Professional Documents
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Civil Services Mentor August 2013
Civil Services Mentor August 2013
Civil Services Mentor August 2013
PAGE NO.
4
Naxalism in India
AUGUST, 2013
AUGUST,
2012
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Sachchida Nand Jha
Editor:
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Corruption in Sports: Money at Any Cost
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The Old and the New in Naya Pakistan
Naxalism in India
Naxalism in India
The attack in southern
Chhattisgarh this past May 25 has
again raised questions and some
bogeys about Indias internal
conflicts and the place Maoist rebels
occupy in this universe. Whats the
situation? And what is likely to
happen? The short answer is that
over the past three to four years,
Left-wing rebels led primarily by
Communist Party of India (Maoist)
have been severely depleted by the
surrender, arrest or death of leaders
and cadres. Pressured by the
onslaught, often knee-jerk, of both
central and various state
governments, the Maoists effective
area of combat has shrunk to
southern Chhattisgarh and adjacent
areas of western Maharashtra and
southwest Odisha (known as
Danda-karanya), Bihar, a few
pockets in Jhark-h-and, a sliver of
Andhra Pradesh. While it is an
emphatic weakening, the area is still
vast, and cadre numbers and
abilities enough to inflict severe
damage in areas of strength. The
Dandakaranya zone, where the
attack on May 25 took place, is both
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Naxalism in India
team arrived to arrest the peasant
leaders, it was ambushed by a group
of tribals led by Jangal Santhal, and
a police inspector was killed in a hail
of arrows. This event encouraged
many Santhal tribals and other poor
people to join the movement and to
start attacking local landlords. These
conflicts go back to the failure of
implementing the 5th & 9th
Schedules of the Constitution of
India. See Outlook India comment
by E.N. Rammohan Unleash the
Good Force - edition July 16, 2012.
In theory these Schedules provide
for a limited form of tribal autonomy
with regard to exploiting natural
resources on their lands, e.g.
pharmaceutical & mining), and land
ceiling laws, limiting the land to be
possessed by landlords and
distribution of excess land to
landless farmers & labourers. The
caste system is another important
social aspect of these conflicts.
Mao Zedong provided
ideological leadership for the
Naxalbari movement, advocating
that Indian peasants and lower class
tribals overthrow the government
and upper classes by force. A large
number of urban elites were also
attracted to the ideology, which
spread through Charu Majumdars
writings, particularly the Historic
Eight Documents which formed the
basis of Naxalite ideology. In 1967,
Naxalites organized the All India
Coordination Committee of
Communist
Revolutionaries
(AICCCR), and later broke away
from CPM. Violent uprisings were
organized in several parts of the
country. In 1969, the AICCCR gave
birth to the Communist Party of India
(Marxist-Leninist) (CPI(ML)).
Practically all Naxalite groups trace
their origin to the CPI(ML). A
separate offshoot from the
beginning was the Maoist
Communist Centre, which evolved
out of the Dakshin Desh group. The
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Naxalism in India
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Naxalism in India
indigenous people have the lowest
literacy rates in the country and
highest rates of infant mortality.
Given this socio-economic
alienation, it is easy to see how the
Naxalites ideology is popular
among the rural poor and
indigenous tribes, and why the
adivasis view the guerrillas as their
saviours. The adivasis do not feel
like they have any political power
to voice their grievances
legitimately, and therefore the
alternative of subversive, illegal
groups seem attractive.
Some argue that Naxalites are
not concerned about the social or
economic welfare of these people
and are simply using them as a
means to its end goal of seizing
political power. The spread of
Naxalism reflects the widespread
alienation and discontentment felt
by large parts of the country who
are systematically marginalised. Dr.
Subramanian, a former DirectorGeneral of the National Security
Guard and Central Reserve Police
Force notes that Naxalism exists in
these tribal areas because of the
dissatisfaction of the people against
the government and big businesses,
the terrain is suitable for guerrilla
tactics, and there is no existence of
a proper and effective local
administration mechanism. In
these areas, the conditions are
conducive to warfare and extremist
ideologies. Even if Naxalites are
simply exploiting the adivasis
situation for their own ends, their
popularity indicates the power of
the root causes to create such an
environment for insecurity and
violence.
Given the enormity of such
ongoing government and businessled misdemeanour, it may be of
some surprise that the intensity of
Maoist recruitment has waned. But
tools of protest and redress
increasingly available in Indias
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Naxalism in India
struggle. All the Left-wing militant
organisations, including the Maoist
Communist Centre (MCC) and the
Peoples War Group (PWG), after
their merger are now operating
under the flagship rebel partyCPI
(Maoist). The Central intelligence
reports have also issued a warning
that the Maoists are now in the
process of identifying new
operational areas across the
country. They are keenly looking at
industrial belts, where big corporate
houses are planning to set up the
Special Economic Zones (SEZs), an
easy target to launch violent
agitation. The Central Committee of
the CPI (Maoist) has published a
secret red book Strategy and
Tactics of the Indian Revolution,
which is said to be the Naxals Bible.
The book says: The central task of
the revolution is seizure of political
power through protracted Peoples
war. Talking about supporting subnational movements in India, the
book says: Lakhs of enemys armed
troops have been deployed since
long in J&K and the north-eastern
States. More and more nationalities
may come into armed confrontation
with the reactionary Indian State, so
it will be difficult for the Indian
ruling classes to mobilise all their
armed forces against our
revolutionary war. It further says the
urban areas are one of the main
sources which provide cadre and
leadership having various types of
capabilities essential for Peoples
war.
Another reason why the
Naxalites are the biggest threat to
security is because of the way the
issue affects Indias economic
development. This is apparent in
several ways. For example, the more
the Maoists concentrate on the poor
and marginalised regions of India,
the more economic development
(which is imperative to improving
those regions conditions) will be
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Naxalism in India
this very same clas-si-fi-ca-tion. It is
because of this abysmal poverty in
the east-ern and cen-tral Indian
regions that Maoists have found
fer-tile ground to expand their
influ-ence, and to carve out their
guer-rilla zone in order to wage war
against the Indian state.
In May 2006, the Planning
Commission appointed an expert
committee headed by D.
Bandopadhyay, a retired IAS officer
instrumental in dealing with the
Naxalites in West Bengal in the
1970s. The expert committee has
underscored the social, political,
economic
and
cultural
discrimination faced by the SCs/STs
across the country as a key factor in
drawing large number of
discontented people towards the
Naxalites.
The
committee
established
the
lack
of
empowerment of local communities
as the main reason for the spread of
the Naxal movement. Choosing its
words carefully, the report states
that We have two worlds of
education, two worlds of health,
two worlds of transport and two
worlds of housing... The expert
committee delved deep into the
new conflict zones of India, i.e. the
mines and mineral rich areas, steel
zones, as well as the SEZs. The
report holds the faulty system of
land acquisition and a non-existent
R&R Policy largely responsible for
the support enjoyed by the
Naxalites. On the other hand, the
committee makes a forceful plea for
a policy and legal framework to
enable small and marginal farmers
to lease-in land with secure rights
while landless poor occupying
government land should not be
treated as encroachers. For the first
time in the history of the Naxal
movement, a government appointed
committee has put the blame on the
State for the growth of the
movement. Providing statistics of
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Naxalism in India
pos-si-bil-ity of over-throw-ing any
state solely through guer-rilla
war-fare. Nepal could there-fore be
a good exam-ple for the Indian
Maoists to emu-late. If the Nepali
Maoist party can con-test the
elec-tions, form and run the
gov-ern-ment, then why should this
be impos-si-ble for the Indian
Maoists? Rad-i-cal left lead-ers like
Prac-hand and Babu-ram Bhat-trai in
Nepal, Chavez in Venezuela, and
many
oth-ers
took
the
par-lia-men-tary path and won
elec-tions in their coun-tries. Now
they are suc-cess-fully run-ning the
gov-ern-ments in Nepal, Venezuela
and sev-eral Latin Amer-i-can
coun-tries. Dia-logue is the only
solu-tion to the vio-lence unleashed
by both the Maoists and the state.
Oth-er-wise it will even-tu-ally be
inno-cent civil-ians who con-tinue to
suf-fer the most, guar-an-tee-ing that
the whole nation pays the price for
the insurgency.
Military
Sev-eral strate-gic ana-lysts are
nev-er-the-less of the firm opin-ion
that unless and until the insur-gents
have been deci-sively defeated they
will not come to nego-ti-at-ing table.
They argue that if insur-gents are in
a strong mil-i-tary posi-tion they
have no rea-son to nego-ti-ate
because they are sens-ing vic-tory.
Strate-gic ana-lysts cite the
exam-ples of Pun-jab, Tripura and
Andhra, where insur-gents were
dec-i-mated by lethal force.
How-ever, suc-cess in one state is
no guar-an-tee that it can be
repli-cated mechan-i-cally in other
states.
If this would be the case then
the COBRA (Com-bined Bat-tal-ion
for
Res-olute
Action)
coun-terin-sur-gency force of the
Cen-tral Reserve Police Force
(CRPF), which has been cre-ated to
fight Nax-als using the pat-tern of the
Grey-hound of Andhra, would have
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Naxalism in India
Cure to Naxalism by the
Efforts of Government
The following cure had been
adopted by the government to
mobilise naxalism are as follows:(1) Release of Funds.
(2) Providing every amenity
needed to the state.
(3) Police force to be maintained,
in order to overcome Naxal
attacks.
(4) Modern equipments to be
provided to police.
Cure to Naxalism in General
The cure should be taken by
the people to mobilise naxalism are
as follows:(1) People should believe in
Government.
(2) They should apply their
prudent mind.
MCQ Series
MCQ Series
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Managing of
International Sport Federations
International sport federations
with their often-enormous wealth
and limited external control are of
an especially high risk of corruption.
Corruption here can take different
form from simple misuse or
embezzlement of federation funds
though corruption related to media
rights up to corruption of federation
members. To make picture more
structured we take the later two
options as separate one. Following
case of Ruben Acosta, former
president of Volleyball Federation
represents a very good example of
difficulties regarding possible
corruption in sport. Media rights and
other marketing activities represents
one of major income source of
sport, namely of a top international
sport. Large sum of money attract
the fraud and corruption and
organised crime. Large amount of
money also always attracted
organized criminal groups. At the 12
Anti-corruption conference in
November 2006, on workshop The
Business of Sports and Corruption
Henri Roemer, of UEFA, presented
part of the findings of a report that
he had made to UEFA and which is
expected to lead to some reforms
of the organization in the next few
months: There are no sport mafias
but mafias invest into sports. With
the huge potential for financial
returns and the generally rather low
standards of professionalism in the
administration of clubs, football
attracts criminal activities such as
the trafficking of young players,
money laundering, illegal betting
etc.
The risks for criminals are
minimal and control systems are
weak. Players are normally young
and easy to influence, while by
bribing one key player, the outcome
of a game can be bought and
generate revenues from betting.
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National Issues
National Issues
Changes to National Rural
Livelihoods Mission approved
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National Issues
setting up an autonomous,
adequately
staffed,
professionally managed and
empowered agency at the
national level to implement the
N.R.L.M, called the National
Rural Livelihoods Promotion
Society (N.R.L.P.S) under the
Societies Registration Act.
The NRLPS will act as the
technical support unit of
N.R.L.M. The setting up of such
a Society is essential to
implement the programme in a
mission mode, as livelihoods
programmes require a wide
range of specialization and
experience.
The Society structure would
enable access to high quality
professional support, provide
flexibility
to
create
partnerships and facilitate
innovations and would serve as
a knowledge center for rural
livelihoods for the state
missions.
Further it will provide an
opportunity for formally
involving State Governments in
decision-making,
by
nominating them to the
Executive Committee of the
Society.
MoU for Improving Living
Conditions of Destitute
Women
A
Memorandum
of
Understanding (MoU) was signed
between National Commission for
Women (NCW) and HUDCO in New
Delhi. The MoU was signed by V P
Baligar, IAS, Chairman & Managing
advice.
Life Saving Drugs to be
Cheaper by up to 80%
The
department
of
pharmaceuticals on 16 May 2013
notified the Drug Price Control
Order 2013 and with its coming
into effect prices of 348 essential
medicines including life saving drugs
will go down by up to 80 percent. As
per the new Drug Price Control Order
2013,
the National
Pharmaceutical
Pricing
Authority
(NPPA)
2012 i s
authorized to regulate the prices of
the 348 essential medicines as it is
listed in the National List of
Essential Medicines (NLEM)
2011. The government has notified
t h e Drug Prices Control Order
(DPCO) 2013
2013, with effect from 15
May 2013 and replaced the 1995
order. In its previous order prices of
74 bulk drugs were regulated and as
per the new order all dosages and
strengths specified in the NLEM will
be under price control. The ceiling
prices of the NELM drugs will also be
decided as per the National
Pharmaceutical Pricing Policy and the
policy states that the ceiling price of
an essential drug will be the simple
average of all brands with a market
share of at least 1 per cent.
India Unveiled its First
Indigenously developed
Rotavirus Vaccine
India unveiled its indigenously
developed Rotavirus Vaccine named
Rotavac after the Phase-III clinical trial
of low cost rotavirus Vaccine. The
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Rotavac that has demonstrated
strong efficacy and excellent safety
profile; if gets its approval by the
Drugs Controller General of India
(DCGI) than will be made available
in the market at a rate of 54 rupees
per dose.
Effects of amendment in
Indian Medical Council Act,
1956
The amendment in the Indian
Medical Council Act, 1956
enables the Overseas Citizens
of India to practice medicine
in India.
The amendment also removes
the restriction on foreign
doctors to practice only for
teaching,
research
or
charitable work.
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National Issues
(investors) on a large scale making
fraud promises of big returns. These
are paid from the money that is paid
by the new investors and in this type
of scheme the old investors get big
returns by bringing in new investors.
National AIDS Control
Support Project Approved
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Approval for Women Self
Help Groups to Get Low
Interest Loans
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National Issues
the inspection of reactor pressure
vessel of Unit-1 and it was found that
there were no defects at all.
Age Limit for Financial
Assistance under JSY for
Institutional Deliveries
Relaxed
The Union Ministry of Health
and Family Welfare on 21 May 2013
relaxed the eligibility parameters for
the Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY), with
an expectation of reducing the
neonatal and maternal mortality in
young mothers.
Janani Suraksha Yojana provides
financial assistance to mothers for
institutional deliveries. With the
relaxation of the scheme, the women
who belong to Below Poverty Line
(BPL) category can get an access to
JSY benefits irrespective of their age
and the number of Children they
have.
The benefits of the scheme is
extended to every women from BPL
Category as well as Scheduled Castes
and Scheduled Tribes from all States
and Union Territories of the country
if they give birth to the new one in
Government as well as the Private
accredited health facility, as well as
to those women from BPL category
who delivers at home (as part of their
choice).
About the
Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY)
Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) is
a safe motherhood intervention under
the National Rural Health Mission
(NRHM) that is implemented with the
objective of reducing maternal and
neo-natal mortality by promoting institutional delivery among the poor
pregnant women.
The Yojana, launched on 12
April 2005, by the Prime Minister, is
being implemented in all states and
UTs with special focus on low
performing states. JSY is a 100 %
centrally sponsored scheme and it
integrates cash assistance with
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National Issues
December 2012. This takes
cognizance of the existing situation;
proposes a framework for creation of
a system of laws and institutions and
a plan of action with a unified national perspective. Hence, there is a
need for greater awareness on water
conservation for optimal usage of the
existing resources.
About Water Conservation
Water Conservation is also the
key objective of the National Water
Mission which is one of the eight
National Missions under the National
Action Plan for Climate Change. This
envisages conservation, minimizing
wastage and ensuring more equitable
distribution of water resources both
across and within States through integrated
water
resources
development and management.
Water Resource Management
The effective water resources
management must be underpinned
by knowledge and understanding of
the availability of the resource itself,
the uses to which water is put and
the challenges facing the users of
water at all levels of stake holders. This
can be done by creating mass
awareness about the fact that water
conservation is the immediate need
of the hour.
Launch of the National Urban
Health Mission approved
The Union Cabinet of India
approved the launch of the National
Urban Health Mission to reduce rates
of infant mortality, maternal mortality
and for universal access to reproductive health care.
The cost of the National Urban
Health Mission for 5 years is 22507
crore rupees and the Central
government will share 16955 crore
rupees. The mission will be implemented in 779 cities and towns each
with the population of more than
50,000 has expected to cover about
7.75 crore people.
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poor, imparting skill training and
enabling entrepreneurship
development.
Proposal of NULM is at the
approval stage.
The annual targets under NULM
will be fixed after final
approval.
The Union Government of India
on 16 May 2013 revised the criteria
for creamy layer of Other Backward
Classes (OBCs) from 4.5 lakh rupees
to 6 lakh rupees to avail benefits of
reservations in government jobs and
admissions to central educational
institutions. The decision came up
in a view to increase the income limits in tune with the increase of the
consumer price index. This would
enable more people to take an
advantage of reservation benefits that
are extended to OBCs. Creamy layer
is the income limit beyond which
OBCs are not eligible for quotas
MoHUPA Proposed
Launching NULM
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As soon as, the first cylinder is
delivered to such consumers,
subsidy eligible on date of
delivery will again get credited
in the bank account, which will
then be available for the
purchase of the next cylinder
at market rate.
Thus, subsidy eligible on each
such domestic cylinder, up to
the cap of 9 cylinders per year
will be directly transferred to
the Aadhaar enabled bank
account of the consumer.
All LPG consumers who are not
Aadhaar linked will have three
month grace period to link LPG
consumer number and bank
account with Aadhaar number
and during this period they will
continue to get the LPG
cylinders at subsidized rate, as
they are getting today, up to
their entitlement.
After the grace period, LPG
cylinders will be sold to all
domestic LPG consumers at
market price. However, the
subsidy will be transferred to
only those who have linked
Aadhaar in LPG database and
Bank account. Others will not
get any subsidy.
After the grace period, as soon
as a consumer links the Aadhaar
number to bank account and
in LPG database, one-time
advance and subsidy transfer
will re-commence as per
balance entitlement.
Consumers who do not
provide Aadhaar will continue
to get LPG cylinders at market
price.
Amendments in the
Parliament (Prevention of
Disqualification) Act, 1959
Approved
The Union Cabinet of India gave
its approval to Amendments in
t h e Parliament (Prevention of
Disqualification) Act, 1959 by
introducing a Bill in the Parliament
n a m e d Parliament (Prevention
of Disqualification) Amendment Bill, 2013.
Government Notified
New Guidelines for the
Indira Awas Yojna
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National Issues
Manual scavengers, freed
bonded labourers and tribal
groups will be given
preference in allotments.
The allocation for each
dwelling unit was increased
from 45000 rupees to75000
rupees.
In Maoist-affected and hilly
regions, the allocation would
now be 75000 rupees from the
existing 48500 rupees.
Landless labourers which were
given 10000 rupees for buying
land would now be given
20000 rupees.
Apart from the above
guidelines, a major change was
introduced which is that funds will
be given to only consolidated
proposals from state governments
and not district-level organisations.
Indira Awas Yojana is a flagship
scheme under the rural development
ministry. It addresses rural housing
needs by giving grant for construction
of dwelling units of BPL families.
Policy Development of
Aviation Hubs in India
Approved
body called the National Skill Development Agency (NSDA) by including the National Skill Development
Coordination Board (NSDCB), Office
of the Adviser to the PM on Skill
Development as well as Prime
Ministers National Council on Skill
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to hold the forest land for habitation
or for self-cultivation or for carrying
out any other traditional activity for
their livelihood. Most of the
Scheduled Tribes are poor and need
financial support for productive
utilization of land for their livelihood.
In
order
to
provide
concessional finance to the Forest
Dwelling STs, the NSTFDC has
formulated the new Tribal Forest
Dwellers Empowerment Scheme.
NSTFDC would generate awareness,
provide training and assist in market
linkage apart from providing financial
assistance at concessional rate of
interest of 6% p.a. to the
beneficiaries. This assistance would
be made available through 33 State
Channelizing Agencies of NSTFDC
and certain PSU Banks/ Regional Rural
Banks having refinance agreements
with NSTFDC.
SC: Two-finger Test on a Rape
Victim violates her Right to
Privacy
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National Issues
Assistance and Monitoring &
Evaluation.
National
Cyber Security Policy
approved
The Union Government of India
approved a National Cyber Security
Policy with an aim to create a secured
computing environment across the
country. The Policy also aims towards
building the capacities to strengthen
the current set-up and increase the
focus on manpower training. The
policy was approved by the Cabinet
Committee on Security (CCS) that
lays stress on augmentation of the
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International Issues
Nawaz Sharifs Party PML-N
got Majority
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International Issues
(PPP), which had a tally of 124 in the
2008 elections and ruled the country
for five years with the support of the
MQM and the Awami National Party.
It is important here to note that to win
a simple majority, a party or coalition
would have to bag 137 of the 272
National Assembly seats for which
polls were held. Another 70 seats,
reserved for women and nonMuslims, will be allocated to parties
according to their performance in
polls. To have a majority in the 342member National Assembly, a party
or coalition would need 172 seats.
The Senate or upper house of the
parliament is currently controlled by
the PPP.
Facts to remember about
Provincial Assemblies
Election
PML (N) leads Punjab Province
with 211 out of 297 seats
PPP Party leads the Sindh
Province of Pakistan with 65 out
of total 130 seats
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)
party leads the KPK Province
with 34 out of total 99 seats.
PMAP(Pakhtunkhwa Milli
Awami Party) leads the
balochistan province with 10
out 21 seats.
Some facts about the Election
4670 candidates standed for
272 seats in a first-past-thepost system in the 342-member
lower house.
Sixty seats reserved for women
and 10 for non-Muslim
minorities are distributed by
proportional representation
based on the parties share of
the directly elected seats.
A total of 10955 candidates
contested in elections for
Pakistan s four provincial
assemblies in Punjab, Sindh in
the south, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
in the northwest and
Baluchistan in the southwest.
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International Issues
Arctic sea in September 2012 went
down to the new lows and attracted
interest of nations and researchers
towards it. Various nations placed
their interest in the region for
exploration of its rich mineral
resources and navigation purposes.
India has its Arctic research station
named Himadri since 2008 that is
located at the International Arctic
Research base, Ny-Alesund at
Spitsbergen, Svalbard, Norway. The
station is operated by the National
Centre for Antarctic and Ocean
Research. Indias approach in the
Arctic Circle since 2008 has always
been purely scientific. China
became the first Asian country to
navigate the area with a three-month
sea voyage in an ice breaker across
the Arctic Circle.
US slapped Sanctions against
4 Iranian Nuclear Supply
Companies
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Enrico Letta on 27 April 2013 formed
a new coalition Government in Italy
by winning the support of other
parties. He will be the new Prime
Minister of Italy. The newly formed
Government will include former
Prime Ministers Silvio Berlusconis
closest allies as deputy prime minister.
The two months of political stalemate,
since the general elections in Italy
ended with this coalition.
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International Issues
because they were considered low
caste.
The issue has created a divide
among the Indian diaspora in the
UK.The groups like Caste Watch UK
are rallying to urge MPs to introduce
legal protection for those from
traditionally
lower-caste
backgrounds wheras the Hindu
Alliance called for a boycott of the
amendment. According to the 2011
census, there are 81633 Hindus are
living in UK.
China exported
Arms worth 11 Billion US
Dollars in 5 Years
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International Issues
on a case-by-case basis. The states
last execution was in 2005.
US Congress introduced
Explosive Materials
Background Check Act
An American Senator in month
of April 2013 introduced legislation
in the US Congress which requires the
sales of explosive powder be subject
to a background check. The
legislation was introduced in the
wake of the Boston terror attack. As
per the Bill there should be a
background check to purchase black
powder, black powder substitute, or
smokeless powder, in any quantity. It
provides the Attorney General with
the authority to stop the sale of
explosives when a background check
reveals that the applicant is a known
or suspected terrorist and the
Attorney General reasonably
believes that the person may use the
explosives in connection with
terrorism. It has been made illegal by
the legislation to manufacture
homemade explosives without a
permit; and directs ATF to conduct a
study on the tagging of explosives,
particularly black powder, black
powder substitute, and smokeless
powder, which could enable law
enforcement to detect, identify, and
trace explosives used in crimes.
It is important here to note that
the US Senator Lautenberg had
introduced a similar proposal in 2003
as part of his Homeland Security Gun
Safety Act of 2003. As per the current
law it is allowed for an individual to
purchase as much as 50 pounds of
explosive black powder without a
background check, and also permits
an individual to purchase unlimited
amounts of dangerous smokeless
powder and black powder substitute
without a background check. The
powders can be used as the
explosive material in assembling pipe
bombs, used in the Columbine school
shooting, and pressure cooker
bombs, which were used in the
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International Issues
use of heavy weapons. A majority of
107 states voted to adopt the
resolution. There were 12 votes
against and 59 abstentions. Russia was
fiercely opposed to the resolution,
termed it as unbalanced and
inadequate to address adequately
atrocities allegedly committed by
rebel groups. The resolution was
drafted by Arab states who have
supported the rebels. The resolution
asked for immediate financial
support to neighbouring countries,
which are hosting 1.5 million
refugees. The UN resolution on Syria
highlighted the dire situation of the
4.25 million internally displaced
people.
Arab League agreed to
Israel-Palestine
Land Swap Agreement
called Diaoyu Islands in China or Pinnacle Islands, are basically the group
of uninhabited islands. These islands
are under the control of Japan in East
China Sea.
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International Issues
the new reserve would be possible
within three years. The discovery of
new oil and gas reservoirs is of
imperative importance to cope with
the prevailing energy shortage in
Pakistan.
One of the largest oil producers,
ENI is under existence in Pakistan
since 2000 and is the countrys largest
producer, with an average
production of 54800 barrels of oil
equivalent per day in 2011. Pakistan
has a widespread energy crisis for
years which is characterized by
frequent blackouts, which has stultified the economy.
Year
Debt in SDR
(Special Drawing Rights)
2002
2005
2008
2010
2011
2012
562,109,622 SDR
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International Issues
unemployment slowed down. The
figures describe that Spain has been
struggling from the economic crisis
which started in 2008.
As a result, Prime Minister of
Spain, Mariano Rajoy decided to
reveal the policy measures and fiscal
measures on 26 April 2013 in order
to curtail the recession in fourth
largest economy of the Eurozone. It
is worth noticing that even the
International Monetary Fund in the
third week of April 2013, cut the 2013
forecast for the growth of Spain to
1.6 percent contraction from 1.5
percent. IMF also announced that the
rate of unemployment will rise to 27
percent in 2013. Another important
fact is that the figure of unemployed
in Spain is the highest since 1976. In
1976, the transition of Spains
democracy began after the death of
Dictator Francisco Franco.
Japan Concluded a
Deal with UAE
Afghanistan Parliament on 19
May 2013 blocked law aimed at
strengthening provisions for womens
freedom. The Parliament argued that
parts of the law violated Islamic
principles and encouraged
disobedience. In fact, the Law on
Elimination of Violence against
women is in force since 2009, but
only by Presidential decree. The law
was now presented in the parliament
to get its approval so that in future no
president could repeal it to satisfy the
wishes of orthodox religious parties.
The Features of Law
The law criminalizes child
marriage and forced marriage.
It bans baad, the traditional
practice of selling and buying
women to settle disputes.
It also makes domestic violence
a crime punishable by up to
three years and specifies that
rape victims should not face
criminal charges for fornication
or adultery.
The Taliban while in power
imposed a strict interpretation of
Islam that put severe restrictions on
the freedom of women. Taliban even
banned women from working and
going to school, or even leaving home
without a male relative. In public, all
women were forced wear a head-totoe burqa, which even covered the
face. Violators faced public flogging
or execution. Since the U.S.-led
invasion in 2001, womens freedoms
have shown improvement, but Afghanistan still exhibits conservative
culture, mainly in rural areas. As per
the UN analysis in late 2011, only a
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IBSA Resolution to
Empower the Women
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1. Protocol
between
Indian and China on Indian
Official Pilgrimage (the Kailash
Mansarovar Yatra) to the Tibet
Autonomous Region of China
With the signing of Protocol
both the countries have agreed to
conduct the Yatra every year from
May to September. China will make
further advancements in the existing
facilities on the route of the pilgrims
and to maintain even communication.
They have also agreed to assist in
renting wireless sets and local SIM
cards.
2. Agreement on Work
Programmes of the Three
Working Groups under Joint
Economic Group between
Ministry of Commerce &
Industry of India and China.
The three working groups
under the Joint Economic Group
are:
(i) Services Trade Promotion
Working Group
(ii) Economic and Trade Planning
Cooperation
(iii) Trade Statistical Analysis
3. MoU on Buffalo Meat,
Fishery Products and Agreement
on Feed and Feed Ingredients
between
Agricultural
and
Processed Food Products Export
Development Authority of India
and China
It is directly aimed at
strengthening mutual cooperation in
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Economy
Economy
Inflation Indexed
Bonds (IIBs) to be launched
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Economy
Also, inflation in food articles
category, which has a 14.34
percent share in the WPI
basket, came down to 6.08
percent. Inflation in this category was at 8.73 percent in
March 2013.
The easing in food inflation
was helped by a sharp drop
in prices of vegetables.
Inflation in vegetables stood at
(-)
9.05
percent
in
April 2013, against (-)0.95
percent in March 2013.
The inflation in fruits declined
to 0.71 percent during April
2013 as compared to 4.71
percent in March 2013.
However, the rate of price rise
in onion was high at 91.69
percent for the month of April,
as against inflation rate of
94.85 percent in the previous
month.
Inflation for February was
revised upwards to 7.28
percent from 6.84 percent as
per provisional estimates. The
retail inflation, as measured by
consumer price index, came
down to single digit at 9.39
percent in April after many
months,
indicating
that
inflationary
expectation
is
on
declining
trend.
Inflation in wheat eased to
13.89 percent in April, as
against 19.87 percent in the
previous month. Potatoes too
saw decline to (-)2.42 percent,
from 20.06 percent in March.
Inflation rate in rice and
cereals eased to 17.09 percent
and
15.63
percent,
respectively, in April 2013.
Pulses prices declined
marginally to 10.28 percent
during the month. While the
inflation rate in egg, meat and
fish category stood at 10.44
percent, for milk it was 4.04
percent. For the fuel and
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Economy
basically a part of a rescue package
of 10 billion euros (12.9 billion dollars) counterfeit in March 2013 with
the eurozones bailout fund. The
loan was approved by IMFs executive board which also includes an
immediate disbursement of 110.7
million dollars.
Counting
the
IMF
disbursement, Cyprus has received
about 2.7 billion dollars in the third
week of May 2013 from its international lenders. The Luxembourgbased European Stability Mechanism,
which is a eurozone bailout fund, on
13 May 2013, announced that it had
approved its first bailout tranche for
Cyprus and transferred an initial 2
billion euros (2.6 billion dollars). The
rest of the tranche up to 1 billion
euros will be transferred by 30
June 2013.
The loans approved by the
European Stability Mechanism help
to maintain financial stability in the
euro area and buy time for Cyprus. It
is important here to note that in the
eurozones long-running fiscal crisis,
Cyprus followed Greece, Ireland and
Portugal to become the fourth
eurozone country since 2010 to
agree to a full bailout.
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Economy
of assets. With this a Special power
has also been proposed to SEBI with
which it can seek information on
telephone call data records, from any
persons or entities in respect to any
securities transaction being examined by it.
It is worth mentioning here that
Proposals to make required amendments in the SEBI Act and other
relevant regulations have been
finalised after detailed consultations
with the market regulator and are
being presented before the Union
Cabinet for its approval.
Food
&
Agriculture
Organization (FAO) in its latest report
for 2011 claimed that India is the
largest consumer and producer of
Chickpeas in the world. The second
advance estimates for 2012-13
marked a record production of
Chickpea is 8567.8 thousand
tonnes. Production details of
Chickpeas in India as compared to
the World Chickpea producing
nation:
Country
India
Australia
Myanmar
Turkey
Ethiopia
BSE launched
Islamic Equity
broad-based
Index
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Economy
index includes the largest 500
companies in the BSE, out of more
than 5000 listed. These companies
fulfill Islamic finance principles such
as bans on investing in alcohol,
tobacco and gambling-related businesses.
The BSE had launched the
countrys first Islamic index in 2010
after tracking the 50 largest and most
liquid stocks. Indias Islamic banking
industry has made slow progress
because banking rules need lenders
to declare the rates of interest they
charge customers. This condition it
at odds with Islamic banks which
base their products on profit rates
instead. In this regard to satisfy the
needs of Muslims in India, the industry
is trying to develop investment
products.
SC upheld 51 Percent FDI in
Multi-brand Retail
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Economy
one each in Uttar Pradesh, West
Bengal, Tripura, Karnataka,
Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and
Jammu & Kashmir.
Out of 40 parks which were
sanctioned earlier under this
scheme, 25 Textile Parks are
operational already.
Most of the parks under this
will be completed during 201314 financial year.
The estimated employment
generation is more than 10
lakh people with total
estimated investment of 27562
crore Rupees.
It is important to note that in
2013-14 Union Budget, the
Union Finance Minister had
announced an additional
amount of up to 10 crore
Rupees per park for
establishment of the apparel
manufacturing units for the
projects under the SITP
scheme.
On the occasion of launch,
Anand Sharma also released a
coffee table book on SITPs. This
coffee table book encapsulates the
broad features of various ITPs set up
all over India. The book gives an
insight into the physical and pictorial
status of each ongoing Park approved
under SITP.
RBI imposed Restrictions on
Gold Import by Banks
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Economy
increment in the Backward Region
Grant Fund (BRGF), entitled to Uttar
Pradesh. The fund has gone up to
818.17 crore rupees for 2013-14 from
initial 667 crore rupees. To release
the funds for Uttar Pradesh, the Union
Ministry of Panchayati Raj has directed
the state Government to submit its
annual plan by 25 June 2013. 35
districts of Uttar Pradesh are entitled
for the BRGF Scheme. In 2012-13,
Uttar Pradesh failed to get its share of
BRGF grants as the Government
ordered a probe into the alleged
irregularities that was committed
during the Mayawati regime and it
stopped the work which was being
carried on in the BRGF beneficiary
districts.
IMG approved 10% Equity
Sale in Coal India Limited
An Inter-Ministerial Group
(IMG) on 10 May 2013 approved 10
percent equity sale of Coal India
Limited. This equity sale is likely to
fetch, about 17000 crore rupees to
the Union Government. Union
Governments holds over 90 percent
stake in Coal India at present. The
Inter-Ministerial Group was headed
by Ravi Mathur, the Disinvestment
Secretary and it is guiding the
process of disinvestment of
Governments Equity in CIL. The CIL
with a cash balance of 60000 crore
rupees is the biggest disinvestment
for the Government in the current
fiscal year 2013-14 and Union
Government is in the plan to
generate 40000 crore rupees with
sales of PSUs stakes in the current
fiscal.
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Economy
of hiring by private sector companies
was also slowest in seven months, as
per a monthly HSBC India survey of
services sector managers.
Highlights of the Report
The HSBC India Composite
Output Index fell to 50.5 in
April from 51.4 in March.
The latest reading indicated
that activity increased
marginally and at the slowest
pace since October 2011.
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A group of US Scientists in
second week of May 2013 declared
that they have succeeded in creating
a cloned human embryo using the
technique that helped in developing
the cloned sheep in 1996. The
scientists took fifteen years to create
the cloned embryo. The team of
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Camera with
Compound eye-like Lenses
A digital camera that has a lens
that very closely mimics the
compound eye of arthropods in all
respects wide-angle field of view
of nearly 160 degrees, low aberration,
high sharpness of vision, and infinite
depth of field has been
developed by a team of scientists led
by Young Min Song from the
University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign, U.S. A paper on the
invention is published today (May 2)
i n Nature . Compound eyes of
arthropods are by default
hemispherical and have multiple
lenses; hence any camera lens that
intends to mimic them should have
the same shape and multiple lenses.
Digital cameras available today have
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Scientists at University of
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Dr Kevin Ma of Harvard
University as well as his team which
was led by Dr Robert Wood
described their creation as the
worlds smallest flying robot. The flylike agility that this robot
encompasses, allows it to evade the
fastest human efforts to swat them.
This ability came because of precise
wing movements. The robot has the
ability to perform immediate evasive
manoeuvres as well as hover, by
constant adjustment of the effect of
lift and thrust which acts on the body
at extremely high speed. Like any real
fly, the flexible and thin wings of the
robot can beat around 120 times per
second.
This high speed of the wings
can be achieved with the help of a
special substance known as
piezoelectric material. This material
contracts each time with the
application of the voltage to it. The
scientists switched on and off the
voltage very rapidly and this helped
them in making the material behave
like tiny muscles which make the flys
wings beat very fast. The scientists
explained that the primary goal of this
research was not to build the useful
robot, but understand the flight
working of the insects. However,
now, with the development of the
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Using Gold
Nanoparticles for Drug
Delivery
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Focus on
Plant Proteins to Feed Billions
Salt Tolerance
The HKT family of transporters,
for instance, moves sodium and
potassium, and plays an essential part
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MCQ Series
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Sports
Indian Premier League 2013
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Sports
Rajasthan Royals namely Ajit Chadila
and Ankeet Chavan were arrested by
Delhi Police on 16 May 2013 on
charges of Spot Fixing in Indian Premier League (IPL). The three
cricketers were arrested from
Mumbai and will be brought to Delhi
for being produced in a Court. Apart
from the three cricketers the police
also arrested seven bookies. Both the
cricketers and the bookies are
charged under two sections
o f Indian Penal Code, Section
420 (cheating) and Section
120B
(criminal
conspiracy). The arrests made were a
part of the investigations being conducted by the Special Cell of the
Delhi Police over months on alleged
Spot Fixing in the cash rich IPL.
Spot Fixing
Spot Fixing is an illegal activity
in a sport, in which any part of the
game may be an over or a ball is fixed
between the player and the bookies.
Under this, the player agrees to play
in accordance to the agreement
made before the game with the
bookies, so that they can bet upon
the same. Although betting on any
sport is illegal in India.
Sachin Tendulkar Announced
Retirement
Chris Gayle
Gayle, the West Indies
opener, hit the fastest ever century
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Sports
Men
Women
Serena Williams on 19 May 2013
won her fourth consecutive tennis
title after thrashing out the former
world number one Victoria Azarenka
6-1 6-3 to take the Italian Open on
the Rome Clay.
Porsche
Tennis Grand Prix 2013
Switzerlands
Stanislas
Wawrinka defeated Spains David
Ferrer in the final match of ATP World
Tour, Portugal Open 2013 title at
Oeiras on 5 May 2013 by a 6-1, 6-4
margin. David Ferrer, inspite of the
defeat, maintains a record of 7-4
against Stanislas Wawrinka. This is the
fourth career title of Stanislas
Wawrinka and also first since January
2011.
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Sports
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Sports
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Sports
Footballer of the Year award in 2003
while playing for Celtic. In 2005,
Stiliyan Petrov also wrote the
autobiography titled You Can Call Me
Stan. The book was a description of
the correct spelling of his name.
Honours and Awards won by Stiliyan
Petrov
Bulgarian Championship: 1997
Bulgarian Cup: 1997, 1999
Scottish Premier League: 2001,
2002, 2004, 2006
Scottish Cup: 2004, 2005
Scottish League Cup: 2000,
2006
UEFA Cup: Runner-up 2003
Football League Cup: Runnerup 2010
SPFA Young Player of the Year:
2001
Celtic Player of The Year: 2005
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Sports
In the event held at Khatima,
uttarakhand, Preeti out-punched
Manipurs Y Sandhya 22-9 in the final
of the 60kg category.
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Sports
defeated Andhra Pradesh 25-10, 1925, 15-7 to win the title.
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http://www.flipkart.com
http://upscportal.com/civilservices/books
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US singer-songwriter Carole
King became the first woman to
receive the Library of Congress
Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.
The President of America, Barack
Obama conferred upon her, the
Gershwin Prize that is given as a
lifetime achievement in popular
music.
The award was given away at
the
White
House
in
Washington. Carole King is 71 years
of age. She is known most popularly
for her hit songs such as Aretha
Franklins (You Make Me Feel Like) A
Natural Woman. Carole King has won
the Grammy Award four times. She
was the co-writer of her first number
1 hit song in 1960. The song was Will
You Love Me Tomorrow which was
recorded by The Shirelles. She
became the first solo artist to sell over
10 million copies of a single album
with 1971 release, Tapestry.
About the Gershwin Prize
The Library of Congress
Gershwin Prize for Popular
Song, also known as,
Gershwin Prize is conferred
upon the performer or
composer for lifetime
contribution to popular
music.
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Institution
Chief Ministers Office
District Administration,
Dhanbad
Initiative
Mass Contact
Programme
(MCP)
Swavalamban
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In The News
Roberto Azevedo
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In The News
hold the ceremonial position for a
five-year term.
Siddaramaiah
Takehiko Nakao
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In The News
Commissions and guide their work
programme, provide technical
information, counsel and assistance
in the fields of activity of the
Organization and study and take
actions on matters affecting
international meteorology and
related activities.
Narasimhan Ravi
Anil Goswami
Nirbhay Sharma
Shamshad Begum
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Jiah Khan
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In The News
ing brief illness at his Gurukul near
Panvel. He was 80 years of age.
Drupad is the oldest existing north
Indian classical music form.
About
Ustad Zia Fariduddin Dagar
Ustad Zia Fariduddin Dagar
was born in Udaipur, Rajasthan
on 15 June 1932.
He was also the court musician
of Maharana Bhupal Singh of
Udaipur.
He played a prominent role in
reviving the dhrupad tradition
in the 20th century along with
his brother late Ustad Zia
Mohiuddin Dagar, the
legendary rudra veena player.
He was the master of srutis. He
was renowned for his drupad
vocal in not just India, but also
across the world.
He gave performances in
various popular festivals in India
and abroad.
He won various prestigious
honours and awards such as
Tagore Ratna Award, Tansen
Samman and Sangeet Natak
Academy Fellowship.
He was also conferred upon
with the Padma Shri- Indias
fourth highest civilian honor in
2012, but he turned it down.
He also remained a
distinguished guest faculty at
the Dhrupad Sansar of IIT
Bombay for 5 years.
Rituparno Ghosh
Rituparno
Ghosh,
the
renowned Bengali film maker died on
Surendra Tiwari
Hindi story writer and
playwright Surendra Tiwari died due
to brain haemorrhage on 7 May
2013. He was 64 years of age. He is
survived by his wife, two sons and
a daughter.
About Surendra Tiwari
Surendra Tiwari wrote and
edited 25 books in all.
He also edited 51 stories of
Nobel Prize winners as well as
10 volumes of stories of 251
female storytellers.
He wrote various plays during
his career, which included
Deewarein, Ek Aur Raja and
Chabutra.
In 1974, his first story collection
called Doosra Footpath, was
published.
In the year 1975, his play called
Deewarein was published.
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His renowned novels included
Agniparv and Antatah.
He also served in the Indian
Information Service.
He served in AIR Publications
Department as well as
Registrars Office of the
newspapers.
He was born on 8 October
1948 in Ballia, Uttar Pradesh.
Sarabjit Singh
Sarabjit Singh, the Indian
national and a death row prisoner in
the Lahores Kot Lakhpat Jail died on
2 May 2013 at the Lahores Jinnah
Hospital in Pakistan. He was on the
life-support system since 26 April
2013 after being attacked by the
inmates in the jail.
Steve Miller
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Analysing the situation President
Barack Obama asserted that had
reviewed the Treasury Inspector
General for Tax Administration
(TIGTA) report on the IRSs targeting
of conservative groups and found the
misconduct uncovered was
inexcusable.
Queen Beatrix
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In The News
in Hindi translation at centre of Indian
languages of Jawaharlal Nehru
University.
Vice-Chancellor of Jawaharlal
Nehru University, Prof. S. K. Sopory
and Sheila Bhallan, JNU economics
professor were the Guest of honor on
the occasion of the book release.
How to Get Filthy Rich in
Rising Asia
How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising
Asia was released in April 2013. The
book is written by a Pakistani writer,
Mohsin Hamid. His other books
include Moth Smoke (2000) and The
Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007).
The book is a tale of the man who
takes his journey from a poor rural boy
to the corporate magnate. The book
takes the outline from the self-help
business books which are read by
youth all across the rising Asia. How
to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia is a
tale of contemporary life amidst
crushing upheaval. The book brings
out characters that develop a sense
of intimacy amidst shattering
changes. How to Get Filthy Rich in
Rising Asia in published in various
languages in different countries.
These languages include Arabic,
Brazilian Portuguese, Bulgarian,
Chinese, Danish, English, French,
German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi,
Japanese, Korean, Italian, Malayalam,
Marathi, Russian, Spanish and many
more. Mohsin Hamids first novel,
Moth Smoke reached to the final stage
of PEN/Hemingway Award, which is
Inferno
Inferno a novel written by Dan
Brown in the third week of May 2013
came into attack by the Philippines
authorities for its portrayal of Manila
as - the gates of hell. In the novel
Inferno, Brown has included a
character a doctor, who describes
Manila as a city of horrible traffic jams,
poverty, child sex-trade and crime.
In Inferno, the character
described by Dan Brown states Ive
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In The News
and its culture. Cultural civilization
grew in the city because of its rich
tradition and specialty.
Fida-e-Lucknow -Tales of the
city and its people is the collection
of 22 short stories. It peeps into the
flavours and textures of life in
Lucknow. The book takes its readers
through the history of its GangaJamuni culture and the changes
which came over the city and its
people in the post-Independence
period. The book also describes
National
Testing Agency (NTA)
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He is the first India-American
to be appointed to the top
American Court
His nomination to the post for
the first time was made by
President, Barack Obama in
June 2012, which was
returned back to him on 2
January 2013 due to sine die
adjournment of the senate.
Obama
re-nominated
Srinivasan for the same position
on 3 January 2013
In 1989, he received his BA
with honours from Stanford
University and in 1995
received his Juris Doctor (JD)
in 1995 from Stanford Law
School. He was elected to
Order of the Coif and further
served as the editor of the
Stanford Law Review
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Australias Best Job in the World competition. The 29 year old Moska Najib
is a documentary film maker and
photographer by profession.
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Zhongxing-11
China, on 2 May 2013,
successfully
launched
a
communications satellite called
Zhongxing-11 from Xichang Satellite
Launch Center in southwest Sichuan
province. The satellite was launched
into its present orbit from Long March3B rocket. This marked the 176th
launch of Long March series of rockets of China.
About Zhongxing-11
Zhongxing-11 has the lift-off
mass of approximately 5000 kg
as well as mmedia for clients,
Direct-to-Home as well as data
transmission for the Asia-Pacific
region.
A New Variety of Mango,
Nirbhaya
A new variety of mango,
harvested at Uttar Pradeshs famous
mango centre Malihabad, was
named Nirbhaya after the 23-year-old
Delhi girl who was brutally gangraped on 16 December 2012 and
died of her injuries two weeks later.
The new variety is a way of
honouring the bravery and spirit of
the young physiotherapist, whose
rape and death galvanized the entire
nation.
Arunima Sinha
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memorials, temples as well as palaces.
These forts were built between 13th
and 19th century and they are
absolutely unique in the region.
The Great
Himalayan National Park
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Mount Fuji
Mount
Fuji,
Japan:
International Council on Monuments
and Sites (ICOMOS) approved
Japans Mount Fuji to be declared
as the UNESCO World Heritage site.
Mount Fuji is the snow-topped
volcano in Japan. Formal decision
would be taken about its declaration
as the world heritage site when the
World Heritage Committee of
UNESCO will meet in Cambodia in
June 2013.
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on appointment) and the VicePresident will be a civilian. The
University is being planned on the
lines of IIT/IIMs.The students of the
University will constitute 66 percent
students from armed forces and
remaining 33 percent would be
drawn from other government
agencies, police and civilian. The
teaching faculty will comprise
of
both
military
personnel and civilians in the ratio of
1:1.
Samina Baig
KALINJAR PUBLICATIONS
CSAT
General Studies Manual
IAS Preliminary
Examination Paper I
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In the West
Too simplistic a correlation?
Perhaps. But does that mean we can
Documenting abuse
As the pornography industry
thrives by getting more extreme each
day,
sociologists
have
correspondingly begun to note that
gang rapes have risen, the age of the
rapists has fallen, and the violence is
much more brutal today. One report
quotes U.S. Department of Justice
statistics that show the percentage
of rapes involving two or more offenders increasing from seven per cent in
1994-1998 to 10 per cent in 20052010.
In last years Steubenville High
School rape in Ohio, U.S., when a high
schoolgirl was doped and repeatedly
violated by her schoolmates, two
other appalling facts emerged. One,
the rapists uploaded photos of the
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Blurring lines
This
trend
of
online
documentation of abuse follows
closely on the footsteps of porn
websites that actively encourage the
posting of real-life pictures of girls
caught unawares or of pictures taken
of them with hidden cameras. In other
words, the lines are already blurring
between pornographic websites and
social network websites. What was
once an explicit image on a
clandestine website could today be a
picture of a classmate on Facebook.
It might be statistically
impossible to directly link the viewing
of pornography to rape, but it is
undeniable that its mainstreaming is
actively encouraging and endorsing
a culture of abuse of women and children. Recent news reports, in fact,
have quoted counsellors who say that
obsessive porn viewing is today a
leading cause of marital abuse and
divorce in India.
The link between violence in
films and the increased rate of
violence in society is equally
unverifiable, but its interesting that
this medium has always been filtered
by some form of certification. How
then is a medium that is inherently
much more dangerous left so
unregulated?
The existing IT Act, which
stipulates three years imprisonment
for publishing and transmitting
obscene material electronically, is
followed more in the breach.
Following the PIL, the Supreme Court
has asked the Ministries of Information
Technology, Information and
Broadcasting, and Home Affairs to
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Judicial innovations
Justice Vermas leadership at the
Supreme Court and beyond was
based on this character. In his brief
tenure as Chief Justice of India, he
sought to institutionalise honesty: in
1997, the Supreme Court adopted the
Restatement of Values of Judicial
Life. A few months later, Justice
Verma passed theVishaka judgment,
which made sexual harassment at the
workplace illegal when Parliament
failed to do so. It is less widely known
how the bench did this.
Vishaka made clear that the
courts could breathe life into
fundamental rights where Parliament
had failed to do its job - because of
inattention to rights or regular
adjournments using international
treaties India has signed. Parliament
passed a Bill on sexual harassment 15
years later, with no discussion at all in
the Lok Sabha, in large part because
of the Vishaka judgment. During
that time, working women were
grateful for the recognition of their
right to work with human dignity,
far from odd patriarchal standards of
modesty being outraged.
Justice Vermas innovation of
continuing mandamus is now an
accepted judicial role, to compel
governments to do what they are
legally required but without taking
over the function. In this he urged
court restraint, so as not to blur the
line between the two. Some of his
decisions have been widely critiqued:
the collegium system, for instance, by
which senior Supreme Court judges
decide the appointment of other
judges. Also his references to
Hindutva, which he later said were
misinterpreted. But its a mistake to
seek unblemished heroes. How
otherwise would you see yourself
reflected, learn to deal with lives and
laws that are themselves imperfect?
Honesty and backbone can
make you inconvenient, especially if
you call a spade a spade when its
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Lesson from an
Unsettled Boundary
In 1950, the Survey of
India issued a map of India showing
the political divisions of the new
republic. While the border with
Pakistan was defined as it is now,
including the Pakistan-occupied
Kashmir area, the borders with China
were depicted differently. In the east,
the McMahon Line was shown as the
border, except in its eastern
extremity, the Tirap subdivision,
where the border was shown as
Unilateral act
In March 1954, the Union
Cabinet met and decided to
unilaterally define the border of India
with China. The colour wash was
replaced by a hard line,
and the Survey of India issued a
new map, which depicts the borders
as we know them today. All the old
maps were withdrawn and the
depiction of Indian boundaries in the
old way became illegal. Indeed, if
you seek out the White Paper on
Indian States of 1948 and 1950 in the
Parliament library, you will find that
the maps have been removed
because they too showed the border
as being undefined in the Central
and Western sectors.
What was the government up
to? Did it seriously think it could get
away with such a sleight of hand? Or
was there a design that will become
apparent when the papers of the
period are declassified? Not
surprisingly, the other party, the
Peoples Republic of China, was not
amused and, in any case, there are
enough copies of the old documents
and maps across the world today to
bring out the uncomfortable truth
that the boundaries of India in these
regions were unilaterally defined by
the Government of India, rather than
through negotiation and discussions
with China.
It is not as though the Chinese
have a particularly good case when it
comes to their western boundary in
Tibet. The record shows that the
Chinese empire was unclear as to its
western extremities, and rejected
repeated British attempts to settle the
border. The problem in the Aksai Chin
region was further compounded by
the fact that this was an uninhabited
high-altitude desert, with few markers
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Overlapping Claims
Even so, it would be hazardous
to speak definitively about Chinese
motivations. After being lambasted by
Bhanwari Case
It was not until the 1990s that
the sexual torment endured by a rural
level change agent in Rajasthan and
her subsequent determination to
challenge what led to her violation
gave rise to a long overdue commonsense approach to what needed to
change. It was us. Sexual harassment
hit the Indian legal map when
Bhanwari, a saathin in Rajasthan,
prevented the child marriage within
an upper caste community. In doing
so she was subjected to unwelcome
sexual harassment through words and
gestures from men of that community.
When she reported the harassment,
the local authority did nothing. That
omission was at great cost to
Bhanwari she was subsequently
gang-raped by those very men.
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To Do Something
Still, Vishaka made it impossible
for us to slip back to the way things
are. It gave us language. Womens
experience of unwelcome sexual
conduct was no longer a patronising
moral transgression of her modesty,
it was sexual harassment a violation
of her constitutional equality.
Sixteen years post the landmark
judgment, the Government of India
introduced a new bill. Such delay
might have been justified had
excellence and improving on Vishaka
been the goal. In reality, the state
simply awoke from its lengthy slumber
to do something. Amidst the din of
the coal block allocations scam in the
Lok Sabha, a defective Sexual
Harassment of Women at Workplace
(Prevention, Prohibition and
Redressal) Bill was allowed to pass
into law without debate in
September 2012. Before the Rajya
Sabha, a feebler introduction was
made by the minister whose vision
suggested that it was a bill to make
them economically empowered so
that they can do their work properly
a condescending preface to
constitutional equality which was the
backbone of the Vishaka judgment.
Adding insult to injury, nowhere does
the debate find mention of
constitutional equality.
Apart from the statement of
objects, there is little in the language
and content of the new Act which
has continued to raise the bar, let
alone retain the spirit of Vishaka. An
itemised definition of what
constitutes workplace might have
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Rina Mukherjee vs
The Statesman
Within
six
months
of
Rina
joining The Statesman,
Mukerhjee lost her job. While the
company alleged that her work was
tardy and lacking in quality, it
suppressed Rinas complaint of sexual
harassment against the news
coordinator, Ishan Joshi. Within her
first month of work, Rina had taken
her complaint directly to the
managing director (MD), Ravinder
Kumar. Understandably, she
expected him to act professionally
and intervene, but time passed and
nothing happened. Exploiting her
status as a probationer, Rina was fired
b y The Statesman.
Such patterns are common to
organisations who fail to see the
importance of promoting a
workplace free from sexual
harassment. Frequently, a woman on
probation will find it impossible to
make a complaint, let alone succeed
with one. Hence, most women
hesitate and tolerate the behaviour.
Rina was an exception. Post her
termination she filed a formal
complaint with the MD, The
Statesmans owner, C R Irani and the
West Bengal Womens Commission
with the firm belief that her
termination was a result of her sexual
harassment complaint.
The matter was eventually heard
by the Industrial Tribunal (West
Bengal). In a rare display of social
context, insight and clarity amongst
the judiciary, judge Kundan Kumar
Kumai, rejected The Statesman s
claim that Rina only referred to
professional harassment in her
complaint to Ravindra Kumar. In
Kumais view, Kumars failure to dig
deeper was clearly suspect. In the
judges words:
Conclusions
Repetition creates a life pattern.
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Discrimination
Although
a
substantial
percentage of the worlds population
is affected by disability, there is no
mention of disability in the MDGs. This
despite the well-established
connection between disability and
poverty, the fact that children with
disabilities are the ones who have
been left behind, and the fact that
women with disabilities are even
more marginalised and face multiple
discrimination.
In India, home to 70-100 million
people with disabilities, a study in
2003 conducted by the National
Centre for Promotion for Employment
for Disabled People (NCPEDP)
showed that only 0.51 per cent of
students with disabilities were
enrolled in mainstream schools.
Likewise, a survey of the top 100 companies of India in 1999 showed an
average rate of employment of 0.4
per cent for persons with disabilities.
These figures havent improved over
the years. A review done by NCPEDP
recently shows that less than one per
cent of students with disabilities are
in top colleges and universities, and
less than one per cent of people with
disabilities are finding employment.
Today, the World Health
Organisation says that one billion
people, or 15 per cent of the worlds
population, live with disability. Of
them, 800 million or 80 per cent live
in the global South. People with
disabilities comprise 20 per cent of
the worlds poorest. In this scenario,
it is not only imperative that disability
is intrinsic to the processes for
fulfilling the MDGs by 2015, but must
also be a significant part of debate,
discussions and outcomes of the post2015 development agenda.
Steps forward
To do so, it is important for the
global disability movement to take
into account a number of factors.
Looking South: if 800 million of
the worlds one billion people with
disabilities live in the global South
where development has a far
significant meaning and impact, it is
essential that their voices are heard,
and heard loud and clear.
High-level meeting on disability
and development: one of the most
significant milestones in the disability
movement is the upcoming U.N. High
Level Meeting on Disability and
Development in New York on
September 23, 2013. This meeting
will hopefully set the tone for inclusion of disability in the global
development agenda. Advocacy is
required to ensure that governments
take this meeting with the seriousness
it deserves. It is also important to
connect this meeting with the
opening of the General Assembly
debate on September 24, 2013 and
the special event on MDGs on
September 25, 2013.
Engaging
with
national
governments: it is essential to garner
the support of Member States for
disability and for them to include it in
their countrys priorities. Disability is
a non-political issue and the chances
of it being opposed are less. However,
the probability of it not making to a
majority of the countries list of
priorities is much higher.
Disability as a development
issue: the fact that disability is a
crosscutting issue has by and large
been well-established. But the new
argument put forward by disability
rights advocates is that it is not just a
human rights issue but also a
development issue. Therefore, it
needs to be looked from that point of
view as well.
Going to the grassroots: to reach
that last person with disability in the
remotest corner of our villages, it is
essential that we focus on the
grassroots. We need to adopt a sense
of caution at the sudden, seemingly
Indigenising Defence
The defence procurement wheel
seems to have turned full circle with
self-reliance
becoming
the
governments credo once again. The
Defence Procurement Procedure2013 (DPP) announced by the
government a few days ago
emphasises two major points
strengthening the defence manufacturing base in the country and making
the procurement process more efficient. The policy says that
categorisation the process by
which the Defence Ministry chooses
between various options such as
buying equipment and supplies from
abroad, buying from within the
country, making them in the country
or importing technology to make
them within the country should
clearly favour indigenisation. The option of importing a piece of defence
equipment should be exercised only
after exhausting the option of
sourcing it from within. These
laudable objectives are probably
driven by the bad experience with
middlemen and corruption in
procurement of defence equipment
from overseas suppliers. Yet, it would
be nave to believe that this is a
workable proposition given the state
of our indigenous defence
equipment manufacturing base.
Though India got off to an early start
the first ordnance factory was set
up by the British in 1787 at Ichapore
and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) was
set up in 1958 it lost its way subsequently.
Two of DRDOs highest profile
projects the Main Battle Tank and
the Light Combat Aircraft have
proved that indigenisation is not an
easy proposition, especially given the
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Conclusion
In the information led economy,
social media has emerged as a
Hotspot in a Spot
In commissioning a High-Level
Working Group headed by the space
scientist K. Kasturirangan to study the
recommendations of the Western
Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP),
the Ministry of Environment and
Forests
hoped
to
resolve
an impasse. It now appears that far
from nearing resolution, the question
of preserving and ensuring holistic
development of the Ghats is
enmeshed in more controversy. The
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An Ecosystem to
Save, or Squander
This is a challenging time in
Indias development history where a
number of tenets of environmental
governance are being questioned by
the
imperative
of
growth.
Environmental governance in India is
under assault, and is thus in need of
both fresh thinking, and a new focus,
based on outcome and results. The
Western Ghats are no ordinary
ecosystem. They constitute the water
tower of peninsular India, providing
water to 245 million people and
draining a large part of the land
surface of India. They are also a
treasure trove of biodiversity. The
Convention on Biological Diversity
confers sovereign rights over these
elements of biodiversity for which we
are a country of origin. India can play
an important role in research relating
to such biodiversity elements and
claim a share in the commercial profits
flowing out of their use. The elements
of value not only include medicinal
plants and cultivated species of plants
and their wild relatives, but seemingly
worthless creations such as spider
cobwebs, which turn out to be
sources of a new kind of silk stronger
than steel. Notably enough, such
elements of value are by no means
confined to natural forests, but occur
everywhere across the Western
Ghats, underscoring the need to
maintain connectivity amongst
biodiversity rich habitats.
Hostility
Today, however, it is estimated
that only seven per cent of the Ghats
primary vegetation survives and there
are many threatened species, of
The Process
The stakeholder comments
received by the MoEF (1,750 in a
population of 50 million in the
Working Group States) should have
been shared with the panel. Instead,
secrecy followed inexplicable,
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Analytical approach
The approach adopted for the
examination combined a selective
review of development issues in the
WGEEP report with its own reasoning
that insufficiently regarded the
Western Ghats as an ecosystem from
the perspective of conservation,
protection and rejuvenation. An
ecosystem such as the Western Ghats
comprises both people and the
ecology, and hence WGEEP carried
out its mandate using a socialecological lens. It is misleading then
to suggest that the WGEEP did not
have local people or the states
development needs in mind in arriving
at its recommendations. What WGEEP
did was mainstream into development
planning for the districts of the
Western Ghats the more long-term
needs of the people such as water and
ecosystem services. With this in mind,
it suggested not just the graded
regulation of the more ecologically
harmful activities, but the promotion
of more benign, job creating activities,
for example, agro and biomass-based
industry, regulated ecotourism,
industries and services that involve
dematerialisation, education hubs,
Misread
Despite a detailed discussion of
the sectoral issues and dilemmas and
a whole chapter dedicated to multicentred governance for the Ghats that
examined both regulatory and market
instruments, the impression has been
created that there was no engagement
in our report with social and
development issues. We do agree that
there was need for more discussion
on the recommendations, but these
were to be discussed and refined
after submission to the MoEF. Many
arguments
were
made
for
incentivising
environmental
improvements through ecosystem
payments and fiscal measures, as were
discussions of how the Green India
Mission, Compensatory Afforestation
and Management and Planning
Authority (CAMPA), and National Afforestation and Ecodevelopment
Board (NAEB) should aim for genuine and effective transfer of powers
and funds to local institutions for
implementing the programmes.
Similarly, it was argued that international mechanisms such as Clean
Development Mechanism (CDM),
and (REDD+) or Reduced Emissions
from Deforestation and Forest
Degradation
(REDD),
Forest
Conservation, and Enhancement of
Carbon Stocks and Sustainable Management of Forest could be tapped
to provide adequate financial
resources for larger scale efforts, for
example, where plantation owners
chose to regenerate forests where
these plantations were no longer seen
as profitable, as some owners
suggested to us. Instead, it is
suggested that WGEEP had recommended that coffee plantations be
restored to forests, creating panic
among plantation owners of Kodagu,
when no such reference was made.
It is thus unfortunate that the spirit of
the WGEEP report is being distorted
Recommendations
The HLWG calls for an
Ecologically Sensitive Area for just 37
per cent of the Western Ghats; it drops
the layered ecological sensitivity
approach for the rest of it. Mere
incentives for greener growth for the
rest of the 63 per cent of the Ghats,
we believe, will result in business as
usual. How does that protect the
Western Ghats as an ecosystem? In
sum, the HLWG report does not
review and refine the WGEEP report,
but provides instead an alternative
framework and recommendations.
In the light of these two reports,
we need more thinking on the kind of
environmental governance needed
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More Inclusive
The RTFC places the right to
food in a wider, more inclusive bed
of entitlements. Its shared premise
is that to address the structural roots
of hunger, the right to food should
be read together with entitlements
concerning
livelihood
security, equitable rights over resources
such as land, water and forests,
sustainable food systems, right to
information, education and health
care, social inclusion and nondiscrimination. Over the years, it has
publicly shared and structured this
premise through a legal and street
advocacy, grassroots engagement
and policy advocacy.
In fact, the universalisation of
cooked midday meals in schools
across India was a direct result of the
interim order under the right to food
case and campaigns around the
judgment, steered by the RTFC.
It is against this background of
steady advocacy that the Congress,
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Status Competition
The immediate motive for this
sustained attack was said to be an
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Vociferous forms
It is tempting to dismiss this
violence as indicating the continuing
significance of age-old caste
identities and relations. To do so,
however, ignores the fact that the
caste system is clearly changing and
the structures underpinning it are
starting to shift. Old certainties are
being eroded and caste identities are
assuming new often more
vociferous forms. Aspects of caste
and untouchability, however,
continue to be embedded in the
make-up of Indian society. Much as
institutions in the U.K. had to confront
issues of institutionalised racism,
those in India need to recognise and
address institutionalised casteism
throughout society.
The road towards a casteless
and egalitarian society will be long
and tortuous, and the divisions
between Dalits and caste Hindus
will prove hardest of all to bridge.
Standing by while politicians spew
casteist venom renders the authorities
partly culpable for caste polarisation
and any ensuing violence. If the
belated arrest of politicians
responsible for hate-speech signals
a new and more proactive approach
to caste politics, then perhaps some
good may arise from the ashes of Dalit
homes in Dharmapuri.
Courtesy-The Hindu
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Trade
He is a businessman and has
always believed in trade with India,
said veteran journalist M. Afzal Khan.
While Mr. Sharif always spoke out in
public meetings against India when
he was Chief Minister during Benazir
Bhuttos stint as premier, Mr. Khan
recalled that he would insist in
private that those statements were
basically political in nature for
domestic consumption.
His first stint as Prime Minister
did not see much positive movement
on India but in his second tenure he
did make efforts resulting in Atal Bihari
Vajpayees bus journey to Lahore and
the Lahore Declaration. Kargil upset all
that but, as Mr. Khan pointed out,
since then he has never spoken
against India.
Indeed, Mr. Sharif has always
insisted he was kept in the dark about
the Pakistan Armys Kargil adventure,
though he was then the Prime
Minister. However, varied accounts on
what transpired in the days ahead of
the intrusions, provide a more mixed
picture, the latest being a book by
the then Director-General of the
Analysis Wing of the Inter-Services
Intelligence, Shahid Aziz. He has
indicated that Mr. Sharif might not
have been completely in the dark
about the Kargil misadventure
orchestrated by then Chief of Army
Staff Pervez Musharraf and three
other generals. The retired general
recalls a colleague telling him that Mr.
Sharif asked when are you giving us
Kashmir during an informal
discussion, challenging the new
Prime Minister-designates denials.
Plus there is the growing corpus
of evidence that show the behindthe-scene agreements including
pre-electoral arrangements, his party,
the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz
(PML-N) has with jihadioutfits, many
of them with an anti-India focus. In
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No Resonance
Transit Economy
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Tackling Naxals
Underutilised Gunds
Poor Infrastructure
Under the Mahatma Gandhi
National Rural Employment Guarantee
Scheme, the district has received
Rs.35.39 crore till February this year,
but only Rs.14.78 crore has been
spent. Out of the 3,024 units
sanctioned under the Indira Awaas
Yojana housing scheme, about 30
houses have been built. Under the
IAP, the district has received Rs.85
crore out of which Rs.30 crore remains
unspent. Malkangiri has as many as 36
health centres apart from the district
headquarters hospital. But they
remain non-functional as at least 40
posts of doctors, including specialists,
are vacant against the sanctioned
strength of 87.
Roads are in bad shape and
people have been repeatedly blocking
them to voice their anger, but to no
avail. Road projects worth Rs.460
crore, of the Public Works
Department, and Rs.630 crore under
the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak
Yojana (PMGSY) are yet to take off.
Only 35 per cent of the funds under
PMGSY have been used. Ironically,
the Chief Minister holds the Works
portfolio, which is supposed to
maintain all major roads and look after the Water Resources department.
Political
executives
from
Bhubaneswar hardly ever visit the district. When they do, they never spend
a night even at the fortified district
headquarters. When Ministers,
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Rights Violations
In 2001, the Collector and
Superintendent of Police ran away
from the district. On the Chief
Ministers request, the Central
Government sent four battalions of
Central forces as well as a helicopter.
Money has also been provided for the
modernisation of the police force.
The State Government meets the
entire expenditure on fighting
Naxalites under the Security Related
Expenditure (SRE) Scheme of the
Central Government. To this, the
Central Government has now
sanctioned two engineer battalions
to attend to road work in areas where
contractors are not taking up work.
Instead of providing security cover,
the security forces have become the
only government agency present or
visible. There are repeated allegations
of human rights violations. This when
the purpose of security cover was to
implement development work and
sort out governance issues.
The Centre has poured in funds
and deployed huge numbers of
security personnel. But, what does
one do if the State administration fails
to implement and tackle governance
Beware the
Nostrums of Economists
A to-do
List for the New Law Minister
With only a year to go before the
Lok Sabha elections, the new Law
Minister has his work cut out for him.
On paper, Kapil Sibal is perhaps the
United Progressive Alliances best
man for the job. As a lawyer, he
understands legal technicalities; as an
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Judicial
Appointments Commission
The appointment of judges to
the Constitutional Courts is presently
done by the collegium of judges of
the High Court and the Supreme
Court. The controversies surrounding
the proposed appointment of Justice
P.D. Dinakaran, and the impeachment
of Justice Soumitra Sen show that this
system of appointment has surely
failed. Recent political consensus also
appears to be against the collegiate
system of appointment of judges, and
in favour of it being replaced by a
Judicial Appointments Commission
(JAC).
It would however be nave to
believe that the mere setting up of a
JAC, without anything more, can be
the solution to the present problems
plaguing the appointment of judges.
The Ministry must identify transparent
and well-defined criterion based on
which the JAC would function and
exercise its powers. It is also
important to note that the setting up
of a JAC cannot be done through legislation alone. The collegiate system
Pendency of Cases
The Indian judicial system is
overworked, understaffed and
bursting at the seams. Pendency of
cases in the High Courts and the
Supreme Court is at an all-time high.
Many have argued that the solution to
this is to increase the number of
judges we have approximately 11
judges per million persons, as
opposed to the global average of
around 50 judges per million.
However, the judge-population ratio
is, strictly speaking, irrelevant to
understand the issue of pendency.
What is relevant is the judge-pendency
ratio, the impact of which has sadly
not been examined in policy debates.
More importantly, an empirical study
conducted in 2010 (Kannan) revealed
that the problem with the working of
the judicial system lies elsewhere. It
concluded that (assuming no fresh
cases are filed) it would take
approximately nine months to clear
the entire backlog of cases in Tamil
Nadu. Most States in India had
somewhat similar figures, and only a
few needed more than two to three
years to clear their entire backlog.
These numbers demonstrate that the
problem of pendency is not
insurmountable, and the answers to
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Institution Eroded
The involvement of two law
officers in the recent Coalgate
controversy has tarnished the
credibility of not just the individuals
in question, but of the offices they
hold. The erosion of this institution
does not augur well for Indian
democracy. It might be useful to
consider designating the JAC which
is proposed to be instituted for
appointing
judges
to
the
Constitutional Courts, to also appoint
the law officers. This will not only
insulate their offices from unnecessary
political pressures but also reduce any
charge of the governments
management of sensitive cases before
the Constitutional Courts.
Mr. Sibal is an old hand with a
hard road ahead of him, and it is
hoped that he will make the most of
his position as Law Minister. The
confidence of the public in the justice
delivery system has been severely
eroded, not just due to recent events
Shocking
Betrayal on Western Ghats
Dear Dr. K. Kasturirangan, J.B.S.
Haldane, the celebrated 19thcentury scientist and humanist who
quit England protesting its
imperialistic invasion of Suez to
become an Indian citizen, once said:
Reality is not only stranger than we
suppose, but stranger than we CAN
suppose! I could never have
imagined that you would be party to
a report such as that of the High Level
Working Group on Western Ghats,
but, then, reality is indeed stranger
than we can suppose!
In our report to the Ministry of
Environment & Forests, based on
extensive discussions and field visits,
we had advocated a graded
approach with a major role for
grassroots-level
inputs
for
safeguarding the ecologically
sensitive Western Ghats. You have
rejected this framework and in its
place, you advocate a partitioning
amongst roughly one-third of what
you term natural landscapes, to be
safeguarded by guns and guards, and
two-third of so-called cultural
landscapes to be thrown open to development, such as what has
spawned the Rs.35,000-crore illegal
mining scam of Goa.
This is like trying to maintain
oases of diversity in a desert of
ecological devastation. Ecology
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On a Scale
This does not mean, however,
that Indians do not want better
relations with China; 63 per cent of
the respondents want bilateral ties to
be stronger. On a scale of 0 to 100, in
terms of feelings towards a country
(with 100 meaning very warm, and 0
very cold) of the 22 countries listed,
China ranked right in the middle along
with Brazil, at 44 degrees; the United
States, Singapore, Japan, Australia,
France, Nepal, Russia, Great Britain, Sri
Lanka and South Africa ranked higher.
While the findings may suggest
a schizophrenic Indian attitude
towards China, the message is
relatively straightforward. Indians are
deeply apprehensive about what they
perceive as Chinas assertive or even
aggressive attitude towards India,
fearful of its policies in the region and
anxious of its growing capabilities.
And yet, while Indians generally
hope that relations with China will
become better and with little ill feeling
towards the Chinese people, there is
a lack of clarity on how India should
respond to a Rising China. Should
India partner with China to create a
united front among Asias rising giants,
if possible?
Or be part of a balancing
coalition to ensure that Chinas rise
remains peaceful and not destabilising
at a time when there are widespread
concerns that Beijing is aspiring for a
dominant role in Asia? It is this policy
dilemma which New Delhi needs to
resolve. Likewise, Chinese diplomacy
clearly faces a major challenge in
terms of Indian public perceptions.
Pakistan
On Pakistan, the findings are
along predictable lines, but with a
significant counter-intuitive finding.
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Perception of Impartiality
In these circumstances,
appointing Mr. Sharma as the CAG
creates an inevitable conflict of
interest and adversely impacts the
perception of impartiality. Nemo
judex in causa sua , i.e. no person
shall be a judge in his own cause, is a
fundamental
principle
of
administrative law that governs
conflicts of interest. Though the CAG
is not a judge in law, his task of
auditing government accounts, as a
matter of principle, requires
independence from the government
analogous to that enjoyed by a judicial
officer. Such a principle will
unarguably be violated when Mr.
Sharma audits his own Ministrys
actions, especially concerning the
hugely controversial helicopter
contract, irrespective of how upright
he himself might be.
Even if Mr. Sharma recuses
himself from such audits, the manner
in which his appointment has been
made adversely affects the
perception of impartiality that is
necessary for an independent
constitutional office-holder. The
Supreme Court has repeatedly held
that the test for determining whether
a decision-making authority is
perceived to be impartial is whether
there is a reasonable apprehension
of bias from the point of view of an
average honest man. One of the key
factors giving rise to such an
apprehension is the manner of appointment. By all available accounts,
Mr. Sharmas name was recommended by the government to the
President without any public
discussion whatsoever, on the criteria used for evaluation and the merits
and demerits of available candidates.
Was there a shortlist drawn up? If so,
on what basis? What qualifications did
the candidates possess for being the
CAG? In what way was Mr. Sharma
considered to have superior credentials?
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An Anomaly
What was a conspicuous
omission at the time of drafting the
Constitution has, over time, regressed
to an egregiously controversial
anomaly. Controversial, since the lack
of appointment criteria has meant
that the position has led to a turf war
between the Indian Audits and
Accounts Service (IAAS) and the
Indian Administrative Service (IAS).
Anomalous, since other independent
institutions such as the judiciary and
the Central Vigilance Commission
(CVC) have seen the executive being
divested of its unfettered power of
appointment. The anomaly has been
rendered egregious by the fact that
Anachronistic Practice
The governments selection of
the CAG and the method adopted
demonstrate a concerted pushback to
the progressive discourse of
accountability that has developed in
India today. Accountability demands
that not only must processes of
government be transparent; equally
the government must publicly justify
its decisions. Claiming the
prerogative to appoint, without
disclosure and discussion, is widely
considered anathema to such developments. But by forcibly trying to
extend such an anachronistic
practice, the government is throwing
down the gauntlet as far as the
meaning and significance of
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voter
turn-out,
in
some
constituencies politicians were
elected with less than a thousand
votes.
New expectations from the Old
Nawaz Sharif is not the fresh
face of the elections which
supporters of PTI had hoped for,
and has been in electoral politics
since 1985. He is an old hand, if ever
there was one, having been
dismissed twice as prime minister
of Pakistan, the last time when he
even had a so-called heavy
mandate, with a two-thirds majority
in parliament. However, Pakistan
has changed fundamentally since
Nawaz Sharif was last prime minister
in significant and, perhaps,
permanent ways, some better and
some which clearly reveal
retrogression of the worst kinds.
Despite being an old hand,
indications so far, are that Nawaz
Sharif has changed radically since
his earlier days as Pakistans prime
minister.
The terms being used in the
media to describe Nawaz Sharif
compared to 14 years ago, include
those which suggest that he has
matured, learnt his lessons, become
wiser, more accommodative, and
other such positive terms to
describe his new politics. There is
ample evidence that these flattering
terms are well deserved. Not just in
2013, but since 2007 when he
returned to Pakistan after his exile,
and especially as Pakistans friendly
opposition during the last
governments tenure, Nawaz Sharif
has done as much in protecting
Pakistans fragile democracy as has
President Asif Ali Zardari. Both have
put their personal differences apart
and have been committed to
strengthening democracy from all
kinds of hostile forces, such as
Islamic militants as well as Pakistans
military establishments and its many
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