally-occurring wild polio viruses by
the end of this year and complete the task of
[50]
eradication by 2018. The first of those objectives

appears to be in jeopardy. Polio cases worldwide
during 2013 recorded an 82 per cent increase over
the previous year. Although the polio-endemic
countries of Afghanistan and Nigeria more than
halved the number of polio cases last year, Pakistan
registered a 60 per cent increase. The current
situation in Pakistan is a powder keg that could
ignite widespread polio transmission, warned the
Independent Monitoring Board, a body established
to evaluate global eradication efforts, in a letter
sent in February 2014 to the WHO DirectorGeneral, Margaret Chan. Worse still, the virus has

reappeared in countries that had been free of it.
Viruses from Pakistan have surfaced in the Middle
East, and those from Nigeria produced a resurgence
of polio in the Horn of Africa.
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The virus could well find its way to more

countries, and the situation is serious. Dr. Chan
has called a meeting in April of an Emergency
Committee under the International Health
Regulations to advise on measures to reduce the
risk of further international spread. One such step
could be the compulsory vaccination of travellers
from polio-infected areas. India recently made it
mandatory that those coming from countries with
polio produce a certificate of vaccination with an
oral polio vaccine. As long as the virus circulates
in any part of the world, all countries free of it
need to be vigilant and stop it from getting a

foothold in their territory. Despite the current
unpromising outlook for global polio eradication, it
would be unwise to give up in despair. As recently
as in 2009, almost half the world's polio cases were
occurring in this country. Yet, India had its last
polio case just two years later, paving the way for
the South-East Asia Regions certification. As the
Americas, Western Pacific and Europe have already
received such certification, four out of five children
in the world now live in countries that have
eliminated polio. The global community must find
the will and the means to end this scourge once
and for all.
Source: The Hindu
AN ELUSIVE DETECTOR FOR AN ELUSIVE PARTICLE
In the late 1990s, a group of Indian physicists

pitched the idea of building a neutrino observatory
in the country. The product of that vision is the Indiabased Neutrino Observatory (INO) slated to come up
near Theni district in Tamil Nadu, by 2020. According
to the 12th Five Year Plan report released in October
2011, it will be built at a cost of Rs.1,323.77 crore,
borne by the Departments of Atomic Energy (DAE)
and Science & Technology (DST).
By 2012, these government agencies, with the

help of 26 participating institutions, were able to
obtain environmental clearance, and approvals
from the Planning Commission and the Atomic
Energy Commission. Any substantial flow of capital
will happen only with Cabinet approval, which
has still not been given after more than a year.
If this delay persists, the Indian scientific
community will face greater difficulty in securing
[51]

future projects involving foreign collaborators
because we cant deliver on time. Worse still, bright
Indian minds that have ideas to test will prioritise
foreign research labs over local facilities.
Big science is international
In 1998, physicists from the Institute of

Mathematical Sciences (IMSc), Chennai, were
examining a mathematical parameter of neutrinos
called theta-13. As far as we know, neutrinos come
in three types, and spontaneously switch from one
type to another (Koshibas discovery).
The frequency with which they engage in this
process is influenced by their masses and sources,
and theta-13 is an angle that determines the nature
of this connection. The IMSc team calculated that
it could at most measure 12. In 2012, the Daya
Bay neutrino experiment in China found that it
was 8-9, reaffirming the IMSc results and drawing
attention from physicists because the value is
particularly high. In fact, INO will leverage this
largeness to investigate the masses of the three
types of neutrinos relative to each other.
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In March the delay acquired greater urgency.

On March 24, the Institute of High Energy Physics,
Beijing, announced that it was starting construction
on Chinas second major neutrino research
laboratory the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino
Observatory (JUNO), to be completed at a cost of
$350 million (Rs. 2,100 crore) by 2020.
Importance of time, credibility
Apart from the dates of completion, what

Indian physicists find more troubling is that, once
ready, both INO and JUNO will pursue a common
goal in fundamental physics. Should China face
fewer roadblocks than India does, our neighbour
could even beat us to some seminal discovery. This
is not a jingoistic concern for a number of reasons.
All big science conducted today is
international in nature. The worlds largest scientific
experiments involve participants from scores of
institutions around the world and hundreds of
scientists and engineers. In this paradigm, it is
important for countries to demonstrate to potential
investors that theyre capable of delivering good
results on time and sustainably. The same paradigm
also allows investing institutions to choose whom
to support.
India is a country with prior experience in
experimental neutrino physics. Neutrinos are
extremely elusive fundamental particles whose
many unmeasured properties hold clues about why
the universe is the way it is.
In the 1960s, a neutrino observatory located at

the Kolar Gold Fields in Karnataka became one of
the worlds first experiments to observe neutrinos
in the Earths atmosphere, produced as a byproduct of cosmic rays colliding with its upper
strata. However, the laboratory was shut in the
1990s because the mines were being closed.
However, Japanese physicist Masatoshi Koshiba
and collaborators built on this observation with a
larger neutrino detector in Japan, and went on to
make a discovery that (jointly) won him the Nobel
Prize for Physics in 2002. If Indian physicists had
been able to keep the Kolar mines open, by now
we could have been on par with Japan, which
hosts the world-renowned Super-Kamiokande
neutrino observatory involving more than 900
engineers.
[52]
So, while the Indian scientific community is

ready to work with an indigenously designed
detector, the delay of a go-ahead from the Cabinet
becomes demoralising because we automatically
lose time and access to resources from potential
investors.
This is why were calling it an India-based
observatory, not an Indian observatory, because we
seek foreign collaborators in terms of investment
and expertise, says G. Rajasekaran, former joint
director of IMSc, who is involved in the INO project.
On the other hand, China appears to have been
both prescient and focussed on its goals. It
purchased companies manufacturing the necessary
components in the last five years, developed the
detector technology in the last 24 months, and was
confident enough to announce completion in barely
six years. Thanks to its Daya Bay experiment
holding it in good stead, JUNO is poised to be an
international collaboration, too. Institutions from
France, Germany, Italy, the U.S. and Russia have
evinced interest in it.
Beyond money, there is also a question of
credibility. Once Cabinet approval for INO comes
through, it is estimated that digging the vast
underground cavern to contain the principal
neutrino detector will take five years, and the
assembly of components, another year more. We
ought to start now to be ready in 2020.
Because neutrinos are such elusive particles, any
experiments on them will yield correspondingly
unsure results that will necessitate corroboration
by other experiments. In this context, JUNO and

INO could complement each other. Similarly, if INO
is delayed, JUNO is going to look for confirmation
from experiments in Japan, South Korea and the
U.S.
It is notable that the INO laboratorys design
permits it to also host a dark-matter decay
experiment, in essence accommodating areas of

research that are demanding great attention today.
But if what can only be called an undue delay on
the governments part continues, we will again miss
the bus.
Source: The Hindu
QUEST FOR OIL THREATENS AFRICAS OLDEST WILDLIFE RESERVE

year, until a strategic environmental evaluation
had been conducted.
The evaluation failed to satisfy the WWF and
local organisations, which argue that such
contracts and permits handed out by the state
violate both Congolese law on conservation and
the UNESCO convention protecting World Heritage
Sites.
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The quest for oil may be the latest threat to

Africas most venerable wildlife reserve located in
the Democratic Republic of Congo and already hard
hit by deforestation, poaching and armed conflict.
Early in March, European Commissioner for

Development at the European Commission, Andris
Piebalgs, warned that with oil production there
would be a major risk of pollution at this site,
located near the sources of the Nile. The World
Wildlife Fund (WWF) and other environmental
bodies have also voiced concern about the planned
joint operation by small British firm SOCO
International PLC and the Kinshasa government
in part of the Virunga National Park.
The whole protected territory on the border with
Uganda and Rwanda covers 800,000 hectares (two
million acres) and has attained worldwide renown,
notably for its rare and endangered mountain
gorillas.
The area is exceptionally rich in biodiversity,

but is located in scarred North Kivu province, tracts
of which have been ravaged by successive conflicts
for more than 20 years. Poachers and logging teams
have damaged the reserve, but the park is also
criss-crossed by rival armed groups and soldiers,
while local people have taken up illegal residence.
Created in 1925 in the far east of what was
then the Belgian Congo, the whole park was
declared as an endangered part of the global
heritage by the UN Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organisation in 1994.
Contract for oil
A global protest campaign erupted after SOCO

in 2010 won a contract from the Congolese
government to jointly prospect for oil on a
concession overlapping the parks territory.
International resistance proved strong enough
to make Kinshasa suspend SOCOs permit the next
The WWF filed a complaint against SOCO and

on February 14 welcomed a British government
announcement of an independent probe into the
oil companys activities in the Democratic Republic
of Congo, including alleged threats against local
activists.
Opponents denounce the fact that SOCO has
functioned inside the park for several months since
the government directly associated the company
with its own evaluation, thus potentially biasing
the outcome.
SOCO announced in its outlook for 2014 that
no drilling has been planned or is warranted at
this stage, but it said activity would include
scientific studies involving a seismic survey of Lake
Edward, environmental baseline studies and social
projects.
Sceptics argue that the seismic survey is a cover
for hidden oil prospection that could have serious
consequences for the environment.
SOCO said its chairman Rui de Sousa met with
WWF chief David Nusbaum last year and proposed
that they work together to find the best way
forward. The firm expressed a commitment to
improving dialogue with all parties about how
[its] activities could affect the flora and fauna of
the Virunga National Park and the livelihoods of
the regional population.
Source: The Hindu
FRICTION OVER DRUG PATENTS

Differences over intellectual property rights
(IPRs) have emerged as a strong undercurrent in
Indias economic relations with the U.S. The

attempt by the influential pharmaceutical lobby to
[53]

medicines and chemicals, managed to incorporate
certain flexibilities in the TRIPS agreement.
However, since 2005 when India incorporated
patent protection into domestic laws, it has used
the flexibilities only twice. In March 2012, it issued
a compulsory licence to an Indian firm for a cancer
drug, whose patent-holder, the German
multinational Bayer, had priced it well beyond the
reach of a majority of Indian patients. Under
another provision, countries have the option to deny
a patent to a drug that involved only incremental
innovation over an existing drug. In April 2013 the
Supreme Court upheld the 2006 decision of the
Indian patent office denying the Swiss multinational
Novartis patent on a drug that involved only
incremental innovation. Clearly, not just these two
instances but the prospect of other countries
emulating India has rattled big pharma. India,
which has not violated the treaty obligations, can
challenge any prospective action by the U.S. by
taking it before the WTO, whose dispute settlement
mechanism has a good record of impartiality.
Developing countries as also a few developed ones
expect India to act effectively to safeguard its
domestic commitment to public health.
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stymie Indias efforts to ensure the supply of

medicines at affordable rates without violating
existing treaty commitments, requires a principled
response from New Delhi. At the core of the issue
is what Columbia University Professor Arvind
Panagariya calls the hijacking of the economic
policy dialogue between the U.S. and India by
pharmaceutical lobbies in the U.S. Piqued by
Indias decision to use the flexibilities that are
available in the existing TRIPS (Trade Related
Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) Agreement,
big pharma in the U.S., along with other influential
business groups, is using its considerable clout to
pressure the U.S. Trade Representative into
designating India as a priority foreign country
in its 2014 Special 301 Report, due on April 30.
That label is reserved for the worst offenders of
IPRs, and as a follow-up the U.S. could impose
trade sanctions such as withdrawing tariff
preferences for Indian exports. In an election year,
India will most likely retaliate through antidumping duties or tariff hikes on U.S. imports.
The genesis of this issue goes back to 1994 when
at the Uruguay Round of trade talks India, while
not being wholly successful in resisting U.S.
attempts to have a 20-year product patent on
Source: The Hindu
TRANSITIONS OF THE ANGRY MIDDLE CLASS
A few years ago, the emerging markets and

middle-income developing countries were
considered to have a rosy future the rising middle
class was going to usher in an era of stability,
democracy and mass consumer markets that would
lead the world economy.
The global middle class is growing, but the
hoped-for smooth democratic transitions have not
occurred. Instead, what we have seen are clashes
between an increasingly angry middle class and
governments that have broken faith or taken them
for granted.
Trajectory of confrontations
Last year, two of the most promising emerging

market nations Brazil and Turkey were rocked
by massive urban protests. These put in doubt the
future of political parties and leaders that had
seemed unassailable. The decision by Brazilian
President Dilma Rousseffs Workers Party to spend
lavishly on the World Cup and Olympics while
raising bus fares and letting the exchange value of
the Brazilian Real soar hit hard at the pockets of
[54]
urban Brazilians. Ms. Rousseff had to back down

and recast her policies. In Istanbul, the decision by
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to reshape
the city with new construction, including the closing
of Gezi Park, a deeply valued urban refuge, gave
rise to protests; Mr. Erdogans decision to respond
with excessive force called into question his
commitment to democracy, as did his dismissive
disparaging of the protesters. Eventually, Mr. Erdogan not only backed down, but found himself on
the defensive, with his ministers and party under
investigation for corruption.
In Brazil and Turkey both recently emerged
from military rule but with an increasingly
established pattern of democracy the regimes
avoided the use of deadly force and backed away
from confrontation, seeking instead to respond to
the protesters demands. Yet, in the last few months,
other countries that have only started to move
toward democracy more recently or more weakly
have seen similar confrontations, and these have
erupted into deadly confrontations, in at least one
case (Ukraine) toppling the regime.

The short-term economic performance of these
countries is not as important as where they stand
in this transition, having escaped dire poverty but
now just knocking on the door of modern westernstyle security and prosperity. In fact, the short-term
performance of these countries is varied. According
to the World Bank, in 2012, the economy of
Ukraine grew by only 0.2 per cent, while that of
Bosnia-Herzegovina declined by 0.7 per cent. In
contrast, Thailands economy performed
wonderfully, with GDP increasing by 6.5 per cent,
and Venezuela also enjoyed strong growth of 5.6
per cent.
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What is responsible for the violent protests that

have emerged nearly simultaneously in the Ukraine,
Bosnia, Thailand and Venezuela? As in Brazil and
Turkey, what we are seeing is the real result of the
emergence of a global middle class not merely
passive consumers or docile voters, they are
demanding that governments not accustomed to
accountability and showing deference to popular
demands start acting like true democracies. Where
the rulers of emerging democracies remain visibly
corrupt, or treat crucial foreign and domestic
policies simply as their personal choices to make,
they are provoking waves of anger and mass
protests. And where instead of backing down they
persist in confrontation, they are reaping violence
and losing control of their country.
What economic indicators show
From So Paulo to Caracas, from Sarajevo to

Kiev, and from Istanbul to Bangkok, we are seeing
a similar phenomenon. These are movements of
the angry emerging middle class in countries at a
crossroads. If we examine the background to recent
events in the Ukraine, Bosnia, Thailand and
Venezuela, we find that despite the geographic
distances that separate them, these countries are
remarkably similar.
All four are middle-income countries. According

to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the best
off, oil-enriched Venezuela, ranks 73rd in per capita
GDP (adjusted for the purchasing power parity of
its currency). Thailand ranks 92nd, BosniaHerzegovina ranks 99th, and Ukraine is the poorest,
ranking 106th. Thus, among the worlds 187
countries ranked by the IMF, they are almost exactly
in the middle.
They have just arrived at the point where the
vast majority of the population is literate and
expects the government to provide a sound
economy, jobs and decent public services. Yet, they
are not yet economically comfortable and secure.
That security, and a better future for themselves
and their children, depends very heavily on
whether government leaders will work to provide
greater opportunities and progress for the nation
as a whole, or only to enrich and protect themselves
and their cronies. In sum, all these countries are at
a point where limiting corruption and increasing
accountability are crucial to whether their country
will continue to catch up to the living standards of
richer countries, or fall back to the standards of
poorer ones.
Yet, short-term economic performance can be

misleading. In 2010, just before Egypt erupted into
turmoil, the nations economy had enjoyed 5.3 per
cent GDP growth; in the first half of 2010, Syrias
economy boomed with a 6.0 per cent GDP gain.
The problem is that these short-term, overall growth
rates tell us nothing about how prosperity has been
distributed, about the gap between economic
growth and political exclusion, or the amount of
economic growth that is stolen through corruption.
It is these latter factors that feed anger that can
erupt in protests.
Import for India
Given that people are protesting not out of sheer

poverty, but against rulers they see as stealing their
chances to move forward, it should be no surprise
that these four countries are also rated as highly
corrupt. According to the corruption index
compiled by Transparency International (TI),
Thailand, Ukraine and Venezuela are among the
most corrupt countries in the world: Thailand ranks
102nd, Ukraine 144th, and Venezuela at 160th in
the level of perceived corruption. The 2012 TI scale
rates Bosnia as somewhat more honest, at only
72nd in corruption; but in the last year, perceived
corruption has risen sharply, as one of the main
complaints of rioters in that country is that the
Bosnian governments privatisation of state assets
in the last year was a spectacle of gross corruption.
To be sure, the angry middle classes that are
demanding change are not always democrats, nor
are they always supported by a majority of the
population. In Thailand, the demonstrators in
Bangkok are seeking to overturn a freely elected
Prime Minister who clearly has support among a
majority of Thais; the yellow-shirt activists who
have shut down the government are monarchists
who want an appointed leader to take over instead.
[55]

In Venezuela, the Bolivarian Revolution remains
popular with those outside the urban middle classes
who have benefitted from the regimes largesse,
fiscally ruinous though it may be. Even in the
Ukraine, the protesters in Kiev overturned a
government that had won electoral support from a
majority of the country, though concentrated in
the southeast portion of the country
Not only the coming election, but what follows

this election, will determine whether Indias
democracy remains peaceful. Much hope for
change is riding on this election, but if whoever
emerges as the victor does not deliver meaningful
change, and puts India firmly back on the road to
rapid economic growth with a more open and
responsible government, then Indias middle classes
will be angry as well. Todays scenes from Caracas
and Istanbul may then be repeated in New Delhi
before too long.
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Yet, democracy in the sense of majority rule is

not what people are seeking. The middle classes in
Ukraine, Bosnia, Thailand and Venezuela are
demanding greater accountability, and are
challenging regimes seen as corrupt, out of touch
and which form obstacles to a better future.
assurance of security and stability. Also, like these

countries, the fruits of modernisation are being very
unevenly distributed across the population, and this
problem is made worse by rampant corruption.
What the people of India want, just as the angry
middle classes in these four countries do, is a
government that is accountable, responsible, and
effective in moving their country further into the
modern world.
Perhaps, most important, is what these events

portend for the worlds largest democracy India.
Just as in Turkey, Brazil, Thailand and the Ukraine,
India is developing an urban middle class that
aspires to a better life. Yet, just like these countries,
India cannot yet provide that middle class the
Source: The Hindu
A MANDATE FOR THE UNHRC
In adopting a country-specific resolution against

Sri Lanka that calls upon the United Nations
Human Rights Commissioner to undertake a
comprehensive investigation into alleged serious
violations and abuses of human rights and related
crimes by both parties in Sri Lanka, the UN
Human Rights Council has again brought the focus
as much on the killings in the last phase of the civil
war in Sri Lanka, as on the international
investigation into issues in a sovereign state. No
progress has been made to fix responsibility for the
mass killings in the last phase of the civil war in
2009. The resolution, co-sponsored by 41 countries
and piloted by the U.S., contended that Sri Lanka
has failed to achieve reconciliation following the
end of the three-decade long civil war. But it does
not build on the earlier resolutions against Sri
Lanka; it rather marks a worrying point of
departure. So far, the emphasis has been on
encouraging and urging Sri Lanka. The new
mandate of the international investigative
mechanism is open-ended. Opponents of the
resolution were against the imposition of an
international investigation by expanding the role
of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human
Rights (OHCHR), and the Special Procedures of
the HRC. The resolution includes many prescriptive
elements. The U.S. sees the vote as an act that
[56]
seeks to push Sri Lanka into pursuing lasting peace,

and wants to drive home the point that justice and
accountability cannot wait.
India was in the limelight at the 25th session of
the HRC. It had unconditionally backed Sri Lanka
in the 2009 session, soon after the end of the war.
It went to the other extreme and voted against Sri
Lanka in 2012 and 2013. In fact, in 2013 it even
worked to make the language of the resolution
harsher. The same conditions as in 2013 exist now:
elections to the Northern provincial council were
held in September 2012. The Tamil Nadu factor
that had influenced Indias vote the last time round
seems to have lost steam with the Congress and
the DMK parting ways. In any case, it is debatable
if even at its height it would have overcome Indias
long-standing opposition to intrusive international
investigations as envisaged by the latest resolution.
By voting twice against Sri Lanka in the past years,
India had already antagonised the majority Sinhala
community. With India abstaining this time, the
northern Tamils seem to have lost faith in India.
Not many believe anything will change for Tamils
in Sri Lanka if the OHCHR carries out the
investigation. An intrusive investigation has so far
not yielded genuine reconciliation, and a life of
dignity and self-respect for people anywhere. Sri
Lanka cant be any different.
Source: The Hindu
FOOD SECURITY IN THE TIME OF INFLATION

Inefficient targeting
This low relationship between income and type
of ration card is worrisome because it suggests that
it is difficult for us to identify the poor and target
subsidies. NFSA plans to provide subsidised grains
to 75 per cent of the rural households so it should
cover most of the poor; but for urban households
where only 50 per cent are expected to receive BPL
cards, this inefficient targeting could be highly
problematic with poor households being excluded
from receiving subsidised grain while some middle
income households benefit.
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Passage of the National Food Security Act

(NFSA) has put the Public Distribution System
(PDS) at the core of the national mission to feed
the hungry. The PDS, operated via fair price or
ration shops, will distribute up to 5 kg of rice at Rs.
3 per kg., wheat at Rs. 2 per kg, or millet at Rs.1
per kg per person per month to 75 per cent of the
rural population and 50 per cent of the urban
population.
Will the PDS be able to handle this scale of
distribution? Will availability of practically free
grains overcome the potential inconvenience of
buying from a single shop? Will this allocation meet
all the households cereal needs? Some of the data
from the India Human Development Survey (IHDS)
conducted by the National Council of Applied
Economic Research and the University of Maryland
provides a guide to the recent past. About 42,000
households were surveyed in 2004-05, and once
again in 2011-12, and provide an interesting
description of how PDS has grown in importance
for ensuring household food security in an era of
rapid food price inflation.
PDS cards come in three flavours Above

Poverty Line (APL), Below Poverty Line (BPL) and
the Antyodaya Anna Yojana for the poorest of the
poor. Here we combine BPL and Antyodaya card
holders. While the Central government decides on
the proportion of a States population that is eligible
for BPL status, States identify which particular
households should get which card using their own
criteria.
Substantial efforts were made between 2006
and 2012 to improve targeting of BPL cards and
expand the number of Antyodaya cardholders.
Did retargeting of PDS work? Comparing access

to BPL cards across different income categories
(using 2012 constant prices) paints a picture of the
glass both half full and half empty. In 2005, 44 per
cent rural and 31 per cent individuals with monthly
incomes of Rs. 300 or below had a BPL card; by
2012 this proportion had risen to 56 per cent (rural)
and 36 per cent (urban). But while an effort was
made to include the poorest, affluent households
also benefitted. Among households with monthly
per capita incomes of Rs 2,000-2,500, the proportion
of households with BPL cards grew from 25 per
cent to 43 per cent in rural areas and from 15 per
cent to 29 per cent in urban areas.
Apart from retargeting of PDS, the years 20092012 also saw runaway food price inflation. So
looking at the IHDS data from 2005 and 2012
allows us an opportunity to examine the role of
PDS in household food security during times of
high inflation.
The biggest change took place in people who
actually purchased grains in PDS, termed PDS off
take. Only 25 per cent of the respondents purchased
grain from the ration shops in 2004, but over 50
per cent did so in 2012. Food price inflation accounts
for much of this increase but perhaps increasing
efficiency of PDS shops could also account for some
of the increase. People with APL cards are supposed
to receive grains at the market price and only 12
per cent APL households purchased grain from
PDS shops in 2005. By 2012 this proportion had
risen to 29 per cent. Even if they had to pay the
full PDS price, in an era of rapidly rising prices,
full PDS price was still lower than the market price.
This increase was particularly large in the cities.
However, since the quantities that can be purchased
via PDS by BPL households is limited, only about
4.5 kg of grains per month per person was
purchased from PDS, forming about 45 per cent of
the total grain consumption. Once households
decided to buy from fair price shops, the amount
they purchased was determined by the allowance
and did not vary between two survey years or
across different income groups.
These observations create an interesting
quandary. On the one hand, PDS has begun to
play a far greater role in the household food
consumption in recent years and with the
expansion of its role under NFSA, will be even
more important. On the other hand, it only covers
less than 50 per cent of a households cereal intake.
If the expansion of PDS results in an increase in
[57]

market prices, it may have a substantial negative
impact on household budget and may well
counterbalance the benefits of food subsidy.
Vast regional differences

While we have painted a national picture here,
regional differences in the importance of PDS in
household food budget are vast. Whereas in northcentral India only about 40 per cent of the people
buy grains from ration shops, nearly 85 per cent in
the south use food from ration shops.
These observations suggest three major

challenges for the country as we move forward.
First, identifying the poor is likely to remain a
problem, particularly for the urban areas. Second,
since PDS covers less than half of the households
cereal budget, if the expansion of NFSA affects
cereal prices it will impact all households, even
those covered by NFSA. Third, inter-State disparities
will continue to persist given the complex equation
between the Centre and the State in providing food
subsidies.
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Source: The Hindu
PAUSE AND REFRAME
As the country debates what its monetary

policy framework should be, it is perhaps a good
time to assess the stance, determinants and
outcomes of the extant framework over the last
decade through the prism of a framework used by
central banks the world over, the Taylor Rule. John
B. Taylor has argued that his eponymous rule is,
mutatis mutandis, relevant for developing country
central banks. While there are a number of
variations of the Taylor Rule, including those by
Taylor himself, a commonly used formula is as
follows: policy rate = last quarter inflation plus 0.5
(last quarter GDP minus potential GDP) plus 0.5
(last quarter inflation minus inflation target).
Two things are immediately apparent. First,

monetary policy has been consistently very loose
since 2003, both in periods of low and high growth.
Second, since asset inflation seems to move in
tandem with economic growth, this reflects
optimism driven by sentiments surrounding growth
prospects, rather than asset bubbles driven by loose
monetary policy as in the US.
One can think of five possible reasons why

monetary policy has been so loose over the past
decade. First, the central bank may have been
targeting alternative metrics of inflation, such as
wholesale price or core inflation. Wholesale prices
are not used by other central banks for the conduct
of monetary policy. Core inflation is, but it is
inappropriate for emerging markets because of its
smaller weight in the consumption basket. Be that
as it may, use of alternative metrics may qualify
the extent to which monetary policy was loose but
is unlikely to change the overall stance.
Second, the RBI may have followed the
precedent set by advanced country central banks
in easing aggressively in response to downturns
without commensurate tightening in the upturn.
[58]
Central bankers are, after all, part of the exclusive

Basel club. The consequence was asset inflation in
advanced economies and persistently high CPI in
India. Third, the RBI may have given preference to
growth over inflation, perhaps prodded by the
treasury, either directly or indirectly through fiscal
dominance. Since fiscal policy was lax, there was
little that the central bank could have done but
accommodate it to prevent even greater distortions.
Fourth, since the source of inflationary pressures
in India was on the non-core side, which is less
amenable to monetary policy action, periodic
modest rate-hikes have been unable to tame
inflation, making monetary policy look unusually
loose in retrospect. As Paul Volcker showed in the
US, monetary policy has to be used as a
sledgehammer if it is to tame inflationary pressures
emanating from the non-core side. The fifth
explanation is that Indian monetary policy got
trapped in the classic impossible trinity by trying
to simultaneously target the domestic growthinflation cycle and the external financial-capital
flow cycle. Thus, in the period 2003 Q3 to 2008
Q3, monetary policy was too loose with respect to
the domestic growth cycle because the central bank
was constrained in its response to huge capital
inflows and the appreciating rupee.
The low growth period 2008 Q4 to 2009 Q2
during the global financial crisis was also a period
of huge capital outflows and sharp depreciation of
the rupee. With a large stockpile of foreign currency
reserves, monetary policy now focused on the
domestic growth cycle. The period of high growth
in 2009 Q3 to 2011 Q2 saw the return of capital
flows and rupee appreciation, constraining
monetary policy to shift its focus back to the external
cycle. In the recent period, 2011 Q3 to 2013 Q4,
despite the rupee coming under pressure on

account of capital outflows and sharp depreciation,
the focus of monetary policy shifted back to the
domestic growth cycle.
Second, while the financial regulatory structure

may be robust enough to prevent loose domestic
monetary policy spilling over into asset markets,
the latter are nevertheless susceptible to spillovers
from the monetary policies of advanced economies
through capital flows. This warrants a suitable
macro-prudential policy response. Third, and last,
as long as there is fiscal dominance and a large
weightage of food and fuel in the consumption
basket, the credibility of any inflation-targeting
monetary policy framework will remain at risk, as
these are not easily amenable to monetary policy
actions.
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What lessons can be derived from the

experience of the last 10 years for Indias monetary
policy framework going forward? First, the Taylor
Rule is a single policy variable framework for
responding to the domestic business cycle.
However, cross-border capital flows are now
increasingly driving business cycles, including asset
prices, in emerging markets, exerting disinflationary
or inflationary pressures through exchange-rate
fluctuations. Since growth collapses just as the
external cycle turns, central banks need to loosen
monetary policy to stimulate growth but tighten it
to prevent capital flight. They consequently find it
impossible to use a single policy instrument, the
short-term interest rate, to simultaneously target
the domestic growth-inflation cycle and the external
financial cycle. The latter is determined by the
vagaries of monetary policies in reserve currency
issuing countries and not by their own
macroeconomic variables. According to the widely

accepted Tinbergen Rule, a policy instrument can
be effective only if it has a single objective.
Developing countries therefore need to move beyond
flexible inflation targeting to using a second policy
instrument as part of a consistent framework to
respond to the external financial cycle.
WHY BANK ON EC
The granting of bank licences should be a job

the banking regulator does on an ongoing basis. A
financial firm should apply for a licence and, based
on a set of clear rules, it should be deemed eligible,
or not. Further, the regulator may use its judgement
to decide whether the firm is fit and proper to
accept deposits from the public.
Since banking is an activity that requires high

levels of faith in the owner, the regulator must
protect customers by choosing well. Following this,
it should carry out high quality microprudential
regulation of the bank. In case the bank is about to
fail, the regulatory system should have a resolution
corporation that sells off the sinking bank, before it
fails, to another buyer, with minimum recourse to
the tax payer.
The RBI has, however, failed to perform the

above functions. For 10 years, it has not given out
bank licences. It has no system in place, no on-tap
licence mechanism that would have prevented the
issuing of bank licences from becoming a big event.
Today, thanks to this failure, the giving out of
bank licences has become a possible instrument for
political favouritism. And thus, in the run-up to a
Lok Sabha election, it was referred to the Election

Commission. This should not have been the case.
Bank licences should not have been scarce and they
should not command scarcity value.
Today, regardless of who gets it, the rare licence
will be able to draw in high profits. For this reason,
bank licences are seen as something the regulator
is handing out to a few and it could invite charges
of favouritism or bribery in the process. To avoid
being perceived as corrupt or favouring friends,
RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan set up a committee
that included individuals like former RBI governor
Bimal Jalan and former Sebi chief C.B. Bhave to
screen the applications.
The committee would not have been necessary
if the RBI had been doing its job on a regular basis
and was a well-functioning institution whose board
made the decisions to give licences. Rajan would
also not have had to protect his decisions from
being questioned by referring the matter to the EC.
If the independence of the banking regulator had
been completely unquestioned, the EC would have
no say in the matter.
RISING TO THE CHINA CHALLENGE

No one in the country denies that we must
engage with China. However, it need not be an

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the important issues that need to be considered
while dealing with China.
First, border management. The world knows,
as does China, that we are a peace-loving nation
and do not have territorial ambitions beyond our
borders. But they must also understand that we
possess the requisite expertise and power to defend
our motherland.
It is in this light that we have to manage our
borders with China while ensuring dignity in
dealing at the political as well as the functional
military level. Weak and extremely cautious
approaches at the political and diplomatic levels
that permeate down to the troops, allow China to
inch forward and consolidate its claims. Experience
shows that whenever we have dealt with China in
a professionally firm manner with clarity on
functional issues, our stand has been respected and
proven effective.
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aimless exercise for the sake of showing continued

diplomatic efforts by the government to either avoid
uncomfortable questions or to glorify the existence
of our diplomatic corps. If we critically analyse the
various senior-level talks in the last few years, it
emerges that these engagements have failed
miserably in achieving the desired results. The
prime ministers visit to China is no exception. The
timing of the visit gives an impression of filling the
blanks created by the concerned ministry as our
leadership lacks credibility and conviction in its last
leg and the Chinese will be unable to take it
seriously.
It is disturbing to note that our policy has
always been reactive and lacks any evidence of
long-term planning. Policymakers have become too
bookish and developed a sense of inflexibility and
arrogance due to their self-acclaimed view of being
the only ones who understand foreign policy. The
notings on government files, which are analysed
and later approved, reflect the same hackneyed
view, so they do not tackle dynamic challenges
facing the country.
China is an enigma to our politicians and
diplomats; so much so that they become
incomprehensibly cautious in their approach during
every routine or exclusive interaction, whether inhouse or at international forums. It is time that our
politicians and diplomats got over the 1962
syndrome and evolved a national vision to
fashion and project our national capability towards
ensuring adequate security and economic growth
at the level we deserve.
Why are we unable to deal with China as a

neighbour with equal reciprocal respect? Why do
our leaders and diplomatic corps exhibit an
embarrassing inferiority complex while dealing with
China? There is an overpowering section of officials
who successfully create a faade of likely strong
reaction from China and its extraordinary
capability, which inhibits the government from
projecting our national personality as per our actual
standing. Let us avoid overblown scenarios of what
might happen if China flexes its muscles. Many
such scenarios are grossly overstated and used to
support a specific point of view that is neither
realistic nor dynamic.
China is an upcoming international power and
well understands its place among the comity of
nations. Therefore, we need to continue our growth
process along with the development of national
power to be able to deal with our economic and
security concerns with dignity. Let us reflect on
[60]
Second, infrastructure development. China has

been actively engaged in substantially upgrading
its military infrastructure in Tibet including allweather railway lines, new roads, military airfields,
military camps close to the border, upgraded
communication systems and induction of a large
number of ballistic missiles. Our endeavour in this
regard is plagued by bureaucratic hurdles and lack
of strategic understanding, as well as clarity at the
directional and functional levels. The pace of
development cannot be maintained at the requisite
level till the urgency is understood and appreciated
by the functionaries at the ministry as well as
service headquarters. It is only then that
appropriate directions can be issued with conviction
by political heads.
Today, all government functionaries are happy
to play safe and avoid recommending or clearing
any project as it does not affect them directly during
their respective tenures. Nor are they accountable
for their inefficiency or misdeeds. They are sheltered
by the accepted wisdom that a conflict is unlikely
in the near future. However, they do not seem to
understand the basic security norms of
preparedness for war and exhibit an immature
strategic and operational outlook by overlooking
the ground reality of the process of planning and
executing infrastructural projects and the need for
continuous training.
Third, consolidation and modernisation. We
also need to understand and appreciate the
requirement of ensuring the availability of complete
authorised arms, ammunition and equipment,

along with phased modernisation, to meet
operational requirements. Equipping of armed
forces must not be compared with other sectors
where one can afford to procure new equipment
after the old has outlived its utility.
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Training and familiarisation of new equipment

by troops must be done prior to phasing out the
old so that operational preparedness is not
compromised. It would be prudent to understand
that while dealing with national security, the
finance ministry must not impose arbitrary cuts
and issue directions to bureaucrats to delay
clearance. Let everyone ensure that budgeted
amounts are spent in a timely manner, as per
planned service requirements, and not left at the
mercy of authorities.
Since Independence, our armed forces have

credibly defended our national and territorial
integrity. It is our national duty and honour to
provide them with the requisite wherewithal to deal
with challenging security concerns. Mere exhibition
of anxiety among the strategic community while
dealing with China will not suffice. Let us create
institutional arrangements and processes with
adequate decentralisation of powers that can cope
with the complexity of national security planning
and execution. Talks and superficial engagements
to project a sense of maturity and diplomatic
security will not suffice till these are backed by real
hard power.
THE CHALLENGE IS SKILLING
Heard of Velu the Welder? This simple

welding simulator is transforming the welding
landscape in India, which today faces a scarcity of
two lakh skilled welders. By training at 30 per cent
less cost and in a considerably safer way, it is
preparing thousands of youths to take up lucrative
welding jobs that pay anywhere between Rs 15,000
to Rs 1 lakh a month. Velu the Welder is a small
part of a skilling transformation that India is
undergoing today.
will not invest enough on skilling employees (what

stops employees from being poached once they are
trained at the companys expense?), and employees
have limited ability and willingness to pay for
skilling. They are often unaware of the full return
on investment and are also often creditconstrained, with little recourse to collateral free
credit. Left to its own, the market would therefore
create far fewer job-ready workers than the
economy needs.
Indias working-age population will rise by 12.5

crore over the coming decade, and by a further
10.3 crore over the following decade. It is almost a
clich to say India is sitting on a demographic
dividend. That is, with its growing young
workforce, it can look forward to decades of high
productivity, economic growth and upward social
mobility. What is often ignored is that this tale
assumes two things first, there will be availability
of productive jobs and second, there will be skilled
workers to take on the jobs being created. While
the first is often talked about, the second, skilling
and re-skilling young India to become job
ready, is equally important, and often treated as
secondary. Survey after survey shows that the lack
of a job-ready workforce is one of the biggest
constraints facing Indian industry. By 2022, it is
estimated that unless action is taken, there will be
a gap of 10.3 crore skilled labourers in the
infrastructure sector, 3.5 crore in auto and 1.3 crore
in healthcare, to name a few.
Faced with this reality, the government has

given a major impetus to skilling over the last few
years. To begin with, a clear national goal has been
established to skill and re-skill 500 million Indians
by 2022. A National Skills Development Agency
has been set up to coordinate various piecemeal
training efforts of different ministries, state
governments and industry. The budget for skilling
has been ramped up several-fold to more than Rs
10,000 crore a year. Skilling and placement targets
have been set at aggregate and sectoral levels and
a robust national tracking system is in place.
Skilling is an appropriate area for government

intervention as it is an example of what economists
call a market failure employers on their own
But targets and budgets are only part of the

solution. What is more interesting are the innovative
design and delivery models being set up to respond
to job-market realities.
First, industry has been centrally engaged in
designing the training curriculum and certification
of trainees, so that trainees are taught the things
they need for getting a job (a major weakness of
previous government training efforts was a weak
linkage to job-market needs). Twenty-eight sector
skill councils, with industry in the lead, have been
set up for this.
[61]

Second, incentives for youth to get trained and
certified are being put in place. The Standard
Training Assessment and Reward (STAR) Scheme
has been launched, under which each trainee gets
approximately Rs 10,000 upon completion and
certification of training. More than 2,30,000 young
people have been enrolled under the STAR incentive
programme already.
Of course, a lot more needs to be done and is

on the cards. The single biggest reform in the works
is the amendment to the archaic Apprenticeship
Act, to make it easier for companies to hire and
train apprentices. Apprenticeship has been a
successful model of skilling youth in countries like
Germany and Japan. This reform alone can increase
the number of apprenticeships in India from the
current 2.4 lakh to 30 lakh a year. Two hundred
community colleges are being set up within existing
colleges and polytechnics to enable youth pursuing
higher education to become more employable. Skill
development is one of the activities approved for
spending under Corporate Social Responsibility
(CSR) as per the new Companies Act 2013.
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Third, technology is beginning to be deployed

to transform the training landscape. Various
innovative models have emerged. As the example
of Velu the Welder (and similar simulators, such
as for driving) has shown, technology is being
leveraged to make training safer, more cost-effective
and more scalable. With highspeed broadband
connectivity to every panchayat likely to become a
reality in the next two years, technology-based
skilling models will only become more valuable in
scale and impact.
Fifth, new state-specific programmes that

address unique challenges like Udaan (for
unemployed graduates) and Himayat (for entrylevel service-jobs) in Jammu and Kashmir are
being scaled up. An end-to-end value chain for
identifying youth, training, placement and postplacement counselling and support has been
created. More than 20,000 young people have
already been trained and placed in the state
through these two programmes, and the target is
1.5 lakh over the next five years.
Fourth, existing government programmes are

being adapted to make the youth job-ready. The
National Service Scheme has been adapted to
prepare youth for entrepreneurship opportunities
by enhancing their IT literacy, financial literacy,
English communication and other soft skills. This
is already being implemented across 40 colleges.
Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) are being
upgraded,
many
through
public-private
partnerships. For example, a world-class skilling
centre has been established by the Delhi
government in partnership with the Singapore
government, adapting from the successful training
models of Singapore, to train 10,000 youths per
year.
India has made a tryst with its demographic

destiny. Skilling its youth is giving it a chance to
redeem this pledge.
WHY TB PERSISTS
With two decades of high economic growth,

India should have been on its way to controlling
tuberculosis. Yet it remains an urgent public health
problem. With 1,000 Indians dying every day of
TB, and with the highest number of TB patients in
the world, India is undoubtedly the crucial
battleground for TB control. The enhanced
detection of drug-resistant TB has increased the
complexity of managing the disease, as it requires
additional resources, manpower, laboratory
facilities and infrastructure. The bacteria are able
to evade drugs through various mechanisms and
we now have forms of TB that are very difficult to
treat.
In India, both the public and private sectors
have contributed to the continuing TB epidemic
[62]
and must take responsibility for corrective action.

For example, although the public sector offers free
TB care services, its primary tool of diagnosis all
these years, sputum microscopy, missed half of all
TB cases. Delayed detection impacts treatment
outcomes, and contributes to continuing disease
transmission (as TB is an airborne disease). Further,
patient experiences in the public sector are often
marred by impersonal care, hidden costs and
disempowerment.
The private sector often uses inaccurate and
expensive TB diagnostic tests. While inaccurate
diagnosis can lead to increased infection and patient
suffering, escalating costs have a debilitating effect
on families, pushing them into a vicious cycle of
poverty. There also exist well-documented cases

where private practitioners prescribe inappropriate
drug regimens. These practices can lead to
incomplete or interrupted treatment, contributing
to the manmade problem of drug-resistant TB.
Other key issues which require attention are

infection control and nutrition. Since TB is an air
borne disease it spreads quickly in close, densely
knit spaces. In the absence of ventilated housing,
providing patient, families and communities with
sufficient information on preventive strategies can
help contain the infection. Also, the government
needs to introduce a provision for nutritional
supplements to all TB patients. There is a wellestablished relationship between better nutrition
and improved treatment outcomes. Since the
majority of TB patients belong to vulnerable sections
of society, a nutritional supplement or financial
incentive (similar to Janani Suraksha Yojana) during
the treatment would go a long way in reducing
drop-outs and ensuring completion of therapy.
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So, how do we reduce TB in India and

ultimately eliminate it? TB control requires a
comprehensive and multi-level approach. We can
begin by prioritising public awareness and
addressing diagnosis and treatment in both public
and private sectors. Simultaneously, we need to
create an effective and workable relationship
between the public and private sectors. A platform
that combines many of these are the government
of Indias recently issued Standards of TB Care in
India (STCI). The STCI has been developed by the
Central TB Division and dovetails with World
Health Organisation and International Standards
for TB Care endorsed recommendations. With more
than 50 per cent of Indias TB patients seeking care
in the private sector, its engagement is vital for
effective TB control. It has the potential to bridge
the gap between the government and private sector,
by converging them to a single algorithm for
diagnosis and treatment.
in research studies have the potential to lower

default rates, which will help prevent drug-resistant
TB. Perhaps the most critical aspect is a strong
public information campaign that will increase
awareness, empower patients, reduce stigma and
help combat TB effectively.
Access to new and accurate diagnostics for TB

should be rapidly expanded and provided for
patients at reasonable prices (or free), while the
use of poorly performing tests should be disallowed.
There are several WHO recommended diagnostic
techniques, such as GeneXpert and other
indigenously manufactured kits, that provide quick
and accurate TB diagnosis and detect drugresistance. Early diagnosis is key to successful
treatment and disease control. Improving patient
outcomes involves rationalising treatment regimens
in the private sector and providing support for
needy patients to help them complete the full
course. Shorter regimens currently being evaluated
While we deal with the problem in the present,

it is critical to plan for the future. The development
of effective TB vaccines is vital. Although the
Bacillus Calmette-Guerin vaccine is administered
to all newborns, it is only effective for the first few
years. There is an urgent need to invest in research
and development and focus on indigenous TB
vaccines. Public-private partnerships in research
can go a long way in converting leads from
academic laboratories into useful products. India is
considered a pioneer in TB prevention and control.
But substantial reductions can only be achieved if
appropriate policies are followed, effective clinical
and public health management is ensured and
strong political commitment guides the effort.
OVERTURES TO COLOMBO
Signalling a reset with its southern neighbour,

India abstained from voting on the United Nations
Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution against
Sri Lanka. The US-sponsored resolution, which
seeks to set up an independent international
inquiry on human rights abuses during the last
years of the Sri Lankan civil war, was passed on
Thursday. Nearly 30 years of the LTTE insurgency
ended in 2009, leaving a country deeply fractured
by ethnic strife. As Sri Lankan government forces
advanced on Tamil rebels, allegations of war crimes
piled up. Healing these wounds is one of the biggest
challenges before the Sri Lankan government. India,

which had voted against Sri Lanka at the UNHRC
the last three times, has opted for a wise change of
tack.
Indias previous stand had created a chill
between Delhi and Colombo, narrowing room for
diplomatic manoeuvre. It reduced Indias leverage
with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa,
constricting its efforts to urge him towards
addressing the allegations, building bridges with
the Tamil population in the country and devolving
[63]

more power to the provincial councils. A less
oppositional stance now gives India greater
flexibility, opening up more channels for dialogue
and persuasion. India has also reiterated its
traditional position against international
intervention in the internal affairs of a country. Its
stated reason for abstaining was that the
international mechanism for the probe was an
intrusive approach and impinged on the
national sovereignty of Sri Lanka.
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But the more important reason behind Indias

new stance is a significant shift in its internal
politics. Clamour from Tamil parties in India had
dictated the UPAs responses so far, and the DMK
and AIADMK have long been locked in competitive

posturing over the plight of Sri Lankan Tamils. In
2013, the UPA government had voted against Sri
Lanka in an attempt to placate the DMK, then an
ally. In spite of the DMK walking out of the UPA
soon after, Delhis appeasement of Chennai did
not stop: the PM stayed away from the
Commonwealth meet in Colombo last year, even
though it was a multilateral forum. The Centre
now has fewer stakes in Chennai and Delhi finally
has the good sense to not let one issue hold bilateral
ties to ransom. The next government should build
on this decision to revisit Indias Sri Lanka policy.
WHY THE RBI SHOULD CUT RATES
We are all inflation targeters now, at least since

the RBI published the Urjit Patel report on
strengthening the monetary policy framework in
India. Inflation, at 10 per cent-plus annually for
the last six years, is something that definitely needs
fixing. But is inflation targeting (IT) the right
formula?
In order to understand that important question,

one needs to know the determinants of inflation.
The US gave up on the notion that the growth of
money supply determines inflation sometime in late1983, when it stopped reporting the eagerly
watched money supply numbers on Thursday
afternoons.
At that time, US CPI inflation had already come

down sharply from its double-digit peak of 13.5
per cent in 1980 to around 3 per cent. After the
peak of 5.4 per cent experienced during the Kuwait
crisis (oil price) years of 1990-91, US CPI inflation
has averaged 2.4 per cent, with a peak of 3.8 per
cent in the commodity peak year of 2008 and -0.3
per cent in the commodity trough year of 2009.
Now the US does not have inflation-targeting

as a policy, and may have had a loose de facto
targeting policy in the last decade. But it would be
erroneous to conclude that the US experience
supports the targeting idea, just as it would be
equally erroneous to conclude that all the Q
(quantitative easing) liquidities have an impact on
US inflation. Whether the Qs have an effect on
asset prices remains an open question.
Do other country experiences support the notion
that IT has been effective? The Patel report
documents that 14 countries adopted IT between
1990 and 2000.
[64]
The example of inflation in Chile declining from

24 per cent in 1990 to 4.4 per cent in 2007 and
inflation in the Czech Republic declining from 10.7
per cent 1998 to 2.9 per cent in 2007 is cited by the
report as success stories. India, of course, did not
have inflation-targeting but nevertheless CPI
inflation did decline from a 11.2 per cent rate in
1990 to 4.4 per cent in 2005 and 6.2 per cent in
2007. The correlation of Indias non-targeted
inflation rate with the targeted Chilean and Czech
inflation rates is a high 0.73 and 0.66 respectively!
The fact remains that the last six years have
witnessed a super, record high 10 per cent-plus
CPI inflation rate and the RBI is rightly concerned
about bringing it down by whatever means, even
a targeting scheme with a dubious record. There
are other suggestions, besides targeting, for bringing
down inflation. For example, the IMF argues for a
raising of repo rates until the cooling is in place.
They further argue, as many others in India,
that if only the RBI had been vigilant and raised
rates earlier, inflation would not have stayed
persistently above 10 per cent levels.
The evidence suggests that the IMF (and their
followers) have not quite understood the dynamics
of inflation in India. Just look at the record on
every occasion the RBI raised rates in the last five
years, the inflation rate went up! So empirical IMF
logic would suggest that the best way for inflation
to be brought down in India is not by targeting,
not by raising rates, but by lowering rates. Sounds
crazy but hold that thought until we briefly
review the inflation experience in India, its possible
determinants, what the inflation situation is today,
and likely to be in future.

Prior to 1972, Indian inflation was determined
primarily by what happened in agriculture.
Somewhat surprisingly, the average CPI inflation
between 1960-1972 was as little as 4 per cent. The
end-point 1972 is deliberately chosen because of
the quadrupling of the price of oil in October 1973.
Between 1973 and 1996, inflation averaged 9.1 per
cent and then entered a stable zone of 5.4 per cent
for the next eight years (1997-2004). The
importance of agriculture declined in this period to
less than 25 per cent of GDP.
After rising by an average 13.5 per cent in the

previous six years (2007-12), agricultural
procurement prices (APP) rose by only 6 per cent
in calendar year 2013. In 2012, the index rose at a
16 per cent rate; historical data suggests that this
10 percentage point decline in APP should lead to
an average CPI inflation rate of 7.5 per cent in
2014.
The RBIs target CPI inflation rate for December
2014 is 8 per cent and 6 per cent for December
2015. For three months, ending in February 2014,
the annualised rates of CPI and WPI inflation are
1.1 and -3.0 per cent respectively. This three-month
CPI rate is the lowest level since -0.3 per cent
recorded in August 2003.
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But then a curious thing happened Indian

inflation became dependent on agriculture, despite
significant improvement in yields, and production,
and food stocks.
your-face defeats of the Congress in assembly

elections.
The period post-2004 is of course coincident

with the UPAs persistent efforts at political
engineering, an engineering dedicated to win the
rural vote via higher administered support prices
for agricultural crops. These are not support prices,
but maximum prices available to the farmers with
the highest surplus that is, the rich farmers.
Landless labourers lost out in this pro-rich

populist UPA game. The result overall inflation
very high, cost of capital very high, and overall
disgust with the ruling dispensation very high.
But there is a silver lining, too late for the

Congress, but not too late for the economy which,
unlike political parties, will be there for ever.
Sometime in 2013, the anti-Sonia populism
technocrats prevailed, no doubt helped by the in-
Both CPI and WPI may be reflecting the

beginning of a structural change in Indian inflation.
To be above the RBI target of 8 per cent in
December 2014, CPI inflation would have to
average above 10 per cent for the rest of the
calendar year. Of course, anything can happen,
but the likelihood of the RBI 2014 target not being
met is close to zero, and of CPI inflation reaching
the December 2015 target of 6 per cent 12 months
earlier is, in my humble opinion (or as Kejriwal
would say, meri kya aukat hai), very high. Interest
rate cut, anyone?
PATENT OPPORTUNISM
The Global Intellectual Property Centres (GIPC)

International IP Index is an indicator of the shape
of things to come. Released earlier this year, the
Index notes India as having the weakest IP
environment on the list of 25 carefully chosen
countries that figure in the index. As an affiliate of
the US Chamber of Commerce, the GIPC does an
impressive job of singing the old tune of the
deteriorating standards of Indias IPness the
state of intellectual property protection.
The index was critically timed to appear before

the GIPC appeared in the Special 301 public hearing
before the US Trade Representative (USTR) on
February 24. That the GIPC and the US Chamber
of Commerce urged the USTR to designate India
as a Priority Foreign Country was surprising as the
index, though explicit in ranking India at the
bottom, makes no mention of whether India is
deserving of such designation.
The GIPC Index is an opportune forerunner to

the mother of all indices, the Special 301 the
annual naming, faming and shaming exercise of
the USTR where the US tells the world what their
level of intellectual property protection should be.
Every year, the USTR releases the Special 301
reviewing the global state of intellectual property
rights protection and enforcement. The exercise
involves categorising countries based on their
IPness. The good ones are praised and commended
for strengthening their IP regime.
The not so good ones are put either on the
Watch List or the Priority Watch List,
indicating that particular problems exist in those
countries with respect to IPR protection,
enforcement or market access for persons relying
on IPR. The really bad ones are named as Priority
Foreign Country for having the most onerous or
egregious acts, policies, or practices and whose acts,
[65]

policies, or practices have the greatest adverse
impact (actual or potential) on the relevant US
products. India has been at the receiving end for
uniquely incorporating a remarkable array of TRIPS
flexibilities into its patent law, which includes higher
standards of patentability, a pre-grant challenge
mechanism for patents and a robust compulsory
licensing regime.
highly educated labour pool, with extensive

pharmaceutical experience, was one of the reasons
for moving to India.
Since becoming a member of the WTO, India

has never been categorised as a Priority Foreign
Country. The GIPCs push in urging the USTR to
designate India as a Priority Foreign Country has
more to do with what is happening outside India
than within it.
Scorecards can sometimes say more than what

meets the eye. The GIPC Index does not stop with
suggestions to improve Indias deteriorating IP
regime. It cautions countries on treading the path
taken by India. While noting that the five BRICS
economies (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South
Africa) continue to face serious challenges, the
index mentions that Brazil has made limited
progress since the first GIPC Index in 2012 and
observes that many of the challenges that were in
2012 have been supplemented by potential new
ones, most notably in the form of a patent reform
initiative that appears to emulate the negative
experiences from India.
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Indias low-wage labour market seems to have

attracted Novartis, overlooking the level of IP
protection. If the Novartis example is anything to go
by, countries can rest assured that the level of IP
protection has nothing to do with FDI and job creation.
Based on some OECD models, the GIPC Index

makes a causal link between the level of protection
for IP in a country and the level of foreign direct
investment (FDI) and hypothesises that a 1 per cent
change in the strength of a countrys IP rights
environment, as measured by patent rights, may be
associated with a 2.8 per cent increase in FDI inflows.
The index implicitly makes a case that weaker

levels of protection for IP would mean lesser rates
of FDI. The index fairly notes that this finding may
not be universally applicable as one of the quoted
studies notes that IP rights are only one of the
factors required for the potential increase of FDI in
developing countries. There could be other factors
that can attract FDI even if the country offers the
worst level of IP protection. India is a case in point.
Widely regarded as the poster-child for
victimisation by Indias patent regime, Novartis has
reiterated, after each defeat it suffered in Indian
courts, that it will not invest in R&D in India. After
a decade-long court battle that culminated with
the Supreme Courts decision against its drug Glivec,
Novartis may be right in expressing its angst about
not investing in India, given its weak IP regime.
However, despite the setbacks it has faced in India,
Novartis recently decided to expand its operations
in Hyderabad and increase its investment in India
with a new pharmaceutical development centre.
The move by Novartis is one of the biggest

investments in office space in Hyderabad that will
have the capacity to have more than 8,000
employees. Apart from the investments made, a
significant portion of 4,000 jobs, which Novartis
plans to cut in Europe, is expected to come to India.
The CEO of Novartis remarked that Hyderabads
The principal cause of this exercise and the

follow-up representation before the USTR to
designate India as a Priority Foreign Country
appears to be directed towards putting an end to
the leadership role played by India in devising an
alternative TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of
Intellectual Property Rights) compliant patent
regime. No country has incorporated the flexibilities
offered by the TRIPS like India, which has set the
tone by fine-tuning its patent laws to suit its
development needs.
The Indian example offers to other countries a
legitimate way of complying with the TRIPS
agreement what can now be called the
alternative model of patent law, in stark contrast
to the dominant model of patent law propagated
by the US. Not surprisingly, countries like the
Philippines, Brazil and South Africa have either
emulated or strongly favour following Indias path.
In a world devoid of alternative approaches to
protecting intellectual property and promoting
access to inventions, Indias path is refreshingly
fresh and balanced. The GIPC Index is an effort to
silence Indias resistance to the one-size-fits-all
patent regime that masquerades in the garb of
promoting innovation and creativity.
THE ELECTION COMMISSION CROSSES A BOUNDARY

The Election Commission (EC), along with the
Supreme Court and the Comptroller and Auditor
[66]
General of India (CAG), forms a triad of institutions

that has done considerable service to the

maintenance of democracy in India. The
Commissions enforcement of the model code of
conduct ahead of assembly and parliamentary
elections is the sole roadblock that prevents
governments from reaping unfair advantage.
In both cases, it is quite out of line.

From the Commissions perspective, a potential
code of conduct violation has to answer one
question: does a policy action influence voter
behaviour and the outcome of voting? In simpler
matters such as candidates distributing cash to their
constituents, the answer is clear and the issue is
one of merely assessing the evidence. Where
complex policy measures are involved such as
issuing of bank licences and pricing of natural gas,
no simple tests can be devised to answer the
question raised above.
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Like any other institution that is the product of

human ingenuity and creativity, the EC, too, is
liable to make errors, especially if it moves away
from the limited area that defines its expertise: the
conduct of free and fair elections. In the last 10
days, it has taken a controversial decisionordering
the Union government not to notify increased
natural gas prices for the coming financial year. It
is deliberating another one: the issuing of new bank
permits by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
entirely different complexion.
In both instances, the EC had no role to play.

In the case of gas pricing, it issued a one paragraph
order on 24 March ordering the government not to
notify the increase in natural gas prices. The order
did not specify the reasons why the EC thought
the notification should be postponed except that
the case was also being heard in the Supreme Court.
Were it not for the fact that virtually all chief
election commissioners, including the current one
V.S. Sampath, are civil servants of distinction, one
could have said that the sheer controversy around
the case forced the ECs hand.
It is no secret that gas pricing has been
controversial and does merit careful scrutiny. But,
is the EC justified in raising objections without
giving any reasons?
The other case, involving the issuing of bank

licences, is even more muddled. RBI governor
Raghuram Rajan said the matter had been referred
to the Commission as a matter of abundant
caution. More than caution, this raises more
questions. As election commissioner H.S. Brahma
said, Our concern is simple, if you have done your
job properly...if they are very confident about their
rules and regulations, why should they refer to us?
Point is that, if they have done their job thoroughly,
honestly, diligently, they should not have referred.
So, from a simple case of an over-cautious
central bank governor to an Election Commissioner
sensing something wrong, the matter has taken an
For example, common sense dictates that the

government can potentially lose votes by increasing
gas prices just weeks before the general election.
Conspiracy theorists can say that matters are more
complicated as the government and the ruling party
could have possibly been bribed to issue a
notification. But this is complete speculation and
the EC has no way to probe the matter and it is
not its task to do so.
Different institutions inquire into different
aspects of government malfeasance. The apex court,
by precedent, takes note of these matters once the
policy has been framed or has been implemented
or both. Similarly, the CAG evaluates the potential
costs and losses much after the policy action. There
is a good reason why this is so. For one, facts are
abundantly clear after the policy step; for another,
the consequences, too, become apparent only later.
The courts and the auditor step in afterwards
because their methods permit them to investigate
the issues later and not before the implementation
of policy. They are not equipped to do so
beforehand as they lack expertise and training to
do so.
The EC is in an even weaker position from this
perspective. Of the three key non-elected
institutions, perhaps it is the one whose mandate
is the most severely restricted and defined. It needs
to appreciate this limitation well.
Source: Mint
IMPROVING LAWMAKING IN INDIA
Last week, we argued for two key reforms in

Parliaments procedures that would enable members
of Parliament (MPs) to be more effective as elected
representatives: abolish the anti-defection law and
record all votes on Bills and motions. We now
discuss some possible changes that can be made to

strengthen the process of lawmaking by Parliament.
The process of enacting a law is as follows. A
Bill has to be first introduced in one House of
[67]

strengthened: examination by committees and
discussion on the floor of the House. Only about
70% of all Bills are referred to committees; this step
must be made mandatory for all Bills, as in the
British Parliament. The performance of committees
is also not consistent. For example, the human
resource development ministrys standing committee
examined over 100 witnesses from a range of
stakeholders while examining the Copyright
(Amendment) Bill but did not hear even a single
non-government person while examining the
Educational Tribunals Bill. Committees should also
be provided with an adequate number of
researchers to help them understand complex and
technical issues; at present they do not have any
research staff.
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Parliament (first reading). The Bill may be referred

to the relevant standing committee, which has
members from both Houses. This is not a
mandatory step. After the committee presents its
report, the Bill is taken up for consideration. At
this stage, the various provisions of the Bill are
discussed in detail, and each clause is voted upon.
Members may move amendments to the clauses.
This is the second reading. Then the Bill (with the
amendments passed in the second reading) is taken
up for a final vote (third reading). Once passed,
the Bill is sent to the other House, which has the
second and third readings. The Bill is then sent to
the President for his assent.
The process needs several reforms. The first

question is who can introduce a Bill?. In theory,
any MP may introduce a Bill: those introduced by
the government through ministers are called
government Bills, others are called private members
Bills. In practice, only government Bills are passed
into law. Only 14 private members Bills have been
passed in Indias history, the last one in 1970.
Contrast this with the British Parliament, which
passed 17 private members Bills in the three years
since the last elections in 2010. As these Bills are
not usually passed in India, MPs propose these
merely as a signalling device towards issues that
they consider important. Providing greater
importance to private members Bills would enable
a new law to be made, without government
sponsorship, if an MP can convince others of the
merits of the proposal. This reform is needed to
make MPs true legislators.
While looking at the legislative process, one can
consider three stages: before the Bill is introduced
(pre-legislative), while in Parliament, and later (postlegislative). This year, the committee of secretaries
has mandated pre-legislative scrutiny of all
government Bills. It requires the administrative
ministry to publish the proposed legislation on the
Internet and through other media, and include the
reasons for the Bill, the financial implications and
impact on the environment, society etc. The ministry
should seek public feedback on the Bill, which
would be collated and sent to the standing
committee when it examines it. This is a move
towards increasing public participation in
legislation and must be followed in spirit.
It is necessary to revitalize the legislative process
in Parliament. Two crucial stages need to be
[68]
Parliament should pass Bills only after due

deliberation. During the last five years, about a
fourth of all Bills were passed in Lok Sabha within
30 minutes, i.e., with practically no debate. Less
than 25% of all Bills witnessed over three hours of
debate. This trend needs to be reversed and MPs
must express their views and discuss the
implications of various provisions before approving
the Bill. Also, there is no record in most cases of
how MPs voted. Most Bills are passed by voice
vote, and one does not know how, or even whether,
each MP voted on it. As discussed last week, it
should be mandatory to record the votes on Bills to
bring greater transparency and accountability of
the MP to his voters.
The post-legislative step of overseeing the rules
and regulations made by the government following
the enactment of a law also needs to be overhauled.
Currently, each House has a committee on
subordinate legislation that examines rules.
However, these committees rarely engage with
stakeholders: during the five years of the 14th Lok
Sabha, just one witness was invited and in the first
three years of the 15th Lok Sabha, three witnesses
deposed. Also, any member may move a motion to
amend or repeal a rule. However, no rule has been
amended using this procedure, though four such
motions have been moved in the last five years.
To sum up, a key task of legislatures is to
legislate. We need several reforms to improve the
quality of the legislative process: enable private
members to make law, and strengthen the processes
before, during and after the Bill is in Parliament.
Source: Mint
A 21st CENTURY PLANNING COMMISSION

incentive of the elected members is to
continue nursing their local constituencies to
get elected again, they are not inclined to
take wider, long-term views in national
debates. Therefore, another institution is
necessary for deliberations about the big
picture. This should be a non-partisan
institution whose appointments, moreover,
are not locked into the electoral cycle.
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How can we leave a better world for our

grandchildren? This rhetorical question is asked
frequently in many countries. Consumer-driven
societies and electoral democracies tend towards
short-term satisfaction. Now many of them around
the world are feeling the need for an
institutionalized long-term planning process to
direct their governance towards ensuring the
common good of all citizens and the needs of the
future.
Noteworthy amongst these is the state of

California. Renowned for innovation and liberty,
California has been a forerunner in the
development of direct democracy with referendums
and citizen propositions. For many decades though
Californias participatory democracy has tied the
states governance into knots. Its infrastructure is
crumbling; water is becoming scarcer; the states
vaunted education system has deteriorated; the
state is spending more on its prison system than on
education. Political gridlock has brought the states
finances to the brink. A group of the states citizens,
including chief executive officers (CEOs) of its
technology firms, world-renowned professors, and
former high level federal and state officers, set up
a Think Long initiative to find better governance
solutions.
Nicolas Berggruen, a leader of the initiative, and
Nathan Gardels explain the solutions in their recent
book, Intelligent Governance for the 21st Century: A
Middle Way between West and East. They engaged
with many Chinese scholars too to understand the
principles of Chinese governance and planning
models. They also looked into emerging practices
in Europe. They propose a better governance
process that combines the electoral systems of multiparty democracies with a process of long-term
planning.
India must find a way for faster, more inclusive

and sustainable growth. This is the goal of its recent
Five-Year Plans. Indian democracy, with its
rambunctious politics, noisy 24x7 TV channels, and
now stirred by social media too, seems unaffected
by the ponderous plans of the countrys Planning
Commission. India needs a better process to guide
its long-term progress. Insights from Californias
Think Long initiative are worth noting.
1. A system of electing representatives from local
districts directly into a national parliament
ensures representation. However, since the
2. Direct democracy by involving citizens in

referendums and votes for propositions seems
an attractive bypassing of dysfunctional
representative institutions. In fact, as
Californias experience reveals, the effects of
the cure may be worse than the disease. While
citizen participation in such direct votes is
very large, it is very shallow too. Voters do
not understand the systemic implications of
the specific propositions before them. Thus,
on one hand they will limit taxes on their
properties. And on the other, vote for more
schools. Retail rationality at the ballot box
can easily add up to wholesale madness,
say the authors.
3. Electronic polling and social media can
expand the reach for citizens participation.
Perversely, they also reduce the richness of
citizens understanding of issues. The
participatory power of social networks can
tear down authority by mobilizing diasporas
of the disaffected, as in the Arab Spring. But
they have not been able to create agreements
about the path to the future. You cannot
tweet a constitution, the authors say.
4. Not just shared information, but a shared
narrative is essential to provide the patient
allegiance required from citizens to allow
policies for the long term to show fruition.
For this, democratic societies need an
institution to shape a process of widely
inclusive and well-informed deliberations
amongst stakeholders.
5. The Think Long initiative in California was
formed by self-selected members. They
engaged with citizen groups and the states
governor and some changes in policies have
already been made. The committee has
proposed that a more formal non-partisan
body, appointed by elected officials but
composed by prominent citizens with
expertise and experience, whose term does
[69]

not coincide with that of the elected
government, should watch over Californias
long-term interests.
Publishing tomes with the countrys Five-Year

Plans, exchanging notes on files with central
ministries and matter of form meetings with state
governments cannot create a shared narrative for
the country. Citizens must be engaged to develop
a shared narrative in their minds that will endure
through election cycles. Then citizens can put
pressure on politicians and strengthen their political
will to do what is required for the country. The
Planning Commission must be reformed to fulfil
this 21st century role.
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In the run-up to the national election next

month, many Indian newspapers, citizens groups
and think tanks have been volunteering their views
on what should be the agenda of the next
government and the way forward for the country.
The Planning Commission, an official institution,
could shape a shared narrative for the country.
Sadly, neither political parties nor citizens see it
that way. They see the Planning Commission as a
fund allocator and target setter, but not as the
facilitator of a national dialogue cutting across party
lines about the strategy for the country to achieve
its goals.
Source: Mint
UNIVERSAL PENSION FOR INDIANS
Many of Indias growing elderly population face

serious financial challenges. It is imperative that
India institute a long-term strategy to strengthen
the economic security of the elderly. While steps
have been taken to provide pension security for
some citizens, India still has a very long way to go
to prepare for the future.
As a very young country and one with a long

history of family support for the elderly, India has
understandably focused on issues other than elderly
pensions. According to National Council of Applied
Economic Researchs (NCAERs) India Human
Development Survey (IHDS), about three quarters
of the elderly now live with married children or
other relatives. India is changing, however, and
programmes and policies must also change. Indias
ageing population is expected to grow at more than
double the rate of the general population. In
addition, more elderly Indians, particularly women,
are economically vulnerable. According to IHDS,
45% of elderly males and 75% of elderly females
are currently fully dependent on others for
sustenance, and the same NCAER survey shows
that vulnerability is particularly high in urban areas
experiencing rapid population growth. The
economic transformation that is taking place in India
calls into question whether the family-based system
of support will continue over the next century.
Many countries are making major strides in
providing basic economic security in old age. China
is moving closer to a universal pension system
extending basic coverage to a quarter billion people
over the last few years. Bolivia and New Zealand
have already instituted universal pensions, covering
virtually all older citizens, and Nepal and Thailand
[70]
are also taking major steps in the direction of

universal social pensions for its elderly. Is it time
for India to explore universal options?
India has already taken some action. Many in
the formal workforce have some pension coverage.
In addition, a tiny share of informal workers is
enrolled in retirement savings schemes supported
by the central government. A small share of very
poor elderly receives social pensions of Rs.200 a
month, rising to Rs.500 a month after age 80. While
most states supplement these amounts, the scope
and depth of coverage is too often meagre. There
is still no basic system of economic security
beyond familiesfor the vast majority of elderly
Indians.
While the analysts debate policy options, almost
no major public debate is taking place on this topic.
The silence from political officials is deafening,
possibly because the problems seem too far away
to deal with now. Real problems are emerging that
need public action.
What should India do? four important steps can

be proposed.
First, to prepare for the upcoming demographic
transition, India must find the way to greatly
expand retirement savings for the informal
workforce. Unless many more Indians increase
retirement savings very soon, future generations of
elderly will be at real financial risk.
Whats needed is a universal retirement savings
account for informal workers: greater government
financial incentives to encourage participation;
better access to micro-pension financing models;

flexible contribution schedules; and better financial
information to educate Indians on the need for
expanded retirement savings. India should set a
target of encouraging 50 to 100 million informal
workers to start these accounts.
Lastly, pension security takes very long term

planningby individuals and by governments.
India needs to start planning to make fiscal room
for these initiatives by setting mid-century budget
targets for pensions for the informal workforce. In
very crude terms, by 2050, modest universal social
pensions will probably necessitate spending about
1% of the gross domestic product (GDP), and
universal retirement savings accounts might cost
an additional 1% of GDP. If India does not start to
plan now for these eventualities, it will find itself
in much deeper hole by 2050.
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Second, while instituting a more universal

retirement savings system is essential, by itself it
will never be more than a partial solution.
Retirement savings accounts will be too small for
most workers to live adequately in retirement,
particularly lower income workers and todays
middle-aged workerswho either wont have the
time or the resources to accumulate sizeable assets.
India must therefore complement a stronger
retirement savings approach with some form of a
lifelong foundation of public support for all of the
elderly. Given the size of Indias informal workforce,
payroll tax financing used by many other countries
wont work, and small targeted programmes clearly
wont meet the core financial needs of most of
Indias elderly.
Third, India should link both of these new

approaches directly to the new universal ID that is
now under development. In the US, the creation of
a universal social security number in the 1930s was
an important reform that ultimately enabled the
integration of the nations pension, finance and
taxation systems. A universal ID tied to universal
pensions can be a great mechanism to help India
handle its upcoming demographic transition.
Whats needed is a universal (or near universal)

social pension: a flat non-contributory pension for
everyone over a certain age. India should build the
full delivery infrastructure now, but keep monthly
benefit levels very modest and start with a fairly
high retirement age. It is always easier to liberalize
programmes over time than it is to scale them back.
The 21st century has the makings of an Asian

Century. Indias future policy and economic
decisions will be a key. Can India be an important
player on the international stage and still not
provide basic economic support for the elderly? The
time to planand then to actis now.
Source: Mint
INDIAS STAKE IN CRIMEA
India has a vital stake in supporting Russia that

goes beyond friendship, solidarity with an old and
valuable ally and stability of arms supplies:
multipolarity of the world order. India is right to
oppose sanctions against Russia over Crimea.
Crimea hosts the base of the Russian navys
Black Sea fleet. It is of vital strategic interest. Would
the US allow a similar situation to develop next to
its border? The 1962 Cuban crisis was about a
sovereign country, Cuba, deploying missiles
supplied by its ally, the Soviet Union.
Cuba, as a sovereign nation that respects past
treaty obligations to the extent of coexisting with a
US base in Guantnamo, a part of its own territory,
had the right to deploy defence mechanisms of its
choice on its own territory. That did not mean that
deploying nuclear missiles a stones throw away
from the US mainland was an acceptable
development for anyone with any interest in
maintaining world peace.
The situation in Crimea is similar. Having an
anti-Russian government control Crimea would
erode Russian security and thus stability of the

world order, in which the US has overwhelming
military superiority but not total. It is in the interest
of countries that seek autonomous space for their
own development to shore up, not weaken, the
countervailing poles of power that exist, such as
they are.
This is the strongest reason for India, China
and other such countries that neither receive nor
cherish a place under the sprawling security
umbrella of the mighty US have for supporting
Russia in its current stand-off with the West over
Crimea. In reality, this logic holds for all of Ukraine.
So, what is intriguing in the current developments
in Ukraine is Russias apparent willingness to make
short-term gains in Crimea at the risk of alienating
Ukraine per se.
For, unless a civil war in Ukraine in which
Russia intervenes, attracting global opposition of a
kind that would have real bite, unlike the growls
of protest over Crimea, and brings up a pro-Russian
regime, Ukraine has been handed over to the West.
[71]

Once the current Crimean contretemps gets over,
it is not unlikely that Putins success is written down
as a Pyrrhic victory.
Common Roots
It is not clear whether they voted to join Russia

or stay with Ukraine in the Crimean referendum
of March 16. But there is little reason to doubt the
validity of the vote that saw 96% of those voting
choosing to join Russia. The international
community has conveniently chosen to rule the
referendum invalid. In any case, in Crimea, 76 per
cent of the population voted in the referendum.
There are no reports that any force was used to
intimidate anyone into not voting. If there were
any hint of anything like that, the world would
definitely have heard of it. That means an
overwhelming majority of Crimeans voted to join
Russia.
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Ukraine, Belarus and Russia share a common

cultural and historical heritage. In the 10th century,
Viking Oleg established an empire called Kievan
Rus, of which Kiev was the centre of power and
whose realms embraced what today would be
called western Russia, besides Ukraine, Belarus and
parts of Poland and other regions that now fall in
assorted east European nations. This flourished till
the 13th century when Mongol hordes put paid to
centralised authority.
Crimeans Creamed Ukraine
Later, the centre of power shifted further east

to Moscow, from which the next Russian empire
grew. Vladimir, who embraced Christianity,
replacing polytheistic Slavic paganism as the state
religion across Russia, did so in Crimea.
The Red Army fought some of its fiercest battles

with Hitlers forces in Ukraine. Of the 20 million
Soviet war dead at the end of the World War II, a
sizeable contingent came from Ukraine. Strong
bonds of history, culture and blood tie Russia and
Ukraine together. Which is why the current bout
of hostilities seems to be the result of particularly
inept policy on Russias part.
The Tatars were a large presence in Ukraine,

including Crimea, till they were forcibly exiled by
Stalin, whom comrades of the CPI(M) still celebrate
as a great master on the subject of nationalities
and their peaceful coexistence. Some have returned,
after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and constitute
sizeable minorities, as in Crimea.
Silent on Referendum
New Delhi, on its part, will not be keen to cite

the right of a people to determine their own national
affiliation or autonomy, thanks to Kashmir. You
cant say this particular right is good for the people
of Crimea but wholly inappropriate in Kashmir.
Kashmir is another place where millennia of
past historical and cultural association has not
prevented the emergence of extreme alienation and
where migration, forced and otherwise, has
changed the composition of the population.
Migration raises questions over correspondence
between the timeframe that is valid for determining
national belongingness and the population that is
called on to make the choice about belonging. But
Indias case for siding with Russia is in terms of the
world order it wants, not anything else.
Source: The Economic Times
THE NEW WORLD ORDER- DIPLOMACY AND SECURITY AFTER

CRIMEA
was a farce. Russias recent conduct is often framed
narrowly as the start of a new cold war with
America. In fact it poses a broader threat to
countries everywhere because Mr Putin has driven
a tank over the existing world order.
IN PEOPLES hearts and minds, Vladimir

Putin told Russias parliament, Crimea has always
been an inseparable part of Russia. He annexed
the peninsula with dazzling speed and efficiency,
backed by a crushing majority in a referendum
(see article). He calls it a victory for order and
legitimacy and a blow against Western meddling.
The embrace of the motherland
The reality is that Mr Putin is a force for

instability and strife. The founding act of his new
order was to redraw a frontier using arguments
that could be deployed to inflame territorial disputes
in dozens of places around the world. Even if most
Crimeans do want to join Russia, the referendum
Foreign policy follows cycles. The Soviet collapse

ushered in a decade of unchallenged supremacy
for the United States and the aggressive assertion
of American values. But, puffed up by the hubris
of George Bush, this unipolar world choked in
the dust of Iraq. Since then Barack Obama has
[72]

tried to fashion a more collaborative approach, built
on a belief that America can make common cause
with other countries to confront shared problems
and isolate wrongdoers. This has failed miserably
in Syria but shown some signs of working with
Iran. Even in its gentler form, it is American clout
that keeps sea lanes open, borders respected and
international law broadly observed. To that extent,
the post-Soviet order has meaning.
Even China should pause. Tactically, Crimea

ties it in knots. The precedent of secession is
anathema, because of Tibet; the principle of
unification is sacrosanct, because of Taiwan.
Strategically, though, Chinas interests are clear.
For decades, it has sought to rise peacefully within
the system, avoiding the competition that an upstart
Germany launched against Britain in the 19th
century and which ended in war. But peace is
elusive in Mr Putins world, because anything can
become a pretext for action, and any perceived
aggression demands a riposte.
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Mr Putin is now destroying that. He dresses up

his takeover of Crimea in the garb of international
law, arguing for instance that the ousting of the
government in Kiev means he is no longer bound
by a treaty guaranteeing Ukraines borders that
Russia signed in 1994, when Ukraine gave up
nuclear weapons. But international law depends
on governments inheriting the rights and duties of
their predecessors. Similarly, he has invoked the
principle that he must protect his compatriots
meaning anybody he chooses to define as Russian
wherever they are. Against all evidence, he has
denied that the unbadged troops who took control
of Crimea were Russian. That combination of
protection and subterfuge is a formula for
intervention in any country with a minority, not
just a Russian one.
acceptable, Turkey will find it harder to persuade

its Kurds that their future lies in making peace.
Egypt and Saudi Arabia want Irans regional
ambitions to be tamped down, not fed by the
principle that it can intervene to help Shia Muslims
across the Middle East.
Brandishing fabricated accounts of Ukrainian

fascists threatening Crimea, he has defied the
principle that intervention abroad should be a last
resort in the face of genuine suffering. He cites
NATOs bombing of Kosovo in 1999 as a precedent,
but that came after terrible violence and exhaustive
efforts at the UNwhich Russia blocked. Even then
Kosovo was not, like Crimea, immediately annexed,
but seceded nine years later.
Mr Putins new order, in short, is built on
revanchism, a reckless disdain for the truth and
the twisting of the law to mean whatever suits
those in power. That makes it no order at all.
Sadly, too few people understand this. Plenty

of countries resent American primacy and Western
moralising. But they would find Mr Putins new
order far worse. Small countries thrive in an open
system of rules, albeit imperfect ones. If might is
right, they have much to fear, especially if they
must contend with an aggressive regional power.
Larger countries, especially the new giants of the
emerging world, face-less threat of bullying, but an
anarchic, mistrustful world would harm them all
the same. If international agreements are robbed of
their meaning, India could more easily be sucked
into a clash of arms with China over Arunachal
Pradesh or Ladakh. If unilateral secession is
Act now or pay later
For Mr Obama, this is a defining moment: he

must lead, not just co-operate. But Crimea should
also matter to the rest of the world. Given what is
at stake, the response has so far been weak and
fragmented. China and India have more or less
stood aside. The West has imposed visa sanctions
and frozen a few Russians assets. The targets call
this a badge of honour.
At the very least, the measures must start to
exceed expectations. Asset freezes can be powerful,
because, as the Iran sanctions showed, international
finance dreads being caught up in Americas
regulatory machinery. Mr Putins kleptocratic
friends would yelp if Britain made London
unwelcome to Russian money linked to the regime
(see article). France should withhold its arms sales
to Russia; and, in case eastern Ukraine is next,
Germany must be prepared to embargo Russian oil
and gas. Planning should start right now to lessen
Europes dependence on Russian energy and to
strengthen NATO.
Ukraine needs short-term money, to stave off
collapse, and longer-term reforms, with the help of
the IMF, backed by as much outside advice as the
country will stomach. As a first step, America must
immediately pay its dues to the fund, which have
been blocked by Congress for months.
Even if the West is prepared to take serious
measures against Mr Putin, the worlds rising
powers may not be inclined to condemn him. But
instead of acquiescing in his illegal annexation of
Crimea, they should reflect on what kind of a world
[73]

order they want to live under. Would they prefer
one in which states by and large respect
international agreements and borders? Or one in
which words are bent, borders ignored and

agreements broken at will?
A CENSUS IN MYANMAR: TOO MUCH INFORMATION

majority and the Muslim minority have been
scarred by serious violence.
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Among the 41 questions that the 100,000 or so

census-takers, mostly young school-teachers, have
to ask every household in Myanmar is one on race.
But respondents can only choose from an
anachronistic, inaccurate and divisive list of 135
ethnic groups. The list reinforces the impression of
a government that represents only the ethnicBurman majority. Myanmars government has been
at war for decades with most of the countrys ethnic
minorities, which make up about 40% of the
countrys population.
There was virtually no consultation with groups
such as the Karen, Shan and Chin in drawing up
the list. If the authorities had asked them, argues
Cheery Zahau, an ethnic-Chin human-rights
activist, they might have realised how inaccurate
and insulting the categories are. There are 53 Chin
subgroups on the list, for instance, many of which
the Chin themselves do not acknowledge, raising
old suspicions that the census results will be used
by the Burmans to keep the Chin politically divided
and thus weaker. Moreover, the Chin list includes
groups that are not Chin at all, such as the Naga
and Meithei. Both of these are separate minorities
that live in Chin state in Myanmar, though most of
their ethnic kin live over the border in India.
IT seemed like a good idea at the time. Among

the many things Myanmar lacks after half a century
of military dictatorship are data, of any sort. For a
new government managing the transition to
democracy, basic facts about the country are
essential. Hence, a census. There has not been one
in Myanmar since 1983, and it is a normal step in
the economic development of any poverty-stricken
country.
But however well-intentioned, the census has
provoked a political crisis at a time when the
country can ill afford one. The questions stray
beyond the collection of run-of-the-mill data
household incomes and the likeinto the minefields
of race and religion. These are extremely sensitive
issues in a diverse country with a long history of
ethnic conflict. Sensitivities are particularly acute
at a time when relations between the Buddhist
[74]
The categories do not acknowledge the millions

of mixed-race people or people of South Asian
descent. Respondents are free to define their own
ethnicity, but people are fearful that if they do enter
a category that is not on the list of prescribed
nationalities, they will be classed as foreigners.
Consequently, says Ms Cheery Zahau, most people
dont trust the process.
Indeed, the census has deepened a sense of
suspicion just as the government wants to sign a
nationwide ceasefire agreement with Myanmars
armed ethnic groups and their political
representatives. The census, and the way it has
been conducted, looks like the work of a
government that cannot throw off the shackles of
its old, authoritarian ways.
In particular, the census has sparked further
tension in Rakhine state, in the west, scene of

sectarian violence between the Buddhistethnic
Rakhinemajority and the Muslim Rohingya
minority. Hundreds were killed in 2012 as Sittwe
and other towns were ethnically cleansed of
Rohingyas; about 140,000 of those displaced now
live in refugee camps near the coast.
The Rakhine mobs may yet get their way, which

would make a flawed census even worse. There
are also fears of a backlash from Buddhist
nationalists, should the census show, as many think
it will, that the Muslim population is more than
double the official estimate of 4m (out of a
population of 60m). Sensible though it seemed at
the time, a census is something Myanmar could do
without.
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On March 16th Rakhine mobs protested across

the state, egged on by Wirathu, a Buddhistchauvinist monk. They demanded that the census
be stopped or changed. The Rakhine do not want
the Rohingyas to be able to define their ethnicity.
They fear this will confer the status of a separate
group, boost their numbers (by encouraging illegal
immigration from Bangladesh) and help them win

some rights.
[75]
CHRONICLE
IAS ACADEMY

1ST APRIL 2014 TO 7TH APRIL 2014
Call: 9953120676, 9582263947

CONTENTS
TOPICS
Pg. No.
National ......................................................................................................................... 4-8

International ............................................................................................................... 9-12
Economy .................................................................................................................... 16-19
Health ......................................................................................................................... 25-26
News in Brief........................................................................................................... 27-29
Editorials .................................................................................................................... 30-61
Message from Sri Lankan polls .................................................................................. 30
Maintaining the status quo .......................................................................................... 30
Poorly performing public services ............................................................................. 31
The endless calamity in West Asia ............................................................................ 33
Public purpose of architecture .................................................................................... 35
Voting while in the Army ........................................................................................... 35
Tax theatrics.................................................................................................................... 37
Threat of disintegration ............................................................................................... 37
US built a secret 'Cuban Twitter' to stir unrest against communist
govt, says AP .................................................................................................................. 38
A cautious beginning .................................................................................................... 39
An inclusive growth policy ......................................................................................... 39
Diplomatic gains from a strategic abstention ......................................................... 41
Funny money.................................................................................................................. 42
The two RBIs ................................................................................................................... 43
Manila peace? ................................................................................................................. 43
A bank is born................................................................................................................ 44
The wisdom of abstaining ........................................................................................... 44
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Hope prevails ................................................................................................................. 45

A touch here, a tweak there......................................................................................... 46
RIP repo rate? ................................................................................................................. 47
Indias new political economy .................................................................................... 48
The ten crore question .................................................................................................. 49
Licensing for competition ............................................................................................ 51
One Inc ............................................................................................................................. 51
Coalition govt: Spokes without a hub? ..................................................................... 52
A policy with clarity of purpose................................................................................. 53
Watching the watchdogs.............................................................................................. 55
For a world of freer labour flows............................................................................... 55
Life is an injection .......................................................................................................... 56
The run of rains in Indian agriculture ...................................................................... 57
The changing face of global risk ................................................................................ 58
Election 2014: a polarized vote .................................................................................. 59
Worshipping false gods in India ................................................................................ 60
Weekly Current Affairs 1 April to 7 April, 2014

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[3]
NATIONAL
40 % WOMEN AMONG NEW VOTERS
In India a look at the demographic profile of

newly-eligible voters shows that the share of
women in the electorate aged between 18 and 19
years is too low the percentage of women in the
country's total electorate.
[4]
has more women electors in the 18-19 age

group.
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Women have historically been outsiders in

politics, legally barred from voting until the
twentieth century. From the local to the global level,
womens leadership and political participation are
restricted. Women are underrepresented as voters,
as well as in leading positions, whether in elected
office, the civil service, the private sector or
academia. Women face several obstacles to
participating in political life.
Compared to 47.6% women in the national

electorate this year, women constitute just
41.4% of the 2.3 crore electors in the 18-19
group.
The gender gap in newly-eligible voters is

more pronounced in the 10 states and Union
territories, where women constitute less than
40% of voters in the 18-19 years age group.
As many as 15 states and UTs fall short of
the national proportion of female voters in
this category.
The worst-performing states include
Haryana, where the percentage of female
voters in the 18-19 age group is a just 28.3%,
against 45.8% women in the state's total
electorate.
Very young women voters in Maharashtra

constitute just 35.5% of the 18-19 year old
electorate, followed by Punjab, Gujarat and
Chandigarh (36.2% each), Uttarakhand
(36.4%), Odisha (37.9%), Delhi (38.9%) and
UP (39.6%).
Compared to eight states/UTs with a larger
percentage of women voters, only Nagaland
The other states/UTs faring better in terms of

proportion of women in the 18-19 electorate
group are Mizoram (49.9%), Arunachal
(49.6%), Lakshadweep (49.1%), Meghalaya
(48%) and Goa (48.1%).
The Election Commission of India is targeting

this difficulty in voter recognition programmes as
part of a Systematic Voters Education and Electoral
Participation (SVEEP) initiative, through which the
Commission is reaching out to immature citizens in
college campuses by girl fests and campus
ambassadors.
SVEEP
The Systematic Voter Education and Electoral

Participation Wing (SVEEP)formulates policies, lays
down the framework, plans interventions and
monitors implementation besides carrying out
continuous discourse with voting publics, civil
society groups and media. It handles work related
to all aspects of Voters Awareness & Education
aimed towards improving Electoral Participation
in the country and building up a culture of
participative democracy among citizens. The
SVEEP Wing commenced work since 2009.
It promotes dissemination of knowledge,
information, materials, designed to sensitize the
voters about voting process. It initiated new
measures regarding about voter facilitation in areas
of registration, issuing voter identity cards and
suggests ways and means to make the election
process voter- friendly. ECI has developed special
strategies to encourage participation of young and
newly eligible voters bringing about a particularly
significant progress in their registration on
electoral rolls.

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ALARMING CONDITIONS OF CHILDREN IN DELHI SLUMS

The census defines a slum as residential areas
where dwellings are unfit for human habitation
because they are dilapidated, cramped, poorly
ventilated and unclean. Over 65 million people live
in slums. Slum populations have grown slower than
the average urban population. The average household
living in a slum is no larger than an average urban
Indian household, with 4.7 family members
Gangsters roam in the areas of urban slum

clusters where both parents work and children
often go missing from these localities. Shockingly,
at least 14 children go missing every day.
With over 11 million of its residents in slums,

Maharashtra has the highest slum population; 4.6
million of them in identified slums. Andhra
Pradesh follows with over 10 million in slums, and
West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh have over 6 million
slum residents each.
More than one-third of under-five year olds

living in the Indian capital's slums are
malnourished. This is especially challenging for
newborns and infants whose health entirely
depends on the availability of the mother to
breastfeed, the ability of the caregiver and
household to provide nutritious meals, the quality
of the public healthcare system and overall
community support.
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Eviction from slums is another major issue and

has adverse impact on women and children due to
the absence of basic services, anganwadis, schools,
etc., in the area that they are relocated into.
Over 1 million of Delhis 1.7 million slum

residents live in identified slums. With an infant
mortality rate of 35.6 per 1,000 and an under fiveyear-old mortality rate at 73.6 per 1,000 in slums,
Delhi has registered itself as a high-risk zone for
children.
The absence of day-care arrangement leads to
many accidents. Poor quality of schools,
anganwadis and dispensaries adversely impacted
the children. The worst hit are differently-abled
children and those whose lives have been disrupted
by relocation and slum clearances.
Practices such as bottle-feeding, child marriage

and discrimination against women were occurring
in slum communities with little awareness that they
were contributing to child malnutrition.
More than 50 percent of the malnourished
children did not have access to clean drinking water
and defecated in the open, leading to frequent bouts
of water-borne diseases such as diarrhoea.
CLIMATE CHANGE: DIRE CONSEQUENCES
Climate change is a fundamental threat to

development and the fight against poverty. The
grim reality of increasing food insecurity as a result
of climate change is highlighted by the United
Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change's (IPCC) in its report. The climate disorder
can result in flooding, heat-related mortality,
droughts and food shortage. India is likely to be hit
hard by global warming. It is already one of the
most disaster-prone nations in the world and many
of its 1.2 billion people live in areas vulnerable to
hazards such as floods, cyclones and droughts.
All aspects of food security are potentially
affected by climate change including food access,
utilisation of land, and price stability and the yields
of wheat and rice have decreased due to climate
change.
MAIN POINTS:
Like other developing economies, India may

lose up to 1.7% of its Gross Domestic Product

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if the annual mean temperature rises by 1

degree Celsius.
It has been predicted that extreme weather

events such as last year's flash floods in
Uttarakhand and cyclone Phailin in Odisha
would become unavoidable if steps are not
taken to control the rise in temperature.
The report has predicted a rise in global

temperatures of between 0.3 and 4.8 degrees
Celsius and a rise of up to 32 inches in sea
levels by the late 21st century due to melting
ice.
Irregular weather patterns will not only affect

agricultural output and food security, but will
also lead to water shortages and result in
outbreaks of water and mosquito-borne
diseases such as diarrhea and malaria.
India is likely to suffer loss in all major sectors

of the economy including energy, transport,
farming and tourism. India ranked as the
[5]

most vulnerable of 51 countries in terms of
beach tourism.
Extreme weather may also harm infrastructure such as roads, ports and airports,
impacting delivery of goods and services.
The changes taking place either in the Indus
river basin or in Brahmputra river system due
to climate change can not be ignored in the
long run.
The IPCC report mentions that in coming years
there will be extreme weather events, like floods,
cyclones, cloud bursts, unseasonal excessive rains
and drought etc in most parts of the world and
countries like the Maldives, China, India, Pakistan,
Bangladesh and Sri Lanka will be among the most
affected.Over-exploitation of fresh water resources
In many regions, changing precipitation or

melting snow and ice are altering hydrological
systems, affecting water resources in terms of
quantity and quality. Glaciers (including
Himalayan) continue to shrink almost worldwide
due to climate change, affecting run-off and water
resources downstream. Climate change will impact
human health mainly by exacerbating health
problems that already exist.
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in South Asia and China may become a reason for

armed conflict in the region by middle of the 21st
century as climate change is likely to become a
determining factor in national security policies. It
is pointed out that some fish and other marine
animals will become extinct by 2050, adversely
affecting fishing community.
DEGREES FAIL TO CURB UNEMPLOYMENT
The growing level of unemployment is a much

bigger cause for concern as the rate of
unemployment has progressively increased with
rising level of education for both men and women.
The situation is more or less same for the highly
populated developing countries across the world.
There is a rise in the unemployment rate in sync
with the level of education as boys and girls without
education often belong to low income households
and hence, cannot afford to remain unemployed
for long.
According to the NSSO estimates, 16.3 % of
who are graduates or above in the age group
of up to 29 years are unemployed.
The rate of unemployment goes up by another
12.5 per cent if diploma and certificate holders
are included.
The chances of getting employment for young
men and women become less once they
acquire vocational skills or a college degree.
The situation is worse for women diploma
holders and those with graduate degrees
compared with men, in both rural and urban
areas.
Women who went for diplomas in various
trades had a higher unemployment rate of
17.3 per cent, three times the percentage for
no-jobs figures for those who had completed
only middle school, in urban areas
Broadly one in every four men with a graduate
degree or a vocational education in this age group
is likely to be unemployed in India. The highly
disturbing trend holds true for all categories,
[6]
including men in rural India and women in both

urban and rural areas.
Skill- development programmes and college
education are not creating the sort of training that
is in demand in the manufacturing and services
sector. Even though educational attainment has
risen quickly in recent years, gaining a foothold in
the labour market remains elusive for many young
Indians.
NSSO
National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO)

which is now known as National Sample Survey
Office, is an organization under the Ministry of
Statistics of the Government of India. It was
established in 1950 and is the largest organisation
in India conducting regular socio-economic surveys.
NSSO has four divisions, namely, Survey Design
and Research Division, Field Operations Division,
Data Processing Division and the Co-ordination
and Publication Division.
The main functions of the NSSO is to conduct
large scale sample surveys on subjects like household
consumer expenditure, employment and
unemployment, health and medical services etc.
It decides the topics to be covered in a particular
survey round and also conducts annual survey of
industries every year. NSSO every year brings out
reports on status of estimation of agricultural
production in India. NSSO has the central
responsibility of coordinating the results of the crop
estimation surveys conducted by the states.
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POLITICAL EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN: A MYTH

Indias 11.4% representation of women in the
15th Lok Sabha is lower than even the Asian
average. In a ranking of 189 countries, the worlds
largest democracy figures at a poor 111. The need
for greater representation is perhaps underscored
at a time when women voters are increasingly
turning out in larger numbers than men to cast
their ballot.
The top five states with the highest percentage

of women MPs are, in order of ranking, Punjab,
Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and West
Bengal.
A large proportion of women MPs are backed

by politically well-connected families.
Jammu and Kashmir is the only exception

that fares poorly on gender indices and also
does not have a single woman MP. The state
has a sex ratio of 883, female literacy of just
58.1%.
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In India, states with the high sex ratios and

gender indices elect the fewest women to
Parliament while states with poorer gender indices
have the highest percentage of women Members of
Parliament.
has not had a woman MLA for the past 10 years.
Punjab, with a sex ratio of 893 women for

every 1,000 men, far below the national
average of 940, as per the 2011 Census, has
31% or the highest percentage of women MPs
in the country.
Haryana, with one of the countrys worst sex

ratios of 877 women for 1,000 men, has 20%
women MPs, finds the report.
There is no connection between development

and the growth of womens leadership. In the
backward states, men are opposed to womens
reservation and the only women who advance are
women they can control. They are mostly the
proxies for male politicians.
The conclusions are based on two parameters:
the gender development index (GDI) and the gender
empowerment measure (GEM). The GDI looks at
health, including infant mortality and life
expectancy, education and income and standard
of living among women. GEM has three
parameters: political participation and decisionmaking, economic participation and decisionmaking and power over economic resources.
states that do well on gender tend to have

poor representation of women in Parliament.
Kerala has the countrys best sex ratio of 1,084
and 91.8% female literacy, and has 20 Lok
Sabha seats. None is occupied by a woman.
It is observed that women are more likely to

contest elections in constituencies where the sex
ratio of electors is worse. States like Haryana and
Punjab are far more likely to see women candidates
than, say Kerala and Tamil Nadu. In states with a
higher sex ratio, women seek representation through
voting.
The representation of women is just as dismal

in the state assemblies. None of the five states that
went to the polls last yearMadhya Pradesh,
Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Delhi and Mizoram
elected more than 10% women. Mizoram, in fact,
Moreover, women have lower chances of

winning elections in constituencies that have a low
sex ratio. So, either women dont contest in socially
advanced states or they contest from socially
backward states but dont win.
RISING INCOME-POOR SERVICES: WIDENING RIFT
Income inequality can lead to slower or less

sustainable economic growth. India is a wellestablished middle-income country in terms of its
gross GDP and is the tenth richest country in the
world. The country is also macro-economically
robust, having maintained moderately stable fiscal
and monetary bases. The Indian growth-inequality
paradox is easy to pin downthe wealth that India
creates is not evenly redistributed. This lies at the
root of Indias rising inequality.
Data from the 2011-12 round of India Human

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Development Survey (IHDS) conducted by the

National Council for Applied Economic Research
(NCAER) has brought to light some eye-opening points:
1. Families with an annual income of Rs 1.5
lakh are among the richest 20 per cent in the
country.
2. Incomes have grown considerably in the last
seven years but access to adequate public
services is still severely lacking, as mentioned
in the data collected from 42,000 households
across the country.
[7]

3. For the 2011-12 IHDS, the NCAER research
team surveyed over 80 per cent of the
households to make an estimate of the change
over the last seven years.
4. In 2004-05, a family earning Rs. 70,000
annually would have been among the richest
20 per cent in the country, while in 2011-12,
the same family would find a place in the
middle of the distribution.
9. Flush toilets are now accessible to one-third

of all households and over two-thirds of
urban households. Toilet coverage is the
highest in Kerala (92%), Delhi (79%) and
Punjab (74%).
10. Access to electricity is inching towards
becoming universal with 83 per cent of all
households getting supply. Jammu and
Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi have
100% access to some electricity.
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5. An annual household income of Rs. 25,000

placed a family in the middle of the order in
2004-05. In 2011-12, Rs. 25,000 is the annual
income of the poorest 20 per cent of Indians.
for the most number of hours in a day.
6. The situation on the public services front is

worse. Piped water available indoors has
grown by only 2% and is now available to
27% households.
7. In urban areas, piped water is available to

between half and two-thirds of families. Of
families which get piped water, less than a
third get three hours of supply a day.
8. Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa and Delhi have
the highest coverage of families for piped
water (60%). Delhi gives its residents water
11. Just 45% households with access to power

get 18 hours or more of electricity in the day.
Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Kerala, Delhi and
Gujarat lead the country in terms of supply
of 18 hours or more.
NCAER
The NCAER is the only research organisation

with a large sample survey to estimate household
income. The governments National Sample Survey
Organisation (NSSO) collects data on consumption
expenditure, which is often used as a proxy for
income.
[8]

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INTERNATIONAL
SAUDI DECLARES ATHEISTS AS TERRORISTS
organisations - including the Muslim Brotherhood.
Saudi authorities have never tolerated criticism of
their policies, but these recent laws and regulations
turn almost any critical expression or independent
association into crimes of terrorism. These
regulations dash any hope that King Abdullah
intends to open a space for peaceful dissent or
independent groups.
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Recently, Saudi Arabia has introduced a series

of new laws which define atheists as terrorists. In
a string of royal decrees, the Saudi King Abdullah
has clamped down on all forms of political dissent
and protests that could "harm public order". The
new provisions define terrorism as calling for atheist
thought in any form, or calling into question the
fundamentals of the Islamic religion on which this
country is based.
The new laws have largely been brought in to
combat the growing number of Saudis travelling to
take part in the civil war in Syria, who have
previously returned with newfound training and
ideas about overthrowing the monarchy.
Under the new decree by King Abdullah, Saudi
Arabia will jail for up to 20 years anyone who
fights in conflicts abroad - an apparent move to
deter Saudis from joining rebels in Syria.
But the law also applies to any Saudi citizen or

a foreigner residing in the kingdom that 'calls for
atheist thought in any form or calls into question
the fundamentals of the Islamic religion on which
this country is based.
Yet last month further regulations were issued

in Saudi, identifying a broad list of groups which
the government considers to be terrorist
Riyadh fears returning fighters will target the

ruling Al Saud royal family - as happened after
the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. An appeal
contained in the counter-terrorism measures for
fighters to turn themselves in had not been
answered. Saudi authorities fear that the Muslim
Brotherhood, whose Sunni Islamist doctrines
challenge the Saudi principle of dynastic rule, has
tried to build support inside the kingdom since the
Arab Spring revolutions.
According to the Human Rights Watch, the
new regulations were also a setback to campaigns
for the protection and release of a number of
prominent human rights activists currently jailed
in Saudi Arabia. The new "terrorism" provisions
contain language that prosecutors and judges are
already using to prosecute and convict independent
activists and peaceful dissidents.
DOMESTIC WORKERS IN U.K. ENSLAVED WITH TIED VISA RULES

Migrant domestic workers accompanying their
employers to the United Kingdom are being
subjected to serious abuses including forced labor
as has been reported by the Human Rights Watch
in its report, Hidden away: migrant domestic
abuses in the U.K.. According to the report, the
UK government is not interested in safeguarding
these vulnerable workers, and recent changes to
UK immigration rules make it harder for workers
to flee abuse.
With the confiscation of the passport,
confinement to the home, physical and emotional
abuse, long working hours with no rest time, no
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holidays, and low wages or non-payment of wages,

the plight of the migrant domestic workers in the
United Kingdom has worsened.

According to the Home Office, 15,000

domestic workers enter the U.K. every year.
Mainly poorly educated women, they come
from Asia and Africa with their employers
as child-minders, careers for the elderly, cooks
and cleaners.
Their lives were made considerably worse,
when in 2012, the Home Office, under
Theresa Mays drive to control immigration,
introduced a new tied visa rule.
[9]

This disallows a domestic worker who has

been brought by an employer into the country
to change employers, thus effectively trapping
the worker in an exploitive workplace.
Thus, those who flee abusive work

environments become illegal immigrants. If
they return they must face the employers
fury.
Domestic workers here work up to 18 hours a

day without breaks, going hungry and have to eat
leftovers, of being not allowed to use mobile phones,
and of not being able to contact their families or
leave the homes of employers. Some received wages
as little as 100 a month.
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On April 1, a campaign coalition comprising

trade union Unite, and the charities Justice for
Domestic Workers, and Kalayaan, submitted a
signed petition to Prime Minister David Cameron,
calling for scrapping of the tied visa rule, and
restoration of the1998 Overseas Domestic Workers
visa. According to this, a migrant domestic worker
need only work for an employer for a minimum
period of a year, after which she is free to change
employers.
The powerful alliance that achieved the

Overseas Domestic Workers visa in 1998 should
come together again to expose the slavery status
reintroduced by the new tied visa, which has
prevented migrant domestic workers from gaining
their rights.
TIBETAN REFUGEES UNDER

SUEVEILLANCE IN NEPAL
Nepal has long been a way station for Tibetans

fleeing China. Many continue on to India, where
the Dalai Lama lives and where they can obtain
refugee status. Still, some 20,000 Tibetans live in
Nepal. Most were born there, yet the government
of Nepal refuses, according to Human Rights
Watch, to issue at least half of them official
identification. Even those Tibetans who arrived
before a 1989 rapprochement with China have no
right to own property, or to gain official
employment or access to higher education.
Human Rights Watch has accused the Nepal
government of exerting increased surveillance and
abuse of Tibetan refugees under China pressure.
The Nepal government is accused of forcibly
returning fleeing Tibetans to China, where they
were allegedly persecuted. In effect, Nepal has
turned itself into a partner of Chinas anti-Tibetan
policies.
Tibetan refugee communities were now facing
a de facto ban on political protests, sharp
restrictions on public activities promoting Tibetan
culture and religion, and routine abuses by Nepali
security forces. These include excessive use of force,
arbitrary detention, ill-treatment in detention,
threats and intimidation, intrusive surveillance, and
arbitrary application of vaguely formulated security
offenses.
Wherever Tibetans in Nepal gather to socialize
[10]
Before the rule was changed Kalayaan was

getting from 300 350 domestic workers
approaching its centre for assistance every year.
After the introduction of the tied visa, 100 or so
less approach it, possibly because of the difficulties
workers have of getting out of the house.
or worship, they are likely to be spied on by

Nepalese security forces who make no secret of
their close links with Chinese authorities. Nongovernmental organizations that seek to monitor
the situation or are engaged in humanitarian work
with Tibetans in Nepal are also under surveillance
and have been accused of disloyalty.
In February, Nepals Parliament elected Sushil
Koirala Prime Minister. Nepals Constituent
Assembly is tasked with drafting a new constitution
before February 2015. Nepal now has a fresh
opportunity to reform its unjust policies toward
Tibetan residents and refugees. B
China, which was fully aware of Nepals
economic needs, invited Mr. Koirala to attend the
China-South Asia Exposition in Kunming, China,
in June and pledged to increase tourism to Nepal,
a poor country heavily dependent on Chinese help
and investment. China has also offered lawmakers
financial assistance in drafting the new constitution.
The government of Nepal has every right to
seek positive trade and diplomatic relations with
China. But it must stop allowing China to dictate
policy regarding Tibetans in Nepal.
A quick move by Koirala and Nepals
Constituent Assembly is the need of the hour to
guarantee resident Tibetans legal status that respects
their basic rights, and to treat Tibetan refugees in
accordance with Nepalese and international law,
without which, Nepals struggle to achieve lasting
democratic governance will remain incomplete.

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UKRAINE: IN NEED FOR REFORM

Through an inclusive constitutional reform,
Russia and the United States have agreed to work
for a diplomatic solution in the Ukraine crisis.
Russias Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S.
Secretary of State John Kerry summed up their
agreement after stating that Russia and the U.S.
differed on the causes of the crisis in Ukraine.
Ukraine for the same reason as Kiev does the

reform would give Russian-speaking eastern and
southern regions veto power over a possible decision
by the central government to join NATO or the
European Union (EU).
The diplomatic solution points towards four

priority goals:
Russia has scrapped the last discount on gas

price granted by Moscow to Ukraine, effectively
raising the price by $100 to $485 for every 1,000
cubic metres. Russia had granted this earlier
discount to its neighbour in exchange for keeping
its Black Sea Fleet facilities in Crimeas port of
Sevastopol.

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Russia Makes Gas Costly for Ukraine
To assure minority and language rights;

To disarm irregulars and provocateurs;
To launch an inclusive constitutional reform;

To hold free and fair elections.
It is by far the most important part of the

Russian-American
agreement
while
the
constitutional reform came closer to the end of the
announced list of priorities. It has been made clear
that nobody can impose any configuration on
Ukrainians and that federalisation was the only
way to prevent Ukraine from splitting along the
east-west fault lines.
This will result in rising the price on gas for

Ukraine automatically, going up to $485 for 1000
cm starting in April.
Ukraine is a dependent on imports from its
resource-rich former Soviet master to keep the
country running. Russia has repeatedly shown
readiness to use gas as a lever in conflicts with
Ukraine, which remains dependent on imports.
The U.S. opposes the federal structure for
NATORUSSIA: END OF CO-OPERATION
NATO's foreign ministers have ordered an end

to civilian and military cooperation with Russia
and are searching out ways to better protect alliance
members that feel threatened by the Kremlin.
A kremlin is a major fortified central complex
found in historic Russian cities. This word is often
used to refer to the most famous one, the Moscow
Kremlin, or to the government that is based there.
The complex serves as the official residence of the
President of the Russian Federation.
The suspension of all practical civilian and

military cooperation between NATO and Russia
may result into
The possible deployment and reinforcement

of military assets in eastern NATO members,
such as Poland and the Baltic states, that feel
menaced by Moscow's latest actions.
A possible increase of readiness levels for the
NATO rapid response force.
A possible review of NATO's crisis response

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plans, as well as its military training and

exercise schedules.
To reassure alliance members closest to Russia

and Ukraine, NATO already has stepped up air
patrols over the Baltic Sea and AWACS
surveillance flights over Poland and Romania.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

Also called the (North) Atlantic Alliance, it

is an intergovernmental military alliance
based on the North Atlantic Treaty which
was signed on 4 April 1949.
NATO's headquarters are in Brussels,

Belgium.
It has 28 member states the newest of which,

Albania and Croatia, joined in April 2009.
The organization constitutes a system of

collective defence whereby its member states
agree to mutual defense in response to an
attack by any external party.
[11]
PALESTINE
DEFIES TO JOIN GLOBAL AGENCIES
After President Mahmoud Abbas of the

Palestinian Authority defied the United States and
Israel by taking concrete steps to join 15
international agencies the Middle East peace talks
verged on a breakdown.
Mr. Abbas has argued his moves right. He has

been under pressure from other Palestinian leaders
and the public to leverage the non-member
observer-state status they won at the United
Nations in 2012 to join a total of 63 international
bodies.
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The move was to gain the benefits of statehood

outside the negotiations process. In the emerging
deal, the United States would release an American
convicted of spying for Israel more than 25 years
ago, while Israel would free hundreds of Palestinian
prisoners and slow down construction of Jewish
settlements in the West Bank
According to the American officials the

Palestinians appeared to be using leverage against
Israel rather than trying to scuttle the negotiations.
Abbas did not move toward joining the
International Criminal Court, a step Israel fears
most because the Palestinians could use the court
to contest Israels presence in the West Bank.
Abbas had vowed not to seek membership in

international bodies because Israel had failed to
release a fourth batch of long-serving Palestinian
prisoners by the end of March, as promised.
As per Israeli officials they are not bound by
their pledge because no meaningful negotiations
have taken place since last year.
Despite these events, the White House, believes

that the mediating efforts have reached their limit
and that the two sides need to work their way out
of the current impasse.
TRADE GAP WIDENS IN U.S.
U.S. exports fell in February amid weak

overseas demand resulting in the largest trade deficit
since September. The nation's exports declined 1.1%
to $190.43 billion, while imports rose 0.4% to
$232.73 billion. As a result of which, the nation's
trade gap widened 7.7% to $42.3 billion, more than
the $38.6 billion. February's export decline followed
a 0.6% gain in January. That suggests the surge in
overseas sales that helped boost economic growth
late last year was likely unsustainable.
February's meager import growth provided new
evidence of weak spending by U.S. consumers and
businesses in the early part of the year.
The U.S. economy trade data showed also some

signs of strengthening in March. Recent data
showed auto sales surging to one of the strongest
rates in years after weakening in January and
February,
while
manufacturing
activity
strengthened.
A bout of financial volatility in emerging markets
early in the year has subsided, providing a more
stable outlook that should help support U.S. exports.
The Challenges:
China's growth engine is downshifting.
Economists believe Europe risks entering a

period of deflation.
Tensions with Russia over Ukraine could

further harm the global economy.
What are the Reasons?

[12]
Growth in China is slow while Europe's

recovery remains fragile, tempering demand
for U.S. exports.
Domestic demand looks even weaker after
adjusting the import data for inflation.
Stripping out the effect of higher prices for

petroleum and other products, imports fell
slightly.
Imports of capital goods, industrial supplies

and petroleum products all declined.
Imports of crude oil fell to $19.5 billion, the
lowest level since late 2010, a reflection of
expanded domestic energy production.
U.S. exports to the European Union in February

were down 2.5% from January, while exports to
China were 4.6% lower.
The recovery is taking hold, but is too slow.
Unless countries come together to take the right
kind of policy measures, we could be facing years
of slow and subpar growth. The report has
triggered a spate of downward revisions to firstquarter growth estimates, which had already come
down substantially due to economic disruptions
caused by unusually cold and stormy weather.
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INDIA AND THE WORLD

INDIA-RUSSIA DEFENCE CO-OPERATION
Key Points of the Deal:

Russia has also assured India that INS

Vikramaditya, the refurbished 44,570-tonne
Admiral Gorshkov for which $2.33 billion has
been paid, will not be delayed.
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India and Russia have signed defence deals

worth almost Rs 25,000 crore, including the ones
for 42 Sukhoi-30MKI fighters and 71 additional
Mi-17 V5 armed helicopters.The two countries
inked the over Rs 16,000 crore deal for 42 Sukhois,
which will add to the 230 Sukhois contracted in
previous years, and the one for 71 Mi-17 V5
helicopters , to add to the 80 of these choppers
already been inducted.India will not order any
more Sukhois, 272 of them come at an overall price
of over $12 billion with a bulk of them being
produced by Hindustan Aeronautics. Instead, India
is preparing a plan to upgrade them into "Super
Sukhois" in the years ahead with more advanced
avionics, weapons and AESA (active electronically
scanned array) radars.
India and Russia will also ink the final design
contract for the joint development of a
futuristic stealth fifth-generation fighter at a
later stage since it is still being drafted. This
R&D contract is pegged at $11 billion, with
the two countries supposed to chip in with
$5.5 billion each.
Each 5th Gen fighter - IAF hopes to induct

around 200 of them from 2022 onwards will cost at least $100 million extra.
Consequently, India will eventually spend
around $35 billion on this gigantic project.
The "technical problems" being faced by

India's solitary nuclear-powered submarine
INS Chakra, the Akula-II attack submarine
leased from Russia for 10 years at a cost of
around $1 billion, will also be sorted out.
India and Russia also agreed to take the first

steps towards operating a ranging station
that will help accurately fix the location of
satellites. A military side agreement on
receiving precision signals from Glonass was
signed last year, following active interest
shown by National Security Advisor Shiv
Shankar Menon.
Russia and India have agreed to further extend

their partnership in the energy sector, which has
moved beyond investment in Sakhalin-I to direct
trade (Gazprom-Gail). Both are now seemingly set
for joint investment in downstream and upstream
sectors. India put its interest areas as equity
participation through ONGC-OVL in existing and
new projects in Siberia, Russias Far East and the
Arctic Shelf, besides showing interest in acquiring
equity stake in discovered or producing assets and
in proposed Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) projects
in Russia.
INDIAN POLICIES HAMPERING AMERICAN TRADE
A US Trade Representative (USTR) report has

mentioned that Indias policies pose barriers to
American trade and that the US will pursue India
to remove obstacles in a bid to smoothen business
relations. The US will continue to press India to
resolve these issues in 2014. The 2014 report on
Technical Barriers to Trade takes note of the talks
with India at both bilateral and the World Trade
Organization levels and listed some of the issues
obstructing trade relations. The trade barriers
highlighted were Indian policies on wholesale food
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labelling, security regulations on telecom equipment,

safety testing requirements for electronics and IT
equipment, and a proposed amendment to the
Hazardous Wastes Act.
According to the report, the proposed Fifth
Amendment to the Hazardous Waste Act,
published in November 2013, but not notified to
the WTO, sets out conditions for the import and
movement of used and refurbished electrical and
electronic equipment (EEE).
[13]

An important first step is to seek an exemption
for Highly Specialised Equipment (HSE), including
servers, storage, printing machines, and IT products
that are installed, operated, and maintained by
professionals who are trained to manage the
products inherent safety risks. USTR said the
United States will continue to seek clarification on
the scope and application of the revised Preferential
Market Access (PMA) policy for domestically
manufactured telecommunications equipment and
closely monitor its implementation in 2014.
The United States has detailed concerns about
India-specific labelling issues. Indias responses have
failed to provide additional or reliable information
with regard to how the elements of this measure
advances safety or efficacy or quality of the products
in question or meets the specific needs of India.
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The United States fully supports the protection

of the environment and health against adverse
impacts of wastes. US industry has expressed
concerns that, under the proposed Fifth
Amendment, hazardous waste controls on imports
of used EEE for direct reuse and imports of
refurbished EEE pursuant to a service warranty,
and other similar controls on EEE, would impose
unnecessary burdens on trade that facilitates reuse
and extension of life of EEE to the benefit of the
environment. US electronics and IT goods
manufacturers have raised concerns about the
Indian Department of Electronics and Information
Technologys (DEITY) September 2012 order that
mandates compulsory registration for 15 categories
of imported electronic and IT goods.
The policy mandates exporters to register their
products with laboratories affiliated or certified by
the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). This is despite
the fact that all US electronic exports currently sold
in India are fully certified in internationally
recognised laboratories, and the government of
India has never articulated how such a domestic
certification requirement advances Indias legitimate
public safety objectives. Notwithstanding ongoing
efforts by global industry to engage the government
of India to resolve concerns and ambiguities in the
policy the Order entered into force in January 2014.
The Legal Metrology Rules create mandatory

package sizes in metric units. Highly impacted
commodities include canned and bottled drinks,
packaged biscuits and bottled vegetable oils.
Mandatory package size requirements are not
recommended by international standards. Net
weight declaration, supported by Codex and other
international bodies, protects consumers from
fraudulent packaging practices, as was mentioned
in the USTR Report.
JAPANESE LOAN FOR DELHI METRO
A loan agreement for the five projects was

signed between the Japanese Ambassador to India,
Takeshi Yagi, and Joint Secretary in the Department
of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Rajesh
Khullar, in New Delhi recently.
Japan has committed a loan of Rs.15,188 crore

to India under its Official Development Assistance
for implementation of five projects relating to
enhancement of transportation capacity of the Delhi
Metro, new and renewable energy development,
energy conservation by micro, small and medium
enterprises, upgradation of power distribution
infrastructure in Haryana, and renovation and
expansion of water supply facilities in Agra, Uttar
Pradesh.
The loan for the projects relating to new and

renewable
energy
development,
energy
conservation by MSMEs and upgradation of power
distribution infrastructure in Haryana was pledged
by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during his
summit meeting with Prime Minister Dr.
Manmohan Singh in January this year.
[14]
The Japanese government has granted a new

loan amounting to Rs.8,933 crore for
enhancing the transportation capacity of
Delhi Mass Rapid Transport System Project
(Phase 3)in order to enhance its transportation capacity.
The objective of the project is to link the

existing 190 km radially developed network
with additional 116-km belt line including six
routes and six intervals which connect Indira
Gandhi International Airport and Noida
district and construction of a heritage line
connecting Central Secretariat, Delhi Gate,
Lal Qila and Kashmiri Gate.
The project on completion will extend the

network length to 329.4 km and transform
Delhi Metro into a global standard urban
transportation system comparable to the
Tokyo Metro.
The Japanese government has been providing
financial support amounting to Rs.30,162
crore for development of Delhi Metro.

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The agreement grants a new Rs.1,800 crore loan
to power producers through the Indian Renewable
Energy Development Agency Ltd for development
of new and renewable energy including solar and
wind power succeeding phase-I of the project.
The ongoing project includes wind power

projects to the tune of Rs.1,160 crore in
Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, and
solar power projects to the tune of Rs.220
crore in Andhra Pradesh.
The MSME energy saving project aims to
enhance energy efficiency and eliminate
power shortage in the country.
It will increase capacity of the sub-stations

by 1,905 MVA and bring down power
distribution loss rate to 30 per cent in the
region.
The Japanese government has been providing

financial support totalling Rs.65,664 crore for
73 power projects in the country.
The Japanese ODA loan of Rs.977 crore for the

Agra water supply improvement project, which
commenced in 2007, has been granted taking into
consideration the increase in project cost due to
rise in material prices.
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supply in all of the 21 districts of the state.
Under phase-III of the project, an ODA loan

of up to Rs.1,800 crore has been granted to
2,000 small and medium-sized enterprises
through the Small Industries Development
Bank of India for investment in energy
conservation equipment.
The financing facility will enable SMEs to
utilise energy efficient equipment including
Japanese cutting-edge technology at a low cost.
The Rs.1,608 crore Haryana power distribution

system upgradation project, covered under the
ODA loan agreement, is aimed at improving power
The ongoing project includes a loan of Rs 1,160

crore for wind power projects in Andhra Pradesh,
Gujarat and Karnataka and Rs 220 crore for solar
power project in Andhra Pradesh.
India is ranked fifth among the wind power
introducing countries in the world as of end of
2012, shows its willingness to further increase
renewable energy including solar power as
illustrated in 'Twelfth Five Year Plan (2012-2017)'.
This project reaffirms our commitment to
sustainable development of India.
FIGHT AGAINST TERRORISM
The United States has provided counter-terror

equipment to Mumbai Police in order to fight
terrorism in a better way. The explosive incident
counter measures equipment, worth $300,000,
includes explosive ordnance disposal suits, specially
designed helmets, disruptors and scanners.
The outgoing U.S. Ambassador, Nancy J. Powell

handed over the equipment to Mumbai Police
mentioning that the relationship between the U.S.
and India, the oldest and largest democracies in
the world, was very deep and strategic. The two
nations are committed to fighting terrorism and
working to make life safe for all. The explosive
incident countermeasures equipment are worth
$300,000.
The Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD-9) bomb

suit and helmet have been designed with direct
input from bomb disposal technicians to provide
the highest degree of modular protection and
operational flexibility, the statement said. The helmet
offers protection against fragments with velocities
of over 683 metre per second is made of highstrength fibre and weighs only 3.6 kg with visor.
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The ergonomic design allows easy movement and

good visibility without strain.
Since the first anti-terrorist assistance
programme in 1995, the U.S. State Department has
partnered with the Government of India in
delivering 113 courses to the Indian Police. More
than 2,000 officers have received training. The U.S.
has, in current year, already contributed
approximately $10 million in training and
equipment through the anti-terrorist assistance
programme.
Nancy Powell
Nancy Jo Powell is the United States

Ambassador to India. In sudden development of
events, the US ambassador resigned and will leave
her post by the end of May. The move comes after
a row between the US and India over the arrest
and brief jailing of an Indian diplomat in New
York on a visa fraud charge. The arrest of Devyani
Khobragade in December triggered a furious
response in India, exposing deep misunderstandings
between two states who were supposedly becoming
closer allies.
[15]
ECONOMY
NOW, ROTATION OF AUDITORS COMPULSORY
chapters of the new companies law and
comes into force from 1 April.
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The Ministry of Corporate Affairs, retrospectively, has made the rotation of auditors
mandatory for listed companies, unlisted companies
with a share capital for more than Rs.10 crore, all
private companies with paid-up capital of Rs.20
crore or more, and all companies with public
deposits of a minimum of Rs.50 crore.
For the first time ever, India is introducing
mandatory auditor rotation both at an individual
auditor level and at the audit firm level.
The new rules also require auditors to get a

response from a companys board or the audit
committee before reporting a fraud to the
Union government which has to be reported
within 60 days.
The auditor is first required to report the fraud

to the board or audit committee seeking their
reply within a 45-day period and post receipt
of the reply, within 15-day period report the
fraud to the central government. along with
the response received from the board or audit
committee.
As of now, there is no duty cast upon the

auditors. They are not mandated to report fraud.
Auditor's early resignation and removal have

been made possible.
Main Features:
The rules will apply not from the date of

notification of the rules, but retrospectively
from the date the auditors were appointed
The auditor or audit firm will usually have
an extra three years as a transition period.
Prior to the new law, an auditor or an audit

firm could be appointed by shareholders for
a maximum period of one year.
The rules also rule out rotation to a network

firm or an associate or affiliate of the existing
audit firm. Several audit firms had created
such firms in anticipation of the rotation
mandated by the companies legislation.
The rules notified pertain to three more
The provision for rotation of auditors was

approved by the Parliamentary Standing Committee
on Finance earlier. According to the Committee
instead of year-to-year basis, an auditor can be
appointment by members in general meeting for
five years. This would ensure that promoter or
company or management does not change auditor
prematurely who is doing good job.
CONSUMER PRICE INDEX TO MEASURE INFLATION
In the first bi-monthly monetary policy

statement, the Reserve Bank of India adopted the
consumer price index on April 1, 2014 as a measure
to curb inflation. Till date, the RBI was using
Wholesale price index to measure indicative
inflation projections.
to a bi-monthly monetary policy cycle, progressive

reduction in access to overnight liquidity at the
fixed repo rate, and a corresponding increase in
access to liquidity through term repos, and
introduction of longer-tenor term repos as well as,
going forward, term reverse repos.
It was adopted on the basis of the

recommendations of Urjit R. Patel Committee report
on revising and strengthening the monetary policy
framework.
Based on the recommendations of the high-level

advisory committee chaired by Bimal Jalan, the RBI
is all set to announce in-principle approval for new
bank licences. It will also set out categories of
differentiated bank licences that will allow a wider
pool of entrants into banking.
The recommendations also include explicit

recognition of the path for disinflation, transition
[16]

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In order to expand the market for corporate
bonds, banks would be allowed to offer partial
credit enhancements to them. The feasibility of
limited re-repo/re-hypothecation of government
securities is also being explored.
The RBI would frame comprehensive consumer

protection regulations based on domestic experience
and global best practices. In the interest of their
consumers, banks should consider allowing their
borrowers the possibility of prepaying floating rate
term-loans without any penalty. Banks should also
not take advantage of customer difficulty and
provide and guide them with all possible help.
In order to tackle discrepancies in the system, the
comprehensive framework to help banks reduce their
non-performing assets (NPAs) even while putting
distressed projects back on track was made effective.
Adoption of CPI as a measure of inflation will help
RBI in managing the monetary policy in a better way.
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The RBI would be working to ease entry costs

for foreign investors. It would also strive to reduce
risk for investors and the volatility of flows.
Towards this end the modalities for allowing
foreign portfolio investors to hedge their currency
risks through exchange-traded currency futures
were being worked out in consultation with the
Securities and Exchange Board of India.
of existing distance restrictions, was being

considered.
To encourage longer-term flows and reduce

volatility, FPI investments in G-Secs would be
permitted only in dated securities of maturity of
one-year and above. The existing investment in Tbills would be allowed to taper off on maturity.
Any investment limits vacated at the shorter end
would be available at longer maturities, so that
overall FPI limits do not get diminished.
To enlarge the base for banking correspondent
(BC) the inclusion of new entities and a relaxation
Urjit Patel Committee
In September, 2013 the Reserve Bank of India

had set up an expert committee Chaired by Deputy
Governor Urjit Patel to revise and strengthen the
monetary policy framework to make it transparent
and predictable. The committee submitted its report
in January, 2014.
The main recommendations of committee are
as follows:-
(a) Inflation should be the nominal anchor of

the monetary policy framework, and it should
be defined without any ambiguity.
(b) RBI should adopt CPI (Consumer Price Index)

inflation as the new nominal anchor, as it is
the closest reflection of cost of living and
inflation expectations.
(c) It suggests adopting a longer-term target of 4
per cent for CPI inflation with a band of +/
- 2 per cent.
(d) Inflation from the current level of 10 per cent

to be brought down to 8 per cent over a
period not exceeding the next 12 months and
to 6 per cent over a period not exceeding the
next 24 month period before formally
adopting the recommended target of 4 per
cent inflation with a band of +/- 2 per cent.
(e) The committee asked the Central Government
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A consumer price index (CPI) measures

changes in the price level of a market basket of
consumer goods and services purchased by
households. A CPI can be used to index the real
value of wages, salaries, pensions, for regulating
prices and for deflating monetary magnitudes to
show changes in real values.
to ensure that the fiscal deficit as a ratio to
Gross Domestic Product is brought down to
3.0 per cent by 2016-17.
(f) That the monetary policy decision-making

should be vested with a Monetary Policy
Committee (MPC). It went on to recommend
that the Governor of the RBI should be the
Chairman of the MPC. The term of office of
the MPC could be three years, without
prospect of renewal. Besides it also
recommended that MPC should also have
two external members.
(g) It suggested that dependence on market

stabilisation scheme (MSS) and cash
management bills (CMBs) may be phased out,
consistent with government debt and cash
management being taken over by the
government's Debt Management Office.
(h) All fixed income financial products should

be treated on a par with bank deposits for
the purposes of taxation and Tax Deduction
at Source.
(i) On Open Market Operations (OMOs) have
to be detached from fiscal operations and
instead linked solely to liquidity management.
Further the panel said, OMOs should not be
used for managing yields on government
securities.
[17]

Wholesale Price Index (WPI) represents the
price of goods at a wholesale stage i.e. goods that
are sold in bulk and traded between organizations
instead of consumers. WPI is used as a measure of
inflation in some economies. WPI is used as an
important measure of inflation in India. Fiscal and

monetary policy changes are greatly influenced by
changes in WPI. In the United States, Producer
Price Index (PPI) is used to measure inflation.
GOLD GLITTERS IN CHINA

Chinese hold gold in the physical form; and
has a price-sensitive market too. Demand for
jewellery fabrication in China has been growing
robustly alongwith retail demand for bars and coins.
The physical demand in the form of jewellery and
coins hit a record high.
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According to the World Gold Council, Chinas

gold demand has doubled from 10% to 21%. Earlier
this year, it replaced India as the worlds biggest
consumer of gold Chinese demand reached 1,189.8
tonnes last year, a 32 per cent year-on-year jump.
The frenetic buying of gold in China, which led to
a temporary shortage of physical stocks, was
sparked by the 28 per cent fall in the precious
metals price in 2013.
With 400 tonnes of domestic production and
over 600 tonnes of physical imports in 2013, Chinas
gold consumption has now exceeded a thousand
tonnes, making it the real mover and shaker of the
world gold market. Chinas hunger for gold is the
result of rising wealth among its young population,
rapid urbanisation and evolving lifestyles.
Indian consumption rose 5 per cent to 987.2

tonnes last year, but was held back by new import
tariffs and restrictions. In China there were no
brakes. Gold jewellery fabrication rose nearly a
third to 724 tonnes, surpassing India for the first
time, and the retail sector boomed. In July and
August, more than 200 gold showrooms opened in
the southern city of Shenzhen.
Because many Chinese buy jewellery for
investment reasons rather than adornment, high
purity 24 carat gold products dominated sales.
Purchases of physical bars mostly kilobars and
smaller weights rose 47 per cent to 366 tonnes, a
new record.
With large-scale redemptions since mid-April

2013, estimated at over 600 tonnes, after the price
meltdown from $1600 an ounce to $ 1200/oz levels,
a significant part of the outflow has reportedly
moved to China. With prices moving down, the
risk of further outflow has increased. In recent
years, Chinas gold demand growth has far
outstripped its GDP growth.
Trade data from the US, the UK and
Switzerland point to large shipments of gold to
Hong Kong from where the goods move over to
the mainland. Gold coin shipments from Switzerland
to China and Hong Kong have also increased.
Over the last five years, Chinas domestic
production of gold has been growing on an average
at eight per cent a year. These reserves were built
from domestic production rather than from imports.
Gold has always been popular in China and now
is increasingly seen as an asset class for individuals.
Greater wealth and disposable incomes created
pent-up demand when prices were high, so when
they dropped there was this phenomenal surge in
buying.
WAY TO PROGRESSIVE TAXATION
The Indian rich people may have to pay more

taxes as countrys government is mulling to propose
heavy taxes for super rich class on basis of the
recommendations in the draft Direct Taxes Code
Bill, 2013, which was put in the public domain on
April 1, 2014. The original Direct Taxes Code Bill,
2010, will lapse with the end of the 15th Lok Sabha
and the new Government will have to initiate the
process for the introduction of the Bill.
The structure of Income Tax system in the
[18]
country will not be disturbed and will remain as it

is now. However, a surcharge for income above
particular level is likely to be added. The
government needs to raise more revenues and the
people with larger incomes must be willing to
contribute more.
In India taxes on income are levied at three
rates 10 per cent, 20 per cent and 30 per cent.
These rates were fixed in 1997. With a view to
maintain overall progressivity in levy of income tax,
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the revised Code provides for a fourth slab for
individuals, Hindu Undivided Families (HUFs) and
artificial juridical persons. In their case, if the total
income exceeds Rs 10 crore, it is proposed to be
taxed at the rate of 35 per cent. There is an
additional surcharge of 10 per cent on income
exceeding Rs 1 crore.
There is a 10 per cent additional tax on the

recipient if the total dividend in his hand exceeds
Rs 1 crore. Under the present regime as well as the
one proposed by the original DTC in 2010, dividend
distribution tax is to be levied at the rate of 15 per
cent.
The draft has retained the dividend taxation
provision which favours high net-worth taxpayers
who only pay a fraction of their earnings as tax on
their investments in the capital market.
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There have been repeated calls within India that

rich people should pay more taxes. People have
been demanding that rich people should pay more
tax as they enjoy more amenities and more facilities.
10 per cent on income between Rs 3 lakh and Rs10

lakh (Rs 2-5 lakh), 20 per cent on Rs 10-20 lakh (Rs
5-10 lakh) and 30 per cent for income beyond Rs
20 lakh (now Rs 10 lakh and above).
The Finance Ministry has not accepted a

recommendation on revising the tax slabs as
proposed by the Standing Committee on Finance,
headed by Yashwant Sinha, as it will result in huge
revenue loss.
The Committee favoured revising the slab with

no tax on income up to Rs 3 lakh (now Rs 2 lakh),
Now it needs to be seen whether Indian

government proposes higher taxes for rich of the
country and whether there is any resentment from
the rich or super rich class.
WORLD BANK TO CURB POVERTY
The World Bank Group (WBG) is all set to

achieve its ambitious twin goals of ending extreme
poverty by 2030 and boosting shared prosperity
for the bottom 40 percent of the population in
According to the World Bank president, Jim

Yong Kim, the development lender will focus on
10 countries -- including India, China, Bangladesh
and Democratic Republic of Congo -- that are home
to 80 percent of the world's extreme poor. These
residents live on less than $1.25 a day.
The World Bank is nearly doubling its lending

capacity to middle-income countries because they
can provide insight to poorer countries in solving
problems. These countries will benefit by being able
to borrow another 2.5 billion dollars a year over
and above their current limits.
The increase will boost annual lending to middle

income countries from the current 15 billion dollars
a year to 26 billion-28 billion dollars. The move
responds to demand from middle income countries
that had reached their borrowing limits. Very poor
countries will benefit from a record 52 billion
dollars in grants and loans pledged in December.
The World Bank's proposal to support the

building of the world's largest hydroelectric dam
on the Congo River - called Grand Inga Dam is an
example of the bank's bold steps on its way to
eliminating world poverty by 2030.
The bank said there will be expansions in all of

its major branches, including a $100 billion boost
in the fund for middle-income countries, known as
the International Bank for Reconstruction and
Development. The bank's private sector arm, the
International Finance Corporation, will boost
annual commitments to $26 billion a year. And the
Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, which
provides political risk insurance, aims to increase
its guarantees by 50 percent over four years.The
WBGs effort to shore up support for middle income
countries reflects the changing geography of
poverty, which is now home to three-quarters of
the worlds extreme poor. Middle-income countries
such as China, India and Indonesia continue to
struggle with rising inequality and deep pockets of
poverty, where large segments of the population
remain in extreme poverty or are vulnerable to
falling below the $1.25 per day line. By increasing
available funds for these countries, the Bank is
demonstrating its strong commitment to ending
poverty in all corners of the world.
The World Bank will help developing countries
end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity,
by providing them with more financial resources,
more solutions-based knowledge, and help leverage
more private sector investment. The bank also
focuses on improving the quality of its lending
rather than just the amount thrown as loan.

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[19]

A DROUGHT HIT PLANET BY 2100
The International Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) has warned that soil moisture is expected
to decline globally and that already dry regions
will be at greater risk of agricultural drought.
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An increase in evaporating drying means that

those regions expected to get more rain, including
the important rice, wheat and corn belts of the
American and Asian continent, will be at high risk
of drought. One third of the world may be at
increased risk of drought by 2100 as warmer
temperatures wring more moisture from the soil.
Much of concern about future drought under
global warming has focused on rainfall projections
but increasing heat is expected to extend dry
conditions to far more farmland and cities by the
end of the century than changes in rainfall alone.
The higher evaporation rates may also play an
important role as warmer temperatures wring more
moisture from the soil, even in some places where
rainfall is forecasted to increase.
It is estimated that 12 per cent of land will be
subject to drought by 2100 through rainfall changes
alone; but the drying will spread to 30 per cent of
land if higher evaporation rates from the added
energy and humidity in the atmosphere is
considered. Warmer temperatures will help to dry
things out.
Using two drought metric formulations, it has

been analysed that projections of both rainfall and
evaporative demand from the collection of climate
model simulations have led to this conclusion. Both
metrics agree that increased evaporative drying will
probably tip marginally wet regions at mid-latitudes
like the US Great Plains and a swath of southeastern
China into aridity.
The dry zones in Central America, the Amazon
and southern Africa will grow larger. In Europe,
the summer aridity of Greece, Turkey, Italy and
Spain is expected to extend farther north into
continental Europe.
If precipitation were the only consideration, the
great agricultural centres would not be considered
at risk of drought The moisture balance in the soil
is what really matters for agriculture.
If rain increases slightly alongwith increase in
temperature, drought is a potential consequence.
GETTING SOLAR CELLS FROM SUNLIGHT
In a recent advance in solar energy, researchers

have discovered a way to tap the sun to directly
produce solar energy materials. This breakthrough
could soon reduce the cost of solar energy, expedite
production processes and make the sun almost a
"one-stop shop" that produces both the materials
for solar devices and the eternal energy to power
them.
How a Solar Cell Works?
Solar cells or photovoltaic cells convert the suns

energy into electricity. Sunlight is composed of
miniscule particles called photons, which radiate
from the sun. Silicon is what is known as a semiconductor, meaning that it shares some of the
properties of metals and some of those of an
electrical insulator, making it a key ingredient in
[20]
solar cells. As these hit the silicon atoms of the

solar cell, they transfer their energy to loose
electrons, knocking them clean off the atoms. The
photons could be compared to the white ball in a
game of pool, which passes on its energy to the
coloured balls it strikes. Creating an electrical
imbalance within the cell, which acts a bit like a
slope down which the electrons will flow in the
same direction. As the photons smash the electrons
off the silicon atoms, this field drives them along in
an orderly manner, providing the electric current
to power calculators, satellites and everything in
between.
The Benefits:
Cheaper and slimmer than conventional

silicon cells, these could soon be used as
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coatings in buildings to produce energy.
This approach
friendly.
is also
very environment-
Several aspects of this system should continue

to reduce the cost of solar energy, and when
widely used, our carbon footprint.
The solar materials were made with copper

indium diselenide, but to lower material costs it
might also be possible to use a compound such as
copper zinc tin sulfide. The chalcogenide-based, thin
film solar cells have already returned a fairly high
solar energy conversion efficiency of about 20
percent in the laboratory, researchers said, while
costing less than silicon technology.
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In this process, simulated sunlight is focused

on the solar microreactor to rapidly heat it. The
work is based on the use of a "continuous flow"
microreactor to produce nanoparticle inks that

make solar cells by printing.
INDIA ADDS YET ANOTHER FEATHER TO ITS CAP
IRNSS is equivalent to Global Positioning

System of the United States. India has successfully
launched its second navigational satellite IRNSS
1B onboard PSLV-C24 from the Satish Dhawan
Space Centre.
Indian Space Research Organisation's
workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLVC24 placed the IRNSS IB in precise orbit about 19
minutes after a perfect lift-off at 5.14 pm.
The navigational system has a total budget of
About IRNSS-1B :

IRNSS-1B is the second dedicated navigation

satellite of India.
around Rs 1,420 crore and will provide accurate

position information to users within the country
and up to 1,500 km from the nations boundaries.
It is similar to the global positioning system of the
US, Glonass of Russia, Galileo of Europe, China
Beidou and the Japanese Quasi Zenith Satellite System.
There will be multiple uses of the system,
including for terrestrial, aerial and marine
navigation, disaster management, vehicle tracking
and fleet management. It can also be integrated
with mobile phones and mapping.
This payload will be operating in L5 band

(1176.45 MHz) and S band (2492.028 MHz).
The ranging payload of IRNSS-1B consists of

a C-band transponder which facilitates
accurate determination of the range of the
satellite.
IRNSS-1B also carries Corner Cube Retro

Reflectors for laser ranging.
The design of the payload makes the IRNSS

system interoperable and compatible with
Global Positioning System (GPS) and Galileo.
The satellite is powered by two solar arrays,

which generate power up to 1,660 watts, and
has a life-time of ten years.
It is one of the seven satellites constituting

the IRNSS space segment.
Its predecessor, IRNSS-1A, was launched by
PSLV-C22 in July 2013.
IRNSS-1B has a lift-off mass of 1432 kg.
The configuration of IRNSS-1B is similar to

that of IRNSS-1A
IRNSS -1B carries two types of payloads navigation payload and ranging payload.The
navigation payload of IRNSS-1B will transmit
navigation service signals to the users.
INDIAS OWN GPS: THE KARGIL FACTOR
Geopolitical needs can very much be a factor

for making advanced developments in R&D, at least
in case of India. When Pakistani troops took
positions in Kargil in 1999, the Indian military
sought GPS data for the region but the spacebased navigation system maintained by the US
government denied it to India. The Kargil
experience made the nation realise the inevitability
of having for an indigenous satellite navigation
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system. Indian Space Research Organisation took

the nation closer to the goal, which it would achieve
in less than two years. By making reality the Indian
Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) which
works on a combination of seven satellites which
would 'look' at the region from different angles,
and, in the process, helps calculate from relative
data, real-time movement of objects by as less as
10m. Isro launched the first of the satellites in the
[21]

group, IRNSS-1A, in July 2013. By mid-2015, it
plans to have all the seven in place. Three of the
seven satellites will be in geostationary orbits and
the other four in inclined geosynchronous orbits.
Apart from navigation, the system will help in
precise time keeping, disaster management, fleet
management and mapping.
The IRNSS will be offering two types of

services: the first is called Standard Positioning
Service (SPS) which is for civilian use while the
second is called Restricted Services (RS), which can
detect movement of objects by less than 10m. It
will put India in the company of select nations
which have their own positioning systems.
INDIA GETTING HIGH ON SOLAR CAPACITY
In January 2014 , Indias total grid-interactive

renewable energy capacity crossed 30,000
MW and the total installed capacity of wind
segment crossed 20,000 MW.
State-policy driven contributions stand tallest

at 1,322 MW, followed by MNRE projects at
688 MW, REC Scheme at 491 MW, with the
rest coming from renewable purchase
obligation private sector rooftop and central
government organisations.
Gujarat (916 MW) is on the top of the list
with Rajasthan (730 MW), Madhya Pradesh
(347 MW) and Maharashtra (249 MW)
following it among others.
During fiscal 2013-14, a total capacity of 947
INSAT 3E
Hikes in diesel prices have made solar a very

attractive option thereby increasing its potential
even in a slower-growing economy. With continued
power shortfalls, peak shortage becomes a critical
problem and increases the costs involved in back
up generation thereby stifling industrial growth.
The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission
was launched on the 11th January, 2010 by the
Prime Minister. Also known as the National Solar
Mission is a major initiative of the Government of
India and State Governments to promote
ecologically sustainable growth while addressing
Indias energy security challenges. The Mission has
set the ambitious target of deploying 20,000 MW
of grid connected solar power by 2022. It is aimed
at reducing the cost of solar power generation in
the country through (i) long term policy; (ii) large
scale deployment goals; (iii) aggressive R&D; and
(iv) domestic production of critical raw materials,
components and products, as a result to achieve
grid tariff parity by 2022.
DECOMMISSIONED
INSAT-3E is a third-generation communication

satellite which was launched in September 2003
with 36 transponders 24 C-band and 12
extended C-band transponders, out of which only
25 of them have been working since 2009. The
satellite has completed its life and gone out of
service. Built to last 15 years, it has completed tenand-a-half years in orbit.
Few days back, it ran out of the on-board
oxidiser, which, along with fuel, keeps it Earthlocked or fixed over the Indian sub-continent and
runs its daily functions. The ISRO had apparently
expected that the satellite, positioned at 55 degrees
E longitude, would last a few more months and
that it would be smoothly replaced with GSAT-16.
Now the space agency is getting set to launch
[22]
MW was commissioned of which MP added

the highest capacity of 310 MW.
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The solar market potential remains as large as

ever. As power shortfalls continue, peak shortage
is a critical problem that has stifled industrial
growth, and back-up generation is becoming
increasingly expensive. The total grid-connected
solar capacity, commissioned under the National
Solar Mission, crossed the 2,500-MW mark and
stood at 2,632 MW as on March 31, 2014.
IRNSS-1B, second of its seven regional navigation

satellites.
A start has been made of shifting users of
INSAT-3E on to standby capacities on some of the
other satellites. The spare capacity includes the
three-month-old GSAT-14.
INSAT-3Es 10 extended C-band transponders
supported VSAT operators; its C-band supported
BSNL and captive communication networks of the
National Thermal Power Corporation and the Oil
and Natural Gas Corporation, among others.
The ISRO is now left with 189 transponders on
its INSAT/GSAT fleet and 91 additional
transponders leased on foreign satellites.
INSAT-3E had briefly blinked and disrupted
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INSAT 3E was launched on September 28, 2003
from the European Space Agency's spaceport in
French Guiana on board the Ariane rocket.
Currently it has become defunct.
The satellite had a launch mass of 2750

kilograms.
It is the 4th satellite launched in the INSAT3 series of ISRO.
It was designed for providing high-speed

communication, Television, VSAT & Teleeducation services.
In April 2014, almost eleven years after being

launched, the satellite ran out of oxidizer and a
few days later, was decommissioned by the ISRO.
K. Radhakrishnan is the Chairman of the Indian
Space Research Organisation.
graveyard orbit and keep it out of the way of
many working spacecraft of other countries.
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services for almost a day in September 2012 and

was restored. The Master Control Facility at Hassan
is due to move the expired satellite into a higher
IS BUREAUCRACY DOMINATING SCIENCE IN INDIA?
Though R&D spending is less than 1 per cent

of Indias GDP, there is no dearth of funds for
research in India, because there is no competition
here. The only negative point is that money comes
with the same bureaucratic restrictions that apply
to all government expenditure.
A case can be taken of the research students
who get no funding support to travel abroad to
participate in conferences, scientists are constrained
by limited foreign travel. These restrictions on
foreign travel prevent students and scientists from
gaining in terms of networking, exchanging ideas
and being exposed to the kind of work being done
by their peers in other countries.
The systematic undermining of scientific

enterprise started way back in the mid 1950s. The
fact that scientific departments are modelled on
the rest of the bureaucracy has turned out to be a
big mistake. Thats because bureaucracy is not
designed to encourage innovation. DAE and the
department of space are the only institutions that
undertake developments in-house. Others like the
Department of Biotechnology do not.
By being a part of the bureaucracy, even those

scientists in India who do remarkable research
cannot be rewarded with promotion or pay hike,
so there is no motivation, so scientists are not willing
to take up novel scientific challenges. The malaise
of promotion based on years of service, and not by
achievement has spread to institutions at the
national level too.
Indian science has for too long been hamstrung
by
bureaucratic
mentality
that
values
administrative power over scientific achievements.
It is pertinent to note that the department of space
stands out from the rest. Younger people have been
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put in charge of important programmes, and they

have succeeded.
These factors essentially explain the reason as
to why prior to the 1950s important contributions
from people like Jagadish Chandra Bose, Satyendra
Nath Bose and Srinivasa Ramanujan came from
within the country.
Another problem is the lack of lateral movement
from one institution to another. While collaborating
with scientists from other institutions would go a
long way in putting to test the usefulness of ones
expertise without actually moving to another
institution, one ends up gaining more by moving
out.
Even collaborating with scientists from other
institutions is rarely seen in India. Adding worse
to it, even the funding agencies do not insist on
this. Funding is rather provided for collaboration
within the institution than across institutions. This
is true even in the case of the Nano mission which
was launched in 2007. The Nano mission has
funded 150 individual projects, 11 centres of
excellence and six industry-linked projects. But the
mission has required no collaboration between
institutions.
There are very few national frameworks for
collaboration that would work towards a common
goal. Collaboration becomes all the more important
as the size of the groups in any area is small in
India.
There is an inherent resistance to collaboration
across institutions in other countries as well.
Programmes like ESPRIT [European Strategic
Programme on Research in Information
Technology] insist on collaboration across
institutions and countries for funding.
[23]

How to overcome this ailment?
Changes that need to be urgently initiated to

reinvigorate research is to decouple funding
and government control.
There are numerous examples in other

countries and in Europe where such a system
has been operating successfully.
The tenure of heads of institutions should also

be limited and they should be encouraged to
return to active research.
The rotation should be every five years.
Indian science needs public funding, but not

government control.
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HEALTH
GENES RESPONSIBLE FOR OBESITY
were at greater risk of obesity. The chance of being
obese for people with less than four copies of the
AMY1 gene was approximately eight times higher
than in those with more than nine copies of this
gene.
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People who have fewer copies of a gene AMY

1 that helps the body digest carbohydrates are at
a greater risk of obesity. Obesity may be genetically
linked to how our bodies digest the starch found in
carbohydrate-rich foods like bread, rice and
potatoes.
The scientific study investigated the relationship
between body weight and the gene AMY1, which
is responsible for an enzyme present in our saliva
known as salivary amylase. This enzyme is the first
to be encountered by food when it enters the
mouth, and it begins the process of starch digestion
that then continues in the gut. When we eat, an
enzyme in saliva called salivary amylase kick-starts
digestion by breaking down some of the starch
found in carbohydrates into sugars. This enzyme is
produced by the gene AMY1.
It's an unusual gene, in that people can have
multiple copies of it, unlike most genes where there
are just two. The more copies one has, the more
enzyme he produces. It is believed that humans
evolved to carry more copies of the gene as our
diets shifted towards carbohydrate-rich foods.
The number of copies of AMY1 can be highly

variable between people, and it is believed that
higher numbers of copies of the salivary amylase
gene have evolved in response to a shift towards
diets containing more starch since prehistoric times.
Researchers looked at the number of copies of

the gene AMY1 present in the DNA of thousands
of people from the UK, France, Sweden and
Singapore.They found that people who carried a
low number of copies of the salivary amylase gene
The researchers estimated that with every

additional copy of the salivary amylase gene there
was approximately a 20 per cent decrease in the
odds of becoming obese.
This is discovery is important because it
suggests that how we digest starch and how the
end products from the digestion of complex
carbohydrates behave in the gut could be important
factors in the risk of obesity. The number of copies
of a gene that a person carries can vary throughout
their DNA, although people usually have two copies
of each gene. The researchers found that the
number of copies of AMY1, however, can vary
wildly between people. The study found that people
with a low number of copies of AMY1 were most
likely to become obese.
The researchers examined the number of copies
of AMY1 present in the DNA of more than 6,000
people from the UK, France, Sweden and
Singapore. According to the results of the study,
people with a low number of copies of AMY1 were
most likely to become obese. From this data, they
found that AMY1 was the gene that had the
greatest influence on body weight. Also, the
number of copies of the salivary amylase gene is
highly variable between people, and so, given this
finding, can potentially have a large impact on our
individual risk of obesity.
NO SMOKING BENEFICIAL
The number of premature births and children

visiting hospitals for asthma has dropped
significantly in parts of the US, Canada, and Europe
barely a year after they enacted smoking bans.
The new analysis combined the results of 11
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studies encompassing more than 2.5 million births

and nearly 250,000 asthma attacks. Experts called
it the best evidence to date that legislation creating
smoke-free public places and workplaces improves
childrens health, even in the womb. There are over
a million babies dying of being born preterm every
[25]

year in the world which can be saved by making
major strides in decreasing that with smoking bans.
The investigators have also pooled data and found
a 5 per cent reduction in the number of children
born very small for their gestational age after the
introduction of smoke-free laws.
The analysis did not prove that smoke-free laws

caused the improvements in childrens health. And
the researchers did not evaluate other factors, like
taxation of tobacco products and advertisement
bans, which could have contributed in reducing
smoking. Further studies are needed to estimate
the effect of smoke-free laws on respiratory tract
infections in children, a major problem of
secondhand smoke. There is also a pressing need
for studies of tobacco control laws in low- to middleincome countries. This kind of work will catalyse
the introduction of smoke-free laws, and as that is
done, the opportunity is taken to evaluate their
impact and strengthen the evidence. It is now
evident that early-life protection from involuntary
secondhand smoke exposure, holds great potential
to reduce the consequential disease burden like
asthma and other serious lung diseases.
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An earlier analysis of the effect of smoking bans

on adult health demonstrated a 15 per cent
reduction in cardiovascular events. Only 16 per
cent of the worlds population is covered by
comprehensive smoke-free laws, and 40 per cent
of children worldwide are routinely exposed to
secondhand smoke. Strong smoke-free laws change
social norms about smoking, and consequently
people implement smoke-free policies in their own
homes as well. Smoke-free policies have a direct
impact on child health.
half of Americans are protected by complete smokefree policies in workplaces, restaurants and bars.
It is held that any amount of secondhand smoke

is dangerous. But still enough efforts are being taken
to protect children from secondhand smoke. About
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NEWS IN BRIEF
NEWSMAKERS
Manuel Carlos Valls
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Parvez Musharraf
Parvez Musharraf, former chief of army staff
and the President of Pakistan, for the first time,
under Article 6 of the Constitution indicted by a
special court for high treason for imposing
emergency and subverting the Constitution. Under
Article 6 of the Constitution, "Any person who
abrogates or subverts or suspends or holds in
abeyance, or attempts or conspires to abrogate or
subvert or suspend or hold in abeyance, the
Constitution by use of force or show of force or by
any other unconstitutional means shall be guilty of
high treason." Justice Faisal Arab who heads the
special court said it is punishable with death under
the law.
Manuel Carlos Valls is the newly appointed

prime minister of France. He is a French Socialist
Party politician. He was previously the Minister of
the Interior from 2012 to 2014, the Mayor of vry
from 2001 to 2012 and has also been a Member of
the National Assembly since 2002. He is a member
of the Socialist Party and is regarded as the "right
wing" of the Socialist Party. In March 2014,
following major losses to centre-right and extremeright political parties in French municipal elections,
President Francois Hollande appointed Valls to the
post of Prime Minister. He replaced Jean-Marc Ayrault.
The former military dictator was charged with

issuing an unconstitutional and unlawful order in
2007 at Rawalpindi as Chief of the Army Staff,
called the "Proclamation of Emergency Order,
2007" which held the Constitution in abeyance. He
subverted the Constitution and committed the
offence of high treason.
Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca was sworn in as

the president of Malta. She became the countrys
ninth president and is the second woman to be
appointed head of state in the European Union
country. Coleiro Preca, a notary by profession, was
previously minister for social policy after the Labour
party returned to power following March 2013
elections. She is the second female president of
Malta and was previously general secretary of
Labour. She takes over from George Abela, who
was appointed in 2009.
Musharraf seized power in a coup in 1999

and remained President until 2008.
Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca
OBITUARIES
Kumba Yala
Former Guinea Bissau President Kumba Yala,

who ruled the West African nation from 2000 to
2003, died at the age of 61.Yala came to power in
2000 after the country's second multi-party election
following a brief civil war in 1999. Some of Yala's

policies began to cause political and social turmoil.
Three years after his election, the military removed
him from office in a bloodless coup. Later in life,
he ran twice in polls to regain the presidency but
was unsuccessful.
AWARDS/PRIZES
Padma Awards presented

President Pranab Mukherjee conferred Padma
awards, announced on the eve of 65th Republic
st
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Day, in New Delhi. The list comprises two Padma

Vibhushan, 12 Padma Bhushan and 53 Padma Shri
Awardees.
[27]

The list of the awardees are:
Padma Vibhushan: Dr. Raghunath A.
Mashelkar, Science and Engineering (Maharashtra)
Padma Awards, the countrys highest civilian

awards, are conferred in three categories, namely,
Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma
Shri. The Awards are given in various disciplines/
fields of activities, viz- art, social work, public
affairs, science and engineering, trade and industry,
medicine, literature and education, sports, civil
service, etc. Padma Vibhushan is awarded for
exceptional and distinguished service; Padma
Bhushan for distinguished service of high order
and Padma Shri for distinguished service in any
field. The awards are announced on the occasion
of Republic Day every year. The awards are
conferred by the President of India at a function
held at Rashtrapati Bhawan sometime around
March/ April.
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Padma Bhushan: Shri Pullela Gopichand, Sports
Badminton
(Andhra
Pradesh),
Prof.
Anisuzzaman,
Literature
and
Education
(Bangladesh), Shri Kamal Haasan, Art-Cinema
(Tamil Nadu), Prof. Jyeshtharaj Joshi, Science and
Engineering (Maharashtra), Shri Vijayendra Nath
Kaul, Civil Service (Delhi), Dr. (Smt.) Neelam Kler,
Medicine Neonatology (Delhi), Late Dr. Anumolu
Ramakrishna, Science and Engineering (Andhra
Pradesh), Prof. Lloyd I. Rudolph, and Prof. Susanne
H. Rudolph, Literature and Education (USA),
Begum Parveen Sultana, Art - Classical Singing
(Maharashtra), Shri T.H. Vinayakram, Art Ghatam Artist (Tamil Nadu), Shri Vairamuthu
Ramasamy Thevar, Literature and Education (Tamil
Nadu),
Dr Sunil Pradhan, Pratap Govindrao Pawar,

Wendell Augustine Rodricks, Dr Sarbeswar
Sahariah, Rajesh Saraiya, Alur Seelin Kiran Kumar,
Shri Anuj (Ramanuj) Sharma, Sooni Taraporevala,
Prof Vinod Kumar Singh, Tashi Tondup, Waikhom
Gojen Meetei, Prof (Dr) Jeewan Singh Titiyal, Prof
Om Prakash Upadhyaya.
Padma Shri: Dr Naheed Abidi, Dr Kiritkumar

Mansukhlal Acharya, Dr Subrat Kumar Acharya,
Vidya Balan, Sekhar Basu, Prof (Dr) Balram
Bhargava, Sabitri Chatterjee, Prof Ashok
Chakradhar, Prof Biman Bihari Das, Dr Sunil
Dabas, Chhakchhuak Chhuanvawra, Dr Ramakant
Krishnaji Deshpande, Elam Endira Devi, Prof G.N.
Devy, Dr Brahma Dutt, Prof Kolakaluri Enoch, Prof
Ved Kumari Ghai, Prof (Dr) Pawan Raj Goyal, Ravi
Bhushan Grover, Ramaswamy R Iyer, Prof (Dr)
Daya Kishore Hazra, Prof Eluvathingal Devassy
Jemmis, Prof (Dr) Shashank R Joshi, Naina Apte
Joshi, Bansi Kaul, J L Kaul, Ustad Moinuddin Khan,
Prof Rehana Khatoon, Dr P.Kilemsungla, Dr Milind
Vasant Kirtane, Ashok Kumar Mago, Geeta
Mahalik, Paresh Maity, Dr Mohan Mishra, Prof
Vamsi Krishna Mootha, Prof Vishnu Narayan
Namboodiri, Ravi Kumar Narra, Dipika Rebecca
Pallikal, Dr Ashok Panagariya, Sudarsan Pattnaik,
KOYAL RANA
Koyal Rana was crowned Femina Miss India

2014. She will represent India at Miss World 2014.
Jaipur born Rana had to compete with the 23 other
models at Yash Raj Studio, Mumbai for the top
honour, the fbb Femina Miss India World 2014 Title.
Koyal completed her schooling from St. Thomas'
School, Delhi. She is currently doing her
undergraduate programme in Bachelor of Business
Studies from Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College,
University of Delhi. She represented India at Miss
Teen International in Chicago and won the Miss
Universal Teen 2009 Title. She also won Femina
Miss India Delhi 2014 title.
TERMINOLOGIES
IRNSS-1B
India successfully launched its second

navigational satellite IRNSS-1B onboard PSLV C24 on April 4, 2014. IRNSS-1B is the second of the
seven satellites planned under the Indian Regional
Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS). PSLV C24
successfully placed the 1,432 kg IRNSS 1B in the
intended orbit above the Earth. IRNSS would help
in terrestrial, aerial and marine navigation, disaster
management, vehicle tracking and fleet management,
[28]
integration with mobile phones, mapping

and geodetic data capture and others. Once
completed, the IRNSS system will offer navigational
services, for both civilian and defense purposes, in
India and also 1,500 km beyond its borders.
Pink Revolution
Pink Revolution refers to Indian Meat Industry

Perspective of setting up state of the art meat
processing plants; developing technologies to raise
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male buffalo calves for meat production; increasing
the number of farmers rearing buffalo under
contractual farming; and establishing disease-free
zones for rearing animals. Pink Revolution refers

to the slaughter of animals. When animals are
slaughtered, the colour of their flesh is pink.
MISCELLANEOUS
Enceladus
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NASAs Cassini spacecraft has made repeated

flybys of Enceladus, one of Saturns moon, by
photographing the fissures, nicknamed tiger stripes,
where the geysers originate, measuring
temperatures and identifying carbon-based organic
molecules that could serve as building blocks for
life. Using data from NASAs Cassini spacecraft,
they have found gravitational evidence that a vast
sea the size of Lake Superior could extend out from
around the southern pole. The sea is at freezing

temperature and in continual darkness. And the
water may have been liquid only in the recent past,
a few tens of millions of years. Enceladus has been
shown to have sodium and potassium salts as well
as ammonia and methane in the plume of water
vapor being spit out of its south pole. If it has
organic molecules in its layer of liquid water, its a
candidate for habitable environments in our own
solar system.
SPORTS
Anjus record ratified by IAAF
Anju Bobby George became the first Indian

athlete to win a gold medal in the World Athletics
Final. The International Association of Athletics
Federations (IAAF) has ratified the gold medal for
long jumper Anju Bobby George at the IAAF World
Athletics Final in Monte Carlo in 2005 after the
disqualification of Russias Tatyana Kotova. Kotova
finished ahead of the Anju in the meet but later
failed to clear a dope test.
Indian athlete star Anju had previously won a
bronze medal in the 2003 World Championship,
gold in the Asian Games and Asian Championship,
besides a bronze in the Commonwealth Games.
Barcelona banned from signing
FIFA, the ruling body of world football, has

banned Spanish football giants FC Barcelona from
signing any new players until the summer of 2015
as both Barcelona and the Spanish Football
Federation (RFEF) had "violated several provisions

concerning the international transfer and first
registration of non-Spanish minors with the club,"
over the period 2009 to 2013. Barcelona will be
fined 450,000 Swiss francs ($509,000, 369,027
euros) and banned from signing any players for
two complete and consecutive transfer periods. The
ban could impact on the club's reported plans to
bring in Gladbach's German goalie Marc-Andre ter
Stegen.
National games to be held in 2015
The National Games would be held in 2015

and the dates would be decided in consultation
with the various national federations as has been
announced by Indian Olympic Association (IOA)
president N. Ramachandran. The National Games
of India is a sporting event and it comprises various
disciplines in which sportsmen from the different
states of India participate against each other.

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[29]
EDITORIALS
MESSAGE FROM SRI LANKAN POLLS
town prefer their district MP, Sajith Premadasa,
son of former President Ranasinghe Premadasa. Mr.
Sajith Premadasa has fought both the Rajapaksas
and has a running battle going in his own United
National Party. This is the last round of polls in Sri
Lanka ahead of the parliamentary and presidential
elections scheduled for 2016.
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The elections to the Western and Southern

provincial councils in Sri Lanka, home to a third of
the countrys voters, was expected to be a walkover
for the Mahinda Rajapakasa-led United Peoples
Freedom Alliance. After all, the government had
fought bravely against foreign conspirators at the
25th session of the United Nations Human Rights
Council in Geneva barely days ahead of the welltimed polling. In fact, much of the election
campaign made it appear as if Sri Lanka was under
siege and no one other than President Rajapaksas
UPFA was capable of saving the nation. But the
electorate did not buy the whole story, the voter
turnout was low, and the results appeared
puzzling. Local elections may be fought on
immediately relevant issues and the outcome of a
national poll may well be decided on larger
considerations; still, the latest results provide an
idea of the country's mood. The UPFA did win a
majority in Mr. Rajapaksas home province, the
Southern Province, and emerged the biggest party
in the Western Province that has Colombo as its
headquarters. But a point of concern for the ruling
combine was the numbers: the UPFA won 33 of 55
seats in the South down from 38 in 2009 and
managed 56 of the 104 in the West where it had
68 in 2009. More worrisome for the UPFA is the
fact that it lost votes in the Presidents hometown,
Hambantota represented in Parliament by his
son Namal Rajapaksa. Clearly, people of the port-
Though the losses do not appear massive, the

message behind it cannot be wished away. The
UPFAs loss did not result in its main rival, the
UNP, gaining votes. In fact, there appears to be
serious confusion among people: they voted for
former General Sarath Fonsekas Democratic
National Alliance, which is now emerging as the
third force in the country, and also the JVP, which
is re-grouping under a new leader, Anura Kumara
Dissanayake. The UNPs vote share declined in
Colombo Central, its biggest stronghold, and it will
have to double its vote share if it has to emerge on
top in a future election. Ranil Wickremasinghe, the
UNP chief who survived many bids to unseat him,
does not seem to be the leader who can carry the
UNP into an election victory. With Sarath Fonsekas
fate already sealed following the deal he struck to
be released from prison, people are clearly looking
for a new leader. And there appears no one in
sight. That might be Mr.Rajapaksas biggest trump
card yet.
Source: The Hindu
MAINTAINING THE STATUS QUO
The Reserve Bank of Indias first bi-monthly

monetary policy statement is the last such before
national elections and the formation of a new
government. Obviously, monetary policy will have
to be dovetailed with the new governments
policies, especially fiscal policy. The interregnum is
not particularly conducive to major monetary policy
announcements. However, even while playing it
safe on certain key ongoing initiatives for
instance, the award of new bank licences has been
[30]
referred to the Election Commission by way of

abundant caution the central bank has perforce
to address monetary policy issues that cannot be
postponed. The policy statement, it has been
emphasised, is an economic and regulatory
statement and ought not to be viewed through the
prism of contemporary politics. The decision to hold
policy rates was widely anticipated and, as is to be
expected, based on a critical assessment of
macroeconomic factors, both within India and
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outside. Since January, economic growth in the
developed economies has moderated. For India and
a number of developing economies, renewed
volatility of capital flows and tightening of external
financing conditions are the biggest threats. While
sticking to its inflation and GDP growth forecasts,
the RBI has warned of upside risks to inflation and
downward risks to growth.
CH
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On inflation, the risks to the central forecast of

8 per cent CPI inflation by January 2015 stem from
a less-than-normal monsoon, uncertainty in the
setting of minimum support prices, the outlook for
fiscal policy and the possibility of higher commodity
prices. The monetary policy stance will be firmly
focussed on keeping the economy in a
disinflationary path towards a CPI inflation of 6
per cent by January 2016. GDP growth is projected
to pick up from a little below 5 per cent in 201314 to the central estimate of 5.5 per cent, in a range
of 5 to 6 per cent in 2014-15. However, there are

no tangible signs of a sustained revival in industry
and services as yet. Clearing of stalled projects and
a pick-up in export growth as the world economy
gains traction should brighten the outlook.
Elaborating on the developmental and regulatory
policies outlined earlier, the key recommendations
of the Urjit Patel Committees report that have been
implemented include the adoption of the new CPI
as the key inflation measure, and a transition to a
bi-monthly policy cycle. For banks, the transitional
period for full implementation of Basel III capital
regulations has been extended by a year to March
31, 2019. It is proposed to make inflation-linked
savings bonds more investor-friendly. A wealth of
information on non-monetary policy measures are
found in this bi-monthly monetary policy statement,
and hopefully that will become the norm.
Source: The Hindu
POORLY PERFORMING PUBLIC SERVICES
There is something ironic about politicians

making announcements about the Right to
Education or the Right to Health when the only
thing they can ensure is allocation of funds. Their
control over the usage of these funds is somewhat
weak; the overall quality of services is even weaker;
their control over actual health or educational
outcomes is the weakest.
Looking at education and health behaviours
and outcomes using data from the India Human
Development Survey (IHDS) of 2004-05 and 201112 paints a picture of striking dissonance between
government programmes and experiences at the
ground level. The period between 2004-05 and
2011-12 saw initiation of several new programmes.
The Right to Education Act (RTE) was implemented
in 2010; the National Rural Health Mission
(NRHM) began in 2005; the Janani Suraksha
Yojana (JSY) began in 2005, to be implemented
alongside the NRHM. Substantial expenditure was
incurred in each of these centrally-sponsored
programmes. Below we look at changes in
education and health to see how these programmes
line up with outcomes.
increased from 28 to 35 per cent between 2005

and 2012 for children of 6-14 years, even before
poor students in private schools were reimbursed.
At the same time, in keeping with the findings of
various Annual Status of Education Report surveys,
the IHDS also found a small decline in reading
and writing skills among children of 8-11 years.
While 54 per cent of children could read a simple
paragraph in 2005, there was a modest decline to
52 per cent in 2012. A similar decline was observed
for basic arithmetic skills like two digit subtraction,
from 48 per cent to 45 per cent. For government
schools the decline was higher nearly 5
percentage points for both outcomes, but a shift
from government to slightly better performing
private schools limits the overall decline in skill
levels.
This growing privatisation of education was
matched by continued and slightly increased
Privatisation
The implementation of the RTE should, in

theory, lead to higher enrolment in government
schools and better educational outcomes. Ironically
we see the reverse. Private school enrolment
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[31]

privatisation of health care. The NRHM is supposed
to strengthen preventive and curative care,
particularly in rural areas and in States with poor
health infrastructure such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar,
Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh. However, a very small
proportion of the Indian population relies on public
facilities. About 70 per cent of patients visit private
providers either as their first choice or once they
are frustrated with public services.
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Between 2005 and 2012, years when the NRHM

was implemented, instead of increased usage of
government services, we see a modest growth in
the use of private services for minor illnesses such
as cough, cold and fever (from 69 per cent to 73
per cent) as well as for treatment of major illnesses
like diabetes, cancer and heart problems (from 67
per cent to 72 per cent). Ironically the greatest
increase in the use of private services is in highfocus large States like U.P., Bihar, Rajasthan, M.P.
and Orissa. Here the proportion of patients going
to private providers increased by nearly 5
percentage points.
ment. The classroom environment is often not

friendly and supportive. The IHDS finds that
children are scolded and physically punished in
both government and private schools. Indeed, our
qualitative interviews suggest that parents consider
this to be a sign that the teachers care about
students. But this scolding is not balanced by
positive reinforcement in government schools. Only
about 33 per cent parents of 8-11-year-olds in
government schools claim that their children
received any praise in the school in the prior month;
this proportion is about 55 per cent for private
schools.
The disenchantment of parents and patients

with government services is widespread. When
asked in 2012 about their confidence in government
and private schools and medical facilities, 53 per
cent of the respondents expressed confidence in
government schools compared to 72 per cent for
private schools. Similar differences are observed for
confidence in government doctors vis--vis private
doctors. What explains this? There is no reason to
believe that private doctors and teachers are more
qualified than government doctors and teachers.
Typically government recruitment standards are
more stringent about training and qualifications
while there is little control over the private sector.
It is hard to imagine that anyone would prefer a
self-styled private doctor in a distant village to
an MBBS doctor in a Primary Health Centre (PHC).
Yet, this is exactly what we see around us.
The reasons for these preferences are myriad.
Parents and patients feel disrespected by
government service providers and may find they
get better service if they pay. For example, about 6
per cent of the patients see a government doctor or
nurse in their private practice rather than in the
government dispensary where the same services
could be practically free. Government facilities are
often irregular in their opening times and teacher
and doctor absenteeism adds to the disenchant-
These observations reflect our pessimism about

the potential for improving government health and
educational services, regardless of the rights that
get enshrined in the Constitution. Any service
delivery system that insists that a doctor live in a
remote village is doomed to failure since doctors
must also think of their childrens education. But
instead of focussing mainly on village-based sub
centres which patients rarely seem to use
enhancing PHCs which are located in slightly larger
and perhaps better connected towns may have a
greater potential for improving the quality of
services. Thoughtful organisation of services has a
far greater potential for enhancing health and
educational outcomes than ideologically influenced
discussions of rights.
Some good news
The success of the JSY in increasing hospital

deliveries is heartening. The years following the
initiation of the JSY document a striking increase
in hospital deliveries. This increase is greatest in
large focus States. Here the hospital delivery rate
has jumped from 25 per cent to 56 per cent between
2005 and 2012. Most of this improvement is in
government hospitals from 14 per cent to 40 per
cent. This success may be due to the efforts made
by medical personnel in response to cash incentives
they receive, and the fact that hurdles to hospital
delivery like transportation have received
consideration in programme design. Although the
quality of maternity care remains a concern,
increasing utilisation certainly points to the success
of the programme. This suggests that focussing on
smarter organisation of public services that aligns
with provider incentives, and enhances efficiency,
offers potential.
Source: The Hindu
[32]

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THE ENDLESS CALAMITY IN WEST ASIA

designed to ensure security for Israeli citizens, to
facilitate and expand settlements, and it would
appear, to annex land, he writes, is hafrada (the
Hebrew word for separation), discrimination and
systematic oppression of, and domination over, the
Palestinian people.
The Jewish State

On March 24, Mr. Falk delivered his report to
the U.N. Human Rights Council, which is in the
process of debating five resolutions that stem from
it. One of them the one the Israelis have taken
most seriously is on the call for member states
to urge businesses to take all necessary steps
including terminating all their business interests in
the settlements. Due to a labour strike by Israeli
diplomats, none of its representatives took their seats
in the Council. The U.N. resolution is non-binding,
although it would still dent the reputation of Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu avoided
all talk of Israeli policy and U.N. resolution. He
has taken refuge in the charge that all critics of
Israel are anti-Semites. In the past, anti-Semites
boycotted Jewish businesses, he said in February.
Today, they call for the boycott of the Jewish State,
and by the way, only the Jewish State.
CH
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Palestine that once was is no more, and what

is no more strives to be reborn. When new nations
were to be born in the dawn of decolonisation,
Palestine vanished from the world map. In its place
came Israel, hastily welcomed into the newly
created United Nations, which played a part in its
formation. Since 1948 the U.N. has attempted in
so many ways to atone for Resolution 181, which
delivered the land to Israel. Its relief organisation,
the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for
Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) tends
to the needs of the Palestinian refugees and its other
agencies attempt to document Israels routine
violation of international law and U.N. resolutions.
Each year on the day that Resolution 181 passed,
November 29, the U.N. celebrates a Day of
Solidarity with the Palestinian People. The day
passes with modest programmes at the local U.N.
offices; 2014 is the U.N.s Year of Solidarity with
the Palestinian People, although the planet can be
forgiven for its ignorance. No celebrities have lined
up to take selfies with signs that proclaim their
solidarity, and no news organisations have devoted
any time for a discussion of this endless calamity
in West Asia. Matters are so grave indeed that the
Palestinians are no longer sure that they will retain
the 22 per cent of historical Palestine that had been
promised to them by the 1993 Oslo Accords, what
Edward Said called the Palestinian Versailles. The
U.N., as midwife, stands aside as Israel prevents
the birth of even this moth-eaten state.
If not for the blind support by the United States,

Israel would be considered one of the planets most
undesirable states. Israel has disregarded more U.N.
Security Council resolutions that sanction its
behaviour than any other state. But with U.S.
protection, these resolutions come without any
pressure no sanctions, no retribution, and
certainly no threat of humanitarian intervention.
The U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in
the Palestinian Territories, Richard Falk writes in
his December 2013 report that Israeli policy
amounts to segregation and apartheid, including
continuing excessive use of force by Israeli security
forces, extra-judicial killings that are part of acts
carried out in order to maintain dominance over
Palestinians and a blockade of the Palestinian
economy by the use of checkpoints and walls. The
most striking part of Mr. Falks report is his assertion
that Israel is conducting ethnic cleansing in the
region. The combined effect of the measures
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Use of the term Jewish State has itself come

under criticism from another U.N. agency, the
Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia
(ESCWA). In its new report, Arab Integration: A
21st Century Development Imperative (2014), the
Commission notes, Israel insists on being
recognized by the world and the Arabs as an
exclusively Jewish State. It imposes this recognition
as a condition for reaching a settlement with the
Palestinians. This policy is based on the concept of
the religious or ethnic purity of States, which
brought to humanity the worst crimes and atrocities
of the twentieth century. It is this idea of the
Jewish State that fuels the toxic right-wing in Israel
they will not tolerate the return of Palestinian
refugees or deliver full rights to Arab Israelis largely
because they fear that this would demographically
challenge their ability to create a Jewish democracy.
In 2003, Mr. Netanyahu said that the Wall built to
encage the West Bank would prevent a
demographic spillover into Israel. The collapse
of the peace process to deliver a two-state solution
threatens to leave the Israelis with only two options
expel the Palestinians to Jordan and Egypt to
[33]

committed to a special relationship with Israel. Its
opportunism is tempered by Indias reliance upon
the Gulf Arabs for its oil. In March 2013, Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh told the Shura Council
in Saudi Arabia, There is no issue more important
for peace and stability in the region than the
question of Palestine. Far too long the brave people
of Palestine have been denied their just, legitimate
and inalienable rights, including most of all the
establishment of a sovereign, independent and
viable Palestinian state. If these are not mere words,
the Indian government might be asked to reconsider
its arms purchases from Israel, which pays for the
very occupation that Dr. Singh decries. Alone
among all the parties is the CPI(M), whose 2014
election manifesto seeks to extend full support to
the cause of a Palestinian state; sever military and
security ties with Israel. The CPI(M) is in line with
the mood of the United Nations agencies, although
it is not clear how close this is to the national
temper. Does the public even care any longer about
the Palestinians?
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liquidate the Palestinian question, or absorb the

Palestinians into a non-racial one-state of IsraelPalestine. Israeli policy leans toward the former,
with the latter its nightmare. On March 26, the
Arab
League
following
ESCWAs
recommendation passed a resolution that rejected
the call to consider Israel as a Jewish State.
Reminding Israel that its definition of statehood
has immense racial connotations has been a salutary
task of the U.N. it has also led to a backlash
from the Netanyahu government, unwilling as it is
to allow any criticism.
India and Israeli commerce
As U.N. criticism of Israel deepens, and as Israel

begins to feel pressure from the European Union
and other Arab states for its illegal settlement
activity, India has decided to extend its ties to Israel.
Ever since India and Israel established full
diplomatic ties in 1992, India has cooled its political
support for the Palestinians and heated up its
imports of Israeli arms. Currently, according to
Israeli Defense Ministry data, India imports more
than $1.5 billion of the $7 billion of weaponry that
Israel exports. It is Israels most important customer.
India is currently looking at a bid from the Israeli
firm Rafael for its Spike anti-tank guided missile.
This contract will alone be worth $1 billion.
The arms deals themselves are not always

advantageous to India. A list of corruption scandals
litters the court records in both Israel and India. A
senior Indian diplomat told this writer what an
Israeli arms dealer once said, I cannot believe you
Indians. We quote you a price and you make the
deal. You dont insist on bargaining for a better
price or demanding technology transfer. Indias
domestic arms industry has not lived up to its
promises, with the possible exception of the Tejas
fighter jet (whose journey began in 1983 and is
only now ready to take flight). India has exchanged
its dependency on Russian military technology for
a new dependency on U.S. and Israeli arms. This
should be worrying by itself, aside from the moral
question of being one of the major underwriters
for the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian lands.
Indias relations with Israel are cemented
around commerce, with arms deals at the forefront.
Of the two major political parties, the Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) is far closer to Israel with its
hopes for a civilisational and a strategic deal
between the countries. The Congress is more
pragmatic in its deal-making, although no less
[34]
It is to stem this doubt about the relevance of

the Palestinian cause that the U.N. has declared
this the Year of Solidarity. There are two reasons
why the current U.N. attempt is already more
promising than earlier attempts. For one, the U.N.
agencies themselves are much more aggressive about
Israeli violations of U.N. resolutions and
international law than previously. The tone of the
reports and the statements by people like the U.N.
High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay
suggest that U.S. protection notwithstanding, Israel
is no longer to get preferential treatment. What is
good for the goose will have to be good for the
gander. Second, a new public awareness of Israeli
policies fuels the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions
(BDS) movement, whose Indian branch has begun
to protest the participation of Indian artists in Israeli
cultural fairs and Indo-Israeli business deals. The
BDS movement pushed Oxfam to break its ties with
film star Scarlett Johansson for her role to also
represent SodaStream, an Israeli firm that is based
on seized, settlement land. These protests have
begun to assume the kind of force that once
propelled the movement against South African
apartheid. When they will take on that kind of
moral charge, Israel will be in trouble. It will have
to cease its occupation and reconsider its treatment
of the Palestinians. That is an end that no one
wants more than the Palestinians themselves.
Source: The Hindu
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PUBLIC PURPOSE OF ARCHITECTURE

on: if good design brings in innovation and adds
value, why are they not increasingly deployed to
serve the public good? Organisations such as the
Design Council of the U.K., which advises the
government on matters of design, have repeatedly
demonstrated that creative solutions can improve
the quality of everyday life and deliver public
services efficiently. They have also shown that funds
invested in design fetch profits and social value.
Such savings are critical for fund-starved projects
such as low-cost housing. The New York City
Department of Housing and Preservation
Development has taken up collaborative work with
designers to create a better liveable environment in
their affordable housing projects. In contrast, State
departments in India pay hardly any attention to
design. As a result, low-income housing projects
impose unliveable environments on the poor, and
cities are yet to see well-designed bus stops, easily
maintainable public toilets and user-friendly civic
buildings. Even the National Design Policy,
announced in 2007, has not sufficiently focussed
on socially useful products. Architecture has to
rediscover its social purpose to stay relevant.
Professional education and public policy must
enable it to serve those in need than just those who
can pay for it.
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The Pritzker Architecture Prize, the most

distinguished and celebrated award in architecture,
is given to a professional in the field who has
contributed substantially to humanity and displayed
excellence in built work. Awarded this year to
Shigeru Ban, the 56-year-old Japanese architect, the
Prize has truly met its objective after a long time.
Mr. Ban has built inexpensive, easily transportable
and recyclable disaster relief structures across the
world for two decades. His ingenious designs have
converted cardboard, paper and other relatively
inexpensive materials into useful and reliable
building components. He has utilised them in
challenging situations ranging from earthquakedisaster relief work in Bhuj to refugee structures in
Rwanda. Not many architects commit their skills
and resources to design for the needy. Their
preoccupation has been with creating expensive,
glitzy and monumental structures, and major
awards, including the Pritzker Prize, thus far have
favoured such less socially relevant projects. This
recognition of Mr. Bans contributions probably
marks the beginning of a rethink. In a way it tries
to make up for the failure to recognise his illustrious
predecessors, such as Hassan Fathy and Laurie
Baker, who were prolific in designing delightful
buildings for the poor.
This years Pritzker Prize raises a key question
for Indian architects and policymakers to reflect
Source: The Hindu
VOTING WHILE IN THE ARMY
As a larger number of service personnel would

be in the many cantonments in Haryana and
Punjab, competitive canvassing there can introduce
problems.
Vote bank politics is a commonly bandied about

expression in the election season, which is no
surprise. But a new vote bank of Armed Forces
personnel is now looking a step closer to reality
with the Supreme Court directing the Election
Commission (EC) to allow defence personnel to vote
as general voters in peace stations. This is somewhat
unusual. The Supreme Court merely reiterated the
law it laid down in an earlier judgment in 1971,
though the circumstances of that case were
somewhat different. The Representation of the
People Act, 1950 defines the term ordinarily
resident in Section 20, a qualification required to
get registered as a voter. Armed forces personnel
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are among the few categories of people defined as

persons with service qualification in Section 20(8)
and are given a special dispensation in Section 20(3)
and Section 20(5). This category can declare while
living at a place ordinarily resident status at
another place where they would have normally
lived, if it were not for the exigencies of service.
Implicit faith was to be placed on their declaration
and they would be registered at the place they
indicated as their place of ordinary residence, most
likely their native place, and as a corollary the place
of their posting could not be their ordinary place
of residence.
Place of posting vs residence

In a matter arising from the Nagaland Assembly
Election in 1969, the court did not accept the
argument that for service personnel, the place of
[35]

Since then, retired service officers and others
including a Member of Parliament have lent their
support to this campaign culminating in the latest
verdict of the Supreme Court. But as a note of
caution that was sounded in many border States
that the local voter population may be small
and can be outnumbered by the service personnel
the Court restricted the applicability of the order
only to peace stations. In other words, only in peace
stations can service persons claim they are ordinary
residents and vote locally. If their units move out
to non-peace stations, they cannot register
themselves there. Imagine a serviceman who hails
from Odisha and is posted in Jalandhar and gets
himself registered there. He can vote in the Lok
Sabha election but cannot vote for the Odisha
Assembly election being held simultaneously. If his
unit moves to a non-peace station, he can neither
register himself there nor can he vote in the next
Parliament or Assembly election unless he is
registered again at some other place.
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posting cannot ipso facto be the place of residence.

Instead, the declaration of the Assam Rifles
personnel, who had spent 10 years in one location
claiming it as a place of ordinary residence under
Section 20(5), wherein but for their service
qualification also they would have been ordinarily
resident and not merely because of it, found favour
with the Court. The Court declared that the
statutory fiction in Section 20(3) gave the right to
the personnel to claim registration at their home
town or village but the fiction cannot take away
the right of persons possessing service qualification
to get themselves registered at a constituency in
which they are actually residing though such place
happens to be their place of service.
The law gave a special dispensation to a service
voter in that his declaration designating a place as
his place of ordinary residence and certified by his
organisation was not to be questioned by the
Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) but simply
accepted. It was intended to avoid the delay in
registration if an enquiry were to be done
independently by the ERO as in the case of ordinary
voters.
Interpreting that judgment as mandating the

registration of a service voter at the place of his
posting and by cleverly using the provision u/s
20(5), a campaign was mounted in the run-up to
the Punjab Assembly election in 2007 by Brig. H.S.
Ghuman (retd.) and his All India Veterans Core
Group (AIVCG) to have service personnel posted
in several cantonment towns in Punjab to register
as ordinary voters there. A total of 7,274 service
personnel were registered as voters, of whom 850
were from towns and villages of Punjab and 6,424
from other States. All applications were in
Gurumukhi script, but most of the signatures were
not in that language, therefore providing a clue to
what really went on. The highest registration was
in Kahnuwan constituency in Gurdaspur district
with an Army cantonment, where 3,488 personnel
registered. Of them, 70 were from Punjab and the
rest from other States. It was alleged by the Akali
opposition candidate that the Congress candidate
P. S. Bajwas relative, a retired Brigadier, was the
prime mover for this large-scale registration. The
formation commander was accused of collusion.
Mr. Bajwa won that contest with a margin of 5,288
votes. Evidently Mr. Bajwa used the tactics more
effectively in the 2009 Parliament election. He seems
to have won the Gurdaspur seat by a margin of
8,000 votes, with 11,000 votes from the cantonment
cast in his favour against the 13,345 votes polled
by servicemen.
[36]
If peace stations are defined in a locationspecific manner, this can lead to anomalies. If
Itanagar or Leh are defined as peace stations but
not Tawang or Nubra, it may be kosher for vote
bank politics but it will create disaffection among
the local population in both places, given the smallsized constituencies and the thin margins of victory.
Distinctions based on unit-specific roles in the same
station will entitle men of the non-operational unit
to register as voters and of the operational unit
ineligible. So States have to be in either category to
avoid anomalies.
More problems
As a larger number of service personnel would

be in the many cantonments in Haryana and
Punjab, competitive canvassing by politicians there
can bring in its wake other problems. A normal
movement of a unit can be questioned by rival
politicians as favouring one or the other candidate
or party. The formation commanders can be accused
of favouritism as happened in the Punjab Assembly
election in 2007. Will the Election Commissioner be
petitioned to effect the transfer of a formation
commander because of his perceived partiality as
is done in the case of Collectors, Superintendents
of Police, Deputy Inspector Generals of Police, etc.?
Only time can tell. But if a perfectly routine exercise
by a detachment of the Army can be hyped to
raise fears of a coup, pre-election movement of
Army units and posting of formation commanders
can become the subjects of political mudslinging
with obvious adverse consequences.
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per cent of ballot papers were returned undelivered,
which meant that their addresses were not updated
by the Record Office.
Transmission time can be cut down if blank
ballot papers are sent electronically, providing more
time for their return. Better still would be to develop
online voting and what better way than to provide
it to the group that deserves it the most? We
certainly owe it to our Armed forces personnel to
do all that is possible to enable them to exercise
their franchise.
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Since the new dispensation would not extend

to all the defence personnel and since many service
personnel may still remain registered in their native
towns and villages by choice, the postal ballot
system or its alternative the proxy voting facility
would still be relevant. A study done at the
behest of the EC by the Collector of Thanjavur
district in 2007 showed that only 34.54 per cent of
the postal ballot papers issued to service personnel
returned in time to be included in counting. A
significant 12.63 per cent of the ballot papers which
were received late missed the counting. Worse, 25.39
Source: The Hindu
TAX THEATRICS
The finance ministry proposed significant

changes to the Direct Taxes Code recently. But the
Lok Sabha is set to be dissolved and with that the
DTC Bill, 2010, is set to lapse. Apart from the optics,
the ministrys move is entirely pointless given
that the incoming government will have to start
the whole process afresh and introduce a new bill
in Parliament.
The changes proposed in this futile exercise are

also of little merit. Not only have some sensible
suggestions of the parliamentary standing
committee been ignored, but other changes such
as the introduction of a super-rich tax bracket of
35 per cent for individuals earning above Rs 10
crore and an additional tax of 10 per cent on
dividends above Rs 1 crore seem aimed at preelection signalling rather than reforming the system
to maximise tax collection and compliance.
The fact of the matter is that the soak-the-rich

school of taxation doesnt work. If it did, the days
of 90 per cent-plus personal income tax rates
wouldnt have generated the kind evasion they did.
As a result of a moderation in tax rates, the
proportion of black money in the economy came
down from 30 per cent of the GDP during the
1970s to 17 per cent now. And while proponents
of enhancing the top-bracket tax rate cite
convenient figures comparing Indias tax to GDP
ratio with those of Scandinavian and western
European countries, the fact remains that Indias
effective (adjusting for the number of people below

the poverty line) tax to GDP ratio, at 28.3 per cent,
is greater than that of the US, and other countries
in its peer group such as China, Mexico and
Malaysia.
Rather than focusing on the imagined
dereliction of the rich, it would be better to try
and encourage better compliance among the middle
classes. Those earning between Rs 10 and 20 lakh
on average paid Rs 1.3 lakh, or 8.6 per cent of
average income, as income tax in 2011-12. In
contrast, assuming that the average income in the
Rs 20 lakh-plus bracket is Rs 1 crore, the tax
incidence was 23 per cent. Some estimate that only
20 per cent of people who actually earn between
Rs 10 and 20 lakh actually pay any tax at all,
compared with 45 per cent in the Rs 20 lakh-plus
bracket.
Better compliance, particularly among the
middle classes, is clearly the need of the hour. And
this is exactly what the parliamentary committee
sought to encourage when it suggested that the
personal income tax exemption limit be raised from
Rs 2 to 3 lakh. Similarly, it suggested the widening
of slabs so that the 20 and 30 per cent rate would
only kick in if one earned between Rs 10 and 20
lakh, and above Rs 20 lakh, respectively.
Unfortunately, the finance ministry rejected these
suggestions and chose to strike poses instead.
THREAT OF DISINTEGRATION
The fragile Libyan constitutional arrangement,

reached after the dictator Muammar Qadhafi was
overthrown in a regime-change operation instigated
by NATO governments under cover of a United
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Nations no-fly resolution in 2011, is disintegrating.

Prime Minister Ali Zeidan, who was kidnapped on
October 10, 2013 and released within a few hours,
fled the country in March 2014 after the General
[37]

persons and injuring 14; moreover, the 225,000
Libyans registered as members of militias are paid
by the state but remain under their own local or
political commanders. Meanwhile, Human Rights
Watch and other observers have criticised western
governments and sections of the international
media for credulously accepting the rebel factions
claims that the Qadhafi regime had engaged in
genocide and had inflicted mass civilian casualties
in the western-backed uprising. None of the claims
has been substantiated, and foreign military
intervention will almost certainly worsen matters,
as it did during the uprising, when it enabled rebel
groups to reject deals and escalate violence. In
October 2013, U.S. commandos arrested an alQaeda suspect on Libyan soil, causing fury against
Tripoli for collaborating with Washington, but the
U.S. failure to create functioning public institutions
in Iraq and Afghanistan may mean it will consider
only military intervention in Libya, with or without
U.N. legitimation. As Libyans face a new civil war
and possible partition, unsurprisingly many of them
are reportedly nostalgic about the Qadhafi era.
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National Congress (GNC) passed a vote of noconfidence in him. Secondly, in December 2013 the
GNC voted to extend its own mandate for another
year, thereby violating the transitional constitutional
plan, which gave it a mandate only until February
7. Various GNC factions have their own agendas
too; the Justice and Construction Party, the Muslim
Brotherhoods Libyan branch, leads a bloc with 34
of the 80 party-allocated seats in the 200-seat
Congress, and may well be spreading hardline
Islamist influence. Furthermore, the eastern
province of Cyrenaica (Barqa in Arabic) accuses
Tripoli of not sharing oil revenues, and Barqa
leaders based in Benghazi now demand a federal
constitution. On March 10, a Barqa militia group
blockaded Es Sidr, ensuring that a tanker of
uncertain origin and ownership loaded an
estimated $36 million worth of crude oil and put
out to sea; the U.S. sent Navy SEALS to capture
the ship. A wider blockade that started in August
2013 has already cost the country $8 billion.
Other tensions are causing yet more fighting.
Early in March, Misrata-based militants exploded
a bomb at a military base in Benghazi, killing five
Source: The Hindu
US BUILT A SECRET 'CUBAN TWITTER' TO STIR UNREST AGAINST

COMMUNIST GOVT, SAYS AP
A US agency created a 'Cuban Twitter' to
undermine Cuba's communist government and get
around its strict Internet prohibitions, using secret
shell companies financed through foreign banks,
The Associated Press reported.
the balance of power between the state and society."
The two-year project drew 40,000 users who

did not know the communications network was
devised by a U.S. agency and designed to push
them toward political dissent, according to the AP.
They also did not know their personal information
was being gathered.
Interviews and more than 1,000 pages of

documents obtained by the AP showed USAID was
careful to hide Washington's ties to the project, the
report said. It used companies in Spain and the
Cayman Islands to conceal the money trail.
The report identified the US Agency for

International Development, which delivers aid to
the world's poor, as being behind the project.
The communications network was called

"ZunZuneo," Cuban slang for a hummingbird's
tweet, and the AP said its goal was to build an
audience of young users.
The plan for the social network was to draw in
a certain number of users with messages on sports,
music, weather and other noncontroversial topics.
Then the operators would introduce political
content to try to inspire spontaneous demonstrations, the AP reported. One USAID document
cited by the AP said the goal was to "renegotiate
[38]
It was not clear if the program was illegal.

USAID spokesman Matt Herrick told AP that U.S.
congressional investigators reviewed their programs
last year and found them to be legal.
"There will be absolutely no mention of United

States government involvement," read a 2010 memo
from Mobile Accord Inc., one of the project's
creators, published by AP. "This is absolutely crucial
for the long-term success of the service and to
ensure the success of the Mission."
ZunZuneo began shortly after Cuba's arrest of
American contractor Alan Gross, 63, in Cuba in
December 2009, the AP said. Gross was sentenced
to 15 years in prison for installing Internet networks
under a secretive U.S. program the Cuban
government considers subversive.
USAID said ZunZuneo ended in September
2012, the AP reported.
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A CAUTIOUS BEGINNING
getting the in-principle approval is only the first
step. They have 18 months to comply with the
requirements under the guidelines and fulfil other
conditions that may be imposed. They will face
daunting challenges to scale up to being universal
banks and compete with existing institutions. Their
existing strengths infrastructure finance for IDFC,
and microfinance for Bandhan will no doubt
help but, as the top officers of the two institutions
admitted, there is a great deal of work to be done
soon. Expectations from them are immense. The
governments rationale for new bank licences has
been to extend the geographical coverage of
organised finance and to promote financial literacy
and inclusion. Sceptics of the new policy who
wonder what the new banks will do that the
existing players under all categories cannot do, need
to be answered effectively by creating a viable, techsavvy model that is also customer-friendly. They
have to reward their shareholders who have
enabled them to invest at least Rs.500 crore. The
RBI Governor has said that after learning from the
latest exercise, it might be possible to revise
guidelines so that licences can be made available
on tap. Be that as it may, it is obvious that the two
successful applicants have just assumed additional
responsibilities of being role models.
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The Reserve Bank of Indias in-principle

approval to two applicants, IDFC Limited and
Bandhan Financial Services Ltd., to set up banks
comes four years after the then Finance Minister,
Pranab Mukherjee, in a budget speech mooted the
idea of licensing a few private banks. By its own
admission, the RBIs approach to this round of bank
licences has been conservative, a trait that is wholly
appropriate in the present context. That the process
has taken a long time before the first licences were
approved merely underlines the complexities
involved. A High Level Advisory Committee headed
by former RBI Governor Bimal Jalan recommended
these two applicants out of a list of 25 applications.
All of them were earlier scrutinised by the RBI to
ensure their eligibility under the guidelines issued
in February 2013. It is noteworthy that none of the
big corporate names that figured in the list made
the grade. The RBI has neatly sidestepped what
has been the most controversial aspect of the new
licensing norms permitting corporates to start
banks. The Reserve Bank received a number of
negative responses to this proposal from both the
public at large and experts. Indeed, the RBI itself
was opposed to it in the beginning, and it was the
pressure from the Finance Ministry, among others,
that made the central bank relent.
For the two successful applicants both of
them leading non-banking finance companies
Source: The Hindu
AN INCLUSIVE GROWTH POLICY
The Indian economy has moved on a high

growth path since the mid-1980s. After a blip in
growth between 1990-92, liberalisation, initiated for
aligning the Indian economy with the world in
1991, not only put the economy back on a higher
growth path but also sustained this growth till the
2000s. During the last few years, India has been
the second fastest growing economy in the world.
Despite the high growth over the past two

decades, concerns have been raised over the growth
not being equally distributed. Policy makers
responded to these concerns arguing for
inclusiveness in the 11th Five Year Plan in 2007.
How has the rapid growth during the 11th Five
Year Plan period helped in improving the income
levels of the most vulnerable Indian households?
Sharing of growth
The aggregate estimates routinely brought out
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by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) show

a feel good factor that real per capita income
has been growing rapidly. But there is little evidence
on (a) how this growth has been shared among
households in rural India versus urban India and
(b) whether households belonging to different socioreligious groups have grown together. Three rounds
of the National Sample Survey Consumer
Expenditure (NSS CE) surveys carried out between
2004-05 and 2011-12 suggest an unprecedented rise
in household expenditure and a consequent decline
in poverty. These estimates imply that some benefits
of growth have been shared by vulnerable
households. But these data do not clarify whether
poverty has declined because of new social safety
net programmes or because vulnerable households
have participated in the general economic growth.
The recently-concluded India Human
Development Survey (IHDS) a nationally
[39]

representative survey of about 42,000 households
conducted by researchers from the National Council
of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) and the
University of Maryland examines changes in the
incomes of the households during the period of
rapid economic growth, 2004-05 and 2011-12. It is
the only nationally representative panel survey
covering the same households. During the two
rounds of IHDS, besides a range of outcome
indicators, data on household income and its
sources have also been collected.
When we normalise the household median

income by the number of members in the household,
the growth of income in rural India is even more
impressive an average annual median per capita
income increase of 7.2 per cent, which is more than
twice the rate experienced by urban households
(3.2 per cent annually). This story of growth at the
aggregate level is fascinating in itself because most
of the changes during the liberalisation phase have
favoured the growth of non-primary activities. But
the impressive gain by rural households in spite of
the favouritism towards non-primary activities
appears real and requires further investigation.
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Though validation of the data is still underway,

we present some pointers based on preliminary
analysis. The median real income of the households
from all sources had been about Rs. 28,200 in 200405; this increased to about Rs. 37,500 in 2011-12,
which is an average of 4.7 per cent annually. Unlike
aggregate growth figures released by the CSO, IHDS
data allows calculation of household income by
the place of residence of households. Those IHDS
calculations show for the first time that the real
average household income in rural India has
increased 5.0 per cent annually almost twice
the 2.6 per cent annual growth in urban India.

This has resulted in a significant narrowing of the
gap in household income from 2.26 times in
2004-05 to 1.97 in 2011-12. These figures are
consistent with the growth of per capita
expenditure calculated from the respective NSS CE
(61st and 68th rounds) monthly per capita
expenditure growth in the rural and urban sectors.
Further proof of growth
We note similar differences in median income

growth across different socio-religious groups that
provide further confirmation of the inclusiveness
of the recent economic growth. In IHDS surveys,
we have defined six social and religious groups
high caste Hindus, Other Backward Classes, Dalits,
Adivasis, Muslims and Other Religious Minorities.
The highest growth in the median per capita
incomes is reported for Dalits (7.8 per cent annually)
and OBCs (7.3 per cent), while the real median
income of high caste Hindus grew only at 4.6 per
cent annually. The average income growth of other
vulnerable groups was also higher than that of high
caste Hindus. The income of Adivasis grew at 5.7
per cent annually while the income of Muslims
grew by 5.4 per cent.
A working plan
Our preliminary results point towards the

largest gains for the traditionally vulnerable
households rural areas, Dalits, OBCs, Adivasis
and Muslims. This narrowing of group differences
is all the more remarkable in the face of a slightly
diverging overall income distribution. Our
preliminary calculations of per capita income
inequality suggest a small increase from a Gini ratio
of 53 in 2004-5 to 55 in 2011-12.
The relatively greater progress of vulnerable
sectors despite this growing inequality seems to
[40]

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suggest that the inclusive growth policy
implemented during the 11th Five Year Plan may
have been working. While a much more rigorous
analysis is required to delineate the factors that
have led to this, our conjecture is that some of the
social sector schemes like the Mahatma Gandhi

National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, Janani
Suraksha Yojana, the National Rural Health Mission
et al. may have contributed to this inclusive growth.
Source: The Hindu
DIPLOMATIC GAINS FROM A STRATEGIC ABSTENTION

attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government
meeting in Sri Lanka last November. As former Sri
Lankan diplomat Dayan Jayatilleka observed, the
abstention has pressed the reset button, activating
positive Indo-Lanka diplomacy. Sri Lankas
response to the vote in general and to Indias
decision suggests that to Colombo, what India
thinks matters more than what many other
powerful nations do. That said, given the renewed
possibilities of closer engagement with Sri Lanka, it
is now completely up to New Delhi to convert this
diplomatic goal to a diplomatic gain.
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With 23 countries backing a relatively strong

resolution against Sri Lanka at the recent U.N.
Human Rights Council (UNHRC) session in
Geneva, one would have thought the country
would feel effectively cornered. However, a day
after the resolution was adopted, Sri Lanka only
seemed too pleased, thanks to its neighbour.
Amid all the buzz around the strategically-timed
elections to Sri Lankas Sinhala majority Southern
and Western Provinces, senior politicians including
President Mahinda Rajapaksa were rather prompt
in expressing their happiness over Indias decision
to abstain from voting.
Foreign Minister G.L. Peiris termed Indias

departure from its voting pattern over the last two
years as a significant development. Mr. Rajapaksa
went a step further, ordering the immediate release
of all Indian fishermen in Sri Lankan custody then
as a goodwill gesture.
In an interaction with journalists days before
the Geneva session, Mr. Rajapaksa said: I dont
know what India will do, they voted against us
last two years, quickly adding, but we
understand them, as if India had already cast a
negative vote.
So when India declared its decision to abstain

on March 27, Colombo was clearly elated. Indias
decision may not have influenced the larger voting
pattern but to Sri Lanka, apparently, its neighbours
abstention meant a massive victory of sorts, despite
the majority vote in Geneva proving negative.
Foreign policy analysts who thought New Delhi
had for long been succumbing to Tamil Nadus
pressure hailed it as excellent diplomacy,
though Tamil diaspora organisations and sections
of northern Tamils said they were deeply
disappointed with India.
A reset for diplomacy
The fact that the Ministry of External Affairs

was fully in charge at Geneva is significant. It was
the same Ministry which, despite its best efforts,
could not get Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to
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Speaking in Geneva, Dilip Sinha, Ambassador

and Permanent Representative of India to the
United Nations in Geneva, hailed the September
elections to Sri Lankas Northern Province, at the
same time calling for effective and timely
implementation of all the constructive
recommendations contained in the Lessons Learnt
and Reconciliation Commission report, including
those pertaining to missing persons, detainees,
reduction of high security zones, return of private
lands by the military and withdrawal of security
forces from the civilian domain in the Northern
Province.
With a renewed possibility of closer engagement
with Sri Lanka, it will be interesting to see if New
Delhi can put political pressure in these said areas
where progress has been grossly inadequate.
The Hindu in December 2013 reported that 18
schools in Jaffna were struggling for space with
the Sri Lankan Army having taken over their
original buildings, some even a century old, as part
of its questionable high security zones. Fishing
villages in these zones have been usurped, delivering
a blow to livelihoods.
The process of resettlement, the Indian mission
implementing a massive housing project in the
former war zone would very well know, still has
several gaps. In Sampur, located in Trincomalee
where NTPC partners a joint venture to set up a
thermal power plant 800 families lost their homes
to land taken over by the Sri Lankan government
[41]

for the plant. In reality, the 500-acre area
earmarked for the plant displaced only seven
families that the Indian government is helping
relocate, while permanent housing to the rest who
lost their homes remains a question mark.
Issue of devolution
Post Geneva, India has said it will continue to
closely engage with Sri Lanka on the question of
devolution. Nearly five years after the countrys
brutal war ended, people living in Sri Lankas
Tamil-speaking north and east crave for political
rights and complete freedom. Devolution, after all,
is not just about holding an election to the Northern
Province but also allowing the Council to function
with administrative powers and enabling the people
of the province to lead normal lives as citizens.
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Militarisation of the north, something that Dr.

Singh also underlined in his meeting with Mr.
Rajapaksa in March, remains a major concern. The
Army, earlier confined to security and surveillance,
is now involved in purely civil pursuits such as
agriculture and development. In fact, surveillance
in the north increased rapidly around the Geneva
session as did intimidation, reportedly though
the Sri Lankan Army justified it saying it feared a
possible regrouping of the LTTE.
commitments, including its promise to fully

implement the Thirteenth Amendment to the Sri
Lankan Constitution and build upon it. New Delhi
has a lot to do in pushing for substantive political
devolution.
Further, the ghost of the brutal war makes an

appearance every now and then. New video footage
pertaining to alleged war crimes by the Sri Lankan
forces has emerged recently, though the Army has
rubbished each of those as being doctored.
Relatives of 16,000 missing people have petitioned
a Presidential Commission looking into complaints
of disappearances, desperately seeking some closure
to the agony over their missing loved ones.
Indias abstention could gain value if New Delhi
manages to use the goodwill gains that accrued to
it in Geneva to put political pressure on Colombo
to address at least some of these problems.
India in Geneva called upon Sri Lankan

government to make purposeful efforts to fulfil its
Also, when a new Indian government takes

charge soon, the ongoing conflict over fishing
between the two countries will come into sharp
focus. Considering the major role Tamil Nadu is
expected to play in national politics in a post-poll
scenario, India will have to necessarily evolve a
strategy to handle the pressure from the southern
State and at the same time get it to deter its
fishermen from poaching in Sri Lankan waters.
Depending on how New Delhi fares on all these
counts, its seemingly strategic abstention in Geneva
could potentially turn into an actual gain.
Source: The Hindu
FUNNY MONEY
With the Delhi High Court holding both the

Congress and BJP in violation of the Foreign
Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) for accepting
funding from international mining giant Vedanta,
the shoe is now on the governments foot. Given
the alacrity with which it has deployed FCRA
provisions against NGOs, the Delhi HCs ruling is
a major embarrassment to the government. In the
last 10 years, the UPA has often clamped down on
civil society organisations under the FCRA, adding
teeth in 2010 to its already stringent norms.
Whether for an activist campaign or an
academic gathering, the Union home ministry has
employed the FCRA to delay or revoke licences to
non-profits, often on seemingly flimsy grounds. In
2012, the MHA refused to sanction a request by
the think tank, PRS Legislative Research, to obtain
a foreign grant for its legislative assistants scheme.
A few civil society groups were hauled up under

[42]
the FCRA the same year for allegedly accepting

foreign funding to back the anti-nuclear
Kudankulam protests. The Dantewada-based
Vanvasi Chetna Ashram, founded by an outspoken
critic of the Salwa Judum, saw its FCRA permit
cancelled in public interest. Together with its
restrictive visa regime and targeted application of
the Foreigners Act, the FCRA had almost become
a government instrument for suppressing dissenting
perspectives. The 2010 amendments, strengthening
the Act, were cleared by a bipartisan parliamentary
committee.
Consider then home minister P. Chidambarams
remarks during the parliamentary debate on the
FCRA amendments in 2010: if you want to access
foreign money, then one has to come under a
system of regulation certain categories are totally
prohibited A political party must be prohibited.
It is unsurprising, then, that there were
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consequences for the Congress in accepting a
contribution from Vedanta, a company
incorporated outside India.
That the government made a concerted effort
to investigate the Aam Aadmi Partys foreign funds,
while turning the other way for such contributions
to its own party and the BJP, suggests double
standards.
The FCRA cannot be applied unevenly by the

government. The same disclosure norms and
monitoring procedure that are required of NGOs
should bear on political parties. It is important not
to let the foreign hand argument become a
coercive tool in the hands of government.
THE TWO RBIs
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Inspite of persistent calls from certain sections

of industry to cut the repo rate, the RBI maintained
status quo in its first bi-monthly monetary policy
review. In doing this, the RBI exhibited a heartening
determination to fight consumer price index
inflation. But the central banks recent interventions
in the foreign exchange market to prevent the rupee
from appreciating too much on the back of a
deluge of foreign institutional investor inflows
at Rs 20,077 crore, FII inflows reached a 10-month
high in March are misguided and may undercut
its efforts to contain inflation.
By keeping the repo rate at 8 per cent, rather
than raising it, the RBI acknowledged the
moderation in CPI inflation, which has declined
from 11.2 per cent in November 2013 to 8.1 per
cent in February, a 25-month low. This is still above
the RBIs target, which was mooted by the Urjit
Patel committee, of achieving 8 per cent CPI
inflation by January 2015. Equally, by not lowering
the policy rate, the RBI nodded to the significant
upside risks to inflation.
The moderation that has been witnessed is
mostly on account of easing vegetable prices
while CPI inflation has declined 3.1 percentage
points since last November, core CPI inflation has

only declined 0.1 percentage points. But the
possibility of another food-price shock remains high.
Barring 2011-12, food inflation has been above 8
per cent every year since 2007-08, even though
this has been a period of mostly normal monsoons.
This year, there is the added threat of El Nino,
which could prove disruptive for the rains. Further,
CPI inflation has not been stable at a low level
long enough for the high and deeply entrenched
inflation expectations to change.
But there is a contradiction between the RBIs
stance on inflation and its exchange rate targeting
it has been aggressively buying dollars in forex
markets to dampen the rupees appreciation. If this
intervention is unsterilised, the pumping of liquidity
into the market by buying dollars will lower interest
rates and counteract the RBIs efforts to target
inflation, as happened in the mid-2000s.
The RBI must allow the exchange rate to float
freely. If it is worried about the fallout of the US
Feds unconventional monetary policy, the only
solution is for India to maintain low inflation and
low current account and fiscal deficits.
MANILA PEACE?
Seventeen years of stop-start negotiations over

a bloody 45-year conflict which has cost more than
120,000 lives recently culminated in a historic
reconciliation ceremony in Manilas presidential
palace. The signing of the peace agreement
between the Philippines government and the
countrys largest Muslim rebel group, the Moro
Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), was marked in
the countrys embattled southern island of
Mindanao with joyful celebrations.
The agreement will see the rebels disband their
guerilla forces and disarm in return for a new
enhanced degree of autonomy for the Bangsamoro,
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the name used for Muslim and non-Christian

natives of Mindanao. The deal, brokered by
President Benigno Aquino with the assistance of
Malaysia, sets out provisions on power and wealthsharing and on the creation of a police force for
the political entity that will replace the failed fiveprovince autonomous region set up in Mindanao
province in 1989, home to most of the predomiantly
Catholic countrys five million Muslims.
A plebiscite in Muslim-dominated areas in the
south will determine the shape and size of the new
region. Mindanaos relations with Manila have been
difficult since it was incorporated into the
[43]

Philippines state by Spanish and American
colonisers in the 19th and 20th centuries.
The hope is that the agreement will bring
sufficient stability to lift the cloud on economic
development of the island where one in two live
below the poverty line of $1.20 a day. Mineral
companies are eager to come in to develop what
are believed to be up to $312 billion in mineral
deposits.
But there is no certainty that peace will be

sustained. Breakaway nationalists, feuding clans,
and Islamists, including one group, Abu Sayyaf,
affiliated to Al Qaeda, reject the deal and have
pledged to go on fighting for complete
independence.
Source: The Times
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A BANK IS BORN
The RBI granted in-principle approval to two
of 25 bank licence applicants recently. This set of
approvals has come after the bank licencing
machinery was put in motion four years ago and
ends the decade-long wait for new licences. After
the Narasimham committee recommended opening
up the commercial banking sector in 1991, 10
private banks were given licences in 1993-94 and
another two in 2002-04.
While the RBIs prudence is welcome, the pace
at which new banks have been licenced so far is
not good enough. Vast swathes of the population
are out of the net of formal banking only one in
two Indians has access to a savings bank account,
and only one in seven to bank finance. The move
towards an on-tap licencing mechanism is welcome
this is the only way to increase the penetration
of financial services. But as more private players
enter the market, the RBI will also have to step its
game up as far as microprudential regulation is
concerned.
The RBIs caution in granting licences to
corporate houses and brokerage firms because
of possible conflict of interest issues and its
acknowledgement of the need to think more deeply
about licencing India Post are also heartening signs.

They indicate the scope of a differentiated licence
framework, as proposed by the Nachiket Mor
committee.
But the increase in private banks and
therefore in innovation and the use of technology
will call for the RBI to improve its regulatory
capacity. The business of banking involves high
levels of leverage, which makes it potentially very
risky. With greater competition, the RBI needs to
evolve higher levels of consumer protection and
stronger microprudential regulation. It must
increase its supervisory capacity.
The FSLRCs proposal to set up a resolution
corporation, so that if a bank fails, the taxpayer
does not have to bail it out, should be implemented.
PSU banks, which account for 75 per cent of all
banking assets, are implicitly sovereign guaranteed.
So the urgency for watertight, sophisticated
regulation is diminished. But once diverse private
banks flourish, the RBI will have to stay one step
ahead of the game. It certainly wont be an easy
task.
THE WISDOM OF ABSTAINING
Never in Indias history have relations with any

neighbouring country been so dramatically
influenced by the politics of a single state as our
relations with Sri Lanka.
Unfortunately, public opinion in Tamil Nadu
has not been adequately sensitised about the
diplomatic complexities of developments in our
neighbourhood, or of precisely what New Delhi is
doing to address the needs and welfare of Tamils
in Sri Lanka.
The Sri Lankan civil war ended when separatist

leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was killed in 2009.
[44]
It is universally accepted that both sides were guilty

of human rights abuses during the last stages of
the war a fact acknowledged by Sri Lankas
Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission
(LLRC).
Indias policy, thereafter, has been to work
towards the Sri Lankans themselves implementing
the LLRC recommendations. More importantly,
apart from India, no government in the world has
done anything substantive for the relief,
rehabilitation and welfare of Sri Lankan Tamils.
Since 2010, India has doled out assistance
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from South Korea, every other member of Indias
Asian and Indian Ocean neighbourhood either
abstained or voted against. These included China,
Indonesia, Japan, Kuwait, the Maldives, Pakistan,
the Philippines, South Africa and the United Arab
Emirates. Despite their reputed global influence,
the US and its allies could pick up support only
from a few Latin American and African countries,
many of whose leaders and diplomats know little
or nothing of Sri Lanka.
The development of human resources has been

facilitated through the improvement of schools and
vocational training centres, the construction of
hospitals and involvement in employmentgeneration projects in agriculture, fisheries, small
industries and handicrafts. Politically, India has
ensured that there is a chief minister, Justice C.V.
Vigneswaran, in the Northern Province, elected
under the 13th amendment to the Sri Lankan
constitution.
India acted wisely by abstaining from voting

on this years resolution. Based on the support that
it received from two permanent members of the
Security Council (China and Russia) and the
overwhelming majority of Asian and the Indian
Ocean littoral states, Sri Lanka will ignore the more
intrusive aspects of recommendations of the
UNHRC, espoused by the UN high commissioner
for human rights, Navanethem Pillay, whose own
country, South Africa, abstained. Support for this
resolution would have left India with very little
leverage to secure the Sri Lankan governments
unstinted cooperation for its programme of relief
and rehabilitation. Worse, we would have laid the
ground for growing Chinese and Pakistani presence
and influence in the island, at a time when we can
ill afford it.
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estimated at $1.3 billion (Rs 8,000 crore) its

largest ever development assistance project for
the welfare of Sri Lankan Tamils. The projects
include the construction of 50,000 homes and the
supply of materials for around 43,000 war-damaged
residences. There have also been major projects for
the development of rail transport, port infrastructure
in Kankesanthurai, a 500 MW thermal power
station in Sampur and the upgrading of the Palaly
airport.
These major development projects could not

have been undertaken without the cooperation of
the Sri Lankan government. It has, therefore, been
crucial for New Delhi to balance its interests in
getting the excesses of ethnic conflict addressed with
the imperative of securing the cooperation of the
Sri Lankan government, in order to execute welfare
projects for Sri Lankan Tamils. Still, New Delhi
has previously backed UN resolutions that called
for the investigation of human rights violations,
despite Sri Lankan displeasure, primarily because
the resolutions did not violate Sri Lankan
sovereignty. It was also felt that President Mahinda
Rajapaksas government could be persuaded to
implement these resolutions.
The UN Human Rights Council resolution
passed this year, unlike in the past, included the
constitution of an open-ended international
investigation on a sovereign member state. This goes
well beyond the current understanding and basic
operative principles of the UNHRC. Moreover,
unlike resolutions of the UN Security Council, those
of the UNHRC are not enforceable by international
sanctions. Only 23 of the councils 47 members
supported the latest resolution on Sri Lanka. Apart
It is interesting that, despite the political rhetoric

in Tamil Nadu, not a single political party or leading
business organisation in the state has mobilised
resources for the welfare of Sri Lankan Tamils.
There also appears to be a disinclination to accept
the reality that those who are most vociferous in
demanding action against Tamil Nadu fishermen
poaching in Sri Lankan waters are not that
countrys security forces, but the Tamil fishermen
in Jaffna and elsewhere in Northern Sri Lanka. All
this, amid debate on our federal structure and
the role of individual states in micromanaging the
conduct of foreign policy. The statesmen who
framed our Constitution described our country as
a Union of States, not the United States of
India, as MDMK chief Vaiko would have it.
HOPE PREVAILS
Dispelling widespread gloom around the world

regarding Afghanistans political future and the
Talibans efforts to disrupt the elections, Afghans
turned out in large numbers at the polling booths
on Saturday. According to preliminary estimates,
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nearly 7 million of the 12 million eligible voters, or

close to 60 per cent of the electorate, cast their
ballots to elect a new president to replace Hamid
Karzai, who has steered the nation after the US
forces ousted the Taliban at the end of 2001. The
[45]

previous presidential election in 2009, marred by
allegations of fraud, saw barely a third of the
electorate turn out to vote. The enthusiastic turnout
this time is a befitting political answer to the
Taliban, which mounted attacks that killed scores
of people.
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If none of the eight presidential candidates gets

50 per cent of the votes cast, there will be a runoff between the top two candidates on May 28.
Opinion polls showed that the main contenders
are Abdullah Abdullah, a runner-up in the last
election, and Ashraf Ghani. Running a distant third
is Zalmai Rassoul who is said to have the outgoing
presidents backing. All three have sought to bridge
the deep divide in Afghanistan between Pashtuns
and non-Pashtuns by choosing vice presidential
candidates who expanded their ethnic appeal.
problems. The Taliban continues to enjoy

sanctuaries across the border in Pakistan. The
armed forces of Afghanistan have demonstrated
their growing capabilities by securing the nation
against violence but remain weak and vulnerable
to future destabilisation from the Pakistan army.
The nations economy is in bad shape as large
volumes of foreign aid that flowed in since 2002
dry up. All the presidential candidates have agreed
to ratify the security pact with the US that will
allow the presence of a few thousand American
troops after 2014. Since 2002, India has invested
considerable political and economic resources in
support of the fledgling democracy in Afghanistan.
The next government in Delhi will have to
demonstrate much stronger strategic commitment
to the unity, stability and security of Afghanistan
amid the continuing threats from Pakistan and
declining Western support to Kabul.
The next presidents political legitimacy,

however, will not resolve Afghanistans multiple
A TOUCH HERE, A TWEAK THERE
As the Reserve Bank of India governor said in

his press conference after the release of the bimonthly review, the only surprise about the policy
announcement was the lack of surprise.
question at the press conference more or less echoed

this idea.
The markets expected no major change in policy

as the Election Commissions Code of Conduct is
in operation. Any reduction in policy rates would
have attracted criticism from the Opposition. As a
result the policy remained the same, except for some
tweaking in the banks access to the Liquidity
Adjustment Facility.
It is also clear that the Consumer

will be the touchstone in formulating
habits die hard. There is a reference
trends, excluding food and fuel. Is
inflation in CPI?
Not the annual review
Generally, the first review of the financial year

is the Annual Policy Statement. Perhaps, this year
it was not so labelled because the Budget for 201415 is yet to be presented. One hopes the contours
of the next Budget will be available after the election
and before the next review due on June 3.
Neither the policy paper nor the governors
statement made any reference to the estimates of
money supply, credit or deposits in the coming year.
This writer took the view in the past that the

RBI should not provide estimates of money supply,
with room for 5 per cent inflation after reckoning
for GDP growth and income elasticity of demand
for money. Instead, it should say that it will ensure
that no productive activity will suffer for lack of
credit. What the governor said in his reply to a
[46]
Core inflation
Price Index
policy. But
to inflation
it the core
The entire CPI should be considered for

measuring core inflation, which should be the
same as headline inflation. The enormous increase
in food prices, especially those of vegetables and
fruits is due to the excess money generated through
such schemes as the Mahatma Gandhi National
Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).
While we are glad that the poorer sections can
afford to buy protein-rich food items, the
government should have worked out a scheme to
increase their production before introducing the
extension of the MGNREGS throughout the country.
After the idea of core inflation in the Wholesale
Price Index was trashed by critics, the RBI started
using the expression non-food manufactured
products inflation.
What is liquidity?
The changes in the liquidity adjustment facility
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(LAF), shifting the emphasis from the daily repos
to term repos, are well thought out. But there is no
official definition of liquidity that guides the bank.
During the time of YV Reddy the concept of
overhang of liquidity was in vogue. But it is no
longer used for reasons not known.
Enhancing confidence
Eventually, it is the FCA that provides the
bulwark against any forex crisis. The other
components of reserves will be utilised only in a
desperate situation.
The markets confidence in the rupee can be
enhanced if the target of $300 billion is reached
before the US Fed starts winding up its quantitative
expansion by the end of September, as expected
now.
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There are outstanding liquidity aggregates

(L1, L2 and L3) presented in a table in the Reserve
Bank of India Bulletin. One does not know which
one of them is used by the RBI as a criterion for
deciding the surplus or shortage of liquidity. It needs
to link its concept to the standards prescribed in
Basel III Liquidity Coverage Ratio and Liquidity
Risk Monitoring that will come into effect from
January1, 2015.
currency assets to $300 billion by the end of March

2014.
The RBI has promised to issue guidelines in

adopting these Basel standards by end-May 2014.
The bank recognises that forex transactions are
part of the open market operations and intervention
should not be thought of only to stabilise the rupee.
In its forex intervention and through swaps

with banks on their FCNR(B) deposits the bank
has built up a good amount of reserves amounting
to $298.6 billion as on March 21,2014, of which
$271.4 billion constituted foreign currency assets
(FCA).
A few months ago, this writer had suggested
the Bank should aim at building up the foreign
There is not much that the Central bank can

do in the current situation. But it can certainly
control money supply.
The replacement of the daily repo by the term
repo does not make a difference to the excess
creation of money supply since, for all practical
purposes, the daily repos have served the purpose
of term repos by being rolled over.
The bank says that the daily injection of liquidity
through LAF and other facilities has been about Rs
Rs 1 trillion. It has no economic rationale when
growth is on a declining trend. The RBI should
pause and reflect on whether the money creation
is helping GDP or inflation.
RIP REPO RATE?
By keeping the Reserve Bank of Indias (RBI)

policy rates unchanged, Governor Raghuram Rajan
has, on the face of it, acted according to market
expectations. The RBI has, indeed, retained the
repo or its overnight lending rate to banks at 8
per cent. But Rajans first monetary policy statement
for the new fiscal is not without his trademark
surprise element. And that has to do with allowing
banks to borrow up to 0.75 per cent of their
deposits/liabilities from the RBIs 7- and 14-day
term repo window (against 0.5 per cent now),
while halving access to the more familiar overnight
repo facility to 0.25 per cent. Banks are currently
borrowing roughly Rs 30,000 crore daily from the
latter window at the RBIs fixed repo rate of 8 per
cent. By curtailing this to Rs 15,000 crore, banks
will have to henceforth borrow more through the
RBIs term repo auctions at floating interest rates.
Given that these have been averaging 8.7-8.8 per
cent in recent auctions, the RBI has effectively
increased interest rates without saying so.
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But the relevance of the RBIs move isnt

confined simply to the impact on interest rates.
Since term repo rates could fall once the liquidity
tightness often seen during the financial year-end
eases, interest rates may not rise that much. The
more important implication is for the fixed repo
rate as a monetary policy tool. In the past, it was
considered apt to tether the Central banks policy
to a single, fixed, short-term benchmark lending
rate that could be raised or lowered depending on
the prevailing inflation-growth dynamics. But now,
the RBI has apparently chosen to de-emphasise
the role of the overnight repo rate, at least as a
liquidity management instrument. The demand for
liquidity by banks will be met increasingly through
variable-rate auctioned term repos. The effectiveness
of this move in line with the Urjit Patel
Committees recommendation needs to be seen,
especially so when the fixed repo rate is something
easily communicated and understood. The markets
today clearly know the RBIs intentions when it
hikes or reduces the repo rate.
[47]

The other key takeaway from the policy
statement is the RBIs firm focus on sticking to a
CPI inflation target of 8 per cent by January 2015
again an endorsement of the Patel panel report.
Significantly, it has indicated that any move on
interest rates would be dictated by the next
governments stance with regard to minimum
support prices for crops, fuel and fertiliser subsidies,
and overall fiscal policy stance. A clear political

commitment to fiscal consolidation from the next
government is certainly in the economys interest.
Interest rates need to come down, which can
happen only with fiscal and monetary policy being
in sync.
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INDIAS NEW POLITICAL ECONOMY

India has a wonderful way of turning traditional
theories of economic growth on their head. Take
the theory of diversification among sectors
(agriculture, industry and services) as the driving
force of development. Based on the historical
evidence of western societies in the 19th and early
20th centuries, the stagist view of development
was considered the best way forward.
Once the share of agriculture in a nations GDP
had dipped in comparison to industry or services,
then surely a desirable structural change was afoot.
The trajectory of development meant an

inevitable pre-eminence of Services over industry
and agriculture.
By that token, the last two decades, we are
told, have been testimony to a trajectory of growth
appropriate to western societies; judging by GDP
numbers at least, India has done exceedingly well.
In the Economic Survey of 2010-11, the Finance
Ministry gave us a retrospective view on the change
in the relative importance of the three sectors.
In 1950-51, the share of services in GDP was

around 30.5 per cent; this jumped to 55.2 per cent
in 2009-10. If construction is added, the share
climbed to 63.4 per cent.
The ratcheting up of the overall growth rate
(compound annual growth rate or CAGR) of the
Indian economy from 5.7 per cent in the 1990s
to 8.4 per cent in the period between 2004-05 to
2009-10 was in large measure due to an
acceleration in the CAGR in services from 7.5 per
cent in the 1990s to 10.3 per cent in 2004-05 to
2009-10.
For policymakers such numbers presaged Indias

elevation to emerging-market status; the structural
transformation had worked its wonder in India.
But had it? The devil lurked in the details and
together they painted quite another reality to the
one drawn by the CAGR data.
[48]
Reality as illusion
The Economic Survey of 2012-13, for instance,

sourly observed that employment had climbed faster
and higher in services sector in India than had
incomes unlike in China, the US and other
services- oriented economies.
Other sources also point to the rise of
employment in services but of the informal kind.
Informal employment is rampant in such high profit
zones as construction and real estate and is steadily
growing in other sectors and sub-sectors as well.
Casualisation of labour has been found to be
the best bet against the so-called rigid labour
laws that encourage unionisation and all the
unpleasantness of strikes and unrest.
And equally, informal employment keeps costs
down, an important factor, perhaps even more
important than incremental productivity, in staying
competitive.
So, behind the numbers is a reality in which
the only structural shift the economy has witnessed
is the emergence of services sector as an alternative
site to farming for informal employment.
The other reality behind the numbers is, of
course, that agriculture has not just slipped to third
place in its share to GDP out of some inexorable
telos of growth, but on account of neglect and the
worship of the accomplished fact by policymakers.
Resonance of neglect
Reforms in agriculture require huge political

will, but once the GDP rate had begun to pick up
steam the roads to success seemed fairly obvious
and easier to follow than attempting a second
agricultural reform drive.
Since 1991, the modern economys discourse
on growth has resonated with the brassy sounds
of an idea of India as urbanised and urbane. This
idea has found favour with the middle class Indian
who is its singular beneficiary.
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The village in this discourse of urban-centric
growth is a metaphor for backwardness, the farm
sector for laziness, both remnants of a past best
forgotten or converted into a vast township or
gated community. And the farmer hears all the
resonances.
Pune city and its fringes provide proof of how

the new discourse defining our ideas of prosperity
is determining the future of villages and farms
surrounding them. Land acquires new meanings
not for agriculture but as a piece of real estate
generating rentier profits.
As urban conglomerates spread and as the
demand for new urban entities (such as the
proposed townships between Delhi and Mumbai
and Kolkata, respectively) increase, land will
become the site for violent contesting claims -- as is
already evident in the outlying areas of Mumbai,
Pune and other towns likely to become epicentres
of growth.
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The Centre for Studies in Developing Societies

(CSDS) survey that found a majority of respondents
would give up agriculture for some other work,
shows how well farmers are picking up the echoes
of the new exclusionary discourse. Depending on
your take on modernity, you could say that this
lapse of faith is a great psychological moment, a
prelude to a discursive leap into a brighter future
by farmers who for centuries have been unable to
see beyond the horizons of their fields.
for a township that has become a model for other

farmers.
But on the other hand, one could also see it as

part of an unfolding crisis for a nation that had
with such enterprise and determination become self
sufficient in food. The CSDS survey shows us the
face of impending pauperisation, of a cultivator
faced with that prospect and intuitively certain that
there are few exits unless he or she wants to
become an informal or casual labourer at a
construction site.
Past tense, future uncertain
The realisation of both the futility of farming

and the lack of choices for alternative livelihoods
drives farmers to suicide, but it also drives them to
a form of enterprise that at first glance appears
liberating.
On the outskirts of Punes eastern suburb of
Hadapsar, the Magars, a rich farming community,
decided to give up farming, formed a real estate
corporation to which they handed over their lands
Land has become Indias geographical dividend

as it were, multiplying in value as farm lands are
turned into urban-scapes or as cities advance on them.
The temptations to sell out will grow exponentially and a new political economy of land
acquisition is already emerging--- not with land
mafias as in America but with land monopolies
blessed by politicians and businessmen.
The structural transformation of GDP that
policy makers wax eloquent about seems to have
two stages. In the first, agriculture lost out to Services.
In the second that is upon us, we will see capital
from diverse sources manufacturing and other
forms of productive activity such as farming return
to the land for its conversion into real estate.
That is what India may become a piece of
real estate.
THE TEN CRORE QUESTION
Whatever else their shortcomings, politicians

have always been skilled at tapping into the
concerns of the people and coming up with
catchy slogans that capture them, while offering
some hope of relief at the same time.
Thus, Lal Bahadur Shastris jai jawan, jai kisan

resonated in an India which had just woken up to
the fragility of its security as a nation state after
two devastating wars with its neighbours. The
celebration of the jawan was a celebration of the
soldier, who had so bravely ensured the survival of
the then still young experiment called India.
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The kisan, on the other hand, offered the hope

quotient. The Green Revolution was beginning to
happen, and the new miracle breeds, developed
by crop scientists like Norman Borlaug and our
own MS Swaminathan, promised to remove the
word famine from the countrys lexicon.
Later, it was roti, kapda, makaan. For a
population straining under the personal sacrifices
and hardships imposed by the socialistic planned
development model, accessing basics such as food,
clothing and shelter become aspirational goals
goals which politicians promised to deliver.
[49]

Still later, as we crawled up the rungs of
development, the slogan changed to bijli, sadak,
paani. Endemic hunger was no longer an issue,
except for pockets of the really poor. For most of
the rest, even clothing and shelter were a given,
acquired through their own efforts, without
government handouts. What they wanted from the
government was basic services now, electricity to
power their homes, farms and businesses, roads to
drive their newly-bought vehicles on, and water in
their increasingly overcrowded and under-equipped
towns and cities.
(presumably because, since India doesnt have

unemployment benefits, those without a job were
finding some means of sustenance on their own).
Does the absence of any such slogan this time

around mean that our problems are in a purely
physical, infrastructural and financial sense
over? That there is really nothing to aspire for, and
that all we have to worry about, as Arvind Kejriwal
urges us to do, is corruption?
This led to the creation of a National Skill

Development Mission, a funded skill development
corporation, and a whole skill development
ecosystem now eagerly tapped by the corporate
sector.
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The survey also raises a question mark over the

governments shift in focus to skill development
over the past few years. Underlying this was the
belief that the reason more people were not getting
employment was that they were not employable.
Therefore, the solution lay in imparting employable
skills to the working age population, following
which they would all get nice jobs and lift
themselves permanently above the poverty line.
The jobs factor
Clearly not. Which is why, fairly late in the

day, the biggest issue facing GenNext India has
finally become part of the poll rhetoric jobs. Our
politicians are only now waking up to the fact that
there is a flip side to the demographic dividend.
The realisation has finally dawned that if the 100
million first-time voters who will be voting in these
elections are not employed or worse, do not see
hopes of getting employed in the foreseeable future
they are unlikely to vote for you.
This, going by whatever passes for jobs data in
India, is what is going to happen. India does not
have credible and regularly compiled data on job
creation and workforce participation. What we
have are unreliable numbers put out by various
ministries, and more accurate sample surveys done
by the National Sample Survey Organisation.
According to an NSSO survey, one in three

college graduates in the 15 to 29 years age group
are unemployed.
In its report, Youth employment - unemployment
scenario, 2012-13, the survey paints an even more
dismal picture the labour force participation in
the 15-24 age group,the new voters, is just 31.2 per
cent. Two-thirds of Indias demographic dividend
of youth power is actually not currently
participating in the workforce.
According to a study published in the Economic
and Political Weekly last year, in 2011-12, 30 per
cent of the workers were casual employees, and
only 18 per cent had regular work.
The rest were categorised as self employed

[50]
Political bombast
Lack of employable skills is certainly one of the

major issues facing the country, but there is a bigger
question: Where are the jobs? The BJP and Congress
are both at loggerheads, accusing each other of
having failed to create enough jobs during their
tenures, but nobody has a concrete plan on how to
go about ensuring that enough jobs are actually
created to meet this staggering demand.
What we have got instead, is political bombast.
If Congress campaign leader Rahul Gandhi
promised 10 crore jobs one for every new voter
the BJP has tried to do one better by promising
to create 25 crore new jobs over the next 10 years
(notice they have quietly ignored the five-year term
of office here) in the series of smart cities that
they will help build across India.
But the same employment survey showed that
unemployment was actually lowest amongst those
with no education or special skills. If you didnt
have a college degree or even a school diploma but
were willing to work for your daily bread, there
was enough work going around even in a slowing
Indian economy.
Unfortunately, the other aspect of the
demographic dividend which has also been ignored
is that of rising aspiration. This generation is no
longer content with just any old labouring job, it
dreams beyond bijli, sadak, paani. But these
aspirations are not finding an echo in either political
palavers or policy platforms. Even a good, joboriented replacement for jai jawan, jai kisan would
be a start!
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LICENSING FOR COMPETITION

niche customers or geographies. Thus, a mobile
wallet or prepaid instrument provider such as
Airtel Money can be given the licence for a
payment bank. It can access deposits just as normal
banks, but will be required to put all this money in
government securities and not be allowed to lend.
This bank will also have a much lower minimum
capital requirement than the Rs 500 crore now
prescribed for full-service banks.
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Following the Election Commissions nod, the

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has set the ball rolling
on new banking licences by granting in principle
approval to two applicants IDFC and Bandhan
Financial Services. But what is really refreshing is
the RBIs overall approach to the licensing issue,
which is novel. Unlike in the past, which saw 10
licences being awarded in 1993 and another three
in 2003, Governor Raghuram Rajan has declared
that the Central bank would migrate to a system
where licences are handed out on a regular basis
on tap. The existing stop and go policy,
wherein applications are invited intermittently,
leads to frenzied responses from a large number of
aspirants. It is also conducive for lobbying by those
who would do everything possible to grab the
opportunity that comes once in, say, 10 years.
If bank licences are made available on a

continuous basis, it will put competitive pressure
on existing players. In his latest monetary policy
statement, Rajan also talked about issuing
differentiated bank licences. In other words, there
may no longer be licences for just full-scale banks
subject to the same capital adequacy, liquidity/
reserves and priority sector lending requirements.
Licences could instead vary and be given, for
example, to those engaged only in the business of
facilitating payments (as against lending), lending
to other banks (wholesale banks), infrastructure
credit and other such banking services catering to
Whether or not this is sufficient to qualify as a

dramatic remaking of the banking landscape,
differentiated licences have clear advantages over
a system that favours the creation of new banks
every decade or so and which are virtual clones of
the existing ones. Such a system imposes undesirable
regimentation for example, non-banking financial
companies (NBFCs), which usually have a core
expertise in some area (say truck financing or gold
loans), having to morph into monolithic, generalpurpose banks. The main attraction for NBFCs
becoming banks is the access they acquire to lowcost current and savings account deposits. But the
need to adhere to the rigorous regulations
prescribed for full-scale banks from day one clearly
outweigh these benefits. The proposed differentiated
licensing regime with separate micro-prudential
regulations and restrictions on the nature of banking
operations is a feasible alternative to the existing
generic one-size-fits-all model.
ONE INC
Two is company, three is crowd is pass.

Welcome the one-person company (OPC), the new
kid on the corporate block. This avatar was
unleashed by the 2013 Companies Act. It was
proposed by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.
private property is beyond the long arm of the law.
Says its website: With increasing use of

information technology and computers, emergence
of the service sector, it is time that the
entrepreneurial capabilities of the people are given
an outlet for participation in economic activity.
Such economic activity may take place through the
creation of an economic person in the form of a
company.
Legally sound
OPC provides the flexibility of starting, owning

and running a company, with the benefit of limited
liability. For one, if the OPC runs into losses, the
sole shareholder/director and his/her personal and
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But it is not a brand new idea. Such experiments

are successfully carried out in countries such as
Singapore and the US.
OPC is a legal entity. This means the companys

life does not end even after the lone shareholder
passes away. Its longevity is guaranteed and the
fate of transactions is not jeopardised.
Hence, the people who lent money to the
company cannot sue to recover personal properties
of the shareholder. The lenders arms can reach up
to the shareholders unpaid amount of share
thus far and no further!
The OPC needs to be registered with the
[51]

Registrar of Companies (RoC) as a private limited
company, with the lone shareholder. It may also
have a director. This may sound like a mom-andpop store a sole trader establishment but it is
different.
One may well have to hire a professional

lawyer or a company secretary to assist in
documentation, who, naturally, come at a price.
Such an ordeal is not required in sole-trader
organisations.
A sole trader invests his or her own resources

and has a lot of freedom to take decisions. The setup does not need registration. One may open and
shut a shop at ones will. If the going gets tough,
creditors can reach the private property of the sole
trader.
The OPC needs to nominate a person to ensure

that there is continuity and that nominees name is
to be registered with the ROC. The mom-and-pop
stores are spared of such a requirement.
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Since OPC is a legal entity, its affairs need to be

recorded and become more in the public domain,
unlike sole traders.
An OPC, on the other hand, provides an

individual with an opportunity to become a
corporate and attain a distinct personality, quite
different from the creator.
But a cumbersome process
In the case of OPCs, there are a slew of

documents to be submitted. The memorandum of
association, which is the charter of the company,
as also the articles, which are the bye laws of the
company, along with the consent of the individuals
who wish to be directors of the company, need to
be filed with the RoC.
Another issue is that the OPCs may have to

shell out more taxes as compared to a sole trader,
where the incidence of tax is relatively less.
Besides this, the books of account need to be
maintained as OPC is created by Law.
Nevertheless, the advantages of limited ability
and the possibility of tapping the market for funds
may render OPCs an attractive option. But only
time will tell whether the idea can bloom in India.
COALITION GOVT: SPOKES WITHOUT A HUB?
The predictions about the coming elections are

that no party will get absolute majority. At the
next level, the question is: Will either of the two
major coalitions get a majority? The election pundits
are still debating whether the two national parties,
the Congress or BJP, will get at least 200 seats. The
hope is that whoever nears that number will have
a chance of putting together a coalition to reach
simple majority.
Gone are the days of brute majority. For

national parties, even getting probable candidates
to contest in 300 seats is a challenge. National
parties have brought this situation upon themselves.
The coalition, ex ante or ex post election, will

again be one of parties with varying ideologies and
agendas. Generally speaking, it will be in the interest
of the nation to evolve a code for coalition politics
before elections are announced.
It is important that the national parties come
together and decide the framework of government
formation and code of governance -- the codes that
would govern the terms of engagement of partners.
The parties say the present situation points to

the inevitability of coalition politics. The prevailing
reality can at best be described as decentred
[52]
coalitions. Our polity started as a unipolar system,

migrated to multipolar after the Emergency, and
we thought we had finally stabilised around a
bipolar system, with the NDA and UPA. But the
bipolar system is a morphed version, both bipolar
and polycentric.
In purely bipolar coalitions power would be
centred around the major partner. In a polycentric
system power is diffused and resides within each
partner of the coalition, often dictated by individual
party strength. The first step in coalition governance
was actually made during Indira Gandhis time.
Before that there was no necessity for a coalition.
There was this useful alliance model between the
Congress and AIADMK in Tamil Nadu.
Ideal model
The Congress contested a lions share of Lok

Sabha seats and the regional party contested a
major share of Assembly seats. This was a truly
federal arrangement where both national and
regional parties could mark out their space. This
was the trend in the 1970s. The regional party
claimed no role in the Central government and the
national party no role in the State government.
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Post Emergency, the situation changed. The
opposition parties formed a coalition which
included some national parties and regional parties.
These were supposed to merge. The parties,
however, maintained their identities and it was
multipolar coalition. These decades saw national
parties lose space to state-level parties, and statelevel parties lose in turn to the splinters of regional
parties.
Third, the formation is fluid wherein the

elements can keep changing. Parties can come and
go. The status preceding the signing of the nuclear
deal showed the fragility of the system. Small parties
with no mandate on such national issues can
jeopardise the system.
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The gain by the state-level parties gave them a

good bargaining position. The national parties could
not muster even a simple majority. The splinter
groups of state-level parties with even less than
five seats also became critical to the sustenance of
the national government.
sought to be ensured through coalition party leaders

who are outside the Cabinet. This got strengthened
by the formation of a coordination committee which
remained outside the boundaries of Parliament and
government.
These parties now started seeing a critical role

for themselves at the central level with very little
capacity or vision for playing a national role. The
national parties on the other hand could not insist
on participation in government at the state level.
They could not voice opposition at the state level
and lost the space to other state-level parties.
Initially, this was the case in Tamil Nadu and
Maharashtra; later it became the scenario even in
larger states such as Bihar and UP.
The present system at best resembles the
franchisee model in the corporate world with
earmarked geographical divisions.
Ungovernability
In a political context, it is quite ungovernable.

First, the decentred nature has led to a distributed
power structure. For example, the prime ministers
prerogative in ministry formation has been
undermined.
It is the coalition partners who decide the

ministers. Ministers are dropped because the
coalition partner say so, even though they were
performing well.
Second, accountability and collective responsibility suffered. The ministers are now responsible
to party leaders than to the head of the government.
The prime minister can enforce performance

only upon party members. Accountability was
Locus of control
The national parties have to seriously consider

their losing position in the central space. They need
to decide how to compete and be assertive in
government formation. Deciding on how to regain
control would mean deciding how to compete. This
would require more codes and norms than
constitutional amendments.
Reform will include revisiting conventions of
Cabinet formation. Regional parties have to concede
the prerogative of the prime minister in Cabinet
formation and in picking ministers.
They can decide the allocation of the number
of ministers but not the allocation of ministries.
The national party should have complete say in
Cabinet formation both in terms of ministry
allocation and selection.
Similarly, the ministers are there at the pleasure
of the prime minister rather than their own
respective leaders. The national parties need a larger
role for themselves and should similarly give a
bigger role to regional parties at the state level, like
the old AIADMK model. The national parties act
as the centripetal force by providing a platform
but control is multilayered.
What we are seeing is not just the fragmentation
of vote politics but of power, control, accountability
and governance. This happens when the locus of
control lies outside the Cabinet, and the prime
minister is not the pivotal force.
A POLICY WITH CLARITY OF PURPOSE
As the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Review of

Macroeconomic and Monetary Developments 201415 succinctly brings out, there are three important
considerations for monetary policy in the immediate
ensuing period. First, the disinflationary process is
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already under way with headline inflation trending

downward along the path envisaged by the Urjit
Patel Committee, though inflation is still above
comfort levels.
[53]

Second, growth concerns are significant with
GDP growth at a sub-5 per cent level for seven
successive quarters and industrial production
stagnating for two successive years. Third, there
are signs that potential growth has fallen with high
inflation and low growth. Thus, supply-side
constraints on growth will need to be given
attention.
the term repo facility, this has the unintended effect

of actually encouraging window-dressing. Windowdressing is a counter-productive activity and while,
on this occasion, the RBI has not undertaken any
punitive measures, it has made it clear that it would,
in future, use appropriate measures to discourage
such activity.
Year-end window-dressing
Macroeconomic uncertainties
Some banks try to boost the size of their

balance-sheet while others wish to get some risk
assets off their portfolio, even if temporarily, to
reduce minimum capital requirement. In either case
it is a futile exercise and, in fact, distorts the
evaluation of a banks position.
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There are risks to the central forecast of an 8

per cent CPI inflation rate by January 2015 with
the possibility of a less than normal monsoon, given
the likelihood of an El Nino effect, uncertainties on
minimum agricultural support prices and other
administered prices and fiscal pressures. The RBI
policy stance is rightly focused on keeping the
economy on a disinflationary trajectory to hit 8 per
cent CPI inflation by January 2015 and 6 per cent
by January 2016.
It is gratifying to see the RBIs firm commitment
on inflation despite unwarranted criticism that it
has not given enough emphasis to growth.
Status quo
Although the RBI policy overnight repo interest

rate of 8 per cent has been kept unchanged, the
monetary policy reflects great perspicacity. The RBI
has deftly followed the Urjit Patel recommendation
to de-emphasise the overnight guaranteed access
repo facility.
The policy makes a significant departure on the

repo facility issue: the access limits for the 7-day
and 14-day term repo has been raised from 0.50
per cent of net demand and time liabilities (NDTL)
to 0.75 per cent of NDTL while simultaneously
reducing the overnight repo access from 0.50 per
cent to 0.25 per cent of NDTL. This is a significant
development which will improve the efficacy of
monetary policy. The term repo is more effective as
a transmission mechanism across the interest rate
spectrum as it is a better indicator of the underlying
liquidity.
Further, this measure could foster the
development of a term money market. It is hoped
that over time an element of stability emerges in
RBI accommodation as the term repo becomes the
major policy instrument.
While the RBI has, understandably, tried to

avoid undue interest rate volatility at the financial
year-end by providing liberal access to banks under
[54]
It is pertinent to mention that many years ago

the RBI had effectively countered window-dressing.
In 1992, as part of the financial sector reforms it
was felt that the statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) of
38.5 per cent of NDTL was too high and there was
a need to bring it down.
Rather than reducing the 38.5 per cent average
SLR, the incremental SLR was reduced at one stroke
to 25 per cent while retaining the 38.5 per cent
SLR on the NDTL as on March 31, 1992.
The effect was that banks which had resorted
to window-dressing on March 31, 1992, were
penalised and got the relief of the lower marginal
SLR only after the NDTL crossed the March 31,
1992 level.
It should be possible to devise measures to curb
window-dressing in the current context. For
instance, all RBI overnight accommodation could
be withdrawn for one day on March 31, or if this
were felt to be insufficient, even 7-day and 14-day
repo facilities could terminate before March 31 and
any RBI accommodation could be restarted from
April 1.
Alternatively, on the incremental NDTL
between March 31 and the preceding fortnight,
there could be a prohibitive cash reserve ratio which
would be locked in for a stipulated period, say
three months. These are just illustrative measures
and the RBI could modulate the measures so that
banks respond sensibly to the suasion of the RBI.
Meaningless window-dressing has gone on for too
long and it is time to put an end to this futile exercise.
Growth of the economy

The RBI does well to use a range of 5-6 per
cent for growth in 2014-15 with a central estimate
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of 5.5 per cent. It is only after the regular Budget
and macroeconomic policies for 2014-15 are
formulated by the new government takes charge
would there be a reasonable estimate of growth in
2014-15.
The policy review also undertakes a compre-
hensive review of developmental and regulatory

policies.
Here, there are a number of important issues
which need to be examined separately.
WATCHING THE WATCHDOGS

shareholders, but also banks, suppliers, buyers and
tax authorities that rely on a companys published
financials. Even more specious is the claim that
banning consulting assignments and penalties for
negligence will make statutory audits a costly and
unattractive proposition. What stops auditors from
hiking their fees? Investors who rely on the opinion
of auditors will certainly not object to that.
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Of the many provisions in the new Companies

Act intended at tightening lax corporate governance
standards, those relating to the auditing profession
are possibly the most significant. Recently notified
rules under the Act have made it mandatory for
companies both listed and unlisted to rotate
their auditor once every five years and the audit
firm once in ten years. The idea here is to ensure
that the auditors objectivity is not compromised
by a cosy relationship with the client. Auditors have
been barred from taking on consulting or other
assignments from their clients and will attract
personal liabilities for negligence; at the same time,
they will be vested with a whistle-blower function.
Thus, in the event of detecting any irregularities
committed in the company, they are obliged to
report the same within 45 days to its board and
within 60 days to the Central government. Besides,
the Act has proposed a new regulatory body
the National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA)
to oversee these rules, conduct enquiries and
levy penalties on auditors for non-compliance.
Predictably, leading audit firms have criticised
the new rules. Mandatory rotation, they claim, will
dilute the quality of the audit, as there will be less
time now to understand the company or the
industry it is in. But this doesnt hold water as 10
years is more than sufficient to acquire industry
knowledge. The argument against subjecting
unlisted firms to compulsory auditor rotation is also
a non-starter. After all, it is not only public
For investors, lenders and other stakeholders,

the real problem arises from the failure of auditors
to flag serious accounting issues. All too often,
when faced with non-disclosure of material facts,
bad accounting policies or non-adherence to
standards, auditors shy away from qualifying their
reports and take shelter under emphasis of matter
clauses or notes tucked away in the accounts.
These render published accounts unreliable. There
are nearly 1,700 listed companies suspended from
trading for not complying with basic disclosure
requirements such as filing financial results.
Companies routinely vanish from the bourses as a
result of promoters siphoning off funds. These are
common infractions that rigorous auditing can
uncover. The Centre should expedite taking the
next step, that of constituting the NFRA. Many
elaborately drafted Indian laws fail to make a
difference because they are not followed through,
especially by framing the required rules. The
auditor-related provisions in the new Companies
Act should not suffer from this.
FOR A WORLD OF FREER LABOUR FLOWS
We live in an increasingly globalised world,

characterised by the transnational movement of
goods, services, people and ideas. Yet, the merits of
international migration of people have not been
recognised in substantial measure.
populism, xenophobia, security and nationalism.
Migration has received attention, albeit of the

wrong kind.
The only easy battles in migration are garnering

support for mobility of high skilled workers, or those
who come and go with a temporary tag.
The discourse the world over continues to be

driven by political rhetoric, centred around
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As a result, the economics of migration has been

overlooked. In international migration in particular,
good economics does not necessarily mean good
politics.
Freer economic migration is good for business,

[55]

catalysing
innovation,
investment
and
entrepreneurship the building blocks of sustainable
development.
International migration also spurs the investment
rate, saving rate and the consumption rate, which
further serves to expand business and trade.
However, most emigration from India is still in

the low-skilled category, 90 per cent of which is to
the Gulf countries. A skilled workforce is necessary
for industry upgradation; it stimulates innovation
and helps countries move up the global value chain.
Promise of Bali
Co-ordination between the main stakeholders
in the skills market helps achieve the targets of
industrial policy.
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Despite these obvious gains, an irony peculiar

to our globalising world is the noticeable absence
of industry as a catalyst for global migration. The
Indian Diaspora is the most successful in the world.
Indian industry must find modes of engagement
with the Diaspora to derive advantage from the
success they have achieved.
workers, independent professionals and service

providers.
Brain circulation
We are moving away from brain drain,

towards a more positive notion of brain circulation.
Industry must play a bigger role in skills
development of the workforce, keeping in mind
the paradigm of brain circulation.
India has to earnestly work towards building

an image of a welcoming country; providing equal
opportunities, irrespective of race, gender,
nationality, and so on. Along with this, Indias
ranking in 2014 is 134 among 189 world economies,
according to the World Banks Ease of doing
business survey. Overcoming these issues will
necessitate the involvement of Indian industry.
One of Indian industrys most important
contributions can be through skill development of
our youth with a gender focus. India is at that
unique threshold where its demographic and
economic transitions generate a surplus of workers
in the economy.
Also, women are no longer migrating as

dependents; they are increasingly migrating as
There are glaring labour shortages and skill gaps

the world over. Industry can play a role in matching
available skills with the demand for them and in
facilitating bilateral coordination for social security
arrangements.
The transnational movement of people should
necessarily be looked at as a natural corollary to
the movement of goods and capital. Bali 2013
brought with it hope of boosting global trade worth
$1 trillion. It has been celebrated as a victory of
multilateralism; as a triumph of globalisation; of
various interests coming together.
However, the real victory will come when we
reach a consensus on the fact that the mobility of
people is good and even necessary to maintain
global economic growth rates. The globalisation of
everything but labour will not work for too long.
Finally, whether or not Indian industry partakes in
the facilitation and advocacy of freer migration, it
will continue to take place.
Changing the perceptions about migration, not
overstating its negatives and understating its
positives, will be a good place to start.
LIFE IS AN INJECTION
Recently the World Health Day was observed.

It is an apt occasion to look back at the progress
India has made in its fight against preventable
diseases, and the importance of life-saving vaccines.
Diarrhoeal diseases kill nearly 600,000 children
every year. They are one of the foremost causes of
infectious morbidity, second only to acute
respiratory infections.
Kid killers
Unfortunately, India is a major contributor to
[56]
the global burden of diarrhoeal diseases. The

number of people dying from diarrhoeal diseases
have come down, thanks to better antibiotic
availability and utilisation of oral rehydration
therapy. But the burden still remains high and is
one of the principal causes of morbidity and
mortality, especially in children.
Enteric bacterial infection (linked to intestines)
is a major cause of diarrhoea throughout the world,
especially in low- and middle-income countries. The
WHO says 1.1 billion people drink unsafe water
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and the vast majority of diarrhoeal disease in the
world (88 per cent) is linked to unsafe water,
sanitation and hygiene. In developing countries,
enteric bacteria and parasites are more prevalent
than viruses and typically peak during the summer.
An important concern is the emergence of

cholera across the globe. Recent outbreaks in Cuba,
Haiti and Zimbabwe show it can cause enormous
loss of human lives. Cholera is endemic in India,
stays in the environment especially in coastal areas,
and as such, the lower Gangetic plain is called
homeland of cholera. It is a pity that despite an
estimated annual burden of two to four million
cases, we react only when an outbreak hits.
Control of cholera depends on the long-term
strategy of improving water quality and sanitation
systems. That said, it is difficult to achieve this in
resource-poor settings (as seen in India). Thus,
vaccination for cholera can be an important shortterm preventive approach along with other efforts.
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Recent studies show that bacterial pathogens

such as Vibrio cholerae (causes cholera),Escherichia
coli, Shigella spp. and Campylobacter jejuni account
for moderate to severe diarrhoea in India. Among
these, rotavirus and norovirus are the main
pathogens responsible for acute diarrhoea.
Life in times of cholera
Rotavirus infection accounts for a third of global

child deaths attributable to diarrhoea. It cannot be
controlled by antibiotics, nor are there any specific
drugs for it. It is seen that almost all the children
across the globe will suffer at least one rotavirus
infection, if not more, in their lifetime. It is even
seen in the developed world. Immunising children
with a vaccine is clearly the way to effectively
reduce rotavirus-related morbidity, mortality and
associated medical costs.
Several rotavirus vaccines formulated for oral
administration to infants have been shown to be
highly effective in reducing the incidence of
rotavirus gastroenteritis. An indigenous vaccine
developed in India has been shown to be efficacious
and is currently awaiting licensure.
A low-cost, bivalent, killed whole-cell oral

cholera vaccine is currently made in India and has
also received licensure from the Drug Controller
General of India. It has proven efficacy and safety
and confers 65 per cent protection at the end of
five years following vaccination. Recently, the
Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on
Immunisation of the WHO recommended the use
of this vaccine in endemic areas.
Given the morbidity diarrhoeal diseases bring on,
it is critical to pursue further research in this area.
THE RUN OF RAINS IN INDIAN AGRICULTURE
The increased probability of an El Nino weather

pattern has already begun to rustle up fears about
how a bad monsoon could hurt a sluggish Indian
economy. The concerns are valid even though the
economy is less dependent on agriculture than
before and reservoir levels this summer are quite
comfortable. The lessons of previous El Nino
episodes in 2002 and 2009 tell us that farm
production as well as food prices can take a knock
in a country where barely a third of farm land is
irrigated.
The harsh impact of unseasonal rains and
hailstorms earlier this month across a number of
statesimposing losses estimated at a billion rupees
on insurershas further added to the concerns.
Add to this the suicide of 23 farmers in
Maharashtra, which has once again exposed the
abysmal state of existing procedures to shield them
from exigencies. Interestingly, the Indian
Meteorological Department has dismissed claims
by Western scientists of the risk posed by El Nino,
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calling it a conspiracy to help speculators.

For long, unpredictable weather has remained
one of the biggest threats to farmers. Naturally,
voices in favour of a comprehensive crop insurance
programme to protect farmers from the vagaries of
nature have strengthened over time. However, the
record of state assistance to distressed farmers has
been far from satisfactory.
The comprehensive crop insurance scheme
instituted in 1985, which turned out to be
financially unviable with claims over-running
premiums by almost six times, was one of the
earliest attempts at state-sponsored cover that went
berserk. Subsequently, the National Agricultural
Insurance Scheme (NAIS), which sought to serve
as a more viable alternative through the charging
of higher premiums over time, met with a similar
fate. Throughout, both the central and state
governments footed the gap in funding by
subsidizing crop insurance.
[57]

The justification for extending insurance support
to farmers has emerged from concerns that extreme
uncertainties associated with agriculture will make
market premiums unaffordable to farmers.
Protecting them through subsidized insurance
programmes was seen as the natural way out.
However, massive bailout of farmers by the
government only managed to crowd out private
firms from the market for insurance.
Meanwhile, commodity hedging remains

perhaps the most underexploited risk-mitigating
mechanisms as far as dealing with price risk goes.
While India has exposed its farmers to the
international market in a globalized world, Indian
farmers still remain underserved by the services of
the commodity derivatives market. Last year,
according to the US department of agriculture and
the Futures Industry Association, the ratio of open
interest in hedging instruments to total size of maize
and wheat market in India stood at a negligible
0.1%, compared to the world average of well over
20%.
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More importantly, the lack of competition in

insurance cover has led to the stifling of muchneeded innovation that is a prerequisite to better
and cheaper insurance products. Also, under a
state-sponsored insurance programme, the
unintended effects of moral hazard and adverse
selection have added to the cost of providing
insurance. This is clearly reflected in the high claims
ratio of over 300% even under the NAIS, which
was supposed to set right the deficiencies of past
relief programmes.
only at much higher prices. With extreme

dependence on seasonal monsoons still remaining
the norm in most parts of the country, the need for
improving irrigation infrastructure cannot be
stressed enough.
Deregulating the insurance market can only be

part of a larger plan to mitigate the many risks of
Indian agriculture. This is especially true given some
risks cannot be covered by private insurance, or
Given the inefficiency of the current relief

mechanism, and the minuscule size of the market
for pooling risk, there could be no better reason to
improve farmers access to alternatives.
Source: Mint
THE CHANGING FACE OF GLOBAL RISK
The worlds economic, financial and geopolitical

risks are shifting. Some risks now have a lower
probabilityeven if they are not fully extinguished.
Others are becoming more likely and important.
A year or two ago, six main risks stood at centre
stage:
A euro-zone breakup (including a Greek exit

and loss of access to capital markets for Italy
and/or Spain).
A fiscal crisis in the US (owing to further

political fights over the debt ceiling and
another government shutdown).
A public-debt crisis in Japan (as the

combination of recession, deflation, and high
deficits drove up the debt/gross domestic
product or GDP ratio).
to stabilize distressed sovereign debtors, and the

beginning of a banking union, the euro zone is no
longer on the verge of collapse. In the US, President
Barack Obama and Congressional Republicans
have for now agreed on a truce to avoid the threat
of another government shutdown over the need to
raise the debt ceiling.
In Japan, the first two arrows of Prime
Minister Shinzo Abes economic strategymonetary
easing and fiscal expansionhave boosted growth
and stopped deflation. Now the third arrow of
Abenomicsstructural reformstogether with
the start of long-term fiscal consolidation, could
lead to debt stabilization (though the economic
impact of the coming consumption-tax hike is
uncertain).
A wider breakdown of regional order in the

Middle East.
Similarly, the risk of deflation worldwide has

been contained via exotic and unconventional
monetary policies. And the risk of a war between
Israel and Iran has been reduced by the interim
agreement on Irans nuclear programme concluded
last November.
These risks have now been reduced. Thanks to

European Central Bank President Mario Draghis
whatever it takes speech, new financial facilities
Though many Middle East countries remain

highly unstable, none of them is systemically
important in financial terms, and no conflict so far

[58]
Deflation in many advanced economies.
War between Israel and Iran over alleged

Iranian nuclear proliferation.

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has seriously shocked global oil and gas supplies.
More important, as the risks of recent years have
receded, six other risks have been growing.
Fifth, there is a serious risk that the current

conflict in Ukraine will lead to Cold War IIand
possibly even a hot war if Russia invades the east
of the country. The economic consequences of such
an outcomeowing to its impact on energy supplies
and investment flows, in addition to the destruction
of lives and physical capitalwould be immense.
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For starters, there is the risk of a hard landing

in China. The rebalancing of growth away from
fixed investment and toward private consumption
is occurring too slowly, because every time annual
GDP growth slows toward 7%, the authorities panic
and double down on another round of credit-fuelled
capital investment. This then leads to more bad
assets and non-performing loans, more excessive
investment in real estate, infrastructure, and
industrial capacity, and more public and private
debt. By next year, there may be no road left down
which to kick the can.
headwinds (owing to a fall in commodity prices

and the risks associated with Chinas structural
transformation and the Feds monetary-policy shift)
at a time when their own macroeconomic policies
are still too loose and the lack of structural reforms
has undermined potential growth. Moreover many
of these emerging markets face political and
electoral risks.
There is also the risk of policy mistakes by the

US Federal Reserve as it exits monetary easing. Last
year, the Feds mere announcement that it would
gradually wind down its monthly purchases of
long-term financial assets triggered a taper
tantrum in markets. This year, tapering is priced
in, but uncertainty about the timing and speed of
the Feds efforts to normalize policy interest rates
is creating volatility. Some investors and
governments now worry that the Fed may raise
rates too soon and too fast, causing economic and
financial shockwaves.
Third, the Fed may actually exit zero rates too
late and too slowly (its current plan would
normalize rates to 4% only by 2018), thus causing
another asset-price boomand an eventual bust.
Indeed, unconventional monetary policies in the
US and other advanced economies have already
led to massive asset-price reflation, which in due
course could cause bubbles in real estate, credit,
and equity markets.
Fourth, the crises in some fragile emerging
markets may worsen. Emerging markets are facing
Finally, there is a similar risk that Asias

terrestrial and maritime territorial disagreements
could escalate into outright military conflict.
So far, financial markets have been sanguine
about these new risks. Volatility has increased only
modestly, while asset prices have held up. Noise
about these risks has occasionally shaken investors
confidence, and modest market corrections have
tended to reverse themselves.
Investors may be right that these risks will not
materialize in their more severe form, or that loose
monetary policies in advanced economies and
continued recovery will contain such risks. But
investors may be deluding themselves that the
probability of these risks is lowand thus may be
unpleasantly surprised.
Indeed, as was the case with the global financial
crisis, investors seem unable to estimate, price, and
hedge such tail risks properly. Only time will tell
whether their current nonchalance constitutes
another failure to assess and prepare for extreme
events.
Source: Mint
ELECTION 2014: A POLARIZED VOTE
In Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville

when describing the effect of elections said, Long
before the appointed day arrives, the election
becomes the greatest, and one might say the only,
affair occupying mens minds.
Nearly two centuries after de Tocquevilles book

was published, his words seem to describe the mood
in India perfectly. The Indian electorate numbering
814 million will soon decide which party or coalition
of parties will form the next Union government. It
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is also an election that is perhaps the most

polarizing one that India has seen in a decade. The
content of polarization is interesting and makes
this election different from recent ones.
Superficially, the two leading parties in the
fraythe Congress party and the Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP)have gone back to old-style religious
and caste polarization to improve their chances.
Recently, the Congresss supreme leaderSonia
Gandhimet the Shahi Imam of the Jama Masjid
[59]

it has slowly diluted its anti-corruption stand into
something else: a campaign against big business
(read free markets) and a populism that is not very
different from the Congresss. The AAPs manifesto,
released recently, is telling in this respect.
Effectively, the campaign has polarized India
in economic terms.
This should not surprise anyone. There are two
forces at work that have made economic issues
more important than anything else in this election.
India is in the midst of changing demographic and
educational trends. The country is home to a very
large youth population that is not only educated
but is also concerned about its future. This makes
this election possibly the first time that Indians are
raising and demanding answers to economic
questions from leaders.
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in Delhi. The latter then decided to back the

Congress across India. His argument in support of
the Congress is that the danger to secularism is a
bigger issue than corruption. Around that time,
Amit Shah, the BJPs key organizational man in
Uttar Pradesh (UP), allegedly exhorted members
of the Jat caste in western UP to avenge their
insults. Since these events happened barely a
week before the first ballot was cast, they probably
represent a nightmare for secular individuals: that
electioneering in the end was all about polarizing
the vote.
It is true that electoral polarization is at work
but it is not along the religious axis.
In the month or so since the Election

Commission (EC) announced the poll schedule, the
campaign, countrywide, has revolved on three axes.
For the BJP, it has largely been a matter of
highlighting the Congress partys misrule in the
last 10 years. The BJPs plank has largely veered
towards that of a modern conservative party that
believes in free markets and a regulatory state that
is less obstructive for businesses. The Congresss
campaign has been, by and large, disorderly in the
face of BJPs far more organized one. The party
has stuck to its populist (in its terms welfarist)
agenda combined with a personalized attack
against the BJPs prime ministerial candidate,
Narendra Modi. The third axis is represented by
the fast changing ideas of the Aam Aadmi Party
(AAP). The party began as an anti-corruption
movement but has mutated into an anti-BJP
campaign. AAP is notably soft on the Congress
and considers the BJP its primary target. Over time,
There is another reason why election 2014 is

special. India has experienced high growth and
prosperity. It has also seen a steep economic slide
in the last five years of the United Progressive
Alliance government. Other partiesBJP and
AAPare making big promises to the electorate.
All these promises and choices are largely couched
in economic terms even if the Congress has tried to
blend in the politics of secularism into the mix. But
such is the potency of economic questions that even
the Congress cannot avoid these issues. The party
is busy highlighting its track of populist legislation
and programmes to woo the electorate. This alone
makes this election more polarizing than those seen
in recent decades. The results will be interesting.
Source: Mint
WORSHIPPING FALSE GODS IN INDIA
Amidst the clamour of Indias colourful 2014

general election, a public debate of great import
for Indias future is underway. Leading political
candidates debate which development model is best
suited for a country of vast economic potential and
embedded historical impoverishment.
Most opinion polls rate Narendra Modi as the

front-runner in the 2014 general election. In his
energetic campaign, Modi downplays his earlier
hostile discourse about the countrys religious
minorities in favour of one which promises
development on the model of Gujarat. His promise
is that all of India would benefit from the verve
and pace of economic growth derived from high
private investment which his leadership
accomplished in Gujarat.
[60]
This claim raises many pertinent questions. One

is whether Gujarat under Modi indeed outpaced
other states in economic growth and private
investment. The second is the terms on which this
private investment is encouraged and whether this
indeed was in the public good. Finally, is there
evidence that people of economic and social
disadvantage have benefited significantly from this
economic growth?
On the first question, Gujarat has indeed
enjoyed high levels of economic growth in the years
of Modis leadership. But growth rates were also
high in the state for two decades prior, suggesting
that Modis policies were not decisively responsible
for this growth performance. It is also pertinent
that growth rates were higher in states such as
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points to the inevitable consequences of this neglect:
between 1999-2000 and 2007-08, fewer children
between six and 14 years of age attended school in
Gujarat than the national average. Even more
worrying, the proportion of girls, scheduled castes
and tribes, Muslims and other minorities who
attended school was much lower than national
averages. Gujarat is again below the national
average and also compares unfavourably with other
high growth states such as Tamil Nadu, Haryana,
and Maharashtra in infant mortality, under-five
mortality and mortality rates for women. No wonder
that in the India Human Development Report 2011,
Gujarats ranking was a lowly 11th in 2007-08.
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Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. Gujarats

performance as the most attractive destination for
private investment is also overstated. Its share in
foreign direct investment in 2102-13 was 2.38%,
placing it at a distant sixth position among states.
By contrast, Maharashtras share was just under
40%. Economist Atul Sood also reminds us that of
the total agreements signed under successive highprofile investor summits in Gujarat, the proportion
of projects actually realized fell precipitously from
73% in 2003 to 13% in 2011.
Even more pertinent are the terms on which
Gujarat attracts private investment. Its gold
standard reputation as an investor-friendly
government derives from the alacrity with which
it provided land for Tatas small car factory,
contrasted with long futile years of bitter public
struggle in West Bengal. A right to information
application revealed that the Tata investment was
Rs.2,900 crore, and the state government awarded
it a loan of Rs.9,570 crore at 0.1% rate of interest,
repayable on a monthly basis after 20 years. In
addition, it received land at much cheaper than
market, and the state paid stamp duty, registration
charges and electricity. It has been calculated that
the total subsidy element of the cheap car is half its
total market price.
This is the basic template of the policies of
Modis government for other large industrial houses
as well. Economists such as Indira Hirway question
whether this is good governance or crony
capitalism. It turns on its head welfare principles
of taxing the rich to provide a better life for the
poor: the Gujarat model is of taxing the poor to
subsidize the super-rich. Sood also worries about
the implications of completely handing over both
investment and decision-making regarding all new
infrastructure projectsports, highways, railto
profit-led large industry, and that Gujarat now has
among the worst records of labour unrest among
states in the country.
The other side of the same coin of massive state
expenditure for unprecedented incentives to large
businesses is markedly declining investments in the
social sector. In 2011-12, Gujarat ranked 17th
among Indian states in the proportion of
development expenditure in total public
expenditure. Only 1.09% of public expenditure in
Gujarat was on education and health, well behind
states such as Rajasthan (3.09%). Shipra Nigam
Gujarats hunger story is even more damning.

A 2012 National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau
(NNMB) survey shows 53.7% children under five
in Gujarat are stunted (low height for age). Stunting
is an indicator of chronic malnutrition mainly
caused by lack of access to nutritious food and
repeated illness. About 43% of adult men and
women have a low body mass index. Time trends
from both the National Nutrition Monitoring
Bureau and National Sample Survey data show
the average calorie consumption and cereal
consumption is also falling. There is also a decline
in consumption of other nutrients such as proteins,
calcium and iron. While many states have been
improving their public distribution system (PDS) in
the past five years, Gujarat is one of the worstperforming states on two aspects of the PDS: it has
a low and falling per capita PDS consumption,
and among the highest rates of foodgrain diversion.
Over half of those in the poorest quintile in Gujarat
report that they do not get any subsidized grain,
nearly ten percentage points higher than the
national average, according to the 2009-10 NSS.
Below the poverty line lists have not been updated
since 1998, which pegged the poverty line at Rs.11
a day.
Below and bluster and hyperbole of political
claims, the choice before the country is stark. Can
markets alone deliver a better life for people of
disadvantage, or must caring states play a more
active role? Will ordinary people, and especially
the millions who live in poverty, indeed benefit
from a model of development in which huge public
funds are committed to supporting private
investment, to the neglect of investments in
education, healthcare, nutrition and infrastructure?
Source: Mint

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[61]
CHRONICLE
IAS ACADEMY
MOMENTUM
7TH APRIL 2014 TO 13TH APRIL 2014
Call: 9953120676, 9582263947

CONTENTS
TOPICS
Pg. No.
National ........................................................................................................................ 4-7

International .............................................................................................................. 8-12
Economy ................................................................................................................... 15-20
Health ....................................................................................................................... 24-26
News in Brief ......................................................................................................... 27-32
Editorials from Newspapers .............................................................................. 33-55
Diplomatic gains from a strategic abstention
33
A significant capability
34
Building a culture of tolerance
35
Changing perception
37
Watching the money flow
37
Reviving the maritime silk route
38
Triumph for the Afghan public
39
Can our agriculture tackle climate change?
40
The quiet IPCC warning
40
Procurement challenge in public services
42
Hurry leads to a harried India Inc
44
Competitive restructuring
45
Hope prevails
46
Much Ado
46
No entry
47
A guarantee for learning
47
Harpooned
49
Indias goal at the BRICS bank
50
Parliament in public finance
51
IMFs promising growth pronouncement
52
Why India needs activist shareholders
53
!!!
NATIONAL
PASSENGER TRAIN SERVICE IN ARUNACHAL
More About the New Service:
! The engine made its maiden trial run from
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Itanagar has become the second state capital

among the north-eastern states after Guwahati to
be put on the railway map of India with the first
passenger train of about 400 commuters arriving
at Naharlagun. Former railway minister Ram Vilas
Paswan after inaugurating the passengers
reservation system on May 20, 1997 had announced
the Harmuti-Naharlagun railway line, while Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh had announced train
service in his massive package for the state on
January 31, 2008. The ambitious 20-km railway
line project had missed its target of December,
2011.
The North-East, particularly Arunachal
Pradesh, is an important part of India and is under
the special focus of New Delhi, as its development
would help other parts of India. Rajdhani Express
would be introduced between Itanagar and the
national capital as a policy but in a phased manner,
as railways bring prosperity by boosting trade and
commerce wherever it brings connectivity, and that
equal benefits would accrue Arunachal Pradesh
with quick transportation at reasonable rate. The
train service will be a boon for the state with better,
cheaper and faster communication.
Harmutty to Naharlagun terminus on January

14, 2014.
! A high level team led by the Planning
Commission member B K Chaturvedi had

inspected the Harmutty-Naharlagun on
January 17 last.
! The train with 10 passengers and two goods
compartments, towed by a diesel engine, left

Dekargaon at 7a.m. and arrived Naharlagun
at 12.30 p.m., and covered a distance of 181
kilometers.
! The train was driven by A.K. Boro and D.J.
Boro.
The journey including moving on the newly

built 20-km Harmuti-Naharlagun railway line.
! The ambitious railway line project had an
estimated cost of Rs 156 crore (re-estimated

at Rs 371.33 crore ), had missed its target of
December 2011 repeatedly.
JALLIKATTU NOW SAFER FOR BULLS
M Geetanjali, secretary of Ministry of

Environment and Forest filed an affidavit in reply
to the petition pending before the Supreme Court
seeking ban of Jallikattu. In this latest affidavit
Centre has told the Supreme Court that in order
to strike a balance and to safeguard the interest of
all stakeholders including the animals it has
proposed certain guidelines for the same. In this
endeavour centre has removed the bull from the
list of animals not to be exhibited or trained as
performing animals. The list was issued in
accordance with a notification in July 2011.
The Guidelines Include:
! Along with revisiting the list of animals, the
government has also proposed guidelines for

[4]
the organisers of the event of Jallikattu by

asking the district authorities and administration
to take extreme care to ensure that no
unnecessary harm was caused to the animals.
! In those places which had witnessed casualty
or injuries in preceding year, the organisers
have now been told to deposit Rs 5 lakh for
each casualty and Rs 2 lakh for each serious
injury. The amount would be returned in case
no such untoward incident took place.
! Besides putting in barricades and enclosure, it
is also directed to ensure that proper physical
examination of the animals was undertaken
before the event. It has also been ordered that
to ensure that no performance enhancement
drug was administered to the animal.
Weekly Current Affairs 7th April to 13th April, 2014
Jallikattu
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Jallikattu is a bull taming sport played in Tamil

Nadu as a part of Pongal celebrations on Mattu
Pongal day. Bulls often have chilli pepper rubbed
in their eyes, are force-fed alcohol and have their
testicles pinched, all in an effort to get them crazed
and frantic. The villagers later try to tame them
and the one who succeeds is the winner.
Annually, jallikattu is held from January to July,
played first in world-famous Palamedu, near
Madurai on January 15. It is then followed by
Alanganallur-jallikattu in Alanganallur, near
Madurai on 16 January. The majority of jallikattu
bulls belong to the pulikulam breed of cattle. The

animal welfare activists are vehemently opposing
Jallikattu for the past several years. They want
the age-old sport to be banned for what they call
it as massive cruelties to animals. After a single
judge of the Madras High Court had banned the
sport few years ago, the issue was taken to the
Supreme Court, where a batch of petitioners is
now pending for final disposal. The SC had also
once noted that Jallikattu was nothing but a sport
inflicting massive cruelty to animals but allowed
it under stringent conditions on vehement request
by the Tamil Nadu government.
EL NINO POSES THREAT TO AGRICULTURE
International forecasters have increased the

doubts of the threat of El Nino, which can disrupt
crucial monsoon rains in India and that would put
agricultural production particularly that of
paddy, sugarcane and pulses under a cloud and
will pose a challenge to economic growth. El Nino
has a history of adversely impacting rainfall in India
during the monsoon.
In the last decade, the droughts of 2002, 2004

and 2009 coincided with the emergence of El Nino.
Though it is too early to make such forecasts, but
globally, an increasing number of respected
forecasters are citing the phenomenon, in which
wind direction and ocean current changes warm
up parts of the Pacific Ocean, cause droughts in
Asia and excessive rainfall in some parts of the
world.
It is estimated that an El Nino will develop

during the southern hemisphere winter which is
parallel to the Indian summers. This time it can
make the planets temperature hotter than ever
before. International climate models indicate
continued warming of the central Pacific Ocean in
coming months. It is predicted that sea surface
temperatures will reach El Nino thresholds during
the coming winter season.
Production and yield of kharif season crops such

as sugarcane, paddy and pulses will get affected if
India witnesses below normal rainfall or a drought
situation this monsoon. Though cane is more
irrigation dependent, still lower rainfall in JuneJuly would impact the yield of cane in areas in
Maharashtra and Karnataka. If scarce rainfall
happens during the monsoon season, the paddy
crop could get impacted and all this will contribute
in pushing the prices up.
The Indian Meteorology Department (IMD) will
issue its monsoon forecast for this year by end April.
According to IMD, there is a strong chance of
developing El Nino this year, there is zero percent
chance of excess rainfall, 98 per cent chance of
below normal rainfall and also 68 per cent
probability of drought this year in India.
El Nino
El Nino, which means little boy in Spanish is

a phenomenon that emerges once every threeseven years and lasts for up to a year. It refers to
variations in the temperature of the surface of the
tropical eastern Pacific Ocean and in air surface
pressure in the tropical western Pacific.
INDIAN DELTAS SINKING
The world is at a high risk of floods because

major river deltas are sinking into the ground
while the sea level is rising and India is no
exception to it. As many as 24 major river deltas
including the four Indian deltas are sinking. The
scientists picked up 33 river deltas all over the
world for analysis and found that two dozen of
them are in dire straits.
Out of the four Indian deltas, created by

Brahmani, Godavari, Krishna and Mahanadi, the
Krishna Delta is the worst case and is placed under
the greater peril category. The sediment trapping
in upstream reservoirs on Krishna is much greater
and presently little to no sediment is presently added
[5]

to its delta surface. Krishnas rate of surface
aggradation, i.e. accumulation of sediment is lower
compared to the rate of sea level rise around its
delta.
accumulate sediment as rivers swell and

spread over vast areas of land. Study shows
that most of the low-lying deltas are sinking
owing to human activity. This subjects
millions of peoples lives to potentially
hazardous conditions related to flood risks.
! The deltas are now sinking because of two
man-made reasons. The upstream trapping

of sediments by reservoirs and dams, manmade channels and levees that whisk
sediment into the oceans beyond coastal
floodplains and the accelerated compacting
of floodplain sediment by the extraction of
groundwater and natural gas.
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The Gangetic Delta in West Bengal is classified

as delta in peril. The trend is possibly even worse
as very little sediment flows into that delta
compared to what it once experienced. Some
sediment flows to the larger delta complex in
Bangladesh.The Gangetic Delta experienced
flooding from ocean surges and a massive loss of
life in both countries.
! Without human interference, deltas naturally
Other Indian deltas do still get sediment added

either to the coastal zone, like Godavari or their
delta surface, like Brahmani and Mahanadi. But
the rates of aggradation compared to offshore
relative sea level rise put them at a far lower risk.
Worldwide, the Colorado, Nile, Rhine, Pearl,
Mekong, Mississippi, Tigris, Niger and Irrawaddy
Rivers are some others with sinking deltas.
! Large dams constructed upstream and river
diversions hold back the sediment layers that

would normally increase the deltas
elevation.
! The rate of deltas sinking is faster than the
global sea level rise which makes it easier

for ocean water to flow back into river
channels following a storm surge. As much
as 85 per cent of these deltas experienced
severe flooding in recent years, resulting in
temporary submergence of roughly 100,000
square miles of land.
What are the Reasons for Sinking Deltas?
! A delta land is be more vulnerable to serious
flooding by 50 per cent if ocean levels increase

as expected under moderate climate change
scenarios. The problem arises as their
elevation of the deltas are becoming lower
than that of their respective sea levels.
RISE IN NON-FARM JOBS
In Indias post-Independence economic history,

there has been an absolute fall in the number of
people employed in agriculture by 36.7 million
during 2004-05 to 2011-12 . This is so because the
number of non-agricultural jobs is growing by 52
million during this period. Government support or
tax incentives to tackle the problem of the missing
middle and help the transition of smaller
enterprises to medium ones is required. Even in the
organised sector, the share of informal employment
has risen to 67 per cent in 2011-12 from 54 per
cent in 2004-05 and 32 per cent in 1999-2000.
Reasons Contributing to Fall in Farm Jobs:
! Most of these rising non-farm jobs are
informal in nature, mainly in the resurgent

services, construction and manufacturing
sectors .
! The structural shift of jobs to the non-farm

[6]
sector due to low agricultural productivity

and stagnant rural wages has led to a decline
in poverty and rise in consumption.
! Since a rising informal workforce is more
vulnerable to retrenchment and has no social

security benefits, even the slightest economic
shock can lead to a fall in employment.
! Factors such as rigid labour laws and policy-
induced disincentives for firms to remain

small is responsible for the rise in informal
jobs.
Firms tend to operate in smaller sizes or hire

contract labour rather than permanent labour
to stay out of the ambit of the Industrial
Disputes Act.
! Factories employing less than 99 workers are
about two-thirds of all factories surveyed

under Annual Survey of Industries.
INDIA ACCOUNTS FOR 33% OF WORLDS POOREST

As per the World Bank Report on Poverty,
India accounts for one-third of the world poor,
people living on less than USD 1.25 (about Rs 65)
per day. India has 33 percent of the worlds poorest
1.2 billion people, even though the countrys
poverty rate is half as high as it was three decades
ago. Despite the good news, India accounts for a
higher proportion of the worlds poor than it used
to. The extreme poverty headcount rates have fallen
in every developing region between 1981 and 2010
from half the citizens in the developing world to
21 per cent. This is despite a 59 per cent increase
in the developing world population.
Directing investment towards the poor will require

coordinated effort by the Bank, all country partners,
and the international development community.
An analysis of extreme poverty released by the

World Bank shows that there are still 1.2 billion
people living in extreme poverty, and despite recent
impressive progress, Sub-Saharan Africa still
accounts for more than one-third of the worlds
extreme poor. This figure serve as a rallying cry
to the international community to take the fight
against poverty to the next level and help guide
the way toward ending extreme poverty by 2030.
However, despite its falling poverty rates, subSaharan Africa is the only region in the world for
which the number of poor individuals has risen
steadily and dramatically between 1981 and 2010.
The extreme poor in SSA represented only 11 per
cent of the worlds total in 1981, they now account
for more than a third of the worlds extreme poor.
India contributes another third and China comes
next, contributing 13 per cent.
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According to the report, after steadily increasing

from 51 per cent in 1981 to 58 per cent in 1999, the
extreme poverty rate fell 10 percentage points in
Sub Saharan Africa between 1999 and 2010 and is
now at 48 per centan impressive 17 per cent
decline in one decade. In Latin American countries,
after remaining stable at approximately 12 per cent
for the last two decades of the 20th century, extreme
poverty was cut in half between 1999 and 2010
and is now at 6 per cent.
SUPREME COURT SEEKS RESPONSE ON RTE
The Supreme Court has called for explanations

from the Centre and all states and UTs on shortage
of schools and trained teachers across the country
which it considers violation of the Right To
Education (RTE) Act.
! Petition asked the states and the UTs to recruit
The court has took notice on a PIL that

highlighted various governmental and private
studies to point up that around 3.77 crore children
between the age of 6 and 14 were out of schools
owing to failure by the authorities in creating
necessary infrastructure and providing suitable
atmosphere. A direction has been issued to all states
to complete the required neighbourhood mapping
within six months and new schools be constructed
six months after completion of the process.
upgrade all deficient schools with appropriate

physical infrastructure so as to be in
compliance with the RTE Act within six
months.
and train one lakh additional professionally

trained teachers every month to end the
shortage of educators within a year.
! It sought a direction that the states and UTs
! The petition also seeks the states and UTs to
regularise and make permanent all contract

and para-teachers in the country.
! The petition also said the states and UTs
should disclose the number of students

admitted under the Economically Weaker
Section (EWS) quota in the state in accordance
with the provisions of the Act.
Key Points of the PIL :
! The PIL, filed by the National Coalition for
Education a network of organisations

fighting for the RTE said at least 1.5 lakh
schools and 12 lakh trained teachers were
required to fulfill the goals envisaged under
the RTE.
! The petition a direction that the states and
UTs upgrade all deficient schools with

appropriate physical infrastructure so as to
be in compliance with the RTE Act within six
months.
!!!!
[7]
INTERNATIONAL
JAPAN & AUSTRALIA : BASIC FTA
! The deal will make Australia get preferential
treatment over the U.S., and America will be

under pressure to strike a TPP deal shortterm that puts it on a level playing-field with
Australia.
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The Japan-Australia EPA (Economic Partnership

Agreement) is an extremely important framework
that promotes bilateral trade and investments and
this basic agreement has historical significance for
getting the two countries closer together. Japan and
Australia have agreed to a basic Free Trade
Agreement (FTA) to cut import tariffs and stepped
up efforts to reach a parallel agreement that would
re-energize stalled talks on a broader regional pact.
It is Japans first free-trade deal with a major

agricultural exporter. The pact will enable Japanese
cars and Australian farm products to be sold more
cheaply in each country, possibly providing
momentum to break a stalemate in wider trade
talks across the Pacific. Both countries hope the
agreement will become a catalyst for speeding up
negotiations in the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific
Partnership trade talks. Japan and Australia are
among the 12 participating nations.
Key Points of the Deal are:
! The bilateral deal features cuts to Japanese
tariffs on Australian beef - including a halving

of the levy on frozen beef to 19.5 percent
with deep cuts in the first year - and an end
to an Australian duty on cars.
! A deal with Australia will give Japan
ammunition against U.S. demands to scrap

tariffs in the TPP deal, which aims to remove
import levies.
! The agreement between Japan and Australia
will leave some tariffs for key farm items. For

instance, Japans 38.5% tariff on Australian
beef is set to be halved to just under 20%
over 18 years, in exchange for a phaseout of
5% tariffs on Japanese autos three years after
the agreement takes effect.
! The two sides have agreed that tariffs on
butter and wheat also be discussed for a

possible review in the future, but rice was
excluded from any tariff reduction
negotiations.
But Japans agreement with Australia could end

up complicating the task for U.S. trade negotiators,
who have asked the Japanese government to open
up agricultural markets even further as part of the
TPP. Some Washington lawmakers and trade
experts worry that Japan wont go far enough on
market access in farm and auto markets to strike
a deal that would attract U.S. political support. As
per Tokyo, the deal with Canberra will make
Washington soften its stance and help speed up
talks between Japan and the U.S. closer to an
agreement.
MEASURES TO CONTROL SMOG IN BEIJING
Despite billions of dollars spent on cleaning up

the air, smog remains a major problem, especially
in Beijing. Air quality in cities is of increasing
concern to Chinas stability-obsessed leaders,
anxious to douse potential unrest as a more affluent
urban population turns against a growth-at-allcosts economic model that has poisoned much of
the countrys air, water and soil.
What Step Will Beijing Take to Control Smog?
! Chinas capital Beijing will set up cameras at
building sites across the city to monitor how

[8]
much construction contributes to Beijings

notoriously polluted air.
! By the end of June, all building sites in the
city will have to install cameras to assess how

constructors practices add to the capitals
smog.
! The municipal commission of housing and
urban-rural development will punish

companies that use unqualified trucks to carry
earth or allow outdoor construction to
continue in heavily polluted days.

! All building firms will have to use fully
! The government will also demand contractors
enclosed vehicles to carry earth from July 1,

to prevent it from being blown into the air
and adding to pollution.
place funds for dust control in special bank

accounts before construction.
FAMILY PLANNING LEGALISED IN PHILIPPINES

The law requires government health centres to
hand out free condoms and birth control pills, as
well as mandating that sex education be taught in
schools.
The law also requires that public health workers
receive family planning training, while post abortion
medical care is also legalised.
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Millions of people in the Philippines will now

have access to free contraceptives for the first time.
The nations Supreme Court has declared the RH
law is not unconstitutional and approved a deeply
controversial birth control law. The Courts ruling
was hailed by supporters as a triumph in the battle
to ease crippling poverty, empower women and
curtail a population explosion in the Southeast
Asian nation of 100 million people.
The Catholic Church had until this day had

led a successful campaign for more than 15 years
against any form of family planning laws in the
Philippines. The Catholic Church, which counts
over 80 per cent of the countrys 100 million
population as members, had led street protests
denouncing the law as evil. It is believed that
allowing the law to take effect could force Catholics
into an open revolt. Church leaders have helped
lead two revolutions that toppled unpopular
presidents in recent Philippine history, and they
continue to insist they have a right to influence the
parliamentary and legal branches of government.
What the Law says ?
! The law requires government health centres
to hand out free condoms and birth control

pills, as well as mandating that sex education
be taught in schools.
! The law also requires that public health
workers receive family planning training,

while post abortion medical care is also
legalised.
Nevertheless, many people across the sprawling

archipelago have embraced less conservative views
in recent decades. The Philippines is the only
country where divorce remains illegal. Womens
rights groups and other supporters of the law say
it will be a powerful tool in fighting poverty and
cutting the birth rate of 3.54, one of the highest in
the world. 14-15 mothers die daily in the Philippines
in complications related to child birth.
The RH law is not unconstitutional, Supreme
Court spokesman Theodore Te told reporters,
announcing a ruling that struck down more than
a dozen petitions against the reproductive health
law by church groups.
The Catholic Church had until recently led a

successful campaign for more than 15 years against
any form of family planning laws in the Philippines.
Philippine President Benigno Aquino defied
church pressure and signed the law into effect in
December 2012, but the Supreme Court quickly
suspended it after church groups filed petitions
arguing it was unconstitutional.
This monumental decision upholds the
separation of church and state and affirms the
supremacy of government in secular concerns like
health and socio-economic development, legislator
Edcel Lagman, the principal author of the law,
said immediately after the verdict.
A grateful nation salutes the majority of
justices for their favourable ruling promoting
reproductive health and giving impetus to
sustainable human development.
The Catholic Church, which counts over 80 per
cent of the countrys 100 million population as
members, had led street protests denouncing the
law as evil, and at one point in its opposition
campaign
threatened
Aquino
with
excommunication.
One of its hardline opponents and a petitioner
to the court, former senator Francisco Tatad, said
allowing the law to take effect could force Catholics
into an open revolt.
This means civil disobedience at the very least,
actual revolt at the most extreme, Tatad wrote in
a commentary in the Manila Times newspaper on
recently.
Some of us will want to defy the power of the
devil and die as martyrs, if need be, in the only
cause that gives us a chance to fight for something
much bigger than ourselves.
Church leaders have helped lead two
[9]

revolutions that toppled unpopular presidents in
recent Philippine history, and they continue to insist
they have a right to influence the parliamentary
and legal branches of government.
Another example of its enduring influence is
that the Philippines is the only country where
divorce remains illegal.
Nevertheless, many people across the sprawling
archipelago have embraced less conservative views
in recent decades.
According to the British medical charity Merlin,

which has backed the passage of the law, 14-15
mothers die daily in the Philippines in complications
related to child birth.
Worlds Poverty
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A recent survey carried by the respected Social

Weather Stations polling group said about 84 per
cent of Filipinos agreed that the government should
provide free family planning options such as
contraceptives.
More than a third of the capitals 14 million

population live in sprawling slums, according to a
2010 World Health Organisation report, and many
of them do not have access to proper sanitation, let
alone health centres.
It said 72 per cent were in favour of the law.
Womens rights groups and other supporters

of the law say it will be a powerful tool in fighting
poverty and cutting the birth rate of 3.54, one of
the highest in the world.
More than a quarter of the population live on

the equivalent of 62 cents a day, according to the
government, and experts say there is an urgent
need to provide free reproductive medical services
that the poor cannot otherwise afford.
More than a quarter of the population lives

on an average of 62 cents a day and there is an
urgent need to provide free reproductive medical
services that the poor cannot otherwise afford.
More than a third of the capitals 14 million
population live in sprawling slums, according to
a 2010 World Health Organization report, and
many of them do not have access to even proper
sanitation. This significant decision upholds the
separation of church and state and affirms the
supremacy of government in secular concerns like
health and socio-economic development.
EMERGENCY MEASURES AGAINST EBOLA OUTBREAK
A series of emergency measures across west

Africa have been launched by International Aid
Organization in order to contain one of the worst
ever outbreaks of the deadly Ebola virus, which is
threatening every country in the region. The UN
agency is also setting up a special alert and response
operation centre within the Guinean health ministry
and training staff at Guineas main hospital and
other health facilities. The outbreak began in the
impoverished countrys southern forests, but has
spread to Conakry, a sprawling port city on the
Atlantic coast and home to two million people. In
neighbouring Liberia, there have been 21 cases,
including 10 deaths. As most of the people in this
part of the world had never heard of Ebola before,
in this environment, unfounded fears and rumours
spread quickly and widely. More than ever, it is
crucial that families have both the means and the
right information to protect themselves and prevent
dangerous misunderstandings.
The Geneva-based World Health Organization
(WHO) announced emergency training for 70
people who would fan out across the Guinean
[10]
capital Conakry to track people who have had close

contact with Ebola patients.
! The organization has described West Africas
first Ebola outbreak as one of the most

challenging since the virus emerged in 1976
in what is now the Democratic Republic of
Congo.
! The tropical bug is thought to have killed
more than 110 people in Guinea and Liberia

since January, with suspected cases reported
in Mali and Sierra Leone and aid workers
warning that vital hygiene products could run
out.
! It is also one of the most deadly, with 157
people infected and 101 deaths in Guinea

alone.
Steps Being Taken:
! Though the WHO has not recommended any
trade or travel restrictions, the region is braced

against the epidemic, with Senegal closing its
border with Guinea.
! Warning has been made of a looming shortage


of sanitation stocks and drive has begun of
distributing chlorine and soap to families and
schools in Guinea and setting up handwashing facilities.
! The UNICEF is working with WHO and other
agencies to spread awareness by sending text

messages and links to a specially written fiveminute radio drama and television shows
automatically to mobile phones across west
Africa in numerous languages.
! The French Red Cross has deployed its first
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emergency response team to the epicentre of

the outbreak in southeastern Guinea.
The most severe strains of Ebola have had a 90percent fatality rate, and there is no vaccine, cure
or specific treatment. The virus leads to
haemorrhagic fever, causing muscle pain,
weakness, vomiting, diarrhoea and, in severe cases,
organ failure and unstoppable bleeding. It can be
transmitted to humans who handle sick or dead
wild animals believed to be its original source
and between humans through direct contact with
anothers blood, faeces or sweat. Ebola can be
stemmed by identifying the sick and tracing those
with whom they have had contact more than
600 people in Guinea, according to the WHO
and applying infection-control measures in homes
and clinics.The chances of survival increase if
patients are kept hydrated and treated for
secondary infections, according to aid group
Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
! The team made up of volunteers and a
specialist in infectious diseases has been

readied to supervise and train 150 local Red
Cross volunteers in disinfection and
techniques to track down people who may
have had contact with the infected.
NEGATIVE RATE OF EMPLOYMENT IN RICH COUNTRIES: OECD
As a setback for the global economic recovery

after three straight months of decline, the rate of
unemployment across the 34 nations that are
members of the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development rose to 7.6% from
7.5%, while the number of people without jobs
increased to 46 million from 45.8 million. The OECD
figures show that more than five years after the
onset of the financial crisis, the number of workers
without jobs was 11.4 million higher than in July
2008. However, the jobless total has fallen by 3.8
million from its post-crisis peak in April 2010.
The rise in the jobless rates suggests economic
growth in developed economies isnt yet strong
enough to generate a rapid increase in employment,
which would in turn boost the recovery by
supporting consumer spending.
Leading central banks have recently focused on
high rates of unemployment as an indication that there
is a significant amount of spare capacity in their
respective economies, and signaled that they wont
tighten monetary policy substantially as long as that
slack remains. The rate of youth unemployment was
unchanged at 15.5%. Young people were particularly
hard hit by the shrinking job market in the years
following the global financial crisis, leading to fears of
a lost generation whose life prospects would be
impaired by a lack of work experience.
The unemployment rate rose in South Korea,
the U.S., France and Italy, but was stable in the
euro zone as a whole and fell in Japan. The highest

rates of unemployment were recorded by euro-zone
members, including Spain at 25.6% and Portugal
at 15.3%. The most recent figures for Greece come
from December, and showed the unemployment
rate at 27.5%.
OECD
OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) is an international

economic organisation of 34 countries. The OECD
originated in 1948 as the Organisation for
European Economic Co-operation (OEEC), led by
Robert Marjolin of France. It was founded in 1961
to stimulate economic progress and world trade.
The OECDs headquarters are at Paris, France. It
is a forum of countries committed to democracy
and the market economy, providing a platform to
compare policy experiences, seek answers to
common problems, identify good practices and
coordinate domestic and international policies of
its members. In 1961, the OEEC was reformed
into the Organisation for Economic Co-operation
and Development by the Convention on the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development and membership was extended to
non-European states. Most OECD members are
high-income economies with a very high Human
Development Index (HDI) and are regarded as
developed countries.
[11]
ANTI-CORRUPTION LAW PASSED IN UKRAINE

billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund.
(a)The first law, an access to public information
bill, creates a system in Ukraine similar to the United
States Freedom of Information Act, in which
citizens will be able to request government
documents. The law is expected to allow
Ukrainians to closely monitor their governments
spending and policymaking, something that has
been done behind closed doors for decades.
(b) The second law makes government contract
bidding a public process. Under the government of
former President Viktor Yanukovych, contracts
were awarded in secret for undisclosed amount.
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Ukraine has been hard hit by corruption since

the last 20 years and this issue has become a
prominent factor in international development and
democracy assistance to the region. Corruption in
Ukraine has been endemic since the country
separated from the Soviet Union in 1991.
Government corruption under Mr. Yanukovychs
regime is estimated to have cost taxpayers billions
of dollars in an economy now struggling to avoid
default. Transparency Internationals Corruption
Perception Index ranked Ukraine 144 out of 177
countries last year.
Ukraine is the third major aid-receiving country
in Europe after Turkey and Serbia. The EU, IMF,
USAID and the World Bank, who are the main
donors to the country, are increasingly preoccupied
with anti-corruption, and adjust their aid and loan
policies accordingly.
The Ukraine parliament passed a law to end

corruption in government purchases and promote
transparency in tenders. This move is aimed at
helping the country to secure a $14 billion to $18
Civil society groups advocating for the legislation,

and working with parliamentary deputies to ensure
their passage, are of the view that the laws are just
the beginning of a larger package of proposed
reforms. The parliament is also considering a bill
that would establish an independent anti-corruption
bureau with the authority to prosecute in cases of
government fraud.
PALESTINE JOINS GENEVA CONVENTIONS
After 25 years of wait the Palestinian Authority

has formally joined the Geneva conventions which
outline the rules of war and military occupation.
Palestine is now a party in the Geneva conventions
for 1949 and in the additional protocol for 1977. It
would become a full member in another 11 treaties
on 2 May. The treaties include the Vienna
convention on diplomatic relations, the convention
on the rights of children, the convention against
torture and an anti-corruption accord. The State of
Palestine would also be a full member of the
convention against genocides on 2 July.
PA President Mahmoud Abbas said Palestine
turn to international organizations and
international treaties in the wake of difficulties the
ongoing Palestine-Israel peace talks facing.
On the other hand, Israel said Palestinians are

mainly interested in the fourth Geneva convention
because it defines the duties of occupying powers and
acknowledges the occupation of Palestinian territories.
It also prohibits forced transfer and deportation of
populations or individuals, as well as the destruction
of movable or immovable property, unless it is made
absolutely necessary by military operations.
Hence, Israeli authorities while opposing the
convention said this convention should not be
applied in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip
because they are no longer claimed by Egypt or
Jordan, who ruled them before 1967. Further it
[12]
argues that there is no universally acknowledged

Palestinian state.
Israel imposed additional economic sanctions
against Palestine in response to its unilateral
decision to join the international conventions.
Timeline
! Palestinians first sought membership 25 years
!!!!!
ago. The Palestine Liberation Organization

first requested that Palestine join the Geneva
Conventions on June 21, 1989.
The Swiss Foreign Ministry stated at the time
that it could not decide on the outcome of the
application as the existence or non-existence
of a State of Palestine was still contested.
On Nov. 29, 2012 the UN General Assembly
upgraded Palestine, making it a nonmember observer state of the UN.
The Palestinian Authority professed that it
was party to the internationally-binding
agreements as of April 2, and Switzerland,
as their depositary, recognized that the state
of Palestine also acceded, as of April 2.
The State of Palestine would also be a full
member of the convention against genocides
on 2 July. Meanwhile, the UN said that the
Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon had agreed
on the accession of Palestine to 13 treaties.
INDIA AND THE WORLD

JOB LIKELY FOR SPOUSES OF H1B VISA HOLDERS IN U.S.
Foundation (NSF) are launching a new
collaboration to empower entrepreneurial scientists
and address the critical gap between fundamental
research and the development of a commercial
entity.
The DHS said in its proposal it may include

rules authorizing employment for spouses of certain
high-skill workers on H-1B visas, as well as
enhancing opportunities for outstanding professors
and researchers. From this statement it could be
drawn that spouses of H-1B visas are unlikely to
get a blanket approval to work in the US. Only
certain categories of spouses of H-1B visa holders
mainly from the science and technology category
are likely to get the nod.
H1B Visa
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The department of homeland security (DHS) is

planning to come out with a series of policy
initiatives to make US an attractive place for foreign
entrepreneurs and other high-skill immigrants. It
also believes that this will enhance American
innovative competitiveness.
White House said these measures build on

continuing DHS efforts to streamline, eliminate
inefficiency, and increase the transparency of the
existing immigration system, such as by the launch
of Entrepreneur Pathways, an online resource
centre that gives immigrant entrepreneurs an
intuitive way to navigate opportunities to start and
grow a business.
Further, the White House said the National
Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science
The US H1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that

allows US companies to employ foreign workers
in specialty occupations that require theoretical or
technical expertise in specialized fields such as in
architecture, engineering, mathematics, science,
and medicine. Under the visa a US company can
employ a foreign worker for up to six years.
Applying for a non-immigrant visa is generally
quicker than applying for a US Green Card,
therefore the H-1B visa is popular for companies
wishing to bring in staff for long-term assignment
in the US. The H-1B visa is initially granted for up
to three years, but may then be extended to a
maximum of six years. H-1B visa holders can bring
their spouse and children under 21 years of age to
the US under the H4 Visa category as dependents.
An H4 Visa holder is allowed to remain in the US
as long as the H-1B visa holder remains in legal
status.
CHINA NAVAL EXERCISE : INDIA IN; JAPAN & US OUT
Chinese navy hosted an international fleet

review and maritime exercise on April 23, for which
India sent the naval stealth frigate INS Shivalik to
participate. This exercise acquired much diplomatic
significance with the United States declining to join
the review after Japan was excluded from the event.
Chinas Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) Navy
hosted the review and exercise in the north-eastern
port of Qingdao, the headquarters of its North Sea
fleet.
and Pakistan taking part, the review and exercise

also provided a rare instance of both countries
jointly taking part in a naval exercise.
At least 10 countries participated in the fleet

review and exercise, including India, Australia,
South Korea, New Zealand, Indonesia and
Pakistan, according to a provisional list. With India
China invited Japans Navy chief to attend the

WPNS, but the PLAN decided to exclude Japan
from the international fleet review and exercise with
the moves following rising tensions over disputed
The fleet review and maritime exercise took place

along with the annual meeting of the Western
Pacific Naval Symposium (WPNS) a U.S.established grouping of 20 countries, including
Australia, Canada, Russia, Japan, South Korea and
China, and three observers - India, Bangladesh and
Mexico.
[13]

East China Sea islands. The U.S., which stayed
clear of the dispute, voiced backing for its ally Japan.
According to the Indian Embassy, the visit by
INS Shivalik highlights the friendly exchanges and

bilateral defence cooperation between India and
China.
INDO-RUSSIA PACT TO SHARE DIAMOND TRADE DATA

Other Details include:
! The agreement between both countries was
signed in Russia by the Gem and Jewellery

Export Promotion Council and Russian
Government-owned diamond mining firm
Alrosa.
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While India is the largest diamond processor,

Russia is the worlds largest rough diamond
producer. A MoU was signed between India and
Russia to source data on diamond trade between
two countries. India has sought long-term contracts
between Alrosa and the Indian cutting and
polishing industry. With this association, both trade
bodies look forward to cooperation and exchange
of information in the framework of implementation
of Kimberley Process Certification Scheme. The
scheme prevents diamond industry finance to war
or human rights abuses. The Reserve Bank of India
has liberalised financing for rough diamond imports
by allowing banks to extend advance remittance to
Indian importers in favour of any global miners.
Earlier, this facility was restricted to five global
miners of roughs.
! Alrosa accounts for close to 25 per cent of
the world output.
India accounts for about 60 per cent of global

polished diamond output in value terms.
! India imported 163.11 million carats of rough
diamonds worth $16.34 billion and exported

36.46 million carats of polished diamonds
worth $20.23 billion in 2013.
GREEN SIGNAL FOR UNIT 3 & 4 OF KUDANKULUM
After long years of deadlock on liability issue,

the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd
(NPCIL) signed a General Framework Agreement
(GFA) with its Russian counterpart for building
Units 3 and 4 of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power
Plant project (KKNPP). Units 3 and 4 of the KKNPP
have stuck over the Right to Recourse clause of
the Civil Liability Nuclear Damage Act 2010
(CLND). These units of the Kudankulam Project
will be built at a cost of Rs 33,000 crore.
In October last year, the deal could not be signed

over the same issue when Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh visited Russia due to lack of
consensus over the issue between both the
countries. However, the issue has been sorted out
after hectic negotiations. Last month, DAE secretary
R K Singh along with other senior officers of the
department had a meeting here with the Russian
counterparts in which the breakthrough was made.
Things were expedited and the proposal was
moved before the Cabinet Committee on Security
last month. The Atomic Energy Department wanted

to seek permission of the Election Commission as
polls were declared a week later as they wanted to
play safe without any kind of hurdle as the project
has already been delayed for long .
The Kudankulam Saga:
! Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant is a nuclear
power station in Koodankulam in the

Tirunelveli district of the southern Indian state
of Tamil Nadu.
! The plants first reactor is the first Pressurised
Water Reactor (PWR) belonging to the Light

Water Reactor (LWR) category in India, and
the 21st nuclear power reactor in the country.
! Construction on the plant began on 31 March
2002, but faced several delays partly due to

the 500-day long anti-nuclear protests by the
locals.
! The first reactor of the plant attained
criticality on 13 July 2013.
!!!!!
[14]
ECONOMY
BIMARU STATES YET RECORD LOW GROWTH
population measured in million people), in some of
the districts of these states there has been a
noticeable fall in the urbanisation level even during
Indias best ever growth phase.
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Urbanization is considered as a useful tool to

measure decline in poverty level. Once the
urbanisation levels of a district surge higher than
30 per cent it is considered to have moved out of
the BPL threshold. But this rule doesnt stand true
for the northern and eastern states of India.
According to the data from the McKinsey Global
Institute the BIMARU (Bihar, Madhya Pradesh,
Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh) states though
experiencing urbanization in the last decade, the
rate of growth of urbanization is marginal. This
also holds true for other states which includes West
Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. But
during the same period 10 out of the 27 districts of
Karnataka and 14 out of 25 districts of Gujarat
crossed the urban-BPL threshold.
Data revealed that nearly half of the total
districts of Bihar reported exactly the same levels
of urbanisation in 2011 as compared to the levels
in 2001. Except Patna no district crosses the
threshold limit. Some of the districts like Kaimur
and Madhubani saw 3 to 4 per cent, Gopalganj
steady at 6 per cent, Sheohar and Madhepura
steady at 4 per cent growth of urbanisation.
During the same period, a third of the districts

of MP and UP also experienced the unchanged
level of urbanization. Of the 86 districts of Uttar
Pradesh only 15 are above the water mark.
The urbanization level in some districts of

BIMARU states are well below 10 per cent in 2011.
The worst are Dindori in Madhya Pradesh (steady
at 5 per cent), Boudh in Odisha (5 per cent), Barmer
in Rajasthan, (7 per cent) and Latehar in Jharkhand
(6 per cent to 7 per cent).
In absolute numbers (actual increase in urban
In sharp contrast to this, the districts from

Southern and Western Indian states have seen the
steep increase in the rate of urbanization during
the same period. These include several in Andhra
Pradesh such as Warangal (urbanisation rate up
from 19 per cent to 28 per cent), Krishna (up from
32 per cent to 41 per cent) and Gandhinagar in
Gujarat (from 35 per cent to 43 per cent). Kerala
leads this category with districts such as Kollam
(18 per cent to 45 per cent), Alappuzha (29 per
cent to 54 per cent), Thrissur (28 per cent to 67 per
cent), Malappuram (10 per cent to 44 per cent)
and Kozhikode (38 per cent to 67 per cent).
Urban
As per the Census of India 2011, the definition

of urban area is all places ! with a municipality, corporation, cantonment
board or notified town area committee or
Which has a minimum population size of

5,000.
! Of them at least 75 per cent of the males in
the working population group should be

engaged in non-agricultural pursuits.
The Director of Census of each State/Union

Territory was, however, given some discretion in
respect of some marginal cases, in consultation
with the State Government, to include some places
that had other distinct urban characteristics and
to exclude undeserving cases.
INDIA 6TH ON ECONOMIC CONFIDENCE INDEX
According to a report titled Ipsos Economic

Pulse of the World by IPSOS, a global research
firm, India is the sixth-most economically confident
country in the world after Saudi Arabia, Germany,
China, Sweden, and Canada. The report revealed
that about four in ten (37 per cent) Indians believes
that the domestic economy that impacts their

personal finance is good, whereas five in ten (48
per cent) people expect that the economy in their
local area will be stronger in the next six months,
a surprising decline of 3 points.
[15]

Other findings are:
! Indias economic confidence level has been
continuously increasing since October 2013

and it has reached to 61 per cent in February
2014, a rise of 10 points.
! Indias economic confidence is on the rise in
anticipation of a new government along with

falling inflation and improved performances
of manufacturing and services.
! Bullish foreign investors are returning to India
aided by resurgence in exports due to global

economic revival, appreciation of rupee,
improved performance of industry and
services sector and moderation of inflation in
India.
The online survey was conducted in February
among 18,647 people in 25 countries.
In another report released in March by financial
research and analytics company, Zyfin Research,
found that Consumer Outlook Index rose by 0.5
points in February to 42.6 points which is a sign of
increasing confidence in the economy. Besides, the
economic sentiment index also improved by 1.9
points from the previous month to 59.3.
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and ploughing in billions of dollars into Indian

equities, in anticipation of a more businessfriendly government winning the general
elections.
! The upbeat economic confidence is further
RESTRICTIONS ON FOREX CONTRACTS REVOKED
Market regulator Security Exchange Board of

India (SEBI) has revoked restrictions on dollarrupee derivative trading, imposed in July last year,
as the rupee is stabilizing over the recent months.
In the backdrop of volatility in rupee valuation

against the US dollar SEBI, in consultation with
RBI, had doubled the initial margins and extreme
loss margins for dollar-rupee contracts in July, 2013.
With normalcy coming back to the valuation of

rupee against dollar these restrictions are being
eased now. Besides, the margin requirements on
the domestic dollar-rupee forward trades are also
being halved from the current level to bring them
back to their original levels. SEBI took these steps
to restore the margins for dollar-rupee contracts to
pre-July 8, 2013 rates.
LIMITATIONS ON HEDGING FOREX LIBERALISED
The Reserve Bank has now decided to allow all

resident individuals, firms and companies, who
have actual or anticipated foreign exchange
exposures to book foreign exchange forward
contracts up to $ 250,000 on the basis of a simple
declaration without any requirement of further
documentation.
The existing facilities for small and medium

enterprises (SMEs) having exposures to foreign
exchange risk permitting them to book or roll over
forward contracts without production of
underlying documents to manage their exposures
effectively subject to conditions specified therein
shall remain unchanged.
What is Hedging?
certain level with the objective of ensuring

certainty in the cost of production or revenue of
sale. The futures market also has substantial
participation by speculators who take positions
based on the price movement and bet upon it.
Also, there are arbitrageurs who use this market
to pocket profits whenever there are inefficiencies
in the prices. A buying hedge is also called a
long hedge. Buying hedge means buying a futures
contract to hedge a cash position. A selling hedge
is also called a short hedge. Selling hedge means
selling a futures contract to hedge.
Hedging means reducing or controlling risk.

This is done by taking a position in the futures
market that is opposite to the one in the physical
market with the objective of reducing or limiting
risks associated with price changes. Hedging is a
two-step process. A gain or loss in the cash
position due to changes in price levels will be
countered by changes in the value of a futures
position. How hedging is done? In this type of
transaction, the hedger tries to fix the price at a
NIGERIA ECLIPSES S.AFRICA IN GROWTH RATE

Nigeria which is Africas top oil producer, is
soon to complete a rebasing of its gross domestic
[16]
product (GDP) by May which could expand the

size of its economy by between 20 and 60 per cent.

With a current economic output of around $290
billion, Nigeria, a West African country whose
population is more than three times the size of
South Africas 51 million already boasts faster
growth. This may result in South Africa losing its
status as Africas biggest economy to Nigeria. The
data indicated that the economy grew to $453bn
(273bn) in 2012, instead of $264bn as measured
by the World Bank for that year.
The rise of Nigeria has taken many South

Africans by surprise, as the country, burdened with
an image of corruption and violence, is often
portrayed negatively in the media. With 170 million
people, Nigeria is about three times the size of South
Africa and has enjoyed high rates of growth,
notwithstanding widespread corruption, poor
governance, rampant oil theft and a raging Islamist
insurgency in the north. According to the
International Monetary Fund, Nigeria averaged
6.8pc annual growth from 2005 to 2013 and was
projected to grow this year at a rate of 7.4 per
cent.
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For Nigeria, the aim of the rebasing exercise is

to change the base year for calculating output to
2008 from 1990 to reflect sectors of the economy
that have since grown in importance, such as
telecoms and IT. But it is still heavily reliant on oil
exports, accounting for some 80 percent of
government revenue, and an enlarged GDP will
do little to immediately improve life for nearly 100
million of its citizens who live on less than $1 a
day.
It may also have geopolitical implications,

raising questions about whether South Africa
should be the sole African representative in the
G20 and the BRICS Group of the most powerful
emerging economies, alongside Brazil, Russia, India
and China. Nigeria has been included in the freshly
coined Mint group of emerging economic giants,
along with Mexico, Indonesia and Turkey.
While agriculture and power sector reforms

would improve Nigerias fortunes, turbulent politics
and a resilient and bloody Boko Haram insurgency
in its north take some of the shine off its positive
growth story.
Whenever it happens, Nigeria overtaking South

Africa as Africas economic top dog is kind of
everything and nothing. It is everything because it
is then the largest economy in Africa so theres a
lot of kudos attached to that. But the reality remains
that, on the ground, for every Nigerian theres no
difference.
For ordinary Nigerians - most of whom still live

on less than $2 a day - the rebasing is likely to
have little effect, but it will improve the countrys
balance sheet and its credit rating and promote it
from being a low-income economy. Nevertheless,
Nigeria still faces an immense challenge in terms of
infrastructure deficits. Slow ports, bad roads and a
lack of electricity are some of the major factors
hampering business activity.
POOR TALENT MANAGEMENT COSTS DEAR TO INDIA
A joint survey, Adapt to Survive, by LinkedIn

and PwC found that poor talent management is
resulting in businesses wasting about Rs. 2,330 crore
on recruitment costs. The research found that there
is a strong correspondence between the adaptability
of talent in a particular country and the
performance of its companies. Besides, it also
revealed that the inability of people to upgrade for
new skills or switch industries would be costing as
much as $150 billion globally. In India it is about
Rs 53,300 crore.
The Netherlands tops the list while India ranks
tenth with a talent-adaptability score of 34. China
is at the 23rd position. Emerging markets such as
India and China have lower scores because they
have fewer mature sectors and their geographic
size limits talent mobility.
Finer points of the report are:
! It said that if India was better at matching
talent with the right opportunities, this could

unlock as much as Rs 50,800 crore in
increased productivity.
! Lack of access to the right talent is driving
up the cost of recruitment for employers

today as it is taking longer for them to find
the right candidates combined with the
increased likelihood of mismatched talent
leaving jobs.
About 277 million professionals across these

markets, including 24 million in India, have been
surveyed across 11 markets, including India on
LinkedIn. Each market has been assigned a Talent
Adaptability Score based on five key behavioural
factors
! The average number of time professionals in
that market switch industries,

[17]

! The average number of different positions held
in a professionals career,
! The average number of internal promotions
in that market,
! The average number of employers a
professional has had in each market and

! The average number of open vacancies
divided by the markets population.
INDONESIA LIKELY TO BE THE BIGGEST CAR MARKET

its ageing, insufficient infrastructure and a
power supply made unstable by decades of
under-investment and bureaucracy.
Indonesia plans to add up to 60 giga-watts of
electricity capacity to meet demand that is expected
to roughly double by 2022, requiring a total of
$125.2 billion in investment.
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Indonesia is set to emerge as Southeast Asias

biggest car market , driven by an expanding middle
class and growing demand for budget,
environmentally friendly vehicles. Indonesia is set
to benefit from companies looking to diversify their
operations away from Thailand, where political
uncertainty and floods have hit domestic demand
and worsened its economic outlook.
What is the Current Scenario?
! Auto sales in Indonesia, which is South-east
Asias largest economy, grew 17.8 percent in

March from a year earlier, led by Toyota
Motor Corp, Daihatsu Motor Co Ltd and
Mitsubishi Motors Corp.
! This increase is more than double the revised
8.3 percent year-on-year growth in February,
the same month that Thai auto sales fell 45
percent year-on-year.
! Domestic consumption accounted for more
than half of Indonesias economy, which the
central bank expects to grow at between 5.5
and 5.9 percent this year, one of the fastest
paces in Southeast Asia.
! Indonesias ambitions to be a regional
manufacturing hub could be hampered by
What lead to fall in vehicle sale in Thailand?:

Vehicle sales in Thailand are expected to fall 11.7
per cent to 1.175 million in 2014 from a year earlier
due to the political turmoil and post-election
uncertainties, political unrest, particularly in the
economic center and capital Bangkok. Sales in
Indonesia, on the other hand, are projected to
increase 6.5 percent to 1.31 million vehicles during
the same period
Some automakers are choosing to ride out the
slump in Thailand as they still see long-term growth
potential in Southeast Asias second largest
economy and a nation that is home to 67 million
people. The countrys rich potential economic
growth cannot be underestimated by a temporary
disruption. The Japanese car-maker sees Thailand
as a strategic regional base for production as well
as research and development.
COMPANY SECRETARIES: NEW RULES
The new company law had completely

exempted a private limited company (irrespective
of its paid-up capital) from the requirement of
having key managerial personnel (KMP) leading to
a threat of job losses for thousands of company
secretaries employed in private companies and has
dimmed the future of lakhs of students pursuing
company secretary courses.
Exclusion of KMP, a new concept, for private
companies has resulted in a knotty problem for
company secretaries, while not adding to their
compliance cost. While in earlier regime certain
private companies are required to employ a
company secretary.
To resolve the problem Corporate Affairs

Ministry is trying to find a way out. One solution
that the ministry suggests is to issue a separate set
of rules for such private companies. The separate
[18]
rules for private companies could provide for

having KMP in the form of only the company
secretary. But there are mixed views on this, with
some legal experts raising concerns of any such
rule overriding the intent of the original enactment.
Section 203 of the Companies Act, 2013 does
not give any liberty to pick and choose the KMP
out of the KMPs listed in Section 203. The section
requires certain categories of companies to have all
(and not some) of the listed KMPs at the same
time, namely, to have a managing director or CEO
or manager or a whole-time director and a
company secretary and a CFO.
If the Ministry wants to provide that a certain
classes of private companies will only have a company
secretary and not other KMPs, it will not be within
the Ministrys rule-making powers to do so unless
Section 203is amended or Section 462 is invoked.
HIGHWAY AMBULANCE PROJECT LAUNCHED

In the backdrop of heavy losses in motor
insurance incurred by the insurance industry apart
from human tragedies the Insurance Regulatory
and Development Authority (IRDA) has launched
highway ambulance pilot project from April. The
aim of the project is to study the accident patterns
and identify long-term solutions in terms of medical,
insurance and accident prevention measures.
! The ambulance will give immediate treatment
and take the victim to the nearest hospital.

The ambulance will then inform the call centre
in Hyderabad which will in turn guide it to
a bigger hospital in the nearby town or city
if the victim needs specialised medical care.
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The project has been launched in the 250-km

Hyderabad-Vijayanagaram segment of the national
highway involving general insurance industry,
police administration, medical community, IT
professionals and National Highway Authority.
helpline 1033 will call for the ambulance

which is equipped with all the basic
emergency healthcare facilities along with a
trained attendant.
Key Points of the project are:
! The project worth around Rs. 9 crore with
duration of two years will be funded by 27

general insurance companies and IRDA in
equal proportion.
! The project has made arrangements for
round-the-clock availability of mobile police

squad and ambulance where a police mobile
van and a high-tech ambulance is available
every 50 km of this route.
! In case any accident occurs, the police mobile
van after being informed through a dedicated
! The mobile police van will be managed by
special guards appointed by the project

authorities but trained and authorised by the
state government. They will be equipped with
speed gun, breathanalyser and other gadgets
to prevent rash driving.
! Through the master data maintained by the
Insurance Information Bureau (IIB), the

insurance company that has issued the
insurance policy to the victim will be located
and informed online.
! A local representative of the company will
visit the hospital and make instant payment

for the treatment. The ambulance also seeks
police clearance so that the admission to the
hospital is hassle-free.
NEW RULES TO FIX INTEREST RATES
A committee headed by former deputy governor

Anand Sinha in its draft report favoured the
sweeping changes in the way bank fix interest rates
and end the discrimination of old customers. The
committee felt that such move will give a sense of
relief to millions of borrowers groaning under the
weight of rising EMIs.
This panel, constituted by Reserve Bank of India,

has acknowledged that central banks initiatives to
bring in transparency and fairness in interest rate
settings have not worked as expected because of
downward stickiness of the interest rates,
discriminatory treatment of old borrowers vis-a-vis
new borrowers, and arbitrary changes in spreads,
etc.
Hence, the panel recommended:
! A new tool for floating rate loans Indian
Banks Base Rate should be fixed by the

Indian Banks Association, which can first be
used for home loans.
! Penalties on banks that hold back borrowers
from transferring their loans and mortgages

to other lenders.
! Banks with a higher proportion of short-term
deposits should link the base rate or the

benchmark rate to the marginal cost of funds.
This measures incremental cost incurred in
raising additional funds which would
typically be the prevailing interest rates.
! It suggests a fairer treatment for customers
and has said that any pre-payment of EMI

should be factored in on the day the payment
is received instead of waiting for the next
EMI cycle to begin.
For most Indian banks, a bulk of the deposits

mature in one-two years and the change, if
accepted by RBI, will have to be used by all banks
unless their boards come up with an alternative
formula that ensures that old borrowers are not
discriminated against.
[19]

Banks have a base rate or a benchmark rate,
which depends on the cost at which it raises funds,
including deposits, and then adds other costs to
arrive at the lending rate. The lending rate also
includes a premium for risk, which means loans
where the possibility of a default is higher, say in
case of credit cards or personal loans, come at a
higher rate. Similarly, borrowers who are seen to
have a poorer risk profile are asked to pay higher
rates.
With loan demand remaining weak, banks have

reduced the spread over the base rate for new
borrowers to offer them lower rates. As a result
the older borrowers have been complaining of
discrimination, saying often the benefits of RBIs
rate reduction are not passed on to all borrowers.
Now, the RBI panel has recognized that and
said that the banks cant change the spread for
existing borrowers, unless they are seen to be riskier.
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INDIA GETS HIGHEST REMITTANCES
India has topped the global chart of remittances

and bagged $71 billion for 2013. The top recipients
of officially recorded remittances for 2013 are India
(with an estimated $71 billion), China ($60 billion),
the Philippines ($26 billion), Mexico ($22 billion),
Nigeria ($21 billion), and Egypt ($20 billion). Other
large recipients include Pakistan, Bangladesh,
Vietnam and Ukraine. Remittances to the
developing world are expected to grow by 6.3 per
cent this year to $414 billion and are projected to
cross the half-trillion mark by 2016.
According to World Bank estimates, India and
China alone will represent nearly a third of total
remittances to the developing world this year.
Remittances are the most tangible and least
controversial link between migration and
development. Policymakers can do much more to
maximise the positive impact of remittances by

making them less costly and more productive for
both the individual and the recipient country.
Remittance volumes to developing countries, as
a whole, are projected to continue growing strongly
over the medium term, averaging an annual growth
rate of nine per cent to reach $540 billion in 2016.
Global remittances, including those to high-income
countries, are estimated to touch $550 billion this
year, and reach a record $707 billion by 2016.
Remittances act as a major counterbalance
when capital flows weaken as happened in the
wake of the US Fed announcing its intention to
reign in its liquidity injection programme. Also,
when a nations currency weakens, inward
remittances rise and, as such, they act as an
automatic stabilizer.
!!!!!
[20]

BODY PARTS MADE IN LABORATORY IN UK
stem cells. Scientists added a salt and sugar solution
to the mold of the nose to mimic the somewhat
sponge-like texture of the real thing. Stem cells were
taken from the patients fat and grown in the lab
for two weeks before being used to cover the nose
scaffold. It is estimated that about 10 million
pounds ($16 million) has gone into his research
since 2005 but it is expected that lab-made organs
would one day be available for a few hundred
dollars.
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Scientists in the UK have grown noses, ears

and blood vessels in the laboratory, all this in a
bold attempt to make body parts using stem cells.
It is among several labs around the world that are
working on the futuristic idea of growing custommade organs in the lab.
British labs have already made few organs so
far, including tear ducts, and windpipes and it hope
is hoped they will soon be able to transplant more
types of body parts into patients, including what
would be the worlds first nose made partly from
LARGEST SWARM OF GM MOSQUITOES RELEASED IN BRAZIL
In order to combat infectious disease, worlds

largest ever swarm of genetically modified
mosquitoes has been released in Brazil. Jacobina,
a farming town in Bahia, has been plagued for
years by dengue fever. Last year Brazil reported
1.4 million cases of dengue, for which there is no
vaccine - the most severe form of the illness, dengue
hemorrhagic fever, can lead to shock, coma and
death. The newly hatched Aedes aegypti mosquitoes
have been engineered to wipe out their own species.
More of GM Mosquitoes:
! The so-called Franken-skeeter has been
genetically modified (GM) in a laboratory with

a gene designed to devastate the non-GM
Aedes aegypti population and reduce

dengues spread.
! The mosquitoes contain a lethal gene but are
kept alive in the laboratory with the help of

the antibiotic tetracycline.
! Once they reach larval stage, the males are
separated from the females, which are

subsequently destroyed.
! Then the males, which dont bite, are released
so they can mate with wild females. Their

offspring inherit the lethal gene and then die
before they can reproduce because they are
not treated with tetracycline.
THE HEARTBLEED CHAOS
A new computer bug called Heartbleed has

caused major security concerns across the Internet
as websites are trying hard to fix the problem and
has left Web- surfers wondering whether they
should change their passwords to prevent theft of
their email accounts, credit card numbers and other
sensitive information. The breakdown revealed
affects a widely used encryption technology that is
supposed to protect online accounts for a variety
of online communications and electronic commerce.
users identity if there are problems accessing the

account because of hacking. About two-thirds of
Web servers rely on OpenSSL, which means the
information passing through hundreds of
thousands of websites could be vulnerable, despite
the protection offered by encryptions. Beside emails
and chats, OpenSSL is also used to secure virtual
private networks, which are used by employees to
connect with corporate networks seeking to shield
confidential information from prying eyes.
Experts advised users to rotate their

passwords and add a backup mobile number to
the account. That number can be used to verify a
Major Internet services such as Yahoo, Google,

Microsoft and Facebook are expanding their usage
of that technology to reassure the users about the
[21]

Neel Mehta, a researcher in the Google Security
team, and Codenomicon, a Finnish security firm,
discovered the bug in a version of SSL, the very
software that was created to protect sensitive
information in cyberspace. The software, whose full
name is Secure Sockets Layer, is depicted by an s
in the hypertext transfer protocol (https) on sites
run by it.
Securing websites from Heartbleed: The

Heart-bleed bug is so called because it exploits a
failure in an extension called heartbeat. It not only
lets attackers read the confidential encrypted data;
it also allows them to take the encryption keys used
to secure the data. That means that even servers
which fix the bug, using a patch supplied by
OpenSSL, must also update all their keys or risk
remaining vulnerable.
The bug has been christened Heartbleed because

it can potentially leak up to 64 kilobytes memory to
an attacker from any server using the (1.0.1, 1.0.1f,
1.0.2-beta and 1.0.2.beta1) versions of OpenSSL.
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sanctity of their personal data. The additional

security measures are being adopted in response to
mounting concerns about the US governments
surveillance of online activities and other
communications. The problem affects only the
variant of SSL/TLS known as OpenSSL, but that
happens to be one of the most common on the
Internet.
Companies, governments and other owners of

servers now have a cure for Heart-bleed, the security
bug that has caused mayhem on Web servers across
the world recently, with its power to leak usernames,
passwords, encryption keys and other sensitive
information from websites running a version of the
open source encryption standard Open-SSL.
What is SSL?
! SSL is the most common technology used to
secure websites. Web servers that use it

securely send an encryption key to the visitor;
that is then used to protect all other
information coming to and from the server.
! It is crucial in protecting services like online
What is the Heartbleed bug?
Heartbleed is a flaw in OpenSSL, the opensource encryption standard used by the majority of
sites on the web that need to transmit data users
want to keep secure. It basically gives a secure
line while sending an email or chatting on IM.
Encryption works by making it so that data being
sent looks like nonsense to anyone but the intended
recipient.
How it works?
! Occasionally, one computer might want to
check that theres still a computer at the end

of its secure connection, so it will send out
whats known as a heartbeat, a small
packet of data that asks for a response.
! Heartbleed creates an opening in SSL/TLS,
an encryption technology marked by the

small, closed padlock and https: on Web
browsers to signify that traffic is secure.
shopping or banking from eavesdropping, as

it renders users immune to so-called man in
the middle attacks, where a third party
intercepts both streams of traffic and uses
them to discover confidential information.
! The flaw makes it possible to snoop on
! Security firms have cautioned that website
! Interlopers could also grab the keys for
and server owners who do not upgrade their

servers with the right version of Open-SSL
continue to run the risk of leaving their sites
exposed to cyber criminals.
deciphering encrypted data without the

website owners knowing the theft had
occurred, according to security researchers.
Internet traffic even if the padlock had been

closed.
ASTEROID REDIRECT MISSION
The Asteroid Redirect Mission, or ARM is

a new free addition to Kerbal Space Program,
the space program simulation game, where users
develop their own space programs from scratch,
without the real danger that comes with
experimenting with rocket fuel and aeronautic
designs.
[22]
While players of Kerbal Space Program have

been able to build various rockets, satellites, probes
and aircraft with tools and parts provided in
previous versions of KSP, the Asteroid Redirect
Mission pack adds several new features including
a giant robotic arm which can be used to grab

asteroids, ships and even kerbonauts, the KSP
equivalent of an astronaut.
The Asteroid Redirect Mission is going to
challenge our players like never before, as it creates
new situations that have never been encountered
before in the game, regardless of one being a new

or veteran player. Lots of new challenges are
expected to properly complete the mission, and lots
of new features as well to help the Kerbals and
you along the way.
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!!!!!
[23]
HEALTH
ADVANCED TRAINING TO DIAGNOSE PAEDIATRIC TB
the private sector and medical officers at public
health centres and family practitioners.
How IAP will make it possible?
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Tuberculosis, or TB, is an infectious bacterial

disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis,
which most commonly affects the lungs. It is
transmitted from person to person via droplets from
the throat and lungs of people with the active
respiratory disease. The symptoms of active TB of
the lung are coughing, sometimes with sputum or
blood, chest pains, weakness, weight loss, fever and
night sweats. Tuberculosis is treatable with a sixmonth course of antibiotics. Paediatric TB, on the
other hand is categorized as childhood TB, and
remains the major cause of death among children.
According to the WHO, 10-20 per cent of all
TB cases occur in children in high-burden countries
like India. Besides the near-total neglect of
childhood TB and the difficulty in diagnosing TB
in children aged under five years, doctors are not
fully trained to correctly suspect and diagnose
paediatric TB on time and manage the disease. They
are also largely unaware of the different techniques
available to extract sputum samples from children
aged under five years. Children under five years of
age have difficulty in producing sputum, the most
basic sample required for bacteriological
confirmation of the disease. Older children have
adult-like TB and hence diagnosing it is difficult.
The Indian Academy of Paediatrics (IAP) will

now make it possible, partnering with the Child
TB Division of the Ministry of Health and Family
Welfare and RNTCP to train doctors so that,
patients with paediatric TB in India get a better
chance of being diagnosed early and get treated
without delay. IAP will target paediatricians from
! The Academy plans to train paediatricians
from the private sector to diagnose and

manage paediatric TB cases.
Medical officers at PHCs and family
practitioners will be trained on when to
suspect childhood TB cases and refer the
suspected cases to district hospitals or RNTCP
programme officers for further investigation
as medical officers are the first point of
contact for those approaching the PHCs.
The initial programme entails training around
50 paediatricians from across India for two
days. These doctors would, in turn, train
other paediatricians for a day.
The plan is to conduct about 30 one-day
workshops to train paediatricians during the
first year. The current plan to train
paediatricians and medical officers is likely
to result in more children with TB being
correctly diagnosed on time and managed.
With a membership of around 23,000
paediatricians and 320 branches across the
country, IAP is optimistic of reaching out and
training a large section of the private doctors.
The WHO has recommended and RNTCP has
also approved contact tracing of children
below five years in households where an adult
has been recently diagnosed with active
pulmonary TB disease.
WHO CALLS FOR AFFORDABLE HEPATITIS C PILLS
Hepatitis C virus, or HCV, is spread through

blood, often via contaminated needles. It causes
cirrhosis and liver cancer. The vast majority of cases
are in poorer countries where the complexity, cost
and side effects of current treatments have made
treatment impractical. The arrival of simple pills,
taken for as little as a couple of months, could
revolutionize therapy.
[24]
The World Health Organization has strongly

recommended new hepatitis C drugs from Gilead
and Johnson & Johnson and wants to cut down
the cost of new drugs that offer a cure for the
liver-destroying virus but are unaffordable for most
infected people worldwide. Treating the
approximately 150 million people in the world
living with chronic hepatitis C infection is the new
front-line in the battle over access to medicines.

Modern drugs are transforming the ability to
fight hepatitis C because pills such as Gileads
Sovaldi are far more effective and better-tolerated
than older injection regimens, with cure rates well
above 90 percent in many cases. These drugs are
fantastic and are a real breakthrough but the prices
are too high as pharmaceutical companies need to
charge high prices on new successful drugs to cover
the huge cost of development, including of those
that fail to make it to the market.
There is a big concern about middle-income

countries such as China, India and Russia, which
are home to most cases of HCV worldwide but
where drug companies are more reluctant to accept
rock-bottom prices than in the poorest nations. So,
it is the time for international funding along the
lines of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis
and Malaria.
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Drawing a clear parallel with the experience of

HIV/AIDS, the WHO believes a multi-pronged
approach is needed. This could include tiered price
discounts by branded drug makers, voluntary
licensing and also compulsory licensing. Voluntary

licensing involves a patent owner agreeing to license
its drug to generic manufacturers, while a
compulsory license is issued by a government
without any such agreement - something the
pharmaceuticals industry is keen to avoid.
NEW TOWNS: HEALTH COMPROMISED
The ambitious plan of the Indian government

to build 100 new towns with a million people each
by 2020 is on cost of the health of the poor. Though
the skyscrapers and growing satellite city projects
are fast emerging as markers of development, the
new towns pose serious health risks as the planners
of these towns do not take into account the informal
settlements that invariably crop up beside these
new cities and supply their labour force.
occur, the poor suffer flooding along with diseases

like cholera, hepatitis and dysentery.
The conclusion was based on study focused on

Salt Lake, a fully mature new town on the outskirts
of Kolkata, with a population of 300,000. Salt Lake
is an affluent city, home to many of Kolkatas elite.
It sits in an area of frequent flooding but drainage
systems, underground sewers and elevated
pumping stations mean it rarely suffers from
natural disasters.
While designers anticipate the flood risks, they

and planners of other new towns did not anticipate
the thousands of low-income workers who would
move to the area to work in the city. These workers
are excluded from working in the township so the
increased hazard exposure associated with the lowlying terrain dramatically increases their risk to
natural hazards. The only way to reduce risks
associated with new town development is that ,
planners must take these vulnerable groups into
account.
The need is to expand the scope of planning

for these new cities to include the communities
where the poor live. When cyclones or monsoons
If slums border the city, they are home to many

of construction workers, domestic help, food
vendors and others who work in and around it.
Most of the live in cramped or crowded conditions
which help spread diseases like influenza, cholera
and tuberculosis, especially during heavy rain and
floods.
COMBINATION DRUGS UNDER STRICT REGULATION
The Central Drugs Standards and Control

Organisation, headed by the DCGI, has started
examining the safety of fixed-dose combination
drugs. These drugs are formulations used for a
variety of medicines ranging from antibiotics to
painkillers. All such manufacturers, whose drugs
had not received approval from the DCGI, are
required to submit relevant data and applications
before the CDSCO by August. The drug regulators
fight to weed out potentially unsafe combination
drugs is picking up pace. The DCGI office has also
constituted 10 expert committees to examine the
applications being received.
! The CDSCO intends to regularise this
segment, and wants both small and large

manufacturers to get its approval. Despite the
directive, many continued to get it done at
the local level. Some of the known FDC
manufacturers include smaller entities such
as Restech Pharma, Naxpar Pharma, Unix
Biotech, as well as big names like Cipla.
! According to a circular sent to the State and
Union Territory Drug Controllers, the

manufacturers are expected to submit
published data regarding safety and efficacy
of the drugs, original data generated by the
[25]

manufacturers, and the regulatory status of
the drugs in other countries, along with
original pack and package inserts.
Union Territory level to inform all

manufacturers of fixed-dose combination
drugs that they need to make presentations
regarding the safety and efficacy of their
drugs before the Central regulator.
! The Drug Controller General of India has
asked Drug Controllers at the State and
CDSCO started examining safety &

efficacy of FDC
The DCGI office has also constituted 10 expert

committees to examine the applications being
received.
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To weed out potentially unsafe fixed-dose

combination (FDC) drugs, the Central Drugs
Standards and Control Organisation (CDSCO)
which is headed by the Drug Controller General
of India (DCGI), has started examining the safety
of FDC drugs, which are formulations used for a
variety of medicines ranging from antibiotics to
painkillers. In this endeavour the DCGI has also
asked Drug Controllers at the State and Union
Territory level to inform all manufacturers of fixeddose combination drugs that they need to submit
published data regarding the safety and efficacy
of their drugs, original data generated by the
manufacturers, and the regulatory status of the
drugs in other countries, along with original pack
and package inserts before the Central regulator.
Further, all such manufacturers, whose drugs

had not received approval from the DCGI earlier,
are required to submit relevant data and
applications before the CDSCO before end of
August.
In this regard, the DCGI had first sent notices

to FDC manufacturers in January last year, asking
for safety and efficacy data to be examined by
experts.
FDC drugs, which are considered new drugs,
were brought under the ambit of the DCGI in
May 2002. The DGCI was given the authority to
grant permissions/licences for these new drugs
under Rule 122 of the Drugs Act.
INDIA ADDS 10 LAKH CANCER PATIENTS EACH YEAR
India, China and Russia, account for 46% of all

new cancer cases worldwide and 52% of all cancer
deaths globally. It is found that over two-thirds
(71%) of cancer deaths in India occur in patients
aged 30 to 69, with a significant number of
premature deaths of people in the prime of their
lives. India is a demographically young country.
Even though rates of cancer are lower than in highincome countries, the absolute numbers still make
this a massive public health burden, and in the
next 20 to 30 years India will rapidly age and
catch up with the rates in other countries.
Cancer has devastating economic and human
costs in India. Every year, 10 lakh Indians are
diagnosed with cancer and another six to seven
lakh die of it. As a result, for India-specific
affordable treatment , more cancer specialists, more
hospitals and more money for research are needed

in order to change the cancer graph of India. It is
expected that by 2035, these numbers may almost
double to 17 lakh new patients and 12 lakh deaths
per year.
The worst aspect of cancer in India is poor life
expectancy. Over 60% of cancer patients in the US
enjoy an over five-year survival rate, but the
corresponding figure for India is 30%. Between 60%
and 70% of patients die earlier mainly because they
seek treatment only after their disease has reached
an advanced stage. Incidentally, India has a
relatively lower incidence of canceraround a
quarter of that in the US or Western Europe. But
the rate of deaths is similar to that seen in highincome countries.
!!!!!
[26]
NEWS IN BRIEF
NEWSMAKERS
R Chandrasekaran
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Justice Rajendra Mal Lodha

Justice Rajendra Mal Lodha has been appointed
as the next Chief Justice of India and he will assume
his charge on April 27.
Born in Jodhpur, Justice Lodha enrolled with

Bar Council of Rajasthan in February 1973. He
practiced Law in the Rajasthan High Court and
dealt with all branches of law constitutional,
civil, company, criminal, taxation and labour. Justice
Lodha heads the bench which is monitoring CBIs
probe into the coal blocks allocation scam. He was
also instrumental in passing orders making the CBI
independent from political clutches. It was Justice
Lodhas bench which had ordered that the CBI
will not share information with the political
executive on coalgate probe. He is part of a
Constitutional bench looking into the mode of
education of minority schools.
Last month, a bench headed by him had

allowed defence personnel in peace stations to
vote in constituencies where they are posted, saying
compulsions of their job shouldnt come in the
way of a basic right.
Nasscom has appointed R Chandrasekaran as

its Chairman for the year 2014-15. He was
Cognizant India Executive Vice Chairman.
Chandrasekaran has over 25 years of experience in
the global information technology industry. At
present, Chandrasekaran is the Group Chief
Executive, Technology & Operations at Cognizant,
which is a part of the NASDAQ 100 and S&P 500
indices, and the Fortune 500 list. Chandrasekaran
has been associated with Cognizant since its
founding in 1994, propelling its growth into a global
delivery organization, spearheading newer solutions
and championing crucial process initiatives. As an
Executive Officer at Cognizant, he drives the
Companys global delivery management, capacity
growth and process initiatives, proactively nurturing
key alliances and leveraging business partnerships.
Prior to joining Cognizant, Chandrasekaran worked
with Tata Consultancy Services, and was
responsible for setting up its offices across the US
and Europe.
OBITUARIES
Peter Matthiessen
Matthiessen was a man of adventure who liked

physical and spiritual challenges and produced
such acclaimed works as The Snow Leopard and At
Play in the Fields of the Lord. He died at the age of
86. A leading environmentalist and wilderness
writer, he embraced the best and worst that nature
could bring him, whether trekking across the
Himalayas, parrying sharks in Australia or
enduring a hurricane in Antarctica.
Matthiessen helped found The Paris Review, one

of the most influential literary magazines, and won
National Book Awards for The Snow Leopard, his
spiritual account of the Himalayas, and for Shadow
Country. His new novel In Paradise, is scheduled
for publication. Matthiessen became a Zen Buddhist

in the 1960s, and was later a Zen priest who met
daily with a fellow group of practitioners in a
meditation hut that he converted from an old
stable. The granite-faced author, rugged and athletic
into his 80s, tried to live out a modern version of
the Buddhist legend, a child of privilege transformed
by the discovery of suffering.
Ashish Bose
Ashish Bose, Indias foremost demographer,

passed away at the age of 84. Bose was best known
for coining the term BIMARU, to refer to the four
grossly under-developed states of (undivided) Bihar,
Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh in
[27]

the 1980s. Later, Odisha was also included, to
expand it to BIMAROU. Boses contention was if
the government wants to control the population, it
should stress on these states. Bose was involved in
formulating urban demographic details till the
1980s, but after that he shifted to empirical analysis
and vision building.
He worked as principal cinematographer for

Bharat Ek Khoj, Benegals tele-serial produced for
Doordarshan and held camera for Mr. Nihalanis
landmark tele-serial Tamas. Born on November 26,
1923, Mr. Murthy did his diploma in
Cinematography
from
the
citys
Sri
Jayachamarajendra Polytechnic in the first batch
(1943-46).
Mickey Rooney
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After the much-hyped National Commission for

Urbanisation was constituted on Rajiv Gandhis
instructions, Bose was the first to point out that it
excluded Jammu and Kashmir, leading to much
furore. He wrote over 25 books on population and
development, having headed the Population
Research Centre at the Institute of Economic
Growth. Some of his noted books are Growing old
in India: Voices reveal, Statistics Speak and
Darkness at Noon: Female Foeticide.
pair of ordinary mirrors. This won him the Filmfare

Best Cinematographer award in 1959.
V.K. Murthy
V.K. Murthy, the Doyen of cinematography

who carved a niche for himself by presenting
striking images in black and white to the celluloid
world, passed away. He was 91. Murthys demise
marks the end of a glorious chapter in Indian
celluloid history.
Murthy was the first cinematographer to be
chosen for the prestigious Dada Saheb Phalke
award and received the International Indian Film
Academy in 2005 for his contribution to Indian
cinema. His beam shot in the Waqt ne kiya kya
haseen sitam sequence from Kagaz Ke Phool is
considered a classic, which he achieved using a
Mickey Rooney, the pint-sized actor who was

one of MGMs giant box office attractions in the
late 30s and early 40s, died in North Hollywood.
He was 93.
As adept at comedy as drama and an excellent
singer and dancer, Rooney was regarded as the
consummate entertainer. During a prolific career
on stage and screen that spanned eight decades ,
he was nominated for four Academy Awards and
received two special Oscars, the Juvenile Award in
1939 and one in 1983 for his body of work. He also
appeared on series and TV and in made for
television movies, one of which, Bill, the touching
story of a mentally challenged man, won him an
Emmy.
A short actor with a long career, Mickey Rooney
was the biggest box-office draw in Hollywood in
1939 and spent the next 70 years trying with
varying success to make his way back to that
pinnacle.
AWARD/PRIZES
Dadasaheb Phalke For Gulzar
The 45th Dadasaheb Phalke Award will be

bestowed on the veteran film lyricist and director
Gulzar for his outstanding contribution to the
growth and development of Indian cinema.
Gulzar has received several accolades, including

the Padma Bhushan in 2004. Other awards he has
picked up in a career dating back to 1956 include
a Grammy and an Oscar, the Sahitya Akademi
Award, a number of National Film Awards and
20 Filmfare Awards.
The Oscar and Grammy came to him recently for

his song Jai Ho in the film Slumdog Millionaire.
While he got the Oscar for Best Original Song in
2009 for the song, he picked up the Grammy in the
[28]
category of Best Song Written for a Motion Picture,

Television or Other Visual Media a year later. While
it is his work with cinema in different capacities
that Gulzar is best known for, his poetry has been
published in three compilations and he has a
number of short stories to his credit.
The award includes a Swarn Kamal, cash
component of Rs. 10 lakh and a shawl.
2014 Pulitzer Prize
Vijay Seshadri, Indian origin US poet, has

bagged the prestigious 2014 Pulitzer Prize in the
poetry category for his collection of poems 3
Sections. Seshadris 3 Sections is a compelling
collection of poems that examine human

consciousness, from birth to dementia, in a voice
that is by turns witty and grave, compassionate
and remorseless.
Born in Bangalore, Seshadri currently teaches
poetry and non-fiction writing at liberal arts college
Sarah Lawrence in New York. His collections of
poems include James Laughlin Award winner The
Long Meadow (Graywolf Press, 2004) and Wild
Kingdom (1996).
Feature Photography: Josh Haner of The New

York Times
This year no award was given in Feature Writing
category
Letters, Drama, and Music

Fiction: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (Little,
Brown)
Drama: The Flick by Annie Baker
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Seshadri is the fifth person of Indian origin to

bag the prestigious award, the first being Gobind
Behari Lal in 1937 in the reporting category for his
coverage of science at the tercentenary of Harvard
University. Indian-American author Jhumpa
Lahiri got Pulitzer for fiction in 2000 for her
collection of stories Interpreters of Maladies.
Journalist-writer of Indian origin Geeta Anand was
the next to get the award in 2003 for Explanatory
Reporting. Indian-American physician Siddhartha
Mukherjee won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in the
general non-fiction category for his book The
Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer.
The New York Times
List of winners of 2014 Pulitzer Prize
Journalism
Public Service: The Guardian US & The

Washington Post
Breaking News Reporting: Staff of The Boston

Globe
Investigative Reporting: Chris Hamby of The
Center for Public Integrity, Washington, DC
Explanatory Reporting: Eli Saslow of The

Washington Post
Local Reporting: Will Hobson and Michael

LaForgia of Tampa Bay Times
National Reporting: David Philipps of The
Gazette, Colorado Springs, CO
International Reporting: Jason Szep and

Andrew R.C. Marshall of Reuters
Commentary: Stephen Henderson of Detroit

Free Press
Criticism: Inga Saffron of The Philadelphia

Inquirer
Editorial Writing: Editorial Staff of The
Oregonian, Portland
Editorial Cartooning: Kevin Siers of The

Charlotte Observer
Breaking News Photography: Tyler Hicks of
History: The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War

in Virginia, 1772-1832 by Alan Taylor (W.W.
Norton)
Biography or Autobiography: Margaret Fuller:
A New American Life by Megan Marshall
(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Poetry: 3 Sections by Vijay Seshadri (Graywolf
Press)
General Non-fiction: Toms River: A Story of

Science and Salvation by Dan Fagin (Bantam Books)
Music: Become Ocean by John Luther Adams
(Taiga Press/Theodore Front Musical Literature)
Established by Hungarian-American publisher
Joseph Pulitzer, the Pulitzer Prize is administered
by Columbia University in New York City. Each
winner receives a certificate and a $10,000 cash
award.
GBE for Ratan Tata
Ratan Tata has been honoured by Queen

Elizabeth with a GBE (Knight Grand Cross), one of
the UKs highest civilian awards, for services to UK/
India relations, inward investment to the UK and
philanthropy
The Knight Grand Cross is awarded mainly to
civilians and service personnel for public service or
other distinctions, and has a military and a civil
division.
Tata is the only Indian among five foreigners to
be awarded as part of the Honorary British Awards
to Foreign Nationals for 2014, others including
Japanese and Greek nationals for services to
economic and cultural ties with the UK.
Tata, who now holds the honorary position of
Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons, had been
conferred a KBE (Knight Commander) by the Queen
back in 2009 a year after the Indian conglomerate
[29]

under his chairmanship had acquired the flagging
British luxury car brands Jaguar Land Rover (JLR).
The prize was created in 2004 and is awarded

every two years. The first winner was Tim
BernersLee, the inventor of the worldwide web.
Parkin was recognized for discoveries used to
increase data storage capacities. His work has been
utilized for magnetic disk drives used to store large
data centres and cloud services, as well as social
networks and online music and film distribution.
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The Tata Group has since revived the fortunes

of the company and also emerged as one of the
largest employers in Britain, employing nearly
60,000 people across the country. Besides his
business contributions, Tata is also recognised for
his contributions across various fields in the UK
including academia. The Sir Ratan Tata Fellowship,
now in its 18th year, works in collaboration with
the London School of Economics to offer an eight
month fellowship to scholars in the social sciences
with experience of research on South Asia to work
at the LSE Asia Research Centre (ARC).
Millennium Technology Prize for discoveries leading

to a thousand-fold increase in digital data storage
on magnetic disks. It is expected that his innovations
may pave the way to a totally new era in computing
with dramatically increased capacity and reduced
power consumption.
Millennium Technology Prize for

Parkin
British-American physicist Stuart Parkin has

won the 1 million-euro (USD 1.3 million)
Parkin, last year, was given a five-year

Alexander von Humboldt professorship to conduct
research in Germany. He is based in Halle as
professor at the Martin Luther University HalleWittenberg and director of the Max Planck Institute
of Microstructure Physics.
CULTURE/HERITAGE
Akademi Makes New Rules For

Artists At Garhi
The Lalit Kala Akademi is about to complete

60 years of its existence and it gears up to
accommodate marginalised rural artisans at Garhi,
where it has succeeded in removing a group of
urban artists who were refusing to vacate the
premises. Priority would be given to artists
belonging to disadvantaged communities who are
living in the interiors of the country. Barring a
couple, all artists, some of whom had been staying
at Garhi for 35 years, have vacated. Since some
artists have been misusing the facilities, the
Akademi would be monitoring their work and
make it mandatory for them to exhibit their art
pieces.
As identifying these artists across is a massive

task the Academy will search these artists through:
! workshops that would be conducted across
the country.
! Advertisements which would be placed in
local newspapers so that these rural artists

can know of these workshops.
! Outreach
programmes that would be

conceived to serve the hinterland.
! Women, tribal and folk communities would
be given sponsorship and scholarships to

[30]
work and study at Garhi. To ensure that the

artists do not misuse their position by
overstaying, the Akademi would have a fixed
term of stay.
To widen Garhis appeal among the art
fraternity, the Akademi will start national and
international residencies. Therefore, emphasis
would be given as much to contemporary art as
traditional art. A serious attempt would be made
to resuscitate the indigenous art forms, which are
on the brink of extinction.
Lalit Kala Akademi or National Academy of
Art is Indias National Academy of Fine Arts. It
was established at New Delhi in 1954 by
Government of India to promote and propagate
understanding of Indian art, both within and
outside the country. It is an autonomous
organization. It publishes bilingual journal. It is
funded by the Union Ministry of Culture. It has its
headquarters at New Delhi, and has regional
centers at Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Garhi (Delhi),
Kolkata, Lucknow and Shimla.
Iron Age Rock Art Found
The paintings done by prehistoric man with

white kaolin were discovered on the right bank of
the river Vaigai, near Arugaveli village, seven km
east of Mayiladumparai, in the Kadamalaikundu

region of Andipatti taluk, Theni. It is estimated
that this group of paintings belong to the Iron Age.
Rock art showing bulls with humps and
without humps, deer, line drawings of a human
being and jungle fowl and men celebrating perhaps
after a successful hunt or a cattle raid have been
found in two rock shelters in Tamil Nadu.
The gali gopuram of Sri Agastyeswara temple

in Peddacheppali village in Kamalapuram mandal,
constructed during 11/12th century AD, collapsed
recently due to lack of maintenance. Peddacheppali
was capital of Renati Chola kings and finds mention
in the Thippalur inscription during Punya Kumar,
a Renati Chola kings rule.
Peddacheppali became a habitation after
Pakanati Kapu brothers, who came from northern
India, cut down a forest and levelled it, and hence
the village was named Peddachappalli after the
eldest of the brothers. The village has Sri
Agastyeswara Swamy and Sri Chennakesava
Swamy temples on one premises.
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While one group of paintings can be dated to

the Iron Age (circa 1500 BCE to circa 500 BCE),
the second one may belong to the early historic
age (circa fifth century BCE to circa third century
CE). The two rock shelters are in different locations
on a small hill, forming part of the Western Ghats.
The two rock shelters are called Chitrakalpudavu
in Tamil. Chitram means painting, kal is rock
and pudavu means shelter.
11th Century Gali Gopuram

Collapses
On the ceiling and inner wall of one shelter are

painted bulls with and without humps, a bull lying
on the ground, deer and jungle fowl. They have
been depicted in a circular manner around a human
figure. While the bulls have been fully painted with
white pigment, the human being and the jungle
fowl are line drawings. The paintings in the other
shelter show men with upraised hands, as if they
are celebrating after a victorious hunt or a cattle
raid. Among the paintings here are a deer and an
animal with a long tail. There are more than 120
rock art sites in Tamil Nadu, depicting hunting
scenes, various animals, birds and geometric designs.
A five-storeyed gopuram at the temple entrance

collapsed several years ago and it remnants are
seen now along with the dhwajastambham. The
gopuram atop the sanctum sanctorum is circular
in shape and it has a large Sivalingam in the main
temple and Nandeeswara with a snake around its
neck. Sri Parvathi Devi idol is to the left of the
Sivalingam. Sri Chennakesava Swamy temple has
Lord Vishnu with four hands holding sankham,
chakram and a club and abhaya hastam.
The temple also has idols of Sri Ganapati, Sri
Valli Devasena Sahitha Sri Subramanya Swamy,
Sri Garudalwar and idols of Dasavatharam and
figurines of Chola king and queen.
SPORTS
Dhoni to Lead ICC world T20 team
The International Cricket Council

has
announced the mens team of the tournament of
the ICC World Twenty20 and has named
Mahendra Singh Dhoni as the captain.
The team includes four players from India, two

from both South Africa and West Indies, and one
representative each from Australia, the Netherlands
and Sri Lanka. Chosen by a select group of experts,
the team was aimed at being suited for Bangladesh
conditions, on the basis of performances in the
tournament only. Statistics were used but were not
the sole basis for selections.
Shikhar Dhawan : Wisden Cricketer

Of The Year
Shikhar Dhawan who was the highest runWeekly Current Affairs 7th April to 13th April, 2014
scorer during Indias triumph in the ICC Champions

Trophy, has been named as one of the Five
Cricketers of the Year, an honour dating back to
1889, by Wisden for his performance in 2013.
Dhawan had amassed 363 runs in five ODIs at
an average of 90.75. He was awarded Man of the
Series for his performance that included centuries
against South Africa and West Indies.
His performance during the tournament in
England was acknowledged by Wisden, which also
named Australian duo Chris Rogers and Ryan
Harris, England batsman Joe Root and England
womens captain Charlotte Edwards in the list.
Opener Rogers, fast bowler Harris and Root were
chosen for their contributions to the 2013 Ashes,
while Edwards was acknowledged for leading the
English side to the finals of the recent World
Twenty20.
[31]

In 2013, Dhawan scored 1162 runs in 26 ODIs
at an average of 50.52, but the left-hander is
currently going through a dip in form and was
dropped from the side after the Bangladesh match
during the recent World Twenty20. Dale Steyn was
Wisdens Leading Cricketer in the World for 2013.
He was the second South African to be selected for
the award after Jacques Kallis in 2007.
Australia proved supremacy in womens cricket

as it completed a hat-trick of ICC World T20 titles
with a comprehensive six-wicket win over England.
Australia overwhelmed England to secure a hattrick of World T20 titles, cruising to a six-wicket
victory.
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The Cricketer of the Year is chosen by the editor

of the Wisden Cricketers Almanack, based on their
excellence in, or performance on, the previous
English summer. It can be won only once in a
players career.
India had a perfect run to the final as the only

team to win every match at the pool stage Sri
Lanka contrived somehow to be the only team to
lose to England before disposing comfortably of
South Africa in the semifinal. Its batsman Virat
Kohli was named Man of the Tournament for his
consistently high scoring, his total of 319 runs
placing him well ahead of anyone else in the
competition.
Olympic champion Rice Retires
Australias triple Olympic gold medallist

Stephanie Rice announced her retirement from
competitive swimming at the age of 25. Rice had a
stunning Olympic debut at Beijings Water Cube in
2008, winning the 200 and 400 metres individual
medley titles as well as gold in the 4x200m freestyle
relay, all in world record times.
She struggled with a shoulder injury heading

into the 2012 London Olympics, where her failure
to win a medal contributed to a disappointing
Games for Australia. She has not raced
competitively since and announced that she would
not be returning to the pool.
Rice hit the headlines as a 19-year-old when

she set world records at the 2008 national trials in
the lead up to Beijing. Her triple Olympic triumph
in China cemented her status as one of Australias
leading sportswomen and saw her carry the
countrys flag at the closing ceremony.
Sri Lanka As World T20 Champion
After facing defeat for four times in global finals,

Kumar Sangakkara broke his and his countrys final
jinx and guided it to victory in the World T20.
With this Sri Lanka becomes the fifth different
winner in as many World T20s. It beat an Indian
team which was hoping to become the first twotime winner and also the first ever to hold all three
global titles in crickets shorter formats the World
Cup, the Champions Trophy and the World T20
at the same time.
The key difference was summed up in the sixes

count: Australia struck four, extending their lead
in the six-hitting league for the tournament, while
England could not manage one - leaving their
tournament tally at zero. The Powerplays were a
microcosm: England limped to 24 for 1 while
Australia skipped to 43 for 1 - including two of the
sixes - to break the back of the chase.
Bahrain Grand Prix
Lewis Hamilton won the Bahrain Grand Prix

ahead of Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg. Force
Indias Sergio Perez was third, a huge 24.067 off
the winners time. Red Bulls Daniel Ricciardo, who
had started in 13th place, was fourth, followed by
Nico Hulkenberg in the second Force India and
world champion Sebastian Vettel in the second Red
Bull completing the top six. The result left Rosberg
still atop of the standings with 61 points. Hamilton
has 50 while Hulkenberg is third with 28 points.
Hamilton had been cruising to victory leading
by more than nine seconds when the safety car
was called out on lap 42 of the 57-lap race. Rosberg
briefly slipped past Hamilton, but the latter
reasserted his authority soon enough out-braking
the German. Hamilton consolidated on the final
lap to take his 24th career win after a memorable
close-quarters battle. Hamilton had snatched the
lead on the first corner from his pole-sitting
teammate and gradually built a commanding lead.
!!!!!
[32]
EDITORIALS
DIPLOMATIC GAINS FROM A STRATEGIC ABSTENTION
could not get Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to
attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government
meeting in Sri Lanka last November. As former Sri
Lankan diplomat Dayan Jayatilleka observed, the
abstention has pressed the reset button, activating
positive Indo-Lanka diplomacy. Sri Lankas
response to the vote in general and to Indias
decision suggests that to Colombo, what India
thinks matters more than what many other
powerful nations do. That said, given the renewed
possibilities of closer engagement with Sri Lanka, it
is now completely up to New Delhi to convert this
diplomatic goal to a diplomatic gain.
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With 23 countries backing a relatively strong

resolution against Sri Lanka at the recent U.N.
Human Rights Council (UNHRC) session in
Geneva, one would have thought the country
would feel effectively cornered. However, a day
after the resolution was adopted, Sri Lanka only
seemed too pleased, thanks to its neighbour.
Amid all the buzz around the strategically-timed

elections to Sri Lankas Sinhala majority Southern
and Western Provinces, senior politicians including
President Mahinda Rajapaksa were rather prompt
in expressing their happiness over Indias decision
to abstain from voting.
Foreign Minister G.L. Peiris termed Indias
departure from its voting pattern over the last two
years as a significant development. Mr. Rajapaksa
went a step further, ordering the immediate release
of all Indian fishermen in Sri Lankan custody then
as a goodwill gesture.
In an interaction with journalists days before
the Geneva session, Mr. Rajapaksa said: I dont
know what India will do, they voted against us
last two years, quickly adding, but we
understand them, as if India had already cast a
negative vote.
So when India declared its decision to abstain

on March 27, Colombo was clearly elated. Indias
decision may not have influenced the larger voting
pattern but to Sri Lanka, apparently, its neighbours
abstention meant a massive victory of sorts, despite
the majority vote in Geneva proving negative.
Foreign policy analysts who thought New Delhi
had for long been succumbing to Tamil Nadus
pressure hailed it as excellent diplomacy,
though Tamil diaspora organisations and sections
of northern Tamils said they were deeply
disappointed with India.
A reset for diplomacy

The fact that the Ministry of External Affairs
was fully in charge at Geneva is significant. It was
the same Ministry which, despite its best efforts,
Speaking in Geneva, Dilip Sinha, Ambassador

and Permanent Representative of India to the
United Nations in Geneva, hailed the September
elections to Sri Lankas Northern Province, at the
same time calling for effective and timely
implementation of all the constructive
recommendations contained in the Lessons Learnt
and Reconciliation Commission report, including
those pertaining to missing persons, detainees,
reduction of high security zones, return of private
lands by the military and withdrawal of security
forces from the civilian domain in the Northern
Province.
With a renewed possibility of closer engagement
with Sri Lanka, it will be interesting to see if New
Delhi can put political pressure in these said areas
where progress has been grossly inadequate.
The Hindu in December 2013 reported that 18
schools in Jaffna were struggling for space with
the Sri Lankan Army having taken over their
original buildings, some even a century old, as part
of its questionable high security zones. Fishing
villages in these zones have been usurped, delivering
a blow to livelihoods.
The process of resettlement, the Indian mission
implementing a massive housing project in the
former war zone would very well know, still has
several gaps. In Sampur, located in Trincomalee
where NTPC partners a joint venture to set up a
thermal power plant 800 families lost their homes
[33]

to land taken over by the Sri Lankan government
for the plant. In reality, the 500-acre area
earmarked for the plant displaced only seven
families that the Indian government is helping
relocate, while permanent housing to the rest who
lost their homes remains a question mark.
commitments, including its promise to fully

implement the Thirteenth Amendment to the Sri
Lankan Constitution and build upon it. New Delhi
has a lot to do in pushing for substantive political
devolution.
Militarisation of the north, something that Dr.

Singh also underlined in his meeting with Mr.
Rajapaksa in March, remains a major concern. The
Army, earlier confined to security and surveillance,
is now involved in purely civil pursuits such as
agriculture and development. In fact, surveillance
in the north increased rapidly around the Geneva
session as did intimidation, reportedly though
the Sri Lankan Army justified it saying it feared a
possible regrouping of the LTTE.
Issue of devolution
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Post Geneva, India has said it will continue to

closely engage with Sri Lanka on the question of
devolution. Nearly five years after the countrys
brutal war ended, people living in Sri Lankas
Tamil-speaking north and east crave for political
rights and complete freedom. Devolution, after all,
is not just about holding an election to the Northern
Province but also allowing the Council to function
with administrative powers and enabling the people
of the province to lead normal lives as citizens.
Further, the ghost of the brutal war makes an

appearance every now and then. New video footage
pertaining to alleged war crimes by the Sri Lankan
forces has emerged recently, though the Army has
rubbished each of those as being doctored.
Relatives of 16,000 missing people have petitioned
a Presidential Commission looking into complaints
of disappearances, desperately seeking some closure
to the agony over their missing loved ones.
Indias abstention could gain value if New Delhi
manages to use the goodwill gains that accrued to
it in Geneva to put political pressure on Colombo
to address at least some of these problems.
India in Geneva called upon Sri Lankan

government to make purposeful efforts to fulfil its
Also, when a new Indian government takes

charge soon, the ongoing conflict over fishing
between the two countries will come into sharp
focus. Considering the major role Tamil Nadu is
expected to play in national politics in a post-poll
scenario, India will have to necessarily evolve a
strategy to handle the pressure from the southern
State and at the same time get it to deter its
fishermen from poaching in Sri Lankan waters.
Depending on how New Delhi fares on all these
counts, its seemingly strategic abstention in Geneva
could potentially turn into an actual gain.
Source: The Hindu
A SIGNIFICANT CAPABILITY
On April 4, Indias Polar Satellite Launch

Vehicle (PSLV) marked its 25th consecutive
successful mission by lofting the second spacecraft
required for the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite
System (IRNSS). The IRNSS will function much like
Americas widely-used Global Positioning System
(GPS), albeit on a regional scale. The GPS is based
on a constellation of 24 satellites that transmit
signals, which suitably equipped receivers pick up
and utilise to establish their position with a great
level of accuracy. Originally intended for the U.S.
armed forces, the use of unencrypted GPS signals
have spawned a wide range of civilian applications.
Vehicles, aircraft and ships increasingly rely on
equipment with satellite navigation capability.
Smartphones and other mobile devices providing
map and location-based services too take the aid of
GPS signals. Russia has a similar satellite system in
place, called GLONASS. Europe is in the process
[34]
of establishing a navigation satellite system of its

own, named Galileo. Chinas BeiDou Navigation
Satellite System began offering regional services in
December 2012 and is expected to achieve global
coverage by around 2020. Japan wants to create a
satellite system to improve GPS coverage over that
country.
The IRNSS, being wholly under Indian control,
serves an important security requirement making
sure that so critical a service is available at all times.
Military operations have come to rely on satellite
navigation and there is no guarantee that another
countrys system will be accessible during a crisis
situation. To keep costs down, the Indian Space
Research Organisation has opted for a constellation
of just seven satellites to provide accurate
navigation signals over India and up to 1,500 km
from its borders. The first of those satellites, IRNSSWeekly Current Affairs 7th April to 13th April, 2014

1A, was launched in July last year. The
performance of that satellite has been extensively
analysed and found to be very satisfactory. The
second satellite, IRNSS-1B, has now been put into
orbit, and two more will follow later this year. Once
the four IRNSS satellites are up and functioning, it
will be possible to ascertain whether the systems
signals provide the required positional accuracy.
The remaining three satellites are to be launched
by the middle of next year. The option exists to
extend the coverage area by adding four more

satellites. ISRO is working with industry so that
receivers that utilise the IRNSS signals become
available. Some of these receivers will be capable
of taking signals from other navigation satellite
systems as well, like the GPS. The use of IRNSS
must extend well beyond Indias security services,
and ISRO will need to take the lead in promoting
the widespread utilisation of the system.
Source: The Hindu
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BUILDING A CULTURE OF TOLERANCE
The framers of our Constitution were well aware

of the need for politics that could transform a
society rooted in caste and religious tradition. The
nationalist struggle was not only a struggle to
overthrow the British Raj, but was a moment of
manoeuvre to rework a society that had a dismal
record and understanding of human dignity and
worked on the tyrannical hierarchy of caste that
negated self-evident individual rights. It was this
awareness that led to a conscious choice of
institutions and symbols that formed the basis of
such a transformative articulation of politics. For
instance, the national flag has Ashokas Wheel of
Law a symbol taken from a Buddhist era
which was to function as a reminder for every
citizen and the state to commit to dharma.
Ashokas dharma was a secular one, based on a
collective morality that hinged on undoing the
worst practices of Indian society. Post-1947, the
commitment to secularism in India did not only
mean a commitment to freedom of religion, but
also a commitment to do away with religious
practices considered being at odds with liberalism.
In other words, secularism didnt simply mean state
neutrality towards all religions. In India, it
encompassed the desire to undertake social reform.
Fate of the secular script
What has complicated the project of secularism

in India are two issues. First, the state may be
neutral towards religion, but this does not mean
that state actors and individuals in society are
neutral towards religion. Second, there is no
agreement in India that religion should be relegated
to the private sphere. In fact, the opposite is true.
Indians, of all religions, pray in large numbers in
varying frequencies every week and they do so
collectively and in public. This has meant that
political appeals are often made through religious
spaces and spokespersons.
In India, the state cannot afford to be indifferent

to religion because societal and individual decisions
are still dictated by religious conditioning and
imperatives. What has emerged over 65 years of
muddling through this issue of secularism and
religion is that religious neutrality has become an
accepted behavioural script for the state, but not
for society and certainly not for individuals (even
when they are state actors).
This fate of the secular script is currently in the
limelight. As observers have noted, more and more
members of the bureaucracy are tacitly Hindutva
supporters and some court judgments over the last
two decades have emphasised religious morality or
interpreted Hinduism in particular ways.
Increasingly, the urban middle class in tier-one and
tier-two cities, business persons and a growing
number of women also support Hindutva, even
less tacitly.
Theoretically, there is nothing obviously wrong
about supporting any political ideology. If the left
can exist and be supported by many people, so can
the right. However, Hindutva is not merely the
statement of a political ideology. It is also a process
wherein there is an attempt to make Hinduism and
Indian nationhood almost coterminous. This is
something that the Constitution framers were dead
against, notwithstanding a massive debate in the
Constituent Assembly where elected representatives
from the right actively argued in favour of a Hindu
nation, but were denied by Nehru and the
Congress.
Breakdown of tolerance
Indian society is not yet fully secular, while the

Indian state understands secularism as state
neutrality towards religion combined with select
interventions in the religious domain to safeguard
some rights. Perhaps the concept better suited to
[35]

understanding Indian society and its relationship
with religion is more like a scale of tolerance
in some places, society is more tolerant of other
religious and caste groups, in some places less so,
but nowhere in India is society perfectly secular,
i.e., nowhere in India do people not care about
religion or maintain their distance from it.
Third, conversations and studies of recruiters

in private corporations suggest that they reject
resumes based on last names, prefer people of the
same caste and sometimes profile people based on
region. For instance, a call centre recruiter said that
she didnt take people from Bihar because they were
bad in English. She also left out the resumes of
Muslims. During a study I undertook in Chandni
Chowk in New Delhi in 2005, Muslims reported
that they were often seen as a credit risk and that
banks were unwilling to lend them money. Some
also reported that the police had detained them for
no reason.
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The problem is that tolerance is an independent,

individual choice and cannot be forced onto anyone.
It is also a deeply patronising value. Its exercise
rests on perceptions an individual possesses about
another community and its implementation then
becomes a matter of individual dispensation and
benevolence.
although this has decreased over time as a recent

study by Ahuja and Ostermann shows. But the
people most likely to marry outside their caste are
lower castes, Scheduled Castes and Other Backward
Classes (OBC). And while were on this subject,
khaps in north India have sanctioned honour
killings for what they consider bad marriage
decisions between people of the same gotra.
In recent years, nothing has testified to the

breakdown of religious tolerance in society than
the various instances of communal and caste
clashes. Riots are manufactured in contemporary
India and they, more than anything else, tell us
that essentially we live in a society where tolerance
has a weak societal foundation, evidenced in the
easy way mobs are mobilised by political
entrepreneurs to engage in killing. While tolerance
is a sought after value by many in India, we have
been unable to enforce it in society, or even broaden
the appeal of being tolerant in society. Campaign
speeches by our politicians that often invoke hate
speech against particular groups do not help the
matter.
Let us illustrate this with a few examples. First,

many people in India do not want to rent homes
to Muslims, single women and men and people
from the northeast. The logic offered is often that
such people may do bad things, immoral things
or may eat food that homeowners dont want
cooked in the spaces they rent out. Often, local
society associations decide that certain types of
people cannot be rented homes. If they do charge
rent from these groups of people, the rents and
deposits are usually higher. This intolerant rental
discrimination is allowed to work precisely because
there is no law that prohibits a landlord from
discriminating against people based on religion,
race, gender or marital status. In essence, a persons
perception of what a group represents (single
women, Muslims, people from the northeast),
allows that person to informally institutionalise his
intolerance of such groups.
Second, while broadly practising tolerance in
public, many parents brief their children that they
cannot marry Muslims, a dark-skinned person or a
lower caste person. Matrimonial advertisements still
exemplify a demand for same-caste marriages
[36]
Undercut by the majority
Finally, in recent conversations with educators,

many who run private schools are unwilling to
implement the Right of Children to Free and
Compulsory Education (RTE) because it would
mean an influx of underprivileged OBC students
whose behaviour and language, they suggest, will
act as a bad influence on their students. The word
used to describe them was ganwaar, or rustic and
ill-behaved.
Essentially, what we are trying to argue is that
even while the state protects religious and caste
groups through various institutional measures,
much of this is undercut by a society that doesnt
similarly value the rights of other groups or
individuals. Part of the support for the Bharatiya
Janata Party, the Shiv Sena and other politicians
like Mr. Owaisi, for instance, comes from those
who believe that certain religious minorities,
majorities or outsiders, need to be shown their
place.
Such people dont want tolerance, perhaps
because trampling on someones rights serves the
majority well. It means that benefits and rights,
economic opportunity and social equality are not
properly extended beyond the majoritarian fold. A
case in point being reservations, where only a small
percent of reservations go to non-Hindu groups
(like tribals); only recently have reservations been
extended to Muslims in some States, via an

incorporation into the States OBC list. So,
predominantly one religious group, Hindus, most
often capture the benefits of reservation.
There is a grave need to instil, cultivate or build
a culture of tolerance in society, broadly through
legislation if necessary. Untouchability being
deemed an offence went much further than

religious reform movements over 200 years in
fighting the practice, as did the legal abolition of
sati. Creating institutional mechanisms to deal with
hate speech is a great place to start.
Source: The Hindu
CHANGING PERCEPTION
indices to stratospheric levels, the abundant dollar
infusion is driving the rupee up.
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The rupees recent appreciation to below 60 a

dollar it is hovering around those levels is a
significant development and not just because of its
breaching a psychologically important mark. At one
level, its recent strength would appear to mirror
the changing perceptions of investors, especially
from abroad, of the Indian economy. Just over seven
months ago, the rupee appeared to be in free fall,
touching an all-time low of Rs.68.36 to the dollar
on August 28, 2013. Economic fundamentals were
weak and, perhaps more importantly, were seen
to be so. GDP growth had slipped to a below 5 per
cent trajectory from which it has not been able to
move up. If despite that the Indian economy is
being viewed much more favourably today, the
reasons will have to be sought in other economic
as well as non-economic factors. Of the former, the
most significant one has been the sharp reduction
in the current account deficit on top of a
satisfactory trade balance. From last years
unacceptable levels of being over 5 per cent of GDP,
CAD is down to an eminently manageable 2.3 per
cent during the third quarter of the current year,
according to RBI figures. Of the non-economic
factors, the expectation of a business-friendly
government taking office in May appears to have
influenced foreign investors to flood the stock
markets with relatively cheap money borrowed
from abroad. While that has pushed up the stock
From the beginning of this year net investments

by foreign institutional investors in debt and equity
aggregated $9.5 billion, more than half of it coming
in March alone. The rupees sharp appreciation
poses to the RBI a different set of challenges than
what it has been used to. Far from having to defend
the rupee by selling dollars on occasion by
drawing down reserves it is now reportedly
mopping up surplus dollars. While that will increase
the size of reserves and provide a kind of insurance
against currency volatility, the surfeit of rupees
released will enhance liquidity and could be
inflationary. Determining the correct level of the
rupee is always an onerous task, especially when
the sharp improvement in CAD is due not to any
sustained export revival but to a contraction in gold
imports and a fall in non-oil imports. Policy
measures to suppress gold imports cannot last for
long and have besides led to smuggling. There is
really no way out to stabilise the current account
except to boost exports, for which a strong rupee
will be a deterrent. That said, the current extremely
fluid environment makes it doubly difficult to
determine the appropriate level for the rupee.
Source: The Hindu
WATCHING THE MONEY FLOW
In line with the constitutional mandate to curb

the corrupting influence of money power in
elections, the Election Commission of India (ECI)
has issued detailed guidelines and set up an
elaborate administrative machinery to monitor the
expenses of candidates and ensure a free and fair
poll. The ECIs detailed compendium of instructions
on Election Expenditure Monitoring (ECM) that is
updated and issued before every general election,
has come on top of hikes effected in the election
expenditure limit for each parliamentary
constituency to Rs.70 lakh from Rs.40 lakh for the
bigger States based on a formula linked to a cost
inflation index. The bulky ECM compendium, that

deals with matters ranging from maintenance of
accounts by each candidate, training of election
agents on expenditure monitoring, maintenance of
registers, appointment of election expenditure
observers for each constituency and preparation of
daily activity reports by flying squads on seizure of
cash and so on, to norms for political parties and
even the language in which the accounts of
election expenses may be filed, is bewildering in
terms of its details.
Apart from the irritation some of these norms
[37]

implies that some allowance needs to be made for
their star campaigners who lead those political
parties. The general propaganda of political parties
cannot logically exclude campaigning by leaders.
Or else, it results in an anomalous situation of star
campaigners like Sonia Gandhi, Narendra Modi
and Jayalalithaa having to campaign sans their
party candidates. The leaders cannot even mention
the names of a candidate, lest the candidate be
burdened with a bill that includes the travel costs
of the leaders and overshoots the ceiling. The
experience with such a rule, as highlighted by Tamil
Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and Union
Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, should prompt
the ECI to revisit the norm.
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could cause to normal and bona fide day-to-day

cash-carrying transactions by even ordinary citizens
and businesses, the most hotly contested rule now,
amidst the poll campaign, relates to adding the
costs of campaigning by party leaders and star
campaigners to the expenditure of individual
candidates. The demands on time made on and
security considerations of VVIP leaders who
campaign for their respective political parties
require a certain mode of campaigning that
includes the use of aircraft and helicopters. This
invariably involves high-cost logistics, besides
expenses on special platforms and enclosures
prescribed by security agencies to ensure protection.
If the ECI accepts the basic logic that expenditure
on general propaganda of political parties should
not be added to candidates expenditure, then it
Source: The Hindu
REVIVING THE MARITIME SILK ROUTE
China is experiencing a Deng Xiaoping

Moment 2.0. The new Chinese leadership seems
fairly optimistic in its effort to reshape the countrys
global posture in a bold and creative way, a key
element of which is to build up an economic system
through external cooperation. Undoubtedly, the
proposal of reviving the Maritime Silk Route (MSR)
demonstrates this innovative approach. Indeed, the
success of the MSR initiative will be consequential
to regional stability and global peace. It is little
wonder then that this proposal has attracted
enormous interests among policy makers and
scholars.
The thrust on reviving the ancient maritime
route is the first global strategy for enhancing trade
and fostering peace, proposed by the new Chinese
leaders. The MSR inherits the ancient metaphor of
friendly philosophy from the old Silk Route to build
the new one. It emphasises on improving
connectivity with Southeast Asia, South Asia, West
Asia and even Africa, by building a network of
port cities along the Silk Route, linking the economic
hinterland in China. More importantly, it aspires
to improve Chinas geo-strategic position in the
world. According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry
spokesperson Hua Chunying, The reason why
China proposed the building of the Maritime Silk
Route is to explore the unique values and ideas of
the ancient Silk Route and achieve common
development and common prosperity of all
countries in the region. In fact, since the Tang
Dynasty, the MSR had been a major channel of
communication, through which ancient China
made contacts with the outside world.
[38]
Diffusing tension
Amid the irresistible shift from the West to the

East, Beijing is concerned with the U.S. pivot to
the Asia-Pacific region. Also, the MSR could be an
attempt to counter the string of pearls argument.
Chinas acrimonious relations with some states in
Southeast Asia due to maritime disputes have
created complex circumstances for itself in building
better relations with its neighbours. Through their
vision of re-energising the MSR, Chinese leaders
aim to impart a new lease of life to Chinas
peripheral policy and diffuse the tension. Chinese
leaders want to re-assure their commitment to the
path of peaceful development, emphasising that
a stronger China will add to the force for world
peace and the positive energy for friendship, and
will present development opportunities to Asia and
the world, rather than posing a threat. The idea
of the MSR was outlined during Li Keqiangs speech
at the 16th ASEAN-China summit in Brunei, and
Xi Jinpings speech in the Indonesian Parliament in
October 2013. Chinese leaders underlined the need
to re-establish the centuries-old seaway into a 21st
century MSR, while celebrating the 10th
anniversary of the ASEAN-China strategic
partnership. The main emphasis was placed on
stronger economic cooperation, closer cooperation
on joint infrastructure projects, the enhancement
of security cooperation, and strengthening
maritime economy, environment technical and
scientific cooperation.
The new leaders put forward the 2+7 formula
of cooperation consensus on two issues:
Strategic objectives
The MSR will also be helpful in promoting
certain strategic objectives for example, in
supporting friends and clients, neutralising similar
activities by other naval powers, or merely by
showcasing ones maritime power. Indeed, naval
power has certain advantages as an instrument of
diplomacy. Naval forces are more resilient, and they
have greater visibility. Thus, the proposed MSR has
clear strategic objectives, and India and many other
countries are studying implications of this bold
policy statement carefully.
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deepening strategic trust and exploring neighbourly

friendship, and economic development based on
mutual benefits and win-win outcomes. They also
put forward seven proposals signing the ChinaASEAN good neighbour treaty; more effective use
of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area and intensive
Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership
negotiations; acceleration of joint infrastructure
projects; stronger regional financial and riskprevention cooperation; closer maritime
cooperation; enhanced collaboration on security;
and more intensive people-to-people contacts along
with increased cultural, scientific and
environmental protection cooperation.
China aims to accelerate the establishment of

an Asian Infrastructural Investment Bank, which
could provide a strong investment and financing
platform for multimodal connectivity, like building
high-speed rail, ports, airports, within related
countries. Meanwhile, in order to get a wider
support, China may consider establishing the bank
headquarters in one of the capitals along the MSR,
possibly Jakarta, Bangkok, Singapore and other
countries deemed friendly.
Indeed, China is taking decisive steps to improve

its overall geopolitical position by developing
extensive transport networks, building roads,
railways, ports, and energy corridors through such
initiatives. Historically, the MSR was divided into
two main sectors: lands above the wind (ports in
the Indian Ocean) and lands below the wind (the
straits of Malacca, the South China Sea, the Java
Sea, and further east). These terms referred to the
season of sailing. Long-distance voyaging along these
routes became possible once seafarers discovered the
rhythm of wind, which provide reliable power for
sailing ships. Shipbuilding and navigation in China
were fairly advanced, and Chinese navigators had
some ability to predict monsoons.
Chinese silk was a great attraction for the rest

of the world. Envoys from countries in Southeast,
South, and West Asia and Europe were dispatched
to establish good relations with China. Historical
records reveal that envoys from South and
Southeast Asian countries as well as from Rome
were among the earliest to come by sea to China
seeking diplomatic relations. They brought
treasures to China as gifts, while their Chinese
hosts presented them with coloured silk in return.
In reality these polite exchanges were a disguised
form of trade, and Chinese silk began to be treated
as a symbol of peace and friendship. The MSR
developed into a route for envoys of friendship,
with far greater significance than a purely
mercantile road. The MSR places China in the
middle of the Middle Kingdom and is an effort
in initiating a grand strategy with global
implications. The hope is that the MSR, which
served more for trade and establishing friendly
relations would continue to do so in the revived
form, rather than create new naval rivalries or
power displays.
Source: The Hindu
TRIUMPH FOR THE AFGHAN PUBLIC
Afghanistans presidential election, held on

April 5 with over 350,000 security personnel on
duty, marks the countrys first potential democratic
transfer of power. The Independent Election
Commission put the turnout at about 60 per cent
of a 12-million electorate. Three million more people
voted than did in 2009, which shows public
confidence in the electoral process itself; the
previous election was deeply flawed. This time,
although the Electoral Complaints Commission has
received over 1,200 allegations of malpractice, the
poll was better run than the previous one. Afghans

of all ethnic groups turned out, and women made
a strong showing; the figure was estimated at 35
per cent of the turnout. One candidate, Daoud
Sultanzoy, voted along with his wife, the first time
an Afghan politician appeared in public with a
spouse. Over 86 per cent of the 20,000 polling
stations opened; most of those which stayed closed
were in the southern and southeastern provinces,
where the army said it could not provide security.
According to defence ministry spokesman General
[39]

Zahir Azimy, the Taliban made about 700 attacks
in various areas, but none was serious enough to
disrupt the election, which was also the first in
recent times to take place without foreign help.
The counting process is being managed better than
it was in 2009, with duplicated teams so as to limit
fraud. Every polling station is required to post its
results for the public to read or photograph.
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The overall result is to be announced in a

fortnights time, but uncertainties remain. The
Taliban, who will lose most by the consolidation of
democracy, have not succeeded in derailing the
election, but their ranks number as many as 30,000
and they may be waiting for other chances to wreck
the political process. A second issue has to do with
the candidates own attitudes; none of them is likely
to obtain the 50 per cent plus one vote needed for
outright victory, and of the eight who contested,

only three stand a realistic chance of going into the
May 28 runoff. These are former foreign ministers
Abdullah Abdullah and Zalmai Rassoul, and former
finance minister Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai (the
incumbent, Hamid Karzai, has completed the two
five-year terms the Constitution allows). Mr.
Rassoul trails the others, as his largely educated
supporters are based around Kabul and other cities,
and the two front-runners are claiming victory.
Squabbling, or delays in the runoff, could let the
Taliban to exploit the vacuum. The politicians owe
it to the Afghan public, who have shown courage
and commitment to the ballot box, to ensure a
prompt and smooth handover of power.
Source: The Hindu
THE QUIET IPCC WARNING
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel

on Climate Change (IPCC) has given its starkest
warning of the likely impact of climate change.
The IPCCs March 31 report, the most
comprehensive yet, states that the evidence of global
warming is now overwhelming, and warns that
all countries and all social classes of people will be
affected by changes which are likely to be severe,
pervasive and irreversible. All animal species face
an increased risk of extinction, and vegetation
patterns are likely to change substantially, with lowlatitude species appearing in higher latitudes and
lower latitudes becoming more arid, even if rainfall
patterns there are becoming less predictable. If
temperatures rise to 2C or more above 20th
century levels, yields of major food crops will
probably fall; the likely yield increase in colder
climates as those grow warmer may not offset
declining yields elsewhere. Water resources, already
under stress in Asia, are likely to come under even
greater stress, and ocean acidification caused by
the absorption of rising levels of atmospheric carbon
dioxide is likely to compound the problems. The
poor in all countries are likely to suffer more than
the rich, but all humanity may well be unable to
adapt to temperature rises of above 2 degrees.
While the report is not apocalyptic in tone, and
specifies the level of confidence with which it states
its main findings, one major question arising thence
is whether we can adapt to survive, or whether far

more drastic measures are required. This is
especially important in South Asia, where almost
one and a half billion people live. Spreading aridity,
or increasingly severe individual events like storms
or droughts, not to mention the disappearance of
land as sea levels rise, could well lead to largescale migration, which in turn could cause
resource-driven conflict not between countries but
between rural and urban populations or between
crop farmers and animal farmers. Existing
inequalities are likely to worsen, which will make
it harder for people to climb out of poverty. Yet, on
the evidence the report has received only the briefest
of responses, for example from United States
Secretary of State John Kerry, and from the
environment ministers of various European Union
countries; moreover, the very possibility that
gradual adaptation may not avert climate
catastrophe appears not to figure, particularly in
regions which would be the worst affected, such
as South Asia. That countries states are the
only bodies even remotely capable of action on the
scale required hardly needs saying, but the regions
at greatest risk have some of the worlds most
dysfunctional states. We cannot say we have not
been warned.
Source: The Hindu
CAN OUR AGRICULTURE TACKLE CLIMATE CHANGE?

India has long been regarded a climate change
[40]
hotspot, and the subcontinent is at the forefront of


the worst impacts in terms of human livelihood
and food security. Given that 70 per cent of our
arable land is estimated to be prone to drought, 12
per cent to floods and 8 per cent to cyclones, we
need to pay attention.
Ocean and sea-water warming is also affecting

the current abundance and distribution of
freshwater and marine fish. Commercial fish
varieties found in Asian waters will migrate to
cooler waters as sea-water temperatures rise. This
will force fishermen to go further into the sea.
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According to the fifth assessment report of

working group II, released by the intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC), by
2100, with the current pace of climate change and
development trends, and in the absence of
adaptation, millions of people in South Asia will
be affected by droughts, glacier melts, cyclones and
coastal flooding. Six months earlier, the working
group I report established that human-induced
climate change is leading to increasing atmospheric
temperatures, rising sea levels and ocean warming.
India. All scenarios point towards an increase in

mean and extreme precipitation in the summer
monsoon. Such variations in rainfall have huge
consequences on food production and the livelihood
of smallholder farmers. Changes in rainfall patterns
will require better water management strategies
and investments in storage infrastructure and
water-use technologies.
Hungry in South Asia
The recurrent theme of this assessment, with

regard to agriculture, is that without adaptation,
climate change will exacerbate current poverty levels
and trigger new poverty traps in vulnerable areas.
South Asia already has the highest number of
food insecure people with 300 million
undernourished India accounts for 250 million
of them. The implications are even more grim when
we turn the lens on agriculture. Producing enough
food sustainably to meet increasing demands and
with shrinking resources such as land and water
will throw up unprecedented challenges.
While extreme and erratic weather events will

continue to test the agriculture sector, climate
change is also progressively affecting the yield and
quality of major crops. A study from the Indian
Agriculture Research Institute shows that for every
1C rise in temperature, 4-5 million tonnes of wheat
will be lost in India under the current land use
scenario. The impact on productivity of rice in
Punjab has shown that with all other climatic
variables remaining constant, temperature increases
of 1C, 2C and 3C would reduce the grain yield
of rice by 5.4, 7.4 and 25.1 per cent, respectively.
Losses are also projected for other crops such

as mustard, monsoon sorghum and fruits and
vegetables. Himachal Pradesh, once known as the
apple basket of India, has become too warm and
cultivation is shifting north to cooler regions.
In India, most small-holder farmers subsist on
rain-fed agriculture, and the IPCC report projects
an increase in extreme rainfall events over central
Living with uncertainty
Farmers have shown that they are capable of

adapting to climate variability but fluctuating yields
on a long-term basis threaten their ability to earn,
save, plan and invest. Farmers who live with
uncertainty have less money for food, farm
investments and a reduced capacity and willingness
to try new practices and technologies.
Therefore, it is essential to encourage a shift to
resource-saving, climate-smart agriculture practices,
beginning with simple adaptation strategies such as
changes in sowing dates and the use of different crop
varieties. Improved crop management, as well as
better risk management strategies through effective
and timely early warning weather information
systems and innovative crop insurance policies can
reduce the vulnerability of rural communities.
Climate-smart approaches can complement one
another to be ultimately beneficial to farmers
through higher incomes, better resilience and
sustainable practices. Adaptation is highly contextspecific, and requires careful study of local
conditions to be effective. Agriculture must adapt
to climate change to also ensure that it does not
contribute to the problem. It is estimated that food
production systems accounts for up to 14 per cent
of greenhouse gas emissions.
But investments in agriculture or technology
alone will not prepare us for climate change.
Widespread poverty, poor governance and weak
institutions limit agriculture growth today. These
Climate adaptation must be integrated into broader
poverty alleviation policies that strengthen
governance and institutions across all sectors.
[41]
PROCUREMENT CHALLENGE IN PUBLIC SERVICES

Very Soon India will have a new Central
government. Meeting the electorates expectations
for good and corruption-free public services will be
one of the governments biggest challenges.
E-governance, an important tool through which
public services can be improved, will involve large
scale procurement of services from private sector
IT service providers.
Compounding the problem is a more recent

phenomenon where issues of probity and/or
fairness of decisions have been questioned on the
basis of hindsight with information not available
to the decision makers when decisions were made.
The question is no longer about have we got
the best possible product or service at the best
possible price under our circumstances but rather
which is the most defensible decision in the court
of law and the court of (media-led) public opinion.
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But this comes up against a civil service mindset

that has become increasingly reluctant to take
decisions on matters with financial consequences,
given the recent spate of inquiries and trials.
Without specific measures to overcome this,
execution may be painfully slow.
violations which had they occurred in a different

organisation might have attracted odium.
In principle, public procurement should aim at

achieving best value for money for the public.
Indeed, the age-old canon of propriety is that an
officer should exercise in the use of public funds,
the same degree of care and prudence that he
would, in the expenditure of his own funds!
This has somehow been taken to mean that best

value is that which is procured at the lowest cost.
But value includes both pecuniary and intangible
benefits: car buyers using their own money do not
always buy the cheapest car.
Of course, unlike a private company or

individual, best value, in the context of public
procurement of services, must also take into account
notions of fairness (in the sense of fair opportunity
for different sellers) and probity. These two
requirements are both legally necessary and morally
imperative. Thus best value must be attained
without sacrificing probity or fairness.
Cheapest not the best
The primary means of ensuring fairness and

probity is through procedural safeguards. In India,
these safeguards are largely found in executive
orders and instructions (e.g. the General Financial
Rules or GFR in the Central Government).
Despite the existence of strong and ever-tighter

procedural safeguards, corruption is perceived to
have increased in recent years.
While some cases of corruption have involved
violations of procedural norms, most (especially
those not detected) have not.
On the other hand, some projects generally

considered to be successful and well executed like
the Delhi Metro witnessed some procedural
[42]
This is producing large delays and many suboptimal choices.
Tendering for services
One problem is that the procurement

procedures are largely designed for civil works and
goods which are generally procured by choosing
the lowest tender which meets the minimum quality
specified.
Adaptation to services has been haphazard. A
key difference in services is that much of the value
stems from the quality and competence of the
service provider and not from the cost of the
proposal.
Service quality is not easy to specify in a passfail manner as is normally done for goods and
works; a pass-fail system produces the lowest
quality above the prescribed minimum.
One can think of the analogy of recruiting a
tutor for ones child by specifying a minimum
qualification of a Degree and then choosing the
applicant asking for the lowest tuition fee: one is
likely to get a tutor who scored just the pass mark
and who may not be good at teaching.
The provisions of the GFR on service
procurement are rudimentary. They do not provide
sufficient procedural guidance to officers who wish
bona fide to carry out a proper procurement.
A series of procedural changes are necessary
to improve efficiency (in terms of speed of
processing and the obtaining of best value) while
preserving safeguards for fairness and probity.
The GFR should be amended to explicitly permit
the use of new procedures which are already used in
the public sector elsewhere in the world and even
in India, especially for externally-aided projects.

The first is the method of quality-cum-cost
based selection (QCBS) whereby evaluation of
tenders is done through marks for quality and
marks for cost quoted by the bidder, with the
winner decided through the combined marks.
Absence of guidelines increases the chances of
procedural error and even corruption. To avoid
these risks, officers sometimes resort to pure pricebased tenders which can result in low price but
sub-standard quality of service.
Currently, they are confined to goods; they need

to be extended in a big way to services. Classes of
labour could be notified along with monthly /
hourly / daily rates for each kind. Even higher
level consultancy services can be incorporated in
this by creating a separate classification.
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Guidelines should be issued specifying essential

steps to ensure fairness (e.g. deciding the marking
scheme before opening bids, not opening price bids
till technical evaluation is finished and so on). For
large bids or new kinds of work, transparent and
open pre-bid consultations should be required
before finalising criteria, minimising surprises and
challenges at evaluation stage.
allowing purchase by government departments of

various things at a fixed price without tenders. The
rate is fixed through a competitive process by the
Director General of Supplies & Disposals.
Fixed cost method
Another method which should be introduced

is Fixed Cost Selection (FCS). For repetitive types
of work which can be quantified well, the FCS
method eliminates the complications of price
comparison.
The tendering authority (perhaps with the aid

of specialised consultants) prepares an estimate
(including milestones and timing of payment) of
what would be the reasonable cost. That then
becomes the fixed cost of the contract.
Bids are invited disclosing the fixed cost and

evaluated purely on their technical merits without
discussion or evaluation of price because the price
is fixed in advance.
Regardless of which firm is selected, the amount
payable remains the same. A margin of, say, 10
per cent for physical contingencies/ additional
work arising during execution may be allowed.
The scope for corruption through pricing

changes is eliminated and the decision maker
cannot cause a financial loss or gain to the
government.
The selection is free from fear of allegations of
causing avoidable loss or infructuous expenditure
from the audit angle or wrongful loss without public
interest from the anti-corruption angle.
The only remaining issue is fairness among the
bidders which is less susceptible to controversy
when no financial loss is involved.
Rate contracts (also known as framework
agreements) provide a very useful service by
Preliminary scrutiny
The setting of the rates should be done by an

independent agency after following a proper
competitive process similar to that used for goods.
Departments can determine the quantity of labour
involved and buy services from the accredited
companies who are under the rate contract.
A system should be introduced where service
providers can register with one central authority,
get classified by size or technical area, present /
update their credentials, pay an annual Earnest
Money Deposit (EMD) and then be eligible to submit
bids to any government tender (state or central)
without requirements of either verification of their
qualifications or payment of EMD.
Software companies, consultancy firms and so
on could be divided into, say, three or four classes
for each category based on their size, turnover and
so on, and pay a lumpsum EMD reflecting a
reasonable security amount for the number of bids
they may be simultaneously involved in at one time.
Registered contractors should be automatically
qualified for all contracts of the relevant class /
size without any separate verification of their
qualification criteria or payment of EMD.
Only unregistered tenderers would go through
detailed scrutiny of eligibility and payment of EMD.
The main benefits of such a system would be speed
(shortens or eliminates verification stage), reduced
overheads for government (less work to verify
credentials, preserve and refund EMDs) reduced
costs for bidders (who need not lock up money in
EMDs in multiple projects all over the country and
chase refunds), and consequent lower prices for
the government.
Currently, there is a natural predilection to
delay or defer a procurement at the first sign of a
problem. The implicit and sometimes unrecognised
assumption is that doing a fresh procurement will
improve matters. The reality is that delay incurs
[43]

costs, too: first, the service is not provided and the
public suffers thereby; second, there may be lost
revenues; and third the cost of the project is likely
to increase with inflation (though this may not
apply to equipment where prices often fall).
The General Financial Rules (GFR) should
provide that if the decision-takers decide to retender despite procedurally compliant bids being
available, they should explicitly consider the costs
of non-acceptance and resulting delay and record
reasons.
Thus the government as a buyer is handicapped

vis--vis private sector buyers. This can be mitigated
by introducing a vendor rating system. After each
contract, the organisation for which the work was
done should provide an evaluation in a standard
format to a central agency. The ratings should be
confidential at the individual level but aggregated
and disclosed. A problem faced by officers in
procuring services is that it is not clear who is
suitable and competent to advise on evaluating
technical questions or awarding technical marks.
Judging technical merit inevitably involves some
value judgements.
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The purpose of this is to force decision-makers

to consider the costs of inaction rather than focus
only on the risks of action, and increase for them
the danger that the deferral may have to be
defended. This will also require external agencies
such as audit and vigilance to factor in this
consideration. Overall, the aim is to reduce the
tendency of being indecisive where only decisions
are questioned but indecision is not.
to be eligible for new work unless formally

blacklisted which is very difficult to do and
generally stayed by courts for years even if done
properly.
Perverse incentives
A defect arising from the procedural fairness

obligations of government, is perverse incentives. If
contractors do a good job, they cannot be given
more work except through a tender which they
may not win. If they do bad work, they continue
Leaving ambiguity on this aspect allows the

corrupt to pack committees with poorly chosen
nominees while it leaves the honest with the risk
that their discretionary evaluation may be
questioned. Prescribing a standard committee
composition for different kinds of services and then
empanelling a sufficient number of technical experts
who can serve on those committees will reduce
this problem.
HURRY LEADS TO A HARRIED INDIA INC
A new law usually provides reasonable time

for familiarisation and compliance by those required
to do so. This good practice has not been followed
while notifying the Companies Act, 2013 (Act),
which replaced the Companies Act 1956.
Nearly 100 sections were notified to come into

force immediately in August and September, 2013,
and the corporate social responsibility provisions
were notified in February to come into effect on
April 1, 2014. During March 26-31, 183 sections (6
Schedules and various rules) were notified, with
the majority coming into force from April 1 and
others from the date of publication.
To add to the confusion, several rules on the
website of the ministry of corporate affairs, which
come into force from the date of publication in the
Gazette, continue to carry the legend To be
published in the Gazette of India.
Despite this, there are several provisions that
are welcome, such as the removal of government
approval for certain transactions with related
persons, and the requirement to have a woman
[44]
director for listed and certain public companies.

The requirement of one-third independent
directors for listed and certain public companies,
as well an internal auditor for listed and certain
companies with specified turnover or having
borrowings in excess of specified amounts are also
positive.
So is the introduction of electronic voting and
electronic mode of communication, and the
provision for creating a one-member company,
although this is available only to an Indian citizen
resident in India for 182 days during the preceding
year.
However, some provisions are unnecessary, for
example, the requirement to print the corporate
identification number on the companys business
letters, billheads, notices and official publications
in addition to the name and address of the
registered office, telephone, fax, e-mail ID and
website. So too the requirement to print all former
names during the previous two years, in case of
name change. Equally unnecessary is the

requirement to have not more than a gap of 120
days between board meetings and that even a
private company must have a director who has
stayed in India for not less than 182 days in the
previous year.
Clunky approach
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Several important sections are clumsily drafted.

Loans to subsidiaries Under the 1956 Act, the limits
on loans and investments did not apply to holding
company-subsidiary transactions and to private
companies.
Thus, the concept of interested shareholders

(alien to shareholders in company law
jurisprudence) has been introduced for the first time
and is entirely un-pragmatic in the context of
private, closely held companies. Further, section 188
applies to a company having a paid up capital of
Rs.10 crore or where the individual transactions
specified in sub-clauses (a) to (g) exceed the
prescribed financial limits. The use of the word
or renders the individual financial limits
meaningless except for companies with a paid up
capital of less than Rs.10 crore. Therefore, if a
companys turnover is RS.10 crore (or more), a
special resolution is necessary even for a token
financial transaction of one rupee. This too appears
to be the result of poor drafting rather than a
deliberate consequence.
This exemption was removed by the Act, with

the result that if the limits were exceeded,
shareholder approval became necessary. Due to
numerous representations, the Companies (Meetings
of Board and its Powers) Rules, 2014 rolled back
these provisions, stating that special resolution will
not be required by a company for: (i) loans given
to wholly owned subsidiaries; (ii) guarantee or
security given to a bank or financial institution for
a subsidiary; (iii) loan, guarantee or security given
to a wholly owned subsidiary or joint venture; and
(iv) investments in the securities of a wholly owned
subsidiary. However, the roll-back questions the
wisdom of the change in sections 185 and 186.
Related party transactions Similar lack of
pragmatism (and poor drafting) is evident in the
related party provisions. Sub-clauses (a) to (g) of
section 188 specify seven instances, including
contracts or arrangements of sale, purchase or
supply of goods, materials or rendering of services
and leasing of immovable property (earlier exempt)
where if the contract is with a related party, apart
from Board approval, 75 per cent affirmative vote
of shareholder (special resolution) is required. More
importantly, the related party shareholder cannot
vote.
Outside the ambit
Additionally, due to the new definition of

holding
company,
foreign
companies
incorporated outside India are outside the ambit of
related party. Consequently, transactions between
foreign companies and their Indian subsidiaries are
not related party transactions for purposes of
section 188 (although they may be related parties
under the Income-tax Act and Accounting Standard
18).
Therefore, corporate India will have to untie
several knots to unravel the true meaning and
ensure compliance. The redeeming feature,
however, is that arms length transactions entered
into in the ordinary course of business are exempt
from the ambit of the unhappily worded section
188!
COMPETITIVE RESTRUCTURING
Recently, we saw two significant merger

proposals that have implications for competition in
India. Sun Pharmaceuticals buy-out of Ranbaxy
and the likely acquisition of Lafarges assets here
by Holcim following the global merger of the two
cement giants will come under the Competition
Commission of Indias scrutiny. The Competition
Act requires any merger or amalgamation where
the combined entity has assets of over Rs.1,500 crore
or turnover exceeding Rs.4,500 crore to seek CCI
approval. The Sun-Ranbaxy and Holcim-Lafarge
deals are big enough to qualify for such reference,
which will determine whether the proposed

combinations can cause an appreciable adverse
on competition within the relevant market in
India.
There is no apparent reason why the above
deals should be blocked by the competition
watchdog. The Sun-Ranbaxy combine, even after
emerging as Indias largest player, will have a
domestic pharma market share of only slightly over
9 per cent. As for Holcim, it has about 59 million
tonnes (mt) of cement production capacity in India.
[45]

If Lafarge Indias 8 mt is added, the two together
will control around 18 per cent of the total domestic
capacity. However, Holcim-Lafarge would still have
formidable rivals not just in Aditya Birla/Ultratech
(60 mt), but also in those with individual capacity
ranges of 20-30 mt (Jaypee, Dalmia), 15-20 mt
(Ramco, India Cements), 10-15 mt (Shree, Binani)
and 5-10 mt (JK, JK Lakshmi, Prism). That makes
for a sufficiently large number of players to ensure
no potential abuse of dominant position now or
even if the Holcim-Lafarge merger fructifies.
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The only risk here is if the CCI, rather than

focus on all-India share, pays greater attention to
relevant markets. This could mean specific
therapeutic areas (take neuropsychiatry in the case
of Sun-Ranbaxy) and regional markets (eastern
India for Holcim-Lafarge). Then, CCI approval
could well be conditional upon the merged entities
undertaking selective asset divestment. But such
micro-definitions of relevant market and a preemptive approach towards preventing the creation
of dominant position should be adopted only in
extreme cases. The general approach should be to
allow mergers and acquisitions as a natural market
process. Consolidation and weeding out of
inefficient or struggling players are, in fact, desirable
in the current economic context, with a lot of
capacity across industries lying underutilised. While
such process of restructuring might create
dominant players, the important thing is to prevent
any actual abuse that arises from a dominant
position. This can be done by monitoring abnormal
price increases in particular drugs or doing away
with artificial non-tariff barriers on cement imports.
There is no case, for instance, to have mandatory
Bureau of Indian Standards certification which
is seldom given to overseas suppliers.
HOPE PREVAILS
Dispelling widespread gloom around the world

regarding Afghanistans political future and the
Talibans efforts to disrupt the elections, Afghans
turned out in large numbers at the polling booths
for voting. According to preliminary estimates,
nearly 7 million of the 12 million eligible voters, or
close to 60 per cent of the electorate, cast their
ballots to elect a new president to replace Hamid
Karzai, who has steered the nation after the US
forces ousted the Taliban at the end of 2001. The
previous presidential election in 2009, marred by
allegations of fraud, saw barely a third of the
electorate turn out to vote. The enthusiastic turnout
this time is a befitting political answer to the
Taliban, which mounted attacks that killed scores
of people.
If none of the eight presidential candidates gets
50 per cent of the votes cast, there will be a runoff between the top two candidates on May 28.
Opinion polls showed that the main contenders
are Abdullah Abdullah, a runner-up in the last
election, and Ashraf Ghani. Running a distant third
is Zalmai Rassoul who is said to have the outgoing
presidents backing. All three have sought to bridge
the deep divide in Afghanistan between Pashtuns
and non-Pashtuns by choosing vice presidential

candidates who expanded their ethnic appeal.
The next presidents political legitimacy,
however, will not resolve Afghanistans multiple
problems. The Taliban continues to enjoy
sanctuaries across the border in Pakistan. The
armed forces of Afghanistan have demonstrated
their growing capabilities by securing the nation
against violence but remain weak and vulnerable
to future destabilisation from the Pakistan army.
The nations economy is in bad shape as large
volumes of foreign aid that flowed in since 2002
dry up. All the presidential candidates have agreed
to ratify the security pact with the US that will
allow the presence of a few thousand American
troops after 2014. Since 2002, India has invested
considerable political and economic resources in
support of the fledgling democracy in Afghanistan.
The next government in Delhi will have to
demonstrate much stronger strategic commitment
to the unity, stability and security of Afghanistan
amid the continuing threats from Pakistan and
declining Western support to Kabul.
MUCH ADO
Not too long ago, foreign tourists used to

remark that the adventure tourism part of their
visit to India began the moment they landed at the
airport. Those were the days when Indias gateways
[46]
to the world were firmly under state control and

the quality of the facilities and services could indeed
induce a cringe.

Mercifully, things have changed. Indias major
airports have come a long way since, helped by
privatisation and the governments recognition that
its own services in these airports have to match the
gleaming glass facades and carpeted floors. Which
is why it came as a rude surprise when three Israeli
diplomats allegedly assaulted an immigration officer
at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi
last week, apparently because they were delayed
at the immigration counter on their way to
Kathmandu.
Arguably, then, the incident involving the Israeli

diplomats in Delhi was more about patience and
tact key attributes, especially for diplomats. The
Israeli embassy has done well to quickly repatriate
the young diplomats and avoid further
embarrassment. Israeli diplomats are considered to
generally be well-disposed towards India and this
aberration must remain a one-off incident between
friends. So far, the Israeli and Indian response to
the Delhi airport incident could be an example of
how good diplomacy protects ties before an ugly
incident can cast a shadow over it.
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Israel is a one-major-airport country and most

foreigners who exit through Tel Avivs Ben Gurion
Airport are known to remember the experience.
Although it has been a target of terrorist attacks,
the airport is considered one of the safest in the
world precisely because of the kind of security
dragnet thrown around it and the stringent checks
passengers are subjected to. While passengers can
complain about the experience, it is hard to grudge

the Israelis their elaborate security exercises,
considering the threats they face. And surely, they,
in turn, would be more understanding and tolerant
than others about procedural delays or security
drills in another country.
NO ENTRY
Recently, US retail major Walmart announced

plans to open 50 wholesale stores in India over the
next four to five years and indicated its resolve to
initiate business-to-business e-commerce. The fact
that, despite all the ups and downs, Walmart is
still keen to do business in India is heartening. But
given that, as of now, it does not have any plans
to start multibrand retail operations is indicative of
the grave political failures across the board.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh staked the
survival of his government by allowing 51 per cent
FDI in multibrand retail in September 2012. The
Congress even held a rally in Delhi to drum up
support for the policy and paid the price for
pushing it through when Mamata Banerjee walked
out of the UPA. But the rules governing the policy
were so restrictive that, in spite of multiple
amendments, only one foreign company, UK-based
Tesco, has entered the segment by tying up with
Tata Trent.
Across the fence, the BJP, in its manifesto, has
promised to scrap the policy altogether if it comes
to power even though in a note for a group of
ministers in 2002, the NDAs commerce minister
had proposed 100 per cent FDI in retail, while the

NDAs manifesto in 2004 promised 26 per cent
FDI in the sector. Further, in February, Narendra
Modi himself had urged traders to step up to the
challenge posed by large, modern shops and ecommerce this was widely interpreted as a
softening of the BJPs stand on FDI in multibrand
retail.
But Walmarts sustained interest and expansion
plans are a sign of hope and, if implemented, they
will greatly benefit kirana shops and SMEs. The
kicking off of wholesale operations would also buy
the next government some time, during which small
local traders and suppliers can get used to doing
business with a large multinational company and
realise the mutually beneficial relationship that is
waiting to be fully tapped.
But until large foreign players are allowed into
the front-end of the retail market, supply chains
will not improve and farmers wont benefit, big
Indian retailers will not become more efficient and
consumers wont gain. This is the challenge before
the next government.
A GUARANTEE FOR LEARNING
The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory

Education (RTE) Act, 2009 states that every child
in India has a right to a full-time elementary
education of satisfactory and equitable quality in a
formal school that satisfies certain essential norms

and standards. Even a cursory reading of the law
indicates that it covers every child in the age group
six to 14. It is clear that it is the governments
[47]

or non-attending children who may have poorer
learning levels.
Whether from government or other sources, all

currently available information shows that India is
close to universal enrolment. In that sense, schooling
is close to being guaranteed. Now comes the issue
of quality education. In recent months, there has
been a lot of debate about the learning levels of
Indias children it has focused not just on what
children are learning but also on how childrens
learning should be measured. Often, such
discussions follow the release of the ASER report
each year. The scale and depth of these debates
are a welcome sign. It indicates that we are
beginning a move from an exclusive focus on
schooling inputs towards learning outcomes and
quality. These discussions are a positive sign, as
they signal the broadening of the scope of policy
and practice of the right to education beyond the
usual norms of inputs to thinking about how and
what kind of education to guarantee in terms of
outcomes especially learning outcomes.
Most official studies of student achievement in

India, such as the one brought out periodically by
NCERT, focus only on government and aided
schools. But children attend many different types
of schools. These range from a variety of
government schools to a whole gamut of private
schools. Private schools can be aided as well as
unaided, recognised or not recognised; the
unrecognised schools may or may not be included
in official lists. Nationally, in rural India, the
proportion of children of elementary school age
who go to private schools is close to 30 per cent
and rising each year; in some states, this proportion
is above 50 per cent. Thus, school-based assessments
would not include children enrolled in the vast
majority of unlisted private schools (especially lowcost ones). By not including such children, we would
be leaving out increasing proportions of schoolgoing children. Finally, what about children
currently not enrolled in school? While this number
may be small among younger children, it rises as
we look at older groups. Dropping out of school is
often strongly correlated with falling behind
academically. This eventually results in leaving
school. If learning assessments are school-based,
then such children will not get included.
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responsibility to guarantee this right to quality

schooling for all.
The focus on how to improve learning will need

thinking about what learning needs improvement
and how that can be defined, measured and
strengthened. The standard models for measuring
student achievement and learning outcomes have
been developed in economically advanced
countries. In these countries, all children are in
school, and all schools are listed and fall under the
jurisdiction of some national or provincial authority.
Since a universal list of schools exists, it is possible
to draw a sample from it. And since all children
are accounted for, it is possible to sample in-school
children, by age or grade, nationally or provincially.
However, this may not be the case in countries like
ours. Before importing foreign models wholesale, it
is a good idea to take a look at our own realities
and develop methods and measures that suit our
conditions.
Let us move beyond universal enrolment to look

at school attendance. National figures for school
attendance are harder to come by than for
enrolment. But available data suggests the picture
varies considerably across the country. In India, all
measurement of school attendance (including
ASER) has noted huge variations in attendance
across states ranging from 90 per cent on a
random day in schools in southern India to close
to 60 per cent or below in schools in some northern
states. As a consequence, school-based assessments
of student learning that focus on students regularly
present will be biased, as they leave out irregular
[48]
However, information about the learning levels

of these children can reveal a lot about what needs
to be done to design second-chance schooling
opportunities and to improve learning within school
systems. By excluding them, such information and,
therefore, possible pressure points on the education
system will be lost. The RTE Act specifically talks
about mainstreaming such children into the school
system.
As Indians, we should be proud that our
country has reached close to universal enrolment.
This is a major achievement. Now we need to focus
on every child not only being in school but also
learning well. On the issue of student learning,
regardless of the source of the data be it ASER,
which is done by citizens or NAS, which is done
by government the evidence strongly suggests
we have a long way to go. In any given geography,
for understanding and tracking the progress of all
children, a representative sample of all children
must be drawn. Such a sample must include
children enrolled in government schools, children
enrolled in private and other schools, school dropouts and children who do not attend school
regularly. All of them deserve the fullest right to

schooling and learning. Following the guidelines of
the 12th Plan document, as states move to include
measurements of learning achievement in
elementary school, it is important to remember that
the government is responsible for guaranteeing
quality education to all children, and hence it is
important to track the learning levels of all children.
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The ASER survey, with a sample of well above

half a million children drawn from practically every
rural district in India, is perhaps the worlds largest
annual household survey of childrens learning. It
is a model adapted and used in countries like
Pakistan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Mali and
Senegal. With more than 200 million children of
school-going age, based on our own contexts, needs
and resources, we need to work out our own
models for teaching and learning. Aligned with
that, we need our own processes for assessment.
Desired goals and outcomes need to be our own
and achievable. Western countries have developed
schooling and learning models that suit their
conditions and their measurement systems have
come from their own experience and reality. As a
country of more than a billion people, we must
develop systems of assessment and implementation
that work for all our children.
where this writer was present, there was a heated

argument. Someone turned to me and asked Aap
ko asliyaat se itna lagav kyon hai? (Why are you
so attached to reality?) I was speechless. But this
officials words have been ringing in my ears since.
For policymakers, planners, practitioners and
parents, reality can be the only starting point as
we think of what our children need and what more
we need to do for them. Heres an example: close
to 10 years ago, the newly elected government in
Bihar wholeheartedly accepted that they had a large
number of children out of school one of the
highest in the country. Acceptance of this reality
and steadfast commitment to wiping out the
problem led to one of the most impressive efforts,
in the shortest period of time, to bring children to
school. The same honesty and openmindedness is
now needed for helping children learn. But we
cannot do that if we are not brave enough to take
a hard look at our own realities and at all our
children.
At a government meeting a few months ago,
The RTE was formulated to guarantee

education to all our children; it is time that this
right began to include a guarantee for learning,
and that our policies and practices enabled concrete
steps to improve childrens basic learning.
HARPOONED
IN ONE of Tokyos oldest whale restaurants,

Kujiraya, the whiff of resentment lingers along with
the cloying smell of fried whale meat as customers
digest unwelcome news from The Hague. On April
1st the International Court of Justice legally
skewered Japans scientific whale hunts to the
Antarctic Ocean. The hunt is partly paid for by the
sale of meat to high-end restaurants such as this
one, which is why opponents brand it as illegal
commercial whaling in disguise.
To the surprise of Japans small band of whalemeat lovers, the court agreed. Twelve of its 16
judges sided with Australia, which brought the
case, saying that Japan had no scientific reason to
cull about 1,000 Antarctic whales each year. The
court noted that the research had produced just
two peer-edited papers in a decade, in effect tugging
away the figleaf used to keep Japans whaling
programme alive since the international moratorium
in 1986 which ended commercial hunts.
The government has long argued that whaling
is an ancient Japanese tradition. Maintaining the
argument has been costly. A report by the
International Fund for Animal Welfare says Japan

has in effect nationalised its whaling programme,
subsidising it to the tune of $400m since 1988. Ever
fewer Japanese eat whale meat. For the middleaged diners, a visit to Kujiraya is an expensive
culinary trip down memory lane (industrial whaling
expanded after 1945, when a ravaged country was
desperate for fresh sources of protein). Over 5,000
tonnes now sits unsold in deep freezes.
The Hague decision comes at a key moment.
Rising oil prices and extra security to protect the
whaling fleet from attacks by militant
environmentalists have pushed the cost of each
annual Antarctic cull to over $10m, says Atsushi
Ishii, an expert on Japans environmental politics.
The whaling industry is so desperate for funds
and so politically connectedthat it managed to
claim $28m from tsunami relief funds in 2011,
causing an international outcry. The whaling fleet
badly needs a new mother ship, at a cost that would
spark a domestic debate about the point of the
campaign.
[49]

A spokesman for the fisheries agency says Japan
will abide by the decision but continue scientific
whaling in the western North Pacific, a cull that yields
about half that of the Antarctic catch. That will almost
certainly trigger another legal challenge. And scaling
down the size of Japans scientific study to meet the
courts new legal requirements could mean a cull of
barely ten whaleshardly worthwhile.
Japan has another option. It could follow
Norway (which taught Japan industrial whaling a
century ago) and Iceland by ignoring demands to

stop killing whales. But unlike those countries,
Japan withdrew its objection to the 1986
moratorium. Snubbing it now would also mean
flouting several international sea treaties, with
diplomatic consequences. Japan seems to have
swallowed this weeks lump of news and will keep
its fleet at home.
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INDIAS GOAL AT THE BRICS BANK
Recent official discussions on the Brazil, Russia,

India, China, South Africa or BRICS Development
Bank (BDB) have revolved round the location of its
headquarters and its voting and governance
structure. In India, there has been very little public
policy discussion around the strategic imperatives
that should inform Indias position on these issues.
At the political level, too, engagement on the issue
of mandate has been very limited in all BRICS
countries.
A new political mandate provides a window

for fresh discussion on strategic issues. There are
three key strategic objectives for the BDB, and its
governance structure should reflect these objectives.
India, together with Brazil and South Africa,

stands to benefit significantly if the BRICS bank
governance structure is conducive and attractive
to the participation of other developing countries.
Currently, China and Russia are the only countries
that are running a current account surplus. Hence,
for these countries, the BRICS Bank provides an
alternative avenue to invest these surpluses, other
than US treasury bonds. This is not the case with
others, including India. These countries are, in
effect, investing borrowed resources in BDB. They
are, at this stage, weak financial partners. Linking
finance to governance is therefore not attractive.
China has a disproportionately powerful voice

within BRICS due to its economic size and political
aggressiveness. The Chinese have initiated several
other moves to create alternative financial vehicles
outside BRICS, including an Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) infrastructure
fund, and a strategy to bid for the presidency of
the Asian Development Bank (ADB). For China,
BDB, therefore, is an attractive opportunity to invest
its surpluses while socializing the risk of its
expanded financial interventionswhen Myanmar
pushes back against further Chinese investment,
BDB can come in. This is an important context for
[50]
Chinas economic diplomacy in its approach to

BDB. The only realistic way to temper Chinese
dominance would be for India to argue for a
broader core membership of the BRICS
Development Bank.
A commonly believed lesson to learn from
whats happened at the World Trade Organization
(WTO) meetings in Bali is that the impact of Indias
economic diplomacy is considerably strengthened
when our interests coincide with those of a large
pool of developing countries. India is a large
developing country, and the poorest member of
the Group of Twenty (G-20) countries and BRICS.
We share the same acuteness with respect to
poverty, hunger and basic needs with other poor
developing countries. We should leverage this
positioning at the leaders level. An emphatic
position that identifies India with the broader
development imperative should therefore be
reflected in our approach to the governance of BDB.
This means advocating a governance structure that
provides voice to poor developing countries in the
governance of the bank.
It follows that the BRICS Bank should not admit
developed countries and other multilateral
developing banks controlled by developed countries
as members. The main argument for opening
membership to this constituency is the superior
leveraging power provided by their attractive
ratings profile. However, unless these entities were
to have a significant and demonstrable controlling
interest in BDB, the improvement in the ratings
profile would not be significant. Further, this will
dilute the branding of BDB as a bank for, of and
by the developing world.
Indias room for diplomatic leadership within
our neighbourhood is otherwise limited by
asymmetries in size and bilateral challenges. Our
neighbourhood has four least developed countries
which are all significant recipients of Indian bilateral

co-operation. They will be attractive borrowerclients for BDB. India should, therefore, advocate a
governance structure that allows us to use BDB as
an instrument to complement our efforts to provide
economic leadership in our neighbourhood.
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The above strategic objectives are best met by

advocating that the BRICS Development Bank is
founded on the principle of one stakeholder one
vote, in a complete break from existing practice in
other development banks. Each BRICS country will
hold equal equity in the bank. If China and Russia
wish to invest more of their surpluses in BDB they
can do so by lending to it. Delinking the issue of
capital adequacy from the governance structure is
of redline importance for India. This will also allow
speedy incorporation of other emerging developing
economies interested in joining BDB. India should
oppose any attempts to define the governance
structure on the basis of relative economic weight
or economic power of the membership.
developing countries in the governance of BDB can

be facilitated by creating a category of developing
country stakeholder members (SMs). SMs could
rotationally or permanently elect members to the
Board of BDB with full voting powers. The number
of SMs to be appointed to the board could vary
from one to five. One member will in essence be
gestural in terms of voice. At the other extreme,
five would imply that the equity holders and
stakeholder members would have equal voice. The
number of SMs is a function of the extent to which
BDB is branded as a bank of the global south. The
stronger the political preference for such a branding
the greater the number of SMs. However, it is key
that the principle of one member-one vote be
maintained as this would clearly differentiate the
BRICS Development Bank from entities such as the
International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and
regional development banks in which voting power
is directly related to financial clout.
Participation of non-emerging economy
Source: Live Mint
PARLIAMENT IN PUBLIC FINANCE
This series on making Parliament more effective

started with an argument against the anti-defection
law. The next two parts focused on Parliaments
role in making laws and in holding the government
accountable. In this concluding part, we look at its
role in allocating financial resources of the central
government.
The Constitution lays down the primacy of

Parliament in the process of determining the
spending priorities of the government. The
government cannot impose any taxes unless a law
is passed by Parliament. Any expenditure from the
Consolidated Fund of India needs prior sanction of
Parliament. Being Money Bills, they need to be
passed only by Lok Sabha, and Rajya Sabha has
only an advisory role.
Usually, each ministrys Demand for Grants (the

detailed spending plan) is referred to the relevant
departmentally related standing committee. This
committee reports its recommendations to
Parliament. Lok Sabha debates these demands.
Members of Parliament (MPs) may move motions
to cut the expenditure on any particular item. After
all the demands are passed, and the appropriations
approved, the government may go ahead with its
expenditure.
However, the process is often not followed in
spirit (and even in letter). The reference to
committees is not mandatory, and this process was

bypassed in 2009 and 2012. Lok Sabha discusses
only a few demands for grants: in the last 10 years,
just 6% of demands have been discussed on average.
There have also been instances when the standing
committee reports have been submitted just before
the demand for grants were discussed. For example,
in 2010, the standing committee on external affairs
submitted its report at 12 noon on 20 April, and
the discussion on the demands started at 2pm the
same day. The way forward is obvious. There has
to be greater emphasis on the examination of the
budget by the committees as well as on more
detailed discussion on the floor of the House. In
the first three Lok Sabhas, the budget was discussed
for 134 hours on average each year. This has fallen
to 35 hours each year in the last three Lok Sabhas.
This trend has to be reversed.
Indeed it is ironic that there is media and public
attention on the Members of Parliament Local Area
Development Scheme (MPLADS), with MPs being
asked about their individual performance on this score.
The total annual budget for MPLADS is about
Rs.4,000 crore. The annual central government budget
is about Rs.17 trillion. That means that MPLADS is
about 0.2% of the overall budget. Perhaps, as citizens,
we should ask our Lok Sabha MPs about their
contribution to the discussion on the budget rather
than focus on the MPLADS spending.
[51]

dates are decided by the government. Note the
inherent conflict: Parliament meets to hold the
government to account only on dates that the
government decides. This conflict can be resolved
in two ways. First, have a pre-determined calendar
of sitting dates. Second, require that a session is
called if a significant minority of MPs (say, 25% or
33% of the total membership) demands so.
Parliament has an important role in monitoring

the expenditure too. The Constitution provides for
a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) who
audits government accounts. The Public Accounts
Committee of Parliament examines the reports of
the CAG and can make recommendations related
to the working of the government. This committee
needs to be strengthened in several ways. It needs
in-house expert research staff. It should have the
powers to summon ministers to explain policy
decisions. Its proceedings should be reported to
improve transparency in its working.
We also need reforms in the way the daily

business agenda is decided. The current system
requires a consensus of all parties to get any
discussion on the agenda. This means that everyone,
including the government, has a veto on what may
be discussed. Again, one could consider changing
the rules to require a discussion if a significant
minority gives a written notice.
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However, there is a related technical problem.

By convention, Money Bills are taken as equivalent
to a vote of confidence. That is, the government is
expected to resign if it is not granted the amount
demanded. This convention limits Parliaments
flexibility to make changes to the budget without
voting out an incumbent government. It would be
useful to revisit this convention.
As we conclude this series, it may be useful to

take a quick look at some other reforms that can
make Parliament more effective. Many of the
proposals made in this series need Parliament to
meet more often. Sittings have declined from 600
days on average in the first three Lok Sabhas to
350 days in the 15th Lok Sabha. One reason for
less frequent meetings is that Parliament session
In sum, there is urgent need for several reforms

to Parliamentary processes in order to enable our
MPs to be more effective. Even if some of the
proposals made in this series are pursued, there
could be a significant improvement in Parliaments
ability to make laws in an informed manner, hold
the government accountable for its actions, and
allocate financial resources in the best way, all for
the greater good of Indian citizens. Let us hope the
16th Lok Sabha rises to the challenge.
Source: Live Mint
IMFS PROMISING GROWTH PRONOUNCEMENT
The world economy has behaved like a googly

by turning in a rather unanticipated way.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) had

predicted in 2011 that the recovery from recession
would be slow in the advanced economies while it
would be quick in the emerging economies. It was
then called the two-speed recovery. The latest
World Economic Outlook released recently by the
multilateral lender says that global economic
recovery is actually being led by the rich countries
while the developing economies are still sluggish.
The two-speed recovery we are seeing now is a
mirror image of what was expected three years
ago.
A closer look at the numbers tells us what is
happening. The biggest increases in growth
forecasts for 2014 since January have been for
countries such as the UK, Germany and Spain.
The sharpest reductions have been for the likes of
Brazil, South Africa, Russia and Mexico. The
growth expectations for India, China and the US
have not changed at all since January.
[52]
A global economic recovery led by the rich

countries can be a double-edged sword for emerging
economies such as India. Faster growth in the
advanced economies should mean that there will
be more demand for exports from emerging
economies. But global financial conditions could
also tighten in the months ahead in case central
banks in the rich countries follow the lead taken
by the US in trimming monetary stimulus as their
economies recover, even though the current data
suggests that there are renewed deflationary
pressures in Europe and Japan. The risks from
tighter global financial conditions could be
particularly acute for countries with weak
economic fundamentals; they could be punished
during this transition.
India is now less exposed to such a risk. It is for
this reason that the Indian government deserves
credit for the way it has stabilized the economy
after the run on the rupee last year. The current
account deficit has been cut. Inflation seems to be
gradually trending down. The reported fiscal deficit

is not too far from its budgeted figure. There are
several valid reasons why each of these numbers
can be questioned but there can be little doubt that
India is no longer a natural candidate for the fragile
five grouping it found itself in about a year ago.
This is no mean achievement given the persistent
external imbalances in Brazil, Turkey and South
Africa.
IMF expects Indian growth to recover to 6.4%

in 2015 even as inflation continues to ease. That is
hard to believe. Much depends on what the
potential growth rate in Indiaor what it can
maintain without stoking inflationis right now.
The Reserve Bank of India has suggested earlier
this month that Indias potential growth rate is
around 6%. The economy is now expanding at
below this level. Such a negative output gap will
disappear in case economic growth goes up by even
one percentage point. And there is no way the
potential growth rate can be pushed unless
companies get back into investment mode and the
government switches its spending from subsidies
to infrastructure.
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Stability should not be seen as an end in itself.

It is merely a precondition for a growth recovery.
The road ahead still seems bumpy. Even though
around half the slowdown in India can be
explained by domestic rather than external factors,
the IMF analysis of the pattern of global growth
suggests that higher exports to a recovering global
economy can provide an initial push when
domestic demand continues to be weak. The fact
that the rupee is now more competitive than it
was for most of the past few years will also help
net exports. But this newspaper continues to believe
that a sustainable recovery cannot be nurtured
unless the private sector investment cycle turns

followed by structural reforms that try to address
various constraints on the supply side.
The next government has its task cut out.

Source: Live Mint
WHY INDIA NEEDS ACTIVIST SHAREHOLDERS
Over the past year, the ministry of corporate

affairs, and the Securities and Exchange Board of
India (Sebi) have implemented several key
regulatory changes to make companies more
accountable to shareholders. But the provisions on
corporate governance and minority rights will have
teeth only when Indias institutional investors
insurers and mutual fundstake the lead in
exerting their rights. Unfortunately, this class of
investors has been conspicuous by its silence on
key corporate issues.
In its latest move to address the problem, Sebi
has asked mutual funds to record specific rationale
supporting their voting decision (for, against or
abstain) with respect to each vote proposal and
disclose these records on a quarterly basis. Sebis
latest directive comes three years after it had asked
mutual funds to start playing an active role in
exercising their voting rights in companies where
they held shares, and disclose information related
to their voting record on an annual basis.
Despite Sebis earlier directive, the participation

of mutual funds in voting decisions has been dismal.
But the disclosures of voting records brought the
extent of passivity of asset managers to the fore.
An analysis of mutual funds voting patterns by
advisory firm InGovern released last year showed
that of the total proposals that came their way in
2012-13, fund houses abstained from voting in 52%
of the cases, and voted in favour of 47% of the
total proposals. They opposed only 1% of the

proposals. Mutual funds are entitled to support,
oppose or abstain from voting but it seems most of
them prefer to choose the easy way out by
abstaining. While smaller fund houses were more
frequent absentees, even the countrys second largest
fund house, ICICI Prudential Asset Management
Co. Ltd with assets worth over Rs.1 trillion,
abstained from voting 91% of times in 2012-13.
To be sure, there are exceptions to this trend of
passivity. Earlier this year, when Maruti Suzuki
announced its plans to allow its Japanese parent
Suzuki to set up a fully owned subsidiary in Gujarat,
and to source products from it, leading mutual
funds and insurers united in their opposition to
the proposal forcing the Maruti board to offer a
vote to minority shareholders. Last year, stateowned insurer, Life Insurance Corp. of India had
voiced its opposition to the move by Ambuja
Cementsto acquire a majority stake in ACC Ltd in
a complex restructuring deal involving payments
to Swiss parent Holcim Ltd. Such exceptions are
rare in the annals of Indian corporate history.
Most asset managers in India shy away from
taking a stance against promoter interests, and fail
to stand up for the rights of minority shareholders.
Along with a class of truly independent directors,
institutional investors can potentially be the best
bulwark against manipulative practices by errant
promoters. In several mature markets, fund
[53]

managers have played an active role in demanding
greater transparency and in improving corporate
governance standards. It is often said that the
California public employees pension fund
(CALPERS) has been more important than the
Sarbanes-Oxley Act in raising the bar on corporate
governance in the US.
Hopefully, Sebis latest directive will invite

greater public discussion on this issue, and the
greater scrutiny of their actions will force fund
managers to be more proactive in defending the
rights of the small investor. Mutual funds should
realize that they can find new customers once they
discover their own spine, and start acting as true
trustees should.
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India is still grappling for institutional fixes to

many of its economic problems but it is clear that
large institutional investors have a key role to play
in shaping corporate governance outcomes in the
country. At the moment, because of the
overwhelming influence of promoters on board
decisions and the conflict of interest in opposing
board resolutions (given that large corporations also

account for a significant chunk of a mutual funds
corpus), asset managers tend to shy away from
playing an activist role.
Source: Live Mint
!!!!!
[54]
CHRONICLE
IAS ACADEMY

14TH APRIL 2014 TO 20TH APRIL 2014
North Campus :
2520, Hudson Lane, Vijay Nagar Chowk, Near GTB Nagar,

Metro Station, Gate No. 4, Delhi-110009.
Nagar, New Delhi-110060.
Noida Campus :
D-108, Sector-2, Noida (U.P.) - 201301.
Call: 9953120676, 9582263947

CONTENTS
TOPICS
Pg. No.
National ......................................................................................................................... 4-8

International ............................................................................................................... 9-13
Economy .................................................................................................................... 16-18
Health ......................................................................................................................... 23-24
News in Brief........................................................................................................... 25-29
Merger Medicine
30
Handling the Energy Crisis
30
Haunted by Inflation
32
Obamacare and Vanishing Facts
32
Reining in Cancer
33
Salutary Judgment
34
Jobless growth, no more
34
UNHCR Faults Cyprus on Refugee Protection
36
No Country for Whistle-Blowers
37
Why do Indian Start-ups avoid Listing?
38
Innovation in Payment Banking
39
Getting India Back on Track
40
Policy Coordination in the Era of Easy Money
42
Behind the Industrial Growth Numbers
44
An Anti-Environment Political Discourse
45
Pension for a Paisa
46
The Right Inflation Target
47
We dont need any Litigation
47
Create jobs where the Job-seekers Are
48
Data Distortions
50
A Gesture of Defiance
50
Digital Heart Attack
53
Right Cause, Wrong Battle
53
Most Climate Models show El Ninos Return within Months, UN says
54
The Problem Next-Door
54
A Slippery Slope
55
We the Voters
56
One Court, two Mindsets
56
Words of War
58
Why not a Post Bank of India?
58
Cooling Dragon, Stumbling Elephant
59
The High-speed Trains are Coming
60
A Dark Chapter
61
Righting a Wrong
62
NATIONAL
NEW ROLE FOR WOMEN IN SSB
women in combat ranks in this border force. The
Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) force is the only
paramilitary organization denying women
combat roles.
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Breaking the male bastion in the Sashastra

Seema Bal (SSB), the government has approved
recruitment of young women as 'Combat Officers'
here. These women officers will have an
opportunity to serve in far-flung border locations
of the force which secures 'open' and important
Indian frontiers with Nepal and Bhutan. Young
women under and upto the age of 25 years will be
recruited as direct entry officers at the rank of
Assistant Commandants and the force will have
the trained women officers on ground by late 2015.
Till now, women could only don the combat

uniform in the officer cadre in three other central
security forces Central Reserve Police Force,
Central Industrial Security Force and Border
Security Force. The SSB, in 2007, was the first to
recruit women in junior ranks of constables. The
BSF was allowed to recruit women officers last
year and as part of women empowerment in the
premier forces, it was thought apt to induct
Under current rules, women can serve on the

front line in the armed forces but are banned from
close combat roles. Allowing women to become
combat officers in paramilitary forces can be a step
towards opening greater role for them in our armed
forces. Inducting Indian women officers into
additional combat roles also plays a critical role for
the Indian military along volatile borders. Women
in other world armies have also been inducted into
combat roles. The opportunity for the women to
represent in central armed forces as well as guard
border in combat mode will break away the
centuries old patriarchal trauma of women not only
in the society but also in the armed forces. It will
also inject a sense of humanism that can prevent
atrocities committed by army in war torn areas.
TRANSGENDERS GET THEIR DUE
The Supreme Courts grant of constitutional

recognition to transgenders as a third gender and
also gave them the right to have family is being
seen as a landmark judgement that put personal
autonomy and right of choice on par with human
dignity. The judgement was given by the bench of
Justices K.S. Radhakrishnan and A.K. Sikri. The
court directed the government to treat transgenders
as a socially and educationally backward class,
entitled to quotas in educational institutions and
for public appointments. The bench gave the
Centre, states and union territories six months to
implement its judgement.
Significantly, the verdict also opens a window

of hope for the other three categories of what is
called the LGBT community, comprising lesbians,
gays, bisexuals and transgenders. Earlier the
Supreme Court had turned the clock back on
homosexuals by withdrawing the legal protection
granted to them by the Delhi High Court in 2009.
[4]
The high court had decriminalised gay sex by

holding that Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code,
by criminalising consensual sexual acts of adults in
private, violated the principles of equality and nondiscrimination in the constitution. Under Section
377, voluntary carnal intercourse against the order
of nature with any man, woman or animal, is
punishable with imprisonment from 10 years to life.
Key points of the judgement:
Transgenders, as a distinct third gender
category, will have all rights under the law,

including the right to marry each other, adopt,
divorce, succession, inheritance and also to
claim benefits under welfare programmes such
as MNREGA.
The values of privacy, self-identity, autonomy
and personal integrity are fundamental rights

guaranteed to members of the transgender
community under Article 19(1)(a) of the

constitution of India and the state is bound
to protect and recognize those rights.
The other directions issued by the court are:

Transgender persons' right to decide their self-
The Court noted that since transgenders in

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India were neither male nor female, treating

them as any of these categories was denial of
their constitutional rights and social justice
and that the moral failure lies in the societys
unwillingness to embrace such gender
identities and expressions.
The discrimination faced by transgenders,
also known as Hijras, eunuchs, Kothis,
Aravanis, Jogappas, Shiv-Shakthis, among
others, was unimaginable and their rights
had to be protected, irrespective of
chromosomal sex, genitals, assigned birth
sex, or implied gender role to ensure a
dignified life for them.
A psychological test and not a biological test
has to be used to identify transgenders and
by recognising them as a third category, the
SC was only bridging the gap between the
law and the life.
Any insistence to undergo a sex re-assignment
surgery was immoral and illegal.
The court also pointed out that the term
transgender will include gay, lesbian and
bisexual.
identified gender is also upheld and the

Centre and state governments are directed to
grant legal recognition of their gender identity
such as male, female or transgenders.
Centre and states to operate separate HIV
sero-surveillance centres as hijras/
transgenders face several sexual health issues.
governments to address the problems of fear,
shame, gender dysphoria, social pressure,
depression, suicidal tendencies, social stigma etc.
and any insistence for sex-reassignment surgery.
proper medical care and separate toilets and
other facilities for them.
separate social welfare schemes for them for
their betterment.
governments to take steps to create public
awareness so that they feel to be a part and
parcel of the social life not to be treated as
untouchables.
Centre and states to take measures to help
transgenders regain their respect and place
in the society which they once enjoyed in
our cultural and social life.

CONTRADICTIONS TO THE AGE OF CONSENT
Child marriages were common throughout

human history. Today, child marriages are still
fairly widespread in some developing areas of the
world, such as parts of Africa, South Asia,
Southeast and East Asia, West Asia, Latin America,
and Oceania. The incidence rates of child marriage
have been falling in most parts of the world. Child
marriage is defined as a formal marriage or informal
union entered into by an individual before reaching
the age of 18. While child marriage is observed for
both boys and girls, the overwhelming majority of
those affected by the practice are girls, most of
whom are in poor socio-economic situations.
In India, a person can be booked for rape if he
indulges in a sexual relation with a woman less
than 18 years of age. But he may marry at 12, or
at an even younger age, and can validly
consummate the marriage at 15. This apparent
contradiction in the law on the age of consent may
have fettered the battle against child marriage in
India having more child brides than any other
nation in the world , but the government has chosen
to concede to the social realities of the nation.
The Centre has told the Supreme Court that it was
deemed not appropriate and practical to remove

this anomaly since there were at least 23 million
child brides in India, who constitute nearly half of
all child brides in the world.
The PIL by the organization Independent
Thought has emphasised that Exception 2 to Section
375 of the IPC allows sexual relationship with a
married girl at the age of 15 whereas under all the
others laws, a person below the age of 18 is a child.
Earlier, the government had refused to sign the firstever global resolution on early and forced marriage
of children, led by the UN which was supported by
107 countries. India had refused to sponsor the
measure, stating that the resolutions definition of
early marriage was vague. Now, responding to a
PIL that demanded removal of this disparity on age
of consent, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA)
conceded that while it was making efforts in a
discreet manner, to prohibit child marriage, making
the age of consent uniformly as 18 would throw up
several other issues. However, the MHA said its stand
on the issue of marital rape was pragmatic since
marriage, being a social institution, is the bedrock of
the society and ought to be protected.
[5]
CIC TO SPEED UP E-GOVERNANCE PROJECT

Seva, e-Pramaan and e-Taal, for all
ministries, departments and the Planning
Commission.
As almost 60 crore Aadhar numbers have
been issued, it would be appropriate if it

could now be a unifying and unique identity
in all e-Governance initiatives.
Linkage of UID in MMPs, wherever
required, has been suggested as a key

component in the e-Kranti concept note.
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Steps are being taken for Central Government

departments to have a Chief Information Officer for
IT adoption and to fast track e-governance projects
as a part of the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP).
It includes several other initiatives such as cloud
implementation for all mission mode projects
(MMPs). It has also been decided to fast-track the
adoption of e-Office for independent movement of
e-Files. It was decided that the National Informatics
Centre would prepare a technical note on these
challenges and possible solutions, and adequate
infrastructure for the growing demand of cloud will
also be stressed and provided.
A workshop on cloud platform would also be
organised by Department of Electronics and IT
(DeitY) for all departments of ministries. The
workshop will explain the features, capabilities and
the way forward for implementing cloud by default,
the note said.
Initiatives to be taken include:
DeitY will organise a workshop on the new
e-Initiatives in e-Governance, such as Mobile
The committee also suggested that a standard
mechanism should be established for

expeditious replication of e-Governance
projects across the country.
The note said this would speed up exchanges
by all e-Trade network partners, including

Customs, Seaports, Airports and Container
Corporation of India to enable a seamless
end-to-end import/export cycle.
In the case of digitally-signed exchanges,
paper documents could be done away with.
NOW CAG TO AUDIT ACCOUNTS OF PRIVATE TELECOM FIRMS

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) is
now eligible to audit the accounts of telecom firms
that share their revenues with the government. The
ruling has extended the reach of the CAG from
government and public sector companies to any
entity that may be using a public resource in its
business and sharing revenue with the government.
The origins of the case that has led to the Supreme
Court ruling lie in a dispute between a couple of
telecom companies and the government over
accounting of revenues, which is crucial to
determining the licence fee payable to the
government. The government suspected that the
companies were accounting for revenues in a
manner that would lower their fee liability.
The principle behind the ruling is

unexceptionable and gains resonance in the context
of scams in spectrum and coal blocks allocations
that were unearthed by the CAG. Politicians are
not beyond colluding with private firms to extract
rent from their control of public resources, and the
latter have been happy to play along. The fact is
that companies that use public resources have a
responsibility to bear, and if they play true and fair
they have nothing to fear from an audit, including
one by the CAG.
[6]
A CAG audit can be an irritant in the conduct

of daily business as records needs to be produced
and queries answered, especially because this will
be in addition to the statutory audit under the
Companies Act. If governments and the CAG
ensure that there is no harassment, there would be
no cause to protest against the audit itself, as
industry associations are now doing. The challenge
for the CAG will be in deploying adequate
resources and talent in such audits when called
upon by the government or the regulators. These
need to be completed and the reports submitted in
good time unlike traditional CAG audits of public
sector entities that are invariably delayed.
In a ruling that turns a new leaf on the scrutiny
of accounts of public-private partnerships and joint
ventures, the Supreme Court ordered that the
Comptroller and Auditor General of India was
authorised to examine the accounts of even private
companies if they were dealing with natural
resources. As per the Court, it was imperative to
ascertain how the government and the firms were
dealing with natural resources, which belonged to
the people of the country, and that the government
received its due share under the agreements. The
ruling is considered extremely significant as it will

have far-reaching consequences on a wide range of
sectors, particularly on discoms and natural gas,
where licences for exploitation of natural resources
have been granted by the government under
revenue-sharing clauses.
The CAG had initiated an audit after TRAI
found that some telecom operators were allegedly
under-reporting income to avoid sharing it with
the Government. The telecom companies had
approached the high court seeking a stay on the

CAG decision. Referring to the constitutional powers
of the CAG which is known as the guardian of the
purse, the court said, Parliament had an obligation
to ascertain whether the entire receipts by way of
licence fee and spectrum charges have been realised
by the Union of India and credited to the
consolidated fund of India and this task was
assigned to the CAG.
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15 MORE SITES ON WORLD HERITAGE LIST

The World Heritage Day, otherwise known as
the International Day for Monuments and Sites
and celebrated on April 18, every year, made India
proud when it got a special gift from the United
Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural
Organization which put 15 additional sites located
across the country in its tentative list of world
heritage sites. The Archaeological Survey of India

sees this development as an acknowledgement of
the diversity of architectural and the rich cultural
heritage of the country. India had submitted a list
of 33 sites to UNESCO, out of which the Organization
chose 15 sites in its tentative list. Now, 48 sites
stand a chance of becoming world heritage sites.
Process to confirm World Heritage

Status
The Nomination File: The concern department

in a particular country selects few sites and
nominates them for final inscription, every year to
the World Heritage centre. The centre sends it to
the Advisory bodies, the International Council on
Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and the World
Conservation Union (IUCN) for evaluation
mandate by the World Heritage Convention.
Only countries that have signed the World

Heritage Convention and pledged to protect their
natural and cultural heritage, can submit
nomination proposals for properties on their
territory to be considered for inclusion in
UNESCOs World Heritage List.
The nomination process for selecting World
Heritage site:
Tentative List: Countries create an inventory

of potential monuments and natural sites and
include them in the Tentative List.
Advisory Bodies: UNESCO appoints advisory

committees to evaluate the nominations.
World Heritage Committee: Once a site has been

nominated and evaluated, the intergovernmental
World Heritage Committee meets to decide which
sites will be inscribed on the World Heritage list.
CLEAN DRINKING WATER STILL A PROBLEM
Consumption of contaminated drinking water,

improper disposal of human excreta, lack of
personal and food hygiene, and improper disposal
of solid and liquid waste have been the major
causes of many diseases. Lakhs of children below
five years of age die in India due to diarrhoea
every year. These children bear a huge part of the
burden of disease resulting from the lack of hygiene
and sanitation.
Last year the UNICEF and the WHO had

reported that India has done very impressive work
in providing safe drinking water to its citizens, with
over 90% now getting treated water. This also meant
that India had achieved one of the Millennium
Development Goals of halving the number of those
without access to safe drinking water. But serious

doubts have been raised about this by this study of
water quality that is considered "safe".
A small study of water samples from urban and
rural households declared as getting drinking water
from improved sources show that about 42% of
urban and 60% of rural households were actually
getting contaminated water. About half of the
surveyed anganwadis, where small children and
pregnant mothers were taken care of also had
contaminated water.
A survey was carried out which covered 685
households in a New Delhi slum (Kirti Nagar) and
1,192 households in 60 villages of Hardoi, a poor
rural district of Uttar Pradesh. Apart from interviews
[7]

with people, the survey carried out tests on the water
used by the household for drinking purposes using
a UNICEF-validated rapid test for coliform bacteria.
This test determines whether the water carries
bacteria that originate in human faeces. Water was
found contaminated in 415% of urban and 60% of
rural households. The consequences of drinking
contaminated water were evident in the survey. It
was reported that in urban homes 24% and in rural

homes 55% of children had suffered diarrhea in the
past 15 days. Fever was reported in 34% urban
children and 49% rural children. Bad water has the
most harmful effect on small children because
immunities have not yet developed. The survey found
that 11% of urban homes and 23% of rural homes
had experienced the death of an infant.
DOCTORS TO HANDLE CHILD ABUSE CASES MORE CAREFULLY

how to identify cases of child abuse, workshops
and an information booklet.
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Cases of child abuse are rampant in India and

have risen alarmingly in recent times. The
government has taken lots of measures to check
this evil. Taking up the responsibility of identifying
and reporting cases of child abuse, the countrys
largest non-government organisation of allopathic
doctors, the Indian Medical Association (IMA), is
joining hands with United Nations International
Childrens Fund (UNICEF) to sensitise doctors on
the issue. This is IMAs first nation-wide initiative
to protect and safeguard children. The programmes
planned as part of the initiative include sessions on
Doctors across the country see an alarming rise

in the number of child abuse cases. Most of the
times they are not sure of the correct questions to
ask in the case, how to document and collect
evidence, reassure the child/parents and then the
procedure to inform the correct authorities to take
action in the matter. So, the programme hopes to
educate doctors in this regard. The aim is to identify
and report abuse as early as possible to ensure that
the child remains safe.
RTE TO FOCUS ON LEARNING
The landmark passing of the Right of Children

to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009
marked a historic moment for the children of India.
For the first time in Indias history, children could
be guaranteed their right to quality elementary
education by the state with the help of families and
communities. Few countries in the world have such
a national provision to ensure child-centered, childfriendly education to help all children develop to
their fullest potential. The Constitution (Eighty-sixth
Amendment) Act, 2002 inserted Article 21-A in the
Constitution of India to provide free and compulsory
education to all children in the age group of six to
fourteen years as a Fundamental Right in such a
manner as the State may, by law, determined.
levels of learning remain dismal. The discussion

included some child-friendly schools in the country
equipped with interactive and creative tools to
ensure better learning. Experts suggest the need to
collectively advocate and offer support for
promoting such schools in India.
Accelerated efforts and reforms through RTE:
Recently, the UNICEF has recommended that

the Right to Education (RTE) should shift focus
from Right of access to Education to Right to
Learn, to achieve RTE and quality education with
equity for girls and boys,. The UNICEF-backed
roundtable focused on increasing institutional
capacity to implement RTE, extending RTE to preschool and secondary education and improving
quality. Independent assessments on Indian schools
reveal while India is doing considerably well in
creation of school infrastructure and enrollment,
Creative and sustained initiatives are crucial
to train more than one million new and

untrained teachers within the next five years
and to reinforce the skills of in-service teachers
to ensure child-friendly education.
Families and communities also have a large
role to play to ensure child-friendly education

for each and every one of the estimated 190
million girls and boys in India who should be
in elementary school today.
Disparities must be eliminated to assure
quality with equity. Investing in preschool is

a key strategy in meeting goals.
Bringing eight million out-of-school children
into classes at the appropriate age level with

the support to stay in school and succeed,
poses a major challenge necessitating flexible,
innovative approaches.

[8]
INTERNATIONAL
IPCC WARNS YET AGAIN FOR RISING GLOBAL EMISSIONS
Though the IPCC did not get into the countryspecific recommendation, it enlisted number of
measures which can be taken up by developing
countries like India, China and Brazil. The
recommendations regarding reduction of subsidy
for fossil fuels, diesel and petrol specifically in
transport sector, and use of energy efficient
products through strict mechanism/testing are
couple of suggestions which can be adopted by
India. Scientists also highlighted that there are
many co-benefits of these measures which India
can adopt. They also pitched for substantial use
of renewable energy and said these efforts had
"co-benefits" as cutting down fossil fuel
consumption would save money, besides lowering
emissions. The use of climate smart technology
and efficient use of water in agriculture would
help countries like India in fighting the adverse
affects of El Nino which may hit India this year
or other extreme weather events
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Global warming posing great threat to the

environment is a fact not hidden by anyone.
Countries are consistently trying to reduce its
adverse effects with measures available at their
end. Nearly two weeks after predicting a gloomy
future for the world due to global warming, a UN
panel has come out with yet another alarming
report, telling the global community that the
emissions of climate-damaging greenhouse gases
(GHGs) have increased substantially despite
reduction measures adopted by different countries.
The report by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change (IPCC) said the emissions grew
more quickly between 2000 and 2010 than in each
of the three previous decades. It, however,
emphasized that the world has several measures
to fight climate change effectively.
Globally, 25% of greenhouse gas emissions

come from land use. This number was lower for
India as there was no large-scale deforestation,
compared with some other countries such as
Brazil. India needs to implement the Green India
mission seriously to have more green cover, design
a policy for soil conservation and improve soil
fertility to ensure food security. India must look
to reduce its dependence on oil, which is an
imported commodity, and promote renewable
energy. This should be done to reduce its import
bill and cut dependence on imported technology,
and not for the sake of mitigation.
The report Mitigation of Climate Change

carries a number of recommendations for policy
makers which can be implemented so that the
level of emission is reduced and the world is saved
from disastrous consequences of global warming.
The summary for policymakers shows that
ambitious temperature goals would require serious
emissions reductions. The report has analysed
1,200 scenarios from scientific literature generated
by 31 modelling teams around the world to explore
the economic, technological and institutional
prerequisites and implications of mitigation
pathways.
Key points of the Report:
The panel urged nations to take measures to
lower global GHGs emissions by 40-70% from

the 2010 level by mid-century if the world
wanted to limit the increase in global mean
temperature to a manageable 2 degrees.
Pitching
for a low-carbon future by

increasing use of renewable energy and
substantially cutting down consumption of
fossil fuels.
Emissions must be cut down to "near zero
by the end of this century", saying "ambitious

mitigation may even require removing
carbon dioxide from the atmosphere".
It highlighted that the stabilizing greenhouse
gas concentration in the atmosphere requires

emissions reductions from energy production
and use, transport, building, industry, land
use, forestry, agriculture and human
settlements.
[9]
AIRPOCALYPSE" CONFRONTS CHINA

development for clean energy and energy
efficiency. Its 12th five-year plan included
targets to increase R&D spending by focusing
on seven priority industries, three of which new energy, energy conservation and
environmental protection, and clean vehicles
- would contribute to low-carbon growth.
Policies to tackle Pollution: A new report by the
China Meteorological Administration found that
China has experienced more smoggy days this year
than in any year since 1961. A global study published
in The Lancet reported that ambient air pollution is
the fourth leading cause of death in China.
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China is currently confronted with a cooling

economy and faces challenges on multiple fronts.
The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change confirms the risks of climate
change and humans' central role in it and China is
no less vulnerable to it. One-third of its coastline
is highly vulnerable to rising seas that will probably
lead to the relocation of coastal communities. The
countrys agricultural production - including rice,
wheat and corn, are likely to fall within a few
decades due to shifts in precipitation and soil
quality. Health impacts, including malaria and
other infectious diseases, are also expected to mount
as global temperatures rise.
Keeping all this in view, its leaders are moving

ahead with significant policy measures and reforms
which will not only help drive China's economic
development but will address the mounting threat
of climate change as well. As China moves to tackle
issues related to the economy, pollution and
urbanisation, each carries opportunities to shift the
country's emissions trajectory and make progress
on climate change.
Policies for recovering Economy:
China's economic reform is high on the
agenda. The need to restructure the economy

and adopt a new growth model for the
coming decades is widely recognised.
While major questions remain about the scope
of reform, China's leaders identified the

environment and innovation as two key areas
to address.
As China's economy undergoes a transition,
the country will benefit from this emphasis

on innovation. This shift can be seen in the
deployment of renewable-energy technologies
that can drive growth and alter the country's
emissions profile.
China is already the world's leading investor
in clean energy, putting in more than US$65

billion last year. According to the latest report
from the International Energy Agency, by
2035, China is expected to have built more
renewable power plants than the US,
European Union and Japan combined.
China also has the largest installed wind
capacity in the world and is working to

update its power grid to match.
China is investing heavily in research and
[10]
China announced it would invest US$275
billion to improve air quality. The government

recently declared a ban on new coal-fired
power plants in three key population centres.
It is also implementing mandatory energy
efficiency upgrades and fuel switching; it is

piloting carbon trading markets in seven regions
It has introduced a non-binding target to cap
annual energy use at 4 billion tonnes of coal

equivalent by 2015.
In responding to local air pollution, China is
likely to make a dent in carbon dioxide emissions.
Policies for Urban Transition: There is huge

potential of urbanization for economic growth in
China. By 2030, 1 billion people - about two-thirds
of China's population - are expected to live in cities,
requiring as many as 50,000 new tall buildings.
Well-designed cities offer cleaner air, shorter
commutes and greater access to recreation

and commerce. This, in turn, can attract top
talent and lucrative industries.
Cities can reduce per capita energy use and
emissions. These are important considerations

as the National Development and Reform
Commission is expected to announce its new
10-year urbanisation strategy.
For China, maintaining a robust economy is

paramount and so is ensuring social stability. As the
country focuses on economic growth, breathable air
and vibrant cities, it can also shift to a lower-carbon
pathway. Upcoming policy choices, including the
development of the 13th five-year plan, will lay out
a more comprehensive picture of the government's
approach and reveal the country's priorities. China's
leaders could present a new global vision of
development for a major emerging economy.
UAE TO BOOST EMPLOYMENT

Finer points of the upcoming Law:
Incentives offered to citizens will include
access to loans, contracts with state-owned

companies, and land grants for industrial and
agricultural projects, as well as exemptions
on customs tax for raw material and
equipment.
The draft law also requires government
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In order to boost entrepreneurship the UAE is

in process of finalizing a new law with broad
incentives. This is a part of a wider push to create
jobs for a burgeoning young population. The law
which is, aimed at encouraging job creation by
helping Emiratis start small and medium-sized
businesses is expected to go into effect within the
next three months after Cabinet gives its approval.
The new law allocates 10 percent of the capital of
the UAEs development bank toward funding the
scheme. Incentives offered to citizens will include
access to finance and contracts with state-owned
companies.
The International Monetary Fund has already
warned that up to 1.6 million young people will
enter the workforce in the next five years in Saudi
Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar and the
UAE, but only around 600,000 will find jobs in the
private sector by 2018. Across Gulf Arab countries,
governments are backing similar efforts to create
more private sector jobs in a region where
government still employs the vast majority of citizens
and the need to create jobs is urgent. As the success
of any country's economy greatly depends on small
and medium enterprise; this sector contributed to
more than 60 percent to the country's non-oil
economy. He said the government has a plan to
boost that figure to 70 percent by 2020.
agencies to contract at least 10 percent of their

needs with these firms. Companies that the
state owns more than a 25-percent stake in
would have to contract at least 5 percent of
their purchasing, service and consulting needs
with the firms.
The Emirates Development Bank will have to
ensure at least 10 percent of its loans are

directed to small- and medium-sized firms
under the new law.
Each of the seven emirates of the UAE can
enhance the new scheme with additional

incentives.
The law is the latest in a series of reforms the
oil-rich UAE has undertaken in recent years

to diversify its economy. The UAE's economy
is estimated to grow by 4.5 percent this year,
supported by its tourism, hospitality and real
estate markets.
CANADA SUSPENDS COMMONWEALTH FUNDING
Pointing to the Secretariats silence on alleged

war crimes and rights abuse in Sri Lanka, which
currently chairs the international association,
Canada has announced its decision to withhold
funding to the Commonwealth Secretariat. While
Sri Lanka remains chair of the 53-member bloc,
Canada's Can$10 million (US$9 million) annual
contribution to the Commonwealth Secretariat
will instead go for two years toward combating
the practice of child, early and forced marriage.
As per Canada, as a host of the 2013
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting
and current Chair in Office, Sri Lanka has a duty
to take meaningful action on human rights,
political reconciliation and accountability, but it
has failed to realize progress on any of these
issues. Sri Lanka has faced international pressure
over accusations of war crimes during the bloody
finale to its civil war in 2009, in which the UN
says as many as 40,000 Tamil civilians may have
been killed but Colombo has denied the

accusations.
The Commonwealth Secretariat is responsible
for facilitating cooperation between member states,
organizing meetings, and advising on policy
development. Canada believes that if the
Commonwealth is to remain relevant it must stand
in defence of the basic principles of freedom,
democracy and respect for human dignity, which
are the very foundations upon which the
Commonwealth was built. The withdrawal of
funding comes after Canadian Prime Minister
Stephen Harper, along with the leaders of India
and Mauritius, boycotted a Commonwealth leaders
summit hosted by Sri Lanka last November.
Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh
Sharma has expressed disappointment at this step
taken by Canada to suspend contributions to the
Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation.
[11]

The member countries believe that the difficult
adjustments to Commonwealth development
programmes would be made, and expressed
confidence that important priorities agreed on by
Commonwealth member states collectively can still

be delivered, with results and impact for the benefit
of the people of the Commonwealth in accordance
with the current strategic plan.
ACCORD REACHED TO EASE TENSION IN EAST UKRAINE

six hours of talks between Mr. Kerry; Mr. Lavrov;
Andrii Deshchytsia, the interim Ukrainian foreign
minister; and Catherine Ashton, the foreign policy
chief for the European Union called on all
sides in Ukraine to refrain from violence or
provocative behavior and rejected all forms of
intolerance, including anti-Semitism.
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As a positive measure to ease on-going

tensions , the Ukrainian government reached an
agreement with the United States, Russia and
the European Union that called for armed proRussian bands in eastern Ukraine to surrender
the government buildings they have seized and
that outlined other steps to defuse a crisis that
has rattled the international community. The
diplomatic accord, represented the first time
Russia and Ukraine had found common ground
since protests toppled a pro-Moscow government
in Kiev, leading the Kremlin to annex the
Crimean Peninsula and threaten other parts of
Ukraine with 40,000 troops on its border.
But the Ukrainian crisis was over was not
signaled in any way by the top leaders, be it the
US President Obama or the Russian President
Vladimir V. Putin in Moscow. Mr. Obama did
not outline what those measures might be, but
the White House had assembled a list of more
Russian figures and institutions to sanction if
Russia did not pull back and the situation in
Ukraine continued to worsen. The president does
not plan to impose more stringent measures
against whole sectors of the Russian economy
unless Moscow sends in troops or otherwise
takes more drastic steps, a recognition of
resistance in Europe, which is more tied
economically to Russia.
The Geneva agreement that came out after
Important Points of the Ukraine Pact:

The interim Ukrainian government agreed
to grant amnesty to protesters who leave

the government buildings they have
occupied and give up their arms, unless
they are suspected of murder or other
capital crimes.
The Kiev government would also ensure that
constitutional revisions involve outreach to

all of Ukraines regions and political
constituencies, a reference to Russian
speakers in the eastern part of the country.
But the agreement
did not require Russia

to remove its troops from the border, nor
did it commit Moscow to hold direct talks
with Ukrainian officials.
Moreover, the agreement made no mention
of Russias seizure and annexation of

Crimea, an action deemed unacceptable by
the United States and Europe and yet
unlikely to be reversed, at least in the
foreseeable future.
ROADMAP UNVEILED FOR RELIEF
The Ukrainian leaders have laid out their

plans for implementing the agreements to
defuse the Ukraine crisis reached in Geneva by
the Foreign Ministers of Russia, the United
States, the European Union and Ukraine. The
pro-Western leaders have vowed to devolve
power to the regions and to guarantee
language rights to Russian speakers under a
broad constitutional reform. The government
is ready for full-fledged constitutional reform,
which will secure powers of the regions, abolish
regional and district state administrations and
[12]
allow people to elect instead respective councils

and executive committees.
The government had submitted a draft to the
Ukrainian Parliament that would grant immunity
from criminal and administrative prosecution
to protesters provided they surrender their
weapons. The Ukrainian leaders gave no
timeframe for the proposed reforms, but earlier
Mr. Yatsenyuk called for a nation-wide discussion
of the constitutional reform by October 1. The
amended Constitution will also accord special
status to the Russian language.
USA BARRED IRANS PICK FOR UN ENVOY

interests." He has also issued a statement saying
that he would only regard the legislation as
guidance, warning it could infringe upon his
executive powers as president.
The United States would not issue a visa to
Aboutalebi because he was involved in the hostage
crisis at the US embassy in Tehran. The move
followed outrage in Congress over his selection by
Iran and reflected the extent to which the episode
in 1979, which was seen as a humiliation for the
United States, still challenges Obama's efforts to
improve relations with Tehran.
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The spat over Hamid Aboutalebi's nomination

has blown up amid a cautious thaw in relations
between the US and Iran as Tehran's new
leadership seeks to negotiate a nuclear treaty with
global powers and President Barack Obama signed
into law a bill designed to bar Iran's pick for UN
ambassador from US soil over his links to the 1979
American embassy hostage siege. The law bars from
US soil "any representative to the United Nations
who the president determines has been engaged in
terrorist activity against the United States or its
allies and may pose a threat to US national security
[13]
INDIA AND THE WORLD

INDIA, CHINA HOLD STRATEGIC DIALOGUE
deficit with China also figured in the dialogue. Like
India, China too is concerned over the return of
Taliban and Al-Qaida which could have a destabilizing effect on its Muslim Uygur Xinjiang
province which is experiencing a spat of terrorist
attacks. India was expected to flag its concerns
once again on USD 35 billion annual trade deficit
and see major opening for IT and pharmaceutical
products in Chinese markets besides investments
from China.
Plans were also finalized to hold the year long
Glimpses of India festival all over China. The Indian
embassy has drawn out an ambitious plan to hold
events showcasing India's cultural prowess besides
business and investment opportunities as part of
year of friendly exchanges initiative being observed
this year.
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India and China held the sixth round of

strategic dialogue reviewing the status of bilateral
relations and exploring new initiatives to deepen
the emerging ties. The talks were chaired by Foreign
secretary Sujatha Singh with her Chinese
counterpart vice foreign minister Liu Zhenmin.
Ahead of the talks the two sides were committed
to review the entire range of bilateral relations
including plans for leadership-level visits in the
second half of this year of India-China friendly
exchanges. The two sides had in-depth exchanges
on bilateral relations, high level exchanges, practical
cooperation, international and regional issues of
mutual concern. A host of issues including mutual
concerns over stability in Afghanistan in the
backdrop of the US plans to withdraw its troops
from there besides India's over USD 35 billion trade
INDIA TO HELP AFGHANISTAN VIA MOSCOW
With speculation of a diplomatic gain, India

has firmed up a far-reaching deal with Russia to
supply arms to Afghanistan, under which New
Delhi will pay for the military equipment that will
be sourced from Moscow. All this will be done
ahead of NATO troops downsizing their presence
in Afghanistan. The deal, which had been under
intense negotiations for the past few months, was
clinched after a high-level Indian team made a quiet
trip to Moscow and stitched up the loose ends. The
first order under this deal is already being executed.
Finer points of the Deal are:
While Russia may separately supply its own
adding that a survey of such equipment has

been carried out.
On the training front, the Indian position
remains the same. While trying to meet

Afghan demands for more seats here, the
government is still against setting up any
facility in Afghanistan and posting instructors
there.
Besides, India has also held preliminary
conversations with China on jointly

improving the connectivity infrastructure in
Afghanistans mining belt so that the
resources can be better exploited.
range of Kalashnikovs, the Indian financing

will largely focus on artillery guns, air support
in the form of choppers and even armoured
vehicles, including tanks.
Both countries already have interests in
A range of non-lethal items could also make
India, through the strategic partnership with

Afghanistan, is committed to provide arms and
ammunition to strengthen the Afghan National
Army. The arrangement with Moscow allows New
Delhi to fulfill this commitment. The issue was
debated at length on various occasions in the Cabinet
it to the list depending on the nature of the

requirement.
A part of the arrangement is an exercise to
refit some old Russian-made equipment lying

with Afghanistan for years, sources said,
[14]
specific mining projects and are looking to

expand their presence, which would aid
Afghanistans economy.

Committee on Security, which eventually arrived at
two conclusions that India will have no troop
presence in Afghanistan; and that India will not
provide small arms even though some are
manufactured domestically. The logic behind the

second decision was to avoid a situation where any
India-marked small arms make their way into
Kashmir or to the hinterland through terrorist outfits.
PHILIPPINES BID TO CURB RICE IMPORTS GAINS SUPPORT

India and China have supported the
Philippines request to the World Trade
Organisation for continuing its import restrictions
on rice in line with its food security needs. India
has been fighting for all developing countries at
the WTO to ensure that their rights to food security
are not breached. The Philippines request should
be supported by all countries. India itself is engaged
in a tough battle at the WTO for legitimising farm
subsidies for its food procurement programme and
is keen to support poorer countries seeking special
treatment for ensuring food security.
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Private-sector rice importers cannot flood the

Philippine market with foreign supplies at their will
since quantitative restrictions (QRs) on importation
are still in effect, according to a coalition of
agriculture industry groups. In 1995, the WTO
allowed the Philippines to impose a 10-year quota
system for rice importation. The QR was extended
in 2004 and then lapsed in 2012. The Philippines
has been requesting the WTO to further extend the
QR on rice up to 2017. The QR is being seen as a
measure that would buy time for local farmers to
prepare for free trade under the WTO in light of
the governments goal of achieving self-sufficiency
in rice production by end-2015.
Under the quantitative restriction system,
Philippines is allowed to import 350,000 tonnes of
rice annually under the Minimum Access Volume
(MAV). Imports under the MAV quota are levied
a duty of 40 per cent, while imports above the
quota are levied a higher import duty of 50 per
cent. The Philippines has argued that the restrictive
duties are necessary to protect its local farmers.
Indonesia and Vietnam, too, have come out in

support and together with India and China have
urged other countries to conclude consultations
with the Philippines early. Since the Philippines
has been continuing with its quantitative
restrictions on rice imports despite the special
dispensation lapsing in 2012, it can be dragged
into dispute by any WTO member country for
breaching multilateral rules that ban such
restrictions.
[15]
ECONOMY
STAGNANT SHARE IN INDIAS
growth see-sawed from 2.6 per cent in the second

quarter to 7.2 per cent in the third, then back to
3.9 per cent in the fourth.
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In its trade forecast report The World Trade

Organisation (WTO) has marked the countrys
growing current account deficit as an area of
concern as Indias share in global exports and
ranking amongst top exporters remained
unchanged in 2013. The country was ranked 13
amongst top exporting countries as opposed to last
years ranking of 19, but the improvement was only
on paper. The change was on account of the
European Union being considered as a single
member as opposed to the earlier practice of EU
member-countries being ranked separately. The
forecast expressed concerns over Indias large
current account deficit and its vulnerability to
financial market volatility. As per the Report, the
rise in financial market volatility was most keenly
felt in emerging markets with large current account
deficits. This is especially true of India, where output
GLOBAL EXPORT
Finer points of the Report are:
The prospect for 2015 is better with a 5.3 per
cent expected growth in merchandise trade.
The forecast upgraded the expected world
trade growth for 2014 to 4.7 per cent from

4.5 per cent estimated earlier.
India exported goods worth $312 billion in
2013 posting a 5 per cent rise over the

previous year. Its share in world exports was
1.7 per cent the same as the previous year.
Indias imports contracted 5 per cent in 2013
to $466 billion, which the WTO attributed to

the countrys economic slowdown.
RPT NORMS TIGHTENED BY SEBI
The Security Exchange Board of India has made

it mandatory for all companies to formulate a policy
on their dealings with the related parties and the
materiality of its Related Party Transactions (RPTs).
Transactions which are either entered into
individually or taken together with previous
transactions during a financial year, are considered
material if it exceeds the higher of 5 per cent of
turnover or 20 per cent of net worth of the company.
RPTs require the approval of shareholders
through a special resolution with related parties
not given the right to vote on the transaction. Prior
approval of the audit committee of the company
board is also required for the RPTs. Companies
have to furnish a quarterly report containing details
of all material transactions with related parties,
along with the compliance report on corporate
governance, to the stock exchanges.
According to SEBI, members of the board and

key executives should disclose to the board whether
they have a material interest in any transaction or
matter directly affecting the company and that
[16]
companies must provide equal treatment to all

shareholders, including minority and foreign
shareholders, and establish a whistle-blower
mechanism.
The new norms include:
Independent directors will now have a five-
year term and can be re-elected only once

through a special resolution.
A person, serving as an independent director
for five years or more in a company as on

October 1, 2014, will be eligible for reappointment only once.
The
person becomes re-eligible for

appointment only after a gap of three years
of ceasing to be an independent director in
the company. Such persons cannot serve on
the boards of more than seven companies.
Whole-time directors in a listed company can,
however, be an independent director only in

three companies.
Appointment of a woman director is now
mandatory.

The Nomination Committee of the Board has
to lay down the criteria for evaluating the

performance of independent directors.
This would be done by the entire board,
excluding the director concerned, and
disclosed in the annual report.
Extension of tenure or re-appointment would
depend on the performance.

The monitoring cell established by stock
exchanges is now to ascertain the adequacy

and accuracy of disclosures made in the
quarterly compliance reports received by it
from companies.
NEW NORMS FOR CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

companies should issue a formal letter of
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In March 2012, the Ministry of Corporate

Affairs constituted a committee headed by Adi
Godrej, chairman of Godrej Industries Ltd. to
formulate a policy document on corporate
governance. The panel submitted its recommendations which have been posted by SEBI. While
the Godrej panel recommendations are for all
companies, SEBI has confined implementation of
the suggestions to only the listed entities.
The paper hints at prohibiting companies from

granting superior rights to certain categories of
investors. When a company seeks funds from a
private equity investor or a financial institution, it
enters a shareholders subscription or investment
agreement that often grants certain superior rights
to these investors.
The regulator will consider certain changes in

rules to prevent investors from abusive related-party
transactions by controlling shareholders. It will also
explore the possibility of mandating listed firms to
secure shareholder approval for the divestment of
shares in subsidiaries. This assumes significance in
the backdrop of instances of widespread resistance
by minority shareholders when promoters of several
companies opted to acquire controlling stakes in
subsidiary firms in the past.
Key recommendations of the Panel:
corporate governance norms should be
changed in such a way that they protect the

interests of all shareholders and disclose
matters, including the financial situation,
performance, ownership and governance of
the company.
companies should strive to bring diversity to
the board, and incentives for top management
should be based on remuneration aligned with
the long-term interest of the company.
To ensure that the interests of minority
shareholders are protected, listed firms above
a certain market cap may be mandated to
have at least one director appointed by
minority shareholders.
appointment when non-executive directors and

independent directors are recruited, and when
an independent director resigns, the person
should state the reason for stepping down.
Sebi should examine the question of a
minimum and maximum age for independent

directors. Currently, there is no age limit for
such directors.
The regulator also proposes to align the
remuneration norms stated in the Companies

Bill for independent directors.
The paper is in favour of performance
evaluation of independent directors, based on

attendance and contribution to board meetings,
to ensure that such directors deliver on their
duties towards shareholders appropriately.
Sebi will also examine whether a restriction
on the number of independent directorships

can be imposed. According to ministry of
corporate affairs norms, the maximum
number of public companies in which an
individual may serve as an independent
director is capped at seven. Sebi will examine
whether such restrictions can be imposed on
listed firms. Currently, there is no restriction
on the number of independent directorships.
To ensure adequate accountability standards
at companies, Sebi will also consider a

proposal to make a whistle-blower mechanism
compulsory.
In an effort to bring parity among all classes
of shareholders, the paper has suggested eVoting for all resolutions of a listed company.
This will enable wider participation of
shareholders in corporate democracy.
The paper has also proposed to make it
mandatory for companies to get approval

from minority shareholders for chief executive
pay beyond a limit in some Indian companies.
[17]

In order to strengthen monitoring, Sebi will
consider the corporate governance rating of

companies by credit rating firms, and
inspections by stock exchanges and other
agencies.
What the Companies Bill says?
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According to the Companies Bill, independent

directors can hold office for a term of up to five
years, but are eligible for reappointment following
a special resolution. Such directors may currently
serve for nine years, however, according to the

existing norms. The independent directors are not
entitled to any remuneration, other than sitting fees,
reimbursement of expenses for participation in the
board and other meetings, and profit-related
commissions approved by the members. As far as
directorships are concerned, the new Companies
Bill has proposed that no person can hold office as
a director in more than 20 companies at the same
time, with the maximum number of public sector
companies being 10.
[18]

CLONED ADULT STEM CELLS: NOT TOO FAR
illnesses that might one day be treated with stem
cells, such as heart failure and vision loss, primarily
affect adults. Patient-specific stem cells would have
to be created from older cells, not infant or fetal
ones. A year ago, Mitalipov led the team that used
nuclear transfer of fetal and infant DNA to produce
stem cells, the first time that had been accomplished
in humans of any age.
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Stem cells are a class of undifferentiated cells

that are able to differentiate into specialized cell
types. Commonly, stem cells come from two main
sources: embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells.
Stem cells have the remarkable potential to develop
into many different cell types in the body during
early life and growth. In addition, in many tissues
they serve as a sort of internal repair system,
dividing essentially without limit to replenish other
cells as long as the person or animal is still alive.
When a stem cell divides, each new cell has the
potential either to remain a stem cell or become
another type of cell with a more specialized
function, such as a muscle cell, a red blood cell, or
a brain cell.
The first stem-cell lines from cloned human

embryos were reported in May last year by a team
led by reproductive biology specialist Shoukhrat
Mitalipov. Those cells carried genomes taken from
fetal cells or from cells of an eight-month-old baby,
and it was unclear whether this would be possible
using cells from older individuals.
Scientists now, are not too far from the goal of

creating stem cells perfectly matched to a patient's
DNA in order to treat diseases, creating patientspecific cell lines out of the skin cells of two adult
men. As the online journal Cell Stem Cell describes,
this is the first time researchers have achieved
"therapeutic cloning" of adults. Technically called
somatic-cell nuclear transfer, therapeutic cloning
means producing embryonic cells genetically
identical to a donor, usually for the purpose of
using those cells to treat disease. If confirmed by
other labs, it could prove significant because many
How will it be possible?
In therapeutic cloning, scientists use a zap of
electricity to fuse a grown cell, usually a skin

cell, with an ovum whose own DNA has been
removed.
The egg divides and multiplies, and within five
or six days it develops into an embryo shaped

like a hollow sphere. The interior cells are
"pluripotent" stem cells, which have the potential
to develop into any kind of human cell.
If the embryo were implanted in a uterus, it
could develop into a clone of the DNA donor,

without regulations in place, such embryos
could also be used for human reproductive
cloning.
The goal is to grow these embryonic stem
cells in lab dishes and coax them to turn into

specialized cells for therapeutic use against
an illness the DNA donor has, such as
Parkinson's disease, heart disease, multiple
sclerosis or type-1 diabetes.
Because the cells are genetically identical to
the donor's, they would not be rejected by

the immune system.
GLOBAL FLIGHT PLANE BY SOLAR IMPULSE
Solar Impulse is a Swiss engineering team

which after 12 years of research and testing, has
unveiled the craft that will take a round-the-worldtrip powered solely by photovoltaic power cells.
The aircraft is an evolution of the Solar Impulse
prototype which broke a succession of world
records for solar-powered flight last year. It also

crucially flew all day and all night, powered by
the batteries on board which had been charged by
the solar cells during the day.
The current plan is to set off from the Middle
East at the beginning of March 2015. The goal is to
[19]

start crossing the Pacific starting from April 15th.
The entire flight flying times may take about 20
days and night, spread over three months. The first
few legs across India and China are expected to be
relatively short, as the pilots get used to flying the
plane and work out any technical niggles that may
occur. Then the first big stretch of flight will be
across the Pacific Ocean.
The pilot will sit in the single reclinable seat,
Main features of the Aircraft:
At night the aircraft will run on battery power
The Solar Impulse 2 aircraft has a wingspan of
Solar Impulse 2 will have a cruising speed of
under 50 mph and will spend the daylight

hours of its flight ascending to around 8,000
meters above the ground using solar power.
and slowly drift down to around 1,500 meters
before climbing again at dawn.
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72 meters (236 feet), slightly larger than a

Boeing 747, but weighs just 2,300 kg (5,000 lb).
in a 3.8 cubic meter cabin that lacks heating

or air conditioning, and will experience
temperatures ranging from 40C to -40C.
About a third of that payload is batteries to
store the energy harvested by the 17,248 solar

cells, each 135 microns thick, spread across
its massive wings.
The four 17.5 hp electric motors that will
power the craft's propellers account for much

of the rest of Solar Impulse's weight.
Drawback is that to save weight there's no
full autopilot.
The limited computing power aboard can
keep the aircraft flying level in the right

direction, but should the plane's attitude shift
in-flight, vibrating bracelets on the pilot's
wrists will signal an alert to get a human
back on the controls.
ARTIFICIAL BLOOD TO BE TESTED ON HUMANS
Now, artificial blood from human stem cells

has been prepared by researchers in the UK which
will be tested on patients for the first time. This
remarkable research could pave the way for
manufacturing of blood on an industrial scale,
which could even supersede donated blood as the
main supply for patients.
The trial will involve three patients with

thalassaemia, a disorder of the red blood cells that
requires regular transfusions. They will receive
around 5 ml of blood initially to test whether the
cells behave normally in the body. But, the trial
should not be taken as a signal for people to stop
donating blood, but speculated that in 20 years,
artificial blood could be the norm.
The researcher spent several years refining a

technique to grow mature red blood cells from
induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells - adult skin or
blood cells that have been genetically reprogrammed
into a stem cell-like state. The iPS cells are cultured
in biochemical conditions similar to those in the
human body that trigger their transition towards

mature red blood cells. The team has currently
reached an efficiency of 40-50 per cent of initial
cells turning into red blood cells, and the process
takes about a month. The useable cells can then be
separated from immature blood cells and remaining
iPS cells using standard blood separation methods,
such as centrifuging. Artificial blood would be
made from cells taken from someone with the
relatively rare universal blood type O-, which can
be transfused into almost any patient.
The blood cells will be created from ordinary
donated skin cells called fibroblasts which are
genetically reprogrammed into a stem cell-like state.
The resulting induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells
have the same ability as embryonic stem cells to
develop into virtually any kind of body tissue. The
aim is to produce relatively rare O rhesus negative
blood that can safely be given to 95% of the
population, and the skin cell donors will have to
belong to this blood group.
3D STRUCTURE PARASITE GENOME TO COMBAT MALARIA
Malaria has always been a major cause of

deaths worldwide each year. According to the
World Health Organization, nearly 207 million
people were infected with malaria in 2012, leading
to 627,000 deaths. A 3D model of the human
malaria parasite genome at three different stages
[20]
in the parasite's life cycle has been generated by

scientists for the first time ever and this advance
can help identify new anti-malaria drugs. As per
the research, understanding the spatial organization
of chromosomes is essential to comprehend the
regulation of gene expression in any eukaryotic cell.

They then used the maps of all physical interactions
to generate a 3D model of the genome for each
stage of the parasite life cycle analyzed.
To understand the biology of an organism or
any cell type, scientists need to understand not only
the information encoded in the genome sequence
but also how the sequence is compacted and
physically organized in each cell/tissue, and how
changes in the 3D genome architecture can play a
critical role in regulating gene expression,
chromosome morphogenesis and genome stability
as knowing the genome architecture is critical in
regulating gene expression and, more important,
in regulating genes that are critical for parasite
virulence.
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The research team also found that those genes that

need to be highly expressed in the malaria parasite
tend to cluster in the same area of the cell nucleus.
On the other hand genes that need to be tightly
repressed are found elsewhere in the 3D structure
in a "repression center." Virulence genes in the
malaria parasite are a large family of genes that
are responsible for the parasite's survival inside
humans. These genes, all organized into one
repression centre in a distinct area in the nucleus,
seem to drive the full genome organization of the
parasite. Scientists used a 'chromosome conformation capture method,' followed by high
throughput sequencing technology a recently
developed methodology to analyze the organization
of chromosomes in the natural state of the cell.
NOW TTS SOFTWARE TO HELP FARMERS
Text-to-speech is also known as speech

synthesis, and it refers to an artificial process of
converting text into human speech. TTS can enable
the reading of computer display information for
the visually challenged person, or may simply be
used to augment the reading of a text message.
Current TTS applications include voice-enabled email and spoken prompts in voice response systems.
TTS is often used with voice recognition programs.
Initially, text-to-speech software was developed to
make written information accessible to the visually
impaired. Many different types of text-to-speech
software have been developed to make the
technology applicable to electronic communications,
and such software enables those with visual
impairment, as well as ordinary people to perform
a wide range of tasks on the computer and other
electronic devices.
Now, text-to-speech software (TTS), will also
be used to help out farmers. The application was
developed jointly by C-DAC Mumbai, IIT-Madras,
IIIT-Hyderabad, IIT-Kharagpur, and C-DAC
Thiruvananthapuram.
The second phase of the plan includes more
languages, more institutes have been roped in
IIT-Guwahati, IIT-Mandi, SSN College Chennai,
DA-IICT Ahmedabad, University of Guwahati and
IISc, Bangalore. Work is on to make the app
bilingual and to develop it in 13 languages,
including Malayalam, Kannada, Rajasthani,
Assamese, Manipuri, Odia and Bodo and also 13
flavours of English.
Special features of the app:

The will enable SMS messages to be read
out loud, for the benefit of farmers who

may have difficulty in reading. A large
population of farmers are uneducated. So
when they receive an SMS message either
containing agriculture-related advice or
some other thing, this app will read aloud
the content.
The app is available for download from the
Appstore of the Mobile Seva Project of

government of India, and is an Indian
language SMS Reader.
It takes the received SMS message as input
and reads it out aloud.
It supports five Indian languages Hindi,
Tamil, Marathi, Gujarathi and Telugu.
It also has options to select the language and
speed of the voice as normal, slow, slower,

fast and faster.
It uses the text-to-speech synthesis systems
developed by the Indian Language TTS

Consortium.
The app is part of the project launched by
the Indian Government to help farmers read
messages which may be of the following types:
advice to solve farming problems insect,
disease, fertilizer or weed management;
information on weather such as forecasts;
and updates on latest technology for
improving yield and much more.
Botanical
names have been transliterated in

the language of the text it is possible for the
app to read it out, but currently it is not
equipped to read out messages which are
bilingual.
[21]
FLOATING N-PLANT DESIGNED TO KILL TSUNAMI EFFECT

of water, would be unaffected by the motions of a
tsunami as earthquakes would have no direct
impact at all. The concept takes advantage of two
mature technologies: light-water nuclear reactors
and offshore oil and gas drilling platforms. The
concept also makes it easier to do away with the
plants at the end of its lifetime or decommissioning.
This could be accomplished by simply towing it
away to a central facility, as is done now for
submarine reactors. That would rapidly restore the
site to pristine conditions. This design could also
help to address practical construction issues that
have tended to make new nuclear plants
uneconomical. Shipyard construction allows for
better standardization and the all-steel design
eliminates the use of concrete which is often
responsible for construction delays and cost
overruns. There are no particular limits to the size
of such plants. They could be anywhere from small,
50-megawatt plants to 1,000-megawatt plants
matching today's largest facilities.
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A tsunami is a series of huge waves that can

cause great devastation and loss of life when they
strike a coast. These are caused by an underwater
earthquake, a volcanic eruption, a sub-marine
rockslide, or, more rarely, by an asteroid or
meteoroid crashing into in the water from space.
Many tsunamis could be detected before they hit
land, and the loss of life could be minimized, with
the use of modern technology, including
seismographs, computerized offshore buoys that can
measure changes in wave height, and a system of
sirens on the beach to alert people of potential
tsunami danger.
Tsunamis can be more devastating when they
occur in regions where nuclear plants are
established. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT) scientists have designed the world's first
floating nuclear plants that would be automatically
cooled by surrounding sea-water.
When tsunami struck the Fukushima Daiichi

nuclear plant complex; neither the quake nor the
inundation caused the ensuing contamination.
Rather, it was the lack of cooling for the reactor
cores, due to a shutdown of all power at the station,
which caused most of the harm. In case of floating
nuclear plants, during such a worst-case scenario,
the surrounding sea water would indefinitely
prevent any melting of fuel rods, or escape of
radioactive material. Also, a floating platform
several miles offshore, moored in about 100 metre
Speculations signal of a market for such plants

in Asia, which has a combination of high tsunami
risks and a rapidly growing need for new power
sources, especially for countries like, Japan,
Indonesia, Chile and Africa. Such plants could be
built in a shipyard, and then towed to their
destinations five to seven miles offshore, where they
would be moored to the seafloor and connected to
land by an underwater electric transmission line.
[22]
HEALTH
PANAMA DISEASE ENGULFS BANANAS
so far not been affected but FAO warned there
was a potential risk.
The United Nations has warned of the potential

massive destruction of the worlds $5 billion a
year banana crop as a plant disease spreads from
Asia to Africa and the Middle East. The TR4 strain
of Panama disease, which has already whole of
Southeast Asia, had been reported in Jordan and
Mozambique. As per the FAO, the disease is
posing a serious threat to production and export
of bananas. Top producers in Latin America,
including the worlds main producer Ecuador, have
The availability of bananas in Europe and the

US had not been affected by the disease because
their main suppliers were in Latin America and
the economic impact has been focused mainly in
Asia. But, the key problem wasreluctance in the
industry to realise the scale of the problem and its
excessive reliance on the Cavendish variety. The
global banana crop is worth around $5 billion and
over 100 million tonnes of bananas are traded every
year, with the biggest market being the US.
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Bananas are a key source of food in many

tropical countries. According to the U.N.s Food
and Agriculture Organization (FAO), a rampant
banana disease also known as the HIV of banana
plantations has threatened the worlds banana
crop, according to the U.N.s Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO). The fungal disease recently
spread from Asia, where its already caused
significant losses, to Africa and the Middle East.
There is no cure for TR4, which particularly

affects the Cavendish variety that accounts for 47%
of world banana productionby far the biggest.
The disease affects the trees but not the bananas
themselves and the only solution is to cut down
the trees, dig trenches between trees to prevent its
spread and impose strict quarantine measures.
INDIA HIT HARD BY CANCER CRISIS
The cancer burden in developing countries is

reaching pandemic proportions. Cancer is one of
the leading causes of death in India, with about 2.5
million cancer patients, 1 million new cases added
every year and with a chance of the disease rising
five-fold by 2025. India is facing a cancer crisis, with
smoking, belated diagnosis and unequal access to
treatment causing large-scale problems. The Indian
Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has urged the
Government of India to make cancer a notifiable
disease. There is a high probability of treating
cancers if detected early -- in Stage I or Stage II.
The need for political commitment and action
is at the heart of the solution to India's growing
cancer burden. The extent to which death and
illness from cancer will actually increase in the next
20 years will depend a lot on the investments made
in future decades in tobacco control, healthcare
delivery, cancer research, (and) clinical trials.
Boosting public awareness about smoking and of
the benefits a healthy diet and lifestyle, as well as
investment in vaccinations against cancer-causing

viruses is vital.
As per a report compiled by Kings Health
Partners Cancer Centre at Kings College London,
every year in India, around one million new cancer
cases are diagnosed and around 600,000 to 700,000
people die from cancer in India, with this death
toll projected to rise to around 1.2 million deaths
per year by 2035.
The Report also clarifies these points:
Although India has a relatively lower
incidence of cancer, the rate of deaths from

cancer, adjusted for age, is similar to that
seen in high-income countries.
Less than a third of patients with cancer in
India currently survive for more than five

years after diagnosis.
Around 95 per cent of the medical colleges
in India do not have comprehensive cancer

care services in the same campus.
[23]

The study showed that while incidence of
killer, accounting for more than one in five

of all deaths from cancer in women, while
forty percent of cancer cases in the country
are attributable to tobacco.
cancer in the Indian population is only about

a quarter of that in the US or Europe,
mortality rates among those diagnosed with
the disease are much higher.
Diagnosis is a problem, with a lack of cancer
Fewer than 30 percent of people with cancer
care, many patients to travel long distances

for treatment, and often to live in very harsh
conditions.
in India survive for more than five years after

their diagnosis -- a sign that cancer is being
spotted too late and that treatment is lacking,
while more than two-thirds of cancer deaths
occur among people aged 30 to 69.
In rural India, more than three quarters of
private practitioners, who are often the first

port of call for people sick with cancer, have
no medical qualifications.
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Breast cancer is the most common cancer
INDIA TO BECOME WORLD CAPITAL OF LIVER DISEASES BY 2025

The liver is a small organ located below the rib
cage on the right hand side of the stomach. It plays
an important role in digestion of food, absorption
of nutrients and elimination of toxic substances
from the body. Liver diseases comprise a vast range
of conditions that affect the normal functioning of
the liver. Liver diseases can be either inherited
through generations or they can even occur due to
some infectious agents like viruses or due to
chemicals. There are over 100 different types of
liver diseases and several lifestyle related things that
can lead to liver disease. Most common diseases
include alcoholic liver disease, hepatitis, liver
cirrhosis and haemochromatosis. Some liver
problems are temporary and go away on their own,
while other liver problems can last for a long time

and lead to serious complications.
NASH
disease is more advanced or cirrhosis develops.

The progression of NASH can take years, even
decades. The process can stop and, in some cases,
reverse on its own without specific therapy.
NASH is a common, often silent liver

disease. It resembles alcoholic liver disease, but
occurs in people who drink little or no alcohol.
The major feature in NASH is fat in the liver,
along with inflammation and damage. Most
people with NASH feel well and are not aware
that they have a liver problem.
NASH usually has few or no symptoms.

Patients generally feel well in the early stages
and only begin to have symptomssuch as
fatigue, weight loss, and weaknessonce the
Urbanisation and changes linked with it like

sedentary lifestyle, consumption of fattening food,
uncontrolled blood sugar, obesity, smoking and
high alcohol intake are leading Indians towards
higher incidence of fatty liver disease, and these
factors also increase the risk of Non Alcoholic
Steatohepatitis (NASH), a common, often silent
liver disease. NASH can lead to cancer if patients
are not treated in time. Fatty liver and NASH have
been found in all age groups, including children.
However, it is more common between the age group
of 40 and 49. It left untreated it could develop into
cancers, like those of the stomach.
A person with cirrhosis experiences fluid

retention, muscle wasting, bleeding from the
intestines, and liver failure. Liver transplantation
is the only treatment for advanced cirrhosis with
liver failure, and transplantation is increasingly
performed in people with NASH. NASH ranks
as one of the major causes of cirrhosis in America,
behind hepatitis C and alcoholic liver disease.
[24]
NEWS IN BRIEF
NEWSMAKERS
1975, Admiral Dhowan has commanded several
frontline warships, including the INS Delhi and
INS Khukri in the course of his 40-year career.
He commanded the Eastern Fleet, as Flag-OfficerCommanding of the Eastern fleet, and was Chief
of Staff at the Headquarters of the Eastern Naval
Command. Admiral Dhowan will now have to
effectively steer the Navy, which currently
operates 145 warships, which includes 50 major
combatants and 14 submarines, apart from
aircraft, helicopters and spy drones.
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Abdullah al-Thinni
Libya's interim Prime Minister, Abdullah alThinni resigned after he and his family were made
victim of a "cowardly attack". Thinni's resignation
comes less than a week after parliament tasked
him with forming a new cabinet and a month
after it ousted his predecessor for failing to rein in
the lawlessness gripping the North African
country. The government has struggled to control
brigades of former rebels nearly three years after
the fall of Muammar Gaddafi. The General
National Congress, the country's parliament, has
not yet officially recognised Thinni's resignation
and will decide what to do at its next session on
Tuesday, a spokesman said. Thinni would stay in
his post until a new prime minister is appointed.
Thinni was appointed in March after
parliament voted out his predecessor Ali Zeidan,
who had failed to end a standoff with rebels.
Admiral Robin Dhowan
Admiral RK Dhowan has been appointed as

Indias new navy chief. Admiral Dhowan, who
will have a 25-month tenure, has superseded
Vice-Admiral Shekhar Kumar Sinha, the current
Western Naval Command chief, to become India's
22nd Navy chief. Having been commissioned in
Abdelaziz Bouteflika
Algeria's President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has

won a fourth term in office taking more than
81% of the vote. The 77-year-old leader suffered
a stroke last year and rarely appears in public,
but stepped out to cast his vote in a wheelchair
in the presidential election. Mr Bouteflika took
office in 1999 when Algeria was still caught up
in a civil war between the military and Islamist
militants, and has been credited by supporters
for curbing the conflict and restoring some
economic stability. He scrapped constitutional
rules in 2008 limiting him to two terms in office,
and won elections the following year with 90%
of the vote.
OBITUARIES
Gabriel Garca Mrquez
One of the world's greatest novelists, Gabriel

Garca Mrquez, aged 87, passed away at his home
in Mexico. The official cause of death was a lung
infection. The Colombian writer won the Nobel
Prize in Literature in 1982, among many more top
literary awards. Garca Mrquez was a writer who
changed the lives of his readership. His novel ''Love

in the Time of Cholera" is the bestselling book
written in Spanish of all time. He also wrote many
more classics. Garca Mrquez is placed among
the most important writers ever by his critics. He
helped develop a style of writing called "magical
realism". Colombia has declared three days of
national mourning.
[25]
AWARD/PRIZES
61st National Film Awards
Jaatishwar (Bengali)
Best Female Playback Singer: Bela Shende for
Tuhya Dharma Koncha (Marathi)

Best Cinematography: Liars Dice (Hindi)
Best Screenplay:
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The Directorate of Film Festivals announced the

winners of 61st National Film Awards on 16th
April. Besides Dadasaheb Phalke award, the
awards were announced under three major
category i.e. feature films, non-feature films and
best writing on cinema.
Best Male Playback Singer: Rupankar for
The awards were established in 1954.

Annually, a national panel is appointed by
Government of India to select the winner in different
categories.
The winners are:
Feature Films
Best Feature Film: Ship of Theseus (English-
Hindi)
Indira Gandhi Award for Best Debut Film
Of A Director: Fandry (Marathi)
Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome
Entertainment: Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (Hindi)
Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film On
National Integration: Thalaimuraigal (Tamil)
Best Film on Social Issues: Tuhya Dharma
Koncha (Marathi)
Best Film On Environment Conservation/
Preservation: Perariyathavar (Malayalam)

Best Childrens Film: Kaphal (Hindi)
Best Direction: Hansal Mehta for Shahid
(Hindi)
Best Actor: Shared between Raj Kumar for
Shahid (Hindi) & Suraj Venjaramoodu for

Perariyathavar (Malayalam)
Best Actress: Geetanjali Thapa for Liars Dice
(Hindi)
Best Supporting Actor: Saurabh Shukla for Jolly
LLB (Hindi)
Best Supporting Actress: Amruta Subhash for
Astu (Marathi) & Aida El-Kashef for Ship of

Theseus (English-Hindi)
Best Child Artist: Somnath Avghade for Fandry
(Marathi) & Sadhana for Thanga Meengal

(Tamil)
[26]
i) Screenplay Writer (Original): P. Sheshadri

for December I (Kannada)
ii) Screenplay Writer (Adapted): Panchakshari
for Prakruti (Kannada)
iii) Dialogues: Sumitra Bhave for Astu (Marathi)
Best Audiography:
i) Location Sound Recordist: Madras Caf

(Hindi)
ii) Sound Design: Madras Caf (Hindi)
iii) Re-recordist of the final mixed track:
Swapaanam (Malayalam)
Best Editing: Vallinam (Tamil)
Best Production Design: Miss Lovely (Hindi)

Best Costume Designer: Sraboni Das for
Best Make-Up Artist: Vikram Gaikwad for
Best Music Direction:
i) Songs: Jaatishwar (Bengali)
ii) Background Score: Na Bangaaru Talli

(Telugu)
Best Lyrics: Thanga Meengal (Tamil) Na.
Muthukumar for the lyric Ananda Yaazhai
Special Jury Award: Shared by Yellow
(Marathi) & Miss Lovely (Hindi)
Best Special Effects: Jal (Hindi)
Best Choreography: Bhaag Milkha Bhaag
(Hindi) Ganesh Acharya for Maston ka Jhund
Best Feature Film In Each Of The Language
Specified In The Schedule VIII Of The

Constitution
Best Assamese Film: Ajeyo
Best Bengali Film: Bakita Byaktigato

Best Hindi Film: Jolly LLB
Best Kannada Film: December 1
Best Konkani Film: Baga Beach

Best Malayalam Film: North 24 Kaadham
Best Marathi Film: Aajcha Diwas Majha
Best Cinematography: Mandrake! Mandrake!
(Hindi)
Best Tamil Film: Thanga Meengal
Best Audiography: Chidiya Udh
Best Telugu Film: Na Bangaaru Talli
Best Editing: Gulabi Gang (Hindi, Bundelkhandi)
This year no award is given under Best Odiya
Best Music Direction: Yugadrashta (Assamese)
film category
Best Feature Film In Each Of The Language
Specified Other Than Schedule VIII Of The
Constitution
(Odia)
Special Mention: Accsex (English, Hindi);
Candles In The Wind (Punjabi, Hindi);

Dharmam (Tamil) and At the Cross Roads:
Nondon Bagchi Life and Living (English,
Bengali)
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Best English Film: The Coffin Maker
Best Narration/Voice Over: Kankee O Saapo
Best Khasi Film: RI
Best Sherdukpen Film: The Crossing Bridges
Special Mention: Yellow (Marathi) and Na
Bangaaru Talli (Telugu)
Non-Feature Films
Best Non Feature Film: Rangbhoomi (Hindi)
Best Debut Film Of A Director: Kanyaka
(Malayalam)
Best Biographical/Historical Reconstruction:
The Last Adieu (English)
Best Arts/Cultural Film: Shared between The
Lost Behrupiya (Hindi) and O Friend, This

Waiting! (English, Telugu)
Best Science & Technology Film: The Pad
Piper (English)
Best Promotional Film: The award shared
between Chasing The Rainbow (English) and

Kush (Hindi)
Best Environment Film Including Agriculture:
Foresting Life (Hindi, Assamese)
Best Film on Social Issues: Gulabi Gang (Hindi,
Bundelkhandi)
Best Educational Film: The Quantum Indians
(English)
Best Investigative Film: Katiyabaaz (Hindi,
Urdu, English)
Special
Jury Award: It is shared by

Ananthamurthy Not A BiographyBut A
Hypothesis (English) and Tamaash (Kashmiri)
Best Short Fiction Film: Mandrake! Mandrake!
(Hindi)
Best Film on Family Values: Heyro Party
(Bengali)
Best Direction: Chidiya Udh
Best Writing on Cinema
Best Book on Cinema: Cinema Ga Cinema
(Telugu) by Nandagopal
Best Film Critic: Alaka Sahani (English)
The National Film Awards along with Dada

Saheb Phalke honour, which goes to lyricist-director
Gulzar, are to be given by President Pranab
Mukherjee on May 3.
International Blindness Prevention Award

The International Blindness Prevention Award,
established in 1992, honors individuals who have
made significant contributions to the prevention of
blindness or restoration of sight worldwide.
The 2013 recipient of the American Academy
of Ophthalmology (AAO) International Blindness
Prevention Award, is Prof. Mohammad Daud
Khan. Prof. Mohammad Daud Khan was trained
as a doctor in Peshawar, Pakistan and as an
ophthalmologist in the United Kingdom. After 32
years of service in Peshawar, he retired from
government service in April 2009. However, he
continues to serve as the Chairman of
Comprehensive Health and Education Forum
International (CHEF International), a nongovernmental organization. Prof. Khan has been a
recipient of many national and international
awards, including: President of Pakistan Pride of
Performance Award, President of Pakistan OSP
Ramzan Ali Syed Gold Medal, APAO Jose Rizal
Gold Medal, ICO Duke Elder International Award,
SAARC Academy of Ophthalmology Lifetime
Achievement Award and APAO, Saudi Arabia and
Taiwan Prevention of Blindness Awards.
[27]
CULTURE/HERITAGE
Delhis Bid for Heritage Tag
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The UNESCO will be sending a team of

archaeological experts in June to examine the
heritage sites in New Delhi and Shahjahanabad,
which had been included in the dossier submitted
by the Union Culture Ministry, before Delhi is
accorded the tag of a World Heritage City. These
experts will be from South-East Asian countries
like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Singapore and Hong
Kong who are more familiar with Indian
monuments than archaeological experts from
Europe and the United States. To ensure unbiased
scrutiny of these sites, none of the experts will be
from India. After examining the sites, the experts
will prepare a report, based on which, UNESCO
will eventually decide whether to accord Delhi the
status of a World Heritage City or not. The
announcement would be made in June 2015. If
Delhi bags this title, it would give tourism a boost.
A team of archaeologists from Oxford headed

by Chris Gosden and Wendy Morrison have
commenced excavations along with experts from
the KCHR (Kerala Council for Historical Research)
at Pattanam, located 25 km north of Kochi. The
archaeologists have confirmed that it was an Indian
port frequented by Romans and have put to rest
doubts about the antiquity of the site.
If the excavations and surveys go as planned,
the UK team might also have answers to questions
such as why Pattanam was chosen to create a major
trading facility and how the once flourishing city
disappeared.
Pattanam has a long history of habitation dating
back to 10century BCE and its trade links with
Rome peaked between 1st century BCE and 4th
century CE. Some experts have identified Pattanam
as part of the lost port town of Muziris described
in ancient Tamil and Roman texts.
History of Pattanam to be Unraveled
The Kerala Council for Historical Research

(KCHR), which has been conducting excavations
at Pattanam since 2007, signed a memorandum of

understanding with the School of Archaeology,
University of Oxford, in 2010. The UK experts plan
to use airborne surveying techniques such as
LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) to map and
understand the surface characteristics of this
settlement.
Restoring Heritage Buildings
[28]
On April 18, that is, the World Heritage Day,

the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural
Heritage (INTACH) has listed top three sites in need
of urgent attention- The Mairie (Town Hall) in
Puducherry figures on top of the list, followed by

the V.O.C. School and the Calve College
Government Higher Secondary School.
Among all the buildings, the Mairie building,
where the Pondicherry Municipality functions, will
be given top priority. The Mairie (Town Hall) was
constructed in 1860. It served as the office of the
Mayor during the French rule. The conservation
project of the building will likely be funded by the
World Bank through the government of
Puducherry. The conservation project is in the

pipeline and discussions are on among the officials
concerned at the Puducherry municipality, tourism
department and INTACH, according to sources at
the municipality. INTACH has also proposed the
V.O.C. School and Calve College, which is
maintained by the maintained by the Public Works
Department.
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SPORTS
French Open Prize Money Raised
The French Tennis Federation hiked the prize

money for French Open which will rise to more
than 25 million (20.6m) this year, an increase of
3m (2.48m) from last year. The men's and
women's singles champions will each receive 1.65
million euros, a 10 per cent increase on last year's
top prize. But the main increases are for the early
losers, as those who fail to progress beyond the
second, third and fourth rounds will receive prize
money worth between 20 and 25 per cent more
than in 2013. According to the tournament director
Gilbert Ysern the increase in the prize money for
Roland-Garros is in line with the four-year plan
drawn up for the period 2013 to 2016.
The increase brings the French Open into line
with the other Grand Slam tournaments, with this
year's Australian Open offering prize money of 33
million Australian dollars ($30.98 million, 22.4
million euros). In 2013, Wimbledon prize money
rose to 22.56 ($37.7 million, 27.34 million euros)
and the total US Open prize money was worth
$33.6 million (24.28 million euros).
Abdul Hameed Wins Title
Shaik Abdul Hameed has become Indias firstever title winner at the Asian-level as he captured
the Asian Bowling Federations Thailand tour event.
Shaik defeated Mahmood Al Attar of UAE 242183 in the final. Both the mens title contenders
had an opened frame each in frame two, but Shaik
rolled three consecutive strikes to take a slender
lead of 9 pins when Mahmood came back in the
fifth and sixth frames. The Indian, however, rolled
another three consecutive strikes from frame seven
onwards while Mahmoods form tapered off. Shaik
went on to strike out for a comfortable victory over
Mahmood. Shaik won Indias first-ever medal in
the sport during the Commonwealth Tenpin
Bowling Championship 2002 in which he won gold
medals in Singles and Masters and a silver medal

in All Events.
ITF Asian Junior Tennis Championships

16 years old, Yun Seong Chung, lost one of his
racquets on the opening day of the ITF Asian Junior
tennis championships at the DLTA Complex.
Chung demonstrated remarkable temperament to
edge past top seed and defending champion Lee
Duck Hee 7-6(1), 7-6(3). Although the latter was
hampered by a thigh strain in the second set, he
fought admirably to ensure that the contest
remained worthy of a final. Essentially, Lee lost
this match due to poor performance in tie-breaks.
Yet, there were other opportunities for him to claim
a significant advantage. Lee began stronger of the
two as he gained from his opponents passiveness.
He won the first three games and Chung was
moved around the court at will. The momentum,
though, shifted towards the latter in the seventh
game when the former committed three double
faults to return the break of serve.
Vietnam Not to Host the Asiad
Vietnam has withdrawn from hosting the 2019

Asian Games as it lacked funds and the countrys
reputation could be at risk if the event flops.
Hosting this could help us promote the country's
image and position but if the hosting is not properly
and successfully prepared, it will have the opposite
effect as the state budget is limited and must be
prioritized for other immediate tasks. The
government's initial decision to host the games had
generated little excitement domestically, and there
had increasing opposition in the media and on
blogs. While the OCA will have to quickly decide
on a replacement host, it does have the benefit of
an extra year as Hanoi was to have been the first
games of a new schedule that would put the event
the year ahead of the Summer Olympics.
[29]
EDITORIALS
MERGER MEDICINE
Sun, and its founder Dilip Shanghvi, seem to
believe it is. The troubles aside, Ranbaxy is known
for its strength in generics and has a long research
and product pipeline. Besides, Ranbaxy owns wellknown over-the-counter brands such as Revital and
is present in emerging markets and in parts of the
developed world too. In India, the combined entity
catapults itself to the top of the table. Importantly,
buying distressed assets cheap and reviving them
seems to be part of Sun Pharmas DNA. It has
nursed at least three major companies abroad back
to health after acquiring them. Suns confidence
probably stems from this trait. Yet, Mr. Shanghvi
will be the first person to concede that Ranbaxy is
qualitatively a different challenge and more than
just turnaround skills will be needed to make this
deal shine. His biggest asset as he sets out to repair
Ranbaxys name in the U.S., however, will be Suns
own clean image. From a domestic market
perspective, the merger is good as it will create an
entity of a scale and size big enough to take on
emerging competition from multinationals. The
stock markets seem to agree with Suns strategy,
which is a big battle won. However, quickly settling
the issues with the U.S. regulators will be key to
the success of the merger, and Suns capabilities
will be fully tested in this effort.
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Digesting acquisitions is never easy in the

corporate world, especially when the acquirer and
target are of similar size. And when one of the two
companies is in distress, the merger can be testing
indeed. This is the challenge that Sun
Pharmaceuticals faces in its acquisition of Ranbaxy
Laboratories. In what is probably the biggest such
all-stock merger deal between two Indian
companies, Sun Pharma announced on April 7 that
it will be acquiring Ranbaxy using its own shares
as currency. The $4 billion deal, subject to
approvals, also includes an $800 million loan in
Ranbaxys books. Analysts have been quick to point
out that this is a bargain acquisition by Sun, given
that Ranbaxys valuation is half of what it was
when Japanese major Daiichi Sankyo acquired the
company from the original promoters in 2008. But
there is a reason why Ranbaxy came so cheap,
and that is its run-ins with regulatory authorities
in its largest overseas market, the U.S. The companys
four plants in India have been blacklisted and
barred from making supplies to the U.S. by that
countrys regulator for sub-standard manufacturing
practices. Worse, Ranbaxy underwent the
humiliation of pleading guilty to felony charges,
paying up $500 million as fine. So, the question to
ask is not whether it is a cheap acquisition but a
smart one for the ambitious Sun Pharma.
Source: The Hindu
HANDLING THE ENERGY CRISIS
India will soon witness a new government in

control. Among the multitude of burning issues,
the new government will have to face the challenge
of a growing energy crisis. It will require
extraordinary effort, innovative vision and viable
solutions to tackle the increasing demand for
energy, while maintaining an eco-friendly
approach. Energy commodities comprise gas, oil,
coal, renewable energy and electricity.
Currently, high levels of consumption with
respect to energy-related commodities are
paralysing operations in the country because of
[30]
non-performing policy initiatives. The demandsupply imbalance is evident across all commodities,
requiring serious efforts by the new government to
augment energy supplies to avoid a severe energy
supply crunch.
The Planning Commission indicates that by
2016-17, the country will manage an approximate
6.7 million tonnes of oil and by 2021-22, this will
rise to 850 million tonnes. However, this will meet
only 70 per cent of the expected demand; the
remaining 30 per cent will have to be sourced
through imports.

Even though India possesses a rich
heterogeneous mix of energy components, deterring
policies have created a difficult environment for
potential investors.
Demand for coal
The New Exploration Licensing Policy requires

revision to derive maximum benefits from gas
acquisition and create more employment
opportunities.
Further export of gas would set off expenses of
equivalent imports. We cant afford mindless
imports of coal, oil, gas as we are doing today,
while compromising our national energy security.
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Coal will continue its dominant position in

Indias energy mix for many years to come. Today,
54 per cent of the total electricity generation
capacity is coal-based, and more than 70 per cent
of energy generated is from coal-based power
plants. As per the 11th Five Year Plan (2007-12),
67 per cent of the planned capacity added is also
coal-based. While domestic production is set to
touch 795 MT in 2016-17, the projected demand
for coal will be 980 MT during the same period.
of more reserves. Opportunities regarding

exploration of gas must be formulated to maximise
foreign investment in a big way.
Coal reserves in India, presently mined by Coal

India Limited and its subsidiaries, are around 293.5
billion tonnes, with a few blocks being given to
private parties for production of electricity and
captive use. From 2012, the country has seen a
paradigm shift in coal policy, with the Comptroller
and Auditor General stating that there was a
national loss of Rs. 1,76,000 crore. This resulted in
the Ministry of Coal removing coal blocks, but it is
obvious that the new government will have to
collate a clean coal policy with respect to
exploration, mining and use.
Another important concern is the reduction in

dependability on imported coal. Last year for
instance, we imported 100 million tonnes from
Indonesia.
In addition, the next government must give
serious thought to pricing, regulation and resolving
disputes for domestic coal, in a manner favourable
to both coal blocks and users.
The KG-D6 basin experience has not gone down

well with the majority of the people, which is one
of the reasons why we need a complete overhaul
of the situation. The main issues of tariff are being
debated. The country has vast reserves of gas and
the new government should now explore attractive
opportunities to lure foreign investors for gas
exploration. The government can fix contracts
based on the O&M or Public-Private Partnership
model, which would ensure that operators dont
pocket extra profits or face undue losses. Natural
gas resources in India were an estimated 1330.26
billion cubic meters (as of March 31, 2012). There
has been a steady increase in the availability of
natural gas, mostly due to indigenous discoveries
We could provide a right of first refusal to stateowned companies if they undertook time-bound
responsibilities to do the job. We cant avoid private
sector participation given that we could not even
explore 40 per cent of our probable gas reserves in
last seven decades. Exploration is also capitalintensive and a risk-fraught business, which requires
expertise.
With lack of good resources, crude oil has to be
imported. However, the government needs to
address the issue of pricing of petroleum products
drawn from crude oil, which fluctuates every
fortnight. Instead of fortnightly revision, we can
have annual pricing based on the previous years
import parity. Current estimates of crude oil
reserves in India stood at 759.59 million tonnes,
with maximum reserves in the western offshore. In
March 2012, the crude oil refining capacity of the
country was 198 million tonnes per annum.
Investing in Electricity
Electricity has become the lifeline of the country,

with per capita consumption touching 1000 KW,
but we are still lagging behind China and other
developing countries. The total installed capacity
for electricity generation was 2,66,387 MW in
March 2013, but distributing electricity at the retail
level at affordable and reasonable prices is still a
nightmare. Secondly, the regulatory framework for
the electricity business needs strengthening. Loss
in distribution is a worrisome factor and sadly
efforts being taken to bring down losses are not
encouraging. The new government must invest in
this field, which may involve rationalising tariff
and incentivising reduction of losses.
Renewable energy generation has a potential
of 89,774 MW, with Gujarat having the highest
potential. Unfortunately, the country does not have
any existing Renewable Energy Law. Renewable
energy comprises 60 per cent of electricity and 40
[31]

per cent of other sectors. Climate change is a global
issue, warranting the new government to
implement a Renewable Energy Law, that would
make it mandatory for all conventional energy users
to use a certain percentage of renewable energy.
This process has started in electricity, but needs
strict implementation across all segments.
The new government must aggressively work

on energy as the main agenda. We should have an
energy commission for formulating synchronous
policies with other inter and intra ministerial
departments. States must also be taken into
confidence. Progress of the energy sector will
provide mindboggling opportunities for
employment and socio-economic growth, besides
raising the standard of living in the country.
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Merely levying a carbon tax on imported coal

will not yield sufficient results. Renewable energy
comprises solar, wind and biomass. Wind power
accounted for the highest capacity of total installed
renewable power at 69.65 per cent, with small
hydropower coming second at 13.64 per cent and

biomass power at 12.58 per cent.
Source: The Hindu
HAUNTED BY INFLATION
Price rise is one of the key issues in this election,

and the latest data on inflation spell bad news for
the incumbent UPA government; the monster is
rearing its head again after lying low over the last
three months. Retail inflation, specifically food price
inflation, has rebounded in March on the back of
rising prices of vegetables and fruits. Wholesale food
prices rose 9.9 per cent with rice shooting up 12.6
per cent and vegetable prices showing an inflation
of 8.6 per cent in March. As a whole, retail inflation
was higher at 8.31 per cent compared to 8.1 per
cent in February, while wholesale price inflation hit
5.7 per cent in March compared with 4.68 per cent
in the previous month. After a period of soft prices
for vegetables and fruits, courtesy the winter season,
prices have started moving up again. Given that
we are still in early summer, food prices are bound
to shoot further upwards, as they always do during
the season. With unseasonal rains and hailstorm in
parts of the country during spring, it is feared that
the rabi crop may have suffered damage. This
means that foodgrain prices will join the inflation
party, cutting deep into peoples pockets. The
rebound in inflation only serves to underline the
problem of rising prices half-way through the
election season, and it spells trouble at the hustings
for the UPA government.
The current dispensation will be handing over
a troubled legacy to the new government in the
form of inflation caused largely by structural

problems, especially in agriculture. Food prices have
been rising inexorably in the last few years, save
brief and intermittent spells of softness due to
seasonal factors. It is clear that there are serious
issues on the supply side when it comes to food
commodities, which the government has failed to
address. Tackling these issues will obviously be a
priority for the new government. The inflation in
respect of manufactured products is a matter of
concern indeed, coming as it does on the back of
a persisting weakness in industrial output. The
latest data have obvious implications for monetary
policy, and the Reserve Bank of India, which has
now shifted to the consumer price inflation as its
benchmark, will be watching closely indeed. It is
logical to expect that rates will be on hold until the
underlying trend manifests itself clearly. The coming
monsoon will be critical in determining near-term
inflationary trends, but there are worries there as
well with experts talking about the El Nino effect
this year. In the past, El Nino has resulted in suboptimal monsoons in India and policymakers must
be hoping that the predictions are wrong. What all
this means is that the new government will not
have much time to settle down in managing the
economy and will need to hit the ground running.
Source: The Hindu
OBAMACARE AND VANISHING FACTS
The April 11 resignation of U.S. Health and

Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen
Sebelius shows both the importance of President
Barack Obamas landmark healthcare legislation,
[32]
passed in 2009, and the extreme partisan divisions

which obtain in the U.S. Congress. Ms. Sebelius
has ostensibly resigned over the problems faced by
those Americans who tried to enrol online for health

elections but had his resignation accepted
immediately after the poll showed heavy
Republican losses. Yet, Ms. Sebeliuss departure will
reopen a debate which was being damped down
by the continuing high enrolment, and opponents
will probably target any continuing difficulties and
any Congressional or other questioning which Ms.
Sebelius resisted. Her putative successor, Ms.
Burwell, who won a 96-0 Senate confirmation of
her OMB nomination in April 2013, will face a
tough time in her HHS hearing, for example over
how many have actually paid their first months
health insurance premiums. Key facts, for example
that the Act means subscribers will no longer be
tied by job-related health insurance, will probably
disappear from the debate. So will the fact that the
online enrolment contract went to a Canada-based
company, CGI Federal, without competition, and
that private insurers and drug companies remain
the main treatment providers. The controversy has
less to do with the Act than with ideological
opposition to it among almost all Republican
politicians, some Democrats, and insurance
companies that see the ACA as a threat to profits.
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insurance under the Patient Protection and

Affordable Care Act (ACA) when the scheme
opened in October 2013. The enrolment was fraught
with crashes and glitches, and the schemes
opponents redoubled their attacks. Despite Mr.
Obamas statement that none who had given up
pre-existing insurance would lose coverage, some
did, and the political fallout threatened the entire
scheme. Most of the software issues were, however,
solved, and the scheme has now exceeded
expectations: over 7.5 million persons have signed
up in the open enrolment period, which ended on
April 15. Even redneck Republican Arizona saw
nearly 60,000 sign-ups with over a month left.
When the Act was passed, nearly 50 million
Americans had no health insurance. Ms. Sebeliuss
successor, subject to Senate ratification, will be
Sylvia Mathews Burwell, director of the White
House Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
Mr. Obama may have felt he had no option
over Ms. Sebelius, in view of what happened to
President George W. Bushs Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld, who received a vote of
presidential confidence before the 2006 midterm
REINING IN CANCER
Grim statistics present the deadly reality of the

spread of cancer in India: one million new cases of
different cancers are diagnosed every year in the
country; an estimated 600,000 to 700,000 people
were killed in 2012. The fact that tobacco was
singularly responsible for nearly 40 per cent of all
cancers is also painfully underlined again. A few
papers published recently in the journal Lancet
Oncology point out that men were the most affected
by tobacco, with the commonest cancers being those
of the lung and of the lip and oral cavity. Tobacco
companies continue to have a stranglehold over
nearly 275 million tobacco-users in India 35 per
cent of the adult population and about 14 per cent
of children in the age range 13 to 15. All this reflects
the miserable failure of the government in
implementing tough and effective measures to
counter the tobacco companies devious ways of
attracting and trapping young minds. Though it
would take 10 to 20 years for the benefits to show,
half the battle against cancer would be won if only
tobacco consumption can be reined in. In the case
of women, breast cancer is the most common,
followed by cervical cancer. Changed lifestyle is
one of the reasons for the increase in breast cancer
incidence the incidence of this cancer type in
rural areas is one-third of the total in urban areas,
and the big metros have higher numbers than nonmetro cities. Indias cancer burden is projected to
increase to 1.7 million by 2035. Mortality will double
to 1.2 million a year by 2035.
There is a need to take remedial steps, and
quickly too. More cancer registries are needed to
cover a greater percentage of the population. Those
in place today cover less than 10 per cent of Indias
population. However, each registry has good
incidence data as it has its own methods of
capturing them. But cancer mortality data are at
best sketchy and not quite reliable. The three pillars
of reducing the mortality are prevention, early
detection and more effective treatment. Concerted
efforts with respect to the first two have been found
wanting, and there are several challenges even in
providing effective treatment. With only one cancer
specialist for every 5,000 new cases, the total
number of oncologists in India is frighteningly low
in proportion to the increasing population of cancer
victims. The availability of doctors and facilities is
skewed the urban areas are better served than
rural areas. There is also an imbalance in the
distribution of cancer facilities and doctors: the
south and the west of the country have about 60
per cent of the facilities.
Source: The Hindu
[33]
SALUTARY JUDGMENT
Yogyakarta in Indonesia to bolster its reasoning.
The separate, but concurring, opinions of Justice
K.S. Radhakrishnan and Justice A.K. Sikri contain
some subtle criticism of the Supreme Courts earlier
ruling in Suresh Kumar Koushal upholding Section
377 of IPC that criminalises even consensual samesex activity. While conscious that they cannot depart
from the ruling of a Division Bench, both Judges
have highlighted the fact that misuse of Section
377 is one of the principal forms of discrimination
against the transgender community. By noting that
Section 377, despite being linked to some sexual
acts, also highlights certain identities, Mr. Justice
Radhakrishnan sees a link between gender identity
and sexual orientation, something that the
Koushal formulation missed when it concluded that
the provision criminalised the act and not any
identity or orientation. The sentence that
transgenders even though insignificant in
numbers have every right to enjoy their human
rights is a fitting rebuttal to the claim
in Koushal that because the LGBT community is a
minuscule minority, it could not be held that the
Section is invalid. Constitutional protection ought
to be made available to a particular group
regardless of its size. The verdict on the transgender
community now provides one more reason why
Section 377 ought to be amended to de-criminalise
gay sex.
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By recognising the transgender community as

a third gender entitled to the same rights and
constitutional protection as all other citizens, the
Supreme Court has put in place a sound basis to
end discrimination based on gender, especially
gender as presumed to be assigned to individuals
at birth. Further, beyond prohibiting discrimination
and harassment, the Court has extended global
principles of dignity, freedom and autonomy to this
unfairly marginalised and vulnerable community.
The verdict lays down a comprehensive framework
that takes into its fold not merely the negative right
against discrimination, but also the positive right
to make decisions about their lives, to express
themselves and to choose which activities to take
part in. In particular, its direction that they should
be treated as socially and educationally backward
and given reservation in education and
employment, is a far-reaching contribution to their
all-round development. The jurisprudential basis
for the judgment is that sex identity cannot be based
on a mere biological test but must take into account
the individuals psyche. The Court has noted that
Indian law treats gender as a binary male/female
concept, with sections of the Indian Penal Code
and Acts related to marriage, adoption, divorce,
succession, and even welfare legislation, being
examples. The Court has also relied on the
Yogyakarta Principles norms on sexual
orientation and gender identity evolved in 2006 at
Source: The Hindu
JOBLESS GROWTH NO MORE
Higher than normal inflation, high current

account deficit, a depreciating rupee and slowing
GDP growth might hold true in recent times.
However, when it comes to employment, the facts
are quite different as between 2009-10 and 201112, non-agricultural employment grew rapidly.
Between 1999-2000 and 2004-05, National
Sample Survey (NSS) data reveal that nearly 12 million
joined the labour force. However, the number of nonagricultural jobs created per annum was much lower
7.5 million. Non-agricultural employment increased
between 1999-2000 and 2004-05 (which coincides
with the time the National Democratic Alliance was
in power) by 37.5 million over the five-year period,
i.e., 7.5 million new jobs in industry (manufacturing
and construction) and services per annum.
Growth of non-agricultural jobs

The number of non-agricultural jobs between
2004-05 and 2011-12 increased by 52 million over
[34]

seven years, i.e., by 7.5 million per annum again.
However, since 2004-05 fewer people joined the
labour force. This meant that fewer people were
looking for work, but the number of nonagricultural jobs created was as many as before;
the open unemployment rate fell.
Increasing employment was accompanied by

rising wages. Wages were stagnant between 19992000 and 2004-05, especially rural wages. However,
two factors drove wages upward after 2004-05.
First, as a result of MGNREGA and rising minimum
support prices for government procured cereals, a
floor wage was created in the rural areas. This
along with an increasing demand for labour in
construction led to a tightening of the labour
market, both rural and urban. This led to a knockon effect on urban unskilled wages as well. A
second reason for the rise in wages for unskilled/
semi-skilled workers was the demand for labour in
construction which is treated as nonmanufacturing industry.
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The important point is that millions left

agricultural work after 2004-05 on account of many
new opportunities. Although 37 million persons left
agriculture during the periods 2004-05 and 201112, they found work in non-agricultural activities,
both rural and urban. In comparison, 20 million
new workers joined agriculture between 1999-2004.
At Indias stage of development, more workers
joining agriculture at a time when agricultural
productivity is very low is exactly the opposite of
what is expected, since agricultural productivity is
already lower than comparator countries. Incomes
fall when a sector has more workers than needed.
Development implies that workers leave agriculture
for more productive work in industry and services,
and total factor productivity increases in the entire
economy. Every developing country is supposed to
undergo this structural transformation.
Rural areas also saw significant growth in nonfarm construction-related employment: government
investment in rural housing for the poor (Indira
Awas Yojana) grew, as did rural roads and other
rural construction investment (Pradhan Mantri
Gram Sadak Yojana and the Mahatma Gandhi
National Rural Employment Guarantee Act). In
addition, $475 billion worth of infrastructure
investment materialised during the 11th Plan
period.
Since 2004-05, this transformation has been

happening for the first time in the history of India.
Of the 60 million additions to the workforce
between 1999-2000 and 2004-05, a third (20
million) joining agriculture indicated growing rural
distress, on account of the slow growth in
agriculture between 1996 and 2005.
Agriculture has grown much faster since 2005.

In fact, during the 11th Plan, agricultural output
grew at 3.2 per cent per annum (2007-12) on
average, despite crippling drought in 2009-10. The
share of agriculture in the workforce has been in
decline for decades (falling to 49 per cent in 200112). However, the absolute numbers in agriculture
have always grown till 2004-05. So, fewer workers
were producing more output in agriculture, farm
mechanisation increased, and productivity grew.
There was another development. Unskilled

workers who left agriculture flocked to construction
employment. Such employment increased by only
eight million (17 to 25.6 million) during 1999-2000
to 2004-05. But it grew sharply to 50 million by
2011-12. This was an increase from under two
million a year to seven million a year. While a part
of this increase in construction employment was in
housing real estate, it was infrastructure (roads,
bridges, airports, ports, energy projects) investment
which drove most of the employment growth.
The prophecy of a recent CRISIL report that

employment in industry will fall in the next five
years, and that workers will go back to agriculture
is baseless. If anything, the 12th Plan projects an
investment of $668 billion in infrastructure over 20122017, which should sustain employment growth.
Growth in service jobs
Most importantly, services jobs grew by 11

million, and manufacturing employment increased
by a remarkable nine million in two years alone
(2009-10 and 2011-12), although manufacturing
employment fell in absolute terms by three million
between 2004-05 and 2009-10. It is crucial to
understand why non-agricultural employment has
risen rapidly between 2009-10 and 2011-12. After
2004-05, demand for a number of consumer goods
has grown sharply, which is reflected in the rise in
consumption expenditure to 2011-12. This rise of
consumption expenditure shows that the numbers
of poor fell from 407 million (Tendulkar line) in
2004-05 to 356 million in 2009-10, and further to
269 million (2011-12).
For the first time in the history of India, there
was a decline in the absolute numbers of the poor
after 2004-05; until then for nearly 30 years (197374 to 2004-5), there was a fall in the percentage,
[35]

but not in the absolute numbers of the poor (322
million poor in 1973-74 and 302 million poor in
2004-05, by the Lakdawala poverty line). The
decline in poverty was driven by a rise in real
wages. This rise in real wages and an increase in
consumption expenditure have driven demand for
goods to the bottom of the pyramid, as poor people
have emerged out of poverty.
A new inclusive dynamic is in place in the

Indian economy, which is difficult to reverse. There
is a feedback loop between increasing demand, and
production to meet that demand, that generates
employment among those who will consume the
products that are produced.
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The
new
non-poor
demand
simple
manufactured consumer goods: processed food
(biscuits, milk), leather goods (shoes, sandals),
furniture (plastic chairs/tables, wooden furniture),
textiles, garments and mobiles. All these product
areas and services saw a dramatic increase in

employment between 2009-10 and 2011-12,
primarily because these simple, low-end products
(at least those consumed by the new non-poor) are
produced in the unorganised sector, using labourintensive methods.
Source: The Hindu
UNHCR FAULTS CYPRUS ON REFUGEE PROTECTION
The UN refugee agency accused EU member

Cyprus of failing to provide effective protection for
displaced foreigners seeking sanctuary on the island.
member states to grant similar rights and

entitlements to refugees and beneficiaries of
subsidiary protection, said the UNHCR.
A new law on refugees, published, curtailed

essential rights of forcibly displaced people who
have sought sanctuary, said the local office of
the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees.
It said the new legislation restricted the rights

of refugees to a family life in Cyprus, which as a
haven of peace in a troubled region has had a
tradition of taking in refugees such as during
Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war.
We are disappointed that Cyprus has lowered

down its standards when it comes to the protection
of persons fleeing war and generalised violence,
said Damtew Dessalegne, the UNHCR
representative in Cyprus.
Firstly, only refugees who had their family

relationships formed prior to their entry to Cyprus
can enjoy this right, the UNHCR said, pointing
out the changes.
He said in a statement that the changes in

legislation would take away family reunification
rights and protection against expulsion for persons
granted subsidiary protection instead of refugee
status.
These are people compelled to leave or remain
outside their home country on account of threats
to their lives or freedom resulting from armed
conflicts or generalised violence, Mr. Dessalegne
said.
It is about affording them the opportunity to
live a safe and dignified life. Too often we run the
risk of losing sight of this when we debate refugee
legislation and policy, he added.
Not different from refugees
The UNHCR said the humanitarian needs of

persons benefiting from subsidiary protection were
no different than those of refugees.
The European Commission has also issued

specific guidelines on family reunification requiring
[36]
Secondly, they must submit their application

for family reunification within three months after
the granting of their refugee status.
Serious obstacle
The UNHCR said these restrictions do not fully

take into account the specific situation of refugees
and may prove a serious obstacle to family
reunification.
During discussions in the Cypriot Parliament,
the UNHCR said it had explained the need to revise
certain aspects of the legislation to ensure its full
conformity with international protection principles
and best practice. Last month, Amnesty
International accused Cyprus of breaking EU law
by shamefully locking up migrants and asylum
seekers for long stretches as they awaited
deportation.
Nicosia rejected the charges as unsubstantiated.
Source: The Hindu
NO COUNTRY FOR WHISTLE-BLOWERS

In 2013, generic pharmaceutical company
Ranbaxy pleaded guilty to seven criminal felonies
for drug manufacturing fraud and agreed to cough
up an unprecedented $500 million in fines.
These changes benefit Indian consumers, who

are entitled to the same safe and high-quality drugs
as those sold in any other nation.
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The case against Ranbaxy was significant not

only for being a successful prosecution of a
powerful India corporation. It also marked the
triumph of Dinesh Thakur, who took on the
pharmaceutical giant by tapping into United States
whistle-blower protection laws that incentivise and
protect people who expose unethical business
practices.
Indian regulator, the Drug Controller General Of

India and the Central Drugs Standard Control
Organization in New Delhi. This initiative aims to
strengthen and overhaul Indian regulatory
standards to improve drug quality, including
guidelines for inspections and independence of
government agencies from company influence.
Mr. Thakur was a Director at Ranbaxy after

joining the business in 2003. He brought to the
companys notice certain fraudulent practices with
regard to drug development, manufacturing, and
testing data. In 2005 he was compelled to resign
after exposing the fraud internally.
Thereafter working with the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration (FDA) and the Department
of Justice, he exposed widespread false, fictitious,
and fraudulent statements made to regulators
resulting in substandard and unapproved drugs.
The footprints left by Mr. Thakur are large. The
FDA increased the number of inspectors allocated
to India and China from four in 2009 to nearly 15
at present.
Increased resources have aided in the

identification of other problems at other Indian
companies. Even today, the FDA continues to exert
pressure on Ranbaxy to adhere to current Good
Manufacturing Practices. It has imposed import
alerts against three additional facilities in India
tracing back to Mr. Thakurs whistle-blowing.
Improving drug quality
The FDAs continued focus on India is

appropriate. Of the 21 warning letters issued by
FDA in 2013 for serious drug quality problems,
one-half were issued to Indian companies.
Approximately 40 per cent of the generic drugs
sold in the U.S. are made in whole or in part in
India. These facts expose not only serious drug
quality problems, but highlight how tightly woven
together the economies of the two countries are.
Most enthusing for Indian consumers of drugs,
FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg recently
opened a direct line of communication with the
With Indias election juggernaut kicking off this

month and a new power constellation assuming
responsibility for governance soon, the paramount
question for Indian lawmakers is this: is it
acceptable that India lacks a strong whistle-blower
protection law?
Such a law would save and improve lives and
expose financial corruption in a way that reinforces
ethical business practices. Tolerating business
without ethics only tarnishes Indias hard earned
identity as a leader in international commerce.
This pressing question is not new. In 2010 the
Lok Sabha passed the Whistleblowers Protection
Bill currently languishing in the Upper House of
Parliament. The interminable delay in its passage
into law aside, the Bill has also been widely criticised
as providing insufficient protection to whistleblowers.
It does not regulate private sector and State
governments. What protections it affords are
limited to those who would expose wrongdoing in
the Government of Indias bureaucracy. Further,
multiple analyses of the bill suggest that it has
critical flaws, such as not admitting anonymous
complaints and insufficiently penalising officials
who retaliate against whistle-blowers.
There is an urgent need for a meaningful
whistle-blower protection law in India. We need
look no further than the murder of several whistleblowers in recent years as support for new laws.
In 2003, Satyendra Dubey was killed for
exposing financial irregularities in the Golden
Quadrilateral highway construction project in
Bihar, and in 2010 Satish Shetty was fatally
attacked for making a police complaint alleging
massive irregularities when an infrastructure
company had connived with government officials
to purchase land in villages along the Pune-Mumbai
Expressway. These whistle-blowers were killed
[37]

because they were committed to doing the right
thing. That cannot stand.
Returning to the paramount question for Indian

lawmakers on whether it is acceptable that the
country lacks a strong whistle-blower protection
law, the simple answer is that it is not acceptable,
and it is not consistent with good business and
governance.
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Whistle-blower protection laws incentivise

integrity to help detect and deter unethical business
practices and fraud. This type of law has been very
successful elsewhere. In the U.S., the False Claims
Act (FCA) has returned to the government more
than $40 billion in penalties, including the $500
million secured from Ranbaxy. The FCA is intended
to encourage, protect and reward citizens who
come forward with information to assist the
government in identifying companies that cheat
federal spending programmes.
The significance of a whistle-blower protection

law such as the FCA is not limited to billions in
penalty payments and additional revenue for the
government. These laws place pressure on
companies that are engaged in unethical practices
to respect the law, commit to compliance, and not
retaliate against whistle-blowers. After all, it is
better to prevent violations than to penalise after
the act.
Under the FCA, a private person such as Mr.

Thakur can sue a company on behalf of the federal
government in what is called a qui tam suit. If the
federal government collects a settlement or court
judgment because of the information provided by
the qui tam plaintiff, the government is required to
pay a portion of the recovery to the plaintiff. An
integral component of the FCA gives legal protection
to whistle-blowers from retaliation by companies
that cheat the government.
Whether the U.S. model works well for India

may be subject to debate, but it is not debatable
that new protections are long overdue, and it is in
our power to make it happen.
Source: The Hindu
WHY DO INDIAN START-UPS AVOID LISTING?
The current meltdown of tech stocks in the US

might be sending shivers down the spine of many
entrepreneurs with planned initial public offerings
(IPOs). Indias start-up community neednt worry
since it is at no immediate risk. Unlike their
counterparts in the US, Indian entrepreneurs have
avoided the vicissitudes of the markets by the
simple expedient of sticking to the sheltered
existence offered by angels and venture capital. Last
year only two new listings, with a combined value
of just $5.7 million, were announced in the tech
space in India, according to Bloomberg. In the past
three years, there have been just two venturefunded technology IPOs of any consequence,
Justdial and MakeMyTrip.
With few start-ups willing to risk listing, the

Nifty index of 50 companies continues to be
dominated by old economy stocks with the
triumvirate of Infosys, Wipro and TCS representing
the tech sector. Significantly, all three are now 2530 years old and their business of software services
export has little upside. Of the 21 companies that
comprise the CNX IT Index on the National Stock
Exchange, which represents over 95 % of the free
float market capitalization of the stocks forming
part of the IT sector, the youngest are companies
such as Mindtree, which is nearly 15 years old and
Justdial, which is 16 years old.
[38]
By contrast, the NYSE TMT (technology, media

and telecommunications) index representing 19%
by market cap of the investable universe globally
has companies such as Juniper Networks, Red Hat,
VMware, NetSuite and Fusion-io, all of which are
products of the last decade and have listed in this
period. The Nasdaq 100, too, abounds with
companies of the dotcom vintage.
Part of the reason why Indian start-ups have
avoided IPOs may be the hostile market conditions
as well as the fact that the Indian ecosystem doesnt
favour newcomers. Market analysts say Indian
investors typically look for value in stocks, which
doesnt quite work for the unprofitable, high-risk
nature of tech start-ups. But it isnt as if those that
have listed on global exchanges have set the bourses
on fire. Thats probably because few of the startups have really set about creating a unique value
proposition. With acquisition, rather than scaling
up being the ultimate objective of most Indian startups, they have preferred the quick exit of a sell off
to the more rewarding if riskier option of growing
organically. Thus, recently Little Eye Labs, a oneyear-old Bangalore-based mobile app start-up, sold
off to Facebook, presumably because its founders
saw little hope of emulating the latter in terms of
growth and market impact.
That contrasts sharply with entrepreneurs

Exits are anyway the critical component of any
entrepreneurial venture, they keep the cycle of
venture funding going by providing early funders
a definite exit option. Exits are also critical for
employees to cash out and look at creating their
own ventures. Of the 50 employees at WhatApp,
a few early birds will make upwards of a $100
million, which will certainly embolden a handful
to set up their own ventures. Steven Kaplan, a
teacher of entrepreneurship and finance at the
University of Chicagos Booth School of Business
has noted how the IPO process is critical to the
economys ability to generate wealth and
innovation.
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elsewhere, who are willing to play the high risks

game. Helpdesk software maker Zendesk, a sevenyear-old company founded in Copenhagen, and
funded initially by Charles River Ventures and
Benchmark Capital, just filed for a $150 million
IPO on the New york Stock Exchange. The
companys competition comes from Indian firms
such as Kayako, Tenmiles and SupportBee, none of
which appears to be preparing for an IPO. Kayako
started out of Jalandhar in December 2001 while
Tenmiles is a 14-year-old company based in Chennai.
The IPO process takes the opacity out of a startup, making its finances as well as its game plan
transparent to the open market, which can then
determine the value it will place on the company.
A successful IPO is an endorsement of a start-ups
business, its margins and growth. It is the Streets
way of saying, we trust this company, and is a
signal to retail investors as well as customers and
vendors that heres a company you can do business
with.
The failure to take the start-up journey forward

tells a sad story of a drought in frontier innovation
in the Indian start-up space. While part of the
reason might be the absence of a conducive
ecosystem, lack of sufficient ambition among the
entrepreneurial community is also certainly a factor.
Source: Mint
INNOVATION IN PAYMENT BANKING
The payments space is one of the few happening

spaces in the economy today, with a cash-out pilot
currently underway for non-bank prepaid payment
instruments (PPIs) and the Nachiket Mor committees
recommendation of payments banks.
A couple of months back, Reserve Bank of India

(RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan had noted, The
key to cheap and universal payments and
remittances will be if we can find a safe way to
allow funds to be freely transferred between bank
accounts and mobile wallets, as well as cashed out
of mobile wallets, through a much larger and
ubiquitous network of business correspondents.
The question is, how is all this to be operationalized?
The basic proposition as laid out by the governor

using banks and non-banks for payments and
remittances is crucial for the way forward for
inclusion and follows well established international
practices. For the non-banks currently in the
payments space, operationalizing the governors
statement under the current framework would
mean:
Recognizing that mobile wallets issued by nonbanks are synonymous with having an
account in the cloud, that is a digital account.
While currently payments through PPIs have
to have a bank account at least at one end of
the remittance (either remitter or recipient),

allowing funds transfer across bank and
mobile wallet networks would call for a
transition to an interoperable network.
Allowing cash out/cash-in at designated

retail outlets for mobile wallets would help
resolve the current issues that customers face
in remittance; this possibility is currently
being tested under RBI supervision.
What about payments banks? Globally new

laws are being framed to enable specialized
payments institutions, e.g. Brazil did this last year
in line with the European Union Payment Systems
Directive of 2009. Under the same principle, the
Mor committee has accepted the basic premise of
separating payments from other bank functions
and has brought in the concept of differentiated
banking through specialized banks, e.g. payments
banks, that are allowed to provide payments and
deposit services but not issue credit. This is an
excellent idea designed to rejuvenate the banking
space. However, two recommendations in
particular may need to be re-looked at so that the
objective of encouraging competition and
innovation in this otherwise traditional and
moribund space is facilitated.
First, the recommendation that calls for existing
PPIs to either apply for a payments banks licence
[39]

or become business correspondents may push out
some firms that have valuable experience. The
innovative firms that have taken the first-mover
risk in this new market, and have consolidated
network aggregation may not necessarily be able
to transform themselves in the new mould.
With such basic differences, payments banks

will definitely have a relatively economical cost
structure compared with wholesale banks, making
the case for a lower capital limit.
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Secondly, the recommendation that can impact

the existing PPIs is the minimum capital
requirement of Rs. 50 crore. It is important to think
through the capital requirement amount carefully
as a well-capitalized company brings with it many
advantages of professional management, fiduciary
obligations, etc.
Further, while the Mor committee recommends

the same Rs. 50 crore capital requirement for
payments banks and wholesale banks, both have
essentially different models. The former will not lend,
while the primary role of the latter is to lend. The
former can hold a maximum balance of Rs. 50,000
per customer, while the latter is only to be permitted
to accept deposits larger than Rs. 5 crore.
The quantum of capital needs to be debated: if

too low, it could encourage fly-by-night operators;
if too high, it could encourage innovative financial
engineering. Till 1 April, there were no capital
requirements for PPIs; RBI has recently stipulated
a Rs. 5 crore capital requirement for new PPIs,
while specifying that existing PPIs will be intimated
separately. In any case, the jump to Rs. 50 crore to
become a payments bank could seem slightly high
for some existing PPIs.
In the absence of any explanatory details for
the number Rs. 50 crore, many questions can arise:
is there a case for a lower limit for payments banks?
Can existing PPIs be given some leeway, allowed
to make a stepwise time-bound increase toward a
capital target?
Putting these thoughts together leads to the

question of whether we can think of having tiers
in the future that will allow for non-banks in a
limited role and encourage competition and
innovation:
Non-bank PPIs with a minimum capital base
of Rs. 5 crore (as given by RBI).
Payments banks with minimum capital of RsY
crore (where Y < 50).
Wholesale banks with minimum capital of
Rs. 50 crore.
Scheduled commercial banks with minimum
capital of Rs. 500 crore.
The message from RBI governor is to think

differently, can we rise to the challenge?
Source: Mint
GETTING INDIA BACK ON TRACK
The 2014 national elections will be a critical

waypoint along the road to restoring Indias economic
growth. One survey after another has suggested a
deep yearning for change. The electoratein both
the cities and villagesseems seized by the need to
return the country to high growth.
The transformations that began with the

economic reforms unleashed in the 1990s have given
Indians a taste of what structural change can bring
to their lives. The explosion of resentment against
corruption only testifies to the popular desire for
better distribution of the nations economic gains.
Such an effort will be doomed without continuing
growth.
Whatever the causes of Indias economic
slowdown may have been, there is a widespread
conviction that the leadership failed to steer the
country in a productive direction. That leads
inexorably to the question of what must be done to
[40]
recover momentum when the new government

takes office.
This article is the first in a 10-part series, drawn
from a new book prepared by the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace, which tries to
answer that question. Each article will examine an
aspect of the Indian economy, or of the countrys
social and political system, that is of central
importance to the acceleration of growth, offering
policy suggestions for the next government to
consider for achieving change in the short term.
The common themes include the importance of
strengthening key state institutions, the priority of
getting the details right for the success of longterm transformation, and the need for action at
the state level, given the steady shift in power away
from the central government.
Above all, the series will look forward to
necessary tasks that are yet to be completed. That

very fact serves as a reminder of how much Indias
future reforms stem from the countrys grandbut
in at least one respect problematicinheritance.
This introductory essay reviews that inheritance,
highlighting the entrenched challenges that the new
government will face.
Civic nationalisms vital success

The formal processes enabling representative
rule were boosted further by Indias civic
nationalism. Until the arrival of the Raj, it was
questionable whether the term Indian could be used
to define the people residing within the
subcontinent. Despite the broad cultural unity of
the region, its inhabitants invariably defined
themselves by their ethnicity, religion, or political
membership (as subjects of the local kingdoms in
which they lived). Often they identified themselves
by all three.
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When India was born in 1947, many sceptics

doubted that such a countrymarked by crushing
poverty, bewildering diversities and weak
institutionscould long endure. India has proved
the pessimists wrong: not only has it preserved its
national unity, territorial integrity and political
autonomy, but it has done so through an
unprecedented experiment centred on building a
just society by just means, as Jawaharlal Nehru,
its first prime minister, told Andr Malraux. This
monumental project was erected on a distinctive
triadic foundation of liberal democracy, civic
nationalism and socialist economics. The three
components were intended to be mutually
reinforcing. Together they were meant to fulfil
Indias dream of becoming a great power. Success
would hinge fundamentally on the ability to
produce rapid growth and meaningful
development, which would eliminate mass poverty
while bringing justice and dignity to Indias socially
disenfranchised. But only two of the three
foundations proved productive for this purpose.
secularism grounded on religious tolerance,

protecting minority rights, and implementing
different forms of affirmative action.
Liberal Democracy, holding the country

together
Liberal democracy clearly turned out to be the

singular glue that protected Indias unity and
territorial integrity. Indias stunning diversity would
have pulled the country apart had it not been for
the fact that India consciously gave itself a
constitutional order that enshrined the twin
components of all real democracies: contestation,
or the peaceful struggle for power through an
orderly process, and participation, or the right of
all citizens, irrespective of wealth, gender, religion,
or ethnicity, to vote.
But India went much further. The bedrock of
the constitution, centred on inculcating a
comprehensive respect for persons, is what makes
the Indian political system not simply democratic
but also irreducibly liberal, insofar as it holds that
the ultimate purpose of governance must be to
protect, if not enlarge, the dignity of the individual.
Given Indias diversities and its social
disfigurements, such a vision led ineluctably to
conscious efforts at advancing a conception of
Indias success in building a modern state derived

from its thorough insistence on institutionalizing
what was Mahatma Gandhis greatest bequest to
the freedom movement: the construction of a new
Indian nation, not by suppressing its many
particularities but by incorporating them into a
composite identity that preserved in marble-cake
fashion all its constituent diversities. The modern
Indian polity, therefore, emerged not as a nationstate but rather as a nations-state.
Indias post-independence leadership eschewed
parochial nationalism in favour of civic nationalism,
where the rights and privileges of being Indian were
conceived as arising not from some pre-existent modes
of belongingreligion, race, or ethnicitybut instead
from participation in a collective political endeavour.
Yet the success of Indian nationalism was not
intended to be measured by the brute criterion of
physical persistence alone. Whether this endurance
contributed toward realizing justice and fullness of
life to every man and woman was equally at issue.
And this ambition, in turn, shaped Nehrus conviction
that Indias conquest of material poverty would not
be achieved through any means other than the third
leg of the foundational tripod, socialist economics.
Socialist economics, the experiment that

failed
Socialism was beguilingly attractive at the time
of Indias independence. The Great Depression had
underscored the failures of market capitalism and
the Soviet Unions successes seemed to prove the
superiority of centralized planning.
Socialisms appeal for Nehru, however, derived
from more than purely instrumental calculations.
[41]

A Fabian socialist from his early years, he was
deeply suspicious of the profit motive and saw an
intrinsic connection between capitalism and
inequality.
Reform, in fact, requires momentum along three

avenues simultaneously: reducing the role of the
state in areas where it lacks advantage, such as the
production of private goods; increasing the states
effectiveness through better administrative,
regulatory, and adjudicative public institutions as
well as more competent creation of tangible and
intangible public goods; and improving the states
capacity for rational public policies by, among other
things, subjecting them to market tests.
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If the material foundations of the new Indian

nation were to be rapidly rebuilt in the aftermath
of independence, a socialist reorganization of the
economy was thus inevitable with Nehru at the
helm. Given his strong democratic temper, however,
Indian socialism involved neither a violent
decapitation of the capitalist classes nor a systematic
nationalization of existing capital stocks. In fact, it
permitted the existence of a private sector, but one
that would enjoy only restricted opportunities.
And, in light of the countrys desire to become a
great power, Nehrus socialism took the form of a
state-dominated mixed economy oriented towards
the acquisition of a heavy industrial base.
1991. But the shift has been hesitant, conflicted

and furtive rather than forthright and resolute.
Going forward successfully will require diverse
reforming actions, but above all a deep commitment
to restoring the centrality of markets in economic
decision-making and defending them doggedly in
the face of the myriad temptations to distort them.
At its core lay a systematic effort at centralized

planning, with vast public-sector enterprises
populating the economys commanding heights. The
endeavour unfortunately resulted in the suppression
of domestic competition with all its pernicious
consequences: scarcity, compromised product
quality and higher prices. Moreover, Indias
connectivity with international trade was curtailed.
Finally, a high tax regime stifled whatever private
initiative was left.
The policies were accompanied by the growth
of a vast bureaucracy that quickly became corrupt
and stultifying. Over time, the commitment to
socialism mutated from idealism into a sclerotic
instrument of power and patronage.
By 1980, the sorry results of the socialist experiment

were visible for all to see. The 3% or so Hindu rate
of growth chalked up between 1950 and 1980 could
not transform the lives of Indias people. When
measured against the economic accomplishments in
the rest of the world, Indias failures were stark. But
the damage was worse yet: the experiment had also
undermined the other foundational pillars, liberal
democracy and civic nationalism.
Going forward
The ravages of the socialist past are by now

widely acknowledged, and, of course, a slow
rollback of socialist policies has been underway since
The reform efforts unleashed immediately after

1991 represented only the initial steps in undoing
socialisms pernicious legacy. The early successes
of this effort became visible during the first decade
of this century, when India chalked up
unprecedented rates of growth. But then came the
last five years, which proved so cruel. The global
financial crisis undoubtedly played a role in the
countrys depressed performance. But the plain
truth is that India faltered because its political
leadership failed just when it was most needed.
The disastrous bifurcation of power witnessed in
New Delhi since 2008 created exactly the conditions
that undermined the momentum for further reform.
Bringing India back to high growth will be a
complex task that requires what Karl Popper once
called piecemeal social engineering. The next wave
of reforms pertains to liberalizing factor markets,
building on the previous wave that focused on
product markets. This will involve intricate
technical issues, with the locus of action often
shifting to the states. The beneficial effects will be
realized only through aggregation and careful
execution. Progress will require the kind of
painstaking translation that transforms lofty
concepts into sensible policies, the only thing that
finally matters.
This task is now at hand. Neither India nor the
world can afford to watch fortune elude New Delhi
for another five years.
Source: Mint
POLICY COORDINATION IN THE ERA OF EASY MONEY

Five years ago, the US and the euro zone
responded to the global economic and financial
[42]
crisis with an unprecedented loosening of monetary

policy. Not only were interest rates brought close

to zero but the US Federal Reserve began lending
against assets whose quality was questionable. This
massive infusion of liquidity solved some problems
but ended up creating new ones. Distortion of asset
prices and leveraging without appreciation of risks
are two consequences. Cheap money now haunts
everyone. Lack of global monetary coordination has
made the problem worse.
India is doing this at the moment. It is responding

to the problem mentioned earlier and the response
is a rational one to the incentives operating in the
international system.
Countries such as India, among other emerging

markets, have had to face sudden changes in capital
flows. Often, and in quick succession, they have
changed from being the darlings of international
investors to pariahs. For example, quantitative
easing (QE) by the US Fed led to a rush of capital
into emerging markets (EM) while the news of
tapering led to a stampeding out. EM central banks
have a tough job adjusting domestic monetary
policy to these sudden swings.
This brings us to the timing issue. While the Fed

may be aware of this problem, it may be facing its
own time inconsistency problem. When to time the
exit is a question that former Fed chairman Ben
Bernanke has pondered for a while. While the US
may have wanted that extra time to revive growth
or bring down unemployment. In the meantime, the
churn in capital flows has imposed costs on other
countries especially the ones that have tried to keep
a market-determined exchange rate.
India is a good example. With strong

inflationary pressures, the country has seen high
interest rates for a while. When capital inflows
surge, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has a tough
job at hand. It has to simultaneously prevent the
appreciation of the rupeewhich if left unchecked
can dent exportsand keep inflation in check.
Handling the former, by buying up dollars for
example, leads to an infusion of liquidity,
exacerbating the inflationary problem. When capital
races out, other macroeconomic problems arise.
The other solution is to go for what Rajan calls

an independent assessor of policies of central banks
in rich countries. Policies that have largely domestic
benefits but global costs should be scrutinized
carefully. If the assessor finds that such policies
reduce global welfare, then international pressure
should be applied to stop them.
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Ultimately this is self-defeating for advanced

countries themselves. If all countries began QEE,
ultimately one countrythe anchor of the global
system, for long the USwill have to face the music.
With countries following their own interests, is

global monetary policy coordination even possible?
One way, suggested recently by RBI governor

Raghuram Rajan, is for rich countries to internalize
these spillover effects through new international
conventions to avoid unconventional monetary
policies that affect other countries adversely.
Practically, this calls for these central banks (the
Fed and the European Central Bank) to take into
account reactions of other countriessuch as
responses to sudden switches in capital inflows
and be sensitive to spillovers.
There are two issues in the global system. One

is that of incentives and the other of timing and
sequencing of policies. Overcoming problems posed
by the two requires an institutional solution and
not self-regulation by individual countries.
Avoiding policies with large spillover effects is
in the interest of all countries. Otherwise, there is
ample historical evidence that countries will
respond by what Rajan calls quantitative external
easing, which involves interventions to keep an
exchange rate down and building large reserves.
This is unlikely for various reasons, chief among

them being the unwillingness of rich countries to
alter the governance structure of multilateral
institutions that have the expertise and capacity to
independently assess the spillover effects of loose
monetary policies.
The ideal solution is for emerging economies to
have a greater say in institutions such as the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and redesigning
them to handle current realities.
The road ahead is tough. Global monetary
coordination has been dismantled systematically for
long. In August 1971, the US temporarily
suspended the dollars convertibility to gold. By
1973, all major currencies began to float against
each other. Since then, the US has been the implicit
anchor of the global monetary system. After it
launched QE, it has even ended that role.
Rebuilding that institutional framework is very
difficult. At that time, global monetary coordination was
largely a response to temporary balance of payments
problems. Now, matters are much more complicated:
from toxic assets to shadow financial sectors to far
more swift capital flows, the problems have changed
and the solution, too, needs to be different.
Source: Mint
[43]
BEHIND THE INDUSTRIAL GROWTH NUMBERS

The
growth
performance
of
Indian
manufacturing has been rather disappointing, of
late. The index of industrial production (IIP) for
manufacturing recorded a negative growth of minus
3.7 per cent in February 2014 (year-on-year basis),
and in three of the previous four months too. The
average growth rate during 2013-14 (April-February)
was negative at minus 0.7 per cent, and it was only
marginally better at 1.3 per cent during 2012-13.
created in manufacturing. The required growth rate

in manufacturing sector output is at least 10 per
cent a year, probably higher.
Industrial growth understated
The global economic crisis has no doubt affected

industrial growth in India by curtailing the rate of
expansion of external demand for Indias industrial
products. Having attained a growth rate of about
12.7 per cent in 2010 and 6.5 per cent in 2011, the
global exports volume grew only by 3.1 per cent in
2012 and 2.3 per cent in 2013.
Not global factors
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One might think that the marked fall in the

growth rate of Indian manufacturing in 2012-13
and 2013-14 is mainly a result of the global
economic crisis. This view is not entirely correct.
The negative growth recorded by IIPmanufacturing for recent months, however, does
not really mean that Indian manufacturing is
experiencing a downward slide. IIP data have been
understating the true growth in manufacturing
sector output in recent years. In 2011-12, for
instance, the growth rate in IIP-manufacturing was
3.0 per cent whereas the growth rate in real value
added in manufacturing (Annual Survey of
Industries, CSO) was 10.4 per cent a gap of
over seven percentage points.
Thus, the growth rate in Indias manufacturing

during 2013-14 could actually be about 3 per cent
or even higher, notwithstanding the IIP data.
Indeed, the Quarterly Order Books, Inventories and
Capacity Utilisation Survey (OBICUS) of the
Reserve Bank of India indicate that the inflationcorrected value of sales of manufacturing
companies in October-December 2013 was about 3
per cent higher than that in the previous year,
which applies also to April-December 2013.
Manufacturing output growth of 3 per cent or
so in 2013-14, though much better than a negative
or zero growth, is not good enough. It is too low
in relation to what the country could achieve in
the mid-2000s (over 10 per cent) and what the
country needs.
A recent report of the McKinsey Global Institute

(From poverty to empowerment: Indias imperative
for jobs, growth, and effective basic services,
February 2014) observes that for making a
substantial improvement in the standards of living
of the Indian people and alleviating poverty, about
115 million new non-farm jobs will have to be
created between 2012 and 2022 through acrossthe-board reforms and targeted public investment.
Of these, about 27 million new jobs need to be
[44]
The growth rate of Indias exports (in dollar

terms) accordingly came down from 41 and 22 per
cent in 2010-11 and 2011-12 respectively to minus
1.8 per cent in 2012-13 and then slightly improved
to 4 per cent in 2013-14. But it would be wrong to
ascribe the slowdown in industrial growth in India
entirely or mainly to the slowdown in global trade.
The value of Indias manufactured exports forms
only about a tenth of the value of domestic
manufactured goods production.
Also, nearly two-thirds of the manufacturing
companies in India do not export, or export less
than 10 per cent of their production. Evidently, a
slowdown in global markets would have only a
limited impact on the aggregate demand for
products of domestic industrial firms.
Domestic demand
The main explanation for the industrial

slowdown in 2012-13 and 2013-14 probably lies in
domestic factors. One such factor is the
infrastructure constraints. Another factor is the
erosion of business confidence which could, in part,
be a reflection of the global economic crisis. The
business confidence index of the Confederation of
Indian Industries shows a fall from about 66 in the
early 2010 to about 46 by the end of 2013. It may
be added that the growth slowdown has been
associated with a fall in capacity utilisation
(OBICUS, RBI), traceable primarily to domestic
demand constraints.

Revival of industrial growth in India requires a
major hike in investment in infrastructure, largescale development of industrial clusters, massive
efforts towards skill formation among the youth to
improve their employability, a re-invigoration of
the process of economic reforms which will restore
business confidence and raise industrial investments,
and control of inflation. Lower food inflation will
augment the purchasing power of households and
thus help improve capacity utilisation in industries.
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What is of foremost importance is to render

support for enhancing the technological and cost
competitiveness of Indian manufacturing. India

needs to achieve greater penetration of the industrial
goods markets of developing countries of Asia and
Africa on the strength of technological capabilities,
particularly with the help of frugal innovations.
Also, efforts are needed to augment agricultural
productivity, which will help contain food inflation
and also create income in the hands of rural
households, augmenting the domestic demand for
manufactured products.
AN ANTI-ENVIRONMENT POLITICAL DISCOURSE
Going by a quick reading of election manifestos,

the three parties competing for seats across most of
India are all committed to harmonising development
and environment considerations, ensuring social
justice, and generating jobs for all.
There is rhetoric and promising language
aplenty in what the Indian National Congress
(INC), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and Aam
Aadmi Party (AAP) have put out.
But beneath the surface, they reveal a clear

failure of imagination and new ideas, with only
one party coming close to breaking through the
hackneyed models that have thus far failed India.
Sixty-seven years after Independence, despite
enormous strides on a number of fronts, India
continues to struggle with poverty, unemployment,
social strife, and environmental destruction.
If poverty is defined as deprivation of basic

needs, over 70 per cent of the population is still
poor. The last two decades have seen hardly any
net growth in employment in the formal sector,
and much of the workforce labours in underpaid,
exploitative, or hazardous conditions.
Narrow vision
Ecological devastation wipes out whatever GDP

growth we are clocking, largely because of the
nature of this growth itself. Several hundred million
people suffer from environmental deprivations,
including inadequate or polluted water, bad air,
dangerous work, and shortages of fuel and fodder.
What do the INC, BJP and AAP offer as
pathways to lead India out of these problems?
Unfortunately, the first two suffer from a colossal
failure of cognition, and offer only doublespeak;
AAP shows deeper understanding, but it too cannot

offer a coherent alternative vision of development
that is deeply sustainable and equitable.
All three, in fact, lay their economic bets on
high GDP growth, refusing to accept that on a
finite planet, infinite growth is a contradiction in
terms. There is some promise in AAPs attempted
integration of Economy and Ecology, and in its
invoking the principle of intergenerational equity
(such that future generations can have access to
the same natural bounties we enjoy). Such a vision
is missing from INC and BJP manifestos.
The former proposes to replace a Cabinet
committee on investments set up in 2013 to override ministries that hold up clearances, with an
even more powerful, permanent Investment
Facilitation Committee under the PM. This
Committee will ensure rapid approvals, another
name for bypassing environmental assessment
procedures which of necessity take time.
The BJP follows the same logic, promising to
frame the environment laws in a manner that
will lead to speedy clearance of proposals without
delay and single-window clearances. Both are
invitations to continue the scams that have been
regularly exposed in the sectors of mining, forest
land diversion, and hydroelectricity projects. One
of the most powerful antidotes to the wholesale
sacrifice of lands and resources at the altar of GDP
growth has been local peoples resistance.
The middle classes who applaud the bypassing
of environmental concerns to speed up growth,
would do well to pay heed to such movements.
Only the AAP, however, recognises this
widespread resentment against displacement and
dispossession; it mandates that Gram Sabha consent
[45]

will be needed for any land acquisition, diversion
of forest land, and use of water, forests and minerals
in areas that are under the village jurisdiction.
Decentralised governance
On a number of other counts, the parties seem

to have learnt their lessons from grassroots
movements: sustainable and organic farming,
decentralised water harvesting and watershed
management, renewable energy, and others.
They also promise the creation of jobs through
labour-intensive manufacture, craft and artisanal
work, and small and medium industry.
But without offering to curtail the enormous
concentration of economic power that has taken
place in the hands of Indian and foreign private
corporations, such a promise is hollow. It is this
concentration, and the continued lack of
accountability of centralised state institutions, that
leads to the environment and peoples livelihoods
being sacrificed.
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It also reiterates the importance of the Forest

Rights Act in providing for such local control over
forest commons; the Congress promises strict
implementation of this Act but says nothing about
its use in checking forest land diversion; and the
BJP completely ignores it.
to panchayati raj institutions, but is silent on

specifics.
Enlarging this to the principle of direct

democracy or swaraj, AAP also is more forthright
in promising untied funds for developmental
activities that the local body (rural or urban) decides
on, community consent for payments made under
government work, and an eventual role in
formulating legislation.
The Congress too offers provisions for
panchayats to get more untied funds and have the
power to decide on how to use resources raised by
themselves, but otherwise limits itself to generalities
like Gram Sabhas are strengthened and legally
mandated to secure responsive and responsible local
governance. The BJP promises extensive
devolution of functions, functionaries and funds
And therefore the importance of genuine

political and economic decentralisation, accountable
governance, and alternative models of human wellbeing that focus on indicators like basic needs and
jobs rather than GDP growth.
None of the parties meet these criteria, but if
one had to select one, the AAP comes closest.
PENSION FOR A PAISA
In theory, low costs are desirable in the money

management business, because a penny saved is a
penny that can be distributed to investors. But
Reliance Capitals recent offer of a one basis point
1 paisa per Rs. 100 fee to manage monies
under the National Pension System (NPS) stretches
this theory too far. After all, money management
is a skill-intensive profession and if the fund
managers fee is a pittance, where is the incentive
for him to deploy the best talent, resources or effort
into managing the money entrusted to him? Shortterm savings on NPS fees shouldnt come at the
cost of inflation-beating returns, which is the
ultimate purpose of retirement funds.
The fee quoted by Reliance Capital is extremely
low by industry standards. Indeed, the same private
firms who have bid for the NPS are charging fees
of 150-200 basis points for managing domestic
mutual funds and over 200 basis points for
insurance assets. Even in developed markets, where
the emergence of passive index funds has pared
down costs, fund manager fees average no less than
[46]
100 basis points. Vanguard, the worlds largest

mutual fund company which has built its asset
management business mainly on the promise of
low cost, charges 20 basis points. Given that the
NPS auction rules require all its eight new managers
to match the lowest bid to win the mandate, it is
a moot point how viable the countrys nascent
private pension business would be if locked into a
one basis point cost structure, based on the results
of the latest auction. Nor does the NPS with an
investment kitty of Rs. 2,600 crore offer the scale to
make up for low fees. The pension regulator should
also note that the NPS has so far gained hardly
any traction with retail investors, despite being
much more economical and flexible than other
retirement avenues and even delivering strong
double-digit returns. This is more due to the lack of
marketing effort to create awareness about the
scheme and establish a dedicated distribution
network to promote it to retail investors. The firms
now managing NPS monies complain that the
existing 25 basis point fee offers no real incentive

to undertake promotional activity. Then, how does
whittling down this fee even further help?
Given that the Centre is looking to the NPS to
act as the ultimate social security net for Indias
growing workforce over the long term, selecting
managers based mainly on their ability to quote
the lowest fees needs re-examination. The annual
fund management fee could be capped at say, 25
basis points to keep costs reasonably low. Giving a

higher weightage to qualitative criteria such as
the sponsors track record in money management,
reputation, business plan and ability to stay the
course is a more prudent way to choose the
custodians of a flagship retirement savings scheme.
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THE RIGHT INFLATION TARGET

The rise of the consumer price index-based
inflation to 8.3 per cent in March, from 8 per cent
for the preceding month, is disappointing on two
counts. The inflation rate has gone up (even if not
quite as sharply as the increase in the wholesale
price index) even as industrial output and exports
have contracted in recent months. This apparent
resurgence of inflationary pressures amid a
deepening growth slowdown is bad news, given
the direct impact on incomes and purchasing
power. No less significant is the second concern
namely, the likely Reserve Bank of India (RBI)
response to the higher inflation. The fact that CPI
inflation has risen again after declining from its
November peak of 11.2 per cent virtually rules out
any interest rate cuts by the RBI. Forecasts of a less
than robust monsoon courtesy El Nino, increases
the probability of a hawkish monetary policy stance.
Such a stance has the potential of causing
conflict if there is a BJP government formed at the
Centre a prospect that is by no means certain,
but seems increasingly likely. Such a government
would make economic revival its top priority.
Although the manifesto of the BJP is silent on
monetary policy, some of its top leaders have openly
questioned the rationale of controlling inflation by
keeping interest rates high. They have a point.
When current inflation is largely caused by supplyside factors from weather-induced crop damage
to longer-term issues of farm productivity and

inadequate investment in agri infrastructure how
does a policy of choking demand help? If anything,
it will only aggravate an already serious slowdown.
The RBI hasnt really been able to furnish a
convincing reply to this point of view, also
entertained by industry, apart from noting how
high inflation is bad for growth. But then so are
high interest rates.
The RBI needs to seriously reconsider the idea
of inflation targeting based on the CPI. The reason
for it is food, which has an almost 50 per cent
weight in the index. The inflation rates derived
from this index would, hence, mainly reflect supplyside factors not amenable to control using interest
rate tools. Those are more effective against demandside price pressures, better captured by WPI
inflation for manufactured products. The fact that
it is currently ruling at 3.2 per cent gives the true
picture of inflation resulting from low investment
and consumption demand. It is this inflation that
deserves targeting in the present circumstances. CPI
inflation, on the other hand, is unlikely to come
down in the next one year. Will the RBI continue
to hold interest rates high till then, even with the
economy showing no signs of recovery? It is quite
unlikely that the next government will be happy
about this approach.
WE DONT NEED ANY LITIGATION
Frivolous litigation, led by the government, is

one of the reasons India ranks low in the ease of
doing business index.
The World Banks Doing Business report

provides an objective measure of business
regulations and their enforcement across 189
economies. A higher ranking indicates better,
usually simpler, regulations for businesses.
The very fact that it is easier to do business in
Pakistan than in India, and that India is getting to

be a harder place to do business is alarming. While
Singapore has consistently maintained the highest
rank, India has also stayed consistent but in the
lower-ranking range of 132 to 134.
In the Congress election manifesto for 2014,
priority has been given to improving Indias Ease
of Doing Business (EODB) ranking from the current
134 to 75 within five years by streamlining tax
[47]

enforcement systems, among other things. But it
appears that the masterminds behind the Congress
manifesto have conveniently forgotten another
global ranking The Corruption Perceptions Index
(CPI) by Transparency International.
The Biennial Report of the Delhi High Court

(2010-12) states that the average expenditure
incurred per minute of the Courts working is
Rs. 15,678. But that doesnt stop the government
from wasting the time of various courts.
The Supreme Court, in a recent case, criticised
the Commissioner of Central Excise, Madurai, for
unnecessary litigation up to the apex level on a
small amount of duty of Rs. 1.34 lakh. (CCE vs
Ayyappan Textiles Ltd 2013-TIOL-34-SC-CX).The
dispute was over the quality of a batch of cotton
yarn, but the litigation has travelled between
different adjudicating authorities since 1993,
resulting in a colossal waste of time of the
adjudicators including of the Supreme Court.
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EODB is synonymous with low levels of

corruption. Singapore, Denmark and New Zealand
rank higher on EODB parameters, thanks to their
low CPI of 5 and 1 (Denmark and New Zealand
ranked a joint first), whereas India languishes at
94. Even China is better, at rank 80.
Commissioner of Excise, Customs and Service Tax,

Commissioner (Appeals), CESTAT, High Court and
Supreme Court is 14 to 20 years.
Crores of cases
Another stumbling block in the path of EODB

is mounting litigations in direct as well as indirect
taxation. An answer given in the Lok Sabha
recently pointed out that the amount locked in
income-tax litigation appeals as on December 2011
was almost Rs. 4.36 lakh crore, involving more than
2.5 lakh cases. Indirect tax cases pending at various
courts and tribunals exceed one lakh in number
and Rs. 1 lakh crore in value.
The success rate of the government in the apex
court in such cases is hardly 11 per cent. This means
that in nearly 90 per cent of the cases, the
government couldnt make its case stick.
Even though the Central Government has

formulated a National Litigation Policy (NLP) to
shed the tag of being the nations largest litigant, it
continues to file frivolous appeals. That is what the
Courts have observed, more than once.
The Mumbai High Court, in Techno Economic
Services Pvt Ltd vs CCE (2010-TIOL-464-HC-MUMCX), commented that the Government is the largest
litigant, accounting for 70 per cent of the three
crore cases pending in various courts.
The average time taken for an indirect tax case

to attain finality after passing through different
adjudication forums, such as jurisdictional Asst
Waste of time
The High Court of Karnataka, in the case of

Adecco Flexione Workforce Solutions Ltd (2011TIOL-635-HC-KAR-ST), observed that though the
law does not say so, authorities working under the
law seem to think otherwise and thus they are
wasting valuable time in proceeding against persons
who were paying service tax with interest promptly.
In a recent case (Alok Enterprises vs CCE,
Mumbai-III 2014-TIOL-208-CESTAT-MUM), the
short-payment of excise duty due to a clerical error
was a paltry Rs. 10. The demand of duty, with
penalty and interest, was Rs. 2,12,345 and it took
almost six years to get final relief from the Mumbai
Tribunal.
Unless unwanted and frivolous litigation by the
government is bridled, there can be no improvement
in ease in doing business.
CREATE JOBS WHERE THE JOB-SEEKERS ARE
A recent TV programme that reviews the work

of MPs in their constituencies threw up an interesting
fact the chief concern raised by people across
constituencies was the lack of job opportunities
not corruption nor infrastructure issues. A clear
message that people need jobs rather than freebies.
The finance minister recently said the
unemployment rate has fallen and is about 5.5 per
[48]
cent. Chidambaram added that the UPA has fared

much better than the NDA, though the absolute
number of jobs created had not increased during
the UPA regime. How? Perhaps the reduced
unemployment rate can be attributed to people
taking up jobs out of desperation jobs with no
relevance to their field of study or specialisation.
Instances of engineering graduates joining the

insurance sector and educated people in the rural
areas taking up manual labour are common these
days. A labour ministry report says many people
in employment are actually overqualified for the
job they are doing and, therefore, society is losing
valuable skills and forfeiting stronger productivity
growth than would have been achieved.
Employability
India needs a multi-pronged rural-oriented

strategy to improve the employment scenario. First,
the Government should focus on improving farm
productivity. With over two-thirds of the population
living in the rural hinterland, the focus must be on
using science and technology to improve farm output.
Countries like Australia and New Zealand
spend heavily on farm R&D. Seventy per cent of
the value of farm output in such countries arises
from the various sources of productivity growth,
such as improvements in infrastructure and
communications, higher quality inputs, and new
technologies from research and extension activities.
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India produces over 7 lakh engineering

graduates every year; over 60 per cent of them
dont find relevant jobs. Questions have been raised
on the quality of graduates, their employability.
On an average, over 10 lakh people will enter the
job market every month over the next decade and
this number is expected to rise. The much-hyped
demographic dividend must be used effectively,
before it is too late. But where are the jobs?
What needs to be done?
The job market is primarily a factor of demand

(for skilled people) and supply (availability of the
right people). Reports suggest that the situation is
quite alarming, with over 25 per cent of under-30
degree, diploma or other certificate holders
unemployed. In contrast, it has been argued in
recent reports that unavailability of the right
talent is costing the economy a whopping
Rs. 53,000 crore and that Indias talent adaptability
ranking is among the lowest. The new government
will have to quickly address this severe demandsupply mismatch.
Indias biggest challenge has been the lowproductivity agriculture sector that employs 50 per
cent of the people, but accounts for just 14 per
cent of GDP. There has been a constant decline in
agriculture-based employment over the past two
decades, with people shifting to non-farm jobs in
labour-intensive areas, such as manufacturing and
construction.
The MGNREGA and the Pradhan Mantri
Gramin Sadak Yojna are only helping more people
take up non-farm jobs. But a CRISIL report states
that incremental non-farm employment is expected
to decrease more than 25 per cent to 38 million in
FY 2013-19 as the economy has been treading a
lower-growth path.
High productivity services sectors such as

finance, insurance and business services, including
the IT sector, provide employment for only 3 per
cent of the population, yet account for about 20
per cent of GDP. However, these industries have
limitations in adding millions of jobs every year in
a highly competitive global environment.
Some advanced counties are even encouraging

urban agriculture as a key theme, including
production, processing and distribution of
agricultural produce.
Considering Indias demography, just
replicating ideas from other countries may not
work; instead, the concepts must be adapted to
improve productivity.
India also needs major changes in rural
infrastructure better roads, and a reliable power
supply and communications set-up.
Second, it is time policy was tweaked to enable
indigenous manufacturing and thereby generate
significant job opportunities. Isnt it intriguing that
India does not have the infrastructure to
manufacture mobile phones indigenously?
There is certainly an opportunity for India to
become a dominant player in the global
manufacturing sector. Should it adopt the German
model, in which public and private sectors work
together and generate jobs? Or focus on creating a
good ecosystem for cottage/small-scale industries
to flourish maybe with learning from Japan?
There is an urgent need for the right government
policies and impetus to spur job creation in the
large manufacturing sector.
Placement targets
Third, skill development initiatives such as the

National Skill Development Corporations (NSDC)
programme to create employment-ready people are
very important. Although NDSC has not met the
job skilling and placement targets so far, this
initiative must be pursued with greater vigour going
forward to achieve the skilling target of 350 million
by 2022.
[49]

The Government formed the National Skill
Development Agency (NSDA) to support the NSDC
by coordinating with it to create a framework for
skill development. Eventually, the success of any
such initiative is determined solely by employability.
It is imperative that the government accords
the right priority to removing policy hurdles to

create job opportunities, mainly in the rural areas.
This, along with an increased focus on skill
development, is urgently needed to address the
serious demand-supply mismatch.
DATA DISTORTIONS
with respect to the organised sector. The annual
output of unregistered units, shown in National
Accounts Statistics, is calculated by using estimates
of value added (output minus input) from enterprise
surveys carried out once every five years and
extrapolating from them by using dated sectoral
weights and price indices that too, in an open
economy where macro variables are constantly
subject to change.
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How reliable is our industrial output data? The

question crops up from time to time. As pointed
out in a Business Line article (Behind the industrial
growth numbers, April 14), the IIP data for 201112 diverge sharply from that of the Annual Survey
of Industries (ASI), which is considered to be more
accurate. While the former showed 3 per cent
growth, the latter put it at 10.4 per cent! The
underestimate seems to apply to the current period
as well, if the RBI data on the corporate sectors
order books, inventory and capacity utilisation are
taken into account. (A caveat: understated
industrial growth does not mean all is kosher; it
only shows that we need much higher rates of
growth to absorb the workforce.)
The Central Statistics Office has acknowledged
that IIP data are subject to major revisions and
short-term fluctuations. Former Finance Minister
Pranab Mukherjee was baffled by how the
factory output for January 2012 could be revised
from 6.8 per cent to 1.1 per cent. In October 2009,
P Chidambaram expressed his misgivings over the
IIP at a time when the numbers were low. He was
right: the IIP does have a downward bias. This is
for two reasons: the organised sector units are not
meticulous about reporting their performance and
the index does not adequately take into account
the MSME (micro, small and medium-scale
enterprises) sector. While the IIP is compared with
ASI figures to test for accuracy, this can work only
If industrial output numbers are hazy, so are

employment estimates. The data gaps extend to
the services sector which, oddly enough, stays
buoyant, regardless of the rest of the economy.
What all this amounts to is policymaking without
adequate information on output, employment and
much else. The Government owes it to itself,
industry, investors and the people to present a more
credible set of numbers for which it must step
up budgetary outlays across ministries and infuse
a sense of urgency in the working of the National
Statistical Commission. We are short on macro data
on the corporate sector and capital markets. The
Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and
SEBI should act on this matter. The income-tax
department should provide data on income
distribution, for which we now fall back on
household expenditure! Lets face it: the Indian
economy is a machine that is not understood at all.
This state of ignorance is unacceptable.
A GESTURE OF DEFIANCE
It is not true to say that Afghanistan lacks goodnews stories. Its just that they are not the kind to
generate headlines: 8m children at school, two-fifths
of them girls, compared with 1m when the Taliban
were in power; a tenfold increase in those Afghans
with access to basic health care; some 20m who
own mobile phones; and proliferating television
channels, radio stations and newspapers. By
contrast, the good-news story of the presidential
election on April 5th was generating both headlines
[50]
and surpriseand that is even before a result has

been announced.
The expectation was for another flawed election
like the one in 2009. Jeremiahs predicted that a
combination of fraud, intimidation and violence
would produce only a tainted, illegitimate
government. That would give weary donors of
international aid all the excuse they needed to stop
signing the cheques keeping the country afloat. The
only real winners would be the Taliban.

What comes next, though, matters greatly. The
Independent Election Commission must build on
its initial success by showing that vote-counting
will take place in a transparent manner. It is a test,
too, for the candidates. Preliminary first-round
results will not all be announced until April 24th.
As results start to dribble out and it emerges which
ticket looks strongest, much jockeying for position
will take place.
A second run-off ballot will be held on May
28th if, as seems likely, no candidate gets more
than 50% of the vote in the first round. Should
Ashraf Ghani, an urbane former World Bank
economist, be out in front with his thuggish running
mate, Abdul Rashid Dostum, an Uzbek warlord,
then a deal between Abdullah Abdullah, another
former foreign minister who ran last time, and
Mr. Rassoul is possible. It could be brokered by
Mr. Karzai, who will remain a powerful figure
(with a chalet in the presidential palace grounds,
no less). Mr. Ghani and Mr. Rassoul are Pushtuns,
the countrys largest ethnic group, while Mr
Abdullah is considered a Tajik. With much at stake
in a two-horse race, the risk of serious fraud in the
second round will be high. The chief incentive for
the two candidates to restrain their followers from
rigging the poll is that the victor will desperately
need to be seen by as many Afghans as possible to
have won more or less fairly.
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Yet in this election Afghans of all kinds rejected

that account of their country. Despite the threat
of Taliban reprisals (and rotten weather), over 7m
Afghans, about 60% of those eligible, appear to
have voted, half as many again as in 2009. Around
35% of those who cast a ballot were women.
Burka-clad voters raising an ink-stained finger as
they left the polling booths became a symbol of
defiance. Contributing to the buzz on the day was
the belief among voters that the election was
genuinely open and the result no foregone
conclusion. The candidates themselves campaigned
on bread-and-butter and security issues and
showed a commitment to the democratic process.
President Hamid Karzai, who was accused of
stealing the last election, appears to have stood
back despite having a favoured candidate, a
former foreign minister, Zalmai Rassoul. A vibrant
and largely independent media reported with
vigour and professionalism, despite recent deadly
attacks against foreign or foreign-employed
journalists.
The logistics of the election were almost a wholly

Afghan affair. Most people who wanted to vote
succeeded in doing so. From the outset, there was
a quiet determination to expose and prevent fraud.
Civil-society organisations deployed their members
in areas that had shown serious irregularities in
the past, while many journalists risked their own
safety in the hunt for ballot-rigging scandals.
Afghanistans intelligence agency, the National
Directorate of Security, set up its own electoral
complaints hotline. A steady stream of fraud
allegations suggests that their efforts may only have
had partial success, yet the independent Electoral
Complaints Commission promises to investigate
each one.
Critically, security across the country was tight.
Only about 200 out of over 6,000 polling centres
failed to open after threats from the Taliban. The
interior minister, Umer Daudzai, contends that the
Taliban had planned over 140 attacks. But there
were no Taliban spectaculars, and voters were
largely unharmed. Significantly, voter turnout in
Kandahar province, the Taliban heartland, was far
higher than anticipated, with not a single assault
on a polling centre. In the 2009 election, over 30
bombings took place in Kandahar, and only a trickle
of voters made it to the polls. Some suggest that
the Taliban was split over how far it should target
voters to undermine the election. But that should
not detract from the achievement of the army and
the police.
Its not over yet
Whoever wins, the new governments first

priority will be to conclude the bilateral security
agreement with America (and a similar agreement
with NATO) that Mr. Karzai, to the dismay of most
Afghans, has refused to sign. An agreement would
pave the way for a contingent of about 12,000
American and NATO troops to stay after 2014 and
provide the Afghan security forces with training,
assistance and advice. That means, above all,
plugging capability gaps in air support, intelligence,
logistics and medical care. All three main candidates
want the pact signed quickly, knowing how much
flows from it: the morale and fighting efficiency of
the army; the security needed to unlock $16 billionworth of promised development aid; and the
confidence in the future required to prevent money
and talent from fleeing. However, with wheelerdealing over ministerial posts and Ramadan starting
on June 28th, it may be September before a security
agreement is at last in placegoing to the wire in
terms of military planning.
[51]

That all lies ahead. But in this election ordinary
Afghans have sent a message: to their own
politicians that stability is more important than
sectional interest; to the rest of the world that their
country is worthy of continued support; and to the

Taliban that its claims to represent Afghanistan
are hollow.
DIGITAL HEART ATTACK

to patch their customer-facing internet websites,
but that is only the tip of the iceberg, says Jonathan
Sander of STEALTHbits Technologies, a security
firm that is helping one of Americas biggest banks
work out where it has deployed the buggy software.
Web-connected systems that handle things such as
accounting and personnel data will also need to be
checked for the bug.
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The Heartbleed bug sounds like a nasty coronary

condition. But it is in fact a software flaw that has
left up to two-thirds of the worlds websites
vulnerable to attack by hackers. This is potentially
the most dangerous bug that we have seen for a
long, long time, says James Beeson, the chief
information security officer of GE Capital Americas,
an arm of GE. Since its existence was revealed on
April 7th by researchers at Codenomicon, a security
outfit, and Google, countless companies around the
world that rely on the internet for part or all of
their business have been scrambling to fix the flaw.
Ironically, the bug was discovered in OpenSSL,

encryption software that was designed to make
the internet more secure. Available free, this opensource code is popular with businesses and
governments, which use it to help secure everything
from online credit-card transactions to public
services. On April 9th, for instance, Canadas tax
authority shut off public access to its online services
while it checked the security of its systems in the
light of news about the bug.
The flaw makes it possible for hackers to trick
a server into spewing out data held in its memory.
OpenSSL has a feature known as a heartbeat
that allows a computer at one end of an encrypted
link to send occasional signals to the computer at
the other end of it, to check that it is still online.
The researchers discovered that a hacker with
knowledge of the bug could replicate this signal
and use it to steal all manner of data from a remote
computer.
Those data could include encryption keys that
let hackers decipher traffic. To make matters worse,
the researchers found that the bug, which is present
in some versions of OpenSSL that have been
available since March 2012, allows attacks to be
mounted without leaving a trace in targeted
computers server logs, so victims are unaware
their systems have been compromised. That means
it is impossible to tell for sure what damage has
been done.
The bug has forced companies to find out fast

how many of their systems employ the vulnerable
versions of OpenSSL. Everyone knows they have
[52]
Mr. Sander likens the discovery of the Heartbleed

bug to finding a faulty part in nearly every make
and model of car. The problem is that the internet
cannot be recalled. Big web companies such as
Google and Yahoo have moved fast to deal with the
bug. But millions of smaller e-commerce sites and
other businesses face the worrying prospect of being
attacked by hackers alerted to the bugs existence as
the firms race to fix the problem.
The cure includes applying a software patch
and then choosing new encryption keys to replace
those that may have been compromised. Once this
has been done, customers will often need to change
their passwords too. Tumblr, a blogging service
owned by Yahoo, has urged its users to change the
passwords they use for all of the secure online
services that hold sensitive data about them. Some
companies even chose to suspend services while
they were working on a fix. Bitstamp, a Bitcoin ecurrency exchange, temporarily suspended new
account registrations and logins to its existing
accounts.
Another Y2K?
Perhaps the risk posed by the Heartbleed bug

will turn out to be overblown. But if it emerges
that companies systems have indeed been hacked
because of it, this could open a legal can of worms.
Firms could argue that they ought not to be
punished for using widely trusted security software.
But aggrieved customersand their lawyersmay
see things differently.
Quite how the bug got into the OpenSSL
software in the first place is a mystery. Bruce
Schneier, an internet-security expert, argues in a
blog post that the probability is close to one that

intelligence agencies have exploited the glitch to
nab the encryption keys needed to decipher
information about their targets. His guess is that
the glitch is the result of a coding error rather than
the handiwork of spies, though he says he cannot
be sure.
No matter who is to blame, this episode is
another reminder of the security challenges
companies face as ever more economic activity
shifts online. According to e-Marketer, a research

outfit, worldwide business-to-consumer e-commerce
sales are likely to grow by just over a fifth this
year, to $1.5 trillion. That is a huge commercial
opportunity, but it will also encourage cyber-crooks
to target businesses even more vigorously. Expect
more computer-security heartburn in boardrooms.
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RIGHT CAUSE, WRONG BATTLE
Jim Kim, the president of the World Bank, wants

it to promote gay rights. He has declared the fight
to eliminate all institutionalised discrimination to
be an urgent task. He recently put on hold a $90m
loan to Ugandas health sector after its government
introduced one of Africas most draconian anti-gay
laws. He has ordered an overhaul of the banks
lending policies to make sure that no loan assists
discrimination. At this weeks Spring Meetings in
Washington, DC, he is convening discussions with
gay activists on how best to do so.
As an early proponent of gay marriage, this

newspaper shares Mr. Kims sentiments. Bigotry is
abhorrent and laws that entrench it should be
condemned. Ugandas new law, which allows a
maximum sentence of life imprisonment for anyone
convicted of homosexuality and requires citizens
to report anyone suspected of being gay, is
particularly awful. Nonetheless, Mr. Kims initiative
is misguided. The World Bank is a technocratic
development organisation, not a place for political
advocacy. Setting up gay rights as a test of its
lending decisions is likely to make the bank less
effective at what Mr. Kim himself has emphasised
is its core job: tackling extreme poverty.
The banks technocratic approach is a big part

of its DNA. Its founding documents prohibit
political activity, however unpleasant a regime
might be. Only economic considerations should
be relevant to lending decisions. That does not, by
itself, preclude it from opposing nasty laws. You
can draw a link from fighting bigotry to alleviating
poverty. Unfair treatment of groups of people,
whether on the basis of gender, race or sexuality,
leads to their social exclusion, which in turn is likely
to harm economic growth and make it harder to
alleviate poverty. By this logic the bank has, rightly,
long been pushing for the education of girls. The
fight against other forms of discrimination can be
justified on the same economic grounds.
A rainbow of reasons
But even if it can be justified in principle, Mr

Kims focus on gay rights is likely to be
counterproductive in practice, for three reasons.
First, it seems capricious. Uganda is hardly the only
country with anti-gay laws on the books; nor is it
the only one to have recently toughened its antigay stance. Almost 80 of the banks member
countries, including most in Africa, have legislation
that discriminates against gays. In many places the
laws are ignored, but several places, notably
Ethiopia and Nigeria, have recently introduced
stiffer anti-gay statutes. Ugandas behaviour is
odious. But it is not alone.
Second, the stress on gay rights itself seems
arbitrary. Of the many forms of bigotry the bank
could battle, it is not clear that anti-gay laws are
the most harmful to the poor. The bank lends to
plenty of places that discriminate against women
under Islamic law. It also lends to countries with
laws that discriminate against minorities. The
economic impact of these forms of bigotry is far
bigger. But if Mr. Kim tries to tackle all
institutionalised discrimination by withholding
lending, he will soon have no customers left.
Third, his approach is likely to backfire. In the
short term, it weakens the campaign to lessen
poverty. Ugandas loan, designed to support
maternal-care clinics, was the equivalent of 20% of
its health budget. And it still has a high childmortality rate. Politically, the pressure from
Mr. Kim, though winning plaudits in Washington,
is having perverse results, where it matters most.
Ugandas government declares itself to be standing
up against the arrogant imposition of Western
values. The more the World Bank adds such
conditions to its lending, the more African countries
will be inclined to seek money elsewhere, not least
from the no-questions-asked Chinese.
[53]

The uncomfortable truth is that an economic
institution like the bank has to pick its battles. There
is a limit to how many conditions outsiders can
attach to their aid. Its aim is to encourage economic
development. Most of the evidence is that the bank
is most effective when client countries see it as an
economic partner, rather than a boss imposing a
Western agenda.
Ironically, at one level, Mr. Kim seems to realise

that. He is sponsoring a big management reform
designed to make the bank better at finding the
most promising solutions from around the world
to help countries develop faster. Launching a battle
for gay rights may salve consciences, but will make
it harder to achieve that goal.
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MOST CLIMATE MODELS SHOW EL NINO'S RETURN WITHIN

MONTHS, UN SAYS
A majority of weather forecasting models

indicate that an El Nino weather phenomenon may
develop around the middle of the year, but it is too
early to assess its likely strength, the U.N. World
Meteorological Organization said on Tuesday.
El Nino, characterised by unusually warm
surface temperatures in the central and eastern
tropical Pacific Ocean, has a significant impact on
climate in many parts of the world and a warming
influence on global temperatures, the WMO said.
"Model forecasts indicate a fairly large potential
for an El Nio, most likely by the end of the second
quarter of 2014," the WMO said.
The WMO statement follows predictions by

several national forecasters, including the U.S.,
Japanese and Australian weather bureaus, that an
El Nino event was likely within months.
"For the June to August period, approximately

two-thirds of the models surveyed predict that El
Nio thresholds will be reached, while the
remaining models predict a continuation of neutral
conditions. A few models predict an earlier El Nio
onset, such as in May."
The WMO said none of the climate models
surveyed suggested there would be a La Nia event
- the opposite of El Nino, which is associated with
cooling - in 2014.
El Nino conditions could affect commodity
prices and are likely to be blamed for extreme
weather events. The worst El Nino on record in
1997/98 was blamed for massive flooding along
China's Yangtze river that killed more than 1,500
people.
Source: Reuters
THE PROBLEM NEXT-DOOR
By all accounts, the much-awaited presidential

election in Afghanistan was a success, at least in
terms of the turnout and voting process. As we
wait for official results to see whether a run-off is
necessary, in the event that no single candidate
receives more than 50 per cent of the votes, it is
worth considering the looming question
Afghanistans post-election prospects. A pivotal
actor in Afghanistans fortunes is not the Afghan
voter, Taliban fighter, former warlord or even the
new president. It is Afghanistans next-door
neighbour Pakistan, which can only be
characterised as a wild card.
It is hard to describe Pakistan as anything else
when, even after 13 years of waging war together
in Afghanistan, US officials and analysts on South
Asia are not able to assess the Pakistan
governments real intentions towards Kabul after
American withdrawal. Instead, they tend to offer
[54]
two very divergent interpretations, an optimistic

scenario and a pessimistic one, thus leaving this
critical question unanswered.
Although the takers for an optimistic scenario
are decreasing, it is perhaps understandable from
a diplomatic viewpoint that a dire prediction is not
a desirable policy option for the US: it would
highlight just how little has been achieved even as
it departs, and just how little can be done even if
it wanted to change the equation with Pakistan.
So it should come as no surprise that all three
leading presidential candidates Abdullah
Abdullah, Ashraf Ghani and Zalmai Rassoul
have in the past accused Pakistan of helping
Afghan insurgents to further Islamabads own
interests. For example, when Burhanuddin Rabbani,
a member of Afghanistans High Peace Council and
former president, was assassinated in 2011, Ghani
publicly said Pakistan had probably played a role.

He went on to say the assassination of President
Rabbani has gelled the nation together against
interference. And one or two more actions could
put us in an irreversible course [towards] conflict.
Indeed, Hamid Karzai, a Pashtun who gained
power, with strong personal ties to Pakistan, has
over time become one of Islamabads biggest critics.
Entire swathes of Afghanistan in the turbulent

south, east and southeast bordering Pakistan remain
outside the control of Kabul and up for grabs. There
are continuing attacks by armed groups, especially
the Taliban and Haqqani networks, with sanctuaries
across the border. The border is highly porous,
stretching over 2,500 kilometres, and under the
circumstances, presidential deal-making with
internal detractors is not going to be sufficient.
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Post elections, no matter what the verdict,

Pakistans opportunities in Afghanistan are likely
to rise. Islamabad would no doubt like to regain its
dominant pre-2001 position, and conditions seem
to be favourable for such an outcome. A receding
American presence, an inevitable reduction in funds
from economically hard-pressed Western countries,
the unfinished nature of the war, and the lack of
any
regional
understanding
regarding
Afghanistans stability, will leave wide openings
for Pakistans influence. Historically, the government
in Kabul has been only as powerful as the level of
resources it has had in hand to play patronage
politics.
in office, the new leader will have to make a

dizzying number of deals including with
distasteful power-brokers who can otherwise pose
serious governance challenges.
Afghanistans provinces have always been too

strong, and regional leaders too independent, for
the government to exert real control from the centre.
Conversely, there have been no secession
movements to speak of in Afghanistan the prize
for regional satraps has been influence in Kabul.
This should be a disquieting thought for the

next president, especially since the two apparent
frontrunners are both technocrats without a large
and powerful base. Abdullah, a doctor by training,
has held key posts under Karzai, and before that,
was active in the Northern Alliance led by Tajik
leader Ahmad Shah Massoud. Ghani, a PhD in
anthropology from Columbia University, boasts an
impressive set of credentials. To wield power once
The new regime will inherit the same unsettled

political and security situation that Karzai has been
unsuccessfully overseeing. Last year was among
the most violent in Afghanistan since 2001. The
month leading up to the election saw a jump in
attacks, especially against election officials and
facilities. After an attack on the heavily guarded
Serena hotel in Kabul (where most international
election observers were staying), the Afghan
National Security Council reportedly held foreign
intelligence services a thinly veiled reference to
Pakistans security agencies responsible.
Pakistan, in turn, declared it would fortify and
seal the border with Afghanistan during the
elections, which Islamabad says it followed through
on. This might partly explain why elections were
not marred by major terror attacks. The question is
whether Pakistan will take the necessary measures
to ensure Afghanistans stability once the
international spotlight is turned off. On this,
Pakistan remains a wild card.
A SLIPPERY SLOPE
A division bench of the Supreme Court,

comprising Justices K.S. Radhakrishnan and
Vikramajit Sen, upheld a January 6 judgment of
the Delhi High Court on Thursday, holding that
the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) could
audit the books of private telecom companies to
ascertain whether their revenues have been shared
with the government as per the licence agreements.
In 2009, the department of telecommunications
had engaged private auditors to scrutinise the books
of certain telecom companies, and discovered the
underreporting of revenue (this has been disputed
by the companies). Following this, the department
moved to recover the dues owed to it. But in the

meanwhile, a CAG audit of their books was also
initiated, which has now been shown the green
light by the SC. A private telecom operator can
already be subjected to DoT, Trai and income tax
department audits. It has to comply with audit
rules under the Companies Act and, if it is listed,
Sebi norms. So the question arises, what exactly
does a CAG audit add to this multi-level scrutiny?
The SC judgment, in fact, clears the path for
the CAG to demand to audit a wide range of
private companies involved in public-private
partnership projects across sectors because the
[55]

While audits have their place, the government
needs to systematically scotch any incentives to
fudge revenue records such as, by introducing
uniform licence fees across services, which has
largely been done now. Indeed, this was where the
original problem stemmed from. This is the only
way forward.
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court has accepted its right to audit funds that

accrue to the Consolidated Fund of India. Not only
will a variety of natural gas and petroleum
producers, highway concessionaires etc be eligible
to be audited by the CAG, but stretched to the
extreme, any taxpaying individual or company will
also come in the net. The CAGs remit has been
widened enormously. This begs the larger question:
is this really what the government auditor was
originally envisioned to do in the Constitution?
WE THE VOTERS
With half of this Lok Sabha election behind us,

it is clear that voter turnout has risen, by an average
of 10 per cent in the constituencies that have voted
so far. While the easy assumption is that higher
turnouts reflect a rejection of the incumbent, and
favour the biggest challenger, data does not bear
this out. For instance, turnout has risen steadily
since 2003 in assembly elections, re-electing the
party in power more often than forcing it out. There
is no way of mapping this Lok Sabha turnout either
it could be a wave for a single party, or a signal
that first-time voters are determined to make their
presence felt, or something more mundane. Given
that turnout is the percentage of eligible voters who
cast their ballot, it can increase when the
denominator is reduced, that is, when electoral rolls
are updated. In urban constituencies in particular,
many ghost voters have been deleted from the list,
automatically improving turnout figures without
reflecting any actual increase in voters.
But either way, it establishes the fact that unlike

in the rest of the world, where voter turnout has
steadily sloped off, Indians remain strongly engaged
with electoral democracy. Having started at 47.5
per cent at the time of Independence, voter turnout
now hovers at roughly 60 per cent, and by all
accounts, this election is likely to post healthier
figures. Data shows that this remains strong at all

levels in fact, assembly and panchayat elections
show greater participation than national ones.
When voter turnout is disaggregated, it shows that
those worse off in social and economic terms have
participated with even greater enthusiasm than
affluent, urban voters who are less invested in
elections and their outcomes again bucking the
global trend. This pressure from below has shaped
Indias political economy in highly specific ways.
In fact, even when an agenda is set outside
the electoral field, as a civil society agitation or an
anti-political impulse, it usually gets incorporated
into democratic politics. This is true of all recent
upsurges, including the Anna Hazare-led anticorruption mobilisation. The Aam Aadmi Party,
born out of that movement, is now trying to tap
into the popular disillusionment with politics as
usual. Even in regions troubled by insurgency or
conflict, elections have become a register of
discontents. This institutionalisation of democracy,
the fact that elections are the commonsensical way
to bid for power, is remarkable and this massive
popular trust should spur governments to do better
by the people.
ONE COURT, TWO MINDSETS
After all, for whose benefit was the Constitution

enacted? What was the point of making all this
pother [yes, not bother!] about fundamental rights?
I am clear that the Constitution is not for the
exclusive benefit of governments and states; it is
not only for lawyers and politicians and officials
and those highly placed. It also exists for the
common man, for the poor and the humble, for
those who have businesses at stake, for the butcher,
the baker and the candlestick maker.
[56]
These ringing words of Justice Vivian Bose came

to mind on Tuesday, as the Supreme Court did the
Constitution proud again by coming to the rescue
of the most ostracised and marginalised, the
transgenders. Here was a constitutional court doing
its job, performing its assigned role of a sentinel
on the qui vive (in the words of another great
judge, Patanjali Shastri). The major letdown of
December 2013 in the gay rights case was forgotten
that day, but it has returned to haunt us.

The two judgments of Justices K.S.
Radhakrishnan and A.K. Sikri are not born out of
mere compassion. They are not ad hoc judicial
determinations of what seems to be fair. They are
based on strong constitutional foundations, and give
transgenders the protection of as many as five
fundamental rights.
Then comes the right to life and personal liberty

under Article 21. Self-determination of gender is
an integral part of personal autonomy and selfexpression and falls within the realm of personal
liberty guaranteed under Article 21, said the court,
and that recognition of ones gender identity lies at
the heart of the fundamental right to dignity.
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Equality before law and the equal protection of

laws under Article 14 of the Constitution are
available to any person, not just men and
women, therefore the court found no difficulty in
holding that discrimination on the grounds of
sexual orientation or gender identity would violate
Article 14. Contrast this approach with how the
court dealt with the Article 14 argument in the
gay rights case. It gave it short shrift. It said that
those who indulge in carnal intercourse and those
who indulge in it against the order of nature
constitute different classes and could therefore be
classified separately, forgetting that the whole case
was about whether there was an order of nature.
mannerism, clothing, etc. Gender identity, the court

said, lies at the core of ones personal identity, and
gender expression and presentation will therefore
have to be protected under Article 19(1)(a).
Articles 15(1) and 15(2) both prohibit

discrimination against any citizen on the grounds
of sex, the former by the state and the latter even
by private citizens in the matter of access to public
spaces. Article 16 again prohibits discrimination on
the grounds of sex in the matter of public
employment. The court held that the expression
sex is not limited to the biological sexes of male or
female, but was intended to include people who
consider themselves neither male nor female, and
that discrimination on the grounds of gender identity
was discrimination on the grounds of sex.
In the gay rights case, the Delhi High Court
had also taken the same view, that discrimination
on the grounds of sexual orientation was
discrimination on the grounds of sex.
Unfortunately, the Supreme Court did not even
touch upon this aspect in its December judgment.
Article 15(4) empowers the state to make special
provision for the advancement of socially and
educationally backward classes of citizens. Article
16(4) enables the state to make reservations in public
employment in favour of any backward class of
citizens. Accepting that transgenders are socially
and educationally backward (a view that did not
really need much corroboration) the court held that
they are entitled to affirmative action, including
reservations. The right to freedom of expression
under Article 19(1)(a) was also creatively invoked
by the court, to hold that it includes the freedom
to express ones chosen gender identity through
varied ways and means of expression, speech,
Again, in the gay rights case, the Delhi High

Court had held clearly that dignity, autonomy and
privacy were part of the right to life and personal
liberty under Article 21. But the Supreme Court,
after copious quotations from judgments under
Article 21, did not give a single reason why that
article was not violated by the criminalisation of
gay sex.
The concurring judgment of Justice Sikri draws
upon philosophy and jurisprudence to examine the
purpose of law and the role which the court is
expected to play. It recognises that a change in the
law precedes societal change and is even intended
to stimulate it. It says that in order to bring about
a complete paradigm shift, the law has to play a
more dominant role. The role of the court, it says,
is to understand the central purpose and theme of
the Constitution, that in interpreting the
fundamental rights in consonance with social
needs, the court is only bridging the gap between
law and life. This, it feels, is the primary role of the
court in a democracy.
The leading judgment of Justice Radhakrishnan
makes detailed references to international covenants
and laws of other countries. It refers to a wealth of
case law that has developed in other jurisdictions.
This case law is not only from advanced countries,
but also neighbours like Pakistan and Nepal, who
have gone ahead of us in recognising the rights of
transgenders. This is the sign of a self-confident
court that does not hesitate to seek light from
anywhere. This is unlike the almost xenophobic
approach in the gay rights case.
One court, two mindsets. The lesson that we
need to learn is this: constitutional adjudication is
serious business. Article 145(3) requires that a
minimum number of five judges sit to decide any
substantial question of law relating to the
interpretation of the Constitution. The court ought
to do this strictly.
[57]
WORDS OF WAR
As the US, Russia, EU and Ukraine hold their
first talks in Geneva since the escalation of the
Ukrainian crisis, the Cold War-like atmosphere
masks a reputational crisis for the US, EU and
Nato. The Ukrainian governments response to the
insurrection in the east of the country has turned
out to be an embarrassment for Kiev. Soldiers
dispatched to end the occupation of government
buildings have been stalled by blockading rings of
civilians and pro-Russian gunmen. Kievs
apprehensions of a full-scale Russian invasion,
should it act against the gunmen, have been eclipsed
by the fiasco of its anti-terrorist operation.
the Ukrainian military, are being used to the hilt in

Moscows propaganda war.
With an estimated 40,000-strong military buildup on Ukraines eastern border despite

allegations from Kiev that the gunmen are actually
Russian soldiers Moscow has been using the
spectre of intervention, its right to send in troops
to defend the Russian-speaking population, to warn
Kiev. The deaths of three protesters, fired upon by
Nor has the Obama administration earned itself

any admirers. Moscow has to regain its trust in Kiev
and Western capitals, but the Ukrainian government,
dominated by west Ukrainians, too must make an
overture towards Russian-speaking citizens and
make them stakeholders in preserving the state.
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The reason Ukraine matters is the butterfly

effect the insurrection and prospective
referendums which, like the Crimean one, may
cause Ukraine loss of territory and its break-up
can have on economic, energy and security matters
across Europe. Nato has stepped up air and sea
patrols to assure its Baltic member states, but to
defuse the crisis, diplomacy has to succeed in
Geneva. The EU, and particularly Germany, has
been perceived to be too soft, even now divided on
Phase 3 sanctions targeting the Russian economy.
WHY NOT A POST BANK OF INDIA?
The issue of granting new commercial bank

licences was mooted in the Union Budget of
February 2010. Since then there have been
discussion papers, draft guidelines and, after the
final guidelines were issued, 25 applications have
been under close scrutiny.
The process came to an end with the Reserve
Bank of India (RBI) announcing the grant of inprinciple approval to two applicants Infrastructure
Development and Finance Corporation Limited
(IDFC) and Bandhan Financial Services.
In the case of India Post, however, the RBI has
indicated that its application would need to be put
through a different process in consultation with
the government.
Opening up the licensing window periodically
results in a spate of complications and it is now
recognised that it may be better to have a system
of on tap applications. Moreover, thought is being
given to a system of differentiated bank licences;
the full guidelines still have to be set out and this
will take time. The 22 applicants that have not
been granted a licence will need to reapply.
Long haul: The two entities given in-principle
approval IDFC and Bandhan are likely to
[58]
take very different courses to setting up banks. It

will, however, be a decade before they become
forces to reckon with. In fact, as Rajiv Lall,
Chairman IDFC, rightly points out, the setting up
of a bank is a marathon, not a sprint.
Potential: The RBI in its communication on
licensing banks has indicated that India Posts
application will need to be examined and processed
on a different footing.
Ostensibly, a major thrust to financial inclusion
is one of the key reasons for considering the
formation of new banks.
It is here that India Post will take centre-stage.
There are 155,000 post offices, of which about
140,000 (90 per cent), are in the rural areas. As
such, India Post is pre-eminently suited for a bank
licence. Trying to achieve financial inclusion without
a central role for India Post would be like
staging Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark.
History: The idea of a postal bank was mooted
in the late 1980s by the then Finance Secretary S.
Venkitaramanan and he subsequently followed it
up after he became RBI Governor in December 1990.
But the proposal was shot down by the Ministry of
Finance.

The Ministrys opposition arises from the
procedure followed for savings garnered by the
postal system. The funds collected under various
schemes are remitted to the government and the
postal system draws on the government when there
are outgos. Since the totality of inflows each year
invariably exceeds the outflows, the government
gets a bonanza.
Branches: A bogey raised is that the Postal Bank

will not be able to handle the large network of
branches.
This could be a calibrated process in which,
initially, a few offices could be set up as branches
and select Post Offices could be designated as
extension counters with all other post-offices
operating as an agency network. In course of time,
the extension counters can be converted into fullfledged branches and new extension counters set
up. Over some years, a large network of Postal
Bank branches could be set up.
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Apprehensions: The erroneous apprehension

is that there would be an unmanageably large cash
outflow from the government when the postal bank
is set up. This issue can be easily tackled.
the present public sector banks and, as such, should

not be rejected as yet another public sector bank
that may not be desirable.
First, for the outstanding savings-bank balances

(i.e. the pre-zero balances) the government could
issue non-negotiable securities with varying
maturities ranging from treasury bills to long-term
bonds.
The interest rate on these bonds could be
negotiated by the Postal Bank and the Ministry of
Finance and should be above the present postal
savings bank rate to cover operational expenses
and any future rise in the savings bank rate.
Second, as regards time deposits, the pre-zero

liabilities could be discharged on the due date by
the government and any fresh time deposits would
be the liability of the Postal Bank. Third, for certain
schemes, such as Provident Funds and Senior
Citizen Retirement schemes, these could be handled
by the Postal Bank on an agency basis, for which
the Postal Bank could be suitably remunerated.
Capital: It is estimated that about Rs. 1,800
crore would be required to set up a Postal Bank.
The Government is being approached for Rs. 623
crore and the rest will be raised by the Postal Bank
from the market.
The Bank will be of a very different genre than
Investment skills: The Postal Bank will need a

team of skilled specialists to invest in government
securities and money market instruments. The
Postal Bank should be able to earn on its portfolio
of investments a margin well above the cost of funds,
which would make it viable.
Limited lending: The Postal Bank should
initiate lending operations very cautiously as it
builds up lending skills.
Loans should initially only be given by a few
select branches with skilled personnel and restricted
to small amounts.
It would, of course, be necessary to ensure that
lending operations are based on transparent criteria
with strict observance of lending norms.
Financial inclusion: The new government

should undertake a concerted drive to remove the
conceptual cobwebs preventing the setting up of a
Postal Bank, considering the great potential such a
bank has for taking banking to the masses.
COOLING DRAGON, STUMBLING ELEPHANT
For two consecutive years 2012 and 2013

the Chinese economy grew by 7.7 per cent.
Suddenly, a sub-eight per cent growth seemed the
new normal for the dragon, as against an average
annual GDP increase of 10.3 per cent over the last
decade. But official data released on Wednesday
showed year-on-year GDP growth for the first
quarter of 2014 falling further to 7.4 per cent. At
this rate there are some analysts who project
that will drop below 7 per cent by the third quarter
growth for the full year could turn out to be the
lowest since 1990. That was, of course, the year
following the infamous Tiannamen Square

massacre triggering western economic sanctions
and suspension of loans.
While sub-seven per cent is regarded to be hard
landing in China, for policymakers in India, though,
growth anywhere close to these rates would
represent a significant recovery from our current
sub-five per cent levels. This highlights the different
levels of expectations: any growth rate below eight
per cent in China is viewed as subnormal, while
anything near or above this is great for India. The
[59]

mt. Clearly, Indias growth strategy ought to focus
much more on investment be it in roads, bridges,
power, high-speed railways and optic fibre
networks or building new cities and industrial
corridors. Given the huge dearth of all these in
contrast to Chinas highways to nowhere and
unneeded aluminium smelters there is enough
scope for investment-led growth in India to sustain
for at least the next two decades and help it become
much bigger than the $1.9-trillion economy now.
One source of financing these investments could
actually be China, currently sitting on almost $4
trillion of foreign exchange reserves deployed mainly
in low-yielding US treasuries. There is an
opportunity here for both countries one
desperate for long-term capital and the other seeking
more rewarding investable avenues.
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truth is China is in a state of transition after

growing an average 9.9 per cent a year from 1978
to 2011, thereby becoming a $9 trillion-plus
economy. Much of this growth has been investment
and export-led. In the post-2008 global crisis period,
gross fixed capital formation to its GDP accounted
for 47 per cent of its GDP, while private
consumption contributed only an average of 35 per
cent. The countrys policymakers are now seeking
to rebalance the economy away from investment
and exports to one that is focused more on domestic
consumption. This will inevitably lead to lower,
but sustainable, growth in the long run.
It is the opposite in India, with 60 per cent of
its GDP originating from consumption and only 30
per cent from fixed capital investment. The latter
explains why India produced only 81.2 million
tonnes (mt) of crude steel and 275 mt of cement in
2013, compared with Chinas 779 mt and 2,410
THE HIGH-SPEED TRAINS ARE COMING
The recent visit to China by a high-powered

delegation could soon turn Indian Railways high
speed dreams into reality.
The delegation, under the leadership of Montek
Singh Ahluwalia, included the Chairman of the
Railway Board, the Managing Director of the High
Speed Rail Corporation, and others.
After meeting the Chinese Prime Minister, the

team interacted with officials of the Chinese
Railway Corporation.
Soon, a contract with them will usher in an era

of long-term technical cooperation with the Chinese
Railways, which already has more than 9,700 km
of new track capable of running trains at 300 kmph
and over 20,000 km of upgraded track fit for 200
kmph.
Feasibility studies
Back home, over the last decade or so, each new

railway minister has promised to build a high-speed
corridor and, as a follow-up action, the Railway
Board has been dutifully parcelling out pre-feasibility
and other studies to various experts in the field and
their reports have been carefully filed.
At the last count there are no less than seven

of them, at various stages of deliberation, including
the 450-km rail corridor of Delhi-ChandigarhAmritsar, for which technical evaluation of offers
from consultants have been completed and financial
[60]
bids are being finalised.
Pune-Mumbai-Ahmedabad, a 650-km stretch,

has been studied by Systra (France), Italferr (Italy),
and RITES (India). A 991-km proposal for a highly
ambitious Delhi-Agra-Lucknow-Varanasi-Patna has
a feasibility report by Mott McDonald of the UK.
Mamata Banerjees pet project of a 135-km
Howrah-Haldia line has been studied by Ineco,
Prointec, and Ayesa of Spain, a 664-km section of
Hyderabad-Dornakal-Vijayawada-Chennai studied
by a consortium led by Parsons Brinckerhoff (India).
Another ambitious 850-km stretch covering
Chennai-Bangalore-Coimbatore-ErnakulumThiruvananthapuram has a report by a consortium
led by JARTS (Japan Railway Technical Service)
and Oriental Consultants. Last but not the least,
for the 591-km Delhi-Jaipur-Ajmer-Jodhpur tenders
for engaging consultants are reportedly being
finalised.
In view of the high cost of nearly Rs. 200 crore

per km for these projects since such high speeds
need an elevated corridor and even a new
alignment with the added problem of acquisition
of land, the Railway Ministry has now opted for
finding low cost solutions.
Hiking existing maximum speeds of some of its
premier trains such as Rajdhani and Shatabdi from

130 kmph to a level of only 160-200 kpmh could result
in 15-30 per cent reduction in transit time, depending
on how much of the track would be upgraded. Though
cost of upgrading of the track, rolling stock, locomotives
and signalling is expected to be much lower than the
price tag for the 300 kmph plus variety, funds could
still remain a constraint, and all corridors may not be
financially viable.
A master plan envisages four corridors each on

the north-south and east-west alignments to be
completed by 2020, of which 1,433 km BeijingShanghai, 2,078 km Shanghai-Wuhan-Chengdu,
1,495 km Hangzhou-Shenzen, and the big daddy
of them all, a 2,298 km line from Beijing to
Guangzhou equivalent to a Delhi-Bangalore trip
are already is service.
While the popularity of high-speed rail services
can seldom be in doubt, only time will tell if they
will prove to be financially viable. PPP initiatives
in the past for Metro systems have seen some
success stories and a couple of failures. A highspeed corridor on the Ahmedabad-Mumbai or
Delhi-Chandigarh route with high enough volumes
could prove attractive enough for some private
players with deep pockets.
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Perhaps, the projects could perhaps be viewed

as a socially desirable investments, and even end up
decongesting Metros such as Delhi, Kolkata,
Chennai, Hyderabad and Mumbai, by spurring
development of Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities around them.
optimum speed of 300 kmph.
It would also help to save on the nations fuel

bill, reduce air pollution with more fuel-efficient
rail transport, reduce road congestion and
connected accidents.
The reduction of commuter fatigue is perhaps

is a single major factor behind the popularity of
the high speed services of Japan, Europe and China.
While in the US a number of projects are still on
the drawing board, the booming Chinese economy
has financed large scale upgradation of existing
track to 200 kmph and construction of a number
of high speed corridors with trains running at an
However, given the poor financial health of the

Indian Railways, techno-economic considerations
would undoubtedly have to be the deciding factor
for the jump to 300 kmph. And a major hike in
passenger tariff will be inescapable on such trains
a move that may be anathema to our netas.
A DARK CHAPTER
As a symbol of the excesses that have come to

haunt the US war on terror since 9/11, the Abu
Ghraib prison in Iraq is perhaps rivalled only by
Guantanamo Bay. Both embody the tragic overextension of power and disregard for human rights
that is seen to characterise US military operations
overseas.
Made infamous by the scandal that erupted in

2004, when leaked photographs showed enlisted
US soldiers engaged in the shameful physical and
sexual abuse of Iraqi detainees, Abu Ghraib has an
equally sordid record of being used by the Saddam
Hussein regime as a site where political prisoners
were held and tortured for decades.
Now, citing security concerns after hundreds
of inmates escaped last year, Iraqs government has
closed the prison complex, though it remains
unclear as to whether the shutdown is permanent.
The decision ought to be welcomed, given the
prisons notoriety. When news of the prisoner abuse
scandal broke in 2004, then US President George

W. Bush had vowed to demolish the Abu Ghraib
prison as a fitting symbol of Iraqs new beginning
lofty rhetoric now seen as yet another broken
American promise.
The mistreatment of inmates provoked
worldwide outrage and severely damaged the US
mission to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqis,
leaving it struggling to patch relations with Iraqi
officials. Now, almost three years after the last US
troops left Iraq, the shutdown also underscores the
countrys deteriorating security situation, which has
seen a renewed surge of violence that has claimed
more than 2,000 lives this year. The prison structure
is located in west Baghdad, which is particularly
insecure, as last Julys mass breakout showed, and
is only a short drive from Fallujah, which was
recaptured by the Sunni insurgency earlier this year.
Even in closure, Abu Ghraib remains emblematic
of the darkest chapters of Iraqs recent past.
[61]
RIGHTING A WRONG
passport form and other documents. The Election
Commission has O for others, Aadhaar included
T for transgenders and Census forms also now
acknowledge gender-variant identities. But apart
from a recognition of formal citizenship, and the
strength in numbers that this brings, they also need
policy action to fight the discrimination, and even
violence, that they face.
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Transgendered citizens have won a long-denied

right, as the Supreme Court formally acknowledged
a third gender status for them. Responding to a
PIL that appealed for greater mainstreaming and
recourse against discrimination for transgenders,
the court has declared that they should be given
priority in education and employment, and
recognised their status as socially and economically
backward. It has asked the Centre to work out this
change, and directed states to devise welfare
schemes, create special facilities and run awareness
campaigns to counter social stigmatisation.
It also acknowledged that Section 377 of the

Indian Penal Code was being used by the police
against trans individuals treading on delicate
territory since the same Supreme Court has recently
upheld that law, which is intended to punish
carnal intercourse against the order of nature
and ends up being the blunt tool with which LGBT
citizens are harassed. In this judgment, the court
drew a distinction between transgenders and gay,
lesbian and bisexual individuals, a line that is far
from self-evident when it comes to constitutional
rights against discrimination and for equality.
There have been smaller interventions in favour

of trans individuals, at least in terms of the states
enumerating instruments. In 2005, the Centre
introduced the E category for eunuchs in the
While states like Tamil Nadu have set

progressive examples, with a dedicated transgender
welfare board, separate public facilities, preferential
admissions, ration cards and so on, there needs to
be comprehensive action across India to give them
their due in healthcare, housing, workplace
opportunities. The courts decision to treat them as
socially and educationally backward is an
acknowledgement of the persistent prejudice that
has held them back.
Such progressive interventions to uphold
minority rights can only be made by the court.
And in turn, the courts progressive intentions can
only be realised by governments that share its
concern. State governments must act immediately
to set up departments for transgender integration
and welfare, and make amends for the decades of
indifference to their cause.
[62]
CHRONICLE
IAS ACADEMY

21ST APRIL 2014 TO 27TH APRIL 2014
Call: 9953120676, 9582263947

CONTENTS
TOPICS
Pg. No.
National ........................................................................................................................ 4-18

International .............................................................................................................. 19-22
Economy ..................................................................................................................... 29-31
Health .......................................................................................................................... 36-37
News in Brief ........................................................................................................... 38-43
Editorials .................................................................................................................... 44-74
Not an option .................................................................................................................. 44
Gender bias in Indian election ................................................................................... 44
Nursing many wounds ................................................................................................ 46
Lets get started .............................................................................................................. 47
India: Robin Hood of the pharma world ................................................................. 48
An agenda for school education ................................................................................. 49
Climate change and the tragedy of the commons .................................................. 51
India needs ambitious national projects ................................................................... 52
Revisiting manufacturing policy ............................................................................... 53
Of, by, for auditors ........................................................................................................ 55
Go on, undo .................................................................................................................... 56

Iron it out ......................................................................................................................... 57
Cant do spirit ................................................................................................................. 57
Afraid of free trade ....................................................................................................... 58
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World and web .............................................................................................................. 60

Courts revolving door ................................................................................................. 60
Innovation that includes .............................................................................................. 61
The ebb and flow of horror ......................................................................................... 62
Ending the gender binary ........................................................................................... 63
By the ruling class, for the ruling class..................................................................... 64
Talking without saying ................................................................................................ 66
For a fair and open system .......................................................................................... 66
Sustainable mining ....................................................................................................... 68
Politics of identity and location .................................................................................. 69
Preparing for a poor monsoon .................................................................................... 71
Where should the judiciary draw the line ............................................................... 71
Domain regulators must probe frauds ..................................................................... 73
Ways to meet Basel III capital norms ........................................................................ 73
Weekly Current Affairs 21st April to 27th April, 2014
[3]
NATIONAL
INDIA RANKS LOW ON SOCIAL PROGRESS INDEX AMONG BRICS
the 132 countries with challenges across all
three dimensions with particularly low scores
on shelter (39.77) in the basic human needs
dimension, access to information (39.87) in
the foundations of wellbeing dimension, and
tolerance and inclusion (21.54) in the
opportunity dimension.
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The Social Progress Index is a measure of

human well-being that goes beyond traditional
economic measures such as GDP or per capita
income provides evidence that extreme poverty and
poor social performance often go hand-in-hand. It
is compiled by US-based non-profit group Social
Progress Imperative. The study measures a
countrys achievement on three pillars of satisfying
Basic Human Needs, Foundations of Well being,
and Opportunity to progress. It is an attempt to
counter the other seminal work in measuring
country well beings, the World Banks Growth
Commission led by another Nobel laureate Michael
Spence. Its lead author is Michael Porter, Bishop
William Lawrence University Professor, Harvard
Business School.
Last year, the first Social Progress Index ranked
50 countries. This year, its ranking includes 132
countries around the world. The basic human
needs dimension comprise parametres of nutrition
and basic medical care, water and sanitation,
shelter and personal safety. The foundations of well
being includes parametres of access to basic
knowledge, information and communications,
health and wellness and ecosystem sustainability,
while opportunity dimension includes personal
rights, freedom and choice, tolerance and inclusion
and access to education.
China was next lowest of the five, in the 90th

position, and Brazil was the highest, at 46th.
Russia and China have performed best in the

area of Basic Human Needs, but rank low on
personal rights and ecosystem sustainability.
Of the BRICS countries Brazil, Russia,

India, China and South Africa, out of which
only Brazil (46th) ranks better on social
progress than it does on GDP per capita (57th).
South Africa is 58th on GDP and 69th on

social progress; China is 69th on GDP and
90th on social progress; and India is 94th on
GDP.
Using measures of access to basic human

needs such as food and shelter and of equality
of opportunity such as education and
personal freedom, the index aims to measure
quality of life throughout the globe.
Central and South Asia trails all regions but

Sub-Saharan Africa is far ahead in terms of
overall index performance.
The top performers for the region are Sri

Lanka (85th), Kazakhstan (86th) and
Mongolia (89th). The worst performance
belongs to Pakistan, which is ranked 124th.
Final outcomes of the Index:
New Zealand tops the list followed by

Switzerland, Iceland and Netherlands. Chad
ranks the lowest in the index.
India ranks 102 on social progress among
RISE IN COMMUNAL RIOTS IN 2013
Communities polarized to vitiate the

atmosphere for political gain is not a new
phenomenon; and all this often results in communal
violence and riots. Alarmed by the statistics, the
ministry has asked states to keep a check on
politicians making provocative speeches to polarize
voters. Data from the Union home ministry shows
[4]
that states such as UP, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka,

Rajasthan, Gujarat and Bihar saw a steady rise in
communal violence. The Centre has also asked states
to compile a list of all those who may try to stoke
communal passions and have been involved in such
acts in the past.

in which 16 people were killed and 290
injured.
What the statistics say?
The year before the Lok Sabha elections, 2013,

saw communal rioting incidents in the
country jumping by nearly 25 per cent, with
Uttar Pradesh, which witnessed major
religious clashes in Muzaffar nagar, being the
worst affected with 247 incidents.
Gujarat recorded 68 cases of communal
tension in 2013 in which 10 people died and
57 incidents in 2012 in which five people
died. Karnataka recorded 73 cases in 2013
and 69 in 2012.
In 2013, Maharashtra registered 88 incidents

in which 12 people were killed and 352 injured.
Rajasthan recorded 52 incidents in 2009 in

which 10 people were killed and 140 injured.
The number of incidents was the same in
2013 but only two persons were killed and
194 injured.
The southern states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala

also figure prominently in the list.
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The data shows Bihar, which saw violence

in Nawada, registered 63 incidents of
communal violence in 2013 in which seven
people were killed and 283 injured. The state
recorded 21 incidents in 2012 in which three
people were killed and 172 injured.
Maharashtra recorded 128 incidents in 2009

in which 22 people were killed and 389
injured. In 2010, the state saw 117 incidents
In 2013, there were 36 incidents in Tamil

Nadu in which three people were killed and
85 injured. In 2012, there were 14 incidents
in which two persons were killed and 37
injured.
Kerala registered 41 incidents in 2013

compared to 56 in the previous year.
Andhra Pradesh too saw a decline in 2013

with 15 incidents compared to 60 in 2012.
ENERGY CONSERVATION AT RAILWAY STATIONS
In order to conserve energy the Delhi division

of Northern Railway has installed automatic lighting
systems at some railway stations in the Capital and
across the division. With the new system, 70 per
cent lights at platforms where sensors have been
installed will go out after the departure of trains
and come on automatically with the arrivals of
trains. The system has been installed on one
platform at each station and on an average the
new system cuts down the energy demand at the
platform by half.
The automated system has been installed on
platform nos. 10 and 11 at New Delhi railway
station, Hazrat Nizamuddin, Delhi Cantonment
and Sabzi Mandi railway stations, and Panipat,
Kurukshetra and Meerut City railway stations in
Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
The average cost of installing the energy

conservation system at one platform is Rs.90,000Rs.95,000. The energy saving mechanism will be
extended to other stations depending on availability
of funds. Apart from the automatic lighting system,
authorities have also installed energy saving lights
in the three high mast towers at New Delhi railway
station premises.
Automatic night light control system:
This system needs no manual operation for

switching ON and OFF when there is need of light.
It detects itself whether there is need for light or
not. When darkness rises to a certain value then
automatically light is switched ON and when there
is other source of light i.e. day time, the light gets
OFF.
The major advantage of a lighting control system
over stand-alone lighting controls or conventional
manual switching is the ability to control individual
lights or groups of lights from a single user interface
device. This ability to control multiple light sources
from a user device allows complex lighting scenes
to be created. A room may have multiple scenes
pre-set, each one created for different activities in
the room. A major benefit of lighting control systems
is reduced energy consumption. Longer lamp life is
also gained when dimming and switching off lights
when not in use. Wireless lighting control systems
provide additional benefits including reduced
installation costs and increased flexibility over
where switches and sensors may be placed.
[5]
GI TAG FOR 14 NEW ITEMS

nature and man, traditionally handed over from
one generation to the next for centuries. Gradually,
a specific link between the goods and place of
production evolved resulting in growth of
geographical indications."
The first GI tag was granted to Darjeeling Tea
about a decade ago, and the tally now is 215, with
at least 100 more waiting in the pipeline. The latest
additions to the GI registry are: Firozabad Glass,
Kannauj perfume, Kanpur saddlery, Moradabad
metal craft, Saharanpur wood craft, Dharmavaram
handloom pattu saris and paavadas, Warli painting,
Kolhapur jaggery, Kangra paintings, Nagpur
oranges, Thewa artwork and three knit works
unique to Manipur Shaphee lanphee, Wangkhei
phee and Moirang phee.
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14 items unique to various locations in the

country has been awarded Geographical
Indications (GI) tag, on a day before Intellectual
Property Right (IPR) Day that is observed on April
26. The items include Nagpur orange, Kannauj
perfume, Kanpur saddlery and Moradabad metal
craft among others. GI tag is awarded to products
unique to a particular region, if it is scientifically
proved with evidence that the products concerned
acquire the uniqueness only due to the geographical
location coupled with traditional knowledge which
goes into their making.
According to the GI Act: "Each reputation was
carefully built up and painstakingly maintained by
the masters of that region, combining the best of
GUJRAT LAGS WEST BENGAL IN FACTORY JOBS
According to the latest National Sample Survey

data, West Bengal has topped in creation of new
jobs in the manufacturing sector among all States.
During the six years between 2004 and 2011, more
than 40 per cent of new manufacturing jobs created
in India were generated in the then Left-ruled West
Bengal. The State saw its best period of
industrialization during 2004-2011. Small-scale
manufacturing enterprises were developed at the
district level and all this culminated in Singur. Prior
to Singur, 1,872 middle and big industrial projects
were developed during the period.
As per the state-wise data accessed by The

Hindu, in all, 58.7 lakh manufacturing jobs were
created across India. Of these, 24 lakh were in West
Bengal. With 14.9 lakh jobs, BJP-ruled Gujarat was
a distant second. The data is significant as the

widespread resistance in 2008 to the Buddhadeb
Bhattacharjee governments acquisition of farmland
in Singur for a small car factory was believed to
have hit West Bengals attractiveness to industry.
The State eventually lost the Tata Nano factory
project to Gujarat.
Even during the anti-industrial campaign by
the Trinamool Congress, allegedly with the help of
Maoists in 2007-08, the State achieved 12 per cent
industrial growth. The growth is attributed to
governments push to small-scale industry. West
Bengal has the largest number of small-scale
manufacturing units. Between 1991 and 2011, 2,531
new big and medium units were set up.
EL NINO FORECAST FOR INDIA
Weather forecasts issued by Asia Pacific

Climate Centre in Busan, South Korea, have shown
the path how the El Nino will proceed through to
pull the plug on the Indian monsoon. During an El
Nino, equatorial and east Pacific warms up, causing
bulk of available moisture to concentrate there.
When coinciding with the Indian monsoon, it will
deny the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea their
due share of this fuel that fires the monsoon engine.
India may be known as the monsoon country

but the appendage builds mainly on the size of the
landmass. Fact is that it is only one of the many
[6]
beneficiaries of the larger Asian monsoon system.

Seasonal winds fan the monsoon into India and
the rest of South Asia which also includes
Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka,
Myanmar and the rest of South-East Asia. These
winds pick up moisture from the seas which gets
rained down across the geography. There is no
way the system can ensure an equitable distribution
of moisture to each country. This is because winds
dont care about geographical boundaries and
merely blow from an area of high pressure to one
of lower pressure. Warming of the surface causes

surrounding air to heat up and expand, creating
lower pressure. Thus, the warming/cooling of the
massive Pacific with a size that can hold continents
together is crucial in that its impact can drastically
alter global weather or climate patterns.
Latest forecasts from the agency say that the
first phase of the monsoon (May-June-July) will
leave central India and adjoining west India and
the west coast in deficit. Likely exceptions are Tamil

Nadu, parts of Rajasthan, Punjab, Jammu and
Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand.
Excess rain is likely over north-west Rajasthan and
adjoining south-west Punjab. The second phase
(August-September-October) will see peninsular
India, Gujarat and south-west Rajasthan drying
up. Excess rain will be confined to parts of Madhya
Maharashtra, Marathwada and Seemandhra.
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DROUGHT NOT MANDATORY WITH EL NINO
The El Nino phenomenon has created too much

havoc amid concerns of deficient rains this
monsoon. But a new study has shown that since
1980, all El Nino years have not resulted in a
drought, although all droughts have happened in
years of El Nino. In the last 34 years, there were
six droughts in El Nino years, while there were six
other years that did not convert into droughts.
Although the economists said that farm GDP falls
0.35% with every 1% deficiency from the average
rainfall, they added that there is no reason to panic
as their model does not point to a very high
probability of a drought this year. Several other
economists have said that a weak monsoon will
only have a moderate impact. The Icrier study
pointed out that in 2000, 2005 and 2009, agriculture
GDP rose despite rains being significantly below
average. But the study did suggest that the
government would do well by preparing in
advance. On the positive side, there is sufficient
water level in reservoirs and ample food grain stock
in godowns. The stock of wheat and rice for instance
is estimated at over 53 million tonnes, which is twoand-a-half times the buffer requirement.
El Nio is a band of anomalously warm ocean

water temperatures that periodically develops off
the Pacific coast of South America. Extreme climate
change pattern oscillations fluctuate weather across
the Pacific Ocean which results in fluctuating
droughts, floods, and crop yields in varying regions
of the world.
The first signs of an El Nio are:
1.
Rise in surface pressure over the Indian

Ocean, Indonesia, and Australia
2.
Fall in air pressure over Tahiti and the rest of

the central and eastern Pacific Ocean
3.
Trade winds in the south Pacific weaken or

head east
4.
Warm air rises near Peru, causing rain in the

northern Peruvian deserts
5.
Warm water spreads from the west Pacific

and the Indian Ocean to the east Pacific. It
takes the rain with it, causing extensive
drought in the western Pacific and rainfall in
the normally dry eastern Pacific.
RTI REVEALS ONLY 38% DISABLED CERTIFIED
The Rights of Persons with Disability Bill

included a provision for universalization of the
disability certificate is hanging fire. It is unknown
when the new law will be passed and when the
disabled can expect to get their basic certification
without undue harassment. But the condition of
the disabled in India shows no improvement. In
response to an application filed under the Right To
Information Act filed by Rajiv Yadav, an RTI
activist, the social justice ministry revealed that only
10.2 million disabled were issued a disability
certificate from 2010 till June 30, 2013, which is
about 38% of the 26.8 million persons identified as
disabled by Census 2011. This meager percentage
of those identified as disabled in Census 2011 have
been issued certificates, the basic document needed

to access everything from education and
healthcare to job reservation and all manner of
welfare schemes.
This is a small proportion of those identified by
census, but even the census office admits there is
huge under-counting of the disabled and their
numbers could be much higher, about 70 million
going by a United Nations estimate. In reality,
therefore, an even smaller fraction of the disabled
is likely to have got certificates. The RTI query,
filed in October 2013, also asked how many camps
had been organized in various states for issuing
disability certificates, how many certificates were
[7]

finally given and how many cases were rejected.
The department of disability affairs answered
almost six months later in April this year that "no
such information is available". For the disability
sector, streamlining of the system of certification is
a major demand.
Other revealations include:
The 'backward' states like Uttar Pradesh and

Madhya Pradesh have covered just about
40% of the disabled population.
The shocking revelation is that the worst state
Among worst performing states, just above

Delhi, are Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat,
Assam and Kerala, where barely a quarter
have been issued certificates.
The best performing state is Tripura where

about 98% of the identified population has
disability certificates.
Tamil Nadu has covered 72% of the

population.
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is Delhi, where just 22% of the disabled

population has certificates.
COURT MAKES MUSLIM WOMEN ENTITLED TO IDDAT
The Supreme Court has held that a Muslim

woman will be entitled to maintenance from her
husband even after divorce and she can file an
application before a magistrate court.
A Bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Vikramajit

Sen said: A Muslim husband is liable to make a
reasonable and fair provision for the future of the
divorced wife which obviously includes her
maintenance as well. Such a reasonable and fair
provision extending beyond the iddat period must
be made by the husband within the iddat period.
His liability, arising from Section 3 of the Muslim
Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act to
pay maintenance, is not confined to the iddat
period.
The Court said that a divorced Muslim woman

who has not remarried and who is not able to
maintain herself after the iddat period can proceed
as provided under Section 4 of the Act against his
relatives, who are liable to maintain her. An aspect
which has to be kept uppermost in mind is that
when the marriage breaks up, a woman suffers
emotional fractures, fragmentation of sentiments,
loss of economic and social security and, in certain
cases, inadequate requisites for survival. A marriage
is fundamentally a unique bond between two
parties. When it perishes like a mushroom, the
dignity of the female fame gets corroded. It is the
laws duty to recompense, and the primary

obligation is that of the husband. Needless to
emphasize, the entitlement and the necessitous
provisions have to be made in accordance with the
parameters of law.
The apex court held that under Section 125
CrPC and 7 of the Family Courts Act, 1984 even
a Muslim woman can claim maintenance from her
husband as long as she is not remarried. The ruling
assumes significance as the bench quashed the
ruling of a trial court and the Madhya Pradesh
High Court which had taken the view that a
Muslim woman is not entitled to maintenance after
the 'iddat' period. The amount of maintenance to
be awarded under Section 125 of the CrPC cannot
be restricted for the iddat period only.
What is Iddat?
The iddat is the period of waiting that has to

be observed by a Muslim woman upon the death
of her husband or divorce, or the termination of
the marriage contract through Khul'a (divorce at
the instance of the wife), or the annulment of the
marriage by some other manner. The woman has
to stay in house for a specified period of time. Until
this period expires, she is not supposed to go out
and meet people apart from her blood relations.
This period is called iddat.
ACTS OF STRING NOT TO STAND OBLITERATED
In a recent ruling by the Supreme Court, if the

sting operations conducted are not in larger interest
of the public, then the act of those involved in the
operation shall not stand obliterated. This ruling
could push journalists and others conducting sting
operations to tread with caution as the Supreme
[8]
Court said that those behind such operations could

not get blanket immunity from criminal prosecution
if their actions showed that they had prima facie
committed a crime. The ruling bench led by former
Chief Justice P Sathasivam is considered significant
as there is no law to regulate sting operations in

the country. The verdict has a direct bearing on
cases where monetary allurement or other favours
are offered to expose a person.
What led to this verdict?

The verdict came as the court junked a petition
by Rajat Prasad, a businessman, and Arvind Vijay
Mohan, a journalist, who were charged with
abetment of corruption and conspiracy for taking
part in a sting operation in 2003, in which the
then union minister for environment and forests,
Dilip Singh Judeo, was caught on camera accepting
Rs. 9 lakh in a hotel room in New Delhi. The CBI
registered an FIR on the basis of a news report in
The Indian Express on November 16, 2003. The
money was allegedly given on the pretext of
obtaining favours from Judeo for mining projects
in Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. It was,
however, alleged by Prasad that the sting was the
result of a conspiracy hatched by Amit Jogi, son of
Ajit Jogi, the then chief minister of Chhattisgarh,
to disgrace Judeo just before the Chhattisgarh
assembly elections so that Ajit Jogi could derive
political mileage.
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The court dealt with questions whether the

person conducting the sting should be held liable
for a crime which is inseparable from the entire
process, or should be exonerated since the act aimed
to expose the main offender in a serious crime
harmful to the public interest. The court also
considered whether the initial crime by the person
conducting the sting should be understood to be
without any criminal intent, and only to facilitate
the commission of the other crime by the main
culprit. The court said that issues of criminal
liability will have to be established after evidence is
included.
does a sting operation on the sly to expose a

corrupt public official, is liable to be charged with
the crime of abetting corruption. Abetment of
corruption fetches a punishment of a maximum of
five years in jail and a fine under the Prevention of
Corruption Act.
The court emphasized intention was the most

important element in such cases and hence a
journalist or any other person, who has no
connection, even remotely, with the favour that is
allegedly sought in exchange for the bribe offered,
cannot be imputed with the necessary intent to
commit the crime of abetment or conspiracy. The
court said that a full-fledged trial may be conducted
in cases where the person conducting the sting
prima facie had a stake in the favours that were
allegedly sought in return for the bribe offered. The
ruling upholds the CBIs stand that a person, who
ONLY 4% EWS PARENTS KNOW OF RESERVATION UNDER RTE
In a report released at a Delhi state-wide

conference on the Right to Education Act by Indus
Action, only four per cent of parents from
economically weaker sections (EWS) are aware
about the availability of 25 per cent seats under
EWS category in the capitals private schools under
the RTE Act. Indus Action is an NGO working
exclusively towards implementation of Section
12(1)(C) clause of the RTE Act with support from
Central Square Foundation. The study also found
that only half of these four per cent parents have
managed to navigate through bureaucratic and
psychological barriers to apply.
As per the Report, the Right to Education has
opened up many opportunities for children from
economically weaker sections. Yet, despite the best
efforts to spread awareness, eligible families seem
to have little knowledge about the policy. Section
12(1)(c) of RTE Act has the potential to put roughly
10 million children across India on a different path
in the next five years, making it the single largest
opportunity seat scheme in the world. But we need

a better state-wide implementation plan for that to
happen.
Other points of the report are:
The report details on-ground implementation

of the mandatory 25 per cent reservation for
EWS children and those who are socially
disadvantaged.
It is based on responses from 350-odd families

in South, Southeast, Southwest, North,
Northeast and Central Delhi. Section 12(1)(c)
of the RTE Act mandates that private unaided
schools reserve 25 per cent of their seats in
entry-level classes for EWS students and those
from disadvantaged groups.
Even though awareness levels are low, the

report states that eligible families were
adequately equipped to apply.
The report also states that 94.8 per cent

people had at least one of the birth proof
[9]

certificates. 96.85 per cent people had at least
one of the accepted documents for address
proof.
82.8 per cent people had at least one of the

accepted documents for proof of income. Yet,
families chose not to apply.
Only four per cent families did so- high fees
being a major concern discouraging them

from applying to private schools.
The report notes that families did not

approach
government
officials
for
information, relying instead on help from
other families (29 per cent) and employers
(28 per cent).
THEY SAY WERE DIRTY .: HRW REPORT

leadership roles such as class monitor because of
caste or community. Many are expected to perform
unpleasant tasks like cleaning toilets. Schools in
marginalised neighborhoods often have the poorest
infrastructure and least trained teachers and many
have fewer teachers than required.
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In a survey conducted by NGO Human Rights

Watch (HRW) across four states- Andhra Pradesh,
Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Delhi, identified
discrimination in classrooms and schools to be a
major factor impeding access to education for
children of Dalits, tribal groups, Muslims and other
marginalised sections. The survey was done to
examine continuing obstacles to proper implementation of the Right to Education (RTE) Act,
that came into effect in 2010 aims at compulsory
education for all children from 6 to 14 years of age.
In the HRW report They Say Were Dirty:
Denying Education to Indias Marginalised says
instead of being brought into the education
mainstream as envisaged, students from
disadvantaged sections face discrimination, get
segregated in class and are insulted in public. The
discrimination takes various forms, including
teachers asking Dalit children to sit separately or
making insulting remarks about Muslim and tribal
students, and village authorities not responding
when girls are kept away from classroom. Teachers
and other students often address children using
derogatory terms for their caste, community, tribe,
or religion. In some schools, children from
vulnerable communities are not considered for
If schools are to be child-friendly, the

government needs to send a strong message that
discriminatory behaviour will no longer be tolerated
and those responsible will be held to account. The
report observes how, socially and economically
disadvantaged children who require special
attention and encouragement to remain in school
are vulnerable to exclusion and denied right to a
child-friendly and equitable environment promised
under RTE. Poor monitoring resulted in children
dropping out to get pushed into work or early
marriage.The report recommends more focus on
retention of children in school till they are 14, a
system to monitor and track all children from
enrolment to the time they reach grade VIII, and a
uniform protocol for identifying children who are
out of school, have dropped out, or are at risk of
dropping out. HRW has also recommended clear
indicators to improve detection of and response to
discrimination.
INDIAS POPULATION PYRAMID IN FAVOUR OF GDP GROWTH

Indias demographic dividend is no way closer
to a demographic liability or a demographic
dynamite, but it is a gift to India and the country
still has time to take advantage of it. According to
the World Trade Organization, India may squander
the opportunity of having a young population of
those below 35 years of age if it fails to impart
employable skills to them at a faster pace.
Sixty-five percent of Indias 1.2 billion people

are below the age of 35 years, according to the
2011 Census. While the demographic effect will
increase or lower gross domestic product (GDP) by
barely one percentage point in 2035, GDP levels
[10]
can increase by about 3 percentage points in 2035

if India improves significantly on skill training,
according to the WTO working paper.
Finer points of the WTO report:
The paper projects Indias population to

overtake Chinas by around 2035, with SubSaharan Africa projected to surpass China
in 2045 at the latest and, ultimately, becoming
the most populous region under the high
growth scenario.
Increasing female participation in the labour

force can make a similarly big impact,
particularly in India and the Middle East and
In terms of GDP, China would be larger than

the US and the European Union by 2030 at
the latest under the optimistic scenario.
Higher capital mobility will also benefit

developing countries such as India and this
will lead to an over 6 percentage points gain
in GDP for India and China.
India is projected to reach Chinas current

economic size by about 2025, under the same
scenario. Under a less optimistic scenario, it
would also attain Chinas GDP level by 2035.
While if capital mobility is not increasing as

much, surplus developing countries,
principally the Russian Federation, India and
China, might still avert a negative deviation
from reference growth rates, and Brazil
would be hardest hit with almost 4 percentage
points lower levels in GDP by 2035.
Growth in GDP and services trade in

developing countries is expected to be widely
superior to growth rates in developed
countries in the high scenario, but much less
so in a low scenario, where growth in goods
trade could advance even more slowly than
in developed countries.
The paper argued higher energy prices may

not affect growth of countries like China and
India.
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North Africa, where a lack of improvement

would decrease GDP in 2035 by around 4
percentage points.
It said the impact of higher energy prices on

economic growth in China and India will be
partially offset because of higher energy
productivity.
The paper also said that the possible difference

in trade outcomes is particularly stunning for
China, which could enlarge its share in
exports to almost one quarter under the high
scenario, but will lose ground in the reverse
case.
NOW NORMS FOR RULING PARTY ADs
The Supreme Court has constituted a threemember committee, headed by N.R. Madhava
Menon, former director, National Judicial Academy,
Bhopal, to suggest guidelines to regulate ruling
party advertisements on the birthdays of political
leaders and to highlight the governments
achievements. The committee would be A Bench
of Chief Justice P. Sathasivam and Justices Ranjan
Gogoi and N.V. Ramana, acting on writ petitions
filed by Common Cause and others.
The petitioners said advertisement campaigns
were undertaken ostensibly to promote certain
public works. Almost all these advertisements
contain photographs of Ministers and important
political personalities of the government, which

clearly show that these advertisements are framed
for the purpose of highlighting the achievements
of the incumbent government and aim to create an
impression that those particular political
personalities were directly responsible for providing
public benefits to the people. In succinct, the use of
public office and public funds for personal, political
or partisan purposes is clearly mala fide, illegal
and not permissible under the Constitution. On
behalf of the Centre and various States, it was
submitted that the purpose was not to give personal
publicity to leaders or to their parties, but to let the
people about the progress of performance of the
government.
CHILDREN BORN OF LIVE-INS LEGAL
The Supreme Court recently gave important

clarification on live-in relationships, and said that
if a man and woman "lived like husband and wife"
for a long period and had children, the judiciary
would presume that the two were married.
Importantly, the SC also said that children born
out of prolonged live-in relationships could not be
termed illegitimate. A bench of Justices B.S.
Chauhan and J. Chelameswar issued the clarification on a petition filed by advocate Uday Gupta,
who had questioned certain sweeping observations
made by the Madras high court while dealing with

the issue of live-in relationships. The High Court
had observed that "a valid marriage does not
necessarily mean that all the customary rights
pertaining to the married couple are to be followed
and subsequently solemnized". The bench went
through the judgment and said the HC's
observations could not be construed as a precedent
for other cases and would be confined to the case
in which these were made. In 2010, the apex court
had in Madan Mohan Singh vs Rajni Kant case
[11]
What the Hindu Marriage Act says?

As per Section 16 of Hindu Marriage Act,
"Notwithstanding that a marriage is null and void
under Section 11, any child of such marriage who
would have been legitimate if the marriage had
been valid, shall be legitimate, whether such a child
is born before or after the commencement of the
Marriage Laws (Amendment) Act, 1976, and
whether or not a decree of nullity is granted in
respect of the marriage under this Act and whether
or not the marriage is held to be void otherwise
than on a petition under this Act."
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said, "The courts have consistently held that the

law presumes in favour of marriage and against
concubinage, when a man and woman have
cohabited continuously for a number of years.
However, such presumption can be rebutted by
leading unimpeachable evidence." The same year,
the court had in another judgment hinted at the
legitimacy of children born out of such relations.
"It is evident that Section 16 of the Hindu Marriage
Act intends to bring about social reforms,
conferment of social status of legitimacy on a group
of children, otherwise treated as illegitimate, as its
prime object."
BAN IN GOA LIFTED ON IRON ORE MINING
The Supreme Court has lifted the 19 months

old complete ban on extraction of iron ore in the
state of Goa, but made resumption of mining
activities conditional on issuance of fresh leases.
The Court order has implications beyond Goa as
the mining sector's woes contributed to the
economic slowdown along with low growth in
manufacturing. Mining has been affected in
Karnataka and Odisha as well.
In its order, the Bench limited iron ore extraction

at 20 million tonnes a year and cancelled mining
leases that had been given extensions after 2007
after completion of 20-year renewal periods. This
is a hurdle the mining industry and the state
government have to cross and the role of the new
government at the Centre will be crucial in ensuring
quick clearances. The green bench of justices AK
Patnaik, S.S. Nijjar and F.M.I. Kalifulla ordered
cancellation of all mining leases given extension
after 2007 even after completion of the maximum
20 years of renewal period and upheld the state as
well as central government's decisions in September
2012 in this regard. It also set out conditions like
defining a one-km buffer zone around national
parks and sanctuaries as no-mining areas and asked
the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests to
issue a notification within six months demarcating
eco-sensitive zones around national parks and
sanctuaries. As an interim measure, the court
permitted resumption of iron and other ore mining
by those granted fresh leases by the state
government in accordance with "its policy decision
and Mines and Minerals (Development and
Regulation) Act". Until the final report is submitted
by the expert committee, the state government will,
in the interests of sustainable development and
intergenerational equity, permit a maximum annual
excavation of 20 million MT from the mining leases
[12]
in the state of Goa other than from dumps. The

bench also asked the Goa pollution control board
to strictly monitor the air and water pollution levels
in the mining areas and furnish relevant data to
the expert committee. The court also asked the state
to prepare inventory of the sale of iron ore through
e-auction. The state government will within six
months frame a comprehensive scheme with regard
to the Goan Iron Ore Permanent Fund in
consultation with the Central Empowered Committee for sustainable development and intergenerational equity and submit the same to the court.
SETTING THE BALL ROLLING
2012
Sep 11: Goa halts iron ore mining after an

expert panel finds serious illegalities and
irregularities in operations
Sep 12: After a ban on mining, the
environment ministry suspends clearances
given to 93 iron ore mines in Goa
Oct 5: Supreme Court (SC) suspends iron
ore mining in Goa; Justice M B Shah panel
appointed to probe issue
Nov: Goa govt issues transport ban
2013
Nov 11: SC maintains ban on iron ore mining,

allows sale of 11.46 mt of stockpiles
Dec: The Goa govt completes process of
renewals for a majority of mining leases
2014
Feb 17: Goa conducts first e-auction for sale

of half an mt of iron ore
Apr 21: SC lifts ban; caps production at 20
mt a year
SC FOR OPEN HEARING ON GAY SEX

when it has confronted social and historical
disadvantage and discrimination as in the case of
caste, gender or even disability. Since the December
verdict, the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and
transgender) community has received support from
several quarters.
Section 377:
Section 377, IPC reads as: 377. Unnatural
offences.Whoever voluntarily has carnal
intercourse against the order of nature with any
man, woman or animal, shall be punished with
imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment of
either description for a term which may extend to
ten years, and shall also be liable to fine.
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A four-judge bench comprising chief justice P.

Sathasivam and justices R.M. Lodha, H.L. Dattu
and S.J. Mukhopadhaya considered the plea for an
open hearing of the curative petition filed by the
Naz Foundation Trust, filmmaker Shyam Benegal,
parents of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual
persons, academicians, mental healthcare
professionals and Voices Against 377, an umbrella
of non-government organizations.
On 11 December 2013, the Supreme Court
overturned a 2009 Delhi High Court verdict that
had been hailed globally as a human rights victory;
the high court ruled that Section 377 did not apply
to consenting adults. The court upheld the colonialera Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which
penalizes same-sex intercourse with up to 10 years
of imprisonment. A curative petition, which is
typically heard by judges in chambers, is the final
recourse for challenging a Supreme Court
judgment.
The National Legal Services Authority (NALSA)
vs Union of India judgement which referred to how
the colonial era Section 377 law had been used
to harass and discriminate against transgender
people was considered by the bench while deciding
on the matter of the curative petition. The NALSA
judgement also brought up the issue of
discrimination faced by Indias other sexual
minorities which goes against Article 15 of the
Indian Constitution that guarantees equality before
the law. Discrimination on the basis of sexual
orientation or gender identity includes any
discrimination, exclusion, restriction or preference,
which has the effect of nullifying or transposing
equality by the law or the equal protection of laws
guaranteed under our Constitution.
The petitioners had also filed evidence of abuse

faced by individuals due to the archaic law. Yet,
the Koushal judgment said that only 200 persons
have been prosecuted under Section 377 in the last
150 years. The case is ultimately about a consistent
interpretation of the Constitution which is in
consonance with the jurisprudence of this court
Section 377, Indian Penal Code, 1860 was

enacted by the British colonial regime to criminalise
carnal intercourse against the order of nature. It
was rooted in the Judeo-Christian religious morality
that abhorred non-procreative sex. Lacking precise
definition, Section 377 became subject to varied
judicial interpretation over the years. Initially
covering only anal sex, it later included oral sex
and still later, read to cover penile penetration of
other artificial orifices like between the thighs or
folded palms. The law made consent and age of
the person irrelevant by imposing a blanket
prohibition on all penile-non-vaginal sexual acts
under the vague rubric of unnatural offences. The
section was declared unconstitutional with respect
to sex between consenting adults by the High Court
of Delhi on 2, July 2009. That judgement was
overturned by the Supreme Court of India on 12
December 2013, with the Court holding that
amending or repealing Section 377 should be a
matter left to Parliament, not the judiciary.
The Naz Foundation (India) Trust, a Delhi-based
non-governmental organization and working in the
field of HIV prevention amongst homosexuals and
other men having sex with men (MSM), realised
that Section 377, IPC constituted one of the biggest
impediments in access to health services for MSM.
SUPREME COURT ACCUSES CENTRE FOR COURT CONTEMPT
The Supreme Court has accused the Centre of

committing "gross contempt of court" by not
complying with its three-year-old judgment
directing disclosure of names of Indian account
holders in a Liechtenstein bank given to it by
Germany. The bench comprised of Justice H.L.

Dattu, Justice Ranjana P. Desai and Justice Madan
B. Lokur who had given the judgment on July 4,
2011. Almost three years later, it came to the
Courts notice that the Centre did not comply with
[13]

avoidance treaty between India and Germany
prohibited revealing names of the 26 Indians who
held accounts in the Liechtenstein bank. It had
questioned the government's wisdom in allowing
UBS, allegedly the most favoured among Swiss
banks for Indians to stash black money, to open
retail banking outlet in India. Appearing for
petitioner Ram Jethmalani, senior advocate Anil
Divan said the direction for supplying the
information on foreign bank account holders to the
petitioner was not linked to further investigation
by the SIT, which comprised top investigating
officers of different agencies like RAW, IB and
revenue intelligence. The court had rejected the
Centre's petition seeking review of the July 4, 2011
judgment, which had slammed the Centre for
lacking in vigour to probe black money and took
over investigations into it by setting up a multidiscipline SIT to investigate the crime in India and
abroad as well as accused Hasan Ali Khan.
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the orders to divulge the details of Liechtenstein

bank account holders' names to the petitioner,
which the Court regarded as gross contempt of its
directions. The court had directed setting up of a
special investigation team (SIT) headed by Justice
B.P. Jeevan Reddy with Justice M.B. Shah, both
retired judges of the apex court, as his deputy.
Since Reddy had expressed inability to head the
committee, the SIT had not been set up. Without
the SIT going into the details received from
Germany about Indians stashing their ill-gotten
money in the Liechtenstein bank, their names could
not have been divulged.
In the July 4, 2011 judgment, the court had

directed the Centre to reveal names of Indians who
stashed unaccounted money illegally in foreign
banks provided they had been issued show cause
notices by tax authorities after completing
proceedings against them. It also dismissed the
government's plea that the double taxation
SC/ST CHILDREN GET BIASED TREATMENT IN CLASSROOM
Many instances in recent times cited of school

authorities show persistent discrimination against
children from marginalized communities, denying
them their right to education. The report, "They
Say We're Dirty': Denying an Education to India's
Marginalized," released by Human Rights Watch
(HRW), documents discrimination by school
authorities in four Indian states - Delhi, Uttar
Pradesh, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh - against dalit,
tribal, and Muslim children. The report was on
showcasing how even after four years of the Right
of Children for Free and Compulsory Education
Act (RTE Act) coming into effect in India,
guaranteeing free schooling to every child aged 6
to 14, almost every child is enrolled, yet nearly
51% and 58% of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled
Tribes respectively are likely to drop out before
completing their elementary education.
Major findings of the Report:
[14]
truancy and eventually may lead the child to

stop going to school.
The report was also critical of the weak

monitoring mechanisms failing to identify and
track children who attend school irregularly,
are at risk of dropping out, or have dropped
out.
The report recommended that the central

government should adopt more effective
measures to monitor the treatment of
vulnerable children and provide accessible
redress mechanisms to ensure they remain in
the classroom.
The 77-page report reinforces the fact that

school authorities continue with their
discriminatory attitudes based on caste,
ethnicity, religion, or gender.
Children from dalit, tribal, and Muslim

communities are often made to sit at the back
of the class or in separate rooms, insulted by
the use of derogatory names, denied
leadership roles, and served food last. They
are even told to clean toilets, while children
from traditionally privileged groups are not.
It also highlighted how majority of the state

education departments failed to establish
proper mechanisms to monitor each child,
and intervene promptly and effectively to
ensure they remain in school.
The report cited case studies which indicate

how lack of accountability and grievance
redress mechanisms are continuing obstacles
to proper implementation of the RTE Act.
HRW conducted research by interviewing

more than 160 people, including children,
parents, teachers, and a wide range of
education experts, rights activists, local
authorities, and education officials.
It stated that the discrimination creates an
unwelcome atmosphere that can lead to
ANDHRA PRADESH RECORDS HIGHEST GROWTH IN

PRODUCTION
economic viability of dairy farms, increasing the

link between rural production areas and urban
markets and promotion of small quantity packaging
to meet the needs of poor are certain key areas
highlighted by the study.
Key points in the Report:
Andhra Pradesh has recorded highest growth

in terms of both milk production and percapita milk availability at over 41 per cent
and about 36 per cent respectively during
the five-year period of 2006-10.
However, the State ranked third in terms of

milk production with over 1.1 million tonnes
(mt) milk produced annually.
Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan (28 per cent),

Kerala (24.8 per cent), Karnataka (24 per
cent) and Gujarat (23.7 per cent) are the top
five states in terms of clocking high growth
in milk production in the country.
Growing at a compounded annual growth

rate (CAGR) of over four per cent, milk
production in India is expected to rise to
about 177 mt by 2019-2020.
The growth rate would help in meeting the

projected demand of 150 mt by 2016-17 that
has been envisaged in National Dairy Plan
Phase-1.
Uttar Pradesh (UP) commands highest share

of over 17 per cent in total milk production
followed by Rajasthan (11 per cent share),
Andhra Pradesh (9 per cent), Punjab (about
8 per cent) and Gujarat (about 8 per cent)
with a combined share of over 53 per cent.
In terms of per capita availability, Punjab has

recorded highest per capita of 937 grams as
per latest available data followed by Haryana
(679 grams), Rajasthan (538 grams),
Himachal Pradesh (446 grams) and Gujarat
(435 grams).
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According to a Study titled Unlocking the

growth potential of Indian dairy industry
conducted by the Associated Chambers of
Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM),
milk production across India has grown at a
significant rate of about 19 per cent during the
aforesaid period with overall milk production
crossing 121 mt mark as of 2010-11. But despite
being the largest milk producer in the world, per
capita milk availability in India at 252 grams falls
below the global average of 279 grams per person
per day. New Zealand (9,773 grams), Ireland (3,260
grams) and Denmark (2,411 grams) are top three
countries in terms of per capita milk availability.
MILK
It is imperative for Indias dairy industry to

streamline its value chain processes and integrate
the smallholder dairy producers into the processing
value chain in order to improve the overall
performance of the industry. More so, as they
possess inherent strengths like low production costs,
lower liabilities and limited liquidity risk. However,
lack of knowledge and technical know-how, poor
access to support services, limited access to credit
and poor milk quality together limit the ability of
smallholder dairy producers to take advantage of
market opportunities. The increase in the income
level of an average Indian is being accompanied by
a change in the food basket as the monthly per
capita consumption expenditure on milk and milk
products in both rural and urban areas has grown
significantly.
There is an urgent need to build up strategies

to increase competitiveness in all segments of dairy
chain, input supply, milk production, processing,
distribution and retailing. For promotion of the
dairy sector in India, emphasis now needs to be
more on how to involve and encourage the village
population into proactively adopting dairy industry
as a viable alternative to the agricultural activity.
Promoting dairy entrepreneurship, strengthening
E-WASTE: HANDLING HAZARDS FOR CHILDREN
E-waste is directly linked to the economic

growth of the country and consumer spending
pattern. India's economic growth has lifted millions
of people from lower-income group to middle and
high-income groups and increased purchasing
power. In India, about 4.5 lakh child labourers in
the age group of 10-14 are observed to be engaged

in various electronic waste activities, without
adequate protection and safeguards in various yards
and recycling workshops.
These e-wastes have components that contain
[15]

Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) and Frost &
Sullivan reveals that over 95% of e-waste
generated is managed by the unorganised
sector and scrap dealers in this market,
dismantle the disposed products instead of
recycling it.
The ASSOCHAM's recent study on 'Earth Day

reveals that the informal recycling industry often
employs children to dismantle electronic waste.
ASSOCHAM's report strongly advocates legislation
to prevent a child's entry into this labour market.
The chamber has also strongly advocated the need
to bring out effective legislation to prevent entry of
child labour into its collection, segregation and
distribution.
Mumbai (96,000 MT) tops the list in

generating e-waste followed Delhi-NCR
(67,000 MT) and Bangalore (57,000 MT) .
Chennai, Kolkata, Ahemdabad, Hyderabad

and Pune find a place in the ladder, at 47,000;
35,000; 26,000; 25,000 and 19,000 metric
tonnes per year respectively.
Computer equipment accounts for almost 68%

of e-waste material followed by telecommunication equipment (12%), electrical
equipment (8%) and medical equipment (7%).
E-waste typically includes discarded

computer monitors, motherboards, Cathode
Ray Tubes (CRT), Printed Circuit Board
(PCB), mobile phones and chargers, compact
discs, headphones, white goods such as Liquid
Crystal Displays (LCD)/Plasma televisions,
air conditioners, refrigerators and so on.
More than 70% of e-waste contributors are

government, public and private industries,
while household waste contributes about 15%.
Televisions, refrigerators and washing
machines make up the majority of e-waste,
while computers account for another 20%
and mobile phones 2%, adds the report.
Finer points of the Report are:
India is likely to generate e-waste to an extent

of 15 lakh metric tonnes (MT) per annum by
2015 from the current level 12.5 lakh MTs
per annum growing at a compound annual
growth rate (CAGR) of about 25%. India's
produces nearly 12.5 lakh MTs of electronic
waste every year.
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toxic substances like lead, cadmium, mercury,

hexavalent chromium, plastic, PVC, BFRs, barium,
beryllium, and carcinogens like carbon black and
heavy metals. This deadly mix can cause severe
health problems in those handling the waste.
Printed circuit boards, for instance, contain heavy
metals like antimony, gold, silver, chromium, zinc,
lead, tin and copper. The method of extracting these
materials from circuit boards is highly hazardous
and involves heating the metals in the open. Issues
relating to poor sensitization about this sector, low
organized recycling, cross-border flow of waste
equipment into India, limited reach out and
awareness regarding disposal, after determining
end of useful life, and lack of coordination between
various authorities responsible for e-waste
management and disposal including the noninvolvement of municipalities in e-waste
management.
A meagre 4% of India's total e-waste gets

recycled due to poor infrastructure, legislation
and framework which lead to a waste of
diminishing natural resources, irreparable
damage of environment and health of the
people working in industry.
The study titled 'Electronic Waste
Management in India,' jointly conducted by
Associated Chambers of Commerce and
ASIAN STUDENTS FACE DISCRIMINATION
Women and minorities face more hurdles in

academia than their white, male peers in relation
to lack of mentors, occasionally overt discrimination
and the academys poor work-life . But now a study
has suggested that these groups may be at a
disadvantage even at an early stage.
The study looked at how likely faculty were to

respond to a request to meet with a student to
informally discuss potential research opportunities
a scenario picked as a proxy for the many
informal events that could boost an academic career
[16]
and which fall outside institutions formal checks

and balances. They found that professors of all
groups were more likely to respond to white men
than women and black, Hispanic, Indian or Chinese
students. Academics at private universities and in
subjects that pay more on average were the most
unresponsive.
White men were more likely than women and
minorities to receive a reply in every discipline
except the fine arts, where the bias was reversed.
Business showed the greatest disparity, with 87%

of white males receiving a response compared to
just 62% of female and minority students. In the
sciences, faculty in engineering and computer
sciences, life sciences and natural, physical sciences
and maths all showed significant biases against
minorities and women.
Broken down by group, the results were more
nuanced. Asian students experienced the greatest
bias, despite research showing that stereotypes

about Asians in academia are generally positive,
says Milkman. Among private university faculty
the response rate for white men was 29 percentage
points higher than for Chinese woman the
greatest disparity observed. Meanwhile in the
natural and physical sciences and maths there was
a small, though not statistically significant, bias in
favour of Hispanic women.
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NOW VULTURE RESTAURANTS WITH MENU CARDS

For centuries, vultures have been playing a key
role in keeping our cities clean by getting rid of
carcasses, but they now have been listed as critically
endangered which has aroused concerns among
the environmentalists. Conservationists have come
up with Vulture Restaurants, a new concept that
aims to augment the population of the scavenging
birds, which help keep the environment clean by
feeding on carrion and are provided safe
supplementary food.
The Vulture Restaurant at Dhar Kalan is

indirectly helping in increasing the vulture
population in neighbouring States of Himachal
Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. Explaining how
the restaurants are run, the conservationist said
dead cattle that have died a natural death are
collected from a village and fed to vultures. A
veterinary conducts a post-mortem to unearth
whether it died naturally or due to poison. Only if
the cattle died naturally then it is fed to vultures.
The Vulture Restaurant concept comes amid a

decline in the Indian sub-continent since the mid
1990s. Population of White-Rumped Vulture (Gyps
bengalensis) declined rapidly between 2000 and
2007. The decline took place because vultures fed
on carcasses of domestic animals, which had been
administered anti-inflammatory toxic veterinary
drug Diclofenac.
Emphasizing the significance of giving a fillip

to the population of these big birds, it has been
proved beyond doubt that the vulture is a useful
scavenger. People generally treat vultures as ugly
birds that feed on dead creatures, its relevance in
keeping our planet clean has to be acknowledged.
Vultures act as an ecosystem service-provider as it
feeds on carrion and keeps the natural environment
clean.
Though this concept has not been efficacious at

two places in Northern India, it has been
successfully running in a small place in Punjab.
This concept has attracted four vulture species,
including the Griffon Vulture and the Himalayan
Vulture, in large numbers at Dhar Kalan in Punjab.
These vultures have been sighted more than 300
times by the Pathankote Wildlife Division, which
has provided medically tested safe carcass.
The birds population has stabilized as South

Asias Vultures from Extinction (SAVE) a
consortium of regional and international
organizations to save threatened vultures in South
Asia in collaboration with Bombay Natural History
Society has been running captive breeding
centres.
SC TAKES NOTE OF ROAD ACCIDENTS
According to the Road Transport ministry

report, one serious road accident in the country
occurs every minute; and one person dies in a road
traffic accident every 4 minutes. Indian roads have
proved to be giant killers demanding immediate
attention and remedial action, and keeping in view
this, the Supreme Court appointed a panel to
suggest measures to prevent road accidents and to
ensure accountability. The Panel includes Justice
K.S. Radhakrishnan, who retired as Supreme Court
judge on May 14 will be part of this panel along
with S. Sundar, Former Transport Secretary and

Dr. Nishi Mittal, formerly HoD, Traffic Engineering
and Safety.
A Bench of former Chief Justice P. Sathasivam
and Justices Ranjan Gogoi and N.V. Ramana, gave
this direction acting on a public interest writ
petition (PIL) filed by renowned orthopaedician Dr.
S. Rajasekaran. The bench quoted figures furnished
by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways
(MoRTH) in the volume Road Accidents in India
2010 highlighting the extent of increase of road
[17]

accidents and fatal cases between 1970-2010. The
Bench asked the three-member panel to submit a
report to the apex court after receipt of reports
from Centre and States on the status of
implementation and enforcement of various road
safety laws.
It is reported that road traffic accidents in 2010
numbered 4,30,654 resulting in 1,26,896 deaths and
serious injuries 4,66,600 that includes amputation

of limbs. Road traffic accidents have the potential
of being one of the largest challenges to orderly
human existence necessitating immediate and
urgent intervention. Regular maintenance of all
highways and roads both by the Central and the
State governments, in order to make the same traffic
worthy, is the minimum that the citizens of this
country can expect and are entitled to.
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[18]
INTERNATIONAL
US-JAPAN NEW PARTNERSHIP
nuclear program and inhibit its ability to produce
a weapon.
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In two of his most cherished foreign-policy

projects, President Obama encountered setbacks
when he failed to achieve a trade deal that
undergirds his strategic pivot to Asia and the Middle
East peace process suffered a potentially irreparable
breakdown. He hoped to announce an agreement
under which Japan would open its markets in rice,
beef, poultry and pork, a critical step toward the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, the proposed regional
trade pact. But Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was not
able to overcome entrenched resistance from Japans
farmers in time for the presidents visit.
Israels announcement that it was suspending

stalemated peace negotiations with the Palestinians,
after a re-conciliation between the Palestine
Liberation Organization and the militant group
Hamas, posed yet another obstacle to restarting a
troubled peace process in which Secretary of State
John Kerry has been greatly invested.
The setbacks speak to the common challenge
Mr. Obama had in translating his ideas and
ambitions into enduring policies. He has watched
outside forces unravel his best-laid plans, from
resetting relations with Russia to managing the
epochal political change in the Arab world. As
Russia staged military exercises on the border with
Ukraine, Mr. Kerry denounced broken promises
from the Kremlin but took no specific action.
President Obama kicked off his Asia tour in
Japan, meeting with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
and Emperor Akihito to improve relations in the
Asia-Pacific region. One of the presidents most
grandiose foreign-policy projects, a nuclear
agreement with Iran, remains very much on the
table, with diplomats from Iran and the West
beginning to draft language that would limit Irans
In one sense, the latest news from the Middle

East offers a rationale for Mr. Obama to keep his
gaze fixed on the fast-growing economies of Asia.
While the troubles with the peace negotiations have
surprised almost no one, the trade talks with Japan
still hold some hope of yielding a landmark deal,
since it is in the interests of both Mr. Abe and Mr.
Obama.
Mr. Obama also declared that the United States
was obligated by a security treaty to protect Japan
in its confrontation with China over a clump of
islands in the East China Sea. But he stopped short
of siding with Japan in the dispute regarding who
has sovereignty over the islands, and carefully
calibrated his statement.
Similar frailties were on display in Jerusalem,
where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel
acted swiftly to suspend talks after his Palestinian
counterpart, President Mahmoud Abbas, signed a
deal seeking to reconcile his Fatah faction, which
dominates the Palestine Liberation Organization
and leads the West Bank government, with Hamas,
the Islamist group that controls the Gaza Strip.
Events in Asia tend to move at a slower pace.
But with trade, a key pillar of Mr. Obamas strategy
in Asia and each side looking for something from
the other, the negotiations assumed a Middle Eastlike intensity. The presidents statement about the
United States obligations toward Japan was
important because it was the first time he had
explicitly put the disputed islands under American
protection, though Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel
recently made the same statement and the policy
has been held by successive administrations.
INTERNATIONAL CRISIS RESULTS IN OBAMAS

STRATEGIC SHIFT TO ASIA
The US President is expected to announce an

agreement with the Philippines that would give
US ships and planes the most extensive access to

bases there since the US relinquished its vast naval
[19]

installation at Subic Bay in 1992. The deal will be
the centerpiece of Obamas long-postponed trip to
Asia, and is a modest step to reassert Americas
military presence in Asia. For America, it is the
latest example of the deepening complexities of his
efforts to shore up the strategic shift to Asia he
announced three years ago and has struggled to
maintain because of political pressures at home and
a cascade of crises elsewhere in the world.
Further complicating the challenges, Japan and

South Korea, the economic engines that anchor
Americas Pacific alliance, are barely talking to each
other, as they rehash 70-year-old grievances. North
Koreas nuclear and missile programme are more
active, and, arguably, more successful, than ever.
Obama will have to address all these issues,
including the sensitivities in the Philippines to a
renewed US military presence. Such a presence
would theoretically give America more capacity to
help its allies in territorial disputes with the Chinese.
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The premise of Obamas strategy; that

American power must follow its economic interests
in a region where a growing middle class yearns
for everything from iPhones to the new Ford
Mustang still makes sense. But they acknowledge
that it faces acute challenges, which will demand
a delicate balancing act. The countries in the region
want the US to be present and to be a stabilizing
force, but they also dont want tension between
the US and China, certainly not at a high pitch.
Obamas second-term focus on Iran, Syria, and the
Middle East peace process has left Asian officials
to wonder whether Washington is really committed

to a larger footprint in the region.
Much of that is most likely bluster; the Chinese

have shown no desire for direct confrontation. But
administration officials and some outside experts
say the Chinese may be calculating that the US
does not have the wherewithal to change its focus,
particularly as it wrestles with new threats in
Eastern Europe.
MARSHALL ISLAND SUES 9 NATIONS OVER N-ARMS
The Marshall Islands, an island country located

in the northern Pacific Ocean has filed a lawsuit
against nine nuclear-armed nations, including
India, at the International Court of Justice for
violating their legal obligation to disarm.
In the unprecedented legal action, comprising
nine separate cases brought before the ICJ at The
Hague, the Republic of the Marshall Islands accused
the nuclear weapons states of a flagrant denial of
human justice and it has argued that it is justified
in taking the action because of the harm it has
suffered as a result of the nuclear arms race. An
additional complaint has also been filed against
the US in the Federal District Court by the Marshall
Islands which was a nuclear testing site for
America in 1940s and 50s. In the lawsuit, Marshall
Island said that the five original nuclear weapon
states US, Russia, UK, France and China are
continuously breaching their legal obligations under
the treaty. The lawsuits contend that all nine
nuclear-armed nations are violating customary
international law.
Article VI of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)
requires states to pursue negotiations in good faith
on cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early
date and nuclear disarmament. The five original
[20]
nuclear weapon states are parties to the treaty but

continue to ignore their obligations. The four newer
nuclear-armed states Israel, India, Pakistan, and
North Korea are not party to the treaty but are
bound by these nuclear disarmament provisions
under customary international law.
The Marshall Islands
It is an island country located in the northern

Pacific Ocean. Geographically, the country is part
of the larger island group of Micronesia, with the
population of 68,480 people spread out over 24
low-lying coral atolls, comprising 1,156 individual
islands and islets. The islands share maritime
boundaries with the Federated States of Micronesia
to the west, Wake Island to the north, Kiribati to
the south-east, and Nauru to the south. The most
populous atoll is Majuro, which also acts as the
capital.
The islands are located north of Nauru and
Kiribati, east of the Federated States of Micronesia,
and south of the U.S. territory of Wake Island, to
which it lays claim. The country consists of 29 atolls
and 5 isolated islands. The atolls and islands form
two groups: the Ratak Chain and the Ralik Chain
.24 of them are inhabited.
INTERNET PRIVACY LAW IN BRAZIL
provision that would have forced global

Internet companies to store data on their
Brazilian users on data center servers inside
the country.
The rule was added to the Bill after revelations
last year that the U.S. National Security
Agency had spied on the personal Internet
communications of Brazilians, including those
of Rousseff among other world leaders.
As per the Bill, companies such as Google
Inc and Facebook Inc will be subject to Brazil's
laws and courts in cases involving information
on Brazilians, even if the data is stored on
servers abroad.
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Brazil
has
unanimously
approved
groundbreaking legislation that guarantees equal
access to the Internet and protects the privacy of
Brazilian users in the wake of U.S. spying
revelations. President Dilma Rousseff plans to sign
the bill into law. The legislation, dubbed Brazil's
"Internet Constitution," for balancing the rights and
duties of users, governments and corporations while
ensuring the Internet continues to be an open and
decentralized network.
Following the spying revelations by Snowden,
including allegations that the NSA secretly collected
data stored on servers by Internet companies such
as Google and Yahoo Inc, Brazil sought to force
them to store data on Brazilian servers in the
country. The revelations of NSA espionage using
powerful surveillance programs upset relations
between the United States and Brazil and led
Rousseff to cancel a state visit to Washington in
October and denounce massive electronic
surveillance of the Internet in a speech to the U.N.
General Assembly. Rousseff and German
Chancellor Angela Merkel, another leader that the
NSA was alleged to have spied upon, have led
international efforts to limit digital espionage over
the Internet.
Finer points about the Bill:
To guarantee passage of the Bill, Rousseffs
government had to drop a contentious
The government refused to drop a net

neutrality provision that was fiercely opposed
by telecom companies because it bars them
from charging higher rates for access to
content that uses more bandwidth, such as
video streaming and voice services like Skype.
The legislation protects freedom of expression

and information, establishing that service
providers will not be liable for content
published by users, but they must comply with
court orders to remove offensive or libelous
material.
The Bill limits the gathering and use of

metadata on Internet users in Brazil.
LANDMARK UNITY DEAL BETWEEN FATAH AND HAMAS
Fatah and Hamas, the two main rival

Palestinian factions have signed an accord designed
to end seven years of sometimes violent division,
which has paved way for elections later in the year
and the formation of a unity government within
weeks. The move came a week before the expiry of
the deadline for US-sponsored peace talks between
Israel and the Palestinian Authority on 29 April
and is certain to complicate US efforts to seek
another nine-month extension to those talks.
The agreement, signed in Gaza City by Ismail
Haniyeh, the Prime Minister of Hamas, and a senior
Palestinian Liberation Organization delegation
dispatched by Abbas marks the latest attempt in
three years of efforts to end the discord between
the two factions. After the agreement was
announced, Israel cancelled a planned session of
peace negotiations with the Palestinians. It also
launched an air strike on a site in the north of the
Gaza Strip, which underscored the deep mutual
suspicion and hostility that persists.
Fatah and Abbas have been damaged by the

failure of peace negotiations to deliver results amid
continuing Israeli settlement building, all of which
has pushed the issue of reconciliation up the agenda.
Although there have been failed attempts to end
the rift before, this agreement comes with both
factions facing internal problems. Hamas has
become ever more isolated internationally,
particularly since the like-minded Muslim
Brotherhood was ousted in Egypt last year. The
new military-led authorities in Cairo have cracked
down on the smuggling tunnels into Gaza.
Despite talk before the announcement about the
quick formation of a national unity government
and a decree for elections, the wording of the
agreement was less cut and dried suggesting a
possible timing for elections in at "least six months"
after talks to try to form a new government by
agreement.
[21]
BREACH OF GENEVA ACCORD BY KIEV

Ukrainian authorities accused by Russia of
intentionally violating the Geneva peace accord and
vowed to thwart attempts to unleash civil conflict
in Ukraines Russian-speaking southeast.
The Russian Foreign Minister hinted that Russia

may have to react to appeals for help from proRussian protesters in Ukraines southeast. Russia
has said that it would not let Ukraine slip into civil
war and those who are deliberately pushing for a
civil war, apparently in an attempt to start a big,
serious bloody conflict, are pursuing a criminal
policy. Ukraines ousted President Viktor
Yanukovych has called for immediate removal
of the Ukrainian military from eastern Ukraine and
immediate launch of peaceful dialogue with the
eastern leaders.
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According to Russias Foreign Minister Sergei

Lavrov, those who seized power in Kiev are taking
steps that flagrantly violate the Geneva agreement
and that the authorities are doing nothing, not even
lifting a finger, to address the root causes behind
this deep internal crisis in Ukraine. Mr. Lavrov has
denounced unacceptable Kievs claims that the
Geneva call for all irregulars to disarm and vacate
seized building did not apply to armed neo-Nazi
militants of the Right Sector, who still occupy
government offices in Kiev. The protesters have
refused to disarm till Kiev pulls back troops and
paramilitary radicals from Ukraines southeast and

agrees to a referendum on the regions greater
autonomy from the central government.
[22]
INDIA AND THE WORLD

FBI TO HELP NIA IN PROBING 26/11 MUMBAI ATTACKS
Headley's wife, Shahzia Gilani, who is an American
of Pakistani origin.
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The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has

recorded the statements of some of the witnesses
in connection with the terror strikes in Mumbai in
2008. It was a conspiracy hatched by David
Headley and others. The NIA is trying to piece
together the jigsaw of 26/11 Mumbai attacks.
The statements were recorded with the help of
the FBI and the US Department of Justice over
nearly 10 days. This is the first time that such
cooperation has taken place between India and the
US in the 26/11 case. The statements will help the
NIA substantiate charges filed in 2012 before a Delhi
court against top Lashkar-e-Taiba commanders
alleged to have been involved in the 26/11 plot.
India had been pressing for the interrogation of
The Federal Bureau of Investigation:
FBI is a governmental agency of the United

States Department of Justice which serves as both
a federal criminal investigative body and a
counterintelligence. The bureau was established in
1908 as the Bureau of Investigation. Its name was
changed to the Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) in 1935. The FBI headquarters is the J. Edgar
Hoover Building, located in Washington, D.C. It is
the government agency responsible for investigating
crimes on Native American reservations in the
United States under the Major Crimes Act. The
FBI's main goal is to protect and defend the United
States, to uphold and enforce the criminal laws of
the United States, and to provide leadership and
criminal justice services to federal, state, municipal,
and international agencies and partners.
INDIA & SWITZERLAND
National Investigation Agency
NIA is a federal agency established by the Indian

Government to combat terror in India. It came into
existence with the enactment of the National
Investigation Agency Act, 2008 by the Parliament
of India on 31 December 2008. The founding
Director-General of NIA was Radha Vinod Raju. It
acts as the Central Counter Terrorism Law
Enforcement Agency. NIA was created after the
2008 Mumbai terror attacks to combat terrorism.
The agency is empowered to deal with terror related
crimes across states without special permission from
the states and aims---
To be a thoroughly professional investigative

agency matching the best international
standards.
To set the standards of excellence in counter

terrorism and other national security related
investigations at the national level by
developing into a highly trained, partnership
oriented workforce.
At creating deterrence for existing and

potential terrorist groups/individuals.
To develop as a storehouse of all terrorist

related information.
TO SHARE INFO ON BLACK MONEY
India and Switzerland are on a high platform,

discussing ways of sharing information on specific
accounts relating to black money that is stashed
away in the latter. The matter is being taken up by
the Swiss government and the Finance Ministry of
the Government of India who are discussing with
Due to a non-disclosure clause entered with FBI,

NIA did not name the witnesses whose statements
have been recorded but India had been for long
seeking the questioning of Shahzia Gilani, wife of
Pakistani-American Headley and some other friends.
each other how information into specific account

relating to black money can be provided by the
Swiss government to India.
Mr. Chidambaram threatened to drag the
European nation to multilateral fora like G20 for
continuing to block India's requests. He also
[23]

reminded her of the April 2009 declaration adopted
by G20 leaders stating that the era of bank secrecy
is over. He also had said Switzerland did not
honour the terms of the Double Taxation Avoidance
Agreement between the two nations, under which

information about Indians with accounts in Swiss
banks has been sought by the tax authorities.
Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement

DTAA, also referred as Tax Treaty, is a bilateral
economic agreement between two nations that aims
to avoid or eliminate double taxation of the same
income in two countries.
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India has signed comprehensive Double

Taxation Avoidance Agreements with 88 countries,
out of which 85 have entered into force. This means
that there are agreed rates of tax and jurisdiction
on specified types of income arising in a country to
a tax resident of another country. Under the Income

Tax Act 1961 of India, there are two provisions,
Section 90 and Section 91, which provide specific
relief to taxpayers to save them from double
taxation. Section 90 is for taxpayers who have paid
the tax to a country with which India has signed
DTAA, while Section 91 provides relief to tax
payers who have paid tax to a country with which
India has not signed a DTAA. Thus, India has given
relief to both kind of taxpayers.
INDIA-JAPAN-US FOR PEACE AROUND THE GLOBE
Stepping towards the growing significance of

the New Delhi-Tokyo ties, a joint statement between
Barack Obama and Shinzo Abe in Tokyo
highlighted a trilateral dialogue between Japan,
India and the US for peace and economic prosperity
in the Asia-Pacific and around the globe. The
trilateral, which Japan also holds with Australia
and South Korea, has become one of the most
successful joint initiatives by the three countries. It
also signifies that the India-Japan relationship
occupies prime mind space both in Tokyo and New
Delhi. The US and India have been going through
a rough patch in recent months as has the USJapan relationship. But at the same time, IndiaJapan ties have been on a very different trajectory.
The next round of the US-India-Japan trilateral is
scheduled for early June. In the run-up to the

meeting, India is organizing a meeting of
stakeholders from all three countries to start
infrastructure projects in the north-east states that
could be continued through Myanmar, Thailand
and beyond. The idea is to build east-west
connectivity to counter China's north-south links
in south-east Asia. India is also closer to buying
the US-2 Amphibian Rescue aircraft from Japan,
an agreement which was formalized during Abe's
visit to India in January. The deal would be the
first time Japan would be exporting military
hardware after World War II. Basically, this
expands the ambit of Japanese defence exports to
countries designated friends and allies and will help
Japanese defence industry.
MAJOR U.S. COMPANIES SUPPORT INDIAS DRUG PATENT REGIME

Three major US companies - Boeing, Abbott
and Honeywell - have come in support of India's
IPR regime, which has come under attack by
American pharma sector for alleged violations of
global norms. The government has received support
from an unexpected quarter in its battle against
the US on the intellectual property (IP) regime.
Abbott is the second US company after Boeing to
support India's case, leaving companies such as
Pfizer and Novartis as the top protesters who are
demanding changes to the Indian IP regime, which
allows flexibility to patent authorities to turn down
frivolous patent applications. In addition, they want
the provision to waive patent rights, or issue
compulsory license in special cases, to be
withdrawn.
[24]
This support assumes significance on the

backdrop of US industry, particularly the
pharmaceuticals sector, and trade lobbies putting
pressure on their government to place India under
the Priority Foreign Country list for IPR. Under the
US Trade Act, a Priority Foreign Country is the
worst classification given to those that deny
adequate and effective protection of IPR or fair
and equitable market access to US entities relying
on IPR protection. The US Trade Representative
(USTR) is scheduled to come out with a report on
April 30 on Special 301, which talks about IPR
regime of countries. The US trade law requires an
annual review of intellectual property protection
and market access practices in foreign countries.
The Special 301 Report highlights the economic
importance of IP to the US economy.
INDIA, CHINA FOCUS TO DEEPEN NAVAL TIES

The Shivaliks visit and participation at the
Peoples Liberation Army Navys 65th anniversary
celebrations marked by first-ever maritime exercises
involving 7 nations in China has sent a strong signal
of Indias keenness to deepen navy-to-navy links
with China. China asked India, along with
Indonesia, to participate in the most challenging of
three different drills which involved staging an antihijacking exercise, for which China also deployed
its elite commando unit besides an advanced PLAN
vessel.
nor an official from headquarters on board to

supervise the exercises. This was unusual from the
point of view of the Chinese Navy, where ships
are rarely given such a degree of autonomy, seen
as reflecting the confidence and experience of the
Indian Navy on the high seas.
The US withdrew from the exercise after Japan

was not allowed to participate. The six-day-long
stay of Shivalik also helped to build trust between
two countries that have rapidly developing navies
with an increasingly wide presence across the
Indian and Pacific oceans.
Indian Navy ships also make it a point to

regularly traverse the South China Sea whose
waters and islands are disputed by China and ten
other countries to underline Indias commitment
to freedom of navigation. As more Chinese ships
sail west and Indian ships sail east, both countries
have used this exercise to stress their intent to ensure
they will deepen mutual trust to address any
insecurities.
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China has invested billions in building a modern

blue-water Navy, but is still taking tentative steps
in spreading its presence, only starting to venture
more deeply into the Indian and Pacific Oceans
beyond the South and East China Seas.
PLAN officials expressed admiration that the

Shivalik sailed 4,500 miles from Port Blair to
Qingdao, through the Indian Ocean and South
China Sea, with neither an accompanying vessel
INDO-CHINA DISCUSSION ON BORDER PACTS IMPLEMENTATION

In a latest border confidence building measure,
Indian Army officers interacted with the Chinese
General responsible for troop operations on
implementing the Border Defence Cooperation
Agreement (BDCA). Peoples Liberation Army
team lead by Deputy Chief of General Staff Lt.
Gen. Qi Jianguo discussed with its Indian Army
counterparts, led by Vice Chief of Army Staff Dalbir
Singh Suhag, over the prospects of installing
hotlines and increased interaction between the two
armies at various levels, including operational
commanders, command and general headquarters.
In another move, the Chinese side announced
their Defence Minister plans to visit India later this
year and confirmed plans for a joint army exercise
at a time when the two sides are trying to resolve
their differences over sending a youth delegation
to Beijing in which Arunachal Pradesh, one of the

States bordering China, is a sticking point. Adhering
to its stand of Arunachal Pradesh being a part of
China, the Chinese Embassy here reportedly
advised India not to include representatives from
the state in the youth delegation. The implication
is that youngsters from the State will be given
stapled visas, which are not entertained by Indian
immigration authorities. China dropped this
stipulation for Jammu & Kashmir after Indian
officials pointed out that the stapled visa policy
should also be implemented for Pakistan Occupied
Kashmir.
The current army interaction was intended to
iron out irritants surfacing in day-to-day border
management. This has greater security implications
as was brought out by the incursion of Chinese
troops in eastern Ladakh early last year.
INDIA, BHUTAN TO DEVELOP HYDRO PROJECTS
Bhutan and India have agreed to a framework

"Inter-Governmental Agreement" for the development of Joint Venture Hydropower Projects through
the Public Sector Undertakings of the two
governments. Both sides signed an agreement in
Thimphu for the development of joint hydropower
projects in a bid to further strengthen their bilateral

strategic partnership. Hydropower cooperation
with Bhutan is a classic example of win-win
cooperation, providing clean electricity to India,
generating export revenues for Bhutan, and further
strengthening our bilateral economic linkages.
[25]

The signing of the Inter-Governmental
Agreement will strengthen bilateral hydropower
cooperation and further cement India's strategic
partnership with Bhutan. Three more projects
totaling 2940 MW - the 1200 MW PunatsangchuI project, the 1020 MW Punatsangchu-II project
and the 720 MW Mangdehchu project - are under
construction, and are scheduled to be commissioned
by 2018.
side and Sonam Tshering, Bhutan's Secretary,

Ministry of Economic Affairs.
The largest of the four projects is the 770

MW Chamkarchu project the others include
the 600 MW Kholongchu hydel power
project, the 180 MW Bunakha project and
the 570 MW Wangchu hydel project.
The implementation of the projects is subject

to completion of the due process of appraisal
of their detailed project reports including
techno-economic viability.
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Key points of the agreement:

The agreement was signed by P.K. Sinha,
Secretary, Ministry of Power, from the Indian
BHUTAN-INDIA TIE UP
India and Bhutan have signed a memorandum

of understanding (MOU) to strengthen bilateral
cooperation for improving work methodologies and
exchange of information in the field of audit of
public finances. The MOU that was signed by
Shashi Kant Sharma, the Comptroller and Auditor
General of India and Dasho Ugen Chewang,
Auditor General of Bhutan in Thimpu.
It also aims at improving professional

knowledge and skills of staff members of the
two countries in the field of audit by exchange
of experience and by strengthening their
knowledge.
Major Points of the MoU:
Under this MOU, India will impart training

every year to two audit officers of the Royal
Audit Authority of Bhutan in the IA&AS
course, in the National Academy of Audit
and Accounts, Shimla.
The MoU will be in force for a period of six

years from April 22, 2014.
It aims at improving professional knowledge

and skills of staff members of the two
countries in the field of audit by exchange of

experience and by strengthening their
knowledge.
GLOBAL ARBITRATION NOTICE TO INDIA
A French shipping services and maritime

transportation company, Louis Dreyfus Armateurs,
has served a notice for international arbitration to
India after the firm pulled out from Haldia Port
venture two years ago. The company has invoked
Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection
Agreement (BIPPA) and the notice was served on
March 31. An inter-ministerial group had met
recently to discuss the fallout of the arbitration
notice and finalize government's stand in the case.
The French company in its notice has charged

the Indian government with preventing effective
implementation of the project, financially crippling
it and failing to provide protection and security to
the investment and personnel. The shipping major
has also charged the government for not following
court orders on the issue of handing over its
equipment. The French company hopes India to
settle this matter so that investors again could look
at India as a strategic and positive move for
[26]
economic development. The company is a minority

shareholder and thus, does not qualify as an
investor as per the treaty.
What is the scenario?
Louis Dreyfus had invested in ABG Ports for

implementing a project aimed at mechanization of
berths at Haldia in West Bengal. ABG Haldia Bulk
Terminals, the venture in which LDA had indirect
investment, pulled out in 2012 from the Haldia
project, billed as one of the biggest exits by a
company after Tata Motors withdrew from Singur.
ABG Haldia Bulk Terminals gave a notice of
termination of its 10-year contract to the Kolkata
Port Trust on November 1, 2012. The company
claimed its officials were threatened and three of
them were even abducted, including one with his
family. LDA holds 49% in ABG-LDA Bulk
Handling Pvt Ltd while ABG Port holds 51%. ABG
Ports through another layer of companies holds
63% stake in ABG Haldia Bulk Terminals, the

company at the centre of the dispute, as per details
available with the government. Effectively,
according to government estimates, LDA has only
30.87% equity in ABG Haldia Bulk Terminals. The
French company was also inducted against the
terms of the contract given out by Kolkata Port Trust.
ByCell, Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone

International Holdings BV, Sistema of Russia,
Childrens Investment Fund and TCI Cyprus
Holdings have also served notices to India under
investment agreements after their investments ran
into trouble in India.
EXPORT NORMS FOR FRUITS & VEGETABLES TIGHTENED

total exports of perishables to the EU have been
affected at the moment, there is much more at stake
as the country exports fruits and vegetables worth
over 400 million to the region.
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The EUs Standing Committee on Plant Health

imposed a ban on Indian mangoes, bitter gourd,
taro, egg plant and snake gourd, as pests and
insects were detected in a number of consignments
shipped from the country. From now onwards,
exports of all perishable items to the European
Union from India will be routed through recognized
pack-houses under the vigilance of plant protection
inspectors to reduce quality glitches. The move is
aimed at convincing the EU, that recently banned
export of five fruits and vegetables from India as
pests were found in some consignments, to reverse
its decision.
The ban will be applicable from May and could
be extended to other perishables if EU is not
satisfied about India taking genuine steps to
improve its sanitary and phyto-sanitary certification
process. The EU, however, has not given any
commitments on when it would lift the existing
ban. Although only about 5 per cent of Indias
Indian officials from the Commerce Ministry

and the National Plant Protection Organization
under the Agriculture Ministry informed the EU
that India had already decided to put in place an
improved inspection and quality certification process
when the ban was announced and the EU should
have waited for it to be implemented. The
Agriculture and Processed Food Products Export
Development Authority (APEDA), in its
notification, has specified that it is not only essential
for pack houses to follow complete procedure for
export of fruits and vegetables to the EU laid down
by it, it also has to maintain records of arrival of
material and actual shipped quantity and report it
daily to the Government.
INDIA PROPOSES INTERNET REFORM
India is all set to oppose the proposal to reform

the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers (ICANN), with a view to assert the
sovereign right of governments to regulate and
manage the internet. India will do so at the ongoing
Global Multi-stakeholder Meeting on the Future of
Internet Governance in Brazil. Indias response to
the draft outcome document categorically rejects
the ICANNs proposal to transition from a UScontrolled model to a multi-stakeholder approach
to internet governance.
ICANN is a not-for-profit organization, but is

contractually affiliated to the US Department of
Commerce. Initially, NETmundial was intended to
chart a roadmap for internet governance. Earlier,
the US government announced its decision to
transition key internet domain name functions
to the global multi-stakeholder community,
raising the stakes at NETmundial, but it also made
it clear that it would not accept a proposal for

an inter-governmental organization.
Earlier this year, the Prime Ministers Office
sought the views of the Ministry of Communications
and Information Technology on internet
governance. The governments multilateral
approach to internet governance is not the product
of a common negotiating position endorsed by key
ministries. The run-up to NETmundial has seen a
protracted turf battle between the Ministry of
External Affairs (MEA) and the Ministry of
Communications and Information Technology.
Finer points of the Draft:
The draft does not incorporate the term
multilateral, which India has objected to.
India also does not want NETmundial to
recommend the way forward for internet
governance, but simply serve as a discussion
platform.
[27]
It has sought proper international legislative

authority, or in other words, a treaty, to
regulate ICANNs functioning.
India neither wishes to commit to

implementing or explicitly adhering to
the outcome at NETmundial, nor does it want
NETmundial findings to inform other

internet governance discussions.
India also objected to the draft documents

goal to preserve an unfragmented internet,
signalling that it has not ruled out the
balkanisation of the internet along geographical lines.
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Number

ICANN is responsible for the coordination of
maintenance and methodology of several databases
of unique identifiers related to the namespaces of
the Internet, and ensuring the network's stable and
secure operation. The numbering facilities include
the Internet Protocol address spaces and assignment
of address blocks to regional Internet registries.
ICANN maintains registries of Internet protocol
identifiers, and the management of the top-level
domain name space which includes the operation
of root name servers.
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ICANN is a nonprofit organization that

coordinates the Internet's global domain name
system. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
(IANA) is a department of ICANN responsible for
managing the DNS Root and the numbering system
for IP addresses. It was created on September 18,
1998, and incorporated on September 30, 1998. It
is headquartered in the Playa Vista section of Los
Angeles, California.
ICANN's primary principles of operation have

been described as helping preserve the operational
stability of the Internet; to promote competition; to
achieve broad representation of the global Internet
community; and to develop policies appropriate to
its mission through bottom-up, consensus-based
processes.
On September 29, 2006, ICANN signed a new

agreement with the United States Department of
Commerce (DOC) that moves the organization
further towards a solely multi-stakeholder
governance model.
FREIGHT CORRIDOR PROJECT INKS $1.1 BILLION WORLD BANK LOAN

The World Bank has approved $1.1 billion as
the second instalment of its loan for construction
of the 393-km-long electrified double line between
Mughalsarai and Bhaupur sections of the eastern
dedicated rail freight corridor. The loan agreement
for the second phase is expected to be signed in
June. The Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation
of India Ltd (DFCCIL), the special purpose vehicle
responsible for implementing the rail freight
corridor project, has already shortlisted bidders for
the civil construction contract of this segment.
The value of the contract is expected to be Rs

3,500-4,000 crore. The bidders include Isolux
Corsan-Sadbhav Engineering, Gammon-Yuksel,
Posco-PNC Infratech and Continental Engineering
Corporation, Taiwan-JMC-Brahmaputra Infrastructure, among others. The World Bank had agreed,
in principle, to part finance the eastern corridor
project from Mughalsarai to Ludhiana, which has
been divided in three phases. The total in-principle
loan commitment is $2.725 billion, of which $975
million for the first phase was sanctioned in 2011.
[28]
ECONOMY
CHEQUE-BOUNCE CASES TO BE MADE FAST-TRACK
It held that a magistrate need not call a

complainant twice for recording his
statement, once at pre-summoning stage and
another after issuance of summons, and
taking an appropriate affidavit from him
should suffice.
The summons should be issued immediately

by post as well through e-mails.
The court said that summons should appraise

an accused that he could show up in the
court and compound the offence on the same
day.
The order came on a petition by the Indian

Banks Association, which is the representative body
of banks in India with over 174 banks and financial
institutions as its members. Its counsel Lalit Bhasin
had asserted the need to have uniform practice
across courts in the country to ensure cases do not
drag in courts on account of unnecessary and
unwarranted procedural delays.
At the stage of recording of evidence, the

bench said, the court concerned must ensure
that examination-in-chief, cross-examination
and re-examination of the complainant is
conducted within three months of assigning
the case.
All evidence to be recorded within three

months and verdict to be delivered shortly.
Finer points of the guidelines:

A magistrate shall issue summons on the
same day he receives a complaint, provided
documents are in order.
Magistrate can receive affidavits from the

witnesses too, dispensing their personal
presence.
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There has been significant increase in cheque

bounce cases in recent times, which has created
menace for judiciary. The number rose to more than
40 lakh, which lead the Supreme Court to issue
slew of guidelines. These include issuance of
summons through e-mails and completion of
evidence within three months, to prevent further
piling up. A bench of Justices K.S. Radhakrishnan
and Vikramjit Sen laid down these guidelines to be
uniformly followed by all magisterial courts dealing
with cheque-bounce cases under pertinent
provisions of the Negotiable Instruments Act for a
speedy and expeditious disposal.
REPAYMENT
OF LOANS THROUGH ECBs RESTRICTED
The foreign currency borrowings raised by the

Indian Corporates from confirmed banking sources
outside India are called "External Commercial
Borrowings" (ECBs). It refers to commercial loans
in the form of bank loans, buyers credit, suppliers
credit, securitized instruments availed of from
non-resident lenders with a minimum average
maturity of 3 years. These Foreign Currency
borrowings can be raised within ECB policy
guidelines of Govt. of India or the Reserve Bank of
India applicable from time to time.
Recently, the Reserve Bank of India has decided
not to permit repayment of domestic rupee loans
availed in the country through external commercial
borrowings from Indian banks' branches or
subsidiaries abroad as the risk remains within the
Indian banking system. This withdrawal is part of

the measures by RBI to return to normal conditions
from the supporting steps it had unfurled last year
when the Indian currency had dipped close to 70
to a dollar. The central bank also warned exporters
against using bank guarantees, intended to facilitate
execution of export contracts, for availing advances
to repay their loans from Indian banks, which is a
clear violation of its instructions.
To restrict the flow of easy money into the
soaring Indian markets, the RBI has tightened the
rules for taking out ECBs. In a notification issued,
RBI announced to partially withdraw the leeway
given to manufacturing and infrastructure
companies to repay their rupee loans by raising
[29]

loans from abroad. The steps provide easier liquidity
to Indian companies including exporters, to shelter
them from the effect of the plunging rupee and
revive confidence in the economy.
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The RBI notification clarifies that the leeway

will not be available for the companies if they plan
to raise the external borrowing from the branches
or subsidiaries of Indian banks abroad. RBI has
been concerned that as the rupee gets stronger
especially with prospects of a stable government
post elections, it would open up an arbitrage
opportunity for Indian companies in the forex

market. The RBI has also advised overseas entities
of the Indian banks not to extend financial
guarantees to Indian companies for the purpose of
raising loans/advances of any kind from other
entities except in connection with the ordinary
course of overseas business. It has also warned that
it has found some exporters from India misusing
concessional finance raised from banks to repay
their older loans instead of using those to plough
into making fresh exports.
ONLINE TRANSACTIONS TO BE VERIFIED TWICE
An online transaction, also known as a PINdebit transaction, is a password-protected payment

method that authorizes a transfer of funds over an
electronic funds transfer (EFT). Although it has
several benefits, the system has high security
concerns as well. The objective of an effective
payment system is to ensure a safe, secure, efficient,
robust and sound payment system in the country.
In order to secure electronic documents and
transactions and to ensure legal compliance, digital
technology is used.
According to the RBI report on Enabling Public

Key Infrastructure (PKI) in Payment System
Applications banks should also inform customers
about risks associated with different types of online
banking transaction, as the RBI is worried over
rising number of frauds in online banking. Internet
banking applications of all banks should
mandatorily create authentication environment for
password-based two-factor authentication as well
as PKI-based system for authentication and
transaction verification in online banking
transaction. PKI enables users of a basically
unsecure public network such as the Internet to
securely and privately exchange data and money
through the use of a public and a private
cryptographic key pair. PKI provides for a digital
certificate that can identify an individual or an
organization and directory services that can store
and, when necessary, revoke the certificates.
There are various PKI-enabled electronic
payments systems introduced by the RBI such RTGS,
NEFT, CBLO, Forex Clearing, Government
Securities Clearing, and Cheque Truncation System
(CTS). In volume terms, these systems contributed
25.1 per cent whereas these systems contributed
INDIA-U.S. PACT
India has signed an agreement with the US to
combat possible tax evasion by Americans through
[30]
93.7 per cent share to the total payment transactions

carried out in 2012-13 in value terms. Non-PKI
enabled payment systems contributed 75 per cent
in volume terms but only 6.3 per cent in value
terms in 2012-13.
The RBI has suggested that banks should
introduce two-stage authentication to ensure
security of transactions. It also said customers should
be given the option to choose from different
methods of authentication for ensuring security of
online transactions. The banks have been mandated
to issue EMV (card with chip and pin) to certain
category of customers and for the other customers,
banks have been given option to either issue EMV
cards or adopt Aadhaar biometric authentication
as additional factor of authentication.
Online Transaction Processing (OLTP)
Online transaction processing (OLTP) is a class

of systems that supports or facilitates high
transaction-oriented applications. OLTPs primary
system features are immediate client feedback and
high individual transaction volume. OLTP is mainly
used in industries that rely heavily on the efficient
processing of a large number of client transactions,
e.g., banks, airlines and retailers. Database systems
that support OLTP are usually decentralized to
avoid single points of failure and to spread the
volume between multiple servers. OLTP systems
must provide atomicity, which is the ability to fully
process or completely undo an order. Partial
processing is never an option. When airline
passenger seats are booked, atomicity combines the
two system actions of reserving and paying for the
seat. Both actions must happen together or not at all.
UNDER FATCA
Indian financial entities under Foreign Account Tax
Compliance Act (FATCA), which was concluded

income, the RBI said yields should be recognized
only after fully redeeming the entire principal
amount of security receipts and instruments issued
to investors. Where underlying cash flows are
dependent on realization from non-performing
assets, security receipts (SRs) can be classified as
available for sale. Hence, investments in SRs may
be aggregated for arriving at net depreciation or
appreciation of investments under the category.
Other Recommendations include:
ARCs should provide for net depreciation and

net appreciation should be ignored. The
provisions for net depreciation should not be
reduced on account of net appreciation.
Management fees may be recognized on an

accrual basis.
The expenses for diligence before acquiring

financial assets should be charged
immediately by recognizing these in the profit
and loss statement for the period in which
such costs are incurred.
All the liabilities due within one year should

be classified as "current liabilities".
Assets maturing within one year, along with

cash and bank balances, should be treated as
current assets.
The capital and reserves will be treated as

liabilities on the liability side while investment
in SRs and long-term deposits with banks will
be treated as fixed assets on the assets side.
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on April 11. According to the US, India has

consented to Model 1 Intergovernmental
Agreement (IGA) under FATCA. As per Model 1,
financial entities will be required to report
information on US account holders to the US IRS
(internal revenue service) through CBDT. The
FATCA requires the US government to sign IGAs
with various countries, including India, where
American individuals and companies may hold
accounts and other assets. The US Treasury had
released two formats of the IGA Model 1 and
Model 2. In Model 2, financial institutions will report
information directly to the US IRS rather than their
local jurisdictions.
Market regulator SEBI has planned to issue

guidelines for market intermediaries in this regard.
The regulatory measures from SEBI and other
regulators after the signing of this IGA would
immensely help Indian financial institutions to cope
up with this complex regulation. Other regulators
like RBI are also expected to issue guidelines to
ensure compliance of FATCA. Signing of IGA
coupled with regulatory measures from SEBI would
be helpful for Indian financial institutions and
corporates to better comply with this significant
legislation.
SEBI would issue appropriate guidelines in
2014-15 to market intermediaries on due diligence
and reporting requirements with respect to FATCA.
While FATCA became a law way back in 2010,
the final regulations were issued for it in January
2013 and it is set to come into effect from July 1,
2014 after signing of IGAs with different countries.
The law aims to check and impose withholding
tax on illicit activities of some wealthy individuals
who use offshore accounts to evade millions of
dollars in taxes. A non-compliance with FATCA
entails 30 per cent withholding tax on certain US
source payments.
Unified
Norms
Issued
Reconstruction Companies
for
Asset
New norms were prescribed by the Reserve

Bank of India for creating uniform accounting
standards for asset reconstruction companies
(ARCs) for acquiring non-performing loans,
recognizing revenue and management fees to
ensure common treatment for firms. These
recommendations are based on the views of the
Key Advisory Group (KAG) constituted by the
Centre on ARCs and will be effective from
accounting year 2014-15. Referring to booking
Asset Reconstruction
Asset reconstruction is the handling of distressed

assets to attempt to recover their value and clear
them from the books. It arises in response to a
financial crisis that causes the number of bad loans
to rise rapidly in response to a series of economic
problems. Some governments directly fund asset
reconstruction programs as part of an economic
recovery plan, and it is also possible to see private
firms performing this service.
The asset reconstruction company assumes bad
assets from another company to clear them from
that company's books. It may purchase the assets
at a very discounted price, causing the original
company to take a loss, but clearing nonperforming
assets can allow it to start accurately assessing
financial health and working on a recovery plan.
Once the company takes possession, it can work
on recovering those assets.

[31]

DNACORRECTION NOW POSSIBLE TO CURE GENETIC DISORDERS
Crispr to locate and correct the single mutated
DNA base pair in a liver gene known as LAH,
which can lead to a fatal build-up of the amino
acid tyrosine in humans and has to be treated with
drugs and a special diet. The researchers effectively
cured mice suffering from the disease by altering
the genetic make-up of about a third of their liver
cells using the Crispr technique, which was
delivered by high-pressure intravenous injections.
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Genes code for proteins, the molecules that carry

out most of the work, perform most life functions,
and make up the majority of cellular structures.
When a gene is mutated so that its protein product
can no longer carry out its normal function, a
disorder can result. A genetic disorder is a disease
that is caused by an abnormality in an individual's
DNA. Abnormalities can be as small as a singlebase mutation in just one gene, or they can involve
the addition or subtraction of entire chromosomes.
Genetic diseases can be inherited because they are
mutations in the germ cells of the bodythe cells
involved in passing genetic information from
parents to offspring.
For the first time, a genetic disease has been
cured in living adult animals using a revolutionary
genome-editing technique that can make the
smallest changes to the vast database of the DNA
molecule with pinpoint accuracy. Scientists have
used the genome-editing technology to cure adult
laboratory mice of an inherited liver disease by
correcting a single "letter" of the genetic alphabet
which had been mutated in a vital gene involved
in liver metabolism. The successful repair of the
genetic defect in laboratory mice raises hopes that
the first clinical trials on patients could begin within
a few years. In the latest study, scientists at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) used
More about Crispr:
Crispr, is a technology that allows scientists

to make almost any DNA changes at precisely
defined points on the chromosomes of
animals or plants.
Crispr was initially discovered in 1987 as an

immune defence used by bacteria against
invading viruses.
Its a powerful genome-editing potential in
higher animals, including humans, was only
fully realised in 2012 and 2013 when
scientists showed that it can be combined
with a DNA sniping enzyme called Cas9 and
used to edit the human genome.
Crispr system can be delivered in an adult
animal and result in a cure.
The fundamental advantage is that while
repairing the defect, one is actually correcting
the DNA itself.
EARTH NOT TO BE EXTINCT SOON
It is currently believed that un-controlled human

activities will make about half of earth's plants and
animals would go extinct over the next century.
But, a study has found that this extinction rate is
overly exaggerated. In the study that appeared in
the journal Nature, the researchers point to an
alternative framework that promises a more
effective way of accounting for human-altered
landscapes and assessing ecological risks. The paper
shows that farmland and forest remnants can be
more valuable for biodiversity than previously
[32]
assumed. To test the island theory against a more

holistic theory of agricultural or countryside biogeography, the researchers turned to bats in Costa
Rica and on islands in a large lake in Panama. The
researchers also did a meta-analysis of 29 studies
of more than 700 bat species to bolster and
generalize their findings globally.
The reason for the discrepancies is that "island
bio-geographic theory" was originally based on
actual islands surrounded by water, and does not
account for factors such as a countryside

landscape's ability to support more species and slow
extinction rates compared to true island ecosystems.
Especially in the tropics, island bio-geographic
theory's application is distorting the understanding
and conservation strategies in agriculture, the

enterprise on which the future of biodiversity most
critically hinges.
PURPLE MINERAL PUTNISITE DISCOVERED

strontium, calcium, chromium, sulphur,
carbon, oxygen and hydrogen.
It appears as dark pink spots on dark green

and white rock which, under the microscope,
appears as square, cube-like crystals.
By x-raying a single crystal of mineral, one

can determine its crystal structure .
The purple mineral is associated with quartz

and is very brittle.
Putnisite has been named after important

Australian mineralogists Andrew and
Christine Putnis.
Characteristics
The new mineral occurs as tiny crystals, no

more than 0.5 mm in diameter and is found
on a volcanic rock.
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Buried deep within volcanic rock of Western

Australia, scientists have discovered a new mineral
in a surface outcrop at Lake Cowan, north of
Norseman in Western Australia, that is unique in
structure and composition among the worlds 4,000
known mineral species. It has been named Putnisite
and its tiny crystals are are no more than half a
millimetre in diameter. Most minerals belong to a
family or small group of related minerals, or if they
aren't related to other minerals they often are to a
synthetic compound - but Putnisite is completely
unique and unrelated to anything.
The purple mineral contains an unusual
combination of elements, including:
USING NANO-WIRES FOR ANTI-COUNTERFEITING
South Korean researchers have developed tiny

tags made of silver nano wires that are randomly
scattered, then form a unique pattern. The research
is an important and inspiring idea to use
nanotechnology for anti-counterfeiting. Money,
gadgets and credit cards could soon have tiny,
invisible anti-counterfeiting "fingerprints" embedded
into them, making it pretty much impossible to
falsify such objects. Researchers estimate that the
fingerprints could be produced at a cost of less
than USD 1 per single pattern, coating the nano
wires with silica, doping them with specific
fluorescent dyes and then randomly dropping them
onto a transferable film made from flexible
polyethylene terephthalate (PET).
How this was made possible?
1. First, the scientists created a solution with

silver nanowires, each wire only about 10 to
50 microns a millionth of a meter long.
2. The researchers coated the wires with silica

and doped them with fluorescent dyes,
making them visible when analyzed with a
fluorescence microscope.
3. The scientists then placed drops of the
solution onto a thin plastic film, randomly
arranging some 20 to 30 nano-wires within
the drops.
4. The team analyzed the dried drops with a

microscope, imaging the wires invisible to
the naked eye in the process.
5. Using a special algorithm to note the positions
and colors of the wires, the researchers
compared the wire patterns with a signature
stored in a database, which was obtained at
the fingerprint's creation.
6. The researchers helped locate the reference
print-data in an online database, the
fingerprint could be tagged with a unique
barcode.
7. While counterfeiters could conceivably
reproduce that barcode, there would be no
point in doing so, since the reference-print
itself would not match up.
These authentication processes can be

automated by employing an algorithm that
recognizes the positions and colors of the silver
nano-wires and digitizes that information in a
database. Such digitized information could
significantly reduce the size of the stored data and
reduce the time required for the authentication
process. The scientists believe that it is nearly
impossible to replicate the fingerprints, because the
[33]

nanowires are so tiny and tricky to manipulate
into a specific pattern.
The fingerprints are almost impossible to

replicate because of the natural randomness
of their creation and the difficulty associated
with manipulating such small materials.
It is nearly impossible to replicate the

fingerprints due to the difficulty in trying to
manipulate the tiny nano-wires into a desired
pattern.
The cost of generating such an identical

counterfeit pattern would generally be much
higher than the value of the typical product
being protected.
Further details about nano wires:

The nano-scale fingerprints are made by
randomly dumping 20 to 30 individual nano
wires, each with an average length of 10 to
50 micro metre, onto a thin plastic film
These could be used to tag a variety of goods

from electronics and drugs to credit cards
and bank notes.
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ATLAS: ANTHROPOMORPHIC ROBOT DEVELOPED BY US
Boston Dynamics of US has developed a lifesized anthropomorphic robot called Atlas. It has
been developed as a part of a challenge to create
a robot that could go at the places, which are
dangerous to humans. The Atlas robot has been
designed not as a warrior but it is a humanitarian
machine and will be used for the rescue purposes
at the time of natural disasters. New humanoid
robots will compete in a contest designed to test
the ability of machines to take on extremely
dangerous and high-stakes human jobs. Improved
rescue robots could save lives in emergency
environments.
Several Atlas robots are involved in the DARPA

Robotics Challengea contest designed to spur the
creation of a robot capable of being remotely
operated in treacherous, complex emergency
situations. Teams from academia and industry are
competing in two groups: one involved in designing
and building robots for such missions; another
engaged in developing the control software for
rescue robots. The teams enrolled in the challenge
will spend the next few months training their robots
to compete in a grueling physical contest designed
to gauge their ability to perform tasks that would
challenge many humans. This December, at an
event at the Homestead Miami Speedway, the
robots will try to navigate a robot obstacle course
involving such challenges as climbing into and
driving a vehicle, clambering over rubble, and
attaching and operating a hose.
Long a staple of science fiction, humanoid robots
have been kicking around robotics research labs
for decades. But they have typically been too slow,
weak, or clumsy to do much. Recent improvements
in sensors and hardware have brought the prospect
of a humanoid ready for real-world deployment
[34]
closer. A number of technologies have gotten just

good enough, or almost good enough, to make this
thing work.
Main features of Atlas:
Atlas is a 6-foot-2-inch powerful robot in the

form of an adult human.
It moves with a variety of lifelike and natural

behavior, including dynamically-balanced
walking, calisthenics, manipulation and userprogrammed tasks.
This robot has been developed by Boston

Dynamics and is a brainchild of project of
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
(DARPA).
Atlas weighs 330-pound robot has 28 degrees

of freedom enabled by powerful hydraulically
driven joints that allow it to not only carry
heavy objects but adjust with remarkable
speed to loss of balance.
The robots head includes a laser-ranging

instrument called a lidar that provides it with
a detailed 3-D map of its surroundings.
It has two pairs of slightly different robotic

hands. The robot currently requires a tether
that feeds it cooling water and high-voltage
power, but the goal is to develop an
untethered version in 2014.
Atlas has two arms and legs and gets around

by walking.
It sees using a stereo laser scanning system

and has gripping hands developed by two
separate robotics companies.
Unlike humans, it has a high speed

networking system built-in so it can
communicate with its creators and pipe data
back from disaster areas.
The teams given Atlas robots will have to

develop control software that will allow
human controllers to operate the robots
despite significant time delaysa constraint
designed to mimic the challenge of operating
from through the walls of a crumbling

nuclear plant, or at a far-flung distance.
Boston Dynamics is a company based in
Waltham, Massachusetts, that has already
developed an impressive menagerie of robotic
beasts, some with funding from the Department of
Defense, including a headless robot pack mule called
LS3, a gecko-like, wall-climbing Robot called RiSE,
and a four-legged machine called Cheetah capable
of galloping at 29 miles per hour.
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Atlas is designed to eventually take on some

of the most dangerous and high-stakes jobs
imaginable, such as tending to a nuclear
reactor during a meltdown, shutting off a
deep-water oil spill, or helping to put out a
raging wildfire.
[35]
HEALTH
SYMPTOM-BASED CONTACT SCREENING FOR PAEDIATRIC TB
from the established method of screening children
who are in close contact with adults who have
smear positive pulmonary TB. According to WHO,
the symptom-based screening has been found to be
safe and more feasible than diagnostic test-based
screening in resource-limited settings.
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Paediatric TB, today, is a global cause of

concern. In India also childhood TB took the centre
stage as the incidences of paediatric TB increased
over the years. According to the World Health
Organisation (WHO), in India 10-20 per cent of all
TB cases occur in children. Besides the near-total
neglect of childhood TB and the difficulty in
diagnosing TB in children aged under-five years
are the main reasons behind this increase. Doctors
are also not fully trained to correctly diagnose
paediatric TB. They are also largely unaware of
the different techniques available to extract sputum
samples from children aged under-five years.
Recently, the WHO had released an updated
guidance for national TB programmes (NTPs) on
the management of tuberculosis in children, which
is targeted at the TB control programmes of the
low and middle-income countries.
WHO strongly recommended contact screening

for children. WHO has given seven new
recommendations for contact screening of children
who have come in contact with adults with TB
disease and are not on treatment.
Contact screening of children
Contact screening is beneficial as it helps in

testing contacts early and starting treatment
without much delay, while the isoniazid preventive
therapy (IPT) greatly reduces the likelihood of
children developing disease during childhood.
Adults with sputum smear-positive pulmonary TB
are most likely to transmit the bacilli to others.
Hence, children below five years of age run the
greatest risk of getting infected with TB. Therefore,
there is a strong recommendation to undertake
contact screening when an adult meets the criteria
of sputum smear-positive pulmonary TB or has
MDR-TB. The guidance makes a marked departure
The Revised National TB Control Programme,

took a right step in addressing the needs of children
with MDR-TB. A pilot project for three months
was launched to diagnose children with MDR-TB
using Xpert in Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata and
New Delhi. Incidentally, India is only now slowly
expanding the availability of Xpert test to diagnose
MDR-TB in adults.
Main Features of Xpert:
The Initial diagnostic test includes the use of

Xpert MTB/RIF, a rapid molecular assay, for
children suspected of having multidrugresistant TB (MDR-TB) or HIV-associated TB.
Xpert displaces smear microscopy and culture

as the initial diagnostic test for these two
categories.
Xpert performs clearly superiorly to smear

microscopy but is not good in children who
are culture negative.
Unlike in the case of MDR-TB, the

recommendation for Xpert as a diagnostic test
is only conditional in the case of drugsensitive TB and extra-pulmonary TB.
Given that Xpert is so much better than

microscopy, WHO recommended Xpert as a
possible alternative for child TB diagnosis.
In the case of children with TB meningitis,

WHO strongly recommends Xpert as the
first diagnostic test, considering the urgency
of rapid diagnosis.
WAR AGAINST MALARIA

With less than 700 days left until the 2015
deadline of the UN Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs), one thing is certain that all sectors of
[36]
society must be involved in the fight against malaria

if gains are to be sustained and scaled-up in hardto-reach communities. This will require a multiWeekly Current Affairs 21st April to 27th April, 2014

sector, country-led approach against remaining
challenges, with actors from various sectors working
together to maximize the impact of our limited
resources.
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With the commitment by political and business

leaders alike, the past decade has seen
unprecedented progress against many of the global
health challenges, including HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis
and malaria. There has been an increased
investment in global health and steady progress
toward ambitious goals like the UNs Millennium
Development Goals. The United Nations SecretaryGeneral, Ban Ki-moon, has made malaria a top
priority of his second mandate. Many leaders in
the Asia-Pacific have echoed this commitment,
including Prime Ministers Tony Abbott of Australia
and Nguyen Tan Dung of Vietnam, who are serving
as Co-chairs of the recently formed Asia-Pacific
Leaders Malaria Alliance (APLMA), a regional
alliance of Heads of Government aimed at
combating malaria and containing the spread of
drug resistant malaria through cross-border and
multi-sectoral collaboration. During the launch of
APLMA at last October's East Asia Summit, 18
leaders, including the President of India endorsed
APLMA and welcomed its creation.
With malaria control, there has been notable

improvement since the start of the new millennium,
particularly due to greater involvement of a wide
variety of partners and increased external funding
for endemic countries. With increased coordination
of the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) partners and under
the technical leadership of the World Health
Organization (WHO), global malaria death rates
have declined by an estimated 42 per cent since
2000, contributing to a 20 per cent reduction in
child mortality and helping drive progress against
a variety of other health and development targets
across the board. Our efforts have helped avert an
estimated 3.3 million deaths between 2001 and 2012
90 per cent of which were estimated to be
children under the age of 5.
Investments in malaria prevention and control
have been among the best investments in global
health, resulting in a dramatic decrease in malaria
deaths and illness and driving progress against
broader development efforts by reducing school
absenteeism, fighting poverty and improving
maternal and child health. We know that when
we invest in malaria, the cost is low and the return
is high.
THREAT CONTINUES AGAINST MALARIA
Even though the number of confirmed malaria

cases in the region decreased from 2.9 million in
2000 to 2 million in 2012, the disease remains a
significant threat to the lives and livelihoods of
people. The WHO has urged the governments,
development partners and the corporate sector to
invest more to sustain the gains and eliminate
malaria. But the gains in malaria control could be
reversed due to increasing parasite resistance to
drugs, mosquito resistance to insecticides and retransmission in places where the disease has been
eliminated.
The following points make the scene clearer:

The emergence of artemisinin resistance in
Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam
threatens the global achievements in malaria
control and elimination. Artemisinin-based
combination treatment (ACT) is currently the
first line treatment for the most lethal type of
malaria, Plasmodium falciparum.
Another danger is that the Anopheles
mosquitoes, which carry malaria parasites,
are increasingly becoming resistant to

insecticides, which too should be tackled.
Bangladesh, Bhutan, North Korea, Nepal, and

Sri Lanka reduced the incidence of malaria
cases by more than 75 per cent from 2000 to
2012.
Thailand and Timor-Leste are on track to

achieve a decrease of over 75 per cent. India
is expected to decrease malaria incidence by
50-75 per cent by 2015.
Sri Lanka is in the elimination phase; the

country has had no indigenous cases since
November 2012, down from 2,03,000 cases
in 2000.
Maldives has been malaria-free since 1984.

Global efforts to control and eliminate malaria
have saved an estimated 3.3 million lives.
Between 2000 and 2012, malaria mortality

rates have been reduced by 42 per cent and
the incidence of malaria has decreased by 25
per cent globally.

[37]
NEWS IN BRIEF
NEWSMAKERS
Reserve Bank of India has quit three months ahead
of completion of his term. He was appointed as
Deputy Governor in June 2009 for a period of three
years. In 2012, he got an extension of two years.
Nine departments including Supervision, Financial
Stability Unit, Urban Banks, Legal, Human
Resources, Currency Management, Customer
Service and Rural Planning and Credit were
reporting to him. Prior to his appointment as
Deputy Governor, Chakrabarty was the Chairman
and Managing Director of Punjab National Bank.
Under his watch, customer service in the banking
system got a fillip. However, Chakrabarty held
bankers responsible for bad loans and corporate
debt restructuring due to lax appraisal.
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Suresh Kumar Reddy

The Union Ministry of External Affairs on 23
April 2014 appointed Suresh Kumar Reddy as the
First ambassador to ASEAN. He is expected to take
up his assignment shortly. Presently, he is working
as the Ambassador of India to Iraq. India has
focused on ASEAN for the past couple of decades
through its Look East Policy initiated in
1991. ASEAN and India had entered into a regional
economic comprehensive partnership in 2011
resulting in trade worth 80 billion US dollar.
Connectivity and trade is at the heart of India's
ASEAN initiative.
KC Chakrabarty
KC Chakrabarty, Deputy Governor of the
OBITUARIES
Win Tin
assistance to current and former political prisoners.
Win Tin, a former newspaper editor and close

aide of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has
died. He was 85. He was a prominent journalist
who became Burma's longest-serving political
prisoner after challenging military rule. Win Tin
helped to found the National League for Democracy
with Suu kyi in 1988 but the following year she
was put under house arrest and he was sent to
prison for his political activities. His sentence was
extended twice for various reasons, the second time
for writing a letter to the United Nations.
While in prison, Win Tin wrote poems on the

walls of his cell with ink made of brick powder
and water, according to supporters who visited
him. After he was released, he kept wearing his
blue prison shirt as a sign of protest against military
rule. In his book titled What's That? A Human
Hell, published in 2010, Win Tin gave a vivid
description of prison life how he endured torture,
was denied medical care, and fed only rice and
boiled vegetables.
While incarcerated, he received several

international press freedom awards. Freed in a
general amnesty of prisoners in 2008, he continued
working with the NLD through Myanmar's
transition from military rule to an elected though
army-dominated government in 2011. He continued
to call on the military to relinquish power, saying
democracy will never come to Myanmar as long as
the military continued to dominate the political
landscape. He also started a foundation to give
[38]
Tito Vilanova
Former Barcelona coach Tito Vilanova has died

aged 45 following a battle with cancer. He took
over at the Nou Camp ahead of the 2012-13 season
having been Pep Guardiolas assistant during the
most successful period in Barcelonas history in
which they won three out of four La Liga titles
and two Champions Leagues in 2009 and 2011.
Barcelona went on to make the best-ever start to a
La Liga season with 18 wins from 19 games but, in

December 2012, Vilanova was diagnosed with
cancer for the second time. At the end of the season
Vilanova announced he was resigning to
concentrate on his recovery from the illness.
Vilanova, a midfielder came through Barcas
youth system but was let go in 1990, played for
several lower league teams before finally getting
his chance in the Spanish top flight with Celta
Vigo where he played for three season in the mid-
1990s. It was as a coach though that he made his

mark and he began working with the Barcelona
youth teams, training future first team players like
Lionel Messi, Gerard Pique and Cesc Fabregas. After
several seasons away from the Catalan club he
returned in 2007 as assistant to Guardiola with the
Barca B team. The following season the pair took
charge of the first team and Vilanova went on to
play a key role in the clubs success.
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DEFENCE
Prithvi Air Defence Test Fired
India has successfully test fired a new

interceptor missile-- Prithvi Air Defence, capable
of neutralising any incoming long-range missile at
higher altitude. The interceptor was positioned at
launch pad-IV of Integrated Test Range at Wheeler
Island, about 100 km from Balasore, Odisha.
The Prithvi Air Defence interceptor missile has

already demonstrated its killing capability at an
altitude of 50 km and 80 km while the Advanced
Air Defence interceptor missile has smashed the
target missile at an altitude of 15 km to 30 km.
Now the target is to achieve the interception at an
altitude of above 100 km of a long range missile.
CULTURE & HERITAGE
Lotus Temple: Youngest Entry for World

Heritage List
Completed in 1986, Bah' House of Worship

the Lotus Temple, located in New Delhi, would be
the youngest entry to UNESCO's (United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization)
tentative world heritage list. Most of the entries are
centuries old, and while Lotus Temple may have a
long way to go before it actually becomes a world
heritage site, it has opened the door to recognition
of modern heritage in the country.
According to Indian laws, a building has to be
at least 100 years old to be considered heritage.
Experts dispute this saying modern heritage is a
recognized concept worldwide and needs to be
adopted in India as well. Chanakya Cinema's
demolition almost a decade ago and a proposal by
India Trade Promotion Organisation for pulling
down landmark buildings, like the Hall of Nations
and Nehru Pavilion in Pragati Maidan, prompted

a proposal to Delhi Urban Arts Commission for
protecting iconic contemporary structures in Delhi.
India National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage
(INTACH), which made the proposal, has already
identified about 62 buildings in the capital with
significant heritage value.
DUAC (Delhi Urban Art Commission) is likely
to make a proposal to the culture ministry for
recognizing modern heritage. A few months ago,
the commission indicated in a meeting that iconic
buildings which were constructed after
Independence need to be conserved, and that
INTACH/HCC (Heritage Conservation Committee)
need to identify the buildings.
Buildings like Rail Bhavan, India International
Centre, Lalit Kala Academy, Vigyan Bhavan, Nehru
Memorial Library, Civic Centre and British Council
figure in INTACH's list. More may be added after
consultations.
COMMITTEES/COMMISSION
Justice Mudgal to Continue IPL Spot-fixing

Probe
The panel headed by justice Mukul Mudgal

agreed to continue to probe the Indian Premier
League (IPL) spot-fixing and betting scandal after
the Supreme Court rejected a three-man committee
proposed by the Board of Control for Cricket in
India (BCCI). The Supreme Court had asked Justice

Mudgal panel whether it will conduct further probe
against N. Srinivasan and 12 others, including some
prominent cricketers, who were named by it in a
sealed envelope after it conducted initial
investigation in the scandal. Justice Mudgal panel
has agreed to continue with the probe.
[39]

Earlier, the BCCI had informed the court it has
decided to constitute a three-member panel to probe
the IPL scam. The probe panel was constituted after
the SC directed the BCCI to suggest names of
persons who will conduct a "fair probe" into the
IPL scandal. The three-member panel included the
former chief justice of Calcutta high court JN Patel,
former India skipper Ravi Shastri and former CBI
chief R.K. Raghavan. After the BCCI named the

three-member panel to probe the IPL scandal, its
independence had come under doubt with all three
nominees reported to have links to either the board
or its sidelined president Srinivasan, leading to a
possible conflict of interest. Therefore, the Court
decided to refer the case to Justice Mudgal panel.
TERMINOLOGY
Powell, who has resigned as ambassador, said
the two countries should conclude long-pending
negotiations for a bilateral investment treaty (BIT).
While the US is strongly opposed to Indian rules
that require local procurement in various sectors,
Powell said her nation is sympathetic to the
desire to develop a stronger manufacturing sector
in India and is ready to discuss how India might
develop that capacity in a way that does not
constrain trade. Powell said India should lower
tariff and non-tariff barriers as the first step to its
own prosperity because India has the strength as
well as resilience to meet competitive challenges.
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Track 1.5 Event
The term track 1.5 diplomacy is used by

analysts to define a situation where official and
non-official actors cooperate in conflict resolution.
Recently, the term found mention in the outgoing
US ambassador to India, Nancy Powells statement
that India and the US should convene a Track 1.5
event in the first 100 days of the new Indian
governments inauguration in order resolve
contentious bilateral issues and help realize the full
potential of their trading relationship.
AWARDS
Special Honour for John Travolta at IIFA
Hollywood star John Travolta received a special

honour -- the Most Popular All Time International
Star in India at the International Indian Film
Academy (IIFA) awards, 2014. Travolta attended
the 15th IIFA awards, which was held from April
23 to 26 in Tampa Bay, Florida. An iconic name in
Hollywood, Mr. Travolta has seen staggering
success as an actor, singer and dancer. He has
starred in several blockbusters films: Saturday Night
Fever, Pulp Fiction, Grease, Swordfish, Face Off,
Broken Arrow and Ladder 49. He has been
nominated for the Academy Award twice and
nominated for seven Golden Globes. He went on to
win two Golden Globes including one for his performance in the critically acclaimed film Get Shorty.
Other winners of 2014 IIFA under different
category were: Best Film: Bhaag Milkha Bhaag;
Best Director: Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra for
Bhaag Milkha Bhaag; Best Actor: Farhan Akhtar
for Bhaag Milkha Bhaag; Best Actress: Deepika

Padukone for Chennai Express; Best Entertainer
of the Year: Deepika Padukone; Best Debutant
(Male): Dhanush for Raanjhanaa; Best Debutant
(Female): Vaani Kapoor for Shuddh Desi Romance;
Best Supporting Actress: Divya Dutta for Bhaag
Milkha Bhaag; Best Supporting Actor: Aditya Roy
Kapur for Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani; Best Story:
Prashoon Joshi for Bhaag Milkha Bhaag; Best
Performance in a Comic Role: Arshad Warsi for
Jolly LLB.
The International Indian Film Academy Awards
(IIFA Awards) are a set of awards presented
annually by the International Indian Film Academy
to honour both artistic and technical excellence of
professionals in Bollywood, the Hindi language film
industry. The first awards were presented in 2000
at The Millennium Dome in London, United
Kingdom. The ceremony is held in different
countries around the world every year and that of
2014 was held in Tampa Bay Area, Florida USA.
SPORTS
AIFF Academy Certification

All India Football Federation (AIFF) launched
the 'Academy Certification' to assess the standard
[40]
and quality of academies. The certification will be

granted based on coaching staff and qualifications,
facilities, youth development and teams supported,

training schedule and training sessions, curriculum,
scouting network, medical facilities, schooling,
accommodation (if residential), travelling, and
kitting. The academies will be given a rating,
between one-star (lowest) to five-star (highest), as
per the points gained by each of them on the set of
criteria.
Anirban Lahiri
Asian Tour Order of Merit leader Anirban

Lahiri of India will be among the star-studded cast
aiming for glory at the $300,000 ICTSI Philippine
Open being played from May 15 to 18. Ranked
67th, Lahiri will need to finish inside the top-60 of
the world golf ranking by the first week of June to
qualify for the US Open, which the season's second
Major to be held from June 12-15.
More about Lahiri:
Dope Samples of Athletes to be

Stored for 10 Years
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This certification will be applicable for a year

after which it will have to be renewed. According
to AIFF technical director Robert Baan "Certification
of residential as well as non-residential academies
is part of our AIFF's Master Plan 'Lakshya.' It is the
next milestone in the development of youth football
in India. It will give the academy directors as well
as their coaches a guideline of the level of coaching
as well as the structure of the academy."
dominated proceedings in the first half and scored

two field goals through Anuradha Devi Thokchom
and Vandana Katariya to go into the breather with
a comfortable 2-0 lead. China pulled one back in
the 51st minute through Yan Yan's field goal to
liven up the match. Meanwhile, Japan stunned
defending champions Korea 2-1 in the final to win
the Asia Cup and secured a place in next year's
World Cup.
Lahiri won his fourth Asian Tour title in

Indonesia, recently, which was also his first
victory outside of India.
He topped in 2014 Asian Tour rankings with
earnings of $1,92,150 (about Rs. 1.16 crore).
He has probably been the most consistent

player on the Asian Tour in the past year
and a half having recorded two wins, three
second place finishes and another six top 10
showings.
Bronze for India in Asian Championships
Indias PV Sindhu and Commonwealth Games

gold medalist pair Jwala Gutta and Ashwini
Ponnappa had to satisfy with bronze medala , after
losing their respective semifinals matches in the
Asian Badminton Championship held in Gimcheon,
Korea. India, which needed to win the tournament
to qualify for next year's World Cup to be held at
The Hague, Netherlands, edged past China 3-2 in
the shootout after both the teams were locked 2-2
at the regulation time. By virtue of this win, the
Indians managed to avenge their 0-1 defeat to the
Chinese in the pool stages of the tournament. India
World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA),

international anti-doping bodies, have made it
mandatory for the blood and urine samples taken
from athletes to be stored for 10 years in order to
spot signs of doping. According to the current rules,
samples are stored for eight years. The signatories
include representatives from FIFA, the International
Olympic Committee, the WADA and accredited
anti-doping laboratories. Players competing in the
FIFA World Cup in Brazil this June will be among
the first athletes to come under the new 'freeze
and store' guidelines, which will offer opportunity
to retrospectively analyze samples over the course
of a sporting career and carry out regular biological
profiling. They will also announce that a wider use
should be made of biological profiling - the athlete's
'biological passport' - which will show tiny changes
made to the individual's unique genetic blueprint
by doping substances and methods, without the
need to identify the presence of the substance itself
when regularly monitored. These form part of a
comprehensive set of recommendations agreed upon
by 24 international bodies to implement the World
Anti-Doping Code 2015. In November last year the
signatories, who include representatives from FIFA,
the International Olympic Committee, the World
Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and accredited antidoping laboratories, had met in Zurich to come to
a consensus on catching dope cheats. They say
storing the samples for a decade will enable
technology to catch up with substances that
currently evade detection.
Tushar Khandker
Indian Hockey Federation has roped in former

India player Tushar Khandker as coach of the
junior mens side. Khandker played for India at
the 2012 London Olympics and also for UP Wizards
in the HIL. Khandker would continue playing for
his employer Bharat Petroleum despite the
[41]

appointment. Khandker is the only Indian to win
the Asia Cup at all levels under-16, under-18,
junior and senior and was part of the Indian
team at the 2005 junior World Cup. It will be a
change of roles as he teams up with chief coach
Harendra Singh the last time the two were
together at the 2010 Asian Games, with Khandker
as a player.
tapered off. Shaik went on to strike out for a

comfortable victory over Mahmood. Earlier, Shaik
edged Joshua Chow of HongKong in the first alllefty semi-final, 231-218 to advance to the finals.
Shaik won Indias first-ever medal in the sport
during the Commonwealth Tenpin Bowling
Championship 2002 in which he won gold medals
in Singles and Masters and a silver medal in All
Events.
Asian Wrestling Meet

Wawrinka Wins Monte Carlo Masters
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Pooja Dhandha opened India's medal tally with

a bronze in the Senior Asian Wrestling
Championship in Astana, Kazakhstan. She
overcame host grappler Aizhan Ismagulova 12-0
in a one-sided affair in the quarterfinals. But the
Indian lost to Japan's Risako Kawai 6-13 in the
semifinals. Risako later clinched the gold medal.
Pooja came out strongly against Uzbekistan's Lilya
Shakirova in the repechage round and won 11-0
in just 102 seconds. In men's freestyle, Amit Kumar
(57 kg) lost to Kazakhstan's Rasul Kaliev on
technical points in the opening bout. Rajneesh lost
to Iran's Mohammady Seeid Ahmad 0-10 while
Pawan Kumar (86 kg) lost a close bout to
Uzbekistan's Rashid Kurbanov 4-5.
Date Alex Lee Award for Saurav Ghosal
Ace Indian player Saurav Ghosal, a product of

the Indian Squash Academy, has been chosen for
the Dato Alex Lee award for being the outstanding
Asian mens player of 2013 by the Asian Squash
Federation. Ranked 15th in the world, the highest
by an Indian mens player, Ghosal was a
quarterfinalist at the World Open and also part of
the Indian team which finished seventh in the world
championship held in France, the best performance
by the Indian men. The Indian mens team was
awarded the ASF Award for being the
Outstanding Mens Team Of The Year 2013. The
awards will be presented in Hong Kong on June
15.
Abdul Hameed Wins Title
Shaik Abdul Hameed became Indias first-ever

title winner at the Asian-level as he captured the
Asian Bowling Federations Thailand tour event.
He defeated Mahmood Al Attar of UAE 242-183
in the final. Shaik rolled three consecutive strikes
to take a slender lead of 9 pins when Mahmood
came back in the fifth and sixth frames. He,
however, rolled another three consecutive strikes
from frame seven onwards while Mahmoods form
[42]
For the first time, Stanislas Wawrinka won the

Monte Carlo Masters , rallying to beat Roger Federer
4-6, 7-6(5), 6-2. It is Wawrinkas seventh career
title, and third this year. His previous appearances
to the finals at Masters events at Madrid last
year (Djokovic) and Rome (Nadal) in 2008 had
ended in defeats. Wawrinka has now beaten
Federer twice in 15 matches, and both victories
have come here. He also beat him in the third round
in 2009.
Federer broke for a 3-2 lead when Wawrinkas
backhand long, and served out the first set when
his countryman over-hit another backhand.
Wawrinka secured a break to take a 2-0 lead in the
second, but Federer broke straight back with a
brilliant passing shot down the line, and
confidently held to love to send the second set into
a tiebreaker. But then he seemed to lose his way.
Joshna Wins WSA World Tour Title
Veteran Indian player Joshna Chinappa lifted

her maiden WSA World Tour title with the
Winnipeg Winter Club Open trophy after beating
Egypts Heba El Torky in the final. The fourthseeded Indian triumphed 3-2 in a see-saw battle.
The world number 27 Chinappa rallied after losing
the opening game which was dominated by Heba.
The Indian raced to an 8-3 lead in the second game
before pocketing it easily. She built on the
advantage by claiming the third game as well before
Heba roared back in the fourth. Chinappas
triumph marks the second consecutive year of an
Indian winning the trophy with Dipika Pallikal
being the one to clinch it before her.
Donna Vekics Maiden WTA Title
Donna Vekic of Croatia became the first player

under 18 to win a WTA title for eight years, when
she stunned top seed Dominika Cibulkova 5-7, 75, 7-6 (7/4) in the Malaysian Open final. 17-yearold Vekic shrugged off another rain-hit day to beat

the world number 10 Slovakian and win her first
title after two unsuccessful final appearances in
Tashkent in 2012 and Birmingham in 2013. Vekic's
win was also her first victory over a top 10 player.
At 17 years, 10 months and 23 days, she is the first
player under 18 to win a WTA title since Vania
King won Bangkok in 2006 aged 17 years, 8 months
and 12 days.
Hopkins Becomes Oldest Boxing Champion
WLBSA's 13-nation Championship

Chitra Magimairaj and Umadevi Nagraj lead
the Indian challenge at World Ladies Billiards and
Snooker Associations (WLBSA) 13-nation
Championship held at Leeds, England. Chitra
came up with a strong performance in the senior
category, winning the World Womens Senior
Snooker title eventually. Umadevi, former champion
in the World Billiards Championship lost in the
final to local favourite Emma Booney.
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49-year-old Bernard Hopkins became the oldest

fighter to unify world championships retaining
the IBF Light Heavyweight title and gaining the
WBA (Super) and IBA Light Heavyweight belts.
He won a split-decision victory over Beibut
Shumenov, a Kazakhstan-born former Olympic
champion. Hopkins could not finish off Shumenov
but continued to defy the years in Washington. He
came on strong from the third round onwards and
knocked his opponent down with a punishing right
in the 11th.
victory over Kazakhstan's Beibut Shumenov.
Hopkins's 26-year career was already

impressive: the oldest champion, at a mere 46
years, four months and 10 days, and between 1995
and 2005 making a division-record 20 defences of
his middleweight title. He added the WBA lightheavyweight crown to his IBF title with a point
Overcoming her early exit in the World Snooker

Championships in the WLBSA event, Chitra
Magimairaj showed tremendous grit and
determination to pocket the Senior snooker title in
her first appearance. The Bangalore cueist won all
her four matches without dropping a single set
against accomplished snooker players from across
13 countries. The former World Billiards champion
Chitra has bagged three golds, three silvers and
three bronze medals in the WLBSA event so far.
Meanwhile, reigning national billiards champion
Uma, who lost to Chitra 0-2, is still looking to regain
her Billiards crown. The Bangalore duo had failed
to clear the league stages of the World Snooker
event.
[43]
EDITORIALS
NOT AN OPTION
remonstrate instead through NOTA? A compromise
is a compromise. Another half-measure to fill the
bottomless chalta hai bucket designed to absolve
the average Indian of any guilt.
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The general elections are not so general, after

all the binaries are more defined, the politics
more divisive in 2014 than ever before. In an
electoral climate such as this, the inclusion of the
NOTA option None of The Above for the
first time in the Lok Sabha polls, should have been
particularly welcome. The choice to not choose has
been hard won. And yet it turns out that, like laws
without teeth and leaders without backbones,
NOTA offers the kind of token relief that sustains
the illusion of a true democracy where there is
none. What good is protest if it doesnt have the
power to force the review of bad decisions, or, better
still, override them? How is hitting the button for
one of the weakest candidates (to make a dent in
the tally of votes cast in favour of a frontrunner)
any different from casting a scratch vote?
The larger question, however, is not whether
NOTA is politically inert, but whether it is harming
the system it is meant to protect. Some might argue
that its mere presence on the EVM machine has
engendered a more aware, more responsible vote,
and compelled even voters who recognise its
powerlessness to pick a candidate. But surely thats
no recompense for a citizen who exercises his
franchise, choosing not to abstain from voting to
While the total NOTA votes for the ongoing

elections are yet to be tabulated, consider the
percentage of such ballots cast in the Assembly
elections four months ago: Of the 11.53 crore voters
in four States, only 15 lakh or 1.13 per cent opted
for it. The percentage in the Capital was barely
half of that. In the constituency where Arvind
Kejriwal won by a margin of 22,000 votes, NOTA
accounted for a mere 435!
Currently, there are 12 countries that use NOTA
all in a form that allows the highest vote-getter,
irrespective of scratch votes, to assume office. How
is that empowerment? Is it even a true yardstick of
apathy? There is a reason why Russia introduced
(1991) and abolished (2006) NOTA, only to now
consider reinstating it under a dictatorial leader
hoping to be seen as pro-democracy. Perhaps, in
our country, where hypocrisy and diplomacy are
so inextricably entwined, a spineless NOTA is all
we deserve.
GENDER BIAS IN INDIAN ELECTION
Political parties and voters are equally to blame

for the low representation of women in Parliament.
Throughout history, women have fought all kinds
of odds to achieve success in a male-dominated
political world. From Cleopatra to Catherine the
Great, Queen Victoria to Rani Lakshmi Bai and
modern leaders Margaret Thatcher, Angela
Merkel, Hillary Clinton, Sheikh Hasina and Aung
San Suu Kyi the list is impressive.
Despite this, women are still under-represented
in parliaments around the world. Even today they
constitute less than a fourth of the worlds
lawmakers.
One factor driving this is a bias on the part of

[44]
political parties, the notion that women candidates

cannot be relied on to win elections. They are
believed to lack access to the political networks
and resources that men have.
This is the perception even in India, despite its
history of strong women leaders. That includes not
just Indira Gandhi, who was part of the dynasty
that dominated Indian politics, but also completely
self-made women from Didi (Mamata Banerjee)
and Amma (Jayalalithaa) to Behenji (Mayawati).
Since winnability is apparently the only criteria
for political parties, it is not surprising that they
tend to field far fewer women than men as
candidates. One can see this in the current Lok

Sabha elections as well; there are only 53 women
among the 419 candidates announced by the
Congress. It is worse with the Bharatiya Janata
Party, which has only 37 women out of its total
423 candidates so far.
Today, they dont even make an effort,

confident in their assumption that women and
winnability simply dont go together.
And since there arent enough women
candidates, this assumption is shared by voters as
well.
Quotas? Many countries have introduced legal
quotas for women in local and national assemblies
with the same motive exposure to women
politicians will improve peoples perceptions on their
capability and reduce both party and voter bias
against women candidates.
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Et tu, voter? However, it is not only the parties

that are to be blamed. Even Indian voters seem to
have a bias against women candidates, at least in
local Gram Panchayat elections. A recent Harvard
University survey of such local body polls in West
Bengal found villagers consistently rating women
candidates below men. The general perception was
that women leaders arent as effective as men in
taking decisions and framing policies.
One way to do it is through affirmative action

to include women in the political process. The least
this will do is force parties to actively look for
potential women candidates.
This, in Didis own State and in a country

whose only woman Prime Minister (Indira Gandhi)
was never known to shy away from taking bold
and swift decisions whether to do with the Green
Revolution or bank nationalisation!
Not only does India have a very poor record of
sending female politicians to Parliament, there has
also been little change over time.
In 1997, there were 7.2 per cent women in the

Lok Sabha and 7.8 per cent in the Rajya Sabha.
Overall, India ranked 65th among the 177 countries
for which the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU)
collected statistics.
Over 15 years later, in 2014, the situation wasnt
any better, with women forming only 11.4 per cent
of parliamentarians both in the Lok Sabha
(following the 2009 elections) and the Rajya Sabha.
As a result, Indias rank fell further to 111 among
the 189 nations covered in IPUs 2014 analysis.
Gender divide Such abysmal levels of political
representation are, perhaps, only reflective of the
extent of gender inequality in society.
India ranked 132nd out of 148 countries in the

2012 Gender Inequality Index of the United Nations
Development Programme. Even our neighbours
Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and, of course,
China were ahead of us. The entrenched party
and voter bias against women candidates is clearly
an extension of this general phenomenon.
If voters think women will not make good
politicians and are less competent than men in
lobbying for funds to look after the needs of their
constituents, they are likely to refrain from electing
women. In turn, political parties will choose to
nominate fewer women, making it more difficult
for them to get elected and dispel the myth of their
not being capable leaders. Thats a real vicious cycle
we need to break.
While India has successfully implemented such

quotas for elections to Panchayats, the Bill seeking
to reserve a minimum number of seats for women
in Parliament and State legislatures is still pending.
The evidence from mandatory representation
to local bodies points to a clear change in peoples
outlook on the effectiveness of women leaders.
Research by the Harvard economists found that
constituencies that had reservations for women in
two previous elections were more likely to have a
greater number of both contesting and winning
women candidates, than those with no exposure
to an elected female leader.
It only means that having a woman leader
diminishes the voter bias against women candidates.
There is every reason, then, to believe, from the
experience of Gram Panchayat elections, that
implementation of a mandatory womens quota in
Parliament and State assemblies will lead to similar
results on a national scale.
Interestingly, while both the BJP and the
Congress manifestos commit to one-third
reservation for women, both in Parliament and
State Assemblies, neither party is fielding anywhere
close to that many female candidates in the current
elections!
Instead of blaming each other for the failure to
pass the womens reservation bill, our parties could
learn from Austria, Cameroon, Canada, France,
Sweden or South Africa.
Political parties in these countries have
voluntarily adopted policies assigning a certain
percentage of seats for women in electoral lists,
parliament and government, leading to an overall
[45]

increase in womens participation in the political
arena.
A legally mandated quota may, indeed, not even
be necessary if political parties are willing to adopt
a voluntary quota for women. Until then, we can
only urge voters to be unbiased against any

particular gender when voting for candidates in
their constituencies.
NURSING MANY WOUNDS

(1946), which the Government of India set up to
recommend improvements to the countrys public
health system, no other significant panel has looked
at the pay, status, and general working conditions
of nurses in the country.
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Florence Nightingale called nursing the finest

of fine arts. But Molly Sibbichan would have
disagreed. On March 16, Sunday, the 42-year-old
nurse, employed with the All-India Institute of
Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi, hanged herself
inside her south Delhi home.
Mollys suicide note said work pressure and
stress pushed her to kill herself. She was working
with the neurology department of AIIMS for the
past eight years and was recently transferred to
the private wards.
The out-of-the-blue move caught Molly totally

unprepared. Also, she was reportedly harassed by
certain superiors, pushing her into depression.
Following Mollys death, nurses unions in and

around Delhi, especially the ones in AIIMS, an
autonomous institution, staged protest marches,
asking the management to punish the officials who
allegedly harassed Molly to death. To little avail.
The sisters
More than 14 lakh registered nurses work in

India today, according to the Planning
Commissions National Task Force Report 2012. Of
these, more than 70 per cent are women.
According to a study, Human Resources for
Health in India, published in The Lancet in January
2011, nurses and midwives constitute 30 per cent
of the countrys total healthcare workforce.
Of these, many go through harrowing times at

work, for reasons ranging from work pressure, poor
pay, marathon work hours and absence of social
security to administrative apathy. Many leave the
profession midway. Some hold on, while some, like
Molly, seek extreme solutions. Nurses unions say
there have been many such suicides in the recent
past.
Ironically, Delhi is one of the few places in the
country where nurses enjoy better pay and a
relatively better work culture. In other cities and
small towns, hospitals pay only a pittance to
healthcare staff, including nurses.
Most hospitals have abysmally high patientnurse ratios, too. After the Joseph Bhore Committee
[46]
According to estimates of the Nurses Council

of India, in some public hospitals, the nurse-patient
ratio is a shocking 1:60. And in many hospitals,
nurses end up working 18 hours at a stretch,
without any over-time benefits.
A patient life
Nurses wear many hats at work. Apart from

assisting patients and doctors, they deal with the
ire of patients, their families, even doctors, hospital
management and visitors.
Unlike many other services, nursing demands
from the worker a great range of skills and people
management expertise. But nurses in India rarely
have the avenues to spruce up their skills.
Take the example of Australia, a country to
which many nurses from India migrate. Here,
nurses get sufficient on-job training to deal with
most problems. Importantly, they have to renew
their registration every year, which leads to an audit
of their skills and work practices.
Regulations insist that each nurse should
dedicate certain hours of her work for education.
From time to time, nurses get proper training to
deal with work stress, demanding families, and so
on. Many hospitals in Australia, says Tony Jose, an
Indian nurse living in Cairns, Queensland, have a
nurse educator, who runs short, useful courses
for nursing staff on myriad subjects.
Nurses are also encouraged to do various mid
to long-term courses offered by the neighbourhood
chain of hospitals, at the hospitals cost. The
government offers up to $1,500-2,000 a year as an
allowance to nurses who can use the money to do
career enhancing programmes or, at least, buy
books.
Nurses also get 40 hours (five days) of paid
leave for professional development. The most
important contrast, however, is the respect nurses
draw in these countries.

In India, many nurses are ashamed to even talk
about their profession, feels Jose. They are bullied
and harassed, apart from being paid peanuts. Jose
earlier worked with a Delhi-based private hospital
chain.
Private hospitals in Indian cities pay a fresh
recruit anything between Rs. 2,000-8,000 a month
and those with five years or more experience may
draw a maximum of Rs. 15,000 a month.
Such a situation is one of the many reasons

why most nurses want to emigrate to other
countries. Not much data exists on emigration of
nurses from India, but experts say the number is
substantial.
For instance, the Lancet study shows the
number of new Indian nurse registrants in the UK
grew from 30 in 1998 to 3,551 in 2005. Indians
constitute the second largest group of visa seekers
as nurses in the US.
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Again, in most cases, even this amount remains

on paper. Managements use bizarre filters to cut
pay. In Australia, while a doctor entering the
profession is paid $30-32 an hour, a nurse too gets
about $28-30.
This lack of bargain power helps managements

to muzzle demands for better pay and work
atmosphere.
In India, while an MBBS graduate is paid about

Rs. 45,000 at the start of her career in private
hospitals, a nursing graduate gets, if she is lucky, Rs.
8,000.
While doctors enjoy several other perks, nurses

are often left with minimum facilities and zero
benefits.
Collective power
One of the reasons why nurses in the UK or
Australia enjoy a better life is the presence of strong
unions. In these countries nurses unions command
immense clout. Australian Nursing and Midwifery
Federation, said to be the largest in the country,
represents registered nurses, enrolled nurses,
midwives and nursing assistants in every state and
territory throughout Australia. It has 230,000
dedicated members.
In India, there is no such strong organisation,
even though bodies such as the Trained Nurses
Association of India have been in existence for
decades.
But of late, Indias nurses have shown hithertounseen collective power. For instance, prompted
by various incidences of oppression, nurses in
Kerala in 2011 formed a collective, Indian Nurses
Association, to act as an umbrella organisation of
all nursing unions in the country.
Cities such as Delhi, Kochi and Chennai have
seen several strikes in the recent past.
What is required at this juncture is a change in
policy, says Siju Thomas, general secretary of Delhi
Private Nurses Association. There should be a
system that ensures minimum wages for nurses and
the hospitals should be held responsible and
penalised if they have alarmingly poor nurse-topatient ratios.
The suicides of the likes of Molly, and the nurses
agitation erupting in many parts of the country,
signal that the time has come for an overhaul of
Indias healthcare and labour policies.
LETS GET STARTED
It happens only in India, this practice of running

separate ministries or departments for roads, rail,
airways, shipping and urban transport. This has
led as Rakesh Mohan, chairman of the National
Transport Development Policy Committee
(NTDPC), pointed out to this newspaper to the
absurd prospect of an expressway and dedicated
freight corridor stretch being planned along the
same route at the same time. More a case of blowing
up scarce resources based on a project-centric
approach rather than integrated transport
infrastructure development. The way out of such
confusion, as Mohan has suggested, is to merge
transport-related ministries, including the Railways,
into one, run by competent and accountable
professionals. True, there could be political issues

here, especially in a coalition era where ministries
are allocated to constituent parties that use these
to push projects specific to their regions. Hopefully,
this could change with a government enjoying a
decisive mandate to bring greater focus and
coordination into policymaking, including for the
transport sector.
Crucial to this is the need for stepping up the
role of the Railways, the most energy-efficient of
all transport forms, as a carrier of both freight and
passenger traffic. The share of railways in total
inter-regional traffic has fallen sharply in the last
six decades from 90 per cent to 30 per cent for
[47]

Discussions on urban transport solutions should
also be based on the kind of cities we want an
issue not really figuring in the reports of the
NTDPC. Mass rapid public transit systems can, no
doubt, help de-congest cities by allowing people to
commute from distant suburbs without having to
stay close to their place of work. But this needs to
be combined with promoting satellite cities and
towns. One way to do this is by offering tax breaks
and other fiscal incentives for development of
commercial and office space in these areas. These,
apart from contributing to more healthy and
decentralised real estate development, will also lead
to more sustainable transport solutions. If we want
to emulate the best cities in the developed world,
we need to also ensure people do not choose private
transport simply as a default option.
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freight and, amazingly, from 70 per cent to 10 per

cent in passenger transport. In a scenario where
our coal production is expected to rise 2.5 times
over the next 20 years and steel use by eight times,
it would obviously call for huge investments in rail
infrastructure. This is best created through
transparent public-private partnerships. The same
goes for urban transport. Cars, two-wheelers and
other contraptions now clog our roads, while public
transport is neglected because its positive
externalities are not fully understood. A long
commute eats into productive time. Besides the
economic losses on this count, one needs to also
factor in the adverse health effects from stress and
pollution. Policymakers who discount these
mundane facts also underestimate the hidden
gains arising out of an affordable metro ride or a
rapid transit bus system.
INDIA: ROBIN HOOD OF THE PHARMA WORLD
Gileads Sovaldi is a wonder drug sold at a

shocker price. It is the most effective cure for
Hepatitis C, and is in high demand. But the drug
has caused an outrage in the US where patients,
healthcare providers and insurers have questioned
its exorbitant price tag. For a a 12-week course,
Sovaldi costs $84,000 (Rs. 50,00,000).
On the one hand, incorporating these flexibilities

have resulted in the revocation of patents covering
drugs of leading pharmaceutical companies, such
as Merck, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline,
Novartis and Roche. This has allowed Indian
generic companies to produce those drugs, leading
to allegations of IP theft.
Sovaldi was also in the news for an entirely

different set of reasons. Earlier this month, an Indian
generic firm, Natco, filed a pre-grant opposition
to Gileads patent covering Sovaldi. The move could
result in the Indian Patent Office rejecting Gileads
patent, bringing down the price to a fraction of its
current price.
On the other, Indian generics makers were able

to provide generic versions of these drugs to other
markets at a fraction of their cost, earning India
the title of pharmacy of the developing world.
This is not a one-off incident. India has tackled

the issue of unaffordable prices of drugs protected
by patents by incorporating a remarkable array of
provisions into its intellectual property (IP) law.
These provisions qualify as legitimate
flexibilities allowed under the WTOs Trade Related
aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)
Agreement.
And they fall under three heads: provisions for

curbing the grant of patents for new forms of
known substances (known as evergreening);
allowing third-party competitors to question a
patent application before its grant; and introducing
provisions for compulsory licensing, including the
grant of compulsory licence for not working the
patent locally.
[48]
If there is an idea that captures the outcome of

the last six decades of patent law reform in India,
it is the legend of the heroic outlaw, Robin Hood.
India is the Robin Hood country.
Rob the rich, give the poor
Often accused of tolerating and even promoting

roguish behaviour of robbing the intellectual
property of the rich and giving it to the poor the
accusations against India reached an all-time high
recently. The US Chamber of Commerce made
strong requests to the US Trade Representative
(USTR) to categorise India as a Priority Foreign
Country, a status reserved for the worst offenders
of intellectual property rights.
In its formative years, Indian IP law did not
grant patents for pharmaceutical products; this
contributed to the creation of a vibrant generics
industry supplying cheaper drugs both nationally
and internationally.

In its post-TRIPS form, the law now requires a
higher standard of patentability for improvement
patents covering existing drugs.
India, therefore, maintains two positions in
tandem: as a safe haven for patent busters by
providing a legal framework that has exceptionally
denied the maximum number of patents on
medicines in the last decade; and as the pharmacy
of the developing world.
their grant, a provision that has resulted in the

rejection of many drug patents for minor
improvements including Novartis controversial
anti-cancer drug Glivec.
Indias grant of compulsory licence to Bayers
Nexavar is yet another instance of tweaking the
law to suit public interest.
Intellectual property debates often revolve

around the metaphor of property. The law ascribes
property status to intangible things, such as ideas.
One of the advantages of using the language of
property is to ensure that, like real property, IP too
can be stolen.
Indias patent law also requires proof of

enhanced efficacy for patents on new forms of
known substances, another provision that has
resulted in a heightened standard of patentability
that patentees have not been able to meet in this
market.
An entire array of terms has been used to define

what is legally an act of IP infringement: stealing,
copying, counterfeiting, theft, etc., and the persons
who participate in these activities have been called
thieves or pirates. There is little tolerance for
roguish behaviour under IP law. Not only persons,
even countries are sometimes classified as rogues
if they fail to offer proper protection for IP.
The cost of being Robin Hood
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The roguishness of states
This is the first non-essential compulsory license

issued in the absence of a medical emergency at
the instance of a generic manufacturer.
The USTR meticulously publishes the IP

compliance data sheet of all the countries that
matter and takes care to classify nations on the
level of protection offered for IP.
The roguishness of states can be understood by
the tag ascribed to them: Watch List or the Priority
Watch List refers to countries with particular
problems when it comes to IP protection and
enforcement; Priority Foreign Country refers to
countries with the worst IP policies and practices.
The US has put India on the Watch List ever since
it became a member of the WTO.
But now, with severe pressure from the US
Chamber of Commerce, India could be designated
Priority Foreign Country.
India introduced pre-grant opposition of patents
as a means of checking the validity of patents before
Being Robin Hood comes at a cost. Persecution

and emulation are the two inevitable consequences.
On the one hand, Indias efforts to redefine and
redesign patent laws met with strict opposition from
the US and the European Union.
On the other hand, countries such as Brazil,
the Philippines, Brazil and South Africa have either
emulated or strongly favoured following Indias
path. Indias patent reforms have a remarkable
extraterritorial impact.
The strict opposition to Indias patent laws
comes from the fact that it provides an alternative
model of compliance with the TRIPS Agreement
vis--vis the dominant model propagated by the
US.
Understandably, Indias alternative model of
law has seen stiff resistance in the form of counterprovisions in Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) entered
by the US and other countries.
As in most cases involving the clash of
ideologies, both the law and its applications are
areas of contention.
AN AGENDA FOR SCHOOL EDUCATION
While school education is largely a state

government subject, the centre can do a lot to create
an enabling environment for government and
private entities, ensure accountability and shape
flagship programmes.
Access to and enrolment in school education in

India have grown significantly in the last two
decades, to over 90% now. This should be

celebrated. Quality, however, remains a serious
challenge. Prathams Annual Status of Education
Report (ASER) 2013 shows 53% of class 5 children
in rural India cannot read class 2 text. Two Indian
states participating in Programme for International
Student Assessment (PISA) 2011 ranked second[49]

last and third-last of 74 countries and states
globally. Learning is an issue not only in
government schools but also in most private schools
(notwithstanding high retention and completion).
Lack of training in employable skills during
secondary school is another challenge.
Second, set up 20 to 30 national institutes, as

public-private partnerships, with independent
governing boards and high quality CEOs to run
benchmark teacher and school leader development
programmes. With a collective high quality annual
output of, say, 50,000 teachers and 5,000
headmasters, these could be like the IITs or IIMs of
education. Once proven, this model can be used to
set up future district institutes of education and
training and reform existing ones.
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As India goes to the polls and political parties

visualize the next central government, we suggest
a five-point manifesto, focused on school education,
with two objectives: significantly improved learning
quality (from an average 50 out of 100 to 80 plus
on tests of conceptual understanding) and
employable skills by the end of schooling.
facilities, compared with 14,000 plus teacher

training colleges in India with only 1.1 million seats.
Managing through outcomes can also allow more
flexibility in programmes and alternative accredited
certifications, as in countries such as the US.
1. Assess conceptual learning through an

independent agency annually and celebrate
improvement: Standardized, annual, national
assessments are present across the worlds top 20
school systems and increasingly, also in emerging
economies such as Brazil and China. India should
test a sample of students in classes 3, 5 and 8,
across government and private schools, for their
understanding of concepts. While these should be
low stakes for the student (no pass or fail), they
could give the system valuable feedback for
improvement, help design initiatives and provide
performance transparency. A few state
governments are already conducting such
assessments through private entities.
The human resource development ministry
could understand the needs of each state better
and even link part of the funding from programmes
such as Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) to improved
learning levels. It could push the top three states to
undergo PISA to understand the global
competitiveness of our students. Indias National
Assessment Survey could perhaps be refined and
evolve into the suggested annual assessments. Over
time, board exams also need to be reformed
towards
greater
focus
on
conceptual
understanding.
2. Catalyse teacher education reform through:

One, centrally manage B.Ed and D.Ed colleges
through outcomes. Accredited private agencies
could administer an enhanced version of the
Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) to test subject-specific
conceptual understanding and practical classroom
skills, during recruiting. While 70-80% of
candidates may not pass these assessments
currently, institutes producing a greater pass rate
should get financial and technical support for
quality improvement and scale-up. For example,
China has over 100 larger-scale teacher training
[50]
3. Integrate employable skills into schooling:

Most countries with high quality vocational systems
start skills training in school. Vocational skilling
across manufacturing, services and self-employment
trades, should start in class 8, with a recognised
model for passing classes 10 and 12 with a mix of
vocational and academic subjects. High quality
private entities should deliver the vocational
programmes, with students certified by industryled sector skill councils.
4. Leverage private expertise to run high quality
government schools that can be examples and
resources for the system: Incentivize and encourage
state governments to run, say, at least 20% of
government schools in the next five years in publicprivate partnership mode, combining government
infrastructure with select private management
bringing their teachers, principal and methodologies.
These private entities can be performance-managed
through third party tests of learning.
Experience of charter schools in the US, the
UK, South Africa and Pakistan show that quality
selection and evaluation norms are critical. Equally
important is a financially viable model. In cities, an
annual payment of Rs. 18,000-20,000 per child at
2012 cost, preferably through vouchers to students,
can create competition among private schools,
leading to quality.
5. Accelerate the use of technology for
education: Technology can play several roles in
educationinteractive and customized learning
models, increased reach of high quality teachers in
distance mode, tools for supporting teachers and
principals, and administrative tools for efficiency.
However, the effectiveness of technology in
education is not fully proven. The Union
government could set up an Rs. 500 crore fund to

help seed innovations, evaluate effectiveness and
scale up high impact experiments.
This five-point agenda could catalyse a school
education system that provides Indias children the

best learning opportunities and provides the
country a skilled workforce.
Source: LiveMint
CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE TRAGEDY OF THE COMMONS

face of an imminent threat of catastrophic
destruction. In a famous 1968 paper The Tragedy
of the Commons, Garrett James Hardin, an
American ecologist, explained that common
resources open to exploitation by large populations
tend to be poorly managed. In the absence of
private incentivesavailable only under a system
of individual ownershipusers of common
resources lack the economic motive to engage in
sustainable exploitation of common resources.
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Scientists have for long warned of the costs that

a warmer planet would impose on the living
standards of many, or even the survival of some.
Last week witnessed another such warning, this
time from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) that released the last of a series of
working group reports assessing the impact of
carbon emissions on the earths climate. Following
the previous report that observed that the effects
of climate change are already occurring on all
continents, the current one has focused mainly
on the prospect of mitigating the effects of climate
change already underway.
The scientists behind the latest report believe

that the world can safely limit global warming to
within the famous threshold of two degrees Celsius
(or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) from pre-industrial
levels only through major institutional and
technological change. Given the grave predictions
of potential harm that awaits the lives of billions
around the world, concrete action from the
community of nations to deal with the problem
would be in order. However, this has eluded the
world for long.
In late 2012, when the first stage of the Kyoto
Protocoladopted after years of lazy negotiations
between governmentscame to an end,
greenhouse emissions had increased by about 60%
from 1990 levels as against the target of reducing
emissions by 5%. Today, countries remain far from
reaching the level of emission cuts required to stay
within the two degree threshold. IPCC has called
for rich countries to reduce their emissions to half
of their 2010 levels by 2030, and developing
countries to maintain emissions at their 2010 levels
to achieve the target.
Given the growth ambitions of the developing

world, and the energy supplies required to maintain
current living standards in the West, the severe
cuts demanded by scientists clearly look unlikely.
In fact, the rate of increase in emissions has
increased over the past decade compared with the
previous three decades.
At this juncture, the relevant question to ask is

why the world today remains complacent in the
Today, climate provides perhaps the best

example of a resource under common ownership
exploited for private benefits, but with absolutely
no regard to the unsustainable proposition that
such a setup offers. But more importantly, climate
change also exemplifies the Coasean problem of
social costs inherent in the absence of property
rightswhereby the absence of clear and
enforceable liability rules allows polluters to unload
the costs of their action onto third parties. For years
now, many developing nations have maintained
that imposing emission controls on them would be
unfair since rich countries have been the major
polluters for long now.
With countries such as Maldives and
Bangladesh predicted to bear the major part of the
cost of rising sea levels, the developing world has
a point. But while rich countries such as the US
have historically been the major contributors to
world pollution, it should also be clear that
countries with rapidly growing economiessuch
as China and Indiaare fast catching up with
them.
While it may appear fair to ask India and China
to do their bitafter all they also live in this world
it is the unwillingness of developed countries to
adhere to a formal mechanism to curb emissions
that is at the root of the problem. To say that
developing world emitters are holding up
international efforts is to blame the victims. In per
capita terms countries such as India and
Bangladesh emit far less than the US. In the absence
of international coordination among governments,
owing mainly to the lack of private incentives to
seriously address the problem, the world will
[51]

continue down the path of ignoring the threat of
climate change.
Unfortunately, like most commons that are
indivisible, the atmosphere too is consigned to overexploitation and, ultimately, exhaustion. There is
ground for pessimism in the short-run as countries

pursue their narrow interests. But in the medium
term, a solution is likely only through international
cooperation and coordination.
Source: LiveMint
INDIA NEEDS AMBITIOUS NATIONAL PROJECTS

parts of that country to the booming coastal region.
Japan showcased its own bullet trains before the
1964 Tokyo Olympics to tell the world that it had
emerged from the ruins of war.
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The first train rolled into Arunachal Pradesh

on 7 April. Neighbouring Meghalaya was linked to
the national rail network just a few days earlier.
The commissioning of an electricity transmission
line between Raichur and Solapur in January
plugged the one remaining gap in the creation of
a truly national power grid. These are steps in the
continuing integration of the various parts of India
that often do not get adequate national attention.
Such projects also offer an opportunity for the next
government to push ahead with key policy
initiatives that are necessary to take the country
ahead.
India needs to build quality infrastructure to
keep its economy competitive, close a nationwide
deal to introduce a goods and services tax that will
in turn pave the way for a truly national market,
and seed new cities that can attract migrants from
across the country. Each of these projects has
immense economic advantages but should
essentially be seen as grand political projects that
promote national integration. The next prime
minister should sell these initiatives to citizens as
necessary building blocks of a new India that
encourages the free internal movement of goods,
services and people.
There is a long history of leaders using marquee

projects to not only revive confidence but also create
a sense of national purpose. The grand New Deal
projects planned in the US during the tenure of
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who said that his
country has nothing to fear other than fear itself,
is one example.
The grand proposal that emerged after the
slaughter of World War II to integrate Europe so
that the continent finally leaves behind its bloody
past is another; the common European currency
followed by recent moves towards fiscal unification
is the culmination of a process that began six
decades ago.
Some of the largest Chinese infrastructure
projects such as bullet trains are at one level a
political move to forge close links from the interior
[52]
India has not been a stranger to such thinking

either. The most ambitious thinking of this sort was
seen in the Nehruvian era when there was talk of
building the temples of a new India: the steel plants,
the atomic programme, the large river dams, the
new institutions of science. They were grand
markers on the long road from political servility
and mass poverty. There have been other glittering
examples since then under various regimes: the
Hazira-Bijaipur-Jagdishpur natural gas pipeline, the
national telecom network, the Golden Quadrilateral
highway network and the industrial corridors that
cut across state boundaries.
There are often fears that such ambitious
projects are actually white elephants put up for
the vanity of leaders. There are also more persuasive
questions about the environmental impact of some
ambitious projects such as the linking of the major
rivers; the debate about the Three Gorges dam in
China refuses to die down. These are two reasons
why there is sometimes scepticism when election
manifestos mention ideas such as creating new cities
or building a network of bullet trains to connect
the major urban centres.
Winston Churchill had cattily remarked that
India is a geographical entity that was no more
united than the equator. The country has become
more far more integrated since then. Ambitious
initiatives such as bullet trains, national highways,
new cities and the creation of a truly national
market should be seen as opportunities to take the
process of national integration further. Now is a
good time to push ahead with such initiatives given
the overall sense of national drift, pessimism and
distrust. They will also provide opportunities to
frame economic reforms in a politically attractive
language. The benefits are too powerful to be
ignored.
Source: LiveMint
REVISITING MANUFACTURING POLICY

information-technology and other service sectors,
which have opened large-scale in-house training
programmes. It has also been unable or unwilling
to adopt effective forms of collective action to
demand government accountability or to find
solutions for shared problems. And it has made no
attempt at self-regulation to curb corrupt practices.
On another front, small and medium enterprises
(SMEs) often do not receive payments on time from
their larger buyers, a far cry from the nurturing
that such companies enjoy in Japan and South
Korea. Finally, because Indian industry is in large
parts cartelized, there is much resistance to price
competition, a short-sighted stance works against
achieving global competitiveness. All of these
weaknesses should be addressed by the industry
itself if it hopes to improve its competitiveness and
credibility.
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Manufacturing is in trouble in India. The

sectors share of gross domestic product (GDP)
reached 16% in 2006-07, then stagnated and has
declined since 2010-11, to little more than 15%, a
sliver when compared with the shares in Thailand
(36%), South Korea (31%), and China (30%).
Employment in absolute terms has fallen in the
formal manufacturing sector from 55 million in
2004-05 (12.2% of Indias overall workforce) to 50
million in 2010 (10.5%). The sectors growth rate
has been declining for four years, actually falling
into negative territory in the first quarters of 2012
and 2013.
Indias development model is largely at fault.
In the absence of a well-conceived policy response
by the next government, manufacturing will soon
be gripped by an even more profound crisis.
The sector is marked by a deep dualismgaps

between the formal and informal economiesin
virtually every sub-sector. The dualism affects
wages, productivity, technological capabilities and
working conditions. This, in turn, creates capacity
fragmentation, a relative absence of economies of
scale and scope that renders the sector globally
uncompetitive.
A disturbing feature in the past decade has been

the slow but steady exit of established
manufacturers, a reflection of an increasingly
difficult operating environment. Many have
switched to importing their products from China
and elsewhere. The recently passed Land
Acquisition, Rehabilitation, and Resettlement
(LARR) Act, which sharply raised rural land prices
and mandated a time-consuming acquisition
procedure, will likely accelerate the process of deindustrialization in India.
Given that India needs to find jobs for at least
one million new workers every month for the next
15 years, the prospect of a shrinking manufacturing
sector should be cause for extreme concern.
Internal challenges
Because discussions about the problems facing

manufacturing tend to begin and end with a long
finger pointed at the government, it might be useful
to start elsewhere: with constraints that flow from
industrys self-induced weakness and inertia.
Indian industry continues to face an acute skills

shortage. It laments this problem but does not even
attempt to emulate the efforts of firms in the
Government policies
That said, the challenges posed, directly or

indirectly, by government policies are formidable.
Consider the following.
Difficult business environment: India ranked 132
out of the 185 countries in the World Banks Doing
Business survey in 2013. According to the official
data, nearly 70 clearances are required annually
for businesses to operate. The greatest cost falls on
SMEs, where the proprietor has to bear the entire
burden. Such an environment, combined with
retroactive changes in tax demands, creates much
uncertainty, anathema for investment. Another
challenge is the lack of adequate protection against
extortion and protection rackets.
Labour
deployment
rigidity:
Indian
manufacturing has suffered in the past from the
twin constraints of militant and competitive trade
unionism and a plethora of labour legislation. In
recent years, unionism has ostensibly weakened.
Nevertheless, it is still present in major industrial
centres, and its infrequent but violent demonstration
discourages foreign investors and induces others to
keep employment to a minimum. India has nearly
50 laws at the central or state level that affect
labour conditions. Consequently, hardly any
enterprise can claim to be in total compliance.
Infrastructure deficit: The peak power deficit
in India is estimated at 7% to 8%, and industry is
not insulated from the resultant power cuts that
sweep the country. Most large manufacturing units
[53]

have had to create full backup capacity, raising
capital costs. Indian companies across the board
bear a significantly higher price for infrastructure
services and utilities than their global competitors.
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Regulatory delays and lack of transparency:

Over time, a rather complex regulatory structure
has been established to deal with land acquisition,
land use and the environment. The process has
become increasingly time-consuming, opaque and
unpredictable, especially during the past 10 years
under the rule of the United Progressive Alliance.
According to one survey, 1,240 central and state
regulations apply to the industrial sector.
manufacturing. The first believes that structural

conditions do not permit the growth of mass
manufacturing in India. By putting a statutory floor
under the price of both labour and land, the
principal factors in production, the political process
has effectively raised their cost. Moreover, the
complicated resettlement and rehabilitation (R&R)
provisions enshrined in the land acquisition law
make land procurement highly cumbersome. This
school also argues that the new generation of
workers, being more educated and IT-savvy than
earlier ones, will not accept low-productivity
shopfloor jobs.
Onerous commercial bank credit: More than

two-thirds of surveyed SMEs preferred not to utilize
commercial bank credit because of long processing
times and stiff collateral requirements. Instead, they
turned to the informal markets, paying higher rates
but with less onerous conditions. This defeats the
avowed aim of the governments selective credit
control policy, which requires banks to earmark
10% of their credit to SMEs.
What can industry do?
Industry can implement a series of steps that

are in its direct control. Private companies are just
beginning to tackle the skills shortages by entering
into a partnership with the government on
managing about 110 industrial training institutes.
They would do well to collaborate with vocational
skill providers in growing capacities, designing
curricula, and offering assured placements.
They should also empower their chambers and

associations to take collective action to demand the
timely delivery of high-quality public services.
Because collective action requires credibility, they
will first have to improve their record of selfregulation.
Large businesses must adopt a nurturing
attitude toward their suppliers, which invariably
belong to the MSME category of micro, small and
medium enterprises. To become global players, they
should substantially increase spending on research
and development.
Finally, it is time to disband the thousands of

sector and sub-sector associations whose ostensible
raison dtre of negotiating fiscal concessions and
securing government licenses is increasingly
irrelevant in the post-liberalization period.
New government agenda
There are two schools of opinion on the
governments policy reform priorities for
[54]
Given these conditions, this school holds that

India should give up trying to enter mass
manufacturing and instead support so-called sunrise
industriessectors that use frontline technologies,
require highly skilled labour, and are design-and
technology-intensive. Government policy would
focus on creating and sustaining a learning
environment for businesses. India could emulate
Japan and South Korea, where private firms,
government science and technology agencies and
technology institutes come together to produce
large-scale product and process innovations, which
are then commercialized by dynamic entrepreneurs.
This is a seductive model, but a number of
factors make it somewhat unfeasible, including the
low R&D orientation of Indian industry and the
low penetration of broadband connectivity and
Internet access.
The alternative approach for policy reforms
which represents the more desirable way forward
is not to accept the high cost of labour and land as
a given. Instead, it assumes that the large majority
of new workers will continue to be semi-skilled
and willing to accept productive jobs in the formal
manufacturing sector (though not in the
unorganized sector). Thus, this option requires
government policy to be directed toward more
conventional intervention.
Land costs: These costs can be kept at acceptable
levels by using the land already acquired by
industrial development corporations in various
states; increasing the ratio of floor area to space;
releasing the vast stock of land owned by
government and public sector entities; and
amending the land acquisition law to remove the
R&R requirement for the private purchase of land.
Labour conditions: It is pointless to argue for
the removal of Article 35A in Chapter V of the
Industrial Disputes Act and give employers

licensing some private-sector banks to cater to the
needs of the MSMEs.
To revive manufacturing, industry and the
government (central and states) must implement a
reform agenda togetherto increase competition,
reduce dualism, make the regulatory process more
transparent and cut the compliance burden.
The two approaches described above are not
necessarily in conflict. Expanding islands of
innovation can coexist with a manufacturing sector
that is reining in its informal side. But reforms must
be urgently implemented. If India is to achieve its
strategic and development objectives, its
manufacturing base cant be shrinking.
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permission to hire and fire at will and without due

process. This is a non-starter in the present Indian
context. Instead, other ways have to be found for
the desired level of flexibility in labour deployment.
The proposal in the new manufacturing policy, for
example, for the creation of a resource pool to
retrain retrenched workers and to give them
unemployment security for a minimum period
while they are re-trained is well worth considering.
Another change would reduce the welter of labour
laws to four or five comprehensive statutes.
Business environment: Among the measures
that could improve the environment almost
immediately include introducing a combined
application form for obtaining clearances, cutting
the time needed for starting and exiting a business,
Source: LiveMint
OF, BY, FOR AUDITORS
The Supreme Court order in Association of

Unified Telecom Service Providers and others versus
Union of India, enabling the Comptroller and
Auditor General to audit telecom companies is
going to raise far-reaching institutional questions
in the future. One can, for the moment, bracket
the technicalities of this case. There is no dispute
over the fact that telecom companies in revenuesharing agreements need to be audited; and these
auditing requirements are part of the licencing
arrangements. The question was over the clauses
under which the audit was to be carried out and
the mode of doing so.
But the Supreme Court seems to have, for all
practical purposes, given carte blanche to the CAG
to more or less audit at will any private entity that
might have any remote connection with funds
drawn from the Consolidated Fund of India or any
entity that remotely deals with any public good. It
has pretty much declared the CAG to be part of
the basic structure of the Constitution, on par with
democracy and fundamental rights. It was perhaps
inevitable that a government of contractors, for
contractors, and by contractors would beget the
counter reaction that we would become a
government of auditors, for auditors, and by
auditors.
Why might this be an issue? There is a genuine

institutional problem to which we have not given
too much thought. Over the last few years, there
has been a blurring of functional roles between the
state and private sector. On some estimates, half of
taxpayers money is now being channelled through

private or civil society entities. Often, the CAG has
had difficulty exercising jurisdiction over entities
in public-private partnerships, leading to the charge
that PPPs are at least as much about evading
accountability as they are a method of promoting
efficiency. In revenue-sharing contracts, it is
inevitable that the government will be interested in
determining whether the revenue is indeed being
shared or being fudged. So in principle, there cannot
be any objection to some form of accountability.
Indeed, most of these contracts provide for such
mechanisms. Unfortunately, in India, accountability
mechanisms provided for in these various contracts
often fail, and there is the temptation to reach for
more blunt and high-powered accountability
instruments. The Trai and Department of
Telecommunications have, on some interpretations,
not been performing their accountability functions;
hence the demand for a different kind of scrutiny.
The question is whether, in reaching for the
CAG, there are real dangers that need to be taken
into account.
What makes this question difficult to answer
straightforwardly is this. We now know that much
depends on the norms and practices of an
institution. If the CAG could confine itself to
precisely directed revenue-sharing arrangements,
maybe there will not be much damage and some
good. But if it uses this wedge to open all kinds of
issues about the spending criteria of companies and
costs, it could seriously damage the functioning of
[55]

private entities. But we do also know that a kind
of jurisdictional inflation is inevitable whenever an
institution is given powers or acquires powers.
Courts themselves have created such confused

monsters. They first declared the BCCI a private
entity exempt from all accountability. And then,
they all but take over its functioning. Now there is
a danger that any company that so much as
transacts any business with taxpayer money will
end up being subject to standards and protocols
that should apply to the state. Compulsory CSR
will lead inevitably to the state scrutinising a private
entity for its supposed civil society functions. No
more perfidious confusion of roles could have been
imagined. Again, oversight fit for purpose is one
thing; oversight that subjects entities to powerful
but low-capacity bureaucracies is another. In
institutional terms, this is reform in reverse gear,
where the only two certainties are more bureaucrats
and more lawyers. We are not judging whether
the Supreme Court was right to interpret the
existing licence agreement with the telecom
companies in the way it did. But the consequences
of this ruling could be far reaching.
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The Supreme Court itself is exhibit number one

of jurisdictional inflation. Normally, there are checks
and balances that might mitigate these risks. But
the trouble with independent agencies is that it is
hard to design such checks again the Supreme
Court is a prime example. In principle, the CAG is
limited by the fact that Parliament can choose not
to accept or act upon its reports. But if it does
overstep its jurisdiction, it will subject private
entities to a messy political process and impose costs.
private to collaborate. But the form of that

collaboration, and the accountability structures it
produces, must not destroy the distinct institutional
identity or freedom they have, or they will end up
neither fish nor fowl.
We may not worry about these issues in a

cynical environment that has a pathological distrust
of both politics and business. We are happy to
repose trust in virtuous people who are themselves
far removed from accountability, like courts. But in
the process, we are undermining institutional
creativity. Each institutional form does what it does
best because it has an institutional identity.
Government is based on force backed by legitimacy,
the private sector is based on profit and civil society
and NGOs are based on voluntary persuasion. None
of these entities is exempt from accountability but
it has to be a form of accountability that is fit for
purpose.
Subjecting private entities to public standards
of cost or tying their hands will sap exactly what
makes them tick. On the other hand, a government
running on the profit motive or treating itself as a
private entity will undermine its own legitimacy.
But the more their functions and roles are mixed
up and confused, the more they will lose their
identities as institutions. With the proliferation of
PPPs and revenue-sharing contracts, these
institutional issues have become central to economic
governance. There is a space for the public and
Paul Appleby had decades ago warned that

the culture of giving too much importance to audit
reports increases the timidity of public servants,
often making them unwilling to take responsibility,
and subjects them to cumbersome processes.
Appleby was probably right, but only too soon.
For decades the CAG remained an entity to be
ignored. But now that it has stirred, we are willing
to give the whole shop to them: public, not-forprofit and even private. Maximum governance is
just acquiring a whole new meaning.
GO ON, UNDO
The Supreme Courts decision to hear arguments

on the curative petition filed to rectify its Section
377 verdict sends out an important and welcome
signal. In December 2013, it upheld the
constitutionality of Section 377 of the IPC in Suresh
Kumar Koushal & Anr vs Naz Foundation & Ors.
Consequently, the Delhi High Court verdict of 2009
that read down the provision and decriminalised
homosexuality stood reversed. The curative petition
route now offers the SC an opportunity to set right
its shocking verdict.
[56]
A curative is usually considered by the three

seniormost judges of the SC, as it was in this case,
and their willingness to hear it in open court
indicates serious deliberation on the issue at the
highest levels of the judiciary. After the hearing is
completed, the court will decide whether the
petition is to be admitted and the case heard afresh
by a separate bench. The power of the SC to correct
its own erroneous verdicts stems from its plenary
powers under Article 142 of the Constitution
to do complete justice in any cause or matter
pending before it.

(discrimination on the grounds of sex) and 21 (the
right to life and personal liberty).
It is imperative that the court makes a sincere
effort to address concerns raised by its verdict on
Article 377. For guidance, it need only look back to
its own sterling judgment earlier this month that
granted legal recognition to transgenders.
Sometimes a change in the law precedes societal
change and is even intended to stimulate it, the
court held. Whether it is through a curative petition
or a fresh appeal to a larger constitutional bench,
the onus of striking down Section 377 is on the
apex court.
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For good reason, the court has kept the bar

high for the admission of a curative, which may be
filed after the dismissal of a review petition. It is
not a legal instrument or appeal of last resort.
The SC treats curative petitions as a rarity and
usually admits them only in the face of apparent
bias or violation of principles of natural justice. In
this case, the SC would be eminently justified if it
were to admit such a petition. The judgment in
Suresh Kumar Koushal left the amendment of
Section 377 to Parliament an act of abdication
by the court which must take the lead in upholding
minority rights. The court also did not address the
legal arguments by the LGBT community, such as
the violation by Section 377 of Articles 15
IRON IT OUT
In pure financial terms, the impact of the lifting

of the iron ore ban, in Karnataka last year and
Goa now, is enormous. Before the bans, Indias
iron ore production was 208 million tonnes in 201011 and this fell to around 60 per cent in 2013-14;
exports fell from 104 million tonnes to a mere 15
million tonnes between the lower exports and
higher imports of steel scrap, this also dealt a big
blow to Indias current account deficit and the
independent steel producers who didnt have
captive mines.
In Orissa, where no ban was ever imposed, top

steel companies, including Tata Steel and the public
sector Sail, have been accused of mining excessively,
so excessively that the penalties add up to Rs. 58,000
crore. And while it is true that the bans have been
lifted a cap of 30 million tonnes per annum has
been placed in Karnataka and 20 million tonnes in
Goa getting back lost production will take a
long time. Though it has been a year since the
Karnataka ban was lifted, production has reached
just 19 million tonnes, and it is not clear when the
Goa production will revive since licences have to
be issued afresh.
While the bans were brought on by rampant
illegal mining and blatant violation of
environmental norms, an equally large part of the

problem is that the laws themselves are archaic
and their implementation worse. It doesnt help
that, with an overlap of both Central and state
rules, there was no way that even law-abiding
miners could not end up violating them.
In Goa, as the Supreme Court judgment shows,
the state had been allowing miners to operate on
deemed licences since 1988 that is, they had
applied for licence renewals but these had neither
been granted nor rejected; this applies to other
states as well. While excessive mining was the
reason behind the ban in Goa, there was no
scientific study on the states carrying capacity
this has been ordered now.
Indeed, while some believed the SC had banned
mining within 10 km of a national park, nothing
of the sort had been done the Centre has been
asked to come up with a decision on this now.
While there is little doubt that even the states were
to blame for not keeping tabs on environmental
pollution the lifting of the ban should be used as
an opportunity to clean up operations. In the case
of Goa, where new licences are to be issued,
auctioning them would be a good way to avoid
charges of crony capitalism.
CANT DO SPIRIT
Less than a week ago, the Supreme Court

offered the BCCI a chance to guard its institutional
autonomy and take the lead in setting up a
committee to investigate charges of corruption
relating to the Indian Premier League. The BCCI
should ideally have grabbed this opportunity to
wrest the initiative in cleaning up its act, to begin

the process of gaining back credibility as the
organisation that runs Indian cricket.
After all, the board has not seen such a low
before: its chief is assailed by incredibly damaging
allegations of conflict of interest and other
[57]

watch, the facts relating to allegations against the
mysterious 13 should be scrupulously investigated.
However, the manner in which his services have
had to be requisitioned yet again highlights the
larger problem with the BCCI.
Its inability to constitute an inquiry panel hints
at both its lingering tendency to pull all the strings
and its co-option of almost everyone in crickets
bounded universe. Aside from the allegations of
actual corruption in cricket, there is a wider
problem of countless conflicts of interest.
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malpractices, the court has temporarily handed over

the running of its affairs to others while choosing
to reveal that his name figures in the list of 13
submitted in a sealed cover by the Mudgal
committee, and the popular perception is that far
too many people, otherwise potential assets to the
game, have been compromised by the cosy
arrangements coinciding particularly with the reign
of N. Srinivasan. In the event, the BCCI chose to
stick to its old chummy ways and the panel it
announced to investigate the IPL has been, not
surprisingly, overruled by the court. The Mudgal
committee has been asked to step in and take over
the investigation.
In the circumstances, this is a sound course of
action. Justice Mudgal has considerable credibility,
given his experience in matters related to sport,
including cricket, and track record of going about
his task with discretion and minimum fuss. On his
Take Ravi Shastri. In another time, a veteran

like him should have been an asset on an inquiry
panel. And its not him alone. The BCCI, by its
odious practice of contracting commentators and
putting best practices in abeyance for the IPL, has
discredited former players like him. Wholl take
charge of restoring trust in its administration?
AFRAID OF FREE TRADE
Pakistan and India signed a South Asian Free

Trade Area (SAFTA) agreement long ago and were
expected to move to the free trade regime by April
1, 2013. Pakistan hemmed and hawed throughout
that year under Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who
won at the polls promising an opening up with
India. He was supported overwhelmingly by all
chambers of commerce and industry in Pakistan.
In the year 2014 too, he has held back the award

of the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status, which
India granted to Pakistan long ago. The latest news
is that MFN will be granted to the new government
after the elections in India. If the excuse was that
the Manmohan Singh government was lame-duck,
it was quite feeble. There were other reasons, the
same that cropped up when the more pro-India
Pakistan Peoples Party was ruling.
Pakistans non-state actors dont want trade
with India; they also have a pre-modern view of
the economic function as such, and look at trade
as a dangerous alternative to the sacred duty of
war. Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif,
through a massive slip of the tongue, had said the
army didnt want trade with India.
The army has a slightly different view, related

to geopolitics and Pakistans status as a crucial
median state. Free trade with India would not
only mean allowing Indian goods to conquer
Pakistan but also allowing India to conquer Central
Asia through a transport corridor that would run
across Pakistan.
[58]
There are two ways of looking at geopolitical

importance, or two ways of deriving benefit from
it. One is the civilian approach, which means
that the geographically important state has to
develop its roadways and railways and other
infrastructure, such as hotels, to facilitate those who
wish to pass through. Once the geographically
connective state has become an effective corridor
of passage, its strategic importance no doubt
increases. And the dividend of this importance
comes in economic terms and through an absence
of war.
The other way is the military approach, which
relies on geography as hindrance rather than
connection. The military mind says: We are in
the middle and we will not let you pass unless you
agree to our terms. (To India, Pakistan says lets
talk Kashmir before we talk free trade.) This is a
warriors approach and signals his opposition to
economic activity, concealing the real doctrine of
economic development through conquest. In the
case of Pakistan, it is the military view of
geopolitical importance that has held sway.
But is India more wedded to the idea of free
trade? Does it realise that South Asia doesnt trade
at all within itself compared, lets say, to the states
of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN)? Free trade destroys many orders. It
destroys the self-sufficient or socialist state fearing
international finance. It also destroys boundaries

that maintain separated identities and destroys
ideologies that work only under insulation. It
destroys the internal dominance of the state, too.
Are India and Pakistan prepared to destroy some
of their most cherished tenets?
The real death of Pakistan is coming gradually

through the death of its culture. People make fun
of enlightenment and moderation because they
see the anti-cultural forces within and without the
state winning territory on a daily basis. (Pervez
Musharrafs decree of 2006 to remove jihad from
the textbooks was ignored by the provinces and
the new textbooks actually made fun of
enlightenment as an alien doctrine!)
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Tribal societies, based on delimited food-scarce

territories, are undermined by trade. Warriors dont
like trade and traders, but are partial to smuggling.
The national security state, with a backlog of just
wars to be fought for national honour, is aghast at
the prospect of becoming feminine through
accepting the insertion of enemy exports. Alas,
both India and Pakistan are internationally rated
as non-exporting countries.
Taliban succeed in setting up their emirate inside

Pakistan.
The SAFTA agreement that both signed contains

Article 8, which refers to the removal of intraSAARC barriers to investment while making it
possible for the weaker economies to seek protection
through the rules of fair competition. India is
arousing global ire because of its trade barriers, but
it is getting away with its introversion after the
world economy itself succumbed to being more and
more gated after the recent collapse of
international finance.
Who wants trade more, India or Pakistan?
Pakistan wants it more, but its motive is hidden
and therefore, paradoxically, noble: it wants to get
rid of external war to which it contributes proxy
warriors. India, on the other hand, is suspicious of
Pakistani motives and, less honourably, mixes
electoral politics with the question of trade. The
Indian voter is angry with Pakistan, all right, but
how can one remove the cause of it unless both
states trade freely and allow cross-border
investments?
The economist of today is the most subversive
philosopher in history since Socrates. Imagine India
using trade routes that spread like arteries across
Pakistans sacred territory and the two-nation
doctrine succumbing to the self-seeking passions of
the non-warrior. Pakistan is a corridor of nothing,
unless India violates it with its manufactures. How
humiliating!
Pakistan is fast losing territory and culture to a

creed that can only be compared to medieval
Muslim conquests. It doesnt feel it is being
conquered because it is ideologically prepared for
defeat. But, economically, this creeping
transformation presages an end to the modern state
through a retreat into a Hobbesian purgatory,
where Islam rewards the heroics of bank-looting
and kidnapping. This is the scenario after the
Free trade and culture go hand in hand. The

monoculture of free trade (read globalisation) is
cakes and ale compared to the monoculture of
Pakistani nationalism as interpreted by the clergy
and the army. Those who are scared of it call it
Talibanisation.
There is no honour in heroic isolation. The
pinnacle of isolation is martyrdom. Free trade may
be dishonourable but it avoids death and stops
poverty. Nothing is more dishonourable than
poverty.
My favourite economist-philosopher, Ijaz Nabi,
recently wrote: Critically, without normalising
trade with India, the Indus Basin would be a Tjunction circumscribing the welfare gains from
regional integration rather than a crossroads of
economic transactions. Recent studies show that
bilateral trade could be as high as US $10 billion.
The irony is that if you hate someone you
become like him. There is nothing original in this;
Indias Gandhi had a creed based on this dictum.
If India starts thinking the same way as Pakistan
and allows things to slide, then there will be the
fallout of Pakistans implosion to cope with.
Islamabad should go ahead with the MFN, sign
and ratify free trade and free movement of people
and finance, and leave the bilateral haggling over
tariff and non-tariff barriers for the coming years.
But diplomacy is operated in South Asia by a
give-no-quarter bunch of bureaucrats who cleave
to a nationalism that continues to trump economics.
Pakistan is under obligation to change its stance,
make ground-breaking decisions and get them
approved through statesmanship. But its diplomats
stay close to the military, its sense of unrequited
grievance and, without knowing it, the non-state
actors. National interest rather than reciprocity
should guide Pakistans decisions about trade with
India.
[59]
WORLD AND WEB

to a more internationalised system, but the US
insists on a multi-stakeholder oversight body,
rather than one solely controlled by governments
through the UNs International Telecommunication
Union or some such. While a multilateral
government takeover is a mere bogey, there has
been much debate around the convenient emptiness
of the multi-stakeholder concept, and the ways it
may end up serving the needs of powerful
corporations with the imprimatur of civil society.
The internet is a zone exempt from an

international legal framework, or even common
rules governing it. This is because of the nature of
the internet, consisting of a diffuse set of unowned
technologies, where protocols are generated through
open processes and unincorporated organisations.
But the lack of a structure for cooperation, or even
interlocking structures, to negotiate the interests of
users, corporations and governments, has been a
source of great anxiety around the world, not just
for control-freakish states like China and Russia,
especially after the revelations of NSA surveillance
established that the informal US stewardship was
not as benign as once imagined, and that there
was no real recourse for a non-US citizen against
these intrusions. ICANN, which performs the
functions of top-level numbering and name
assignments, is relinquishing part of its functions
There is no single answer. Internet governance

would necessarily have to be a plural arrangement
with a role for democratic governments as well as
multi-stakeholder forums. Meanwhile, before
offering to lead such negotiations, national
governments should enact their own internet
constitutions in line with the future they would
like to see. Brazil has just passed a groundbreaking
civil rights bill for the internet, Marco Civil da
Internet, underscoring its commitment to user rights
and net neutrality. Indias position envisions greater
say to governments, and accountability on the
nature of civil society participation. But these fine
words are undercut by its own failure in catalysing
such a conversation, and its record on internet
freedom and privacy.
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NETmundial, a conference in Sao Paulo to

thrash out principles for internet governance, has
ended on an irresolute note. There were 188
proposals that spoke of human rights, privacy,
national security, and information access, as well
as reform of the multi-stakeholder concept that
seeks to keep the internet free of overweening
government control. Even if its outcome is a nonbinding document, Brazils initiative is a necessary
one.
COURTS REVOLVING DOOR
The outgoing chief justice of India, P.

Sathasivam, has advocated a fixed tenure for the
CJI. The proposal should be considered by the next
government. The CJI is an extraordinarily powerful
office, and a fixed term for its occupant could help
streamline not just its functions, but also its
responsibilities. The CJI is the head of the Indian
judiciary as well as the CEO of the Supreme Court,
playing an influential role in the composition of
benches, allotment of final case hearings, selection
of issues to be heard by constitution benches and,
above all, elevation of judges to the high court and
SC. This juggling of roles is complicated by the
term usually being limited to months, with judges
elevated to the post briefly before the retirement
age of 65.
The last decade has seen no less than seven
CJIs; this year alone, three judges would have taken
the helm. Justice Kamal Narain Singh, who
assumed the CJIs office in 1991, held it for a sum
[60]
total of 17 days. The relatively brief period that a

CJI has in office undermines any initiative or vision
the individual has for the court. The problem of
judicial backlog, for instance, is one that requires
the sustained effort and attention of the CJI, right
down to the trial courts. A system prone to frequent
changes in leadership is hardly conducive to such
a reform project.
That said, a fixed term for the CJI cannot be
divorced from the issue of judicial appointments. It
is no secret that appointments to the SC can be
influenced, although not determined, by the
prospect of a judges elevation to the highest post
on the basis of seniority. Such an approach is
susceptible to lobbying from high courts as well as
influential political quarters, and does little to shore
up public trust in the collegiums functioning. If a
CJI were to have a fixed term and thus ample
opportunity to steer the courts mandate, vision
and constitution it becomes all the more

necessary to ensure that appointments to the SC
are made more transparent. Sadly, the collegium
has remained an institution without accountability.
The Judicial Appointments Commission, in
contrast, may offer a better alternative in that it
incorporates views from senior SC judges as well

as the government and the opposition. If the SCs
leadership is in favour of fixed terms, it must also
reform its current system of appointments, make it
more accountable.
INNOVATION THAT INCLUDES

as a pirate in global IP debates, a company that
simply copies and rips others off.
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A number of years ago, I was keen on starting

an intellectual property (IP) and innovation
institute. As I was thinking through prospective
names for it, I came across a wonderful sentiment
from one of Indias leading scientists, R.A.
Mashelkar, that innovation is really a journey from
Saraswati (the goddess of knowledge) to Lakshmi
(the goddess of wealth). This struck a chord with
me and I coined the name Sarakshmi from
Saraswati to Lakshmi.
When I suggested this to my then supervisor,
David Vaver, he exclaimed that generating wealth
is great, but who gets it? Will it be concentrated?
What about distributional concerns? I brushed these
questions off, stating that wealth has to be created
before it can be distributed.
But when I thought about it further, I wondered,
does this necessarily have to be a sequential process
or can we foster a model where growth is inclusive
and embraces distributional concerns within its
main architecture?
The term inclusive growth attempts to capture

this sentiment. In much the same vein, we now
have the concept of inclusive innovation.
At base, the notion of inclusiveness has two
key aspects to it. First, the fruits of innovation must
be accessible to the public at large and not confined
to a privileged few. Particularly in the case of drugs,
which are often priced out of the reach of the
average consumer consider Nexavar, a patented
kidney cancer drug that sold for Rs. 3 lakh for a
months dosage. Fortunately, the Indian patent
office granted a licence to ensure that a more
affordable version, priced at Rs. 8,800 a month,
was manufactured by an Indian generics company.
Indeed, the very process of creating affordable

versions of existing products could be innovative.
Consider, for example, Triomune, Ciplas
pioneering $1-a-day medication, formed by
creatively combining three different anti-HIV drugs.
Until then, patients had had to pay $10,000 a year,
buying the medicines separately from three different
pharma companies. Yet, Cipla is constantly painted
What is the point of innovation if the benefits

exclude a large percentage of the populace? Indias
patent regime, under fire from angry multinationals
and governments, is premised precisely on this
innovations bestowed with a state-sanctioned
monopoly (through a 20-year patent term) must be
worked for public benefit.
Second, our innovation architecture ought to
be democratic and open to all who wish to
participate. Unfortunately, our current framework
focuses almost entirely on the formal sector. And
yet, a quick perusal of the informal economy
demonstrates that creativity is not the preserve of
the rich. Consider C. Mallesham, a school dropout
from Pochampalli who invented an ingenious
weaving machine after seeing his mother break her
back weaving manually for hours on end.
Mallesham demonstrated that innovation isnt
always driven by the lure of money. Or take Vellan
Vaidyan, a tribal healer from Wayanad, who can
reputedly cure a number of modern-day ailments.
He insists that he is simply a conduit for higher
forces and does not charge but simply leaves a box
outside his rustic clinic for donations. A crude form
of crowdsourcing, one might say.
How do we capture these innovations within
our framework? How do we encourage them in a
world where existing incentives expensive IP
regimes and the like are more aligned with the
interests of formal firms. More importantly, how
do we learn from them?
Jugaad has come to be a derogatory term,
associated with cutting corners to make a fast buck.
But in a world where resources are scarce, jugaad
has much to offer. Consider, for example, a rural
child who puts a rubber band around a pencil so
that the lead inside does not break when it falls.
One may well call this jugaad, but is this not
clever?
This is not to say that we ought not to aim for
a new kind of lead or coating that prevents
[61]

breakage. But space must be created for both forms
of innovation to flourish. Indeed, like India,
innovation is also plural and diverse. It need not
be biased towards one kind of script, premised on
the notion that big is better. Rather, like the
economist E.F. Schumacher said, small can indeed
be beautiful. The pharmaceutical industry, with its
archaic blockbuster model has much to learn from

this sentiment.
Perhaps the time is ripe to embrace an
innovation ecosystem that is open, inclusive and
diverse. It is time to accept this expansive notion
and re-label innovation as incluvation.
THE EBB AND FLOW OF HORROR

The rebels have also encroached on the
remaining government-held parts of Syrias second
city, Aleppo. A rebel offensive there in recent days
has for the first time cut the governments key
supply line into the western part of the city.
Thousands of government troops as well as tens of
thousands of loyalist citizens could find themselves
encircled.
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According to President Bashar Assad, Syrias

three-year-old fratricide may soon be over. Speaking
at Damascus University on April 13th, he declared
that his armys war on terror had reached a
turning point. From now on, he implied, it would
essentially be a mopping-up operation. His allies
echo this rosy view. The danger of the Syrian
regime falling has ended, was the recent judgment
of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hizbullah, the
Lebanese Shia party-cum-militia that has pitched
an estimated 5,000 fighters into the battle on Mr.
Assads behalf.
On the ground the picture is much more blurred.
Rather than showing an irreversible tilt in favour
of the regimes forces, the latest fighting seems to
have consolidated territories held by each side.
True, Mr. Assad faces a less imminent threat to his
strongholds, but he lacks the manpower to extend
any of his gains very far. Syria remains in effect
partitioned into zones held by the government and
a patchwork of opponents. Short of far more potent
intervention by outside forces, it is hard to see any
early military resolution to the conflict.
Mr Assads men have lately reinforced their

control of the capital, Damascus, and made more
secure its vital link to regime-held areas in the centre
and west of the country. The capture on April 14th
of Maaloula, a mainly Christian town north of
Damascus held by rebels since December, further
shrunk a remaining rebel-controlled pocket along
the border with Lebanon. Rebel resistance in Syrias
third-largest city, Homs, is now in danger of being
terminally crushed, bringing to an end a bitter and
bloody two-year siege that has devastated the town
centre.
Yet, despite infighting between rebel groups,

the regimes opponents have not only continued to
harry the capital and other loyalist enclaves. They
have also made their own territorial gains, in recent
weeks seizing a coastal salient in the far northwest near Latakia, the Assad familys homeland,
plus chunks of territory along the Israeli-occupied
Golan Heights in the south-west.
[62]
Moreover, the mainstream rebel forces appear

to have contained, or at least diminished, what
had been a looming threat from the Islamic State
of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS). Last year this
extreme jihadist group, which is commanded by
Iraqis and largely manned by foreign fighters, had
rapidly expanded its influence in rebel-held areas.
Its cruelty and pan-Islamist ideology prompted a
Syrian nationalist backlash. Since open intra-rebel
fighting erupted in January, ISIS has been pushed
back to a rump territory in and around the central
city of Raqqa. ISISs efforts to break out, either into
Kurdish-held regions of the north-east or towards
the town of Abu Kamal on the border with Iraq,
appear to have been repulsed. This is one reason
why other rebels have been freer to reassert their
pressure on government forces in Aleppo.
None of this is good news for ordinary Syrians
longing for their nightmare to end. Scalded by the
cost of achieving even small advances, Mr. Assads
forces are making increasingly indiscriminate use
of heavy weaponry. Rockets, artillery and giant,
nail-packed barrel bombs lobbed from helicopters
help to suppress rebel fire. They also make life in
rebel-held areas a misery, generating floods of
terrified civilians.
Some of Syrias rebels have followed the
regimes example by torturing, kidnapping and
executing their opponents. They have also launched
indiscriminate attacks on government-held areas.
On April 14th, for example, more than 30 mortars
fired from rebel areas landed on the loyalist
Damascus suburb of Jaramana, killing five people.
And rebel car-bombings aimed at soldiers inevitably

hit civilians as well. One that went off in Homs on
April 9th killed at least 25 people, of every stripe.
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Despite the UNs imposition last September of

a programme to strip Mr Assad of his chemical
weapons, two-thirds of which are now said to have
been dismantled, there have been reports that
government forces are using them again. The most
recent documented event involved chlorine gas,
which is technically not banned under international
conventions. On April 11th-12th it was apparently
fired at Kafr Zita, a rebel-held village 200 km (125

miles) north of Damascus. Dozens of people
reportedly suffered the symptoms of poisoning,
causing widespread panic. The government accused
the rebels of using the gas themselves to attract
sympathy. This fails to explain how the state media
were able to warn of imminent chlorine attacks on
other nearby villages.
ENDING THE GENDER BINARY
In this election din, between empty slogans and

personal slandering, has come one of Indias
proudest moments as a nation one that values
equality, justice and freedom of even its most
marginalised. On April 15, 2014, the Supreme
Court gave a landmark judgment granting Indias
transgender community the right to be recognised
as a third gender category. Additionally, it ruled
that it was every human beings right to choose
ones own gender.
Challenging the dominant view With this
judgment, the Court has challenged the dominant
view of gender identity. In a society that has
focused on a binary, this is revolutionary. In this
judgment, the court recognises that individual
experience of gender is one of the most
fundamental aspects of self-determination, dignity
and freedom. Further the judgment relates the
right to freedom of expression to ones right to
express ones self-identified gender. Thus, the idea
of gender is transformed from social acceptability
to individual choice and experience.
The judgment is significant in many other ways

as well. By ending the gender binary, the Court
has opened the discussion on the rights of marriage,
adoption and inheritance for the transgender
community. The judgment also recognises the
communitys position as a socially and economically
backward category, and directs the state for
appropriate affirmative action. More specifically, it
directs the state to provide the community access
to health services and even separate toilets.
For Indias transgender community, it is their
first encounter with equality in a democratic
framework. At the same time, this thoughtful,
inclusive judgment is significant for all Indians,
especially minorities. It comes at a time when
Indias political parties are engaged in a vitriolic
confrontation over minorities and their rights. The
Courts interpretation of justice, equality,

freedom and dignity and the role of the state
should remind our political class that the rights of
Indian citizens, irrespective of gender or sexual
orientation, are safeguarded by the Constitution.
The judges quote Aristotle, Kant, Rawls and
Amartya Sen to create a broader narrative on justice
something extremely relevant to this election.
Despite the euphoria, the judgement is not
without problems. A broad sweep of identities
neglects many identities. Also, the procedures for
implementation lie with the States and the Centre.
Interestingly, it also evades extensive comment on
Section 377 which criminalises sex between
homosexuals, which the judges term as a colonial
legacy. It remains to be seen how this judgment
will interact with the petition on Section 377, to be
considered soon. Rationally, it will be difficult to
give citizens the right to choose their gender but
not the right to choose who they love. The Courts
decision on Section 377 will tell us whether the
highest court in the land can live with deeply
contradictory ideas of justice, freedom, and equality.
Yet, the process of change will now be
irreversible. Just as law can manufacture
intolerance, it can also create gradual social
acceptance. Social attitudes may not transform
overnight but Indian society only needs to look at
its own history of inclusiveness. The transgender
community was, until the advent of colonialism, a
respected section of society. The Hindu Right should
note that transgenders are mentioned in the
Ramayana, and that it is Ram who gives them the
power to bless important occasions such as
childbirth and marriage. Also, Shivas
Ardhanarishwar form is well-known and widely
worshipped.
The role of the British The tradition is not limited
to Hinduism alone. Islamic, Jain and other cultures
[63]

have also included the transgender community and
other sexual minorities. The famous Sufi saint, Bulle
Shah, dressed as a woman to please his master
and often danced with eunuchs. Yet all this changed
when India was colonised. The Indian Penal Code
enacted by the British recognised only two genders,
creating a binary that never existed.
Despite its many flaws and the incremental

nature of this change, this is a moment of
celebration not just for Indias transgender
community or its sexual minorities but for all
minorities. In a deeply fractured democracy, the
Court has safeguarded the right to individual choice
and freedom. It is reassuring for every Indian that
despite our debasing politics, justice, equality and
individual liberty ideas that define India will
be safeguarded, and the right to choose our identity
will go beyond the binary.
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Over time, these constructs were absorbed in

Indian society. The community has since faced
extreme forms of violence for not conforming to
socially dictated gender identities. This violence
often happens within families and communities,
where transgenders face abuse, discrimination,
disinheritance and abandonment. This judgment
will hopefully begin to alter this in some measure.
Source: The Hindu
BY THE RULING CLASS, FOR THE RULING CLASS
In the next few weeks the gigantic exercise of

conducting elections in India will be over. The
nation will pat itself on the back for being crowned
yet again the worlds greatest functional democracy
while most people will get back to their struggle
for survival. The long dance of democracy would
come to an end, leaving the elected representatives
to do the business of recovering their huge
investments. A fortune is spent to conduct elections
in India, rivalled only by the United States (it is
said that in this election, Indian politicians would
spend upwards of $5 billion as against $7 billion
spent in the 2012 U.S. presidential election). All
kinds of intrigues and foul play come into motion
for acquiring money to fight elections. By any logic,
these amounts can only be raised through
plutocracy and crime. That being closer to the truth,
one wonders whether this process of election needs
to be probed for being at the centre of what ails
India.
Trajectory of corruption
In a liberal framework, direct democracy is not

possible. Elections are meant to get peoples
representatives to operationalise democracy.
Peoples choices however are restricted to the
candidates put up by political parties, and to some
independents, most of whom contest to help the
electoral arithmetic of the main political parties as
dummy candidates. This results in the same set of
people getting elected election after election without
any evidence of performance. The entire process
has a kind of barrier of entry. For instance, the
official expenditure allowed for a candidate for the
Lok Sabha election is Rs. 70 lakh that only
mainstream political parties can afford. The actual
investment is several times more. If this is the
[64]
quantum of risk capital one invests in elections,

there should be a theoretical return on this
investment. Since there is none, it inevitably
manifests itself as growing corruption. This has
turned politics into a big ticket business with
unrivalled returns. The elected leader becomes a
feudal lord and the constituency his fiefdom,
fortified by musclemen and money power.
The data on politicians who participate in
elections are in the public domain, thanks to the
Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), that
picks it up from their affidavits filed with the
Election Commission and presents them in a
manner that is comprehensible. These self-sworn
data, likely to be a gross understatement,
nonetheless reveal the rapidly growing number of
crorepatis among these representatives. In the 15th
Lok Sabha election, there were 1,249 crorepati
candidates, of whom over 300 reached Parliament.
The crime record closely correlates with their riches,
and both exist across parties. The parliamentarians
with criminal cases belonging to the Congress and
the Bharatiya Janata Party, the two main political
parties, were 24 and 29 in 2004 respectively, which
went up to 44 each in 2009. These are the so-called
representatives of the people, a vast majority of
whom live off Rs. 20 a day!
More interesting is the incredible growth of their
wealth before every election. The analysis by ADR
and National Election Watch (NEW) has found that
the wealth of 304 re-contesting MPs had grown by
289 per cent. These rates are almost unheard of
even in the corporate world. A person of average
calibre, ostensibly in service of poor people, outbeats
the best of fund managers. In an ordinary case,
such evidence would alarm the income tax and

anti-corruption authorities; but the political
connections of these worthies provide them
immunity from such mundane risks. There are no
prizes for guessing the sources of wealth here when
it is known that the entire machinery works for
corporate houses and other moneybags in the name
of the people.
Method of election
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When India became independent, the biggest

challenge the new rulers faced was in fulfilling the
aspirations of the people the aspirations they
helped build during the freedom struggle. These
were further amplified by developments such as
the dazzling progress made by the post-revolution
USSR, the welfarist ethos of the post-War world,
and the ongoing revolution in neighbouring China.
The communal flare-up in the wake of the transfer
of power, the integration of nearly 600 political
fragments in the form of princely states within
India, the communist-led armed struggles in certain
pockets in the country, and the awakening of the
lower castes collectively posed a formidable
challenge to the new rulers. The republican
constitution they created reflected these aspirations.
However in real terms, the Congress Party that
assumed the reins of power, represented the
interests of the bourgeoisie and had to skilfully
promote them. This tension between the need to
appear addressing peoples aspirations but in
reality furthering the interests of capital
necessarily showed up in a series of its deceitful
acts. Launching Five-Year Plans to display socialist
orientation but clandestinely adopting the Bombay
Plan created by the then eight top capitalists of the
country, or to initiate land reforms but ensuring
that they remained throttled so as to create a class
of rich farmers as an ally in the vast countryside,
or to push the Green Revolution to spread capitalist
relations in countryside in the name of removing
hunger, are just a few examples. It was politically
imperative to adopt such a method for operating
democracy to ensure that they remained in full
control of power.
and rather focussed on their own interests which

would be best served by this system. Most of the
evils that we find ourselves engulfed in today stem
from the FPTP system. A single winner in elections
with such extraordinarily diverse polity could not
come without the support of the majority party. It
followed that most interest groups would be forced
to come to terms with the majority party, paving
ways for co-option and other manipulations. The
diversity of interests in the country may still throw
up many parties, which could only aggravate the
inherently competitive FPTP elections. That in turn
would only mean increasingly huge expenditure,
to be met by big businesses, and the use of existing
fault lines like caste, community and religion. It
necessarily evolved into an oligopolistic power
structure of all ruling classes, irrespective of parties,
fortified by multilayered defences such as the police
and the military.
The First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) type of election

system (in which the winner is the person with
most votes) was chosen as a means to fortify the
political power of the ruling classes. This system as
such was inherited from the colonial regime like all
other former colonies of the British Empire. But
there was nothing that could have prevented India
to discard it for the one better suited to its specific
situation. The rulers ignored these considerations
Another model
Was there no alternative to FPTP? The diverse

polity would point to a different model of election,
say, the Proportional Representation (PR) system,
which is followed in most European democracies
and many others that have had far superior
democratic records. While there are many practical
variants of the PR system, essentially it entails voting
for parties or social groups (rather than for
individuals), that get representation in proportion
to their share of votes. For example, Dalits in India
are 17 per cent but being in the minority in every
constituency, one of them would never get elected
independently in the FPTP system; not even from
the so-called reserved constituencies. The PR system
would assure them their share in Parliament and
legislatures and may even create a centripetal force
to expand their constituency. What is
euphemistically called bahujan today was possible
to be created through this process. The social
identities would make way for class consciousness
and impart class orientation to the entire politics.
There would be no cut-throat competition as every
interest group would be reasonably assured of its
share of representation. The competition would then
shift to the ring of Parliament to shape the policies
in the interests of the majority of the people. In the
FPTP system, once the elections are over, there is
no motivation for debate in Parliament on policy
content. The most material policies of the
government that impacted people (such as the
imposition of Emergency and the neoliberal
economic reforms) were never discussed in
Parliament.
[65]

The theoretical fallacy in the FPTP elections that
the elected representatives hardly enjoy consent of
even half the voters is overcome in the PR system
that ensures most interest groups their due share
of representation. The intense competition of the
FPTP elections leading to huge resource expenditure
and consequent rise of corruption would also be
eliminated in the PR system. Most importantly, in
the context of India, it would curb the vile motives
in the ruling classes to divide people on the lines of
caste and community.
Indeed, India would hugely gain. But then,

what will happen to the ruling class?
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For instance, there would not be any need for

the reserved constituencies for Dalits and hence
even the Dalit tag, thereby eliminating the salience
of castes from politics. Although, no system may

prevent the black sheep being black, the PR system
would surely eliminate the structural spaces by
promising them their dues. Dalits lamented for
years the Gandhian blackmail in the Poona Pact
but did not understand that it was pivoted on the
FPTP system. It would lose its relevance in the PR
system. The same could even be extended to any
need of preserving caste identities and vexatious
problems they have created.
Source: The Hindu
TALKING WITHOUT SAYING
In a context of deepening confrontation and

sporadic violence in eastern Ukraine which has so
far left three people dead and many more injured,
Russia, the United States, and the European Union
reached an agreement of sorts in Geneva on April
17. The deal calls on all illegal groups in the region
to lay down their arms, and to vacate government
buildings and other public spaces they have
occupied. In return, the protesters would be offered
an amnesty for all capital crimes, and the national
government in Kiev would start public consultations
on a devolution of powers to the countrys
provinces. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is to oversee and help
implement the agreement, and will be augmented
by monitors from the U.S., Russia, and EU
countries. Meanwhile, the situation on the ground
in the whole of eastern Ukraine remains fraught.
That Russian security personnel are in the area is
beyond doubt; perhaps in fear of infiltration, Kiev
is now refusing to allow male Russian citizens
between 16 and 60 years of age entry into the
country. Secondly, many eastern Ukrainians are
reported as saying that if they speak Ukrainian
they risk being assaulted.
It is, moreover, not clear if the parties at Geneva
can, or even want to, prevent an escalation of
tensions. In a televised phone-in shortly before the
talks, Russian President Vladimir Putin derided
asset freezes and travel bans on selected Russian

and Ukrainian officials; he also stated that Russias
Parliament had given him the right to use armed
forces in Ukraine. Another potentially destabilising
factor is that Mr. Putin can claim that violence by
pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine has nothing to
do with Moscow. Furthermore, he has said nothing
about the actual extent of support for Russia; groups
of eastern Ukrainians have started demonstrating
against secession and in favour of the status quo.
The Western powers, for their part, have made no
apparent commitment on certain major issues. One
is NATOs eastward expansion, which Russia
understandably perceives as a very serious threat.
The U.S., NATOs dominant member, has done
nothing to curb the alliance. The second is that of
whether the Kiev government will abide by the
Geneva deal, including the requirement that all
sides desist from extremism; interim President
Oleksander Turchynov has several Ministers with
neo-Nazi and anti-Semitic records, and he will not
forget that his troops attempts to retake occupied
facilities in the east ended with their being
humiliatingly disarmed by secessionist forces. U.S.
Vice-President Joe Bidens current visit to Kiev is
largely symbolic, but so is the Geneva agreement:
it says good things, but avoids the things that
matter.
Source: The Hindu
FOR A FAIR AND OPEN SYSTEM
The election manifesto of the Bharatiya Janata

Party (BJP) has promised to accord high priority
to judicial reforms to address the issue of
appointment of judges It also proposes to set
[66]
up a National Judicial Commission for the

appointment of judges to the higher judiciary. The
Indian National Congress has promised that a
Judicial Appointments Bill it introduced in

Parliament will be enacted after consultation and
consensus building over the mechanism proposed
in the Bill.
For a representational judiciary Thus, even

though at the instance of the UPA government led
by the Congress Party, the Constitution (One
Hundred and Twentieth Amendment) Bill 2013
was passed by the Rajya Sabha, in order to become
law, the said amendment has to be passed by the
16th Lok Sabha by a majority of the total
membership of the House and also by a majority of
not less than two-thirds of the members of the Lok
Sabha present in voting. It also requires ratification
by the legislature of not less than one half of the
States in India.
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The Constitution (One Hundred And Twentieth

Amendment) Bill 2013 was passed by the Rajya
Sabha on September 5, 2013. It seeks to replace the
collegium model of judicial appointments with a
Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC). For a
Constitution amendment to become law when it
seeks to make any change in the Union Judiciary,
it has to undergo these three steps: the Bill has to
be passed in each House by a majority of total
membership of that House and also by a majority
of not less than two-thirds of the members of that
House present and voting; the amendment also
requires to be ratified by the Legislature of not less
than one half of the States by a resolution to that
effect; and assent by the President.
Committee, also argued that the composition of

JAC by an ordinary legislation would give scope
for substitution with a Judicial Commission which
will consist of only the Law Minister. However, to
implement this recommendation of the Standing
Committee on the JAC Bill, it may require an
amendment to the Constitution (One Hundred and
Twentieth Amendment) Bill 2013.
The Bill gives JAC the powers to appoint judges

to the Supreme Court and the High Court. The
said Bill introduced a new Article 124-A to
constitute a JAC to make recommendations with
respect to the appointment of judges of the higher
judiciary. The Constitution Amendment Bill does
not define who the members of the JAC are but
leaves this for Parliament to determine in an
ordinary Statute. This accompanying Bill, known
as the JAC Bill 2013, provides that JAC will
comprise six members, i.e. the Chief Justice of India,
two most senior judges of the Supreme Court, the
Law Minister and two eminent persons. The two
eminent persons are supposed to be appointed by
a collegium comprising the Prime Minister, the
leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the
Chief Justice of India. However, before the
Constitution Amendment Bill was passed by the
Rajya Sabha, the BJP staged a walkout since the
demand for the Bill being referred to the Standing
Committee was not conceded. The Standing
Committee Report was only on the JAC Bill and
not the Constitution Amendment Bill. The report
recommended that the structure, functions or the
composition of the JAC should be reflected in the
Constitution itself and not in ordinary legislation
so that the composition of JAC cannot be altered
without a constitutional amendment. As the Bill
stands today, the composition of JAC is in the
hands of Parliament. To change the composition of
JAC, a Parliamentary Statute is enough which is
more flexible than an amendment of the
Constitution.
Mr. Ram Jethmalani, a member of the Standing
It is therefore a million dollar question as to

whether the Constitution (One Hundred and
Twentieth Amendment) Bill 2013 would become
law after the 16th Lok Sabha is constituted
subsequent to the general election as the subject of
appointing judges through a Judicial Commission
requires more consultation and consensus-building
over the mechanism proposed in the Bill.
The U.K. example It is in this context and also
in view of the recent decision of the collegium of
the Supreme Court withdrawing the 12 names
recommended for Judgeship at the Madras High
Court based on unprecedented opposition that
the 16th Lok Sabha as well as the new Union
Government accord the highest priority to the
proposal for the setting up of a National Judicial
Commission and decide whether the composition
of JAC be reflected in the Constitution itself.
Suitable measures to make the judiciary
representative of the diversity of our society with
respect to gender, region, religion and caste may
have to be initiated. Public interest demands a quick
decision in this regard. They may also consider
putting into practice, the procedure whereby
members of the Bar who are eligible for being
appointed as a Judge of the High Court apply for
Judgeship through a Public Notification. Such a
practice is in vogue in the United Kingdom.
In the U.K., the candidates for Judicial Office
in courts up to and including High Court level,
Tribunals in England and Wales are selected by
JAC. The JAC is an executive non-departmental
[67]

The technique of situational questioning is also
adopted which involves questions concerning a
hypothetical situation based on challenging, reallife, job-related occurrences and asks the candidate
how they would handle the problem. JAC also
carries out consultation as part of each selection
exercise as required by the Constitutional Reform
Act, 2005. For High Court selection, the Lord Chief
Justice and one other person are consulted.
Financial, criminal and professional background
checks are carried out. After this exercise, the
Commissioners make the final decision on which
candidates to recommend to the appropriate
authority (Lord Chancellor, Lord Chief Justice or
Senior President of Tribunals) for appointment.
Thus, the process of appointment of judicial officers
in the U.K. is clear, open, fair and accountable.
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public body sponsored by the Ministry of Justice.

Membership is drawn from the judiciary, the legal
profession, non-legally qualified judicial officeholders and the public. (JAC does not select judges
to the U.K. Supreme Court. The U.K. Supreme
Court was established on October 1, 2009 and
assumed the formal judicial functions of the House
of Lords which were removed by the Constitutional
Reform Act, 2005. Judges of the Supreme Court of
U.K. are appointed by the Queen by the issue of
Letters Patent on the advice of the Prime Minister
to whom a name is recommended by a Special
Selection Commission. The Prime Minister is
required by the Constitutional Reform Act, 2005 to
recommend this name to the Queen and not
permitted to nominate anyone else.) The Selection
by JAC for High Courts, Tribunals is based on merit
through fair and open competition from among
the widest range of eligible candidates possible. The
appointment process is not only clearer but more
accountable. The selection process starts when JAC
receives a vacancy request from Her Majestys
Courts and Tribunals Service or the Ministry of
Justice. Thereafter, it advertises all selection exercises
on its website and in the email newsletter. JAC
also tailors the application form for each selection
exercise and prepares an information pack and the
applications are submitted to JAC electronically.
Thereafter, the process of shortlisting commences.
Candidates are required to identify referees they
know personally and professionally. Shortlisted
candidates are invited for a selection day for a panel
interview, role play interview and presentation, etc.
(Role play usually simulates a court or tribunal
environment. Candidates are asked to take on the
role of judge and respond to a simulated situation.)
However, in the present system of appointments

to High Court Judges in India, unless the Chief
Justice of the High Court concerned or any other
senior judge of the High Court recommends the
name of a particular practising lawyer, there is no
way to get included in the list of prospective
candidates.
This system is perceived to be discriminatory
because it is inherently impossible for the collegium
judges to personally know everything about all the
eligible practising members of the Bar. Thus, the
procedure of selection by inviting applications
through notifications which is followed in the U.K.
may well be adopted in India also so that
transparency in the appointment of High Court
Judges is achieved, eliminating the charge of
discrimination.
Source: The Hindu
SUSTAINABLE MINING
The Supreme Courts verdict permitting

resumption of iron-ore mining in Goa with a
temporary cap of 20 million tonnes per annum is
welcome for more reasons than one. First, the lifting
of the mining ban will restore livelihoods to a vast
number of people in a State whose economy is
powered by the twin engines of mining and
tourism. By the Courts own finding, more than
1.5 lakh Goans depend on the mining industry
directly, and then there are downstream
beneficiaries such as truck operators and other
service providers. The States economy has suffered,
as indeed the countrys exports, due to the 18month ban. The verdict represents an
acknowledgement that the problem with mining is
not the activity itself; rather, it is illegal and
[68]
unregulated mining that needs to be clamped down

upon. The problem in Goa, as also in Karnataka,
began with the unscrupulous activities of some
mining companies which pushed the boundaries
of their operations, literally and figuratively, beyond
legal limits. Mining in areas outside the lease
territory, under-reporting production both in
quantitative and qualitative terms and showing
scant regard for the environment were the reasons
that attracted action from the NGOs and the public
and caused the courts to step in with a ban. It is
shocking that the exports of iron ore exceeded
official production figures in each of the five years
between 2006-07 and 2010-11. This is evidence of
illegal mining.

annum until the expert committee appointed by
the Supreme Court comes up with its final report
in the next 12 months, is a fair one as it takes into
account the interests of both the mining industry
and the environment. With the State government
now being permitted to grant fresh leases as per its
own policy, whether by auction or other means,
the onus is now clearly on it to move quickly in
framing a transparent policy in this regard. A wellregulated mining industry that is also
environmentally sustainable is not a difficult goal
to achieve if the government sets its mind to it.
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The Supreme Court has now defined the

framework, inclusive of directions to the Centre
and the State Government over the promulgation
of rules and adherence to them. It has also
acknowledged the concerns of environmentalists
by prohibiting mining within a kilometre of the
boundaries of national parks and sanctuaries in
Goa. By directing the Centre to notify eco-sensitive
zones around national parks and sanctuaries within
six months, the Court has ensured that the mining
industrys territory is clearly marked out and there
is no possibility of harm being caused to the ecology
and environment. The interim solution of allowing
up to 20 million tonnes of ore to be mined per
Source: The Hindu
POLITICS OF IDENTITY AND LOCATION
Every now and again we hear of a person from

one or the other of the north-eastern States of India
being harassed, sexually molested or beaten up by
irate landlords, mostly in Delhi. If we go by statistics
then it appears that people from Manipur are most
discriminated against in Delhi. But it is also true
that every second north-easterner in Delhi, working
in malls and retail outlets or the hospitality services
is from Manipur. The protracted militancy and
complete failure of the Manipur government to
create meaningful employment for its youth have
pushed them to a desperate edge from where the
only escape route is a ticket to Delhi to find some
job; any job to keep body and soul together.
The last horrific crime against a person of northeastern origin happened on January 29 this year
when Nido Tania, a 19-year-old student from
Arunachal Pradesh, was beaten black and blue
because he protested against being ridiculed for his
hairstyle. Nido succumbed to his injuries. Following
this incident, a beleaguered UPA government set
up a committee to inquire into this incident and
suggest measures to prevent similar outrageous acts
against people from the eight north-eastern States
working and studying in Delhi. Funnily, the
committee consists of retired bureaucrats, many of
whom dont have any inkling about what it is to
be a woman travelling through the dark lanes of
Delhis non-Lutyens areas.
For the first time a television channel labelled

the Nido Tania episode a racial crime. After that
the word racism gained currency in the media.
And that is not far from the truth. The people of
the northeast are racially different. They look
different; they have different eating habits and
cuisines that can be scrumptious for some and
repulsive to others. Their dances are myriad and
their socialisation processes are different too. They

choose their own life partners and dowry is
unknown. Racially there are the Tibeto-Burman
groups such as the Nagas, Mizos, Bodos, Garos,
etc, and the Mon-Khmer group (Khasis and
Jaintias). This is the reason why India is called a
diverse country. But while it is easy to use jargon
like celebrating diversity, or to term northeast a
rainbow country it is much more difficult to
assimilate and appreciate these diverse cultures and
not to be disdainful of the cultural mores of people
from this region.
The plight of outsiders
But people of the eight north-eastern States are

themselves ethnically divided. There are major tribes
and minor tribes. The so-called major tribes such
as the Nyishis of Arunachal Pradesh or the Ao
and Angami tribes of Nagaland lord it over the
smaller tribes who live on the peripheries of
development because even development is skewed
and happens along these ethno-centric fault-lines.
It would be erroneous to assume that the people of
the eight States are socially homogenous and that
they coexist happily with each other. Within the
States there are ferments for greater autonomy. For
instance, Meghalaya has three major tribes the
Khasi, Jaintia and Garo. The first two are of MonKhmer origin and the last a part of the TibetoBurman race. The Garos have always felt neglected
and have now demanded a separate State. These
demands for greater autonomy are not always
peaceful. In fact the idiom of engagement with the
state has always been violent and insurrectionary
because the insurgents claim that the state does
not understand the language and metaphor of nonviolent assertions.
[69]

seen with a Khasi woman is taboo. Such a person
would be beaten up immediately. At one point the
KSU warned Khasi women not to wear the salwar
kameez. Those who wore them were stopped and
their clothes torn. This was in the early 1990s.
Thankfully at the time, a leading womens
organisation, Synjuk Kynthei challenged this diktat
by the KSU and warned it not to lay its hands on
any Khasi girl. It was the first time that anyone
had stood up to what the media terms as the
powerful students union. But it worked and the
KSU has since then not dared to tread into the
domain of setting a dress code for women.
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And in this horrifyingly complex situation we

have the non-tribals who have lived in the region
for three to four generations and have contributed
their mite to the local economy. In Meghalaya, in
the late 1970s, the Khasi Students Union a body
that is anything but student-like and has in its fold
members who have either dropped out of school
or are too long in the tooth to be considered students
launched an insidious attack on the Bengalis
living in Shillong. Their reason for doing so is
simplistic the non-tribals are responsible for all
the ills that afflict Khasi society. So attractive was
the slogan Khasi by birth, Indian by accident
that the words were splattered across public walls
in the city. Claiming to be the vanguard of Khasi
society, the KSU then went on a rampage, pulling
non-tribals out of buses and lynching them. A
pregnant woman, Gouri Dey was lynched in public
but no one was nabbed and the case died a natural
death since no one would give evidence. The next
phase of communal violence saw a new set of
victims the Nepali settlers who have also lived
in the State since it was a part of Assam, and the
Biharis who kept cows and supplied milk to the
residents. Another time, a number of Bihari families
were burnt alive in the dead of night. The culprits
were never caught and no one has been indicted
in any of the acts of communal carnage that
happened in Meghalaya.
The rise of civil society
The KSU is avowedly political, having spawned

a political party the Khun Hynniewtrep National
Awakening Movement (KHNAM). The acronym
actually means an arrow and the expanded term
means the awakening of the children of the seven
huts. The Khasis believe they used to move freely
between heaven and earth over a divine umbilical
cord, until one day sin entered the world and the
cord was snapped. Of the 16 families that were
originally a part of the whole, seven families
remained on earth and nine families continued to
live in the sinless world. The word Hynniewtrep
is a much-used jargon by politicians and all sorts
of self-appointed guardians of Khasi society. Its a
word that ignites jingoistic feelings and motivates
young people to commit excesses against others
who dont belong to the Hynniewtrep fold.
The KSU stance against non-tribals had to have
an alibi. The alibi is simplistic. Raucous public
meetings where the non-tribals are accused of
taking away all our jobs, our land and our
women became the order of the day. A non-tribal
[70]
Ironically, the Synjuk Kynthei comprising some

renowned women leaders, who have made a mark
for themselves, did not assert itself when the
violence was directed at non-tribals although they
discussed the matter in their meetings and
condemned the violence. By the mid-1990s, some
radical members of the KSU left to form a militant
organisation called the Hynniewtrep National
Liberation Council (HNLC). For over a decade the
HNLC intimidated, extorted and eliminated nontribal business persons in broad daylight. The only
civil society group that stood up and condemned
the militant violence and extortion upfront was
Shillong We Care (SWC). Shillong was then very
tense and fear and violence was palpable. Members
of SWC engaged with the police and pushed them
to create an anonymous helpline so that people
who were threatened and extorted could call for
help. SWC also provided a public platform where
people could speak up and share their concerns.
Many who were extorted could not sum up enough
courage to speak. But SWC persisted and also
enlisted many young people to stage street shows
to demonstrate the diminishing returns of militancy.
It was only when the Khasi business community
also began getting extortion notices and some Khasi
business persons were kidnapped and killed that
society began to speak up and condemn the HNLC
rampage. Seeing that the civil society movement
had gained momentum, the Shillong police came
down hard on the HNLC and filed FIRs against
businessmen suspected to be paying the outfit. This
gave a handle to the business community to refuse
to pay the HNLC. Many took anticipatory bail. A
number of the HNLC militants surrendered. Its
chairman Julius Dorphang also surrendered and is
now an MLA.
Life without the rights
But the non-tribals continue to remain insecure

buying land in tribal areas after the Land Transfer
Act was passed in 1978. Those with self-respect
have left Shillong and other parts of Meghalaya to
settle elsewhere. Others continue to live here but
with almost no rights. At least in Delhi, northeasterners have the freedom to protest the
governments acts. Nido Tanias killers are in jail.
What about the many deaths of non-tribals in
Meghalaya since 1979? Will the family members of
the deceased ever get justice?
Source: The Hindu
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and vulnerable. In the latest round of violence when

several pressure groups demanded the imposition
of an Inner Line Permit (ILP) to enter Meghalaya,
along the lines of Nagaland, Mizoram and
Arunachal Pradesh, at least two non-tribals were
burnt to death. The police have arrested some proILP activists but the case seems weak and the
suspects are out on bail. Non-tribals have lost the
right to speak up and dissent. They live like third
class citizens. Those who survive to do business do
so by paying protection money to these different
pressure groups. Non-tribals are debarred form
PREPARING FOR A POOR MONSOON
With an El Nio brewing, there is disquiet over

what that might mean for the coming monsoon.
Many droughts experienced by this country have,
after all, been associated with the exceptional
warming of the equatorial waters of the Pacific
that is characteristic of an El Nio. The forecast
issued by the India Meteorological Department
(IMD) on Thursday is in line with other predictions
that warn of poor rains this year. Using a statistical
model, the met agency has put a 33 per cent
probability of the monsoon being below normal, a
category where nationwide rainfall during the
season is between 90 per cent and 96 per cent of
the long-period average. That is almost twice the
climatological probability based on how the
monsoon fared in past years. The IMD forecast,
however, also indicates a significantly enhanced
risk this year of nationwide rainfall during the
monsoon slipping below 90 per cent of the longperiod average and turning deficient. Such a
monsoon would, in the parlance used by
atmospheric scientists, be considered as having
ended in a drought.
There is already a substantial body of unusually
warm water below the surface in the tropical
Pacific; this water, if it comes to the surface, can
trigger an El Nio. The IMD has placed a 60 per
cent probability of such an event occurring during
the monsoon season. It must be borne in mind that
not every El Nio leads to a drought over India.

Indeed, an analysis found that the monsoon became
deficient in only 43 per cent of the El Nio events
that took place between 1880 and 2005. Although
an El Nio looks probable this year, it is not yet
possible to say how big it might turn out to be.
Moreover, the fact of which part of the Pacific
warms also influences its impact on the monsoon.
El Nio events where the surface waters of the
central Pacific heat up have been found to retard
the monsoon more than ones where the eastern
Pacific warms. In addition, favourable conditions
in the Indian Ocean can counter any adverse
influence from the Pacific. That famously happened
in 1997 when, despite an exceptionally strong El
Nio, the country enjoyed slightly above average
rains. This year, there is no indication as yet that
the Indian Ocean might lend a helping hand. Even
if no drought ensues, an El Nio can seriously
reduce rainfall, particularly during the opening and
closing phases of the monsoon. For agriculture
especially, the distribution of rainfall across the
season is vital. With the possibility of a bad
monsoon this year, water conservation and the
harvesting of as much rainwater as feasible become
particularly important. For its part, the new
government that will be voted to power in Delhi
must prepare for any eventuality.
Source: The Hindu
WHERE SHOULD THE JUDICIARY DRAW THE LINE
While justifying this statement of hers, Professor

Sandra Fredman elucidates the remarkable way
in which the Indian judiciary has succeeded in the
above endeavour. It is the same Indian judiciary
which has come under the media scanner over the
past few months interventions/decisions in the
imprisoning of Subrata Roy in the SEBI-Sahara
dispute; the IPL betting case; the challenge to

Section 377 of the IPC; and the most recent dicta
on the status of transgenders have evoked a mixed
response. What the critics of judicial intervention
have, however, missed is the fact that in each of
these cases, judicial intervention would have been
unnecessary but for legislative/executive inaction
[71]

and inefficiency PRS Legislative Researchs data
reveals that 51 per cent and 42 per cent of the
available time in the Budget and Monsoon Sessions
for the year 2013 was wasted due to disruptions.
The object of this piece is not to go into the merits
of each of the above decisions but to put forward
an argument in favour of judicial activism and to
analyse where the Court has to draw its Lakshman
rekha keeping in view the main aim of judicial
activism.
The Indian model of activism has formed the

bedrock of South African jurisprudence. However,
there are certain landmark South African decisions
which can be used as a guide as to where Courts
must draw the Lakshman rekha.
The best example is the Rand Properties case
which involved a challenge to the states eviction
of inmates of dilapidated buildings in central
Johannesburg.
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After playing a largely interpretative role in

the 1950s and 1960s, the Supreme Court, starting
from the 1970s has been the major force standing
up against legislative and executive excesses and
inactions. Starting from inventing the basic
structure doctrine to bring constitutional
amendments under the judicial scanner to widening
the scope of the right to life and liberty, the 1970s
and 1980s saw the judiciary play a highly proactive
role in ensuring that India develops into a thriving
democracy.
intervention means that judges have the final say

on the policy issue. The judges can, however,
promote decision making relating to policy issues
without being the ultimate decision maker.
The decision in Maneka Gandhi v. Union of

India, where it was held a person could be deprived
of his right to life only by a law which was just,
fair and reasonable; and in Bandhua Mukhti
Morcha v. Union of India, where the concept of
Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was introduced and
the locus standi requirement was diluted, were key
game changers which ensured that India did not
slide down the slippery slope towards dictatorship.
Intervention, not overreach
The most common argument against excessive

judicial intervention is Professor Waldrons who
argues that empowering judges to decide on policy
issues amounts to disrespecting the democratically
elected representatives.
The logical extension of this argument is that
judicial activism results in upsetting the balance of
power between the executive, legislature and the
judiciary.
However, such an argument firstly assumes that

the legislature and executive are performing their
functions efficiently and secondly that the judiciary
is incapable of intervening in a manner which helps
further the ideals of democracy.
The assumption that the Parliament and
executive make policy decisions based on effective
participation with the citizens a flawed one and
the judiciary has a role in ensuring that there is
effective participation from interest groups. Further,
Professor Waldrons argument assumes that judicial
[72]
Since right to housing was a fundamental right

which the state had failed to provide, the judiciary
directed the state and the inmates to engage with
each other meaningfully and in the light of the
values of the Constitution, the constitutional and
statutory duties of the municipality and the duties
of citizens concerned to resolve the dispute.
The judiciary, by its interventions, ensured that
these deliberations were on a level playing field as
the final result of the deliberations was susceptible
to scrutiny by the Court.
In this manner, while it ensured that executive
inaction was not pardoned, the final decision itself
was left to the executive but subject to judicial
superintendence.
Another example of an innovative prodemocratic intervention is the case of Minister of
Health v. Treatment Action Campaign , where the
government was given directions to review its policy
regarding distribution of antiretroviral drugs and
plan an effective and comprehensive national
programme to prevent Mother To Child
Transmission (MTCT) of HIV.
Restrictive interference
These cases clearly illustrate that it is possible

for courts to monitor actions of the other limbs of
democracy without actually stepping into their
shoes. These precedents get theoretical support
from the writings of Professor Roach who argues
that the judiciary should not create policies to
enforce rights but must require the government to
draft its own policy and submit it along with a
timetable for execution. The finalisation of this plan
must be only after the judiciary has heard
objections from other interested parties.
Once such a policy is framed by a legislature/
executive, it is to be interfered with by the judiciary
in a very restrictive manner, using the principle of

deference. According to this principle, the judiciary,
while evaluating executive/legislative action (or
inaction), should modify the policy framed only
when the reasons provided are not reasonable.
A court should merely see whether the reasons
provided by the executive justify its decision, not
whether the court would have reached the same
decision. This standard should be applied not only
when a policy is tested before the courts but also
by courts to see if inaction is justified.
The mere risk of judicial over-activism cannot

be an argument against judicial activism. Judicial
activism, keeping in view the ideals of democracy,
is, in fact, necessary to ensure that unheard voices
are not buried by more influential and vocal voices.
Indeed, on most occasions, timely interventions of
the judiciary in India the home of judicial
activism has helped democracy flourish in our
country despite repeated failures of the other
organs.
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While there is the danger of judicial activism

being misused by unscrupulous elements and the
Supreme Court has come down heavily on such
misuse, the solution is not to throw away the baby

with the bathwater.
Source: The Hindu
DOMAIN REGULATORS MUST PROBE FRAUDS
The RBI's reported decision to carry out

independent forensic audit of corporates declared
fraudulent by banks is welcome. As a sectoral
regulator, the RBI is best placed to catch the slightest
whiff of anything fishy in its domain, and initiate
a preliminary investigation that lets slip forensic
auditors on the books of corporate borrowers. This,
in turn, will give moral support to banks to go
after defaulting borrowers and protect their loan
books. Similarly, all sectoral regulators should be
tasked with preliminary investigation in their
respective domains such as Sebi for market
manipulation. Dumping all investigation of fraud
in diverse sectors of the economy on a single or
common investigative agency without specialised
knowledge of individual sectors would not be very
productive. Banks, especially public sector banks
(PSBs), are saddled with bad loans, partly due to
political and bureaucratic meddling in the loan
process. The pressure on PSBs to come to the rescue

of Kingfisher Airlines is a good example. Such
interference and overreach in the regulator's
domain must end. Many of the loans extended by
PSBs in the aftermath of the 2008 crisis when
commercial sense called for a cutback in lending
at artificially low interest rates are now in
trouble. Bad loans, before making provisions, stood
at Rs. 2,43,210 crore for the calendar year 2013,
up 35 per cent on a year-on-year basis. At the
same time, there can be no golden rule that bars
an investigation by the CBI or the serious frauds
office in the absence of a preliminary investigation
by a regulator. Such a rule would give a boost to
regulatory capture. To govern a modernising
economy, all the organs of the state, including
investigative agencies, do need to acquire a certain
degree of complexity and specialised proficiency.
WAYS TO MEET BASEL III CAPITAL NORMS
It is known that Basel III implementation would

push up the incremental capital requirement of
Indian banks to over Rs 5 trillion over the next five
years. This gap would have to be filled with
common equity (around 25%) and hybrid capital
instruments (around 75%) such as additional tier I
and tier II instruments. However, in case the
appetite for hybrids proves inadequate (as these
are riskier instruments), the shortfall would have
to be met with common equity, which is both
expensive and scarce.
Given the dominance of public sector banks, or
PSBs (that account for over three fourth of
advances), which are majority held by the
government of India (GoI), a large part of the equity

would have to come from the GoI. In fact,
depending on market conditions, the GoI may well
have to contribute more to the capital than its
shareholding warrants (as has been the case in
2013-14 when the GoI and Life Insurance
Corporation of India, or LIC, together contributed
approximately a whopping 77% to to the total
equity infusion). This is a situation the GoI may
want to avoid, given its fiscal constraints. Therefore,
it would have to either help banks find investors
for their capital instruments or improve investor
sentiments for equity. The first being the easier
option, the GoI is keen on creating enablers for LIC
[73]

and the pension funds (PFs) to invest in capital
instruments, especially additional tier I.
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However, hybrid capital instruments carry

relatively higher risk as they come with stringent
clauses to ensure that loss absorption kicks in before
the "public injection of funds". For instance,
additional tier I investors could incur a loss on the
coupon if common equity falls below 8%, and even
the principal could be at risk if common equity tier
I drops below 5.5%; tier II investors could face a
loss if the bank concerned turns unviable.
Therefore, it is important that institutional investors
invest in these instruments after understanding and
factoring in the likely losses and keep the level of
such investments in their portfolio at prudent levels.
Despite the special push, if the appetite of insurance
companies and PFs for additional tier I remains
limited, it would be imperative to find more ways
to boost tier I capital or to simply conserve it.
enhancements are provided by external agencies, a

new avenue of high quality capital could open up
for the Indian financial system. But for this to
materialise, better appreciation and acceptability
of external credit enhancement providers would
be critical; simultaneously, a robust regulatory
framework would have to be put in place to prevent
regulatory arbitrage. The GoI could also attempt
taking up the arduous task of improving investor
perception of PSBs. Possibly, this could be achieved
by making some structural changes in the process
of making senior-level appointments at the PSBs
and aligning the incentives of bank staff.
Capital conservation could be achieved through

further development of the debt market, including
the securitisation market. While highly rated issuers
typically rely more on debt markets, it is not so for
issuers rated in the lower categories. An attempt
could be made to widen the market to lower rating
categories as well as to reduce credit risk via credit
enhancements. Such credit enhancements could
make higher-rated securities from lower-rated
issuers more acceptable to investors.
This could particularly be relevant for most infrastructure projects that are rated in the BBB/BB
categories. However, if such credit enhancements
are provided by the banks themselves, there would
be no real risk transfer and the capital relief would
be limited. At the same time, if the credit
Further, developing a framework to ensure

timely resolution of problems concerning large
accounts (not necessarily overdue accounts) and
improving credit discipline among state
undertakings (such as distribution companies and
state departments) could lead to improvements in
the solvency and liquidity position of counterparties, especially in the power and construction
sectors. Additionally, the GoI could bring in more
clarity on likely losses from stressed accounts, using
assessments done by external independent agencies.
Overall, while the core capital requirement for
the banking system is large, there are viable options
available to meet it. Also, the Reserve Bank of India
recently provided a breather to the PSBs and the
GoI by extending the deadline for Basel III
implementation. Now, it is up to the PSBs and the
GoI to work diligently on a longterm plan to
augment the much needed core capital rather than
focusing on reducing the immediate capital needs
and managing to just scrape through.
[74]
CHRONICLE
IAS ACADEMY

28TH APRIL 2014 TO 4TH MAY 2014
Call: 9953120676, 9582263947

CONTENTS
TOPICS
Pg. No.
National .......................................................................................................................... 4-9

International .............................................................................................................. 10-14
Economy ..................................................................................................................... 18-20
Health .......................................................................................................................... 24-25
News in Brief ........................................................................................................... 26-31
Editorials .................................................................................................................... 32-64
In the cross hairs of the extremists ............................................................................. 32
Managing the monsoon................................................................................................ 34
Sour turn in India-EU trade ........................................................................................ 36
Signs of helplessness ..................................................................................................... 36
Insulation from ideological assault ........................................................................... 37
Filtering content on the internet ................................................................................. 38
Green energy boost for Africa .................................................................................... 39
A silent killer thats not an election issue ................................................................. 40
Revisiting the law on remission ................................................................................. 41
Ensuring accuracy of rolls ........................................................................................... 41
Contradictions to the fore ............................................................................................ 42
The road to safety .......................................................................................................... 42
Professedly secular vs. conspicuously communal .................................................. 43

Securing Indias nuclear energy future..................................................................... 44
Get real about realty ..................................................................................................... 45
No small change ............................................................................................................ 47
Community injustice ..................................................................................................... 47
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A precarious poll ........................................................................................................... 48

Cant ban it away .......................................................................................................... 49
No skipping reform ...................................................................................................... 50
A higher confusion ........................................................................................................ 50
Inflation trinity ............................................................................................................... 51
Patent relief ..................................................................................................................... 52
Pill poppers ..................................................................................................................... 53
The primary trauma ..................................................................................................... 53
Security first .................................................................................................................... 55
No child is illegitimate................................................................................................. 55
Burden of proof .............................................................................................................. 56
Dismantling the machinery of death ........................................................................ 57
A billion shades of grey ............................................................................................... 58
The case for a strong Prime Ministers Office ......................................................... 59
The big elephant in the Internet ................................................................................. 60
Tackling Indian agricultures water woes ............................................................... 61
Revamping agriculture and PDS ............................................................................... 62
Weekly Current Affairs 28th April to 5th May, 2014
[3]
NATIONAL
NO TRANSPARENCY IN POLITICAL FUNDING
Rather than disclosing the action it had taken
on the returns of the political parties, the Central
Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) forwarded the RTI
application to the chief commissioners of income
tax in various states. This buck-passing was a tacit
admission that the CBDT had not set up any special
cell to process and track the returns. The final replies
came from the bottom layer of the hierarchy, the
officers in charge of IT wards. Most of those replies
were, to be sure, "nil reports" as the political parties
concerned were not registered in their wards. The
bizarre trajectory of this RTI application underlines
the opacity of the existing system in which political
parties are accountable for their funding and
accounts only to the EC and the IT department. It
shows that there can be no real transparency in
political funding unless the parties are accountable
to citizens under the RTI, as directed by the CIC. In
its landmark decision on June 3, 2013, the CIC had
directed the six national parties, including Congress
and BJP, to appoint information officers and
appellate authorities under the RTI within six
weeks. When none of the national parties bothered
to meet the deadline, the CIC dragged its feet on
issuing non-compliance notices to them. But again,
though they had been given four weeks to respond
to the notice, the CIC is yet to take any punitive
action against defaulting parties. If the CIC had
forced the national parties to submit to the RTI
discipline, it might have made a perceptible
difference to political funding and expenditure in
the 2014 election.
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It is hard to make an estimate about

astronomical amounts being spent by political
parties in the ongoing election, not even the
Election Commission has idea about it, as
Chartered aircraft, giant LED screens at public
meetings, fleets of vehicles for roadshows, posters,
hoardings and advertising, dramatic recoveries to
the tune of about Rs. 250 crore in cash and
humongous quantities of illicit liquor and narcotic
drugs, all in connection with poll canvassing are
making headlines.
For all the reforms made over the decades, the

latest election has remained stuck in old ways in
the lack of transparency in political funding. This
is despite a landmark ruling by the Central
Information Commission bringing political parties
under the ambit of the RTI Act. In the face of
public outrage over political corruption, Parliament
backed off from a Bill designed to negate the CIC
decision. While the CIC order remains
unimplemented, an RTI application on political
donations has triggered a panic chain reaction
within the income tax department. All that the
RTI application filed by activist Venkatesh Nayak
sought was details of the action taken by the
department on a 2013 letter from the EC
forwarding the IT returns of 17 political parties,
all of which happened to be regional parties such
as Asom Gana Parishad, Bodoland People's Front,
All India Forward Block and Indian National Lok
Dal.
NEXT TWO YEARS TO BRING PLENTY OF JOB OPPORTUNITY
The coming years could bring lots of

employment opportunities for the youths as about
five lakh job opportunities are expected to be
generated within the next two years in the major
cities taking into account likely absorption of
upcoming office space, according to global property
consultant CBRE. Bangalore and the national
capital region are expected to contribute more than
half of this total expected employment opportunity
by the end of 2015. In case Indias economic growth
[4]
accelerates to above 6 per cent in 2015, more such

opportunities may be expected.
The major reasons behind such positive
sentiments would appear to be rapid population
growth and gradually recovering economic
prospects, coupled with increasing transparency and
improving infrastructure. These factors seem to be
removing many of the traditional barriers to entry
into Indian markets.

pharmaceutical, engineering and manufacturing, and telecommunications.
Key points of the CBRE Research:
Over 70-80 million sq.ft. of new office space

is anticipated to be ready for possession by
2015 in the top seven cities Delhi-NCR,
Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai,
Pune and Kolkata.
Assuming about 60-65 per cent absorption
levels for this upcoming office space,
approximately four to five lakh employment
opportunities may be realistically anticipated
within the next two years.
Bangalore, Delhi-NCR and the Mumbai

Metropolitan Region (MMR) are slated to
account for nearly 75 per cent of this planned
office space supply.
With major corporate decision-makers across
Europe having indicated an increased appetite
for global expansion into Indian markets, this
expansion of modern, investment-grade office
stock in the main cities of India will go a
long way in meeting upcoming opportunities.
According to CBREs European Occupier
Survey 2013-2014, nearly 50 per cent of
corporate occupiers, responding to the survey,
named India as their destination of choice,
beating China as a preferred destination.
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IT/ITes and allied services sectors are likely

to account for a substantial chunk of this
opportunity, followed by the banking,
financial, services and insurance sectors; and
distantly followed by research and consulting,
NEED TO MAKE RAPE CASES FAST-TRACK
One of the most heinous crimes in recent times

is rape, and almost everyday the newspapers report
about such case. Considering the consistent
recurrence of rape incidents, the Supreme Court
has ordered fast tracking the procedure for
recording statements of the victim and witnesses.
The directions were given by a Bench of Justices
Gyan Sudha Mishra and V. Gopala Gowda .
If there is any delay exceeding 24 hours in

taking the victim to the Magistrate, the
Investigating Officer should record the reasons
for the same in the case diary and hand over
a copy of the same to the Magistrate.
Section 164 A Cr.P.C. imposes an obligation

on the part of Investigating Officer to get the
victim of the rape immediately medically
examined.
A copy of the medical report should be

immediately handed over to the Magistrate
who records the statement of the victim under
Section 164 Cr.P.C.
The Bench directed that a copy of this order

thus be circulated to all the Director Generals
of Police of all the States/Commissioner of
Police in Metropolitan cities/Commissioner of
Police of Union Territories.
The Bench made it clear that the authorities

must send a copy of this order to all the police
stations in charge in their States/Union
Territories for its compliance in cases which
are registered on or after the receipt of a copy
of these directions.
Necessary instructions by the DGPs/

Commissioners of Police be also issued to all
the police station in-charge by the DGPs/
Commissioner of Police incorporating the
directions. The Bench directed the matter to
be posted again after four weeks to ensure
compliance of this order.
What are the directions?
Upon receipt of information relating to the

commission of offence of rape, the
Investigating Officer shall make immediate
steps to take the victim to any Metropolitan/
preferably Lady Judicial Magistrate for the
purpose of recording her statement under
Section 164 Cr.P.C.
The recording of evidence of the victim and
other witnesses multiple times ought to be
put to an end which was the primary reason
for delay of the trial.
If the evidence recorded for the first time itself

be kept in sealed cover to be produced and
treated as deposition of the witnesses and
hence admissible at the stage of trial with
liberty to the defence to cross-examine them
with further liberty to the accused to lead his
defence witness and other evidence with a
right to cross-examination by the prosecution
If such a procedure was introduced at least

for trial of rape cases it was bound to reduce
the duration of trial and thus offer a speedy
remedy by way of a fast track procedure.
[5]
23 POWER PROJECTS SCRAPPED IN UTTARAKHAND

area", and would not significantly impact
wildlife.
Scrapped power projects in Uttarakhand
Outcomes of the report:
The committee has rejected most of the

projects, as they are proposed in either ecosensitive zones or within forbidden zones of
wildlife sanctuaries or parks, in habitats of
rare, endangered and threatened species.
The site of the proposed Rambara Project
(24mw) on Mandakini river was washed out
during the June 2013 deluge. Alaknanda
project (300mw) and Khairon Ganga (4mw),
are proposed within 10 km of the Valley of
Flowers National Park, a World Heritage Site,
in violation of SC directions.
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The Monitoring Committee of the Supreme

Court formed by the Ministry of Environment and
Forests has unanimously decided not to recommend
23 of the new projects, worth 2683.6 megawatts.
The Committee was formed to study 24 proposed
hydro projects on the Alaknanda and Bhagirathi
rivers in Uttarakhand. It has published the report,
Assessment of environmental degradation and
impact of hydroelectric projects during the June
2013 disaster in Uttarakhand, which was submitted
to the Environment Ministry on April 16. The
committee was set up in October 2013 after the SC
took note of a Wildlife Institute of India report that
pointed the extensive threat to biodiversity because
of these projects. The court directed the MoEF to
set up a committee to examine the projects. The
committee's
recommendations
could
hit
Uttarakhand's ambitious plan for self-sufficiency
in the power sector.
The committee approved only one of the 24
projects, Kotlibhel (195mw), saying it was in
a "comparatively low biodiversity sensitive
Lata Tapovan project (170mw), Malari

Jhelam (114mw), Jelam Tamak (126mw) and
Tamak Lata (250mw) on Dhauliganga river
also fall within the Nanda Devi National
Park, declared a World Heritage Site by
UNESCO.
Two projects on the Rishi Ganga river, with

a capacity of 105mw, have also been proposed
within a 10-km radius of Nanda Devi
National Park.
SALARY DIFFERENCES FAIL TO ATTRACT GOOD TALENT
There is a wide gap between the salaries offered

by private sector companies and the government
pay-scales, which attracts talented minds towards
the former. Taking this into account, the Seventh
Pay Commission has set the ball rolling on the
process of implementing a new pay package for
over 50 lakh central government employees by
sending a missive to all central ministries eliciting
views on whether the current remuneration
packages are sufficient to attract talent to the
prestigious civil services. In a four page questionnaire, the pay panel wants to know how attractive
is the annual increment, ways to reward good
performance and the changes introduced by the
Sixth Pay Commission such as pay bands and pay
grades.
The pay panel is expected to submit its
recommendations within 18 months. Headed by
former Supreme Court judge Ashok Kumar
Mathur, it was asked to finalise its recommendations while keeping in view the economic
conditions in the country and fiscal prudence. The
panel has also sought comments on determining
the basis for pay fixation at the highest and lowest
[6]
levels, variable pay, the effectiveness of the annual

increment on July 1, retirement benefits under the
New Pension Scheme as well as experiences of
government departments with outsourcing of jobs.
Significantly, the pay panel has a dedicated section
on issues relating to the defence services seeking
views on how to evolve parity between salaries of
civil and defence personnel. It is also expected to
review benefits to war widows and disabled
soldiers. The panel has also sought views on the
payment of bonus, which is one of its terms of
reference. Additionally, it has asked for comments
on the pay structure of sectoral regulators.
The Sixth Pay Commission was set up in 2006,
and gave its report after 18 months in March 2008,
costing the Exchequer an additional Rs. 26,035
crore in the first year and is considered one of the
main reasons why the government missed its fiscal
deficit target. Accordingly, the Seventh Pay
Commission that is looking into revising salaries of
over 50 lakh central government employees and
remuneration of 30 lakh pensioners has asked for
ideas on how to address the rising expenditure on
defence pensions.
POLITICS MORE VIOLENT FOR WOMEN IN INDIA: STUDY

problem was poor implementation of existing
laws.
Atrocities committed towards women
The study recommended that at least 33% of

seats be reserved for women at the national
and state levels, adding that the Election
Commission and other institutions related to
the electoral process should take steps to
protect and encourage women who
participate in politics.
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According to a study released by UN Women

and New Delhi-based Centre for Social Research,
the number of women who vote and contest
elections has increased in India, Nepal and Pakistan,
but the share of female representatives in national
governments decreased. The study, Violence
Against Women in Politics (VAWIP), which covered
750 respondents from India, Pakistan
and Nepal, said such violence was
caused by insufficient implementation
of laws, lack of support from police
and judiciary and a decline in what
it called moral values.
The study confines itself to Delhi,
Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka,
because the reported levels of violence
were high for Uttar Pradesh, low for
Karnataka and medium for Delhi. It
also focuses on how gender
discrimination and the fear of violence
inevitably reduces womens ability to
make an effective contribution in the
political arena.
Finer points of the report:
Forty-five per cent of the respondents

women politicians in India said they have
faced physical abuse, while in Pakistan and
Nepal the figures are at 30% and 21%,
respectively. Another 49% of the women were
verbally abused in India, as against 23% in
Pakistan and 31% in Nepal.
The most widespread risks faced by women

in politics include the expectation of sexual
favors and threats of violence, according to
800 male and female respondents surveyed
across the three countries.
The most widespread forms of violence

against women in politics, according to the
respondents, was related to expectation of
sexual favours and the threat of violence
rather than actual physical violence.
Character assassination, verbal harassment

and emotional blackmail were also used
against women who contest elections. When
men fail to find fault in womens activities or
progress, they raise questions on womens
chastity.
Except for a few chosen female politicians,

most elected female representatives have a
limited or marginal role in important
discussions within their political party or
within the national decision-making
processes.
While physical violence, verbal abuse and the

threat of violence were higher for India,
character assassination was seen as the
greatest threat in Pakistan and Nepal.
The study recommended expanding political

reservation for women, with an extension of
a minimum 33% reservation at all levels.
It also wanted political parties to ensure that

no tickets are given to those who have
criminal cases, particularly against women.
They should also include more women
More than 60% of women were afraid they

would face violence if they participated in
politics, said the study, conducted between
2003 and 2013. Most victims of violence were
poor, lower caste, young women who entered
politics.
53% of Indian respondents said the country

lacked adequate laws to prevent violence
against women, and 81% said that the real
[7]

members in central and selection committees
and in parliamentary committees.
The Election Commission too needs to take
steps to recognize, protect, promote and

institutionalize womens participation in
politics, it added.
POLICY ON CUTTING EMISSION FROM DEFORESTATION

centuries-old woodland in India. The REDD+
programme could provide for the capture of around
1 billion tonnes of additional CO 2 over the next
three decades and significant financial incentives.
REDD+ can be a part of an effective strategy and
tool for mitigation and adaptation of climate
change, improving ecological and environmental
services, biodiversity conservation as well as
enhancing the forest based livelihood of forest
dependent communities.
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Deforestation and forest degradation - through

agricultural expansion, conversion to pastureland,
infrastructure development, logging and fires,
account for nearly 20 percent of emissions. One of
the world's largest polluters, India, has drafted a
national policy which is aimed at reducing its
carbon emissions from deforestation as part of a
global scheme which financially rewards developing
nations for carbon stored through forest
preservation. India has the tenth largest forest
coverage in the world. It is also the world's fifth
largest carbon emitter, accounting for 5 percent of
global greenhouse gases, according to the Indian
government.
There is a need to recognise the carbon function
of the forests and develop a fair, transparent and
participatory mechanism to share the financial
benefits arising out of national and international
mitigation and adaptation programmes with the
local communities participating in the conservation
efforts. As a result, the fledgling U.N.-backed
Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest
Degradation scheme, or REDD+-aims to create a
financial value for the carbon stored in forests,
offering incentives for developing countries to
reduce emissions from forested lands, while
managing them sustainably.
The National REDD+Policy aims to provide a

roadmap for building comprehensive strategies for
implementing REDD+projects and programmes
effectively in the country in the context of
international development in this sector. The
national draft policy said there was significant scope
for improving quality of forest cover by addressing
degradation which is major problem facing
According to the environmental group

Greenpeace India the country's forests faced
serious challenges from industrial activities such as
mining as well as the building of roads, railways
and dams. India has always been interested in
market mechanisms to address emissions cuts and
climate change, but previous examples of such
financial reward schemes show that they do not
work.
The latest report on climate change by the U.N.
stressed the risks of global warming, making a
stronger case for governments to adopt policies on
adaptation and cut emissions. It predicted a rise in
global temperatures of between 0.3 and 4.8 degrees
Celsius (0.5 to 8.6 Farenheit) and a rise of up to 82
cm (32 inches) in sea levels by the late 21st century
due to melting ice and expansion of water as it
warms, threatening coastal cities from Shanghai to
San Francisco. In order to constrain the impacts of
climate change within limits that society will
reasonably be able to tolerate, global average
temperatures must be stabilised within two degrees
Celsius. This will be practically impossible to achieve
without reducing emissions from the forest sector,
in addition to other mitigation actions.
NJRS LAUNCHED TO HELP TAXMEN
In a move aimed at helping the department in

managing litigation better, the income tax
department is set to launch a centralized repository
of all appeals and important judgements in direct
tax cases by the end of 2014. The National Judicial
Reference System (NJRS) will help taxmen access
all pending appeals and track their status. It will
enable tax officers to find judgements by various
courts in direct tax cases at the click of a button.
It will also help the tax department access the entire
[8]
litigation history of a taxpayer with the help of the

permanent account number (PAN).
The project will enable officers to take timely
action in appeal matters, aid decision making and
improve litigation management in the tax
department. The note added that the Web-based
system will be available to all income tax officers
by November-December 2014. A consortium led
by NSDL E-governance Infrastructure Ltd was
recently awarded the contract to set up this system.

The database will make available all relevant
judgements of the income tax appellate tribunal,
high courts and the Supreme Court along with
department orders and circulars. It will also
mention the PAN number of the assessee, the
assessment year, the question of law that is being
debated, the departments stand and other details
about the case like the date of filing the appeal and
the court in which its being heard for facilitating

an easy search on the Web-based system.
The tax department has been taking a number
of steps to reduce and streamline the litigation
process. These include increasing monetary limits
for filing appeals, instructions to field officers to
file special leave petitions only in deserving cases
and better coordination among various agencies.
BAN ON 3G ROAMING PACTS OVERTURNED

of the 3G network, and the Government, having a
percentage share in the adjusted gross revenue of
the licence holders, would thus be able to get a
larger sum as licence fee. The arrangement is thus
beneficial to the consumer, the operators and the
State. The impact of the ruling will be felt most by
Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular as they can
revive their deal to offer 3G services in each others
circles, and thus get a pan-India footprint. Idea,
which does not have 3G airwaves in Delhi, will be
able to offer data services to customers by taking
capacity from Airtel and Vodafone. Other
companies, such as Reliance Communication, Aircel
and Tata Teleservices, are also expected to form
such an alliance. In particular, the ruling will put
Idea, Airtel and Vodafone in a better position to
compete with the financially strong Reliance Jio,
which is expected to launch its data services, based
on 4G technology, this year. Consumers also benefit
as they will have more options to choose from. At
present there are only three operators in each circle
offering 3G services.
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Now mobile operators, including Airtel,

Vodafone and Idea Cellular, will be able to offer
3G services across the country, with the telecom
tribunal holding their roaming pacts to be valid.
The three operators had inked an intra-circle
roaming agreement to offer 3G services across the
country, using each others spectrum because none
of these players had won pan-India spectrum
individually in the auctions held in 2010. The
Department of Telecom had objected to the deal,
saying that though roaming is permitted, such an
intra-circle arrangement cannot be used to sell 3G
connections in areas where operators do not have
spectrum. DoT had asked the operators to stop
such services and had also imposed penalties. The
Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal
(TDSAT) has, however, quashed the penalties and
ruled in favour of the operators.
As per the tribunal, allowing intra-circle 3G
roaming would result in a much fuller and better
utilisation of 3G spectrum. This would increase the
gross revenue of both the provider and the seeker
[9]
INTERNATIONAL
US, PHILIPPINES DEFENCE TIE-UP
requirement of Philippine sovereignty. It prevents
the permanent stationing of U.S. troops and the
U.S. having bases or weapons of mass destruction
in the country, according to a draft of the details
released earlier this month. U.S. access to Philippine
military facilities will be at the Philippines
invitation.
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The Philippines and the U.S. have signed an

agreement to boost the American troop presence
in the Southeast Asian nation, as President Obama
said Americas strategic rebalancing to Asia is not
aimed at combating a rising China. Philippine
President Benigno Aquino is strengthening military
ties with countries like the U.S. as it is embroiled in
a territorial dispute with China over islands and
shoals in the South China Sea. Chinese Coast Guard
ships tried to drive away a Philippine supply ship
in Ayungin shoal on March 29, before the
Philippines filed evidence to a United Nations
arbitration body handling its complaint against
China. China has insisted on using bilateral talks
to resolve South China Sea disputes.
The accord signed by Philippine Defense
Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and U.S. Ambassador
to the Philippines Philip Goldberg spells out the
The size, duration and timing of U.S. troop

rotations will be worked out with the Philippines
under the scope of the 1951 mutual defense treaty.
There are no specifics on rotations within the
framework agreement, and Subic Bay may be one
of the sites used under the pact. The pact will allow
for the construction of new facilities or the upgrade
of existing ones in Philippine military camps and
the storage and prepositioning of defense,
humanitarian and disaster response equipment, the
Philippine foreign affairs department said today in
a statement.
INTERNET EXPLORER BUG PRESURRIZES USING ALTERNATIVE

The U.S. and UK governments has advised
computer users to consider using alternatives to
Microsoft Corp's Internet Explorer browser until
the company fixes a security flaw that hackers used
to launch attacks. The Internet Explorer bug is the
first high-profile computer threat to emerge since
Microsoft stopped providing security updates for
Windows XP, which means that PCs running the
13-year-old operating system will remain
unprotected, even after Microsoft releases updates
to defend against it.
According to the Department of Homeland
Security's U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness

Team, the vulnerability in versions 6 to 11 of
Internet Explorer could lead to "the complete
compromise" of an affected system. Versions 6 to
11 of Internet Explorer dominate desktop browsing,
accounting for 55 percent of global market share.
The threat that emerged over the weekend could
be the wakeup call that prompts the estimated 15
to 25 percent of PC users who still use XP to dump
those systems alongwith Windows machines as well
as Apple Inc's Macs and iPads alongwith Google's
Chrome laptops and Android tablets.
PUTINS INNER CIRCLE UNDER SANCTIONS
The US has targeted sanctions at close allies

and aides of Russian President Vladimir Putin over
the Ukraine crisis and threatened broad penalties
against key sectors of Russia's economy if Moscow
moves deeper into Ukraine. Some of Russia's
wealthiest men were cited for sanctions as well as
a large Russian bank with ties to Putin's inner circle,
[10]
including the Deputy Prime Minister, a senior staffer

of Mr. Putins executive office, the director of a top
Russian security agency, the chairman of a State
Duma Committee, and the head of the state oil
company Rosneft. President Obama said that his
goal was, not to go after Mr. Putin, personally,
but to change his calculus with respect to how the

current actions that he is engaging in Ukraine could
have an adverse impact on the Russian economy
over the long haul.
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Obama also signed a new executive order that

clears the way for U.S. sanctions against broad
sections of the Russian economy should Putin's
military make moves beyond Crimea and into
southern and eastern Ukraine. According to senior
administration officials, many parts of the Russian
economy could be targeted, including the financial
services sector and the key energy, defense and
mining sectors. Russia's oil and gas industry alone
accounts for nearly half of the country's annual
budget revenues.
The White House in the latest round of

sanctions, in addition to imposing an asset freeze
on the seven individuals close to Mr. Putin, target
17 companies in his inner circle with asset freezes,
visa bans and export restrictions for high-technology
items. The U.S. and its allies were unified in its
position that Russia must cease its illegal
intervention and provocative actions in Ukraine,
and Washington remained prepared to impose still
greater costs on Moscow if the Russian leadership
continues these provocations instead of deescalating the situation, consistent with its Geneva
commitments.
PRISTINE ANTARCTICA: TOURISM IMPACT, A TOP CONCERN
Antarctica is certainly the most pristine place

on earth although it is not as unspoiled as may be
imagined. For more than a hundred years people
have travelled to Antarctica and most parts have
now been visited. Antarctica's clean air, water and
ice of are of importance to science for understanding
how the Earth's environment is changing both
naturally and as a result of human activity. Tour
operators are beginning to tap a huge and ever
increasing demand to visit the Earth's last great
wilderness. Both science and tourism have the
potential to damage the very qualities that draw
them to Antarctica. Some Antarctic species have
been taken to the verge of extinction for economic
benefit. Others have been killed or disturbed, soils
have been contaminated, untreated sewage has been
discharged into the sea and rubbish that will not
decompose or break down has been left behind in
even the remotest parts.
The concerns for the environmental
management of Antarctica is how to make good
past damage and how to reduce the current and
future impacts. Increased tourism on the worlds
iciest continent and its impact on the environment
were set to top discussions at an annual Antarctic
Treaty meeting that began in Brasilia recently. It
was discussed that around 32,000 tourists visit
Antarctica each year. Cruise ships and aeroplanes
have vastly multiplied the number of visitors in
recent years.
The Antarctic Treaty sets out terms for the

continent to remain a non-military zone and free
for scientific research, to protect its environment,
and to affirm Antarcticas territorial sovereignty.
Meetings for the treaty, which came into force in
1961, will continue through May 7. Other topics
for discussion include the progress of biological

research and conservation of fauna and flora,
besides cooperation between the member states.
The main threats facing Antarctica can be
summarized as:
1. Global warming, resulting in a loss of sea ice
and land-based ice, this is greatest long-term
threat to the region. Already some ice shelves
have collapsed and ice slopes and glaciers
have retreated. Oceanic acidification (from
extra dissolved carbon dioxide) is already
leading to the loss of some marine snails
thought to have a significant part to play in
the oceanic carbon cycle.
2. Increased tourism, with the accompanying
pollutants that accompany ships and aircraft,
the possibility of oil spills and the effect of
lots of people and infrastructure on wildlife
and the wider environment.
3. Over fishing, much of the world's oceans are
over-fished, the chances are that if
investments into the kinds of boats and fishing
gear needed for Antarctica are made, then it
too will suffer this same fate. Fishing for krill
could be particularly significant as these are
at the bottom of many Antarctic food chains.
There are already illegal fishing boats that
ignore current regulations.
4. Pollution, CFC's and other ozone depletors
are responsible for the ozone hole that has
appeared over Antarctica for over 30 years,
chemicals produced thousands of miles away
are found in Antarctic ice and in the bodies
of wildlife, discarded equipment, chemicals
[11]

and oil can degrade the landscape. Fishing
nets, plastic, lines, hooks etc. carried by the
sea can result in great suffering or loss of life
by birds, fish and marine mammals.
6. Exploration and exploitation of mineral

reserves, oil and gas. Not currently
economically viable, but as the need becomes
greater and as technology advances, this will
become an increasing threat. The Antarctic
Treaty bans all mining and mineral
exploitation indefinitely, though this comes
up for review in 2048.
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5. Invasive species, organisms that are not

native to Antarctica being brought there on
ships, attached as seeds to boots and clothing
and those that are able to now survive there
as a consequence of global warming. Rats in
particular are a threat to Antarctica's ground
nesting birds which are particularly
vulnerable as there are no native ground based

predators for them to be used to defending
themselves against.
EU IMPOSES SANCTIONS AGAINST RUSSIA
The EU has levied sanctions against Valery

Gerasimov, Chief of Staff of Russia's Armed Forces,
as part of an escalating response to the country's
threats and incursions against Ukraine. Gerasimov
is one of 15 individuals the EU added to a list of
Russian leaders and pro-Russian Ukrainian figures
facing punitive measures for helping violate
Ukraine's territorial integrity. Other top Kremlin
figures included in the new sanctions are Russia's
Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak; Ludmila
Shvetsova, deputy chairman of the Russian Duma,
or Lower House of Parliament; and Igor Sergun,
who heads Moscow's Main Intelligence Directorate.
The list also includes figures from Eastern Ukraine

who are promoting the pro-Russian cause there,
such as Andriy Purgin, head of the Donetsk
Republic, a self-proclaimed entity that is not
internationally recognized.
The new EU and U.S. sanctions reflect Western
leaders' conclusion than a Russia-Ukraine
agreement reached in Geneva on April 17 has
failed. American and European leaders say Russia
has completely ignored the agreement, which calls
for measures such as disarming militias, vacating
occupied buildings, and awarding amnesty to
protestirs.
$17-billion Aid For Ukraine
In order to prevent a collapse of Ukraine's

economy the International Monetary Fund
approved a $17 billion emergency rescue package
for the country. The signoff also unlocks an
additional $15 billion in international financing,
including loans and other funding from the U.S.,
Europe and the World Bank. According to the IMF
Managing Director Christine Lagarde "Urgent
action was necessary, decisive measures were taken
by Ukraine, and decisive action has just been taken
by the IMF, there has been a very strong
endorsement of the program."
The bailout from the world's emergency lender
represents far more than financial aid for a failing
economy. The high-risk emergency loan was
whipped together in a matter of weeks and
approved unanimously by the fund's top
shareholders despite an escalating sanctions fight
that has pitted the Westparticularly the U.S. and
Europeagainst Russia over Moscow's attempts to
destabilize Ukraine.
The political instability in Ukraine and Russia's
own economic turmoil are two of the major threats
to the viability of the IMF bailout. Ukraine's own
political and economic future remains uncertain.
[12]
Further turmoil in eastern Ukraine, or a ramping

up of the sanctions battle, would likely accelerate
Ukraine's economic downturn. That would make
needed budget belt-tightening, which is already a
politically unpopular exercise, that much tougher.
It could also raise external financing requirements.
The fund is assuming Ukraine's economy could
contract by as much as 5% this year, but will
rebound next year.
Kiev also has a poor record on IMF bailouts.
The fund has twice canceled programs after the
government failed to implement required economic
policies in the face of entrenched interests and
political opposition. The IMF required Kiev to
approve a dozen economic restructuring policies
before it gave the bailout a green light. The program
requires tough budget belt-tightening that will hit
public workers and includes a major increase in
energy prices. Like that program, the Ukraine
bailout will require the IMF to approve "exceptional
access" to the fund's resources because of the
amount of cash the country needs to borrow. Those
rules require special circumstances before the board
can approve a loan.

U.S. and European leaders are contemplating
whether to impose broader sanctions against Russia
that would target sectors of the country's economy,
such as banking, energy or defense. EU foreign
ministers are scheduled to meet on May 12, though

that meeting could be moved upto next week, with
Ukraine likely to dominate the session.
OBAMA FOR A BALANCING ACT IN ASIA

whom have long-standing territorial disputes with
Beijing in the East and South China Seas.
Obama and Abe are expected to send a message
of solidarity after strains following Abe's December
visit to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine. Obama also
assured Japan that tiny isles in the East China Sea
at the heart of a territorial row with China are
covered by a bilateral security treaty that obligates
America to come to Japan's defence. The so-called
U.S.-Japan alliance is a bilateral arrangement from
the Cold War and ought not to harm China's
territorial sovereignty and reasonable rights. Obama
also reaffirmed Washington's commitment to the
security of South Korea, and said it would stand
firm in its insistence that a nuclear North Korea
was unacceptable. Seoul is the second stop on
Obama's four-nation swing, which also includes
Malaysia and the Philippines.
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Obama made his first full state visit to Japana visit made by a U.S. President since 1996. Obama
arrived in Tokyo at the start of a four-nation trip
that comes at a time of rising tension in the region.
Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
are keen to show progress on a two-way trade
pact seen as critical to a broader regional deal that
would be one of the world's biggest trade
agreements and is central to Obama's "pivot" of
military, diplomatic and trade resources towards
Asia.
Japan, whose relations with rival China have
chilled over the past two years, has been beset by
anxiety over the degree to which reality matches
rhetoric in Obama's promised "pivot". China fears
the U.S. is pursuing a policy of containment
through its network of Asian allies, several of
INDIA RANKS LOW IN PRESS FREEDOM RANKING
The 2014 World Press Freedom Index exposes

the negative impact of conflicts on freedom of
information and its protagonists. The ranking of
some countries has also been affected by a tendency
to interpret national security needs in an overly
broad and abusive manner to the detriment of the
right to inform and be informed. This trend
constitutes a growing threat worldwide and is even
endangering freedom of information in countries
regarded as democracies.
wave of violence against journalists, with eight

killed in 2013. Almost no region is spared but
Kashmir and Chhattisgarh continue to be the only
two where violence and censorship are endemic.
Those responsible for threats and physical violence
against journalists, who are abandoned by the
judicial system and forced to censor themselves,
include police and security forces as well as
criminal groups, demonstrators and political party
supporters.
Finland tops the index for the fourth year

running, closely followed by Netherlands and
Norway, like last year. At the other end of the
index, the last three positions are again held by
Turkmenistan, North Korea and Eritrea, three
countries where freedom of information is nonexistent.
Syria, unchanged at 177th, has been an extreme

example of this since March 2011. The Syrian crisis
has also had dramatic repercussions throughout
the region, reinforcing media polarization in
Lebanon (106th, -4), encouraging the Jordanian
authorities to tighten their grip, and accelerating
the spiral of violence in Iraq (153rd, -2), where tension
between Shiites and Sunnis is growing.
India has slipped down the global rankings in

Global press freedom. It has fallen to its lowest
level in over a decade with India ranked 78th and
belonging to countries with "partially free media".
India's press freedom score declined by a point to
39 "reflecting an increased interference in content
by media owners in the run-up to the 2014
elections". India experienced an unprecedented
In Iran (173rd, +2), one of the Middle Easts

key countries, there has so far been no
implementation of the promises to improve freedom
of information that the new President, Hassan
Rouhani, made. Coverage of the Syrian tragedy in
both the official Iranian press and on the
blogosphere is closely watched by the regime, which
[13]

cracks down on any criticism of its foreign policy.
This negative correlation is also seen in the big
falls registered by Mali (122nd, -22) and Central
African Republic (109th, -34). The open or
internecine warfare destabilizing Democratic
Republic of Congo (151st, -8) and the activities of
guerrillas and terrorist groups in Somalia (176th,
unchanged) and Nigeria (112th, +4) prevented any
significant improvement in their ranking.
To conclude the rankings, each country received

a numerical score from 0 (the most free) to 100
(the least free) on the basis of combined scores from
three sub categories: the legal environment, political
environment and the economic environment. For
each category, a lower number of points is allotted
for a more free situation, while a higher number of
points is allotted for a less free environment.
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The formation of a government led by Mohamed

Morsi in Egypt (159th, unchanged) in the summer
2012 was accompanied by an increase in abuses
against journalists and all-out efforts to bring the
media under the Muslim Brotherhoods control. The
ensuing persecution of the Muslim Brotherhood
affected not only Egyptian journalists but also their
Turkish, Palestinian and Syrian colleagues. In the
Persian Gulf, especially the United Arab Emirates
(118th, -3), bloggers and journalists were arrested
and tried on charges of links to the Brotherhood.
Violence against journalists, direct censorship

and misuse of judicial proceedings are on the decline
in Panama (87th, +25), Dominican Republic (68th,
+13), Bolivia (94th, +16) and Ecuador (94th, +25),
although in Ecuador the level of media polarization
is still high and often detrimental to public debate
The case in the United States (46th), which fell

13 places, is one of the most significant declines,
amid increased efforts to track down whistleblowers and the sources of leaks. The trial and
conviction of Private Bradley Manning and the
pursuit of NSA analyst Edward Snowden were
warnings to all those thinking of assisting in the
disclosure of sensitive information that would clearly
be in the public interest.
More from the report:

Of the 197 countries assessed during 2013,
around 63 (32%) were rated free, with Sweden
having the world's most independent press.
China's score stood at 84, Pakistan 64 and
Sri Lanka 76.
Only 5% of the Asia Pacific region's population had access to free media in 2013. China,
rated Not Free, continued to crack down on
online speech, particularly on microblogs, and
also ramped up pressure on foreign journalists.
Press freedom deteriorated in Hong Kong,
India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and several Pacific
Island states, including Nauru, which was
downgraded to Partly Free.
RISE IN GLOBAL TERRORISM BY 43%
Terrorism has always been a menace for most

of the countries across the world and terrorist
activity increased significantly in 2013, from the
work of Islamist extremists to Greek anarchists to
lone wolf attackers in America. According to a new
report released by the United States Department of
State this week, 43% more terrorist attacks occurred
in 2013 than in 2012. The report has already
sparked outrage from nations that are considered
state sponsors of terror.
The comprehensive report notes that much of

the surge in violence is due to increased violent
terrorist activity in Iraq. As ABC News notes, of
the 17,891 total deaths worldwide attributable to
terrorism, more than one third of those occurred in
Iraq. Terrorist activity in general increased
worldwide, however, with more than 9,700
individual attacks recorded last year, compared to
6,700 in 2012. In addition to killings, nearly 30,000
people were kidnapped--a common fundraising
practice terrorists use in many parts of the world.
[14]
The Taliban was the deadliest of groups on the

list--Afghanistan second only to Iraq in deaths-responsible for 2,340 deaths in 2013. The Taliban
was not the only active group responsible for the
uptick in terrorist activity. The increase in attacks
can also be partly attributable to the disintegration
of a central operations team for al-Qaeda. Ayman
al-Zawahiri remains the official leader of the group,
but the group has splintered into a number of
dangerous offshoots that are operating in different
regions and independently planning attacks. The
report notes that al-Qaeda continues to pose the
most significant threat to the United States and
U.S. citizens and interests in Yemen. This group
operates near Saudi Arabia and is responsible for
the en masse gathering in Yemen's capital, Sana'a,
which triggered a counter offensive, both from the
United States and the Yemeni military. Other
dangerous groups include al-Qaeda in the Islamic
Maghreb, which operates in Africa, and the former
al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and the
Levant, which has been increasingly active in Syria.
INDIA AND THE WORLD

NO MORE ALPHANSO MANGOES, VEGETABLES FROM INDIA
necessary because pests could threaten the countrys
321 million salad crop industry of tomato and
cucumber. Wholesalers and retailers in Indiandominated regions of the UK who opposed the
ban are going to be hit hard by it. The UK imports
nearly 16 million mangoes from India and the
market for the fruit is worth nearly 6 million a
year. A review of the ban will take place before 31
December, 2015.
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The European Union has temporarily banned

the import of Alphonso mangoes and four
vegetables from India from May 1, which has
aroused protests among the Indian community,
lawmakers and traders. The recent decision by the
groupings Standing Committee on Plant Health
came after 207 consignments of fruits and
vegetables from India imported into the EU in 2013
were found to be contaminated by pests such as
fruit flies and other quarantine pests. The temporary
ban, proposed by the European Commission,
includes mangoes, eggplant, the taro plant, bitter
gourd and snake gourd. Although the prohibited
commodities represent less than 5% of fresh fruits
and vegetables imported into the EU from India,
the potential introduction of new pests could pose
a threat to EU agriculture and production, the
committee noted.
The UKs department for environment, food and
rural affairs has backed the ban and said it was
Meanwhile, an e-Petition titled Reverse Mango

Import Ban has gathered hundreds of signatures
over its warning that: The ban will severely impact
importers and distributors in the UK and for some
it will render their entire trade unfeasible. The ban
has been undertaken hastily. Proven treatments
have not been considered before an outright ban
e.g. hot water treatment, irradiation which is
approved for import into the USA and vapour heat
treatments.
INDO-CHINA BORDER TALK
The issue of Chinese incursion has always been

one of conflict between the two countries. India
recently raised the issue of recent Chinese incursions
at official-level talks during which the two sides
discussed ways to make working mechanisms more
efficient with the possibility of additional ways of
confidence-building. Measures also were discussed
to maintain peace and tranquility along the line of
actual control against the backdrop of concerns
over the recent spurt in incursions by the Chinese
Peoples Liberation Army. According to officials,
the Indian side raised the issue of recent incursions
by PLA troops in Ladakh region of Jammu and
Kashmir. There has been a spate of incursions by
Chinese troops in Ladakh region of Jammu and
Kashmir, with five such incidents witnessed within

a period of 11 days from 12 July.
This was the first meeting on border mechanism
since the three-week standoff in April at Depsang
Valley in Ladakh. The Indian delegation was led
by Gautam Bambawale, joint secretary (East Asia)
and comprised representatives of the ministries of
external affairs, defence and home affairs as well
as members of the Indian Army and the IndoTibetan Border Police. The two sides also discussed
possibility of additional route to Kailash
Mansarover, a pilgrimage place which falls in
Chinese Territory. The traditional route via
Uttarakhand was affected by recent floods.
INDIA NOT A PATENT RIGHTS OFFENDERS

Despite differences in IP practices between India
and the US, there exists a flourishing pharmaceuticals trade between the two countries, but the
relationship has nosedived this time, as presently,

the US Trade Representative (USTR) is reviewing
Indias IP regime, which is scheduled to be released
[15]

recently (USTR Special 301 report). An unfavourable review will lead to downgrading Indias
status to Priority Foreign Country, which may
prompt the US to impose sanctions on Indo-US
trade. These actions have mostly been triggered by
Big Pharma lobbyists complaining to the US
government about Indias trade practices. Their
biggest gripe is Indias tendency to promote

accessible healthcare by using tools such as
compulsory licensing. The US has also expressed
its displeasure over the Supreme Courts decision
rejecting Novartis patent last year.
The United States has resisted lobbying by U.S.
drug and pharmaceutical companies to take tougher
India Identified as priority watch country

sory licensing
industrial policy
the potential to
across economic
India has promoted compulsory licensing as

a mechanism available for government entities
to effectuate technology transfer in the clean
energy sector and has even sought to multilaterialize this approach in ongoing
negotiations under the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The 301 cites a report from the International

Chamber of Commerce and FICCI which
analyzed seven key industry sectors
vulnerable to such activitiesautomotive
parts, alcohol, computer hardware, mobile
phones, packaged foods, personal goods, and
tobacco productsand concluded that rights
holders in 2012 suffered lost sales in India
amounting to 21.7 percent or approximately
$11.9 billion.
The Special 301 Report further notes the

proliferation of counterfeit pharmaceuticals
manufactured, sold and distributed in trading
partners, especially from India and notes
that India is the largest source of counterfeit
pharmaceuticals shipped to the United States.
The report does vouch that India is one of

the worlds largest producers of legitimate,
high-quality generic pharmaceuticals, with
the United States as Indias single largest
market for generic pharmaceuticals.
It also affirms that anywhere from 10 to 40

percent of drugs sold in Indian markets are
counterfeit and that this represents a
potentially serious threat to patient health and
safety, both in India and the United States.
Finally, the Special 301 Report raises serious

concern over Section 3(d) of Indias Patents
Act, which holds that pharmaceutical
companies have to prove significant clinical
efficacy enhancements in their drugs over
already-patented compounds.
Finer points about the report:
[16]
as an important tool of
for green technologies, with
be applied more regularly
sectors.
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As per the Special 301 report 2014, the US

Trade Representative (USTR) has identified India
as a priority watch country for failure to protect
intellectual property. The US is seeking changes in
the Indian patent regime, but there have been cases
when it took steps to protect its consumers against
excessive rent-seeking by patent holders in its
territory. The USTR report says in the coming
months, the US will redouble its efforts to seek
opportunities for meaningful, sustained, and
effective engagement on IP-related matters with the
new government, including at senior levels and
through technical exchanges, that will both improve
IP protection and enforcement in India.
USTRs Special 301 reports raises intellectual
property concerns in India across a wide
range of sectorsincluding life sciences,
renewable energy, digital content, and ICT
products.
The 2014 Special 301 Report notes serious

difficulties in attaining constructive
engagement on issues of concern to U.S. and
other stakeholders have contributed to Indias
challenging environment for IPR protection
and enforcement.
While the report does commend India for
making some limited progress in improving
its weak IPR legal framework and
enforcement system.
At the same time it notes that IP protection

and enforcement challenges are growing, and
there are serious questions regarding the
future of the innovation climate in India
across multiple sectors and disciplines.
A particular concern of the 2014 Special 301

report is Indias growing use of compulsory
licensing of foreign intellectual property
across multiple sectors, including life sciences
and renewable energy.
Although Indias government has issued only
one compulsory license under Section 84,
India has made clear that it views compul-

Under the US Trade Act, a Priority Foreign
Country is the worst classification given to those
that deny adequate and effective protection of IPR
or fair and equitable market access to US entities
relying on IPR protection. India remaining on
Priority Watch List in 2014 would mean it is not
properly protecting the US copyrights and patents
but the US would continue to engage with India to
improve IPR regime.
The Special 301 Report is an annual review of
the global state of IPR protection and enforcement.
New Delhi does not figure in Priority Foreign
Country list because of the ongoing general elections
in India. The US administration expects that the
new government in New Delhi will positively and
constructively engage with the US in addressing
the concerns on IPR issues. The USTR report also
said that it will conduct out-of-cycle reviews to
promote engagement on IPR challenges with India
along with three other countries. The US trade
lobbies, particularly from the pharma sector, have
been pressurising its government to place India
under the Priority Foreign Country list.
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trade action against India for its intellectual

property policies. The U.S. Trade Representative
avoided labelling India with the worst offender tag
in its annual scorecard on protecting U.S. patents,
copyrights and other Intellectual Property (IP)
rights. Instead, the United States kept India, which
is in the midst of elections, on its Priority Watch
List along with China and eight other countries. It
would start a special review of India in the fall
and "redouble" efforts to address concerns with
the new government.
The spread of pirated goods in India, a stalwart
of the U.S. IP black list, was also worrying. The
report noted estimates that counterfeiting and
smuggling lost copyright holders almost $12 billion
in 2012. The USTR said it had "significant
concerns" about the theft of trade secrets and urged
the government to take steps to stop Chinese
companies taking advantage of overseas
competitors. The USTR also removed Italy from
the intellectual property blacklist altogether after it
took new steps to combat copyright piracy over
the Internet.
MARRAKESH TREATY TO HELP THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED
There are an estimated 285 million blind and

partially-sighted people in the world, of which the
largest percentage lives in India. Only 1 to 7 per
cent of all books published are available in formats
accessible to them.
The Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to
Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind,
Visually Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled
(MVT) was signed by India, to help improve the
lives of those visually impaired. The Treaty was
adopted in June last year. Indias key campaigner
for the treaty was the late Rahul Cherian of
Inclusive Planet.
of accessible format copies in Indian

languages. The Indian Copyright (Amend-ment)
Act, 2012 is in harmony with the Marrakesh
Treaty.
It will address the book famine for the

visually impaired by requiring its contracting
parties to adopt national law provisions that
permit the reproduction, distribution and
making available of published works in
accessible formats through limitations and
exceptions to the rights of copyright right
holders.
It allows the waiver of copyright restrictions

in order for books to be available in formats
such as formats such as Braille, large print
text and audio books.
The treaty also provides assurances to authors

and publishers that that system will not
expose their published works to misuse or
distribution to anyone other than the
intended beneficiaries.
More about the Treaty:
Indias ratification of the Treaty will facilitate

import of accessible format copies from the
member states by Indian educational
institutions, libraries and institutions working
for the benefit of visually impaired persons.
The Treaty will also facilitate translation of
imported accessible format copies and export
[17]
ECONOMY
HIGHEST BUSINESS OPTIMISM SINCE 2010
and significant reduction in the rupee volatility has
also boosted the optimism level, the report said.
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Indian business optimism climbed to its highest

since the end of 2010 as revealed in the research
from the Grant Thornton International Business
Report (IBR). It is a survey of more than 3,300
businesses in 45 economies, which reveals a spring
surge in business optimism, with all global regions
marching in step despite a slowing of growth in
some emerging economies. The data provides hope
that the recovery will move onto more sustainable
footing and with economic uncertainty declining,
the hope is that businesses will renew investment
in the coming months to ensure long-term growth.
At 89%, optimism amongst Indian business
owners remains well ahead of the global average
of 44%. This is up 20% since the previous quarter.
This optimism is driven by the fact that 92% of
Indian businesses expect their revenues to rise in
the next 12 months while 87% believe their
profitability will get a boost. Appreciation in the
rupee, dramatic reduction in the gold imports, stock
markets near life time highs and improved forecasts
for medium term GDP growth, all helped boost
business optimism. Hope of a stable government
While optimism has risen on several fronts, there

are certain constraints being felt by businesses
globally. Economic uncertainty remains a key
constraint; however, the proportion of businesses
globally citing this as a constraint to growth is down
from 42% to 38% over the past three months. For
India, this percentage has subsided from 78% in
the previous quarter to 60% in this quarter, largely
driven by the hope of a stable government and
significant reduction in the rupee volatility. Rising
energy costs is another pressing constraint (61%)
besides other factors such as shortage of finance
(57%), regulations/red tape (60%), and lack of
skilled workers (40%). Rising energy cost is another
pressing constraint, besides other factors such as
shortage of finance, regulations/red tape, and lack
of skilled workers. Economic uncertainty remains
a key constraint; however, the proportion of
businesses globally citing this as a constraint to
growth is down from 42 per cent to 38 per cent
over the past three months.
INDIA 3RD LARGEST ECONOMY IN PPP TERMS
India has emerged as the worlds third-largest

economy in terms of purchasing power parity in
2011 from being the tenth largest in 2005, moving
ahead of Japan, while the US remained the largest
economy closely followed by China. This was
revealed by the 2011 round of the World Bank's
International Comparison Program (ICP) released
recently.
The 2011 International Comparison Program
(ICP), which involves the World Bank, assesses
economies based on Purchasing Power Parity (PPP),
which is an estimate of the real living costs.
Key points of the report:
[18]
The research puts China's GDP (gross

domestic product) at 87 percent of the US in
2011 and says the Chinese and Indian

economies have more than doubled relative
to that of the US.
The economies of Japan and the UK became

smaller relative to the US, while Germany
increased slightly and France and Italy
remained the same.
Russia accounts for more than 70 per cent of

the CIS, and Brazil for 56 per cent of Latin
America. South Africa, Egypt, and Nigeria
account for about half of the African
economy.
The relative rankings of the three Asian

economies China, India, and Indonesia
to the US doubled, while Brazil, Mexico and
Russia increased by one-third or more.
At 27 per cent, China now has the largest

share of the worlds expenditure for
investment (gross fixed capital formation)
followed by the US at 13 per cent.
China and India account for about 80 per

cent of investment expenditure in the Asia
and the Pacific region.
The world produced goods and services worth

over USD 90 trillion in 2011 and that almost
half of the total output came from low and
middle-income countries.
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Russia accounts for 77 per cent of CIS, Brazil

for 61 per cent of Latin America and Saudi
Arabia 40 per cent of Western Asia.
The report said low-income economies, as a

share of world GDP, were more than two
times larger based on PPPs than respective
exchange rate shares in 2011.
Roughly 28 per cent of the worlds population

lives in economies with GDP per capita
expenditure above the USD 13,460 world
average and 72 per cent are below that
average.
The share of middle-income economies in

global GDP is 48 percent when using PPPs
and 32 percent when using exchange rates.
The five economies with the highest GDP per

capita are Qatar, Macao, Luxembourg,
Kuwait and Brunei.
The six largest middle-income economies

China, India, Russia, Brazil, Indonesia and
Mexico account for 32.3 percent of world
GDP, whereas the six largest high-income
economies US, Japan, Germany, France,
UK and Italy account for 32.9 per cent.
Eleven economies have more than USD

50,000 per capita, while they collectively
account for less than 0.6 per cent of the
worlds population. The US has the 12th
highest GDP per capita.
Eight economies Malawi, Mozambique,

Central African Republic, Niger, Burundi,
Congo, Dem. Rep., Comoros and Liberia
have a GDP per capita of less than USD 1,000.
The five economies with highest actual
According to the major findings of the ICP,

six of the worlds 12 largest economies were
in the middle-income category. When
combined, the 12 largest economies accounted
for two-thirds of the world economy and 59
per cent of the population.
The purchasing power parities (PPPs)-based
world GDP amounted to USD 90,647 billion,
compared with USD 70,294 billion measured
by exchange rates.
Asia and the Pacific, including China and

India, account for 30 per cent of world GDP,
EurostatOECD 54 per cent, Latin America
5.5 percent , Africa and Western Asia about
4.5 percent each.
China and India make up two-thirds of the

Asia and the Pacific economy, excluding
Japan and South Korea, which are part of
the OECD comparison.
individual consumption per capita are

Bermuda, US, Cayman Islands, Hong Kong
and Luxembourg.
The world average actual individual
consumption per capita is approximately
USD 8,647.
FRA TO STRENGTHEN RESOLUTION REGIME
The setting up of a single Financial Resolution

Authority (FRA) that is institutionally independent
of regulators and the Government, is recommended
to be set up for strengthening of the resolution
regime. This working group was set up by the subcommittee of the Financial Stability and
Development Council (FSDC). FRA can be set up

by either transforming the present Deposit
Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC) into FRA or by setting up a new
authority, namely, FRA that will subsume
DICGC.
[19]

including the decision to choose the
appropriate resolution tool, except the power
to take an institution into temporary public
ownership (TPO).
The group recommended that as the ultimate

objective of regulation and supervision in India was
to protect the interests of depositors, insurance
policyholders, and investors, the proposed statute
for financial resolution framework should explicitly
provide for preference to be given to depositors,
insurance policyholders and investors over other
unsecured creditors in resolution of failed financial
institutions.
The aim of resolution is not to preserve the

failing institution, but to ensure the continuity
of the functions that are critical for the
financial system as a whole and limit any
use of taxpayers money.
Equal treatment may be provided to

uninsured depositors of banks and claims of
DICGC on account of payments made to
insured depositors.
According to the report, the mandate of FRA

will be to resolve failed financial institutions
and financial markets infrastructures (FMIs),
other than those owned and operated by
Reserve Bank of India (RBI), alongwith
providing deposit insurance and protection
to insurance policy holders and investors/
clients within limits.
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The FRA should be the sole authority

responsible for operation and implementation
of the financial resolution framework,
To ensure that regulators/supervisors can

intervene at a sufficiently early stage with
clear trigger levels to prevent the institution
from reaching situation of non-viability, the
group recommended each financial sector
regulator/supervisor to formulate a prompt
corrective action (PCA) framework for the
institutions under their regulatory jurisdiction.
[20]

PARTIAL SUCCESS FOR DRDO
the Wheeler Island and in Paradip, Puri and
Cuttack detected and tracked the enemy missile.
The computer network, with the help of data from
the radars, predicted its trajectory. The single-stage
PDV interceptor took off two-and-a-half minutes
later.
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India achieved partial success in its ambitious

mission to intercept a ballistic missile at an altitude
of 120 km. The missile technologists of the DRDO
said that the interception did take place and the
mission met its important objectives, but the
warhead in the interceptor missile, which took off
from the Wheeler Island, did not explode. The
missions main objective was to track the target
missile, but scientists now have to work out the
missed distance between the target missile and the
interceptor. Based on that, the hit-to-kill would take
place.
The DRDO was looking forward to this mission
because it was challenging and complex. Of the
DRDOs seven interceptor missions, six were
successful. The interceptions had taken place either
in the endo-atmosphere or in the exo-atmosphere.
But this mission was a different ball game because
the interception was to be done at 120 km,
providing very little time for the interceptor to blast
off and waylay the attacker. So the motors in the
interceptor called the Prithvi Defence Vehicle (PDV)
and the target missile were specially developed. In
an automated operation, radar-based systems on
The PDV, guided by the highly accurate inertial

navigation system and supported by a redundant
micro-navigation system, moved towards the point
of interception. Once the PDV crossed the
atmosphere, its heat shield domes covering the IR
and radio frequency (RF) seekers fell off. So the
two seeker domes opened to look at the incoming
missiles location. With the help of inertial guidance
and the IR seeker, the PDV moved for the
interception.
The mission featured several new technologies.
Both the missiles had new, powerful motors. The
heat shield, covering the IR and RF seekers, ejected
for the first time. The seekers worked well. This
was the first time that an imaging seeker has been
used for the air defence vehicle. The imaging seeker
could see the incoming missile, track it and guide
the interceptor towards the target.
WATER TO BE MADE FROM THIN AIR
Water is a vital nutrient, yet one that is

inaccessible to many worldwide. The World Health
Organization reports that 780 million people don't
have access to clean water, and 3.4 million die
each year due to water-borne diseases. But an Israeli
company has tried to alleviate the crisis by
producing drinking water from thin air. WaterGen has developed an Atmospheric WaterGeneration Units using its heat exchanger to chill
air and condense water vapur.
The clean air enters our GENius heat exchanger
system where it is dehumidified, the water is
removed from the air and collected in a collection
tank inside the unit. Using the technology, a litre
of water can be produced for a mere Rs. 1.50, as
compared to Rs 15. for a litre of bottled water, the
company claims. The Atmospheric WaterGeneration Units created by Water-Gen use a

"GENius" heat exchanger to chill air and condense
water vapour. The clean air is passed through the
heat exchanger system where it gets dehumidified.
The water is then removed from the air and
collected in a tank inside the unit.
From there the water is passed through an
extensive water filtration system which cleans it
from possible chemical and microbiological
contamination. The products can be sold to
developing countries in different civilian
applications. The Atmospheric Water-Generation
Unit can be built as a residential unit and serve as
a perfect water supply solution for homes in India.
The company claims its water generator is more
[21]

energy efficient than other such companies as it
uses the cooled air created by the unit to chill
incoming air. It looks simple, because air
conditioning is extracting water from air. But the
issue is to do it very efficiently, to produce as much
water as you can per kilowatt of power consumed.
The system can produces 250-800 litres of potable
water a day depending on temperature and
humidity conditions. It only uses two cents worth
of electricity to produce a litre of water.
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Another product Water-Gen has developed is a

portable water purification system. It's a battery-
operated water filtration unit called Spring. Spring

is able to filter 180 liters of water, and fits into a
backpack -- enabling water filtration on the go.
This unit gives logistic independence for the forces
and ensures to provide the soldiers high quality
water. Although Water-Gen's developments aren't
a solution for the water crisis, Kohavi believes that
the technology can do for countries that lack clean
water, such as Haiti, what it has done for the
Philippines. It can be the technology used not only
to filter water, but to save lives.
MACHINE VS MAN AT FACIAL RECOGNITION TEST
Face recognition has come a long way in recent

years. In ideal lighting conditions, given the same
pose, facial expression etc. it easily outperforms
humans. But the real world isn't like that. People
grow beards, wear make up and glasses, make
strange faces and so on, which makes the task of
facial recognition tricky even for humans. A wellknown photo database called Labelled Faces in
the Wild captures much of this variation. It consists
of 13,000 face images of almost 6000 public figures
collected off the web. When images of the same
person are paired, humans can correctly spot
matches and mismatches 97.53 per cent of the time.
By comparison, face recognition algorithms have
never come close to this.
A group of computer scientists have developed

a new algorithm called Gaussian Face that
outperforms humans in this task for the first time.
The algorithm normalises each face into a 150 x
120 pixel image by transforming it based on five
image landmarks: the position of both eyes, the
nose and the two corners of the mouth. After being
trained on a wide variety of images in advance, it
can then compare faces looking for similarities. It
does this with an accuracy of 98.52 per cent; the
first time an algorithm has beaten human-level
performance in such challenging real-world
conditions.
NOW A PILL FOR WATER TESTING
Contaminated water has several health hazards

and drinking the same results in various diseases,
but it is not easy to make out whether the water
put for use is pure or contaminated. The team at
McMaster University has reduced the sophisticated
chemistry required for testing water safety to a
simple pill, by adapting technology found in a
dissolving breath strip. Instead of shipping water
to the lab, they have created a way to take the lab
to the water, putting potentially lifesaving
technology into the hands of everyday people. The
technology is expected to have significant public
health applications for testing water in remote areas
and in developing countries that lack proper testing
infrastructure.
The team has reduced the
sophisticated chemistry required for testing water
safety to a simple pill, by adapting technology found
in a dissolving breath strip. The idea occurred to
team member Sana Jahanshahi-Anbuhi, a PhD
student in Chemical Engineering who came across
[22]
the breath strips while shopping and realized the

same material used in the dissolving strips could
have broader applications.
The researchers have now created a way to
store precisely measured amounts of enzymes and
other active agents in pills made from the same
naturally occurring substance used in breath strips,
putting lab-quality science within instant and easy
reach of people who need quick answers to
questions such as whether their water is safe. The
material, called pullulan, forms a solid when dry,
and protects sensitive agents from oxygen and
temperature changes that can render them useless
within hours.
The new method allows the same materials to
be stored virtually anywhere for months inside tiny
pills that dissolve readily in liquid. The pills are
inexpensive to produce and anyone can add them
to well water, for an instant reading of pesticides,
for example, e.coli or metals.
A CLUB SANDWICH MOON FOUND
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According to new NASAfunded research that models the

moon's makeup, the largest moon
in our solar system, a companion
to Jupiter named Ganymede, might
have ice and oceans stacked up in
several layers like a club sandwich.
Previously, the moon was thought
to harbor a thick ocean sandwiched
between just two layers of ice, one
on top and one on bottom.
Ganymede, which with its diameter
of about 3,300 miles (5,300 km), is
the largest moon in the solar system
and is bigger than the planet
Mercury. The results support the
idea that primitive life might have possibly arisen
on the icy moon. Scientists say that places where
water and rock interact are important for the
development of life; for example, it's possible that
life began on Earth in bubbling vents on our sea
floor. Prior to the new study, Ganymede's rocky
sea bottom was thought to be coated with ice, not
liquid -- a problem for the emergence of life. The
"club sandwich" findings suggest otherwise: the first
layer on top of the rocky core might be salty water.
NASA scientists first suspected an ocean in

Ganymede in the 1970s, based on models of the
large moon, which is bigger than Mercury. In the
1990s, NASA's Galileo mission flew by Ganymede,
confirming the moon's ocean, and showing it
extends to depths of hundreds of miles. The
spacecraft also found evidence for salty seas, likely
containing the salt magnesium sulfate. Previous
models of Ganymede's oceans assumed that salt
didn't change the properties of liquid very much
with pressure.
[23]
HEALTH
WAIST SIZE HELP PREDICT METABOLIC DISEASES
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The prevalence of childhood obesity is rising in

developing countries, including India. Abdominal
obesity is also on the rise and is associated with
increased risk for Metabolic Syndrome (MS). MS in
children has been defined as the presence of high
triglyceride levels in blood, Low HDL cholesterol,
increased fasting blood glucose levels, high systolic
blood pressure and high waist circumference. MS
results in increased risk for hypertension, type 2
diabetes mellitus, and atherosclerotic cardiovascular
disease.
Doctors find it shocking to see children as young

as six with diseases including hypertension, diabetes
mellitus and abnormalities in the lipid profile. The
study found 350 children suffering from primary
or essential hypertension, commonly seen in adults
is becoming common in children who are obese or
overweight. Therefore it is essential for them to
change their lifestyle and lose weight. They should
be encouraged to participate in outdoor sports and
other physical activities. Children should also cut
down on the intake of high calorie foods with poor
nutritional value (junk food) and a high fat diet.
More findings from the study:
It was a multi-centre, cross-sectional study
done on 10,842 children in five cities Delhi,
Chennai, Kolkata, Pune and Raipur.
The study has developed age and sex specific
reference curves for waist circumference for
Indian children.
Children in the age group of 2 to 5 years

should have a waist circumference not
exceeding 20.59 inches, similarly in the 6 to
9 age group boys should be less than 24.96
inches while it is 25.0 inches for girls.
Boys in the age group of 10 to 14 years should
have a waist circumference of less than 30.55
inches while it is 30.51 inches for girls, and
in the 15 to 17 age group the boys should
have central circumference of less than 34.05
inches while it is 33.50 inches for girls.
The study found that 3.3 per cent or 358
children out of total sample size of 10,842
children were hypertensive.
The study also found that risk factor for
Indian children for developing MS was at
70th WC percentile which is significantly
lower than International proposed WC cut-off of
90th percentile.
GENEXPERT CANNOT GIVE 100% ACCURACY
GeneXpert or Xpert MTB/RIF or CBN test being

used to diagnose multidrug-resistant tuberculosis
has been reported to give inaccurate results.
Approximately 35 per cent patient samples gave
erroneous results, according to the latest study
report submitted by doctors at the All India Institute
of Medical Sciences.
The GeneXpert test had created waves in the
medical world as a new test of diagnosing and
treating TB cases. It was not only being actively
promoted by the Indian Government but was also
making heads turn globally and being endorsed by
[24]
top health institutes across the world. However,

the AIIMS has discovered the inaccuracies of the
test through a study in which it was found that 1
out of every 3 sputum samples put through this
test gave false sensitivity to the TB drug, Rifampicin,
when they were drug-resistant originally.
The GeneXpert has performed tremendously
well in Africa but it is a different story in India
where even one-third of Rifampicin-resistance cases
can be missed by this new method. According to
AIIMS, the Indian strains have a unique gene
sequence which is not recognised by GeneXpert.

So far, there are 4 WHO-approved tests for TBLED Microscope, Liquid Culture, Line Probe Assay
and GeneXpert. The last two are molecular tests.
Due to its high cost, the GeneXpert is not available
in all clinics and hospitals although the central TB
division of the Ministry of Health is installing it in
all referral TB laboratories. The test is available at
AIIMS as well for drug-resistant TB patients.
The restrictions of the GeneXpert was earlier
brought out in the medical journal, PLOS Medicine.
Among them were-limited shelf-life of the

diagnostic cartridges, operating temperature and
humidity restrictions, requirement for electricity
supply, the need for annual servicing and
calibration of each machine. The latest discoveries
of GeneXpert may dampen ones spirits but gives
researchers fresh reasons to come up with measures
and tests that would be effective in India. A
stumbling block might slow them down for a while
but cannot stop our medicos from their fight to
conquer TB.
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WORLD HEADED FOR A POST-ANTIBIOTIC ERA
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR), as antibiotic

resistance is also known as, is a technical term that
means resistance to medicines used against
microorganisms, thereby making the drugs
ineffective.
Antibiotic resistance is a serious threat to public

health with cases being reported from every region
of the world and having the potential to affect
anyone, as per the World Health Organization. The
WHO report, Antimicrobial Resistance: Global
Report on Surveillance, notes resistance to
antibiotics used as a last resort to treat lifethreatening infections caused by a common
intestinal bacteria K. pneumoniae has spread
to all regions of the world. It is a major cause of
hospital-acquired infections such as pneumonia and
bloodstream infections in newborns and intensivecare unit patients. In some countries, because of
antimicrobial resistance, antibiotics would not be
effective for more than half of people treated for K.
pneumoniae infection.
In India, the easy availability and higher
consumption of antibiotics have contributed to the
inappropriate use of the drugs, creating a situation
where resistant microorganisms are becoming more
common. The infectious-disease burden in India is
among the highest in the world and the
inappropriate and irrational use of antimicrobial
agents against these diseases has led to an increase
in development of antimicrobial resistance.
Key findings from the report include:

Resistance to the treatment of last resort for
life-threatening infections caused by a
common intestinal bacteria, Klebsiella
pneumoniaecarbapenem antibioticshas
spread to all regions of the world. K.
pneumoniae is a major cause of hospitalacquired infections such as pneumonia,
bloodstream infections, infections in newborns
and intensive-care unit patients. In some
countries, because of resistance, carbapenem
antibiotics would not work in more than half
of people treated for K. pneumoniae

infections.
Resistance to one of the most widely used
antibacterial medicines for the treatment of
urinary tract infections caused by E. coli
fluoroquinolonesis very widespread. In the
1980s, when these drugs were first
introduced, resistance was virtually zero.
Today, there are countries in many parts of
the world where this treatment is now
ineffective in more than half of patients.
Treatment failure to the last resort of
treatment for gonorrhoeathird generation
cephalosporinshas been confirmed in Austria,
Australia, Canada, France, Japan, Norway,
Slovenia, South Africa, Sweden and the
United Kingdom. More than 1 million people
are infected with gonorrhoea around the
world everyday.
Antibiotic resistance causes people to be sick
for longer and increases the risk of death.
For example, people with MRSA (methicillinresistant Staphylococcus aureus) are
estimated to be 64% more likely to die than
people with a non-resistant form of the
infection. Resistance also increases the cost
of healthcare with lengthier stays in hospital
and more intensive care required.
Ways to fight antibiotic resistance: The report
reveals that key tools to tackle antibiotic resistance
show gaps or do not exist in many countries. While
some countries have taken important steps in
addressing the problem, every country and
individual needs to do more. Other important
actions include preventing infections from
happening in the first placethrough better hygiene,
access to clean water, infection control in health-care
facilities, and vaccinationto reduce the need for
antibiotics. WHO is also calling attention to the
need to develop new diagnostics, antibiotics and
other tools to allow healthcare professionals to stay
ahead of emerging resistance.

[25]
NEWS IN BRIEF
NEWSMAKERS
of thousands of pilgrims celebrating two 20th
century giants of the Roman Catholic Church. John
XXIII, who reigned from 1958 to 1963 and called
the modernising Second Vatican Council, and John
Paul II, the Pole who reigned for nearly 27 years,
played a leading role on the world stage.
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Jung Hong-Won
Jung Hong-won, Prime Minister of the Republic
of Korea, has resigned amid blaming corruption
and the sinking of a passenger ferry that left 300
people dead or missing. Jung Hong-Won admitted
he had not been upto the task of overseeing rescue
operations after the MV Sewol capsized with 476
people, many of them school-children on board.
Prior to his political career he was a legal

professional. As a legal professional he had served
as the President of the Institute of Justice and Korea
Legal Aid Corporation. Before 2012 general
election, he joined Saenuri Party. In February, 2013
he was nominated as the first Prime Minister
president-elect of Park Geun-Hye's government.
John XXIII and John Paul II
Pope Francis proclaimed his predecessors John

XXIII and John Paul II saints in front of hundreds
For Francis, who has emerged as a major global

figure after only a year as pope, the canonization
ceremony offered a stage to underscore his broad
agenda of trying to bring together different Catholic
factions as he prepares for two major meetings in
which prelates are expected to address some of the
most contentious social issues facing the church.
John XXIII is a hero to many liberal Catholics for
his Second Vatican Council of the early 1960s,
which sought to open the church to the modern
era. John Paul II is a hero to many conservative
Catholics not only for his anti-Communist heroism and personal charisma, but also because of his
resistance to liberalizing elements of the church.
OBITUARIES
Arturo Licata
Arturo Licata, the worlds oldest man died in

Italy at the age of 111. Licata was awarded the
Guinness World Records title of oldest living man
on February 28, 2014 at the age of 111 years and
302 days. Signor Licata was a man born before the
Wright brothers first powered flight, and one of
only four men older than 111. He passed away on
April 24, aged 111 years and 357 days. Licata was
born on May 2, 1902 in the Southern Italian city of
Enna. At the age of nine he went to work in the
mines and, in 1921, aged 19, he joined the Italian
army. Licatas military service finished in 1939 and
he went on to enjoy a successful career in business.
Currently 115-year-old female, Misao Okawa
[26]
of Japan, is recognised by Guinness World Records

as the worlds oldest living person. She was born
March 5, 1898 and lives in Osaka.
M.S. Pattabhiraman
M.S. Pattabhiraman, who was the former vicepresident of the Music Academy, passed away at
the age of 90. Apart from his involvement with
Carnatic music promotion in the Music Academy,
he was an active Rotarian and supporter of social
and religious causes and Chairman of the
Kedarampatti Swamy Trust in Kancheepuram.
Pattabhiraman was associated with the Sabha in
the 1960s. He was a supporter of good causes and
during his two terms in Narada Gana Sabha as a
committee member, he was very supportive.
CULTURE/HERITAGE
First Liberal Arts University In India
There are about 2,000 Harappan sites in India,

Pakistan and Afghanistan. With the discovery of
two more mounds, in addition to the seven already
discovered, it was estimated that the total area of
Rakhigarhi was 350 hectares. It, thus, overtook
Mohenjo daro with about 300 hectares, in Pakistan,
in laying claim to be the biggest Harappan site.
The Rakhigarhi site belongs to the mature
Harappan phase, which lasted from 2600 BCE to
2000 BCE. The teams have also found artefacts,
including a seal and potsherd, both inscribed with
the Harappan script. Rakhigarhi is situated in the
confluence of Ghaggar and Chautang rivers and it
was a fertile area. Rakhigarhi must have grown a
lot of food grains and therefore, presence of a huge
granary cannot be ruled out.
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Ashoka University is Indias first liberal arts

university which seeks to bring international
education in the Indian context. Ashoka will start
its first undergraduate programme in August. The
university has received more than 1,500 applicants
for its undergraduate batch of 350 students. Sanjeev
Bikhchandani, Founder and Vice-Chairman,
InfoEdge; Puneet Dalmia MD, Dalmia Cements;
Jerry Rao, Chairman and Founder, Mphasis; Deep
Kalra, Founder and CEO of Makemytrip.com have
invested around Rs. 140 crore in the university.
Ashoka offers a four-year undergraduate
programme where students can choose an area of
specialisation from a list of pure majors, such as
economics, history, mathematics and a set of interdisciplinary majors like politics and society,
economics and finance. The course also offers a
broad set of disciplines through twelve foundation
courses which include data analysis, great books,
critical thinking, and principles of sciences, among
others.
excavating teams found several traces of lime and

decomposed grass on the lower portion of the
granary walls. It is a storehouse for storing grains
because lime acts as insecticide, and grass prevents
moisture from entering the grains.
Ashoka University has a fully residential

campus in Haryana. The university is being set up
by the International Foundation for Research and
Education, in collaboration with the Pennsylvania
University. Over the next five years, the University
plans to add more corporate donors and raise over
Rs. 500 crore. While the course fee is around Rs.4
lakh per year, out of 350 students, 190 students
would have some form of scholarships ranging from
25 to 100 percent.
Huge Granary found at Rakhigarhi
A granary, with walls of mud-bricks, has been

discovered in the just-concluded excavation at
Rakhi garhi village in Haryana. The site belongs to
the mature Harappan phase from 2600 BCE to 2000
BCE. The granary has rectangular and squarish
chambers. Its floor is made of ramped earth and
plastered with mud. Teachers and students of the
Department of Archaeology, Deccan College PostGraduate & Research Institute, Pune, and Maharshi
Dayanand University, Rohtak, Haryana, excavated
at Rakhigarhi from January to April this year.
Seven chambers in the granary were excavated
and from the nature of the structure, it appeared
to be a big structure because it extends on all sides.
Considering that it extends on all sides, it was
assumed that it could be a big public granary. The
Theatre Could Bring Peace Across The Border
Indian and Pakistani theatre groups are

collaborating to produce a new play which will
open in July in Amritsar, as part of a two-year
theatre for peace project. The Ajoka theatre group
was collaborating with two well-known groups
from India Manch Rangmanch from Punjab
headed by Kewal Dhariwal and Ranga Karmi
from Kolkata with seminars in Karachi and
New Delhi in August on theatre in times of peace
and conflict. The two-year project includes theatre
festivals and a collaborative production with actors
from both countries.
The highlight of the project will be theatre
festivals in Amritsar and Lahore in November and
a collaborative production with actors from both
countries. In 2004, Ajoka did a play for children
called Border, with a cast from Amritsar and
Lahore, exposing the theatre of the absurd at
the Wagah Border. It was about children
inadvertently crossing the border. Between 2004
and 2008 there was the Panj Pani Indo Pak theatre
festival in Lahore and Amritsar. While Ajoka has
performed for 25 years in India, it was never
allowed to visit Punjab till 2003 when a play based
on Sufi poet Bulleh Shah was staged e.g., with
much acclaim in eight cities. Ajoka, who completes
30 years, was the first Pakistani group to perform
in Jammu and Srinagar.
[27]
AWARDS/PRIZES
Green Nobel For Indian Activist
Indians Awarded at Harvard Competition
Environmental activist Ramesh Agrawal is one

of six recipients of this year's $175,000 Goldman
Environmental Prize, often called the "Green Nobel.''
Agarwal bagged the award for his role in
mobilizing villagers to stop a massive coal mining
project and making them aware of their rights
Among the winners of a Harvard Business

School competition that awards prizes worth over
$300,000 to new and innovative business and social
impact start-ups conceptualised by the US
institutions students and alumni, four Indians are
among the winners- Amrita Siagal, Saurabh
Mahajan, Mira Mehta and Pritar Kumar won the
prestigious awards in various categories.
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With a small internet cafe as his headquarters,

Ramesh Agrawal organised villagers to demand
their right to information about industrial
development projects and succeeded in shutting
down one of the largest proposed coal mines in
Chhattisgarh. Agrawals work made him a target
for mining industry supporters. Shortly after Jindal
Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) coal mining project
was abandoned, gunmen broke into Agrawals
shop and shot him in the leg, severely injuring him.
Agrawal survived the attack, but faces a long road
to recovery. His attackers have yet to be brought to
justice. Despite his limited mobility, Agrawal is
helping villagers to assert their rights as landowners
and apply for mineral rights to the coal buried
under their properties, the statement said. Led by
grassroots activists like Agrawal and campaigning
environmental groups, villagers across India have
become increasingly aware of their rights and are
blocking mining projects which they say will destroy
not only the environment, but also their livelihoods.
Other Goldman winners were South Africa's

Desmond D'Sa for helping disenfranchised
communities shut down a toxic waste dump,
Russia's Suren Gazaryan for leading numerous
campaigns exposing government corruption and
illegal use of protected forests, Indonesia's Rudi
Putra for dismantling illegal palm oil plantations,
Peru's Ruth Buendia for a powerful campaign
against large-scale dams and the USA's Helen
Slottje for providing pro bono legal help to towns
wanting to ban fracking by oil and gas companies.
The award was established in 1990 with a grant
from philanthropists Richard and Rhoda Goldman.
It honours grassroots environmental activists for
their sustained and significant efforts to protect and
enhance the natural environment, often at great
personal risk in the six regions of Africa, Asia,
Europe, Island Nations, North America and Latin
America. The individual cash prize of $175,000
makes it the largest award of its kind and winners
are selected by an international jury.
[28]
Harvard MBA student Amrita Siagal won the

grand prize in the Social Enterprise category at
the 18th Harvard Business School New Venture
Competition for her venture Saathi, which she
co-founded with Oracle engineer Kristin Kagetsu.
Saathi provides affordable sanitary pads made from
waste banana tree fibre to women in rural India.
The runner-up in the social enterprise track was
'Tomato Jos' founded by MBA students Mira Mehta
and Mike Lawrence. 'Tomato Jos' is a vertically
integrated tomato processing company that helps
small farmers in Nigeria grow tomatoes that can
then be made into tomato paste.
The start-up Alfred, launched by Saurabh
Mahajan, Marcela Sapone and Jess Beck, was the
winner in the business track category. Alfred is a
concierge service, which individuals can use for
their daily and weekly tasks, including dry cleaning,
house cleaning, groceries, laundry, and more.
Pritar Kumars Booya Fitness was the runner
up in the business category. The venture Booya
Fitness is an on-demand video platform featuring
workouts created by the industry's best boutique
gyms and instructors.
World Press Freedom Prize
Turkish investigative journalist Ahmet Sik is the

winner of the 2014 UNESCO Guillermo Cano World
Press Freedom Prize. Ahmet Sik, 44, is a freelance
journalist who worked for several Turkish
newspapers between 1991 and 2011, including
Cumhuriyet, Radikal, Evrensel and Yeni Yiizyil. He
has also worked as a photo journalist for the
magazine Nokta and Reuters news agency. He is
an ardent defender of freedom of expression, and
has devoted his career to denouncing corruption
and human rights abuses. Between 1991 and 2011
he wrote for several Turkish newspapers, including
Cumhurriyet, Evrensel, Yeni Yiizyl and, more
recently, Radikal. He has also worked at Nokta

magazine and Reuters News Agency as a
photojournalist, and is a member of the Turkish
Journalists Union. A member of the Turkish
journalists union, Sik is a committed champion of
human rights. His reporting has focused on

violations against freedom of expression and other
human rights.
The UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press

Freedom Prize
the defence or promotion of press freedom

anywhere in the world, especially if risks have been
involved. It is funded by the Guillermo Cano Isaza
Foundation and the Helingin Sanomat Foundation.
The Prize is supported by Guillermo Cano
Isaza Foundation, Helsingin Sanomat Foundation.
The prize is awarded on the recommendation
of an independent jury of 12 news professionals.
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The UNESCO Guillermo Cano World Press

Freedom Prize, created in 1997 by UNESCOs
Executive Board, is awarded annually on 3rd May,
World Press Freedom Day. The purpose of the Prize
is to reward each year a person, organization or
institution that has made a notable contribution to
DEFENCE
Akash Missile Test Fired
India successfully test fired indigenouslydeveloped medium range surface-to-air Akash

missile from the Integrated Test Range at
Chandipur as part of a user-trial. With the
capability to neutralise aerial targets like fighter
jets, cruise missiles and air-to-surface missiles,
defence experts compare Akash to the MIM-104
Patriot surface-to-air missile system of USA.
Akash, aimed at a para-barrel target during
the trial, was developed by the Defence Research

and Development Organisation (DRDO) as a part
of the Integrated Guided Missile Development
Programme. The missile has the capability to target
aircraft up to 30 km away and is packed with a
battery that can track and attack several targets
simultaneously. Akash is a medium range surfaceto-air anti-aircraft defence system.
The Air force version has already been inducted.
The Army version is in the final stage of induction
into the armed forces.
MISCELLANEOUS
IIT Guwahati In Top 100
The Indian Institute of Technology-Guwahati

has made it to the world's top 100 university
rankings, bringing India for the first time on the
list. IIT-Guwahati is the only Indian educational
institute in the 2014 league table of '100 Under 50'
institutions released by the 'Times Higher Education'
magazine. The '100 Under 50 2014' uses the same
comprehensive list of 13 performance indicators that
underpin the prestigious, The World University
Rankings, but employs an especially re-calibrated
methodology to better capture the characteristics
of young institutions.
The IIT shares the 87th rank on the list with

Portugal's New University of Lisbon and Australia's
University of Western Sydney. The annual
evaluation of the world's top 100 universities under
50 years of age had a distinct Eastern stance with
South Korea's Pohang University of Science and
Technology topping the list for the third consecutive
year. Switzerland's Ecole Polytechnique Federale
de Lausanne retains second position and at the
third position is another South Korean institute Korea Advanced Institute of Science and
Technology. East Asian institutions lead the 100
Under 50, with universities from South Korea,
Hong Kong and Singapore claiming top-five
positions. For the third year in a row, the ranking
is headed by South Korea's Pohang University of
Science and Technology while its national rival the
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and
Technology holds on to the third spot it gained last
year.
US Green Building Council List
The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC),

which demonstrates the global reach of the
movement that is transforming the built
environment into healthy, high-performing
structures that benefit the planet and its people,
has ranked India as No. 3 among the list of top 10
countries for LEED outside of the United States.
Canada tops the list followed by China, India,
South Korea, Taiwan, Germany and Brazil, among
others.
[29]
The ranking of the top 10 countries for LEED

outside of the US is based on cumulative gross
square meter (GSM) of space certified to LEED in
each nation as of April 2014. India has 11.64 million
GSM of LEED-certified space, and in total, it has
1,657 LEED-certified and -registered projects
representing 66.22 million GSM. In June 2013,
USGBC had launched the LEED Earth campaign,
offering free certification to the first projects to
certify in more than 100 countries where LEED
has yet to take root.
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design
excellence for green building in over 132

countries. LEED stands for the Leadership
in Energy and Environmental Design.
This distinction is a property of the U.S. Green
Building Council, a non-profit organization
that is devoted at its foundational level to
increasing the use of sustainable and green
building practices across the fifty states.
Developed by the U.S. Green Building
Council (USGBC), LEED is intended to help
building owners and operators be
environmentally responsible and use
resources efficiently.
Proposals to modify the LEED standards are
offered and publicly reviewed by USGBC's
member organizations, which number almost
20,000.
LEED's "Green Building Rating System"
attempts to certify and push the advancement
of a planet-wide implementation of green
building and development practices.
LEED was most recently updated in 2009, to
LEEDv3.
It encompasses nine rating systems for the
design, construction and operation of
buildings, homes and neighborhoods. Five
overarching categories correspond to the
specialities available under the LEED
Accredited Professional program.
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The list of the top 10 countries for LEED reflects

the global adaptability of the worlds most widely
used and recognized system guiding the design,
construction, operations and maintenance of green
buildings. To date, project teams in more than 140
countries and territories have implemented LEED
in their building projects, taking advantage of its
global, regional and local applicability to create
structures that mitigate greenhouse gas emissions;
create healthier indoor environments for workers,
students and community members; and lower
utility bills for building owners through reduced
energy and water use.
LEED (Leadership in Energy and

Environmental Design) is a rating system that
is recognized as the international mark of
SPORTS
initiatives, resourcefulness and dependability

as also their ability in talent scouting.
SAI introduces new format for assessing coaches
SAI has introduced a new format for Annual

Performance Assessment Report (APAR) of coaches
working with it, in order to bring in more
accountability and effectiveness in sports coaching.
Under this new format, all the coaches will be
assessed by the Sports Authority of India on various
parameters.
The research and development efforts of the

coaches with regard to carrying out any
research work or writing any book or
contribution to any articles in the sports
journals shall also be looked into.
In order to ensure the safety of the athletes,

the coaches will be held accountable for
following proper procedures.
SAI has also decided to amend the

Recruitment Rules (RRs) of coaches whereby
the certification/accreditation levels from the
international sports federations of the sporting
discipline concerned could be made a
mandatory condition for promotions.
The parameters:
[30]
Coaches shall be assessed with regard to the

initiatives taken by them to introduce and
use sports sciences/sports medicine/
preparation of nutrition charts with respect
to the trainees.
Their work will also be assessed with regard

to formulation of short-term/long-term plans
for the sportspersons and use of ethical
motivational techniques.
The functional competency of the coaches
shall be assessed with regard to their
Sharapovas First Title Of 2014

Maria Sharapova has won her first Madrid
Premier WTA Title, defeating world No.5 Simona
Halep by 1-6, 6-2, 6-3. With this win last years

finalist Maria Sharapova takes her career titles to
31. She lost to Serena Williams in 2013 Madrid
Open finals. This is her first title at Madrid since
making her debut in 2010 where she bowed out in
the first round.
Since November, 2011, the Gymnastics

Federation of India (GFI) has been de-recognized
by the Sports Ministry owing to dispute between
two factions. According to the SAI release, no
authentic National Championships were held since
2011 and the gymnasts were in a dilemma about
their future. With no platform to identify actual
talents for preparation of the upcoming
Commonwealth Games and Asian Games, the SAI
claimed it conducted three selection trials under
video coverage to handpick the side for the
International Commonwealth Championships.
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Maria Sharapova came back strongly to gain

momentum in the second set to level the match
taking set 6-2. The third set also saw a dominating
Sharapova race ahead before Halep pulled back to
be 3-4 in the match. But it was not good enough
for the Romanian to stop the 2012 French Open
champion.
Dipa pocketed the third silver for the country in

women's balancing beam event. India's lone bronze
medal came in the team event of men's artistic
gymnastics represented by Ashish, Rakesh Patra,
Abhijit Shinde, Sanjoy Barman and Chandan
Pathak.
Despite Simona Halep was better off the two

players with more number of aces, less double faults
but it was the timely break points that gave Maria
Sharapova her first Madrid Open title.
7 Medals Grabbed By India
Indian gymnasts returned with a rich haul of

seven medals, including three golds, from the
International Commonwealth Championships held
at Perth, Australia. According to a Sports Authority
of India (SAI) statement, apart from three gold
medals, Indian gymnasts also bagged three silver
and one bronze from the two-day event.
2010 Commonwealth Games and Asian Games

medallist Ashish Kumar won two gold medals
men's floor exercise and vault for India. Female
gymnast Dipa Karmakar bagged the other yellow
metal in the womens vault. Apart from the golds,
Ashish also won two silver medals in all around
men's artistic gymnastics and parallel bars while
Football Players Association of

India Award 2014
Best Indian player of the Year: Balwant

Singh
Best Coach of the Year: Ashley Westwood
Fans Player of the Year Award: Boithang

Haokip of Shillong Lajong FC
Best Foreign Player of the Year: Darryl Duffy,

Salgaocars Australian striker
Best Young Player of the Year: Alwyn

George of Dempo
Lifetime Achievement Award: P.K. Banerjee
Special award: Brazilian striker Jose Barreto
[31]
EDITORIALS
IN THE CROSS HAIRS OF THE EXTREMISTS
and is not likely to happen unless and until India
faithfully follows its constitutional directive and
implements a uniform civil code for all people of
India a move that ironically is resisted by frontrank secularists in India. In many ways, by keeping
the magnificent, secular Constitution of India
hostage to the Muslim minoritys special status, as
was evident in the aftermath of the Shah Bano
case, India has squandered the one major benefit
of Partition.
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The founder of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali

Jinnah never claimed that all Muslims were a
nation. He said that only for Muslims in undivided
India who he felt constituted a nation within the
subcontinent and were therefore entitled to an equal
say in the Constitution-making regardless of their
numbers. He made it clear when he said that
Muslims had demanded self-determination on the
basis of India for Indians and that Muslims were
Indians. In other words, their claim to the right of
self-determination was based on the principle that
Muslims were the sons and daughters of India and
not outside its milieu.
When Jinnah termed Indian Muslims as a

nation, it was consociationalism that served as a
counter to the Congress partys claim to speak for
all Indians. Jinnah pointed toward and he was
not the first the superficiality of the HinduMuslim interaction. Regrettably for Jinnah, Hindus
and Muslims had failed to forge a common Indian
identity on a mass level and instead had formed
communal identities that had been rendered nonnegotiable by the Khilafat and Non-Cooperation
Movements. The former ambassador of HinduMuslim unity argued therefore that Hindu-Muslim
interaction had been limited to the educated upper
classes, and while Hindus and Muslims lived
together, they did so in silos.
The decline of Jinnahs postulates
When Jinnah proposed Pakistan, whether

independent or within an Indian union, he
maintained that it would have almost equal
numbers of non-Muslims in it. In any event,
Jinnahs conception of citizenship, whether in India
or in Pakistan was completely secular; he stood for
equal citizenship for all people regardless of their
religious or cultural identities. Pakistan as a state,
in his view, could only be based on a social contract
between the state and the people regardless of what
religion they followed. In due course he expected,
perhaps naively, that Hindus and Muslims would
forge new secular identities on both sides of the
border. Even in India that has not come to pass
[32]
Was Jinnah right or wrong is beyond the scope

of the discussion here; it is an issue that lends itself
to subjective interpretation. What we do know is
that Pakistan abandoned Jinnahs postulates soon
after his demise. The Indian in the identity of
the Indian Muslim was downplayed by the state
which was seeking to identify itself as non-India.
Pakistan, despite its constitutional guarantee of
equality of citizenship, has in practice failed to give
non-Muslim Pakistanis the equal rights that were
promised to them. Consequently, Jinnahs Law
Minister, a Scheduled Caste Hindu, left Pakistan in
the early 1950s, alleging a breach of faith. Since
the departure of Bangladesh in 1971, Pakistan
replaced the ethnic and cultural interpretation of
the Muslim identity for a theological one and has
burdened itself with the constitutional responsibility
to Islamise its state and society. General Zia-ulHaqs dictatorship gave this constitutional
imperative its teeth and restructured society around
a selective and medieval interpretation of religious
doctrine. The remaking of society under Gen. Zia
coupled with a highly effective re-education of
Pakistanis has created a generation of bigots.
Simultaneously, the class structure in Pakistan has
changed considerably owing to the former lower
peasantrys elevation into the ranks of an everincreasing middle class. A drive on the famed
Grand Trunk Road from Lahore to Islamabad
shows how a rural middle-class has emerged and
has in fact urbanised.
Middle-classes everywhere tend to be more
conservative and cautious. In Pakistan, the middle

citizens of any other country. Consequently the
YouTube ban, which is unconstitutional and illegal,
enjoys widespread support despite the fact that
the same people routinely access the website
through proxy servers and Virtual Private Networks.
All is not bleak though. A nation state in the
21st century of over 180 million people, with the
26th largest economy in terms of purchasing power
parity, cannot sustain the current state of affairs.
Conservative and utterly confused the Pakistani
middle-class may be, but it is also increasingly
globalised. Economic interests more than anything
else dictate that Pakistanis increasingly are being
confronted with ideas that challenge their hardboiled notions about religion and the world at large.
More middle-class women are entering the
workplace, hijabs or no hijabs, than ever before. A
robust media, while also problematic at times, has
helped unleash a multitude of voices that are
keeping a check on the state forcing it to react
differently, at times nervously, to the question of
dissent. Obviously this comes with the risks in a
transitional society as was so painfully obvious in
the recent attack on the journalist Raza Rumi. But
it will prove to be a Herculean task for the
extremists to silence everyone in Pakistan. As a
result, the debate in Pakistan continues on almost
every contentious issue with refuseniks and
dissenters holding their own.
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class is also one that has been radicalised by three

decades of re-education by the state. The warped
world view that has emerged has also given the
middle class in Pakistan a sense of being a part of
the global Muslim minority instead of being a
localised majority. It is in this context that Imran
Khans Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has managed to
mobilise the middle class around an agenda of selfrighteousness, morality and anti-Americanism. The
cricketer-turned politician who is currently the
most charismatic figure on the Pakistani political
scene has single-handedly managed to distort
the narrative on the issue of Taliban and terrorism.
The Taliban has been presented as the by-product
of the imperialist American war on Pakistan and
Islam with genuine grievances. At best, the Taliban
is seen by the radicalised middle class as our
misguided brothers but brothers nevertheless. It
therefore is to be accorded every opportunity to
come into the mainstream. The whole dialogue
process, which enjoys considerable support from
the middle classes, especially in Punjab and Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa, has been put on the states agenda
through the pressure exerted by Mr. Khans party
and its more conservative allies like the Jamaat-eIslami. The Jamaat-e-Islami, that had been one of
the most notable opponents of Jinnah and the
Muslim League in the pre-Partition era, has sought
to infiltrate bourgeoisie institutions of the state
namely the civil-military bureaucracy and
intelligence services and was at the forefront of
the ideological supporters of Gen. Zias Islamisation
project. In doing so, it became the self-appointed
guardian of Pakistans Islamic ideology. Today, it
is the most vocal supporter of the Taliban with one
ex-chairman of the party describing Taliban
militants as warriors of Islam and the Taliban dead
as martyrs.
All this means cognitive dissonance and a
profound talent for doublethink among Pakistans
middle class. On one hand, there is the same old
flag-waving nationalism at cricket matches but on
the other, opponents of the state like the Taliban
are championed and celebrated. Socially, an
increasing number of Pakistanis are becoming
religious and more middle-class women are donning
the hijab which, till a decade ago, was a novelty at
best. More disturbing, however, is the willingness
of this middle-class to voluntarily give up on the
civil liberties and constitutional safeguards promised
to it by the Constitution. A recent survey revealed,
for example, that more Pakistani citizens are open
to the idea of censorship on the Internet than
Strengthening civil institutions
The solution to all of Pakistans ills lies ultimately

in following faithfully the constitutional democratic
process. One fervently hopes that with enough
cycles of democracy, many of the things will fall in
place. The persistent fear that Pakistanis have had
in the last decade or so is whether or not their
country will exist tomorrow. This is an irrational
fear which can only be answered with a
strengthening of civil institutions like Parliament
and the judiciary. The independent judiciary
another favourite of the middle classes has
wrought a lot of harm on the jurisprudence in
Pakistan since the successful conclusion of the
lawyers movement five years ago. But seen in its
proper context, it is merely a growing pain. With
time, the judiciary will play its role as the guardian
of fundamental rights of the citizens of Pakistan.
Ultimately, when enough voices will clamour
to be heard, Pakistan will also revisit some of its
national questions to positively reframe its identity,
ideology and politics in pragmatic terms. It is too
big a country to lend itself to one solitary idea or
rationale. A stable prosperous and democratic
[33]

Pakistan issine qua non for the peace and security
of all of South and Central Asia a fact that is
not lost on our neighbours. In the long run on
a sufficiently stretched-out timeline therefore

Pakistan will likely realise Jinnahs aspirations of a
modern progressive and inclusive democratic state.
Source: The Hindu
MANAGING THE MONSOON

The recent report of the Inter-Governmental
Panel on Climate Change has warned of higher
mean temperatures and a rise in sea level if we do
not take action on cutting down greenhouse gas
emissions. The low carbon pathway of development
still remains a topic for academic discussion rather
than for political and practical action. International
prices of food and other agricultural commodities
tend to remain volatile. The right to food enshrined
in the National Food Security Act can be
implemented only with the help of our farmers,
unlike the right to information which can be
implemented with the help of files. Right now, the
government has enough stock to fulfil the legal
obligation of providing 5 kg of wheat, rice or millets
per month to nearly 75 per cent of our population.
With one widespread drought, the current food
stocks may disappear. Even this year, market
arrivals of paddy have been as low as 42 per cent
in West Bengal, 34 per cent in Bihar and 23 per
cent in Odisha. Hence, there is no time to relax in
the areas of food production and safe storage
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Forecasts by the South Asian Climate Outlook

Forum and the India Meteorological Department
indicate that the south-west monsoon rainfall may
be deficient. Also, there is a possibility of the
evolution of an El Nio event during June to
September. There is a 45 per cent probability that
central, west, north-west and south India will
receive below normal rainfall. There is also a 40
per cent chance that eastern States like Odisha,
West Bengal, the north-east, and most of Jammu
and Kashmir may get normal rains during the
south-west monsoon period. Paddy arrivals in the
market are also sluggish, indicating that actual
production is either lower than the estimated
production of 107 million tonnes of rice, or that
some of the stocks is being held back in the
anticipation of a higher price.
Enhancing water security
In the current scenario of climate change,

predictions of extreme weather events are becoming
difficult. In March-April this year, we had
unexpected hailstorms and heavy rainfall in parts
of Central and North-West India. Outside India
also, most of California is experiencing extreme
drought with storage levels in the major reservoirs
as well as lakes well below historic levels. Australia
experienced what has been described as the
Millennium drought which led to the growth of
water markets and to renewed emphasis on water
security measures.
In India, unlike in the United States and
Australia, agriculture is not just a food producing
enterprise but also the backbone of the livelihood
security of nearly 60 per cent of the population.
Therefore, there is no time to relax in the area of
taking anticipatory steps to safeguard food, water,
energy and livelihood security in rural India, in the
event of an erratic monsoon. We should initiate
proactive steps immediately to ensure food and
drinking water security for not only people but
also for the over one billion farm animal population.
Aberrations in monsoon behaviour are not
uncommon, having been with us throughout our
agricultural history. What is new is the difficulty
in forecasting caused by factors coming under the
generic title, Climate change.
[34]
Need for a grain storage policy
Fortunately, we still have a large untapped

production reservoir in most foodgrains even with
technologies available on the shelf. What is
important is the mobilisation of group endeavour
among farm families with small holdings in areas
such as plant protection, water harvesting and postharvest technologies. The new government must
accord priority to both water security and water
use efficiency. Water harvesting in homes, farms
and factories must become mandatory. Tamil Nadu
has already initiated steps in this direction. The
rain-cum-solar energy centre functioning in Chennai
is a source of credible public information on
rainwater harvesting and solar energy use. Such
centres need to be replicated in all our cities, towns
and block headquarters.
The latest technologies for using the available
water in the most efficient manner possible should
be adopted. On fertilizer use efficiency, there are
technologies such as those developed by the
International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC)
in the U.S. which can help improve the efficiency
of urea use by about 50 per cent. Methods of

managing the triple alliance of pests, pathogens
and weeds must be popularised.
Fortunately in our National Food Security Act,

there is provision to procure and supply under the
Public Distribution System, local grains
like ragi, bajra, jowar and a whole series of minor
millets. Since such crops require milling, they have
been referred to as coarse cereals. They should be
referred to as climate smart nutri cereals. They are
now being provided at Rs. 1 per kg an extremely
attractive price from the point of view of resource
poor consumers. Such underutilised crops are now
known to be rich in macro and micronutrients and
could help in the fight against protein hunger
caused by the deficiency of protein in diets and
hidden hunger caused by the deficiency of
micronutrients such as iron, iodine, zinc, Vitamin
A and Vitamin B. If the Food Security Act is backed
by a nutrition literacy movement, the demand for
climate smart nutri-cereals will grow. This will help
in promoting the cultivation of crops which may
do better under drought conditions.
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Besides causing food and water shortage,

deficient rainfall adds to the problem of energy
shortage. In every calamity lies an opportunity for
progress. Harvesting of the sun in homes, offices,
fields and factories should also become mandatory;
it can help increase energy supply in rural and
urban areas. At the post-harvest stage, a national
grain storage policy with these three components
must be adopted we should promote the use of
small storage bins, like the Pusa Bin, at the farm
level. Second, we should implement the rural
godown scheme for safe storage of foodgrains and
perishable commodities at the village level. Such a
rural godown scheme was introduced as early as
1979, but the programme has yet to take off in a
manner that can make a difference to preventing
the loss of food items at the village/block levels.
Third, we should establish a national grid of
ultramodern food grain silos in atleast 50 locations
in the country, each capable of storing about a
million tonnes. Unfortunately, there is still a
mismatch between production and post-harvest
technologies, with producers and consumers unable
to get the full benefit of higher production.
drought and flood codes, seed banks consisting of

seeds of alternative crops should be maintained.
Seed reserves are as important for crop security as
grain reserves are important for food security. For
example, during the recent and severe drought in
California, it was found that some of the earlier
crops like millets had survived with a reasonable
yield, while wheat or rice could not withstand the
severe drought.
For the food and water security of farm animals,

we need to earmark potential areas for establishing
cattle camps where the animals can be looked after
during a drought emergency. These camps should
have access to water. A suggestion I had made
over three decades ago that we should identify and
establish groundwater sanctuaries at appropriate
places is yet to be implemented. These are concealed
aquifers which should be tapped only when
absolutely essential. Like a wildlife sanctuary, they
should be protected from exploitation. The
establishment of such sanctuaries atleast one
each in the 130 agroclimatic zones generally
identified in our country will help us to save
precious cattle and other farm animals, both from
distress sale and starvation deaths.
Coarse cereals and food security
As the speaker in the Sardar Patel Memorial

lecture series on All India Radio, which I delivered
in 1973, I had suggested that we should develop
drought, flood and good weather codes to minimise
the adverse impact of unfavourable monsoons and
to maximise production in a good monsoon year.
The drought code consists of a series of dos and
donts during deficient rainfall. As in the case of
Toward climate smart farming
In each of the major agroclimatic zones, atleast

two members (a woman and a man) of every
panchayat or local body should be trained to be
climate risk managers. They can help the rest of
the community in implementing the provisions of
the proposed drought, flood and good weather
codes. The government has recently introduced a
national policy on agroforestry. Agroforestry
combines the benefits of carbon sequestration and
local food security. The inclusion of fertilizer trees
in agroforestry systems can help build soil carbon
banks.
This year is the International Year of Family
Farming. Family farming is both a way of life and
a means to livelihood. India has probably the largest
number of family farmers. Our aim should be to
make every family farm a climate smart farm,
equipped with the knowledge and technologies
essential to manage the expected El Nio triggered
adverse rainfall conditions.
Source: The Hindu
[35]
SOUR TURN IN INDIA-EU TRADE

would potentially jeopardise India-EU trade, is
avoided. As the Minister has pointed out, the
ongoing negotiations for a broad-based India-EU
trade and investment agreement is based on the
premise of trust and understanding to put in place
a more liberal trade regime. Brussels should note
Indian domestic concerns and invoke the necessary
correctives on the basis of an appropriate
assessment of risks. If it is indeed possible that
sections of the EU bureaucracy see here a leveraging
factor in the context of talks on a Free Trade
Agreement, as also other bilateral issues, that will
amount to unfairness. Although Europe is not a
major market for Indian mangoes it accounts
for 16 million tonnes annually any ban typically
pulls down prices. About 80 per cent of the exports
from India go to West Asia. What India should do
is to strengthen its bargaining position by raising
export standards and leave no quarter to be found
remiss. The entire ecosystem for exports, involving
farmers, packers and exporters of agri-commodities,
should be geared to meet the quality and safety
requirements of countries across the world.
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The ban imposed by the European Union on

the import of Alphonso mangoes and four varieties
of vegetables from India until December 2015 after
some consignments were found infested with nonEuropean fruit flies has naturally upset India. As
the biggest producer of the golden fruit, India sends
about 70,000 tonnes of mangoes abroad every year.
Yet, merely insisting that the 28-member blocs
action is unilateral without any meaningful official
consultation, as Commerce Minister Anand
Sharma has done, will not do. The EU had notified
India in March of its concerns. Whether the
Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export
Development Authority, which is tasked with
ensuring that items of export are compliant in terms
of sanitary and phyto-sanitary standards as set
down by importing countries, was able to fully
address them effectively, remains unclear. It is also
to be noted that scores of consignments of mangoes
and vegetables shipped in 2013 had been found to
be contaminated. Periodic problems that come up
with respect to shrimp exports over contamination
concerns, are relevant here. India certainly needs
to put in place fool-proof mechanisms for the
examination and certification of export commodities
to remove such taints once and for all. Necessary
correctives need to be worked out with the
involvement of technical and scientific bodies in
order that in the lucrative but competitive export
markets the country would establish its reputation
as a reliable partner meeting health and phytosanitary standards.
On its part, the EU should ensure that any cause
for a perception of its decision being an unfair one
which smacks of a punitive approach and that
Editorial writers clarification: Total Indian

exports to EU countries in 2012-13 was only 4,071
tonnes. The figure of 16 million mentioned was not
in terms of tonnes but absolute number of mangoes
exported to the United Kingdom alone. Total
exports of mangoes from India in 2012-13 added
up to only 55,584.98 tonnes (according to data from
the Agricultural and Processed Food Products
Export Development Authority), and it is unlikely
that the figure would go up to 70,000 tonnes this
year.
Source: The Hindu
SIGNS OF HELPLESSNESS
As Ukraine slides steadily towards civil war,

the sanctions announced by the United States and
the European Union go further than previous
attempts but show no results on the ground. On
April 28, Washington announced measures against
companies, officials, and wealthy businesspeople
with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putins
government, and the following day the European
Union announced sanctions against 15 Russian and
Ukrainian officials including General Valery
Gerasimov, Russias chief of military staff, and
Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak, who is
tasked with developing Crimea, the Ukrainian
[36]
province annexed by Moscow on March 1. Among

the Ukrainians named, presumably for asset freezes
and travel bans, are the pro-Russian Igor Strelkov,
an adviser to Crimean Prime Minister Sergei
Aksyonov, and Sergei Tsyplakov, reportedly the
head of the Peoples Militia in Ukraines Donbass
region. The U.S. sanctions are wider than the
European ones, targeting businesses and
individuals; 17 companies are involved, mainly in
oil and gas, construction and finance. The most
notable target is Igor Sechin, President of the
Russian state-owned oil giant Rosneft; the financial
services firm Visa will have to suspend credit card

services to Bank Rossiya and other banks.
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The sanctions, however, are less severe than

they look, and could cause problems for western
firms, which may be able to keep shares in Russian
companies whose senior personnel are under
sanctions but may be banned from contact with
such executives. This could hit BP, which owns
19.75 per cent of Rosneft and has faced huge costs
since its 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster in the
Gulf of Mexico; its first-quarter profits are down
by 24 per cent. Other firms with Russian interests
include Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Shell; in
addition, the Russian quasi-state conglomerate
Rostec, whose head Sergei Chemezov is under
sanctions, manufactures components for Boeing,
and a Russian regional airline is set to buy Boeing
jets. As for Visa, cardholders will be able to

withdraw money. The U.S. and the EU may want
to block Mr. Putins apparent plan to redraw
Ukraines eastern border, but Moscow could
retaliate with its own sanctions, particularly in oil
and gas transactions. Secondly, events in Eastern
Ukraine are now out of Kievs control. On April
28, the pro-Kiev Mayor of Kharkiv, Gennady
Kernes, was shot and severely wounded; separatists
have occupied regional administration buildings in
Luhansk, and the government airbase at
Kramatorsk has been repeatedly attacked. The
western bloc may so far have avoided stating
preferred solutions, but its own impotence over
Ukraine is increasingly obvious.
Source: The Hindu
INSULATION FROM IDEOLOGICAL ASSAULT
India is in the midst of a high voltage election,

which commentators and politicians alike have
described as the battle for the idea of India. And
yet, there is nothing remarkable about the face-off
between the ideas of secularism and Hindu
nationalism. Ideological polarisation is a staple of
most democracies across the world. Still, we
continue to witness fear and concern at the prospect
of Narendra Modi becoming the next Prime
Minister.
The fact that this fear persists, in spite of Indias

proud record of holding regular elections, reveals
something deeply disturbing about the Indian state;
a state that is governed, first and foremost, by a
Constitution. Built into that Constitution are checks
and balances and they are backed by an
independent judiciary, the president, the
opposition, a free press, and civil society.
Meanwhile, public institutions like the civil services
and the armed forces have their own institutional
norms and gatekeepers tasked with the
responsibility of protecting these institutions from
political pressure. If we think Mr. Modi will be
able to ride roughshod over these institutions and
bend them according to his whims, then something
very significant has gone wrong already.
The shadow of the past
It is still in the publics collective memory that

Indias institutions were trampled over by the will
of a few powerful individuals during the
Emergency period of 1975 to 1977. Some fear that
if it could have happened once, it could happen
again. But it should not, not if a proper inquiry is
conducted and policy recommendations are
implemented.
In the case of the Emergency, the inquiry was

conducted by the Shah Commission, which found
that former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and a
list of individuals, whose careers seemingly did not
suffer after the Commissions publication, subverted
both the Maintenance of Internal Security Act and
the Defence of India Act in order to damage political
opponents. It also found that numerous officers
from the Indian Administrative Service accepted
orders from above even though they believed these
orders were made on improper political motives.
Still, the Shah Commission report was, by most
accounts, stillborn, and very little was done after
the Emergency to ensure that Indias institutions
prevail, regardless of the leadership.
The pogroms against Sikhs in Delhi in 1984
and against Muslims in Gujarat in 2002 also remain
in the publics collective memory, reminding us that
similar incidents could happen again. The police
and civil bureaucracy could look the other way as
citizens are butchered for days before the Army is
called out to put a halt to the violence.
Our vulnerable institutions
If institutions like the intelligence services

(currently without legislative oversight), the police,
civil bureaucracy, and the courts are protected from
capture, citizens know that they can turn to them
when a governing party transgresses their rights.
In other words, when institutions rule, citizens enjoy
protections, irrespective of the party or individuals in
power. India rightfully takes pride in her long-standing
record of peaceful transfer of power after every
[37]

election. But this transfer should also be free of
fear for all her citizens.
Even as some worry that a coalition government

led by Mr. Modi will threaten the idea of India, we
must remember that Indias state institutions are
the premier embodiment of this idea, and therefore,
we must ask why that idea is so defenceless in the
first place.
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So why has so little been done in response to

the Shah Commission and similar reports? The
answer may lie in the fact that elections are often
viewed as the means to institutional capture in
India. It is understood that the party in government
can bend institutional rules to fulfil its agenda. This
is partly a design problem, with some of the public
institutions not enjoying the kind of autonomy that
would protect them from the ideological changes
that often accompany electoral swings in
democratic countries. But it is also an erosion
problem whereby normal institutional behaviour
has gradually been subverted to meet political
objectives. Today, if the worry is indeed that Indias
critical institutions do not have the strength to

withstand an ideological assault on their norms,
then Mr. Modi is just a symptom of a much larger
problem: weak institutional design in need of firewalling from political pressures. Moreover, the
blame for undermining the autonomy of these
institutions and the failure to bolster their design is
shared by all major political parties.
Source: The Hindu
FILTERING CONTENT ON THE INTERNET
On May 5, the Supreme Court will hear

Kamlesh Vaswanis infamous anti-pornography
petition again. The petition makes some rather
outrageous claims. Watching pornography puts the
countrys security in danger and it is worse than
Hitler, worse than AIDS, cancer or any other
epidemic, it says. This petition has been pending
before the Court since February 2013, and seeks a
new law that will ensure that pornography is
exhaustively curbed.
Disintegrating into binaries
The petition assumes that pornography causes

violence against women and children. The trouble
with such a claim is that the debate disintegrates
into binaries; the two positions being that
pornography causes violence or that it does not.
The fact remains that the causal link between
violence against women and pornography is yet to
be proven convincingly and remains the subject of
much debate. Additionally, since the term
pornography refers to a whole range of explicit
content, including homosexual adult pornography,
it cannot be argued that all pornography objectifies
women or glamorises violent treatment of them.
Allowing even for the petitioners legitimate
concern about violence against women, it is
interesting to note that of all the remedies available,
he seeks the one which is authoritarian but may
not have any impact at all. Mr. Vaswani could
have, instead, encouraged the state to do more
toward its international obligations under the
Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination
against Women (CEDAW). CEDAWs General
Recommendation No. 19 is about violence against
[38]
women and recommends steps to be taken to reduce

violence against women. These include encouraging
research on the extent, causes and effects of
violence, and adopting preventive measures, such
as public information and education programmes,
to change attitudes concerning the roles and status
of men and women.
Child pornography
Although different countries disagree about the

necessity of banning adult pornography, there is
general international consensus about the need to
remove child pornography from the Internet.
Children may be harmed in the making of
pornography, and would at the very minimum
have their privacy violated to an unacceptable
degree. Being minors, they are not in a position to
consent to the act. Each act of circulation and
viewing adds to the harmful nature of child
pornography. Therefore, an argument can certainly
be made for the comprehensive removal of this kind
of content.
Indian policy makers have been alive to this
issue. The Information Technology Act (IT Act)
contains a separate provision for material depicting
children explicitly or obscenely, stating that those
who circulate such content will be penalised. The
IT Act also criminalises watching child
pornography (whereas watching regular
pornography is not a crime in India).
Intermediaries are obligated to take down child
pornography once they have been made aware that
they are hosting it. Organizations or individuals
can proactively identify and report child

pornography on-line. Other countries have tried,
with reasonable success, systems using hotlines,
verification of reports and co-operation of internet
service providers to take down child pornography.
However, these systems have also sometimes
resulted in the removal of other legitimate content.
Filtering speech on the Internet
In the Vaswani case, the government has

correctly explained to the Supreme Court that any
greater attempt to monitor pornography is not
technologically feasible. It has pointed out that
human monitoring of content will delay
transmission of data substantially, will slow down
the Internet, and will also be ineffective, since the
illegal content can easily be moved to other servers
in other countries.
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Child pornography can be blocked or removed

using the IT Act, which permits the government to
send lists of URLs of illegal content to internet
service providers, requiring them to remove this
content. Even private parties can send notices to
on-line intermediaries informing them of illegal
content and thereby making them legally
accountable for such content if they do not remove
it. However, none of this will be able to ensure the
disappearance of child pornography from the
Internet in India.
designed to remove child pornography do not end

up being used to remove political speech or speeches
that are constitutionally protected.
Technological solutions like filtering software

that screens or blocks access to online content,
whether at the state, service provider or user level,
can at best make child pornography inaccessible to
most people. People who are more skilled than
amateurs will be able to circumvent technological
barriers since these are barriers only until better
technology enables circumvention.
Additionally, attempts at technological filtering
usually even affect speech that is not targeted by
the filtering mechanism. Therefore, any system for
filtering or blocking content from the Internet needs
to build in safeguards to ensure that processes
Making intermediaries liable for the content they

host will undo the safe harbour protection granted
to them by the IT Act. Without it, intermediaries
like Facebook will actually have to monitor all the
content they host, and the resources required for
such monitoring will reduce the content that makes
its way on-line. This would seriously impact the
extensiveness and diversity of content available on
the Internet in India. Additionally, when demands
are made for the removal of legitimate content,
profit-making internet companies will be disinclined
to risk litigation much in the same way as Penguin
was reluctant to defend Wendy Donigers book.
If the Supreme Court makes the mistake of
creating a positive obligation to monitor Internet
content for intermediaries, it will effectively kill the
Internet in India.
Source: The Hindu
GREEN ENERGY BOOST FOR AFRICA
Sub-Saharan Africas lack of electricity is

hindering development but this can be reversed if
countries turn to ambitious, large-scale renewable
energy projects, an environmental think-tank
suggests.
The region home to 41 per cent of the worlds

energy-poor people, with 65 per cent of primary
schools and 30 per cent of health centres having
no access to electricity faces an energy crisis
that development models are not addressing,
according to a report by the Green Alliance.
Even with robust economic growth, [the
regions] existing energy infrastructure is a brake
on progress. With population growth continuing
to outstrip electrification, the number of people
without energy access is only projected to grow,
say the authors. This has significant implications
for development, with impacts on health, education
and household economy. Disproportionate amounts

of time and income are spent securing energy by
other means, such as gathering wood, which also
has detrimental impacts on the natural environment.
Low carbon, decentralised energy can reach
communities much faster than expanding existing,
inefficient central grid systems. And it offers
immediate improvements to peoples lives.
Projections for achieving universal energy access
in sub-Saharan Africa acknowledge this potential
and assume that just over half the provision will
need to be mini and off-grid solutions. Such options
will also be more resilient in the face of climate
changes.
The study was launched as the Labour party
pledged to back clean power for Africa. Chuka
Umunna MP, the shadow business secretary, said:
The green economy presents huge opportunities
[39]

for dynamic and innovative British businesses to
export overseas and increase energy access in
regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa through
renewable technology. We are clear that Britain
must be a world leader in the low-carbon economy.
This is key to growing the high-skilled, better-paid
jobs we need as well as powering development
across the globe that benefits all.
Source: The Hindu
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Yes, there is still poverty, disease and conflict

in Africa. But the fact is that in the last 15 years,
the African continent has been fired by the spirit
of progress. We can see it in the technology hubs

of Lagos and Nairobi, the successes in fighting
diseases, the number of kids going to school, the
burgeoning, emerging middle classes. Consider
Nigeria, with its population of 170 million. It
currently has the same grid power as Bradford
a city of half a million people. As Nigeria makes
those investments, there will be lots of opportunities
for British businesses. So we need to wake up to
what is happening in Africa.
A SILENT KILLER THATS NOT AN ELECTION ISSUE
In March, the World Health Organization

released its latest study which estimated a total of
7 million deaths worldwide in 2012 caused by
exposure to air pollution one in eight of all global
deaths. Indoor air pollution was linked to 4.3
million of the deaths that occurred in homes which
depend on biomass or coal for cooking.
and below the ground erosion and degradation

of soil, and loss of forest density and biodiversity,
the problem of air pollution in several parts of the
country is alarming. While outdoor air pollution
gets some attention from the public and decisionmakers, indoor air pollution, which afflicts at least
two-thirds of Indian homes, remains neglected.
In August 1997, on the eve of India celebrating

50 years of independence, the Energy and Resources
Institute, in a detailed study assessing the countrys
record of environmental protection and
conservation of natural resources during that
period, found that a total of 2.5 million premature
deaths took place in 1997 alone as a result of air
pollution, both indoor and outdoor. The majority
of these were caused by pollution indoors that
stemmed from cooking on inefficient cookstoves
burning largely inferior forms of biomass.
More than 300 million people in India have no

access to electricity, and those that do still do not
have a stable supply. As a result, kerosene lamps
and candles are used widely in many Indian homes,
with high levels of air pollution affecting hundreds
of millions. Women and children are particularly
vulnerable because they spend more time at home.
Perhaps even more serious is the dependence of
around 700 million people on the burning of
biomass in their homes, using inefficient stoves that
emit large quantities of smoke, leading to high doses
of air pollution.
India is currently voting in its general election

the world's largest democracy began voting on 7
April and finishes on 12 May but if the record of
previous governments is any indication,
environmental issues are unlikely to be a priority.
There is, no doubt, a credible framework of
legislation in place in India to support any attention
give to environmental issues, but the institutions
and processes that translate intent into action
remain weak and ineffective.
(On the subject of climate change, the

government announced its a national action plan
in 2008, the provisions and contents of which were
put together over the following two years in a
rigorous exercise involving governments of all
states, members of civil society and various thinktanks. However, the implementation of the plan
remains far below stated targets and goals.)
Apart from the serious and widespread
problems of water pollution both on the surface
[40]
Fortunately, some solutions have been devised.

As part of its Lighting a Billion Lights campaign,
the Energy and Resources Institute has reached
almost 3,000 villages in India and Africa,
introducing the decentralised use of photovoltaic
panels. An important apsect of this campaign is
that a local female entrepreneur is trained to set
up a central charging station in a village using
solar panels on rooves. She charges lightweight,
LED solar lanterns, with a socket for charging
mobile phones. After charging the lanterns for the
whole village in the daytime, she rents them out at
night. This provides the entire village with clean,
efficient and reliable lighting, based on a sustainable,
market-oriented model. Similar programmes have
been launched with improved stoves in a large
number of villages, reducing indoor air pollution
drastically.
Unfortunately, elected governments in India
have largely failed to come to grips with the

problem of indoor air pollution, and those
campaigning in the ongoing election show scant
understanding of this pervasive problem. With
irrational subsidies on kerosene, the transition to
cleaner fuels in many Indian homes may, therefore,
remain slow. Fortunately, with falling solar power
prices and the demonstrated success of the Lighting

a Billion Lights campaign, many NGOs and even
the private sector are now emulating the lights
model. This promises well for the future.
Source: The Hindu
REVISITING THE LAW ON REMISSION

down the law on whether the State Government
was the appropriate government to invoke the
power of remission to convicts who had been
prosecuted by the Central Bureau of Investigation
but convicted under sections of the Indian Penal
Code and some Central laws. The 40-page order of
the three-Judge Bench makes it amply clear that
several issues had been raised during the arguments
and that only a Constitution Bench could provide
clear and final answers. The Court has asked for
an authoritative pronouncement on whether life
imprisonment means imprisonment for the rest of
ones life; and whether it was time that a special
category of sentence imprisonment for life or a
term in excess of 14 years without any remission
can be created for cases in which the death
penalty is deemed excessive and the regular life
term with scope for remission after 14 years seems
inadequate; and whether remission is still available
to those whose sentences were commuted to life
either by the President or the Governor or by the
Supreme Court in judicial review. This is a case in
which the Court will have to evaluate the
competing merits of multiple considerations:
adequacy of punishment, right of release after
prolonged incarceration and the need to lay down
a process for exercising the sovereign power of
remission.
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An administrative decision that appeared to be

a politically partisan misadventure has now become
an opportunity for the judiciary to revisit the law.
The Supreme Court has referred to a Constitution
Bench the issues arising out of the Tamil Nadu
governments attempt to release the seven life
convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. The
State Governments decision to release them was
made a day after the Supreme Court commuted
the death sentences of three of them in February
on account of the long delay in disposing of their
mercy petitions to the President. The States
announcement touched a raw nerve in the
Congress-led Union Government, which challenged
its legality. A three-judge Bench headed by Chief
Justice P. Sathasivam had reserved orders on the
scope of the provisions relating to grant of remission
and it was expected that an unambiguous verdict
would be delivered. However, the Court has found
enough reasons to let the matter be decided by a
larger Bench, as the existing body of case law does
not present a clear picture on several questions.
One immediate consequence of the Bench framing
seven substantial questions of law is that the matter
now seems less of a political and emotive issue
than when the attempt was made to fast-track their
freedom.
One may wonder whether the Bench could not
have referred the matter to a Constitution Bench
at an earlier stage itself, or it could not have laid
Source: The Hindu
ENSURING ACCURACY OF ROLLS
The shocking state of affairs revealed by reports

of several lakh names of voters missing from the
electoral rolls in Maharashtra, mainly from the
countrys financial capital, Mumbai, in the most
recent phase of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, has raised
troubling questions about the efficiency of the
process of periodic electoral rolls revision, inclusion
of new voters who have attained 18 years of age,
and special enrolment drives and camps periodically
organised by the election authorities before a
general election or byelection. The irony weighs
even more heavily on the popular mind as the
Election Commission of India (ECI) way back in

1993 not only initiated the issue of Electors Photo
Identity Cards (EPIC), but also followed it up with
computerisation of the entire electoral rolls in a
phased manner. States like Kerala and Tamil Nadu
went a step further in publishing photo electoral
rolls (displaying the image of every voter on the
rolls on printed sheets in all the Assembly constituencies). Such measures, including the more recent
on-line registration of voters, were meant to ensure
a near-foolproof voters list over a period of time,
besides eliminating impersonation and bogus voting.
[41]

linked to a real-time database that can quickly reflect
these changes. This should be possible as the EPIC gives
a unique number to every registered voter.
Address-change verification processes could
also be made citizen-friendly: long lists of
apparently missing names that are stuck on house
doors often go unnoticed. The distribution of booth
slips by the ECI helps those on the rolls find their
polling booths. It is an innovation that has flowed
from the system of distribution of slips adopted by
political parties whose stakes in the elections are
high and who are keen to bring in the voters. It is
equally important that staying on the rolls or getting
on to them is not made a tedious or burdensome
task.
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Nonetheless, for all the application of latest

information technology tools as recently as April
8 this year the ECI launched a national-level on-line
electoral roll search that could be used by voters
even from their smartphones to search their names
on the rolls there are still thousands of instances
of names of citizens who have been long-time
residents at a given address being struck off the
rolls. It is a grim reminder that technology cannot
be a substitute for care, verification and proper
supervision of the process. Burgeoning urbanisation,
with people frequently shifting residences, or large
numbers of migrant workers moving to cities, calls
for a great deal of care to ensure that all eligible
voters are included. The process of inclusion and
deletion has perforce to be decentralised at the ward
level, and the changes made by authorized officials
Source: The Hindu
CONTRADICTIONS TO THE FORE
The April 23 decision by Hamas and Fatah, the

Palestine Liberation Organization, to unite with a
view to forming a government in five weeks has
rightly refocussed attention on the Israel-Palestine
issue. The two parties have in effect governed,
respectively, Gaza and parts of the West Bank since
2006; each has its own security forces, and tensions
have been severe. For example, in the West Bank
the Palestinian Authority has cooperated with Israel
to arrest and jail members of Hamas and its
associate group, the Islamic Jihad. Secondly, the
new pact would involve the recognition of Israel
within the 1967 borders, the renunciation of
violence, and the acceptance of previous PalestinianIsraeli agreements as well as Fatah-Hamas
agreements such as those reached in Cairo in 2011
and Doha in 2012. Elections are to be held at least
six months after the forthcoming talks, to form a
new government. The context, however, remains
volatile. Hamas has consistently refused to recognise
Israel, and both Fatah and Hamas face internal
problems. Mahmoud Abbas, whose status as Fatah
leader is at best questionable, may feel he needs a
mandate from all Palestinians; for his part, Hamas
leader Ismail Haniyeh faces an economic and
political crisis following the Egyptian military juntas
crackdown on Hamass ally, the Muslim
Brotherhood; Cairo has also blocked off vital supply
tunnels into Gaza, and Mr. Haniyeh has little
control over militant factions.
The key international reaction, that of the

United States, has been predictably one-sided.
President Barack Obama, currently brokering talks
which have lasted eight months and were due to
conclude this week, says the pact is unhelpful
and calls for a pause in the talks. Mr. Obama
echoes, less aggressively, Israels Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu, who accuses Fatah of allying
with a murderous terrorist organization that
wants to destroy Israel. Tel Aviv, however, also
says it cannot deal with a divided Palestinian
movement. Hamas is the elected ruling party of
the Palestinian people, having won the 2006 election,
but Israel has suspended the talks. It also continues
construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem,
and Hamass incapacity to control sub-groups will
enable Tel Aviv to continue with collective
punishment against Gazans for largely ineffective
rocket attacks. Furthermore, Mr. Netanyahu insists
Israel be recognised as a Jewish state; nothing short
of that. The Fatah-Hamas pact may show
desperation, but Israel seems to get everything it
wants, irrespective of the contradictions therein.
The continuing tragedy is that of four million
Palestinians, for whom the only country which
could make a difference, the U.S., does nothing.
Source: The Hindu
THE ROAD TO SAFETY
Indias roads have acquired a reputation, quite

deservedly, of being the most dangerous in the
world. Rapid motorisation and fast-paced economic
[42]
activity over several years have been accompanied

by an annual toll of nearly 140,000 accident
fatalities; injuries are estimated to be 15 to 20 times

for compensation. Their response to the need for
improved infrastructure has been woefully weak.
In its recent report, the National Transport
Development Policy Committee headed by Rakesh
Mohan suggested that National, State and locallevel institutions be set up, with responsibility to
address the issue of safety. There is an urgent need
to form these committees, and appoint professionals
to them. They must be empowered to upgrade
driver-licensing practices, road systems, public
lighting and signage. Accident investigation, which
remains a neglected area, requires a thorough
overhaul, and CCTVs can help determine the cause
of mishaps. Also, the neglect of the public district
hospital network in most States, and the high cost
of treatment at private hospitals affect access to
good trauma care for accident victims. The right to
life demands that the Central and State
Governments provide medical facilities at a
proximate institution free of cost to all. The
Supreme Court panel must give road accidents the
status of a public health issue that has acquired
alarming proportions. Reform to improve road
safety cannot be delayed any longer.
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the number of deaths. In absolute numbers, more

people die in road accidents in India than in any
other country. Apart from the human dimension
of the tragedy, avoidable death and disability
seriously affect economic progress by some
estimates, 3 per cent of GDP is lost in a year due
to the carnage. The recent decision of the Supreme
Court to appoint a three-member committee to
suggest ways to prevent road accidents and ensure
accountability offers some hope that a new
government at the Centre will be compelled to
address the issue as an emergency. It is not as if
suggestions for improvements for enhanced safety
have not been proposed earlier. The Sundar
Committee constituted by the Centre called for an
apex agency to be created to assess all aspects of
road safety, and to address the lacuna in scientific
accident investigation. Although the recommendation
was made seven years ago, it has failed to take off.
Indians are travelling more miles per capita today,
and are at high risk for injury or worse.
Unsafe transport, including services operated
by government agencies, are a major part of the
problem. Several ghastly accidents involving public
transport vehicles have been reported, but the State
Governments involved have shown little sense of
accountability. They routinely challenge even claims
Source: The Hindu
PROFESSEDLY SECULAR VS. CONSPICUOUSLY COMMUNAL
Until the beginning of the 20th Century, Indias

war of independence from foreign rule was fought
on the plank of equality of all faiths and of their
followers. The scene changed thereafter and certain
sections of the majority community began projecting
their religion as an inseparable part of the countrys
future political ideology. As a reaction to this, some
Muslim leaders began demanding special
arrangements for their community in the nations
forthcoming political structure. These competitive
aspirations eventually led to the partition of the
country accompanying its independence from
British Rule in 1947. During the protracted phase
of Constitution-making, demands were made for
the protection of certain religious traditions in the
national charter under preparation, and some of
these had to be accommodated. This gave birth to
a peculiar concept of state secularity, different from
how the rest of the world understands it.
No state religion
Adopted in the third year of independence from
foreign rule, the Constitution of India did not
declare any religion to be the state religion or an
otherwise privileged faith tradition. It declared

liberty of belief, faith and worship and equality of
status and opportunity to be the basic ideals of
future polity, and non-discrimination on religious
grounds to be one of the peoples Fundamental
Rights. However, it neither erected a U.S.-type
non-establishment clause a wall of separation
between state and religion nor adopted the
French doctrine of lacit requiring the state to
estrange its people from all walks of life. To put it
in concrete terms, the state was not prevented from
playing a role in the affairs of religion, but religion
was to have no role whatsoever to play in state
affairs. Twenty-six years later the Preamble to the
Constitution was amended to add the word
secular to the prefatory description of the character
of the country. It, however, made no difference,
and the concept of secularism remained basically
distinct from its western stereotypes, leaving ample
room for the politicians of tomorrow to play with
it as they liked.
A quasi-secular ideology remained dominant in
state affairs for about half a century after
[43]

when the State allows citizens to profess and
practise their religions, it does not either explicitly
or impliedly allow them to introduce religion into
non-religious and secular activities of the
State (S.R. Bommai v. Union of India, 1994). There
have, however, been occasional aberrations too, a
clear instance of which was found in the late Justice
J.S. Vermas so-called Hindutva judgments of 1995.
Gravely disturbed by their tenor, his brother judge
K. Ramaswamy hastened to get them referred to a
larger Bench for review. The public outcry against
the language used in those rulings, which seemed
to be lending weight to protagonists of political
communalism, forced the learned author to dispel
such impressions in a clarifying decision given in
quick succession. He was soon appointed to the
Chair of the National Human Rights Commission,
and his policies and performance there turned into
a direction exactly opposite to what his earlier
judgments were made out to be.
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independence, but throughout these years

concessions were periodically made in favour of
particular religions. Towards the end of the 20th
Century, the majority communitys protagonists of
a different ideology that they called Hindutva
an ideology which insists on the religio-cultural
beliefs and practices of the majority community
being an essential attribute of patriotism, national
culture and social practice began aspiring to
capture political power. Soon they took over the
reins of the nation and their ideology of cultural
nationalism remained dominant in the countrys
governance throughout their six-year rule. The
professedly secular political outfits returned to
power in 2004 and have ruled the country for a
full decade. There have been severe blows to
secularism under both dispensations destruction
of the Ayodhya mosque in 1992 and the Gujarat
pogrom of 2002 bear testimony to this fact. The
difference has been of a passive tolerance and active
support to a gradual decline of the ideal of states
secularity and neutrality to religion.
The judiciary and secularism
The judiciary in India has been generally

favouring the ideology of secularism. A leading case
on Indias secular character was decided by the
Supreme Court in 1994. The Court declared that
secularism was an inalienable part of the
Constitution and clarified that secularism is more
than a passive attitude of religious tolerance; it is
a positive concept of equal treatment of all religions
Democracy envisages periodical change of

guard, and a time for that has come once again.
The race for taking over the reins of the nation
next is currently on, and is unfortunately fast
developing into a tug of war between professedly
secular and conspicuously communal ideologies.
The outcome is anybodys guess. Neither unbridled
political ambitions nor media speculations will
however be decisive. The people of this country
will be the real arbiters of its destiny.
Source: The Hindu
SECURING INDIAS NUCLEAR ENERGY FUTURE
There are no two ways about it. To secure its

economic future, India will have to ensure its
energy security through exploration of all possible
sources of energy, including nuclear energy.
Indias long-standing nuclear apartheid ended

with the signing of international cooperation
agreements with United States, UK, France, Russia
and Canada, which granted India access to nuclear
materials from the 46 countries in the Nuclear
Suppliers group.
However, the Fukushima Daichi incident and

apprehensions over the clauses of Civil Liability for
Nuclear Damage Act, (CLNDA) 2010 have stymied
the progress in this sector. Unlike Germany, India
cannot afford to jettison nuclear power options, as
it will not be able to afford high-cost renewable
energy beyond a certain proportion in its supply
basket.
[44]
Though no effort or expense ought to be spared

in ensuring greater safety of existing and future
nuclear power plants, forsaking this vital energy
source could be detrimental to Indias future energy
supply.
Law is a hindrance India, which is already
feeling the stress in conventional power generation
due to issues surrounding fuel and delayed
clearances, needs to embark on a progressive power
policy which ensures access to assured, affordable
and a cleaner energy source.
Even in the face of stringent sanctions, Indias
domestic nuclear manufacturing entities steadfastly
stood behind the countrys nuclear establishment
in the formative years. This enabled us to move
rapidly up the learning curve, often sacrificing
commercial interests to meet the long term goal of
self-sufficiency in civil nuclear technology.

However, this effort at capacity creation is
running into difficulties due to some provisions of
CLNDA, 2010, and its rules. The scope of liability,
both in terms of definition of a supplier and the
quantum of liability, are not clearly defined in the
current CNLA.
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This has caused undue apprehension among

international and domestic players. After the
creation of the CNLA Act, the supply chain
partners/subcontractors requested major industry
players to indemnify them from any liability.
However, the Act prohibits any such move.
Subsequent rules approved by Parliament dont
provide the clarity desired by industry.
The spectre of virtually unlimited liability on a

single suppliers balance sheet is never an
encouraging prospect for industry. There is no
insurance product which could cover such a risk.
Further, as suppliers are keen to participate in
multiple installations, there is uncertainty over the
implications of liability at multiple sites. A nuclear
accident cant be caused by a single failure, due to
multilayered safety features incorporated in the
design of nuclear power plant, which makes
apportioning liability on a single supplier difficult
and unreasonable. If each supplier seeks insurance
cover for the same liability, nuclear power plant
construction costs will become economically
unviable.
It goes without saying that nuclear reactor

operations should have plans and safeguards to
deal with adverse events such as human error or
a natural calamity. Indias track record in the
operation of its nuclear plants has been
commendable.
Indias nuclear manufacturing industry has the
wherewithal to contribute effectively towards
Indias goal of achieving 63 GWe of nuclear power
by the year 2032. This includes the induction of
thorium-based Advanced Heavy Water Reactors
(AHWRs), which augurs well keeping in view the
vast deposits of monazite which India has.
However, for the industry participation to

become a reality there ought to be more clarity on
legal and financial risks. The amount payable in
the event of an incident should be firmly established.
Unlimited liability There exists a stipulation of
maximum liability of 300 million SDR (about Rs
2,800 crore currently) on a single supplier right
now. The majority of contracts will be smaller than
the rupee equivalent of 300m SDR.
Nuclear industry demands specialised training

to establish a nuclear safety and quality culture.
The best in the talent pool need to be assigned for
nuclear projects. The impractical CNL legislation
has resulted in lack of work for the past three years.
The youth is no longer keen on working on
nuclear projects. At the other end, Indian industry
has heavily invested in building new capabilities
and expanding current capacities. The stalemate
created due to legal issues has resulted in
underutilisation of even existing capacities.
While it goes without saying that all entities
ought to be responsible for, and involved in,
ensuring a safe and incident free operation, a
rational division of risk-reward is just as important
-among suppliers, operators and other stakeholders.
Otherwise, keeping the lights on India's economic
growth story may turn out to be an onerous task.
GET REAL ABOUT REALTY
Are we bringing back interest rate controls?
Dismantling the regime of financial repression,

via directed lending and administered interest rates,
has been one of the stated objectives of economic
reforms.
Regulatory efforts in recent times have sought
to give banks the power to price their loan products
based on their own assessment of risk-return
considerations. In the process, lending rates have
become largely market-determined. The only caveat
is that no loans can be extended below the base
rate declared by each bank though even this is
not applicable for restructured loans, loans against
deposits and loans under the Differential Interest

Rate scheme targeted at weaker sections.
At the same time, the concept of base rate
itself has been questioned for setting a floor below
which banks cannot lend even when it is
commercially expedient to do so for short periods,
taking into account their liquidity position and
lendable surpluses.
In this context, one needs to examine a recent
draft report on Pricing of Credit by a Reserve
Bank of India (RBI) working group headed by
former Deputy Governor Anand Sinha. Its
recommendations, if implemented, may well further
[45]

stifle the breathing space banks now have in loanpricing.
Freedom to price
The panel has, among other things, proposed
that no bank can hike interest rates for an existing
borrower, except on deterioration of credit risk
profile.
The working groups main underlying concern,

based on a reading of its report, seems to be to
ensure transparency, consistency and nondiscrimination in lending practices.
This is understandable vis-a-vis retail/small
borrowers. But the reports recommendations are
over-arching, covering even borrowers in the
commercial and industrial (C&I) segments. The
latter, after all, are savvy enough to get the best of
bargains and obviously do not need the safeguards
suggested by the panel.
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Now, credit risk profiling or rating is a

backward-looking indicator, even in the best of
times. Ratings are largely an annual exercise relying
on past audited financials of companies. There is
hence an in-built skew heavily weighted in favour
of the past and not the future outlook for either
the borrower or the industry in which it operates.
of letters of credit or delays in instal ment/interest

servicing. True, some of these may eventually get
reflected in a formal deterioration in the borrowers
credit quality. But does waiting for adverse
developments to crystallize make for smart business
sense?
If banks have to wait for the next rating report

to reset interest rates, it would be tantamount to
bringing back controls over loan pricing by proxy.
Even if one were to mandate tighter norms on
resetting interest rates for, say, home loan or retail
borrowers, this principle cannot be applied for
industrial and commercial segment borrowers.
Banks should have the flexibility to respond to

an ever-changing industrial environment. A bank
may want to exit or lend less to a particular industry
say, sugar based on its assessment of risk of
exposure to that sector. One way to do it is to raise
lending rates to that industry. This perception may
not, however, be shared by other banks, which
would continue to lend at existing rates to
companies in the same sector.
Foreign and private sector banks are known to
take such dynamic positions with respect to loan
pricing, unlike their public sector counterparts, who
are generally not smart in terms of exiting or
reducing exposures to certain sectors at the right
time. That is probably one reason why the problem
of non-performing assets has been more serious for
state-owned banks that, till recently, continued to
lend to troubled sectors when they ought to have
exited.
Wait until dark
The RBI panels recommendation to link

resetting of interest rates to annual credit risk
profiling would severely hamstring the efforts of
banks to reduce exposure to particular borrowers
or industries.
Banks can only wring their hands in despair if

they do not have the freedom to react to adverse
developments in the interim including events
such as invocation of bank guarantees, devolvement
[46]
Further, the flexibility banks currently have on

pricing of credit in the C&I segment based on
factors such as track record of customers, length
and value of relationships, competitive offers from
other banks, availability of collateral and conduct
of account will be lost through the proposed
regimentation. No two borrowers in these segments
are alike from a credit-risk/relationship perspective.
Rethink the base
The draft report also bristles with other

proposals on how banks should compute their base
rates. It would be desirable, the report says, that
banks, particularly those whose weighted average
maturity of deposits is on the lower side, move
towards computing the base rate on the basis of
marginal cost of funds. The expectation here
probably is such a rate would be more directly
linked to the RBIs repo rates, helping the cause of
monetary policy transmission.
The base rate concept is itself regressive, as
already pointed out. In none of the 18 jurisdictions
profiled in the report including Canada,
Germany, Singapore and Hong Kong is there
anything akin to a base rate. The restrictions, if
any, in all these mature developed financial markets
are on the maximum interest rates that can be
charged, not the minimum. Concerns over usury
or Shylockian practices have led to caps or ceilings
in lending rates of banks in these countries, not
floors.
Quite apart from the need for a serious rethink
on having a bank-specific base rate at all, the
working groups draft report has sought to further
build on a flawed concept, thereby only muddling
the interest rate waters rather than clearing them
up. It has even gone to the extent of mooting an

Indian Banks Base Rate, a new benchmark to be
collated by the Indian Banks Association.
A better solution, instead, would be for the RBI
to help develop a term money market in India and
pave the way for the Mumbai Inter-Bank Offered
Rate or MIBOR to emerge as a relevant benchmark
like Londons LIBOR for foreign currency loans.
One cannot argue against the reports emphasis
on the need for greater transparency and board-
approved policy on pricing of loans. These, and

the importance of financial education drives, are
initiatives that will definitely stand the retail
borrower in good stead. But its suggestions on the
whole will only make for operational difficulties
for Indian banks, especially when it comes to MSME
and C&I loan pricing.
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NO SMALL CHANGE
A quiet change seems to be taking place across

Indias micro, small and medium enterprises
(MSMEs), which account for 40 per cent of the
countrys manufacturing output. Content to stick
largely with informal sources of lending, MSMEs
have now begun tapping the capital market. The
market capitalisation of the BSEs SME platform,
created in March 2012, crossed $1 billion recently,
with 57 listed MSMEs. While $1 billion is small
change compared to the scale of operations on our
exchanges, it must be remembered that the SME
platform is new and the scale up has been from a
zero base. While the NSE has roped in just five
firms since September 2012, its chief feels the trend
will change and not without reason. Both
exchanges recently launched an institutional
trading platform to get around the problem of feeble
retail investor response. The regulator has also
allowed companies to skirt the IPO route for listing
on this platform. This can help new, offbeat
MSMEs, spurned by increasingly risk-averse banks,
to raise capital at a lower cost.
Many SMEs avoid the capital market due to
the high cost of making public offers. Quite a few
have a paid up capital of just Rs. 1 crore or a little
more as well as no brand recall. At the same time,
such small firms often find it difficult to meet the
venture capitalists growth expectations. This is
why it is important for this platform to attract more

institutional and retail investors. They must be
incentivised to buy MSME scrips; one way to alter
the lukewarm sentiment is to bring down the three
year lock-in period and reduce the minimum
transaction amount, which is now Rs. 1 lakh.
But for the capital market culture to evolve, the
MSME ecosystem needs to change as well. Tapping
the market implies adhering to disclosure norms,
which MSMEs are reluctant to accept. Outwardlooking, niche firms would, however, realise that
listing is worth the trouble for the credibility and
branding it will bring. While policy support in the
form of cheaper credit and reduced red tape is
important, it must be kept in mind that most MSMEs
work as equipment suppliers to large units. This
leaves them at the mercy of their buyers and market
conditions an inherent vulnerability that drives
up the cost of finance. In an increasingly
competitive environment, sticking to the straight
and narrow path in finance and product design
does not help. But for a new generation of
entrepreneurs in a globalised economy, these are
challenges to be overcome. This perhaps best
explains the trickle of MSMEs into the capital
market, even in these times of great industrial
gloom.
COMMUNITY INJUSTICE
Are the winds of change blowing through that

most atavistic of institutions, the khap panchayat?
After lifting the customary ban on inter-caste and
inter-village marriage, the Satrol Khap Panchayat
has gone as far as to appoint a womens wing.
Two years ago, khap panchayats banded together
to oppose female foeticide. Some imagine that this
amounts to taking the khap out of the khap
panchayat. But those may be unrealistic hopes,
over-reading changes that are skin-deep, intended

primarily to preserve the deeper status quo of clan
exogamy, in a context of falling sex ratios.
The khap panchayat, a traditional form of Jat
social organisation that exists from Rajasthan to
Western UP, has a special sway in rural Haryana,
where it dispenses justice, arbitrates disputes, but
mainly defends the patriarchal code on marriage
and property and the ban on mixed-gotra
[47]

complicit in the workings of khap panchayats,
because it is in their interest to keep electoral
mobilisations effective. The Congress, INLD and
even the Aam Aadmi Party have justified their place
as cultural entities, and not one of Haryanas young
and seemingly progressive political leaders has
resisted this stand. Political parties, who are actively
enabled by khap panchayats, are not likely to call
for their dismantling.
No matter what gestures they make to survive,
khap panchayats can never be reconciled with the
idea of liberal citizenship and individual freedom.
The only lasting way to undermine them is
urbanisation, messy and difficult as that transition
will be.
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relationships. They enforce their writ through a

mix of social intimidation, fines, even violence, in
the cluster of villages each khap presides over. This
local hegemony has been challenged lately, after
news of gruesome honour killings and inter-caste
conflict made news in urban India, drawing media
and civil society outrage, prompting the Supreme
Court to point out that their judgments were illegal
and unconstitutional. But within their own
contexts, khap panchayats remain resilient
institutions, seen as a bulwark against the forces of
modernity and globalization. Police and
administrative officials often refuse to interfere in
the structural injustice of these systems, explaining
them away as customs.
Formal grassroots democracy is weak or coopted, and mainstream political parties are strongly
A PRECARIOUS POLL
As everyone concentrated on high-profile

electoral contests in mainland India, did we miss
the wood for the trees because it was expected
that elections in Kashmir would be peaceful? A TV
news anchor mentioned the six months of relative
peace as she asked me where we were heading
after the Shopian encounter, which left three
terrorists and two soldiers dead. Even a reporter
from an English daily in the Valley expressed
surprise that Pulwama district, the first in J&K to
go to polls, on April 24, looked as if people there
were unaware of the election. This was predictable.
It is just that the rest of India mostly misreads
Kashmir based on skin-deep currents.
Kashmir was witnessing a high-profile political

event after a long time perhaps the first since
the hanging of Afzal Guru. In the interim, it has
got more radicalised than ever before. Radicalisation
doesnt only mean religious extremism it is also
the belief that only violence can resolve an issue. A
majority of people have a deep-seated angst against
the rest of India. It was therefore not difficult to
predict that polling on April 24 would be a noshow, adroitly managed by separatist cadres.
The acquiescence of political parties to low
turnouts in areas where their rivals were stronger
was also predictable. The use of violence to ensure
this might have caught many observers by surprise,
but not those who know Kashmirs political
landscape. Interestingly, even the Kashmir media
and police were surprised at the effectiveness of
the calls for a boycott.
[48]
The Shopian encounter was the culmination of

the violence that shook South Kashmir. The
question is, will Srinagar and Baramulla be any
different? The hapless sarpanchs, who have been
awaiting empowerment for the last three years,
are easy targets to demonstrate terrorist capability
and intent. For the sake of their lives, they had to
be closeted in police stations on polling day. So,
the message from the violence is clear even as
Pakistan reels under terrorism, separatism will be
kept alive through violent or other means. The next
two polling dates (today and May 7) might be used
to send this message out.
The summer has just begun and some of the
northern gullies are not even open yet. There have
been few infiltration attempts, which signifies that
the paralysis of parts of Kashmir can be achieved
by resident terrorist cadres and new recruits, without additional reinforcements from across the LoC.
This must be read in conjunction with events
across the LoC, where Hizbul Mujahideen leader
Syed Salahuddin has been actively preparing for
the summer, and leaders in hiding, such as Masood
Azhar (Jaish-e-Mohammad), have been exhorting
their cadres to be ready for the onslaught after the
International Security Assistance Force withdraws
from Afghanistan. The Lok Sabha election is the
ideal stage for the Hizbul Mujahideen to display its
capability to create turbulence. Radicalised youth
and cadres of the Jamaat also made themselves
available and took the authorities, including the
Union Home Ministry, it seems, by surprise.

by inadvertent mistakes by security forces, they must
be circumspect and avoid tactical encounters for
the sake of success-related statistics. They must only
conduct intelligence-generated operations so as not
to fall prey to separatist machinations.
The success of security forces in keeping the
Valley incident-free through the summer is likely
to be countered by moving their attention towards
the LoC. The army leadership must prepare itself
for this. The Hizbul Mujahideen is aching for a
showdown and its efforts at the LoC must be
countered at the outset, before it is emboldened to
try anything more innovative.
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While we may have dismissed these events as

aberrations related to the elections, we cannot
forget that the assembly polls are scheduled for the
end of 2014. In the wake of the Amarnath Shrine
Board agitation in 2008, Kashmir surprised
observers with a reasonable turnout. A similar trend
could upset the separatists, who want to preserve
the momentum from the Lok Sabha polls boycott.
The separatists will want the period in between
the two elections, which spans the summer, to be
turbulent. Against common belief, there are enough
cadres to ensure this. The Hizbul Mujahideen
appears to have created sleeper cadres, which can
surface in urban areas at will.
What do we need to worry about in the wake
of such an assessment? First, infiltration through
the LoC by a fresh terrorist leadership must be
prevented at all costs. Second, financial conduits
that may route money into the Valley must be
choked early on and controls established. Third,
soft targets such as sarpanchs must be protected to
prevent radicalised elements from enjoying a
psychological victory. Fourth, given that every
attempt will be made to exploit tension triggered
That the LoC will be hot later this summer is a

foregone conclusion. While there is nothing that
cannot be handled by Indias competent military
leadership, there will be new personalities in the
driving seat. The incoming political leadership in
Delhi must quickly be briefed about fresh challenges
in Kashmir, where the emerging situation can be
ignored only at the peril of Indias national security.
CANT BAN IT AWAY
A ban on online pornography may not be

feasible or desirable. And certainly, its not the
courts call.
With its blunt query last week about the

governments competence to call off sites
showing pornography, the Supreme Court has
waded into a complex issue with social, moral and
legal dimensions. The secretary, department of
telecommunications, has since responded, suggesting that a blanket ban on on-line pornography is
not feasible. The question, however, is not whether
the government can shut down on-line
pornography, but whether such a ban is defensible.
In April last year, a public interest litigation
was filed before the SC by Kamlesh Vaswani, who
suggested that pornography was among the causes
of increasing sexual offences against women.
Viewing porn is not illegal in India, although its
production and distribution are. Under the
Information Technology Act, 2000, the viewing of
material depicting children in sexually explicit act
is a punishable offence. To the extent the SC is
nudging the government to enforce its existing legal
architecture against child sex abuse, its overtures
are welcome.
But there exists no accepted legislative definition
of pornography, without which neither the
government nor internet service providers can

enforce or comply with a blanket ban, if one is
issued. There is a real risk of such a ban ending up
as another variant of on-line censorship. An
advisory committee of lawyers and technical experts
set up by the Bombay High Court in 2001 on the
subject had cautioned against the use of imprecise
and ineffective on-line filters. As commentators have
highlighted, a ban on online pornography
necessarily involves taking down virtual private
networks and proxy servers, which are legal under
the existing regime.
Above all, there is the question of what a
comprehensive ban intends to achieve. The
correlation between viewing porn and the
commission of sex crimes is understudied in India.
Similar research in the West has not thrown up
conclusive findings. It is not for the SC to accept
this theory without a serious evaluation, however
well-intentioned the PIL may be. Restrictions on
viewing porn, if at all, should be deliberated by the
government, involving all relevant stakeholders.
Sexual health concerns, such as the availability of
information, must be addressed, as should issues
of free speech and privacy. A blanket ban on online pornography will do little justice to its purported
aim.
[49]
NO SKIPPING REFORM
SCs latest intervention addresses rape victims
distrust of police. But answer lies in police reform.
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Through its directive to police officers to

produce rape victims before a woman judicial
magistrate within 24 hours of learning about the
alleged crime, the Supreme Court has sought to
facilitate fast-track trials involving Section 376 of
the IPC. The court has also suggested the police
could skip recording victims statements, since they
are, in any case, inadmissible in court. There is
merit in the courts proposal to limit a rape victims
deposition to a judicial officer alone. Statements
before the police are often not made in the most
conducive circumstances, and can be used to
contradict and negate what the rape victim may
say before a judicial magistrate. While taking suo
motu cognisance of the Birbhum gangrape earlier
this year, the SC had noted how the deputy
superintendent of police recorded the statements
of the victim as many as three times within a week,
and that too in a cursory manner. Inconsistencies
in a rape victims statement, however minor, can
be manipulated by defence lawyers in a haranguing
cross-examination. In this context, the courts
guidelines will serve as a confidence-building
measure for victims of sexual crimes.
be a small part of what is required to speed up the

justice process, and will also present challenges in
implementation. The 2013 Criminal Law
(Amendment) Act was careful not to impose a strict
deadline it simply insisted that the police officer
get a statement recorded before the judicial
magistrate as soon as possible. In many instances,
as family and friends close ranks on victims in the
aftermath of rape, it would be difficult to produce
them before a magistrate within a day. The courts
directives should not result in investigating officers
exerting undue pressure on victims for the sake of
compliance. There are also logistical concerns
regarding the availability of metropolitan/judicial
magistrates, that too women, to record the victims
statement within such short time.
But requiring the police to produce the victim

before a judicial officer within 24 hours may only
Speedy trials, or more importantly, procedurally

sound ones, cannot come from fast-track courts or
judicial directives alone. Without police reforms
which State Governments must take up in earnest
the procedure for collecting and marshalling
evidence will hinge entirely on the integrity of
investigating officers. For enduring reform, the issue
of sexual crimes must be addressed with greater
urgency at the political level, and measures must
be taken to insulate police functioning from
influential interests.
A HIGHER CONFUSION
The Supreme Court verdicts on the regulation

of technical and management institutions, from last
month and a year ago, are riddled with
inconsistencies. They have created unnecessary
confusion about the mandates of the University
Grants Commission (UGC) and the All India
Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to
regulate colleges affiliated to state universities. These
regulatory bodies are, therefore, on the warpath to
take control of approval and affiliation of private
colleges, which are mushrooming around the
country.
functions. In a departure from earlier practice, UGC

guidelines for the regulation of technical institutions
required the process of affiliation and approval to
be merged. They vested these functions with state
universities. This was considered critical for
ensuring institutional autonomy and accountability.
Besides, it would minimise allegations of corruption
in granting approvals. Moreover, the UGC guidelines rationalised the infrastructure requirements
for different academic programmes. This was done
after painstaking consultation and obtaining
feedback from stakeholders.
In its April 25, 2013, order, the SC ruled that

the AICTE could not regulate engineering colleges
affiliated to a university, since it was only an
advisory body as per the AICTE Act. The UGC
was accordingly directed to take control of the
regulation of technical institutes.
However, because the UGC accorded regulatory

powers to state universities, a few private colleges
have been apprehensive about their future. Some
dont want to accept the UGC as a regulator, mainly
because they want to safeguard their vested
interests. Such motives led some private colleges to
seek a review of the SCs 2013 decision.
In compliance with the order, the UGC acted

fast to evolve mechanisms to perform regulatory
[50]

On April 17, the SC delivered a judgment which
reversed the 2013 order in favour of the petitioning
private colleges and the AICTE. This latest order
restores the AICTE to its pre-2013 regulatory
position. The AICTE has been allowed to act
according to the Approval Process Handbook, as it
did earlier, and ignore the new UGC guidelines.
Obviously, the SC and the MHRD have given

a patient hearing to both groups. At different points
in time, they have tried to endorse the views of
each group, which is the main reason for the
contradictory policies.
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On a number of occasions, the Ministry of

Human Resource Development (MHRD) and the
courts have given inconsistent decisions, which
have hampered the effective functioning of
institutions. First, in pursuance of the 2013 order,
the MHRD asked the UGC to take over the
regulatory functions of affiliated technical colleges.
But management institutes were left out of the
purview of the UGC without clear instructions to
the AICTE to continue to regulate them. The 2013
order was also silent on this issue. At a subsequent
stage, however, this was clarified and the AICTE
was asked to regulate them until further direction.
With confused policies, the functioning of
institutions has largely been directionless.
There is another category of private institutions

which suffers, as 20 to 30 per cent of the seats in
both engineering and management courses are
perpetually vacant because there are no takers. The
promoters of such institutions were happy that the
UGC had taken over regulatory functions since it
had banned capacity expansion. Against this, the
AICTE has liberally allowed the unbridled growth
of institutions.
Second, private colleges with access to the

MHRD influence the government to take action that
creates contradictions in policy design. There are
private bodies that seek permission to establish new
colleges and/or increase the intake for approved
programmes. They are unhappy with the UGCs
recent decision to impose a moratorium on creating
new colleges and increasing intake. The UGC has
also directed them to undergo dual accreditation
from the National Board of Accreditation (for their
programmes) and the National Assessment and
Accreditation Council. This category of colleges is
opposed to the 2013 order.
Third, there are umpteen instances of the

MHRD encroaching on the autonomy of the UGC.
And, the courts have also been unable to take
cognisance of these violations. For instance, the
regulation of open and distance learning
programmes is vested with the Distance Education
Council under the Indira Gandhi National Open
University, as per law. This power has been
snatched through an MHRD administrative order
and transferred to the UGC, which is illegal. Clearly,
Central authorities are oblivious to these
inconsistent and contradictory policy directions.
When regulatory bodies lack accountability due
to government interference, the SCs directions are
of paramount significance and are the only hope
for rectifying a dysfunctional higher education
system. Unfortunately, the SC has betrayed
expectations.
INFLATION TRINITY
Inflation has raged unabated for the past five

years it started to decline earlier this year but
picked up again in March. While there are many
unanswered questions, it is clear that a simplistic
inflation-targeting approach a euphemism for
stabilisation first and growth later which is
favoured by the IMF, has failed and will not work
in India. We need a more comprehensive approach
that will revive growth and lower inflation
simultaneously.
As in most emerging markets, Indias growth rate
has also declined. However, since 2010-11, Indias decline
in growth has been twice the emerging market average.
So, about half the decline in our GDP growth rate is
attributable to factors unique to India.
But given the low rate of world inflation, Indias

price rise remains a puzzle. When India was a
closed economy, its inflation was higher than the
worlds when shocks to the economy were largely
domestic. And lower, when shocks, such as the oil
price spike of the 1970s, were external. But today,
with a largely open economy and capital account,
it is hard to understand the persistent high inflation,
especially when, in contrast, the world has been
worried about deflation. There are three broad
explanations for this.
First, India recovered quickly from the 2008
global crisis because of large fiscal and monetary
stimuli. But these were maintained for too long
and fuelled inflation. With a mostly open capital
[51]

food items vegetables, eggs, meat, milk, pulses
and oilseeds. One wonders why their price elasticity
of supply is so low. It is possible that the high
MSPs and market prices for grains make them
profitable and reduce the incentives to shift to the
production of riskier vegetable and other
commodities. Also, as the fixed costs of shifting
production are high, it isnt easy to increase the
supply of these commodities in the short run. Or,
it could be that without better retail chains, the
higher prices are mostly captured by intermediaries
and do not reach the farmer.
But the loose fiscal policy continued in spite of

the monetary tightening. Moreover, the composition
of government expenditure tilted away from
investment towards public consumption, due to the
sharp increase in subsidies. Programmes like
MGNREGA channelled money into the hands of
the poor, and caused rural real wages to increase.
Consequently, the demand for and prices of food
both increased. This in turn caused wages to rise.
A wage-food price spiral fuelled inflation further.
Similarly, as incomes of the non-poor rose, their
consumption shifted from grains to proteins,
oilseeds and vegetables, whose prices rose sharply.
With high government expenditure and the
announcement of a new pay commission, the
prospect of a wage-price spiral has already set in.
With high inflation persisting and the looming

threat of drought, monetary, fiscal and administered
price policy are all important. Its hard to
disentangle their effects. It is unlikely that inflation
will quickly come down once MSP increases are
moderated because core consumer price index
inflation is stuck above 8 per cent. With some
budget payments indexed to inflation
MGNREGA, for example controlling public
consumption will not be easy. The fiscal cuts have
largely been in public investment. This crowds out
private investment and hurts growth. Attempting
to break inflation expectations will now require
prohibitively high interest rates, which will increase
the governments own interest bill and hurt growth
further. Added to this, a drought threatens to
further energise food inflation.
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account, foreign inflows increased sharply, the real

exchange rate appreciated and the current account
deficit widened to dangerous levels. A consumption
boom followed, and wages and the prices of land
and services went up sharply. The RBI started
tightening monetary policy in late 2011. But by
then, it was too little, too late. The economy was
also slowing down and the aggressive tightening
had to be tempered to avoid hurting growth further.
But core inflation still rose, and some argued that
a more aggressive monetary stance was needed to
break high inflation expectations.
Third, internationally, as land-use shifted away

from food grain to biofuel and feed production,
international real food prices rose. This was
transmitted into India via the increases in minimum
support prices, which have now caught up with
international prices. As grain MSPs were increased,
production went up and the Food Corporation of
Indias stocks increased to record levels this also
increased market prices sharply.
Now that MSPs have caught up with
international prices, future increases should be
moderate, which will help temper inflation. But
this doesnt explain the rapid price rise in other
The incoming government will need to employ

a package of measures that will reduce inflation
and revive growth. Fighting inflation first through
stabilisation and worrying about growth later is an
IMF approach that has not worked well elsewhere
in the world. We cannot inflict such failed policies
on ourselves. The interactions between monetary,
fiscal and supply-side policies will need to be taken
into consideration to get out of our current
stagflationary predicament. A simplistic approach
will not work.
PATENT RELIEF
The annual Special 301 report of the US Trade

Representative has retained Status Quo India
has not been downgraded to the priority foreign
country list, a directory of the worst intellectual
property rights (IPR) offenders, a move that might
have led to, among other things, the US not
renewing duty concessions on select Indian exports.
Instead, it has been retained on the priority watch
[52]
list, a set of countries with lax IPR regimes. There

had been real fears of a downgrade, given the efforts
of the powerful US pharma lobby, which is
unhappy with Indias IPR protection record. India,
in turn, has rightly pointed to the fact that it is
WTO-compliant and that disputes should be settled
through that forum. This is a sensible bargaining
position, since bilateral negotiations are inevitably

stacked in favour of the stronger party.
The Special 301 report experience also shows

how it helps to give global businesses a stake in
India. India had three unexpected ambassadors for
its IPR regime in Boeing, Abbott (a pharma
company) and Honeywell. This, along with electiontime uncertainty, may explain why it was not
downgraded. In other words, Indias interests are
best served by maintaining an investment-friendly
environment, and creating global lobbies invested
in its progress.
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The two allegedly problematic features of Indias

IPR regime are Section 3(d) of its patents act, which
prevents companies from being able to evergreen
patents by making minor alterations to compositions
(this was why Novartis lost its Glivec case), and
compulsory licences, by which the government, on
a case to case basis, allows a generics manufacturer
to produce patented drugs in the public interest,
without the consent of the patent holder. This has
only been used once, to allow Natco Pharma to
make and sell copies of Bayers patented kidney
and liver cancer drug, Nexavar. While the
developmental imperatives of countries like India
are understandably different from the US, India
must tread carefully and not be indiscriminate about
the use of these mechanisms. Compulsory licences
should be used as a last resort, when there is a

justifiably large number of patients who need the
concerned drug. If not, the government should
devise other ways to subsidise the treatment of
poorer patients.
PILL POPPERS
Since the 1950s, when antibiotics were first

introduced, common bacterial infections like a minor
cut or a sore throat have stopped being deadly.
Now, however, the first global review of antibiotic
resistance conducted by the World Health
Organization concludes that bacteria are
increasingly able to elude treatment. In this postantibiotic world, therefore, conditions that could
until recently be dealt with by routine prescriptions
may once again prove fatal unless, as the WHO
warns, significant action is taken to change how
antibiotics are produced, prescribed and used.
Over time, bacteria genetically mutate to enable

them to produce enzymes that render antibiotics
inactive, or they might eradicate a particular drugs
target. Initially, there may not be too many such
bacteria, but eventually, selective advantage will
allow resistant bacteria to dominate the population,
if enough of them repeatedly encounter the
antibiotic. So when drugs are used too often and
incorrectly, or when they are used in animal feed
by the meat industry to buff up livestock, antibiotic
resistance is promoted.
The tendency to indiscriminately prescribe

antibiotics, especially by its poorly regulated private
healthcare sector, has meant that India is identified
as a country with growing antibiotic resistance.
Public misinformation on the proper use of
antibiotics is also an issue for instance, a 2011
WHO study showed that 53 per cent of Indians
were taking antibiotics without a doctors
prescription. But this is far from an Indian problem,
as the WHO report found. Among the WHOs
concerns is a lack of incentive for pharmaceutical
companies to develop a strain of drugs that are to
be used briefly and sparingly, although tackling
resistance will require a new stream of antibiotics.
Compounding this is the absence of a standardised
way to assess and share information on drugresistant infections. Increasing global coordination
and treating antibiotics as a public good are a must
to grappling with the spectre of going back to the
past in public healthcare.
THE PRIMARY TRAUMA
The latest report of the Human Rights Watch

(HRW) has brought to light everyday instances of
discrimination against Dalit, Adivasi and Muslim
children in primary schools. They are asked to sit
separately, clean toilets, bring their own utensils
for midday meals to keep school utensils
unpolluted and reprimanded and punished
routinely. Despite being illegal and supposedly
abolished, belief in untouchability and its continued

practice marks these children as objects of
humiliation, ridicule and stamps them with a
stigmatised identity. The HRW report documents
how this leads to many dropouts from primary
schools and rehabilitation programmes dont really
work as children put back in school end up in
classes with much younger peers, giving teachers
[53]

and classmates one more reason to taunt and shun
them.
In most instances, though, part of the earnings

gap (say, between men and women in similar
occupations, or between upper-castes and Dalits)
cant be accounted for by differences in
characteristics. This is taken as a broad measure of
labour market discrimination. What the HRW report
underscores is that the process of formation of these
characteristics acquisition of education, skills
is marked by continuous discrimination,
stigmatisation and marginalisation. By making social
identity salient at every opportunity, the school
community is ensuring that Dalit, Adivasi and
Muslim children underperform compared to their
ability. Thus, the so-called explained part of the
wage gap embodies within it a long legacy of
discrimination that economists refer to as pre(labour) market discrimination. Estimates of labour
market
discrimination
then,
end
up
underestimating economic discrimination, to which
we need to add wider social discrimination and
atrocities to get the full range of constraints and
obstacles that hinder individuals from stigmatised
groups from expressing their full potential.
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This, unfortunately, is not an aberration, and

could not result from random instances of bad
behaviour. School authorities, teachers and students
are acting individually, but according to socially
predominant stereotypes and mindsets they
consciously or unconsciously imbibe. More
importantly, stereotypes representing marginalised
groups as innately inferior serve the collective
function of maintaining and perpetuating the sway
of the dominant groups.
This has an impact on their adult lives. All

economies, regardless of how rich or poor, are
characterised by gaps in wages or earnings across
social groups. The strong belief that markets are
essentially meritocratic, or should be, leads to the
conclusion that if markets are allocating jobs, the
more capable individuals would be rewarded,
placing them in more prestigious and higher paying
jobs. Thus, those earning more are assumed to be
more able and those earning less in comparable
jobs are assumed to have inferior characteristics.
The everyday reiteration of prejudicial

behaviour explains why social inequalities tend to
persist long after the legal barriers to reduce
inequalities have been removed. Why are Dalitupper-caste inequalities so persistent, years after
the establishment of legal equality?
Social psychologists have examined this specific

question by comparing the performance of school
children from marginalised groups in the presence
of other children who are unknown to them. An
experimental study brought sixth-graders from
different villages to one spot and gave them tasks
to test their cognitive ability. The study found that
there was no significant difference between the
performance of Dalit and upper-caste sixth-graders,
as long as they were unaware of each others social
background. However, when the students caste
was publicly announced, the performance of the
two groups of students started to differ. Further,
when caste was publicly announced and the
children were segregated, the Dalit students
performance worsened significantly. This confirms
a well-known result from across the world: when
social identity is made salient, stigmatised
individuals are reminded of negative stereotypes
against them, and this reminder shifts their
behaviour in the direction of the stereotype. US
studies show that when race or gender is made
salient before a difficult mathematics or reasoning
test, blacks and women perform worse.
The HRW report reminds us that caste, tribal
and religious status is invoked repeatedly in schools.
It is no wonder, therefore, that the average
performance of Dalit, Adivasi and Muslim children
tends to be worse than their upper-caste peers.
However, the lower performance is used as the
basis to put one more pejorative stamp on them:
that of incompetence.
[54]
The evidence serves as a grim reminder that

discrimination is not a thing of the past, and not
confined to rural areas. It is perpetuated in the
present and in urban settings where caste is
supposed to be anonymous and irrelevant and
where markets are meritocratic. There is no reason
to believe that Indias integration into the global
economy will automatically weaken discriminatory
tendencies, as the richest and fully market-driven
economies in the world are marked by
discrimination. Casteism is alive and repeatedly
continues to assert its presence, pointing to an
urgent need for a strong anti-discriminatory
framework, backed by strict laws and political will,
governing not only employment and higher
education, but also primary schooling.
SECURITY FIRST
decide whether a scheduled offence had taken place
under the NIA Act, especially when an NIA probe
had already been offered.
Indias national security matrix has undergone
reform since 26/11, but the political failure to set
up the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC)
continues to obstruct counter-terror efforts, leaving
gaps in the process as Union Finance Minister
P. Chidambaram noted in the aftermath of
Thursdays blasts. The collection and collation of
intelligence need to be streamlined, without them
falling prey to competing bureaucracies. The NCTC
would have done precisely that. The use of the
federalism-in-danger argument by states still
opposed to the body fearing encroachment on
their turf may be politically convenient, but it
limits our responses to security challenges to ad
hoc, uncoordinated actions. State police forces,
regardless of their ability, suffer from poor
infrastructural support. When an incident has to
automatically factor in a cross-state probe, questions
of
coordination
and
investigative
comprehensiveness become paramount. Even
without the NCTC, much of that could be ensured
with an NIA probe into the Chennai blasts. Before
the NCTC expires even as a concept, the next
government at the Centre must revive the project
and consult the states to set up this umbrella agency.
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It would not have hurt the Tamil Nadu

Government to agree to a Central probe into
Thursdays twin blasts on the Bangalore-Guwahati
superfast express at the Chennai Central station.
Instead, the J. Jayalalithaa administrations rejection
of an investigation by the National Investigation
Agency (NIA), even as it allowed a National
Security Guard (NSG) team to help with forensic
analysis, hints at the sort of political point-scoring
that prevents, or compromises, the coordination of
counter-terror probes and preventive action among
states and between a state and the Centre.
Moreover, the state government reportedly also
delayed informing the Union home ministry and
when it did, it allegedly provided minimum
information.
A trains journey is not confined to a single

geographic area. In India, a long-distance train often
traverses more than one state. The fact that these
explosions occurred during the long process of the
Lok Sabha elections makes the incident too serious
a matter to assert jurisdiction and state prerogative
and posit the state as an adversary to the Centre.
The blasts occurred within a few minutes of the
train arriving at Chennai Central and the fact that
the train was running an hour-and-a-half late
allows for the possibility that the IEDs might have
been meant to go off elsewhere. Under such
circumstances, the state ought to have let the Centre
NO CHILD IS ILLEGITIMATE
The Supreme Court judgment which ruled that

the children of a live-in relationship could not be
termed illegitimate must be hailed as a landmark.
By upholding a previous judgment of the Madras
High Court, the apex court has done well to break
the traditional link between children and marriage.
Our society continues to act as though any
childbirth that is not preceded by a wedding
ceremony falls outside the pale.
But the time has now come to take the issue
forward. For decades, feminists have fought the
good fight for a womans right to choose.
Fortunately, in India, abortion does not present
major legal difficulties, so that fight has been largely
won. But the Supreme Court ruling points us in
the direction of a battle that has still to be fought:
the womans right to give birth.
According to the existing legal and societal

framework, the only children who are entitled to
legal recognition are those who are born into a

relationship between a man and a woman. (After
the Supreme Court judgment, that relationship
need not be one within the confines of marriage.)
Children born to a single mother, however, still
occupy a moral and legal grey area. Put simply,
we are willing to grant a woman the right to have
a legitimate baby with a man she is in a relationship
with. But if she wants to have the baby without
being part of a relationship then, as far as we are
concerned, that is completely unacceptable.
In this respect, we are behind the rest of the
world. In much of the Western world France,
the UK, the US both society and the legal system
recognise the rights of the single mother. If a
woman wishes to have a child without entering
into a relationship with a man then she has every
right to do so. How that child is born is largely her
business.
[55]

In India, unfortunately, the concept of a
womans right to choose has become a euphemism
for abortion, for a womans right to terminate her
pregnancy. Should she decide to carry on with the
pregnancy without the involvement of the biological
father, or to get pregnant on her own, society and
the law both turn their backs on her. Even the
simplest methods of raising a child are closed to
her. If she seeks to adopt, most adoption agencies
will be reluctant to give a baby to a single mother,
preferring to ask a married couple to raise it.
Considering that society already accepts at an

intuitive level that it is mothers who raise children,
why do we refuse single mothers the right to give
birth? Why do we insist on the presence of a man
in the relationship? Perhaps it is because we still
see men as the providers and believe that single
women will not be able to earn enough to
adequately provide for the child. But this belief
belongs to the last century. Experience has
demonstrated that modern Indian women are as
capable of earning a good living as Indian men.
The old gender stereotypes are breaking down all
around us.
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Given that we recognise the womans right to

choose when it comes to abortion and given also
that the Supreme Court has now ruled that
marriage has nothing to do with childbirth, there
is only one explanation for this strange anomaly in
our system: prejudice against women.
divorces, more often than not, the court will give

the mother custody of the children, unless it can be
demonstrated that she is unfit for the responsibility.
At some level, we believe that single women

are incapable of providing a healthy environment
for a child. So deeply ingrained is this prejudice
that it flies in the face of experience and, if you
think about it, is actually counter-intuitive. When
a husband dies, we do not believe that the widow
is incapable of raising her children. When a couple
So let us welcome the Supreme Court judgment

and let us welcome the respect and legitimacy it
grants children whose parents are not married. But
let us not stop there. Let us take the battle forward.
Childbirth is a womans right. And we must fight
anyone who seeks to place curbs on it.
BURDEN OF PROOF
Since September 2001, the Students Islamic

Movement of India has been serially banned by the
Indian Government. These bans have held through
successive political dispensations. Now, as the
Centre pushes for the seventh consecutive ban with
the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Tribunal, it
turns out that the majority of cases until the
previous ban had ended in acquittals by the court.
In other words, the governments case is based on
flimsy numbers, as many of the cases it presents as
proof of the SIMI threat have been, in fact,
ultimately disproved during the legal process.
Whether SIMI is an actively dangerous terrorist
network with links around the world or merely an
extremist Muslim social and political organisation,
the truth can be established only through clear
evidence and judicial scrutiny. When 97 out of 111
cases (excluding MP and UP) have actually
collapsed, the government should ask itself whether
the ban is fully justified. There is ample proof,
meanwhile, that mere SIMI membership is used as
an excuse to scapegoat young Muslim men in cases
of terror and sedition.
Quran verses, religious books, even Urdu
literature, have been shown as incriminating
[56]
material, and citizens have been arrested merely

for shouting anti-government slogans because they
were angry about the Babri Masjid demolition or
the Gujarat riots. Disputes between two groups of
Muslims, or even protesting an altogether different
cause, like atrocities against Tamils in Sri Lanka,
have been treated as the basis for cases. Spreading
communal hatred or demonstrating against a
government action is deemed grounds for
investigation but these are distinct from terrorism.
This ban, coupled with harsh anti-terror laws,
certainly makes investigations easier but as the
UAP Tribunal considers the validity of the ban, it
should consider all the material presented, including
the outcomes in trial courts.
The question that the SIMI case highlights is
one of civil rights, standards of evidence. The test
is whether the constitutional presumption of
innocence applies equally to all citizens. The fact
that erstwhile SIMI members have fought for over
12 years shows their investment in the legal process.
The climax of a terror case should not be the arrest,
but the considered judicial verdict.
DISMANTLING THE MACHINERY OF DEATH

Its advocates insist that it deters murderers,
thereby saving lives. If this were true, it would be
a powerful argument, but there is scant evidence
that it is. The murder rate is far higher in America
than in the European Union, which has no death
penalty. It is also higher in American States that
carry out executions than in states that do not.
Granted, some studies have found that, if you
control for other factors that also influence crime
rates, you can make the case that each execution
prevents three murders, or five, or even 18. But
such studies are based on thin data and
questionable assumptions. There were nearly 15,000
murders in America in 2012. The chance of any
individual killer being executed is thus
microscopicand distant, since the appeals process
can grind on for decades.
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NEW HAMPSHIRE has just failed to abolish

the death penaltyby one vote. Given that the
Granite State has not actually executed anyone
since 1939, you might think this doesnt matter
much. But, obviously, it matters to the one man on
death row in New Hampshire, a cop-killer called
Michael Addison. It matters, also, to the broader
campaign to scrap capital punishment in America.
And despite the setback in New Hampshire, the
abolitionists are slowly winning.
America is unusual among rich countries in that
it still executes people. It does so because its
politicians are highly responsive to voters, who
mostly favour the death penalty. However, that
majority is shrinking, from 80% in 1994 to 60%
last year. Young Americans are less likely to support
it than their elders. Non-whites, who will one day
be a majority, are solidly opposed. Six states have
abolished it since 2007, bringing the total to 18 out
of 50. The number of executions each year has
fallen from a peak of 98 in 1999 to 39 last year.
Many people regret this. Some feel that death

is the only fitting punishment for murderers: that
it satisfies societys need for retribution. Some find
a religious justification, such as the line in Exodus
that calls for: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for
tooth. Such appeals to emotion or faith are hard
to answer, although the Bible also has passages
about not casting the first stone, and many
conservative evangelicals have ended up in the odd
position of prizing life when it comes to abortion,
but not when it comes to prisoners (the Catholic
Church is pro-life on both counts). However, in a
secular democracy a law of such gravity must have
some compelling rational justification, which the
death penalty does not.
Against the death penaltys uncertain benefits

must be set its certain defects. Juries, being human,
are fallible. If they jail an innocent man he can be
freed and compensated, but he cannot be brought
back to life. Since the Supreme Court lifted its
suspension of the death penalty in 1976, there are
no proven cases where America has executed an
innocent. But there are at least ten that look horribly
like it. Cameron Todd Willingham, for example,
was put to death for starting a deadly fire, although
experts blamed faulty wiring.
Vengeance is mine, says the Lord
To avoid miscarriages of justice, America has

erected elaborate safeguards. Capital cases are
subject to multiple appeals; teams of lawyers haggle
over them for years. An unintended consequence
of this is that executing a murderer is now perhaps
three times more expensive than locking him up
for life. The money spent on the machinery of death
would probably do more to improve public safety
if it were spent on better policing, to catch the ones
who currently get away. Put simply, the death
penalty looks like a colossal waste of taxpayers
money, which conservative politicians would
normally denounce.
Of late, abolitionists have put a lot of effort into
lawsuits to make it harder for states to get hold of
the drugs used in lethal injections. This is more
likely to delay executions than to end them. A more
democratic approach would be to persuade voters
that capital punishment is not just barbaric but
also costly, ineffective and prey to human error,
and that they should therefore back politicians who
[57]

oppose it. That is how New Mexico, Oregon,
Illinois, Connecticut, Maryland, Colorado and
Washington stopped or suspended it. New
Hampshire will try again. State by state, abolitionists
will prevail. America is a nation founded on the

principle that governments should not be trusted
with too much power; that should include the
power to strap people to a gurney and poison them.
A BILLION SHADES OF GREY

Policy is partly responsible. Many European
governments have abandoned policies that used to
encourage people to retire early. Rising life
expectancy, combined with the replacement of
generous defined-benefit pension plans with stingier
defined-contribution ones, means that even the
better-off must work longer to have a comfortable
retirement. But the changing nature of work also
plays a big role. Pay has risen sharply for the highly
educated, and those people continue to reap rich
rewards into old age because these days the
educated elderly are more productive than their
predecessors. Technological change may well
reinforce that shift: the skills that complement
computers, from management expertise to
creativity, do not necessarily decline with age.
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WARREN BUFFETT, who on May 3rd hosts

the folksy extravaganza that is Berkshire
Hathaways annual shareholders meeting, is an
icon of American capitalism (see Article). At 83, he
also epitomises a striking demographic trend: for
highly skilled people to go on working well into
what was once thought to be old age. Across the
rich world, well-educated people increasingly work
longer than the less-skilled. Some 65% of American
men aged 62-74 with a professional degree are in
the workforce, compared with 32% of men with
only a high-school certificate. In the European
Union the pattern is similar.
This gap is part of a deepening divide between

the well-educated, well-off and the unskilled poor
that is slicing through all age groups. Rapid
innovation has raised the incomes of the highly
skilled while squeezing those of the unskilled. Those
at the top are working longer hours each year than
those at the bottom. And the well-qualified are
extending their working lives, compared with those
of less-educated people. The consequences, for
individuals and society, are profound.
Older, wiser and a lot of them
The world is on the cusp of a staggering rise in

the number of old people, and they will live longer
than ever before. Over the next 20 years the global
population of those aged 65 or more will almost
double, from 600m to 1.1 billion. The experience of
the 20th century, when greater longevity translated
into more years in retirement rather than more years
at work, has persuaded many observers that this
shift will lead to slower economic growth and
secular stagnation, while the swelling ranks of
pensioners will bust government budgets.
But the notion of a sharp division between the

working young and the idle old misses a new trend,
the growing gap between the skilled and the
unskilled. Employment rates are falling among
younger unskilled people, whereas older skilled folk
are working longer. The divide is most extreme in
America, where well-educated baby-boomers are
putting off retirement while many less-skilled
younger people have dropped out of the workforce.
[58]
This trend will benefit not just fortunate oldies

but also, in some ways, society as a whole. Growth
will slow less dramatically than expected;
government budgets will be in better shape, as high
earners pay taxes for longer. Rich countries with
lots of well-educated older people will find the
burden of ageing easier to bear than places like
China, where half of all 50-to-64-year-olds did not
complete primary-school education.
At the other end of the social scale, however,
things look grim. Manual work gets harder as
people get older, and public pensions look more
attractive to those on low wages and the
unemployed. In the lexicon of popular hate-figures,
work-shirking welfare queens breeding at the
taxpayers expense may be replaced by deadbeat
grandads collecting taxpayer handouts while their
hard working contemporaries strive on.
Nor are all the effects on the economy beneficial.
Wealthy old people will accumulate more savings,
which will weaken demand. Inequality will increase
and a growing share of wealth will eventually be
transferred to the next generation via inheritance,
entrenching the division between winners and
losers still further.
One likely response is to impose higher
inheritance taxes. So long as they replaced less-fair
taxes, that might make sense. They would probably

encourage old people to spend their cash rather
than salt it away. But governments should focus
not on redistributing income but on generating more
of it by reforming retirement and education.
Old power
How likely are governments to make these
changes? Look around the rich world today, and
it is hard to be optimistic. The swelling ranks of
older voters, and their disproportionate propensity
to vote, have left politicians keener to pander to
them than to implement disruptive reforms.
Germany, despite being the fastest-ageing country
in Europe, plans to cut the statutory retirement
age for some people. In America both Social Security
(the public pension scheme) and the fast-growing
system of disability benefits remain untouched by
reform. Politicians need to convince less-skilled
older voters that it is in their interests to go on
working. Doing so will not be easy. But the
alternativeeconomic stagnation and even greater
inequalityis worse.
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Age should no longer determine the appropriate

end of a working life. Mandatory retirement ages
and pension rules that discourage people from
working longer should go. Welfare should reflect
the greater opportunities open to the higher-skilled.
Pensions should become more progressive (i.e., less
generous to the rich). At the same time, this trend
underlines the importance of increasing public
investment in education at all stages of life, so that
more people acquire the skills they need to thrive
in the modern labour market. Today, many
governments are understandably loth to spend
money retraining older folk who are likely to retire
soon. But if people can work for longer, that
investment makes much more sense. Deadbeat 60year-olds are unlikely to become computer scientists,
but they could learn useful vocational skills, such
as caring for the growing number of very old

people.
THE CASE FOR A STRONG PRIME MINISTERS OFFICE
India will soon have a new Prime Minister and

the task of running the country will begin afresh.
The new head of government will have enough on
his hands beginning with resetting his office itself.
Getting India back on the path to administrative
normalcy requires an efficient Prime Ministers
Office (PMO), one that has not been seen in recent
years.
The policy paralysis of the Manmohan Singh

years is well-known. The system broke down during
Singhs prime ministership. Policymaking became
the preserve of extra-constitutional bodies such as
the National Advisory Council. The PMO, in line
with the character of its leader, became quiescent.
Historically, the PMO had a modest origin.
Under Jawaharlal Nehru, the office used to be
headed by a joint secretary while the bulk of the
coordinating work was carried out by the all
powerful cabinet secretary. It was only after
political complexities arose in the 1960spowerful
and ambitious cabinet ministers; chief ministers
defying the whip of the Union Government and a
series of crisesthat the PMO became a force to be
reckoned with. The PMO of later years had its
actual origins under Lal Bahadur Shastri, who
created the Prime Ministers Secretariat. Since then,
the office has served as the nerve centre of
governmental control. Under Singh, the PMO lost
much of its effectiveness. The new prime minister
should change this quickly.
So what should a stronger Prime Minister do

on assuming office?
Three tasks await him on the administrative
front. One, he needs to have a strong PMO-led by
a bureaucratic heavyweight as his principal
secretary. This is necessary not only to implement
his ideas effectively but also to minimize official
resistance to his diktat. Two, even more importantly,
he needs to streamline the cabinet system. The
groups of ministers and empowered groups of
ministers can be dispensed with as they are the
relics of a government where the Prime Minister
was not in a position to take decisions. The number
of cabinet committees too should be kept to a
minimum. The time has come to tilt the balance
between the cabinet system and the PMO towards
the latter. The Prime Minister needs a coordinating
device to manage his relations with chief ministers.
This is perhaps the most delicate task of all and the
PMO will have an essential role in this.
First a myth needs to be dispelled about
powerful chief ministers. It is held that no
government in New Delhi can ignore them and
policy implementation cannot occur without their
cooperation. This is not true. When Indira Gandhi
became Prime Minister in 1966 she, too, had to
contend with powerful chief ministers. She used
her PMO to make them fall in line successfully.
[59]

The second set should be ignored. They should,
of course, get what is due to them from tax
proceeds, Finance Commission awards and the like.
But no help should be provided to them in anything
else, at all.
This strategy, if stuck with, will work well.
Within a couple of years the pressure on laggard
states to deliver, in view of the success of better
performing states, will be so high that they will fall
in line with reformist policies. But for starters, these
states should be left alone.
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The next prime minister does not have to use a

coercive approach; he will be best served by a carrot
and stick approach. The to approach the problem
is to bucket chief ministers into two classes. One,
those who want to push growth in their states but
are hobbled by lack of support from the Union
Government and lack of enabling conditions within
their states. Two, those chief ministers who by their
political approach and nature are habitual
obstructionists. The new Prime Minister should do
everything in his power to encourage the former
set. The PMO should be galvanized to support these
chief ministers irrespective of their party affiliations.
If their states push a reform agenda, the Union
government should do everythingfrom legislative
support to executive helpto get things moving.
A number of examples come to mind: Foreign
Investment Promotion Board clearances, use of
constitutional provisions to push state level laws
for clearance by the president and generous
monetary help to establish industries, etc.
It is time for India to discard the intellectual

definitions of democracy and federalism. Both are
institutionalized in India and nothing can shake
them. But the derailing of growth in recent years
in the name of pernicious ideas like the rights of
states, etc., need to be dispensed with if India is to
remain a coherent nation.
Source: Mint
THE BIG ELEPHANT IN THE INTERNET
It is the snooping, stupid. That thought springs

to mind on the conclusion of NETmundial, the
much-hyped recent global conference on Internet
governance in Brazil. Through all the technical
babble and the meaninglessness of seeking a
consensus on the larger goal of Internet-related
public policies and Internet governance
arrangements, it is what the conference failed to
dofind a way to stop governments from tapping
private conversations and mail of ordinary and
some not-so-ordinary citizens that marks the event.
While the key issue of Net neutrality was effectively
pushed under the carpet to be further discussed
in appropriate forums, the monster of global
surveillance was dealt with kid gloves.
the Federal Bureau of Investigation and well-known

technology firms occurred because forces inimical
to the kind of libertarianism the Web stood for,
perverted the very foundations of human rights, to
snoop on individuals.
Given that the meeting came about against the

backdrop of the disclosures by former US National
Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward
Snowden last June of large-scale surveillance of the
Internet by NSA, including spying on foreign
leaders, (notably the events convener, Brazils
President Dilma Rousseff), by tip-toeing around it,
the conference admitted to its toothlessness.
Similar confusion surrounds the transfer of the

Webs organizational structure. The US National
Telecommunications and Information Administration, which contracts Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to handle
the Internets global domain name system, said it
would transfer its responsibilities to global
stakeholders when its contract expires on 30
September, 2015.
The fact is PRISM, as the clandestine mass

electronic surveillance data mining programme was
called, didnt happen because of regulatory
oversight or the current structure of Web
governance. The covert collaboration between NSA,
[60]
That it was going on six years before the

disclosures came and that governments including
the one in India initially cited them as routine
exercises is of a piece with the aphorism Linus Law,
inspired by Linus Torvalds and coined by open
source Advocate Eric Raymond: Given enough
eyeballs, all bugs are shallow. Sadly, with the
conference failing to do any more than issue pious
pronouncements, the bugs that allow agencies such
as NSA to snoop on private citizens will continue.
Just who will these global stakeholders be?

ICANN will work with bodies such as the Internet
Engineering Task Force, the Internet Architecture
Board (IAB), the Internet Society, the Regional

Internet Registries, top-level domain name operators
and VeriSign, in its bid to support and enhance
the multistakeholder model and maintain the
openness of the Internet.
The digital space wasnt meant to be controlled

and circumscribed. Rousseff, speaking perhaps from
her own painful experience spoke about the very
nature of the Internet being open, pluralistic and
free. But for that freedom to be maintained the key
issue to be addressed has to be that of the unbridled
power of governments to intercept and monitor
the private spaces of individuals.
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The Internet Society was formed in 1992 by

Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn, two of the so-called
fathers of the Internet. Similarly, the origins of IAB
lie in the Internet Configuration Control Board,
which was created in 1979 by Cerf though in 1984,
it was disbanded and replaced by the Internet
Advisory Board, a change initiated by Dave
Clarkand Barry Leiner, another of the set of
pioneers of the World Wide Web. Cerf, who was
at the conference, demolished the myth that the
US controls the Internet any more.
government agencies the power to access, in realtime, e-mails as well as Internet search data and
social media activity. Indias justification is almost
the same as that of the US, couched in terms such
as safety and security.
In fact, while the goal to replace multilateralism

with multistakeism may appear to be laudable, it
isnt necessarily going to open up some brave new
world, in particular if the stakeholders are nations
represented by their governments.
After all, among the invitees was Turkey, whose

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had already
spelt out what he thought of freedom of the Web
with his battle against Twitter, and India, whose
infamous Centralized Monitoring System gives
No matter who the new stakeholders are in

terms of Internet governance, and you can bet your
last dollar a Google or a Facebook will be perched
on that high table, governments all over the world,
will continue to ride roughshod over limitations
that are drawn up. So on to the next conference
organized by the Internet Governance Forum and
the UNs International Telecommunications Union,
where the same set of participants will assemble
again. The challenge too, will remain the same.
Source: Mint
TACKLING INDIAN AGRICULTURES WATER WOES
After witnessing bountiful rains last summer,

India appears to be on the verge of a water crisis
once again this year, with most forecasts predicting
a below-normal monsoon. The estimated gross
domestic product (GDP) growth in fiscal year 201314 at 4.9% was 40 basis points higher than the
previous fiscal year, partly because of robust
agricultural growth, which added 80 basis points
to the overall growth figure, according to Central
Statistical Organization (CSO) estimates. One basis
point is one-hundredth of a percentage point.
Deficient rainfall can shave off 80 to 100 basis

points of GDP growth this financial year, and raise
inflation levels by a similar amount, worsening the
stagflationary environment in which the Indian
economy finds itself. Adequate buffer stocks of
cereals could partly help tame prices but there will
be little respite from rise in prices of vegetables,
pulses and edible oils in case the rain fails. The
global commodity cycle too seems to be firming up,
partly on expectations of unfavourable weather in
key agricultural hotspots. Wheat, soya and sugar
futures have risen by 23%, 19%, and 15%,
respectively, in the past three months.
The El Nino impact is likely to be felt across

Asia but it is the Indian economy that will be hit
the hardest because of its sensitivity to weatherrelated disruptions, a 28 April report by Credit
Suisse says. The vulnerability of Indias food sector
to bad weather is the result of a legacy of bad
choices in Indias farm policies, which have failed
to insulate farmers from the impact of deficient
rain. Given that farm income is the lifeline for a
majority of people living below the poverty line, it
is this section that bears the brunt each time rain
plays truant.
The first major push to boost domestic farm
produce came in the sixties during the so-called
green revolution phase when the use of highyielding variety seeds, alongwith more intensive use
of inputs and fertilizers led to a spurt in the
production of cereals.
The strategy was geared toward boosting output
from the irrigated belt of northern India. As a shortterm strategy, it was highly effective. But over the
long-term, such a strategy has only served to
increase the vulnerabilities of farming, and led to
severe distortions in the food and natural resource
[61]

power pricing and incentives for farmers to use
micro-irrigation rather than flood irrigation. The
second step will be providing incentives to move
farmers away from water-guzzlers such as paddy
and sugarcane to more appropriate crops in dry
regions. In some states such as Jammu and Kashmir,
this has happened naturally, with many paddy
growers turning fruit cultivators. In other regions
such as Western Maharashtra, a more aggressive
approach may be needed to wean farmers away
from sugarcane. As long as scarce resources such
as water and power are priced absurdly, their usage
will be absurd. The third step involves the use of
new technologies such as drought-resistant
genetically modified crops to drought-proof farming
in dry regions.
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economy. On the one hand, the untrammelled

extraction of groundwater resources, aided by
generous power subsidies to farmers, has depleted
levels in most of Indias granaries and damaged
soil health. On the other hand, the advent of a
more industrial version of farming even in Indias
non-irrigated, and rain-fed belt has raised risk levels
of farming in these regions. It is not a coincidence
that farmer suicides are largely concentrated in nonirrigated and indebted regions of the countryside.
The advent of industrial farming practices in these
regions without first ensuring regular water supply
has proved fatal.
The way out of this mess involves a threepronged strategy to tide over the water crisis and
make Indian agriculture more resilient. The first
step out of this mess involves better water
management practices. Andhra Pradesh and
Gujarat have shown how active state governments
can work with local communities to revive and
build water reservoirs, and insulate against weather
shocks. This must be combined with more realistic
Indias next government needs to show both

courage and imagination to address the looming
water crisis, and turn it into an opportunity for
reform.
Source: Mint
REVAMPING AGRICULTURE AND PDS
In the Indian economy, where almost half of

the average households expenditures goes toward
food and half the labour force is engaged in
agriculture, one cannot simply wish away the
centrality of agriculture just because its contribution
to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) hovers around a
comparatively low 14%.
and by rationalizing its trade and industrial policies.

The government gave agriculture only a small dose
of liberalization. Through it all, agriculture was
never brought to the forefront of any direct reform
agenda. Long-term growth in agri-GDP since 1991
has remained at 3.4% per annum, well below the
targeted rate of 4%.
Indias agriculture is responsible for feeding 1.25

billion people, a population that is projected to
exceed that of China by 2035. While India focuses
in this election season on accelerating overall
growth, the nature of growth matters a lot for the
alleviation of poverty. The objective of faster growth
with inclusiveness, as elucidated in the 11th and
12th Five-Year Plans, will have little meaning unless
agriculture takes its rightful place in the policy
reform agenda.
Indias obsession with grains as a means of food

security has led to crippling price inflation and a
dearth of nutritious food. For growth to accelerate,
policymakers need to adopt a demand-driven
approach and reform the broken public distribution
system.
It is worth recalling Chinas experience. It began

its reform process in 1978 primarily with agriculture,
dismantling the commune system and largely
dismantling price controls. As a result, farm GDP
in China grew by 7.1% per annum during 197884; with liberalizing prices, farm incomes grew by
almost 14% per annum. High growth in farm
incomes boosted demand for manufactured goods,
kick-starting Chinas manufacturing revolution.
In contrast, India started its economic reforms

in 1991 with the correction of its exchange rate
[62]
Long-term performance and constraints
If one reviews the overall performance of

agriculture since 1950, it looks like a reasonably
successful story. The production of food grains
increased by more than five times, for instance,
and the production of milk by more than seven
times. During this period, the population increased
by a little more than three times.
India has thus been able to produce food faster
than its growth in population. The Green Revolution
in wheat and rice in the late 1960s and early 1970s,
the White Revolution in milk in the 1970s, and the
Blue Revolution in fisheries have all contributed to
that success, making Indian agriculture a net

exporter. Meanwhile, public agencies have
accumulated massive stocks of grain. The private
sectors share of investments in agriculture has
increased, accounting for more than three-fourths
of the total, from about half in 198081.
Compressed and efficient value chains are not

feasible without changes in policy, new institutional
structures and large investments in logistics,
processing and organized retailing. The private
sector can do much of this work, provided that the
policy environment incentivizes it. So far the gap
in policy and what is needed on the ground is
large. So what needs to be done?
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With all these positive signs, the picture seems

reasonably optimistic, and even rosy at times. Yet
one also hears about farmers suicides and
complaints about insufficient returns. And the
overall farm GDP growth rate has been muted at
an average of 3% per annum since 1997.
village from all farmers, even small and marginal

holders; chilled in villages and then transported to
homogenizing and pasteurizing plants in
refrigerated trucks; and finally distributed to retail
outlets in mega cities. A similar approach, possibly
on an even bigger scale, is needed for fruits and
vegetables (vitamins segment) and eggs, meat and
fish (protein segment).
There is certainly a serious problem at the

consumer end. For the past five years, food price
inflation has been at uncomfortably high, in doubledigit figures. In the past few years, inflation in highvalue products, which typically have more vitamins
and proteins, is much higher than in staples. With
rising incomes, people are spending more on fruits,
vegetables, milk and milk products, eggs, meat and
fish. Supplies of these products are lagging behind
demand, pushing up prices.
Thus, the key disconnect in Indian agriculture:
while the policy environment is largely focused on
grains for food security concerns, inflation is
painful, with high-value products leading the
charge. People are not getting enough nutritious
food. It is this policy disconnect that is holding
back growth.
Cereals have an expenditure elasticity of almost

zero, meaning that despite rising incomes,
consumers are not going to eat more cereals on a
per capita basis. The real growth in agriculture,
therefore, has to come from high-value products.
These commodities are perishable and require fastmoving supply lines. The whole paradigm of Indias
agriculture policy, from farming to value chains,
needs to change if 4% growth is to be achieved.
Toward a demand-driven approach
Supply chains for high-value products are

unduly long and fragmented, leading to much
waste and a disproportionate capture of value by
middlemen. This outcome is at the expense of
producers, who get a lower price, and consumers,
who pay a higher price.
The situation must change. To create value,

supply lines need to be compressed to connect
farmers directly to organized processors, retailers
and exporters. It may be recalled that this is what
was done under. Operation Flood, which turned
India into the worlds largest milk producer.
Through the Amul model, milk was aggregated at
First, the Agriculture Produce Marketing

Committee (APMC) Act needs to be amended by
de-listing fruits and vegetables, which would allow
farmers to sell to anyone inside or outside APMC
markets. This amendment has been overdue for
more than a decade. A simple way to get it done
is to make allocations to different states under the
National Horticulture Mission contingent on reforms
in the law.
Second, streamlining supply chains requires
institutional innovations and major investments.
Organized retailers will be interested in streamlining
the back-end operations only if they have full
freedom to scale up their operations in the front
end. Normally, in organized retail, handling fresh
produce and sourcing directly from small and
marginal farmers is the last bastion to conquer as
it is the most difficult. Eighty to ninety per cent of
produce in organized food retail is processed. So,
attention must first be paid to scale up foodprocessing activity and to connect farmers to the
processors.
Thus, the third policy change is to treat food
processing as a priority sector and remove it from
the list of small-scale industry reservation, which
limits the investment and scale of operations in
these units. Large modern plants are what is
needed.
Given how expensive food is for most Indians,
it must be the countrys next sunrise industry. But
for that to happen, reforms are needed on two
fronts: (a) taxes and commissions on food articles
need to be brought to zero or at most less than 5%,
and taxes on processed food must also be kept at
less than 5%; and (b) farmers need to be organized
in clusters, known as farmer producer
[63]

organizations, to create economies of scale at their
level. A public-private partnership model can be
developed to help industry invest at the back end
to streamline value chains.
Fourth, massive reforms are needed to get the
markets right for staple cereals. This is a policy
issue since it is related to the National Food Security
Act (NFSA) of 2013 and involves public
procurement, stocking and distribution at a large
scale.
Brazil, Mexico, the Philippines and even

Pakistan have all adopted conditional cash
transfers, while India is stuck with its inefficient
and costly system. It is not too late to change. India
could introduce cash transfers to atleast 51 cities
with populations greater than one million and then
extend the system to farmers, giving an option to
deficit states to receive payment in cash or physical
quantities.
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Conditional cash transfers
Aadhaar unique identity scheme. Because this

method would require fingerprints of all those
drawing benefits from the government and would
deposit the cash directly in their accounts, the
leakages could be dramatically reduced.
NFSA basically provides 5kg of cereals per

capita per month at highly subsidized rates to twothirds of the population. It relies on the Public
Distribution System (PDS) to perform this task.
The biggest challenge facing NFSA is stopping

the big leakage of food from the existing distribution
system, even when the food is released from
government stocks. At the national level, as much
as 40% of earmarked food never gets to the
intended beneficiaries because of inefficiencies
and corruption. The rate varies at the state
level, from a high of 71% in Bihar to almost
zero in Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh.
So the big question remains: how can one
achieve economic access to food more efficiently?
The answer is simple: rather than state agencies
physically distributing grain, India should adopt a
policy of conditional cash transfers based on the
The government would need to keep critical

reserves of only 1520 million tonnes against any
possible droughtmuch less than the 80 million
tonnes it had on hand in July 2012which would
help reduce and stabilize prices of staples in the
open market. Moving to cash transfers would allow
the natural process of diversification towards highvalue products, augment farmers incomes, and
allow consumers to eat more nutritious food, a winwin situation for the government and consumers.
India is too large a country to have just one
model. It must innovate and bring efficiency to
public expenditures if it is to alleviate poverty and
extend true food security to its people.
Source: Mint
[64]
CHRONICLE
IAS ACADEMY

5TH MAY 2014 TO 11TH MAY 2014
Call: 9953120676, 9582263947

CONTENTS
TOPICS
Pg. No.
National ......................................................................................................................... 4-7

International ............................................................................................................... 8-11
Economy .................................................................................................................... 13-14
Health ......................................................................................................................... 16-17
News in Brief........................................................................................................... 18-22
In the public interest
23
Good deals take homework
24
It didnt begin with Netanyahu
25
Forbidden fruit
27
Reading rights
27
Caste on campus
28
Indias leather exports to take a hiding
29
Wide-ranging impact
29
Disruptive
29
CSR as an anti-poverty instrument
30
CSR a game changer
30
Development framework
31
Sustaining this farm turnaround
31
If aint broke, why fix it
32
Bureaucratic control
33
33
No legitimate expectations
34
Revisiting tradition
34
Competence, not seniority
35
For a clear nuclear doctrine
35
Another wake-up call
37
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Choosing the Chief Justice
Where everyone is a minority
38
Complex play of factors
38
Fallout of manufactured consent
39
Playing politics
39
Issues of antibiotic resistance
40
No shield for corruption
40
Of epidemic proportions
41
Right to education, neither free nor compulsory
41
Climate change making food crops less nutritious
43
Privatizing professional education
43
Privately funded institutions
44
Legislation at the central level
44
The case against privatization of education
45
Indias quest for jobs
46
Size of tomorrows problem
47
Road ahead
47
Indian cities gasp for breath
48
Weekly Current Affairs 5th May to 11th May, 2014
[4]
NATIONAL
DIPP REPORT ON BUSINESS TRENDS HAILS GUJARAT
being followed by other states. Similarly, for finance
and tax-related compliances, West Bengal figures
in the list for single-point information dissemination
alongwith Karnataka for integrated and comprehensive system for VAT, Andhra Pradesh for land
and building related compliances, Maharashtra and
Rajasthan for labour law related compliances, and
Bihar for single window clearances.
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In the context of 2014 business ranking report

of countries by world bank named Doing Business
Report 2014, in which India has been ranked
134th among 189 economies, a study was
conducted by the Accenture regarding the business
practices and norms prevalent in India in different
states and to highlight the best trends among them
which could beemulated by other states for
improving business in the country. The report
which is said to have been commissioned and later
published by the Department of Industrial Policy
and Promotion (DIPP) has hailed the Gujarat
government for its best land policy.
According to the study Gujarat follows the best
environmental licensing procedures, and the model
followed by Gujarat Industrial and Development
Corporation oversees and ensures reduction in
complexity across all processes in getting land. The
report said that though there might be some
implementation issues but it is still wholesome and
addresses the concern of all relevant stakeholders.
It also mentioned Rajasthan, Maharashtra and
Andhra Pradesh as having the models worthy of
On the downside, alongwith global factors,

investors both foreign and domestic have been
highlighting the indecisiveness, lack of transparency, poor governance, corruption and lack of ease
of starting and conducting business for decline in
investments in the country.
In the subsequent events, commerce and
industry minister Anand Sharma claimed that the
study was biased and named it as a private study.
In order to detach his ministry from the report, he
maintained that it was not commissioned by the
(DIPP).
INDIA CHALLENGES WHOS REPORT ON POLLUTION
India has challenged the WHOs study report

on air pollution in 1600 cities which claimed New
Delhi as the worlds most polluted study. The study
which stated Delhis air quality as worst raised
concerns about its alarming pollution levels amidst
internal attention on smog in Beijing. The study
found the Indian capitals air quality almost three
times worse than Beijing and that 13 Indian cities
are among the 20 most polluted in the world.
According to the study, Tests carried out in
2013, found potentially harmful concentrations of
PM2 pollution the concentration of smaller dust
particles that penetrate the lung in Delhis air.
They found readings of 153 micrograms of PM2
from five different locations in the city, almost three
times higher than Beijing, which recorded just 56
micrograms. Indias other major pollution centres
were identified as Patna in Bihar, Gwalior in
Madhya Pradesh and Raipur in Chhattisgarh.
The study though confirmed the suspicions of

leading environmental groups in India, brought a
sharp response from the Indian government which
accused the reports authors of bias. It highlighted
the fact that the readings from India were taken in
2012 and 2013 while the latest Chinese data was
from 2010.
Gufran Beig of the Indian Governments System
of Air Quality Weather Forecasting and Research
(SAFAR) however shunned these allegations and
told AFP that they had an unbiased data for Delhi
which took into account the data taken from 10 air
quality monitoring stations spread around the
capital in an unbiased way. The organization which
is now studying data obtained from the United
States embassy in Beijing covering the years 2011
to 2014 is believed to be showing India in a better
light in future.
[5]
WATER CRISIS IN SOUTH INDIA

due to poor canal irrigation in certain parts of the
country, the declining storage will also impact
drinking water supplies and hydro-power
generation. The IMD last month said the country
may get below average rainfall this year as the
probability of a normal monsoon was just 35%,
mainly because of a developing El Nino. El Nino,
which refers to a periodic warming of the central
and east equatorial Pacific waters, happens every
four to 12 years and affects weather systems across
large parts of the globe.
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The forecast of a weak monsoon this year has

brought back worries of a water crisis in the
country. Water is fast depleting in key reservoirs,
and although current levels are significantly higher
than normal in most places with the exception of
South India, a slow start to the monsoon next
month could quickly bring the situation to a head.
The latest update from the Central Water
Commission (CWC), which monitors the status of
85 important reservoirs in the country, said live
storage in these water bodies was 33% (51.13 billion
cubic metre or BCM) of total capacity (155.046
BCM) as on May 1. Thirty of these reservoirs are in
South India and these have recorded the maximum
dip in storage in the past four months.
Its normal for water bodies to deplete sharply
in the pre-monsoon summer months. As a whole,
the water level in these reservoirs was 126% of the
corresponding period last year and 142% of the
average in the past 10 years. But these bodies get
mainly recharged by monsoon rains in June to
September. If rains are patchy in June and July,
the situation could get acute. Theres already a crisis
brewing in parts of south India. CWC says the key
reservoirs in the region are currently at just 16% of
total capacity, much below the 10-year average (at
the corresponding period) of 21%.
According to the commission, All-India storage

declined from 61.78 BCM on April 3 to 51.13 BCM
on May 1. Besides affecting agricultural production
An El Nino last occurred in 2009, which led to

the worst drought in India in nearly four decades,
hitting foodgrain production in 2009-10. Thirty out
of 85 reservoirs monitored by CWC are in South
India followed by 22 in west, 15 in east, 12 in
central and six in northern region of the country.
Gobind Sagar (Bhakra) and Pong Dam in Himachal
Pradesh, Thein in Punjab, Rana Pratap Sagar in
Rajasthan, Panchet Hill in Jharkhand, Hirakud and
Upper Indravati in Odisha, Ukai and Sardar
Sarovar in Gujarat, Koyana and Upper Vaitarna
in Maharashtra, Rihand in Uttar Pradesh, Gandhi
Sagar and Indira Sagar in Madhya Pradesh,
Nagarjuna Sagar in Andhra Pradesh, Almati and
Tungbhadra in Karnataka, Idukki and Periyar in
Kerala and Mettur and Sholayar in Tamil Nadu
are some of the big reservoirs which are also used
to generate hydro-power.
NO JUDICIAL PRIVILEGES TO BUREAUCRATS
In what is clearly a measure of the stakes

involved, this is the second time in 16 years that
the Supreme Court has struck down the Single
Directive, which bars an investigating agency from
initiating a probe against any senior officer (above
the rank of joint secretary) without the prior
permission of the government. The first time was
through the landmark Jain Hawala verdict of
December 1997 when a bench headed by Chief
Justice J.S. Verma invalidated the Single Directive
which then in the form of executive instructions to
the CBI by the Central Government. Rejecting the
argument that it was part of the governments
supervisory authority over the police, the apex
court held that the effect of the Single Directive
was to thwart investigation and promote impunity
in the upper echelons. This provoked an immediate
reaction from the government in the form of an
ordinance which not only restored the Single

Directive but also conferred a statutory status on
it. When the Supreme Court objected to it, the
government came up with another ordinance in
October 1998 deleting the provision related to the
Single Directive. In December 1998, the Atal Bihari
Vajpayee government introduced a Bill meant to
replace the ordinance.
The Central Vigilance Commission Bill however
lapsed in April 1999 with the dissolution of the
12th Lok Sabha. When a fresh CVC Bill was
introduced by the Vajpayee government in the 13th
Lok Sabha in December 1999, it was referred to a
standing committee headed by Sharad Pawar. The
report presented by this committee in November
2000 controversially recommended the resurrection
of the Single Directive.
[6]

officers, the apex court has reopened the possibility
of a departmental head being booked in a
corruption case immediately after he had been
trapped, without any prior approval from the
government. The disapproval of the Single
Directive is also a major boost for accountability
as the verdict dovetails with the RTI provision for
disclosure of file notings. Both the Supreme Court
verdict and the RTI provision run contrary to the
bureaucracys claim that officers at the decision
making level need special protection to act honestly
and without fear.
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The lone dissenter in the committee was

journalist Kuldip Nayar, who was then a member
of the Rajya Sabha. While the standing committees
majority report claimed that there was a need to
protect bonafide actions at the decision making
level, Nayar in his dissenting note said that pliable
public servants who carry out the errands of the
political masters will go scot free. With Tuesdays
decision, the Supreme Court has vindicated the
concern raised by Nayar, besides reviving the
reform made by Justice Verma. The implications of
the latest verdict are far reaching. By removing the
specious distinction between senior and junior
DoE UNDERLINES NORMS TO EASE THE BURDEN OF SCHOOL KIDS

The Directorate of Education has issued a set
of guidelines which, if implemented, will help
reduce the weight of school bags. The
recommendations were made by a committee
formed by DoE. The schools have been asked to
devise timetables carefully. Principals have been
asked to frame a ... timetable ... so that children
do not have to carry too many books or notebooks
... and also ensure that co-curricular activity
periods, along with other periods, are held on a
daily basis thereby having an equitable distribution
of weight of school bags. The other change schools
are expected to make is in their homework
schedules. They have been asked to stagger
homework assignments so students dont have to
carry books and notebooks back and forth too often.
Other instructions include directions to parents,
asking them to supervise when their kids pack their
bags as they shouldnt carry more that what their
timetables require. Carrying reference books or
multiple books for the same subject is also being
discouraged. Schools have been asked to sensitize
teachers and parents of the long-term health
implications of carrying heavy bags. Doctors say
kids start stooping from leaning forward to balance
and also develop back pain and bad posture. The
school should teach correct lifting and carrying
techniques as part of their health education
programmes, says the circular. Parents have been
asked to buy child-friendly bags which are light

and comfortable to carry. Some parents have solved
the problem by opting for strolley bags designed
for schools that are easily available now. However,
while kids can drag these bags on pavements and
in corridors, they still have to carry them up
staircases and to their buses. These are also
relatively expensive, most costing upward of Rs.
1,000. Education bodies have been trying to solve
this problem for many years. In reply to a question
in Rajya Sabha, the ministry of human resource
development had pointed out in 2008 that the
Central Board of Secondary Education has already
issued guidelines on school bags. The Minister of
State for HRD, M.A.A. Fatmi, had told Rajya Sabha,
The problem of heavy school bag was brought
out in the report Learning without Burden in 1993.
National Curriculum Framework (NCF), 2005, has
several recommendations on reduction of physical,
psychological and transactional load on
schoolchildren. Based on NCF, new syllabi and
textbooks have been prepared by NCERT and have
been adopted in schools affiliated to CBSE. Several
states have also revised their syllabi and textbooks
based on NCF, 2005". The DoE circular also
instructs the heads of schools to ensure that school
bags of children are not heavy and are monitored
on a regular basis.
JALLIKATTU IN TAMIL NADU BANNED BY SC
Even bulls have rights against torture, the

Supreme Court observed on 7th of May, 14 as it
banned jallikattu (bull fighting) and bullock cart
racing in Tamil Nadu. The court also banned
bullock cart racing in Maharashtra. A Bench of
Justices K.S. Radhakrishnan and Pinaki Chandra
Misra said, Forcing a bull and keeping it in the
waiting area for hours and subjecting it to the
scorching sun is not for the animals well-being.

Forcing and pulling the bull by a nose rope into
the narrow, closed enclosure or vadi vassal (entry
point), subjecting it to all forms of torture, fear,
pain and suffering by forcing it to go the arena
and also over-powering it in the arena by bull
tamers, are not for the well-being of the
animal.
[7]

The Bench said the Animal Welfare Board of
India had given details on the manner in which
the bull fight was conducted across Tamil Nadu.
It said the torture and cruelty meted out to the
bulls was unimaginable. Being dumb and helpless,
they suffer in silence. We notice that the situation
is the same in Maharashtra too.
Tracing the history of jallikattu, widely held in Southern

Tamil Nadu mainly coinciding with harvest festival of
Pongal in January, Mr. Karunanidhi said it was a
sport of Tamil valor and there were even references to
it in ancient Sangam period literature. Maintaining that
it did not cause death of either the animal or the bull
tamers, he recalled various steps taken during the DMK
regime to secure the permission of Supreme Court for
holding jallikatu in 2007 as per its guidelines and
enactment of an act in 2009 for this purpose.
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The move came after the DMK chief

M. Karunanidhi urged the Jayalalithaa Government
in Tamil Nadu to seek review of the Supreme Courts
verdict banning jallikattu, describing the popular
bull taming sport as a symbol of Tamil culture. In
a statement in Chennai, he said the state government
should immediately take steps to secure the apex
courts permission to allow continuation of
jallikattu considering the sentiments and appeal
made by all quarters, including organisers of the
sport, and law and order consequences due to
the ban. The government should also take into
account the danger of 60,000 bulls being sent to
Kerala for slaughter and protect the symbol of

Tamil culture and tradition, he said. The apex
court on May 7 banned using bulls for jallikattu
events or bullock-cart races across the country,
observing that jallikattu demonstrates a link
between actions of humans and the fear, distress
and pain experienced by bulls and the torture and
cruelty meted out to the bulls is unimaginable.
CASUALTY OF ENGLISH IN GOVT. SCHOOLS
Most children studying English in government

primary schools across the country can barely
frame sentences; tools for learning the language
like charts and colours are usually kept under lock
and key; and libraries are almost non-existent in
many of them, says an NCERT report which has
just been made public.
The study was undertaken in about eight States,

each chosen to represent five geographical regions
and variety. All types of schools like rural, urban,
large, small and even tribal were sampled. In most
cases, the teachers themselves were trained poorly
with little emphasis given to hands-on training,
and this was then reflected in poor classroom
practises.
Children were being taught grammar by being
made to memorise the rules. Local language was
resorted by most teachers to teach and they placed

more importance on reading and writing than
actually speaking English. The textbook trap, was
present in every classroom surveyed; where teachers
only depended on printed instructions, not teaching
any other sentences or patterns resulting in children
not achieving mastery over the four essential skills
of listening, speaking, reading and writing.
Furthermore, the NCERT study found that
poems were being taught line by line or word by
word and not for appreciation. In almost 90 per
cent of the classrooms studied, the main focus was
on questions and answers. Most teachers asked the
questions depriving the students to learn the art of
communicating with confidence and also depriving
them of the experience of asking questions.
AROUND 73% CITY CHILDREN ARE TECH-NET SAVVY
A recent survey has revealed that 73 per cent

children living in the metros and other major cities
in the country use Facebook and other social
networking sites despite prohibition. The Delhi
High Court had last year asked Facebook to upload
a disclaimer on its homepage stating that children
below 13 cannot open an account on it.
Releasing the findings, ASSOCHAM secretary

general D.S. Rawat said free access to social media
could expose the children to content, people or
situations that could have negative outcomes, like
cyber bullying and on-line sexual abuse. Survey
trends indicate that older a child grows the more
likely he or she is to use these social networking
sites. Nearly a quarter of the surveyed children were
13-year-olds, followed by 22 per cent of 11-yearolds.
The findings of the study, conducted by the

Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry
of India (ASSOCHAM), also revealed that children
are helped by parents, who lie to get them
registered as users on these websites.
[8]
INTERNATIONAL
PROTOCOL FOR NUCLEAR-FREE ZONE SIGNED
Council--China, France, Russia, UK and US along
with five Central Asian countries namely,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan
and Uzbekistan became signatories to it. The treaty
which originally came into force in 2009, created
the first nuclear weapon free zone entirely in
Northern Hemisphere which prohibited the
signatories from creation, acquisition and expansion
of nuclear weapons.
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In a bid to promote disarmament, nuclear non

proliferation and regional security, United Nations
secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon on recently,
welcomed the signing by nuclear-weapon states of
the protocol to the Treaty on a Nuclear-WeaponFree Zone in Central Asia. The protocol came in
support of further establishment of nuclear weapon
free zones augmenting the global norms against
nuclear weapons.World's five nuclear powers and
five permanent members of the UN Security
SEVERE POLLUTION IN RIVER DANUBE
According to a recent study conducted in the

Austrian capital, the beautiful Danube river in
Vienna, to which Johann Strauss dedicated the
famous Viennese Waltzes in 1867, is marred with
high levels of plastics, garbage and industrial
wastes, tarnishing its beauty and blue colour.
In another report prepared by the Department
of Limnology and Biological Oceanography of the
University of Vienna, it was mentioned that the
river carries an average of 4.2 tonnes of waste till
the Black Sea. The report was prepared by the
Austrian scientists, collecting nearly a thousand

samples in the years 2010 and 2012 over 80 km of
the river between the cities of Vienna and Bratislava.
The results of the study were published in the
scientific journal of Environmental Pollution,
claiming that the water of the second longest river
in Europe contains a higher concentration of waste
than fish. In the 900 water samples that were taken
from the river, the quantity and size of the plastic
waste was even more than the larvae of fish, the
Austrian scientists said.
EU PASSES DISPUTED FINANCIAL TRANSACTION TAX
The EU finance ministers backing a controversial

financial transaction tax have agreed recently to
introduce it from 2016 despite strong opposition
led by Britain which promised to challenge the levy
if it harms its interests. The tax was needed, they
said, to remedy the failings of the financial markets
which plunged the world into crisis in 2008 but
sceptics have charged them with political
grandstanding ahead of European elections in May
22-25.
The member states which support the Financial

Transaction Tax, led by France and Germany, had
reached a consensus that "it should be a step by
step approach, a start to tax shares and some
derivatives," Austrian Finance Minister Michael
Spindelegger said. "Each step towards full
implementation (will be) decided in a manner that
takes into consideration" the economic impact and

the concerns of other countries who oppose it,
Spindelegger said.
Britain, home to one of world's biggest financial
markets in London, has consistently attacked the
tax as harmful to business and counter-productive
in that investors will go elsewhere to avoid paying.
It took its case to Europe's top court but lost there
last month.
Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne
said that if the tax affected other European Union
countries who have decided not to take part, "they
are entitled to challenge that and we will challenge
that." Another opponent, Sweden, was equally
blunt. "We think the FTT is a very inefficient and
costly tax (which) will have a detrimental impact
on investment," Finance Minister Anders Borg said.
[9]
EUROPE HAS FEW OPTIONS TO REDUCE RELIANCE ON RUSSIAN GAS

to hinder other alternatives to its supplies, such as
unconventional natural gas.
Successive U.S. administrations and Congresses
have viewed European energy security as a U.S.
national interest. Promoting diversification of
Europes natural gas supplies, especially in recent
years through the development of a southern
corridor of gas from the Caspian region as an
alternative to Russian natural gas, has been a focal
point of U.S. energy policy in Europe and Eurasia.
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Europe although being a major energy consumer

is now facing several challenges regarding its future
energy needs. Among these challenges are rapidly
rising global demand and competition for energy
resources from emerging economies such as China
and India, persistent instability in energy producing
regions such as the Middle East, a fragmented
internal European energy market, and a growing
need to shift fuels in order to address climate
change policy. As a result, energy supply security
has become a key concern for European nations
and the European Union (EU).
A key element of the EUs energy supply

strategy has been to shift to a greater use of natural
gas. Also, Europe as a whole is a major importer
of natural gas. Although second to Norway as a
supplier to Europe, Russia remains one of Europes
most important natural gas suppliers. Europes
natural gas consumption is projected to grow while
its own domestic natural gas production continues
to decline. If trends continue as projected, Europes
dependence on Russia as a supplier is likely to grow.
And, while it could be in Europes interest to explore
alternative sources for its natural gas needs, it is
uncertain whether Europe as a whole can, or is
willing to, replace a significant level of imports from
Russia.
Some European countries that feel vulnerable
to potential Russian energy supply manipulation
may work harder to achieve diversification than
others since Russia has not been idle when it comes
to protecting its share of the European natural gas
market.
Moscow, including the state-controlled company

Gazprom, has attempted to stymie Europeanbacked alternatives to pipelines it controls by
proposing competing pipeline projects and
attempting to co-opt European companies by
offering them stakes in those and other projects. It
has attempted to dissuade potential suppliers
(especially those in Central Asia) from participating
in European-supported plans. Moscow has also
raised environmental concerns in an apparent effort
The George W. Bush Administration viewed the

issue in geopolitical terms and sharply criticized
Russia for using energy supplies as a political tool
to influence other countries. The Obama
Administration has also called for diversification,
but has refrained from openly expressing concerns
about Russias regional energy policy, perhaps in
order to avoid jeopardizing relations with Moscow.
Nevertheless, although supplying natural gas to
Europe from the Caspian Region and Central Asia
has been a goal of multiple U.S. administrations
and the EU, it is far from being achieved in volumes
significant to counter Russian exports. This report
focuses on potential approaches that Europe might
employ to diversify its sources of natural gas supply,
Russias role in Europes natural gas policies, and
key factors that could hinder efforts to develop
alternative suppliers of natural gas. The report
assesses the potential
suppliers of natural gas to Europe and the shortto medium-term hurdles needed to be overcome
for those suppliers to be credible, long-term
providers of natural gas to Europe. The report looks
at North Africa, potentially the most realistic supply
alternative in the near term, but notes that the region
will have to resolve its current political, economic,
and security instability as well as the internal
structural changes to the natural gas industry.
Central Asia, which may have the greatest amounts
of natural gas, would need to construct lengthy
pipelines through multiple countries to move its
natural gas to Europe.
STRATEGIC 20 YR LEASE SIGNED BY US
The Obama administration said on Monday that

it had signed a 20-year lease on its military base in
Djibouti in the Horn of Africa, the only U.S.
installation on the continent and a staging ground
for counterterrorism operations in Yemen and
Somalia. In a 40-minute meeting in the Oval Office,

President Barack Obama and Ismail Omar Guelleh,
the President of Djibouti, covered a range of security
and development issues, aides said. But the talks
centred on the critical role played by Camp
[10]

Lemonnier, a sprawling base of 4,000 U.S. service
members and civilians that serves as a hub for
counterterrorism operations and training.
Obviously, Camp Lemonnier is extraordinarily
important not only to our work throughout the
Horn of Africa but throughout the region, said
Mr. Obama, who visited Djibouti in 2006 as a U.S.
senator.
Djibouti, a country of fewer than one million

people the size of New Jersey that borders the Red
Sea and Gulf of Aden, has played an increasingly
significant role in seeking to stabilise regional crisis.
The deal reflects the small countrys outsize strategic
importance in helping the U.S. and other Western
allies combat terrorists, pirates and smugglers in
the region.
FOUR-POINT PEACE PLAN FOR UKRAINE

talks with the Swiss President. Another condition
is a halt to the military crackdown on antigovernment protesters in eastern Ukraine.
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Peace gets a chance in strife-torn Ukraine as

Russia and Europe agreed on a roadmap for ending
the standoff between Kiev and rebellious Russianspeaking regions. Following his meeting with Swiss
President Didier Burkhalter in Moscow on
Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin called
on pro-Russian protesters in Ukraine to postpone
a referendum for state sovereignty they plan to
hold on May 11 in Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
The rescheduling of the referendum is needed
to create the necessary conditions for dialogue,
Mr. Putin said in a statement for the press after his
Russia emphatically demands that Kievs

authorities immediately call off all military and
punitive operations in Ukraines south-east, Mr.
Putin said. The main thing today is to set up direct,
full-fledged dialogue between Kievs current
authorities and representative of Ukraines southeast, that would convince [the latter] that their
legitimate interests within Ukraine would be
guaranteed, the Russian leader said.
CALIFORNIA MUSEUM RETURNS COMBODIAN STATUE
The Norton Simon Museum has agreed to

return a 10th century statue that may have been
looted from a Cambodian temple during that
country's genocidal civil war in the 1970s. "Temple
Wrestler," a sandstone figure missing its hands and
feet, has been displayed at the museum for nearly
four decades. The 5-foot-high work depicts Bhima,
a heroic figure in the Hindu epic Mahabharata, in
a fighting pose.
The sculpture is one of three being returned to

Cambodia from the U.S. Museum officials met with
Cambodian officials earlier this year and are
returning the statue "as a gesture of friendship, and
in response to a unique and compelling request by
top officials in Cambodia to help rebuild its 'soul'
as a nation," the Pasadena museum said recently
in a statement that was given to the Associated
Press.
AROUND 50,000 FAMISHED CHILDREN IN SOMALIA
Failing rains, severe malnourishment, enduring

conflict and poor sanitation have left Somalia facing
a humanitarian crisis, with 50,000 children "at
death's door" and 2.9 million Somalis at risk of
hunger, a coalition of aid agencies has warned.
Twenty-three charities including World Vision,

Oxfam, Save the Children, Care International and
the Norwegian Refugee Council have united to
highlight the perilous state of the country and make
an urgent appeal for the $822 m (485 m) shortfall
in humanitarian funding. Somalia has received only
12% of the money it needs this year. According to
a report they have compiled, pastoralists have been

slaughtering livestock because of water and food
shortages, while the UN-backed Amisom force's
offensive against al-Shabaab in Southern Somalia
has swelled the ranks of the 1.1 million internally
displaced people.
Women in the country have the second-highest
risk of maternal death in the world, one in seven
children is acutely malnourished, and less than one
in four people has access to adequate sanitation
facilities. Moreover, polio has returned, with 193
cases recorded in the past year.
CHINAS MEGA PROJECT OF ASIAS LARGEST TUNNEL
Chinas latest mega project of 76-mile-long

tunnel more than twice the length of the Channel
Tunnel, China's latest mega project is not short of
ambition. A 76-mile-long tunnel will run between
the northern city of Dalian and Yantai on the east

coast. "Work could begin as early as 2015 or 2016,"
said Wang Mengshu, an expert at the Chinese
academy of Engineering, to the China Daily. He
[11]

added that the new tunnel will knock 800 miles off
the current route between the two cities. It will
also form a vital link in a high-speed rail line from
China's frozen north to the tropical island of
Hainan, in the south.
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China has a history of epic engineering projects

stretching back to the Great Wall. More recently it
has built the world's largest high-speed railway
network, longest bridges, and several of its tallest
skyscrapers. Even so, the new 22 billion sea tunnel
will present several challenges. Engineers will
attempt to bore three tunnels - one for cars, one for
trains and one for maintenance - through the hard
rock, 100 ft. below the seabed.
Vertical shafts will be dug on islands along the

route to provide ventilation. But the area is prone
to earthquakes and the tunnel will traverse two
major fault lines. In 1976, a 7.5 magnitude
earthquake in the nearby city of Tangshan killed
hundreds of thousands. Experts warned that
excavation work through an active fault needs
special attention. The Channel Tunnel, dug between
1987 and 1991 showed that bores could excavate
undersea at high pressure. But technology has
improved to such an extent that much more
ambitious projects are possible.
[12]
INDIA AND THE WORLD

MASSIVE SUPPORT FOR INDUS WATER TREATY IN PAKISTAN
launch of the report. Ninety expert interviews were
conducted between March and November 2013 in
all four provinces as part of a wider research in
South Asia looking at prevalent attitudes towards
water in the region. Similar studies were conducted
in India, Afghanistan, Nepal and Bangladesh as
well.
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A new report based on interviews with experts

reveals that there was broad based support for the
Indus Water treaty in Pakistan and that India was
entitled to its share of water, including the building
of dams under the Treaty. The impression that
India was stealing Pakistans share of water was
not based on any real empirical evidence according
to Pakistans Water Discourse, Attitudes on Water
Management Practices, by Jinnah Institute and
Chatham House which was launched recently.
None of the experts interviewed in the water
sector used the phrase that India was violating the
Indus Water Treaty and of the few who said this,
two were newspapers editors, says one of its
authors, Ahmad Rafay Alam, speaking at the
Some of those interviewed felt the unverifiable

flow data provided by India was a source of concern
since rapid scale of upstream construction had
arguably impacted cumulative flows, the report
said. Only a minority view held that India was
engaging in water aggression and was wilfully
not adhering to the Treaty in letter or spirit.
CHINA-VIETNAM FACE-OFF LEAVES INDIA WORRIED
India has joined the US in ringing alarm bells

over China's expansionist expeditions in the South
China Sea clashing with Vietnam and the
Philippines early this week. Though trying to play
safe, New Delhi refused to name China or Vietnam
and instead called for freedom of navigation in the
sea. Almost five days after Chinese ships reportedly
rammed Vietnamese vessels near the Paracel
Islands, the external affairs ministry said, it is
concerned about the "recent developments" in the
South China Sea. In a statement, the foreign office
said, "We would like to see resolution of the issue
through peaceful means in accordance with
universally recognized principles of international
law." It is unclear whether India is referring to
the issue of conflicting sovereignty of the areas that
China and Vietnam claim, or whether it was
concerned about a potential flare-up as a result of
Chinese and Vietnamese ships apparently ramming
each other and Chinese spraying them with water
cannons. Calling for "cooperation in ensuring
security of sea-lanes and strengthening of maritime
security", India maintained freedom of navigation
in the South China Sea should not be impeded.
Vietnam posted videos of how its ships were

rammed by Chinese civilian and military vessels
which formed the group that accompanied the
CNOOC mobile oil rig, Haiyang Shiyou 981, which
showed up in Vietnam's exclusive economic zone
(EEZ) for oil exploration activities. The rig was
accompanied by a flotilla of civilian and military
ships. According to Vietnam reports, after its naval
vessels asked Chinese ships to move out, the
Chinese ships rammed them, reportedly injuring
six sailors. Vietnam military spokesperson was
quoted by the foreign media as saying, "Vietnam
has exercised restraint. "But if Chinese vessels
continue ramming Vietnamese ships, we'll have to
act out of self-defence," said a senior Vietnamese
commander." The Chinese have defended their
actions, saying the Vietnamese ships had rammed
theirs 171 times. Yi Xianliang, deputy director
general of the department of boundary and ocean
affairs, was quoted as saying, "Vietnam had started
the problem. Between May 3 and May 7, Vietnam
has dispatched 35 ships that have rammed Chinese
vessels 171 times." "Chinese ships are government
ships. Vietnam ships are armed," he said.
[13]
ECONOMY
RBI LOWERS THE AGE OF CHILD BANK ACCOUNT HOLDERS TO 10 YEARS
with this India has now ranked among the few
countries in the world to have such a network built
domestically to meet the card-based payment
system needs of the country. An indigenous system
like RuPay is expected to reduce the dependence
on cash and cheque modes of settlement and make
it easier to offer products based on specific
requirements of diverse user sets within the country
as well.
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In a bid to promote financial inclusion and to

bring uniformity in opening and operating minors
accounts, RBI has passed a resolution permitting
minors to open and operate savings account in
banks, lifting the existing restriction of age being
12 years or above for the same. With this, 10-year
olds can now open accounts singularly. In certain
cases where banks allow minors who are 12-years
old or above, the move will reduce the age
requirement criterion. This will help banks get more
accounts into their fold.
However, keeping in view their risk
management systems, banks can fix limits in terms
of age and amount up to which minors may be
allowed to operate the deposit accounts
independently. They can also decide, in their own
discretion, as to what minimum documents are
required for opening of accounts by minors.
The proposal also permits banks to offer

additional banking facilities like internet banking,
ATM/debit card, cheque book facility etc., subject
to the safeguards that these accounts are not
overdrawn and always have a credit balance.
President inaugurates origin of indigenous
card payment network RuPay
President Pranab Mukherjee recently dedicated

to the nation indigenous card payment network
called RuPay at par with the global players like
Visa and Master Card. According to him, dedication
of RuPay to the nation is symbolic of the maturity
of the payment system development in India and
The new payment network developed by the

National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), a
not-for-profit company envisioned by the Reserve
Bank of India (RBI) and created by the banking
industry, covers all the automated teller machines
(ATMs) and most of the retail and e-Commerce
platforms. Also RuPay cards are accepted at all
ATMs, more than 90 per cent of Point of Sale
(POS) terminals and more than 10,000 e-Commerce
merchants across the country.
In addition to this, RuPay scheme provides
flexibility to card issuing banks to issue special
purpose cards like Kisan Cards, Milk Procurement
Cards, Grain Procurement Cards and Financial
Inclusion Cards. More than 150 co-operative banks
and the Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) in the country
have also issued RuPay ATM cards. The total
number of cards issued as on date is 17 Million
and is growing at a rate of about three million per
month. A variant of the card called Kisan Card is
now being issued by all the Public Sector banks in
addition to the mainstream debit card which has
been issued by 43 banks.
PROTOCOL ON SHARING TAX INFO AMONG 47 NATIONS
In an effort to eliminating banking secrecy

practices, tax frauds and tax evasion, recently 47
nations including Switzerland and India, have build
consensus on automatic exchange of information
on tax matters, under the aegis of OECD,
committing the countries to implement a new single
global standard on automatic exchange of
information. The standard which has been
endorsed by the G20 finance ministers last February
obliges these countries and jurisdictions to procure
and exchange all financial information from their
financial institutions with the jurisdictions of the

other countries annually.
The move is especially seen by India as a positive
step which will enable her to share details on
alleged illicit funds stashed away by Indians there,
and is generally seen as a way out for preventing
the rising tax crimes that have been creating gaps
in the genuine revenue of the countries thus
creating hindrances in their growth and
development.
[14]
BAD LOANS OF BIG CORPORATES ON THE RISE

According to AIBEA (All India Banking
Employees Association), a whopping Rs. 70,300
crore has accumulated on the account of top 406
bad bank loans even as there has been a four-fold
rise in such loans in the past four years. From Rs.
39,030 crore in March 2008, bad loans rose to Rs.
1.64 lakh crores by March 2013.
In this context, it was demanded that the RBI

should come up with periodic list of loan defaulters
of Rs. one crore and above and centre should
amend recovery laws, and also take criminal action
against those who deliberately default.
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In a press conference in Chennai, AIBEA

general secretary C.H. Venkatchalam alleged that
the AIBEA had to release the list as the RBI and
the Centre had been shying away from it. He also

revealed that how the big corporates were playing
with depositors hard-earned money and pointed
that the latter have the right to know the details of
wilful defaulters.
[15]

INDIAS ROLE IN PRODUCING SUPER-HEAVY ELEMENT 117
element unseptium for its 117 protons (20 protons
of calcium and 97 from Bk). An atom of element
117 is 40 per cent heavier than an atom of lead.
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Physical Review Letters recently confirmed the

existence of a new super-heavy element 117. Superheavy elements are elements beyond atomic number
104. They do not exist in nature. Drs Susant Lahiri
and Moumita Maiti from the Saha Institute of
Nuclear Physics (SINP) joined the other
international collaborators led by Professor
Christoph Duellmann at GSI Helmholtz Centre for
Heavy Ion Research, in carrying out the historic
experiment. Presently, Dr. Maiti works in the Indian
Institute of Technology, Roorkee. The international
team consisted of 72 scientists and engineers from
16 institutions in Australia, Finland, Germany,
India, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, the
United Kingdom, and the United States.
A few atoms of the super heavy element
emerged when calcium-48 ions at high energies
impinged on a specially prepared target of
berkelium-249 (Bk). Presently, researchers call the
Although the team was apprehensive about the

future possibility of discovery of some more heavy
elements, they were however certain that if the
next generation scientists would be able to
synthesize much more stable heavy elements, it will
pave the way for discovery of many new materials
like flerovium (element 114).
What will its properties be? Will it be more useful
for certain applications than other known
materials? While I do not expect that the possibility
of producing such quantities in the next decades,
new avenues for the production of super-heavy
elements may eventually be found and open these
exciting prospects. If we look back only 100 years,
the expectation to ever study element 117 did not
yet exist.
SUCCESS ON DEBUT FOR UNDERSEA LAUNCH OF MISSILE
India becomes the fifth country to launch the

nuclear missile underwater with the Defence
Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)
successfully flight-testing an underwater-launched
missile called K-4 with a range of about 3,000 km
on March 24, off the coast of Vishakhapatnam.
After a powerful gas generator ejected it from the
pontoon submerged in the Bay of Bengal, the K-4

missile rose into the air, took a turn towards the
designated target, sped across 3,000 km in the sky
and dropped into the Indian Ocean. The two-stage
missile is expected to carry nuclear warheads,
forming the lethal payload of Indias nuclear
powered submarines that are under construction.
[16]
HEALTH
POLIO DECLARED AS PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCY BY WHO
Ethiopia, Israel, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia, and
Syria.
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The World Health Organization has declared

the spread of polio a global public health emergency,
which, if left unchecked, could derail efforts to
eradicate the disease. The 14 members of WHOs
international health regulations emergency
committee met at the end of April alongside
representatives from the nine states where wild
poliovirus has been found in the past 12 months:
Afghanistan, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea,
The committee presented its findings to Margaret

Chan, WHOs director general, informing her that
the cross border spread of wild poliovirus in 2014
was an extraordinary event. He declared the
situation a global public health emergency under
international health regulations. The last such
declaration was made was in 2009 over the H1N1
influenza pandemic.
INDIA LEADS IN MATERNAL DEATHS ACROSS THE GLOBE
According to a UN report, India leads in

maternal deaths at around 17% of 2.89 lakh
women, ahead of Nigeria which accounts for 40,000
deaths annually. The worst affected states are U.P.,
Bihar and parts of Rajasthan. In contrast, China
with the largest population in the world reported
5,900 maternal deaths in 2013 mainly due to its
one-child policy, the report added.
According to the UN report, maternal deaths
have witnessed 45 per cent drop globally since
1990, from 5.2 lakh in 1990 to 2.89 lakh in 2013.
Only Sub-Saharan Africa region poses a high risk
with 1.79 lakh maternal deaths in 2013, followed
by Chad and Somalia.
Despite India progressing noticeably in curbing
the maternal mortality rate (MMR), 65 per cent
drop reported since 1990, the country is lagging
behind the UN-mandated Millennium Development
Goal (MDG) of bringing a 75 per cent decline in
the MMR till 2015.
The World Health Organization (WHO)

reported that Indias MMR, which was 560 in 1990,
reduced to 178 in 2010-2012. However, as per the
MDG mandate, India needs to reduce its MMR
further down to 103. Though Indias MMR is
reducing at an average of 4.5 percent annually, it
has to bring down the MMR at the annual rate of
5.5% to meet the Millennium Development Goal.
Literacy and social issues are major factors
that have led to high maternal deaths. Girls are
married at a young age and they have little
knowledge about early pregnancy, said eminent
gynaecologist Dr. Nandita Palshetkar. According
to Dr. Lale Say of WHO, the major challenge faced
by India is lack of accurate information about births
and deaths, particularly when women give birth
at home.
WHO
The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that
is concerned with international public health. It was established on 7 April, 1948, headquartered in
Geneva, Switzerland. WHO is a member of the United Nations Development Group. Its predecessor,
the Health Organization, was an agency of the League of Nations. The main responsibility was to help
anybody in need of medical assistance. The constitution of the World Health Organization had been
signed by all 69 countries of the United Nations by 22 July, 1946, with the first meeting of the World
Health Assembly finishing on 24 July 1948. It incorporated the Office International d'Hygine Publique
and the League of Nations Health Organization. Since its creation, it has played a leading role in the
eradication of smallpox. Its current priorities include communicable diseases, in particular, HIV/
AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, the mitigation of the effects of non-communicable diseases, sexual
and reproductive health, development, and aging, nutrition, food security and healthy eating,
occupational health, substance abuse, and drive the development of reporting, publications, and
networking. WHO is responsible for the World Health Report, a leading international publication on
health, the worldwide World Health Survey, and World Health Day (7th of April every year).
[17]
RESPIRATORY AILMENTS RISING IN INDIA

According to a WHO report respiratory
ailments have claimed many lives in India owing
to the ocuntrys rising air pollution with Delhi
recording the worst of air quality indicating the
presence of traces of hazardous gases.
Coupled with this theres also an increase in

the incidences of heart ailments alongside
respiratory ailm ents, like rhematic arthritis, heart
failure and depression. Incidence of autoimmune
diseases, for example rheumatoid arthritis, has
increased significantly which cannot be explained
merely by citing genetic changes. The role of
ambient air pollution, which is a known cause of
aberration in the immune status of genetically
predisposed individuals and even healthy ones, is
being investigated, says Dr. Uma Kumar, head of
clinical immunology and rheumatology department
at AIIMS. She says that more than 200 patients
suffering from rheumatoid arthritis visit the hospital
every week.
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Various respiratory disases like chronic bronchitis,

lung cancer and infections, have tremendously
increased leading to deaths in many cases and the
number has increased manifold in the past four
years. According to medical health professionls,
emergency admissions which used to occur at the
onset of summer and winter seasons, especially
among the elderly, have gone up and are now
occurring throughout the year. Moreover the
conventional medicines like inhalers and nebulisers
have been rendered ineffective and useless in

todays time.
GESTATIONAL DIABETES MELLITUS TEST MADE CONVENIENT
As per the revised 2013 WHO guidelines, fasting

of the pregnant women has become redundant for
diagnosing Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM) in
low- and middle-income countries like India, with
high diabetes rate. The revised guidelines come in
lieu of the varied concerns faced by pregnant
women with gestational diabetes in developing
countries with a non-Caucasian population.
WHOs non-fasting plasma glucose testing

recommendation makes testing easy for pregnant
women and prevents nausea and vomiting. The
single-step procedure is easy to follow, economical,
simple and evidence-based. The rest of the
procedure remains the same. The non-fasting
plasma glucose level is tested two hours after 75
gm of glucose is given to the woman.
The revision comes 15 years after the world
health body came up with its guidelines for
diagnosing GDM. Meeting the requirements laid
out in the 1999 guidelines was particularly
challenging for pregnant women.
India still leads in the number of population
defecating in open
According to a UN report around 597 million

people in India still defecate in open, which is the
highest in the world. The report titled Progress
on Drinking Water and Sanitation (2014 update),
which was released recently, says 82 peracent of
the one billion people practising open defecation in
the world live in just 10 countries.
In another report prepared by UNICEF and
WHO together, despite this drawback, India doesnt
feature among the countries making efforts to

reduce this adversary in contrast to the immediate
neighbours Bangladesh and Vietnam. Vietnam,
Bangladesh and Peru have reduced open defecation
prevalence to single digits, according to the report.
According to the UN, countries where open
defecation is most widely practised have the highest
number of deaths of children under the age of five,
as well as high levels of under-nutrition, high levels
of poverty and large disparities between the rich
and poor. There are also strong gender impacts:
lack of safe, private toilets makes women and girls
vulnerable to violence and is an impediment to girls
education, it says.
IN THE BOX: The United Nations Children's
Fund (UNICEF) is a United Nations Program
headquartered in New York City that provides
long-term humanitarian and developmental
assistance to children and mothers in developing
countries. It is one of the members of the United
Nations Development Group and its Executive
Committee.
UNICEF was created by the United Nations
General Assembly on December 11, 1946, to provide
emergency food and healthcare to children in countries
that had been devastated by World War II. In 1953,
UNICEF became a permanent part of the United
Nations System and its name was shortened from the
original United Nations International Children's
Emergency Fund but it has continued to be known by
the popular acronym based on this previous title.
[18]
NEWS IN BRIEF
NEWSMAKERS
Though he is the worlds oldest man, Imich is
not the oldest person in the world: that would be
116-year-old Misao Okawa, who lives in Japan.
Aside from Okawa, there are 66 women in the
world who are older than Imich.
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Paul VI
After the Vatican granted full sainthood to two
late Popes John Paul II and John XXIII it has
recognised a supposed miracle attributed to Paul
VI and will beatify the late Italian pope in October,
which would leave him one step from sainthood.
Catholic Church procedures require one miracle
attributed for beatification, which confers the status
of "blessed" on the person in question, and two
miracles for canonisation to join the ranks of saints.
Paul VI reigned between 1963 and 1978 and

presided over key reforms from the Second Vatican
Council. Paul VI was praised for his efforts to seek
closer ties with other Christian denominations but
his 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae was
controversial for spelling out a ban on all forms of
artificial contraception.
The application for his beatification was begun
in 1993.
Alexander Imich
Alexander Imich, 111 years old Holocaust

survivor who escaped both Nazi persecution and a
Soviet gulag was named as the worlds oldest living
man. Imich, a scholar of the occult, was born in
Poland on February 4, 1903. At the age of 15 Imchi
fought in the Polish-Soviet conflict of 1919-1921.
When the war ended he sought to become a captain
in the Polish Navy, but was barred from doing so
because he was Jewish.
Then he decided to become a zoologist and
traveled to exotic countries in Africa. But after he
was unable to advance in zoology, he became a
chemistry professor and developed a fascination
with the occult and attended sances.
In 1995, at the age of 92, he published

Incredible Tales of the Paranormal, continuing
his tireless efforts to prove to scientists that the
neshama, the Jewish term for soul, survives
physical death.
Ahmed Maiteeq
The head of Libya's parliament has confirmed

businessman Ahmed Maiteeq as the country's new
Prime Minister, according to a decree signed by
him recently, one day after a deputy speaker had
declared Maiteeq's election invalid. The Prime
Minister's post became vacant after Abdullah alThinni resigned last month citing an attack by
gunmen on his family just a month into his term as
head of the government.
Libya's Parliament, the General National
Congress, is deadlocked between Islamists, tribes
and nationalists. Since the civil war that ended
Gaddafi's one-man rule, Libya's nascent democracy
has struggled, with its parliament paralyzed by
rivalries and brigades of heavily armed former rebels
challenging the new authorities.
Yingluck Shinawatra
Caretaker Prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra,

has been ordered to step down after a court found
her guilty of abusing her power a decision that
could result in huge protests after six months of
political impasse. The constitutional court ruled
that Yingluck had acted with a hidden agenda
when she transferred a senior civil servant to
another position, shortly after taking office in
2011. The Commerce Minister, Niwatthamrong
Boonsongpaisan, is expected to replace Yingluck as
Prime Minister. A general election is planned for
20 July.
Gao Yu
The prominent Chinese journalist Gao Yu has

been "criminally detained" a few weeks ahead of
the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square
crackdown for allegedly leaking State secrets to a
foreign news site, Chinese State media has
[19]

announced. The detention of the outspoken 70year-old journalist was just one of several detentions
of government critics over the previous days ahead
of the politically sensitive 4 June anniversary.
Luis Guillermo Solis
The ruling African National Congress party

(ANC) has won South Africa's fifth democratic
election by a significant albeit reduced majority,
debunking speculation that the party would be
punished over high unemployment and political
controversy. With 100 per cent of the provisional
count tallied, the ANC had managed to 62.2 per
cent of the vote, according to the Independent
Electoral Commission (IEC). The official opposition,
the Democratic Alliance (DA), was in second place
with 22.2 percent of the votes.
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Costa Rica recently inaugurated its new

president, Luis Guillermo Solis, who faces high
expectations from a population weary of the
economic problems and corruption scandals under
his predecessor. The 56-year-old historian took the
oath of office at a ceremony in the National
Stadium attended by dignitaries including
presidents from Central and South America, as well
as Venezuela's Vice President and Prince Felipe of
Spain.
ANC wins 5th term in S. Africa polls
OBITUARIES
Kenneth Kennedy
Kenneth Adrian Raine Kennedy, doyen of South

Asian archaeology in the U.S. and a close associate
of Deccan College, Pune, passed away recently at
his home in Ithaca, New York. Prof. Kennedy,
Professor Emeritus, Ecology, Evolutionary Biology
and South Asian Studies at Cornell University, Ithaca
was widely acknowledged as the foremost
spokesman of South Asian archaeology in the world.
Over the last 50 years, Prof. Kennedy was

actively involved in regular field studies, and in
scientific writings relating to South Asian
archaeology. He was closely associated with many
institutions dealing with archaeology in India,
Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Therefore, he is regarded
as the father of human paleontology in South Asia.
Gary Becker
Gary Becker, a Nobel laureate in economics,

died last week. With him ended a distinctive style
of modelling behaviour, reminiscent of the insights
of an Alfred Marshall blended with modern

microeconomics. The Chicago economist continues
to inspire others to think imaginatively about the
complexities of the modern world. In sheer volume
of output and diversity of topics, he matched other
prolific economists such as Joseph Stiglitz, another
Nobel laureate but with very different tastes.
Colin Pillinger
Colin Pillinger, a British planetary scientist who

in 2003 led a shoestring effort to put a European
lander on Mars for the first time a mission that
failed to reach its destination but succeeded in
elevating the profile of space exploration in a region
not known for it died recently in Cambridge,
England. Dr. Pillinger established himself early in
his career as an expert in the chemical properties
of extraterrestrial objects, working for NASA
studying samples from the Apollo mission to the
moon and from meteorites. He hoped to use those
skills to find life on Mars.
AWARDS/PRIZES
Ratan Tata gets honorary knighthood
Former Chairman of the Tata Group Ratan Tata

has received an honorary knighthood in recognition
of the companys heavy British investments and
philanthropy, a British High Commission statement
claimed recently. Tata, who retired in 2012 as head
of the group, was awarded the Knight Grand Cross
of the Order of the British Empire, one of Britains
highest civilian honours.
White House honours three Indian Americans
Highlighting the achievements of immigrant

innovators and entrepreneurs, the White House
recently presented three Indian-Americans with
prestigious Champions of Change awards. The
three Indian Americans among the 11 recipients
are Shradha Agarwal from Chicago, Riddhiman
Das from Kansas, and Amar Sawhney from
Massachusetts.
The Indian-Americans and others were
felicitated at the "Champions of Change" event at
the White House that highlighted immigrant
[20]

innovators and entrepreneurs - the best and
brightest from around the world who are helping
create American jobs, grow the economy, and make
the US more competitive, an official statement said.
IIT-D grads wins award for developing cyber

attack defence
According to ACM, the innovator of breakthrough cyptography technology won the award
for developing tools that enable the first secure
solution to the problem of making computer
programme code "unintelligible" while preserving
its functionality. This problem, known as software
obfuscation, conceals the programme's purpose or
its logic in order to prevent tampering, deter reverse
engineering, or as a challenge to readers of the source
code.
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Sanjam Garg, a graduate of the Indian Institute

of Technology, Delhi, has won the 2013 Doctoral
Dissertation Award for developing a technique to
protect against cyber attacks. He will receive the
award presented by the Association for Computing
Machinery (ACM) and its $20,000 prize at the
annual ACM awards banquet on June 21, in San
Francisco. Financial sponsorship of the award is

provided by Google Inc.
CULTURE/HERITAGE
395 BC Carbon samples found in Sarnath
The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI),

which started excavations in Sarnath to ascertain
the famous Buddhist site's true age, has found C14
carbon samples dating back to 395 BC. To ascertain
the findings the ASI has sent the sample to Beta
Analytic Inc. in USA for analysis. The Beta lab in
Miami, Florida has confirmed that one of the
samples dated back from 395 to 370 BC.
BC, the ministry said in a statement.
The tomb was discovered in the Kom al-Ahmar

region, between Luxor and Aswan, on the site of
Hierakonpolis, the city of the Falcon, which was
the dominant pre-dynastic urban centre and the
capital of the Kingdom of Upper Egypt.
Suchitras home in Bdesh will be a museum
This is the first time that a scientific date is

available from the site from one of its lowest levels,
which goes before the time of emperor Ashoka.
Bangladeshs Supreme Court recently cleared

hurdles to turn actress Suchitra Sens ancestral home
in Pabna into a museum as it ordered authorities to
evict a pro-Jamaat-e-Islami group from the premises.
With these findings the ASI has achieved the

objective to know what happened at Sarnath
between the time of Lord Buddha and emperor
Ashoka. The monastery existed there as per literary
evidence and that has now been proved.
A bench headed by Supreme Court Justice S.K.

Sinha issued the order, clearing all legal hurdles
that existed in recovering Sen's ancestral home at
Hem Sagar Lane in the city.
Earlier excavations have been conducted there

by Sir Alexander Cunningham (1835-36), Major
Kittoe (1851-52), C. Horne (1865), F.O. Oertal
(1904-5), Sir John Marshall (1907), H. Hargreaves
(1914-15), and Daya Ram Sahni (1927-32).
5,600 year-old tomb discovered in Egypt
Archaeologists have discovered a 5,600-yearold tomb in Egypt that could shed light on a time
before the First Dynasty of pharoahs. Archaeologists
in southern Egypt unearthed an ivory statue of a
bearded man and a mummy who appeared to
have died in his late teenage years that predates
the unification of Egypt.
The tomb was built before the rule of king
Narmer, the founder of the First Dynasty who
unified Upper and Lower Egypt in the 31st century
Born on Apr 6, 1931, Bengali screen legend Sen

spent her childhood in the house before she moved
to Kolkata after marriage. The district administration gave the house on annual lease to the
Jamaat-backed Imam Ghazali Trust in 1987. The
trust appealed to the government for permanent
possession of the house in June 1991, but the
government turned down the request. The lease was
cancelled in 1995 for non-payment. A Jamaat leader
paid the dues and renewed the lease later in the
year. The house is still in their possession. After
continuous demands to oust the Jamaat from the
house and convert it into a museum was raised by
Pabna residents and various cultural organizations,
the district administration in June 2009, cancelled the
lease given to Jamaat. It then served an eviction notice
on the trust. But the trust filed a writ petition in the
Supreme Court, which granted a stay on eviction.
[21]
DEFENCE
Astra test fired
INS Vikrant gets another lifeline from SC

India's first aircraft carrier INS Vikrant, which
was headed for the scrap yard, got another breather
from the Supreme Court recently as it blocked the
vessel's journey to ignominy. The ship was due at
the scrapyard on May 17 after it was sold for Rs.
60 crore through an e-auction to the Mumbai-based
IB Commercials Pvt Ltd. Through the 'Save Vikrant
Committee', Paigankar and other activists moved
the apex court in a bid to save the vessel. The 70year-old vessel, purchased as HMS Hercules from
Britain in 1957 and rechristened as INS Vikrant,
helped enforce a naval blockade of East Pakistan
now Bangladeshduring the 1971 war.
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India finally tested its first indigenous air-to-air

missile Astra from a Sukhoi-30MKI fighter jet,
marking a significant turning point in the decadelong tortuous developmental saga of the complex
beyond visual range (BVR) weapon. Astra will now
have to undergo a battery of full-scale trials
covering the entire flight envelope, especially
against "actual manoeuvring targets" mimicking
enemy aircraft, before it can arm IAF fighters like
Sukhoi-30MKIs, MiG-29s and the indigenous Tejas
light combat aircraft.
counter-counter measures) features, smokeless

propulsion and process improved effectiveness in
multi-target scenario, making it a highly advanced
state-of-the-art missile.
Astra is India's first Beyond Visual Range Airto-Air missile and has been designed and developed
indigenously by the DRDO. The 60-km plus range
missile possesses high Single Shot Kill Probability
(SSKP) making it highly reliable.
Astra is an all-weather missile with active radar
terminal guidance, excellent ECCM (electronic
SPORTS
Chawla settles for bronze
Indian cueist Kamal Chawla managed to bag a

bronze medal after losing his semi-final match to
Chuan Leong Thor of Malaysia in the Asian
Snooker Championship being held in Al Fujairah
in the United Arab Emirates. Chawla struggled
against his Malaysian opponent and lost 2-6 in the
semi-finals, after a fine run in the tournament. This
was Chawla's first medal in Asian Championships
China sweeps team title
China, the defending champion, beat Germany,

3-1, to win the mens title at the table tennis team
world championships in Tokyo. China also won
the womens event, 3-0, over Japan.
World and Olympic champion Li Xiaoxia beat

Kasumi Ishikawa 11-8, 11-7, 11-7 and Liu Shiwen
finished the job when she outclassed Sayaka Hirano
11-4, 11-2, 11-5.
It extended the extraordinary run of the Chinese
womens team which has reached every world
team final since 1963 and has raised the trophy 19
times.
Sandra Helen Robson

Sandra Helen Robson, the first woman to have
kayaked across Palk Bay, and the first ever person
to circumnavigate Sri Lanka (from Talaimannar to

Talaimannar) both feats, she achieved recently
as part of the Oskar Speck expedition. Sandra is
on the Speck Expedition since May 2011, retracing
the German canoeist Oskar Specks expedition
(1932-39) from Germany to Australia spanning
50,000 km. Kayaking for over nine hours from
Vedaranyam, the Australian solo kayaker touched
Nagapattinam shore late recently.
Selby dethrones OSullivan
Mark Selby defeated Ronnie OSullivan 18-14

to win the 2014 World Championship at the
Crucible Theatre in Sheffield. Snooker World
Championships English pro Mark Selby played the
match of his career to stun defending champion
Ronnie OSullivan and pocket his maiden World
Snooker Championship title recently. The Leicesterbased cueist triumphed 18-14 on a dramatic final
day at the Crucible to become the new World No.
1 as well.
Safina to retire
Former world No.1 and Olympic silver medallist

Dinara Safina has announced about her retirement.
Safina turned pro in 2001 and won 12 titles on
the WTA Tour. She first became No. 1 on April 20,
2009, and spent 26 weeks at the top of the rankings.
[22]

She injured her back early in 2010 and dropped
out of the top 20 by the end of the year.
She never won a Grand Slam individually,
though she does have a doubles title to her name
from the 2007 U.S. Open. She appeared in the
finals of the Australian Open and French Open,
and twice reaching the championship at Roland
Garros. Safina won silver at the Beijing Olympics
in 2008.
After Vietnam, which was elected the host in

2012, pulled out citing financial burden India joined
the race alongwith Indonesia, Qatar and MalaysiaSingapore (who have made a joint bid) to host
2019 Asiad.
The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) has set
July 1 as the deadline for interested countries to
make a bid to host the 2019 Asiad. But the IOA
faces a possible delay in procuring necessary
permissions from the government, considering that
the new cabinet will most probably take charge
only next month. The IOA contended that most of
the infrastructure which was built for the 2010
Commonwealth Games is already in place and only
two new indoor stadiums may be required for the
Asian Games.
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Safina and Marat, who was No. 1 in 2000 and

retired in 2009, are the only brother and sister in
tennis history to reach No. 1.
the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games in the discus

event. His personal best throw is 66.90 meters which
is also the national record in discus throw, achieved
in 2013. India enters race to host 2019 Asiad.
OSullivan crowned Player of the Year
Ronnie O'Sullivan was crowned World

Snooker's Player of the Year at the end of season
awards bash in London. O'Sullivan, who admitted
to going numb during his World Championship
final defeat to Mark Selby, picked up four titles
throughout the 2013/14 season.
Vikas Gowda wins silver
Indias ace discus thrower Vikas Gowda won

the silver medal with a throw of 63.23 m in the
IAAF Diamond League Series in Doha. Gowda
finished behind Poland's Piotr Malachowski, who
took the top spot with a throw of 66.72 m. Estonia's
Gerd Kanter took the bronze medal, with a best
throw of 62.90 metres. The Mysore-born Gowda
won the 2010 Asian Games bronze and silver in
This is the IOAs third attempt to bring the

Asian Games to Delhi after it lost out to South
Korea to host this years edition and then pulled
out from bidding for the 2019 Games. In 2010, the
IOA had projected an operating budget of $401
million for the event, while the revenue generation
was estimated at $450 million. South Korea has
spent a little over $1 billion to prepare for this years
Asian Games.
[23]
EDITORIALS
IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST
frequent adjournments and scheduling changes, all
but the most committed members of the public are
effectively barred from listening to arguments in
open court.
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In the run up to his retirement last week, Chief

Justice of India P. Sathasivam attended to a number
of pending cases before him, including a PIL in
which his bench ordered the creation of a central
committee on road safety to better implement
Indias traffic laws. This PIL is like many others
that the Supreme Court has issued directions on
over the years a case of national importance
that impacts numerous parties across the country.
You might think the court should or should not be
involved in such activist cases, or that in this
particular case the court had the right or wrong
approach, but before the media reported the courts
orders you likely did not even know that this case
existed. In most PILs, the public largely finds out
about the case only after the court has given its
directions, even though orders in these cases will
frequently directly impact many peoples lives.
NGOs, community groups, academics,
concerned citizens, and even the media are often
blindsided by PILs on issues that they work on
which they did not even know were being
considered by the court. Even if they are aware
that a PIL exists, they frequently do not know what
the parties in the PIL are asking the court for or in
what direction arguments are progressing.
Contrast this to Parliament, where bills are

announced far in advance, there is often an
opportunity to comment on them in committee,
and one can read the draft bills and parliamentary
debates on-line. In comparison, the PIL is a black
box. Unless you are a court insider, you cannot
keep track of what PILs are pending and unless
you are a party to a case, you cannot even obtain
a copy of the filings in the matter. You might know
that there is a PIL that the court is hearing on how
best to conserve the river valley you call home or
which might impact your disabled relative, but you
have to rely on scattered media reports or word of
mouth to know how the PIL is developing. Even if
a potentially interested party wanted to listen in
person to arguments in a PIL, they could not
necessarily sit in the courtroom because they are
not officially a party to the case. Besides, given
It does not have to be this way. A simple first

step that could be taken to make the process much
more transparent is to have all PIL petitions be
accessible to the public (along with the governments response and all other filings in the case).
These could be uploaded on the Supreme Courts
website or, even if they were only available to be
photocopied, a concerned public minded
organization could place them online. In the United
States, filings to the US Supreme Court are
uploaded on the web by the American Bar
Association. If there were concerns that some
petitions may contain sensitive information for
example, if part of a submission includes interviews
with a historically vulnerable community then
only the prayers for relief in the petition would
need to be uploaded.
Some activists who use PILs might prefer the
current lack of transparency so that they can fly
under the radar until they can get the major order
from the court they hope for without drawing the
scrutiny of potential opponents. However, activists
on the other side of an issue can use the same
tactic. Plus, activists often have a difficult time
ensuring that their lawyer accurately represents
their position. More transparency would allow them
to better monitor their lawyers behaviour. It would
also allow all interested parties to be given notice
that there is a PIL that may affect them and allow
them an opportunity to intervene if they so choose,
enriching the adjudicatory process and the courts
final orders.
The arguments made in written briefs are
traditionally less developed in the Indian legal
context, and this can be particularly true of PILs,
where petitioners are often heavily underresourced. As a result, oral argument takes on even
greater importance in these cases. Yet, while oral
argument is recorded at the trial court level, no
transcript is recorded or released when hearing the
[24]

PIL, although the outcomes of these cases may
impact millions of people. Making such transcripts
available to the public would allow potentially
interested parties to better understand the type of
evidence and arguments the court weighs when it
comes to decisions that may affect their lives as
well.
While transparency is not always good (for

example, too much transparency can paralyse some
decision-making processes) the current system of
hearing cases at the Supreme Court, particularly
for PILs, is far too opaque and susceptible to capture
by lawyers and cloistered interests. The Supreme
Court is often at the forefront of bringing more
accountability to Indian democracy. It should take
the lead in its own courtrooms to increase
transparency through at least a few small steps to
open up the PIL to the public, and then follow suit
in its work more broadly.
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Once the court has made public the filings and

transcripts of arguments in a PIL, it should move
on to doing the same for the other types of matters
before it. For example, the public also clearly has
an interest in having access to the filings and
transcripts of larger constitution benches of the
Supreme Court, which sit relatively rarely these
days and frequently decide on major questions of
constitutional law, such as the constitutionality of
laws or policies concerning reservations or the

death penalty.
GOOD DEALS TAKE HOMEWORK
India is negotiating several free trade agreements

(FTAs). Some of these, such as the India-EU FTA,
have been negotiated for several years. India is also
negotiating a trade in services agreement with the
ASEAN for some time now. Recently, India began
negotiating the Regional Comprehensive Economic
Partnership (RCEP) with the 10-member ASEAN
group, Australia, China, Japan, Korea and
New Zealand. It is also at a fairly advanced stage
in negotiating bilateral FTAs with Australia and
Canada. It also needs to prepare for negotiations
at the WTO for implementing the Bali Package and
for the consideration of more issues from the Doha
Development Agenda (DDA).
Despite being discussed for seven years, the

India-EU FTA could not be finalised due to a lack
of consensus on some key issues. The EU has been
demanding greater relaxation of foreign investment
ceilings in insurance and banking, stronger
protection of intellectual property, the opening up
of public procurement markets, and lower import
duties on passenger cars. India wants greater access
for pharmaceuticals in the European market, along
with more liberal visa norms for its professionals.
Satisfying some of the EUs demands would require
changing domestic policy regulations in banking,
insurance, intellectual property and public
procurement. Unless these regulations change, the
FTA is unlikely to move.
Domestic regulations have also become critical
for implementing the ASEAN-India services FTA.
Indonesia and Thailand are unlikely to ratify the
deal unless foreign retailers are allowed
unconditional access to Indias domestic retail trade.
The Philippines has not ratified the deal either, as

it wants greater protection for its domestic IT
services and occupations. If these demands have
come up on the ASEAN-India FTA, they are also
likely to be raised on the RCEP. Indeed, negotiations
for the RCEP, which aim at securing comprehensive
market access in goods and services over and above
what is currently available in the various bilateral
FTAs of the ASEAN, could see India facing some
of the market access demands it has faced in
negotiations with the EU.
The pending and ongoing FTA negotiations are
unlikely to mature unless India commits to some
essential domestic reforms. Trade negotiations are
no longer confined to talking tariffs; they now
involve extensive discussions on behind the
border issues impacting domestic regulations. This
complicates Indias ongoing negotiations. It might
also result in some negotiations remaining fruitless,
as India may not be able to commit decisively on
certain domestic reforms.
Retail, for example, can hold back the IndiaASEAN FTA in services. There is little possibility of
India allowing foreign investors greater access in
retail in the near future. The BJP has emphatically
ruled out FDI in multibrand retail. Indeed, there
could actually be a rollback of the current policy,
allowing 51 per cent FDI in multi-brand retail, if
the BJP comes to power after the elections and
sticks to its manifesto. But while the BJP might be
stubborn on retail, it might be proactive in allowing
greater foreign investment in other sectors,
including insurance. This might boost the chances
of concluding the India-EU FTA.
[25]

More vexing issues connected to domestic
policies will surface in Indias trade agenda in the
coming months. The new government will have to
explain to the rest of the WTO the rationale for
continuing with more than the sanctioned volume
of public stockholding of foodgrain. No party,
though, is expected to scrap the Food Security Act,
which requires such holding. Nor is the WTO
expected to convert the interim relief granted to
India at Bali into a permanent measure.
For the new government, it is important to set
the trade agenda with the fundamental realisation
that trade policy cannot be exclusive of domestic
policy. Making the two exclusive would be
counterproductive. Both India and its negotiating
partners would waste precious time and resources
in FTA talks. FTAs would be either stalled or
enacted as shallow frameworks with limited
coverage and insignificant benefits. And India
would continue to consolidate its global image as
a difficult and obstructive trade partner.
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Foreign investment apart, Indias FTA

negotiations would increasingly encounter issues
that it has traditionally avoided in trade talks.
Intellectual property is going to be one of these, as
will government procurement. Developing an
intellectual property regime consistent with national
interests and imbibing OECD characteristics is not
going to be easy. Matters are not going to be helped
by the USs increasing irritation over Indias patent
laws. Indias reputation as a country with weak
enforcement of intellectual property laws has
spread far. Such impressions, unfortunately,
influence negotiator mindsets, particularly in the
case of OECD countries.
Similarly, on opening up public procurement

markets to foreign investors, little action is expected
even after the passage of the public procurement
bill. Interestingly, China has submitted offers at the
WTO with commitments to open up both its central
and provincial procurement markets, and it should
soon be a part of the multilateral Government
procurement agreement.
IT DIDNT BEGIN WITH NETANYAHU
Israel is a Jewish state, or the nation-state of

the Jewish people, because it was established
according to the UNs two-state resolution
Jewish and Arab states as self-determination is
rooted in the law of nations, and because it is the
self-determination of the majority of Israels citizens.
Israel does not need Palestinian recognition of its
Jewish character, and has never made such a
demand of Egypt and Jordan. So why has Israel
been insistent on recognition of its Jewish character
from the Palestinians?
US Secretary of State John Kerry stated recently

that Yasser Arafat had already recognised a Jewish
state. He is right. It is important to understand
that recognition. In the mid-1970's, Henry Kissinger
formulated the conditions for dialogue between the
PLO and the US administration. These included
an explicit and unconditional rejection of terror
and recognition of Israel. The issue became relevant
only in the late-1980s. The PLOs status was
damaged after its expulsion to Tunisia and the
outbreak of the First Intifada. It attempted to return
to centrestage through dialogue with the US.
Swedish Foreign Minister Stan Anderson was
enlisted to mediate.
In November 1988, the Palestinian National
Council convened in Algiers remembered
primarily for its declarations of independence. The
same council, for the first time, recognised UN

Resolutions 181, 242 and 338. The developments
were positive, but the decisions did not satisfy the
US. Anderson didnt give up. He invited five leading
Jews, led by attorney Rita Hauser from the US, to
Stockholm to meet Arafat. Arafat denounced
terrorism and declared his acceptance of the UN
resolutions. Apparently, this was the first time the
words Jewish State came out of Arafats mouth.
But the US demanded a more explicit declaration,
refusing to grant Arafat a visa to speak before the
UN. On December 13, a special session was held
in Geneva so that Arafat could speak. Once again,
the US was not satisfied by his declarations. George
Shultz, then secretary of state, was not prepared
to deviate from the explicit wording the US
demanded. After two days of consultations, Arafat
convened a press conference denouncing terrorism
and recognising UN Resolutions 242 and 338. He
once again declared that the solution was two
states for two peoples, and a Jewish state in
Israel. Arafat gave his statements in English. In
reality, he read exactly what Shultz had given him.
This time, he met US demands. On the same day,
December 15, Shultz announced that the US
President had decided to open a dialogue with the
PLO.
The dialogue was short and futile. At the first
outbreak of terror, the PLO refused to denounce it.
[26]

is no need to wait for a state with a constitution.
That is what Article 4 of the Basic Law of the
Palestinian Authority states.
The demand for the recognition of a Jewish
state is aimed at achieving two things: ending the
fantasy of the right of return and bringing an
end to the conflict. Israel doesnt need Palestinian
permission to be a nation-state for the Jewish people.
But because the Palestinians have said that
opposition to the Jewish state is a demand for the
return of refugees, Netanyahus present demand
has added significance.
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Iraq invaded Kuwait. Arafat supported Saddam

Hussein. The dialogue came to an abrupt end. The
Madrid Conference convened, and only the Oslo
Accords brought the PLO back to centrestage. But
the Fatah Conference in 2009, at which Abu Mazen
(Mahmoud Abbas) stood at its head, unanimously
decided to completely refute the idea of a Jewish
State. Its worthwhile to note the wording of the
announcement: Complete resistance, with no way
back, to the recognition of Israel as a Jewish State,
to protect the rights of refugees and the rights of
minorities on the other side of the Green Line.
Arafat himself reneged on his recognition of a
Jewish State.
A number of questions remain. Why was the

USs stubborn insistence on preconditions for talks
legitimate, but Israels demands today not a
precondition are somehow less legitimate?
Second, if Abu Mazen, the PLO and Fatah retreated
from Arafats consent, there is a chance that every
Palestinian agreement is in reality a deception. And
third, if its not a deception, and Palestinians already
recognised a Jewish State, as Kerry claims, then
whats the problem in working this agreement into
the outline?
The discussion has also had several foolish
claims. For example, what Abe Foxman, the
President of the Anti-Defamation League in the
US, would say if the US declared itself a Christian
state. Or, Efraim Halevi, former director of the
Mossad, asked how Israel would react if the
Palestinians demanded recognition as a Muslim
state. Its unfortunate that serious individuals
made such futile claims. First, the US belongs to a
small group of countries that are not nation-states.
Most countries are nation-states. Yugoslavia broke
up into seven separate entities; Czechoslovakia into
two; Pakistan broke away from India. Other
European states maintain national identities, even
religious identities. In England, the religion of the
state is Anglican, and if the next king marries a
Jew, their children wont be able to inherit the
crown. Article 4 of Denmarks constitution
establishes the state religion as EvangelicalLutheran, which is granted state support and
assistance, and its king can only be of that religion.
The list can go on. Halevi, who also served as Israels
ambassador to the EU, is supposed to be aware of
all the drafts of the Palestinian constitution that
establish Islam as the religion of the state. There
Its important to remember three other things.

One, at the end of 2000, Bill Clinton presented the
parameters for a peace plan that included
the words: Palestine as the homeland of the
Palestinian people and the state of Israel as the
homeland of the Jewish people. Two, the Geneva
Accords includes in its introduction an agreement
of the right of the Jewish people to a state. And
three, before Netanyahu, there were Tzipi Livni
and Ehud Olmert who insisted on this demand.
This is not to say that Israel has kept all its
promises within the diplomatic framework with
the Palestinians. Take for example the Road Map,
in which Israel promised to freeze all building in
the settlements and to dismantle outposts built after
2001. That didnt happen.
As long as were talking about preparing a
principle draft, we need to place the demand for
the recognition of a Jewish state within its historical
context. It wasnt Netanyahu and it was not the
Israeli right. It was the US administration that
pressured Arafat to agree to this demand, and these
were dovish members who were adamant about it.
As long as Palestinians demand the right of
return, its significance being the end of the State
of Israel, the insistence on the recognition of a
Jewish state is basically an insistence on two states
for two peoples. Anyone who justifies the
Palestinian refusal is not bringing peace any closer,
but pushing the chances of a two states for two
peoples solution further away. There are other
issues on which we need to oppose Netanyahus
policies. On this, however, he deserves total
support. Not to torpedo peace, but the opposite
to pave the way to peace.
[27]
FORBIDDEN FRUIT
Bio-safety is indeed important and a lettuce
plague in Europe would be disastrous, particularly
compromising the BLT sandwich, one of Britains
national treasures. However, one cannot help but
notice that no such plague has ever struck, though
Indian mangoes must have been going over atleast
from the Seventies. That was when the Indian
grocery industry caught on in London, pioneered
by a certain Lakhubhai Pathak, who would become
Prime Minister Narasimha Raos bugbear decades
later. The lettuce still flutters cheerily in the breeze,
the rocket still flourishes, Nigella Lawson still
drizzles them with this and that and everyone still
gawps at her. So why was the EU in such a hurry?
Never mind, Indians will pig out on mangoes this
season as domestic prices fall. And Europeans can
have their Brussels sprouts. As much as they want.
They deserve it.
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Brussels has gone bug-eyed after discovering

that shipments of mangoes from India teem with
stowaways Oriental fruit flies that can
apparently attack European salad crops. The
European Union is treating them as illegal aliens
all 325 species and has banned the import of
mangoes, two kinds of squash and colocasia leaves,
in which they travel. The ban is causing unrest in
Britain, which had been looking forward to the
Alphonso season, and the House of Commons will
debate the matter on Thursday.
Indian mangoes have been banned earlier by
the U.S., Australia, New Zealand and Japan on
the same issue, but this ban is raising the
temperature because it may extend to December
2015. The loss of two whole mango seasons would
harm trade between India and Europe. India has
threatened to take the EU to the World Trade
Organisation, accusing it of arbitrariness and
banning without discussion.
READING RIGHTS
The joy at the passing of the amendment to the

Indian Copyright Act in 2012, enabling persons
with disabilities to convert, or have converted on
their behalf, works published in India into accessible
formats like braille, e-books, audio etc, was limited.
Books published in India were now within the reach
of millions of persons for whom copyright law was
a barrier to access but for books published elsewhere
which are especially important in academia
access was still a distant dream. Finally, this hurdle
has been crossed with India signing the Marrakesh
Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for
Persons Who are Blind, Visually Impaired, or
Otherwise Print Disabled, last week.
Traditionally, copyright law is seen as protecting
free expression by safeguarding the rights of the
owner of a work to be acknowledged as such, and
by ensuring that they collect the benefits accruing
from the work. However, intellectual property rights
in general have also been acknowledged as a curb
on many basic rights. Activists have tried to, on
several occasions, balance the needs of industry
and of consumers, and exceptions to copyright law
have been recognised since the Berne Convention
for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works of
1886 and continue to evolve to this day.
In the case of persons with disabilities, there
were barriers to their right of access to knowledge,
which is a corollary of the right to free speech and
expression. The access to knowledge movement is

a complex one, with stakeholders examining issues
from various perspectives, including intellectual
property, privacy and security. But for persons with
disabilities, the debate was really at the entry level
was there any point to the availability of
knowledge if it did not come with the right to be
able to access it in the format they were comfortable
with?
Issues concerning persons with disabilities and
their access to copyrighted material have been
highlighted in the international community since
1981, when the governing bodies of the World
Intellectual Property Organization and UNESCO
agreed to create a working group on access by
the visually and auditory handicapped to material
reproducing works produced by copyright. This
was further reiterated in 2006, with the drafting of
the United Nations Convention on the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities. Article 30 of the
convention states that laws protecting intellectual
property must not pose a discriminatory or
unreasonable barrier limiting access to cultural
materials. In a way, it qualifies Article 27 of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which
states that everyone has the right freely to
participate in the cultural life of the community, to
enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement
and its benefits, making it more relevant for
persons with disabilities.
[28]

removed from the purview of the treaty, which
ensures that persons with disabilities are still
discriminated against, especially in a context where
audiovisual material is increasingly used in
education and the dissemination of information.
The domestic law in India, thankfully, includes an
exception for all works protected by copyright, for
all disabilities.
The hope is that this will not be the end of the
road for the international struggle for access and
that the fight for access for all persons challenged
by conventional media because of their disabilities
will continue. The social model of disability does
not place emphasis on the impairment of the
individual but rather on barriers in society that
prevent a persons participation and equal access
to resources. Recognition of this evolving concept
through instruments like the Marrakesh Treaty is
another step forward in eliminating these barriers
and it is hoped that the ratification process will
receive the support it requires to ensure that the
right to read does not remain merely on paper.
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The struggle has not been easy. Countries like

the United States and those that are part of the
European Union, as well as powerful lobbies like
the Trans-Atlantic Business Council and the Motion
Picture Association of America, opposed the treaty
to a large extent. There were fears that accessibility
methods like e-Books would be used by the general
population and that the exceptions for the disabled
in the context of copyright might open the
floodgates for similar exceptions across intellectual
property regimes.
Despite the battle looking as lopsided as it did,
countries from the global south as well as civil
society organizations lobbied and rallied for access
to print materials to be viewed as a right rather
than an act of charity. The Indian Government
and civil society activists like Rahul Cherian and
the Centre for Internet and Society played a huge
role in the eventual outcome of the treaty.
Sadly, however, sacrifices were made along the
way. The Motion Picture Association of America
successfully lobbied to have, first, the deaf
community, and later, audiovisual material,
CASTE ON CAMPUS
A survey of first-year students at IIT Bombay

which found that 56 per cent of those belonging to
the SCs, STs and OBCs feel the presence of subtle
discrimination and extra academic pressure, has
followed on the heels of a recent analysis of IITJEE results showing that the test is tilted towards
those from urban, high-income backgrounds. This
is the first time an IIT has tried to examine internal
social bias. Its about time more institutions began
to pay attention to these dysfunctions.
The fact that caste is a cause of trauma is
undeniable. There have been instances of bright,
promising Dalit and Adivasi students being driven
to depression and suicide in Indias best educational
institutions, including the IITs, IISc and AIIMS.
Entering these portals of technical education is seen
as the ultimate measure of intellectual merit and a
guarantee of professional success. It is no secret
that many in the IIT faculty and student pool have
appealed for it to remain unsullied by reservations,
and suggested that the burden of having come in
with the aid of a quota would make it more difficult
to meet exacting academic standards. In this
argument, the definition of meritorious and
deserving takes place at the point of the test alone,
oblivious to the ways in which educational capital

reproduces itself, the way intellectual endeavours
have been tacitly reserved for upper castes for so
long. For a Dalit or tribal student, apart from
schooling disadvantages, often families are not able
to provide books, minimal assistance or even the
leisure that better-off students take for granted.
They fight ferocious odds to get past the entrance
test, to join a system they believe in. And once in,
quota students commonly face jokes, stigmatisation,
assault, discrimination from faculty and insensitivity
from the administration.
Higher educational institutions can redeem
themselves only by first confronting what happens.
In 2006, the Centre set up a committee under
S.K. Thorat to study complaints at AIIMS. It
recommended many steps, including transparency
in grading, equal opportunity cells and punishment
for instances of caste discrimination. Nothing came
of those recommendations. But these exemplars of
technical education, held up as the great dream by
so many Indians, must examine the ways they carry
on social biases and fail to be fully inclusive. That
involves confronting caste.
[29]
INDIAS LEATHER EXPORTS TO TAKE A HIDING

The recent EU ban on imports of Indian
Alphonso mangoes after pests were reportedly
found in consignments has generated considerable
concern. Now the EC has notified the WTO of its
plan to introduce new restrictions on leather goods
imported into the EU. These new rules target
hexavalent chromium, or Cr(6), in leather products
and could take effect in early 2015.
On November 2012, the Risk Assessment

Committee endorsed and widened the
recommendation by Denmark, to cover leather
articles and articles containing leather parts that,
under normal or reasonably foreseeable conditions
of use, come into contact with the skin. The limit
set for such articles is less than 3 mg/kg of Cr(6)
in total dry weight of leather, which could reduce
by 80 percent the risk of contact. The proposed
restrictions would go into effect in the first quarter
of 2015. Existing stocks of leather goods and
second-hand leather articles already within the EU
would not be covered.
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This could seriously hit the global leather goods

trade. Almost 60 per cent of Indias leather exports,
worth $5 billion in 2012-13, go to the EU. India
along with other affected exporting countries such
as China, Vietnam and Turkey, needs to take
proactive action to meet this threat.
Meanwhile, Germany banned the presence of Cr(6)

under the German Ordinance on Commodities (BGVO)
since August 2010, which explicitly mentions
clothing, furniture and bags. Producers or retailers
of leather goods are obligated to ensure that Cr(6)
is not present.
Chromium tanning, used in 80 per cent of

leather production globally, results in higher
strength and resistance to temperature. The
chemical used is chromium sulphate, which is
trivalent chromium, and not harmful.
However, exposure to sunlight and air can

oxidise the trivalent Chromium to Cr(6). In cars,
for instance, the leather can be subject to high
temperatures and sunlight in summer. Cr(6) can
cause lung cancer if inhaled, especially by workers
in chromium mining, electroplating, welding and
tanneries.
In January 2012, Danish authorities submitted
a dossier to the EC on reported cases of contact
dermatitis and allergies caused by Cr(6) in leather
articles such as shoes, handbags and gloves. A study
of over 16,000 patients with eczema in Denmark
concluded that the majority of cases were caused
by leather productsparticularly footwear.
Wide-ranging impact
The dossier requested action on an EU-wide

basis to safeguard human health. According to the
dossier, the mechanisms of and conditions under
which Cr(6) is formed are known and most
tanneries in the European Union have already
developed and widely implemented measures to
control and minimise its formation.
This last assertion means tanneries and leather
manufacturers in the EU will get a huge competitive
advantage if the restrictions are applied. Consumers
would end up paying higher prices for the
products. The EU has in the past lobbied hard to
get export restrictions and duties on semi-finished
leather lifted.
Examples of products that will come under the

restrictions are: footwear, gloves, articles of
clothing, accessories such as hats, belts and braces,
watch straps, purses and wallets, bags, horse-riding
gear, dog-leashes, auto seats, covers for car steering
wheels, and furniture. Suppliers have time until
the new curbs apply in 2015 to take care of their
existing stock that does not comply with the new
requirement.
Disruptive
The EU move to ban leather articles that contain

more than 3 mg Cr(6)/kg is out of proportion to
the problem of chrome allergies caused by leathers.
It will cause severe disruption in the global leather
industry.
Only about 0.2 percent of the European
population is said to be sensitive to chromium but
chrome-tanned leather has been worn for over 100
years and this sensitivity has been known but
managed. People allergic to Cr(6) can wear socks
to reduce contact and can wear synthetics if
necessary. Before any restriction is considered there
should be substantial further investigation into
issues such as managing allergies to leather items;
control of Cr(6) formation in finished leather; viable
substitute for chrome in shoe leathers; consequences
of the restriction throughout the world; and
whether the restriction will actually solve the
problem of chrome allergies.
[30]

Obviously the proposed restriction will have a
drastic and adverse impact on Indian leather
exports to the EU. Other countries such as China,
Vietnam, Turkey, etc., with substantial leather
goods exports to the EU, will also be affected.
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While techniques to reduce Cr(6) levels have

been adopted by EU tanneries (such as chrome6free process), and there are technologies that totally
eliminate chromium (glutaraldehyde process), time
and technical support are required for tanneries to
make the adjustments.
Indias leather industry needs to take early

action. This should include submitting a well
argued counter to the WTO questioning the basis
for the ban, supported by other affected countries.
Technology upgrades are required too, to cut Cr(6)
levels to the minimum. This will require improved
tanning and processing techniques such as
Chrome6-free and others developed and used by
EU tanneries.
CSR AS AN ANTI-POVERTY INSTRUMENT
In 2000, the United Nations made the historic

announcement of eight Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs). They were very specific and had a
timeline of 15 years for delivery. Progress on most
of these objectives has been encouraging, but as
we look towards the next round of development
goals, we must recognise how the world has
changed since 2000.
The global financial crisis had a devastating
impact on both individuals and the public sector.
Conversely, the rise of the BRIC economies and
Africas emergence mean that aid is simply not
needed on the same scale as it was before.
Therefore, we in the emerging economies need

to reconsider not only the substance of the new
development
framework,
but
also
the
implementation process. In the original MDGs, the
private sector was noticeable mostly by its
absence. This time, we must step-up as part of the
solution and pioneer new approaches that could
hold the key to a more innovative and inclusive
way to deliver development.
Take, for example, India. While its economy

has expanded impressively over the past decade
and half, so has income inequality. Improvements
on social indicators such as malnutrition and
hunger have not kept pace with its growing
prosperity, primarily because public spending to
tackle these challenges was simply inadequate.
CSR a game changer
But now the Indian government has introduced

the first step of a potential game changer, and we
in Africa have taken note. A new law enacted this
month makes it mandatory for private corporations
to invest atleast 2 percent of their profits in
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The private
sector in India now has a unique opportunity to
respond to the collective aspirations of an entire

country and accelerate action towards achieving
the MDGs on hunger, health and sustainability.
We applaud India for this.
My own group of companies also contributes 2
percent of pre-tax profits to social development.
Yet we go beyond this, and seek to create social
impact through all the businesses we operate. While
the Indian Government now requires Indian
companies to contribute towards social development, I challenge the Indian private sector to go
further. Take up the challenge and strive to balance
economic prosperity and social wealth which helps
ultimately to create more gainful jobs and all
inclusive nation.
In framing the new development agenda, the
private sector must focus on tackling
unemployment and job creation on a massive scale,
and on dramatically improving access to electricity.
These goals are critical to both lives and quality of
life, and cannot be accomplished without
collaboration with the private sector.
Development framework
For example, much of the mandated and

voluntary private sector investments could go into
creating many of the 100 million new jobs India
will need over the next decade.
Lack of access to electricity is also a major
challenge that will prevent us from eradicating
poverty. Millions of mothers are giving birth in the
dark, life-saving vaccine deliveries are challenged
by lack of power to support their cold chains, and
90 million children go to school without electricity.
If we agree that access to electricity and
improved livelihoods are vital components for the
success of the post-2015 development agenda, then
the private sector must have a key role to play in
its design and implementation.
[31]

For governments, achieving the goals of the post2015 development framework will mean enacting
reforms and creating new policies to build more
competitive business environments. We in the
private sector must act with integrity, making sure
that markets drive development, not oppose it.
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We must focus on creating and multiplying

value in the societies in which we source, supply
and operate, and integrate this into our corporate
governance, our operations, our project development and our profit calculation, across the value
chain.
To truly combat poverty, we must combine the

best qualities of all sectors: the political will,
resources, and convening power of governments;
the compassion, selflessness and dedication of nonprofits; the innovation, expertise, and financial
capital of the private sector; and the drive,
creativity and entrepreneurial spirit of the people
we seek to help. Only then can we hope to take on
the challenges of the post-2015 development
agenda.
SUSTAINING THIS FARM TURNAROUND
The recent performance of Indian agriculture

has been remarkable. It has not only surpassed the
aspirational growth target of 4 percent for the
sector, but has also helped prop up sagging GDP
growth. Can we put this down to constructive
policy, increased productivity and higher support
prices?
The agricultural growth strategy in the Eleventh

Plan accorded flexibility to States and focused more
on yield gaps that can be addressed with the
existing technology rather than on adopting new
technologies. In fact, growth acceleration since 2005
was stronger in States with lower productivity and
less irrigation.
This is partly true, but farm growth has been

rather uneven among crops and regions. True
revival in agriculture has largely come from less
endowed States, as against agriculturally intense
States, especially those focused on high-value
commercial crops.
While the growth rates in States can be linked

to greater productivity in specific crops such as
rice in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, cotton in
Gujarat and oilseeds in Rajasthan, the importance
of holistic approaches cannot be decried.
State-led success: This is significant since the

livelihoods of the poor and vulnerable in the
hinterland are bound closely to agriculture. The
growth experience of BRICS countries is instructive
it shows that a one percentage point growth in
agriculture can lead to at least two or three times
more effective poverty reduction than growth in
non-farm sectors.
So, it has been a story of a few State
Governments realising the beneficial effects of farmLed growth and focusing on it. This has occured in
a context of increased eco-fragility, shrinking
farmlands and limited livelihood options for the
poor.
Agriculture being a State subject, its overall

performance depends largely on happenings at the
State level. Average sectoral GSDP (gross State
domestic product) growth between 2005-06 and
2011-12 has shown a recovery of 3.7 percent a
year compared with 1.7 percent a year between
2000-01 and 2004-05. The high performing States
were Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Manipur, Tripura,
Mizoram, Gujarat and Rajasthan. Without new
technology, it would perhaps be difficult to maintain
high growth rates in States where productivity has
already touched near potential levels.
Therefore, focusing on rainfed farming covering

over 60 percent of arable land can yield considerable
gains. Increased rainwater harvesting and water
conservation measures in dryland areas,
decentralised procurement of farm produce,
development of supportive rural infrastructure and
improved extension services have all driven
agricultural growth.
Special Central scheme: A special additional

Central assistance scheme, the Rashtriya Krishi
Vikas Yojana (RKVY), has also helped. The purpose
behind this assistance programme was to encourage
States to draw up district and State agricultural
plans and increase their spending on the sector
during the Eleventh Plan (2007-12).
RKVY was preferred by States for its flexibility
in selecting interventions and setting State-specific
targets. State plan expenditure (excluding RKVY
receipts) as a percentage of GDP in agricultural
and allied sectors increased from 1 per cent in the
Tenth Plan to 1.4 per cent in the Eleventh Plan.
State plan expenditure on agriculture and allied
sectors (excluding RKVY) also increased as a
percentage of total plan spending by States, from
about 5 percent during the Tenth Plan to over 6
percent during the Eleventh Plan.
[32]

informed choices. Research and extension systems
learn to work in a practical environment. Another
critical issue is to co-manage water and power to
ensure sustainability. Unregulated use and heavy
subsidies on power trigger a tendency of water
over-use. As a result, the water table has declined
in the northern, north-western and eastern States.
States should realise that not free but reliable rural
power is more critical to farming. A supportive
agri-ecosystem and informed farmers in a freer
market can produce the right results. Some States
have grasped this.
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Why was the effort not visible in many States

that are yet to reach their potential? Should not
State Governments follow a Common Minimum
Programme (CMP) for agriculture? Any
programme for farmers needs to ensure water
availability in (mono-cropped) semi-arid/arid tracts.
Indigenous water harvesting systems like checkdams and farm ponds in large dryland tracts could
run as a people-led and government-supported
initiative. But water harvesting needs to be followed
up with water conservation systems.
Extension and mass contact programmes like
Krishi Mahotsav can educate farmers in making
IF AINT BROKE, WHY FIX IT
Recent media reports have given voice to Indias

call for the establishment of a global agency to
manage the Internet. India wants a multigovernment role in formulating Internet governance
rules. The rationale is that this will reduce the grip
of western powers and increase the countrys own
influence in framing Internet-related policies.
ICANNs doing fine
Many other countries also subscribe to this line

of thought. But it is near-sighted. Why? Because
governments and even the public at large already
have a significant say in the workings of the Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
(ICANN), the non-profit body that coordinates the
Internets global domain name system. Governments
just have to exercise that right. This is how:
The Corporations by-laws require the setting

up of specific advisory committees whose primary
role is to offer advice and recommendations on all
proposed policy matters. One such committee set
up by ICANN is the Governmental Advisory
Committee (GAC), which constitutes representatives
appointed by governments of various countries,
including India. The GAC is entrusted with the
responsibility of voicing government concerns and
opinions on all of ICANNs proposed policies.
So, for instance, if the panels representatives
believe a particular new gTLD (generic Top Level
Domain, such as .com or .net) application lacks
certain essential safeguards or protections, it is
empowered to raise these concerns (formally called
GAC Advice) with ICANN and the applicants to
work out a solution or even recommend that a
particular application not be pursued in the new
gTLD programme. In recent times, GAC Advice on
various new gTLDs has led to several of them being
stalled in the application process.
Take, for instance, the GAC Advice issued post

the ICANNs 46th public meeting in Beijing in April
2013. Two important things came of that Advice.
The first was with respect to raising serious
concerns over certain categories of extensions. For
example applied-for gTLDs with religious
sensitivities associated with them, such as .islam
and .halal and others that the Committee believed
may require further deliberation such as .wine, .vin,
.zulu, .amazon etc. The .patagonia extension,
applied for by a clothing brand, was also pulled
up given that it is the name of a large region of
Latin America. For such applications, the GAC
advised the ICANN Board not to proceed further.
The second outcome of the Beijing meeting
pertained to a list of safeguards that the advisory
Committee believed to be a necessity for a multitude
of extensions to ensure that they are used for their
intended purpose and not misused/abused.
This list includes safeguards for extensions
pertaining to children such as .kid, .play, .school,
.toys, those dealing with environmental issues such
as .green, .eco, those focused on professional
services such as .lawyer, .accountant and several
more such categories.
As a consequence, applications for these
extensions have been delayed for over 10 months
as ICANN and the GAC worked to figure out
implementable, mutually acceptable solutions. In
fact, a prominent applicant for the .green extension
eventually withdrew its application citing the
delays resulting from the stringent safeguard advice
issued by the GAC as one of its reasons.
It is also noteworthy that after ICANNs 47th
public meeting in Durban, the GACs communiqu
specifically highlighted the Indian governments
concerns with the applications for Indians and
[33]

.ram. In summary, the Committees influence is
really the combined influence of world governments
much the same as what the Indian government
is seeking.
Even so, we are today at a crossroads where
global governments are celebrating the USs
communicated intent to step out of its overseeing
role of the ICANN after September 2015, when its
contract ends.
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Bureaucratic control
With everything that the ICANN is already

doing to involve governments, I see no reason for
a multi-government organization taking over the
role that the Corporation already essays quite well.
Governments have an open invitation to get more
involved in the policy-making process, especially
when it comes to the new gTLD regime. Consider
a scenario where an official multi-government
organisation that will likely be predominantly
driven by bureaucracy is commissioned to regulate
the Net. This has the potential to threaten not only
the relatively well-structured policy development
process, but also the existing levels of openness and
freedom that are hallmarks of the Internet as we
know it today.
The US has said it will cede this authority to

the global multi-stakeholder community in
other words, the academics, engineers, businesses,
consumers and governments that have a stake in
the Internet. It has also mandated that it will not
accept a government-led or an inter-governmental
organization solution.
CHOOSING THE CHIEF JUSTICE
Mohan Kumaramangalam is perhaps most

infamously remembered for his strident advocacy
of a method of appointment of the Chief Justice of
India that would take into account a candidates
social and constitutional philosophy as assessed by
the government rather than seniority alone.
Pejoratively viewed as seeking a committed
judiciary, his justification was widely seen as an
attempt to vindicate the supersession of Justices
Shelat, Hegde and Grover in favour of Justice Ray
as Chief Justice of India. Undoubtedly,
Kumaramangalams motives were sinister given that
Indira Gandhis government, in which he was a
Minister, had been continuously thwarted by a
powerfully counter-majoritarian Court. But in
dismissing his suggestions based on his motives, a
genuine conversation on a rigid adherence to the
seniority convention in the appointment of the
Chief Justice of India was foreclosed.
Fortunately, a recent difference of opinion
between the former Chief Justice of India, Justice
P. Sathasivam and the incumbent, Justice R.M.
Lodha, provides a long overdue opportunity to
restart this conversation. In an interview given after
he took office as Chief Justice of India, Justice Lodha
said he believed that the Chief Justice of India
should not have a fixed tenure in office. If there
was fixed tenure, he said, the legitimate
expectations of other judges would be taken away.
This was a distinctly contrarian view to the one
expressed by his predecessor Justice Sathasivam,
who had said before demitting office that the Chief
Justice of India should most certainly have a fixed
tenure. Giving his own example, he said that the

lack of a fixed tenure meant that there were many
things that I [he] wanted to do but couldnt do due
to short tenure. To be fair to Justice Lodha, had
he agreed with Justice Sathasivam, his concurrence
might have been perceived as self-serving, given
that his term as Chief Justice of India is for five
months. The difference of opinion however points
to a deeper enquiryhow the Supreme Court of
India grapples with tradition and the need for
objectivity in a rapidly modernising and rampantly
corrupt nation.
The issue of having a fixed tenure for the Chief
Justice of India arises owing to the short tenures
that Chief Justices have on average. In the last 20
years, there have been 16 Chief Justices of India.
Out of them, only four have had tenures of more
than two years. On the other hand, eight have
served for less than a year with one having served
for less than a month. The limited length of such
tenures, in turn, is directly attributable to the rigid
adherence to the seniority convention, by which,
at the time a vacancy in the Chief Justices post
arises, the senior-most judge in the Supreme Court
is appointed irrespective of the length of tenure
remaining before his retirement. Thus, if there were
no seniority convention, the question of proposing
a fixed tenure would not arise as length of tenure
would be one of the factors considered for
appointment.
Now, it can be nobodys case that such a quick
turnover of Chief Justices is healthy for the Supreme
Courtit is well accepted that excessively frequent
[34]

Indian judiciary today tradition and the
insistence on objective criteria. A strict adherence
to tradition has served the Supreme Court well in
many respects. But the seniority convention
represents a facet of tradition that is patently
antiquated. At a time when age functions as a de
facto criterion for appointment of judges to the
Supreme Court, with no judge since 1979 having
been appointed before the age of 55, a high rate of
turnover of Chief Justices is inevitable. To stick to
seniority despite this can only be explained by the
objectivity that seniority is perceived to lend, thereby
obviating threats to judicial independence.
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transitions lead to systemic inefficiencies, increase

incoherence in strategies to deal with ongoing
problems and hinder the stability of leadership that
a large and widely respected institution requires.
The reasons for persistence with such a convention
are primarily twofoldthe legitimate expectations
of future Chief Justices to hold such offices would
be taken away in the absence of its strict application,
a point Justice Lodha makes, and any other method
would be subjective with considerable potential for
the independence of the judiciary being adversely
affected, as Kumaramangalams proposal was seen
as doing.
No legitimate expectations
The argument that fixed tenure, which modifies

the seniority convention as it applies today, upsets
legitimate expectations of future Chief Justices, is
curious since no judge of the Supreme Court can
have a legitimate expectation to be Chief Justice
of India. In law, as Justice Lodha himself held in a
recent judgment, The protection of legitimate
expectation does not require the fulfillment of the
expectation where an overriding public interest
requires otherwise. In other words, personal benefit
must give way to public interest and the doctrine
of legitimate expectation would not be invoked
which could block public interest for private
benefit (Monnet Ispat and Energy Ltd. v. Union
of India And Ors., (2012) 11SCC1). The overriding
public interest in this case lies in the need for stable
leadership of the Indian judiciary and its attendant
public benefits; on the contrary, future judges
becoming Chief Justice is on the other hand a matter
of great personal honour and no more. In these
circumstances, it is trite that the public interest
ought to prevail. At most, propriety might require
this change to be introduced prospectively after
the current crop of puisne judges slated to become
Chief Justice of India on the basis of the seniority
convention retire. However this is simply an act of
courtesy; legitimate expectations of Chief
Justiceship that individual judges may harbour
cannot provide a principled ground against fixed
tenure and modified application of the seniority
convention.
Revisiting tradition
But the issue of fixed tenure is a fig leaf the

core issue is whether to repudiate the seniority
convention itself. Seniority in the appointment of
the Chief Justice of India is at the confluence of
two powerful forces shaping the functioning of the
The significance attached to such objectivity is

overstated for two reasons. First, seniority is
determined not simply by age, but rather by the
date of appointment to the Supreme Court. The
process of appointment by a collegium led by the
Chief Justice of India is opaque, functioning without
any transparency or accountability for decisions
taken. Certain appointments have raised wide
speculation in legal circles for their timing with
cases of unexplained expedition or delay, regarding
which neither can information be sought nor review
requested. It is thus within the realm of possibility
that the objectivity that the seniority convention
engenders is often founded on a ruse.
Second, it is a peculiar consequence of the
accountability discourse that is sweeping India
currently in response to rampant corruption in
public life, that a premium has been placed on
objective criteria in decision-making. Independent
commissions are regularly demanded since they are
expected to decide more objectively than ministries;
major political disputes of the day end up in a
court of law which promises more objective
resolution; routine decisions by government officers
are questioned since the criteria required the officer
to be subjectively satisfied. Objectivity today has
become a byword for fairness and more worryingly,
any decision not on objective criteria often
automatically leads to claims of corruption or
hanky-panky. This disincentivises good decisionmaking and creates perverse results, worse than
the malaise it set out to cure.
Competence, not seniority
Doing away with the seniority convention in

the appointment of the Chief Justice of India
provides an ideal opportunity to reverse this trend.
With the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC)
on the anvil, the power to appoint judges is being
vested in a high-powered bipartisan institution. It
[35]

It is a shame that both Justices Sathasivam and
Lodha, apart from numerous Chief Justices that
India has had for extremely short durations, could
not serve for longer; or several others seen widely
as deserving of the office never served at all. The
proposed establishment of the JAC provides an
opportunity to prevent such unfortunate incidents
from recurring by dispensing with the seniority
convention, a tradition that has outlived its time. It
would demonstrate that as a mature polity, India
is prepared to trust decisions taken by accountable
public authorities following well-established and
transparent processes. And with it hopefully bury
the ghost of Kumaramangalam and the rhetoric of
the present accountability discourse that equates
all subjectivity with nefariousness.
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is true that further reforms to the Bills seeking to

establish the commission are necessary. However
in principle, a carefully constituted commission is
a body which should be empowered to select the
person, who in its opinion is the most competent
to deal with the administrative, judicial and
leadership tasks expected of a Chief Justice of India.
This, as the seminal 14th Report of the Law
Commission of India chaired by Motilal Setalvad
indicated, would be no reflection on the seniormost puisne judge since the considerations which
must [therefore] prevail in making the selection to
this office must be basically different from those
that would govern the appointment of other judges
of the Supreme Court.
Source: The Hindu
FOR A CLEAR NUCLEAR DOCTRINE
For India, nuclear deterrence is defensive and a

means to secure its sovereignty and security. Its
strategy of assured retaliation, combined with no
first use, provides adequate guarantee for this
purpose. The strategy was unveiled concurrently
with its 1998 nuclear tests, which ended the
determined U.S. bid to prevent India from acquiring
nuclear deterrent. Ironically, Indias nuclear
weapons tests, together with the rapid expansion
of its economy, transformed its global outlook and
relations with the U.S. and the world.
The Chinese nuclear weapons test of 1964, on

the heels of the 1962 war, had always rankled in
Indian minds. K. Subrahmanyam and K.R.
Narayanan, at the time in the early years of their
public service, advocated a matching Indian
response. This did not then have resonance at the
top, as India was facing the twin crisis of food and
finance.
The P-5 states treated non-proliferation as their
default foreign and security policy objective, but
this was invariably trumped by national interest.
Indias restraint and decision not to weaponise its
nuclear capacities after the 1974 test were well
known. Yet, when Pakistan accelerated its nuclear
proliferation, it was not stopped in the wake of the
Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, when U.S.
President Jimmy Carter designated Pakistan a
frontline state.
The Chinese transferred nuclear materials and
technology to Pakistan, including the weapons
design and the means to deliver them the solid fuel
300-kilometre range M-11 ballistic missiles. In a

paper published in 1972, Professor Wayne Wilcox
of Colombia University, then working as cultural
attach in the U.S. Embassy in London, perceptively
recognised that Indias policy concerning China and
Pakistan is to hedge all bets and cover all
contingencies. India was compelled to acquire
nuclear weapons to deter nuclear blackmail in its
contiguity.
Unlike Pakistan or Israel, India could not have
a recessed deterrent or bomb in the basement,
given Indias governance practices. Contingent
factors delayed Indias nuclear weapons tests, such
as the persistent external pressure on India, and
arguments by internal agnostics who claimed that
such testing would betray Indias long-held
principles, diminish its international standing, and
reduce future GDP growth rates by upto two per
cent annually. In 1995 came the perpetual
extension of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, without
Linking it to the complete elimination of nuclear
weapons. The conditions attached to the 1996
Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty, which could
foreclose Indias nuclear weapons option, became
the final point of conviction. From then on, the
question was not whether to test but when.
For India today, the choice is clear, as it was
in 1998: So long as nuclear weapons exist, Indias
nuclear deterrence will have to be maintained. Until
there is a global compact for creating a nuclear
weapon-free world, India will have to persevere
with this policy.
[36]

nuclear or non-nuclear warheads, and can be used
to attack nuclear facilities. At times doubts arise
about the responsible behaviour of certain states,
such as when Chinese President Xi Jinping did not
mention Chinas no first use doctrine in a defence
policy speech delivered in December 2012 to the
Second Artillery Corps, or when the Chinese
Defence White Paper, released in April 2013, did
not contain the standard reiteration of this doctrine,
thereby creating doubts about a shift in its nuclear
policy.
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What is credible deterrence?: In delivering the

message of credible deterrence, all nuclear weapons
states, including those that have embraced no first
use, face a conundrum. Nuclear weapons are
weapons of the last resort, fundamentally different
from conventional weapons. War is a traditional
tool of statecraft, but the weapon to end all wars
cannot be a standard instrument of an ordinary
warit can only be the final recourse for dissuasion.
It cannot be chance, for then it will fail to deter.
While embracing a declaratory policy to avoid
nuclear war, the state concerned must
simultaneously demonstrate that it has nuclear war
fighting capacitythe resilience to take the pain of
a first strike, and both the ability and resolve to
inflict massive and intolerable destruction on the
attacker.
For improving its punitive capacity, China is

seeking a sea-based nuclear deterrent, deploying
mobile solid-fuel missiles, and moving missiles
below the surface in elaborate tunnels in
mountainous terrain, undetectable from space,
called the Underground Great Wall. The same
motivation has led India to similar pursuits. Indias
missile force, the weak link in its deterrence, is under
rapid repair. Its transformation is enabling the shift
toward strategic deterrence. In the past half-dozen
years, India has invested in improving the
command, control, communications, and
intelligence systems and its second strike capacity,
including the survival of the decision-making
structure. The National Command Authority
deserves credit for this. Simultaneously, the seabased leg of the triad of delivery systems is taking
shape even if at a slower pace than the situation
warrants. India might also have to do more to
communicate effectively that its deterrent carries
credibility.
In popular domestic imagination, Indias
assurance of credible minimum deterrence is
confused with minimum credible deterrence, as if
it connotes an arbitrary limitation. The essential
prerequisite for nuclear deterrence is as much the
sufficiency of the retaliatory capacity as the surety
of response. This hinges on the size and nature of
the arsenal and delivery systems, their survivability
in the event of a pre-emptive attack, and the
realisation by a potential adversary that the costs
of attack outweigh the gains.
All nuclear weapons states that have robust

missile programmes retain their first strike
capabilities, since conventional missiles of short and
intermediate ranges can be mated equally with
While India remains watchful, most P-5 states

appear to be settling into a more stable deterrence,
discounting first strike weapons, despite holding a
range of nuclear weaponry and delivery
mechanisms. Under the 1987 Intermediate-Range
Nuclear Forces Treaty, the U.S. and USSR had
agreed to eliminate their intermediate and shorter
range missiles between 500 and 5,500 kilometres.
Pakistan alone is going in the other direction.
Myth of flexible response: The U.S. and Russia

did contemplate flexible response and limited use
of nuclear weapons in specific theatres in the hope
of containing damage to their homelands. A
graduating use of nuclear weapons is not possible,
except in theory books and planning exercises.
Envisaging escalatory nuclear weapons exchanges
is even more difficult in Indias security context:
here, the space and time span between launch and
delivery is non-existent. Controlled nuclear war
between the U.S. and Russia is hard to imagine.
Between India and China, or between India and
Pakistan, it is impossible.
Admittedly, nuclear weapons can be used for
coercion, but up to a point, and with some success
only against a non-nuclear state. The experience of
Kargil 15 years ago demonstrated how the leaders
of the Pakistan Army took the wrong lesson from
deterrence. They believed that with the advantage
of stealth and shock, they could upset the
conventional Status-Quo, without inviting an
effective riposte for fear of a nuclear exchange. This
was a serious miscalculation, as they discovered to
their cost. Changing Indias defensive nuclear
doctrine to complicate their calculus will be
irresponsible. India can survive a first strike but
Pakistan cannot. What incentive would Pakistan
have to consider a second strike if it believed India
could attack it first? As for the growing non-nuclear
threats to security, India can meet them by
augmented conventional preparedness, hardened
defences, upgraded equipment and a strong
indigenous armament industry.
[37]

As Shyam Saran, Chairman of the National
Security Advisory Board, has said, it would be best
to put to rest any further speculation of a change
in Indias nuclear weapons policy. For a credible
deterrent, constancy of doctrine in its core essentials
has definite merit. The Bharatiya Janata Party has
embraced the national inheritance on no first use.
Indias nuclear deterrent can be made more robust,
meanwhile, by continuing the work to guarantee
the efficacy of its retaliatory strike.
Source: The Hindu
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Toward a more secure India: The foremost

threat to Indian security today comes not from its
nuclear posture or externally, but from social
deprivation and anaemic economic growth.
Unshackling its entrepreneurship, accelerating
infrastructure development and regenerating
growth will make India safer. There is a clear vision
in India on what has to be done. The new
government should focus on how best and quickly
to do it.
ANOTHER WAKE-UP CALL
In yet another accident that has hit the

Railways, at least 21 passengers were killed and
nearly 150 injured when the engine and four
coaches overturned after a derailment in Raigad
district of Maharashtra on Sunday. The surprising
factor was that the engine itself derailed as the
Diva-Sawantwadi Road passenger train emerged
out of a tunnel, some 120 km from Mumbai, in
broad daylight. Always quick on follow-up, the
Railways swung into action on rescue and relief
operations, payment of compensation and the
announcement of an inquiry by the Commissioner
of Railway Safety. It took some time for the
authorities to clear the main line on the Konkan
Railway route because of the impact of the
derailment. Considering that it was nearly 10 a.m.
and the passengers were awake, and that it was a
passenger train, the casualty level seems to be on
the high side. Four coaches had overturned and
photographs showed the full impact of the
derailment but the deaths should have been
caused by the crush of materials in the coaches.
Escaping from the coach may not have been too
difficult at that point of time; the Railways must
make more room for emergency exits in each
compartment. The detailed probe by the
Commissioner of Railway Safety should throw more
light on what caused the derailment.
Preliminary reports from the accident site point
to a possible rail fracture at the spot. Perhaps
welded joints gave way. Normally, gangmen

examine a certain length of the railway line twice
a day. Depending on the location, each gangman
may have to oversee a length of about 8 km. How
did the engine crew fail to sight the fracture? Was
the train going faster than the permissible limit?
The reason for the fracture, and why this was not
seen or reported by the person in charge of that
area, will need close examination. There have been
enough probes by successive Commissioners of
Railway Safety inquiring into different accidents
across the country. What is more, the Kakodkar
Committee appointed by the Government of India
to look at all aspects of railway safety, submitted a
very
detailed
report
with
exhaustive
recommendations. Issues of funding have also been
addressed to finance a wide range of safety
measures to be implemented in the railway system.
That being the case, it is surprising that the Centre
and the Railways do not seem to be taking safety
and security on the wheels seriously enough.
Derailments will surely come under the category
of avoidable accidents, and the zonal railways must
be pulled up if they are not monitoring railway
tracks constantly and carefully enough. It is
unfortunate that even repeated accidents do not
spur the Railways into more serious action to
address safety issues.
Source: The Hindu
WHERE EVERYONE IS A MINORITY
The grim and bloody incidents in the Bodoland

Territorial Council (BTC), that narrow wedge of
land in Western Assam where everyone is a
minorityor rather a non-majority since their
numbers dont have ithave been aggravated by
the verbal violence of our politicians, the blame
game and the total incapacity of the State
Government to deal with existing conditions.
For the second time in less than two years,

thousands of Muslims and smaller numbers of
Bodos are fleeing their homes, frightened by their
complete vulnerability to gun-wielding terrorists,
the nightmare of seeing loved ones, ranging from
infants to elders, butchered in front of them and,
perhaps worse still, the fearful knowledge that the
government cant protect them.
[38]

Today, the capacity of the Congress-led
government in Assam to ensure the protection of
minorities is being gravely questioned. For in every
major communal clash or bout of violence in the
Bodo areas1993, 2008, 2012 and nowa Congress
Party Government has ruled Dispur.
Complex play of factors
The BPF is the party in power in the BTC, which

rules the Bodo districts. But theres a major flaw
in the system the BPF doesnt have control over
law and order: the State Government has
jurisdiction of the police. This is because the BTC
was formed under the Sixth Schedule of the
Constitution, which enables small tribes in four
States of the north-east to run their own affairs in
the manner of an expanded Panchayati Raj System,
instead of being completely dependent on the
whims of the State Government.
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The State Governments seeming failure may

be a tipping point for the last round of the Lok
Sabha election elsewhere in the country. Ironically,
the greatest violence in the country during an
otherwise seemingly flawless massive election
exercise has been, ironically, in the home area of
one of the countrys Election Commissioners, H.S.
Brahma, who is incidentally a Bodo.
In 2002, there were a series of attacks; in one,

non-Bodo passengers were pulled out of a bus and
shot. Soon after this, the BLT decided to come to
the negotiating table.
There is a larger failure here too, of us, of

civil society, researchers and scholars, the media,
despite the courageous and silent role of dedicated
activists and groups which have tried for years to
reduce the tension between Bodos, Muslims and
other ethnic groups in Western Assam.
While the State Government has directly blamed

the shadowy Songbijit faction of the National
Democratic Front of Bodoland for the massacres,
there is, as always, a complex play of factors here.
One is the fact that the militants were under
tremendous pressure from security forces since they
killed an Additional Superintendent of Police in
Sonitpur district. The police went after them with
a vengeance, taking down several cadres; one police
official believes it is this pressure that forced the
faction to hit vulnerable targets, to take the heat
off, get time to regroup while also stoking communal
fears and exposing the shortcomings of the State
Government.
In addition, a statement by a prominent Bodo

leader, Pramila Rani Brahma of the Bodoland
Peoples Front (BPF), complicated matters and
triggered outrage even from the Congress, the BPFs
coalition partner at the State level. She said
(without revealing the basis of her information) that
since Muslims had voted against the partys Lok
Sabha candidate, he was unlikely to do well. This
has led to calls for her arrest.
Yet, the trail of blood goes back, unlike many

other events and challenges in the region barely
20 years. Before 1993, there had been few clashes
involving Muslims and Bodos. Later, an armed
group, the Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT), attacked
Santhals as well as Muslims. For their own safety,
they were placed in relief camps, which again came
under attack. Accounts say that not less than 50
were killed in those incidents.
The Sixth Schedule aims to protect tribal rights

from encroachment by larger non-tribe groups and
is in place in parts of Assam, all of Meghalaya,
Mizoram and a part of Tripura.
In 2003, the Schedule was extended to the
western Assam plains to create the BTC as part of
an agreement between the Centre, the State
Government and the BLT. The BLT was virtually
given an amnesty and morphed into a legal,
democratic political entity: after some changes,
the Bodoland Peoples Front was born. The idea
was an effort to resolve a bloody armed movement
that had taken a toll of hundreds of lives. But to
do so, without taking into consideration the overall
realities of the region, was a recipe for disaster.
Another major outbreak occurred in 2008 in
which both Bodos and non-Bodos including
Muslims were rendered homeless and placed in
camps. In 2008 again, bomb blasts across the State
killed over 100 persons including 80 in Guwahati,
the commercial and political heart of Assam; these
were attributed to the National Democratic Front
of Bodoland, led by Ranjan Daimary, which sought
independence from India.
Fallout of manufactured consent
The worst outbreak of violence, in 2012, when

over 100 died and about 4.5 lakh were displaced
in rioting and killings, was described as the most
extensive internal displacement since Partition. A
majority of victims and homeless were Muslim; the
involvement of the BPF turned up in the arrest of
one of its council members, who was accused by
witnesses of leading the attacks.
The areas demography is one reason why
trouble will fester rather than abate: it has nothing
to do with illegal migration, Bangladeshis, etc. It
[39]

If it isnt, then Delhi should be worried because
this volatile region is in danger again of falling
back to the times of earlier troubles. At the State
and local levels, governments and policy makers
need to involve people working in the field and
community representatives in search of answers.
Playing politics
There is a second critical point: if such
processes are to gain momentum, then there must
be a relentless campaign against terrorist groups.
What has filled many with frustration and anger,
within the north-east and outside, is the way
governments proclaim that they will tackle ethnic
and communal violence with a firm hand; yet,
once the bloodshed is over, the displaced go home
and the issues vanish from the headlines, its back
to business as usual with the criminals, extortionists
and their partners in politics and the bureaucracy.
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has everything to do with the fact of how a minority

of the population (the Bodos are some 30 percent
of the BTC area) controls the lives and destinies of
the others. From an armed group, the BLT became
a political party within a larger political process,
with access to Central and State funds, power, land
and resources. A number of its leaders were once
wanted for their role in alleged killings and
explosions; when they rose to office, their acolytes
benefited. Their opponents, even the moderates
within the Bodo community, suffered intimidation,
pressure and worse.
An opposition movement has grown that
sought to protect the rights of the other groups
which do not comprise just the Muslimsthere are
Assamese and Bengali Hindus, Koch Rajbongshis
and Adivasis. Together they make up nearly 70
percent of the population. Any system that does
not guarantee some basic rights to them and protect
their interests is bound to fail.
The core of the problems in the north-east, be

it in Nagaland, Manipur, Assam or elsewhere, lies
in the mobilisation of identity over land, territory
and natural resources. Many of the disputes
between States, communities and even villages can
be traced to this. The same is true of the Bodo
areas, where Bodolands have been encroached and
settled upon by others.
There are two issues here: If key problems are
to be tackled, then all sides need to sit down
together to work out the ways that land and
resources can be shared without creating further
ill-will. The State Government and the BTC have
failed to do so. They have failed because they have
looked for quick-fix solutions without going deep
enough and far enough to meet peoples grievances.
The fallout that we see today is that of
manufactured consent.
Recent history shows how those involved in

the violence are negotiated with, in State after
State. Settlements reward the perpetrators with
even more powers, cocooned by security provided
by the State. This is described as part of the
democratic process.
I doubt if this will wash any longer: too much
blood has been spilt these past years.
In this situation, tossing out the mantra of
Bangladeshi immigrants as being at the heart of
the problem would be extremely ill-advised. Nothing
could be further from the truth, so insidiously easy
to push, so dangerous to stoke. The Bharatiya
Janata Party needs to understand these issues in
greater depth before asserting positions which
could have devastating consequences on a fragile
landscape.
Source: The Hindu
ISSUES OF ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE
For too long, humankind has taken for granted

the antibiotics that have held dangerous germs at
bay. It was only about 70 years ago that penicillin,
the worlds first antibiotic, came into widespread
use and revolutionised medicine. Its discoverer,
Alexander Fleming, who won the Nobel Prize for
his work, presciently warned that disease-causing
organisms would become resistant if the drug was
improperly used. And that is just what has
transpired. Although more antibiotics were
subsequently discovered, these drugs have been
given with such profligacy that pathogens resistant
to them have evolved and spread with alarming

rapidity. Superbugs resistant to almost all
antibiotics have become a problem, raising worries
of a return to the bad old days if much greater
care was not exercised when prescribing existing
drugs and sufficient encouragement for finding new
ones was lacking. Now, with its first global report
on antimicrobial resistance, the World Health
Organization has added its voice to the chorus of
concern. The report has documented how bacterial
resistance to antibiotics, including those of last
resort, is a major health issue confronting all regions
[40]

of the world. Without urgent, coordinated action,
the world is headed for a post-antibiotic era in
which common infections and minor injuries, which
have been treatable for decades, can once again
kill, Keiji Fukuda, the health agencys Assistant
Director-General for Health Security, has warned.
The report also calls for greater emphasis on
preventing infections from occurring, such as with
better hygiene and by improving access to sanitation
and clean water.
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For India, preventing antibiotic resistance from

spiralling has to be a matter of urgency. The
healthcare burden placed by bacteria such as
Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae, which
have become resistant to many antibiotics and cause
difficult-to-treat infections, is already quite
substantial. Bacteria that have acquired a New
Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase (NDM) gene are

resistant to even last-resort carbapenem antibiotics,
forcing doctors to turn to colistin, a drug that is
more than 50 years old. Halting the indiscriminate
use of antibiotics is vital. The Union Government
has taken an important first step in that direction
by introducing a stringent rule that prohibits
medical stores from selling 24 key antibiotics
without a doctors prescription. Much more needs
to be done, including getting doctors to prescribe
antibiotics only when essential. Hospitals must pay
attention to proper infection control. In a country
so large and populous, with widely differing levels
of healthcare reach, curbing the rise of antibiotic
resistance is not easy. But it must be done.
Source: The Hindu
NO SHIELD FOR CORRUPTION
When a law replacing an invalid executive order

retains the same classification that was held to
violate the constitutional norm of equality, it has
to be struck down. It was only natural that the
Supreme Court should declare unconstitutional
Section 6-A of the Delhi Special Police
Establishment Act that requires prior approval of
the Centre before the Central Bureau of
Investigation (CBI) can begin an inquiry or
investigation against officers of the Union
Government in the rank of Joint Secretary and
above for the same reason that it invalidated the
governments Single Directive in Vineet Narain
(1997). The section was introduced by Parliament
in 2003 to restore the Single Directive, a set of
instructions to the CBI on the modalities of holding
an enquiry. In yet another verdict that insulates
the investigating agency from dependence on
government approval at every stage, the Court has
seen through the distinction made between officers
based on their rank alone. Apart from there being
no reasonable basis to treat corrupt public servants
of a certain rank differently from those below them,
the Court has given cogent and practical reasons
too: that Section 6-A is destructive of the objective
of the Prevention of Corruption Act as it blocks
the truth from surfacing, protects those who commit
crimes thwarts independent investigation and
provides a forewarning to corrupt officers as soon
as allegations are made against them.
The government argued in vain, as it did in

defence of the Single Directive earlier, that officers
of the rank of Joint Secretary and above are
decision-making officials who required protection
against malicious or vexatious allegations. In the
absence of such protection, it was contended,
officials may tend to make no decisions, or limit
themselves to safe decisions. However, as the
amicus curiae pointed out to the Court, there was
no known instance of harassment of officials
between 1997 and 2003, the period in which no
such prior approval was required. Further, other
provisions requiring sanction from the competent
authority before commencing prosecution remain
intact. The real mischief in the provision, the Court
has noted, is that the very group of officers who
may be the target of the inquiry get to decide
whether the probe should be allowed or not. It has
ruled that where it could be inferred that a corrupt
act had taken place, but there is no direct evidence,
the expertise to decide whether to begin a probe
should remain with the CBI, and not with the
government. The verdict thus strengthens the
agency in a way the legislature has failed to do
over the years. It has restored what it calls the
signature tune of Vineet Narain: however high
you may be, the law is above you.
Source: The Hindu
OF EPIDEMIC PROPORTIONS
The Council of Europe Convention to prevent

and combat violence against women and domestic
violence will take effect this August, following its
recent ratification by Andorra. Persistent instances
of physical abuse encountered among large migrant

populations of women, and the need to strengthen
the legal framework in some of the States of the
former Eastern Europe, form part of the context to
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phenomenon of epidemic proportions, affecting
more than one-third of all women globally.
The Asia region continues to grapple with a
particular and premeditated form of violence
against women, that is, the sex-selective abortion
of female foetuses that has distorted the gender
ratios of the population in the 0-6 years age-group.
A worrisome aspect of this phenomenon is the
extent to which it reinforces traditional stereotypes
over generations. The mitigation of different forms
of inequalities between men and women has
engaged the attention of the international
community over a relatively longer period.
However, gender violence has received focussed
attention only over the past two decades. Hence,
the comprehension of its various dimensions and
the codification of laws are as yet in the early stages
of evolution. As with similar social and human
rights instruments, the landmark European
convention would serve as a model for developing
countries to strengthen their own institutional
frameworks. Proactive policies and accountability
are vital to upholding the dignity of women.
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the Istanbul Convention of the 47-member strong

human rights institution. In particular, the plight
of victims who happen to be in abusive
relationships in Hungary, Belgium and Turkey have
come in for some scrutiny by Human Rights Watch
over the last three years. The new treaty seeks to
address the psychological effects of violence among
adults in the family on children, protection for male
victims where relevant, provision for a monitoring
mechanism and prosecution of perpetrators. States
outside its purview should ratify the Treaty. One
in three women in the European Unionthe
separate 28-country entityis said to have
experienced physical or sexual assault, according
to a survey by the human rights monitoring agency
for the bloc. Another report puts the per capita
economic burden of domestic violence in the range
of 9.2 to 555 annually, which includes cost
related to health, criminal justice and social services.
Not surprisingly, there are striking parallels to the
situation in Europe around the world, as is evident
from a 2013 World Health Organization study.
Violence perpetrated by intimate partners affects
as much as 30 percent of women worldwide. In
fact, the same report characterizes physical or
sexual violence against women as a public health
Source: The Hindu
RIGHT TO EDUCATION, NEITHER FREE NOR COMPULSORY
While free and compulsory education for all

children below the age of 14 has been a
constitutional imperative for the government for
the last 64 years, it is a matter of fact (and shame)
that successive governments have not achieved this
yet. The most concerted effort to bring about a
legal framework to ensure free and compulsory
education for all was made with the introduction
of Article 21A and passage of the RTE. This was,
however, first weakened by the Supreme Court in
Society for Unaided Private Schools of Rajasthan v
Union of India (Rajasthan Schools) in 2012 and
has now been severely destabilised through the
erroneously reasoned judgment in Pramati
Educational and Cultural Trust v Union of India
(Pramati), delivered earlier this week. What is
incredible about the Pramati judgment is that while
the Court has upheld Article 21A as valid, it has
simultaneously weakened it by making it subject to
Article 30.
Removing from RTE: In Pramati, the Court
has gone further than Rajasthan Schools and
completely removed all minority schools, whether
aided or unaided, from the purview of the RTE
Act. While agreeing with the majority judgment in
Rajasthan Schools on the applicability of the law

to private institutions, the Court has, on a strained
and entirely unreasonable reading of Clause (1) of
Article 30, placed all minority schools in a
regulation-free zone. Article 30(1) recognises the
fundamental right of all minorities to establish and
administer educational institutions of their choice.
The implication of the judgment in Pramati is that
minority schools will continue to be permitted to
charge any amount of fees, prescribe any admission
criteria, and discriminate against any class of
citizens without being answerable in any court of
law to the government or to aggrieved parents.
This is because the provisions of the Act which
provide for these restraints will have no applicability
to minority schools.
Three problems are evident with the reasoning
adopted in Pramati. First, it has placed Article 30
on a pedestal, possibly elevating it to a status above
the fundamental freedoms, even Article 21. All
fundamental rights are limited by reasonable
restrictions imposed by law on certain bases, but
Article 30 alone, on the Courts interpretation in
Pramati, is above any restriction in any manner.
The Courts reasoning in this case has little basis in
[42]

the Constitution or even in the intent of the framers.
Its idea of a minority institution seems to be that
somehow the mandatory inclusion of even a few
non-minority students would dilute the minority
character of the institution.
Source: The Hindu
CLIMATE CHANGE MAKING

FOOD CROPS LESS NUTRITIOUS
Rising carbon dioxide emissions are set to make
the worlds staple food crops less nutritious,
according to new scientific research, worsening the
serious ill-health already suffered by billions of
malnourished people.
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Second, the Court bases its reasoning upon

judgments in T.M.A. Pai v State of Karnataka
(2002) and P.A. Inamdar v State of Maharashtra
(2005) which were decided in the context of tertiary
education and not primary education. The
Constitution does not recognise a fundamental right
to tertiary education, but primary education is a
fundamental right. Moreover, the difference in legal
obligations of the state with regard to the two levels
of education is well recognised worldwide and also
in international instruments that India is bound
by.
sections of society. Whatever noble intentions the

Constitution framers had in mind while inserting
Article 30, surely they did not intend to defeat these
purposes as well.
Third, even assuming that the judgments in

T.M.A. Pai and Inamdar are applicable to schools
imparting primary education, both judgments
recognise that the rights of minorities under Article
30 are not unbridled. It was held, for instance, in
T.M.A. Pai that admitting a few members of a nonminority group into a minority institution does not
take away the minority character of such an
institution and that Articles 29 and 30 clearly
contemplate such an inclusion. The Courts
judgment in Pramati, by closing the door to nonminority students of economically weaker sections,
actually goes contrary to the principles laid down
in the earlier Bench decisions in T.M.A. Pai and
Inamdar, despite the Court extracting passages
from these judgments in Pramati.
The Supreme Court has read these judgments
to mean that regulating minority schools including
admission of non-minority students (or even
minority students) from economically weaker
sections of society, regulation of fees and admission
procedures would be unconstitutional. This is
perplexing at best, and absurd at worst.
Bringing about equality: This critique of the

judgment should not be read to be a disparagement
of minority schools or institutions. Many of them
have rendered yeoman service to the nation and
continue to do so. The RTE was designed, among
other things, to empower the underprivileged
sections of society to benefit from the best of
minority institutions. It was also supposed to
educate and expose children of privileged sections
to the reality of inequality in this country by making
them share space daily with children from deprived
The surprise consequence of fossil fuel burning

is linked directly to the rise in CO levels which,
unlike some of the predicted impacts of climate
change, are undisputed. The field trials of wheat,
rice, maize and soyabeans showed that higher CO
levels significantly reduced the levels of the essential
nutrients iron and zinc, as well as cutting protein
levels.
We found rising levels of CO are affecting
human nutrition by reducing levels of very
important nutrients in important food crops, said
Prof. Samuel Myers, an environmental health expert
at Harvard University, Boston, and lead author of
the study. From a health viewpoint, iron and zinc
are hugely important.
Iron and zinc deficiencies: Myers said two

billion people already suffer iron and zinc
deficiencies around the world. This causes serious
harm, in particular to developing babies and
pregnant women, and currently causes the loss of
63 m years of life annually. Fundamentally the
concern is that there is already an enormous public
health problem and rising CO in the atmosphere
will exacerbate that problem further. While wheat,
rice, maize and soyabeans are relatively low in iron
and zinc, in poorer societies where meat is rarely
eaten they are a major source of the nutrients.
About 2.4 billion people currently get at least 60
per cent of their zinc and iron from these staples
and it is over 75 per cent in Bangladesh, Iraq and
Algeria.
This is yet another example of the impact
climate change is already having on peoples ability
to grow and access the nutritious food they need,
said Hannah Stoddart, Oxfams head of policy for
food and climate. With 25 million more children
under five at risk of malnutrition by 2050 because
[43]

of climate change, action to cut emissions and
support communities to adapt is crucial.
The precise biological mechanism that causes

nutrient levels to fall is not well understood as yet.
But Professor Brian Thomas, a plant development
expert at the University of Warwick and not
involved in the research said: The work is
convincing and consistent with what we do know
about the plant physiology. The impact on human
health resulting from the drop in the level of protein
is less clear than for the zinc and iron loss.
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The research, published in the journal Nature,

represents a major advance in the understanding
of how rising CO levels affect food nutrition. The
scientists compared nutrient levels in field crops
grown in ambient CO levels, about 380-390 parts
per million (ppm) at the time of the work, with
those grown in the elevated CO levels expected by
2050. The latter level, 545-585 ppm, is expected
even if substantial curbs on emissions are put in
place by the worlds governments. In order to take
account of variable growing conditions, the
researchers analysed 41 different strains grown in
seven locations on three different continents.
six percent less protein, while rice had three per

cent less iron, five per cent less iron and eight per
cent less protein. Maize saw similar falls while
soybeans lost similar levels of zinc and iron but,
being a legume not a grass, did not see lower
protein.
Wheat grown in high CO levels had nine per

cent less zinc and five per cent less iron, as well as
Source: The Hindu
PRIVATIZING PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION
Both Satya Nadella, who succeeded Steve

Ballmer at Microsoft in February, and Rajeev Suri,
who was appointed as Nokias new Chief
Executive Officer this month, are alumni of the
Manipal Institute of Technology, now being called
the other MIT.
While Indian engineers from institutes other

than the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) are
now going to places where no IITian has gone
before, IITians like Arvind Kejriwal and Ashok
Khemka, whose education was funded by Indian
taxpayers, are redefining Indian politics and
administration. Even IITs poster boy, Nandan
Nilekani, is attempting to make a foray into politics,
therefore proving that many from the institute,
educated at the publics expense, have abandoned
their core training as engineers and doctors. On
the other hand, engineers like Mr. Nadella and
Mr. Suri, whose education did not burden the
taxpayer, are attempting to redesign software and
cloud computing on a global scale. Others whose
education has been privately funded continue to
remain true to the disciplines that they were trained
for. They are the backbone of Indias technical
prowess.
Privately funded institutions
India may have come to a stage where it needs

to invest in upgrading its school education.
Professional education could, on the other hand,
be largely privatized, and public-funded higher
education could be made available to the talented
poor in the form of scholarships and monetary
assistance. There may be no need to create new
taxpayer-funded institutions.
Privately funded professional educational

institutions started as an unintended consequence
of two social evils: dowry and caste/communitybased reservations. The home of capitation fee,
Manipal, was earlier part of the Madras presidency.
Madras caste/community-based reservations date
back to the British period. Faced with a strong selfrespect movement, British administrators decided
that all communities should be represented in
educational institutions.
At that time, the Brahmins and Bunts of South
Canara were allocated only one medical seat per
year. However, doctors in the Bunt community
were highly valued in the dowry market and this
demand and supply mismatch needed to be
rectified. The solution to this problem was provided
by Dr. T.M.A. Pai of the Academy of General
Education. Rather than waiting for the government
to create and fund more medical colleges in which
seats could be increased for such communities, Dr.
Pai said a college could be successfully founded
and run if professional education could be paid for
by parents of aspiring professionals.
In 1953, Dr. Pai placed an advertisement in
leading newspapers inviting applications for
admission to a medical college. He said these were
to be accompanied by a bank draft for the then
huge sum of Rs. 3,000. On June 30, 1953, Kasturba
Medical College came into being with 100 students.
There is anecdotal evidence that many of the bank
drafts accompanying the applications were sent by
prospective fathers-in-law. The medical college was
a resounding success and is the foundation of a
[44]

world-class university today. The Manipal Institute
of Technology followed in 1957 to replicate the
same formula of creating privately funded students.
Legislation at the central level
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This brings me to the question of whether it is

time for the government to seriously consider
withdrawing from funding higher education at the
professional level and leave it entirely to the private
sector, except for a certain percentage of seats. In
2002, an 11-judge Bench of the Supreme Court, in
the aptly titled T.M.A. Pai Foundation case, opened
the door to privatization. Chief Justice Kirpal, who
was speaking for the majority, wrote: It is well
established all over the world that those who seek
professional education must pay for it. The number
of seats available in government and governmentaided colleges is very small compared to the number
of persons seeking admission to the medical and
engineering colleges. All those eligible and deserving
candidates who could not be accommodated in
government colleges would stand deprived of
professional education. This void in the field of
medical and technical education has been filled by
institutions that are established in different places
with the aid of donations and the active part taken
by public-minded individuals.
contribution is zero. The concept of management

quota and governmental control of admissions has
now crept into primary education with the Right
to Education Act. The problem with legislation is
that courts then inevitably get dragged into
questions of interpretation and constitutionality.
Every academic year sees a frantic quest for
workable interim orders during admission season.
These end in relief for some, but are at the expense
of others who cannot be represented in court.
Subsequent benches of the Court have struggled

to reconcile with this logic, with governments
continuing to regulate the professional education
sector. The broad consensus now is to give
managements a free rein in admissions in the
management quota, but insist on adherence to
marks and transparent evaluations of merit at the
exit stage. This consensus has, from time to time,
been sought to be legislated upon by governments
who use the marks is merit argument to control
admissions into institutions where their financial
A new government may need to look at the

issue afresh with a focus on maximum governance
and minimal governmental control. A good
beginning would be to reduce legislation on
education at the central level and encourage States
to follow suit. A uniform policy at the central level
should focus on access to higher education and
not on any right to education. The rights-based
narrative should be confined to universal primary
education alone, a fundamental right. Higher and
professional education can now be left to the private
sector to provide education to those who can pay
for it. Else, government scholarships can be
provided on a merit-cum-need criteria. Student loans
at subsidised rates of interest will take care of those
who do not have family resources or government
funding. Indias path to economic development will
be best achieved by creating policy incentives in
education so that the middle class which can afford
education need not rely on the government in this
area.
Source: The Hindu
THE CASE AGAINST PRIVATIZATION OF EDUCATION
The impending inauguration of a new

government finds interested parties bringing into
the public arena matters of importance to them.
One of the issues that has been raised recently is
whether higher education in India should be
privatized. This question merits serious attention.
And though interest is usually confined to the socalled professions, namely, engineering and
medicine, it is important to consider the entire
higher education sector. After all, the purpose of
higher education is the creation of knowledge, and
we dont want to place this knowledge in silos.
Proponents of private education

Proponents of private education start with the
observation that the supply of publicly provided
professional education has not expanded

commensurately with the growth in demand, thus
signalling a failure. This is entirely well taken, and
prima facie makes a strong case for allowing private
entry. However, the associated argument often
found, that the government should cease regulating
institutions that it does not fund, is surely wrong.
The case for regulation in education is motivated
by considerations no different from the concern for
a patients well-being, which leads us to prescribe
standards of medical practice. Similarly, we insist
on a drivers licence to ensure the safety of
pedestrians on our roads. Note that public
intervention here is guided by the motivation to
defend private interests, as the actions by doctors
and drivers, undertaken in their private interest,
[45]

have an impact on the well-being of others. So,
what is so special about educators? Their
performance actually determines the life chances
of a very large number of individuals in society.
But the most important reason for the state to

remain in higher education is that the private sector
is yet to demonstrate its capacity to create
knowledge on a sufficient scale. Where is the
research that creates knowledge? Even in these
professional courses there is more research in
public institutions than in the private ones. There
are exceptions such as the Christian Medical College
in Vellore whose alumni now reside in some of the
major research universities of the world. But it is
germane to the context that the college is not a
profit maximiser. Similarly, one of the reasons for
greater knowledge creation in public medical
schools is that they often have large hospitals
attached to them. This enables the apprentice to
learn by doing, arguably the best way to learn. The
practice of combining teaching with the provision
of medical care, which requires huge investments,
is directly related to the feature that the underlying
objective is not the pursuit of profit. But leaving
out research, and outside of medical education, even
when it comes to the mere training of professionals,
it would be difficult to hold that a significant
number of private institutions have yet surpassed
the IITs and the IIMs.
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Another argument for privatization of

professional education that has been made is that
doctors and engineers, trained using the tax payers
money, have now begun to enter politics. As a
democracy, we should actually be rejoicing that
public life is now attracting individuals from a more
diverse educational gene pool. Of course, there
could be a problem if all our young doctors and
engineers deserted their original professions, but
this does not appear to be the case yet. On the
other hand, it is only a false consciousness that
makes us proud when many of them who have
been trained using the tax payers money leave the
county to practise overseas. But the answer to this
malaise is surely not the privatization of
professional education, but to expect that these
youth in question serve in India, if not in the public
sector itself, for a brief period after graduation, in
lieu of which they repay the cost of their education.
Versions of this principle are invoked in many parts
of the world while we have not given much thought
to the issue.
commercial interests and electoral vote banks. Prime

Minister Manmohan Singhs incisive observation
about Indias economy, that it is over-regulated but
under-governed, especially rings true in the
educational sector. This must make us reflect upon
how the higher education system is to be governed
to serve public interest.
Regulation
When calling for the regulation of even privately

funded professional colleges, it must be flagged and
not merely acknowledged that Indias regulatory
agencies can be ham-handed in their interventions
and are perceived to be corrupt. No public interest
is served by an overbearing government, and we
need continuing social audit of regulation in higher
education. Also, it is believed that politicians
influence the regulator to further the interests of
private institutions owned by them or their clients.
But this deficit only provides an argument for
drastically reforming how our regulatory bodies are
populated and run rather than a case for
dismantling them.
We have all read reports of professionals with
dubious qualifications performing surgery or flying
passenger aircraft. The counterpart to this is the
regulation of education. While the government has
at times intervened intrusively, especially when it
comes to admission, it has by and large left
ungoverned the functioning of even aided public
colleges. The most egregious instance of this is the
practice of publicly aided colleges auctioning their
faculty positions. State Governments have chosen
to look the other way for fear of hurting vested
The arts and sciences
It is when we go outside the professions

altogether that we find the case for retaining the
public sector in higher education the strongest. The
private sector is not a presence much felt among
the arts and sciences as these subjects do not always
command high exchange value. But we take our
cue from the market only at our peril. The function
of the arts and sciences is to hold a mirror to society
so that it can form an image of itself, which helps
us understand where we come from and see where
we are going. A profit-oriented private sector is
unlikely to be interested in such a task.
There is much that must leave us unhappy about
the functioning of Indias public higher education
sector. It has held the country back in many ways,
principally by not responding with solutions for
our pressing needs. It cannot be left the way it is.
So it is time that its record be subjected to open
social audit, prior to it being thoroughly reformed.
[46]

All expansion should be put on hold till the latter
task is completed. But there is no case for it to be
privatized wholesale, not even its professional
colleges. Equivalently, once an effective regulatory
framework is in place, it makes little sense to stymie

the growth of the private sector in higher education.
Source: The Hindu
INDIAS QUEST FOR JOBS

Across the country, incremental employment
demand is slowing quite significantly. If the average
GDP growth rate continues to hover at 4.5% to 5%
per year, the current employment situation will not
improve, and India will never generate a demand
for labour that is even vaguely in line with its future
supply.
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When the growth of national income slows

down, that of employment follows. This is so basic
a principle as to approximate a truism. But the
current condition of Indias economy requires it to
be stated.
The decline in Indias real gross domestic

product (GDP) growth has been dramatic over nine
consecutive quarters. It has shrunk by 3.1
percentage points, from 7.5% in April-June 2011 to
4.4% in April-June 2013. The decline of growth
has been particularly sharp in manufacturing,
dropping by 8.6 points, from 7.4% in April-June
2011 to minus 1.2% in April-June 2013.
Construction has also taken a significant hit, down
from the heady double digits of four years ago to
7% in April-June 2012, and then to 2.8% a year
later. Similarly deflated are trade, hotels, transport,
and communicationsfalling from 9.6% in AprilJune 2011 to 6.1% a year later, and to 3.9% in
April-June 2013.
The employment picture is equally disturbing.
According to the Planning Commission, between
fiscal years 2004-05 and 2009-10, employment
growth slowed, increasing by merely 2.7 million
people. The largest absolute decline in the five years
leading up to 2009-10 was in agricultureby 15.7
million people, or 6% of the number employed in
2004-05. The second-worst crunch was in
manufacturingdown by 7.2 million people, or
almost 13% of those employed in 2004-05.
The decline alone is worrisome enough. More
disconcerting is the sharp fall in the percentage
change in employment for each percentage change
in value added, a metric known as employment
elasticity. In the aggregate, employment elasticity
slumped from 0.44 in 1999-2000 to 2004-05 to 0.01
during the period 2004-05 to 2009-10. Simply
stated, a 1% increase in value added led to 0.44%
growth in employment during the first period and
virtually none in the second.
The decline in elasticity has been truly alarming

in some sectors. Manufacturings elasticity has
fallen from 0.76 in the first period to minus 0.31 in
the second. Agricultures is down from 0.84 to minus
0.42. And, probably most disturbing given its share
of GDP, the services sector has slumped from 0.45
to minus 0.01.
Size of tomorrows problem
To appreciate the challenge that India faces in

generating adequate employment over the next
three decades, it is useful to examine two scenarios
for the Worker Population Ratio (WPR), which is
the ratio of workers to the population of men and
women.
In the first scenario, the WPR remains fixed at
the rate estimated by the National Sample Survey
in 2011-12 through 2040. In the second scenario,
after 2015, the male WPR rises by 2.5% every five
years, while the female WPR increases by 5% (due
to the much lower current female WPR).
Multiplying the WPR by the relevant population
statistics gives a reasonable estimate of the number
of men and women who might be in the job market
upto 2040.
The situation looks grim even if the WPR
remains fixed. An additional 30 million jobs will
need to be created between 2010 and 2015which
will not happen given the depressed economy and
that only 2.7 million extra jobs were added between
2004-05 and 2009-10. As it stands today, India has
neither the growth nor the required institutional
flexibility to create 6 million extra jobs per year
upto 2015 and over 5 million per year from 2015
to 2025.
Things get worse under the second scenario,
which incorporates the more realistic assumption
that, armed with a better education, the percentage
of men and women joining the labour force will be
higher. Under this setting, India will need to find
44 million additional jobs between 2015 and 2020
at an annual rate of a little less than 9 million.
These numbers are not exact, but they
underscore the urgent need to create much wider
employment in the coming years.
[47]
Road ahead
There are those who believe that India can
never hope to achieve significantly higher
employment without the freedom to fire. However,
India has reasonable labour market flexibility.
The second issue relates to a geographical

mismatch between labour supply and demand. It
exists in large measure, but it is not a problem, as
labour is far more mobile than commonly believed.
In the last quarter of the 19th century, the rural
poor of several districts of Bihar and Eastern Uttar
Pradesh (then the United Provinces) went as
indentured labourers to Durban, Mauritius and
Trinidad. The same districts supplied workers for
the cotton textile mills in Bombay and Ahmedabad
and the jute mills of Calcutta. Today, every large
city and each major factory town is populated by
workers from other parts of the country.
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The vast unorganized sector, which accounts

for more than 90% of Indias approximately 470
million workers, has no entry or exit barriers.
Moreover, the legal constraints that allegedly
prevent extra hiring in the organized sectorsuch
as sections 25(N) and 25(O) of The Industrial
Disputes Act, 1947, or provisions of the Contract
Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970are
often overstated.
likely be tempted to bridge the gaps by setting up

more state-financed vocational training institutes,
but recent history shows that most of these have
not taken off. Instead, India should rely on private
training institutionswhich have been successful
in some sectorsand on-the-job learning.
No doubt creating legal flexibility can help. But

the barriers to employment growth lie in an
environment that is increasingly cramping the
countrys growth potential.
For example, the National Highways

Development Programme is slated to construct
47,476 km of highways. As of July 2013, only 42%
had been built, 25% was under implementation,
and the remaining 33% had not even been awarded
for construction. The pace is dismal: about 8 km
per day, compared with the target of 20 km per
day. Why so? Because successful bidders are
overleveraged and do not secure adequate funding
on time, coupled with a so-called pro-people stance
in many state governments that creates expensive
barriers to acquiring the land needed for widening
highways. The construction sector has a great deal
of de facto flexibility in the use of workers; still,
growth and the demand for labour has slowed.
Another example is the telecom industry. On 2

February, 2012, the Supreme Court of India
cancelled 122 mobile telecom licences allegedly on
account of rigging to generate below-market prices.
Since then, it has been virtually impossible for the
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India and the
department of telecommunications to allot
additional permits and spectrum. An employmentintensive sector, the slowdown has reduced its
growth and its potential for creating additional jobs.
Theres a long list of sectors with high
employment elasticity that have slowed on account
of lower growth as well as judiciary and regulatory
overreach. For instance, bans imposed by the
Supreme Court have a played a major role in
sharply reducing iron ore output and, with it, a
possible loss of some 200,000 direct jobs. Examples
continue. But it is useful to consider three other
labour-related issues.
First, the skills that will be needed over the next
two decades are in short supply. Governments will
The third issue is the impact of the Mahatma

Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act
(MGNREGA), which provides at least one hundred
days of guaranteed employment in a financial year
to every household whose adult members volunteer
for unskilled manual work. Despite leakages,
MGNREGA has raised rural incomes across India
and tended to increase daily wages in rural India
and among unskilled migrant labour in urban India.
Employers view MGNREGA wages as impeding a
flexible and sufficiently cheap labour market, but it
is not as significant a problem as made out to be.
This brings to the fore a set of recommendations
for the new government.
Focus on bringing back 7.5% GDP growth.
This is a must if India is to entertain the
slightest hope of creating jobs for atleast an
additional 30 million people, and possibly 44
million.
Devise reforms that can substantially grow
the more employment-intensive sectors:
agriculture, manufacturing, mining and
quarrying, construction, transport, storage,
and communications, education, health, and
real estate. The kind of restrictions that have
hampered growth, such as those in
telecommunications, need to be reviewed and
removed.
Help industrieswhether manufacturing,
utilities, or infrastructureget access to land
to build factories, power plants and
highways. Although proponents of the Right
to Fair Compensation and Transparency in
Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and
Resettlement Act argue it rectifies serious
[48]

do not matter anymore. For one, 90% of
employment is in the unorganized sector, which is
beyond the reach of such laws. Besides, there is
sufficient flexibility in organized manufacturing to
keep demand for labour relatively elastic. If the
next
administration
adopts
the
above
recommendations and unerringly targets growth,
there can be hope that a more sensible and flexible
labour market could accompany much needed
additional employment.
Source: LiveMint
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imbalances, it will significantly increase the

costin price and procedural delaysof
securing land for non-agricultural use. We
need to relook at the law and make
amendments that, at the very least, reduce
procedural delays.
I am intentionally not making a case to abolish
labour legislation such as the laws mentioned
earlier. History has shown that these are politically
impossible to repeal; therefore, no government will
raise such issues. And, as suggested earlier, these
INDIAN CITIES GASP FOR BREATH
It has long been suspected but never established

as a comparable fact. New Delhi is a city with one
of the poorest air quality in the world. New data
released by the World Health Organization (WHO)
show that in 2013 the city had a very high
concentration of particulate matter of size 2.5
microns (153 micrograms/cubic metre). Thirteen
of the 20 cities with the dirtiest air are in India,
and Patna, Raipur, New Delhi and Gwalior occupy
the top four spots.
Particulate matter of that size is considered
particularly hazardous from the viewpoint of
elevated risk of respiratory diseases, stroke, cancer
and heart diseases. Air pollution can no longer be
ignored: It has led to seven million deaths globally
in 2012. The burden of diseases generated from air
pollution is particularly heavy on poor countries
that are unable to devote the right amount of
resources to public health.
If one considers particulate matter more than

2.5 microns but less than 10 microns, the number
of cities with poor air quality rises even further.
Agra, Allahabad, Amritsar, Bhopal, Chandrapur,
Dehradun, Kota and Lucknow, places usually not
associated with a high degree of pollution, are right
in the middle of Indias pollution map. The number
of afflicted cities are longer. (The database of such
cities can be found here).
Many of these cities are in trouble because of

weak environmental regulation of industries and
the huge expansion in vehicular traffic on their
roads. Clean air is a public good and globally, the
starting point for providing it is to establish air
cleanliness standards. These are further classed into
norms for vehicle emissions, industrial pollution and
the like. Generally, a national-level pollution control
authority sets the standards and sub-national
authorities enforce them.
In India, this has not worked. The laying of
standards comparable to the international best is
always delayed. The evolution of vehicular emission

norms is an example. Higher and better emission
norms have always met with resistance before they
are adopted. For example, India is yet to put in
place the latest European Union standards in this
respect. The last mile of this implementation
processenforcementhas always been very weak.
Because of this failure on part of implementing
authorities, India has had to rely on an imperfect
system of provision of public goods. On a number
of occasions in the past, the Supreme Court has
imposed updated standards and has also enforced
implementation.
In 1992, the apex court ordered the availability
of lead-free petrol, CNG as an alternative fuel,
provision of catalytic converters in vehicles and the
adoption of Euro 2 emission norms from 1995. More
than any other executive action, this single
intervention of the court did much to restore air
quality in India.
This is, however, an imperfect way to provide
this public good (along with others such as clean
and potable water). Over time, as the number of
vehicles plying on Indian roads rises dramatically,
judicial intervention cannot be a solution. As the
WHO list highlights, some of Indias most polluted
cities are so widely dispersed that a centralized
order cannot be enforced effectively. Incentives for
providing such public goods have to be localized.
As matters stand, this is an expensive proposition.
State Governments do not have the wherewithal
to adopt and implement these standards. The
incentives will come indirectly. For example, if the
health costs due to elevated PM rise to such a level
that the cost of cleaning up air becomes a cheaper
option. Too much pessimism should not be read
into this. Globally, too, in many cases the efforts to
clean up air and water have emerged after the
costs of poor air and water quality have become
unbearable.
Source: LiveMint
[49]
CHRONICLE
IAS ACADEMY

12ST MAY 2014 TO 18TH MAY 2014
Call: 9953120676, 9582263947

CONTENTS
TOPICS
Pg. No.
National ............................................................................................................................ 4
International .................................................................................................................. 16
India and the World .................................................................................................. 20
Economy ......................................................................................................................... 22
Science & Technology ............................................................................................... 28
Health .............................................................................................................................. 30
News in Brief................................................................................................................ 32
Editorials ......................................................................................................................... 39
NATIONAL
BHARAT STAGE V FUEL BY 2020
Towards Clearner Air
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Air pollution is a cause of worry in many cities

in India, especially in metro cities. In 2013, the
Global Burden of Disease study said that outdoor
air pollution was the fifth-largest killer in India
and around 620,000 early deaths occurred from
air pollution-related diseases in 2010.
A panel on automobile fuel emissions standards

recommended the government to introduce the
stricter Bharat Stage V emission norms across India
by 2020 to curb growing air pollution in the
country, which is home to 13 of the dirtiest 20
cities, as revealed by the World Health
Organization study. The panel was constituted by
the Planning Commission with Saumitra
Chaudhuri as the head to draw up Indias auto
fuel emissions standards road map till 2025. The
panel was set up in December 2012 to revise Indias
auto fuel emissions standards, submitted its report
to the petroleum ministry on 3 May. According to
the panel, oil refineries, as a first step, will be
required to stop production of the Bharat Stage III
fuel and move to Bharat Stage IV by January 2017.
Adoption of Bharat Stage IV fuel in India is
restricted to just 30 cities after being introduced in
2010.
Bharat Stage V standard specifies a maximum
of 10 parts per million (ppm) of sulphur in fuel as
against 50 ppm in Bharat Stage IV and Bharat
Stage III (150 ppm). Sulphur in fuel makes it dirtier
and lowers the efficiency of catalytic converters
which control emissions. To meet the stricter fuel
emissions standard, refiners will have to spend an
estimated Rs. 80,000 crore, while auto makers will
Initially, Bharat Stage IV-Plus (BS-IV+) norms

will be implemented in major cities from 2016,
followed by a national rollout of BSV in 2022.
This process will slash sulphur levels form 350

ppm under BS-III norms to 50ppm initially and
then to just 10ppm eventually
But auto cos want BS-V norms by 2016 itself to

encourage retrofitting & replacement of old
vehicles, while allowing them to hike prices.
Oil cos, on the other hand, may have to spend

over Rs. 75,000 cr on upgrading facilities to
produce the required quality of fuel.
also have to make vehicles suited to the higher

quality fuel. If the recommendations are accepted,
it may lead to an increase in the price of the older
Stage III fuel, as the committee has recommended
closing the 75 paisa price gap between Stage III
and IV fuel. The panel has also suggested that the
difference in excise duty on standard and premium
fuel be removed. Currently, the cleaner branded
fuel is taxed at a higher rate.Two and three-wheeler
makers have been given an additional two years to
meet Bharat Stage IV norms.
If the report is accepted, most of north India
will introduce Bharat Stage IV by 1 April 2015.
Other regions, including Kerala, Karnataka,
Telangana, Goa and Union Territories in western
India, will shift by 1 April 2016. The panel has
recommended that all of north India will then shift
to Bharat Stage V by 1 April 2019.
MORE CITIES TO GET BS-IV AUTO FUELS
According to the Ministry of Petroleum and

Natural Gas, by March 2015, the supply of the
eco-friendly, primarily low sulphur, and also
relatively costlier Bharat Stage-IV petrol and diesel
is to be extended to 24 more cities. This is being
done to go beyond the Auto Fuel Policy 2003
recommendations. As mandated by the policy, BS[4]
IV fuels were launched in the National Capital

Region and 13 cities since April 2010.
Based on the report of a committee it constituted
to identity 50 more cities, the Ministry took the
higher grade fuels to 26 more cities, starting with
seven in 2011-12. The criteria were most polluted
cities, state capitals and cities with a population of
Weekly Current Affairs: 12 May to 18 May, 2014
t

over a million. The same parameters remain for
the rest of 24 cities. The journey has been far from
smooth, riddled with delays considering the time
taken to ensure uninterrupted availability of the
higher grade fuels and fine-tuning the logistics.
Introduction of BS-IV fuels is about a transition
from BS-III that also adds a marginal load to the
retail price.
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Information provided to Parliament shows that

investment in upgrading refineries for producing
BS-III/IV auto fuels was Rs.32,000 crore. This was
over about ten years. Even as the government plans

to extend the supplies calls for more funds, public
sector refineries and oil marketing companies yearn
for appropriate returns on such investments. More
clarity on the reimbursement is needed as the
government looks to phase out BS-III fuels in more
cities. As per the statistics for the first nine months
of last fiscal, share of BS IV petrol in total
consumption was 24 per cent while in the case of
diesel it was 17 per cent. In 2013-14, total petrol
consumption was 17.12 million tonnes and diesel
68.36 million tonnes.
BIG CHALLENGES FOR THE NEW GOVERNMENT
Elections in India are a time of high alert, as

violence during this time is inevitable. This time
too, during the Lok Sabha elections, while five
paramilitary soldiers and three polling officials
carrying voting machines were killed in an attack
by Maoists on 24 April in Jharkhand, a poll officer
was shot in Kashmir on the same day. These
conflicts, which fuel extremist attacks, centre
around the model of Indias economic growth. The
deaths of nine people from violence are related
directly to the general election, occurring in and
around polling booths are an early warning to the
next government that it must start thinking about
how to balance economic growth with social justice
and equity. These deaths mostly in areas hit by
Maoist violence, highlight the conflicts that the
incoming government will have to deal with.
According to S.L. Rao, former Director General
at National Council of Applied Economic Research
(NCAER), With the aspirations of the youth fired
up the new government will have to factor in these
aspirations while thinking about addressing
inequality. He said that while inequality in the
country has increased in the past 10 years, the
good news is that the majority of the poor have
not become poorer and that the overall poverty
ratio has reduced and this means that while a few
of the people have become extremely rich, the mass
of the population is also doing better than before.
Planning Commission figures show that the
number of Indians who were below the poverty
line declined to 22% of the population in 2011-12
from 29.8% in 2009-10 and 37.2% in 2004-05.
However, unemployment rates have not shown a
drastic change although the rate at which the
economy grew increased from 4% in 2003 to 4.5%
in 2013. According to the World Bank, the
unemployment rate went down from 4.3% in 2000
to 3.4% in 2012. Latest 2011 Census figures have
underscored the links between economic growth,
consumption and aspirations. Data released last
year show Indians living in slums are not different

from others in cities in terms of their ownership of
assets, including consumer products and property.
This justifies growing aspirations, which increases
the desire for better jobs.
Whether to grow first, and then worry about
distribution of wealth, or to make sure that all
sections of society grow together, and how much of
one can be compromised for the other, will be some
of the tough decisions facing the new government.
New governments other challenges include:

Another trade-off related to the potential for

conflict that the incoming government will need
to consider is that between economic
development and environment. Economic
growth will have an impact on the
environment, which then will need to be
compensated for.
Naxalism was not an extraordinary threat to
the country and was manageable. It has
grown in the country because of the
incompetence and non-governance of
successive governments. Maoists need to be
dominated by use of force and then be
brought to the negotiating table. They can be
reasonably contained.
Conflicts around environmental issues and
land acquisition are set to grow in the
country, with industries wanting to expand
and grow, and locals unwilling to part with
their land or live in a degraded environment.
The coming government must prioritize
resolving conflicts that have grown around
environment clearances, and around
allocation of natural resources.
The need to have a natural resource allocation
policy that benefits all, but especially the poor
as well as allows prudent and sustainable
use of these resources.
[5]
NCA REHAB CENTRE SHIFTS TO CHENNAI

as the training base for coaches, physios and
umpires. The NCA will seek high-performance
assistance from Australian Institute of Sports,
England and Wales Cricket Board and Cricket
South Africa. An NCA team will discuss the issue
with ECB during India's tour of England in June.
Revision of a rather 'obsolete' coaching manual,
recruitment of coaches for the five zonal cricket
academies and subjecting ZCAs and state
academies to reviews were some of the other
decisions taken. The board appointed KSCA
secretary Brijesh Patel as the new director of NCA.
Patel replaces Sandeep Patil, the current chairman
of the selection committee.
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The National Cricket Academy's rehabilitation

centre will shift to its new facility at the Sri
Ramachandra Medical University in Chennai, as
was revealed by NCA chairman TC Mathew. NCA
has signed an MOU with Sri Ramachandra
Medical University for bio-mechanics and
orthopaedic assistance. The reason for shift is the
space constraints at the NCA facility. The rehab
centre requires a lot of space. The members felt
that the Bangalore facility is too small. The medical
college in Chennai has the latest rehab equipment
and all other facilities for players like swimming
pool etc. The Bangalore centre will continue to
cater to centrally-contracted cricketers and serve
GENDER INEQUALITY IN POLITICS
Gender inequality is a serious concern in most

sectors but the gap between men and women has
narrowed the least in political representation.
Women make up merely 22% of lower houses in
parliaments around the world and in India, this
number is less than half at 10.8% in the outgoing
Lok Sabha. While this dismal statistic has only
improved marginally in India over the last three
election cycles, globally it has almost doubled, from
11.7% in 1997. The proportion of women in the
Italian Parliament, for instance, has increased from
11% (1996) to 31.4% (2013) following a quota policy
implemented in 1997. Countries such as
Bangladesh, Tanzania, Burundi and Argentina have
had similar successes with the quota system in this
period. In India, the cost of entering electoral
politics remains prohibitively high for women
candidates compared to men, especially when
viewed in the context of non-pecuniary costs such
as lack of exposure and cultural barriers.
[6]
The impact of the Women's Reservation Bill,

even if it were to pass, would remain insignificant
unless Indian parties undergo fundamental
structural reforms internally. A healthy pipeline of
women leaders would have to be created within
each party to fill the sudden demand from the
reserved constituencies. In the absence of this
pipeline, international experiences demonstrate that
there is often a risk for quotas to result in tokenism,
confining women candidates only to the reserved
constituencies and causing political dynasties to
proliferate.
An analysis of state elections data over the last
50 years concludes that a part of this problem stems
from the adverse sex ratio among electors.
What is the current scenario?
The study finds that women are more likely

to contest elections in backward states like

t

UP and Bihar where the sex ratio is skewed
against them, making them an electoral
minority compared to men. This implies that,
increasingly, the average Indian voter is male
and women are less likely to win elections in
such states.
Given that the cost of contesting election is
higher for female candidates than male, in
constituencies where the sex ratio is not
adverse, women seek political representation
by the simple act of voting. This means in
places like Kerala and Tamil Nadu, where
there are many more women in the electorate,
women seek political representation by voting
and not by directly contesting election.
This absence is a manifestation of party

apparatuses that are unsupportive of women's
political representation.
Across the political spectrum, women are

scarcely represented in party leadership
positions, and when they are, they are
confined to women's cells. This happens
despite rulings in party constitutions for
gender - based affirmative action.
The current statistics:
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The constitution of the Indian National

Congress, for instance, calls for 33 % seats in
the party's various committees, including the
executive committee and the All India
Congress Committee (AICC), to be reserved
for women.
In practice, none of these rules are met

only five of the 42 members of the Congress
Workers' Committee and just six of the 57
AICC members are women.
In the Trinamool Congress, which pledges
33% reservation for women, none of the 30
vice-presidents are women.
The Aam Aadmi Party has only two among
24, significantly less than their 25%
benchmark for their highest executive body.
The CP(M), which has censured both BJP and
Congress for their failure to pass the Women's
Reservation Bill, has only one woman in the
12-member politburo and 11 in the 74-member
central committee.
The BJP has been more successful with its
internal party reservations - introduced as an
amendment in 2007 - and represents the
presidents of its state and national women's
cells in its central and state election
committees.
While such changes have led to 26 of the 77
members of its national executive committee
being women, there is a fear that these
changes might just be cosmetic.
Women still comprised a mere 11% of the
party's ticketholders in 2009 and are absent
from the party's economic, agriculture,
security and legal working groups.
Why so?
According to a report by the International

Institute for Democratic and Electoral
Assistance, parties play a more significant role
than voters as "gatekeepers" to political office
across political systems and regimes.
In a recent Brookings India Working Paper

titled Women in Party Politics, analyzed
Election Commission data on women
candidates in Lok Sabha elections and studied
the role of women leaders within Indian
political parties. The study found that political
parties had failed to nurture women leaders,
and their claimed support for the Women's
Reservation Bill is not reflected in either their
candidate lists or party apparatuses.
In the 2009 elections, women constituted only
7% of the total number of candidates. A
majority of women candidates contested as
independents (37%), while a smaller fraction
contested as a part of recognized political
parties (29%).
The number of women running as

independents has been increasing at a much
higher rate, indicating that more women are
willing to run, but are not being backed by
parties . Women constituted less than 11 %
of total ticket-holders for almost all parties much less than the 33%.
HIGHEST EVER TURNOUT FOR WOMEN IN 2014 POLLS
The 2014 elections have recorded the highest

ever turnout with 66.38 per cent voters casting their
votes, beating the previous high of 64.01 per cent
in the 1984-85 elections, in order to elect 543
members of the 16th Lok Sabha. With the turnout
details from Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Bihar

the three states that voted for 41 seats, still being
updated and postal ballots from across the country
yet to be counted, the final tally was expected to
be higher as reported by Election Commission
[7]

The three states where the turnout showed a

dip just marginal as compared to 2009 are
Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim.
The Centre spent Rs 3,426 crore for conducting

the elections, said EC Director General
(Expenditure) P K Dash. The government had spent
Rs 1,483 crore in 2009. The 2014 elections also saw
a change in the trend of apathy among urban voters
with many cities recording an increase in their voter
turnouts. Besides Delhi, Mumbai South Central,
Mumbai South, Jaipur, Ahmedabad East, Bhopal,
Indore, Surat, Lucknow and Kanpur registered a
significant increase in voter turnout. Places like
Chandigarh, Gurgaon, Pune and Bangalore also
saw a marked increase.
Among the bigger states, West Bengal

witnessed the highest voter turnout (81.77
per cent), followed by Andhra Pradesh (74.24
per cent), Kerala (74.02 per cent), Odisha
(73.78 per cent) and Tamil Nadu (73.68 per
cent).
Karnataka and Gujarat also witnessed voting

on the higher side 67.28 per cent and 63.31
per cent respectively.
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officials. The final day turnout was 79.03 per cent

in West Bengal, 55.29 per cent in Uttar Pradesh
and 54 per cent in Bihar.
Four states/ UTs which saw the highest

increase in their voter turnouts as compared
to the last general elections are Goa (76.86
per cent in 2014; 55.28 per cent in 2009),
Gujarat (63.31 per cent in 2014; 47.9 per cent
in 2009), Rajasthan (63.02 per cent in 2014;
48.4 per cent in 2009) and Delhi (64.98 per
cent in 2014; 51.85 per cent in 2009).
Significantly, 16 of the total 35 states and UTs

recorded a higher women voter turnout than
men. The states/ UTs where women voters
outnumbered men for the first time ever are
Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Goa, Odisha,
Puducherry, Punjab, Sikkim and Uttarakhand.
What the statistics say?
Of the total 83.05 crore voters in the country,

55.13 crore voters exercised their franchise in
the 2014 elections an increase of 13.40
crore voters compared to the 2009 general
elections.
As many as 15 states and union territories
(UTs) have witnessed their highest voter
turnouts ever. In 32 of the total states and
UTs, the turnout was higher than the last
Lok Sabha polls.
EC IN GUINNESS WITH SIGNATURES & POSTCARDS
As the voters crossed a 30-year turnout record

in the 2014 general elections, the Election
Commission was no behind. Two activities taken
up by the Election Commission to enhance
peoples participation have ended up establishing
Guinness World Records, each in a Gujarat
district.
kartavyabodh abhiyan, for sending postcards

to all voters. These postcards were painted
or written upon by students and NGOs
with the message Thank you for voting
and then posted to all 10.96 lakh voters of
Valsad.
The event of most people sending a postcard

from a single location simultaneously, held
in Bulsar District Cricket Association Cricket
Stadium, Valsad, on May 10, has been
awarded Guinness status, with district
collector Dr Vikrant Pandey and Team
Valsad credited in the certificate.
The EC has also staked claims to the Limca

Book of Records with a move to take over
95,000 signatures on a pledge for ethical
voting on a 1-km-long canvas in Narmada,
as well as a Ride to Vote-Narmada Bike
Rally Championship held on April 28, where
1,214 bikers rode over 60 km to motivate
voters.
Election Commission Book of Records:

[8]
Under the ECs systematic voters education

and electoral participation (SVEEP)
programme, a campaign to sign a one-page
written pledge was taken up in Narmada
district. It collected 58,398 signed pledges on
a single day (April 2) and has now been
awarded the status of a Guinness World
Record with the title Most Pledges to Vote
in an Election. Narmadas district collector
Rakesh Shankar has been named in the
Guinness certificate.
The second record was established in
Valsad, which took up a unique initiative,

t
NEED OF MORE TEACHERS FOR UPCOMING IIITs

operations this year.
The country will need at least 1,000 IT teachers
to man the 20 IIITs (International Institute of
Information Technology) the Union government is
planning to set up in different cities. A good number
of the 1,000 teachers must have a PhD in order to
make the respective IIITs live up to the standards
set up by the IIIT, Hyderabad.
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Indian Institutes of Technology are apex

institutions for engineering education and research.
At present, there are sixteen Indian Institutes of
Technology (IITs) viz. at Bombay, Delhi, Kanpur,
Kharagpur, Madras, Guwahati, Roorkee,
Hyderabad, Patna, Bhubaneshwar, Ropar, Jodhpur,
Gandhinagar, Indore, Mandi and Varanasi. All are
governed by The Institutes of Technology Act, 1961
which has declared them as "Institutions of national
importance", and lays down their powers, duties,
framework for governance, etc.
The Planning Commission had approved a
proposal to set up IIITs on the lines of the one in
Hyderabad. The IIIT-H was set up on public-private
partnership model, with no external control on
administration. The autonomous institute, which
is self-sufficient financially, focuses on research on
various aspects of IT and its utility in areas such as
health and education. Andhra Pradesh has already
got two more IIITs at Sri City and at Kakinada.
Five to six more institutes are expected to start
In order to help relevant stakeholders

understand the Hyderabad model, the Union
Ministry of Human Resources will hold a
workshop. Each institute would get Rs 128 crore
for developing infrastructure. While the Centre gives
50 per cent of it, the State Governments would
contribute 35 per cent, with the remaining 15 per
cent coming from the industry. Four out of the
proposed 20 have started classes, with six more
coming up this year. It, however, could be a difficult
proposition for the institutes to find qualified faculty
as the availability of people with research
background in IT and related issues is very low.
SOLAR PROJECT TO REDUCE KEROSENE SUBSIDY
Fuel conservation is the focus of India's energy

policy and the oil ministry is committed to reduce
consumption of kerosene, which is a major health
hazard. In order to implement cost-effective solar
powered lighting solutions for rural population, the
government has joined hands with IIT Bombay.
The step will help save 36 million litres of kerosene
and slash the subsidy bill on the polluting fuel by
about Rs 30,000 crore a year. The scheme will be
implemented jointly by the ministries of petroleum
and new and renewable energy (MNRE), and
funded through state-run oil firms' corporate social
responsibility (CSR) fund. The ambitious

programme will light up the lives of about 47% of
the country's population that lives mostly in villages.
The Oil ministry has significantly cut diesel subsidy
and through solar scheme it intends to reduce
kerosene subsidy, which is more than Rs 29,000
crore. IIT Bombay started a programme last year
to distribute solar lamps to students living in nonelectrified areas of the country. As the central
government gives 30% subsidy on cost of solar
lamps, the institute contacted the MNRE to support
its community development programme.
MEETING RENEWABLE POWER NORMS
RPO is the minimum stipulated percentage of

the total power that electricity distribution
companies and large power consumers need to
purchase from renewable energy sources. According
to rating agency ICRA, seventeen States are yet to
meet the renewable purchase obligations (RPO)
norms. In 2008, the National Action Plan for
Climate Change specified a minimum RPO target
of five per cent in 2009-10, to be increased one per
cent every year for 10 years to reach 15 per cent by
2019-20. The long-term trajectory for RPO up to
FY-2017 is in place only in 11 out of the 28 States.
The State Electricity Regulatory Commissions

(SERCs) in 20 States have stipulated the RPO norms
for FY-2015. In the remaining eight states, SERCs
in Meghalaya and Uttar Pradesh have made
provisions for continuation of the prevailing RPO
for subsequent years till new norms are approved
by them. Distribution utilities in Himachal Pradesh,
Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have fully met the RPO
norms as specified by their regulators for FY-2013,
while the compliance of discoms in some States
such as Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan are
in the range of 90-95 per cent.
[9]
DISQUALIFICATION IN CASE OF NON-DISCLOSURE OF SPOUSES ASSETS

speech granted under Article 19(1) (a) of the
Constitution.
The Bench added that when the information is
given by a candidate in the affidavit filed along
with the nomination paper and objections are raised
thereto, questioning the correctness of the
information or alleging that there is non-disclosure
of certain important information, it may not be
possible for the Returning Officer at that time to
conduct a detailed examination. Summary enquiry
may not suffice. However, the Bench said that when
the court, acting on an election petition, gave a
finding of fact that there was non-disclosure of
information it would result in his/her election being
declared void and dismissed the appeal by Mr.
Kathore.
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The Supreme Court has held that non-disclosure

by a candidate of the assets and property owned
by his or her spouse and children while filing
nomination for an election is a ground for
disqualification. The Bench constituting Justices S.S.
Nijjar and A.K. Sikri said it was not possible to
reject a nomination at the time of filing on the
ground that the candidate had suppressed
information or given false information. However,
if it was found after a proper enquiry that the
candidate had failed to disclose information, nondisclosure would be a ground for disqualification.
Otherwise, it would be an anomalous situation that
even when criminal proceedings under Section
125A of the Representation of the People Act can
be initiated and the selected candidate is criminally
prosecuted and convicted, the result of his election
cannot be questioned. This cannot be countenanced.
Quoting an earlier verdict, the Bench said that
it was incumbent upon every candidate, who is
contesting an election, to give information about
his assets and other affairs, requirement of which
is an essential part of fair and free elections. Every
voter has a right to know about these details and
such a requirement is also covered by freedom of
In the instant case, Kisan Shankar Kathore was

elected from Ambernath in Thane in Maharashtra.
Arun Dattatray Sawant, a voter, challenged his
election alleging that the appellant suppressed
information on his wifes assets as well as nonpayment of electricity bill. The Bombay High Court
held that non-disclosure had materially a ffected
the election and held his election void. The present
appeal is directed against this judgment.
CBI GUIDELINES FOR INVESTIGATING TOP OFFICERS
As the Supreme Court has struck down the

provision of seeking approval of the government
before initiating any case against officers of the
rank of Joint Secretaries or above, the CBI issued
fresh guidelines asking its officers to take
permission of the Additional Director or above
before beginning investigation against any senior
officer.
As per Section 6A of the Delhi Special Police

Establishment (DSPE) Act, corruption cases against
joint secretary-level officers and above cannot be
commenced or continued without prior permission
from the Union Home Ministry. At present nearly
300 requests from investigating agencies - in most
cases it is the CBI - are pending with the Ministry
and prosecution against them is stuck, as the
Ministry is yet to pass orders on the matter. Now
a division bench of the Madras High Court has
held that investigating agencies need not await
prior permission from the Centre as required under
Section 6A, because the provision is only 'directory,
not mandatory, in nature'.
[10]
The new guidelines include:
According to the circular, any inquiry against

a joint secretary or above officer will have to
be approved by a competent authority; either
an Additional Director, a Special Director or
the CBI Director.
In case of a complaint in any CBI office

against a Union minister, it shall be
forwarded to the Home Ministry for further
action and the file should remain in the
personal custody of head of the branch.
No complaint against any such officer will
be handed over to a CBI officer below the
rank of SP.
The SP should ensure that departmental
records are examined discreetly so secrecy of
the verification is maintained, the guidelines
said and advised to consult the records
informally by contacting the concerned
Vigilance officers or the Head of the
Department.
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During the course of verification of the

complaint, a written requisition for record
should normally be avoided.
But wherever necessary, such requisition must
go under the signature of the Head of the

Branch only and never of the Verification
Officer, failing which concerned unit heads
would be held responsible.
3RD GENDER OPTION INTRODUCED

yet to receive applications from the community,
considered to be 30,000-strong in the state. Colleges
in the state have been accepting applications for
more than a week. Bharathidasan University
Registrar E Ramaganesh said the institution was
also considering scholarships for transgender
students. Some transgenders who came up the hard
way through higher education are happy about
the development, but skeptical, and felt that the
inclusion of the third category would help reduce
dropout rates.
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Soon after the Supreme Court recognized

transgender people as the third gender, who could
be admitted to campuses and work places under
the category, wasting no further time, Tamil Nadu
pioneered in recognizing the rights of the
transgendered, establishing an exclusive welfare
board for the community and giving the 'T' option
in ration cards. Madras Christian College in
Chennai and Bharathidasan University in Trichy
now offer 'transgender' as a third option for
applicants.MCC and Bharathidasan University are
SANKALP
The Ministry of Personnel and Pensions has

launched an initiative to route the skill and
experience of retired government employees back
into socially useful and constructive work. Retired
Government employees can soon find employment
opportunities back in government departments and
other social organizations on a voluntary basis.
There are 50 lakh government employees and there
are also 53 lakh retired employees, most of whom
can still contribute to nation building exercise. The
Ministry of Personnel and Pensions want to tap
their skills and experience through the initiative
Sankalp.
The Ministry has set up a portal where retired
Government employees willing to work in different
departments or social organizations can register.

The interested employees will be asked which city
they would like to work, how many days in a week
or how many hours a day they would like to work.
It is beneficial to them as after retirement, they can
still share their skills and experience and get some
economic benefits in the process.
The Ministry is launching this initiative as a
pilot project, as its pan-India launch has been
delayed due to polls. The pilot project will initially
cover 500 Central government pensioners on a firstcome-first-served basis. To sensitise government
employees on this initiatives, a workshop is being
conducted for those employees due to retire in four
months and the scope of the scheme is being
explained.
NUMBER OF VOTERS FOR NOTA QUITE CONSIDERABLE
A voter may refrain from voting for several

reasons, including the reason that he does not
consider any of the candidates worthy of his vote.
One of the ways of such expression may be to
abstain from voting by not turning up at all,
which is not an ideal option for a conscientious
and responsible citizen. Thus, the only way by
which it may be made effectual is by providing a
button in the EVMs to express that right. This is
the basic requirement if the lasting values in a
healthy democracy have to be sustained, which
the Election Commission has not only recognised
but also asserted. This is the first time the NOTA
option was offered to voters in the Lok Sabha
elections. The option was offered to voters in the
assembly polls in five states in NovemberDecember last year.

The Supreme Court in September last year
upheld the right of a voter to reject all candidates
contesting the elections in a constituency, saying
it would go a long way in cleansing the political
system. As per the Supreme court, Not allowing
a person to cast vote negatively defeats the very
freedom of expression and the right ensured in
Article 21, i.e., the right to liberty,. Democracy
is all about choice. This choice can be better
expressed by giving the voters an opportunity to
verbalize themselves unreservedly and by imposing
least restrictions on their ability to make such a
choice.
[11]

Around six million Indian voters rejected all
the candidates in the fray in their constituencies by
choosing the newly included none of the above
(NOTA) option in the April-May general election.
According to the statistics:

Uttar Pradesh recorded 591,603 NOTAs,
followed by West Bengal with 567,868, Tamil
Nadu 556,668, Bihar 555,418, Gujarat
454,888, Maharashtra 431,648, Madhya
Among the Union Territories, Puducherry

recorded 22,268 NOTAs.
Puducherry leads the list at 3%, followed by

Meghalaya with 2.8%, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat
and the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar
Haveli at 1.8%, Odisha at 1.6%, Jharkhand,
Mizoram and Daman and Diu at 1.5%,
Madhya Pradesh at 1.3% and Kerala at 1.2%.
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Pradesh 391,814, Rajasthan 327,902,

Karnataka 257,822 and Odisha 292,349.
USE OF FAULTY WEIGHING SCALE ON RISE
A large number of shopkeepers in the Capital

have been found selling commodities using faulty
weighing machines. So, it has become necessary to
be sure of the proper weight before buying an item
from a general store or a green grocer. While the
Department of Weights and Measures of the Delhi
Government has launched a special drive to
prosecute stores using unverified weight scales and
have booked 47 shopkeepers for the offence the
department also discovered that several
manufacturers were displaying wrong or misleading
information on the packets of their products.
Hundreds of manufacturers and businessmen were
prosecuted by the department for various
irregularities during the last financial year as well.
Last year, 798 manufacturers were also booked for
displaying wrong or misleading information on the
packets of their products.
As per Section 24 of Legal Metrology Act, 2009,
every person having weight or measure in his
possession, custody or control which is intended or
is likely to be used by him in any transaction or for
protection, shall, before putting such weight or
measure into such use, have such weight or
measure verified from the Weights and Measures
Department. The weighing scales could be verified
from the department through its nine zonal offices
in the city. Moreover, every shopkeeper is required
to exhibit the verification certificate in a
conspicuous place in the premises where the weight
or measure is to be used.
While the department claims to have launched
a special drive to punish defaulters, the number of
inspections conducted by its enforcement wing is
too little as compared to thousands of departmental

stores and small kirana stores across the city. While
the Department claims to have launched a special
drive this year, only 4,662 inspections were carried
out by it in financial year 2013-14. Officials cite
lack of manpower as one of the major reasons for
the limited inspections. According to sources, the
enforcement wing of the Weights and Measures
Department has only around 30 staff including the
six zonal level officers.
TWO IITs IN QS ASIAN UNIVERSITY TOP 50

Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), ranking agency,
has released the annual QS University Rankings:
Asia 2014, which include Asia's top 300
[12]
universities, in association with non-profit

organization The Indian Centre for Assessment &
Accreditation (ICAA) in New Delhi. This year
t
The QS Asia University Rankings

The annual Asia rankings of QS are a regional
variant of their global world university rankings
which have been published annually since 2004.
The Asia rankings are based on responses from
43,000 Asian and international academics, 8,000
Asian and international employers, and evaluation
of 491 institutions.
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While academic reputation is given 30%

weightage for ranking institutions, student/
faculty ratio accounts for 20% of the overall
criteria followed by papers per faculty, citations
per
paper,
employer
reputation
and
internationalisation at 15%, 15%, 10% and 5%,
respectively. Proportion of inbound exchange
students and proportion of outbound exchange
students accounts 2.5% each.
These last two indicators, not used in the
global ranking, offer additional insights into the
internationalization activity at universities in Asia,
assessing the relative size of each institutions
inbound and outbound student exchange
programs.
seventeen Indian universities have made it to the

Asia Pacific rankings compared to 11 last year.
Of the 17, eight universities, including IIT-Delhi
and IIT-Bombay, found a place in the top 100 of
the QS University Rankings Asia 2014 list. The
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur placed at
52 rank followed by IIT Madras (53), IIT
Kharagpur (60), IIT Roorkee (70), University of
Delhi (81) and IIT Guwahati (95).
Among traditional universities, University of Delhi
takes the lead at 81, having slipped one place since
last year. Banaras Hindu University, Panjab, Manipal
and Amity universities, Birla Institute of Technology
and Science, and the Indian Institute of Information
Technology made their debut in the rankings.
QS University Rankings : Asia 2014
2014
Rank
38
41
52
53
60
2013
Rank
38
39
51
49
58
70
81=
95
66
80
89
131=
131=
143
140
Institution Name
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
Indian Institute of Technology Madras
Indian Institute of Technology
Kharagpur
Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
University of Delhi
Indian Institute of Technology
Guwahati
University of Calcutta
University of Mumbai
National University of Singapore (NUS) is

ranked number one in the QS Asia rankings list,
followed by Korea Advanced Institute of Science
and Technology (KAIST) at second place and
University of Hong Kong at number three.These
rankings confirm the emergence of Singapore and
Korea as the regions new major players. NUS and
KAIST have benefitted from major government
investment in research, and operating in English
has helped them attain new levels of global
engagement.
PRESIDENTS NOD TO WHISTLE BLOWERS BILL
People who expose corruption in government

or irregularities by public functionaries can now be
free of any fear of victimization. The Whistleblowers
Protection Bill, 2011, passed by the Rajya Sabha in
February, has received the assent of President and
with the assent of the President, the Bill became
the Act. The Act provides for an institutionalized
mechanism to protect and encourage, those who
disclose information on corrupt practices or abuse
of power by government officials. The law makes
a provision for inquiry into the disclosures and also
prescribes punitive measures to curb frivolous

complaints. According to the Centre, it supplements
the Right to Information Act in fighting corruption.
In 2004, the government introduced a resolution to
empower the Central Vigilance Commission for
protecting whistle-blowers.
The Act also provides for a system to encourage
people to disclose information about corruption or
the willful misuse of power by public servants,
including ministers. As per the law, a person can
make a public interest disclosure on corruption
[13]

before a competent authority, which is at present
the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC). The
government, by notification, can appoint any other
body also for receiving such complaints about
corruption, the Act says. The Act, however, lays
down punishment of up to two years in prison
and a fine of up to Rs 30,000 for false or frivolous
complaints.
It is an Act of the Parliament of India which

provides a mechanism to investigate alleged
corruption and misuse of power by public
servants and also protect anyone who exposes
alleged wrongdoing in government bodies,
projects and offices. The wrongdoing might take
the form of fraud, corruption or mismanagement.
The Act will also ensure punishment for false or
frivolous complaints.
The Act was passed by the Lok Sabha on 27
December 2011. The Bill was passed by Rajya
Sabha on 21 February 2014 and received the
President's assent on 9 May 2014.
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According to a gazette notification of the Act

issued by the Ministry of Law and Justice, any
person who makes a mala fide disclosure, knowing
that it was incorrect or false or misleading, shall
be punishable with imprisonment for a term which
may extend up to two years as well as a fine
which may extend up to Rs 30,000. The Act says
that every disclosure shall be made in good faith
and the person making the disclosure shall provide
a personal declaration stating that he reasonably
believes that the information disclosed by him and
the allegation contained therein is substantially
true. Disclosures can be made in writing or by
email or email message in accordance with the
procedure as may be prescribed and contain full
particulars and be accompanied by supporting
documents, or other material, the Act states.
However, no action shall be taken on a disclosure
if it does not indicate the identity of the
complainant or public servant or if the identity
of the complainant or public servant is found to
be incorrect.
Whistle Blowers Protection Act, 2011
Information related to national security has been

kept out of the purview of the Act. The Act is not
applicable to Jammu and Kashmir, the armed forces
and the Special Protection Group mandated to
provide security to the Prime Minister and former
prime ministers, among others.
Earlier, the CVC was the designated agency to
receive complaints from whistleblowers under the
Public Interest Disclosure and Protection of Informer
resolution (PIDPI) or whistleblowers resolution. The
Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) had
Salient Features
The Act seeks to protect whistle blowers, i.e.

persons making a public interest disclosure
related to an act of corruption, misuse of
power, or criminal offense by a public servant.
Any public servant or any other person

including a non-governmental organization
may make such a disclosure to the Central or
State Vigilance Commission.
Every complaint has to include the identity

of the complainant.
The Vigilance Commission shall not disclose

the identity of the complainant except to the
head of the department if he deems it
necessary. The Act penalizes any person who
has disclosed the identity of the complainant.
The Act prescribes penalties for knowingly

making false complaints.
directed all central government departments to

designate a nodal officer in each ministry to look
into complaints of corruption received from
whistleblowers under PIDPI.
COURT VERDICT A MANIFESTATION OF PATRIARCHAL MINDSET: NFIW

Recently, a Delhi court gave verdict to the
effect that forced sex in marriage is not rape,
which has been opposed by the National
Federation of Indian Women (NFIW). The NFIW
expressed concern over it and termed the verdict
manifestation of patriarchal mindset. The
NFIW General Secretary Annie Raja said that this
verdict will have a very negative impact on
women, especially married women. This will
encourage and perpetuate the alarmingly
increasing menace of marital rape.The verdict
[14]
and position of the court that sex between

husband and wife even if forced, is not rape is
nothing but the manifestation of the patriarchal
mindset which always stands in the way of
gender equality. NFIW is the womens wing of
Communist Party of India. It also said that when
the entire womens movement and the people
who believe in the importance of gender equality
are campaigning and agitating to make marital
rape a crime, the NFIW consider that this verdict
of the Delhi court is highly retrograde.
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Ghaziabad in an intoxicated state. He got the
marriage documents signed by her on March 4,
2013. Later, Vikash raped her and then abandoned
her. The woman had filed a complaint for the same
in October 2013. The court, however, said in its
order that the prosecutrix (the wife) and the
accused (Vikash) being legally wedded husband
and wife, and the prosecutrix being major, the
sexual intercourse between the two, even if forcible,
is not rape and no culpability can be fastened upon
the accused.
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Recently while acquitting a man charged of

raping his wife, Additional Sessions Judge Virender
Bhatt, who presides over the fast track court for
trying cases of sexual offences against women, had
said that the parties being husband and wife, the
sexual intercourse between the two does not come
within the ambit of the offence of rape, even if the
same was against the will and consent of the victim.
As the case goes, the woman had claimed that the
accused named Vikash sedated her and took her
to the office of the Registrar of Marriages in
HARYANA LEADS IN DISPOSING CONSUMER COMPLAINT
Despite the Jago Grahak Jago drive having

caught the consumers fancy and over Rs.409 crore
having been allocated for multi-media consumer
awareness campaign in the 11th and 12th Five Year
Plans, statistics have shown that Delhi lags behind
Haryana when it comes to the number of
complaints filed before the State consumer forum
and the rate of disposal. The consumer fora were
established under the Consumer Protection Act,
1986, for inexpensive and speedy redress of
consumer complaints. At present, there are 629
District Forums and 35 State Commissions with
the National Consumer Disputes Redressal
Commission.
Even as consumers are being asked to move

redress forums against unfair trade practices or
deficiency in services, just 37,005 cases have been
filed before the Delhi State Consumer Disputes
Redressal Forum since its inception in 1988. The
overall rate of disposal for all the consumer fora
across the country is 91.09 per cent.
The statistics also reveal that:
Of the 37,005 cases filed till February 28, as

many as 34,363 have been disposed of with
2,642 complaints pending, bringing the rate
of disposal to be 92.86 per cent.
The Haryana State Commissions disposal rate
is 99.25 per cent with 43,913 cases having
been filed since its inception and merely 328
cases pending disposal.
As far as the district consumer forum is
concerned, Delhi fares much better with 2.49
lakh complaints since its inception, of which 2.34
lakh were disposed of by December 2012. This
brings the rate of disposal at 94.08 per cent.
Here, Haryana lags behind with 93.67 per
cent rate of disposal till January 2014, while
Punjab is ahead at 96.56 per cent.
There are 10 consumer forums in various
districts of the Capital, while Haryana has
21 and Uttar Pradesh 79, of which 75 are
functional.
[15]
INTERNATIONAL
PIPELINE PROJECT TO BE CONTINUED
not yet begun due to lack of funds. Mr. Sharif and
Mr. Rouhani reiterated their commitment to enhance
bilateral trade between the two countries. Mr. Sharif
said there was a lot of scope to enhance trade to $5
billion and that miscreant elements were trying
to sabotage the brotherly relations between Pakistan
and Iran but that will be dealt with firmly. Both
leaders also discussed border security matters and
agreed that better border management and improved
security measures would result in increased bilateral
trade and cooperation.
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Iran and Pakistan have agreed to go ahead with

the gas pipeline project as was discussed in a
meeting between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in Tehran. This
was discussed during Mr. Sharifs two day visit to
Iran. Both the leaders also agreed to continue with
the project as it will be beneficial for the people of
the two countries.
The gas pipeline has been hampered by U.S.
sanctions and while Iran has almost completed its
share of the pipeline, construction in Pakistan has
REBELS APPEAL TO JOIN RUSSIA
Pro-Moscow rebel leaders in eastern Ukraine

called for their region to become part of Russia,
although Moscow stopped short of endorsing their
bid for annexation. The leader of the "People's
Republic of Donetsk", Denis Pushilin, announcing
the result of the vote in one of the two provinces
where it was held, said it was now an independent
state and would appeal to join the Russian
Federation. The people of Donetsk have always been
part of the Russian world. He also said that based
on the will of the people and on the restoration of
historic justice, Russian Federation is to consider
the absorption of the Donetsk People's Republic
into the Russian Federation. There and in
neighbouring Luhansk, a second referendum might
be held on joining Russia, like one held in Crimea,
a Ukrainian region Moscow seized and annexed in
March after protesters ousted Ukraine's pro-Russian
president.
Donetsk and Luhansk together are home to 6.5
million people and represent around a third of
Ukraine's industrial output. Their declarations
create the biggest new self-proclaimed independent
states in Europe since Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia
and the Soviet Union itself broke up more than 20
years ago. According to Donetsk separatists, more
than 80 percent of voters had supported
independence and more than 96 percent did so in
Luhansk.
[16]
The government in Kiev and its Western

supporters say the exercise was absurd, with no
legal basis, insecure polling stations, old voter lists,
ballots that could be easily reproduced and selfproclaimed election officials openly promoting
secession. They say many residents support a united
Ukraine but would have stayed home, both out of
fear of rebel gunmen and to avoid lending the vote
credibility.
Unlike in Crimea, Moscow has not recognised
the two regions as independent from Kiev and has
said nothing to suggest it would endorse their
absorption into Russia. President Vladimir Putin
even called for the referendum to be postponed.
But Moscow indicated clearly that it intends to use
the results of the referendums to put more pressure
on the government in Kiev to recognise the rebels
in the east as a legitimate side in talks. The Russian
stance appears calculated to entrench Moscow's
allies in control of Ukraine's industrial heartland
without taking the sort of overt steps - sending in
ground forces or formally recognising the regions'
split from Kiev - that might invite tough sanctions
from the West.
The United States and European Union both
said they would not recognise the results of the
"illegal" referendum. However, in the latest sign
that the West is not ready to impose more serious
economic measures, France would press ahead with
a 1.2 billion-euro ($1.7 billion) contract to sell
t

helicopter carrier ships to Russia because cancelling
it would hurt Paris more than Moscow.
Losing control of Donetsk and Luhansk would
be a crippling blow for Ukraine, a country of
around 45 million people the size of France and
facing bankruptcy after half a year of turmoil.
Donetsk and Luhansk yield more than 15 percent
of Ukraine's GDP, including around a third of its
industrial output from the giant steel smelters and

other heavy industry of the Donbass, one of
Europe's most productive coal-producing regions.
If they slip out of Kiev's control without being
formally absorbed by Moscow, they would become
by far the biggest and most economically important
of the self-proclaimed independent statelets Russia
protects in other parts of the ex-Soviet Union.
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DEALING WITH CHINA OVER THE SOUTH CHINA SEA

Phillipines Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin
and Vietnams Defense Minister, General Phung
Quang Thanh recently discussed security issues in
connection with their territorial dispute with China
over islets in the South China Sea. Both officials
assessed joint activities of the two defense and
military establishments, and explored other
cooperative initiatives to include humanitarian
assistance and disaster relief cooperation given both
countries experience on natural disasters. Strategy
to cope with the US policy of re-balancing in the
Asia-Pacific through mutual cooperation was also
discussed.
Since the signing of the defense cooperation
agreement between the Philippines and Vietnam
in 2010, defense relations between the two countries

have progressed through high-level visits, personnel
exchanges and information-sharing. These
exchanges fostered government-to-government links
as well as people-to-people ties for the mutual
benefit of the two countries.
China has been claiming nearly all of the
strategically vital South China Sea, called West
Philippine Sea by the Philippines, even waters close
to the shores of its smaller neighbors. Tensions
between China and other claimants to the sea,
particularly the Philippines and Vietnam, have
escalated in recent years amid a series of Chinese
political and military actions to assert its claims to
the waters.
NEGOTIATION OFFERED WITH BOKO HARAM
Nigeria's militant Islamist group Boko Haram

- which has caused havoc in Africa's most populous
country through a wave of bombings,
assassinations and now abductions - is fighting to
overthrow the government and create an Islamic
state. The government of Nigeria has signaled
willingness to negotiate with Islamist militants who
have kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls, that
has provoked global outrage.
population and biggest economy. The abductions

have triggered a worldwide social media
campaign
under
the
Twitter
hashtag
#BringBackOurGirls, and prompted the United
According to senior officials, the government is

exploring options and has made no commitment
to negotiations for the release of the girls and Turaki
declined to comment on possible talks over the
kidnapping itself. An amnesty committee that was
set up by President Goodluck Jonathan last year,
to talk to the Boko Haram militants behind a fiveyear-old insurgency. The committee's initial sixmonth mandate expired without holding direct talks
with the rebels, though it has spoken to them
through proxies. It has since been replaced by a
standing committee empowered to conduct talks,
officials said.
Boko Haram has killed thousands of people
since 2009 and destabilized parts of northeast
Nigeria, the country with Africa's largest
Nigerian states where Boko Haram operates and

implement some form of sharia law (in green)
[17]
UN DESIGNATES BOKO HARAM AS QAEDA-LINKED TERRORIST GROUP

The UN Security Council has officially
designated Boko Haram as a terrorist group
linked to al-Qaeda and slapped sanctions on the
militant group that has carried out bombings and
the recent abduction of over 200 school girls in
Nigeria. The Security Councils al-Qaeda
Sanctions Committee approved the addition of
Boko Haram to its list of individuals and entities
subject to the targeted financial sanctions and
arms embargo.
including the provision of arms or recruits,

will be eligible to be added to the al-Qaeda
sanctions list and subject to the sanctions
measures.
States, Britain, France and Israel to offer help or

send experts to Nigeria. U.S. surveillance aircraft
were flying over remote areas of the northeast.
The video showed more than 110 girls sitting on
the ground in a rural location, the first time they
have been seen in captivity. Though at least some
of them are Christian, and Shekau described them
as 'infidels', they were wearing full Islamic veils
and singing and chanting Muslim prayers. Those

shown were among 276 abducted on April 14
from a secondary school in the village of Chibok,
Borno state, in a sparsely populated region near
the borders with Cameroon, Niger and Chad.
Some escaped but about 200 are still missing.
The group initially threatened to sell them into
slavery.
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The blacklisting by UNSC means that any

individual or entity that provides financial
or material support to Boko Haram,
The militant group has been condemned

globally for its abduction of more than 200 girls
from their school in Chibok. The groups leader
Abubakar Shekau had claimed responsibility for
the abduction in a video released by Boko Haram
and has threatened to sell the girls into
slavery. Boko Haram militants subsequently
attacked a staging base for rescuers killing an
additional 310 people.
Boko Haram
The Congregation of the People of Tradition for Proselytism and Jihad, also known as Boko Haram is
a terrorist organization based in northeastern Nigeria, north Cameroon and Niger. Founded by Mohammed
Yusuf in 2002, the organization seeks to establish a "pure" Islamic state ruled by sharia, putting a stop to
what it deems Westernization. Boko Haram was founded as a local salafi movement and turned into a
Salafi-jihadi group in 2009. It proposes that interaction with the Western world is forbidden, and also
supports opposition to the Muslim establishment and the government of Nigeria. The group is known for
attacking Christians, Muslims and government targets, as well as for bombing churches, mosques, schools
and police stations. The group also kidnaps western tourists and has assassinated members of the Islamic
establishment who have criticized the group. Violence linked to the Boko Haram insurgency has resulted
in an estimated 10,000 deaths between 2002 and 2013. The group exerts influence in the northeastern
Nigerian states of Borno, Adamawa, Kaduna, Bauchi, Yobe and Kano.
REFORMS NEEDED FOR CHILD LABOUR IN US
India is often criticized for the exceptionally large

number of child labours and the U.S. often leads
campaigns to reduce child labour in developing nations
such as India, but this time Washington was
embarrassed by a report on the debilitating effect that
tobacco plantations have had on the health of children
as young seven years working there. Children have
been farming US tobacco fields for generations. But
according to the new report from Human Rights
Watch, the practice is dangerous and in need of reform.
According to the Human Rights Watch
advocacy group, in the absence of child labour
[18]
policies that sufficiently protected children from

hazardous work on U.S. tobacco farms, those
employed there reported vomiting, nausea,
headaches and dizziness, all symptoms consistent
with acute nicotine poisoning.
Among the children interviewed by HRW, many
said that they had begun working on tobacco farms
at age 11 or 12, primarily during the summer, to
help support their families. Most were the children
of Hispanic immigrants who lived in communities
where tobacco was grown and who attended school
full-time. In addition to exposure to tobacco, children
t

working on tobacco farms were said to face other
serious risks linked to their use of dangerous tools
and machinery, lifting of heavy loads, and proximity
to tractors spraying pesticides in nearby fields.
Ironically under U.S. labour law, children working
in agriculture are permitted to work longer hours,
at younger ages, and in more hazardous conditions
than children in any other industry.

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Called "Tobacco's Hidden Children:

Hazardous Child Labor in US Tobacco
Farming," the report documents conditions
on farms in North Carolina, Tennessee,
Kentucky and Virginia. Ninety percent of all
tobacco grown in this country comes from
those four states.
The researchers interviewed 141 child tobacco
workers between the ages of 7 and 17 for the
report. Nearly 75% reported a range of
devastating symptoms, including vomiting,
nausea, headache, dizziness, skin rashes and

burning eyes.
Based on interviews with 141 child tobacco
workers, ages seven to 17, the HRW report
noted that many of them also reported
working long hours without overtime pay,
often in extreme heat without shade or
sufficient breaks, and wore no, or inadequate,
protective gear.
While children in most other economic sectors
are required to be 18 years of age to do
hazardous work, child farm workers as
young as 16 years of age are allowed do jobs
deemed hazardous by the U.S. Department
of Labour.
Children as young as 12 can work unlimited
hours on any size farm as long as they have
a parent's permission.
Children of any age can work in any job on
a farm owned by their parents and there is
no minimum age for children to work on
small farms.
WORLDS FIRST WHOLLY ORGANIC COUNTRY: BHUTAN
According to key politicians in the Himalayan

kingdom, Bhutan is all set to become the first
country in the world to go wholly organic in its
food production and there is a united commitment
to rid the country of chemical fertilisers and
pesticides. Bhutan plans to become the first country
in the world to turn its agriculture completely
organic, banning the sales of pesticides and
herbicides and relying on its own animals and farm
waste for fertilizers. This will mean farmers of the
small Himalayan kingdom of around 1.2m people
will be able to grow less food, the government
expects them to be able to grow more and to
export increasing amounts of high quality niche
foods to neighbouring India, China and other
countries. Around 70 per cent of produce is already
grown without chemicals. While it is possible to
become an organic nation within a decade, this is
dependent on the government being able to
demonstrate that the benefits outweigh the costs
and people should be willing and happy about the
transition and choices. That means investment into
agriculture research and support through
conversion. Despite the commitment from both
main political parties, some experts within Bhutan
worry that they are being too optimistic and that
farmers are actually becoming increasingly reliant
on chemical fertilisers.
Another issue that needs to be addressed if
organic produce is to be economically viable is the
lack of certification capacity within Bhutan. The first

testing laboratory opened only recently. The priority
at the moment should be to satisfy regional markets
that do not need the same level of third party
oversight that buyers in Europe and the U.S.
demand. But as the countrys testing capacity grows,
certification will be a very important requirement
not just for the export market but also for its people
as they need to know what theyre eating. The
organic strategy is to take a step-by-step approach,
advancing region-by-region, product-by-product and
that new innovations are essential to find ways to
naturally eradicate diseases and improve crop yields.
Bhutan's future depends largely on how it responds
to interlinked development challenges like climate
change, and food and energy security.
But in a world looking for new ideas, Bhutan
is already called the poster child of sustainable
development. More than 95% of the population
has clean water and electricity, 80% of the country
is forested and, to the envy of many countries, it is
carbon neutral and food secure. In addition, it is
now basing its economic development on the pursuit
of collective happiness. Bhutan has no fossil fuels
or nuclear, but is blessed with rivers which give
the potential of over 30,000 megawatts of electricity.
So far, it exploits only 2,000 megawatts. It exploits
enough now to export to India and in the pipeline
has 10,000 megawatts more and the number is
increasing.

[19]
INDIA AND THE WORLD

VIETNAM LOOKS UP TO INDIA
scholars around regional security issues such as
US-China relations, maritime issues in the Indo pacific
region and to discuss more broadly Australia's
engagement with Asia. Reacting to DAV president's
comment, Australia-India Institute inaugural director
Amitabh Mattoo said that Chinese assertiveness is
bordering on aggressiveness and there seems to be a
pattern to Chinese Maritime behaviour. Beijing believes
that its time has come and it wants to exercise
hegemony over the whole region. But this behaviour
is short sighted and counter productive.
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Vietnam wants India to "rise quickly" in the

region as it is deeply concerned over China's
assertiveness in the South China Sea as the Chinese
navy is acting without provocation. The remarks
were made at a round table meeting of Diplomatic
Academy of Vietnam (DAV). DAV is said to carry
out strategic research in international relations and
foreign policy, as well as serve as a think-tank for
foreign policy for the ministry of foreign affairs,
the party and the state.The meeting was held for
the delegates to share information with Australian
INDIA, MYANMAR SIGN PACT TO SWAP INFO ON INSURGENTS

India and Myanmar have signed an
agreement on border cooperation, promising to
exchange information on insurgents and drugs
and human trafficking. The agreement was
signed by India's ambassador to Myanmar,
Gautam Mukhopadhyay and Maj Gen Kyaw
Nyunt, Deputy Defence Minister of Myanmar in
Nay Pyi Taw. Both agreed to conduct
coordinated patrols on their respective sides of
the international border and the maritime
boundary. Under the pact, both sides agreed to
exchange information in the fight against

insurgency, arms smuggling and drug, human
and wildlife trafficking. They also agreed to take
steps to prevent illegal cross-border activities.
It is expected that this Memorandum of
Undrestanding will lead to enhanced and tangible
cooperation between Indian and Myanmar security
agencies in ensuring peace, stability and security
along the long international land and maritime
border between the two countries, and thus,
strengthen better ties between the two.
INDIA ASEAN: STRONGER MARITIME LINKS
Representatives from ASEAN countries, the US,

Japan, World Bank, Asian Development Bank,
different Indian ministries and the North Eastern
Council met in New Delhi recently. India has called
for stronger maritime connectivity with the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
to boost trade and for higher growth. It seeks to
establish a joint working group soon to establish a
sea link between India, Myanmar, Thailand,
Cambodia and Vietnam. Besides Myanmar,
Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, ASEAN also
includes Brunei, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the
Philippines and Singapore. India and ASEAN were
in preliminary discussions to extend a highway
connecting India to Thailand through Myanmar to
Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos.
Maritime connectivity can be strengthened
further between India, Myanmar, Thailand,
[20]
Cambodia and Vietnam and production chains

established from the Mekong region to the DelhiMumbai Industrial Corridor and the MumbaiBengaluru-Chennai Industrial Corridor, in addition
to linking up with ports on the eastern seaboard of
India such as Ennore, Vizag, Sagar, etc. Back-end
linkages through coastal shipping networks and
riverine navigation will be important in this context
so as to generate sustainable volumes of traderelated traffic.
The proposed joint working group will seek to
establish a maritime link between India, Myanmar,
Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. India has also
proposed an open sky policy on cargo on a quid
pro quo basis to the ASEAN. This would help to
increase trade, especially in perishable commodities.
Indias efforts to increase ties with ASEAN have
also received support from the US and Japan
t

besides the ASEAN countries themselvesall of
which have a wary eye on the rise of China. Many
ASEAN countries have disputes with China over
islands in the South China Sea while Japan and
China both claim some barren islets in the East
China Sea.
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India launched its Look East policy in the early

1990s to strengthen economic and commercial links
with the fast-growing south-east Asian markets, as
the country opened up its economy. The Indian
government has been forging stronger political and

military links with individual members of the
ASEAN besides becoming a dialogue partner of
the ASEAN Regional Forum that discusses regional
security cooperation . With India looking to increase
its share in manufacturing in gross domestic
product from its current level of 16% to 25% by
2022 to create 100 million jobs, the government
has been making efforts to cement linkages between
ASEAN and Asias third largest economy.
DEADLOCK OVER FISHERMEN TALKS
The talks between fishermen of India and Sri

Lanka, aimed at evolving a sustainable solution to
the Palk Bay conflict, reached a deadlock. The
much-anticipated second round of talks, the first
was held in Chennai on January 27, left fishermen
of both sides rather disappointed.
Northern Sri Lankan fishermen urged their Indian

counterparts to immediately stop using bottom trawlers,
but the Indian fishermen said they needed at least three
years to completely phase out trawling. The Sri Lankan
side was not convinced by the Indian fishermen's offer
to bring down the number of days they engage in
trawling from 120 to 90, either. The Indian side was
represented by 18 fishermen from across.
During the meeting, Indian fishermen assured

their Sri Lankan counterparts that they would stop
using the banned pair-trawling (rettai madippu
valai) and purse seine (surukku madi valai) nets.
However, the northern Sri Lankan fishermen were
uncompromising in their demand that the Indians
immediately stop using trawlers, which in addition
to damaging nets used by fishermen in Sri Lankas
Tamil-speaking Northern Province, poses a major
threat to marine resources. Unable to find
common ground, fisher leaders from both sides
held a quick meeting with their respective officials,
but the outcome did not change either of their
positions.
[21]
ECONOMY
THE FEMALE FINANCIAL PARADOX
According to the research by the Boston
Consulting Group, women are a growing economic
force and expected to add about $6 trillion in earned
income globally over next five years. Yet many women
lag behind men when it comes to using those assets
to plan and build financial security. This
phenomenon is termed as the female financial
paradox.
Indias savings and investment peaked at 36.8

per cent and 38.1 per cent of gross domestic
product respectively in financial year 08-09. So,
a big portion of household savings comes from
women earned income.
Many women see financial planning as a way

to protect themselves against the unexpected. The
problem with concentrating savings in lower risk
assets like cash is that money will not grow fast
enough to help fund retirement and other longterm goals. One area where women need help is to
learn how and where to invest.
2. The 120 basis decline in savings was on the

back of a 90 basis point decline in household savings
(which comprises 73 per cent of total savings.
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Women Driving Household Savings
Even in the Capital, awareness about

investment avenues is limited. When asked about
where they invest, women from different income
groups spelt out their preferences. Most working
women in Delhi, cutting across their economic
status, noted that they want to save for the future
with minimum risk. In India, they insist, it is
important for women to understand their tolerance
of risk and then find an appropriate allocation for
their portfolio.
1. In FY13, the overall savings rate and

investment dropped to 30.1 per cent and 34.8
per cent of GDP respectively.
3. Corporate savings (which comprise 23 per

cent of total savings) declined only marginally
while public sector savings remained constant.
However, the stock market and women still

seem poles apart. A strong financial market with
broad participation is essential for a developed
economy. Indias household savings, being one of
the highest in the world, can be channelized
through equities, bonds and other instruments to
achieve greater financial inclusion and improve
financial markets in India.
TAMIL NADU DISPLACES GUJRAT IN PROJECT COMPLETION
According to CMIEs CapEx rankings , in

Financial Year 2014, when the investment projects
attaining completion across the country clocked a
sharp dip of 37 per cent at Rs 2.32 lakh crore,
seven states led by Tamil Nadu bucked the broader
trend of a dip in overall investment completions.
Completion of projects is the most meaningful
indicator of investment sentiment, when the
invested funds transform into productive assets on
the ground, generate employment and lead to the
commencement of the production of new goods or
services.
Tamil Nadu recorded the completion of

investments worth Rs 26,430 crore during the year,
displacing Gujarat from the top slot. The only time
Tamil Nadu had managed to secure the top position
[22]
with respect to completion of investment projects

was way back in FY03, with the ranking having
been consistently dominated by Gujarat and
Maharashtra since then.
More from CMIE rankings:

In FY14, Maharashtra retained its second

position for the third consecutive year in the
CMIEs latest CapEx database, with
completion of investments worth Rs 24,240
crore.
Karnataka came in third, surpassing Gujarat,
with completion of Rs 21,500 crore worth of
investments.
After leading the charts for three consecutive

t
saw a spurt to record a share of nearly 34

per cent in total investments completed in
the state. This share further rose to 42.5 per
cent in FY14.
Tamil Nadu saw completion of 11 power

projects worth Rs 11,230 crore in FY14.
Over the past six years, there has been a
consistent rise in investments in the power
sector of Tamil Nadu, in line with a capacity
addition of about 7,500 MW in the state since
FY09. Of this, almost 3,500 MW was added
in the last two years alone.
During FY14, Tamil Nadu added a capacity
of nearly 1,631 MW, of which 1,097 MW was
in the thermal sector.
NTPC Tamil Nadu Energy Company Ltd
completed the Rs 3,090 crore MW Vallur
Phase II thermal power project in February
2014 entailing a capacity of 500 MW.
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years, Gujarat was down to the fifth position

in FY14, with projects totaling Rs 20,460
crore achieving investment completion.
In Tamil Nadu, the power sector had the
highest share in the total investments
completed, followed by the services sector.
Traditionally, Tamil Nadu has had the
manufacturing sector, including automotive,
dominate the investment completion lists.
Investments in Gujarat and Karnataka were
mainly driven by the manufacturing sector,
while those in Maharashtra primarily were
largely pertaining to the services sector.
Tamil Nadu was also the leading state in
terms of investments completed in the power
sector. In the past decade, the share of power
sector in investments across the state never
exceeded 16 per cent.
It was only in FY13, that the power sector
BAD DEBT NORMS REVEAL BIGGER ISSUES
According to the IMF, one-third of the corporate

debt in India is held by companies with a debtequity ratio of more than 3, the highest degree of
leverage in the Asia-Pacific region. As per senior
bankers, nearly 7-10% of large companies and 2025% of small and medium enterprises routinely
delay interest payments for over 60 days but less
than 90 days, just shy of the 91 day window after
which an account is termed as a non-performing
asset (NPA).
A change in the Reserve Bank of Indias (RBI)
framework for reporting bad debt, or bad debt in
the making, has underscored that at worst the
problem is bigger than everyone believes it to be,
and that at best most Indian companies are happy
to stretch repayment schedules as far as they
possibly can without being named defaulters. The
data is the outcome of following RBIs new
framework under which banks are now required
to categorise borrowers based on their repayment
track record. The new rules came into effect from
1 April. The change is part of the central banks
efforts to crack down on bad loans and get tough
with serial defaulters.
Gross bad loans of 40 listed Indian banks grew

to Rs.2.43 trillion at the end of December, a rise of
about 36% from last year. Of the 16 listed banks
that have reported quarterly earnings for the March
quarter, gross bad loans have risen 29.84%
compared with the same quarter last year.
According to the RBI, Indian banks credit to large
companies was about Rs.20 trillion as on 21

February, out of the about Rs.25 trillion of loans to
industry.
According to the new stressed assets framework
of RBI, all loans above Rs.100 crore should be
classified under three categories of so-called special
mention accounts (SMA): SMA-0 for those where
the borrowers pay up within 30 days of the
deadline for payment; SMA-1, where the repayment
is made between 30 days and 60 days; and SMA2, where the repayment is made between 61 days
and 180 days.The third category includes
companies that have defaulted on repayments and
those that potentially could, an indication that RBI
wants to treat late payers as potential defaulters.
A substantial number of loans falls under this
SMA-2 category. With the framework in place,
these companies are not be able to approach other
banks and ask for additional funds. If the company
is found to be a habitual late payer, in future, banks
may not even agree to give them working capital
loans. The stressed asset framework of RBI is
applicable for loans above Rs.100 crore, but banks
are expanding it to include loans of lower amounts
as well.
RBI in its framework said that, as soon as an
account becomes SMA-2, the consortium banks will
have to form a joint lenders forum and formulate
a corrective action plan for early resolution of the
stress in the account. Individual banks will have to
closely monitor the accounts reported as SMA-1 or
[23]

SMA-0 as these are the early warning signs of
weaknesses in the account. The lenders can then
try to rectify the stress and put pressure on the
promoters to obtain specific commitments on
repayment. If this does not work, the lenders can
then restructure the assets or even start the recovery
process if there is no clear visibility on the viability
of repayment of the loan.
The new RBI guidelines are a positive

development from the point of view of both banks
and borrowers (corporates). Banks can limit their
exposure to corporates whose accounts face greater
stress. This will bring discipline in the lending
practice. At the same time, by clearly specifying
the cost of default and non-cooperation, the new
RBI framework will also help corporates improve
their credit profiles. Apart from slowing demand,
companies have also been hit by delays in executing
large projects on account of issues related to
environmental and other approvals, land
acquisition, and the availability of fuel and other
mineral resources.
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RBIs framework for dealing with bad loans also

requires banks to share the SMA status of loans
with a central database on large loans that it
maintains. This sharing of information is likely to
put a stop to a practice called evergreening of
loanswhere a company borrows from one bank
at the end of the quarter and repays the dues of
others. This way the companies are simply juggling
their liabilities, without actually are squaring off

their loans.
SMART RBI STEP FOR SMART KIDS
Recently, the Reserve Bank of India announced

that banks would offer independent savings
accounts to children over 10, which has received
mixed response. As per the new RBI guidelines,
children can withdraw, transfer and deposit cash
on their own, just like adults. However, individual
banks will frame their own guidelines on the limit
that they plan to set to the amount of transaction.
Some parents have welcomed it saying this will
help teach children financial responsibility. Others
are of the view that it exposes them to risk of
overspending and fraud. Some believe that this
awareness will translate into financial prudence
and their wards can later graduate to handling
complex products involving credit and debt.
Operating a bank account would inculcate a sense
of financial discipline among minors. They will
then understand the difference between want and

need. Those opposing the decision are doing so on
the grounds that a 10-year-old isn't mature enough
to make or understand financial transactions. Many
fear their kids will fall prey to fraudulent
commercial practices and want to take part in
credit card schemes that banks push as children
are vulnerable to financial losses as they are careless
and that parents will have to bear the loss.
Interestingly, sociologists and psychologists don't
hold the same view. They say that saving habit is
something that can't be inculcated through this
practice. Children are not mature enough to exercise
that kind of independent judgment. Otherwise, they
wouldn't need adult supervision. They view that
to make children realize the worth of money it is
very important they start saving it.
SPECIAL CONTROL ROOM BY SEBI
Capital markets regulator SEBI has set up a

special control room to monitor trading as it
prepares for possible volatility in the Indian stock
markets after the release of exit polls. The Securities
and Exchange Board of India also directed stock
exchanges to recalibrate the dynamic price bands,
also known as dummy filters, for stocks that trade
in the derivatives segment. The control room at
SEBI is to monitor all market activities with
additional care during the election time and a few
days thereafter. The control room was to work at
least till 19 May. Apart from ensuring smooth
functioning of the market, the prime duty of the
team in the control room will be to quickly alert
other regulators, exchanges or clearing
[24]
corporations in case any potential crisis situation

is anticipated.
SEBI has also asked exchanges to conduct an
assessment of their stress-absorbing capabilities with
the amount of available resources, an exercise being
termed as reverse stress tests. While market-wide
circuit filters are in place and stocks in the cash
market have circuit breakers, stocks in the
derivatives segment do not have such trading
restrictions. Circuit breakers are triggered when a
stock rises or falls by a specified amount. In order
to cap any risk emerging from this side of the
market, SEBI has directed stock exchanges to tweak
the dynamic price bands for stocks that are part of
the derivatives segment.
t

markets even as the results come out.
The index-based market-wide circuit breaker
system comes into effect in three stages, in either
direction, at 10%, 15% and 20%. These circuit
breakers, when triggered, halt all trading in equity
and equity derivative markets nationwide. Trading
stops for 45 minutes if the benchmark index moves
10% either way before 1pm and for 15 minutes if
it happens between 1pm and 2.30pm. Trades are
halted for 1 hour 45 minutes if the benchmark
equity index moves 15% either way before 1pm,
for 45 minutes if such a movement happens
between 1pm and 2pm, and for the day if this
happens after 2pm. If the benchmark index moves
20% either way at any time of the day, trading is
halted for the entire day immediately.
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Under the present system, whenever such a

stock moves by 7%, the dummy filter is relaxed to
increase the price band to 15%. Subsequently, if
the stock moves by 12%, the dummy filter is relaxed
to 20% and so on. Sebi has now told exchanges
that these filters will be relaxed only if the stock
moves by 9.9%. The new norms were applicable
from 13 May. The dynamic price bands prevent
trades that are placed beyond the price limits set
by the stock exchanges. The price bands are,
however, relaxed by the stock exchanges when
several trades are executed in either direction in
smaller increments. The idea is to make derivativebacked stocks a little conservative.
The Reserve Bank of India and SEBI were jointly
monitoring the countrys financial markets through
special stress tests for equity, currency and bond
INDIA SIGNS PACT FOR AUTOMATIC TAX INFO SHARING
India and several other countries, including

Switzerland, have adopted a global declaration for
automatic exchange of tax information. The
adoption of the Declaration on Automatic Exchange
of Information in Tax Matters comes in the
backdrop of India stepping up pressure on
Switzerland to share information on alleged illicit
funds stashed away by its citizens in Swiss banks.
The Declaration recognizes that investments kept
offshore by taxpayers should not go untaxed. It
stresses that a key aspect of cooperation between
tax administrations is effective exchange of
information on automatic basis subject to
appropriate safeguards.
46 countries, including India, besides the

European Union, meeting under the auspices of
the OECD adopted the declaration. The Paris-based
Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD) sets the global tax standards
and frames conventions against tax frauds, among
others. The declaration has referred to the
Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative
Assistance in Tax Matters that has been signed by
over 60 nations, including almost all OECD and G20 countries. The agreement gives a big boost to
India's efforts at the G20 for creating a robust global
mechanism for automatic flow of information to
effectively tackle tax evasion.
BATTLE OVER TRADE PACTS BETWEEN DIPP, DEA

(DIPP) and the Department of Economic Affairs
(DEA) under the Finance Ministry are locked in a
stiff turf battle over the mandate to negotiate
investment pacts with other countries. They have
exchanged letters, with each claiming that it is
authorized to negotiate investment agreements with
the country's trading partners. The development
comes at a time when India is battling 17 arbitration
notices from different foreign companies under the
investment agreement that it has signed with other
countries. The turf battle has its roots in the spat
that the two departments had over finalisation of
India-ASEAN CEPA about six months ago. The
Finance Ministry had then written to the Commerce
Department that it would negotiate all future
investment pacts including those as part of

comprehensive trade deals, taking an exception to
the latter unilaterally finalizing text for IndiaASEAN CEPA.
The recently-appointed DIPP Secretary,
Amitabh Kant, shot off a stern missive to the DEA
stating that his department was administrative in
charge of foreign investment policy and therefore
had the mandate to negotiate the bilateral
investment promotion and protection agreement.
The DEA countered the claim by citing the
allocation of business rules. The DEA has been
negotiating the bilateral investment promotion and
protection agreements (BIPPAs), but the commerce
and Industry Ministry has handled comprehensive
economic partnership agreement (CEPA) that also
[25]

includes investment. The Cabinet, however,
overruled the concerns expressed by the Finance
Ministry against the provisions of the agreement
and approved it on December 19. Incidentally, the
Commerce Department had not sent the note to
the Finance Ministry before putting it up for
Cabinet. The Prime Minister's Office had forwarded
the note to the Finance Ministry since the note did
not include the ministry's comments.
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The Finance Ministry is in the process of

revising the draft text for BIPPAs to address issues
that have cropped up in recent times and build

in adequate safeguards to address the
shortcomings of the current draft that makes the
country vulnerable to litigation. The Ministry is
keen that all investment agreements should reflect
the changes in the template carried out after a
review by a committee of secretaries. The new
government will have to resolve the turf battle
expeditiously to prevent any uncertainty as it
concerns the crucial aspect of investment and
foreign investors.
SAHOO PANEL RECOMMENDATIONS FOR DR SCHEME
The Finance Ministry had in September 2013

set up a Committee under the chairmanship of M.S.
Sahoo, Secretary, Institute of Company Secretaries
of India, to undertake a comprehensive review of
the foreign currency convertible bonds and
depository receipt mechanism scheme. The Centre
has accepted the Sahoo panel report that reviewed
the depository receipts scheme framed in the year
1993.
In the second phase, the nine-member panel
has been asked to review the framework on external
commercial borrowings (ECBs) and foreign
currency convertible bonds (FCCBs). It was to have
submitted its report by March-end, but is yet to do
so. The committee has proposed allowing the sale
of DRs against any underlying securityequity or
debt by any issuer, whether listed or unlisted. Only
listed companies have until now been allowed to
sell DRs and only against underlying equity shares.
If market abuse in India is suspected, the Indian
authorities have sufficient powers to investigate
cross-border transactions across other FATF
(Financial Action Task Force) and IOSCO
(International Organization of Securities
Commissions) compliant jurisdictions or in
jurisdictions that have agreements with SEBI.
Therefore, no additional approval for issue or
creation of DRs on the back of Indian securities
should be imposed by Indian laws. Under the
present scheme, a listed company can issue DRs in
any jurisdiction and an unlisted company can do
so in either FATF- or IOSCO-compliant
jurisdictions. In contrast, the committee
recommends that a company, listed or unlisted,
can issue DRs in a jurisdiction which complies with
both FATF and IOSCO standards.
Recommendations of the Sahoo Panel :

[26]
The Sahoo committee had also proposed that
conversion of a DR into the underlying

securities and vice versa should not be
taxable.
DRs should be allowed to be issued for noncapital raising as well as capital-raising

purposes. It also recommends that there
should be no end use restrictions on the funds
raised through the issue of DRs.
Changes proposed by the Sahoo Committee

include one to allow unsponsored depository
receipts, meaning DRs issued against
securities sold by another entity without the
specific approval of the issuer of the
underlying securities.
The draft scheme recommended by the
Depository Receipts
Depository receipts are receipts denominated

in foreign currency created by a depository in
the country of listing. There are two popular types
of DRs global depository receipts and
American depository receipts. DRs are created
against the underlying equity shares of the Indian
company in a predetermined ratio. Depository
receipts were the first option for Indian
policymakers when they decided to throw open
the economy to foreign investors in early nineties.
Beginning of life with foreign investments started
with DRs. DRs are securities sold outside of
India by a foreign depository on the back of
underlying Indian securities, deposited with an
Indian custodian such as a commercial bank.
Companies are allowed to raise capital abroad
through American depository receipts traded on
the New York Stock Exchange or global
depository receipts traded in financial centres
such as London, Luxembourg, Hong Kong and
Singapore.
t

committee covers only DRs; foreign currency
convertible Bonds (FCCBs) have been left out
of its ambit and they would continue to be
governed by the existing scheme until further
notification. FCCBs are debt denominated in
foreign currencies which offer the safety of
guaranteed payments of a bond to investors

with the option to convert the debt into equity.
The committee has recommended that no

specific approval should be necessary for
issue or creation of DRs on the back of any
Indian securities.
PANEL FOR REDUCING GOVT STAKE IN PSBs TO BELOW 50%

The RBI also noted the need for a change

in human resource policy changes and a
more level-playing field with private sector
banks.
Noting governance issues in private sector

banks, the report said that problems arise
from ownership constraints stipulated by RBI
that could misalign the interests of
shareholders with those of top management.
The report also proposed for distressed banks,

private equity funds, including sovereign
wealth funds, be permitted to take controlling
stake of up to 40%.
The boards of banks need to be vigilant about

the quality of the loans.
The report recommended that in the case of

evergreening, penalties be levied through
cancellations of unvested stock options and
claw-back of monetary bonuses on officers
concerned and on whole-time directors, and
that the chairman of the audit committee be
asked to step down from the board.
Key points of the panel report:

Regarding the plan for board appointments,

the panel said that in the first phase, until
BIC becomes operational, a Bank Boards
Bureau comprising former senior bankers
should advise all board appointments,
including those of chairmen and executive
directors.
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Criticising the way in which the lenders are

being currently governed, an RBI panel report said
that the Centre should dilute its holding in public
sector banks (PSBs) to under 50%. The panel was
headed by former chairman of Axis Bank PJ Nayak,
who said that governance at the 26 PSBs suffers
due to several externally imposed constraints like
dual regulation by the RBI and finance ministry
and external vigilance by agencies like the CVC
and CAG.
It said that if the government stake in these

banks were to reduce to less than 50%,
together with certain other executive
measures, all these external constraints would
disappear.
The Centre should distance itself from the

governance of banks and the Bank
Nationalization Acts of 1970 and 1980, along
with the SBI Act and SBI Subsidiary Banks Act,
be repealed as it finds the selection process for
directors is increasingly compromised.
All banks should be incorporated under the
Companies Act and a Bank Investment
Company (BIC) be constituted to which the
government transfers its holdings in banks.
The governments powers in relation to the

governance of banks should also be
transferred to BIC.
[27]

SINKING OF THE EARTH
And researchers have shown for the first time
how the mantle below the Earths crust in the
Antarctic Peninsula is flowing much faster than
expected, probably due to subtle changes in
temperature or chemical composition. This means
it can flow more easily and so responds much more
quickly to the lightening load hundreds of miles
above it, changing the shape of the land. Since
1995, several ice shelves in the Northern Antarctic
Peninsula have collapsed and triggered ice-mass
unloading, causing the solid Earth to bounce back.
CH
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According to new research, though Antarctica

may seem a motionless and frozen landscape, yet
hundreds of miles down the Earth is moving at a
rapid rate, changing the shape of the land at a rate
that can be recorded by GPS. An international
research team led by Newcastle University, UK,
has explained for the first time the reason as to
why the upward motion of Earths crust in the
Northern Antarctic Peninsula is currently taking
place so quickly. Because the mantle is runnier
below the Northern Antarctic Peninsula it responds
much more quickly to whats happening on the
surface. So as the glaciers thin and the load in that
localised area reduces, the mantle pushes up the
crust.
This movement of the land was understood to

be due to an instantaneous, elastic response
followed by a very slow uplift over thousands of
years. But Global Positioning System (GPS) data
collected has shown that the land in this region is
actually rising at a phenomenal rate of 15mm a
year, which is much greater than can be accounted
for by the present-day elastic response alone.
According to the researchers, ice is pressing

down on the Earth and as this weight reduces the
crust bounces back. But they found that while
comparing the ice loss to the uplift was something
else that had to be happening to be pushing the
solid Earth up at such a phenomenal rate. Collating
data from seven GPS stations situated across the
Northern Peninsula, the team found the rebound
was so fast that the upper mantle viscosity or
resistance to flow had to be at least ten times lower
than previously thought for the region and much
lower than the rest of Antarctica.
NEW MASSIVE EXOPLANET DISCOVERED
Scientists have identified a massive new

exoplanet that takes a record 80,000 Earth years to
make a complete orbit around its star. It is 155
light years away from the solar system. The gas
giant has been added to the short list of exoplanets
discovered through direct imaging. An exoplanet
or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar
System. Around 1800 such planets have been
discovered. The first confirmation of an exoplanet
orbiting a main-sequence star was made in 1995,
when a giant planet was found in a four-day orbit
around the nearby star 51 Pegasi.
It is located around GU Psc, a star three times

less massive than the Sun and located in the
constellation Pisces. The international research team,
led by Marie-Eve Naud, was able to find this planet
by combining results from several observatories. GU
Psc b is around 2,000 times the Earth-Sun distance
[28]
from its star, a record among exoplanets. Given

this distance, it takes approximately 80,000 Earth
years for GU Psc b to make a complete orbit around
its star. The researchers also took advantage of the
large distance between the planet and its star to
obtain images. By comparing images obtained in
different wavelengths from the Observatoire MontMegantic (OMM) and the Canada-France-Hawaii
Telescope (CFHT), they were able to correctly
detect the planet. As planets are much brighter
when viewed in infrared rather than visible light,
because their surface temperature is lower
compared to other stars, it allowed to identify GU
Psc b. The researchers were looking around GU
Psc because the star had just been identified as a
member of the young star group AB Doradus.
Young stars, which are just only 100 million
years old, are prime targets for planetary detection
t

through imaging because the planets around them
are still cooling and are therefore brighter, but this
does not mean that planets similar to GU Psc b
exist in large numbers. Researchers use theoretical
models of planetary evolution to determine the
planets characteristics. The light spectrum of GU
Psc b obtained from the Gemini North Observatory in

Hawaii was compared to such models to show that it
has a temperature of around 800 degrees Celsius.
Knowing the age of GU Psc due to its location in AB
Doradus, the team was able to determine its mass, which
is 9-13 times that of Jupiter.
SCIENTISTS WARN COLLAPSE OF ANTARCTICA ICE SHEET

term stability. The mapping was done as part of
NASA's Operation IceBridge, and included other
instruments to measure the height of the ice sheet's
rapidly thinning surface. UW researchers
combined that data with their own satellite
measurements of ice surface speeds. Their
computer model was able to reproduce the glacier's
ice loss during the past 18 years, and they ran the
model forward under different amounts of oceandriven melting. The place where the glacier meets
land, the grounding line, now sits on a shallower
ridge with a depth of about 2,000 feet. he study
considered future scenarios using faster or slower
melt rates depending on the amount of future
warming. The fastest melt rate led to the early
stages lasting 200 years, after which the rapidstage collapse began. The slowest melt rate kept
most of the ice for more than a millennium before
the onset of rapid collapse. The most likely
scenarios may be between 200 and 500 years. The
thinning of the ice in recent decades is most likely
related to climate change. More emissions would
lead to more melting and faster collapse, but other
factors make it hard to predict how much time
we could buy under different scenarios.
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In the NASA study, to be published in

Geophysical Research Letters, researchers studied
the retreat of three glaciers in western Antarctica
over 20 years including the Thwaites glacier studied
by the University of Washington team. The NASA
study concluded the grounding lines of the glaciers
under study were inherently unstable. It added that
its observations concur with recent ice sheet model
simulations to indicate that this sector of west
Antarctica has developed a marine instability.
In the University of Washington study,
researchers used detailed topography maps,
airborne radar and computer modelling to reach
greater certainty about the projected timeline of
the ice sheet collapse. The study honed in on the
Thwaites glacier a broad glacier that is part of
the Amundsen Sea. The researchers said that the
fast-moving Thwaites glacier could be lost in a
matter of centuries. The loss of that glacier alone
would raise global sea level by nearly 2ft. The
new study used airborne radar, developed at the
University of Kansas to image through the thick
ice and map the topography of the underlying
bedrock, whose shape controls the ice sheet's long-
[29]
HEALTH
CREATING COST-EFFECTIVE HEART PUMPS
used to increase cardiac output through a
computer-controlled system. Polyurethane heart
pump was incorporated into the system, to avoid
the huge power costs associated with the imported
devices. The team has applied for a patent; the
device has been tested on animals and led to
satisfactory results and is awaiting some
guidelines from the Drug Controller General of
India so that it can move ahead towards clinical
implant experiments in humans. It has approached
the Department of Biotechnology for funding of
Rs. 4 crore, which will chiefly go towards research
into commercializing the concept.
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Scientists are in process of creating a costeffective mechanical heart pump for patients facing
cardiac failure. A heart failure management centre
at Fortis Malar, and TTK Healthcare have
developed a prototype that can massively cut
surgery costs. In medical parlance, Ventricular
Assist Devices are usually stopgap arrangements
to keep the heart pumping till the patient goes
through a heart transplant.
The longevity of the pump has been estimated
as six months, keeping in mind the average waiting
time in the country for heart transplantation three
months. The device necessary for this complex
surgery is usually imported from the US at a cost
of $100,000. Once commercialized, the pump can
be mass-produced at under Rs.1 lakh.
The ingenuity lies in utilizing an Intra-Aortic

Balloon Pump, a freely available equipment that is
TTK Healthcare is a large manufacturer of the

artificial heart valve it had developed in association
with Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute of Medical
Sciences and Technology. Over 200 hospitals across
the country where heart-valve replacement
surgeries are performed use TTK Chitra Valves.
CONCERN RAISED OVER MERS
The recent outbreak of the MERS virus is of

increasing and serious concern but does not yet
consider it a global health emergency. According
to the World Health Organization, there's still no
evidence of human-to-human transmission of the
virus. It believes that contact with camels and poor
infection control in hospitals are leading this new
surge in MERS patients. Despite a recent surge of
Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus
(MERS-CoV) cases, a meeting of an expert
committee called by the World Health Organisation
has concluded that conditions for declaring a Public
Health Emergency of International Concern had
not been met.
The Emergency Committee has called for a

number of steps to be urgently taken, including
better national policies for infection prevention and
control in healthcare facilities. Since the virus was
first detected in humans two years back, a total of
152 people have now died and 495 have been
confirmed to have contracted the virus in Saudi
Arabia. Most cases of the disease have been in the
desert kingdom. Egypt, Greece, Malaysia,
Philippines, and the U.S. have recently reported
isolated cases in individuals who had travelled there
from the Middle East. The Netherlands has now
reported its first such case.
The fifth meeting of WHOs Emergency

Committee for MERS-CoV, took into account the
fact that there had been sharp increase in cases
since this March, particularly in Saudi Arabia but
also in the United Arab Emirates. But, on the other
hand, there is no convincing evidence right now of
an increase in the transmissibility of this virus.
Infected individuals were not passing on the virus
to more people than before.
In the case of MERS, although camels are the

likely source of the virus, how transmission from
animals to humans takes place is not yet clear. As
MERS-CoV manifested in humans mostly as a
respiratory disease, the prevailing thinking is that such
transmission occurred via a respiratory route,
remarked Ian Mackay, a virologist with the Australian
Infectious Diseases Research Centre at the University
of Queensland. Seasonality could be a factor driving
[30]

t
Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus

failure. The virus MERS-CoV is a new member of
the beta group of coronavirus, Betacoronavirus,
lineage C. MERS-CoV genomes are classified into
two clades, clade A and B. As of 14 May 2014,
MERS-CoV cases have been reported in several
countries, including Saudi Arabia, Malaysia,
Jordan, Qatar, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates,
Tunisia, Kuwait, Oman, the Philippines,
Indonesia, the United Kingdom, and the United
States.
the recent increase. The virus is widespread in camels

in the Middle East and north-east Africa, and the
animals appear to become infected when young.
Increased spread of the virus from camels to humans
might be contributing to the outbreak.
While drinking camel milk had garnered much

attention of late, it is possible that milking a camel
exposes the milker and those around them, as well
as the drinker of fresh frothy milk, to an aerosol
which may contain MERS-CoV. Similarly, camel
urine might generate aerosols during its collection
and application.
CH
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MERS-CoV is positive-sense, single-stranded RNA

novel species of the genus Betacoronavirus. First
called novel coronavirus, it was first reported in
2012 after genome sequencing of a virus isolated
from sputum samples from patients who fell ill in
a 2012 outbreak of a new flu. Middle East
Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS, is caused by a
virus that stems from the same family as SARS.
Symptoms include coughing and fever, which
could lead to fatal pneumonia or even organ
Small virus-bearing droplets and aerosols, which

might be inhaled, could be generated in many ways.
DIAGNOSING TB IN CHILDREN
Paediatric TB or Childhood TB has raised

concern recently. With bacteriological diagnosis of
TB (via sputum samples) in children, particularly
in those aged below five years, scientists are looking
at alternative methods that do not rely on sputum
samples.
Suzanne T. Anderson from the Brighton and

Sussex Medical School, University of Sussex and
others confirmed TB disease by looking for specific
signatures in 51 genes. And the presence of these
signatures in 42 genes could help distinguishing
TB disease from latent TB. The signatures were
RNA transcripts. In the case of the culture-positive
group, the sensitivity was 83 per cent and specificity
was 84 per cent for distinguishing TB from other
diseases similar to TB. But in the case of the culturenegative group, the sensitivity of the new technique
varied widely 35 to 63 per cent in the different
groups that are based on the probability of a child
having TB. However, the specificity was the same
84 per cent.
Children under five years of age have great
difficulty in producing a sputum sample for
examination and even if sputum is collected, there

are very few TB bacilli in the sputum. The majority
of the children, as well as the TB patients were
under five years of age. Besides smear microscopy,
all currently available advanced techniques rely on
sputum samples for confirming TB disease. By
relying on blood samples, the new technique, if it
passes the litmus test, would be able to side-step
the inherent drawbacks of sputum samples and
correctly diagnose more children with TB disease.
The scientists are planning to undertake further
validation in other populations.
This new study adds to the already existing
literature on the potential value of transcriptome
signatures in identifying tuberculosis. The big
challenge will be to translate this basic science work
into a commercial product that can be used in high
burden countries. The technology required is
expensive and complex, and thus much more work
is needed to convert this into a clinical test. Though
the initial results are invariably over-optimistic,
further validation is needed in real-world settings.
[31]
NEWS IN BRIEF
NEWS MAKERS
of Major General and was appointed Chief of Staff
of the Norwegian Home Guard. Her previous
experience with the UN includes service with the
UN Interim Force in Lebanon and the UN
Protection Force. Major General Lund has extensive
experience in multinational operations, including
deployment to Saudi Arabia during Operation
Desert Storm in 1991 and NATOs International
Security Assistance Force (ISAF) Headquarters in
Afghanistan. Major General Lund will replace the
outgoing Force Commander, Major General Chao
Liu of China on 13 August.
CH
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Ashwin B. Pandya
Ashwin B. Pandya, has been appointed as the
Chairman of Central Water Commission & Exofficio Secretary to the Government of India. He
was holding additional charge of the post since
November, 2013. A graduate in Civil Engineering
from Saurashtra University and post-graduate in
Structural Engineering from IIT, Delhi, Pandya
joined the Central Water Engineering Service in
CWC in October, 1977 as Assistant Director. In a
career spanning more than 36 years, he has held
various positions in the Department and other
organizations under the Ministry of Water
Resources like WAPCOS, NWDA and NPCC. He
was elevated to the post of Member (Design &
Research) & Ex-officio Addl. Secretary to the
Government of India in August, 2012. Pandya has
all round experience in water resources sector
involving resource assessment, project planning,
design, execution, operation and safety assurance,
funds management, commercial consultancy
management etc. An avid proponent of irrigation,
multi-purpose and hydropower projects, his stint
as the Chairman of the Organization is expected
to provide much needed boost to the Sector.
Major General Kristin Lund
Major General Kristin Lund, of Norway, has

become the first woman ever to serve as Force
Commander in a United Nations peacekeeping
operation. The Norwegian will lead the UN
Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus which marks its 50th
anniversary this year. UNFICYP was established
by the Security Council on 4 March 1964 to
contribute to a return to normal conditions
following violence and bloodshed between the two
communities on the island.
With over 34 years of military command and

staff experience at national and international levels,
the Major General heads the Veteran Affairs section
of the Norwegian Defense. In 2009, she was the
first female army officer to be promoted to the rank
[32]
2 Lawyers for Supreme Court Bench
The Supreme Court collegium headed by Chief

Justice of India R.M. Lodha has recommended the
appointment of Adarsh Goel, Arun Mishra, Gopal
Subramanium and Rohinton Nariman as apex
court judges.
Subramanium, 56, who was appointed Solicitor
General (SG) remained in the post until July 2011,
when he resigned in protest against Telecom
Minister Kapil Sibals decision to engage Rohington
Nariman to represent his ministry in the Supreme
Court in the 2G case. He was a member of the
Justice J S Verma committee constituted in 2013 to
recommend changes to the criminal justice system
in the wake of the gangrape-murder of a young
woman in a bus in Delhi.
Nariman, 58, whose father Fali Nariman is also
an eminent lawyer, took over as SG after
Subramanium and remained in the post until
February 2013. He resigned following a tiff with
then law minister Ashwani Kumar. Nariman was
designated senior advocate at the young age of 37
years in 1993, with then Chief Justice of India M
N Venkatachaliah amending the rules to allow the
designation.
Ehud Olmert
Ehud Olmert is Israel's former prime minister
who has been jailed for six years by a court in Tel
t

Aviv on charges of bribery and a fine of 1 million
shekels and also ordered authorities to seize 500,000
shekels in funds accumulated by him. He is the
most senior Israeli politician to receive a criminal
conviction. Olmert, with his codefendants were
jailed after being found guilty of receiving millions
of dollars from the Holyland Development
Company the developers behind the Holyland
luxury real estate project in Jerusalem.
He was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in

Economic Sciences in 1992 and received the United
States Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007. He
was a Rose-Marie and Jack R. Anderson senior
fellow at the conservative Hoover Institution, located
at Stanford University. Becker was one of the first
economists to branch into what were traditionally
considered topics belonging to sociology, including
racial discrimination, crime, family organization,
and drug addiction.
CH
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Ehud Olmert is an Israeli politician and

statesman who served as the 17th Prime Minister
of Israel from 2006 to 2009. He was born in the
town of Binyamina during the British Mandate
period over Palestine. He was first elected to the
Eighth Knesset in 1973 at the age of 28 as part of
the Likud political party. In that Knesset he was
especially active on the issue of organized crime in
Israel. After his first post, Olmert was reelected to
the Knesset seven consecutive times.
human behavior and interactions. At the time

he became a Nobel Laureate, Becker said he felt
"economics had the tools" to handle social
questions. Becker's mentor was famed economist
Milton Friedman.
Alenka Bratusek
Alenka Bratusek is Slovenia's Prime Minister

who handed in her resignation to the parliament's
speaker after losing the leadership of her Positive
Slovenia party to Mayor Zoran Jankovic of
Ljubljana, the country's capital.
In 2007 and 2008, she played an active role in
the preparations for the Slovenian EU Council
presidency. As a member of the operational
working group for presidency preparation, she
headed the budget sub-group. In the early election
in 2011, she was elected to the National Assembly
of the Republic of Slovenia on the List of Zoran
Jankovic Positive Slovenia. On 17 January 2013,
at the meeting of the party Council, she was
unanimously elected President of Positive Slovenia.
On 27 February 2013, she was elected Prime
Minister of the Republic of Slovenia with the
support of 55 deputy votes. She thus became the
first woman at the top of the executive branch of
power in the history of independent Slovenia.
OBITUARIES
Gary Becker
Gary Becker was an economics and sociology

professor at the University of Chicago, who had
received the Nobel Prize in economics. He died
recently at the age of 83 after an extended
illness. Becker was cited for breaking ground by
applying economic analysis to a wide range of
AWARDS/PRIZES
National Florence Nightingale Awards
Nurses are the largest workforce in the

healthcare industry in India and nursing services
and capacity building have expanded considerably
since Independence and their roles and
responsibilities have multiplied over the years.
Citing the important role played by nurses,
President Pranab Mukherjee presented the National
Florence Nightingale Awards to nursing personnel
The Florence Nightingale Award
The award was instituted by the Health

Ministry to appreciate the selfless services
rendered by Nurses with devotion, sincerity,
dedication and compassion and is given to the
outstanding nursing personnel employed in
Central, State/UTs. Nurses working in
Government, Voluntary Organizations, Mission
institutions and private institutions can apply
with due recommendation of concerned State
Government. The Award carries Rs.50, 000/cash, a certificate, a citation certificate and a
Medal. Altogether 272 nurses have been
decorated with this award by the Ministry of
Health and Family Welfare so far.
The award is given in memory of Florence
Nightingale, who was a celebrated English social
reformer and statistician, and the founder of
modern nursing. She came to prominence while
serving as a nurse during the Crimean War,
where she attended to wounded soldiers. She
was known as "The Lady with the Lamp" after
her habit of making rounds at night.
[33]

on the occasion of International Nurses Day. The
theme selected by the International Council of
Nurses was Nurses: A force for change A
vital resource for health.
Golden Peacock Award 2014
Restoring the Shaky Mughal Tomb Complex

A unique conservation project was started at
Chausath Khamba-a 64-pillar white marble hall
built during Mughal emperor Akbar's reign-in
Nizamuddin Basti, to dismantle each of its 25
domes for conservation treatment and then put
these back in their original place-a complicated and
risky effort. The work is near completion with only
one dome left to be treated. Chausath Khamba
houses the tomb of Mirza Aziz Kokaltash, the foster
brother of Akbar. Historians say the architectural
plan of this monument was later adapted by the
Mughals to build Diwan-i-Khas at Red Fort.
According to experts never before in India was a
16th century building largely dismantled for repair
and conservation. The work is being carried out by
Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) with cofunding from the German embassy. As each stone
is curved both horizontally and vertically, it was
necessary to number each piece before its removal.
The underlying masonry-which had developed
cracks allowing even a man's arm to go in were
also repaired. The work on the first dome took
almost nine months but as the master craftsmen
developed a good understanding of the structure,
they could later repair three-four domes
simultaneously in almost half the time.
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Technopark Technology Business Incubator

(T-TBI) has been chosen for the Special
commendation for Golden Peacock National
Training Award for 2014. The award instituted
by the Institute of Directors (IOD), India, has
chosen T-TBI for its successful conduct of
various training activities in the areas of
entrepreneurship development, software
engineering, software certification and students
technical skill enhancement. T-TBI is the first
business incubator in India to receive the
prestigious Golden Peacock Award. KIMS
Hospital, Thiruvananthapuram, and Terumo
PenPol were presented with the Golden Peacock
award for quality while the lifetime achievement
award for Business Leadership was presented
to P.N.C. Menon, Chairman Emeritus, Shobha
Developers.
CULTURE & HERITAGE
Golden Peacock Awards
The award was instituted by the Institute of

Directors, India in 1991, and are now regarded
as a benchmark of Corporate Excellence
worldwide. The Award applications are assessed
at 3 (three) levels by independent assessors and
finally by a grand Jury. The Global Awards are
finalized by a Jury headed by Dr. Ola Ullsten,
former Prime Minister of Sweden. Justice P.N.
Bhagwati, former Chief Justice of India and
Member, UN Human Rights Committee, is the
Chairman of the Golden Peacock Awards
Committee. All institutions whether public,
private, non-profit, government, business,
manufacturing and service sector are eligible to
apply. Leadership Awards are determined
through nomination. The Awards are bestowed
annually and are designed to encourage total
improvement in each sector of our business. Past
winners in the category of training awards
include: State Bank of India, Tata Motors,
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Maruti Suzuki
India Limited, SAIL, Reliance Industries, etc.
[34]
Satavahanas Encouraged Tantric Worship
New archaeological evidences indicate that the

Satavahana kings, the rulers of the region between
3rd century BCE and 3rd century CE, practised
Tantric worship. Even though Satavahana kings
were under the control of King Ashoka, who
embraced Buddhism, they have also patronised
Vedic religion Circle.
The presence of silver and gold-plated coins and
terracotta dollars bearing images with close
resemblance to Roman Emperor Tiberius also
confirmed their trade with the Romans. A kaolin
(lime and clay) image of a Brahmin, probably the
Raja Guru, with a thick sacred thread, embracing
the king, goes to show the status enjoyed by
Brahmin priests. Presence of pancha mathas and
images of Lajja Gowri clearly proves it is a Tantric
cult site, where the goddess of fertility was
worshipped. Images of nude women adorned with
jewels reiterate the prevalence of worship of the
fertility goddess. The kings performed yagnas and
sacrificed animals to propitiate the goddess or seek
a male heir.
t

and Edakkal caves in the list of global heritage
sites. Predominantly made of wood, the 500-yearold palace is constructed in the Kerala style of
architecture. The Edakkal caves are known for the
prehistoric rock etchings.
Kerala had submitted research papers to
substantiate the nomination of the two monuments
to UNESCOs world heritage list. Archaeologist
Elizabeth Thomas had been appointed special
officer in charge of coordinating activities for the
nomination. Dating back to the Travancore era,
the Padmanabhapuram palace is located in Tamil
Nadu but administered by the Government of
Kerala. The palace complex has several structures,
including a council chamber, queen mothers palace,
performance hall, central mansion and southern
palace. It hosts ancient Chinese jars, ancient
weapons of war, antique furniture, metal mirrors,
a gallery of paintings, and wood and stone
sculptures.
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The excavations were done in 2009-10 and again

in 2010-11, on a sprawling area of 81 acres and an
11-metre-tall mound. G. Yazdani of the erstwhile
Department of Archaeology of Hyderabad had
come to the conclusion that it was a Buddhist site
after collecting evidence of sthupas and other
Buddhist structures. The archaeologists findings
include sacrificing altars with ashes and animal
bones, yagna kundas constructed with baked
bricks, terracotta bowls for offering grains to gods,
coins, beads, rust-free iron nails and finely-crafted
images of horses. A good amount of rice kept in
the bowls has also been safely collected and will be
sent to a laboratory for a comparative study with
present day rice varieties.
Complaint Against Bara Hindu Rao Hospital
The Archaeological Survey of India has filed a

police complaint against the Bara Hindu Rao
Hospital. The complain is about the new complex
coming up within 300 metres of a protected
monument-- the Mutiny Memorial, erected in 1863
to commemorate those who died in the Revolt of
1857. The monument is in the vicinity of the Bara
Hindu Rao Hospital. The North Delhi Municipal
Corporation, which owns the hospital, started
medical classes last year and intends to build a
new complex for a college.
The corporation, in its budget this year, said

the new complex will have a 10-floor surgery ward
at a cost of Rs.5 crore; a 200-room hostel at a cost
of Rs.5 crore and a pharmacology department to
be built for Rs.1.31 crore. However, work on the
project has been stalled due to the elections and
the model code of conduct. The proposed complex
will not only have medical education facilities, but
also add to the hospitals capacity. Right now, the
hospital does 15,000 surgeries a year in 20 operation
theatres. With the new complex, the capacity will
increase to 60,000 surgeries as it will get 40 more
operation theatres.
Padmababhapuram Palace In Draft

Heritage List
The Padmanabhapuram Palace at Thakkala has

been included in the draft list of UNESCO world
heritage sites. The decision to include the palace in
the draft list was taken by the advisory committee
on world heritage sites which met in New Delhi
on April 15. The government had submitted an
application along with a report to the committee
seeking inclusion of the Padmanabhapuram Palace
TERMS/TERMINOLOGIES
Sponsorship System
Sponsorship systems for foreign workers exist

in most Gulf countries, which employ millions of
foreigners, especially from Asia. The system has
been strongly criticized by human rights groups
and likened to modern-day slavery. The current
exit permit system, which requires the employers'
consent for an employee to leave the country, will
now be replaced with an automated system through
the ministry of interior. The country's "kafala"
sponsorship system, which tethers workers to a
single employer, who can therefore treat his
workforce with impunity, pending the approval of
a draft law, will be abolished. The reforms will
also end the longstanding requirement that foreign
workers obtain their employer's consent before
leaving the country.
Under the new rules, a Qatari employer would
have to show "compelling" proof of any objection
to a worker leaving the country. Disputes would
be resolved within three days. Other possible
changes include mandatory employee welfare
contracts, sanctions against employers who fail to
meet their obligations, and closer bilateral regulatory
links with the workers' countries of origin.
Aneurysm
An aneurysm occurs when part of a blood vessel
or cardiac chamber swells, - either the blood vessel
[35]

is damaged or there is a weakness in the wall of
the blood vessel. As blood pressure builds up, it
balloons out at its weakest point. The swelling can
be quite small or very large - when large it tends
to extend along the blood vessel. As the aneurysm
grows there is a greater risk of rupture - this can
lead to severe hemorrhage, and other complications,
including sudden death. An aneurysm can occur
in any part of the body. They tend to most
commonly occur on the wall of the aorta - the
large trunk artery that carries blood from the left
ventricle of the heart to branch arteries. The aorta
goes down through the chest and into the
abdomen, where it divides into the iliac arteries.
There are two main types of aneurysms: Aortic
aneurysm and Cerebral aneurysm. People of any
age and either sex can have an aneurysm, although
they are more common in men and people over 65
years of age.
wait for the matter to be listed before a regular

bench. In its plea, the MoD sought direction for
early disposal of the ship, claiming 17 years after
its de-commissioning in 1997, its continuation in
the naval dockyard in Mumbai was not considered
safe any longer.
Diagnosis of a ruptured cerebral aneurysm is

commonly made by finding signs of subarachnoid
hemorrhage on a computed tomography (CT) scan.
If the CT scan is negative but a ruptured aneurysm
is still suspected based on clinical findings, a lumbar
puncture can be performed to detect blood in the
cerebrospinal fluid. Computed tomography
angiography (CTA) is an alternative to traditional
angiography and can be performed without the
need for arterial catheterization. This test combines
a regular CT scan with a contrast dye injected into
a vein. Once the dye is injected into a vein, it travels
to the cerebral arteries, and images are created using
a CT scan. These images show exactly how blood
flows into the brain arteries.
Lewis Hamilton won the Spanish Grand Prix

for Mercedes to his fourth victory in a row and
wrest the Formula One championship lead from
German team-mate Nico Rosberg. It was also the
fourth successive Mercedes one-two, and fifth win
in five races for the dominant constructor, Hamilton
took the chequered flag a mere 0.6 of a second
ahead of his rival. Rosberg piled pressure on
Hamilton by slashing the Briton's lead over the last
six laps and looming ominously in his mirrors.
Hamilton, who now has 100 points to Rosbergs 97
after his 26th career victory, leads the standings
for the first time since 2012 when he was at
McLaren. Rosberg, who declared himself a bit
gutted to finish second again and his subdued
body language alongside Hamilton on the podium
more than backed that up felt he would have
got past with one more lap. Daniel Ricciardo was
third for Red Bull. Sebastian Vettel, who started
15th after a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox
change, ended with a strong fourth place.
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The government contended that mere historical

value would not convert the status of the item to
an antique within the meaning of the Antiquities
and Art Treasure Act. Activist Kiran Paigankar
had filed the plea to save the ship from being
scrapped and to convert it into a maritime museum.
He had come to the SC against the decision of the
Bombay High Court that had junked his plea.
DEFENCE
SC Nixed Scrapping of INS Vikrant
The Supreme Court put on hold the

governments request to let it go ahead with its
plan to convert into scrap the countrys first aircraft
carrier INS Vikrant. The government claimed that
the aircraft carrier was affecting national security
and operational preparedness.
A bench of Justices B S Chauhan and A K Sikri
refused to modify the court order, whereby the
government was ordered to maintain a status quo
on its decision. The vacation bench remained
unimpressed with the Centres argument that it
had already incurred Rs 22 crore in its dry docking
and continued to spend annually Rs 5 crore for its
maintenance without any benefits, and asked it to
[36]
SPORTS
Hamilton Wins Spanish GP
Victory for Manipur After 2010
Manipur outplayed defending champion

Odisha to clinch the 20th senior National Womens
Football Championship title, its 17th crown overall,
at the Golaghat stadium. Bala Devi struck twice in
the third and 55th minutes while AIFF Womens
Player of the Year Oinam Bembem Devi found the
target in the 20th minute in the one-sided summit
clash. Odisha reduced the margin in the 91st minute
through substitute Sakina Nesas close-range strike.
Odisha, made up mostly of under-19 players, found
it difficult against the more fancied opponents.
t

Worlds best tennis players will show up at
tournaments armed with new technology they
hope will give them an advantage at Roland Garros
and Wimbledon. Without identifying the players
who would be first to wield the hi-tech weapons,
Eric Babolat confirmed connected racquets, with
sensors feeding back information on the players
forehands, backhands and much more besides,
would be swung in anger for the first time, after a
decade in development.
In essence, the technology-loaded racquets
collect data such as shot power and ball impact
location along with the number of strokes, the level
of spin imparted, total play time, endurance,
technique, consistency, energy and rallies. The
information is transmitted through bluetooth to
smartphones or tablets where players and coaches
can analyse and share their data with other
analysts and online communities. A major benefit
of the connected racquet will be the
gamification of tennis and the added appeal for
new generations.
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Manipur took just three minutes to open the

scoring. Odisha goalkeeper Sita Sharma failed to
judge Bembem Devis cross from the right, which
Bala pounced on and headed it home from close
range. The winner doubled the lead in the 55th
without much fuss as Bembem Devi slammed in a
low cross from winger Mandakini Devi. The second
half started as the first with Manipur dictating terms
and raiding the opposition citadel at will.
Mandakini squared for Bala Devi inside the area,
leaving the 23-year-old with the easiest of tap-ins
to notch up a brace. Bala was adjudged player of
the tournament.
Intelligent racquets, new tool for data mining

in tennis
Declared legal by the guardians of the sport,

the International Tennis Federation (ITF), who
adopted a new rule covering the technology at the
start of the year, selected Babolat racquets will
feature data-collecting sensors in their handles.
[37]
EDITORIALS
DEFENDING INDIAS PATENT LAW
their allegedly new and useful inventions. There
are many problems affecting access to and rational
use of medicines in India but the provisions within
the countrys patent laws, if more extensively and
properly applied, should help rather than hinder
such access. Indias laws and experiences could
provide a useful example for low-income and
middle-income countries worldwide.
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India and its intellectual property (IP) laws have

been the subject of sharp criticism recently. Now,
there is talk of the government invoking emergency
provisions with regard to Dasatinib, a cancer drug.
The decibel level may go up several notches.
Let us look at our law. The sovereignty of a

country includes its power to make laws. Any
person who pursues commercial interests in another
country must submit himself/herself to the laws of
the country. No one can attack our regime as being
weak only because his/her invention did not stand
up to the test of our legislation. Nor can India be
accused of robbing Peter to pay Paul. It sounds
romantic, but it is still robbery.
The Novartis case and the Nexavar case of

compulsory licence (CL) are what have impelled
this attack. Innovation and invention have speeded
up in myriad ways in the last few decades and our
country had committed itself to the obligations
under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of
Intellectual Property Rights. Therefore, it was
necessary for India to revisit its patent law; in 2005,
the Indian Patents Act was amended, Section 3(d)
being one of the amendments. It was the basis of
the Novartis case.
TRIPS recognises that members have the right
to use/adopt measures to protect public health so
long as they are consistent with TRIPS. A recent
study notes: Policy makers in developing and
developed countries need to base their
implementation of intellectual policy rules on these
pro-public health and pro-access principles. The
Doha Declaration is an affirmation of the right to
use the flexibilities in TRIPS, especially by
developing and less developed countries, regarding
access to medicine. The language of the Doha
Declaration emphasises the importance of
implementing and interpreting the TRIPS
Agreement in a way that supports public health.
The TRIPS agreement does not limit the
grounds on which compulsory licences can be
granted, and does not prevent patent applicants
from having to demonstrate enhanced efficacy for
[38]
About patentability, not price
In Novartis, the Supreme Court said that while

harmonising the patent law in the country with
the provisions of the TRIPS Agreement, India had
attempted to balance its obligations under the
international treaty and its commitment to protect
and promote the public health considerations of
people in the country and elsewhere. The thorn in
the flesh Section 3(d) had been challenged by
Novartis before the Madras High Court earlier. But
the court upheld its constitutionality and rejected
the attack on the grounds of vagueness and
arbitrariness. Novartis did not file an appeal against
that judgment. Novartis claimed a patent for
Gleevec, a cancer drug which was refused. Novartis
then appealed to the Supreme Court.
The intellectual property of the inventor lies in
the invention which is claimed to be novel, inventive
and patentable. The patent is a creature of law by
which the state bars public access to that invention
for a fixed period. The economic reward from the
invention is earned during this time after which it
goes to the public domain. Section 3(d) is a test of
patentability. With reference to Gleevec, it is enough
to know that 3(d) inter alia says that in the absence
of evidence of enhancement of known efficacy, the
mere discovery of a new form of a new substance
is not an invention deserving the grant of patent.
Imatinib Mesylate was the known substance and
Novartis claimed a patent for its (the substance)
beta-crystalline form.
The Supreme Court asked: Now, when all the
pharmacological properties of beta crystalline form
of Imatinib Mesylate are equally possessed by
t

Controller-General was criticised. It is incorrectly
projected that the CL was granted on this score
alone. Bayer failed in the other two tests. As far as
working is concerned, the question is this: should
the inventor manufacture the invention locally or
is it sufficient to import it? The Controller held that
working meant local manufacture to a reasonable
extent. The Intellectual Property Appellate Board
(IPAB) said that working could in some cases
mean local manufacture entirely, while in others,
only importation, and that it would depend on the
facts and evidence of each case. Working is not
defined in the Act. This issue will be settled by the
superior courts on review. The power of review by
the superior courts is sufficient to show that our
law provides for safeguards.
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Imatinib in free base form or its salt, where is the

question of the subject product having any
enhanced efficacy over the known substance of
which it is a new form? If an invention fails the
3(d) test, it means there was no inventive step.
There was no intellectual property in the alleged
invention, and nothing that could be stolen. Our
lawmakers meant to check any attempt at repetitive
patenting or extension of the patent term on
spurious grounds, and blocked attempts to keep
an invention evergreen. If those who attack the
Indian patent regime claim that a minor tweaking
of chemicals is a giant step forward for an
invention, then our legislators begged to differ. The
Supreme Court said that it was not ruling that all
incremental innovations were non-patentable and
that every case would be examined. Our law says
that new forms of known substances which do not
have enhanced efficacy are in effect advances
without real innovation. Therefore, Section 3(d) is
actually a catalyst for genuine inventions.
The Supreme Court said that Novartis had

attempted to get a patent for a drug which would
otherwise not be permissible under our law. Filtering
doubtful patents is the strength of our law and not
its weakness. The Novartis judgment was not about
price but about patentability.
Let us look at the compulsory licence (CL) case,
i.e. Bayer vs. NATCO. The mechanism of CL is
essentially about balancing patent rights with access
to medicine. The words social and economic
welfare, public health, national emergency
and public health problems/crises used in the
Act are all pointers to the CL provisions being
centred around access to medicine.
A CL is granted subject to three conditions;

one of them is about price. The reasonable
requirement of the public with regard to the
invention should be satisfied. The price at which it
is made available should be reasonably affordable.
It should be worked in India. A CL may be granted
if the answer is a no to any of the three conditions.
The interpretation of the word working by the
Compulsory Licence
Even in the U.S., it is believed that CL would

be a beneficial addition to its patent system, would
not significantly impact the incentives for
innovations, and that, a compulsory licensing
provision would ensure that the American public
is adequately supplied with a product. If the
patentee is unable to produce enough supply to
meet the demand for the product, another producer
should be able to license the product to meet the
demand. This is precisely what our law says!
In all these years, there has been only one
instance of the grant of compulsory licence. In fact
it was refused recently for Dasatinib, the drug that
is now in the news. And Section 3(d) has been
invoked by our patent office only rarely. If Gleevec
was refused a patent, it is only because it failed the
test of Indian law. Refusal is not an act of robbery,
for it means there was no invention and hence no
property in the first place. There is really no case
made out for there being a weakness in Indian
law. The pharmaceutical industrys anxiety behind
the clamour against Indian law cannot be on
account of any inherent weakness in our law, but
only because other countries will follow it.
Source: The Hindu
WEAK INSTITUTIONS, EASY TARGETS
Two terrible events indicate a deepening political

crisis in Nigeria. The first occurred on the night of
April 14, when the extreme Islamist group Boko
Haram abducted 276 girls from the government
secondary school in the north-eastern district town
of Chibok; the group seized eight more girls from
another village on May 5. In the second atrocity,
also on May 5, Boko Haram slaughtered 300 people

in a 12-hour attack on Gamboru Ngala, a border
town undefended because troops were elsewhere
in the region. There was local resistance; in Chibok,
15 soldiers fought the attackers for five hours, but
no reinforcements arrived despite prior warnings
from neighbouring villages. Parents and others
[39]

Pakistani daily Dawn, for example, bluntly
condemned the kidnappings). Secondly, reliable
information is scarce; the three most north-easterly
states have been under a state of emergency for a
year, and the international airport in one of them,
the Borno capital Maiduguri, has been closed since
Boko Haram attacked it in December. Tragically
for Nigerias 170 million people, who have never
voted on communal lines, this has helped Abuja
avoid accountability and has worsened the
atmosphere; the Christian Association of Nigeria
has published the names only of the Christian girls
kidnapped, saying they had been sold to unclean
people. Worse still, front-line troops are not getting
better training or weaponry despite government
claims of increased defence outlays, and police
officers say they now have to buy their own
uniforms in the market. One clear implication is
that corruption and weak public institutions make
countries easy targets for determined terrorist
groups.
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chased the abductors into the forest, and 55 girls

managed to escape, but the area is hilly and densely
forested. Two weeks later, villagers near the border
with Cameroon reportedly saw 11 trucks carrying
a large number of girls, and local intermediaries
say two of the girls have died from snakebite. Boko
Haram had already killed over 80 schoolchildren
in the previous ten months, and its campaign to
make Nigeria a hardline Islamic state has cost 1,500
lives this year alone, including Muslims and
Christians alike. The sect leader Abubakar Shekau
has said in a video that he will sell the kidnapped
girls.
Boko Harams methods are similar to those of
the Ugandan Christian sect the Lords Resistance
Army, which in the 1990s kidnapped girls to be
sex slaves for its soldiers and boys to be child
soldiers. Yet the Nigerian federal government in
Abuja has responded sluggishly. President
Goodluck Jonathan took nearly a fortnight even to
acknowledge the abductions, which he eventually
did in the light of international outrage (the
Source: The Hindu
MIZORAM: BAMBOOZLED BY LAND USE POLICY
Two spectacular bamboo dances, one

celebrated, the other reviled, enliven the mountains
of Mizoram. In the colourful Cheraw, Mizo girls
dance as boys clap bamboo culms at their feet
during the annual Chapchar Kut festival. The
festival itself is linked to the other dance: the dance
of the bamboos on Mizorams mountains brought
about by the practice of shifting agriculture, locally
called jhum or lo. In jhum, bamboo forests are
cut, burnt, cultivated, and then rested and
regenerated for several years until the next round
of cultivation, making bamboos vanish and return
on the slopes in a cyclic ecological dance of field
and fallow. While Cheraw is cherished by all,
jhum is actively discouraged by the State and the
agri-horticulture bureaucracy. Although jhum is
a regenerative system of organic farming,
Mizoram, the first Indian State to enact legislation
to promote organic farming, is now pushing hard
to eradicate jhum under its New Land Use Policy
(NLUP).
Labelling jhum as unproductive and
destructive of forest cover, policy makers and
industry now promote settled cultivation and
plantations, such as pineapple and oil palm,
claiming they are better land use than jhum.
However, oil palm, rubber and horticultural
plantations are monocultures that cause
[40]
permanent deforestation, a fact that the India

State of Forest Report 2011 (ISFR) notes to explain
declines in Mizorams forest cover. In contrast,
jhum is a diversified cropping system that causes
only temporary loss of small forest patches
followed by forest recovery. Understanding this
is crucial to formulate land use policy that is
economically, ecologically, and culturally
appropriate for all the north-eastern hill States.
Organic Jhum
Jhum uses natural cycles of forest regeneration

to grow diverse crops without using chemical
pesticides or fertilizers. Early in the year, farmers
cut demarcated patches of bamboo forests and let
the vegetation sun-dry for weeks. They then burn
the slash in contained fires in March to clear the
fields, nourish the soil with ashes, and cultivate
through the monsoon. In fields that are one to three
hectares in area, each farmer plants and
sequentially harvests between 15 to 25 crops. After
cultivation, they rest their fields and shift to new
areas each year. The rested fields rapidly regenerate
into forests, including over 10,000 bamboo culms
per hectare in five years. After dense forests
reappear on the original site, farmers return for
cultivation, usually after six to ten years, which
forms the jhum cycle.
t

cover, much of it bamboo forests resulting from
jhum. Recent declines in forest cover have occurred
at a period when area under jhum cultivation is
actually declining, while area under settled
cultivation is increasing, suggesting that the land
use policy has been counterproductive to forests.
Oil palm and forest loss

Oil palm, notorious for extensive deforestation
in south-east Asia, is cultivated as monoculture
plantations, devoid of tree or bamboo cover, and
drastically reduces rainforest plant and animal
diversity. In Mizoram, 1,01,000 hectares have been
identified for oil palm cultivation. Following the
entry of three corporate oil palm companies, over
17,500 hectares have already been permanently
deforested within a decade. Promoting and
subsidising such plantations and corporate business
interests undermines both premise and purpose of
present land use policies. As forest cover and
bamboo decline, people in some villages now resort
to buying bamboo, once abundant and freely
available.
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Regenerating fields and forests in the jhum

landscape provide resources for many years. The
farmer obtains firewood, charcoal, wild vegetables
and fruits, wood and bamboo for house
construction and other home needs. The diversity
of food and cash crops cultivated and ancillary
resources provided by jhum fields complicate
comparisons with terrace or monocrop agricultural
systems. One-dimensional comparisons such as
of rice yield per hectare or annual monetary return
can be misleading, because one needs to assess
the full range of resources from jhum field, fallow,
and forest, over a full cultivation cycle, besides food
security implications.
Comparing monocrops like wet rice paddies
cultivated using chemical inputs with organic jhum
is not just comparing apples with oranges. It is like
comparing a pile of pineapples with a basket
containing rice, vegetables, cash crops, firewood,
bamboo, and more. Inter-disciplinary studies
indicate that at cycles of ten years or more, jhum
is, in the words of Prof. P. Ramakrishnan at
Jawaharlal Nehru University, economically
productive and ecologically sustainable.
In Mizoram, we only see jhum fires burning

forests, we fail to see forests and bamboo
regenerating rapidly after a season of cultivation.
ISFR estimated that bamboo bearing areas occupy
9,245 square kilometres or 44 per cent of
Mizoram. For every hectare of forest cleared for
jhum, farmers retain 5 to ten hectares as
regenerating fallow and forest in the landscape.
Also, forests left uncut by jhum farmers contain
bamboo species.
Yet, government policy tilts firmly against jhum.
The States NLUP deploys over Rs.2,800 crore over
a five-year period to put an end to wasteful shifting
cultivation and replaces it with permanent and
stable trades. Under this policy, the State provides
Rs.1,00,000 in a year directly to households, aiming
to shift beneficiaries into alternative occupations
like horticulture, livestock-rearing, or settled
cultivation. The policy has created opportunities
for families seeking to diversify or enhance income.
Still, NLUPs primary objective to eradicate
wasteful shifting cultivation appears
misdirected.
Even before NLUP was implemented, despite
decades of extensive shifting cultivation, over 90
per cent of Mizorams land area was under forest
Detractors of jhum often concede that jhum

was viable in the past, but claim population
growth has forced jhum cycles to under five years,
allowing insufficient time for forest regrowth,
thereby making jhum unsustainable. Reduction of
jhum cycle is serious, but evidence linking it to
population pressure is scarce. In reality, jhum
cycles often decline because of external pressures,
relocation and grouping of villages, or reduced
land availability.
Attempting to eradicate and replace shifting
cultivation is inappropriate. Instead, a better use
of public money and resources would be to work
with cultivators and agroecologists to refine jhum
where needed. The State can involve and
incentivise communities to foster practices that
lengthen cropping and fallow periods, develop
village infrastructure and access paths to distant
fields, and provide market and price support, and
other benefits including organic labelling to jhum
cultivators. Today, the State only supports
industry and alternative occupations, leaving
both bamboo forests and farmers who wish to
continue with jhum in the lurch. Unless a more
enlightened government reforms future policies
in favour of shifting agriculture, Mizorams
natural bounty of bamboos is at risk of being
frittered away.
Source: The Hindu
CORRECTING A HISTORICAL INJUSTICE

Election manifestoes over decades have rhetorically
spoken of six per cent of GDP or more to education
and this election has been no exception; the actual

spending on education is only around three per cent.
[41]

Not surprisingly, school infrastructure and
teaching personnel are inadequate and of poor
quality while the dropout rate is rampant even at
the elementary school stage. The proliferation of
private schools to accommodate those who can buy
their way out of this dismal situation perhaps has
few parallels elsewhere.
Is this a right?
The inevitable question since then has been why

was the right to education dropped from the list of
fundamental rights? What antipathy did Sir Alladi
Krishnaswami Ayyar, a noted legal luminary, and
erstwhile Advocate General of the Madras
Presidency, suddenly acquire against free and
compulsory education? He had been an active
member of the very subcommittee that had
developed, debated, and after a few meetings put
up this clause for approval by the larger advisory
committee. So why this sudden turnaround?
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With the Right of Children to Free and

Compulsory Education (RTE), mechanisms of
accountability are only now being put in place
when such processes could have been instituted
when the Constitution came into force in 1950.
Unfortunately, during the framing of the
Constitution, free and compulsory education, which
was listed for inclusion as a justiciable fundamental
right, was unceremoniously transferred to the list
of non-justiciable fundamental rights later
termed as Directive Principles of State Policy.
inability to ever find enough funds to universalise

education proves the prophecy.
The Constituent Assembly which began its work

in December 1946, on April 22, 1947 was
deliberating on a list of fundamental rights
prepared by the Fundamental Rights SubCommittee. When Clause 23 containing the
provision to make education a fundamental right
was read out, one of the members, M.
Ruthnaswamy asked in surprise, Is this a
justiciable right? Supposing the government have
no money? Suddenly, one of the members of the
Fundamental Rights Sub-Committee, Alladi
Krishnaswami Ayyar, exclaimed, I want the
deletion of this clause.
The acceptance of a suggestion to transfer the
clause instead to the list of non-justiciable
fundamental rights marked the inauspicious
beginning of the Article numbered as 45 in the
Directive Principles of State Policy, a fact of history
that strangely finds no mention in books on the
history of compulsory education in India.
These non-justiciable fundamental rights, it was

prophesied by a member of the Constituent
Assembly, would remain as no more than pious
wishes. This member, K.T. Shah, had pleaded for
making all rights justiciable and had argued that
once an unambiguous declaration of such a
(justiciable) right is made, those responsible for it
would have to find ways and means to give effect
to it. If they had no such obligation placed upon
them, they might be inclined to avail themselves of
every excuse to justify their own inactivity in the
matter, indifference or worse. The history of
[42]
Centre-state relations and rightsThere could

be an answer to this question, but this answer
brings with it a sobering moment of truth, which
on hindsight might prevail upon us to accept and
act upon like an education manifesto for the
future.
New light suggests that had this clause been
taken up even a month-and-a-half later, i.e. after
June 3, 1947, the history of education and of Indian
development could have been very different
indeed.
On June 3, 1947, the Mountbatten Plan for two
nations, India and Pakistan, was proposed, and
within days accepted as inevitable, changing forever
the dynamics of Centre-state relations, from that
of the weak Centre-powerful autonomous states
paradigm of the Cabinet Mission Plan of May 16,
1946, under which the Constituent Assembly had
been set up, to one in which the Centre was strong,
with residuary powers.
It may be recalled that the clause embodying
the right to free and compulsory education had
been developed and disposed of in the Constituent
Assembly in the operation of the weak Centreautonomous units structural scheme well before
it changed on June 3.
What could possibly have been the connection
between the weak Centre-autonomous units
structural design of India and the justiciable
fundamental right status of free and compulsory
education?
Research by the writer indicates that M.
Ruthnaswamy, who had expressed surprise at
finding the right to education among the
fundamental rights, had had an earlier brush with
this clause as a member, a dissenter and a signatory
to the Plan for Post-War Education Development
in India, 1944 better known as the Sargent Plan.
t

The Sargent Plan had set forth a scheme for the
universalisation of free and compulsory education
by 1984 which is best remembered for its huge
estimates of cost and time.
Fiscal autonomyAs is well known, the right

to education was not deleted. It was moved to the
list now known as the Directive Principles of State
Policy, and continued to be discussed and modified
over the next 33 months within the Constituent
Assembly.
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M. Ruthnaswamy was a renowned scholar and

author of numerous books on legislation,
administration and political science, and his
objections to the Sargent Plan, and of almost all
others, adding notes of dissent to the report, were
coloured by the prospect of the countrys impending
fragmentation into several independent dominions
or states as in the Cripps proposals of 1942.
have been shocked by his own failure over a period

of more than two months, to have foreseen the
consequences of this justiciable right in the context
of the politically and fiscally autonomous units
proposed by the Cabinet Mission Plan of May 16.
What else can explain his sudden turnaround,
except to immediately undo this embarrassing
oversight, and hence his outburst, I want the
deletion of this clause?
The recent past had also witnessed calls for

Dravid-anad or Dravidistan as a home for the
Dravidian Tamils, of Azad Punjab for the Sikhs
and Pakhtunistan for the Pathans, etc.
On the one hand, the Cripps proposals

suggested a union of independent units, while the
post-war plan for educational development offered
a costly and coordinated scheme of free and
compulsory education on the other. As is apparent
from the notes of dissent to the Sargent Plan, the
centrally controlled plan, in the context of the
Cripps proposals, was perceived to be a threat to
the political and fiscal autonomy of the independent
units via the subventions that would be needed for
its operation.
On the date on which the right to education
was considered by the Constituent Assembly for
retention as a fundamental right, the proposed
autonomous units of the Indian Union offered by
the Cabinet Mission Plan of May 16, were not
substantially unlike those proposed by Cripps in
1942, nor was the right to education less costly.
Not having been a member of the Sub-Committee
on Fundamental Rights, M. Ruthnaswamy was
surprised to see the right to education among the
fundamental rights and asked, Is this a justiciable
right? Supposing the government have no money?
Alladi Krishnawamy Ayyar, going by his abrupt
demand for the deletion of the clause, appears to
After June 3, 1947, with the acceptance of the

Mountbatten Plan, the weak Centre-autonomous
units structure was discarded. Rendered
meaningless too were the apprehensions of threat
to provincial fiscal autonomy which had governed
the deletion of the right to education. Despite this,
for the remaining period of the Constituent
Assembly, there was no call to reinstate free and
compulsory education to the list of fundamental
rights.
Evidently, the apprehended threats to political
and fiscal autonomy were but rationalisations. The
lack of money is seldom a barrier, for as the Sargent
Plan reminds us, The experience of war suggests
that when a paramount necessity can be
established, the money required to meet it can and
will be found.
So far, the electoral promises of allocation of
six per cent of GDP to education have remained as
pious wishes. It remains to be seen whether
education will be recognised even now as a
paramount necessity, or whether fiscal
apprehensions will continue to override the right
of children to education.
Source: The Hindu
POLITICAL RECIPE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER
The Union Cabinets resolution last week to

clear the proposal for constituting the Polavaram
Project Authority (PPA) has attracted cautious
criticism from the Odisha government. With the
general election in full swing and Telangana set to
come into being, it is obvious that political parties
would leave no stone unturned to gain political
mileage. It is not very important to read between
the lines on the timing of the PPA. Instead, what
is pertinent now is to understand how prepared

the Odisha government is to tackle inter-State water
disputes.
The Union governments compulsion to form
the PPA is logical with the formation of Telangana.
To resolve any inter-State water dispute, the
government can resort to conflict resolution
through the Interstate River Water Disputes Act,
1956, apart from regular dialogue and negotiation.
[43]

concluded that the project had not violated the
GWDT. In principle, while the viability of the
project is clear, ministries have not given their
clearances, and the Supreme Courts verdict is
awaited.
Issues being contested

Interestingly, its not the quantity of watersharing between the riparian States that is the bone
of contention but the height of the dam and
submergence of areas in Odisha. The aspect that
remains unanswered is this: Will the riparian States
really oppose the project in the interest of the people
of their State, or oppose it for the sake of opposing
it? Does Odisha have any plans of mitigating
problems of submergence of vast forest areas and
parts of Malkangiri district? The State government
must know the exact number of people who will
be displaced and the forest areas that will be
submerged in order to substantiate its argument,
not only in courts but in the public domain.
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The PPA is not a constitutional body unless

approved by Parliament. Assessing the thorny road
ahead after June 2, when Telangana will become
the 29th State of India, the Union government
pressed for keeping the project under the Ministry
of Water Resources (MoWR) as a national project.
This has proved to be one of the worst examples
of coordination between the Union and State
governments under UPA-2, as both Chhattisgarh
and Odisha had objected to the project in the
Supreme Court.
Purpose of the project
The purpose of the PPA is to overcome the

projects hurdles and generate investment. But it
is not the PPA, but the riparian States or the apex
court that must approve the project. A
transboundary environmental impact assessment
should be mandatory, which India has been
flouting so far. In 2009, following the request of
the Andhra Pradesh government, the PPA became
a central project following MoWR guidelines. The
Andhra government submitted a revised budget
of Rs.16,010.45 crore, which included the budget
for protective embankments in Chhattisgarh and
Odisha. However, in 2012, the Prime Ministers
Office directed the Planning Commission to
withhold any financial clearance until the
Supreme Courts verdict on the Odisha
governments case against the project. No verdict
or stay order against the construction of the project
or against declaring it to be a national project has
been pronounced by the Court so far. Should the
PPA then represent the Union government in
pending cases related to the project in the apex
court? This is a legal issue.
On May 5, the Odisha government, after
reading the Union Cabinet resolution, responded
through the media that it will resort to the apex
court on the rationality of the PPA. It should be
noted that the Supreme Court appointed an
inspection panel in 2011 to find out if the
construction of the project was being carried out
according to the terms of the Godavari Water
Disputes Tribunal (GWDT) Award, 1980. The panel
The Indira Sagar (Polavaram) multipurpose

project has faced rough weather with noncompliance of environmental assessment, proper
surveys, lack of abidance with existing laws and
large-scale displacement and submergence of forest
and inhabitants. Without protective embankments,
four villages and 648.05 hectares of land will be
submerged in Odisha, and eight villages and 795.59
hectares of land will be submerged in Chhattisgarh
(as per the Andhra Pradesh governments
submission on February 2014).
Can the Odisha government refute or
substantiate this? Odisha should revisit all interState agreements, drawn or not drawn, to plan for
the future. This will certainly pave the way for
settlement of water disputes and for comprehensive
development of the water sector in the State.
Since 1946, the leaders of Odisha have
successfully negotiated with neighbouring States on
inter-State water disputes. The government must
find a long-term approach within its Department
of Water Resource to deal with such skirmishes in
the near future.
Source: The Hindu
THAI RECEIPE FOR A COUP
The unrelenting stand of anti-government

protestors in Thailand appears increasingly like an
open invitation to the countrys non-democratic
forces to step in and take charge. The protestors,
banded together as the Peoples Democratic Reform
[44]
Committee, have already won several rounds in

their seven-month battle against the Pheu Thai
party, but their demand for reforms before
another election is held has an all-too familiar ring:
in Pakistan last year, a cleric rallied followers and
t

Minister, Niwattumrong Boonsongpaisan, wants to
hold a planned re-election on July 20, but the
protestors, led by the former MP Suthep
Thaugsuban and the Democrats, are firmly against
it.
The larger battle behind the crisis is between
the royalist-military establishment and urban elites
represented by the Democratic Party, and populist
forces unleashed by Pheu Thai whose political
power is located in the rural areas. The prolonged
showdown has had its impact on the economy:
investors are losing confidence, more tourists are
staying away, affecting a mainstay sector, and the
growth rate has been revised downward twice since
November. The King and the Royal Thai Army
have stayed away from playing an overt role or
taking sides in the developments so far, but if the
impasse continues, voices that are now calling for
a military intervention will grow louder. That would
be a step in the wrong direction. The political
leaders would be far better off reaching a
compromise.
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laid siege to Islamabad to demand that the elected

government be dismissed and a caretaker
government of unelected people be appointed to
rid the system of corrupt politicians before elections
were held. It is a measure of how matters have
changed in both countries that the Pakistani
establishment did not succumb to the temptation,
but Thailand may be fast sliding towards it. Last
year, in an effort to calm down protestors, Yingluck
Shinawatra, who became Prime Minister in 2011
after leading the Pheu Thai to victory three years
earlier, downgraded her government to a caretaker
and announced early elections in February. Though
the opposition Democratic Party claims it has
nothing to do with the street protests, it boycotted
the election. Pheu Thai won but the victory was
annulled by the Constitutional court. Ms. Yingluck
remained caretaker, but was last week removed
from office by the same court on charges of misusing
the powers of her office. The verdict has polarised
the country further, with pro-Shinawatra red shirts
convinced there is a witch-hunt against the party
and its leadership. The new caretaker Prime
Source: The Hindu
TO SAVE A LAKE
A multi-dimensional group of experts from the

Bangalore-based biodiversity and environment think
tank, ATREE (Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology
and Environment), embarked on a wide-ranging
study to save Srinagars Dal Lake. The ATREE team
of experts includes a water quality scientist, a
hydrologist, a sociologist, an institutional
management and governance expert and an
ecologist. The study, backed by the United Nations
Development Programme, will close next month,
and will be a one-of-its-kind, comprehensive enquiry
into the challenges faced by Kashmirs crown jewel.
living around it have been reclaiming land for

cultivation. Sewage facilities have not been provided
to either the locals living around the lake or the
houseboats catering to tourists.
The famed Dal Lake is Srinagars most

important landmark and figures right on the top
of every tourists Kashmir itinerary. Lined by
beautiful gardens dating back to the Mughal era,
the lake covers an area of about 24 sq km. More
than 50,000 shikara (wooden boat) dwellers live in
its vicinity and 1,200 stationary boats float on its
waters. Over the years, the lake has come under
increasing threat because of population explosion,
encroachment and pollution, leading to the ATREE
study being commissioned by the UNDP on the
Jammu and Kashmir governments request.
There has been no dearth of probes on the Dal

Lake. Interventions date back to the 1970s, when
the chief minister of the time, Farooq Abdullah,
set up an initiative to look into its development.
In 1990, a New Zealand firm was hired to study
the lake and in 2000, the Indian Institute of
Technology at Roorkee undertook yet another indepth analysis of the lakes problems. The
problems of the lake are well known and many
PhDs have been earned by studying it, said Irfan
Yasin, the vice chairman of the J&K governments
lakes and waterways development authority who
oversaw the lakes development until his
retirement a few weeks ago.
The Dal Lakes problems are numerous. Its area

is shrinking because of development activity. Those
The ATREE study, which started early this year,

is a rapid scoping analysis, an intense study
accomplished in a short period, describes Ganesan
Balachander, ATREEs director and the head of its
Dal Lake study team. Looking at what has been
already done, the team hopes to plug the gaps in
knowledge and recommend further steps,
Balachander said.
[45]

However, its breadth and multi-disciplinary
approach to problem-solving set apart the
Bangalore-based ATREEs investigation. The think
tank has put together a composite team to address
a problematic issue from a variety of angles in
natural sciences, social sciences, economic policy
and technology.
ATREEs report on the Dal Lake, to be

submitted in June to the J&K government, will be
written in the context of what is feasible, giving
it a greater likelihood of being sustained. It is a
practical, pragmatic approach, says Shah of
Kashmir University. For instance, it will suggest
an institutional mechanism where locals will be
fully involved in reviving the lake such as
training local lake managers and dealing
sensitively with those living around the lake. The
report will cover the duration, techniques and
costing of the revival project, including awareness
building, involving local citizen groups and
providing alternate livelihoods.
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Manzoor Shah, a botanist from the University

of Kashmir who specialises in aquatic ecology, says
that the solutions from past studies have been
engineering-based rather than ecological. The
studies have been fragmented and there has been
no coordination between the study experts, agencies
managing the lake and people living around the
lake. Despite many interventions and huge
spending, there has been little change, said Shah,
who is coordinating the UNDP study teams efforts
on the ground.
Its influential work has been instrumental in getting

southern Indias Western Ghats recognised as a
Unesco World Heritage site, blockading mining in
the Kudremukh forests and granting community
forest rights to the tribal people of BR Hills near
Mysore.
The Dal Lake holds profound meaning for the

people of Kashmir, says ATREEs Siddharth
Krishnan, a sociologist on the team. Im looking
at the lake peoples aspirations, the future they
envisage for it and the future they see for themselves
around the lake, he said. Another ATREE team
member is studying the efficiency of the five sewage
treatment plants situated around it. Balachander
himself is looking at the governance issues.
ATREE, which specialises in biodiversity and
conservation research is funded by the likes of
Wipro, Tata, the Ford Foundation, the World Bank,
Infosys co-founder S.D. Shibulal and another cofounder Nandan Nilekanis spouse, Rohini Nilekani.
A holistic approach that also involves local

residents could be the way forward in dealing with
Indias myriad ecological challenges. Balachander
says ATREEs integrated approach has a good
chance of succeeding provided political will and
funding come together, of course. If the Dal Lake
revival studys suggestions are successfully
implemented, then a similar management regime
can be built around wetlands, water bodies and
rivers around the country, from the Ganga in the
north to the lakes of Bangalore.
AFTER THE REFERENDUM
According to the organisers of eastern Ukraines

referendums on local autonomy on Sunday, the
people, by a landslide majority, chose self-rule. But
the pro-Russian separatists claims of high voter
turnout and margin of victory, in a vote decried by
Kiev and the West as a sham, have been
undermined by the absence of independent
monitors and reports of polling irregularities. In
any event, the consequences of the referendums
remain unclear, as they are illegal under Ukrainian
law and Russia has not yet moved to annex another
chunk of its neighbours territory, as it did in
Crimea. Yet, the ballots are likely to embolden proMoscow separatist groups, deepening fears that
Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, will
encourage these proxies to disrupt the May 25
presidential election.
Thus far, the Kremlins response to the
[46]
referendums has been ambiguous. While it has said

that it respects the will of the population of the
Donetsk and Luhansk regions, it also indicated
that mediation efforts between the separatists and
Kiev were welcome. Given that last week, Putin
urged the separatists to postpone the referendums
which they worryingly failed to heed and
offered to withdraw Russian troops from the
Ukrainian border, this could signal his intention of
avoiding a full-fledged invasion that would force
the West into imposing tougher economic sanctions.
After all, Putin has achieved most of his goals
through this crisis without conceding very much,
with the annexation of Crimea having been
accepted, Western opprobrium finding limited
expression and his domestic popularity soaring.
But the gathering undercurrent of violence that
accompanied the referendums, the caches of
t

weapons concentrated in the hands of militants
and the possibility that Russia will keep up a proxy
war against Ukraine, threatens to destabilise Kiev
and usher in a bloody civil war that could spin out
of control. Talks between Ukrainian politicians and
civil groups under the aegis of the Organisation for
Security and Cooperation in Europe a littleknown body that has emerged as an unlikely
neutral broker are to take place today, and the

German foreign minister is in Ukraine to launch
the dialogue. Kiev will perhaps have to devolve a
degree of power to these regions. But unless the
separatists can be persuaded to let the presidential
election proceed without incident, the negotiations
will mean little.
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MGNREGA CLAIMS, AND FACTS

Nirmala Sitharamans misinformation (How
not to run a programme, IE, May 9) on the
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment
Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), which employs one
in every four Indian rural households every year,
is disappointing. Consider these facts. For the first
time in over two decades, the increase in rural
consumption (a proxy indicator for income), at 19
per cent, has outpaced the increase in urban
consumption. Rural poverty declined at a rate three
times faster between 2004-05 and 2011-12, than
the preceding decade (1993-94 to 2004-05). Farm
wages in real terms increased impressively postMGNREGA. Let us now look at Sitharamans
claims.
Claim 1: The scheme failed in its clearly defined
goal of providing employment during the lean
months, supplementing income and reducing
poverty.
Evaluations, as well as data from the field,
suggest that almost 65-70 per cent of the
MGNREGAs employment is provided during the
lean agriculture season (January to June). These
trends demolis h Sitharamans claim and also
indicate that the MGNREGA is a supplementary
source of employment and does not substitute
employment in agriculture.
It provides income for poor households when

they most need it, that is, when they are hit by
adverse weather conditions, shocks, etc. As per a
study conducted in Andhra Pradesh, during
drought, each unit mm of deficit rainfall suffered
could be correlated with around Rs 20 in additional
MGNREGA wages. In 2009-10, when India
experienced one of its worst droughts, the
MGNREGA provided a safety net and recorded its
highest average persondays in the year.
Claim 2: The MGNREGA has not provided the
necessary succour for the unskilled rural poor.
MGNREGA-notified wages have increased
across states since 2006. An analysis by Jean Drze

observes that in the 2000-1 to 2005-6 period, the
growth rate of real agricultural wages was around
0.1 per cent per year for men and negative for
women. Between 2005-6 and 2010-11, the growth
rate for agricultural wages for men increased to
2.7 per cent per year and for women to 3.7 per
cent a year. The wage increase is tilted towards
women. The MGNREGA has reduced traditional
gender wage discrimination, particularly in the
public works sector. A recent report released by
Crisil concludes that the increase in rural
consumption is driven in significant part by the
MGNREGA.
Claim 3: There were only half-hearted attempts
at monitoring the scheme
The MGNREGA, with over 13 crore job cards
online, has arguably the largest database for a
public programme. All information related to the
schemes implementation, right from details of the
beneficiaries, to works undertaken and funds
provided is available in public domain.The ministry
of rural development has strengthened the
transparency and accountability mechanisms of the
scheme. Gram Panchayat level audits are being
carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of the
MGNREGA. The concurrent evaluation network for
third party independent and regular monitoring of
the scheme has been set up, a first for a government
department. In 2011, the ministry published
Sameeksha, an analytical anthology of all major
research studies on the MGNREGA.
Claim 4: CAG reports reveal several
shortcomings in programme implementation
Sitharamans selective citing of important
documents leads her to draw many misleading
conclusions. Her primary concern is that there has
been no follow up on the first CAG audit. However,
the performance of the scheme post audit is worth
noting. The women participation rate stood at 52
[47]

per cent in 2012-13 as compared to 48 per cent in
2011-12. There has been an improved work
completion rate: Around 98 lakh works have been
completed since inception, a rate of 54 per cent (as
against 30 per cent noted by the CAG).
Is Sitharaman aware that three BJP states have

been spending 16 per cent of the total expenditure
on the MGNREGA? For each of these states, the
women participation rates are at 45-50 per cent. In
the last four years, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh
and Rajasthan have shown an average of around
50 per cent of wage earners partaking in the
MGNREGA work belong to SC and STs. Eight years
on, the MGNREGA is well on its way to achieving
its goal.
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As per the CAG beneficiary survey, 63 per cent

of the beneficiaries confirmed that the MGNREGA
helped them avoid migration in search of work.
Seventy one per cent of those surveyed felt that
useful assets have been created. The CAG also
concludes that around 90 per cent of the
beneficiaries were either casual labourers or small
and marginal farmers. This is indicative of the fact
that the MGNREGA is reaching the poorest and

most marginalised.
PLANNING A NEW COMMISSION
At his last meeting with the present Planning

Commission on April 30, its chairman, Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh, wondered whether the
commission was relying on tools and approaches
designed for a different era, and suggested it subject
itself to a critical review. He had flagged similar
issues in 2009, too, when the present members
joined the commission. At the time, the PM had
pointed out how the commission had previously
attempted to change, but failed. The commission
had submitted itself to an external review in 2010.
It was found that it is persisting with outmoded
approaches and tools for planning. A study of the
failed efforts to change has provided insights for a
better reform strategy.
The external review, which was in consultation
with 20 leading thinkers from the public and private
sectors, pointed out that India and the world have
changed immensely over the last 20 years. The
private sector is a much larger part of the economy
now and India is much more open to global
markets. Indian politics has also changed
dramatically no single political party is dominant
across all states of the country. Regional parties
are powerful in the states and coalitions have
become the norm at the Centre. These paradigm
shifts in the economy and in politics make a central
body that seeks to control the countrys progress
through the allocation of money which the
Planning Commission was set up to do 60-odd years
ago an anachronism. India is now a flotilla of
many independent boats. They must want to go
together in the same direction. They cannot be
ordered to.
For them to take good decisions for the
stakeholders they represent, a national planning
[48]
body now needs to provide these independent

actors with a radar picture showing them the forces
shaping the economic and social environment,
revealing the paths to avoid and the paths that
will enable faster progress. Scenario planning
shows the way forward. Scenarios are based on an
understanding of all the forces that are shaping
the system. Not just economic but also social and
political forces. Scenarios cannot be made merely
by experts in ivory towers who rely on (incomplete
and often inaccurate) numbers to explain reality.
Many people, representing diverse points of view,
must be engaged in a large, systematic process.
Therefore, a 21st-century Planning Commission
must become a central node in a large knowledge
network. It should not have large numbers of
experts within itself.
The mind of a 21st century Planning
Commission might want to range further and faster,
but it cannot if it is trapped in an ageing, lumbering
body. The commission is stuck in the structure of
a government ministry. Like every ministry, it has
a secretary to whom all staff report. Their
confidential reports (CRs) go to the secretary and
then to the minister (the deputy chairman).
Transfers are also managed by the secretary. The
members, who are of the rank of and equivalent to
ministers of state, have no right to comment on
CRs or control over transfers. Thus, rather than
the staff serving members, the commission (that is,
the members) is a structural appendage to the
planning ministry.
Previous attempts to reform the commission
failed when they hit the brick walls of its internal
organisation, which is embedded in the structures
and rules of a much larger government machine
t

that is very difficult to change. Therefore, an
effective reform strategy must enable the
commission to do what the country needs it to,
without changing the planning ministrys structure
significantly. Such a strategy has already been
devised.
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In this strategy, the members would leverage

resources outside the commission for the knowledge
required. They would also enrol support for the plans
by engaging stakeholders extensively during their
formulation, thereby also obtaining the stakeholders
knowledge for making practical plans. In this way,
national scenarios were formulated, a comprehensive
strategy for managing the countrys water resources
was developed, a manufacturing plan was made,
etc. A new platform was also created to bring the
states planning boards together to share best
practices and develop a more constructive
relationship between the state and Central planning
processes. But this was not enough. Inertia in the
internal organisation resists changes.
A two-pronged strategy is required to change

the Planning Commission. While new functions
must be strengthened, the planning ministry
reforms must be in tandem with those of
government. The Rangarajan Committee has
recommended that the Planning Commission
perform a strategic role in the countrys
development and leave budget management to the
finance ministry. The Second Administrative
Reforms Commission made many good
recommendations to revamp the government
machinery and administrative services.
The answers to the questions the prime minister
asked in 2009, and again in April 2014, are known.
Solutions have also been formulated. The failure
has been in implementation. Solutions must be
implemented rather than the same questions being
asked again and new inquiry commissions being
formed to go over the same ground.
TACKLING URBAN INDIAS GARBAGE CRISIS
It will be no surprise if one of the priorities of

the next government is to deal with the countrys
many urban challenges. Among the more sustained
features of the 2014 elections has been the
articulation of anger in our cities. In the search for
quick answers to these diverse problems there is
often a tendency to demand that global best
practices be introduced in managing our cities.
It is, quite rightly, believed that there is a lot to
be learnt from the experience of urban centres
elsewhere in the world. But blindly accepting
practices that have worked in other cities, especially
those in the developed world, is not without its
risks. If the imported practices are not in sync with
the local context, the effects could be a worsening
of the urban situation.
Among the more striking examples of such a
failure of imported practices is, arguably,
Bangalores garbage crisis. The Bangalore Agenda
Task Force (BATF) was set up at the turn of the
century with a prominent place for persons from
the information technology industry.
Given the global nature of that industry it was

perhaps only to be expected that they would look
to implement global practices with the engineers
assumption that they are working on a clean slate.
A system was thus set up where garbage would be
collected from each household. And to ensure the
citizens fell in line, garbage bins were removed from

across the city.
Conflicting practices
The first conflict between this imported practice

and the local context came on the simple issue of
what were householders to do if they were not at
home when the person collecting the garbage
arrived.
The apparent solution was that they should
continue to keep the garbage at home until such
time that they were home when the garbage
collector arrived. But this solution went against the
traditional Indian familys insistence on a clean
home without similar commitment to conditions
outside the home.
The popular response to missing the garbage
collector was then to leave the garbage at the
nearest street corner, ideally in front of the house
of someone you did not like.
This problem was not too severe, to begin with,
as it only concerned the garbage that was not
collected by the official agency. But, in the longer
term, another conflict with the local context became
evident.
The new system removed the role played by
rag-pickers. The fact that this was a source of
[49]

livelihood for the poorest did not enter the picture.
As long as rag-pickers were not seen, there was no
reason to believe they could exist.
Context-sensitive
A context-sensitive intervention in the garbage
crisis in most Indian cities would recognise the role
that garbage bins play.
If the quality of the waste bins and their
location is improved, the chances of citizens
dropping their garbage at street corners will be
reduced. Better bins will also encourage rag-pickers
to remove what can be reused or recycled, thereby
reducing the overall waste that has to be disposed.
The state can then invest in systems to destroy the
remaining waste, such as incineration plants that
will convert the waste into power.
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While ignoring the economic plight of ragpickers losing even their measly earnings could be
brushed under the carpet, the role they played in
the older garbage cycle could not be erased without
consequences. Theoretical constructs of waste
management speak of the four Rs: Reduce, Reuse,
Recycle and Recover (through actions like
composting). The rag-picker played at least two of
these roles by reusing waste as well as selling other
waste to shops that would then take it to be
recycled. In the process, she played an important
part in the segregation of waste.
pavements and street corners across the city became

sites for the garbage to be dumped.
With the rag-picker removed from the picture,

waste was no longer segregated. The quantum of
waste began to grow. And the larger quantity of
unsegregated waste exacerbated another conflict
that was developing in the local context.
Resistance was growing to the practice of simply

dumping the citys waste into rural sites, thereby
affecting the health of people in the nearby villages.
And with more waste being generated, the villages
began to use their democratically earned power to
resist such dumping. With the collection being
interrupted till these issues were sorted out,
None of this is to suggest that there is nothing

to be gained from studying global best practices.
But the most important lesson may well be that we
cannot just take a practice out of its context and
transplant it in Indian cities.
The most successful interventions in cities are
typically those that first bother to understand all
the dimensions of the local problem before choosing
the most effective interventions, whether local or
foreign.
FLYING THROUGH HOOP
With the Securities and Exchange Board of India

(SEBI) exempting Etihad Airways from making an
open offer to Jet Airways shareholders, the last of
the regulatory hurdles for the Abu Dhabi-based
carriers 24 per cent stake purchase in the latter
has been cleared. But this is hardly a reason for
cheer. That it took well over a year for Etihad to
gain the necessary clearances to bring in capital,
which Indias second largest airline desperately
needs, reflects an excessive delay in official decisionmaking. And this, in a sector that has supposedly
been opened up for up to 49 per cent foreign direct
investment (FDI) without strings attached.
In this case, it is SEBIs flip-flops that had come
in the way of the deal taking off. The Finance
Ministry had, last September, sought the market
regulators opinion on the stake purchase. SEBI
initially said it found no prima facie evidence of
the deal leading to Etihad gaining control over Jet
Airways; the current policy permits FDI in a
domestic airline only if control vests with Indian
nationals. But the market regulator added an
[50]
inexplicable rider: it would also rely on inputs from

other agencies. The ball was then lobbed to the
Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), which
gave its go-ahead in October. The FIPB clearance,
also given after evaluating the issue of control,
should have satisfied SEBI. The Competition
Commission of India (CCI), too, did its bit by
concluding in November that the deal would not
adversely impact competition in the sector. But an
incidental line in the CCI order of Etihad
exercising joint control over Jet led to SEBI
doing a volte face and demanding an open offer.
Only after the two airlines tweaked the terms of
their agreement and reiterated that Etihad had no
intention of exercising control over Jet did SEBI
pass its final order.
SEBIs shifting stance on this takeover raises
several questions. Why did it not raise the concern
about the original agreement allowing Etihad to
exercise effective control over Jet Airways in
September? Why did SEBI have to rely on CCIs
views on the critical issue of control, when its
t

mandate is limited to investor protection? Moreover,
given that Indias Takeover Code is nearly two
decades old and the concept of control has been
debated threadbare, why this uncertainty at all?
Even the concept of indirect effective control is
spelt out in the Code, in terms of the acquirer
having veto rights, a casting vote or a right to
appoint a majority of directors to the Board. SEBIs
indecisiveness, if anything, has been inimical to Jet
Airways investors whose interests it is supposed
to protect. The delay in sewing up the deal has not

only added to the interest costs of an already debtladen airline, but also led to senior management
exits. No wonder, the Jet stock, which spiked to
?688 after the deal was announced, is now
languishing at Rs 235. All this could have been
avoided had the regulators simply coordinated their
efforts when scrutinising the deal.
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POLIO IN PAKISTAN
A couple of weeks ago Pakistan completed an

ambitious assault on the polio virus. This is a
country where many people entertain a widespread
conspiracy theory that vaccinating for polio is a
Western plot to curb Muslim fecundity. Thugs from
the Pakistani Taliban have targeted and killed health
workers, and in late 2012 the UN suspended its
anti-polio efforts right across the country.
But alarmed by how Peshawar had become the

largest reservoir of the disease in the world,
officials set out to banish it from the north-western
citys crowded, squalid streets. They reckoned they
needed to vaccinate 760,000 children, giving them
drops on a certain day every week for 12 weeks.
Some 8,000 health workers hit the streets each
weekend, accompanied by around 5,000 police to
protect them.
It was a success. In a country not known for its
organisational prowess, large numbers of children
were vaccinated, no one was killed and the citys
immunity was significantly boosted.
Despite Peshawars performance, Pakistan

continues to underperform in the fight against a
terrible disease that can kill or permanently disable
its young victims. On May 5th the World Health
Organisation (WHO) announced serious alarm over
a major global outbreak of the disease: 74 cases
reported so far this year, in eight countries. It called
on Pakistan, along with Cameroon and Syria, to
require all residents to be vaccinated for the disease
before travelling abroad. The Peshawar strain has
already cropped up around the Middle East. All

the more mortifying for Pakistan is that in March
India was declared polio-free. Five years ago India
accounted for nearly half of all the worlds
infections.
Pakistan has seen a sharp increase in polio cases
this year: 59, compared with six cases in the same
period in 2013. Nearly all of those were in or close
to the tribal areas of North Waziristan and South
Waziristan, borderlands near Peshawar where the
Taliban is strong and government rule minimal or
non-existent. Hardly any children have been
vaccinated there.
In those badlands the government is currently
pinning its hopes on peace talks with the Pakistani
Taliban, but they are unlikely to go anywhere. The
prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, is deeply reluctant
to back a military campaign to regain control of
North Waziristan, the Talibans main stronghold,
in part because he fears that it will suck violence
into Pakistans heartland.
Mr Sharifs national polio co-ordinator, Ayesha
Raza Farooq, is attempting to make progress all
the same. She says the government is now working
on firewalling the tribal areas, with checkpoints
where children crossing into the rest of Pakistan
can be vaccinated. Still, just two years ago the world
seemed tantalisingly close to eradicating polio for
good. Pakistans trouble with its militants means it
is going to take longer.
A SECOND GREEN REVOLUTION
WHEN, in 1961, the government of India asked

a celebrated wheat breeder, Norman Borlaug, for
advice about new seeds, the subcontinent was
thought to be on the verge of starvation. China
actually was suffering from famine. Borlaug
persuaded India to plant a new semi-dwarf variety
of wheat in Punjab. The next year, the country

also tried out a dwarf variety of rice called IR8.
These short-stemmed crops solved a basic problem:
old-fashioned crops were long and leggy, so when
fed with fertiliser they grew too tall and fell over.
Borlaugs varieties put out more, heavier seeds
[51]

settled. In reality it is a threat to future food
supplies.)
A second revolution has been made possible by
the sequencing of the rice genome in 2005 (the first
cereal crop to be sequenced). This enabled breeders
to discover the genes for flood resistance in one
obscure variety from eastern India and transfer
them to varieties all round the world. Breeders will
soon do the same for genes that provide other
valuable traits.
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There are all sorts of things that governments

could do to push this revolution forward, such as
getting rid of price subsidies and letting farms
consolidate into bigger, more efficient units. But
they will also need to spend public money directly
on research.
instead. They caught on like smartphones. Over

the next 40 years the green revolution spread
round the world, helping ensure that, where its
seeds were planted, famines became things of the
past.
Now a second green revolution is stirring in

the fields of Asia. It will not be the same as the first
one, since it will depend not on a few miracle
varieties but on tailoring existing seeds to different
environments. But it promises to bring similar
benefitsthis time to the poor lands and poorer
farmers that the first version passed by (see article).
Such lands are poor because they are prone to
floods, drought and salinity. New seeds have been
developed which can survive flooding, and soon
there will be varieties that tolerate drought, extreme
heat and saltiness, too, making the poorest lands
fertile. So the second revolution could do even more
to cut poverty than the first.
This revolution is all the more vital because the

gains of the first are plateauing. Annual yield
growth has fallen to less than a third what it was
in the green revolution and below the current rise
in population. Meanwhile demand for rice is rising
by almost 2% a year in Asia and soaring by 20%
a year in Africa.
The gap threatens to widen, because rice is

exceptionally vulnerable to environmental change.
Rice farmers use almost a third of Earths fresh
water, and water shortages are pervasive. The
worlds rice bowls are the deltas of Asias great
rivers. These are subject to changing floods, rising
salinity and growing heat stress. (Climate change
is sometimes seen as a new problem to worry
about now that the issue of providing food is
One grain at a time
The first green revolution was largely governmentbacked, with help from international research centres
and American charities. You might think that
nowadays the big agribusinesses would be desperate
to lead the way, and they have indeed invested
heavily in new strains of maize and wheat. But rice,
the focus of the second revolution, is different. Farmers
can keep the seeds from one harvest and plant them
in the next with no loss of yield (unlike maize). The
market for rice seeds is thus tiny, so almost all research
is carried out by the state.
The amounts needed are small. By one
calculation, $3 billion of rice research spread over
the next 25 years would pull 150m people out of
extreme poverty. That is $20 a person, a bargain
compared with any other anti-poverty programme.
And it has worked before. The cumulative economic
benefits from public research into rice are running
at almost $20 billion a year, hundreds of times the
cost of the investment.
Governments, though, are nervous. Some
politicians worry about publicly backing genetic
research, despite all the lives it could save (the latest
Luddism is in Vermontsee article). Other health
ministries have moved on to sexier causes, like
fighting obesity. They should think again. It is hard
to think of a way to improve more peoples lives
for less money.
A CLUELESS GOVERNMENT
FOR the past few years President Goodluck
Jonathan has publicly shrugged off the deaths of
thousands of people, mainly in the north-east of
[52]
his country, portraying them as the unfortunate

but unavoidable result of a fanatical insurgency
for which his government cannot be blamed. But
t

in the past few weeks the plight of 200-plus girls
abducted from a school by Boko Haram, the
extremist group chiefly responsible for the mayhem,
has put Mr Jonathan and his government under
an international spotlight, exposing them not only
as incompetent but callous, too.
In recent months Boko Haram has been aiming

with increasing ferocity at soft targets such as
schools and marketplaces, though it had not
previously attempted a mass abduction. On May
5th, however, it was reported that it had kidnapped
another eight girls from elsewhere in Borno. On
the same day it was reported that Boko Haram
had killed 300 people in the Borno town of
Gamboru Ngala. Most secondary schools in the
state had been closed before the mass abduction,
for fear of an attack, but the education authorities
had convened the girls at a boarding school so that
they could take their final exams.
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As outrage spread beyond Nigerias borders,

Barack Obama and other Western leaders, hitherto
watching more or less silently from afar, have felt
obliged to offer help as well as sympathy. West
African leaders, led by Ghanas president, have
expressed unusual solidarity. The surge of global
horror mixed with curiosity and bafflement was
particularly embarrassing, at a time when Mr
Jonathan was about to host a glamorous gathering
of leaders, including Chinas prime minister, at the
World Economic Forum in Abuja, his capital, where
he was hoping to celebrate the recent international
re-evaluation of Nigerias economy as by far the
biggest in Africa, well ahead of South Africas.
checkpoints, snarling up traffic just when the

government wants to show off the place to its
foreign visitors.
Not that there was the slightest sympathy for

Boko Haram and its maniacal leader, Abubakar
Shekau, who purported to be the man pictured in
a video released on May 5th, making blood-curdling
threats to kill all Christians. I took the girls, he
declared, standing in front of a tank, flanked by
masked men in uniforms. By Allah I will sell them
in the marketplaceI will marry off a woman at
the age of 12. I will marry off a girl at the age of
nine. Some of the girls, it has been speculated,
may already have been forced to marry their
abductors for a bride-price equivalent to $12. The
UN warned members of Boko Haram, which means
Western education is forbidden, that if they
carried out their leaders threat they would be
committing war crimes.
The girls, abducted on April 14th from a school
in Chibok, a town in the north-eastern state of
Borno, are probably being held in a rebel stronghold.
One of these is in the dense Sambisa forest, 60,000
square kilometres (23,000 square miles) in area,
south of Maiduguri, Bornos capital. The other is in
the Gwosa mountains, which straddle the caveridden border with Cameroon.
Boko Haram, which was founded in 2002 but
began its violent insurgency in 2009, has been
responsible for at least 4,000 deaths, mostly in the
north-east. But it has also demonstrated an ability
to strike at the centre of the country, setting off a
bomb last month at a bus station in Abuja, killing
at least 70 people, and another one on May 2nd
near a police checkpoint, also in Abuja, killing
around 20. The capital is now beset with
As worldwide outrage grew over the

abductions, the American and British governments
offered to help. A White House spokesman said
that experts in intelligence, hostage negotiation and
victim assistance would fly to Nigeria. The British
offered to send surveillance aircraft along with
soldiers from its special forces.
The Nigerians have been loth to accept such
help in the past and are wary of perceived
encroachments on their sovereignty. America has
operated drones from a base in neighbouring Niger
since 2012, but Nigerias government has long
refused American requests to be allowed to do the
same from Nigerian territory. Moreover, Nigerians
are proud of their army, the biggest in Africa, with
its long history of contributions to peacekeeping
missions, most recently in Mali. And they are also
notably secretive and prickly about its operations
and the low standards of soldiery which foreign
experts would see. Though Mr Jonathan declared
a state of emergency in the north-east a year ago,
his army has dismally failed to defeat Boko Haram.
Indeed, it has itself perpetrated numerous
atrocities against civilians suspected of harbouring
or lending sympathy to the rebels, who thrive
among embittered young Muslims in the north, the
poorest part of the country. The army was widely
castigated after a military counter-attack on March
14th following an attempted jailbreak by suspected
members of Boko Haram detained at a barracks in
Maiduguri. According to hospital sources, around
500 people were killed, mainly at the hands of
soldiers. Such human-rights abuses by the Nigerian
army make Western governments edgy about
offering to join the fray, for fear of being deemed
complicit.
[53]

Corruption, Nigerias great scourge, is another
reason for foreign military advisers to keep their
distance. Nigerias soldiers say that commanders
pocket the bulk of their salaries, leaving them with
little incentive to fight a well-equipped guerrilla
movement that knows the rugged terrain and
forests. Why risk death at the hands of Boko Haram
for no reward? It is hard, in such conditions, to see
how outsiders could raise Nigerian troops morale,
let alone improve their military skills.
To make matters worse, the presidents wife,

Patience, ordered the arrest of two leaders of the
protests, bizarrely accusing them of belonging to
Boko Haram and of fabricating reports of the
abduction to smear the government. In a televised
broadcast on May 4th, the first lady, who holds no
official position, warned against further such
marches. You are playing games, she said. Dont
use schoolchildren and women for demonstration
again. Keep it to Borno, let it end there, the official
News Agency of Nigeria reported.
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Patience not always a virtue
provoked protests in several cities across Nigeria

itself an unusual event.
Perhaps the worst aspect of the Nigerian

governments handling of the abduction is its
seeming indifference to the plight of the girls
families. It took more than two weeks before Mr
Jonathan addressed the matter in public. His
governments sluggish response and its failure even
to clarify how many girls had been abducted
Such statements do not give the impression that

Mr Jonathan or his colleagues, who face elections
next year, take the worries of ordinary Nigerians
to heart.
FIXING INDIAS HEALTHCARE SYSTEM
Life expectancy in India has more than doubled

since independence, to 65 years, from just 32 in
1950. The infant mortality rate has been cut by
two-thirds since 1971. Smallpox and guinea worm
have been eradicated, the spread of HIV/AIDS has
been contained, and the World Health Organization
has declared India polio-free.
Yet for all of that, Indias healthcare system in

many respects is on life support. The country trails
behind sub-Saharan Africa, Bangladesh and Nepal
on numerous health fronts, despite higher per-capita
income and two decades of spectacular economic
growth. Inequities in the availability and outcome
of care abound, determined in large part by gender,
socioeconomic status and geographical location. And
most Indians seeking care are confronted by two
unpalatable choicesa public health system that is
almost entirely free but of poor quality if it is
accessible, and a largely unregulated private-sector
system that provides world-class service to some but
too often charges ruinous prices, dispenses
inappropriate or unnecessary care, and is riddled
with practitioners with little or no formal training.
The costs of these failings fall disproportionately
on the poor, especially women and children, but
are borne by all. High rates of infectious diseases
compete with a large and growing burden of
chronic illness. Cardiovascular disease has become
a major cause of morbidity and mortality, more
than a million deaths a year are attributed to
smoking, and nearly 65 million Indians are known
[54]
to have diabetes. Mental illness and occupational

health and safety suffer from neglect.
With India at a crossroads, with a new
government expected soon, the time is ripe to put
healthcare reform at centrestage, with the goal of
pressing the next central government to achieve
meaningful universal health coverage. Four key
steps are necessary to reach that goal.
First, the government must embrace the idea of
tax-funded universal coverage, as opposed to
contributory or subsidized private insurance
schemes. Second, it must incentivize preventive care
by setting up more robust primary-care facilities,
especially in underserved rural areas. Third, it must
pursue substantive public-private partnerships with
trustworthy private actors; this step should be
supported by a stronger regulatory framework from
the central government. Fourth, it must encourage
state governments to function as laboratories to
produce better outcomes.
To take these steps, India will have to double
its funding for public health programmes to at least
2.5% of gross domestic product (GDP). Financed
by general taxation, the additional resources should
be used to strengthen the delivery of primary
healthcare, improve the quality of services, and
promote more equitable access, especially for poor
and marginalized communities.
Ailing status quo

At the heart of Indias health care shortcomings
t

is money. The Constitution makes the states
responsible for the provision and delivery of health
services, with the cost shared by the states and the
central government (the central government
contributes 36%). But with few exceptions, neither
level of government has assigned a high priority to
spending in this area.
Informational asymmetry (allowing the profitoriented doctor to cheat the patient by prescribing
unnecessary medicines or unwanted treatment)
renders private markets in healthcare grossly
inefficient. While some private providers offer good
quality services at affordable prices, costs in general
tend to be unreasonably high. A majority of Indians,
especially in rural areas, are at the mercy of selfdeclared doctors who have not completed their
schooling and have picked up their skills by working
as assistants to pharmacists or real doctors.
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In per capita terms adjusted for purchasing

power, Indias public expenditure on health is $43
a year, compared with $85 in Sri Lanka, $240 in
China, and $265 in Thailand. In terms of GDP,
India spends only 1.2%, a rate that hasnt budged
in more than a decade and is one of the lowest in
the world. The comparable rates are 1.5% in Sri
Lanka, 2.7% in China, and 3% in Thailand.
training. At the other end are world-class hospitals

that cater to both Indians and foreigners who can
afford to pay for often expensive care. In between
are small private clinics and other hospitals, which
can be for-profit or not-for-profit.
Indias low spending has put the financial

burden on individuals. Out-of-pocket spending
69% of total health expenditureis among the
highest in the world and much more than in
Thailand (25%), China (44%), and Sri Lanka (55%).
Millions are driven into poverty every year by large
medical expenses.
Almost every country that has achieved

universal health coverage or is working towards it
has done so through the public assurance of
comprehensive quality primary care for all. But
though treatment in public facilities in India is
nearly free (except for a small user fee), it is often
not available or is of poor quality. Only 22% of the
population in rural areas and 19% in urban areas
use government facilities for out-patient care. Even
for in-patient care, only around 42% in the villages
and 38% in the cities utilize government facilities.
The facilities tend to be understaffed,
underfunded and terribly managed. The better ones
tend to be overcrowded. A severe shortage of
doctors, nurses and midwives is made that much
worse by big geographical gaps in availability. Rural
areas are especially poorly served. Complaints are
common about distant locations, inconvenient
hours, high staff absenteeism and the insensitivity
of many health workers.
The governments failure to deliver quality care
has led to a rapid expansion of the private sector,
which today accounts for 93% of all hospitals (up
from 8% in 1947), 64% of all beds, and 80% to
85% of all doctors.
But that sector has major systemic shortcomings

as well. For starters, it is unevenly distributed,
highly fragmented, and mostly unregulated. It also
fluctuates wildly in quality. At one end are quacks,
practitioners with little medical knowledge or formal
Even within the formal private sector,

overdiagnosis and overtreatment are common, as
is faulty treatment. Many private practitioners sell
substandard and counterfeit medicines, prescribe
unnecessary drugs and tests, receive commissions
for referrals, order unnecessary hospital admissions
and manipulate the length of stays.
Towards universal coverage
The central government, and some state

governments, have taken a number of steps over
the past decade to improve the situation, but much
more needs to be done.
First, the central government and the states, as
well as the influential middle class, should fully
embrace the concept of universal health coverage.
The principal approach of the government so far
has been to provideas far as possible, however
limited it may beuniversal access to free primary
care; to rely on insurance mechanisms to offer
cashless secondary and tertiary care to the poor
and to a small set of privileged government
employees; and to leave the rest of the population
to buy healthcare in the private market. This
approach has perpetuated a fragmented, inefficient,
iniquitous and expensive system of care.
Policymakers have to recognize that neither
private healthcare, even if properly subsidized, nor
commercial health insurance subsidized by the state
can meet the challenge of universal coverage. The
interests of providers, consumers, and insurance
companies are simply not aligned to maximize
returns to consumers. Serious incentiveincompatibility problems arise when insurance
companies deny use, medical practitioners induce
demand or encourage overuse, and patients
[55]

themselves misuse services (commonly referred to
as the moral hazard problem).
Third, recognizing the fiscal constraints that

governments face, the central government and the
states need to find new ways to engage the private
sector, especially with regard to tertiary care. At
the same time, the central government must put in
place a regulatory and development framework for
improving the quality, performance, equity,
efficiency and accountability of healthcare delivery
across the country.
Finally, the central and state governments must
spend more on health, with a significant portion
earmarked for primary care. Flexible new
mechanisms for transferring funding from the
central government to the states are needed. With
the additional money, the states should customize
strategies to meet the health needs of different
groups and communities. They should also draw
up blueprints for universal coverage and begin
experimenting with pilot programmes. Learning by
doing is the only way forward.
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Available evidence from across the world points

out that insurance schemes incentivize tertiary care
and neglect primary and preventive care, especially
when they cover only hospitalization costs. As a
result, it is also not clear whether improved health
can be counted as one of the real benefits of
commercial insurance. High administrative costs
tend to reduce considerably the amount that can
be devoted to health care per se out of the premiums
paid. There is also overwhelming evidence to
suggest that commercial insurance suffers from a
lack of oversight to check medical malpractice.
reduce the need for tertiary care.
For all of those reasons, a true system of

universal coverage is needed and it ought to be
primarily funded through taxes. Much more public
discussion on specifics is required to build a national
consensus to push this through.
The second step that must now be taken is for
both the central and state governments to give top
priority to ensuring the basics of governmentprovided primary care. These services, such as
universal immunization, can greatly reduce
morbidity, lower the costs of curative care, and
In the ultimate analysis, strong political

commitment and effective stewardship are desperately
needed to help India rise from its sick bed.
Source: LiveMint
INDIAS MISPLACED ENERGY AMBITIONS
The International Energy Agency (IEA) has

rightly dubbed Indias plan to become energy
independent by 2030 as very ambitious and
idealistic. Announced with much fanfare last year
by oil minister M. Veerappa Moily, the plan has
not taken off the drawing board.
In an interview, IEA executive director Maria

van der Hoeven said that, Where 300 million
Indians are lacking access to electricity and where
per-capita electricity consumption is one-fourth of
the worlds average, this is a very, very ambitious
and huge challenge. It is not easy. There is a
dependency in India on oil and gas imports and
thats something that shouldnt be forgotten either.
As India grows and lifts more citizens out of
poverty and as income levels increase, the demand
for energy will rise further. The demand side of the
energy equation is obvious; it is the supply side
that is clouded.
Under Moilys plan, the target is to reduce crude
oil imports by 50% by 2020, 75% by 2025 and
energy independence by 2030.
For this to happen, India needs to undertake
three difficult steps.
[56]
First and foremost the country needs to get its

energy pricing right. India has not been able to do
this and any steps that are taken occur with fits
and starts. For example, in the last 10 years, there
has been a marked resistance to increases in diesel
and petrol prices. The corrective steps taken in the
last 12 months have been due to fiscal
considerations and not from the perspective of
long-term planning for energy security.
Second, India needs to get its energy mix right.
At the moment, there is no coherence in its fuel
and energy consumption mix. Imported fuels are
being used largely in the transport sector (for
example, diesel) but they are also used to generate
energy (for example, LNG). This mix can be
changed by increasing hydropower generation. In
the last decade, hardly any effort has been made
to increase the latter source. If India goes for
hydropower in a big way, the problems associated
with thermal power generationshortage of
domestically produced coal and dependence on
imported coalcan be alleviated as well. This
requires close cooperation between environmental
authorities, state governments and the power
t

ministry. In recent years, the relationship between
different stakeholders has turned adversarial and
increasing Indias hydropower generation looks like
a distant dream.
Energy security is a complex process that even

organized countries find hard to achieve. The US
managed a supply-side solution only after the
discovery of large-scale shale hydrocarbon
deposits. In Europe, a combination of demand
management and alternative clean energy sources
has tempered a reduction in foreign energy
dependence.
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Finally, if India is to realize zero dependence

then domestic production of crude oil has to go up
greatly. For this, a host of steps are needed. Quickly
speed up the Open Acreage Licensing Policy that
will allow bidders to bid for blocks at any time of
the year as compared with the current system of
periodic bidding under the New Exploration and
Licensing Policy (NELP). The NELP has only had
moderate success. Further the design and
administration of production sharing contracts
(PSCs) needs to be revisited. Appropriate tax breaks
can further boost the exploration effort.
Sector by 2030 was released in December. So far,

there has been no visible effort to implement the
recommendations made by Kelkar.
India has a roadmap for all this. The first part

of the Vijay Kelkar committee report on Roadmap
for Reduction in Import Dependency in Hydrocarbon
India has not tried any of these combinations.

Nor probably does it have the political and
organizational wherewithal required for the
purpose. All it has done is to indulge in rhetorical
exercises. The next government should apply its
mind to this problem in all earnest.
Source: LiveMint
[57]
CHRONICLE
IAS ACADEMY

19TH MAY 2014 TO 25TH MAY 2014
Call: 9953120676, 9582263947

CONTENTS
TOPICS
Pg. No.
National ......................................................................................................................... 3-5

International ............................................................................................................... 6-15
Economy .................................................................................................................... 18-19
Health ......................................................................................................................... 22-23
News in Brief........................................................................................................ 24-250
Launching a war against malnutrition
28
Indias first past the post myth
29
China-Russia ties: The limits of co-operation
30
Making govt banks bankable
31
No reason to cheer
32
Uncertainty in Libya
33
Ecuador to go ahead with oil drilling in rain forest
35
Bad loans, a problem of bank attitude
35
Inclusive growth, an exaggerated claim
37
Putin pivot to the East
38
Getting women on board
39
Iran nuclear Talks
40
NATIONAL
INDIAS MOBILE SEVA WINS UN AWARD
Management System app, currently live only for
Rajasthan. The project covers over 1,000
government departments and agencies from across
the country. Most apps are absent from the Android
app store, Google Play, making them hard to
discover. The download counts for most of these
apps hover around the three-digit mark. According
to Rajendra Kumar, joint secretary, at the DeitY,
who has been in charge of the mobile seva project,
the ministry plans to launch a master app that can
redirect to all the other apps to the government
app store which will be available on the Google
Play.
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The project on "mobile governance" by the

union communications and IT ministry project has
won the second prize at the prestigious United
Nations' Public Services Awards. The project, called
"mobile seva" was launched by the Deptt. of
Electronics and Information Technology's (DeitY)
in January 2012, and won in the category
"Promoting Whole of Government Approaches in
the Information Age" for Asia Pacific. The first
prize in the category was bagged by the Korean
health and welfare information service. The award
has been given in category of promoting whole of
government approaches in Information Age. The
two year old project primarily develops and
provides mobile apps for government and citizen
use. Available on the government website, some of
the active 299 apps include those for passport
services, election commission or more. The passport
service app-mPassport Seva enables users to locate
centres, calculate fee for a particular service, track
application status and more. There are other apps
for intra-departmental use like the employee Leave
The United Nations Public Service Awards is

the most prestigious international recognition of
excellence in public service. It rewards the creative
achievements and contributions of public service
institutions that lead to a more effective and
responsive public administration in countries
worldwide. Through an annual competition, the
UN Public Service Awards promotes the role,
professionalism and visibility of public service.
DEMAND OF SPECIAL COURTS FOR LAND-GRAB CASES
Karnataka Government would try to prevail

upon the Central Government to allow it to setup
special courts to try cases of encroachment of
government land and to get Presidential nod for
the Karnataka Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Bill,
2011, passed by the legislature. The decision to set
up special courts was taken after freedom fighter
H.S. Doreswamy and former MLA A.T.
Ramaswamy and others staged a protest in
February in front of the chambers of Jayachandra
demanding immediate steps to get Presidential
assent for the Bill.
on the setting up of a special court. He said the

special court would comprise deputy commissioners
and judicial authorities, especially retired or serving
judges.
State Parliamentary Affairs Minister T.B.

Jayachandra said that he will visit Delhi to meet
the Union Home Secretary to stress the importance
of setting up special courts to try cases of
encroachment of government land and to get
Presidential nod for the Bill. Jayachandra said the
Centre had sought a clarification in December 2012
Ramaswamy, who headed the Joint Legislature

Committee on government land encroachment, had
urged the Ministers to act immediately, saying that
in Bangalore, 8,834 acres of Revenue Department
land was found to be encroached upon. He had
said powerful persons had also encroached on the
The decision to set up special courts was taken

after freedom fighter H.S. Doreswamy and former
MLA A.T. Ramaswamy and others staged a protest
in February in front of the chambers of Jayachandra
demanding immediate steps to get presidential
assent for the Bill. They had alleged that government
was not serious about tackling land grabbing and
was indifferent towards the Bill.
[3]

land with the help of government officials. The
minister said the government had identified as much
as 13,25,339 acres of land to have been encroached
upon. Of this, they have so far reclaimed 1,00,555
acres while 7,54, 603 acres of land is listed for
regularization under the land regularization
scheme. These cases will be taken up by the
respective Assembly constituency-level committees.
Apart from this, the government yet to recover

around 4.5 lakh hectares of encroached land.
Besides, 1,400 acres are under litigation in various
courts. The minister said the Land Grabbing
Prohibition Bill was passed by both the Houses of
the Legislature in 2007. The Union Government
had sought some clarification on the bill before
giving its consent.
DRISHTI: VISIBILITY ASSESSMENT SYSTEMS FOR AIRPORTS

visibility sensors, while communications will be
handled by the Met. The Drishti transmissometer, a
visibility measuring system, is capable of detecting
visibility ranging from 25 to 2,000 metres, aiding
pilots for safe landing and take-off. The instruments
are installed parallel to the runway and send
information regarding visibility conditions to the
control tower, which provides pilots with mandatory
information on visibility on the runway. Transmissometers are mandatory systems required at airports
as per International Civil Aviation Organization and
World Meteorological Organization rules. India has
been importing these systems from Australia and
Finland.
The agreement which was signed by NAL

director Shyam Chetty and L.S. Rathore, directorgeneral of meteorology, IMD, will lead to the
deployment of 70 Drishti systems at airports where
the Met provides aeronautical and meteorological
services. Seven Drishti systems are already
operational, one each at Lucknow and Kolkata
airports and five at Delhi airport.
India is now capable of making indigenous

systems which will cost Rs. 20 lakh to establish on
the field, and around Rs. 26 lakh with the
communication systems. This is one-third of the
cost of the imported systems. The maintenance cost
and spare parts were also imported at exorbitant
prices. This will result in substantial saving of
foreign exchange and making our country selfreliant in such technologies.
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In a bid to provide information for safe landing

and take-off to pilots, India announced the
production of its indigenously developed high-tech
runway visual range assessment system - 'Drishti'.
The Bangalore-based National Aerospace
Laboratories (NAL) and the India Meteorological
Department (IMD) will jointly produce the Drishti
system that can be used to assess runway visibility,
a critical parameter for safe landing and take-off
of aircraft. The Ministry of Science and Technology
said the new system will be jointly produced by
CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories (CSIR-NAL),
Bangalore and India Meteorological Department
(IMD) which signed a partnership agreement
Under the agreement, NAL will provide
INITIATIVES FOR OLIVE RIDLEY CONSERVATION
The Olive Ridley turtles are the smallest and

most abundant of all sea turtles found in the world,
inhabiting warm waters of the Pacific, Atlantic and
Indian oceans. These turtles, along with their cousin
the Kemps Ridley turtle, are best known for their
unique mass nesting called Arribada, where
thousands of females come together on the same
beach to lay eggs. Though found in abundance,
their numbers have been declining over the past
few years, and the species are recognized as
Vulnerable by the IUCN Red list. Olive-Ridleys face
serious threats across their migratory route, habitat
and nesting beaches, due to human activities such
as turtle unfriendly fishing practices, development
and exploitation of nesting beaches for ports, and
tourist centres.
[4]
After nearly 25 years, the wildlife wing of the

Forest Department has resumed the Olive Ridley
conservation programme by setting up a hatchery
at Besant Nagar. Till 1980s, the Department was
actively involved in turtle conservation. When it
halted its efforts, non-governmental organizations
and volunteers stepped in. The department set up
the hatchery in January near the broken bridge
behind the Theosophical Society premises. It has
appointed a dozen people to guard the hatchery
and collect eggs.
A team of eight persons employed by the
department were divided into two groups with four
members each. While one group, with a couple of
forest officials, walked from Besant Nagar to
Neelankarai to identify the nests and collect them,

another team walked between Neelankarai and
Besant Nagar. In the current egg-laying season
(between January and March), the groups identified
85 nests with 9,784 eggs. All of them were collected
and deposited in the hatchery. Of the total, only
8,834 eggs have hatched. To create awareness of
Olive Ridley turtle conservation, the department

has built a concrete tomb near the hatchery. Wildlife
officials said that this season had witnessed more
than 700 Olive Ridley deaths along the coast
between Chennai and Marakkanam.
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[5]
INTERNATIONAL
BOKO HARAM DESIGNATED AS AL-QAEDA LINKED GROUP
agencies estimates more than 8,000 people in
Northern Nigeria have fled into neighboring
Cameroon to escape the escalating violence and an
other 5,000 have become internally displaced.
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The United Nations State Department will

designate Boko Haram, a Nigeria-based extremist
group with ties to al-Qaeda, and Ansaru, an
offshoot, as Foreign Terrorist Organizations. The
move enables the United States to freeze assets,
impose travel bans on known members and
affiliates, and prohibit Americans from offering
material support.
According to the United States, Boko Haram

has killed thousands since 2009. Human rights
groups put the figure at more than 3,000.
Boko Haram, which means "Western education is
sacrilege" in the Hausa-Fulani language, has
launched a self-described "War on Christians" and
seeks to impose a strict version of Sharia law across
northeastern Nigeria, if not the entire country. It
has attacked various targets in the West African
nation since its formation in the late 1990s,
according to the U.S. National Counterterrorism
Center. This includes killing and kidnapping
Westerners, and bombing schools, churches and
mosques, the center said. In August, militants
allegedly went into a mosque in Borno state and
killed 44 worshippers. The group released a video
boasting that it was growing stronger and had
launched attacks in Benisheikh in September that
the State Department said left 160 civilians dead,
many of them Muslim women and children. In
recent months, it has stepped up attacks against
students at English-language schools. In September,
the State Department said Boko Haram attacked
an agricultural school, killing 50 students in their
dorm as they slept. Earlier this month, the United
Nations warned the extremist group could be
found guilty of crimes against humanity after it
launched a brutal attack on a wedding party that
killed more than 30 people. The U.N. refugee
While the group's principle focus is Nigeria, the

United States cites links to the al-Qaeda affiliate in
West Africa, and extremist groups in Mali. Gen.
Carter Ham, then the commander of U.S. Africa
Command, warned Congress that Boko Haram
elements aspire to a broader regional level of attacks,
including against United States and European
interests. A Boko Haram suicide attack on the
United Nations building two years ago in the
Nigerian capital of Abuja killed at least 25 people.
In June 2012, the State Department added several
of the group's members to a terrorist blacklist,
including its new leader Abubakar Shekau, who
has a $7 million bounty on his head.
The decision to designate Boko Haram and
Ansaru followed a robust debate. The administration
faced intense pressure from Congress and some
officials to list the group, but other officials and
experts warned it did not pose a threat to the United
States, but that Washington could become a target
as a result of the designation. Other officials argued
the Nigerian Government could interpret the decision
as an American green light to continue its heavy
handed crackdown on the organization. President
Goodluck Jonathan stepped up a military campaign
against the group six months ago, declaring a sixmonth state of emergency in May in the three
northeastern states worst hit by the violence.
Recent Amnesty International and Human Rights
Watch reports accused the Nigerian military of
human rights abuses and violations when
conducting operations against the group.
SWITZERLAND REJECTS WORLDS HIGHEST MINIMUM WAGE
The proposal to create world's highest minimum

wages has been rejected by Swiss voters after siding
with the government and business leaders in a
referendum. The plan would have pushed up the
[6]
basic annual salary for a 35-hour week to 27,000,

was rejected by 75% of voters. It would have
required employers to pay workers a minimum of
22 Swiss francs an hour. Government ministers

opposed the proposal, made by the Swiss Federation
of Trade Unions and supported by the Socialist
and Green parties, arguing that it would put smaller
companies out of business. Adjusted for the
country's high prices, the Swiss proposal would
have meant a wage equivalent to 8.33 an hour
based on a 42-hour week, according to the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD).
In the US the mayor of Seattle unveiled a plan

for a city-wide minimum wage of $15 (8.91) earlier
this month, more than double the federal rate. The
rise could be implemented as early as October, and
would benefit an estimated 100,000 workers. The
Seattle proposal sparked strikes by fast-food
workers in 150 cities across the U.S. and in other
countries around the world last week. Last year,
more than two-thirds of Swiss voters backed a new
rule to ban golden hellos and goodbyes in the
corporate world, after the pharmaceutical company
Novartis agreed to pay its outgoing chairman,
Daniel Vasella, 72m francs. The announcement had
sparked a huge public and political backlash. The
payment, made to persuade Vasella not to use his
knowledge to help rival firms, was described as a
"golden gag".
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The Paris-based OECD lists the current highest

minimum wages as 6.34 an hour in Luxembourg,
6.30 in France, 6.07 in Australia, 5.93 in Belgium
and 5.64 in the Netherlands. The UK minimum
wage of 6.31, which the OECD adjusts to 4.70,
will go up by 19p in October, the first increase in
six years to outpace inflation.
especially farmers, feared that having to pay their

workers the minimum wage would price their
products out of the market. More than a fifth of
Switzerland's GDP comes from its manufacturing
sector. The vote came after moves in other countries
to introduce higher basic pay. Germany is one of
seven EU countries currently without a minimum
wage, but last month Angela Merkel approved the
country's first, set at 8.50 (6.92) an hour and
starting in 2015.
Swiss unions proposed a minimum wage rise

because of the high living costs in cities such as
Geneva and Zurich. They argued that a minimum
wage of 4,000 francs a month was necessary
because rent, health insurance and food are hugely
expensive. Most voters, however, agreed with the
government and business leaders, who argued that
the measure would drive Switzerland's high
production costs even higher.
The Swiss Business Federation said the proposal
would harm low-paid workers. Small businesses,
MARTIAL LAW IMPOSED IN THAILAND
Thailand caretaker premier has called for the

military to avoid violence as the army chief imposed
martial law after more than six months of political
turmoil that brought down an elected leader. The
move is the armys most direct involvement in the
Southeast Asian nations politics since 2006, when
the-premier Thaksin Shinawatra was removed in a
coup. Martial law already is in place in parts of
southern Thailand, and the-Prime Minister Abhisit
Vejjajiva briefly declared it in Bangkok in 2010 to
end anti-government protests. Martial law for now
is playing out primarily behind closed doors, as
Army Chief Gen. Prayuth Chan-Ocha invited the
key power-brokers in the political crisis to meet for
the first time since it escalated six months ago. The
army interrupted regular programming to
announce the meeting at Bangkok's Army Club,
which it said was being called to solve the political
conflict smoothly.
Many of the country's highest-profile figures
were summoned for a summit of political enemies
that was unthinkable until now. They included the
acting Prime Minister who sent four representatives
in his place and anti-government protest leader

Suthep Thaugsuban, as well as Suthep's rival from
the pro-government Red Shirt group, Jatuporn
Prompan. Army chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha
has said that the military had stepped in to restore
order and build investor confidence, and warned
that troops would take action against anyone who
used weapons and harmed civilians. Military
officials said they were not interfering with the
caretaker government, but martial law would be
maintained until peace and order had been
restored.
Twenty-eight people have been killed and 700
injured since the anti-government protests began
in November last year. The crisis is the latest
installment of a near-decade-long power struggle
between former telecoms tycoon Thaksin and the
royalist establishment that has brought the country
to the brink of recession and even raised fears of
civil war. The caretaker government, wary of the
army given its past interventions on the side of the
establishment, said it welcomed the move to restore
order and that it remained in office.
[7]

minister to oversee electoral reforms aimed at ending
Thaksin's influence. They disrupted a February 2
election that Thaksin's loyalists looked set to win. It
was later declared void. The government, on the
other hand, views an early general election it would
likely win as the best way forward.
Martial law gives the military broad powers over
civilian authorities, but a full coup would likely
incur costs in terms of greater damage to investor
confidence and U.S. sanctions. The United States,
which cut aid to its military ally after the 2006
coup, said it was monitoring the situation closely.
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Thailand has been stuck in political limbo since

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, Thaksin's
younger sister, and nine of her ministers were
dismissed on May 7 after a court found them guilty
of abuse of power. The military, which put down
a pro-Thaksin protest movement in 2010, has staged
numerous coups since Thailand became a
constitutional monarchy in 1932. The last one was
in 2006 to oust Thaksin, who has lived abroad
since 2008 but wields political influence and
commands huge support among the poor. Antigovernment protesters want a "neutral" prime
ANTARCTICA ICE SHEET LOSS DOUBLED
Global warming is pushing up sea-level by

melting the worlds major ice caps and by warming
and expanding oceans. The loss of the entire
western Antarctica ice sheet would eventually
cause upto 4 metres of sea-level rise, devastating
low-lying and coastal areas around the world.
The new data, published in journal Geophysical

Research Letters, Antarctica is shedding 160 billion
tonnes a year of ice into the ocean, twice the
amount of a few years ago, according to new
satellite observations. The ice loss is adding to the
rising sea-levels driven by climate change and even
east Antarctica is now losing ice. The new
revelations follow the announcement made recently
that the collapse of the western Antarctica ice sheet
has already begun and is unstoppable, although it
may take many centuries to complete. The new
data comes from the European Space Agencys
CryoSat-2 satellite, which was launched in 2010.
It shows that the western Antarctica ice sheet is
where 87% of the lost ice is being shed, with the
east Antarctic and the Antarctic peninsuela

shedding the rest. The data collected from 20102013 was compared to that from 2005-2010. The
satellite measures changes in the height of the ice
and covers virtually the whole of the frozen
continent, far more of than previous altimeter
missions.
CryoSat-2 collected five times more data than
before in the crucial coastal regions where ice losses
are concentrated and found key glaciers were losing
many metres in height every year. The Pine Island,
Thwaites and Smith Glaciers in west Antarctica
were losing between 4m and 8m annually.
Professor David Vaughan, at the British
Antarctic Survey and not involved in this research
said that the increasing contribution of Antarctica
to sea-level rise is a global issue, and we need to
use every technique available to understand where
and how much ice is being lost. Through some very
clever technical improvements have produced the
best maps of Antarctic ice-loss we have ever had.
SHRINKING OF GLACIERS BY QUARTER IN 30 YEARS
A new study by the Kathmandu-based

International Centre for Integrated Mountain
Development (ICIMOD) shows that the area
covered by glaciers has decreased by 24 per cent
between 1977 and 2010. Climate change has
caused Nepals Himalayan glaciers to shrink by
nearly a quarter in just over 30 years, raising the
risk of natural disasters in the ecologically fragile
region, a scientist. According to Samjwal Ratna
Bajracharya, lead author of the report, the
shrinking of glaciers in Nepal is definitely connected
to climate change, glacial melt is a huge indicator
of rising temperatures.
[8]
The Norway-funded research project led by

ICIMOD took three years to complete, as scientists
mapped satellite imagery from several decades to
see the extent of ice loss in the region. The fastest
decline occurred between 1980 and 1990, prior to
the late 1970s, satellite imagery reflected little change
in Nepals glacial area. The glacial melting is
creating huge, expanding lakes that threaten to
burst and devastate mountain communities living
downstream. The accelerated glacial loss raises
concerns over future access to water resources,
particularly in regions where groundwater is limited
and monsoon rains are erratic.

According to Bajracharya, if the trend
continues, the immediate impact will be felt by those
living in high-altitude regions, who are dependent
on freshwater reserves from glaciers. The findings,
published earlier this month, also sound alarm bells
for Nepals push to develop hydropower projects.
Nepal cannot use its water resources to develop
the country without assessing the state of our
glaciers and river basins.
A government report in India recently blamed

hydropower projects for devastating floods last year
that killed thousands in India and Nepal. The
government panel said that the build up of
sediment in rivers, due to the dumping of soil that
was dug up during construction of hydropower
projects, exacerbated flooding when record-high
rainfall hit the region last year.
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THE DISPUTED SOUTH CHINA SEA

Though rival countries have wrangled over
territory in the South China Sea for centuries, a
recent upsurge in tension has sparked concern that
the area is becoming a flashpoint with global
consequences. It is a dispute over territory and
sovereignty over ocean areas and the Paracels and
the Spratlys - two island chains claimed in whole
or in part by a number of countries. Alongside the
fully fledged islands, there are dozens of
uninhabited rocky outcrops, atolls, sandbanks and
reefs, such as the Scarborough Shoal.
China claims by far the largest portion of

territory-an area defined by the "nine-dash line"
which stretches hundreds of miles south and east
from its most southerly province of Hainan. Beijing
says its right to the area comes from 2,000 years of
history where the Paracels and Spratlys island
chains were regarded as integral parts of the
Chinese nation. In 1947, China issued a map
detailing its claims. It showed the two island groups
falling entirely within its territory. Those claims are
mirrored by Taiwan, as the Republic of China.
Vietnam hotly disputes China's historical
account, saying China had never claimed
sovereignty over the islands before the 1940s.
Vietnam says it has actively ruled over both the
Paracels and the Spratlys since the 17th Centuryand has the documents to prove it.
The other major claimant in the area is the

Philippines, which invokes its geographical
proximity to the Spratlys Islands as the main basis
of its claim for part of the grouping. Both the
Philippines and China lay claim to the Scarborough
Shoal, known as Huangyan Island in China-a little
more than 100 miles (160 km) from the Philippines
and 500 miles from China. Malaysia and Brunei
also lay claim to territory in the South China Sea
that they say falls within their economic exclusion
zones, as defined by UNCLOS. Brunei does not
claim any of the disputed islands, but Malaysia
claims a small number of islands in the Spratlys.
Many other countries too, are involved in this

dispute as the Paracels and the Spratlys may have
reserves of natural resources around them. There
has been little detailed exploration of the area, so
estimates are largely extrapolated from the mineral
wealth of neighbouring areas. The sea is also a
major shipping route and home to fishing grounds
that supply the livelihoods of people across the
region.
The most serious trouble in recent decades has
flared between Vietnam and China. The Chinese
seized the Paracels from Vietnam in 1974, killing
more than 70 Vietnamese troops. In 1988, the two
sides clashed in the Spratlys, when Vietnam again
came off worse, losing about 60 sailors. The
Philippines has also been involved in a number of
minor skirmishes with Chinese, Vietnamese and
Malaysian forces.
The most recent upsurge in tension has coincided
with more muscular posturing from China. The
Philippines has accused China of building up its
military presence in the Spratlys. In early 2012, the
two countries engaged in a lengthy maritime standoff, accusing each other of intrusions in the
Scarborough Shoal. In July 2012, China formally
created Sansha city, an administrative body with
[9]

its headquarters in the Paracels which it says
oversees Chinese territory in the South China Sea
- including the Paracels and the Spratlys. Both
Vietnam and the Philippines protested against this
move. Unverified claims that the Chinese navy
deliberately sabotaged two Vietnamese exploration
operations in late 2012 led to large anti-China
protests on the streets of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh
City.
In order to resolve the issue, over the years,

China has tended to favour bilateral arrangements
negotiated behind closed doorsbut other countries
want international mediation. Even if the
Philippines is successful in its attempts to pursue
China at a UN tribunal, however, China would
not be obliged to abide by the ruling. Recent
attempts by regional grouping Asean to discuss new
ideas for resolving the dispute appear to have left
the bloc severely divided.
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Vietnam was also one of a number of nations

that refused to stamp new editions of Chinese
passports which include a map showing disputed
areas of the South China Sea as Chinese territory.
In January 2013, Manila said that it was taking
China to a UN tribunal under the auspices of the
UN Convention on the Laws of the Sea, to
challenge its claims in the South China Sea. In

May 2014, the introduction by China of a drilling
rig into waters near the Paracels Islands led to
multiple collisions between Vietnamese and China
ships.
CHINA RUSSIAN INK 30-YR GAS AGREEMENT
In a major bilateral development, China and

Russia have signed a $400 billion gas supply deal,
securing the world's top energy user a major source
of cleaner fuel and opening up a new market for
Moscow as it risks losing European customers over
the Ukraine crisis. Commercially, much depends
on the price and other terms of the contract, which
has been more than a decade in the making. China
had the upper hand as talks entered the home
stretch, aware of Putin's face-off with the West.
The long-awaited agreement is a political

triumph for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who
is courting partners in Asia as those in Europe and
the United States seek to isolate him over Moscow's
annexation of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula. But both
sides could take positives from a deal that will
directly link Russia's huge gas fields to Asia's
booming market for the first time-via thousands of
miles of new pipeline across Siberia that form part
of the package.
As per Putin, this is the biggest contract in the
history of the gas sector of the former USSR, after
the agreement was signed in Shanghai between
state-controlled entities Gazprom and China
National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC). He also said
that through mutual compromise Russia managed
to reach not only acceptable, but rather satisfactory,
terms on this contract for both sides. Both sides
were in the end pleased by the compromise reached
on price and other terms. Putin and Chinese
counterpart Xi Jinping applauded as they witnessed
the deal being signed before the Russian leader was
to leave Shanghai at the end of a two-day visit.
[10]
The agreement came in time for a major economic

summit in St. Petersburg starting Thursday. About
a dozen chief executives and chairmen of major
U.S. and European firms have withdrawn from
the forum over the Ukraine crisis. Putin loyalist
and senior parliamentarian Alexei Pushkov, who
was included on a U.S. list people placed under
sanctions imposed after the crisis in Ukraine, said
the gas deal showed Russia could not be isolated.
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman
Jen Psaki said that the gas deal would not undermine
efforts by the United States to pressure Moscow not
to meddle in Ukraine's affairs. The United States
and European countries have warned the Kremlin
that it will face broader sanctions, possibly involving
new investment in key areas of the Russian
economy, if it meddles in Ukraine's elections later
this month.
Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller declined to say at
what price the deal was struck, but sources at the
companies involved said that Gazprom refused to
go below $350 per thousand cubic metres. That
compares to a price range of $350-$380 most
European utilities pay under discounted long-term
contracts signed in the last two years. Putin said
the formula was similar to the European price tied
to the market value of oil and oil products. For
China, the implied price is crucially below the Asian
cost of importing Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), an
alternative energy source it is developing. Increased
gas imports will also help Beijing in its declared
"war on pollution" aimed at reducing its reliance
on coal which contributes to the harmful smog

shrouding major cities. Another potential sticking
point in talks was whether China would pay a
lump sum up front to fund considerable
infrastructure costs.
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According to Putin, China will provide $20

billion for gas development and infrastructure, but
Miller said the two sides were still in talks over any
advance. The gas will be transported along a new
pipeline linking Siberian gas fields to China's main
consumption centres near its coast. Russia will begin
delivering from 2018, building up gradually to
38 billion cubic metres a year. Russia plans to invest
$55 billion in exploration and pipeline construction
up to China, and CNPC said it would build the
Chinese section of the pipeline.
Beyond supplying China with gas via a

pipeline, the 30-year deal opens up an opportunity
for Gazprom to become a bigger player in the
booming Asian LNG market, a sector it has so far
not been involved in on a major scale. Gazprom is
planning to build a new LNG plant on Russia's
Pacific coast near Vladivostok, but so far lacks
the infrastructure to supply the facility with the
amounts of gas necessary to meet demand in the
region. The pipeline to China would change this,
ideally positioning Gazprom's Vladivostok terminal
close to the leading LNG buyers of Japan and
South Korea as well as the rising market on China's
eastern coast.
LEGAL ACTION LIKELY AGAINST CHINA OVER DISPUTED WATER

As per Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan
Dung, his government was considering various
"defence options" against China, including legal
action, following the deployment of a Chinese oil
rig to disputed waters in the South China Sea. Dung
for the first time has suggested Vietnam would
take legal measures, a threat that is likely to
infuriate Beijing. Vietnam is considering various
defence options, including legal actions in
accordance with international law.
In late March, the Philippines submitted a case

to an arbitration tribunal in The Hague, challenging
China's claims to the South China Sea. It was the
first time Beijing has been subjected to international
legal scrutiny over the waters. Beijing has refused
to participate in the case and warned Manila that
its submission would seriously damage ties. AntiChinese violence flared in Vietnam last week after
a $1 billion deepwater rig owned by China's staterun CNOOC oil company was parked 240 km off
the coast of Vietnam.
As per Hanoi, the rig is in its 200-nautical mile
exclusive economic zone and on its continental shelf.
China has said the rig was operating completely
within its waters. The move was the latest in a
series of confrontations between China and some
of its neighbours. Washington has responded with

sharpened rhetoric towards Beijing, describing a
pattern of "provocative" actions by China. Dung
also said that Vietnam and the Philippines were
determined to oppose Chinese infringement of their
territorial waters, calling on the world to condemn
China's actions in a rare public show of unity
against Beijing.
Manila is seeking a ruling from the Permanent
Court of Arbitration to confirm its right to exploit
the waters in its exclusive economic zone as allowed
under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea
(UNCLOS). But, as legal experts said that any ruling
would effectively be unenforceable because there is
nobody under UNCLOS to police such decisions.
China claims about 90 per cent of the South
China Sea, displaying its reach on official maps
with a so-called nine-dash line that stretches deep
into the maritime heart of Southeast Asia.
The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and
Taiwan also have claims to parts of the potentially
energy-rich waters. The spat between Vietnam and
China is the worst breakdown in shaky but
important ties between the two Communist states
since a brief but bloody border war in 1979.
CONSIDERABLE POPULATION INVOLVED IN FORCED LABOUR
Forced labour takes different forms, including

debt bondage, trafficking and other forms of
modern slavery. The victims are the most vulnerable
women and girls forced into prostitution, migrants
trapped in debt bondage, and sweatshop or farm
workers kept there by clearly illegal tactics and
paid little or nothing.
According to ILO estimates, more than half of

the 21 million people believed to be experiencing
forced labour, trafficking and modern-day slavery
are women and girls in commercial sexual
exploitation and domestic work. Men, meanwhile,
[11]

are most commonly exploited in agriculture,
construction, manufacturing, utilities and mining
sectors that together account for $43bn of the
annual illegal profits. The remaining $8bn comes
from the savings private households make by either
not paying or underpaying domestic workers held
in forced labour.
Of those exploited by individuals or

enterprises, 4.5 million are victims of forced
sexual exploitation.
Forced labour in the private economy
generates US $150 billion in illegal profits per
year.
Domestic work, agriculture, construction,
manufacturing and entertainment are among
the sectors most concerned.
Migrant workers and indigenous people are
particularly vulnerable to forced labour.
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People are usually pushed into forced labour

because of poverty and sudden income shocks, the
report suggests, while illiteracy, a lack of education,
gender and migration are contributory factors. The
ILO director-general, Guy Ryder, said the study had
taken understanding of forced labour and slavery
to a new level, and called for leaders to redouble
their efforts to eradicate "this fundamentally evil,
but hugely profitable practice".
2 million by the state or rebel groups.
More from the ILO study:
Almost 21 million people are victims of forced

labour11.4 million women and girls and 9.5
million men and boys.
Almost 19 million victims are exploited by

private individuals or enterprises and over
Asia-Pacific is home to more than half of

forced workers worldwide, around 11.7
million people, who generate $51.8 billion
each year for their exploitative employers.
Africa is next in line with 3.7 million forced
labourers, followed by Latin America and the
Caribbean, with 1.8 million.
An estimated 600,000 are also forced to work
in the Middle East, the report showed.
AFTER MILITARY SEIZES POWER, CURFEW IMPOSED
In a bloodless coup that followed, Thailand's

military seized power, dissolving the government,
suspending the constitution and dispersing groups
of protesters from both sides of the country's
political divide who had gathered in Bangkok and
raised fears of a violent showdown.The powerful
army chief, Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha, announced
the military takeover in a statement broadcast on
national television. It was followed by additional
announcements including a nationwide curfew and
an order for 18 government officials-including the
ousted Prime Minister-to report immediately to the
country's new governing military commission.
Though there was no immediate sign of soldiers
patrolling central Bangkok, troops dispersed the two
protest sites where competing groups were camped
out-one backing the now-ousted elected government
and one that had struggled for seven months to
unseat it. Although the military has insisted it
wasn't taking sides, its ousting of the elected
government met the key goal of the antigovernment protesters. The pro-government "Red
Shirt" supporters had earlier said they would not
tolerate a coup, but there were no immediate signs
of resistance or reports of violence. The military
provided hundreds of buses to take the protesters
home. Long lines formed at the city's elevated train,
subway stations and bus stations as panicked office
[12]
workers tried to rush home before the curfew.

Flanked by the heads of the armed forces, Prayuth
said the coup was launched to quickly bring the
situation back to normal, to let the people have
love and unity as in the past, and to reform the
political and economic systems - and to grant
equality to every side. An army spokesman later
announced that it had dissolved the caretaker
government and suspended the constitution but that
the Senate would remain in place. It also ordered
the suspension of all television broadcasting and
replaced programming with patriotic music to fill
air time between announcements. The coup was
the 12th since Thailand's absolute monarchy ended
in 1932. The pivotal developments came after
Prayuth had declared martial law on Tuesday in
what he called a bid to resolve the crisis, and a day
later summoned the country's rival political leaders
for face-to-face talks. After two days of talks, the
meeting failed to break the impasse. Shortly before
the announcement was made, armed soldiers in
military vehicles surrounded the army facility where
the politicians were meeting, apparently to block
those inside from leaving. Thailand, an economic
hub for Southeast Asia whose turquoise waters and
idyllic beaches are a world tourist destination, has
been gripped by off-and-on political turmoil since
2006, when former Prime Minister Thaksin

and vaguely defined threats to prosecute opponents.
The military had insisted it was not seizing power,
but said it was acting to prevent violence and restore
stability in the deeply divided country. But he
provided little clarity on a path forward, amid
speculation both at home and abroad that the
declaration of martial law was a prelude to a
military coup.
India Calls For Political Resolution In

Thailand
troops are expected to return home shortly as the

planned exercise has not started yet. The Ministry
of External Affairs spokesperson also said that
while the Indian community in Thailand is safe,
India is concerned with the recent developments
and is monitoring the evolving situation closely.
India said a solution needs to be found within a
democratic framework. India hopes for an urgent
political resolution and restoration of normalcy
based on the principles of democracy, the will of
the people and rule of law in Thailand.
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Shinawatra was toppled by a military coup after

being accused of corruption, abuse of power and
disrespect for Thailand's king. His overthrow
triggered a power struggle that in broad terms pits
Thaksin's supporters among a rural majority against
a conservative establishment in Bangkok. Prayuth
invoked the military's expanded powers and issued
more than a dozen edicts that included broad
powers of censorship over the media, the Internet
India has withdrawn a contingent of troops

who had gone there for a bilateral army exercise,
besides calling for an urgent political resolution
to the crisis, after the military staged a bloodless
coup in Thailand to assume control of the troubled
nation. According to the Ministry of External
Affairs the contingent of 50 troops which had
recently gone to participate in the Maitree series
of war games has been advised to return. The
CONGOLESE WARLORD SENTENCED OVER MASSACRE
The International Criminal Court sentenced

Congolese militia boss Germain "Simba" Katanga
to 12 years in jail for arming an ethnic militia that
carried out a "particularly cruel" 2003 village
massacre. Katanga was found guilty in March, only
the second person to be convicted by the
Netherlands-based court. He was behind the 2003
massacre of hundreds of villagers in the north-east
of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The fighting
escalated into an inter-ethnic conflict that is
estimated to have killed 50,000 people.
In a statement read out to the court in The
Hague, presiding Judge Bruno Cotte said that more
than six years the 36-year-old former militia leader
had spent in ICC custody would be taken into
account. The chamber said that he would not be
asked to pay a fine. Known to his supporters as
Simba, or "the lion", Katanga was found guilty of
planning the ambush on the village of Bogoro in
gold-rich Ituri province.
As a militia commander, he had the support of

the Lendu ethnic group in the region and his
fighters targeted villagers from the Hema ethnic
group, some of whom were killed as they slept.
The use of machetes in the attack was "particularly
cruel and caused extreme suffering. The rebel
leader, who was 24 at the time the crimes took
place, was also cleared of using child soldiers and
of committing sexual crimes. The evidence proved
that women who survived the massacre had been
raped or kept as sex slaves but the judges did not
find enough proof to convict Katanga of carrying
out these crimes. Judge Cotte said Katanga's role
in helping with the demobilisation of child soldiers
at the time was taken into consideration by the
chamber in handing down its sentence. A year after
joining the military, he was imprisoned for bad
behaviour and was still in jail when the ICC issued
its arrest warrant for him. His is one of the longestrunning cases at the ICC."
A NEW STATE OPTED BY REBELS
The formation of Novorossiya, or New Russia, as

the eastern part of Ukraine was called in the 19th
century, was announced at a meeting of proindependence activists from Ukraines eight southeast
provinces in Donetsk. A day before Ukraine was to
elect a new President the rebellious Russian-speaking
regions ramped up their rebellion against Kiev,

deciding to form a new independent state.
Novorossiya will initially be made up of the
Peoples Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk,
which declared their independence earlier this
month. It is planned that six more regions
[13]

Nikoyayev, Odessa, Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkiv,
Zaporozhie and Kherson, will join the new state
after holding referendums on independence, similar
to those held in Donetsk and Luhansk.
The two eastern regions account for 14 per cent

of the electorate and their failure to take part in
the presidential vote, which they consider to be an
election in a neighbouring state, which will bolster
the regions claim to independence and undermine
the legitimacy of Ukraines new leadership.
Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, head of the Ukrainian
Security Service, who is in charge of the military
crackdown, promised that there would be no active
operations on the election day, but the forces would
intervene if there is threat to the lives of people,
including those who would like to vote.
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According to Pavel Gubarev, leader of the

Donetsk Peoples Republic, they see only one road
ahead, which is independence and breakup with
Ukraine. However, the meeting was split on the
issue of independence from Ukraine. Part of more
than 140 delegates who attended the meeting
supported the idea of greater autonomy from Kiev.
They set-up a Peoples Front designed to protect
civilians from the terror of neo-Nazi bands and
strengthen ties with Russia.
to Volodymyr Hrinyak, chief of public security at

the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, 17 out of 34 district
election commissions in the Donetsk and Luhansk
regions had either been seized or shut down by
armed men.
As of now anti-Kiev forces control two regions,

Donetsk and Luhansk, where the military are
conducting an anti-terrorist operation. According
HUGE ILLEGAL PROFITS GENERATED FROM FORCED LABOUR
A new study by the International Labour

Organization has estimated that forced labour
worldwide generates illegal profits of at least 150
billion dollars a year. The ILO says atleast 21 million
people are forced to work for little or no pay. Over
half of all forced labourers work in Asia, with 18
per cent in Africa and almost 10 per cent in Latin
America. The study by the UN's International
Labour Organization (ILO), found that almost twothirds of the total profits came from commercial
sexual exploitation; the rest was derived from forced
economic labour, such as domestic work,
construction and mining.
The ILO Director-General, Guy Ryder, said the

study had taken understanding of forced labour
and slavery to a new level, and called for leaders
to redouble their efforts to eradicate "this
fundamentally evil, but hugely profitable practice".
Beate Andrees, head of the ILO's special action

programme to combat forced labour, urged the
international community to do more to reduce the
vulnerability of those people most at risk. She said
that while progress is being made in reducing stateimposed forced labour, they must now focus on
the socioeconomic factors that make people
vulnerable to forced labour in the private sector.
Andrees outlined preventive measures, including
bolstering social security guarantees to protect poor
households from abusive lending or indenture;
investing in education and training to increase job
opportunities for vulnerable workers; promoting the
rights of migrants to stop irregular employment
[14]
and the abuse of migrant workers; and supporting

the organization of workers, including in those
sectors and industries vulnerable to forced labour.
Aidan McQuade, director of Anti-Slavery
International, described the estimates as staggering,
and said the report showed not only the persistence
of slavery in the world but also the modern
economy's dependence on it. That is why the
governments need to take concrete steps to address
forced labour across the world. The UK Government
for example could become a world leader in the
struggle against slavery if it introduced in the
modern slavery bill extraterritorial legislation to
make business executives responsible for slavery in
their supply chains, and by supporting a binding
protocol on the ILO convention on forced labour
to strengthen international standards against forced
labour. According to the UN global initiative to
fight human trafficking, the trafficking of people is
the fastest-growing form of international crime and
the third-largest criminal industry after drugs and
arms trafficking.
Other points from the study include:
According to ILO estimates, more than half

of the 21 million people believed to be
experiencing forced labour, trafficking and
modern-day slavery are women and girls in
commercial sexual exploitation and domestic
work.
Men, meanwhile, are most commonly
exploited in agriculture, construction,

manufacturing, utilities and mining sectors
that together account for $43bn of the annual
illegal profits.
The remaining $8bn comes from the savings
private households make by either not paying
or underpaying domestic workers held in
forced labour.
The report calculated that annual profits from

forced labour per region were highest in AsiaPacific, ($51.8bn) followed by developed
economies and the EU ($46.9bn); central and
south-eastern Europe and the Commonwealth
of Independent States ($18bn); Africa
($13.1bn); Latin America and the Caribbean
($12bn) and Middle East ($8.5bn).
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Annual profits per victim are highest in

developed economies and the EU ($34,800
per capita), followed by countries in the
Middle East ($15,000 per capita), and lowest
in the Asia-Pacific region ($5,000 per capita)

and in Africa ($3,900 per capita).
[15]
INDIA AND THE WORLD

JAIPUR FOOT FOR DISABLED AFGHANS
Jaipur Foot is a world renowned initiative
which has served more than 1.3 million amputees
and polio patients with artificial limbs (Jaipur Foot
variations), and calipers across the world. An
agreement to the effect was inked between Afzali
and Dr. Mehta, founder and patron-in-chief of
Jaipur Foot. Indian ambassador to Afghanistan,
Amar Sinha, said India was committed to
continued assistance to Afghanistan. India has also
planned to train staff at the Disabled Technical
Institute in Afghanistan to produce artificial limbs
themselves. It is hoped that the assistance would
further consolidate relations between the two
countries.
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The makers of the Jaipur Foot have signed a

Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with
Afghanistan to provide artificial limbs free of cost
to 1,000 prosthetic legs to terror attack victims and
polio sufferers. The MoU was signed on May 17 at
Kabul between the Afghan Ministry of Labour,
Social Affairs, Martyrs and Disabled (MoLSAMD)
and BMVSS to provide artificial limbs/calipers to
the disabled. The Bhaghwan Mahaveer Viklang
Sahayata Samiti (BMVSS) will hold a month-long
on-the-spot camp at Kabul from June. The exercise
will not simply be restricted to provision of service
but will go beyond empowering and equipping the
National Disability Institute with trained personnel
for sustainability.
INDIA SLAPS ANTI-DUMPING DUTIES ON SOLAR CELL
Indias Ministry of Commerce and Industry has

recommended slapping anti-dumping duties on
solar cells imported from the U.S., China, Taiwan
and Malaysia after ruling they were being priced
below their normal value and were damaging local
manufacturers. In an order issued, the commerce
ministrys Directorate General Of Anti-Dumping
and Allied Duties said companies in several
countries had been dumping solar cells in India. It
recommended imposing duties ranging from 11 to
81 U.S. cents per watt of electricity produced. If
implemented, the duties could devastate local solar
power producers.
Local manufacturers have long complained that
U.S., Chinese and Malaysian companies enjoy state
subsidies and are selling their products at artificially
low prices to capture the Indian market. India also
believes that anti-dumping duties imposed on
Chinese solar producers by the European Union
and the United States have further driven down
the price of Chinese solar products, to the detriment
of Indian suppliers.
The Directorate General of Anti-dumping and
Allied Duties (DGAD) has recommended duty on
imports of solar cells from Malaysia, China,
Chinese Taipei and the U.S. The levy would be
[16]
applicable whether or not assembled partially or

fully in modules or panels or on glass or some other
suitable substrates, originating in or exported from
these countries, the product under consideration
has been exported to India from subject countries
below its normal value, thus resulting in dumping
of the product; the domestic industry has suffered
material injury due to dumping of the product
under consideration, as the DGAD probe has
concluded. To protect the interests of local players,
the panel has proposed that Chinese imports should
attract duties of $0.64-0.81 per watt while the levy
suggested for such cells coming from the U.S. is
$0.11-0.48 per watt. Similarly, duties of $0.62
per watt and $0.59 per watt have been
recommended for solar cell imports from Malaysia
and Taipei, respectively.
India aims to raise its solar power capacity to
20,000 MW by 2022 from 1,700 MW currently. It
imported solar products worth nearly 60 billion
rupees ($1.03 billion) last year, according to an
industry estimate. Domestic manufacturers got less
than 2 per cent of that business. Under the new
duties, importers will have to bear additional costs
of between 5 per cent and 110 per cent while
importing solar cells and panels from the United
States, Malaysia and China. The U.S. Trade

Representative has filed two cases against India at
the World Trade Organization (WTO), complaining
local content rules discriminate against U.S. solar
companies.
The recommendation for anti-dumping duties
will likely add to trade tensions between the U.S.
and India, which are already at loggerheads at the
World Trade Organization over Indias use of local

purchasing rules in some government-funded
power projects. The Indian Solar Manufacturers
Association, which represents manufacturers,
welcomed the ministrys recommendation, saying
it would help boost domestic manufacturing and
be good for Indias solar industry.
PANEL TO SETTLE INDIAUS SOLAR DISPUTE

generating 20,000 megawatts of solar power by
2022.
In a meting of the dispute settlement body, the

global agency decided to set up the panel after the
US complained for the second time. The WTO said
in a statement that Brazil, Canada, China, the
European Union, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Russian
Federation, Norway and Turkey reserved their
third-party right to participate in the panels
proceedings. India has an ambitious target of
The US is especially keen on taking a slice of

this market against backdrop of US President
Barack Obamas aim of doubling US exports by
2015. The U.S. has been complaining about Indias
domestic content requirements under its solar
energy programme known as the National Solar
Mission, and had approached the WTO against
Indias policy.
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The Commerce Ministry under Nirmala

Sitharaman is under a new trade battle at World
Trade Organization (WTO), which has set-up a
dispute settlement panel to examine a complaint
by the US against Indias domestic content
requirements under the countrys solar power
programme.
India had blocked the first request by the US to

set up a dispute settlement panel after negotiations
failed between the two countries. But under the
current WTO rules, the trade body is obliged to set
up the panel if a request is made a second time.
[17]
ECONOMY
BANKS ALLOWED TO GIVE LONG-TERM CREDIT TO EXPORTERS
orders over the duration of the said tenure
can actually be executed.
The facility is to be provided only to those
entities which have not come under the
adverse notice of Enforcement Directorate or
any such regulatory agency or have not been
caution listed.
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The Reserve Bank of India has allowed banks

to offer long-term advances to exporters to enable
them enter into long-term supply contacts with
importers. The RBI said in a notification that in
view of requests received from exporters, it has
been decided to permit banks to allow exporters
having a minimum of three years satisfactory track
record to receive long-term export advance upto a
maximum tenor of 10 years to be utilized for
execution of long-term supply contracts for export
of goods. Banks have been permitted to allow
exporters to receive advance payment for export of
goods which would take more than one year to
manufacture and ship and where the export
agreement provides for the same.
Finer points of the notification:
The firms that will be eligible to avail

themselves of this benefit must have
irrevocable supply orders in place.
The contract with the overseas party/buyer

should be vetted and clearly specify the
nature, amount and delivery timelines of
products over the years and penalty in case
of non-performance or contract cancellation.
Product pricing should be in consonance with
prevailing international prices.
The company should have capacity, systems
and processes in place to ensure that the
The advances should be adjusted through

future exports, and the rate of interest payable
should not exceed LIBOR (London Inter-Bank
Offered Rate) plus 200 basis points.
According to such export advances shall not
be permitted to be used to liquidate rupee
loans, which are classified as NPA as per the
Reserve Bank of India asset classification
norms.
Double financing for working capital for
execution of export orders should be avoided.
Receipt of such advance of $100 million or
more should be immediately reported to the
Trade Division, Foreign Exchange Department,
RBI, Central Office.
Authorized dealer bank should duly evaluate
and monitor the progress made by the exporter
on utilisation of the advance and submit an
Annual Progress Report to the Trade Division,
Foreign Exchange Department, RBI.
SINGAPORE TOP SOURCE OF FDI IN INDIA
Singapore has overtaken Mauritius as the largest

source of foreign direct investment into India,
ending its long run over the top slot. According to
the latest data compiled by the department of
industrial policy and promotion, FDI inflows from
Singapore added up to nearly $6 billion in 201314, compared with $2.3 billion in the previous year.
In contrast, FDI inflows from Mauritius almost
halved to $4.9 billion last year from $9.5 billion in
2012-13. There was a change at the third spot as
well with the UK reclaiming its position with
inflows of $3.2 billion in 2013-14, pipping Japan
($1.7 billion). The US retained the fifth slot with
[18]
inflows of less than $1 billion.
Investors from across the globe have preferred

to route funds into India via the Mauritius route
because of the tax advantages offered by the island
nation located at the tip of the African continent.
Singapore has, however, managed to gain some
glitter in recent years as India offered similar tax
sops as part of the Comprehensive Economic
Cooperation Agreement, although the treaty came
with some riders to ensure that only genuine
investors could benefit.
During the previous financial year, India

attracted $5.98 billion in FDI from Singapore,
whereas it was $4.85 billion from Mauritius,
according to the data of the department of
industrial policy and promotion. According to
experts, the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement
with Singapore incorporates a Limit-of-Benefit
(LoB) Clause which has provided comfort to foreign
investors based there. The LoB Clause in IndiaSingapore treaty justifies the substance in
Singaporean entities, bringing certainty and
avoiding chances of litigations.
The India-Mauritius DTAA is being revised

amid concerns that Mauritius is being used for
round-tripping of funds into India even though that
country has always maintained that there have
been no concrete evidence of any such misuse.
Foreign investments are crucial for India, which
needs about $1 trillion by March 2017 to overhaul
infrastructure such as ports, airports and highways
and boost growth. Overall FDI into India grew by
8 per cent year-on-year to $24.3 billion in 2013-14.
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FDI inflows from Mauritius have started drying

up on fears of the impact of General AntiAvoidance Rules (GAAR) and possible
renegotiation of the tax avoidance treaty. The
controversial General Anti-Avoidance Rules
provision, which seeks to check tax avoidance by

investors routing their funds through tax havens,
will come into effect from April 1, 2016 in India.
The GAAR provision will apply to entities availing
tax benefit of at least Rs. 3 crore. It will apply to
Foreign Institutional Investors that have claimed
benefits under any DTAA.
[19]

FACILITY FOR WARHEADS AT SUPERSONIC SPEEDS
country to do captive flight testing and several
DRDO laboratories, the Indian Space Research
Organization and the Department of Atomic
Energy would benefit from it.
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A new facility on which missile warheads can

be propelled at supersonic speeds has been
inaugurated at the Terminal Ballistics Research
Laboratory (TBRL), Chandigarh. The Defence
Research and Development Organization (DRDO)
has built the facility at the Chandigarh laboratory.
Avinash Chander, Scientific Advisor to the Defence
Minister, who inaugurated the facility on May 12,
called it a unique facility which allows to test many
situations on the ground for which one has to
otherwise use missiles, launch vehicles and aircraft.
The Rail Track Rocket Sled (RTRS) Penta Rail

Supersonic Track comprises five precision-aligned
rails, each four-km long; specially designed rocket
motors; aerodynamic sleds; and advanced
instrumentation. It allows the simulation of
interception of a missile coming in at a supersonic
speed. It can also be used for simulating the
velocities encountered during the re-entry of crew
capsules to be used in Indias manned missions to
space and the parachutes that will be deployed to
bring back the Indian astronauts safely to earth.
A velocity of Mach 3 could be achieved on the

ground with this facility. The tracks will enable
aerospace components to be tested on the ground
at supersonic speeds. Ravi Gupta, DRDO
spokesman, said that the facility allowed the
The system consists of five rails called Penta

Rail Supersonic Track. Each rail has a sled, which
has a specially designed rocket fitted into it. When
the rocket is fired, the sled with the payload is
propelled at a very high velocity on the rail track.
The tracks are precision-aligned and are capable of
withstanding heavy loads travelling at supersonic
speeds.
The DRDO had started using the facility by
firing the radio proximity fuse of its air-to-air Astra
missile on May 12. The performance of the
proximity fuse of the interceptor missiles can be
evaluated using this system. The capability acquired
from using the facility would accelerate the pace
of development of defence and aerospace
technologies. The system is equipped with
instruments to measure the velocities achieved by
the warheads; high-speed video and still cameras
to record the events, solid state recorders, on-board
telemetry system and other equipment to record
the data. The system allows the recovery of the
tested items for post-test analysis.
ROLE OF ISLANDS IN BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION
Islands are home to some 600 million people

one-tenth of the worlds population. Islanders are
endowed with unique cultures and derive much of
their economic, environmental and cultural wellbeing directly or indirectly from the rich natural
resources in their immediate environment. Over the
past century, island biodiversity has been subject
to intense pressure from invasive alien species,
tourism development, climate change and
variability, natural disasters, overexploitation and
unsustainable uses and pollution and waste
disposal.
According to R.K. Singh, Member-Secretary of
Karnataka Biodiversity Board, the conservation of
[20]
islands is essential for conserving the biodiversity

in that region. Speaking on the theme Importance
of islands at a function to celebrate the
international day for biological diversity, he said
that small islands and estuaries are the cradle for
bio-resources. He also gave the example of Netrani
Island in coastal Karnatakas Uttara Kannada
district, and said that earlier Indian Navy was
conducting target practice in that area. Following
a stay by the Karnataka High Court, the target
practice operation was stopped in 2012. A study
conducted by a team of experts has found that the
closure of the target practice operation has helped
form corals in that region.

The Karnataka Biodiversity Board will begin the
operation to prepare an inventory of bio-resources
available in St. Marys Island in Udupi district, once
the monsoon season is over. On the importance of
estuaries in conserving the bio-resources of the
region, he said that Aghanashini and Sharavathi
are the two rivers crossing through Uttara Kannada
district. Of these two, Sharavathi has a hydro
electric project across it. Highlighting the role of

estuaries in conserving bio-resources in these rivers,
he said that the Sharavathi is getting constant fresh
water from time to time because of the hydroelectric
project across the river. Following this, the number
of fish varieties available in its estuaries is around
20.
GLACIERS IN TIBETAN PLATEAU SHRINKING

Engineering Research Institute of CAS said that
Glaciers in the plateau have been shrinking since
the 20th century and sped up since the 1990s. More
and bigger cracks have appeared in ice at regions
of an altitude above 6,300 metres in Mount
Qomolangma (Mt. Everest), a sign of rapidly
melting glaciers.
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According to the study made by Chinese

scientists, the glaciers in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau,
home to several Himalayan rivers, have been shrunk
by 15 per cent in the past three decades and the
situation could worsen in future due to global
warming. Glaciers have shrunk by 15 per cent from
53,000 to 45,000 square kilometres over the past
three decades, according to a report by the Institute
of Tibetan Plateau Research of the Chinese
Academy of Sciences (CAS), glaciers on the plateau
and surrounding areas.
As the highest place in the worlds mid-latitude
regions, the plateau is more likely to get affected
by global warming. Tibet is the home of several
Himalayan rivers including the Brahmaputra.
Kang Shichang, a state laboratory director with
the Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and
China has more than 46,000 glaciers, mainly in

the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. They are a reliable
indicator of climate change, and easy for scientists
to observe, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Kang said that retreating glaciers have impacted
meltwater rivers and led to more glacier-lake
outbursts. It can increase water flow of major rivers
in the short term, but in the long run, a continuation
of the retreat will eventually deplete the glacial ice
and substantially reduce or eliminate run off.
[21]
HEALTH
CARPEDIEM
newborns. Such modifications make adult devices
inaccurate when used in infants who weigh less
than 15 kg and can result in complications with
fluid management and treatment delivery. A major
problem is the potential for errors in ultra-filtration
volumesadult dialysis equipment has a tendency
to either withdraw too much fluid from a child,
leading to dehydration and loss of blood pressure,
or too little fluid, leading to high blood pressure
and oedema. Therefore, a miniature device for
kidney support in newborns and infants weighing
between 2 kg and 10 kg was developed. It has the
capacity to accurately handle very low blood and
ultra-filtration flows compared with existing
machines, allowing the use of a much smaller sized
catheter than is typically used in children, which
could prevent damage to blood vessels.
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It is estimated that 18% of low-birth weight

infants are affected by acute kidney injury and it
is increasingly common in children admitted to
hospital with an incidence of almost 20% in children
admitted to intensive care. Scientists have developed
a miniature kidney dialysis machine capable of
treating the smallest babies and have also for the
first time used it to safely treat a newborn baby
with multiple organ failure. It is the worlds first
such breakthrough.
Announced by the medical journal The
Lancet, the new continuous renal replacement
therapy (CRRT) machinenamed CARPEDIEM
(Cardio-Renal Pediatric Dialysis Emergency
Machine), was created to overcome the problems
of existing dialysis machines that are only designed
for adults and have to be adapted for use in
INVISIBLE BABY DEATHS ON RISE
India has the highest newborn mortality in the

world with 7,79,000 deaths. Globally, about 5.5
million babiesnearly three million neonates and
about 2.6 million stillbirthsdie every year. In other
words, every day, about 8,000 neonates are dying
and the number of stillbirths is about 7,000.
Stillbirths happen at about 28 weeks of gestation
and also during labour. Babies who die during
labourjust five minutes before birthaccount for
nearly half of all stillbirths.
As published recently in The Lancet, half of all

the newborn deaths across the world occur in five
countries. With 7,79,000 deaths, India accounts for
the highest number of newborn mortality in the
world. The other four countries are Nigeria
(2,76,000), Pakistan (2,02,400), China (1,57,000),
and the Democratic Republic of Congo (1,18,000).
What is indeed significant is that while great strides
have been taken in halving the number of deaths
in children aged under-five, the progress in
reducing the number of newborn deaths has been
slower. In the case of stillbirths, the progress has
been even worseit is substantially slower than
even that of reducing newborn mortality. Stillbirths
are not counted in the Millennium Development
[22]
Goals.
Shockingly, the 2.6 million stillbirths every year

across the world are largely invisible. In most
countries stillbirths do not get birth or death
certificates, which contributes to their invisibility;
hence, most of the worlds newborn deaths and
almost all stillbirths enter and leave the world
without a piece of paper to record their existence.
The fact that the vast majority of these deaths which
have a huge effect on the women and families
involvedare never formally included in a
countrys health registration systems signifies
acceptance that these deaths are inevitable, and
ultimately links to inaction. According to the
journal, preterm babies are less likely to be counted,
even in rich countries, especially where they are
not expected to survive.
Though the average annual rate of newborn
deaths has been declining at 2 per cent since 1990,
the rate of decline is lower compared with that
seen in the under-five age group3.4 per cent.
The lack of registration is a key reason for slower
progress in recent decades for prevention of
newborn deaths compared with maternal and child
mortality reduction. But about three million deaths

54 per cent of maternal deaths, 33 per cent of
stillbirths, and 71 per cent of newborn deaths can
be easily prevented if achievable interventions are
scaled up to nearly universal coverage at all stages
before conception, as well as before, during and
after pregnancy.
According to the journal, preterm birth is the

biggest risk factor in both 0-6 days and 7-27 days
periods. While in the case of the early neonatal
period (0-6 days), the intra-partum conditions that
occur during childbirth or delivery play a significant
role, infections become the predominating factor in
the later neonatal period.
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[23]
NEWS IN BRIEF
NEWSMAKERS
Narendra Modi
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Narendra Damodar Das Modi, took oath of

office and secrecy as the Prime Minister of India
on the evening of 26th May, 2014 at Rashtrapati
Bhavan in New Delhi. Narendra Modi led his
Bharatiya Janata Party to a decisive victory in 2014
national elections, winning 282 of 543 seats in the
Lok Sabha, the lower house of Parliament. Fuelled
by a strong anti-incumbency sentiment across the
country, it was the biggest victory for a single party
in decades.
Chairman, North Eastern Youth Congress

Coordination Committee (1988 to 1993) and as
Working President, North Eastern Youth Congress
Coordination Committee from 1993 to 1995.
Since his early days Tuki has been a peoples own
leader and continues to work with the people for
the people with special emphasis on sustained and
vibrant Panchayati Raj system.
Narendra Modi is the 15th and the current

Prime Minister of India. Modi, a leader of the
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), also served as Chief
Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014. He is the
longest-serving Chief Minister of Gujarat. He has
held the office since 2001 and has been successfully
re-elected three times. He led the BJP in the April
May 2014 general election, which resulted in a
majority for the BJP in the Lok Sabha, first time
any party has done so since 1984. Modi is known
for his astute administrative skills and has a record
for being incorruptible. He is credited with turning
around Gujarats economy and making it an
attractive investment destination for industrialists.
Nabam Tuki
Nabam Tuki was sworn in as Chief Minister of

Arunachal Pradesh for the second consecutive term
at the Raj Bhavan in Itanagar. Nabam Tuki is the
Eighth Chief Minister of the sensitive border state
of Arunachal Pradesh. Tuki was public works
minister in the outgoing cabinet and also the state
Congress party president. Tuki was first elected to
the second legislative assembly in 1995 from Sagalee
constituency and served as the Deputy Agriculture
minister in the Gegong Apang ministry. He also
served as Transport and Civil Aviation Minister in
1998. Earlier, he was the IFCD minister in 1996.
He was re-elected to the assembly in 1999 from the
same constituency and became a Cabinet Minister
with the Environment and Forest portfolio in the
Mukut Mithi ministry. Tuki also served as Vice
[24]
Pawan Chamling
For the record fifth consecutive time,

Pawan Chamling was sworn in as Chief Minister
of Sikkim. The Chamling-led Sikkim Democratic
Front (SDF) had secured a two-thirds majority in
the assembly elections winning 22 seats out of 32.
Chamling was elected as the president of
Yangang Gram Panchayat in 1982. In 1985, he was
elected to the Sikkim Legislative Assembly for the
first time. After being elected for the second time
from Damthang constituency, he became the
Minister for Industries, Information and Public
Relations from 1989 to 1992 in the Nar Bahadur
Bhandari cabinet. After a series of major political
upheavals in Sikkim, Chamling formed the Sikkim
Democratic Front on 4 March, 1993. In power since
December 12, 1994, the 63-year-old Chamling has
already completed two uninterrupted decades as
the CM of the erstwhile Himalayan kingdom which
had merged with India in 1975. After being sworn
in for the fifth consecutive time, he was on his way
to break the late Communist patriarch Jyoti Basus
record of being Indias longest serving chief minister.
Basu had ruled West Bengal for 23 years from 1977
till 2000.
Naveen Patnaik
Naveen Patnaik took oath as Chief Minister of

Orissa becoming the first politician in the state to
become a CM for the fourth time. Naveen blew
away the opposition winning 117 seats in the 147member assembly, bettering his 2009 record of 103
seats.
Naveen Patnaik has been the Chief Minister of
Rajiv Mathur
Rajiv Mathur took over as the new Chief
Information Commissioner in the Central
Information Commission. He was the former IB
chief. Mathur succeeds Sushma Singh, as the sixth
chief of the transparency watchdog. He will have
a tenure till August 23, when he attains 65 years
of age. According to rules, CIC is appointed either
for a maximum of five-year term or till 65 years of
age, whichever is earlier.
Mathur, a retired IPS officer of Uttar Pradesh
cadre, was Director of Intelligence Bureau for twoyear term from December 31, 2008 and was
instrumental in revamping the intelligence setup
and raising the quality of intelligence gathering and
sharing. He also galvanised the IB machinery and
provided leadership to the organization to face
challenges. He is a recipient of the Indian Police
Medal for Meritorious Service and the Presidents
Police Medal for Distinguished Service. Mathur had
joined in March 2012 as Information Commissioner
in the CIC.
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Odisha since March 2000. He was sworn in as the

Chief Minister for a third consecutive term on May
21, 2009. He is the founder and President of Biju
Janata Dal, a regional party of Odisha. Though his
father was a politician, Naveen Patnaik has been a
recent entrant to Indian politics. The articulate
author and writer returned to India and joined
politics after his father Biju Patnaiks demise in 1996.
He was born on October 16, 1946, at Cuttack. His
father Biju Patnaik was a politician and a Janata
Dal Leader. Naveen Patnaik was educated at
Welham Boys School and The Doon School,
Dehradun. He has done a BA from St Stephenss
College, Delhi University.
Naveen Patnaik has authored three books; A
Second Paradise, A Desert Kingdom, and The
Garden of Life. He is also the founder member of
the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural
Heritage (INTACH). His sister Gita Mehta is an
author and is married to Sonny Mehta Editor of
Alfred A. Knopf, New York.
OBITUARIES
N Srinivasan
Veteran nuclear scientist and Padma Bhushan

recipient, N Srinivasan died recently due to cardiac
arrest. As known from the press release, Srinivasan
joined the Department of Atomic Energy in 1953
and was the design engineer for the plutonium
plant at Trombay. He established the indigenous
technology for reprocessing spent fuels from
thermal reactors. He was the first Project Director
of the Reactor Research Centre at Kalpakkam and
was responsible for establishing various

programmes and facilities related to fast reactors
and associated fuel cycle. As Chief Executive of
Heavy Water Board, he enabled the country attain
selfsufficiency in Heavy Water production. He
bagged several honours, including the Padma
Bhushan in 2000 and the Lifetime Achievement
Award of department of atomic energy for
excellence in science and technology for the year
2009.
AWARD/PRIZES
Turkish winter sleep Wins Palme dOr
Turkish film Winter Sleep, directed by Nuri

Bilge Ceylan, has been named the winner of the
prestigious Palme dOr award at the 67th annual
Cannes Film Festival. The honour came to the
Turkish cinema at a right time as it is celebrating
its 100th year cinema this year. After Yilmaz Guney
and Serif Gorens The Way (1982) it is only the
second Turkish film to win the Cannes highest
honour.
Cannes second-highest honor, the Grand Prix
was presented to The Wonders, Italian director
Alice Rohrwachers semi-autobiographical drama

about a family of beekeepers struggling to preserve
their way of life in central Italy.
Julianne Moore won the best actress prize for
Maps to the Stars, while Timothy Spall was named
best actor. Other awardees of the festival were as
follow:
Best Director: Bennett Miller, Foxcatcher

Best Screenplay: Andrey Zvyagintsev, Oleg
Negin, Leviathan
Best Actress: Julianne Moore, Maps To The
Stars
[25]

Best Actor: Timothy Spall, Mr. Turner
Palme dor
Camera dOr for Best First Film: Party Girl,

dir: Marie Amachoukeli, Claire Burger, Samuel
Theis
Short Film: Leidi, dir: Simn Mesa Soto
Special Mention: Assa, dir: Clment TrehinLalanne, Ja Vi Elsker, dir: Hallvar Witzo
Jury Prize Tie: Mommy, dir: Xavier Dolan &
Goodbye To Language, dir: Jean-Luc Godard
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The jury prize, the third most important award

of the festival, was shared by two films from the
competitions youngest and oldest helmers,
respectively: Mommy, from 25-year-old Canadian
director Xavier Dolan, and Goodbye to Language,
from 83-year-old French New Wave icon Jean-Luc
Godard.
The Palme dOr Also known as the Golden

Palm, it is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes
Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the
organizing committee. From 1939 to 1954, the
highest prize was the Grand Prix du Festival
International du Film. In 1964, it was replaced once
again by the Grand Prix du Festival before being
reintroduced in 1974. In 1955, the first Palme dOr
was awarded to Delbert Mann for Marty, and it
remained the highest award until 1964, when
copyright issues with the Palme led the Festival to
return to the Grand Prix. In 1975, the Palme dOr
was reintroduced and has since remained the
symbol of the Cannes Film Festival, awarded every
year to the director of the Best Feature Film of the
Official Competition, and presented in a case of
pure red Morocco leather lined with white suede.
As of 2014, Jane Campion is the only female
director to have won the Palme dOr, for The Piano.
SPORTS
Indians Win At Archery World Cup
Indian men archers went down fighting against

Korea in the final of the World Cup Stage II at
Medellin, Columbia. The Indian team of Atanu Das,
Thupuvoyi Swuro and Sanjay Boro fought gallantly
to go down in the tie-break and claim the silver
medal. The Indian mixed team of Das and
Laishram Bombayla Devi won the bronze medal
by beating their Mexican rivals. The Korean side
began strongly winning the first two sets to go 4-0
up. The young Indian archers fought back hard to
level the scores at 4-4 by winning the next two
sets. The world champions won the first set 58-52
and the second one 58-57 in the six-arrow contests.
Tadvi Bags Silver
Kisan Tadvi has bagged silver in boys 3000m

on the concluding day of the Asian Youth Olympic
Athletics trails at Thammasat Stadium in Thailand.
Tadvi clocked 8 minutes 27.87 seconds bettering
his personal best of 8:31.77. This won him gold in
the National Youth Athletics Championship in Goa.
The event was won by Abdi Ibrahim Abdo of
Bahrain and Chinas Liu Hongliang took the
bronze.
Five other Indians performed but failed to make
an impact. On Wednesday, Indians had won four
medals-Ajay Kumar Saroj (gold in boys 1500m),
Maymon Poulose (silver in boys 110mH), Neeraj
Chopra (silver in boys javelin throw) and Pushpa
Jakhar (bronze in girls javelin). KT Neena in girls
[26]
5000m race walk finished fourth with a timing of

26 minutes.
The International Association of Athletics
Federations (IAAF) has set the number of qualified
athletes by continent and event for the Youth
Olympics Games in 2014. Accordingly, only three
Indians-Assams Ajay Kumar Saroj (boys 1500m
gold winner), Keralas Maymon Poulose (boys 100m
hurdles silver medallist) and KT Neena (girls 5000m
race walk) have assured their berths. The three will
represent India in the Youth Olympic Games to be
held at Nanjing in China in August last week.
India wins Uber Cup Bronze Medal
Coach Gopi Chand efforts have led the women

team win the Thomas Cup. Gopi chose to bring
into focus the way Thomas Cup and Uber Cup is
seen by India. Gopi did lament the absence of strong
pairs among men and a third singles player and
doubles in women.
After guiding the womens team to Uber Cup
bronze medal, another first to Indias credit, the
chief national coach Pullela Gopichand reflected that
the Thomas and Uber Cups are usually not on
anyones radar these days. Obviously thrilled by
the achievement, Gopi said that Saina beating
Ratchanok was on the cards. But Sindhu beating
Buranaprasertsuk and Ashwini-Jwala beating
Indonesias doubles pair on the same day made it
really special. India getting the better of Canada,
Hong Kong, Thailand and Indonesia 3-0 gives a
great feeling.

left China with its 13th titlesignificantly eighth
from the last nine editionsfrom 16 successive
finals.
Japan finished runner-up for the second time,
the first being in 1975. Overall, the predictability of
the proceedings robbed the contest of the
excitement usually associated with the title-clash.
AFC Womens Asian Cup

Japan won the Womens Asian champions for
the first time following a hard-fought 1-0 win over
defending champions Australia in the final of the
2014 AFC Womens Asian Cup. The Nadeshiko
had stormed through the group stages with 4-0
and 7-0 wins over host nation Vietnam and Jordan
respectively but could only manage a 2-2 draw
with fellow finalists Australia, after coming back
from two goals down. Australia who reached the
final-four as runners-up in their group, overcame
South Korea 2-1 in the semi-finals while Japan
needed extra-time to see off China.
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Few have done as much for badminton in this

nation as Gopi. He said he felt honoured to have
been able to serve the country. There are a lot of
problems but he brushes them aside. The euphoria
of the unexpected high, however, has not clouded
Gopis vision. He refuses to be sucked into the vortex
of celebration. The journey has also exposed Indias
weaknesses. Agreeing that managing so many
players is a problem for one person, Gopi said that
he does not have a solution for this problem. It is
difficult to find good coaches at the world level.
Gopi reiterates that Indian badminton needs more
resources, more funding and more exposure. He is
a Dronacharya and Padma Bhushan awardee and
surely knows the way.
China Wins Uber Cup For 13th time
China expectedly retained the Uber Cup with

a 3-1 triumph over Japan. China was expected to
win 3-0, including two singles, as the world no. 2
pair of Bao Yixin and Tang Jinhua had beaten the
top Japanese duo, world no. 4 Misaki Matsutomo
and Ayaka Takashahi three times in as many
meetings.
Misaki and Ayaka turned the tables in the

second match of the tie to help the five-time
champion draw level at 1-1 by negating the loss
suffered by teammate Minatsu Mitani to world
no. 1 Li Xuerui in the opening singles. Thereafter,
China gave nothing away with Asian Games
champion Wang Shixian winning the second singles
and the doubles specialists Zhao Yunlei and
Wang Xiaoli nailing world no. 5, Miyuki Maeda
and Reika Kakiiwa with expected ease. The result
Azusa Iwashimizu grabbed the championship

winning goal for Japan in the 28th minute, finding
the back of the net with a header off of a Rumi
Utsugi cross. Team captain Aya Miyama also added
that team had to deliver given that they were
coming into the competition as reigning world
champions. In the other match, China beat
South Korea 2-1 with an injury time winner to
claim third place. Japan, Australia, China,
South Korea and Thailand, who won the fifth-place
playoff mid-week, have qualified for the 2015
Womens World Cup in Canada.
[27]
EDITORIALS
LAUNCHING A WAR AGAINST MALNUTRITION
bear babies with low birth weights. India has
among the highest proportions of low birth-weight
babies, who face a nutritional disadvantage right
at birth. This problem is a civilizational challenge
for the country, and one that is unlikely to be solved
by government action alone. Nonetheless, greater
attention to maternal health can provide nutritional
dividends.
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With almost every second child stunted in the

country, India is virtually a nutritional basket case.
Despite making giant strides in reducing poverty
and hunger over the past two decades, India has
struggled to combat child under-nutrition. Indias
malnutrition burden arises from a long history of
flawed policy choices and deep-rooted gender
inequality, which the new government must
address if it is serious about the fight against
malnutrition.
The stasis in Indias nutritional indicators owes
to three key factors. First, the double whammy of
high population density and unsanitary conditions
in India stunts the growth of children, who bear a
disproportionate burden of infectious diseases and
lose their ability to absorb nutrients. According to
research by the health economist Dean Spears,
differences in access to sanitation explain almost
entirely the gap between stunting rates in India
and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Second, Indias lopsided food policy has made
cereals widely available at the cost of other foods.
The so-called green revolution focused on cereals,
and met the needs of a hungry nation but the
nutrient
deficit
remained
unaddressed.
Consumption figures reported by the National
Sample Survey Office (NSSO) reflect this. Barely
1% of households reported skipping two square
meals a day in the latest NSSO survey. Even the
average cereal consumption across income classes
is roughly equal. But many families in the lower
income deciles are unable to afford pulses, fruits
and vegetables. Unfortunately, the National Food
Security Act (NFSA), legislated by the previous
government perpetuates the damaging legacy of
the earlier approach with its focus on cereals at
the expense of other nutrient-rich foods. The NFSA
is blind to the needs of children, for whom it is the
frequency and quality of meals rather than the
quantum of food which hold the key to better
nutrition.
The third key reason for the high malnutrition
burden is the extraordinarily low social status of
women in India. Within families, women receive
fewer nutrients than men and since a majority of
women are anaemic and under-nourished, they
[28]
The costs of inaction on the nutrition front are

much higher than what many people realize.
Malnutrition in early life lowers the cognitive skills
of children and makes them susceptible to obesityrelated disorders in later life. The productivity losses
associated with malnutrition are estimated to be in
the range of 5-11% for a country such as India,
according to experts.
A growing body of scientific evidence provides
clear pointers for policy actions to fight malnutrition
in India. We need a radical overhaul of our
community outreach programmes to meet the needs
of the very young, pay close attention to womens
health, invest in preventive public health services
such as clean water and sanitation, provide farm
incentives to promote food diversity, and launch
an effective nutrition education campaign to ensure
that young children are fed adequately. Such a
multi-pronged approach will also be far more
efficient in tackling under-nutrition than the
populist food security law. According to a 2013
estimate by the prestigious medical journal Lancet,
it will take $9.6 billion globally to fund effective
anti-malnutrition efforts. But India alone will need
to spend four times that amount annually to
implement the NFSA without getting any significant
nutritional return.
Unlike the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party
had emphasized the importance of nutrition several
times in its election manifesto. Its prime ministerial
candidate Narendra Modi has promised to improve
sanitation standards in the country. It is time for
the party and its leader to deliver on those promises
by making a clean break from the past, and by
focusing on an evidence-based approach to attack
malnutrition.
Source: LiveMint
INDIAS FIRST PAST THE POST MYTH

United Progressive Alliance (UPA) at 37.2% as
against 18.8% for the runner-up, BJP; but this was
sufficient for the Congress-led UPA to capture 262
seats.
With the correct reference pointthe most
recent electionthe result this time around is
nothing short of dramatic. The Congress vote share
plunged to 19.3%, its lowest ever, with the BJPs
31% its largest ever, with a larger victory margin
than the Congress enjoyed in the last two elections.
This looks even more impressive when one factors
in that the BJP didnt contest in 116 seats, so that
makes the actual vote share in seats it contested in
even larger, as, of course, is that of the National
Democratic Alliance (NDA) (around 38%), all of
whom accepted Narendra Modi as the prime
ministerial candidate.
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The new talking point for those unhappy with

the Bharatiya Janata Partys (BJPs) massive election
victory is the claim that they won only 31% of the
total votes cast and that, therefore, 69% of those
who voted did not vote in favour of the winning
party. While numerically correct, what is mischievous
is the insinuation that follows: that the BJP failed to
win a mandate, or that the win is somehow
illegitimate given how many people voted against
them. Those who make this argument are either
unaware of Indias electoral system or choose to
trot out such statistics selectively.
In our first past the post electoral system, it is
ultimately seats, not votes, that count. On that score,
the BJPs performance is striking. It is the first time
a single party has won a majority since
Rajiv Gandhis landslide win in 1984. Suppose,
though, for the sake of argument, we look at vote
shares as a metric of success. As you can see in the
accompanying table, no party in any Indian
election has ever won the majority of votes cast.
Even in 1984, in the mother of all landslide victories,
the Congress captured only 49.1% of the vote. More
broadly, up until 1989, national elections were
dominated by a single party, Congress, which was
all but hegemonic. Vote shares routinely were above
40%, and the victory margins over the runner-up
were huge.
That changed in the era of coalition politics,

when the winning partys vote share plunged and
victory margins narrowed dramatically. In 2009,
for example, Congress vote was 28.5% and the
Looking at other countries that use the same

system is instructive (see the table on data from
other countries). In the last four elections in the
UK and Canada, in which the polity is far less
fragmented, the vote share of the winning party
rarely exceeds 40%. That in India in 2014, in such
a fiercely competitive election and with so many
parties offering themselves to the public, the BJP
should have won more than one in three votes cast
is no mean feat.
The Canadian comparison is also revealing for
another reason.
When in 2011, the centre-right conservatives
under Stephen Harper won a majority, after twice
[29]

governing in minority position; they did so with
39.6% of the votes. Immediately, Harpers critics
made the same argument that we are hearing in
India today: that, because he failed to win a
majority of votes, his mandate was, somehow,
illegitimate or tarnished.
With our current system, parties rational

strategy is to target resources to seats in which
they are competitive, try to swing seats that are
tightly contested, and, more broadly, maximize the
vote to seat multiplier: that is, squeeze as many
seats as possible out of the votes cast.
The Congress historically has been highly
successful in doing all of these things. This time, it
was the BJP which out-strategized its opponent
and won the election, fair and square. Those who
dont like the result should be honest enough to
say so, rather than pick on the quirks of the first
past the post system only when they dont like the
outcome.
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Harper, one should recall, first defeated the

centre-left liberals in 2006 in a high-octane campaign
premised on the economy and governance, and
attacking a fatigued and scandal-ridden incumbent
which had ruled the country for most of its history.
(Does any of this sound familiar?)
If, hypothetically, India were to move to some

version of proportional representation system, it will
be naive to assume that voting behaviour, and
election strategies, will remain unchanged.
Scratch the surface of the carping about

Harpers election victory, and the real reason
emerges: the fear that he would reach beyond his
governance-based campaign and pursue socially
conservative policies, a perfectly valid reason to
oppose him, but not to delegitimize him. It is evident
that something analogous lies behind the attempt
to delegitimizerather than opposeModi.
The more fundamental point is that an election
outcome must be viewed in the context of the
electoral system in which it occurred. It is almost
always the case, in our type of system, that the
party which wins the most seatseven if a
majoritydoes not win the majority of votes. And
that is perfectly fine, since the metric of success
and political legitimacy is seats, not votes.
As it turns out, Canadas Harper, a savvy

politician who plays the long game, proved his
critics wrong by sidelining the social conservatives
in his party and pursuing a centrist, economically
oriented agenda. Now, unlike a sterile debate about
our electoral system, thats something worth
pondering.
Source: LiveMint
CHINA-RUSSIA TIES: THE LIMITS OF CO-OPERATION
Russian President Vladimir Putins visit to

China this week underscores the two countries
growing ties. He signed a $400 billion energy deal,
a decade in the making, whereby Russia will supply
China with 38 billion cubic meters of gas annually
for three decades. Moscow and Beijing are also
conducting a week-long joint naval drill in the
East China Sea, and IHS Janes Defense Weekly
reports that Mr. Putin has agreed to transfer to
China several S-400 missile-defense systems, among
Russias most sophisticated military assets.
So are we seeing the emergence of a ChineseRussian axis? Not quite. These developments are
consistent with longstanding Sino-Russian relations,
which in general remain more superficial than
strategic.
China and Russia conducted their first joint

military exercise in August 2005, when the United
States was considerably more concerned that they
would try to develop the Shanghai Cooperation
Organization into a counterweight to NATO. Last
year Russias Rosneft signed a deal to provide the
[30]
China National Petroleum Corporation with 365

million tons of oil over 25 years. And Russia has
sold arms to China since the Cold War ended,
serving as Beijings top arms source from the early
1990s through 2006.
Both sides talk up ties rhetorically, but China
and Russia are unlikely to forge a sustained strategic
partnership.
Their dynamic is increasingly characterized by
what political scientists Joseph Nye and Robert
Keohane call asymmetric interdependence.
Russia is a declining power with regional, perhaps
continental, ambitions. China is a rising power with
global ambitions.
Russias quest for great-power status rides partly
on the perception that it enjoys a privileged alliance
with Beijing. China, meanwhile, regards Russia as
one of an ever-growing array of countries eager to
furnish it with vital commodities. Russia is
important but not indispensable. As Chatham
Houses Bobo Lo observes, it increasingly serves as

a raw materials appendage to a country [it] felt
superior to for the better part of the past 300 years.
portfolio of Asian partners, especially with Japan,

South Korea, and, most recently, Vietnam.
In October 2011, Mr. Putin called for a Eurasian

Union to function as an efficient bridge between
Europe and the dynamic Asia-Pacific region and
to occupy a prominent place in the international
system. The success of such an undertaking would
require Central Asia to be firmly within Russias
economic orbit.
Vietnam deserves special attention because its

response to Chinese assertiveness could be a
bellwether for how Chinas other neighbors press
their maritime claims. In April 2012, Gazprom
secured a 49% stake in a joint venture with
PetroVietnam to develop two oil and gas blocks
that lie within the nine-dash line, Chinas selfdeclared maritime border.
Beijings state-run Global Times responded with
a warning: Russia should not send mixed signals
regarding the South China Sea issue at this time,
as its meddling benefits neither China nor itself.
Russias image in the eyes of the Chinese people
has already been tarnished by this exploration deal
with Vietnam. A month later, Russia and Vietnam
declared a comprehensive strategic partnership,
and Moscow reportedly intends to provide Hanoi
with six Kilo-class submarines, 10 Molniya fastattack craft and a third squadron of Sukhoi Su30MK2 fighter planes.
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Yet China has eclipsed Russia as the largest

trading partner of every Central Asian country
except Uzbekistan, and with its New Silk Road
initiative appears intent on further strengthening
its Central Asian presence. Along Russias western
periphery, China has announced its desire to double
its Central and Eastern European trade to $100
billion annually by 2015. State Councillor
Yang Jiechi recently reaffirmed Chinas interest in
crafting a free-trade agreement with the European
Union.
Thus China has little incentive to support a
revanchist Russian campaign that most of Europe
rejects. Endorsing Russias annexation of Crimea
and potential capture of Eastern Ukraine, moreover,
would undercut Beijings commitment to
noninterference in other countries internal affairs
and risk emboldening the restive regions of Tibet
and Xinjiang to agitate more fervently for
independence.
Russia, meanwhile, has adopted a position of

neutrality on Chinas territorial disputes in the
Western Pacific. And while China may be the
principal focus of Russias rebalancing to the AsiaPacificwhich is sure to accelerate given Moscows
economic and diplomatic strains with the West
it is hardly the only one.
As China grows in power, Russia wont want
to become a Chinese supplicant. As such, explains
Andrew Kuchins of the Center for Strategic and
International Studies, it is trying to diversify its
Sino-Russian strategic strain may not always

be obvious. After all, barring unforeseen
developments the two countries will continue to
conduct joint military exercises and energy business.
They will also continue giving each other diplomatic
cover in international forums, voicing misgivings
about the centrality of the dollar in global financial
markets, and criticizing the liberal international
system that they had little role in shaping.
Yet the depth of the China-Russia relationship
shouldnt be exaggerated. Russia hopes to ride the
coattails of Chinas ascent while preventing Chinese
preeminence in its own backyarda daunting feat.
China will welcome any Russian contributions to
its campaign for vital commodities, but it wont be
beholden to the negotiating terms or strategic
imperatives of the Kremlin.
Source: LiveMint
MAKING GOVT BANKS BANKABLE
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor

Raghuram Rajans call to free public sector banks
from government interference is not only timely
but also rectifies the incorrect framing of debate in
the wake of the P.J. Nayak committee report on
the governance of state-run banks released last
week. For the most part, the focus has been on the
possible privatization of banks, but that misses the
central thrust of the report. Among other

observations describing how critical is the problem
of non-performing assets (NPAs) in public sector
banks (as against their private sector counterparts),
the report presents a damning indictment of the
way these banks are run. The meat of the report
lies in its dissection of the way the board of directors
in public sector banks govern these banks.
[31]
Two broad trends are visible
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One, in comparison with private sector bank

boards, on average, public sector boards not only
table far fewer issues but also deliberate on them
in far lesser detail. Research shows that the number
of issues discussed is positively correlated with a
banks profitability and the number of risk-related
issues discussed is negatively correlated with net
NPAs (as a percentage of advances). Forget profits
for a moment, even on development concerns such
as financial inclusion, public sector banks appear
to focus less than their private counterparts.
complete with the banks being used to achieve

objectives of state policy. This government-assovereign role has deeply politicized governance
in these banks. Directors on the board are appointed
either in keeping with anachronistic provisions of
laws such as the Banking Regulations Act, 1949 or
through political interference. As a result,
disempowered boards are mostly bothered about
keeping files in order and warding off queries under
the Right to Information Act (RTI), and from the
Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC), and
Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) while their
private peers thinks of ways to improve business.
Two, the more worrisome aspect is that public

sector banks boards do not discuss long-term
strategy adequately. Instead their focus is tactical.
In fact, tactical is a euphemism. Sample these
amusing examples that abound in the minutes: In
one bank the taxi fare reimbursement policy gets
the same coverage as the NPA recovery policy.
Other tactical concerns include the details of a
lecture by a banks CMD at a college; (the) extensive
coverage of the finance ministers visit to the bank,
and the purchase of office premises at Bhopal.
Such issues are seldom deliberated in private sector
board meetings.
Is it any surprise then that the public sector
banks are lagging far behind their private peers in
profitability, or are steadily losing market share to
them or, worse yet, experiencing a rapid
deterioration of asset quality? At this rate, the report
estimates that government banks will need
recapitalization of anywhere between Rs. 2.10
trillion to Rs. 5.87 trillion over the next four years.
Given the governments fiscal health and
deceleration in economic growth, the time has come
to address the fundamental concern with our public
sector banksthe way they are governed.
The key shift that needs to be made is in the

relationship of the government with the public
sector banks. Till now, government control,
especially through the finance ministry, has been
To empower the boards and re-invigorate

governance, the government must take a step back
and look at itself as just an investor in public sector
banks. One way to do this is to transfer the
governments equity stake to a Bank Investment
Company (BIC) under the new Companies Act.
The BIC will be charged with protecting the
governments investment, on the one hand, and
improving the governance of the board by
recruiting experts, on the other.
Internationally, there are several successful
examples of such an arrangementthe Singapore
government controls DBS Bank through the staterun investment company Temasek, and the UK
government controls Royal Bank of Scotland and
Lloyds through UK Financial Investments Ltd. But
perhaps most instructive is the turnaround in the
fortunes of Axis Bank within India. After being
listed in 1998, it was only in 2003 that governments
investments were transferred to the Special
Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India (SUUTI).
The Banks Board chose its own CEO, set its own
employee compensation bands, and was outside
the jurisdiction of RTI, CVC or finance ministry.
Since March 2003, Axis Banks share price has risen
32 times. In March this year, SUUTI sold 9% of
banks equity stake for Rs. 5,550 crore and guess
who gained as an investor.
Source: LiveMint
NO REASON TO CHEER
On the face of it, India may appear to have

made great strides in reducing the maternal
mortality rate by 65 per cent, from 569 per one
lakh live births in 1990 to 190 in 2013. But scratch
the surface, and the real picture emerges. In 2013,
India had 17 per cent (50,000) of the global
maternal deaths. Together with Nigeria at 14 per
cent (40,000), the two countries accounted for one[32]
third of total global maternal deaths. The MMR of

190 last year is much higher than the governments
target of below 100 by 2012. Also, India is yet to
achieve the expected average annual maternal
mortality rate decline of 5.5 per cent or more during
the period 1990-2013 to reach the Millennium
Development Goal 5 target. With only a 4.5 per
cent decline in MMR during the last 23 years, the

country falls under the making progress category
and would fail to meet the MMR target of 109
before 2015. The only silver lining is that India has
been making steady progress in reducing the MMR
since 1990. But for a country where an estimated
26 million deliveries take place annually, the
absolute number of maternal deaths continues to
be high.
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Besides the medical reasons like severe bleeding

and infections after childbirth and high blood pressure
levels during pregnancy, one of the factors that is
playing a big role in maternal mortality is the lack of
skilled care before, during and after childbirth.
Maternal mortality is counted when deaths occur
during pregnancy or in the first 42 days after the
birth of the child, caused either directly or indirectly
by pregnancy. One way of tackling this is by having
more institutional deliveries. India launched a
programme in 2005 to facilitate such deliveries on
a larger scale than was prevalent, but the results
were not encouraging: there was no corresponding
decline in the number of deaths. The reason for
that is not difficult to find. In 2008, more than 50

per cent of women in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar,
and 41 per cent in Rajasthan, continued to deliver
at home, according to a United Nations Population
Fund-India report. Therefore, a greater focus on
increasing the number of well-trained birth
attendants should go hand in hand with promoting
institutional deliveries. According to a 2008 UNICEF
report, the quality of training of such attendants
has been found to be poor in these three States
that fare badly. The 2013 UNICEF report also found
many other inadequacies contributing to poor
outcomes when deliveries took place in health
centres. Insufficient availability of health workers
at primary care levels and gaps in the availability
of equipment and supplies are some of them. The
need for India to take up a more serious and multipronged approach to bring down the MMR cannot
be overemphasised.
Source: The Hindu
UNCERTAINTY IN LIBYA
Monday morning began in Tripoli with what

one doctor described to me as eerie calm. Gunfire
the previous day had sent the people of the Libyan
capital into their shelters. From 3p.m. to 9p.m. on
May 18, the sounds of anti-tank guns and heavy
arms emanated from the area between the airport
and the Parliament building. This was the worst
fighting seen in Tripoli since August 2011, says
the doctor, whose reticence with his name is a sign
of the fear that pervades the population. The
fighting has intensified with Grad rockets being
fired into residential areas.
Political turmoil
Libya has been in turmoil over the past year.

Since March, the country has had three Prime
Ministers. Parliaments term expired on February 7,
but political uncertainty has stymied elections.
This weekends attack began in the eastern city,
Benghazi. General Khalifa Hifter, who had been in
hiding since his failed coup attempt of February
2014, led what he called Operation Dignity. His
troops assaulted three neighbourhoods, going after
the various Islamists militias. Colonel Mohammed
Hijazi, Gen. Hifters deputy, went on television to
warn residents in the area to evacuate their
neighbourhoods to preserve their lives and for their
safety. The targets of the assault included
Ansar al-Sharia, the group blamed for the 2012

attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. Gen. Hifter
described his assault at the cradle of the revolution
as a response to the demands of the Libyan people
for their armed forces to step-up and protect them.
Benghazis military commander, Special Forces chief
Col. Wanis Abu Khamada, one military officer told
me, fully supports what he called the Benghazi
purge, as did Major General Suleiman Mahmoud
and, most significantly, Air Defence Commander
Juma al-Abani. Mr. Zeidan backed Hifter from exile,
while Culture Minister Habib Amin did so from
Tripoli. Ansar al-Sharia had executed nine of
Col. Abu Khamadas men in early May during a
morning raid at the Saiqa Special Forces post. Gen.
Hifters attack was designed to jolt the Islamist
militias from their lairs and raise the morale of the
military.
As Gen. Hifters troops attacked Benghazis
Islamists, the Qaaqaa and Sawaiq brigades overran
the General National Congress (GNC) in Tripoli
after fierce fighting. These two brigades owe their
loyalty to the town of Zintan, and had been sent
to Tripoli to protect Mr. Ali Zeidan. They did not
succeed on that mission, but they did, however,
establish themselves in the city. These brigades
arrested a number of parliamentarians, accusing
them of being allied to the Islamists whom they
[33]

despise. On the surface, the anti-Islamist attack in
Benghazi seemed in harmony with the anti-Islamist
attack in Tripoli. Late into the evening on Sunday,
Col. Mukhtar Fernana, a former head of military
intelligence, came on television to announce the
dissolution of the GNC as well as the creation of a
proper military chain of command and security
apparatus. He spoke in the name of the Libyan
National Army, as did Gen. Hifter. The Zintan
brigades said that they had nothing to do with
Gen. Hifter, and it seems that neither did Col.
Fernana. In keeping with the kind of political chaos
one has seen in Libya, what appeared to be a
straightforward coup was nothing of the sort.
of Libya, the name lifted from the Supreme Council

of the Armed Forces of Egypt.
The U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Deborah Jones,

was out of the country when this bout of the
fighting began. Ambassador Jones wrote on Twitter
that compromise is required but no room for
terrorism. Such a standard suits Gen. Hifter, as it
does the Egyptian presidential aspirant, former Gen.
Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi. Last week, el-Sisi told Reuters
that Libya poses a security threat to Egypt. The
fight against terrorism, he said, would need to
include Libya. Gen. Hifters Operation Dignity
campaign, a retired Egyptian military officer told
me, is exactly what el-Sisi had in mind. These are
dangerous sentiments. Algerias Ambassador to
Libya, Abdelhamid Bouzaher, told a Libyan
politician that his country would not sit by idly if
there would be an Egyptian intervention into the
country. Threats against the Algerian Ambassador
seemed serious enough for that countrys Special
Forces to enter Libya on May 15 and evacuate
Bouzaher and his staff. Fifty thousand Algerian
troops are now on the border with Libya. In the
name of counter-terrorism, North Africa enters its
tensest period in years.
Regional politics, energy fears
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Over the past three years, international and

regional pressures have increased on Libya. The
Libyan people have had no room to create their
own polity. The generals who conducted their
coup this weekend said that the GNC had lost
its legitimacy because they are terrorists. This
war against terrorists in North Africa has a more
concrete manifestation. The terrorist is not only a
member of al-Qaeda or its associated groups, but
alsoin this timea member of any group with
fealty to the emirate of Qatar.
Gen. Hifter came to Benghazi during the 2011

uprising with a tainted historyhe had been a
senior military leader in Muammar Gaddafis Chad
war who had broken with Gaddafi to become an
opposition leader based in Vienna, Virginia. U.S.
officials had hoped that Hifter would return to
Libya in 2011 and take command of the military
aspect of the revolution. He was unable to control
the town-based militias, who, after the fall of
Gaddafi, became the centripetal instruments of
Libyan confusion. Sidelining Parliament, the militias
used their weapons to shut down oil wells and
ports to blackmail a government overwhelmingly
reliant upon oil money. Hifter echoed the Egyptian
military script, announcing that he would govern
through the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces
[34]
Instability in Libya cannot be explained away

by clichs of tribalism or fanaticism. Politics is at
work here: part of it is the new Arab Cold War
the high-stakes fight between Saudi Arabia and
Qatar that led to the June 30 coup in Egypt and
perhaps this coup in Libya; and the other part is
the oil demands of Europe, whose energy fears
increase as Russian gas will not so easily travel
through Ukraine. It is reasonable to wonder about
the tentacles of Europe and Saudi Arabia, as well
as the United States, in this conflict. Whoever is
the author of these events, their consequences are
dangerous for the region. Egypts intervention (on
behalf of Saudi Arabia) would draw in Algeria,
inflaming the region. Tunisia, another of Libyas
neighbours, has just put in place a constitution
written by its citizenry over a two-year period. Its
political dynamic would be distracted by more
warfare. Five thousand Tunisian troops are now at
the Libyan border. They hope that whatever
happens in Libya does not cross the frontier.
Libyas High National Election Commission
announced that the new parliamentary elections
will be held on June 25. It happens to be the
birthday of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of
Gaddafi, who has spent the past two years in a
Zintan prison cell. Libya has been unwilling to
honour the International Criminal Court warrant
on Gaddafi. This warrant was part of the
justification for the 2011 NATO intervention. Three
years on, hope seems as rare a commodity in Libya
as electricity and water. Libyans wait for their
deliverance. People are uncertain, says the doctor
in Tripoli. There are now no celebrations as in
August 2011.
Source: The Hindu
ECUADOR TO GO AHEAD WITH OIL DRILLING IN RAIN FOREST

Drilling for oil in a part of the Amazon
rainforest considered one of the most biodiverse
hotspots on the planet is to go ahead less than a
year after Ecuadors President lifted a moratorium
on oil drilling there.
The petitions backers, Y.A. Sunidos, accused

the government of fraud after only 359,762
signatures of around 850,000 submitted were
deemed genuine the threshold for forcing a
referendum is 583,323.
Tribal area
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Last August, Rafeal Correa scrapped a

pioneering scheme, the Yasuni IshpingoTambococha-Tiputini (ITT) initiative, to keep oil in
the ground under a corner of the Yasuni national
park in return for donations from the international
community.
to get enough signatures to trigger a national

referendum.
He said only $13m of the $3.6bn goal had been

given, and that the world has failed us, giving
the green light to drilling.
Recently, Environment Minister, Lorena Tapia,

said permits for drilling had been signed for the
6,500-square-mile reserve, known as block 43, and
oil production might begin as soon as 2016.
The permits allow Petroamazonas, a subsidary
of the state oil company, to begin construction of
access roads and camps to prepare for drilling.
Esperanza Martinez, an environmental activist

in Ecuador, was quoted in a leading national daily
as saying Petroamazonas had a bad record on oil
spills and it could not be trusted to drill safely in
the Yasuni-ITT.
Earlier this month, Ecuadors government
rejected a petition calling for abandoning plans for
drilling in the area, saying the organizers had failed
The ITT block of the Yasuni park, where the

drilling will go ahead, is home to two uncontacted
tribes. It is a UNESCO site, and one hectare of the
area is home to a richer mix of trees, birds,
amphibians, and reptiles than the US and Canada
put together.
Oil drilling has been taking place in the wider
Yasuni national park for decades, dating back to
Shell in the 1940s. In 2012, access roads had already
been built in blocks neighbouring IshpingoTambococha-Tiputini.
In February, the Guardian revealed that documents

showed the Ecuadorean government had been
negotiating a $1bn deal with a Chinese bank to drill
for oil in the area, at the same time as seeking donations
for the Yasuni-ITT initiative. The Ecuadorean
ambassador to the U.K., Juan Falconi Puig, rejected
the claim as baseless and claimed the document
was fraudulent.
Source: The Hindu
BAD LOANS, A PROBLEM OF BANK ATTITUDE
There is no dearth of laws to tackle nonperforming assets (NPAs) of bankssuch as the

Sarfaesi Act (The Securitisation and Reconstruction
of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security
Interest Act), The Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT)
Act, The Companies Act and bankruptcy laws for
assets recovery and winding up processes.
Each time the issue of NPAs takes centre stage,

banks and regulators are seen firming up policies
to effectively deal with NPAs and tackle wilful
defaulters. In the process, several circulars have
been issued since 1991-92.
Despite several such measures by the regulator
and banks, there is no respite in the surge in NPA
and restructured accounts, particularly in the Micro
Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) and corporate
sector, raising fears of a lurking loan contagion.
Does this mean that the bankers are not doing

their job?
No timely lending
The present mess of bad debts and its impact

on entrepreneurship has reached stratospheric
proportions.
Above all, the borrower is not being dealt with
in a fair and transparent manner. It is as if he or
she alone is responsible for getting the project on
stream, despite all the lacunae in bank sanctions
and weaknesses in the broader system.
In most cases, it is observed that when the
borrower needs support with timely resources,
banks tend to withdraw the existing support,
forcing the borrower company to collapse
altogether.
[35]

It is well known in the financial sector that
some top executives of banks often bad-mouth
borrowers and threaten them with dire
consequences when they call on them, without
even realising that things have come to such a pass
also because of bankers own failure to take timely
decisions.
That said, the decision of the banks internal

committee should not be brought under scrutiny of
any agency, if the regulator and the Ministry of
Finance want to resolve the issue of NPAs.
New framework
The recent guidelines issued under the
Framework for Revitalising Distressed Assets in
the Economy has addressed some critical issues,
mainly emphasizing that the banking system should
recognise the financial distress of loans early (earlier
it was health code 1&2), take prompt steps to
resolve them, and ensure fair recovery for lenders
and investors.
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Bankers often insist that the account be

regularised first, without understanding the fact
that if the borrower had the cash flow, he would
not have reached this situation. In this manner,
accounts are allowed to become NPAs.
However, usually, the bank is in a better

position to take a decision on settlement of a loan
with the borrower, having dealt with the borrower
company for so many years.
Efforts to ensure timely decisions by banks and

provide adequate credit for meeting the
requirements of the borrowing companies are
necessary for the healthy growth of the banking
sector and for putting the economy back on an
even keel.
Working of ARCs
Instead of calling the borrower for an early

resolution and looking into the possibility of
restructuring in an appropriate manner, banks try
to assign the debt to asset reconstruction companies
(ARCs).
It has also tightened some of the risk

management processes by asking banks to do an
independent analysis of the borrower, instead of
entirely relying on the recommendations of external
agencies.
And ARCs, in turn, call the borrowers and settle

accounts with them. Why do banks prefer to pass
the buck? Assignment of debt is done alongwith
the underlying security.
Outside consultants preparing project reports

for the borrowers, including some rating agencies,
based on whose reports/rating banks and FIs take
final decisions on providing credit to a company,
have never been made accountable to banks.
After that, ARCs are supposed to pay only

5 per cent of the value of debt and the remaining
has to be in form of security receipts only.
However, the overall effectiveness of loan

appraisal systems and risk management systems in
banks leave much to be desired.
In the process, the bank gets the benefit of

assignment of debt in the form of reduction in its
NPAs. Despite no real recovery for the bank, this
transaction reduces the gross and net NPAs of the
respective bank and helps its NPA management
process.
Now, the time has come for creating an

atmosphere of consultation, confidence building
and identifying the genuine corporate borrowers
who are in need of timely support, rather than
creating one more layer of papers in the form of
circulars and guidelines.
This is a preferred route now for banks because

it skips accountability of the bank officials in settling
the account.
Adding more layers of guidelines will only

encourage the process-driven model, discouraging
CMDs and EDs of public sector banks from
adopting innovative ways of tackling various issues.
It is given to understand that even failed

(Corporate Debt Restructuring) CDR cases are
under the scrutiny of CBI. Hence, it is easy to deal
with an ARC, even if the bank has to make do
with lower repayment.
As ARCs are private entities themselves, they
cannot be subjected to scrutiny by investigative
agencieswhatever the settlement amount with the
borrower. They do not even need any specific prior
reference to the bank on that score.
[36]
Sprucing up the mechanism within the banking

system and making all stakeholders in charge of
these activities accountable is an urgent
requirement. Hold them accountable, but do not
expose them to nit-picking.
Ultimately, banking is a business and official
decisions are business decisions.
INCLUSIVE GROWTH, AN EXAGGERATED CLAIM

an annual growth rate of income of more than 2.5
per cent in a state, the poverty reduction was
greater. These findings illustrate that not just growth
but also its duration matter in poverty reduction.
Contrary to the assertion by Panagariya, the
higher the inequality in consumption expenditure
distribution, measured as the Gini coefficient, the
lower was the poverty reduction. In other words,
if a fast-growing state also experiences a rise in
income inequality, poverty reduction would be
weaker relative to a state with the same growth
rate but lower inequality.
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Recent accounts of poverty reduction

especially during 2004-11triggered by the release
of the 68th round of the NSS data, have been
euphoric. Growth acceleration not just resulted
in more rapid poverty reduction over this period
than during 1993-2004 but it was also more
inclusive as the most disadvantaged groups, the SCs
and STs, benefited more than others as the gap in
poverty declined. A Panagariya and his
collaborators are overemphatic about these and
other claimsfor example, inequality has not
impeded poverty reductionon the basis of crosstabulations.
Conclusions based on such tabulations fail to

control for other factors. While we question some
of these claims, our analysis has a broader scope. It
is confined to 17 major states, based mostly on the
NSS data for 1993-94, 2004-5, 2009-10 and 201112.
Distribution of the poor
Poverty remains a rural problem with a vast

majority of the poor located in rural areas.
According to the Planning Commission, the total
number of poor in 2011-12 was 270 million of which
217 million lived in rural areas (80 per cent).
If the states are classified into low-, middle- and

high-income groups based on per capita income in
1993-94, each group recorded a reduction of 7-8
percentage points in the share of rural poor in total
poor over the period 1993-2011 (in low-income
states, for example, from about 86 per cent to 79
per cent).
However, the incidence of poverty in rural and

urban areas (i.e., the proportion of poor, say, in
rural population) varies across these income groups.
First, in each income group, the incidence of rural
poverty is considerably higher than that of urban
poverty, especially in low- and middle-income states.
Reductions in both rural and urban poverty were
lower in low-income states (2-3 percentage points)
than in the two remaining groups (4-8 percentage
points). These are illustrated in the chart.
Rural poverty
The higher the per capita expenditure (as a proxy

for income) in a state, the lower was the headcount
ratio of the poor (or proportion of poor in the rural
population). So growth matters. Besides, if the
preceding three years of the NSS records showed
We tried to capture the effect of rural-urban

migration on rural poverty by considering the
difference in urban-rural incomes. This effect is
positive and consistent with the conjecture that
younger and better-off individuals tend to migrate
to urban areas and thus poverty rises among those
left behind.
Continuity of the political regime was measured
in terms of whether the same party ruled in each
sample year. While both the Congress and BJP
accomplished poverty reduction in equal measure,
it was the continuity of the former (and its policies)
that was more effective.
Although the socio-economic profile of BIMARU
states has improved, they still account for a higher
incidence of rural poverty than other states. So even
with growth acceleration, rural poverty persists.
Besides, while states with higher proportions of SCs
in the rural population achieved faster reduction in
poverty, those with higher proportions of STs did
not. This finding is important as the latter are
generally more deprived given their social and
economic exclusion.
Urban poverty
The results for urban poverty are similar in

some respects. Higher per capita expenditure as
also growth spells less poverty. What is surprising
is that not only is higher inequality associated with
higher prevalence of poverty but also has a much
larger (absolute) effect than growth of income. In
other words, a sharp rise in inequality more than
offsets the favourable effect of income growth on
urban poverty.
Somewhat surprising is the absence of
empirically robust relationships between nature of
political regime (Congress, BJP or any other) and
its continuity, and poverty. While the urban bias
[37]

of policies and welfare schemes remains pervasive,
it cannot be dismissed out of hand that livelihoods
at low wages/earnings in urban areas are not so
dependent on these schemes as in rural areas. A
case in point is the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural
Employment Guarantee Scheme.
In conclusion, emphatic assertions of

inclusiveness of growth uplifting the poor across
diverse states and belonging to socially and
economically disadvantaged groups, and the
outright dismissal of the offsetting effect of higher
income inequality are dubious, if not misleading.
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Deeper doubts are raised about the inclusiveness

of growth in urban areas. While the BIMARU states
continue to be associated with a higher incidence
of poverty in urban areas too, it is not confirmed
that there are higher benefits of growth in states
with higher proportions of SC and ST populations.

In other words, such states did not benefit more
than others, and thus assertions of inclusive growth
are further undermined.
PUTIN PIVOT TO THE EAST
In his 1997 book-The Grand Chessboard, the

former US national security advisor Zbigniew
Brzezinski has argued that the struggle for global
primacy (would) continue to be played on the
Eurasian chessboard, of which Ukraine was a
geopolitical pivot If Moscow regains control over
Ukraine, Russia would automatically regain the
wherewithal to become a powerful imperial state,
spanning Europe and Asia. Moscow might not
have regained full control over Ukraine but the
fear of losing Ukraine to the West seems to have
accelerated Moscows efforts to pivot to Asia. The
$400-billion historic gas deal, signed between
Russia and China on Wednesday in Shanghaiat
a time when the Ukraine crisis is still simmering
has immense geopolitical dimensions.
declined to grant Moscows request to supply more

gas to OPAL, a pipeline that carries Russian gas
through Germany to the Czech border. Talks over
the 16-billion South Stream pipeline project that
would bypass Ukraine to transport Russian gas to
Italy had also hit hurdles after the EU withheld
regulatory approval. Russia could have supplied
gas directly to Europe without depending on
Ukraine.
The deal
The deal doesnt immediately pose a threat to

Europes energy security. The bulk of Russias GDP
comes from its natural resources. Gas accounts for
around 10 per cent of the countrys total exports
and 6 per cent of government revenues. Putins
government is greatly dependent on this revenue
to finance its welfare programmes.
Under the deal, Russias state-run energy giant

Gazprom will supply 38 billion cubic metres (bcm)
of gas each year for a 10-year period to China
National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC). Though
the financial details of the deal are a commercial
secret, the total value is estimated to be around
$400 billion. Russia will invest around $55 billion
for developing new gas deposits in Siberia and
building a pipeline network to carry the gas to
China, while the latter will invest around $20
billion. The deal was in the making for the last 10
years but often stumbled over mutual mistrust and
disagreement on pricing. Russian President
Vladimir Putin, who had long been looking East to
diversify Russias energy market, stepped up talks
with China after Moscows relations with Europe
deteriorated in the wake of the Ukraine crisis.
Besides the minor sanctions the European
Union and the US imposed on Russia, a host of
other factors appear to have prompted the Russian
president to turn to China. In March, the EU
[38]
At present, Europe gets around 30 per cent of

its gas requirements from Russia, around half of
which passes through Ukraine. Russia has now
threatened to stop gas supply to Ukraine over a
payment crisis.
No immediate threat
So, despite the threats to stop gas supplies

through Ukraine, Moscow is unlikely to walk the
talk as the move would hit its economy as badly as
it hits European energy security.
Moreover, even if the required gas infrastructure
in Siberia is built according to the schedule cited in
the deal, gas supplies to China will begin in 2018.
And the targeted annually supply of 38 bcm a year
looks small compared with Gazproms European
business. Last year, Gazproms Europe sales rose
15 per cent to 173 bcmthe highest since 2008
from which the company made around $60 billion.
The real significance of the deal is that it brought
together two prominent world powersone is the
worlds second largest and the fastest-growing

major economy and the other is a former
superpower that still nourishes great ambitions. This
partnership has the potential to refashion Eurasian
geopolitics as there are economic and strategic
imperatives that demand their closer cooperation
across a wide spectrum.
Also, enhanced Russo-China economic

cooperation will help Putin fast-track his Eurasian
Union project, which seeks to set-up a union of
Eastern European and Asian countries on the line
of the European Union.
It would be nave to think that this partnership
does not have a military dimension. Russia and
China are currently carrying out a joint military
exercise in the East China Sea near islands
controlled by Japan, which has territorial disputes
with both countries. With both the US and Russia
pivoting to the East, it makes Asia the potential
geopolitical theatre of the 21st century.
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For example, Russia is rich with natural

resources while China is badly in need of resources.
China is facing heat from the US pivot to the East
as Washington is trying to stitch together a loose
alliance of Asian powers such as Japan, the
Philippines, Vietnam and Australia to contain
Chinas rise. Russia is facing the same heat in
Eastern Europe, as the U.S. is arming its satellite
countries in the region.
pipeline networks are fully ready, the Russians

expect the supply to China could be doubled to
60 bcm a year as Chinas demand for cleaner
burning fuel is also set to rise.
The message
So the deal is a message both Russia and China

are sending out to the West. Once the Siberian
GETTING WOMEN ON BOARD
The new Companies Act has made it mandatory

to appoint women directors. As a result the search
is on for experienced candidates with domain or
functional skills and cultural compatibility to sit on
the boards of companies. According to the Ministry
of Company Affairs, there were 4,83,103 women
directors in 2013 comprising a dismal 7 per cent
of the total number of board seats. Compare this
with the top 25 countries where the share ranges
from 8 to 36 per cent. India has not come up to
even half the US proportion.
With the glass ceiling effect being a barrier to
the advancement of women in our country, they
have only recently made an entry into senior
management posts. The objective of the Companies
Act, 2013 is enhanced corporate governance, and
women directors are expected to contribute as
catalysts in this process. For example, women
demonstrate a democratic leadership style which
boosts motivation and helps increase cooperation
from the management.
Women also believe in a collaborative approach

and by being good listeners they encourage
participative decision-making and problem-solving.
Women are considered to be proactive in
anticipating risks and issues that could arise, and
thereby help strengthen risk management practices.
Women directors are able to effectively oversee
implementation of policies and processes, as they
tend to closely follow up on deviations, be tough
on exceptions, and ensure timely adherence to the

right process.
Patience pays
In the area of corporate social responsibility,

women directors can contribute significantly to their
organisations, right from initiating CSR initiatives,
setting priorities and choosing projects to organizing
the work plan, deploying management personnel
and monitoring progress against targeted
achievements. Women are known for their patience
and perseverance, which is a prerequisite for these
initiatives as they are sometimes challenging and
demand long-drawn action to reach the required
milestones and make the desired impact.
A study conducted by Catalyst and Harvard
Business School states that companies with more
women corporate officers donated significantly
more funds, and for each percentage point increase
in women corporate officers, yearly donations
increased by $5.7 millionwhich proves that more
women leaders means a higher level of corporate
social responsibility contribution.
The role of women directors in implementing
the national voluntary guidelines on the social,
environmental and economical responsibility of
business is phenomenal. Managing ethics in the
workplace, overseeing the sustainability reporting
mechanism and initiatives on consumer awareness
by companies could also be useful areas of
[39]

supervision by women directors.
Women directors can also review recruitment
and human resource policies to ensure gender
diversity, better work-life balance, and the creation
of a special and harassment-free workplace for
women. They can lead their companies to develop
strong human-focussed operating plans that would
contribute to the sustainability of all business
operations and the health and welfare of their
employees.
Various survey results have proved that boards

and managements with gender diversity have
experienced enhanced corporate performance,
higher return on equity, return on sales and return
on capital employed.
This regulation is only an initial push but the
actual implementation would depend on the wholehearted acceptance of the role of women directors
by promoters and shareholders in general. This
should not be seen as compliance, but necessity.
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They are better placed to supervise mechanisms

in respect of assessing and managing human rights
and developing avenues for the differently-abled.
Likewise, they can review and assess the adequacy
of grievances to address customer concerns and

feedback on products from service by companies.
IRAN NUCLEAR TALKS
A mood of workmanlike optimism was palpable

as negotiators from Iran and the P5+1 (the UN
security councils permanent members plus
Germany) arrived in Vienna this week for talks
that some now think could result in a deal being
signed on July 20th. Until recently the prospects
for a comprehensive accord to rein in Irans nuclear
ambitions in exchange for relief from sanctions still
seemed wishful. Some big obstacles must still be
overcome, but the sense of urgency and the
pragmatic flexibility (particularly on some knotty
technical issues) being shown by Irans negotiators,
led by its Foreign Minister, Javad Zarif (pictured
above), have boosted hopes. This contrasts sharply
with the foot-dragging truculence of old.
Iran appears to be sticking to the undertakings
it gave last November under the terms of an interim
agreement that provided it with respite from some
less painful sanctions. Iran has stopped producing
20%-enriched uranium, which can be quickly
turned into weapons-grade stuff, and has converted
half its stockpile to Low-Enriched Uranium (LEU),
concentrated to 5%; by the end of July the other
half will be turned into oxide, which cannot easily
be converted to fuel for a weapon.
After a series of detailed technical discussions,

some compromises leading to a long-term deal may
be close. The Iranians have offered to redesign their
research reactor at Arak, which was due to go
online this year and could otherwise offer an
alternative plutonium path to a bomb. They
propose to have it fuelled with LEU rather than
natural uranium, which would reduce its potential
plutonium output by 80%. That may still not be
enough if Western experts think the redesign could
be easily reversed. Much will depend on how the
[40]
reactors core is modified.
Similarly, progress has been made over an

enrichment facility at Fordow, which is buried deep
under a mountain and has thus worried the Israelis
because of its supposed invulnerability to aerial
attack. Rather than agree to have Fordow
permanently shut down, the Iranians are offering
to turn it into a small research-and-development
site, moving the centrifuges from there to be stored
at Natanz, Irans main enrichment centre.
Neither that nor the modification of Arak would
be sufficient without a greatly enhanced inspection
regime, but the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA), the UNs nuclear watchdog, has
been pleasantly surprised by the Iranians apparent
willingness to allow much more intrusive
monitoring than before, including signing up to
the Additional Protocol of the Non-Proliferation
Treaty (NPT).
The agency is less happy, however, about the
co-operation it is getting in its investigation of the
possible military dimensions of Irans past nuclear
programme. It complained this week that it still
had not been able to get access to Parchin, a military
site where it suspects high-precision detonators
designed to initiate the chain reaction for a nuclearimplosion device have been tested. Western
diplomats recognise how awkward it is for Iran to
admit to such things and would cut it some slack
if it deals with everything else.
That still remains a pretty big if. Gary Samore,
who was Barack Obamas senior advisor on arms
control for four years, notes three big remaining
obstacles: agreeing on the extent of Irans capacity
to enrich uranium and the kind of research it can

do; the length of time an agreement would cover;
and the way in which sanctions are unwound.
Finally, the Americans and Iranians differ over

the sequencing of sanctions relief. The Iranians
argue that, once an agreement is reached, all
sanctions should be removed for good. The UN
and European Union might accept that, but the
Americans will not. The best Mr. Obama can offer
is to use his national-security waiver to suspend
sanctions, perhaps indefinitely. But he cannot
expunge the legislation without Congresss support.
In any case, the West would prefer to ease
sanctions in stages, to encourage Iran to meet
whatever obligations it has agreed to.
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The gap between Western and Iranian

negotiators on all three is wide. To sell a deal to a
sceptical Congress, already uncomfortable with
conceding what Iran insists is its right under the
NPT to enrich, only a very low number of
centrifuges will be acceptable; people close to the
talks suggest between 3,000-4,000 of the older
IR-1 centrifuges at most. But Iran wants to keep all
19,000 of the centrifuges it has already deployed
and to be able to move up to 50,000 in a few years
or substitute IR-1s with newer IR-2ms that are six
times more efficient. It would also deem any curb
on its nuclear R&D to be insulting.
last between ten and 20 years. Iran is talking about

five years as an absolute maximum, after which it
would be treated as a normal NPT signatory.
The requirement for Mr. Obamas team, says

Mr. Samore, is to be able to say that the breakout
period (the time Iran needs to enrich enough
uranium for just one nuclear device after throwing
out the IAEA inspectors) is at least a year,
compared with about two months now. Though a
crude measure, everyone understands it.
Mr. Samore thinks it would be politically impossible
in America to sell anything less.
The West is looking for an accord with Iran to
For their part, Mr. Zarif and President

Hassan Rohani are under pressure from hardliners
at home who believe they have already given too
much ground. Yet both sides to the talks fear the
consequences of failure. They wont walk away,
says Mr. Samore of the Iranians. The best bet is for
a six-month extension of the talks. For all the
hopeful mood in Vienna, there is still a long way
to go.
[41]
CHRONICLE
IAS ACADEMY

26TH MAY 2014 TO 1ST JUNE 2014
Call: 9953120676, 9582263947

CONTENTS
TOPICS
Pg. No.
National ....................................................................................................................... 4-13

International ............................................................................................................. 14-17
Economy .................................................................................................................... 21-22
Health ......................................................................................................................... 25-26
News in Brief........................................................................................................... 27-31
Turkey seethes after Soma
32
The policy mix that industry needs
32
Taking charge of electronics
34
Operation Clean-up
35
Too lax an approach to fighting inflation
35
Get past the sugar-coating
36
BRICS: Down but not out
38
Uncertainty in Libya
39
Ecuador to go ahead with oil drilling in rainforest
40
A needless row
41
Invigorate the European Project
42
A formidable task
43
Whos afraid of Pakistans military?
45
Not a right to be shielded
45
Dont mess with the banking sector
47
The road ahead for the Election Commission
48
Now, a system to extract water from manure
A vote against Europe
49
Freedom from whom?
50
Focus on Beijing
51
Banking on ourselves
52
Hooked up
53
Manufacturing a debate
54
Getting down to the energy business
55
Strengthening Indias rule of law
56
Force majeure
58
South Sudan: Catastrophe looms
60
NATIONAL
SIT SET-UP TO BRING BACK BLACK MONEY
Desai and M.B. Lokur had asked the government
to furnish all the names and documents pertaining
to 26 cases to the former Law Minister and senior
advocate Ram Jethmalani and others, who had
raised the issue and filed a petition seeking details
of the black money stashed in foreign banks. The
government had earlier revealed names of 18
persons after resisting for around three years despite
the apex court order passed in 2011. Besides, the
central government submitted before the apex court
a sealed envelope containing the names of other
individuals related to eight other cases in which it
found no evidence of tax evasion. Jethmalani had
sought directions to the government to file the list
of names of those having accounts in Liechtenstein
Bank with respect of which investigations have been
concluded, either partially or wholly.
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A high-level Special Investigation Team (SIT)

was constituted by the newly formed government
at its first cabinet meeting, to investigate and bring
back black money stashed away abroad. The
meeting was presided over by the Prime Minister
Narendra Modi. The decision comes just a day
before the Supreme Courts directive to form the
SIT was set to expire. As per the official statement,
the SIT has been charged with the responsibility
and duties of investigation, initiation of proceedings
and prosecution in cases of Hasan Ali and other
matters involving unaccounted money.
The SIT will be headed by former Supreme

Court judge M.B. Shah, while another retired
Supreme Court judge Arijit Pasayat would be its
vice-chairman. The SIT will also include highprofile government officials like Revenue Secretary,
Deputy Governor of Reserve Bank of India, Director
of Intelligence Bureau, Director of Enforcement
Directorate, Director, Central Bureau of
Investigation, Research and Analysis Wing chief,
Director-General of Revenue Intelligence,
Chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes
and Director of Financial Intelligence.
Earlier this month, a Supreme Court bench
comprising justices H.L. Dattu, Ranjana Prakash
Unearthing Black Money
The new government has approved the setting

up of a special investigating team to unearth black
money stashed outside the country, a step the
previous government had vehemently opposed till
the day of its route in the elections on May 16.
Although there is no official figure, various
estimates about the quantum of black money have
been put forth. Heres a roundup....
Black Money Estimates
BJP (2011): $500 Billion to $1.4 Trillion (Size of

Indias Black Economy)
NIPFP (1983-84): Rs. 31,584 Cr & Rs. 36,784
Cr (Between 19% and 21% of GDP)
The team shall have jurisdiction in the cases

where investigations have already commenced or
are pending or awaiting to be initiated or have been
completed. SIT will prepare a comprehensive action
plan including creation of necessary institutional
structure that could help the problem of
unaccounted money. It would report to the court
the status of work from time to time.
Global Financial Integrity (2010): $462 Billion

(Went Out of India Between 1948 & 2008)
IMF: $88 billion (Flight of Capital From India
Between 1971 & 1997 (Revised Estimate))
Washington-based GFI ranked (2013) India as
the fifth largest exporter of illicit money between
2002 and 2011
Illicit Financial Flows* (in $, Billion)
All Developing
India
Countries
2007
33.108 594.036
2008
44.645 789.53
2009
28.615 770.298
2010
68.383 832.438
2011
[4]
84.933 946.677
Weekly Current Affairs 26th May to 1st June, 2014

(*Hot Money Narrow + GER Non-normalised
method)
Illicit Financial flows ($, Billion)
Annual average
in services and intangibles; trade mispricing that

occurs within the same invoice through related or
unrelated parties, smuggling; and hawala type swap
transactions.
What has the previous govt done
China: 107.56
Russia: 88.09
Anti-money laundering law has been

strengthened and more entities have been
brought under its ambit to create a deterrent
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Swiss National Bank data released last year

showed that money deposited by Indians in
Swiss banks has fallen to a record low level
of about Rs. 9,000 crore at the end of 2012.
Empowered existing institutions and set up

new mechanisms and institutions to unearth
black money
In its latest report (2013) on illicit money

flows, Washington-based GFI ranked India
as 5th largest exporter of illicit money between
2002 & 2011.
Liabilities of Swiss Banks towards Indians
Year-End
Total Liabilities
Liabilities
towards
towards
Indians
Indians as % of
(Rs. Cr)
Total
Liabilities
2010
9,295
0.1302
2009
8, 879
0.1297
2008
10,924
0.1188
2007
14,979
0.1769
2006
23,373
0.29
According to a finm white paper, GFI and IMF

models do not capture significant illicit outflows,
such as through mispricing occurring through trade
India has joined global efforts to tackle illicit

flows and also signed information exchange
treaties with many countries.
The gradual reduction in income tax rates
has also helped improve compliance.
But is it enough?
The UPA regime entered into new

agreements with tax havens and formed
dedicated teams to track data, but experts
say political will is lacking
Roadblocks
Absence of integrated information technology

network
Sourcing information from tax havens is
unpredictable
Double taxation avoidance agreement is not
signed with all countries
NEW ENTRY STANDARDS FOR ACCREDITATION OF HOSPITALS

Entry Level Standards are meant for hospitals
who want to get started on the quality certification
journey, but are unable to do so due to the stringent
requirements of the full NABH accreditation. The
National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and
Healthcare Providers (NABH) has released a new
batch of entry-level standards for accreditation of
smaller hospitals. The whole idea behind
introducing this new set of standards is to become
more inclusive; to get a number of hospitals to join
the quality journey. With the full set of NABH
standards, recognized by the International Society
for Quality in Healthcare many smaller hospitals
cannot even hope to apply for. Currently, there
are only 227 hospitals with NABH accreditation,
and about 1200 in various stages of application.
The new standards will be a foot in the door
for a number of small hospitals who find the rigor
of the NABH full standards beyond their capacity.

There are two types of new standards: One, for
hospitals with over 50 beds, and two, for small
hospitals with less than 50 beds. While the full
NABH has 102 Standards and 636 Objective
Elements, there are about 45 Standards and 173
Objective Elements for 50-bedded hospitals and 41
Standards and 149 Objective Elements for less than
50 beds. It is by no means easy to get accreditation
even at the entry level without adhering to a set of
regulations and without hard work on the part of
the hospital, it will not be possible.
The NABH standards were put in place about
seven years ago to provide quality assessments for
hospitals in the country. The NABH accreditation
has been viewed as the ideal qualifying criteria for
selection or empanelment by the Ministry of
Tourism, Central Government Health Services,
[5]

several public and private insurance companies.
According to B.G. Menon, Managing Director,
Acme Consulting, an agency recognised by NABH,
these new standards are a game changer as far as
providing affordable healthcare is concerned. It has
made it more manageable for smaller hospitals to
even aspire to get an accreditation and the resultant
benefits.
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National Accreditation Board for Hospitals

& Health care Providers (NABH): NABH is a
constituent board of Quality Council of India, set
up to establish and operate accreditation and allied
programs for healthcare organizations. The board
is structured to cater to much desired needs of the
consumers and to set benchmarks for the progress
of health industry. The board while being supported
by all stakeholders including industry, consumers,
government, have full functional autonomy in its
operation. Participation in NABH accreditation
program is on a voluntary basis. Healthcare
organization apply to participate in a program run

by NABH. The healthcare organization signs a
general Accreditation Agreement stating rights and
obligations of all parties concerned. The assessment
process is performed using standards and
assessment procedures as per policy and
procedures made beforehand. These can be seen
on NABH website. NABH on its website publishes
the accreditation status of the healthcare
organizations that participate in its program as
applicant or accredited. NABH is an Institutional
Member of the International Society for Quality in
Health Care (lSQua). NABH 3rd edition Hospital
standards are accredited by ISQua. NABH
accreditation programs are available for Hospitals,
small Healthcare organizations, allopathic clinics,
Ayush hospitals and clinics, Blood banks/Blood
storage centers, Dental facilities, PHC/CHCs,
Medical Imaging services, OST Centers, wellness
centers.
ORDINANCE FOR POLAVARAM PROJECT
An ordinance was promulgated by President

Pranab Mukherjee that will pave the way for
transfer of seven mandals in Telanganas
Khammam district to the successor state of Andhra
Pradesh. The development took place on the day
Telangana chief minister-elect and TRS President
K Chandrasekhar Rao called for a state-wide bandh
in protest against the ordinance.
Reorganisation Act, 2014 approved by the

Parliament in the last session of the 15th Lok Sabha
as the UPA government chose to make it as an
after thought. The new state of Telangana and
Andhra Pradesh would come into existence on June
2. The proposal which has now become an
ordinance has been vehemently opposed by the
Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS).
The
Andhra
Pradesh
Reorganization
(Amendment) Ordinance, 2014, states that certain
mandals in Khammam, Palvancha revenue division,
Chintoor, Kunavaram, Vararamachandrapuram and
Bhadrachalam will not be part of Telangana and will
be merged with Andhra Pradesh. Significantly, the
revenue village of Bhadrachalam under the
Bhadrachalam revenue division where the Sree Sita
Ramaswamy temple is located, will remain with
Telangana. The ordinance came into force with
immediate effect. A gazette notification said that
the President is satisfied that the circumstances exist
which render it necessary for him to take immediate
action and in exercise of the powers conferred by
Clause (1) of Article 123 of the Constitution, the
President has promulgated an ordinance called the
Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation (Amendment)
Ordinance, 2014. It shall come into force at once.
The ordinance would pave way for transfer of

136 villages, 211 hamlets and seven mandals of
Khammam district to the successor state of Andhra
Pradesh to execute Polavaram project. It seeks to
include letters and figures Khammam Department,
dated the 27th June, 2005 and the revenue villages of
Bhurgampadu, Seetharamanagaram and Kondreka
in Bhurgumpadu Mandal, the words and brackets
Khammam (but excluding the Mandals of Kukunoor,
Velairpadu and Bhurgampadu but not including its
revenue villages of Pinapaka, Morampalli Banzar,
Bhurgampad, Nagineniprolu, Krishnasagar, Tekula,
Sarapaka, Iravendi, Mothepattinagar, Uppusaka,
Sompalli and Nakripeta under the Palvancha Revenue
Division, and the Mandals of Chintoor, Kunavaram,
Vararamachandrapuram and Bhadrachalam but not
including the revenue villages of Bhadrachalam under
the Bhadrachalam Revenue Division) shall be
substituted.
The ordinance on Polavaram was necessitated

as the proposal is not part of the Andhra Pradesh
[6]
NEW INVESTMENT TRACKING SYSTEM FOR KERALA

Developed using open source technology, the portal
integrates the services of various departments.
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ePMS can be used to submit a new project,

update and review a project, and highlight the
bottlenecks. It can assist in preparing the agenda
and minutes of meetings and analytical reports.
The portal generates automatic notifications to take
instant action. One of the features of the system is
that private entrepreneurs can view the progress
of their projects as well as decisions.
The Central Cabinet Secretariat has deployed

an online project management system named ePMS
to facilitate, review, and fast-track projects in
Kerala with investment from Rs. 100 crore to Rs.
1,000 crore. Government officials in the State can
now keep tabs on the progress of projects in the
public and private sectors and speedily resolve
prickly issues that impede timely completion.
The institutional mechanism is designed on the

lines of eCCI, a system used by the Cabinet
Committee on Investment to help track and pursue
stalled investment projects and remove bottlenecks
to ensure that they are completed on time.
The Kerala State Industrial Development

Corporation (KSIDC) will be the monitoring agency
for the investment tracking mechanism. A Statelevel project monitoring group has also been set up
under the government to pursue stalled projects.
Kerala is the third State after Odisha and
Uttarakhand to deploy the State-level investment
tracking system. Launching the portal, Chief Secretary
E.K. Bharath Bhushan said it would be a powerful
tool for the government to iron out unexpected hurdles
such as the delay in land acquisition that held up
projects. He said the government would utilise the
tool well. Informatics Division Head of Cabinet
Secretariat Shubhag Chand said that the eCCI system
had helped clear 152 stalled projects involving an
investment of Rs. 5,31,779 crore.
EX-TRAI CHIEF TO BE PMS PRINCIPAL SECRETARY
The Centre on promulgated an Ordinance,

amending the existing TRAI Act that prevented
former top officials from holding any post in
government, to hand over the new responsibility
to Nripendra Misra, who had retired from service
in 2009 as the TRAI chief. The former TRAI
chairman, was overlooked for the post of Cabinet
Secretary by the former Government, but will now
become the Principal Secretary to Prime Minister
Narendra Modi.
Nripendra Misra, a 1967-batch IAS officer of

the Uttar Pradesh cadre, would hold the new post
co-terminus with that of the PM or till further
orders, whichever is earlier, according to orders
issued by the Ministry of Personnel and signed by
B.P. Sharma, Secretary of the Appointments
Committee of the Cabinet. The TRAI Act prohibits
its chairman and members from taking up any other

job in the Central or state governments after
demitting office.
As per the 1997 legislation, as posted on the
website of the Ministry of Law, the chairperson or
any other member ceasing to hold office as such,
shall (a) be ineligible for further employment under
the Central government or any State government;
or (b) not accept any commercial employment for
a period of two years from the date he ceases to
hold such office. To circumvent the law that would
effectively bar Mishras latest appointment, the Modi
Government promulgated the Ordinance amending
it and making ex-TRAI chiefs eligible to take up
new assignments in the Central and State
governments, with the express approval of the
Union Government.
NO SPECIAL STATUS FOR SEEMANDHRA IN REORGANISATION

ORDINANCE
The Union Cabinet has cleared an ordinance
amending the Andhra Reorganisation Act, but did

[7]

not include the special category status to
Seemandhra that would have given it extra funds
from the Centre. It also approved a separate
ordinance to rejig the boundary in favour of
Seemandhra but did not announce it so as not to
escalate law and order problems in newly-created
Telangana.
Special category states receive 90 per cent of

plan assistance as grant and just 10 per cent as
loan as against the usual 30 per cent grant and
70 per cent loan for other states. Special category
states receive special treatment from the Finance
Commission in respect of devolution of central tax
revenues. The Cabinet meeting also cleared the
Polavaram Irrigation Project Ordinance that
transfers 200-odd villages from Telangana to
Seemandhra to facilitate the construction of the
Polavaram dam and save the temple town of
Bhadrachalam from inundation. Although the
former government declared Polavaram as a
national project, it was unable to notify the
ordinance on the same, as the model code of
conduct had come into effect.
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According to sources, the communiqu from

the Cabinet Secretariat to the Home Ministry said
the Cabinet had approved the ordinance on
reorganisation so as to facilitate the bifurcation of
Andhra Pradesh and revoke Presidents rule on
June 1 so that TRS chief K Chandrashekar Rao can
be sworn in on June 2 as Chief Minister of
Telangana. The Cabinet Secretariat draft did not
mention grant of special category status to
Seemandhra which, sources said, meant that the
issue had been struck down. The proposal was to
give the status for five years, and would have meant
an additional Rs. 5,000-crore grant to Seemandhra
each year.
dispensation only after recommendation from the

National Development Council and to not bring it
through the legislative route. The former
government had earlier approved the status, but it
got stuck with the President who did not want to
sign an ordinance approved by an outgoing
government. There were procedural complications
as well.
Sources said both Planning Commission and

Law Ministry objected to giving the status, as the
existing procedure was to give such executive
THIRD GENDER INCLUDED IN CENSUS
Finally an official count of the third gender was

made in the country, which reached the figure of
4.9 lakh. While transgender activists estimate the
numbers to be six to seven times higher, they are
thrilled that such a large number of people identified
themselves as belonging to the third gender, despite
the fact that the census counting happened well
before the Supreme Court order gave legal
recognition to the third gender in April this year.
Of the total number of transgenders identified by
the census, almost 55,000 are in the 0-6 population.
This has come as a big surprise to the community
as they did not expect so many parents to identify
their children as belonging to the third gender.
According to Kalki Subramaniam, transgender
rights activist and founder of the Sahodari
Foundation, after the disappointment of the election
commissions efforts, this is a fantastic news for
the transgender community. She said they were
extremely disappointed because during the voter
registration process only 28,341 people registered
as belonging to the third gender, but she was even
more amazed that parents would come out and
accept and identify their children as being
transgender. Anjali Gopalan of Naz Foundation
said that even the current figure of 4.9 lakh was
[8]
on the lower side as it was unlikely that the number

of people declaring themselves as transgender
would ever give an accurate figure.
Over 66% of the population identified as third
gender lived in rural areas, very close to the 69%
of the overall population that lives in villages. The
census data also revealed the low literacy level in
the community, just 46%, compared to 74% literacy
in the general population. The highest proportion
of the third gender population, about 28%, was
identified in Uttar
Pradesh followed by 9%
in Andhra Pradesh, 8%
each in Maharashtra
and Bihar, over 6% in
both Madhya Pradesh
and West Bengal and
well over 4% in Tamil
Nadu, Karnataka and
Odisha.
Rajasthan
accounted for over 3% of
the total transgender
population and Punjab
for 2%. The proportion
of those working in the
transgender community

is also low (38%) compared to 46% in the general
population. Only 65% of the total working
population are main workers those who find

work for more than six months in the year
compared to 75% in the general population.
JNNURM TO BE RE-NAMED & RE-LAUNCHED

waste management to develop clean cities. The
outgoing government planned to launch JNNURMII during its last days and also moved Cabinet but
was put on hold as the model code came into effect.
JNNURM-I was a seven-year project that
focussed on planned development in urban areas
in the field of transport, infrastructure, road
projects, water supply and sewage among others
and had an allocation of Rs. 50,000 crore. The
Urban Development Ministry will give priority to
linking of twin cities and infrastructure of satellite
towns. As Naidu said, his priority will be to ensure
housing for all by 2020 and to reduce interest rate
on home loans. People should be in a position to
have pucca houses.
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The Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban

Renewable Mission (JNNURM), the urban flagship
scheme will be renamed and relaunched by the
Narendra Modi government, according to Urban
Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu. The new
project, likely to have an outlay of Rs. 1.5 lakh
crore, will be named after a national icon.
According to Naidu, cleanliness of religious cities
and reduced home loans for all would also be the
top priority areas for the government. The
government would also push for creation of 100
smart cities.
He said that the government will launch a new
mission in place of JNNURM. The new mission
will focus on modern concept for cities based on
GIS-based planning and will have solid and liquid
FUNDS RELEASED TO PUT NRC BACK ON TRACK
The National Register of Citizens (NRC), which

was launched to weed out illegal Bangladeshi
immigrants settled in Assam, is back on track with
the Ministry of Home Affairs recently releasing
Rs. 140 crore for the project. The move assumes
significance as sending back illegal immigrants from
Bangladesh had been one of the major poll promises
made by Narendra Modi in the run-up to the Lok
Sabha elections.
At a meeting this week with MHA officials,

Home Minister Rajnath Singh emphasied that
special attention be paid to the Northeastern states
and their security. The officials said that the illegal
immigrants issue also figured in the discussions,
with the minister enquiring about the status of
NRC, and that the Rs. 140 crore that has been
released is part of the total Rs. 260 crore meant for

the project. The NRC update was announced in
2005 after the Supreme Court struck down the
Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act
of 1983 and directed that every person whose
citizenship was under a cloud should be brought
under the purview of the Foreigners Act, 1946.
Following confusion and protests over the
methodology that would be adopted to update the
citizenship record in Assam, the state government
in July 2011 had set up a Cabinet Sub-Committee
to simplify the procedure for updating of NRC.
The revised modalities submitted by the state
government was examined by the Registrar General
of India and approved by the competent authority
for updation of NRC work.
THE BIRTH OF TELANGANA
On a new dawn in the history of the Indian

Union, for the first time outside the Hindi- and
Bengali-speaking areas, two states speaking the
same language have been created. Both Telangana
and Andhra Pradesh, the two successor states to
Andhra Pradesh come into existence, swear by
Telugu. This has knocked down the basis on which
the internal map of the Indian Union was redrawn
in the first decade after Independence. With the
linguistic basis of states language being assumed as
the indicator of a homogeneous culture being

challenged, there is scope for another exercise to
redraw the internal map of India.
Although there was a demand for a composite
Telugu state from before Independence, the Nehruled government created Andhra Pradesh due to
Congresss political interests. History has thus come
full circle. In Andhra state, the Congress was facing
a tough electoral contest from the Communists. So
it was decided to merge Andhra with the Telugu
[9]

speaking areas of the dominion of the deposed
Nizam of Hyderabad. This would create a larger
entity where the communists could be defeated.
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The exercise created a monopoly In the 1977

post-Emergency elections, the Congress was
soundly thrashed nationally but won 41 of the 42
seats in Andhra. The following year, Indira Gandhi
romped home to the Lok Sabha from Medak. The
second unstated reason was that the Nehru
government, chastened by the experience of the
integration of Kashmir, did not want to leave the
territories of the Nizam as they were. Therefore,
while the Telugu-speaking areas went to Andhra
Pradesh, the Marathi and Kannada speaking areas
went to Bombay and Mysore provinces. But the
Congress chief ministers did little to promote rural
empowerment or land reforms.
The Congress was replaced in 1983 by the
Telugu Desam Party, whose founder NT Rama Rao
gave a clarion call to Telugu pride. His son-inlaw Chandrababu Naidu became the first Chief
Minister anywhere in India to latch on to economic
reforms. Soon capital Hyderabad became swanky
with Microsoft and others setting shop. But the
countryside was neglected and farmers suicides
increased. In Telangana region, which had been
bearing the burden of the Nizams feudal rule
earlier, the situation was worse. Soon a separate
state movement caught on: the people of Telangana
believed that they would be better off as a separate
state. Naidu lost power and was replaced by
Congressman Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy in 2004 who

started a regime of free-ships.
These moves taxed the exchequer but translated
into heavy electoral gains for Congress, enabling it
to form a government in New Delhi in 2009. Then
on the eve of the 2014, to beat the nationwide antiincumbency and cash in on perceived political gain,
Congress bosses passed a bill to divide the state.
Unfortunately for the Congress, the move failed to
reap it political dividends and it was soundly
rejected in both regions.
ADOPTION RULES EASED FOR PIOS
Officials in the ministry of Women and Child

Development have been directed by Minister
Maneka Gandhi to change adoption guidelines so
that people of Indian origin settled abroad can be
treated as Indians rather than as foreigners. Maneka
also expressed her displeasure at the long waiting
list of over 10,000 parents waiting to adopt, and
the infrequent meetings of both the district child
welfare committees and the Central Adoption
Research Authority (CARA), the nodal body for
adoptions.
As per existing rules, only 20 per cent of
children in need of adoption can be given to foreign
families. Maneka told officials at a review meeting
that with so many Indians settled abroad keen to
adopt children, these rules need to be relaxed,
especially when the concept of adoption is yet to
catch on in India. The minister said there is no
reason to treat people of Indian origin settled
[10]
abroad as foreigners. There are huge Indian

populations in countries like Mauritius, Fiji,
Malaysia etc. who trace their origins to India over
several generations. The minister feels that adoption
guidelines should be changed appropriately so that
these people are treated at par with Indians. It
does not require any change of law. The plan is to
include all those countries which are signatories to
and have ratified the Hague Convention.
As per the current procedure, foreign couples
defined as couples residing abroad, who want
to adopt Indian children have to go through the
authorised foreign adoption agencies recognized by
CARA. After due procedure and an evaluation of
their homes, couples are given charge of children.
Indian couples on the other hand can directly
register themselves on the web portal CARINGS.
The process is faster for Indian couples but the
demand is higher among couples settled abroad.

Under the plan that is currently under
consideration, couples of Indian origin, even if they
are residing abroad can directly register on our
portal. These will be considered as domestic
adoption. It will simplify the adoption procedure
for them though the home study will still have to
be done by an agency in that country. It was also

decided that CARA would be given statutory
status. The minister directed CARA to meet daily
to clear the adoption backlog and asked the district
committees to meet at least once a week.
NO BAIL FOR CHILD RAPISTS: MADRAS HC

mother used to go for construction work daily
morning and return only in the evening, the girl
used to stay alone at home. The accused man, a
neighbor, used to take her out and rape her several
times by giving her inducements and also
threatening her against revealing the matter to
anyone. The matter came to her mothers notice
only after the girls became pregnant. The mother
lodged a complaint with police who registered an
FIR for rape, besides crime punishable under the
provisions of Protection of Child from Sexual
Offences Act, 2012. Apprehending arrest, the
father of three approached the high court for
anticipatory bail. Justice Vaidyanathan said that
crime against women and children, more
particularly rape, is a monstrous burial of dignity
of women in darkness. It is a crime against the
body of a woman and soul of society.
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In its latest verdict, the Madras high court has

said that not just anticipatory bail, even bail after
arrest should not be given to such an accused
charged with the rape of children. Justice
S.Vaidyanathan, refusing to grant anticipatory bail
to the man who is married, with three children
including a married daughter, said that it is not a
case for anticipatory bail. Even if the petitioner had
approached this court after arrest for bail, this court
would have dismissed the application. As the
offence is against society, this court expects speedy
action by the lower court. Speedy trial is required
as, in case the allegations are proved, the culprit
should not be allowed to go scot-free on the ground
that he is very old.
According to police, the girl dropped out of
school lived with her mother, who, deserted by her
husband, could not afford the expenses. As her
GRAM SABHA AGENDA TO INCLUDE VULTURE CONSERVATION

Vultures, positioned at the top of the food chain,
are an indicator of the health of the environment
below them and their eating habits help to keep
the natural world in balance. And, whilst it is true
that vultures are scavengers, what is not always
appreciated is that, as the undertakers of the skies,
they will always choose fresh over decayed meat
and thereby stop disease and infection from
spreading. Today, vultures face an unprecedented
onslaught from human activities such as
electrocutions and collisions with electrical
structures, poisoning, land-use changes, a decrease
in food availability and exposure to toxicity through
veterinary drugs.
To sensitise cattle owners in rural areas to the
need for refraining from using diclofenac, a banned
drug for veterinary use, the Coimbatore district
administration has included vulture conservation
in the agenda for the gram sabha meetings
scheduled for June 1.
Coimbatore Collector Archana Patnaik told that

the decision followed a representation from
Arulagam, an NGO that works for vulture
conservation in The Nilgiris, Erode and Coimbatore.
It would be one of the 17 subjects listed on the

agenda. Till the 1990s, the density and abundance
of vulture was high in India. Vultures that prey on
carcasses of ungulates play a crucial role in the
eco-system.
A study done by the Bombay Natural History
Society (BNHS) from 1992 to 2007 showed that the
population of vultures declined by 96-99 per cent.
The study also showed that cattle/livestock
subjected to treatment with two versions of the
non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug among rural
folks remained in the carcasses. When vultures
consumed the carcasses, process of their death
begins owing to drug-induced kidney failure. After
repeated representations, Drug Controller General
of the Government of India on May 11, 2006
banned diclofenac for veterinary use.
Further to save the vulture from becoming
extinct, Action Plan for Vulture Conservation in
India and Regional Declaration on Conservation
of South Asias Critically Endangered Vulture
species was prepared by the Ministry of
Environment and Forest with technical inputs from
Saving Asias Vulture from Extinction (SAVE). The
[11]

ban has helped a bit as vultures are reappearing in
The Nilgiris and Sathyamangalam forests. Nine
species of vultures are recorded in India and four

of them are in the State.
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WEST BENGAL, MAHARASHTRA INK PACT TO CURB TRAFFICKING
Trafficking in persons is a serious crime and a

grave violation of human rights. Every year,
thousands of men, women and children fall into
the hands of traffickers, in their own countries and
abroad. Almost every country in the world is
affected by trafficking, whether as a country of
origin, transit or destination for victims. Human
trafficking is a crime against the person because
of the violation of the victims rights of movement
through coercion and because of their commercial
exploitation. Human trafficking is the trade in
people, and does not necessarily involve the
movement of the person from one place to another.
The governments of West Bengal and

Maharashtra have signed a memorandum of
understanding to ensure identification and
repatriation of women and children who are
victims of trafficking. Taking exception to the
Maharashtra Police sending victims of trafficking
who speak Bengali back to West Bengal, the
government last week signed the MoU to follow a
standard operating procedure to establish identities
of those rescued. Principal Secretary, Social Welfare
Department Roshni Sen signed the MoU on behalf
of the State. Maharashtra will repatriate the women
directly to Bangladesh once the place they are from
[12]
is confirmed. Dr. Panja said the government had

plans to ink a similar agreement with the
government of Karnataka.
According to West Bengal Minister for Women
and Child Development and Social Welfare Sashi
Panja, in most cases when the Maharashtra Police
rescue some women or children and find that they
are Bengali-speaking, they send them to the State
without ascertaining their identity or following any
procedures. Since the identities of those rescued
are not ascertained sometimes, rescue homes in the
State are flooded with women and girls from
Bangladesh. On several occasions, police from other
States brought the victims to the shelters without
informing the State government. This added to the
victims ordeal.
West Bengal Commission for Women
chairperson Sunanda Mukherjee said that the SOP
would force Maharashtra to take responsibility. Not
only West Bengal, women were trafficked from the
entire eastern region, including from neighbouring
countries, she said. Representatives of different
NGOs from the State have welcomed the
development and said the SOP would help in quick
repatriation of the victims.
BARAKHAMBA ROAD POLICE STATION BEST IN ASIA

police and giving police insight into how their
services are evaluated, promotes human rights
standards with local police reforms.
Police Stations which are rated most highly are
recognised by the Altus Global Alliance and are
encouraged to share the local practices and models
that make police stations more citizens oriented
nationally, regionally and globally.
Delhi Police had participated in a Global Police
Station Visitors Week organized by Altus Global
Alliance. Forty-five police stations were randomly
thrown open for assessment and around 5,000
Delhiites took part in the inspection between
November 4 and 9 last year. They were asked to
fill a survey form which included a questionnaire
with five parameterscommunity orientation,
physical conditions, equal treatment, transparency
and accountability, and detention conditions.
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According to a survey conducted by a global

alliance of NGOs, Delhi Polices Barakhamba Road
Station has been adjudged as the best police station
in Asia. The survey was a part of Global Police
Station Visitors Week organized by Altus Global
Alliance (AGA) in which 45 stations of Delhi Police
had participated. Totally, around 1,340 police
stations from 22 countries participated in the Police
Station Visitors Week which was observed from
November 3 to 9 last year. During the survey,
general public visited the Police Station following
which they were asked to give their feedback to
AGA on criteria like transparency, accountability,
detention condition, community orientation among
others. Forty-five Police stations in Delhi took part.
This was coordinated and conducted by the
Vigilance Unit of Delhi Police.
The then Station House Officer of Barakhamba
Road Police Station Inspector Satish Sharma and
Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (New
Delhi) Madhur Verma have been invited to the
International Conference on Police Reforms to be
held on June 6 in Antigua, Guatemala, where they
will be felicitated. They will also be making a
presentation of the best practices adopted in Delhi,
at the Police Station Level.
AGA had taken up the Police Station Visitors

Week initiative in order to provide citizens the
opportunity to become better acquainted with the
The average score of Delhis stations was 83.38. The

then SHO of Barakhamba Road police station, inspector
Satish Sharma, and additional DCP (New Delhi)
Madhur Verma will be felicitated at International
Conference on Police Reforms on June 6 at Antigua,
Guatemala. Police stations like Kamla Market and CR
Park were also among the top scoring stations. Police
stations like Najafgarh in southeast Delhi were ranked
eight, while Vasant Vihar was number 10 and Kalkaji
15. Rajender Nagar, Timarpur, Keshavpuram also figure
in the list.
[13]
INTERNATIONAL
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UN WARNS ALARMING CARBON DIOXIDE LEVEL
The World Meteorological Organization

(WMO), the UN's weather agency has warned that
atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations have
crossed a new threshold. The WMO warning
highlighted the urgency of curbing man-made,
climate-altering greenhouse gases. In April, for the
first time, the mean monthly CO2 concentration in
the atmosphere topped 400 parts per million (ppm)
throughout the northern hemisphere, which
pollutes more than the south.
The news comes a week before nearly 200
countries gather in Bonn for the latest round of
UN-sponsored talks on developing a carbon dioxide
emissions reduction deal. A draft agreement is set
to be presented to world leaders in November,
before governments reveal what levels of carbon
cuts they consider acceptable in the first quarter of
2015. Scientists said that emissions will need to
peak by 2020 and then decline rapidly to limit
warming to 2C, a target agreed at the 2009 round
of UN talks in Copenhagen.
According to the UN climate science panel, the
world has already used between half and twothirds of its carbon budget the amount of CO2
[14]
that can be released before the 2C goal is impossible.

Temperature rises above this level are likely to be
increasingly dangerous, causing accelerated melt
of ice, rising sea levels and other extreme weather
events. It takes measurements from 50 countries
including stations high in the Alps, Andes and
Himalayas, as well as in the Arctic, Antarctic and
in the far South Pacific.
Spring values in the northern hemisphere had
previously spiked over the 400 ppm level, but this
was the first time the monthly mean concentration
of CO2 in the atmosphere exceeded the threshold.
Whilst the spring maximum values in the northern
hemisphere have already crossed the 400 ppm level,
WMO warned that the global annual average CO2
concentration is set to cross this threshold in 2015
or 2016. The threshold is of symbolic and scientific
significance, and reinforces evidence that the
burning of fossil fuels is responsible for the nonstop increase in heat-trapping gases.
CO 2 stays locked in the atmosphere for
hundreds of years, and its lifespan in the oceans is
longer still. It is by far the most important
greenhouse gas emitted by human activities and

was responsible for 85 per cent of the increase in
radiative forcing, the warming effect on the climate,
from 2002-2012. According to the WMO, the
concentration of CO 2 in the atmosphere reached
393.1 parts per million in 2012, or 141 per cent of

the pre-industrial level of 278 parts per million.
The amount of CO2 in the atmosphere has increased
on average by two parts per million every year for
the past decade.
EUROSCEPTIC PARTIES PLAY WELL IN EU POLL

UKIP storms to victory in Britain, overtaking
Labour and Conservatives
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Eurosceptic parties, both of the far-right and

the left, have registered the biggest gains in the
recently held elections to the European Parliament.
Their performance rides on the wave of a protest
vote by the citizens of 28 countries against the
damaging post-recession economic policies of their
own national governments and of the European
Union. In the United Kingdom, it was the anti-EU
and
anti-immigration
United
Kingdom
Independence Party (UKIP) under the leadership
of Nigel Farage that stormed to victory with 27.5
per cent of the vote, and 24 of the 73 seats the UK
has in the European parliament. The Labour Party
came second with 25.4 per cent and 20 MEPs,
Conservatives just under 24 per cent with 19 MEPs,
the Green Party 7.87 per cent and 3 seats, the
Scottish National Party 2.46 per cent and 2 seats,
and the Liberal Democrats faring the worst, with
6.87 per cent of the vote and just one seat.
The victory of UKIP, described by Farage as a
political earthquake, is a test of the popular mood
in the country before the Scottish referendum this
September and the general elections in May 2015.
Farages triumph will force all major parties to reevaluate their political priorities, especially with
regard to membership in the European Union.
Prime Minister David Cameron has already
promised an in-out referendum on EU membership
in 2017, provided they are elected to power in 2015.
UKIP has turned the discontent generated by the
cost-of-living crisis- an issue that is the stated focus
of the Labour party into an anti-immigration
sentiment. It argues that free labour markets in the
EU have resulted in a flood of eastern European
immigrants who are taking away the jobs of British
workers.
Farages immigration rhetoric has hardened

both Conservative and Labour policies on this
sensitive issue. Both parties are promising a tougher
immigration environment if elected. The UKIP has
already accused the Conservatives of reneging on
their promise to bring net immigration down to
the tens of thousands. In the rest of Europe too,
the popular antipathy to the European project has

driven these elections in some countries it is the
right-wing anti-immigration parties that have
capitalized on that sentiment, while in some
countries it is the left parties.
France and Germany, countries considered the
centre of the EU project, both saw a surge in
eurosceptic votes. In France, this was decisive with
Marine Le Pens far-right Front National riding to
victory; in Germany the Christian Democrats though
still dominant lost seats, and the anti-EU AfD made
a breakthrough.
In Denmark, the far-right Danish Peoples Party
triumphed, winning 27 per cent of the vote and
doubling its MEPs from two to four. The DPP wants
curbs on immigrants both from within the EU and
from outside. In Spain, the ruling Popular Party
inched past the opposition Socialist party, winning
16 out of the 54 seats against the Socialists tally of
14. Here too, both had to yield ground to political
formations that mirrored popular discontent over
unemployment and austerity measures. The antiEU mood brought the relatively new leftwing
Podemos party into prominence, giving it five seats
and eight per cent of the vote.
[15]
WTO SETS UP PANEL FOR SOLAR DISPUTE

The commerce ministry under Nirmala
Sitharaman, in the newly formed government, has
to fight a new trade battle at World Trade
Organization (WTO), which has set up a dispute
settlement panel to examine a complaint by the US
against Indias domestic content requirements
under the countrys solar power programme.
The US is especially keen on taking a slice of

this market against backdrop of U.S. President
Barack Obamas aim of doubling US exports by
2015. The US has been complaining about Indias
domestic content requirements under its solar energy
programme known as the National Solar Mission
(NSM), and had approached the WTO against
Indias policy.
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In a meting of the dispute settlement body on

23 May, the global agency decided to set up the
panel after the US complained for the second time.
WTO said in a statement that Brazil, Canada, China,
the European Union, Japan, Korea, Malaysia,
Russian Federation, Norway and Turkey reserved
their third-party right to participate in the panels
proceedings, and that India has an ambitious target
of generating 20,000 megawatts of solar power by

2022.
India had blocked the first request by the US to

set-up a dispute settlement panel after negotiations
failed between the two countries. But under the
current WTO rules, the trade body is obliged to set
up the panel if a request is made a second time.
A NEW US-RUSSIA PROXY WAR IN UKRAINE
There are signs of a new proxy war warming

up between Russia and the U.S. According to the
U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine over the past three
months, Washington has doubled its military
assistance to Kiev. With Russia and the United
States as far apart on ways of resolving the crisis
in Ukraines south-east, its outcome may well be
decided on the battlefield, as there has been a
communication gap between Russias President
Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Barack Obama
since Kiev launched its anti-terrorist operation
against anti-government protesters in Russian
speaking regions in the east six weeks ago.
While Russia urged Washington to pressure

Kiev to immediately cease military operations and
begin direct negotiations with the south-eastern
regions, USA called on Moscow to end all support
for separatists, denounce their actions, and call on
them to lay down their arms. While Moscow
denounces the Ukrainian crackdown in the east as
a punitive operation against the civilian
population, Washington maintains that Kievs
authorities have every right to take steps to
maintain law and order in their own country.

The Ukrainian border guard service has reported
several convoys of trucks with militants and
weapons crossing the porous border from Russia in
recent weeks. Russia has refrained from openly
supporting separatists in eastern Ukraine and still
hopes to persuade Kiev to resolve the conflict by
granting broad autonomy to the region. Even though
the Ukrainian army has overwhelming superiority
in weapons and manpower, experts say the jury is
still out on the outcome of the standoff.
Ukraines Acting Defence Minister Mykhailo Koval
admitted that the army is short of soldiers. Kiev is
trying to solve the manpower problem by recruiting
volunteers among radical nationalists in western
Ukraine who see Russia as the main threat to
Ukrainian nationhood. The conflict in the east is
fast morphing into civil war. This was in stark
display earlier this month in Odessa, a peaceful
multiethnic Ukrainian port city on the Black Sea,
where a group of ultranationalists from western
Ukraine burnt alive and clubbed to death at least
48 pro-Russian activists.
MELTING GLACIER, MORE RAIN TO SWELL HIMALAYAN RIVERS

According to research published recently,
increased melting of glaciers and more rain along
the Himalayas is likely to enhance the flow of water
into the big rivers that arise in this vast mountain
range. Arthur F. Lutz and his colleagues noted in
a paper carried in Nature Climate Change that
there would be increased run-off into the five rivers
[16]
atleast until 2050.
Researchers in The Netherlands and Nepal used

high-resolution model to study how a warmer
climate would affect run-off in the Himalayas into
the Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra, Salween and
Mekong rivers in the coming decades. These five

rivers sustain agriculture and 1.3 billion people in
a dozen countries. As a result of rising temperature,
a decrease in glacier extent is projected for all basins.
However, the decrease in glacier area would be
compensated by a higher rate of melting.
Consequently, the contribution from melting glaciers
to the five rivers would not change much till 2050.
If glaciers continue to retreat, at some point in time
there will be a net decrease in melt water.
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The Indus, however, was likely to see increased

run-off from accelerated melting of glaciers in the
period up to 2050, according to the paper. In the
case of the other four rivers, it would be more rain
along the Himalayas that swell their flow. The
upper Ganges basin could see its yearly run-off
growing by up to 27 per cent. In the press release
from Utrecht University, the scientists emphasized
that their projections were only until 2050.
UNITY GOVT SWORN IN PALESTINE
Ending years of division after seven years of a

bitter and at times lethal rivalry between the two
main Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas, a
historic Palestinian unity government has been
sworn in. The signing ceremony seemed likely to
complicate relations with the Palestinian Authoritys
international aid donors in Europe and the U.S.
and increase tensions with Israel. The U.S. indicated
over the weekend that it would wait to see the
policies of the new unity government before
deciding whether to recognize it, because of
involvement of Hamas.
Israel, which suspended peace negotiations in
April when a surprise reconciliation deal was
signed, opening the way to the appointment of the
new government, has threatened punitive sanctions
against any government backed by Hamas, saying
it would serve as a front for the group and
strengthen terrorism. Abbas, who heads the
mainstream Fatah movement, said that the 17member cabinet would comprise unaffiliated
ministers and would strive to pursue peace, despite
Hamass refusal to accept co-existence with Israel.
The announcement of the new government, ending
a long and debilitating political and territorial
division in Palestinian affairs, opens the way for
long-delayed Palestinian elections, slated for 2015.
The new government will reunite Gaza and the
West Bank under a single political authority for
the first time since 2007, when Hamas, which won
Palestinian legislative elections in 2006, asserted

control over the Gaza Strip, forcing out Fatah.
Since then the West Bank has been governed
by Abbas and Fatah and Gaza by Hamas, which
is regarded as a terrorist group in many capitals.
The swearing-in ceremony in the West Bank city of
Ramallah came as the Israeli Prime Minister,
Benjamin Netanyahu, appealed to the international
community not to rush into recognizing the new
government, largely made up of technocrats. Again,
Netanyahu hit out at European governments for
condemning a shooting attack on the Jewish
museum in Brussels but responding with ambiguity
to reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas.
According to a draft obtained by AFP, the new
government will have 17 ministers, five of them
from Gaza, and will be headed by Hamdallah, the
current Prime Minister in the West Bank, who will
also hold the interior portfolio. Abbas has already
pledged that the new administration will abide by
the principles laid down by the Middle East peace
quartet in that it will recognize Israel, reject violence
and abide by all existing agreements. Briefing
reporters a few hours before the signing ceremony,
Israels intelligence minister, Yuval Steinlitz, a close
ally of Netanyahu, insisted that the deal reasserting
the Palestinian Authoritys governance over Gaza
placed an obligation on Mr. Abbas to demilitarize
the coastal strip as part of the Oslo Peace
Agreement.

[17]
INDIA AND THE WORLD

INDIA AGREED TO PAY THE MONEY THAT IRAN OWES
To trigger this mechanism, NIOC would have
to enter into a tripartite agreement with UCO Bank
and the Indian oil companies detailing all
responsibilities and obligations. The payouts by each
Indian refinery would be in proportion to their
outstanding amount. Once the payment is done,
NIOC will deduct from the obligations the amount
it receives from each company.
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With nuclear talks between Iran and P5+1 going

slow, Tehran has approached New Delhi for
allowing third country exports of humanitarian
goods for drawing down the $3.6 billion
accumulated balance on account of Indias oil
imports. The P5+1 group includes the US, Britain,
France, China, Russia and Germany. Iran wants
back its euros owed by India through a new
channel. It wants New Delhi to pay the money
that Tehran owes to third countries for purchase
of food, medicines and medical equipment.
Recently, the Reserve Bank of India agreed that

payments for third country exports to Iran could
be made from the 55 per cent euro component of
oil payment due to National Iranian Oil Company
(NIOC) with UCO Bank acting as the settlement
bank. UCO Bank would examine the letters of credit
issued by Iranian banks for third country imports
by Iranian firms and would advise the identified
Indian oil importing refineries to remit the foreign
exchange to its nostro account on a particular date
which would then be remitted to the Iranian Bank.
The due diligence would involve UCO Bank
securing certification from renowned inspection
agencies of the goods being humanitarian in nature.
If there is any suspicion or doubt on any
consignment, then UCO Bank would be free not to
release the money.
India is set to pay Iran $1.65 billion under an

interim nuclear deal that eases sanctions on Tehran
and gives it access to $4.2 billion in blocked funds.
As long as Tehran complies with the terms of its
preliminary pact with P5+1, Iran receives some of
its funds abroad frozen with various buyers over
six months. Indian refiners Essar Oil, Bangalore
Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd, Hindustan
Petroleum Corp and HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd, have
been settling 45 per cent of payments in rupees,
which Iran used for importing goods from India,
while the refiners held the remainder.
Three days of negotiations in Vienna between
Iran and the P5+1 ended recently with no sign of
advance. The Vienna round follows the conclusion
of the interim pact under which Iran froze or rolled
back key aspects of its nuclear program in return
for sanctions relief.
INDIA, CHINA NEW HOME TO WORLDS OBESE
The Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation

defines an overweight person as someone having a
Body Mass Index (BMI), or weight-to-height ratio,
greater than or equal to 25 and lower than 30, and
an obese person as having a BMI equal to or greater
than 30. Today, obesity has engulfed a major
population of the world. 2.1 billion people, that is,
nearly 30% of the worlds population are either
obese or overweight, according to a new data from
188 countries. The rise in global obesity rates over
the last three decades has been substantial and
widespread, presenting a major public health
epidemic in both the developed and the developing
world. Overweight is defined as having a Body
[18]
Mass Index (BMI), or

weight-to-height ratio,
greater than or equal
to 25 and lower than
30, while obesity is
defined as having a
BMI equal to or greater
than 30.
The study, Global,
regional, and national
prevalence of overweight and obesity in
children and adults
during 1980-2013: a
systematic analysis for

the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013,
conducted by the Institute for Health Metrics and
Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington
and published in The Lancet.
Key points in the study:

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The study found that the number of

overweight and obese individuals globally
increased from 857 million in 1980 to 2.1
billion in 2013.
According to the study between 1980 and
2013, the prevalence of overweight or obese
children and adolescents increased by nearly
50%.
among the high-income countries with large

gains in obesity among men and women.
Over the 33-year period of research, several
countries in the Middle East showed the
largest increase in obesity globally. These
countries include Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi
Arabia, Oman, and Kuwait.
In six countries, all in the Middle East and
OceaniaKuwait, Kiribati, the Federated
States of Micronesia, Libya, Qatar,
and Samoathe prevalence of obesity for
women exceeds 50%. In Tonga, both men and
women have obesity prevalence over 50%.
In sub-Saharan Africa, the highest obesity
rates (42%) are seen among South African
women. Health risks such as cardiovascular
disease, cancer, diabetes, osteoarthritis, and
chronic kidney disease increase when a
persons BMI exceeds 23.
In 2010, obesity and overweight were
estimated to have caused 3.4 million deaths,
most of which were from cardiovascular
causes.
Research indicates that if left unchecked, the
rise in obesity could lead to future declines in
life expectancy.
In 2013, more than 22% of girls and nearly

24% of boys living in developed countries
were found to be overweight or obese.
Developing countries also recorded high levels
of childhood obesity, where nearly 13% of
boys and more than 13% of girls are
overweight or obese.
More than 50% of the worlds 671 million
obese people live in 10 countries the US,
China, India, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Egypt,
Germany, Pakistan, and Indonesia. That
includes at the BRIC countries and two of
the newfangled MINT ones.
The US, United Kingdom, and Australia are
INDIA SECOND LARGEST TEXTILE EXPORTER
According to data released by the Apparel

Export Promotion Council, the industry body for
garment exporters, India has overtaken Germany
and Italy to emerge as the worlds second largest
textile exporter. But it lags China, whose exports
are nearly seven times higher, showed that Indias
textiles exports were estimated at $40 billion in 2013,
compared with Chinas $274 billion. Textiles include
everything from fibre and yarn to fabric, made-ups
and readymade garments made of cotton, silk, wool
and synthetic yarn.
Over 55 per cent of the global trade relates to
readymade garments, where India ranked sixth in
2013 with exports of $16 billion, which is around
40 per cent of the countrys textiles exports. India
beat Turkey to move up a notch. For China the
share of garments is estimated at close to 60 per
cent, indicating that the government needs to
provide a bigger fillip to the readymade industry.
Apart from China, Italy and Germany, smaller
countries such as Bangladesh and Vietnam have
overtaken India in recent years as major suppliers
to retail chains in Europe and the US on the back
of cheap labour and lower-duty access.
The industry had expected part of the business

from Bangladesh to shift to India after accidents in
factories raised safety concerns. But it managed to
log 18 per cent growth in the garments segment in
2013, compared to global growth of 6 per cent.
Over the past few months the Indian garment
industry has staged a recovery of sorts which can
be seen in the 23 per cent rise in exports of shirts,
trousers, skirts and other readymades during 2013.
Exporters said a change in focus to markets beyond
the US and the EU has helped. Despite having
slow recovery in the US and EU, the biggest
traditional markets as well as prevailing global
slowdown coupled with sustained cost of
inflationary inputs.
According to AEPC chairman Virender Uppal,
the government policy of diversification of market
and product base helped them to venture into the
newer markets, which paid huge dividends. They
also leveraged our raw material strengths and
followed sustained better compliance practices
which attracted the buyers and international brands
across globe to source from India. In recent years,
UAE, Oman, Brazil, Malaysia, Poland and the
Russian Federation have seen a spurt in growth.
[19]
FIFTH INDO-FRENCH AIR EXERCISE

Force while the French AF has fielded their frontline
Rafale Fighter aircraft along with their KC-135
Refueller. The exercise involved the assets of IAFs
main operational formations, including the
Gandhinagar-based South Western Air Command
and the Allahabad-based Central Air Command.
During the war games both the Air Forces
practiced aerial warfare, including manoeuvres to
carry out surgical strikes. In this fortnight-long
exercise, the Air Forces also engaged in operations
based on their operational philosophy and
methodology of operations practising various
challenging air situation scenarios. The exercise
helped both in appreciating the intricacies of
planning and conducting combat missions in an
operational environment.
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The Indian Air Force and the French Air Force

commenced the bilateral exercise Ex Garuda V
at Jodhpur Air Base, with the aim of enhancing
Operational Co-operation and to validate
capabilities. During this fortnight long exercise
both the Air Forces would engage in Operations
based on their Operational Philosophy and
methodology of operations practicing various
challenging air situation scenarios. The Exercise
would help both Air Forces in appreciating the
intricacies of planning and conduct of combat
missions in an Operational Environment.
Frontline fighter aircraft of the IAF including
the SU-30, Mig-27 (UPG), Mig-21 Bison and force
multipliers such as the AWACS and Flight Refueller
Aircraft IL-78 participated from the Indian Air
[20]
ECONOMY
WORLD BANK & INDIA INK $1 BN LOAN PACT
of access. The 2013 Annual Status of Education
Report (ASER) by education non-profit Pratham
had found that while three out of every five students
in class five were able to read Class two textbooks
in 2005, only one out of two is upto the task now.
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India has signed a $1 billion credit agreement

with World Bank to improve quality of education
in schools till class eight. With more than 96% of
children having access to elementary education, the
new agreement wont focus on access but on
improving quality under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan
(SSA). The World Bank has earlier supported the
government-funded scheme with two rounds of
loans totalling $1.85 billion. Government uses SSA
to implement its right to education law. The
agreement was signed by Nilaya Mitash, joint
secretary, department of economic affairs, finance
ministry and Michael Haney, World Banks
operations advisor in India.
Several studies have indicated that the quality

of school education is deteriorating in India, though
the country has made significant progress in terms
The objective of this project, worth more than

$1 billion, is to improve education outcomes of over
200 million elementary schoolchildren and 4.5
million teachers in India. The benefits of the project
also include development of grade and subjectspecific learning indicators to measure childrens
progress in acquiring expected knowledge and skills
at different grade level. The programme will be
implemented by the human resource development
ministry in next three years. In 2012-13, number of
out-of-school kids had declined to 2.9 million, down
from 32 million in 2001.
SCI MAY LOSE NAVRATNA TAG
Shipping Corporation of India (SCI), which is

the countrys largest shipping company, is likely to
lose its coveted Navratna status, as the countrys
largest shipping company suffered losses for the
third year in a row. Hit by the bearish freight
market, the public sector company reported a loss
of Rs. 274.66 crore for the year ended March 31,
2014. This is against the loss of Rs. 114 crore in
2012-13 and Rs. 428 crore reported the previous
year. However, the positive sign is that the
company managed to make a marginal profit of
Rs. 13.24 crore during the fourth quarter.
According to guidelines laid down by the
Department of Public Enterprises for governmentowned companies, Navratna status is taken away
if a company posts losses on its books for three
consecutive years. Losing the coveted title would
mean that SCI could lose the financial autonomy it
has enjoyed for so many years. Currently, SCI can
take its own decision for projects costing up to Rs.
1,000 crore.
According to sources, SCI will present its case

to the government after its annual general meeting
expected to be held between August-September.
The company is expected argue that it deserves to

retain the Navratna tag, citing the cyclical nature
of the shipping business and the global crisis in the
sector. The shipping industry is grappling with a
situation of oversupply in the market coupled with
a severe drop in the freight rates.
According to a senior shipping ministry official,
SCI is suffering because of its decision to place huge
number of orders for new building back in 2007
when the market was at its peak. It is still receiving
vessels, not knowing what to do with them. Besides,
the company has not managed to diversify well
into other areas like offshore drilling.
SCI expects the market to improve in the second
quarter, said a senior executive of the company,
who did not wish to be named. The firm is also
expanding its LNG business, he added. For
instance, it has acquired a 29 per cent stake in
GAIL (India) LNG shipping ventures to haul cargo
from the US. SCI is part of a ship-owning
consortium that leased three LNG vessels to
Petronet LNG to transport LNG from Qatar to its
Dahej facility in Gujarat. The companys overall
fleet size comprises 80 vessels.
[21]

SCIs counterparts such as Essar Shipping,
which has a fleet size of 27 vessels, has managed
to make the most of the situation by expanding
into oilfield businesses. Essar Shippings

consolidated net profit declined by 2.80 per cent to
Rs. 35.80 crore for FY13, compared to Rs. 36.83
crore in the previous year.
A SIMPLER, SLIMMER ECONOMIC SURVEY

the format used in 2008-09. Basu had changed the
cover of the survey by depicting a graph, and also
changed the Chapter 2 of the survey from
Challenges, response and medium-term prospects
to Micro foundations of inclusive growth. Before
1991-92, the survey used to elaborate on the
Economic Situation but after the 1991 crisis, it
added the chapter called Public Finance. The
official said that the survey would be much smaller
than last years, which had around 300 pages with
around 150 for the appendix.
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The Economic Survey, which is to be tabled

before the Budget 2014-15, will be as important
and on the lines of the 1991-92 Survey when the
economic condition was alarming and the country
was on the brink of collapse. It is also expected to
become a more readable and much shorter
document rather than just an academic exercise
with at least a 30 per cent cut in its length.
The central theme of the Survey will be decided

in consultation with the Finance Minister but it
will have a friendlier interface. But pointing out
that the situation, in fact, is perhaps worse with
a decade-low growth rate, shrinking industrial
production and crawling job creation, it was said
that the document is being structured in a way so
as to arm the new government with some strong
suggestions to arrest the decline in growth and stave
off the crisis situation.
As officials said, they are aiming for radical

and long-term changes to bring about structural
changes in the economy. This survey will essentially
focus on only three things what is the current
economic situation, what have been the government
initiatives so far and what all the government
should do to resolve the current challenges.
Changes brought in by former chief economic
advisors Kaushik Basu and Raghuram Rajan will
be done away with. The survey will be restored to
[22]
Accordingly, the economic division in the

finance ministry has been asked to cut each chapter
of the Survey by one third, avoid verbose language
and go for short and simple charts and graphs.
However, the data appendix at the end of the
Survey will be continued. After presentations on
pending issues with various departments, the
finance ministry is expected to start consultations
on the Economic Survey and Budget. As no chief
economic advisor in place at present, the
preparation of the survey is being supervised by
finance secretary Arvind Mayaram and principal
economic advisor Ila Patnaik. The latter is also
expected to author the second chapter of the Survey
that traditionally reflects the ideas of the chief
economic advisor.

BANGALORE LAB MAPS HUMAN PROTEIN
mapping could not be realized. Scientists hit a
roadblock as not enough was known about the
proteins that translate the genetic information into
functional units like enzymes and proteins. Most
human diseases and aging happen because proteins
and enzymes become dysfunctional, and nobody
fully understands why. He also said that although
India did not participate in the human genome
project, completion of a human proteome map by
this team now puts India at the forefront of the
international efforts to characterize the human
proteome. This should be truly a matter for pride
for science and scientists working in India.
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Researchers from the Institute of Bioinformatics

(IOB), Bangalore, as part of a 72-member team,
have for the first time deciphered a near complete
protein map of human beings. It is a medical
breakthrough study that could change the way in
which cancers and heart problems are diagnosed
and treated. While the Johns Hopkins University,
Baltimore, is the lead American partner, 46
researchers are Indians. The finding, to be published
in leading British journal Nature as a cover feature
titled A Draft Map of the Human Proteome,
could offer deeper insight into why humans suffer
from diabetes, cancer and cardiac problems among
other diseases.
Its estimated there are around 20,500 proteins

in the human body. These scientists have profiled
around 17,294, which account for around 84% of
the total proteins. Apart from this, the team also
traced around 2,500 of 3,000 proteins that had been
categorised as missing proteins. The scientists also
discovered around 200 new proteins and believe
there could be more proteins yet to be discovered.
The work was done on 30 different human tissues,
including brain, liver and blood cells, some of which
were also provided by the brain bank at Nimhans.
Explaining the study, lead researcher Akhilesh
Pandey, who hails from Kanpur and is currently a
professor at the Johns Hopkins University and
founder director of IOB, Bangalore, said that one
can think of the human body as a huge library
where each protein is a book. The difficulty is that
they dont have a comprehensive catalogue that
gives the titles of the available books and where to
find them.
This is the next big thing that genetic researchers
have been waiting for after the human genome
project. While researchers had felt that mere
sequencing of the genes would unlock the mystery
of life, the true potential of the human genome
According to Shahid Jameel, a well-known

molecular biologist and head of Wellcome Trust,
Department of Biotechnology, India Alliance that
provided Rs. 1.5 crore over two years for the
project, while DNA preserves the code of life and
the human genome project deciphered that, a
similar estimate for proteins, which determine the
outcome of life, was not available. The human
proteome map is a major step in that direction.
The team analysed 30 different tissue samples from
adults and foetuses to arrive at the map of proteins
coded by 17,294 different genes. More than 2,000
proteins that were labelled as missing proteins by
the international research community as they had
never been detected or measured. A remarkable
achievement is the identification of almost 200 novel
proteins in humans that had not been discovered.
The group has built a publicly available
interactive database for analysis of their data sets
which could be an important resource for biological
research and medical diagnosis. Prof. K. Vijay
Raghavan, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology,
said that the research links proteins directly to
diseases. He said that this would help in targeted
drug discovery as it gives a peek into the dynamics
of how a human cell works.
RhODIS
Two South African wildlife experts gave a

demonstration of the Rhino DNA Indexing System,
a DNA-based forensic tool to the forest officials at
the Assam State Zoo. The RhODIS, used to

investigate and prosecute suspects in cases of rhino
poaching, has been on the Assam governments
[23]

wish-list. The tool involves the collection of each
individual rhinos unique DNA profile into a
database which can be referenced when presenting
legal evidence in cases of rhino poaching.
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The two experts, Cindy Harper, Director,

Veterinary Genetic Laboratory of University of
Pretoria, and Rod Potter, a professional wildlife
investigator associated with South Africas National
Wildlife Crime Intervention unit will also visit the
Kaziranga National Park to educate its forest
officials on the RhODIS utility in crime-scene
investigation. Assams Environment and Forest
Minister Rockybul Hussain said the government had
plans to introduce RhODIS in the State, where
poachers often went unpunished for want of
irrefutable evidence.
said that the Assam government has been exploring

the option of setting up fast-track courts to carry
out speedy trials against poachers. The RhODIS
would help provide concrete evidence before the
trial court, as required for conviction in poaching
cases, he said. The State has now planned to
introduce RhODIS in collaboration with World Wide
Fund for Nature India to build a database of the
DNA profiles of translocated, poached or naturallydead rhinos. The Veterinary Genetics Laboratory
at the Faculty of Veterinary Science of the University
of Pretoria has over 5,000 rhino samples on its DNA
database and has contributed towards over 400
probes in the east and southern African region.
Hussain said that poachers killed and dehorned

41 rhinos in Assam and about 1,000 rhinos in
South Africa in 2013. However, he observed, South
Africa had successfully cracked down on rhino
poaching by international gangs and carried out
effective prosecution. As many as 16 rhinos have
been killed in Kaziranga so far this year. He also
It was the market in China and Vietnam, which

use the rhino horn for various purposes, including
medicinal, that the poachers sought to tap. Fourteen
poachers have been killed, six arrested and seven
firearms seized so far this year. The rhino population
in Assam is estimated to be 2,553. Of this, the KNP
has 2,329, the Rajiv Gandhi Orang National Park
-100 rhinos, the Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary-93
rhinos and Manas National Park-31 rhinos.
[24]
HEALTH
PAKISTAN LAUNCHES POLIO DRIVE IN TRIBAL BELT AMID
A three-day vaccination drive began in four
tribal areas, a senior government official in
Peshawar, the regions main city, told reporters,
with more than 620,000 youngsters on course to
receive polio drops. But the official, speaking on
condition of anonymity, warned that children in
three of the four targeted areas would not be able
to receive polio drops because of the militancy and
opposition to the immunization.Violence has badly
hampered the campaign to stamp out polio in
Pakistan, where militant groups with strongholds
in tribal areas, including the Pakistani Taliban, see
vaccination campaigns as a cover for espionage.
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At the start of May the World Health

Organization (WHO) declared a global public
health emergency after new polio cases began
surfacing and spreading across borders from
countries including Pakistan. Pakistans seven semiautonomous tribal areas along the Afghan border
are the epicentre of the countrys polio cases and
the government has set up checkpoints to ensure
anyone leaving the belt is immunized. Pakistan
launched a fresh polio vaccination drive in its restive
tribal belt, but officials warned that nearly 370,000
children are likely to miss out because of security
problems.
INDIA TO OVERTAKE CHINA AS WORLD DIABETES CAPITAL
Few years back, China was declared the world

diabetes capital, a title it is likely to loose to India
soon. Last November, around one lakh residents in
Mumbai were screened for diabetes by the
Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. Of them,
approximately 12 per cent who were diagnosed
with diabetes were unaware of their illness, reveals
the BMC initiative, which was organized alongwith
Johnson and Johnson, the diversified drugs and
devices-maker. As said by Sushobhan Dasgupta,
Managing Director, J&J Medical India and VicePresident, Diabetes Care Asia Pacific, India and
China account for almost half the global incidence
of diabetes.
It is this silent diabetic population emerging in
random screenings in different States that has
experts worried. Left unchecked, India could
surpass China and become home to the largest
number of diabetics in the world, they caution,
despite 20-year projections pegging India as behind
China. Going by how the numbers stack up over
20 years, India could be the country to have the
worlds largest diabetic population, given the low
awareness, among other things, he observes.
According to diabetologist V Mohan, China has
an older population than India and its rapid growth
and affluence has already led to lifestyle-related
illnesses such as diabetes. India, on the other hand,

has a young and affluent population. Obesity rates
are beginning to increase and will continue to do
so over the next several years. Also, there is a
significant increase in rural prevalence of diabetes
in China, expecting it to be mirrored in India too,
as the rural economy improves. In addition to the
large, silent population that is not even aware that
it has diabetes, is another 77 million who are
borderline, pre-diabetics, who have not yet
developed diabetes.
Also, diabetes expert Rajiv Kovil said that over
one crore additional Indians with diabetes have
been added in 2012-13. What is disconcerting is
not only the diagnosed age group, which is getting
younger, but also the fact that they dont reflect
traditional risk factors in terms of hereditary
patterns. If diabetes is not detected and managed
well in young patients, it could lead to
complications, resulting in greater economic impact,
he says. Besides, for inexplicable reasons, the
conversion of pre-diabetes to diabetes is also higher
in India. Initiatives by J&J or insulin maker
Novo Nordisk that had screened the Goa
population, illustrate the need for detection. In fact,
the Government had embarked on a screening
initiative years ago. But, screening also raises the
[25]

ethical need to follow-up with treatment and the
costs involved for such interventions a raging
debate in the medical community.
Innovations like the Indian Diabetes Risk Score,
which assesses risk through evaluating age, waist
circumference, physical activity and family history,

backed with a van comprising basic equipment for
intervention and a satellite dish to communicate to
a main centre.
INSULIN SIGNALS TO FIGHT DIABETES

controls insulin release, the researchers discovered.
According to Marc Prentki, a professor at the
University of Montreal in Canada, despite significant
research on the mechanisms implicated in insulin
secretion, the signal molecules involved in this process
remained enigmatic; the identification of these signals
is necessary to develop better therapeutics against
diabetes. When sugar is being used by the insulin
secreting pancreatic beta-cell, it produces
monoacylglycerol, a fat-like signal and this is
associated with insulin release into blood.
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Insulin is an important hormone in our body

that controls glucose and fat utilization. The
secretion in the blood of insulin is dependent upon
the utilization of glucose and fat by the beta-cells
and the production of a novel signal that they
discovered named monoacylglycerol. Inhibition
of a novel enzyme could enhance a signal that
promotes insulin secretion and reduces blood sugar
levels, a study showed - raising hope of developing
better therapeutics against diabetes. An enzyme
called alpha/beta hydrolase domain-6 (ABHD6)
breaks down monoacylglycerol and thus negatively
[26]
NEWS IN BRIEF
NEWSMAKERS
Malavath Purna
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13-year-old Malavath Purna from Andhra

Pradesh, became the youngest female climber to
scale the Mount Everest. In the historic feat for
Indian mountaineering, Purna was accompanied
by Sadhanapalli Anand Kumar, a Class IX student
from the Khammam district of Andhra Pradesh,
and completed the feat. Anand and Purna are both
students of Andhra Pradesh Social Welfare
Educational Society. Purna created a record by
becoming by youngest girl to climb the Everest.
Poorna and Anand were selected out of a group of
110 students from 300 welfare schools to be sent to
the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute by the state
government under a social welfare department
scheme called Op-everest. Poorna is the daughter
of M. Devidas and M. Lakshmi, both farm
labourers, and is a class IX student in an Andhra
Pradesh Social Welfare Residential Educational
School at Tadawai in Nizamabad district of the
state.
returned to Vilnius to assume the office of deputy

finance minister and became Lithuanias chief
negotiator with the IMF and the World Bank.
Dalia Grybauskaite
Dalia Grybauskaite, also known as Lithuanias

Iron Lady won an unprecedented second term in
a presidential run-off held amid widespread
apprehension over a resurgent Russia. She is
nicknamed for her Thatcheresque toughness as their
best choice to steer the country through Europes
worst standoff with Moscow since the Cold War.
Dalia Grybauskaite is a Lithuanian politician
who served as President of Lithuania. She was the
first woman to hold the post. Grybauskaite studied
at Zdanov University, Leningrad and earned a
doctorate in economics from the Moscow Academy
of Public Sciences. From 1983 to 1990 she was a
lecturer at the Communist Partys training college
in Vilnius, and after Lithuania gained full
independence in 1991, she held posts in the
countrys Ministry of International Economic
Relations and Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After
serving as the plenipotentiary minister at the
Lithuanian embassy in the United States, she
In 2000, Grybauskaite was appointed deputy

Foreign Affairs Minister and took a leadership role
within the delegation responsible for negotiating
Lithuanias accession to the European Union (EU).
From 2001 to 2004 she served as Finance Minister,
and in that post she strongly supported privatization
and liberalization efforts, among other reform
measures. In 2004, Grybauskaite was tapped to
serve in Brussels as the European commissioner
responsible for financial programming and budget;
she was later selected the 2005 EU Commissioner
of the Year. However, after the deepening global
economic crisis helped spark violent protests in
Vilnius in January 2009, Grybauskaite left her EU
post to run as an independent candidate in
Lithuanias presidential election. After taking office
in July 2009, Grybauskaite focused on lifting the
countrys economic fortunes. To this end, she sought
to stimulate exports, cut public expenditures, work
efficiently to implement EU aid, and offer tax relief
to owners of small businesses. By 2011, the economy
was showing some signs of recovery, though it
continued to struggle.
K Chandrasekhar Rao
TRS supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) was

sworn in as its first Chief Minister of Telangana
which came into existence as the 29th state of India.
Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao is the First
Chief Minister of Telangana and the president of
the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, a Regional Party
in India. He is a Member of the Legislative
Assembly from the Gajwel constituency of Medak
District Telangana. Previously, he served as the
Member of the Legislative Assembly from Siddipet
and also as the Member of Parliament from
Mahbubnagar. He took oath as the first Chief
Minister of the new state of Telangana on June 2,
2014. He was the Cabinet Minister for Labour and
Employment.
[27]

KCR started his career with the youth Congress
party in Medak district, controlled by Sanjay Gandhi
in the 1970s. As he himself claims, he and a few
others stood by Indira Gandhi even after her defeat
in the 1977 Lok Sabha polls. KCR joined the TDP
in 1983 and contested against A. Madan Mohan
and lost that election. KCR won four consecutive
Assembly elections from Siddipet between 1985 and
1999. From 1987-1988 worked as Minister of

Drought & Relief in NT Ramaraos cabinet. In 1990
appointed as TDP convener for Medak, Nizamabad
and Adilabad districts. In 1996 worked as Transport
Minister in Chandrababau Naidus cabinet. He also
served as the deputy speaker of the Andhra
Assembly from 2000-2001.
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OBITUARIES
Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou, the memoirist and poet whose

landmark book of 1969, I Know Why the Caged
Bird Sings, was among the first autobiographies by
a 20th-century black woman to reach a wide
general readership, died Wednesday in her home.
She was 86 and lived in Winston-Salem, North
Carolina.
As well-known as she was for her memoirs,
which eventually filled six volumes, Angelou very
likely received her widest exposure on a chilly
January day in 1993, when she delivered the
inaugural poem, On the Pulse of Morning, at
the swearing-in of Bill Clinton, the nations 42nd
President, who, like Angelou, had grown up poor
in rural Arkansas.
Long before that day, as she recounted in Caged
Bird and its five sequels, she had already been a
dancer, calypso singer, streetcar conductor, single
mother, magazine editor in Cairo, administrative
assistant in Ghana, official of the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference and friend or associate of
some of the most eminent black Americans of the
mid-20th century, including James Baldwin, the
Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm
X.
Afterward, Angelou was a Tony-nominated

stage actress; college professor (she was for many
years the Reynolds professor of American studies
at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem);
ubiquitous presence on the lecture circuit; frequent
guest on television shows, from Oprah to Sesame
Street; and subject of a string of scholarly studies.
In February 2011, US President Barack Obama
presented her with the Presidential Medal of

Freedom, the countrys highest civilian honour.
The next five volumes of Angelous memoir,
all, like the first, originally published by Random
House, were Gather Together in My Name (1974),
Singin and Swingin and Gettin Merry Like Christmas
(1976), The Heart of a Woman (1981), All Gods
Children Need Travelling Shoes (1986) and A Song
Flung Up to Heaven (2002).
Dhondutai Kulkarni
Dhondutai Kulkarni, a noted singer of the

Jaipur-Atrauli gharana, died.
Born in Kolhapur in western Maharashtra, she
was initiated into music at a young age, becoming
an AIR performing artist at eight. Her incredible
repertoire of ragas sees to it that she rarely repeats
a raga at two consecutive concerts. Dhondutai
knews speciality Raag creations made not just by
Alladiya Khan but also by Kesarbai Kerkar. At age
86, Dhondutai is saluted not just for her musical
contributions, but also for her quality as a
performing artist.
Dhondutai has been awarded the Sangeet Natak
Akademi Award in 1990. She also has been invited
to the Surashri Kesarbai Kerkar Sangeet Sammelan
since its beginnings, she sings last at the concert.
Journalist Namita Devidayals book, The Music Room
chronicles a significant part of Dhondutais life, music
and career. Namita is one of her students and learned
from her over a period of 25 years. The book talks
about the life and music of Alladiya Khan, Kesarbai
Kerkar and Dhondutai.
AWARD/PRIZES
German award for Deepak Parekh

Deepak Parekh, the chairman of HDFC,
was
honoured
Germanys
prestigious
[28]
Bundesverdienstkreuz (Cross of the Order of

Merit) award for his personal commitment and
outstanding contribution to strengthen IndoWeekly Current Affairs 26th May to 1st June, 2014

German relations over the years. The HDFC
Chairman has served on the board of various
leading German and Indo-German corporations.
According to Consul General Michael Siebert.
Mr. Parekh has enormously contributed to
intensifying Indo-German economic relations which
have reached new heights, creating considerable
wealth as well as numerous jobs in Germany and
India alike
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The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic

The award was instituted in 1951 by Federal
President Theodor Heuss. It is the only honour
that may be awarded in all fields of endeavour
and is the highest tribute the Federal Republic of

Germany can pay to individuals for services to the
nation. The Order of Merit may be awarded to
Germans as well as foreigners for achievements in
the political, economic, social or intellectual realm
and for all kinds of outstanding services to the
nation in the field of social, charitable or
philanthropic work. No pecuniary reward is
attached. In awarding the Order of Merit the
Federal President wishes to draw public attention
to achievements that he believes are of particular
value to society generally. Future awards should
take more account of the achievements of women
as well as young people.
CULTURE
Ring well found in Purana Quila
At the latest excavation at Purana Qila, the

Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has discovered
a ring well 4.4 metres below the earth. The well, 70
centimetres in diameter, lined with earthen rings is
characteristic of the Maurya period. According to
Assistant Superintending Archaeologist Vishnu
Kant, this alongwith fragments of northern black
earthenware and grey ware unearthed are proof
that the excavation has reached upto the Mauryan
period which was from 322 to 185 BC. The well is
in a vertical excavation shaft approachable by a
ladder. Beside it is a drain, probably of a kitchen in
the Maurya period.
The excavation on a slope behind the Sher
Mandal is akin to a time portal. At the very top,
remnants of the post partition camps are found.
As the slope progresses, excavations at various level
reveal different ages of history. First are the ruins
of the Mughals, followed by the Sultanate. Then
the Rajput period appears in excavations where
fine disposable earthenware and an entombed

skeleton of a small goat have been discovered. The
excavations shafts reveal remains of the Gupta and
post Gupta period, the Kushan period, the Sungas
and finally the Mauryas in continuous sequence.
Grey pottery with black patterns have been found
at later levels or from eras after the Mahabharata
period. These are smaller fragments which may have
resurfaced in rain flow and were then used by
children as play objects. This is the third and the
largest excavation here since the first one in 1955 by
pioneering archaeologist Braj Basi Lal. Several
labourers and 18 students of the Institute of
Archaeology, Red Fort alongwith ASI staff led by
Vasant Swarnkar, Superintending Archaeologist of
the Delhi Circle. So far, the excavations have
revealed an 18 centimetre tall Vishnu idol, believed
to be from the Rajput era although alternately it is
also claimed to be from Akbars reign. In addition
to this, a Gupta terracotta seal and stamped pottery,
Mughal beads and gems and Sultanate glazed ware
have also been found.
SPORTS
Kunshan to host Thomas Uber cup
The Badminton World Federation (BWF) has

also decided to allot the 2015 World junior
championship to Lima, Peru. The bids were opened
after the presentations made by China, Indonesia
and Peru. Chinese city of Kunshan will be the
next host of Thomas Cup and Uber Cup in 2016.
Kunshan had outlined plans to host the
tournament at the Kunshan Sports Centre, which
can house more than 5,000 spectators. That was
enough for them to pip Jakarta, who had proposed

the use of the well-known Istora Senayan Stadium,
which can accommodate 6,000 spectators.
Ironically, Jakarta had edged Kunshan for the right
to host next years World Championships. That
decision was made last year.
Despite having won the Thomas Cup nine times
and the Uber Cup 13 times, this will only be the
third time that China are hosting the prestigious
world team tournament. Previously, Guangzhou
(2002) and Wuhan (2012) hosted the tournament.
[29]

Meanwhile the World Junior Championships will
head to South America for the first time since its
inception in 1992, with Lima, the capital of Peru,
earning the rights to host the 2015 tournament.
Qatar won FIFA bid

Secret payments of more than $5 million to key
football officials have won Qatar the needed
numbers in the executive committee of the
Fdration Internationale de Football Association
(FIFA) to host the World Cup in 2022.
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Kunshan was up against Jakarta, Indonesia,

and when the outcome was revealed, officials from
Kunshan and the Chinese Badminton Association
jumped to their feet in delight. In their presentation,
the visitors outlined intentions to host the
tournament at Kunshan Sports Centre with a
seating capacity of more than 5,000. The
representative from the Badminton Association of
Indonesia unveiled plans for the Thomas & Uber
Cup Finals to be held at the well-known Istora
Senayan Stadium which seats 6,000 spectators.
2013 China Open. Ueda appeared to be cruising

when he led 15-9 after winning the first game.
Liew staged a remarkable comeback to clinch the
game. But the deciding game turned Uedas way.
Japan Creates history
Japan became only the fourth nation, after

Indonesia (13 times), China (9) and Malaysia (5) to
lift the coveted Thomas Cup. Japans quest for its
first Thomas Cup triumph ended by extending fivetime champion Malaysias 22-year wait for a sixth
title. Takuma Ueda defeated Daren Liew in the
deciding fifth rubber as Japan completed a 3-2
triumph. For Malaysia, this was the ninth runnerup finish and first since 2002.
With Japan starting what was expected to be a
close title-clash as ranking-favourite in four of the
five rubbers, the Malaysians would have had to
punch above their weight to gain the title. They
came close to winning the first doubles and claimed
the second, but fell short in the deciding singles.
After World No. 1 Lee Chong Wei defeated

fourth-ranked Kenichi Tago to put Malaysia ahead
the World No. 3 duo of Kenichi Hayakawa and
Hiroyuki Endo who battled from a one-game deficit
to be part of one of the most memorable finishes.
The decider saw Boon Heong Tan and Thein How
Hoon save a match-point to make it 19-20 before
Hayakawa finished off an astonishing rally. Then,
Kento Momota settled a score against Wei Feng
Chong and put Japan ahead for the first time. The
39-minute battle featuring two left-handers
produced thrilling rallies but Momota stayed in
control on the big points to avenge the three-game
loss suffered in last years Malaysia Open.
In the second doubles, 13th ranked
Keigo Sonoda and Takeshi Kamura brought Japan
closer to the title before they were punished in the
second and third games for being impetuous.
Thereafter it was left to Ueda to tame Liew to whom
he had lost their only previous encounter in the
[30]
A special investigation by the Sunday Times

Insight team and also reported on Sunday by the
BBC reveals that millions of documents leaked
by a FIFA insider to the newspaper expose how
Qatars astonishing victory in the race to secure
the right to host the 2022 tournament was sealed
by a covert campaign by Mohammad bin
Hammam, the countrys top football official. At
the centre of this scandal is the Machiavellian
persona of Mohammad bin Hammam, a Qatari
construction billionaire and football official, who
plotted and funded the operation that won Qatar
the bid.
Bin Hammam was banned from football for life
in July 2011 on allegations of bribery, reinstated a
year later, and then issued with a second life ban
by FIFA in December 2012 for conflicts of interest,
when he was President of the Asian Football
Confederation. However, in December 2010, when
the bids for 2022 were put to the vote by FIFAs
executive committee, and went in favour of Qatar,
he was President of the Asian Football
Confederation and a Vice-President of FIFA.
According to the Sunday Times, the revelation
that Bin Hammams private company paid up to
200,000 into accounts controlled by the presidents
of 30 African football associations who then
directed the vote of the four voting members of the
Exco from the African continent in Qatars favour.
He is accused of hosting lavish parties for the
African football association presidents; putting
1.6 m into the bank account of the Exco member
from Trinidad and Tobago; making payments to
the Oceania Exco member; and channelling FIFA
funds to the football association of Ivory Coast in
return for that countrys Exco members support
for Qatar. The official Qatar bid committee has
denied the Sunday Times allegations. It has always
maintained that Bin Hammam is an entirely
separate individual who had nothing to do with
the Qatar bid. Qatar has already been under
considerable criticism for labour conditions on its
World Cup construction sites where at least 964

migrant workers are believed to have died.
Kohli & Ashwin win Ceat award
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Virat Kohli won the Cricketer of the Year

honours at the Ceat awards function, while
R. Ashwin received the Indian Player of the Year
award. Former India wicketkeeper and a member
of the 1983 World Cup-winning team, Syed
Kirmani, was given the Lifetime Achievement
award. The India off-spinner has come a long way

since then to bag 104 Test wickets in 19
appearances apart from 106 scalps in 79 ODIs.
Ashwin, who has scored a Test century too, said
he was a fan of Shane Warne. Karnataka batting
mainstay Robin Uthappa received the Domestic
Cricketer of the Year prize for his exploits in the
States Ranji Trophy triumph and the form he
carried over into other formats like the IPL.
[31]
EDITORIALS
TURKEY SEETHES AFTER SOMA
production costs of a tonne of coal from $140 to
$23.80, while more than doubling turnover. Soma
workers say their mines have been unsafe for years.
Opposition lawmakers have accused the ruling
party of having ties with mine-owners. The owners
and managers of the mine have been arrested but
many Turkish people are wondering if the price
they have paid for the breakneck economic
development of the Erdogan years is too high.
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Istanbul is no stranger to furious protests, but

in the past these have been usually confined to
Taksim Square, the usual venue for unrest. This
time, there were scuffles throughout Istanbul.
Turkeys people are angry.
And they have much to be angry about. Much

of the country appears to be reaching a tipping
point over Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogans
dictatorial ways. Only 10 days after May Day
protests filled the streets again. The Soma disaster,
on May 13th, has enraged the country and driven
even fervent supporters of Erdogan to criticise him.
Some 301 miners slowly choked to death from
carbon monoxide poisoning in a coal mine in Soma,
about 500 km from Istanbul. Erdogans misguided
response was to compare Soma to accidents in
Britain of the 1860s, saying, These types of things
in mines happen all the time.
Crude comment
That comment was like a red rag to a bull.

Visiting Soma, Erdogan was forced to take refuge
in a supermarket when he was besieged by angry
relatives. Erdogans advisor Yusuf Yerkel was filmed
kicking a protester. One protester also complained
that Erdogan had slapped him.
The streets of Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir and Soma

have been swept by protests. The police have
responded brutally, with teargas and water
cannons. Meanwhile, it emerged that unsafe
conditions in the Soma mine had been discussed
before, but ignored. Bloomberg reported that
Turkeys parliament had discussed safety conditions
at the Soma mine last month, according to a
provincial lawmaker Ozgur Ozel. Ozel said a mine
safety commission was backed by opposition
parties, but rejected by the ruling AKP.
In a 2012 interview, Soma mines CEO
Alp Grkan boasted that he had reduced the
High price
In Istanbul, weeping protesters carried banners

saying Erdogan is a murderer. To be sure, its
not all Erdogans fault. Turkey has long ignored
international regulations on mining safety. But
Erdogan seems to be the public embodiment of a
callous, arrogant, growth-obsessed state. Columnist
Mustafa Akyol, who has often been pro-AKP in
the past, summed up popular feeling in an op-ed
in the Hurriyet daily newspaper, Why does
Erdogan never accept any responsibility in any
wrongdoing and never, ever, apologise for
something he or his team has done?
Erdogan, true to form, has accused critics of
trying to politicise the mine tragedy, going so far
as to claim a BBC correspondent hired actors to
pose as the wives of miners. This kind of blatant
chutzpah has worked for Erdogan before. During
the Gezi Park protests last summer, and following
corruption allegations last December, he blamed
the shadowy Fethullah Gul movement for
conspiring against the government. It worked; the
AKP swept the local elections.
But in the face of horrific tales of desperate
miners taking turns to grab a mouthful of air from
a tube, and TV footage of crying Soma children,
whom will he blame now?
THE POLICY MIX THAT INDUSTRY NEEDS

To stay competitive in the global market place
and create employment opportunities for the
[32]
countrys young workforce, it is imperative for India

to transform its manufacturing sector.

Developed countries such as the US, UK,
Germany, Japan, South Korea, Israel and Finland
are largely innovation-driven, characterized by high
per capita income levels, high standards of living
and various industries with advanced technology
and the capability to manufacture new and unique
products. For India to be counted among these
countries, we have a long way to go.
The new government should look at

implementing the National Manufacturing Policy
effectively. While encouraging the private and
public sector to build advanced technical
capabilities, it should prioritise indigenisation of the
Railways, Defence and Power. The creation of
national industrial manufacturing zones and
industrial corridors should kick up speed.
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The primary characteristics of advanced

manufacturing industries are high R&D spend, use
of futuristic technologies, requirement of highly
skilled manpower, and drivers of innovation and
productivity in other sectors.
Industry should look beyond low cost, focus

on technology-driven innovation, increase value
addition, and create skill development institutes by
engaging with academia.
According to a study done by the Brookings

Foundation and McKinsey & Co, the advanced
manufacturing industries are those that display high
R&D spending as a share of total sales and employ
a highly skilled workforce in which the average
worker is expert in at least one discrete STEM
(Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics)
field.
SWOT analysis
India has low indigenous manufacturing

capability in the biomedical devices industry, heavy
machinery (mechanical and electrical) industry and
the semiconductor and advanced electronics
industries. Indias competence is restricted to
automotives, auto-components, consumer goods,
basic computer hardware, pharmaceuticals and so
on all of which are largely driven by private
industry.
Developing Indias advanced manufacturing
capabilities will not be easy. Strong challenges from
other nations, inconsistent engineering and
workforce training systems, and the absence of a
good quality talent ecosystem continue to haunt
us.
While efforts to develop the advanced
manufacturing sector will largely depend on private
initiative, national-level initiatives are needed on
R&D investment, skills-building, taxes, trade and
infrastructure.
The three potential value creators industry,
government and academia have their task cut
out. At city and cluster levels, industry and
academia should work together in innovation,
invest in local industry clusters, drive trade and
build the necessary skills base to revamp and build
a robust manufacturing sector.
The academia should help industry create an

R&D ecosystem and enhance our intellectual
property resources.
The
new
government
should
bring
accountability to the system. If it wants to reject a
proposal, it should be able to say so in a month.
We need one unified ministry for trade, economy
and industry like Japans METI (Ministry of
Economy, Trade and Industry). They often work
at cross-purposes. We need concerted focus on skills
training, we need good infrastructure that will help
manufacturing. This eco-system will have to be
created with the help of national laws.
Indigenisation effort
We are not encouraging domestic companies to

participate in Indian projects. Our entrepreneurs
should be allowed to take the lead. Big projects like
the DMIC (Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor),
Indias most ambitious industrial programme, can
do with local capabilities and participation. Many
Indian companies have proven themselves, yet there
is a lack of trust.
We have instead signed FTAs (Free Trade
Agreements) with several countries. As a result,
imports have gone up in the last seven years.
In our auto-component business, there are big
imports from China and elsewhere. Local
manufacturing has fallen, structural changes are
needed. Its a scary state of affairs.
Advanced manufacturing is another important
area. These are high-value added sectors which
use futuristic technologies, require high R&D spend
and drive innovation and productivity. In sum, we
are all looking for change.
[33]
TAKING CHARGE OF ELECTRONICS

With the newly elected government in power,
the Indian electronics sector is full of optimism.
Growth in this sector, especially in manufacturing,
has not taken off and the sector awaits faster
implementation of policy. Now, with a strong
political mandate, the Government should go ahead
to boost business and industry sentiment.
Another area which needs immediate attention

is catering to the demands of large companies that
have invested in electronics manufacturing in India.
Nokias largest factory worldwide for phones is in
Tamil Nadu, and a flextronics factory that supplies
to them is also in the region.
These factories need to be attended to
immediately. Also, many international companies
have been reluctant to invest in India due to the
lengthy bureaucratic channels. The new government
should tackle this immediately.
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Based on the recommendations of a task force

I headed in 2009, the Government had created the
electronics policy to cover manufacturing.
India should become capable of meeting this

demand.
Of those recommendations, the one that the

Government needs to focus on is the creation of a
national electronics mission with adequate
manpower to implement the policy. It should
oversee the implementation of various programmes
spelt out in the national electronics hardware policy
and promote India as an electronics hardware
manufacturing hub.
An electronics development fund also needs to

be set up to encourage design and value addition
in India and encourage entrepreneurship in this
field. A specific proposal has already been presented
to the Government.
Steps to take
The Preferential Market Access (PMA) policy,

for example, was a bold and effective step to ensure
we create value-added manufacturing in India.
According to the revised PMA policy, local

sourcing of electronics will be mandatory for
government departments. This will boost domestic
manufacturing of electronics, while attracting
investments. As a matter of fact, the National
Manufacturing Policy also embraces the PMA. The
policy will help not just in reducing the current
account deficit but also generate employment.
Another important measure is to involve all state
governments to create a single agency to facilitate
ease in investing and fast clearances.
The Government also needs to approve and

release funds for approved projects under the
Modified Special Incentive Package Scheme and
electronic clusters. Inaction on this has led to a
huge gap between policy and execution and has
delayed the setting up of infrastructure. The
demand for electronics products, especially
electronics hardware, has seen a significant growth.
[34]
Other factors
There are also several factors which are driving

demand in the Indian market. Today, Indias
semiconductor design industry alone is estimated
to be around $6.5 billion. The Government should
focus on all pending issues connected with setting
up the two semiconductor fabricators in the
country.
Also, proposals on the creation of intellectual
property (IP) need immediate attention. There has
been steady growth in the contribution towards
creation of IP, but investments in this field are low.
The next big wave of advancement for the country
has to be product development and innovation.
The industry is hopeful that the new
government will resolve the countrys economic
imbalances. The Government will have to be
accountable and responsible at all levels to remove
the roadblocks to India becoming the next
electronics hub.
With China becoming more expensive, India
has a great opportunity to meet not only its own
needs but export electronics hardware. India needs
to scale its facilities and capabilities to a global level
and reduce import dependency especially in
manufacturing.
Also, we need to encourage innovation and
entrepreneurship in this sector to give the desired
impetus and move on to an advanced level of
manufacturing, acquiring and developing new
technologies, with a focus on R&D.
OPERATION CLEAN-UP
over a two-year period. This has been a big relief
to most PSBs, who are yet to provide for half of the
bad loans in their books.
But it may still be some time before PSB balance
sheets are repaired substantially to enable them to
resume large-scale lending, especially to longgestation infrastructure projects that the current
government sees as the key to drive the next
investment and growth recovery. For this to
happen, judicial interventions that cause delays in
the ARC process need to be reduced. This will help
both banks as well as the ARCs to quickly unlock
value from the borrowers assets. Also, before they
embark on their next lending cycle, banks need to
address the many lacunae in their existing practices.
The NPAs that have mounted during this downturn
have brought to light PSBs flawed approach to
consortium lending as well as lack of prudence in
increasing exposures to select sectors and business
groups. It has also cast doubts over their ability to
conduct due diligence on long-term projects and
assess the risks that could lead to delinquencies. In
this context, reducing direct government control
over PSBs, in line with the recommendations of the
P.J. Nayak committee and bringing in private sector
or foreign partners with requisite expertise would
improve both their project assessment and risk
management systems. This will ensure the next
boom will not result in an NPA build-up of the
sort we saw at the end of the last one.
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Finally, there seems to be some light at the end

of the tunnel for banks weighed down by their
large portfolios of Non-Performing Assets (NPAs).
Part of this has come about because of the economy
bottoming out, leading to a reduction in fresh loan
delinquencies. Public sector banks (PSBs) actually
saw their total NPAs decline in the January-March
quarter, after expanding sequentially by 6-10 per
cent in the previous three quarters. Besides, they
have started selling some of their bad loans to Asset
Reconstruction Companies (ARCs). Such asset sales
amounted to around Rs. 50,000 crore in 2013-14,
against Rs. 12,000 crore in the preceding fiscal.
The ARCs were set up over a decade ago to

help banks expedite loan recovery without the
intervention of courts. But until last year, this route
was hardly used as banks were reluctant to sell
their NPA portfolios at the steep discounts
demanded by the ARCs. But now the sheer weight
of NPA pile-ups has forced banks to negotiate
mutually acceptable solutions for selling their bad
loans at higher prices in return for deferred
payments. While this is welcome, PSBs have also
turned more willing to explore other avenues to
shed bad loans. This has happened especially since
the Reserve Bank of Indias (RBI) diktat on early
recognition of doubtful loans even before the
existing 90-day overdue norm for explicit NPA
classification coming into effect this April. The
RBI has, moreover, granted banks some accounting
leeway to recognise losses from asset sales to ARCs
TOO LAX AN APPROACH TO FIGHTING INFLATION
There is broad consensus that inflation in recent

years has been way beyond acceptable levels and
effective control of inflation is top priority for the
new government.
In this context the autonomy of the Reserve
Bank of Indias monetary policy function and its
accountability comes to the forefront.
There have been two reports recently, namely

the report of the Financial Sector Legislative Reforms
Commission (FSLRC), March 2013 and the report
of the Expert Committee to Revise and Strengthen
the Monetary Policy Framework, January 2014
The Patel Committee. There is some merit in fusing
the recommendations of the two reports.
The FSLRCs thrust

According to the FSLRC, the predominant and
secondary objectives of monetary policy should be

set out by the Government in a public statement.
The predominant objective could be stipulated in
terms of an inflation rate or any other objective
such as the exchange rate or the nominal GDP.
The RBI should then have instrument
independence.
The decisions taken by the RBI should be
through a Monetary Policy Committee (MPC)
consisting of the governor and one other executive
member of the RBI and five external members
appointed by the Government, with consultation
with the RBI on two external members.
Furthermore, a representative of the Government
would attend the meetings of the MPC and have
the right to be heard but he/she would not be
entitled to vote. The Governor would have the right
[35]

to veto the majority view in exceptional
circumstances but would have to justify the action
in a public statement.
The FSLRC proposal has certain drawbacks.
While the RBI would be accountable for its actions,
the majority of the members of the MPC would be
non-executives. This goes against the fundamental
principles of executive responsibility and
accountability.
Legislative changes in the financial system

would take months, even years, and the
fundamental overhaul envisaged by the FSLRC had
best be undertaken after detailed discussion and a
consensus between the Government, policymakers,
regulators, market players and opinion-makers.
Such legislative changes should not be rushed
through without following proper parliamentary
processes. Hurrying through fundamental financial
legislative changes is clearly not desirable.
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Again, one is all too familiar with how

executives and external advisers can be overawed
by the presence of a top Finance Ministry official
the Big Brothers watching syndrome!
A pragmatic approach
Patel Committees suggestions
The Patel Committee recommends a nominal

anchor, that is an inflation rate target based on the
Consumer Price Index (CPI) of 4 per cent with a
band of +/- 2 per cent around it.
Given that at the time the report was submitted
the CPI inflation rate was 10 per cent, the
committee recommended a glide path of 24 months
to reach the desired target. The Patel Committee
recommendation may appear to be a narrow
objective compared with the FSLRC, but it provides
a clear focus on the problem of inflation which has
become an overriding priority.
According to the Patel Committee there would
be a five-member MPC consisting of three
executives (Governor, the Deputy Governor and
Executive Director) and two external members
appointed by the RBI. In the MPC as envisaged by
the Patel Committee accountability would obviously
be with the RBI.
A matter of concern is that the Patel Committee

envisages that the external members would be fulltime; this gives rise to a piquant situation regarding
the pecking order of the executive members vis-vis the external members. The Korean experience
with full-time external members did create serious
problems in the day-to-day operation of monetary
policy; therefore, full-time external members would
not be desirable.
The impact of inflation on vulnerable segments

of society requires to be addressed in the next few
weeks to bring about a significant and enduring
reduction in inflation.
Hence, a pragmatic approach would be to

immediately implement, without legislative
changes, some vital measures.
The Government, in consultation with the RBI,
should set out in the public domain the
predominant objective of monetary policy in
quantifiable monitorable terms for, say a two-year
period. This should be placed before Parliament.
There should be an annual presentation by the RBI
to the parliamentary committee on finance. Given
the broad consensus that inflation control requires
immediate action, it is obvious that the predominant
objective in the immediate ensuing period should
be inflation control.
The present technical advisory committee on
monetary policy could be revamped into a fivemember MPC with three executive members and
two part-time external members who would be
provided facilities to access information but they
would not be given any executive functions.
The central task of monetary policy would be to
ensure that sector-specific inflation, such as food
inflation, does not degenerate into generalized inflation.
The Government in turn should undertake suitable
measures, such as open-market sales of foodgrains and
imports of other scarce items. The Government should
also intervene where cartelisation is evident in certain
food items.
The central objective should be to bring about a
decisive reduction in the inflation rate in the current
financial year and there should be no question of
easing monetary policy until inflation is totally
squelched. This would alleviate the suffering of the
masses and generate a climate of confidence which
would boost savings and investments.
GET PAST THE SUGAR-COATING

The sugar industry is an important agro-based
industry that impacts the livelihood of about five
[36]
crore farmers and five lakh workers employed in

sugar mills. India is the worlds second largest

producer of sugar. However, as the worlds largest
consumer of sugar, India has to formulate a strategy
that addresses the needs of sugarcane farmers,
sugar mills and consumers while ensuring global
competitiveness.
Secondly, the Government must decide on how

much surplus sugar to hold as common stock. India
consumes about 24 million tonnes of sugar
annually; a common stock of about three months
is needed to guard against shortage or excess. Sugar
prices should be stabilised with common stocks and
not by ad hoc imports or exports. Surplus sugar
can also be allowed for export. Financing of the
common stock needs to be done by the Government
so that there are no cane arrears. However, profit
or loss on the stock can be shared by the industry.
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Also, with about 600 mills and an annual

production of about 24 million tonnes of sugar, the
industry is a huge generator of direct and indirect
rural employment. This industry has been plagued
with surpluses, shortages and the issue of cane dues
to farmers. It is now time for the Government to
come out with a national sugar policy that will
move this industry from a survival mode to an
internationally competitive self-sufficient mode.
to decide if it is viable to produce cane. This will

stabilise sugarcane cultivation and availability.
The strategy should enable viable sugarcane

pricing linked to the market price of sugar and byproducts such as molasses, bagasse and press mud.
Sugar pricing should be stabilised through a
common stock mechanism where the Government
stocks sugar during times of surplus and the
industry partners with the Government in profit or
loss sharing depending on the situation, thereby
preventing price volatility in the domestic market
and also resolving the availability factor.
But the stumbling block to framing such a longterm policy is the complex nature of the industry
which comes under the purview of multiple
ministries such as agriculture, petroleum, consumer
affairs, and food and public distribution, and also
calls for Centre-State coordination.
The sugar scene
Sugarcane is mostly produced in six states

Uttar
Pradesh,
Maharashtra,
Karnataka,
Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat which
have to be involved along with the industry in
framing the policy. A consistent policy for at least
3-5 years is needed to attract investments to the
sector. Then there will be stability and people will
invest. Such a strategy has benefited Brazil for soya,
coffee and sugar; the Philippines for rice; and
Vietnam for coffee and sugar. Even a small country
like Thailand produces around 11 million tonnes
of sugar, which is half of Indias production.
Firstly, the Centre needs to implement the
revenue sharing model by which 70 per cent of the
price of sugar and by-products go to the farmer
and 30 per cent to the mills. This system is already
being followed by Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra
Pradesh and Karnataka. This needs to be made the
All-India formula which is transparent in terms of
sugarcane pricing and thereby enables the farmer
Thirdly, while the acreage under sugarcane has

increased over the last 20 years by 30 per cent, the
yield has stagnated at the same level unlike in other
agri products such as rice and wheat. Indias cane
production can be substantially enhanced with
strong R&D efforts. Public-private R&D partnerships
can greatly help accelerate bringing out new high
yielding varieties.
By-products and cogeneration
Although the Government came out with a

programme for mandatory 5 per cent ethanolblended fuel to save precious foreign exchange, it
was not implemented across the states, with the
actual blending rate at about 3 per cent. The
ministry concerned should make a clear assessment
of the actual potential and reach a balance between
ethanol and potable alcohol for the liquor industry.
The Government is talking about increasing the
percentage blending of ethanol to 10 per cent. The
policy must be amended to allow direct sugarcane
juice to ethanol; simultaneously the Government
must implement 10 per cent blending of ethanol in
gasoline. Market-based ethanol pricing can be a
win-win for the sugar industry and oil marketing
companies, while saving substantial foreign
exchange for the country.
Over 200 of the 600 sugar mills have
cogeneration plants with an installed exportable
capacity of over 3,500 MW. The policy has to be
clear on dealing with cogeneration power. There
are states that allow open access and there are
state electricity regulatory commissions giving Rs.
3 per unit, which is not viable.
Sugar mills produce electricity and sell it for a
low price to the electricity utility and when they
need power in the off season, they need to pay at
Rs. 10 per unit. Cogeneration is clearly coming
under non-conventional energy and therefore we
[37]

must have a national law which allows sugar mills
to sell their power with open access across all the
states so that the power generated can be sold at
market rates.
The industry and the Government should

redirect energy levels towards development and
progress and becoming globally competitive rather
than focus on short-term measures of cane dues,
bank dues and legal battles. There is large
employment potential in this industry and if the
industry is given the right push, employment will
come from the right place: the rural sector.
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The Power Trading Corporation can also

consider entering into a five-year power purchase
contract with sugar mills. This needs to be taken
out of the purview of state electricity boards. Since
there is large capital investment in cogen plants,
such a policy will also motivate the sugar industry
to operate and generate power during the offseason using alternative fuel.
with regard to labour and water availability.

Aggressive support to farm mechanization and an
effort to increase irrigated areas as has been done
in Gujarat will help bring down dependence on
the monsoons.
Farm-level issues
At a micro level, the Government needs to

discuss with the industry the challenges it faces
BRICS: DOWN BUT NOT OUT
BRICS remains largely heterogeneous in

character with differences in socio-political-legal
frameworks. But its strength is amplified by the
fact that these countries together account for
43 per cent of the worlds population, around 18
per cent of its GDP and 40 per cent of its currency
reserves, estimated at around a trillion US dollars.
The basic precept under which BRICS as a
formal association was forged was to primarily
counter the hegemony of the West and create a
formidable economic and political force in the new
economic order. However, this objective came under
significant clout after the US Federal Reserve
expressed the possibility to taper their bond
purchases.
Though most of the economies today, including
BRICS, are well prepared after the initial signals
given by the Federal Reserve last summer, they still
remain vulnerable from the threat of massive capital
outflows from emerging economies.
While it is quite apparent that these countries

will not start growing so soon at the rate they did
before the Lehman crisis, given the size of these
economies and its influence in global trade, they
are poised to be a force to reckon with. It may be
observed that the export share of G-8 countries in
world exports experienced a negative CAGR of 3
per cent as its share globally declined from 47 per
cent to 34 per cent during 2001 and 2013. On the
other hand, the share of BRICS in global trade
expanded exponentially from a diminutive 8 per
cent in 2001 to 18 per cent in global exports in
2013, growing at a CAGR of 7 per cent.
[38]
Look inward
However, given the current state of affairs in

these five emerging economies, in order to succeed
in boosting and sustaining growth, BRICS will need
to deal with issues in their own backyards such as
capacity constraints, inflationary pressures,
including effects of financial markets volatility on
capital flows, and the exchange rate.
According to the latest IMF data, four of the
five BRICS economies witnessed a decline in GDP
during 2013 as compared to 2012, with Brazil being
the only one exhibiting an increase from 1 per cent
to 2.3 per cent. On the inflation front, while China
which showed a moderate inflation of 2.6 per cent,
Brazil displayed 6.2 per cent, Russia 6.8 per cent,
South Africa 5.8 per cent, and India the highest
inflationary figure of 9.5 per cent.
Cannot be overlooked
The exchange rate exhibited double digit

depreciation with the exception of China which
saw an appreciation of 0.9 per cent at the end of
April 2014 vis--vis the corresponding period in
2013. The South African rand exhibited the highest
depreciation at 14.6 per cent, the Russian rouble
and Brazilian real witnessed a depreciation of 12.8
per cent and 10 per cent respectively, whereas the
Indian rupee depreciated by 10.5 per cent during
the same period.
Though Russia will be impacted due to the rift with
its neighbours and sanctions from the West, investors
look forward with anticipation for an economic recovery
following the elections in India and Brazil.

It is hard to overlook the prominence of the
BRICS economies which accounts for 55 per cent
of the output of emerging and developing
economies.
Although these countries may have been injured
following a rough run during the last year or so,
they are nevertheless resilient and have the innate
capability to play a greater role in economic
diplomacy whilst their interests coincide with those
of a large pool of developing countries.

The proposed BRICS Development Bank is
further expected to strengthen this bloc by creating
an alternative financial supranational institution for
emerging economies, which will not only further
trade and investment but will also help in mitigating
the spillovers of monetary decisions taken by the
developed West.
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UNCERTAINTY IN LIBYA
Monday morning began in Tripoli with what

one doctor described to me as eerie calm. Gunfire
the previous day had sent the people of the Libyan
capital into their shelters. From 3p.m. to 9p.m. on
May 18, the sounds of anti-tank guns and heavy
arms emanated from the area between the airport
and the Parliament building. This was the worst
fighting seen in Tripoli since August 2011, says
the doctor, whose reticence with his name is a sign
of the fear that pervades the population. The
fighting has intensified with Grad rockets being
fired into residential areas.
Political turmoil
Libya has been in turmoil over the past year.

Since March, the country has had three Prime
Ministers. Parliaments term expired on February
7, but political uncertainty has stymied elections.
This weekends attack began in the eastern city,
Benghazi. General Khalifa Hifter, who had been in
hiding since his failed coup attempt of February
2014, led what he called Operation Dignity. His
troops assaulted three neighbourhoods, going after
the various Islamists militias. Colonel Mohammed
Hijazi, Gen. Hifters deputy, went on television to
warn residents in the area to evacuate their
neighbourhoods to preserve their lives and for their
safety. The targets of the assault included Ansar
al-Sharia, the group blamed for the 2012 attack on
the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. Gen. Hifter described
his assault at the cradle of the revolution as a
response to the demands of the Libyan people for
their armed forces to step up and protect them.
Benghazis military commander, Special Forces
Chief Col. Wanis Abu Khamada, one military
officer told me, fully supports what he called the
Benghazi purge, as did Major General Suleiman
Mahmoud and, most significantly, air defence
commander Juma al-Abani. Mr. Zeidan backed
Hifter from exile, while Culture Minister Habib
Amin did so from Tripoli. Ansar al-Sharia had
executed nine of Col. Abu Khamadas men in early

May during a morning raid at the Saiqa Special
Forces post. Gen. Hifters attack was designed to
jolt the Islamist militias from their lairs and raise
the morale of the military.
As Gen. Hifters troops attacked Benghazis
Islamists, the Qaaqaa and Sawaiq brigades overran
the General National Congress (GNC) in Tripoli
after fierce fighting. These two brigades owe their
loyalty to the town of Zintan, and had been sent
to Tripoli to protect Mr. Ali Zeidan. They did not
succeed on that mission, but they did, however,
establish themselves in the city. These brigades
arrested a number of parliamentarians, accusing
them of being allied to the Islamists whom they
despise. On the surface, the anti-Islamist attack in
Benghazi seemed in harmony with the anti-Islamist
attack in Tripoli. Late into the evening on Sunday,
Col. Mukhtar Fernana, a former head of military
intelligence, came on television to announce the
dissolution of the GNC as well as the creation of a
proper military chain of command and security
apparatus. He spoke in the name of the Libyan
National Army, as did Gen. Hifter. The Zintan
brigades said that they had nothing to do with
Gen. Hifter, and it seems that neither did
Col. Fernana. In keeping with the kind of political
chaos one has seen in Libya, what appeared to be
a straightforward coup was nothing of the sort.
The U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Deborah Jones,
was out of the country when this bout of the
fighting began. Ambassador Jones wrote on Twitter
that compromise is required but no room for
terrorism. Such a standard suits Gen. Hifter, as it
does the Egyptian presidential aspirant, former Gen.
Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi. Last week, al-Sisi told Reuters
that Libya poses a security threat to Egypt. The
fight against terrorism, he said, would need to
include Libya. Gen. Hifters Operation Dignity
campaign, a retired Egyptian military officer told
me, is exactly what al-Sisi had in mind. These are
[39]

dangerous sentiments. Algerias Ambassador to
Libya, Abdelhamid Bouzaher, told a Libyan
politician that his country would not sit by idly if
there would be an Egyptian intervention into the
country. Threats against the Algerian Ambassador
seemed serious enough for that countrys Special
Forces to enter Libya on May 15 and evacuate
Bouzaher and his staff. Fifty thousand Algerian
troops are now on the border with Libya. In the
name of counter-terrorism, North Africa enters its
tensest period in years.
Instability in Libya cannot be explained away

by clichs of tribalism or fanaticism. Politics is at
work here: part of it is the new Arab Cold War
the high-stakes fight between Saudi Arabia and
Qatar that led to the June 30 coup in Egypt and
perhaps this coup in Libya; and the other part is
the oil demands of Europe, whose energy fears
increase as Russian gas will not so easily travel
through Ukraine. It is reasonable to wonder about
the tentacles of Europe and Saudi Arabia, as well
as the United States, in this conflict. Whoever is
the author of these events, their consequences are
dangerous for the region. Egypts intervention (on
behalf of Saudi Arabia) would draw in Algeria,
inflaming the region. Tunisia, another of Libyas
neighbours, has just put in place a constitution
written by its citizenry over a two-year period. Its
political dynamic would be distracted by more
warfare. Five thousand Tunisian troops are now at
the Libyan border. They hope that whatever
happens in Libya does not cross the frontier.
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Gen. Hifter came to Benghazi during the 2011

uprising with a tainted history he had been a
senior military leader in Muammar Gaddhafis
Chad war who had broken with Gaddhafi to
become an opposition leader based in Vienna,
Virginia. U.S. officials had hoped that Hifter would
return to Libya in 2011 and take command of the
military aspect of the revolution. He was unable to
control the town-based militias, who, after the fall
of Gaddhafi, became the centripetal instruments of
Libyan confusion. Sidelining Parliament, the militias
used their weapons to shut down oil wells and
ports to blackmail a government overwhelmingly
reliant upon oil money. Hifter echoed the Egyptian
military script, announcing that he would govern
through the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces
of Libya, the name lifted from the Supreme Council
of the Armed Forces of Egypt.
Regional politics, energy fears
Over the past three years, international and

regional pressures have increased on Libya. The
Libyan people have had no room to create their
own polity. The generals who conducted their
coup this weekend said that the GNC had lost
its legitimacy because they are terrorists. This
war against terrorists in North Africa has a more
concrete manifestation. The terrorist is not only a
member of al-Qaeda or its associated groups, but
also in this time a member of any group with
fealty to the emirate of Qatar.
Libyas High National Election Commission

announced that the new parliamentary elections
will be held on June 25. It happens to be the
birthday of Saif al-Islam Gaddhafi, the son of
Gaddhafi, who has spent the past two years in a
Zintan prison cell. Libya has been unwilling to
honour the International Criminal Court warrant
on Gaddhafi. This warrant was part of the
justification for the 2011 NATO intervention. Three
years on, hope seems as rare a commodity in Libya
as electricity and water. Libyans wait for their
deliverance. People are uncertain, says the doctor
in Tripoli. There are now no celebrations as in
August 2011.
Source: The Hindu
ECUADOR TO GO AHEAD WITH OIL DRILLING IN RAINFOREST

Drilling for oil in a part of the Amazon
rainforest considered one of the most biodiverse
hotspots on the planet is to go ahead less than a
year after Ecuadors president lifted a moratorium
on oil drilling there.
Last August, Rafeal Correa scrapped a
pioneering scheme, the Yasuni IshpingoTambococha-Tiputini (ITT) initiative, to keep oil in
the ground under a corner of the Yasuni national
park in return for donations from the international
[40]
community.
He said only $13m of the $3.6bn goal had been

given, and that the world has failed us, giving
the green light to drilling.
Recently, Environment Minister, Lorena Tapia,
said permits for drilling had been signed for the
6,500-square-mile reserve, known as block 43, and
oil production might begin as soon as 2016.
The permits allow Petroamazonas, a subsidary

of the state oil company, to begin construction of
access roads and camps to prepare for drilling.
Esperanza Martinez, an environmental activist
in Ecuador, was quoted in a leading national daily
as saying Petroamazonas had a bad record on-oil
spills and it could not be trusted to drill safely in
the Yasuni-ITT.
Oil drilling has been taking place in the wider

Yasuni national park for decades, dating back to
Shell in the 1940s. In 2012, access roads had already
been built in blocks neighbouring IshpingoTambococha-Tiputini.
In February, the Guardian revealed that
documents showed the Ecuadorean government
had been negotiating a $1bn deal with a Chinese
bank to drill for oil in the area, at the same time as
seeking donations for the Yasuni-ITT initiative. The
Ecuadorean ambassador to the U.K., Juan Falconi
Puig, rejected the claim as baseless and claimed
the document was fraudulent.
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Earlier this month, Ecuadors government

rejected a petition calling for abandoning plans for
drilling in the area, saying the organisers had failed
to get enough signatures to trigger a national
referendum.
drilling will go ahead, is home to two uncontacted

tribes. It is a UNESCO site, and one hectare of the
area is home to a richer mix of trees, birds,
amphibians, and reptiles than the US and Canada
put together.
The petitions backers, Y.A. Sunidos, accused

the government of fraud after only 359,762
signatures of around 850,000 submitted were
deemed genuine the threshold for forcing a
referendum is 583,323.
Tribal area
Source: The Hindu
The ITT block of the Yasuni park, where the
A NEEDLESS ROW
The political rhetoric usually tapers with the

conclusion of an election process. But in Andhra
Pradesh, in the end-phase of bifurcation, parties
still have a lot to fight for. Telangana Rashtra Samiti
President K Chandrasekhara Rao seems intent on
a confrontational course not only on the sharing of
resources but also on issues relating to allotment
of employees to the Secretariats of the two States
in Hyderabad. Mr. Rao went too far by threatening
that he would not allow employees of the Andhra
region placed in the Telangana cadre to work in
the offices of Telangana. Quite inappropriately for
one who is to assume office as Chief Minister
of the new State, Mr. Rao asked a meeting of
employees from Telangana to send details of
Andhra employees included in the Telangana
list, or name them at the war room run by
employee unions. Genuine errors could have been
made in the drawing up of the provisional list of
employees for the two States as per entries in their
Service Register, but these can be corrected quickly
enough through laid-down procedures. Mr. Rao is
vesting employee unions with extraordinary
powers, and giving scope for harassment and
persecution of employees through his open call to
name Andhra employees. As against claims by
unions that 193 employees were wrongly allocated
to the Telangana cadre, officials could identify no
more than a dozen cases of allotment mistakes. To
raise doubts over the correctness of the entries in

the Service Register is to move the dispute to another
level altogether.
Issues arising out of the bifurcation are complex,
and can be resolved only through established
procedures for apportioning assets and liabilities,
employees and institutions. Official committees
assigned with the responsibilities of facilitating the
post-bifurcation redistribution have completed
their task. The governments of the two successorstates must do nothing that could complicate this
process of sharing and redistribution. River water
and power generation are subjects that will occupy
the time and effort of Mr. Rao and the Andhra
Pradesh Chief Minister-designate, N. Chandrababu
Naidu, in the immediate future. But the Andhra
Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014 provides for the
management and development of water resources,
and for allotment of power from the Central
Generating Stations based on the actual energy
consumption of the last five years. Mechanisms for
dispute resolution are already in place, and nothing
is to be gained from emotional outbursts that appeal
to parochial sensibilities. Telangana and the
successor-state of Andhra Pradesh must look
forward to working in coordination, and not start
off in confrontationist mode.
Source: The Hindu
[41]
INVIGORATE THE EUROPEAN PROJECT

26 per cent of the vote share. The other topper is
the stridently anti-immigrant and EU-sceptic UK
Independence Party that trounced the ruling
Conservative Party and the opposition Labour
Party. The extreme left party in Greece has emerged
as the other major anti-establishment platform in
these polls; not to mention small inroads made by
Germanys new party that is sceptical of the
Eurozone rather than the EU itself. It remains to
be seen whether the anti-EU parties have the
requisite numbers to function as a cohesive political
group within Parliament at least 25 seats from
seven different states. Of interest also would be
whether these parties can rise above their own
internal contradictions rooted in nationalism and
other such narrow and sectarian considerations.
Previous attempts in the not-so-distant past came
a cropper. Parties of the mainstream know the value
of pursuing policies that generate employment and
induce growth. They are equally aware of the
negative political fallout of deviation from this path.
Herein also lies the answer to removing the
democratic deficit of EU institutions. A key aspect
of the latter is the declining voter-participation in
successive elections to the EU Parliament. The
prospects for regional integration globally would
be strengthened immeasurably by an invigorated
bloc of 28 states in Europe.
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The unprecedented gains registered by smaller

parties in the eighth direct polls to the European
Parliament present yet again a real challenge to
the victor the centre-right European Peoples
Party. Deep scepticism concerning the purpose and
objectives of the transnational entity that is the
European Union (EU) comprising 28 countries
binds these EU-sceptic parties. With the latest
results, the European project is in need of a fresh
infusion of life into the post-War vision of an
economically integrated, politically unified and
peaceful continent. Such a vision has repeatedly
come under strain within individual states most
recently after the global financial and economic
crisis and the banking and credit crunch within
the Eurozone took their toll. But EU-sceptic parties
have been stoking popular fears over the influx of
migrants ever since the 2004 expansion of the EU
into the eight countries of the former Eastern
Europe. The outright rejection in France and the
Netherlands, two founding EU member-states, of
the European Constitution in the 2005 popular
referendum marked the climactic conversion of EUphobia and anti-immigrant sentiment into a potent
political currency by the parties of the far-right.
It is in France, also the blocs second largest
economy, that the Front National has beaten both
the mainstream parties in this election, capturing
Source: The Hindu
A FORMIDABLE TASK
By appointing a Special Investigation Team to

unearth black money stashed away in tax havens
abroad, the Narendra Modi government has
signalled its intention to pursue in right earnest a
matter that the Bharatiya Janata Party has been
talking about for years. The United Progressive
Alliance regime had been dragging its feet on
implementing a July 2011 Supreme Court order
to form such a team, and even made a vain bid to
stall a court-monitored investigation on the plea
that it would erode the authority of the executive.
Its stand had given the impression that the previous
government despite its active partnership with
other countries in global efforts to get evasionfriendly jurisdictions to shed their obsession with
banking secrecy was not serious about retrieving
ill-gotten wealth deposited abroad. The SIT is a
high-level committee named by the Supreme Court
and is headed by Justice M.B. Shah, a former judge
of the Court, with another former apex court judge,
[42]
Arijit Pasayat, as vice-chairman. It is an interagency group that includes the Secretary,

Department of Revenue; the Deputy Governor of
the Reserve Bank of India, and the heads of the
Intelligence Bureau, the Research and Analysis
Wing, the Enforcement Directorate, the CBI, the
Central Board of Direct Taxes and a few other
agencies. Its primary responsibilities include the
investigation and prosecution of cases involving
unaccounted money.
However, the task is not easy. Mr. Justice Shah
himself has spoken about the complexities involved.
For one thing, there is no clear estimate of the
quantum parked in overseas bank accounts, and
it is not known whether all the money that is said
to have gone out of the country had not returned
in some form through round-tripping or
participatory notes, or investments in the name of
entities and individuals hiding under layers of

such information to deciding taxation issues alone.
A set of global standards evolved by the OECD on
Automatic Exchange of Information in Tax
Matters is likely to come into force around 2017,
and it may be possible for countries like India to
obtain information related to bank account
balances, interest and dividends so that they could
compute capital gains on these sums. Whether the
arrangement will result in repatriation of such
money is, however, anybodys guess.
Source: The Hindu
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corporate cover. The governments 2012 white

paper on black money put the amount that Swiss
banks owed to India in 2010 at 1.95 billion Swiss
Francs, or 0.13 per cent of its total liabilities
towards all countries, suggesting that estimates in
the range of tens of thousands of crores of rupees
may be exaggerated. The SIT must be prepared for
the long haul, as its investigation will have to take
into account the provisions of existing double
taxation avoidance or taxation information
exchange agreements that come with a heavy
responsibility on recipient-states to limit the use of
WHOS AFRAID OF PAKISTANS MILITARY?
The general impression people outside Pakistan

have of its military is that it is the most powerful
institution there which determines every move by
civilian representatives, particularly those who have
supposedly been given the permission to be elected
to higher office and govern the country. This
perception may be more pronounced in India,
where Mr. Nawaz Sharifs recent visit for the
swearing-in of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was
seen as a very bold move, perhaps going against
the militarys wishes, yet showing the mettle of the
twice-dismissed elected Prime Minister of Pakistan.
Little do people outside Pakistan know that in the
last month, the social media in Pakistan which
is far from being a mere plaything in the hands of
radicals and anti-military types has been scoffing
at Pakistans military for the situation it finds itself
in today. From being an institution which governed
and managed the entire country (for a decade, its
two wings, the east and the west), it has now been
reduced to one involved in issues as varied as
imposing a ban on a television channel to
preventing newspapers from a media house being
distributed in cantonment areas. As a wellrespected newspaper editor tweeted recently, good
to know the gens now have cable management as
part of their job description. One would have
thought DHAs [Defence Housing Authorities] &
bakeries were enuff. Another popular participant
added, used to be time when Pakistan army used
to overthrow governments. Now they are
overthrowing news channels.
Changing political equation
However, lest one is misled, this active and

aggressive campaign against Geo by the military
and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has some
public support. Moreover, the first and immediate
response to Mr. Sharifs New Delhi visit was from
a large number of Pakistani pro-military television

anchors and so-called security experts appearing
on talk shows, who gave the talks between the
two leaders, and the subsequent statements a twist
which only military minds could have constructed.
They have already termed the visit to be a failure
and have cast Mr. Sharif as a wimp.
Some things have changed. Until around
sometime in 2007, the question of what was the
strongest institution in Pakistan was always met
with the reply the military; it was unambiguous
and did not call for any elaboration. For six decades
after Independence, Pakistans military, specifically
its Army, has reigned supreme over the political
economy of Pakistan. However, since 2007, there
has been not just far greater ambiguity regarding
the question; for once, there are a number of possible
answers as well. While the military is still powerful,
it has now been forced to share the stage with at
least two, possibly three, institutions which can
make some valid and genuine claims to being
powerful; perhaps not dominant, but at least vying
for power, with varying degree, among a handful
of contenders.
The militarys hegemony has been questioned
and at times even challenged since 2007 by
institutions which have not been able to do so until
now. The Judiciary, Parliament and to some degree,
until recently, the media, have tried to assert their
independence and sovereignty in the public and
political domain, in effect pushing the military
aside. The Supreme Judiciary, and the (now retired)
Chief Justice of Pakistan, since 2008, have passed
numerous judgments which have found the military
as an institution as well as serving and retired
senior officers guilty of treasonable offences.
Many decisions and judgments are still pending
and under review. Some of those which have
already been made have not resulted in the officers
[43]

concerned being imprisoned. But the fact that the
Judiciary which until recently has been a partner
of the military in its anti-democratic political stance
and decisions is now in a position to be able to
challenge the military and assert its own democratic
and independent stance, is in itself significant in a
country which has not seen such belligerent action.
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Parliament has also flexed its independent

muscle after 2008, though, sadly, not enough to be
able to demonstrate its right to govern while
challenging the dominance of the military. The
media, which has for the most part been a
participant in this transition has been a tool for
democratic forces to push out the military for its
past anti-democratic behaviour and positions on
many an occasion. The undisputed dominance of
the military in the Pakistani political settlement has
been successfully challenged; from being a
hegemon, the military may at the moment be just
a veto player, a huge transformation in Pakistans
political economy. There is no clear dominant
institution at this moment. For a country which
has known military dominance for over six decades,
these are extraordinary developments. The military
is not what it once was in the eyes of the public
nor in the equation which explains Pakistans
political economy.
India. This instance of interference by the military

in sabotaging Pakistans trade policy is a sign that
while the military is down and out, civilian
supremacy and dominance over the military is still
incomplete. What right does the military have to
decide which country Pakistan should trade with?
Under civilian control, Pakistans military needs to
deal only with issues which affect security and
Pakistans borders, and not about what consumers
can buy and sell, or which country they can buy
from and sell to. While civilian control over many
institutions has been gradual, it continues to
confront the militarys lingering supremacy in some
areas.
Civil-military tensions
There have been enough signs that the militarys

hegemony has been broken, one being the largely
symbolic indictment of General Pervez Musharraf
himself. Yet, one needs to be reminded that such
transitions, where civilian institutions begin to
dominate and when the military recedes, can take
years. In countries where the military has ruled for
as long as two or three decades at a stretch,
research has shown that it can be between eight to
ten years before the military begins to reluctantly
accept civilian supremacy and when it loses its
supreme power. In the case of Indonesia, for
example, it took almost a decade before the military
lost even its power to veto key civilian decisions.
We have not even completed six years of civilian
transition, and war on our borders and within
Pakistan gives greater legitimacy to military
interference than in normal countries.
Last month, Pakistani newspapers reported that
General Headquarters had convened a meeting
of the main economic ministers, including those
handling finance, commerce, water and power,
where they had to satisfy the military leadership
over whether Pakistan should increase trade with
[44]
In the last two months, Pakistan has been

engulfed by a major crisis between Pakistans largest
media house, and the ISI and the military. The
former has levelled allegations while the military
and its clandestine institutions have hit back. As
Hasan Zaidi, a Pakistani journalist wrote in The
New York Times, cable operators were informally
pressured to take Geo off the air. Demonstrations,
often by militant religious parties, suddenly began
springing up all over Pakistan in support of the
I.S.I. and against Geo probably the first time
anyone in the world has rallied to defend an
intelligence agency.
This tension between one prominent pillar of
civil society and Pakistans military has also rubbed
off on relations between the military and the
government for the government has been perceived
to be taking sides against Pakistans valiant military
in this latest stand-off, probably a correct
assessment. The fact that a sitting elected
government of Pakistan can be seen to take sides
against the military is courageous enough and
signifies a sense (perhaps a false one) of its
presumed relative power over an institution which
has dominated Pakistan unambiguously for so long.
The military in Pakistan is also responsible for
its fall from grace, after having had to explain the
presence of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan,
Americas night raid to kill him and numerous
insider attempts to attack Pakistans military
personnel. Also, Gen. Musharraf, by the time he
was forced out in 2008, must share much of the
blame for dragging the military through the mud.
There is also a sense that the narrative in Pakistan
may have shifted towards democracy, away from
military rule at least for the moment.
Though Pakistans democratic dispensation is
weak, it is still evolving and probably gaining
strength. It needs to overcome the barriers put up

by Pakistans armed forces who are waiting for
civilians to trip over. It has avoided this for the
moment, but the path is scattered with numerous
challenges, especially by those related to civilian
performance. Despite Pakistan militarys denuded
power, it still remains an influence in public policy
and has the ability to conduct another coup. While
military-led governments in Pakistan have,
ironically, benefitted India-Pakistan relations, they
have been disastrous for Pakistan.
Source: The Hindu
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Unlike India, where a military does not
intervene in the workings of an elected government,

in Pakistan it is a tradition that continues to persist.
Pakistans political dispensation is in a process of
transition, yet transitions are never automatic nor
natural processes and require actors to show their
agency as well. While the civil and democratic
dispensation needs to speed up this transition and
turn the corner once and for all, it will have to be
far more assertive, efficient in delivering services
and justice, and be a little less afraid.
NOT A RIGHT TO BE SHIELDED
The intent behind the European Union Court

of Justice verdict, to allow people to remove
awkward, embarrassing and inconvenient personal
information from search-engines, may not quite be
to create sanitised online societies. But the May 13,
2014, ruling could more or less push citizens in the
bloc of 28 states of the European Union, and
possibly other countries around the world in the
future, in that rather odd direction where, in the
guise of protecting personal data, people end up
hiding aspects of their own history. The court held
that individuals have a right to influence what
information others may gather about them on the
Internet. Individuals have to show that the
information sought to be removed is no longer
relevant for the purpose for which it was originally
processed. Against such a broad criterion, imagine
a flood of petitions to have data deleted from search
results, and on all sorts of grounds. Allowing people
to exercise control over data that get into the public
domain may sometimes work against transparency.
This aspect cannot be wished away lightly,
considering the number of repeat offenders that so
often slip through the net, causing grievous harm
to the public. Attempts to rewrite societies collective
history have been viewed with some suspicion in
recent years. Concealing ones personal history also
may not always be all that innocent. It is in any
case not the most effective means to ensure that
ones past is not held against him. Coming clean

stands a better chance of winning the trust and
confidence of others.
The ruling of the Luxembourg court puts a
question mark on the premium currently attached
to the principle of free flow of information. Potential
employers and headhunters would want to know
more, rather than less, about the antecedents of
prospective recruits before they finalise contracts.
This need may be felt more acutely today when
hiring from abroad has become a common practice.
Firms would also prefer not to have to invest much
effort or time to access such information. To be
sure, personal data that are dropped from Google
links would still be available archivally and in
records held by governments. The bonafides of
persons can always be verified directly via
individual sites, or through overseas contacts.
Hence, the inference that the fallout from the
verdict would work to the detriment of the public
interest may not be entirely justified. The ruling
comes against the backdrop of reform of the 1995
EU personal data protection law that has been
approved overwhelmingly by Parliament, wherein
the right to forget forms an element. The right to
be forgotten ought not to be allowed to be abused
as a right to be shielded.
Source: The Hindu
DONT MESS WITH THE BANKING SECTOR
As the new Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley, will

need to quickly focus on the banking sector. Today,
Public Sector Banks (PSBs), which account for over
70 per cent of assets in the banking system, are
bogged down by a rise in non-performing assets.
This has eroded their profitability and limited their
ability to raise the regulatory capital needed to make
loans.
A Reserve Bank of India (RBI) committee on

bank governance, headed by P.J. Nayak, has a ready
solution: free PSBs from government control and
eventually privatize them. It is a solution that is
fraught with both political and economic risk.
Mr. Jaitley must steer clear of such quick fixes.
[45]

The Nayak committees case for privatization
rests on the presumed superior efficiency of private
sector banks. It thinks that if only the government
gave up its controlling function and became a
passive investor instead, it would stand to make
enormous returns on its shareholding.
Problems with the proposition
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There are serious problems with this

proposition. One, it is based on a comparison of
performance of PSBs and private sector banks at a
time when PSBs are weighed down by the problems
of the economy at large. It would be more
appropriate to compare performance over a longer
period. A wide range of academic studies points to
a trend towards convergence in performance of
PSBs and private banks since banking sector reforms
were set in motion in 1993-94.
itself from bank boards. The committee wants

government shareholding to be transferred to a
Bank Investment Company (BIC). The Bank
Nationalisation Act and other related Acts must be
repealed and PSBs brought under the scope of The
Companies Act. The BIC would appoint members
of boards of PSBs as well as their CEOs and
executive directors. It would let its stakes in PSBs
fall below 50 per cent so that banks are freed from
limits on remuneration, the Right to Information
Act and the jurisdiction of The Central Vigilance
Commissioner.
Two, such comparisons are flawed by what is

called survivor bias in the private sector group.
Several new private sector banks licensed after 1994
have ceased to exist. Precisely for this reason, they
would not be found in the private bank group used
for comparison. This lends an upward bias to the
performance indicators of private banks.
Three, the comparisons ignore the scope of
activities of PSBs and private banks. PSBs have an
important development role. They took upon
themselves the task of funding private investment
in infrastructure which was an important driver of
growth in the boom period of 200408. Private
banks can be more choosy about what they wish
to fund. Many are focused on the retail segment,
working capital and wealth management. Foreign
banks make enormous profit out of their capital
markets division alone. If PSBs were to adopt such
a narrow focus, sectors that are crucial to the
economy would be starved of credit.
From a flawed starting point, the committee
moves on to a diagnosis and a prescription that
are even more flawed. The committee thinks the
PSBs are doing badly because their boards are
dysfunctional. The government packs the boards
with its own people. The boards go through the
motions of approving proposals put up by the
management. Little thought is given to issues of
strategy and risk management. In contrast, private
banks have high-quality professionals on their
boards that provide sage counsel. This, the
committee contends, is what explains superior
private sector performance.
The solution? The government should distance

[46]
Freed from these vexations, the PSBs can singlemindedly focus on profit maximisation. Eventually,
the BIC would transfer its ownership powers to
the bank boards. The governments stake in the
BIC itself would fall below 50 per cent, thereby
privatizing these banks. We would enter a brave
new world of Indian banking liberated from the
stranglehold of government ownership.
The committees faith in the functioning of
private bank boards is truly touching. If boards in
the private sector are such paragons of virtue, the
committee must tell us why some of the biggest
banks in the U.S. and the U.K., whose boards were
packed with glittering names from the corporate
world, collapsed in the financial crisis of 2007.
To cite only one example, the U.K. regulator,
the Financial Services Authority (FSA), looked into
the collapse of the Royal Bank of Scotland, the
biggest banking failure in the countrys history. Its
report noted that there was an almost complete
lack of questioning and challenge on the part of
the board in the critical years when the bank
hurtled towards ruin. There was nothing wrong
with the composition of the board.
Boards in general are dysfunctional, whether
in the private sector or the public sector. The
remedies must, therefore, be generic in nature. The
Companies Act, 2013 and Clause 49 of Securities
and Exchange Board of Indias listing agreement
now contain clauses that are intended to improve
the functioning of boards, in particular, that of
independent directors.
In banking, the regulator needs to go further.
Fit and proper criteria for board members must
be strengthened and the RBI might adopt the FSAs
practice of interviewing candidates proposed for a
directorship on a bank board. For banks above a
certain size, there could be a requirement that
positions be advertised and nominations sought
from eminent persons so that a wide pool of talent

is tapped. The RBI may stipulate that bank boards
contain expertise in areas such as risk management
and marketing of financial services. Board
effectiveness could be measured using outside
experts.
These measures would help strengthen boards.
We must recognise, however, that there is only so
much that boards can contribute. It is the quality
of management that is crucial to performance. In
PSBs, this must be the governments responsibility.
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The government does not have to discharge this

responsibility through diktat from the finance
ministry. It can operate through its nominees on
the board. The government nominees and the RBI
nominee on PSB boards must ensure that there is
proper succession planning and that managers are
groomed for various levels of leadership.
That apart, we need to be clear about the basic

rationale for government ownership in banking in
India. There is more to it than the larger social
purpose of banking. Our experience has been that
government ownership has been a factor
underpinning stability in banking. The world over,
economies have faced banking crisis over the past
several decades. Banks failed, they were
nationalised or bailed out, then turned over to the
private sector. This is the phenomenon of
socialisation of losses and privatization of profits
that has come to attract public outrage.
Opposing privatization
It is unlikely that the Nayak committees

proposals will go through in the near future.
Political parties and trade unions will oppose any
move towards privatization. This will make the
repeal of various Acts difficult, given the present
composition of the Rajya Sabha. Selling government
stakes in PSBs without turning them around is
bound to invite accusations of a scam. No
government can risk distancing itself from control
of PSBs and handing over these to a group of
professional managers at a time when banks are
severely stressed.
Indias experience has been refreshingly

different. The Indian approach has been to have
the public sector dominate banking while exposing
it to competition. In the process, efficiency has
improved without jeopardising stability. Experience
has shown that it is possible to retain the public
sector as the sheet anchor of the banking system
without compromising on efficiency.
Addressing the issues of governance at PSBs
requires focus on the part of the finance ministry.
Mr. Jaitley doesnt have to look very far for
inspiration. One of Narendra Modis less heralded
achievements as Chief Minister of Gujarat was his
success in turning around state PSUs by
professionalising their boards and giving
management a free hand.
Source: The Hindu
THE ROAD AHEAD FOR THE ELECTION COMMISSION
The Election Commissions submission of the

list of elected MPs to the President on May 18
brought down the curtain on the general election
to the 16th Lok Sabha. A vigorous campaign that
began well with sparkling wit, barbs and repartee
however deteriorated over time. From the
announcement of elections till the last date of polls,
the EC seized, among other miscellaneous items,
Rs. 313 crore in cash, a staggering amount of liquor
valued at Rs. 1000 crore, 1.85 lakh kg of narcotics
and more alarmingly, 145 kg of heroin. Andhra
Pradesh emerged the undisputed leader in the
amount of cash seized; Karnataka and Tamil Nadu
topped the ranks in the cash-for-votes department.
Sadly, if newspaper reports and party protestations
are to be believed, booth capturing seems to have
returned to the electoral arena after almost a
decade. Further, the number of mistakes in electoral
rolls and in the names of prominent citizens missing
from them went up in these elections in many
places such as Pune and Mumbai.
Campaign to attract voters
The unprecedented spike in voter turnout was

a welcome surprise, making the EC justifiably proud
of its systematic campaign to enthuse electors to
exercise their franchise. But the announcement by
the election machinery of rewards for voting
made one wonder whether the EC was also veering
toward the view that the average Indian voter has
to be lured to vote. While providing basic facilities
in polling stations is unexceptionable, model polling
stations at Rs. 60,000 a unit seemed a mockery of
financial prudence. Was the EC bitten by the
publicity bug to miss the plot somewhere in its
high-profile Systematic Voters Education and
Electoral Participation campaign?
From all accounts, it seems that there was no
intensive revision of electoral rolls this time. If only
[47]

also necessary that reputed NGOs are involved with
government staff and are provided adequate
monetary compensation.
Database of deleted names

The Chief Election Commissioner had said in a
televised interview that there was no substitute to
diligent and sustained hard work and
perseverance. That has to be enforced at the
ground level. A separate database of deleted names
should be created for each polling station which
should be preserved for five years, and names
should be checked for repetition elsewhere.
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a summary revision was done, the chances of the

names of long-time voters getting deleted would
have been low. Election Commissioner, H.S.
Brahma, while graciously apologising for the faux
pas, attributed the problem to lapses in supervision.
The Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) on his part
promised an inquiry into the alleged large-scale
disappearance of names in the Pune and Mumbai
electoral rolls. It would be in the interests of the EC
to have the summary revision done quickly and
share the information with the public so that
suspicions of intentional wrong-doing can be
removed. But in finding a solution, we cannot
overlook the fact that fast-paced urbanisation
necessitates a paradigm shift in the maintainenance
of urban electoral rolls.
The Booth Level Officer (BLO) has been a useful
intervention but in urban areas he can no longer
cope with his task. A study prior to the 2008 election
to the Karnataka Assembly revealed that in
Bangalore, there was close to 10 per cent change
every year in the electoral rolls due to inter-city
and intra-city migration. If changes are not tracked
regularly in the space of a couple of years, the
dissonance will become pronounced. In urban
centres, the BLOs, unlike their rural counterparts,
may not be living in the same area and may not be
intimately familiar with their respective charges.
It is time that a permanent set up is created in

every ward in all metropolitan cities and in all
municipal towns with more than 5 lakh people
taking care of the changes in electoral rolls through
the year. In the run up to the 2008 general elections
to the Delhi Assembly, former Chief Minister Sheila
Dikshit approved the setting up of 70 Voter
Registration Electoral Photo Identity Card centres,
one for each assembly constituency, covering two
municipal wards. Such a facility could be part of
a multiple service centre providing a number of
services to citizens such as providing birth and death
certificates, receiving tax payments, redressing
grievances on deficient municipal services and so
on. Further, it would be more cost-effective if the
same rolls are used for municipal elections. It is
In an effort to curb the use of money power in

this election, the EC initiated a sl

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Hence, Shariff advised the government to

ODISHA, BIHAR SPELL OUT EXCLUSION CRITERIA UNDER FOOD

In fact, the Odisha Government has set up a

1. Owners of motor vehicles, two-wheelers, threewheelers and registered fishing boats,

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GOVERNMENT RELAXES NORMS FOR MEGA POWER PROJECTS

The Mega Power Policy was introduced in

To benefit from this policy, the developer will

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SHAH PANELS REPORT ON ILLEGAL IRON ORE MINING REFERRED

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The scale of evasion is particularly high in south

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The miners used the lower charges to earn about

NANAVATI PANEL GETS EXTENSION

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Sources in the government said that the

The panel had been constituted by the state

INDIA TO HAVE 185 MN MOBILE INTERNET USERS BY JUNE 2014

both urban and rural India over half the Internet

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The report also found that the average revenue