Vol-15 The Gist March 2014

COURTESY:
The Hindu3
The Yojana
Kurukshet ra
Press Informat ion Bureau
Science Report er
Contents
THE HINDU.......................................................................................................................... 2
A lost opportunity................................................................................................................................................................................ 2
New scourge in Assam ......................................................................................................................................................................... 3
A surprise from the RBI ...................................................................................................................................................................... 4
Redeeming the Supreme Court ........................................................................................................................................................... 6
An ominous situation........................................................................................................................................................................... 8
The diasporas dark side ................................................................................................................................................................... 11
Freeing temples from state control ............................................................................................................................................... 13
Justice in judicial appointments ...................................................................................................................................................... 14
Scoring over polio............................................................................................................................................................................. 15
Arming India into dependency........................................................................................................................................................ 17
Mapping the Kashmir trajectory ................................................................................................................................................... 22
One nation, one grid ......................................................................................................................................................................... 26
The redline on fiscal deficit ............................................................................................................................................................ 27
YOJANA .............................................................................................................................. 28
National Food Security Act: Work in Progress ........................................................................................................................... 29
PL480 to NFSA 2013 ...................................................................................................................................................................... 29
The Food Security Act (FSA) Fiscal Implications: 2013-14 to 2015-16............................................................................... 30
Democracy and Social Transformation: Insights from Ambedkar .......................................................................................... 33
Food Security BillWould it Wipe out Hunger and Malnutrition? ......................................................................................... 34
FDI Reforms in India: Steps in the Right Direction ................................................................................................................... 37
Electricity Prices in India: Comparing Apples, Oranges, and Lychees ................................................................................... 41
PMG clears important projects ...................................................................................................................................................... 42
TISS degree for second PMDRF programme ............................................................................................................................... 43
Funds allocated for upgraded PMSSY Phase III ........................................................................................................................... 43
Indian Biomass Resources An Assessment from the Grassroots ........................................................................................... 44
What is 3 D Printing ........................................................................................................................................................................ 44
KURUKSHETRA................................................................................................................ 47
Two Decades of Panchayati Raj-Gaps and Challenges ............................................................................................................... 46
PRESS INFORMATION BUREAU .................................................................................. 49
PARAM Supercomputer Among the Most Power Efficient Systems of the World ............................................................. 48
VVIP Choper Agreement with AgustaWestLand International Ltd. (AWIL) Terminated .................................................. 48
Southern Grid synchronously connected with the National Power Grid ................................................................................ 48
Achievements and Initiatives of Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation During 2013 ............................ 49
SCIENCE REPORTER ...................................................................................................... 58
India Aims for the Rd Planet! ......................................................................................................................................................... 58
Art of Polite Conversation from the Marmosets ....................................................................................................................... 58
Sleep Cleaness Brain Toxins ........................................................................................................................................................... 59
Energy Efficient Vehicles ................................................................................................................................................................ 59
Gluten Intolerance and Celiac Disease .......................................................................................................................................... 59
Science in the Service of Entrepreneurs ....................................................................................................................................... 60
Rain Catch Rain Coat ....................................................................................................................................................................... 61
Smart Flower Pot .............................................................................................................................................................................. 61
Baby-like Robot Fights Depression in Senior Citizens ............................................................................................................... 61
Growing Sound ................................................................................................................................................................................... 61

2 VOL15 GIST OF THE HINDU
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Gis t of
THE HINDU
A LOST OPPORTUNITY
There are occasions when t he finalit y of a
judicial verdict is in unfortunate conf lict with the
interests of justice. The contentious case of Section
377 of the Indian Penal Code is one such. By declining
t o review it s ret rograde decision t o uphol d t he
validity of Section 377, the Supreme Court has lost
an opportunity t o revisit a verdict that has drawn
wi despr ead cri t i ci sm f or f ai l i ng t o ext end
constitutional protection to sexual minorities. While
it is true that the scope for review is limited, there
was some hope for the LGBT community when the
Union government came forward to seek a review of
the December 2013 verdict inSuresh Kumar Koushal.
Many jurists, activists and political leaders felt the
ruling overturned a well-reasoned judgment of the
Delhi High Court, which had read down Section 377
t o de-criminal ise consensual sex among adult s
irrespective of gender. It was seen as incongruous
with the mores of our times. The verdict required a
revi ew on meri t s because of some i nt r i gui ng
concl usi ons. The Bench had rul ed t hat t hose
indulging in carnal intercourse against the order of
nat ure const it ut ed a di f f erent cl ass, and t hat
Parliament could treat the category differently from
others. It had failed to see that order of nature is
itself an artificial construct rooted in the outdated
view that alternative sexuality is unnatural. It had
dismissed t he LGBT communit y as a minuscule
fraction of the population, as though the relative
smallness of a group disentitled it to constitutional
protection.
While holding that Section 377 suffered from
no infirmity, the Bench had said it was open to the
legislature to delete or amend it. The verdict had cast
a shadow of doubt on the judiciarys decisiveness in
enf orci ng fundament al ri ght s. I n a recent case
concerning death row convicts and mercy petitions,
it was reaffirmed that the Supreme Court was best
equipped to adjudicate the content of fundamental
right s. This Court has always grant ed relief for
viol at i on of f undament al ri ght s and has never
remanded t he mat t er, i t sai d. The Bench t hat
decl ined t o review t he verdict coul d have t aken
inspiration from these words and examined afresh
the sections chilling effect on fundamental rights,
instead of leaving it to t he legislat ure. A curat ive
petition could provide one more avenue of redress,
but it s scope is l imit ed t o judgment s passed in
vi ol at i on of pri nci pl es of nat ural j ust i ce or i n
circumst ances suggest ing bias on t he part of the
court. The situation is ripe for a legislative solution,
but t he process may not be easy, f or not al l
members and part i es wi ll be abl e t o resi st t he
inf luence of religious conservative groups that are
likely to oppose any amendment.
TENSIONS IN UKRAINE
The unrest in Ukraine, which recently f lared
into violence, is dividing the country and intensifying
long-standing tensions between Russia and the West.
Publ ic prot est s st art ed i n December 2013 over
President Viktor Yanukovychs decision to abandon a
deal with the European Union in favour of aid and
natural gas agreements with Russia. The protesters,
who for weeks were peaceful and even ret urned
equipment t o t he police aft er wat er cannon was
used t o disperse crowds in t he capit al, Kiev, have
seized gover nment of f ices across t he count r y,
including the Justice Ministry. Their demands include
an end t o corrupt ion and self-enrichment by the
GIST OF THE HINDU VOL15 3
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ruling polit ical elite, and at least four people have
died as security forces opened fire. Mr. Yanukovych
has softened his position by putting an amnesty for
protesters through Parliament and by offering the
prime ministership and deputy prime ministership
t o t he respect i ve opposi t i on l eaders, Arseny
Yatsenyuk and Vitali Klitschko. But the opposition
parties are furious t hat t he amnesty requires the
protesters to vacate the occupied buildings, and the
offer of political posts has been rejected.
Mr. Yanukovych has now taken a time-out by
going on sick leave, but his cosmetic measures are
bound t o f ai l because Ukrai ne i s a pri ze i n a
geostrategic tussle between Russia and the West. To
start with, the President s policies since his election
i n 2010 have t roubl ed a subst ant ial sect i on of
Ukraines 46 million people, especially those in the
western regions, who support accession to the EU.
Eastern Ukrainians, however, prefer closer links with
Russia. Secondly, t he EU deal was t ied t o an IMF
bailout that would require public-spending cuts and
higher gas prices. Thirdly, NATO and Ukraine have
held joint exercises, which they have progressively
enlarged, t hough Parliament cancelled t he 2009
manoeuvres. The EU association agreement proposes
deeper Ukraine-NATO links, though only 30 per cent
of Ukrai nians f avour NATO membershi p; such
proposal s f uel support f or aggressi vel y et hno-
nationalist far-right coalitions such as Prawy Sektor
(Right Sector). Russian President Vladimir Putin, for
his part , has blocked the Kiev-EU agreement with
15 billion in aid, cheaper gas supplies, and trade
deals. While Moscow sees NATO as trying to encircle
Russia, the Atlantic alliance has repeatedly tried to
invent new roles for itself since the Soviet Union and
the Warsaw Treaty Organisation collapsed in 1991,
and both NATO and the IMF have in effect tried to
hi jack t he EUs relat i ons wit h Ukrai ne; neit her
Ukrainians nor the EU must allow themselves to be
traduced thus, and Ukraines future direction must
be decided solely by Ukrainians.
NEW SCOURGE IN ASSAM
Northeastern India has seen a pattern for long:
when one terror outfit is neutralised, another pops
up in hydra-head fashion. The most recent such
organisation is the Songbijit faction of the National
Democratic Front of Boroland. On the ascendant in
t erms of strike pot ent ial, it has gone on a killing
spree in the Bodoland Territorial Area District s in
Lower Assam over the past few weeks. In one recent
series of attacks, eight persons were killed, including
Muslims and Hindi-speaking Bengalis. While the
NDFB (S) has come out with statements accusing the
security forces of targeting Bodo civilians, its plan is
clearly to drive a wedge bet ween Bodos and non-
Bodos. The turmoil that engulfed Lower Assam in
July 2012 t hat claimed 96 lives and left lakhs of
Muslims and Bodos traumatised and displaced, is
fresh in memory. While the Ranjan Daimary faction
of the NDFB signed a ceasefire agreement with the
Central and t he St at e government s in November
2013, the faction led by I.K. Songbijit refused to join
t he process. Songbi jit , who was t he Daimar ys
factions commander-in-chief , broke away in late-
2012. Remaining in Myanmar, he is now believed to
be in league with Paresh Baruah of the ULFA (I), and
S.S. Khaplang, chief of the National Socialist Council
of Nagaland (K). The prospect of the three teaming
up wit h the Kamat apur Liberat ion Organisat ion,
poses a new challenge.
As the movement demanding a homeland for
the Bodo people runs its course through its second
decade, it remains one of the most serious potential
sources of viol ent polit i cal confront at ion i n t he
region. Even admitting that the Bodo cause stems
from the perception of their not being a part of the
composi t e i ndi genous popul at i on of Assam,
extortions, kidnapping and other atrocities have over
t ime undermined any legit imacy t he movement
could claim. The State government has made clear its
resolve to clamp down on violence, and the Assam
Police have declared 15 leaders of t he NDFB (S),
including Songbijit himself, as most wanted, even
putting a price of Rs. 95 lakh on them. Considering
that the out fit is estimat ed to have less t han 250
cadres, firm enough action does not appear to be a
tall order. Inter-State intelligence cooperation will be
key. At a point when sustained and aggressive action
by the government, with some help from across the
border in Bangladesh, has substantially broken the
back of militancy at large in northeastern India, the
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l at est t hreat shoul d be met wi t h a f i rm hand.
Meanwhile, the process of peace involving the two
other dominant Bodo groups, led respectively by
Dhiren Boro and Ranjan Daimary, should be handled
with fairness and magnanimity.
A SURPRISE FROM THE RBI
In its third quarter review of monetary policy,
the Reserve Bank of India sprang a big surprise by
hiking the policy repo rate by 0.25 percentage points
to 8 per cent . All ot her rates the bank rate, the
reverse repo and the marginal standing facility rates
st and adjust ed upwards. Unprepared as t he
financial markets might have been to the hike, the
central banks justification is unassailable. In the mid-
quart er review on December 18, 2013, t he rat es
were kept unal t ered, ant ici pat i ng a cool -of f i n
vegetable prices. Wit h the subsequent fall in food
prices, especially of vegetables, headline inf lation has
fallen significantly and might stay subdued well into
t he next round of dat a compi l at ion. However,
excluding food and fuel prices, CPI inf lat ion has
remained stubbornly high while core WPI inf lation
has risen, although only marginally. As RBI Governor
Raghuram Rajan said subsequently, behind its logic
has been the CPI inf lation which remains close to 10
per cent and is t he prime cause for the hardening
inf lation expectations among consumers. Besides,
there is evidence to show that notwithstanding the
tight monetary policy, aggregate demand pressures
are st i l l exert i ng upward pressure on overal l
inf lation. A rate hike is justified, though the growth
momentum is weak and there has been much fiscal
tightening in the last quarter of this year.
The ot her import ant development has been
t he release of t he Urjit Pat el commit tees report
which has suggested that price stability should be the
primary objective of monet ary policy and towards
that end CPI inf lation should be brought below 8 per
cent by January 2015 and below 6 per cent by the
following year. Formal inf lation t argeting has not
been adopt ed yet , but cl early t he cent ral banks
increased reliance on the CPI is evident in its hiking
the repo rate to firmly nudge the economy towards
t he recommended pat h of pr i ce st abi l i t y. The
Governor has emphasised that in the long run there
is no conf lict between its two traditional objectives
of supporting growth and maintaining price stability.
Unless inf lation is brought down there cannot be a
revival in either consumption or investment. Further
pol i cy st eps wi l l be dat a dependent but i f t he
disinf lat ionary process evolves as project ed, any
more tightening in the near term is not anticipated.
The economy will grow at slightly below 5 per cent
this year, but can firm up to 5.5 per cent in a range
of 5 t o 6 per cent i n 2014-15. A pi ck-up i n
investment and stronger export performance might
push up growth rates further. The external situation
remains uncertain global economic growth has
been uneven and emerging economies have been
under pressure in recent months.
Anarchist or activist?
If a Chief Minister is anarchist because he took
t o t he st reet s, how t hen would we label t he lat e
French President Franois Mitterrand? After all, in
1983 he gave a heros welcome in the lyse Palace,
no less, t o ant i-racist prot est ers who were angry
with his own government. In fact, in 1980, as leader
of the Socialist Party, he joined a widely popularised
street march against attacks on Jewish people, along
with Pierre Chevnement and Michel Rocard. Were
they all anarchists? Or think of Bertrand Russell and
hi s act i vi sm agai nst nucl ear bombs. Anot her
anarchist or a well-meaning democrat?
Clearly one persons anarchist could well be
another persons activist. Go back a little in time and
consi der t he demonst rat i ons t hat brought i n
uni versal f ranchi se or raci al equal i t y or t he
establishment of gay rights. Had these movements
been banned, or dubbed as anar chi st , our
democracies would have been that much poorer. It
is with t he help of t hese protest s that democracy
grew and grew to give us this splendid shade under
which most of us sit . It t ook decades of act ivism
before women got t he ri ght t o vot e and before
Blacks became legally equal to the rest in America;
but who is complaining today?
When streets erupt in a democracy it is nearly
always because institutions are not delivering as they
had promised to. It is never a good idea to barricade
popular voices by institutional walls. Is this why our
President in his latest speech on the eve of Republic
Day warned politicians not to make false promises
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for that would generate both heat and noise? Was he
lament ing bot h t he Unit ed Progressive Alliances
performance as much as cautioning politicians about
their immediate future?
Disdain for democratic procedure
It is not as if democracies have never been
challenged by genuine anarchism in the past, nor is
it that they can easily protect themselves from such
assault s in the future. The ones who stormed t he
Babri Masjid were anarchists, and so are the Maoists
and religious/ ethnic activists of today. What unites
them all is their disdain for democratic procedure
whose hallmark is non-violence. Anarchism, be
warned, is not just about physical violence; it is as
much about verbal violence as well. People tend to
forget this, but that is how Gandhiji understood non-
violence; it had to be both in word and in deed.
Gandhiji argued, as did Bertrand Russell, and
scores of other believers of liberal democracy, that
the moment voices are raised it is clear that violence
has struck. Anger reveals a weak hand, for if the
argument i s a wi nni ng one, why be abusi ve?
Support ers of t he AAP demonst rat ed t his spirit
through the 2013 election in Delhi. Since then, it has
compromi sed and condoned, at l east , ver bal
instances of anarchy. Mr. Somnath Bharti, Delhis
Law Minister, may be in over his head with his new
assignment, but that does not excuse his disgraceful
choice of language. He has not just let the side down
repeatedly, but has also given credence to the charge
t hat the AAP borders on anarchism. Perhaps Mr.
Kejriwal should hold a night school in good manners
for his band.
Neit her street demonst rations nor working
from a makeshift office under a tent amount s t o
anarchism. It is violence, both physical and verbal,
t hat i nvi t es anarchy more t han anyt hi ng el se,
whether or not such acts happen in the killing fields
or in parliaments. Remember also, some of the most
rut hless leaders in modern t imes were elect ed t o
power. This is why liberal democracy is not just
about votes, but more about non-violence. If there
is a striking family resemblance between anarchists
and dictators it is because violence was mothers
milk for both of them.
A LITTLE ANARCHY IS A DANGEROUS
THING, BUT A GOOD PROTEST IS A JOY
FOREVER!
A strengthening relationship
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abes visit to
India as chief guest at the Republic Day parade, and
the clutch of agreements signed between the t wo
count ri es during t he 36 hours he spent i n t he
country, add more cement to a relationship that has
been growing steadily since 2005 and is valued by
both sides. As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said,
there are no two opinions in India on the importance
of building t ies wit h Japan; t he country is at the
heart of New Delhis Look East Policy. The strategic
component of t he r el at i onshi p has i ncreased
dramat ically over t he last four years. Besides an
annual summit, an institutionalised multi-layered
strategic dialogue at several levels between the
Def ence Mini st ers, a t wo plus t wo among t he
Foreign Secretaries and Defence Secretaries of both
sides, one on marit ime securit y, and a t r ilat eral
between India, U.S. and Japan has kept up t he
momentum. In addition, as announced significantly
during Mr. Abes visit , the head of Japans recently
set up National Security Council and Indias National
Security Adviser are to hold regular consultations.
The Indi an Navy and t he Japan Mari t i me Sel f-
Defense Force (JMSDF), as t he count r ys navy is
called, held a joint maritime exercise off Chennai in
December 2013. According to t he joint statement
issued after talks between Prime Minister Abe and
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, both reaffirmed
the importance of such exercises, and renewed their
resolution to continue to conduct them on a regular
basis wit h increased frequency. India is also in
negot i at ions wit h Japan t o buy i t s amphi bi ous
aircraft , Ut ilit y Seaplane-2, used by the Japanese
Navy. Even as bot h si des deepen t heir st rat egic
partnership, they should be clear that their shared
wariness of China cannot be the basis for healthy ties.
Indeed, Mr. Abes arrival in India along with a
huge business delegation was a reminder that there
i s a si gni f i cant economi c di mensi on t o t he
relationship, even though this is its underperforming
side. Japan-India bilateral trade, which was $18.61
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bi lli on in 2012-13, i s only around 1 per cent of
Japans total foreign trade, while it is about 2.2 to 2.5
per cent of I ndias t ot al foreign t rade, despit e a
comprehensive free trade agreement, implemented
in 2011. Tokyo has generously helped fund Indias
infrast ructure development , including the Delhi-
Mumbai Industrial Corridor, and is also interested in
a similar project in t he Chennai-Bangalore belt .
Discussions on a civilian nuclear deal cont inue,
despite opposition to nuclear energy within Japan,
and in particular to a deal with a country t hat is a
Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty holdout. An
agreement, if and when it comes through, will be the
icing on the cake of India-Japan ties.
REDEEMING THE SUPREME COURT
In a span of about 45 days, the Supreme Court
of I ndia has deli vered t wo judgment s t hat have
received diametrically opposite reactions one will
count among t he Cour t s most poorly reasoned
judgments while the other is likely to be heralded as
one of its finest for its clarity and fidelity to earlier
decisions. The contrast bet ween Just ice Singhvis
judgment uphol di ng t he cri mi nal i sat i on of
homosexuality and that of Chief Justice Sathasivam
affirming t he right s of mercy-reject ed death row
prisoners could not be starker. After Justices Singhvi
and Mukhopadhaya upheld the constitutionality of
Section 377 of the IPC inSuresh Kumar Koushal, the
credibility of the Court as a count er-majorit arian
institution had suffered a serious setback. However,
the Chief Justice, along with Justices Ranjan Gogoi
and Shiva Kirti Singh, has done a remarkable job in
partly restoring the credibility of the Court through
a t horoughly reasoned judgment i nShat rughan
Chauhan v Union of India. InChauhan, the Court
has concluded that inordinate delay in the rejection
of mercy petitions of death row convicts amounted
to torture and that it is a sufficient basis, in and of
i t sel f , t o commut e a sent ence of deat h t o l i f e
imprisonment. It is not just about t he contrast in
out comes in t hese t wo cases but t he processes
adopted by these two judgments will go a long way
in determining the position they will occupy in the
judicial history of this country.
The similarities
Any comparison between the two judgments
must begin by acknowledging complexities involved
in both cases. The legal response to homosexuality in
India through Section 377 has been on the statute
books for over 150 years. Though attitudes towards
homosexuality have undergone significant changes, it
woul d onl y be f ai r t o acknowl edge t hat i t i s
nonetheless a deeply divisive issue in India. It would
also be a fair assessment that the death penalty and
treatment that must be accorded to those sentenced
to deat h are extremely polarising issues. The case
bef ore t he Supreme Court i nChauhanwas
part icularl y del icat e because t he President had
rejected mercy to all 15 prisoners before the Court.
However, all 15 pri soners had ret urned t o t he
Supreme Court seeking enforcement of their right to
life on the ground that their suffering on death row
due to the inordinate delay by the executive (ranging
bet ween 11 t o 1.5 years) ent i t l ed t hem t o
commutation of their death sentence. It must also
be noted that the Supreme Court in both cases was
being asked to intervene in situations where other
or gans of t he st at e had al ready made cert ai n
determinations. InKoushal, the legislature had made
t he poli t ical det erminat ion t hat homosexuali t y
would be criminalised by not repealing Section 377.
Similarly, in Chauhan, t he execut ive, through the
Presi dent of I ndi a, had reject ed al l t he mercy
petitions.
Differences
Though the challenges were similar in many
ways, there is an unbelievable contrast in the manner
in which the Supreme Court responded. InKoushal,
the judgment authored by Justice Singhvi does not
address the legal issues that were at the heart of the
constitutional challenges to Section 377. There are
the poorly argued sections on equality under Article
14 and t he right t o l i fe under Art i cl e 21 whil e
compl et el y i gnori ng t he ar gument s on t he
protection against discrimination under Article 15.
The shortcomings ofKoushalare evident when it is
compared to the judgment of the Delhi High Court
on Sect i on 377 i nNaz Foundat i on. There are
established constitutional doctrines to test whether
a provision of law is discriminatory and violates the
right t o equalit y under Articles 14 and 15 of t he
Const i t ut ion, none of whi ch fi nds any seri ous
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engagement inKoushal. However, t he judgment
inChauhanarticulates a very difficult legal issue
precisely and clarifies t he decision of a five-judge
bench inTriveniben(1989) on it. While clarifying and
rel yi ng onTri veni ben, t here i s t horough
constitut ional reasoning inChauhant hat led the
Court t o come t o t he conclusion t hat inordinat e
delay in disposing of mercy petit ions amounts t o
torture and that the nature of the crime must have
no relevance in that determination. The issue about
the nature of the crime was particularly important in
t he cont ext of t he Supreme Cour t s deci si on
inBhullar.
Challenges and responses
The most obvi ous di f f er ence i n t he t wo
judgment s is t he approach t o t he t arget groups
concerned. InKoushal, the perception that only very
f ew homosexual s have been prosecut ed under
Section 377 was of tremendous significance to the
judges. A numerical approach to rights enforcement
is rather baff ling and quite alien to the jurisprudence
developed by the Indian Supreme Court.
As far as i nst i t ut i onal rel at i ons bet ween
different organs of t he St at e are concerned, t he
Supreme Court, inKoushal, ruled that Parliament
was free t o amend Section 377 and decriminalise
homosexuality. However, if the law were to st and,
the judges felt there was no constitutional infirmity.
There is a pal pable reluct ance t o meaningfull y
scrutinise a law on a divisive issue where the political
class has made a choice. However, inChauhan, the
Supreme Court squarely addresses the warning that
t he Court might be overst epping it s jurisdict ion
because the President had already rejected the mercy
petitions of all 15 prisoners. The Court is clear that
it is not questioning the power of the President to
reject mercy pet itions but is rather interested and
compet ent t o go int o t he i ssue of whet her t he
execut ive vi ol at ed t he ri ght s of t he deat h row
convicts due to the inordinate delay.
KEEPING INDIA AT BAY
Fish move over the Indian Ocean knowing no
borders, while marine resources including corals on
the continental shelf are important for the seasonal
migration and reproduction of fish. Similarly, for
cent uries past, fishers and t raders travelled freely
over the ocean, fishing and accumulating wealt h
needed t o bui ld coast al economi es. Event ual ly,
col onial empires and post -coloni al st at es drew
borders and boundari es across land and sea as
capit alist forms of fishing and coast al indust ries
steadily ravaged marine resources. The backdrop to
the discussions and t he upcoming India-Sri Lanka
negotiations on the Palk Bay fishing conf lict is the
t ension bet ween a hist ory of coexi st ence in t he
Indian Ocean and the contemporary predicament of
exploitative fishing that destroys livelihoods and the
environment.
During t he decades of war, t he Nort hern
fishers in Sri Lanka were restricted from the seas.
Their livelihoods were devastated as they confronted
repeated displacement. They lost many of their kith
and kin t o t he unceasing f iri ng and bombs, but
st ruggl ed t o keep t heir communit i es t oget her
through the years.
Al most f i ve years af t er t he war, t he
reconstruction of the war-torn North and East has
failed due to f lawed neoliberal policies which banked
on infrastructure development, financialisation and
t he market, with litt le serious at tention given t o
local livelihoods. For t he Northern fisherfolk, t he
problem is compounded by an armada of some two
thousand Indian t rawlers mercilessly poaching in
their seas. On the three nights of a week when the
Indian trawlers relentlessly invaded the seas, the local
fishers smaller boats were run over and their costly
net s destroyed. Having lost millions of rupees in
damaged equipment, they now mostly stay at home
on those three trawling days. Their catch is greatly
reduced exacerbating their plight. With decreasing
incomes, waning political and economic power and
the politicisation of rural development by the regime
in Colombo, t he cooperat ives, which managed t o
survive the war, are weakening and face the danger
of collapse.
While the Sri Lankan fishers also compete with
Indian small-scale fishers on non-trawling days, it is
the more high-powered trawlers that are the cause
for rage in the coastal North. The humming and the
lights of the larger trawlers venturing close to the
shores are the disquieting reality of the Sri Lankan
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fishers stolen future. With crippling indebtedness,
some fishers are abandoning their way of life and
resorting to day wage labour as masons or seeking
work as migrants.
Deep-sea trawling
On the environmental front, years of trawling
have led t o t he deplet ion of fish st ocks. There is
ample evidence of ecological damage by t rawling,
which scrapes the seabed, destroying biodiversity.
Indeed, trawling is banned in many countries. In Sri
Lanka, fishery policies in recent decades opposed
t rawl i ng, whi ch cul mi nat ed i n a ban i n 2010.
Research by marine scient ists is now beginning to
map t he envi ronment al damage due t o I ndi an
trawlers on the ocean bed.
I n t hi s cont ext , t here have been t wo
significant rounds of talks between Tamil Nadu and
Northern fishers in 2004 and then again in 2010. The
agreement reached in 2010 called for a complete end
to trawling in Sri Lankan waters within a year, giving
Indian trawl fishers time to shift to other forms of
fishing. The agreement has not been implemented by
either country across the Palk Straits, and three and
a half years lat er, t he sit uation has reached crisis
proportions.
The irony of the tragedy facing the Northern
fishers is that the Tamil Nadu polity, which claims to
champion the rights of the Sri Lankan Tamils, has
been complicit in the dispossession of the Sri Lankan
Tamil fishers. This hypocrisy also extends to the Sri
Lankan Tamil middle class, t he Sri Lankan Tamil
media and t he Tamil National Alliance. Wit h the
singular except ion of t he recent ly el ect ed Chief
Minister Wigneswaran, who recent ly called for a
principled cessation of trawling, the Sri Lankan Tamil
polity has been, for the most part , silent , ref lecting
it s cl ass and cast e bias t owards fishers. The Sri
Lankan state, in turn, has used the issue as a leverage
in a difficult relationship with its bigger neighbour on
i ssues rangi ng f rom a const i t ut i onal pol i t i cal
set t l ement , cont i nui ng mi l i t ari sat i on and t he
acrimonious human rights debates in UN forums.
Introspection needed
For now, the vision and initiative has to come
from the Indian side; New Delhi, t he Tamil Nadu
polit y and the trawl fishing communit ies have t o
engage in some serious introspection. Otherwise, the
mounting anger among the Nort hern fishers may
place a wedge between the post-war North and India.
Indeed, Indias support for devolut ion of power,
subst ant i ve demil i t arisat i on, t he massive f i ft y
thousand housing scheme for the war-affected and
bui l di ng of t he Nort her n rai l road are al l now
overshadowed by t he Pal k Bay fishi ng conf l ict .
Addressing t he Indi an t rawl ing problem is fast
becoming the litmus test for Indian solidarity; not
only t owards t he fisherfolk but the war affect ed
North and East as a whole.
Negot iations are not about demonising the
Tamil Nadu t rawlers, but rat her about calling on
them to take responsibility. On the Indian side, while
a ban on t rawli ng would be welcome given t he
ecological damage, it may, in reality require a process
of buyback of trawlers by the government to reduce
capaci t y and, over a peri od of t i me, compl et e
decommissioning.
On t he Sri Lankan si de, whi l e an end t o
poaching by Indian trawlers will give some relief to
the Northern fishers, their devastating past means
there needs to be much support for t heir revival.
There are calls by fishers for compensation for their
loss of equipment and catch over the years. There is
a need t o rebuild fisheries infrastruct ure such as
jetties and harbours. Next, training and investment
in multi-day boats capable of deep-sea fishing for at
least some sect ions of t he Nort hern fishers are
needed.
At t he same time, we must imagine a future
where Sri Lankan and Indian fishers collaborate and
traverse the Indian Ocean on deep-sea vessels, while
fishing for the sustenance of the subcontinent. And
cl oser t o t he coast , t he soci al l y-excl uded and
dispossessed fisherfolk should be given respite to
revive their livelihoods in their fishing villages and re-
imagine a future that can be prosperous.
AN OMINOUS SITUATION
That the medicine chest is bereft of effective
new drugs t o fight t he ext remely drug-resist ant
tuberculosis (XDR-TB) strain has once again become
frighteningly clear. According to a study published
recently inThe Lancet, while only 16 per cent (17 of
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the 107) of a South African patient cohort had either
t reat ment cure or complet ion at t he end of t wo
years of follow-up, as many as 49 patients died and
25 failed t reat ment . Wi t h t he st rai n remaini ng
resistant to at least four of the most potent anti-TB
drugs available today, XDR-TB patients have virtually
exhaust ed all t reat ment options. Hence, despit e
l ong, compl i cat ed and prohi bi t ivel y expensi ve
treatment using toxic drugs, the outcome is at best
poor. The dire urgency to bring immediate focus on
the discovery of efficacious anti-TB drugs to treat all
forms of drug-resist ant st rains becomes clear as
hospitals in South Africa, for want of beds, are being
forced to discharge XDR-TB patients who are yet to
be cured. This is part icularly ominous as they can
spread t he disease with equal ease as t hose wit h
drug-sensitive TB. With the median survival period
from the time of discharge being nearly 20 months,
the threat of the dangerous form of TB spiralling out
of cont rol is real as many pat i ent s are cul t ure-
positive and about a third are smear-positive at the
time of discharge; smear-posit ive pat ient s have a
higher bacterial load and hence a greater potential
for spreading the disease. If this situation is allowed
to continue for a few more years, the XDR-TB strain
would spread to all countries.
There is also an immediate and pressing need
f or t he hi gh-burden count ri es t o i ncrease t he
number of beds for treating drug-resistant cases. It
is time to come up with acceptable and workable
solut ions t o isolat e XDR-TB t reatment failure or
i ncurabl e cases t o cut t he t ransmi ssi on chai n.
Reducing the reservoir of TB-infected people through
a simple, cheap and effective isoniazid prevent ive
therapy in children under five years of age exposed
t o adults wit h pulmonary TB, will pay significant
dividends in the long run. Next in priority should be
ensuri ng t hat most drug-sensi t ive pat i ent s are
diagnosed early, treatment using the correct drug
regimen is initiated without delay, and the default
rat e is great ly reduced. This would aut omat ically
prevent the emergence of drug-resistant forms. The
importance of this becomes all the more clear as all
t he par amet ers t hat go i nt o t he successf ul
complet i on of drug-resi st ant TB t reat ment are
f raught wi t h pr obl ems. I ndi a, whi ch i s now
expanding and equipping MDR-TB diagnostic centres
with GeneXpert, has already detected 64,000 cases,
the highest in the world.
New notes for old
The move by t he Reserve Bank of I ndia t o
withdraw from circulation all currency notes issued
prior to 2005 is interesting indeed. These notes will
be legal t ender unt il March 31, and from April 1
holders will have to exchange them with banks for
new ones. Two months thereon that is, from July
1 those wanting to exchange more than 10 such
notes of Rs.500 or Rs.1,000 denomination will have
to provide proof of identity and residence if they go
to a bank where they do not regularly transact. In the
interim period, it is not known if banks have to note
down details of those exchanging such notes and pass
them on to relevant authorities. But obviously they
will have to do so if the objective of the RBI move is
what i t i s wi del y bel i eved t o be: t o f l ush out
unaccounted money and either bring it back into the
syst em or st ri p i t of i t s val ue. Those who are
hoarding currency not es issued before 2005 right
now will have to get it out into the open either to
transact until March 31 or to exchange with banks.
It will not be easy to get large volumes of currency
into the syst em unnot iced in such a short period.
Even if some of it does get exchanged, the RBI will
not mi nd t hat as i t woul d have achi eved t he
object i ve of get t ing such money int o t he l egal
system.
The RBI move wi l l al so hel p el i mi nat e
count erfeit notes from t he syst em. Not es issued
after 2005 have security features built into them that
are absent in counterfeit currency. As of December
31, 2004, the value of notes issued and in circulation
was Rs.3,43,658 crore as per RBI dat a. That i s
approximately the amount of older currency that will
need t o be exchanged before t he RBI cl oses t he
window. As of now it has not specified any time limit
for t he exchange. To be sure, some par t of t hat
would have been already replaced in t he normal
course by the RBI. But it will be safe to assume that
a good part is still in the system given that the value
of notes in circulation has shot up to Rs.11,40,621
crore as per latest available data (January 11, 2013).
Sceptics can still point out that not all black money
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is held as cash and not all unaccounted cash will be
in the form of notes issued prior to 2005. While that
may be t rue, the fact remains that the RBIs move
will make life difficult for those who have hoarded
currency notes. The timing of the move, just ahead
of general elections, is also interesting. It is no secret
t hat unaccount ed money plays a major rol e i n
funding elections in this country, and in recent times
to even buy votes through cash inducements. The
RBIs move may or may not dent the finances of the
politicians, but one thing is clear: it is a good step to
get at least a part of the stock of unaccounted cash
back into the system.
ON A WING AND A PRAYER
The Pakistan government finds itself between
a rock and a hard place. The spat e of bombings
targeting the security forces and the police, and the
blast near t he milit ary General Headquart ers in
Rawalpindi, a day aft er t he suicide at t ack in t he
Bannu cantonment, are too close for comfort. Every
at tack has been claimed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban
Pakistan (TTP), wit h which the government was
mandat ed t o have a dialogue for peace by t he All
Part i es Conf er ence (APC), at i t s meet i ng on
September 9, 2013.
Within two months of the APC, on November
1, 2013, TTP chief Hakimullah Mehsud was killed by
a drone st r i ke and t he Mi ni st er f or I nt eri or,
Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, slammed the United States
for sabotaging the peace process. He said at a well
att ended press conference t he next day t hat t ies
with the U.S. would be reviewed. Some interlocutors
had been about to f ly to meet Mehsud with a formal
invite for talks wit h the government , he said. The
TTPs new leader Mullah Fazlullah has refused to talk
to the government , if the militant outfit s publicists
are to be believed. The outfit s recent att acks have
not spared even t he media. Last week, t he TTP
brazenly called up a television channel whose staffers
it killed in an attack in Karachi to claim responsibility.
Air strikes
Blasts are occurring with unfailing regularity
and the government which is putting together a draft
National Security Policy can only react in shock and
condemnat ion. The pol icy envi sages a mi l it ary
operation against militants as the last option. At the
APC, outgoing army chief, General Ashfaq Parvez
Kayani , was al so on t he same page as t he
government on the need for a dialogue. The TTP is
put t ing out conf lict ing st at ement s, calling for a
ceasefire first from the government side and clearly
not f avouri ng a dial ogue on i t s avowed ai m of
spreadi ng t he Shari a l aw across Paki st an. Mr.
Chaudhry Ni sar , respondi ng t o t he Bannu
Cantonment bombing which claimed the lives of over
20 Frontier Corps men, said the government was in
favour of a dialogue with those who believed in peace
but it could take action against those who believed
in bloodshed.
For some time now, Islamabad has been trying
t o make a dist inction bet ween t hose element s in
Pakist an Taliban that favour a dialogue and those
that are unrelenting in their violent quest. It brackets
t he t wo l at e TTP l eaders, Wal i ur Rehman and
Haki mul l ah Mehsud, as t hose who f avoured a
dialogue which couldnt take off due to their deaths.
The government is under tremendous pressure to
initiate action but can it negotiate for peace from a
position of strength? What are the issues it will take
t o t he t abl e f or t he t al ks? The TTP, as t he
government says, has over 50 fact ions, making a
dialogue difficult.
U.S. funding
President Barack Obama signed a bill last week
which clearly linked funding to Pakistans actions on
terrorism and the release of Dr. Shakil Afridi who is
in jail for helping the CIA t rack down Osama bin
Laden in 2011. There are provisions to withhold $33
million unless Dr. Afridi is released and cleared of all
charges.
Another provision can block aid until Secretary
of St ate John Kerry certifies that Pakistan is not
supporting terrorist activities against the U.S. or the
coalition forces in Afghanistan. A key element of the
bill is Pakistans cooperation with the U.S. to deal with
count er t errori sm ef fort s agai nst t he Haqqani
network and other terror groups, and preventing
them from operating from Pakistan.
Paki st an has al ready react ed wi t h
disappointment to the withholding of funds over Dr.
Af ri di s rel ease. But t he ot her i ssues relat ed t o
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preventing cross-border terrorism are equally vital.
It is significant that the Prime Ministers advisor on
National Security and Foreign Affairs, Sartaj Aziz, is
scheduled to meet Mr. Kerry on January 27 as part
of the strategic dialogue ministerial to discuss a range
of issues.
With the coalition forces set to leave in a few
months and the general elections in Afghanistan, it
is not a moment too soon for Pakistan to weigh its
opt ions and develop a measured response t o the
rut hless milit ancy which had its beginnings even
before the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan after 9/ 11.
The government is aware that fire-fighting may not
be the best option but in the absence of a focussed
and timely strategy, it could continue to be on the
back-foot in the war against terror if it doesnt get
its act together soon.
OIL EXPLORATION AND SECURITY
First it was telecom a couple of years ago and
now it is oil and gas explorat ion. It looks like t he
Chinese ghost will not go away. The Union Home
Ministry has advised the Petroleum Ministry against
consi deri ng Chi nese f i r ms f or t he award of
expl orat i on right s i n oi l and gas bl ocks due t o
security reasons. The on-land blocks in Rajasthan,
Gujarat and Punjab proposed for auction are located
close to the border with Pakistan where apparently
China is engaged in different projects. The blocks in
the northeast and offshore ones in the Mahanadi
basin, says the Home Ministry, are close to sensitive
defence installations and strategic assets. In its view,
these blocks should therefore be given only to Indian
public sector companies for exploration. The Home
Ministry also want s it s advice to be kept in mind
while finalising sub-contracts for services such as
equi pment procurement , consul t ancy and
maintenance. Truth to tell, it is not as if too many
foreign companies are li ning up t o invest in t he
countrys oil and gas exploration sector, not to talk
of Chinese ones. The auctioning of oil exploration
blocks under the New Exploration Licensing Policy
has at t ract ed but t epid at t ent i on f rom f oreign
bidders in the last couple of rounds, and the story is
likely to be the same in the upcoming one as well.
Yet , t he bogey of t hreat f rom Chi nese
companies needs to be busted. For all its exertions
in recent years, the government has not provided
concret e evidence of any wrongdoing by Chinese
companies in the telecom and IT sectors. Its warnings
have been based on mere suspicion which is not
enough grounds t o keep out a f orei gn invest or,
especially in these difficult times for the economy. On
t he ot her hand, i t was Facebook, Googl e and
Twitter, companies that are headquartered in what
is supposed to be a friendly country, which were in
t he eye of a st orm over sharing dat a from t heir
ser vers, including t hat of Indians, wit h t he U.S.
National Security Agency. This proves companies from
friendly countries are as capable of aiding espionage
as those from not-so-friendly ones. And the answer
is not to ban or show the door to all multinationals
but to put in place protective systems to safeguard
the countrys interests and assets. In the case of the
oil blocks t here is indeed a problem as t hese are
located in strategic or sensitive parts of the country.
Instead of t rying to keep out companies from one
country or the other, the government would do well
to create a reporting and monit oring syst em that
will enable security agencies to keep an eye on the
act ivit ies of t hese companies, especially when it
comes t o bl ocks l ocat ed cl ose t o def ence
inst allat ions. That is t he way t o handle securit y
threats.
THE DIASPORAS DARK SIDE
From cast e discriminat ion t hrough forced
marriages t o sex-select ive abortions, ent renched
practices among sections of the British South Asian
di aspor a pose cont i nui ng chal l enges. Cast e
discriminat ion is common enough; t he European
Parliament passed a resolution in 2013 calling for EU
institutions to include procedures against it in their
dealings with caste-affected countries. As for forced
marriages among Sout h Asian and ot her Brit ish
ethnic minorities, the Foreign and Commonwealth
Office has a section specifically to help victims. Sex-
selective abort ions, on t he ot her hand, have only
recent ly att ract ed att ention, following a series of
report s in t heIndependent, which commissioned
Imperial College London to analyse the 2011 census.
The paper concludes t hat t he number of female
birt hs in t he relevant communit ies is below t he
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expect ed f igure by bet ween 1,400 and 4,700 in
England and Wales. This contradicts junior Minister
Ear l Howes 2013 st at ement af t er a st i ng
operat i on by t heDaily Telegraphi dent i f i ed t wo
doctors ready to perform sex-selective terminations
that there was no evidence of the practice in the
U.K.
Campai gning groups, indivi dual s, and t he
media have nevertheless confirmed that there are
social and cultural pressures on South Asian British
women to abort female foetuses. The Abortion Act
1967 does not expressly ban abort ion on gender
gr ounds, but i t woul d requi re t wo doct ors t o
conclude that the mother faces health risks which
out weigh t hose of t ermi nat ion, and i t woul d be
di f f i cul t t o prove t hat t he doct ors had not
invest igat ed t he mot hers healt h properly. Many
National Health Service hospitals do not st ate the
sex of unborn babi es unt i l af t er t he 24-week
abort i on deadl ine, but f amil ies can use privat e
services inst ead. Technical development s, such as
sperm washi ng t o ensure concept i on of mal e
foetuses, complicate the picture; the claim has even
been made that a woman has a right to choose the
sex of her child. In addition, some South Asian British
families t ake women carrying female foet uses t o
parts of South Asia where the law is not rigorously
enf orced; a prof i t abl e t rade i n sex-sel ect i ve
t er mi nat i ons has ar i sen. The U.K. l aw can be
t i ght ened, but t he key probl ems l i e i n soci al
att itudes. One response would be for t he U.K. t o
crack down harder on racial discrimination, which
blocks many ethnic-minority communities from full
access to British life and isolates the women; another
would be closer cooperat ion bet ween the affect ed
countries. As what has been called a global war on
girls spreads, all governments involved must move to
end sex-selective abortion.
SOME CHEER ON THE ECONOMY
For a government faci ng crit ici sm f or not
doing enough for the economy, some indicators have
brought cheer. Until now, nearly all crucial data on
t he macroeconomy seemed to portray t he UPA-II
government s recent economic performance in a
negat i ve l i ght . Not l ong ago, Pri me Mi ni st er
Manmohan Si ngh mor e or l ess admi t t ed hi s
government s failure to get a grip on inf lation. High
prices were a major campaign issue in t he recent
State elections and are certain to figure prominently
in the coming national elections as well. Failure to
push up GDP growth to levels seen just a few years
ago is another negative factor. In the first half of the
current year (2013-14), the economy grew by barely
4.6 per cent and it may not be able t o match the
CSOs estimate of 5 per cent for last year, the lowest
in a decade.
The overall macroeconomic scene has not been
encouraging for the ruling coalition, but bits of good
news that have started trickling in can partially lift
the gloom. Arguably, the most satisfying news in the
recent period has been the sharp fall in inf lat ion,
both headline and retail, in December. The former
moderated significantly to a five-month low of 6.16
per cent from a 14-month high of 7.52 per cent in
November. Retail inf lation too fell from 11.6 to 9.87
per cent in the same period. A sharp fall in the prices
of vegetables, especially onions, was responsible for
the moderation. Inf lation affects the common man
and t he vulnerable much more in the immediat e
term than any other variable including growth rates.
However, while decline in inf lat ion is welcome, it
must be noted t hat t he moderation has not been
across all categories. Even within the food basket,
prices of dairy products and eggs remain stubbornly
high. For the RBI, which will review the credit policy
at the end of t his month, the decline in inf lat ion
woul d be wel come but not good enough t o cut
rates. Core inf lation, a widely watched measure that
excludes food and fuel prices. has been climbing. The
other important piece of good news has to do with
a possible revision by the CSO of its growth estimates
of some previous years. The estimate for 2011-12
will be revised upwards from 6.2 per cent to between
7 and 7.75 per cent and for last year from 5 per cent
to 5.5 per cent and above. Revisions in data are not
uncommon, but its magnitude this time certainly is.
The CSO shoul d back it s revisions wi t h a soli d
explanat i on t o uphold t he int egri t y of of f ici al
st atistics. Whether the improvement in economic
indicators will be sustained over the next few months
is a moot question.
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FREEING TEMPLES FROM STATE CONTROL
The Supreme Court del ivered a l andmark
judgment on January 6, 2013, allowing Special Leave
Petition that sought the quashing of the Tamil Nadu
Government s G.O. of 2006 which had mandated the
government t akeover of t he hal l owed Sri
Sabhanayagar Templ e (popularl y known as t he
Nataraja temple).
The Madras Hi gh Court Single Judge and
Di vi si on Bench had i n 2009 uphel d t he
const i t ut i onal it y of t he G.O. by a t ort uous and
convoluted logic t hat new laws can overturn past
court judgment s that had attained finality earlier.
The Supreme Court in 1953 had dismissed the then
Madras Government s SLP seeking the quashing of a
Madras High Court Division Bench judgment of 1952
t hat had upheld t he right of Podu Dikshit ars t o
administer the affairs of the Nataraja temple while
dismissing all charges of misappropriation of temple
funds against the Dikshitars. The Supreme Court
thus made this judgment final and hence that which
cannot be re-opened. But in 2009 the Madras High
Court did precisely t hat . In 2014, in my SLP, t he
Supreme Court Bench of Justices B.S. Chauhan and
S.A. Bobde therefore termed this re-opening of the
mat ter as judicial indiscipline and set aside the
2009 Madras High Court judgment as null and void
on the principle ofRes J udicata.
In t hei r l engt hy judgment , t he Bench has
clearly set the constitutional parameters on the scope
of governmental intervention in the management of
religious institut ions. In part icular, t he Court has
opi ned t hat any G.O. t hat l egal l y mandat es a
t akeover of a temple must be for a fixed limit ed
period, which I had suggested as three years.
The Dravidian movement intellect uals and
pol it icians in various part i es in Tamil Nadu are
incensed wit h t he judgment . The recent art icle
Reforms in the House of God (A. Srivathsan inThe
HinduJanuary 13, 2013) is one such example t hat
laments the Supreme Court judgment.
In this Dravidian movement background, it is
not difficult to understand the views of those who
believe that Hindu temples ought to be managed by
the government, and that any deviation is a social,
ethical, moral and legal sacrilege! In Mr. Srivathsans
article it is stated that : For almost a centur y, t he
Tamil Nadu government has been trying to bring the
Chidambaram Natarajar temple or the Sabanayagar
t empl e as i t i s of f i ci al l y known, under st at e
admi ni st rat ion. Thi s i s one expressi on of t he
outlook that only Hindu religious affairs need to be
managed by the government. The obvious question,
why should a secular, socialist government control
only Hindu places of worship, but not Muslim and
Christ ian rel igious i nst it ut i ons clearly has been
avoided.
But the country has moved on after the phase
of British imperialist grip on Tamil Nadu during which
phase t he Dravi di an Movement was f ounded.
Prominent leaders of this Movement had declared
that blowing up of the Nataraja Temple by a cannon
i s t he goal of t he Dr avi di an Movement .
Unfortunately for them, in the last two decades, the
rising popularit y of the Hindu religion among the
youth, and the debilitating corruption in financial
affairs of the Dravidian movement have made such
a violent aim unattainable. But the biggest roadblock
is the Constitution of India.
In fact, what is scandalous is the corrupt ion
after takeover of temples by the Tamil Nadu officials,
MLAs and Ministers by looting the temple wealth,
lands, and jewels, and t he reckless di version of
donations of devotees to non-religious purposes.
Temple antiquity: The third contribution of
t he government i s t he mi ndless dest ruct i on of
priceless architectural heritage of our temples.
There are several instances of sand blasting of
temple walls resulting in loss of historical inscriptions;
wholesale demolition of temple structures and their
replacement by concrete monstrosities; in a temple
i n Nasi yanur near Sal em, an ent i re
t emplemandapamdisappeared, leaving behind a
deep hole in the ground, literally.
Recently the government started covering the
f loor of Tiruvotriyur t emple wit h marble, a stone
never used in south Indian temples. The original floor
was of anci ent grani t e sl abs wi t h hi st ori cal
i nscri pt i ons. There are several i ni t i at i ves f or
renovat ion of t emples t he bureaucrat s rarely
consult archaeologists or heritage experts. Without
knowledge, experience, competence or appreciation
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and with great insensitivity they use inappropriate
chemicals on ancient murals, insert concrete/cement
structures, use ceramic tiles to embellishsanctum
sanctorumand const ruct of fi ces wit hin t emple
premises. Ancient monuments 300 to 1000 plus
years old are never renovat ed, only rest ored, a
distinction that escapes the babus.
More importantly, the Supreme Court , in the
2014 Chi dambar am case has hel d t hat t he
government cannot arbitrarily take over t emples,
which is what has been happening in Tamil Nadu
under the Dravidian movement s influence.
JUSTICE IN JUDICIAL APPOINTMENTS
Wit h a proactive role based on the power of
judicial review, t he higher judiciar y in India has
attained an unprecedented significance. However, in
the areas of judicial management and appointments,
there is little scope for euphoria. In selecting judges
for the constitutional courts, the collegium system
has exposed itself. In the words of Justice Krishna
Iyer: There is no structure to hear the public in the
process of select ion. No principle is laid down, no
investigation is made, and a sort of anarchy prevails.
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar warned against the system
of judges selecting judges by saying t hat to allow
t he Chi ef Just i ce pract i cal l y a vet o upon t he
appoi nt ment of judges i s reall y t o t ransfer t he
aut horit y t o t he Chi ef Just ice which we are not
pr epar ed t o vest i n t he Pr esi dent or t he
Government of the day. However, no sane criticism
of t he col l egi um syst em woul d advocat e f or
rest orat i on of pol i t i cal supremacy i n j udi ci al
appoint ment . The count ry is present ly seriously
debating on the issue and attempting legislation.
The judges in the higher judiciary in the U.K. are
appointed on t he basis of recommendations made
by t he i ndependent Judi ci al Appoi nt ment s
Commi ssion (JAC). Regi onal represent at i on i n
appointments is ensured. The Judicial Commission
has a representative and participative character. The
pr ocedures are t ransparent . There i s no
predomi nance ei t her of t he judi ciary or of t he
executive. There is no collegium syndrome, much
less any kin syndrome. Nor is t here any polit ical
highhandedness.
The JAC is an independent body which is given
the task of selecting candidates for judicial offices in
court s and t ribunals in England, Wales and also
tribunals which have jurisdiction over Scotland and
Northern Ireland. There is fair and open competition
which ensures assessment ofinter semerit . The
process is lengthy and complex. However, it is more
effective and accountable.
The Const it ut ional Reform Act (CRA) 2005
was recently amended by the Judicial Appointments
Regulations, 2013. There are 15 members in the JAC
including t he Chairman. All of t hem, except t he
three judicial members are selected through open
compet i t i on. Apart f rom t he member s f r om
judiciary and legal profession, there are also judicial
of f i cers who are not l egal l y quali f i ed and al so
eminent persons from the public.
Ther e i s a wel l -desi gned and syst emat i c
select i on process for i nduct ion of Judges at all
t ribunals and court s including t he High Court. It
i nvol ves t he request f or vacancy posi t i on,
advertisement, receipt of applications, shortlisting,
references, candi dat e sel ect ion, panel deci sion,
statutory consultation, checks, decisions on selection,
submission of report t o t he Lord Chancellor and
finally t he procedure for qualit y assurance which
includes review of the progression of the candidates
and observation of the interviews and test results.
The st at utory consult at ion is a mandat ory
requirement as per the CRA. It is an integral part of
t he sel ect i on process. Af t er t he f i nal isat i on of
select ion, t he JAC recommends t he name of t he
candidate to t he appropriat e aut hority. JAC t hus
selects the Lord Chief Justice, Heads of Division and
the Lord Justice of Appeal.
Selection to Supreme Court
However, the JAC on its own cannot select
justices for the U.K. Supreme Court. It is governed
by Sect i ons 25 t o 31 and Schedul e 8 of t he
Const it ut i onal Ref orms Act 2005 as amended.
Sections 50 to 52 of the amended Act say about the
minimum benchmark for appointment as justices of
the Supreme Court. Experience at t he bar is given
due i mport ance. The Lor d Chancel l or shoul d
constitute the Selection Commission by addressing a
letter to the president of the Court who chairs the
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Commission. The president should also nominate a
senior judge in the U.K., who should not be, however,
a Justice of the Supreme Court.
Thus the system in the U.K. inherently guards
against the vices of the collegium system. There is a
member of JAC from England and Wales, Judicial
Appointments Board (JAB) in Scotland and JAC in
Northern Ireland. Again, and significantly, at least one
of the representatives of such a commission should
be a layman. Thus the judicial appoint ment is no
more a matter concerning only lawyers or judges. It
is meant for t he public, for t here is no republic
without the public.
India has now accepted the need for a Judicial
Appointments Commission in principle as evident
from the cabinet decision on August 23, 2013 that
was f ol l owed by i nt roduct i on of a Bi l l i n t hat
direct i on. But whet her t he composit i on of t he
Committee, with two eminent jurists, is vulnerable
t o poli t ical i nt rusion t hat could jeopardise t he
independence of t he judi ciar y, is a fundament al
question being widely asked.
We shoul d rest r uct ure t he commi t t ee by
enhancing its democratic character and by ensuring
procedural fairness. We cannot , however ignore the
global trend in the realm of judicial appointments
which is more towards independent commissions.
The United States Institute of Peace has published a
Report on judi ci al appoi nt ment s and judi ci al
independence.
Screening of cases
In sharp contrast to the Indian situation, there
are days when no cases are listed at all in the U.K.
Supreme Court. Appeal is not a mat ter of routine.
Nor it is a mat ter of right . Leave t o appeal is not
automatic. Only when there is a substantial legal or
constitutional issue, the Supreme Court entertains
the appeal. As such there is no docket explosion, as
we face. However, the situations are incomparable in
t erms of populat ion and ot her soci o-economi c
factors. Therefore, the Indian Supreme Court cannot
probably emulate the Brit ish path in this respect.
Our Supreme Court, on the other hand, needs to be
a common mans court , and t here should be easy
access t o t he syst em for t he ordi nary cit izen as
visualised by the framers of the Indian Constitution.
SHALE OR NOT,
EMISSIONS WILL CONTINUE TO RISE
Global greenhouse gas emissions are set to rise
by nearly a t hird in the next two decades, putting
hopes of curtailing dangerous climate change beyond
reach, a new report by BP has found. The drastic rise
in emissions, despit e internat ional effort s to cut
carbon, will reportedly come despite the predicted
enormous growth in the use of shale gas.
Shale gas, previously inaccessible because the
exploitation of these resources requires technology
that have only recently been perfected, will account
for a rising proportion of the growth in energy in the
years approaching 2035, but its use will not cause a
decline in greenhouse gases.
The finding deals a blow to proponents of shale
gas, who have argued that its use will cut emissions.
Burning gas produces much less carbon dioxide than
burning coal, but the effect of a huge rise in shale gas
expl orat ion will not ameliorat e t he increases in
emissions that scientists say will take the world to
dangerous climate change. The Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change says that emissions must
peak by 2020 to give the world a chance to avoid a
further two degrees of warming, beyond which the
effects of climate change become catastrophic and
irreversible.
SCORING OVER POLIO
On January 13, 2011, an 18-month-old infant
in Howrah district of West Bengal was found to have
been crippled by a naturally occurring wild strain of
the polio-causing virus. However, no more children
fell victim to such viruses over the next one year and
India was t hen removed from the list of count ries
where polio is endemic. India has remained free of
polio, and analysis of sewage samples have not
turned up any signs of the virus lurking silently in the
environment. Once final tests confirm that the wild
virus has not been seen here for the last three years,
the World Healt h Organisations 11-nation South-
East Asia Region (of which India is a part ) can be
formally certified as polio-free. This region will then
join the three that already enjoy this status the
Americas, Western Pacific and Europe. For India, this
is an enormous public health achievement. Not so
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long ago experts believed that India, with its huge
population, many poor and living in squalor, would
be t he very last t o eradicat e polio, a disease t hat
once st ruck 50,000 t o 100,000 I ndian chil dren
annually. Even in 2009, nearly half of t he worlds
pol i o cases were occur r i ng here. Yet , t hrough
det ermined efforts and syst ems to ensure that no
chil d was missed duri ng i mmuni sat i on dri ves,
transmission of the wild virus has been halted. Each
nat ional immunisat ion campaign is a mammot h
operation, with 2.4 million vaccinators reaching oral
vaccine drops to some 170 million children.
But the job is not over yet. Although no child
in India has been paralysed by wild polio viruses over
t he last t hree years, several have been af fect ed
during the period when live but weakened strains of
t he vi rus used i n t he oral poli o vaccine t urned
virulent again. Such vaccine-derived viruses can also
spread like wild ones and be just as dangerous. In
order to safely withdraw oral vaccines, all countries
that rely on them have been asked to introduce at
least one dose of an injectable polio vaccine based on
ki l l ed vi r uses i nt o t hei r rout i ne chi l dhood
immunisat ion. In India, st eps are being taken t o
strengthen the way such immunisation is provided,
particularly in States where vaccination levels are low,
by incorporating lessons from the polio campaign for
reachi ng every chi l d and gai ni ng communi t y
accept ance. Moreover, poli o is st il l endemic i n
Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria, and in the past
year t he viruses have spread from t here to ot her
countries. There is therefore the risk that the virus
mi ght be import ed i nt o I ndia t oo. As l ong as it
continues to circulate in the world, India and other
countries that are polio-free must keep their guard
up.
A NEW PARADIGM FOR INCLUSION
The report of an RBI-appointed committee on
fi nanci al inclusion and fi nancial deepening has
stimulat ed a wide-ranging debate on t hese crucial
areas. However, policy measures initiated by the
government and t he RBI whi l e addi ng t o t he
numbers of new bank branches, new accounts and so
on did not really enhance the quality of such inclusive
practices. In September last year, the RBI asked the
committ ee chaired by Nachiket Mor to prepare a
clear and det ailed vision document t o lay down a
set of desi gn pri nci pl es t o gui de nat i onal
frameworks and regulation and to review exist ing
strategies and institutions with a view to removing
barriers to inclusion and t o t he deepening of the
financial sector. The report, submitted in just over
four months, is rich in detail, but its core agenda is
t o be seen in a few specific act ion point s. Every
Indian above 18 will have t o be provided wit h a
universal electronic bank account by January 2016,
less than two years from now. Aadhaar will be the
basi s t o open bank account s. A vert i cal l y
differentiated banking system with payments banks
for deposits and payments and wholesale banks for
credit outreach will come up, with few entry barriers.
No one can fault the committee for the lack of
ambition or a sense of urgency. It has underlined the
urgency by stipulating a distance rule no one need
walk for more than 15 minutes to reach a point of
contact to avail a financial service. That has been one
of the major areas of dissent within the committee,
wit h t wo of its members seeking a more realistic
timeframe. The committee might have glossed over
the huge costs that will have to be incurred in terms
of physical infrastructure and human resources. No
mat t er how import ant t echnology will be in t he
emergi ng f i nanci al scene, t he rol e of human
resources cannot be discounted.
ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT
The decision of the Ministry of Environment
and Forest s t o reval i dat e t he envi ronment al
clearance issued to South Korean steelmaker Posco
for the proposed steel plant in Odisha is based on a
piecemeal approach, rather than a comprehensive
and cumulative assessment of all parts of the project.
It cannot claim t o rely on sound judgment. What
di st i ngui shes t he proposal f rom t he wel t er of
project s before t he Minist ry is it s major Foreign
Direct Investment potential, estimated at more than
Rs.50,000 crore. There is little doubt that it will take
massive investments to pull the masses out of deep
poverty, and new industries are vital to achieving this
goal. Significant expansion of the economy has taken
place over t he past t wo decades, creat ing much
wealth. Unfortunately, this has also coincided with
grossly uneven distribution of negative externalities.
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In the case of Posco, the acquisition of land has been
a cont ent ious issue, evoking strong prot est from
local communities which remain unconvinced about
t he benef i t s. Evi dent l y, nei t her t he project
proponent nor the Odisha government has come up
with persuasive arguments over the past eight years
on why villagers should part with their land when
their livelihood is linked to it. Moreover, there is no
ef f ort t o reach a consensus on t he renewal of
environment al clearance, now for a product i on
capacity of eight million tonnes per annum, even
with conditionalities that include spending on social
commitments by Posco.
Grant of environmental clearance for the steel
plant addresses only one of many components of the
Posco project mines, a port , railway lines and a
housing facility that are integral to the functioning of
the steel plant have been delinked. That point has
already been made by the National Green Tribunal,
whi ch had recommended t o t he Cent re t hat i t
consider the cumulative impact, and the concerns
expressed by review committees set up to evaluate
it. If the Ministrys decisions must carry credibility, it
must provi de a det ai l ed r epor t on how t hese
suggestions have been complied with. In the case of
t he equally high-profile Vedant a bauxit e mining
project in Niyamgiri in Odisha, the Minist ry has
deferred to t he sentiment s of t he tribal residents
and reject ed t he bi d. Appropr i at i ng nat ur al
resources for development remains a contentious
issue in a populous country where land is scarce and
rehabilitation systems are weak. It has to be done
selectively, and only after careful study of the impacts
by credentialled specialists. There is little scope in a
democracy t o override public opinion, and impose
unpopular decisions. It is also misleading t o cast
envi ronment al safeguards and devel opment as
conf l i ct i ng i mperat i ves when t hey are vi t al l y
interlinked.
ARMING INDIA INTO DEPENDENCY
The blossoming of ties with the United States
has become an important diplomatic asset for India
in recent years. Yet , the heady glow of t he much-
ballyhooed st rat egic part nership helped obscure
prickly issues that arose much before the Devyani
Khobragade epi sode. I n t r ut h, t he Obama
administrations reluctance to accommodate Indian
i nt erest s on major i ssues, coupl ed wi t h t he
fundamental challenge of managing an asymmetrical
relationship, has created fault lines that are testing
the resilience of the partnership.
One aspect of the relationship, however, has
thrived spectacularly U.S. arms sales to India. In
just a few years, t he U.S. has quietly emerged as
Indias largest arms supplier, leaving Russia and Israel
far behind. This development is linked to the Indo-
U.S. civilian nuclear deal. Although it remains a dud
deal on energy, with little prospect of delivering a
single operational nuclear power plant for years to
come, it has proved a roaring success in opening the
door t o major U.S. arms sales. The 2005 nuclear
agreement -i n-pri nci pl e i ncorporat ed a speci fi c
commitment to ramp up defence transactions.
The booming arms sales rising in barely one
decade from a measly $100 million t o billions of
dol l ar s yearl y have seemi ngl y acqui red an
independent momentum. Nothing better illustrates
t hi s t han t he f act t hat , at t he hei ght of t he
Khobragade affair, India, far from seeking to impose
any costs on America, awarded it yet another mega-
contract a $1.01-billion deal for supply of six
additional C-130J military transport aircraft. Today,
Indias largely one-sided defence relationship with the
U.S. is beginning to look akin to its lopsided ties with
Russia, wit h weapon sales serving as t he driving
force. However, unlike the torpid Indo-Russian non-
military commerce, the two-way Indo-U.S. trade has
quadrupled in just seven years from $25 billion in
2006 to about $100 billion in 2013.
Leading arms importer
Ominously, a still-poor India has emerged as
t he worlds bi ggest ar ms i mport er si nce 2006,
account i ng for 10 per cent of al l weapons sol d
globally. Such large-scale imports might suggest that
India is pursuing a well-planned military build-up. In
truth, such imports lack strategic direction, given the
absence of long-term political thinking or joint tri-
service planning and command. They are being made
in a haphazard manner, al t hough any import ed
weapon makes India hostage to the supplier-nation
for spares and service for the full life of that system.
The rising arms imports, far from making India
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secure, are only exposing new gaps in its capabilities
to decisively win a war. The inveterate dependency
burdens Indian taxpayers, forcing them to subsidise
foreign militar y-indust rial complexes. Worse still,
defence transactions remain the single largest source
of kickbacks for Indias corrupt and compromised
political elites. This factor alone explains why India
has f ailed t o replicat e in t he convent ional -arms
sector its impressive indigenous achievements in the
fields where imports are not possible the space,
missile and nuclear-weapons realms.
For the U.S., displacing Russia as Indias largest
arms supplier has been a diplomat ic coup. Rarely
before has America acquired a major arms client of
such size so rapidly. The U.S.s India success indeed
parallels what happened in the early 1970s when
Egypt swi t ched si des duri ng t he Col d War,
t ransforming it self from a Soviet arms client t o
becoming reliant on American arms supplies. The
di f f erence i s t hat unl i ke t he perpet ual l y ai d-
dependent Egypt, India buys weapons with its own
money.
Diplomacy without leverage
The annual value of Indias arms contracts to
the U.S. already surpasses American military aid to
any count r y ot her t han Israel. Dipl omacy, t o be
effect ive, must be backed by leverage and cross-
linkages to minimise the weaker sides disadvantages.
Yet, New Delhi has not tried to leverage its contracts
either to persuade the U.S. to stop arming Pakistan
agai nst Indi a or t o secure bet t er access t o t he
Ameri can market f or i t s hi ghl y compet i t i ve
i nf ormat i on-t echnol ogy and phar maceut i cal
companies, which are facing new U.S. non-t ariff
barriers. Indias new front ier of dependency has
emerged even as t he U.S. bolst ers Pakist an wit h
generous military aid.
To be sure, t he U.S. si gned a four -poi nt
declaration of intent wit h India last September to
move beyond the sale of complete weapon systems
t o co-product i on t hrough t echnology t ransf er.
Translating that intent into practice wont be easy,
though. According to the joint declaration, efforts to
ident ify specific opport uni t ies for collaborat ive
weapon-rel at ed proj ect s wi l l be pur sued i n
accordance with national policies and procedures.
But if U.S. policies and procedures do not evolve in
the direction of facilitating such collaboration, the
declared intent will remain little more t han pious
hope.
Significantly, U.S. arms to India fall mainly in
t he cat egory of defensi ve weapons. Russi a, by
contrast, has transferred offensive weapon systems
t o India, including st rat egic bombers, an aircraft
carrier, and a nuclear-powered submarine. Will the
U.S. be willing to sell high-precision conventional
arms, anti-submarine warfare syst ems, long range
air- and sea-launched cruise missiles, and ot her
conventional counterforce systems that could tilt the
regional military balance in Indias favour?
The China factor
Another issue relates to the strategic benefits
from a closer defence relat ionship. True, such a
relationship will have a countervailing value vis--vis
China. Yet , it is also true that America has a deeper
engagement wit h China t han with India. Indeed,
China is now central to U.S. economic and strategic
interests. This fact helps to explain why the Obama
administration has chartered a course of neutrality
on t erri t ori al di sput es bet ween Chi na and i t s
neighbours, shying away from holding joint military
exercises in Arunachal Pradesh.
A wake-up call for Asian states that rely on the
U.S. as their security guarantor was Obamas inaction
on t he 2012 Chinese capture of t he Scarborough
Shoal, locat ed wit hin t he Phi lippines exclusi ve
economi c zone. Amer i cas i ndi f ference t o i t s
commitment to the Philippines under their Mutual
Defence Treaty emboldened China to effectively seize
a second Philippine-claimed shoal. This is proof that
despite its pivot toward Asia, the U.S. wont act in
ways det ri ment al t o i t s cl ose engagement wi t h
China. Obamas forei gn pol i cy bears a di st inct
transactional imprint.
A wi se I ndi a woul d consi der decl ari ng a
moratorium on arms purchases from all sources to
give itself time to strategise its priorities and clean up
its procurement system. A moratorium of just three
years will save the country a whopping $20 billion
without compromising national security. With non-
t radi t ional t hreat s ranging f rom asymmet ric
warfare in t he form of cross-border t errorism t o
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territorial creep through furtive encroachments
now domi nat i ng I ndi as secur i t y cal cul us,
pr ocur ement of mor e mega-weapons t o meet
traditional security challenges must wait until the
nation has added strategic direction to it s defence
policy.
Knowledge as power
The Wiki software that permits building up of
information in a collaborative fashion is a remarkable
innovation, and its creator, Ward Cunningham, could
have made lots of money by patenting it. Instead, he
made i t f reel y avai labl e, openi ng up enormous
possibilities. Encyclopedias, centuries-old compendia
of knowledge, have traditionally been expert-driven
and commercially produced. According t o market
devotees, Creative Commons, starved of the waters
of privat e prof it , should have f orever remai ned
barren. But over t he years i t has become a l ush
garden, tended lovingly by people who can see well
beyond personal gain. Wikipedia is the great Banyan
tree, growing in this public garden. The initial free,
public Encyclopedia, Nupedia, composed by experts,
failed to take off. Experts are busy people, generally
with a strong personal profit mot ive, and initially
f ai l ed t o t ake t he l ead i n t hi s publ i c-spi ri t ed
endeavour. It was then that Wikipedia boldly decided
t hat any l ay person t oo woul d be wel come t o
contribute to an article on any topic, provided that
t he i nput s are based on accept abl e sources of
information.
Rigorous scrutiny
Wikipedia invites all comers to scrutinise every
piece of information in every article, eliminate errors
and improve its quality. This stimulated experts who
now part icipate ent husiast ically in t he inclusive,
egal it arian ent erpri se of Wi kipedia. In t his new
culture of the Commonwealth of Knowledge, experts
have graduat ed from t he earl ier overpowering,
monopol ist ic role t o a very const ruct ive one of
collaboration and guidance. So, Wikipedia has become
a st andard sour ce of i nf ormat i on even f or
professional mat hemat icians, wit h t he mat erial,
naturally enough, based on inputs from practising
mat hemat i ci ans. They have gone on t o
collaboratively develop outst anding mathematical
text-books as Wikibooks. The gratifying outcome is
that the accuracy of information on Wikipedia, on a
par with that in commercial encyclopedias, has been
mai nt ai ned even as i t s quant i t y has grown a
t housand t i mes over t hat of commerci al ones.
Moreover, the information is very much up to date.
Within hours of the tsunami hitting the east coast of
India, Wiki pedi a carried aut hent ic pict ures and
information on the event. Happily, all major Indian
languages now have their own Wikipedias, with more
t han half a lakh art icles each in Hindi, Tamil and
Telugu.
Creation of knowledge
Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, an exercise of
compiling available knowledge. But new knowledge,
t oo, may be creat ed very effect ively in t he same
inclusive culture of collaboration, for common people
know a great deal from their experience. I discovered
a st riking example of t his in my field research on
ecology and management of bamboos. The Foresters
prescribed that the thorny covering at the base of
bamboo clumps must be cleared t o decongest t he
clumps and promote bett er growth of new culms.
The villagers told me that this was a mistake; that
clearing the thorns exposed new shoots to grazing by
cattle as well as wild animals, adversely impacting the
bamboo stocks. Three years of careful field studies
revealed that the villagers were entirely right.
So, syst emat ically recording such det ailed
locat ion and society specific knowledge can be of
immense value. The Australians, for instance, have a
Cit izens River Watch Programme involving local
resi dent s who adopt nearby ri ver st ret ches f or
keepi ng a wat ch over t hem. The government
arranges two-day training programmes for all those
int erest ed, communicat ing simple t echniques of
assessing wat er f low and water qualit y. The water
qualit y assessment s are based on occurrence of
animals like damself lies t hat occur only in clean
water or chironomids that frequent highly polluted
waters. Numerous volunteer observers upload such
data employing user-friendly online data entry forms.
Now, in the new millennium, a cadre of volunteers
can readily put together a quarries database since the
easi l y avai l abl e GPS i nst rument s pi npoi nt
geographical locations, and satellite images bring out
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pat t erns of land use including quarrying, t he
watercourse that the quarries affect, the landslides
that they trigger, the fields and plantations that they
smother. Local residents can involve themselves by
speedily collecting pertinent physical data, as well as
det ailed informat ion on employment generat ed,
ot her economic, soci al, heal t h impact s and on
mat ters like whether the concerned gram sabhas
support or oppose the enterprises. If organisations
like the Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishat and Vigyan
Bharathi make such an effort their mission, a rich
reliable information base can be put together in as
short a time as a few weeks.
The cit izens of t he world are now ready t o
rock many of the thoroughly mismanaged boats of
our nat i on-st at es. Peopl es t aking charge of t he
knowledge enterprise should be one of the steps in
such a revolution. So, let Kerala pioneer the Citizen
Science approach, focusing on a significant issue of
t he day t he st one quarri es di sf i guri ng t he
mountains of Gods own country.
UPBEAT GLOBAL SENTIMENT
At the start of the New Year, global economic
sentiment appears to be more upbeat than at any
time after the financial crisis of 2008. Even taking
not e of t he pitfalls of a hasty generalisation, it is
possibl e t o di scern a mood of opt imism among
policymakers and financi al market s around t he
world. Policymakers in the advanced economies of
the U.S., the European Union and Japan though
these countries are in varying stages of recovery
have special reasons for cheer. In the early days after
t he cri si s, t hey l agged behi nd t he devel opi ng
economies led by China, India and others, in what
the Ineternational Monet ary Fund called a mult i-
speed global recovery. The roles are now reversed,
wi t h t he devel oped count ri es pr ovi di ng t he
momentum. Leading the pack is the U.S., which is
once again driving global economic growt h. In a
recent major policy speech possibly the last before
he hands over the reins of the Federal Reserve at the
end of t hi s mont h out goi ng Chai rman Ben
Ber nanke exami ned recent U.S. economi c
per f ormance f rom t he perspect i ve of gl obal
economic growt h and found enough reasons to be
caut iously opt imist ic about bot h the developed
and emergi ng market economi es. I n t he l ast
reporting quart er, U.S. economic growth has been
higher than expected. Improved economic prospects
have induced the Fed to reduce, or taper, the scale
of asset purchases it has used to prop up t he U.S.
economy.
That decision has had varied meanings for the
rest of the world. India and certain other countries
feared an imminent wit hdrawal of capit al f lows
which have helped bridge the deficit in its current
account. However, they have come to realise that the
decision to gradually reverse its ultra-soft monetary
stance has been based on an improving domestic
economy, and what is good for the U.S. will be good
for ot her economies as well. For inst ance, more
spending by American firms and households will in
t urn buoy demand f or goods and services from
across the world. That development has already
benef it ed I ndia, whose export s have pi cked up
smartly since May. To be sure, the U.S. still has its
share of problems. Unemployment remains high. But
the risks to the worlds largest economy emanating
from other areas such as a housing market slump,
fiscal dysfunction and the eurozone crisis have clearly
abated. One potential area of concern, however, has
been the unbridled growth of its financial sector and
the failure of regulators to put in place checks and
balances. In India the stock market s are running
ahead of the real economy, which after a dismal run
might have bottomed out and can now only move
up.
THE RIGHT
TO PRIVACY IN THE DIGITAL AGE
Much has happened in the last six months, in
di f f erent part s of t he worl d, af t er t he gl obal
sur vei l l ance pr ogramme of t he Uni t ed St at es
Nat ional Securit y Agency (NSA) was revealed by
Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor. In the
U.S., t here was a lot of noise made by privacy and
libert y groups such as American Civil Liberties
Union, Center for Democracy and Technology, and
Electronic Frontier Foundation among others and
some Senators and Congressmen. Even U.S. President
Bar ack Obama rai sed some quest i ons on t he
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propriety of such a massive surveillance programme.
He set up a committee under the chairmanship of
Richard Clarke, former Nat ional Coordinat or for
Securit y, Infrastructure Prot ection, and Count er-
terrorism for the U.S., to review the programme for
recommendations to scale it down so as t o be less
intrusive in the lives of Americans and others. Within
three months, the committee submitted its report
to President Obama on December 12, 2013 to be
precise.
In the months leading up to the submission of
this report, there were st rong reactions from t he
European Union, especially Germany and France.
Angela Merkels personal mobile phone was kept
under surveillance by the NSA. She was put on a par
with the Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, whose
phone gave away several governance and economic
secrets to the Americans. The EU leaders condemned
t he NSA; t he Ameri can ambassadors in various
European ci t ies were summoned and asked t o
explain t heir government s actions. Threats were
held out that the safe harbour extended to the U.S.
for EU data f lows would be withdrawn. Although the
Brazilian President sent a strong signal by cancelling
her visit to the White House, she was sought to be
pacif ied t hrough t he of fer of ICANN CEO Fadi
Chehad for holding a conference in April, 2014, in
Brazil t o consider or est ablish a new governance
framework for ICANN, which currently governs the
Int ernet under t he exclusive cont rol of t he U.S.
government.
In t he meant ime, Brazil and Germany had
moved a resolution in the UN for nations to agree
on privacy prot ection for cit izens in cyberspace,
whi ch was passed by t he General Assembl y on
December 18, 2013, as Right to Privacy in the Digital
Age. It was sponsored by more than 50 count ries,
including India, and approved unanimously by the
193 members. The resolution upholds the right to
privacy for everyone when bi ll ions of innocent
individuals around the world have been victims of
the sweeping mass surveillance conducted by the U.S.
and the United Kingdom from their domestic soil. It
reaff irms t he human right s core pri nciple t hat
individuals cannot be denied human rights simply
because they live in a country different from the one
that is placing them under surveillance.
The resol ut i on cal l s upon st at es t o end
violat i ons of pri vacy by ensuri ng t hat nat ional
l egi sl at i on compl i es wi t h obl i gat i ons under
international human rights law, and to review their
procedures, practices and legislation regarding the
surveillance of communications, their interception
and collect i on of personal dat a, including mass
surveillance, interception and collection, with a view
to upholding the right to privacy by ensuring the full
and effective implementation of all their obligations
under international human rights law.
The Clarke Commit t ee in it s report , t it led
Liberty and Security in a Changing World, observes
that advances in ICT continue along with increased
globalisation of trade, investment and information
f l ows, as al so t he nat i onal secur i t y t hreat s.
I nf or mat i on col l ect i on by i nt el l i gence cannot
distinguish between domestic and foreign, leading
to violation of the privacy of American citizens and
foreigners. Even strategic relationships with allies get
into difficulties because of pursuing multiple and
competing goals at home and abroad. These goals
include: prot ect ing t he nation against t hreat s t o
national security, foreign policy interests, the right to
privacy, democracy, civil libert ies, t he rule of law
promot ing prosperit y, security, and openness in a
networked world. But the recommendations do not
suggest that bulk data of U.S. persons or non-U.S.
persons should not be collected under Section 702 of
the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). While
it does make some recommendations on probable
cause for U.S. citizens to be shown to t he Foreign
Int elligence Surveillance Court (FISC), there is no
such concession for non-U.S. persons.
I t i s i nt erest i ng t hat t he commi t t ee
acknowl edges, al bei t i ndi rect l y, t hat t he U.S.
government is undermining encryption standards,
and subverting or weakening commercial encryption
software, by advising the government not to do so.
Likewise, it recommends that surveillance of foreign
leaders should be done aft er due considerat ion of
possible reactions by concerned countries, if it ever
becomes publ i c. The commi t t ee does not
recommend that bulk data collection, in the form of
met a-dat a of phone calls, under Sect ion 215, be
stopped. Instead it should be held by a private entity,
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and made available to the NSA after a judicial order
by t he FI SC. There are several ot her
recommendat i ons, some of whi ch wi l l cause
discomfort in the intelligence community. No wonder,
in the congressional hearings, both the NSA and the
Director, National Intelligence, have strongly urged
that the surveillance programme should be allowed
to continue in its present form, since it is essential for
its counterterrorism operations.
The committee reiterates the position of the
U.S. gover nment on t he I nt er net for gl obal
agreements, namely freedom of expression, Internet
governance through multi-stakeholderism, use of the
mutual legal assistance treat y process for gaining
access to electronic communications, not engage in
espionage to steal trade secrets through surveillance,
not to sabotage financial systems. In a clear message
t o t he Brazili an President , it recommends t hat
count ries should not try to locate servers in their
territories, or prevent data trans-border data f lows.
While other nations should not localise servers as
that may balkanise the Internet , the U.S. has to do
more to show that it is not infringing on the rights
of global citizens or undermining the sovereignty of
nations.
Will the U.S. review its laws, procedures and
pr act i ces regardi ng t he mass survei l l ance of
communications, their interception and collection of
personal dat a t o uphol d t he right t o privacy by
ensuring the full and effective implementation of its
obligations under international human rights law, as
per the UN resolution, to which it was a party?
MISSION TO CUT NEONATAL DEATHS
Goa and Manipur may have knocked Kerala off
the pedestal, but at 12 deaths among children less
than one year of age per 1,000 live births, Kerala still
has an enviably low infant mortality rate (IMR); it is
far below Indias average of 42. Yet , for years, t he
sout hern St at e has been unabl e t o reduce t he
mort ali t y rat e furt her t o a single-digit fi gure t o
become comparable with t he developed count ries.
Kerala has always been at the forefront in setting the
benchmark f or almost all t he healt h indices. It
therefore comes as no surprise that the Stat e has
initiated steps to further beat down IMR. A survey
done by the National Rural Health Mission and the
Indian Academy of Paediatrics found that about 75
per cent of infant deaths occurred during the first
four weeks of birth (or neonat al deaths). The first
week alone account ed for 59 per cent of the t ot al
neonatal deaths. Hence a pilot project is set to begin
in 25 hospitals, including five private hospitals, to
lower the neonatal mortality rate by 30 per cent in
24 months. It is planning a t arget ed approach t o
tackle the four major causal factors prematurity,
congenital anomalies, sepsis and birth asphyxia for
neonatal deaths.
Pre-term births (between 24 and 37 weeks of
gestation) combined with low birth weight account
for the lions share of about 35 per cent of neonatal
mortality in Kerala. India has the highest number
3.5 mi l li on of pre-t erm bi rt hs i n t he world,
accordi ng t o a June 2012 paper i nTheLancet.
Though t he causes for pre-t erm birt hs cannot be
ascert ained in a vast majorit y of cases, it is st ill
possible to identify using techniques like ultrasound
a certain percentage of mothers who are very likely
t o deliver such babies. Aside from improving the
nutritional status of pregnant mothers, and keeping
t heir bl ood pressure and di abet es under check,
del ayi ng pre-t erm l abour t hrough medi cal
intervent ion and administ rat ion of t wo doses of
st eroid before delivery great ly improve neonat al
survival. The st eroid improves t he t hree major
parameters that are essent ial for survival lung
maturit y, preventing haemorrhage of brain blood
vessel s and avoidi ng int est inal problems due t o
immaturit y. While st erile hospital condit ions can
prevent sepsis (9.3 per cent), the importance of the
mot her s geni t al hygi ene i s of t en mi ssed or
overlooked. Vaginal and urinary tract infections are
quit e likely t o cause pre-t erm labour and sepsis.
Mort alit y due to birt h asphyxia in Kerala is 8 per
cent . I mproving t he qual i t y of care during t he
delivery process, including by preventing prolonged
labour, can further cut birth asphyxia mortality.
MAPPING THE KASHMIR TRAJECTORY
Narendra Modis proposit ion of revisit i ng
Art icle 370 has opened a Pandoras box of sort s.
Animating the intellectual landscape, it has triggered
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a vari egat ed debat e over t he const i t ut i onal
jurisdiction, t echnicalities and legal course of t he
Article. However, beyond thejuris prudentiathere is
a need to understand the genesis of the conf lict and
its various expressions.
Through the Pakistan prism
At t he core of t he conf li ct l ies Kashmi rs
aspi rat i on for aut onomy, epi t omi sed i n t he
preservat ion of its dist inct regional ident it y and
character. The recipient of a vibrant historical legacy,
a r i ch ci vi l i sat i on, di scret e geogr aphi cal and
demographic features and an eclectic value-system in
cont rast t o t he preval ent regi onal or t hodoxy,
Kashmir over the ages evolved a dist inct regional
pride and identit y. Intermitt ent phases of foreign
rule marred by ruthless oppression and a tendency
t o al t er t he Kashmiri way of l if e sharpened it s
regional identity. Its sense of self became defined by
the desire to resist the alien yoke and retain the glory
of indi genous rule, elevat ing t he significance of
identity to Kashmiri lives. As a deterrent to foreign
intrusion, Kashmiri identity further recoiled within
i t s regi onal demar cat i on, and t hi s at t i mes
manifested itself in a more militant form. Indias
inability to recognise the undercurrents of Kashmirs
preoccupation with its identity further exacerbated
Kashmiri vulnerability. Generating an additional set
of gri evances, i t st ymi ed t he prospect s of a
constructive and trustful engagement between India
and Kashmir. Indias overt ures in t urn st emmed
from its own insecurities based on its presumption
of Kashmirs proclivit y t oward Muslim Pakistan.
Misconst ruing Kashmirs inherent inclination for
aut onomy wit h a preference for Pakist an, I ndia
erroneously built the edifice of its relationship with
Kashmi r t hrough t he pr i sm of Paki st an. Thi s
deprived India of t he init iat ive t o const ruct an
independent and proactive association with Kashmir
based on posit ives rat her t han t he react i onary
political architecture it eventually ended up creating.
While Kashmir always had a socio-cultural and
religious fascination with Pakistan which persists to
this day, it convenient ly kept its polit ical interests
apart. Despit e t he inroads of t he Muslim League
(ML) throughout India on the premise of a shared
rel i gi ous i deol ogy as a means of coal esci ng a
geographically disparate people, it failed to strike an
inf luencing chord in Kashmir. The corresponding
movement in Kashmir was more region-centric than
pan-Indian. The socio-political congruity of Kashmir
al so allowed it s freedom movement t o be more
sophisticated and evolved based on tangible issues
and concret e agendas rat her than the abst ract of
I sl ami c appeal al one. The i ncl usi ve nat ure of
Kashmiriyat along with the early inf luence of the
Indian National Congress (INC) and the utility of a
resourceful Pandit community within the regional
context, kept the freedom movement in Kashmir at
a distance from the ML.
Alignment with India
The alignment with India on the other hand far
from the lofty discourse of converging ideologies was
also a tactical move based on astute calculat ions.
Sheikh Abdullah perceived that he would be able to
maint ain a higher degree of autonomy within t he
democratic and liberal set-up espoused by the INC as
opposed to Pakistans centralised polity. The secular
slogan of the Indian polity was also conducive to the
pluralist social fabric of Kashmiriyat as against the
primacy of the majoritarian religion within Pakistan.
The grass-roots disposition of the INC would also
accommodat e t he soci o-economi c mobi l i t y
envisioned by him. Above all, the left-leaning populist
leadership of the INC would be more amenable to the
radical land reforms envisaged by Sheikh Abdullah, an
anathema to the landed elite at the helm in Pakistan.
The bedrock of Sheikh Abdullahs political ascendancy
and power, i t was t hi s l ast f act or whi ch
overwhelmingly swung the decision in favour of India
(beyond the populist appeal, the manner in which
t he l and r ef or ms were i mpl ement ed were a
structural disaster in the long term as enunciated by
visit ing American agrarian and economist Daniel
Thorner in 1953). Here t oo, India was unable t o
recognise the intricacy of Kashmirs union with India.
Based on a set of calculat ed ideals rat her t han a
natural overlap of interests, the premises underlying
Kashmirs union with India were systemically eroded.
Rat her t han ski l f ul l y empl oyi ng t he
complexities of Kashmirs relationship with Pakistan
and i t sel f t o an advant age, I ndi a al l owed i t s
misplaced judgment to cloud its decision-making on
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Kashmir. Instead of wielding a partnership with the
people of Kashmir by addressing their grievances and
assuaging their fears, India put in place a system of
ext ended patronage pivoted on select individuals.
This was to serve as a one-stop fix-it-all. Not only was
it a short cut t o manage t he st at e rat her t han
govern it, it was also a means of checking dissent
and Kashmirs inherent proclivity for self-governance
which India perceived as secession. This exacerbated
the widening fissures between India and Kashmir.
Another lost chance
Kashmir cautiously gave India another chance
in 1975 in the form of the Indira-Sheikh Accords.
Despite the opportunity to start all over and extend
a sense of trust and sincerity, India, embroiled by the
dynamics of it s int ernal polit ical bat t les and t he
autocratic tendencies of its leadership, was unable to
seize the moment. Responding instead by explicit
intervention in the political set-up of the State much
to the chagrin of the populace, the rigged elections
of 1987 proved the last blow. By then the elements
of et hnic conf lict as delineated by Ted Gurr were
present in full force in Kashmir: identity, grievances,
oppor t uni t y and capaci t y. The l ast el ement
stimulated by the Kashmiri diaspora and logistically
assi st ed by Paki st an was i nst r ument al i n
transforming the peace-loving Kashmiri into what
Donal d Hor owi t z t ermed as t he Rel uct ant
Secessionist.
Pushed to the precipice did Kashmir have a
choice? Aspiring for the preservation of its identity
and the symbols represent ing t hat identit y, was it
asking for too much? Driven by its paranoia had India
employed the tools of compassion, magnanimity and
prudence instead, the trajectory of Kashmir would
have been very different t oday. True t o it s cause,
despi t e t he i nf i l t rat i on of myri ad i deas and
inf luences, t he cl ari on call in Kashmir remai ns
Azadi (Independence) it s expression of self-
preservation.
BELATED, BUT RIGHT DECISION
Justice (retd.) A.K. Ganguly has done the right
thing by resigning from his position as chairperson of
t he West Bengal Human Ri ght s Commi ssi on.
Although belated, his resignation will help preserve
t he di gni t y of hi s of f i ce, whi ch was seri ousl y
undermined after he was accused by a law intern of
making improper sexual advances. It will also protect
the dignity of the Supreme Court, of which he was a
respect ed judge f or some years, and hopef ul l y
reassure the country that the judicial fraternity does
not consider itself above t he moral imperat ive of
upholding ethics and necessary propriety. It was a
mont h ago t hat it was disclosed officially t hat a
t hree-judge commi t t ee rendered a prel iminary
finding that there was unwelcome verbal/non-verbal
conduct of [ a] sexual nat ure on hi s part . Thi s
rendered his continuance in office untenable, and
resignation was the only rational course of action.
Yet , displaying an unconscionable intransigence, Mr.
Ganguly chose to st ay on in office and insinuat ed
that t here was a political conspiracy to tarnish his
image. The West Bengal Chief Minister wrote to the
President demanding action against him, Members
of Parliament asked for his resignation, and excerpts
from t he interns affidavit were made public, but
none of t hi s had a chast eni ng ef f ect on hi m.
Ultimately, the Union Cabinet s decision approving
the terms of a Presidential Reference to the Supreme
Court , preparat ory t o his f ormal removal from
office, got him t o quit . It should help him avoid
further embarrassment when the court starts formal
hearing on the reference.
By i nst i t ut i ng an i nqui ry as soon as t he
allegat ion surfaced and by disclosing t he panels
f i ndi ngs, t he Supreme Court showed wel come
sensitivity and transparency in its functioning. While
rout i ne l egal processes may be requi r ed f or
det ermining guilt or innocence, or for removing
someone f r om of f i ce, t he preservat i on of
inst itut ional int egrity must be achieved through
quick deci si ons based on moral pri nciples. The
judiciary must set higher standards for itself and not
seem to take shelter behind protracted probes; nor
shoul d it give t he i mpressi on t hat it i s l et t i ng
matters drift when it comes to dealing with its own
members. One question remains: whether the lawyer
who accused Mr. Ganguly of misconduct will pursue
t he mat t er t o it s l ogical concl usion t hrough an
appropriate legal process. Her view that she has the
autonomy t o decide on it at an appropriat e time
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deserves respect . But by goi ng publ ic wi t h her
experience, she has ensured t hat it is possible t o
pursue and ensure accountability, regardless of the
status and position of those facing such charges. That
is at least one positive result of an otherwise sordid
and unfortunate episode.
ONE NATION, ONE GRID
The integrat ion of the sout hern power grid
wit h t he nat ional grid fulfils a long-felt need of
consumers and state electricity utilities in the South.
The integration was achieved when the Power Grid
Corporation of India commissioned a 765-kilovolt
transmission line between Raichur and Solapur on
New Years Day, five months ahead of schedule. The
southern grid is the third largest in terms of power
consumption amongst the five regional grids and is
perennially starved of power. Wit h a base energy
deficit of 7.7 per cent that shoots up to 12.5 per cent
during peak hours (as per l at est dat a f rom t he
Central Electricity Authority), the southern grid has
been hamstrung by inadequate generation capacity.
The absence of synchronous connectivity with the
national grid meant that the southern states could
not take advantage of surplus power available in
ot her regions. Current ly, t he sout hern grid has
asynchronous connections with the other grids that
enable transmission of high voltage direct current.
But t his is a cumbersome and inefficient way t o
t ransmit power and t he capaci t y is limit ed. The
complet ion of t he commissioning process of t he
Raichur-Solapur line will synchronise the southern
grid with the others in a single frequency and allow
seamless transmission across the country; it will be
a truly one-nation-one-grid that will have 232 giga
watts of installed capacity at its disposal.
To be sure, there are still technical procedures
to be completed before the line becomes operational
in the next few months but there is little doubt that
it will help balance the power situation across the
count r y. The sout hern st at es can now purchase
power from the other regions to manage their deficit,
but more import ant is t he nationwide electricit y
market t hat will now come int o being. There is a
large disparity in traded short-term electricity prices
between the south and the other regions due to the
absence of transmission links. During the summer,
for instance, traded electricity prices in the South are
typically twice or even thrice the levels that prevail in
the other regions. Hopefully, such disparities will
now be a thing of the past. The responsibilities of the
regulat ors and grid managers are now that much
higher with the entire country united in a single grid.
Lapses such as those that caused the west ern and
northern grids to collapse on two consecutive days in
July 2012 can lead to disastrous consequences in a
unified grid. The regulators also need to keep an eye
out on power exchanges and traders as their market
expands with the entry of the southern grid and its
eternally power-starved utilities. If integrating the
country into a single grid was a challenge, then that
will be rivalled by the task of efficiently managing it.
BITCOINS:
MISSING THE REAL REVOLUTION
The year 2013 was unequivocally the year of
bi t coi ns, more t han i t was t he year of
commercialisation of 3D print ers or t he advent of
pr i vat e space f l i ght . The bi t coi ns mi ni ng and
transactions network first came online in late 2008,
saw an adopt ion boom in early 2012, and got t he
att ention of investors and government s late last
year. It s not really been as much a roller-coaster ride
as an initiation into the Gartner hype cycle, and the
slope of enlightenment is nowhere in the vicinity.
Unfortunately for it , theres a bigger problem:
people have been having the wrong debate, all the
way f rom t hose who want t o jump on t he
bandwagon because t hey know a bit coin is wort h
$825.43 (1616 IST, January 3), to regulators arguing
over whet her or not crypt ocurrencies can replace
American dollars, to political economists asking if this
is a libertarian agenda plotting to subvert the federal
reserve. Needless to say, theyre all wrong.
The strength of cryptocurrencies like bitcoins
has little to do with its monetary potential and more
t o do wit h it s t echnical pot ent ial. What Sat oshi
Nakamoto, the enigmatic Japanese programmer(s)
who concei ved t he bi t coi ns syst em, creat ed i s
pertinent to t he not ion of a t ransaction cost : the
price of mobilising your resources, irrespective of the
nature of these resources.
Within the bit coins t ransact ion verification
net work, bot h value and validity are est ablished
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democrat ically. The person who int ends to use a
bi t coi n needs t o show proof of work t hat he
mined or acquired the coin through legitimate means
and proof of knowledge that the transaction
being request ed is verifiable. If most users on t he
network agree that a transaction was legitimate to
t he t une of some amount , t hen t hat s t hat . The
identities of the transactors are irrelevant.
In microfinance
Therefore, adopting bitcoins would help small
businesses to grow unburdened by disproportionate
transaction costs incurred to mobilise relatively small
amounts. Even broadly, bitcoins hold the potential to
reform microfinance in rural India. For example,
some Assamese tea growers are exploring the option
of transacting in bitcoins to avoid foreign exchange
fees and the need to set up complex bank transfer
wires between them the producers and their
global consumers, often through middlemen such as
PayPal whose participation comes with an automatic
l oss of val ue, around 7 t o 10 per cent of t he
transaction. For transactions to hold their ground
while preserving anonymity and ensuring security,
t he net work of user s needs t o be l arge and
consistent. And the rewards system that keeps these
bees loyal is the bitcoin, the honey. Unfortunately,
regulators and laymen alike have been paying undue
attention to its value and the inherent anonymity.
Some investors, on the other hand, have been smart
enough to spot the potential for innovation.
Scope for innovation
Innovations are proliferating on diverse fronts,
almost all of t hem building on t he answer to the
question why bitcoins are actually disruptive: theyre
not erected on existing platforms but one all its own
that s strong on privacy and security. Bitmessage, for
instance, is bitcoins all over again but wit h emails
bei ng sent around i nst ead of coi ns. Gl i ph i s
Bitmessage for push-messaging. Coinbase, BTC-E and
Bit Pay are PayPal wi t h bit coins. Even Visa and
Mastercard are starting to see their counterparts in
Canada, where the first bitcoin ATMs were installed
f or Chri st mas. I n f act , t he most i nt er est i ng
application stemming from bitcoins I have heard was
from American entrepreneur Chris Dixon, which
factors in the cryptocurrencys high divisibility. Like
t he rupees lowest relevant denomination at t he
moment is 25 paise, a bit coins lowest relevant
denomi nat i on i s 1 sat oshi , whi ch i s equal t o
0.00000001 bitcoin. As of January 1 2033 hrs IST,
one satoshi would have been worth 0.047 paise. This
isnt much. Say, with every email you send, you are
also required to send one satoshi t o the recipient.
Still not much. But what if youre a spammer? What
if youre sending out t ens of thousands of emails
because youre an annoying advertiser? You will also
be sending out a few t ens of rupees, and t hat s a
significant amount for an enterprise that used to be
free. Suddenly, bitcoins high divisibility has become
a tool to fight spam that too without having to
forge cumbersome relat ionships based on credit
cards.
THE REDLINE ON FISCAL DEFICIT
The latest data on the fiscal situation released
by t he Cont roller General of Account s (CGA) on
Tuesday does not portend well for the government s
stated objective of holding the fiscal deficit within
reasonable limits. For most of the past two years the
macroeconomy has been beset with twin deficits
t he fiscal deficit and t he current account deficit .
During the first half of the year the current account
deficit (CAD) appeared to be spinning out of control
wit h all project ions goi ng awr y. The delet erious
consequences were felt across the macroeconomy.
The r upee decl i ned and i nf l at i on remai ned
persistent ly high. However, a surprisingly strong
rebound in exports and some innovative government
measures t o shore up the ext ernal account , along
with tariff and non-tariff measures to restrict gold
imports, have helped narrow down the CAD within
reasonable limits, The expectation is that by March
31 the CAD will be well below 3 per cent of GDP, a
figure which even the most optimistic forecast ers
would not have imagined just a few mont hs ago.
While the threat from a burgeoning CAD might have
receded t hough by no means has i t been
eliminated the government s fiscal problems have
come to the fore.
The challenge of containing the fiscal deficit
has persi st ed wi t h successive government s. No
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Fi nance Minist er, however, has art i cul at ed t he
probl ems arisi ng from runaway fiscal deficit as
strongly as P. Chidambaram. He has often said that
the red line for the fiscal deficit , which he set at
containing it within 4.8 per cent of GDP, will not be
breached. That is going to be a particularly daunting
task in the light of the latest CGA data, according to
which the fiscal deficit in the first eight months of the
current fiscal year (April-November) at 94 per cent
was already close to breaching the full years target.
Total expenditure during the first eight months was
at 61.3 per cent of the whole years budget , higher
than the 58.2 per cent in the previous year. Revenue
collections have remained constant at a little over 47
per cent . The urgent t ask t herefore is t o prune
expendit ure whil e t ryi ng t o boost government
revenues, especiall y t ax revenues. Expendi t ure
control, always a tough task, is even tougher in an
el ect i on year. The axe i s bound t o f al l on Pl an
expendit ure and t hat in turn will have a negative
impact on the growth momentum. Tax revenues are
directly dependent on GDP growth. There again, with
the economy unlikely to grow much above 5 per cent
during the current year, the outlook for higher tax
collections and hence a lower deficit is by no means
positive.

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PL480 TO NFSA 2013
Many of us would not be even aware that in the 1960s India was forced to import wheat from
the US under the PL 480 scheme as it suffered from a severe shortage of food grain. The stories
of humiliation and pressure to compromise on Indias foreign policy to avail of this facility are
now things of the past. The country has moved ahead from the PL 480 phase to a new era of
economic reality where it has enact ed t he National Food Security Act (NFSA)- 2013 which
assures food to 67 percent of people in the country who are likely to suffer food deprivation.
This indeed marks a giant leap whose impact is going to be multi-dimensional and multi-layered.
The guaranteed availability of food to the people, especially those in the below poverty line
bracket and belonging to vulnerable section of society will have a significant income effect
translating into higher nutritional intake and therefore improved health status.
India has a long established Public Distribution System (PDS) which has played a significant role
in keeping the chronic hunger at bay and has a strong impact on the reduction of poverty. There
has been a significant shift in the policy perspective from PDS to Targeted PDS (TPDS) since
1997 that replaced the universal access with focus on the families below poverty line by giving
them a higher level of food subsidy.
It has been estimated that close to 30 percent of the poverty reduction witnessed during the
period 2004-05 to 2009-10 is att ribut able to PDS. This figure does not include around 17
million people being lifted out of poverty in 2009-10 supported by the mid-day meal scheme.
The Food-securit y legislat ion has been crit icised for increasing the subsidy out f low of t he
government to unsustainable levels. The estimated annual expenditure to meet the provisions
of the NFSA2013 is approximately 1,25,000 crore. Though, there have been many estimates
going upto 3,00,000 crores, there does not seem to be any dramatic and unsustainable increase
in the allocation already being made for this component under the TPDS.
The enactment of the NFSA 2013 is probably the beginning of a long process that would require
the policy makers to look at the multi-dimensional factors affecting food-security, entitlement
and access to it. India has become the first nation in the world to give its people right to food.
The light of Asia, sure, has the capacity to show the path of future to the world.
Gis t of
YOJANA
NATIONAL FOOD SECURITY ACT:
WORK IN PROGRESS
Far t he scept ics, much of t he debat e t hat
preceded t he enact ment of t he NFSA revol ved
around the issue of cost of the NFSA and its impact
on the economy. These ranged from a conservative
estimate of Rs 1 Lakh crore to as high as Rs 3 lakh
crore per year. However, most of these estimates are
either exaggerated and include many other costs not
related to the NFSA or are pure and simple fictitious
30 VOL15 GIST OF YOJ ANA
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numbers. The actual cost of the NFSA is expected to
remain wit hin t he proposed l imit of Rs 125000
crores as given in the financial memorandum of the
bill.
However, even for the activists and- the civil
society, the National Food Security Act 2013 falls far
short of a comprehensive legislation on food security.
While the legal commitment of the NFSA is limited
al most ent i rel y t o access, on avai l abi l i t y and
absorption it only promises goals for progressive
reali sat i on. But even on access, government i s
allowed to get away with cash payments if it fails to
ensure supply.
Since the NFSA relies primarily on the existing
Public Distribution System (PDS) as the primary axis
for ensuring food security, concerns related t o the
efficiency of the PDS remain valid. Such concerns on
the efficiency of the PDS primarily emanat e from
the previous experience of the PDS which is seen as
a leaky syst em wit h more t han 50 percent of t he
grain leaking in 2004-05.
The shift t o Target ed PDS in 1997, whi ch
dismantled the earlier universal access at relatively
low unit subsidies, replacing it with much higher unit
subsidies targeted towards the poor, led to increase
in leakages bet ween 1993-94 and 2004-05, along
wi t h decl i ne i n percent age of househol ds who
actually accessed PDScereals.
More i mport ant ly, t here was considerable
i mprovement af t er 2004 i n PDS access of t he
relatively poor in almost all states. By 2009-10, over
90 percent of rural poor got some food transfer in
12 (and over 75 percent in 18) of the 30 states. In
particular, Chhattisgarh and Odisha joined Southern
St at es t o ext end near uni versal coverage whil e
reducing leakage. The most not able such case is
Bihar, so far considered worst on PDS performance.
But NSS 68
t h
round reports that 43 percent of Bihar
households accessed PDScereals in 2011-12, up from
only 14 percent in 2009-10 and less than 2 percent
in 2004-05. This expansion, unnot iced so far, is
remarkable because it went hand-in hand with two
other features: Bihar climbed to top of the poverty
reduction league in 2011-12 from being a laggard so
far; and, much more significantly, Bihars PDS grain
leakages reduced t o about 20 percent in 2011-12
from 65 percent in 2009-10 and 97 percent in 2004-
05. These t hree st at es, which also happen t o be
st at es wi t h hi ghest per cent age of poor, have
managed t o do so, by expanding coverage along
with administrative reforms such as de-privatisation
of fair price shops and so on. These states have also
used available t echnology such as GPS and mobile
based t racking syst em t o reduce leakages. Ot her
st at es wit h similar but less spect acular rebound
include Assam and West Bengal.
While it did increase coverage to 67 percent of
the households nationally (75 percent in rural and 50
percent in urban), t he NFSA is silent on how the
beneficiaries will be selected.
Fort unat ely, an alt ernat ive in t he form of
Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC 2011) was
avai labl e and could have been used not onl y t o
speci f y t he exact cri t er i a f or i dent i f i cat i on of
beneficiaries but also to arrive at a suitable estimate
of number of households eligible for the benefit in
each state.
Unlike t he BPL Census 2002, the SECC was
designed after prolonged consultations with various
stake holders including state governments, in terms
of design and methodology of identification.
But even these, if implemented properly, are
onl y a smal l part of t he l arger bat t l e agai nst
malnutrition. Other provisions of the NFSA such as
t hose relat ed t o chi ldren and pregnant women,
alt hough less talked about, are equally important.
The challenges on these front are equally daunting
with very few success stories to emulate.
It is obvious that an ambitious legislation such
as t he NFSA wil l have t o f ace t he challenges of
implementation on the ground.
THE FOOD SECURITY ACT (FSA) FISCAL
IMPLICATIONS: 2013-14 TO 2015-16
The National Food Securit y Bill (NFSB) was
passed by both houses of Parliament, and was given
a nod by the President on September 12, 2013, and
has now become an Act . The l egi sl at i on i s a
landmark, and perhaps the largest food securit y
program in the world.
The Act i s i ndeed an i mport ant eff ort t o
ensure that the majority of population in India has
GIST OF YOJ ANA VOL15 31
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access to adequat e quant ity of food at affordable
prices. It proposes to cover 75 percent of the rural
population, and 50 percent of the urban population
with an entitlement of 5 kg per person per month of
food grains at issue prices of Rs. 2 and per kg for
wheat and rice respective.
This article establishes that fiscal implications
of t he Food Securi t y Act (FSA) are l i kel y t o be
significant. The food subsidy cost of implementing
the FSA is estimated at Rs. 124,502 crores for the
fiscal year 2013-14. The cost is estimated to increase
to Rs. 140,192 and Rs. 157,701 crores in 2014-15
and 2015-16 respectively. The incremental food
subsidy over and above the existing Targeted Public
Distribution System (TPDS), which is the additional
cost to the budget, is estimated at Rs. 23,951 crores.
This is equivalent to 0.2 percent of GDP.
There are three additional dimensions, which
can potentially magnify the fiscal implications. First,
if the implement ation of the FSA includes grand-
f at heri ng of exi st i ng benef i ci ari es, si nce not
everyone will be better off in the new regime, the
est imat ed fiscal cost could be higher. Second, if
implement at ion of t he act requires merging t he
current classification under the TPDS with new and
more careful identification schemes, we- should also
consider t he consequences of mi scl assi ficat ion.
Carrying over the currently misclassified into the new
system may also entail additional fiscal implications.
Third, the open-ended procurement policies of the
government (whereby the government commits to
buying unlimited quantities of wheat and rice at a
minimum support price (MSP) have implied that
procurement has typically been much higher than the
required quantit y of food grains. For example, on
average over the last 10 years between 2002-03 and
2011-12, procurement has, been 40 percent higher
than the off-take from the public distribution system.
If we add these costs of additional procurement to
the incremental food grain requirement in the FSA,
the estimated fiscal cost can increase substantially.
Subsidy Cost of FSA
We est imat e t he f iscal cost of t he current
versi on of t he act , which proposes t o cover 75
percent of the rural population, and 50 percent of
the urban population wit h an ent itlement of 5 kg
per person per month of foodgrains at issue prices of
Rs. 2 and 3 per kg for wheat and rice respectively.
This proposal has only two categories: covered and
uncovered, rather than three (priority, general and
uncovered) in the previous version of over and above
the existing TPDS is the bill. The AAY (Antyodaya
Anna estimated at Rs. 23,951 crores. This is Yojana)
households will receive an equivalent to 0.2 percent
of GDP. The additional 10 kgs of food grains per
increment al subsidy is t he difference household
protect their existing between the estimated cost of
the allocations.
The food subsidy cost of implementing the
FSA is estimated at Rs. 114,502 crores for 2013-14.
The food subsidy is calculat ed as [economic cost -
issue price] food-grain requirement. The economic
cost computed by the FCI included in addition to the
MSP, handling, storage and distribution costs. The
calculation assumes a total coverage of 75 percent of
rural and 50 percent of the urban population.
Other Financial Cost of FSA
A commonly ignored fact is t hat even after
several amendments, the act entails significant new
financial implications in addition to the food subsidy.
This includes e.g. the setting up/ running of State Food
Commissions and Dist rict Gri evance Redressed
Off icers (DGROs); expendit ures on int ra-st at e
transpiration of food grains; and cash benefit s to
pregnant and l act at i ng women. Most of t hese
expenditures would be incremental and is estimated
wi t h i nput s f rom t he MOF & PD at roughly Rs.
20,760 crores annually. Rs. 8,760 crores would be
incurred b the state, and the remaining cost would
be shared between the centre and state (based on a
sharing arrangement to be determined). A one-time
assistance may also be provided by the centre to the
st at es t o enabl e t hem t o set up t he St at e Food
Commissions and DGROs.
The setting up of national food commission is
done away with in the latest version of the act; and
states are allowed to rejig existing infrastructure to
run st at e food commissions and DGROs but it is
reasonable to assume that even if states decide not
to create new infrastructure, they would still need
t o incur addit i onal expendit ures t o beef up t he
existing facilities to implement the FSA.
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The t ot al i ncrement al f i scal cost of
implementing the FSA over and above the existing
TPDS (including the quantifiable expendit ures in
addition to the food subsidy) is thus estimated for
2013-14 at Rs. 44,711 crores. The estimated total
incremental fiscal cost for 2014-15 and 2015-16 are
est i mat ed at Rs. 47,392 and Rs. 50,591 crores
respectively.
Distributional Implications of FSA
In addit ion t o t he aggregat e fiscal cost s of
implementing the act , there will be distributional
implications as well; where some individuals may
gain, some may lose, and .others may have their
food expenditures unchanged.
All AAYs can be relabeled as covered. They
will be as well off as under the current TPDS;
their entitlement will be unchanged at 7 kg
per person per month, and they will pay the
same issue price: Rs. 2 and Rs. 3 per kg for
wheat and rice respectively.
The remaining BPL individuals (62 percent)
will obtain 5 kg of foodgrains at a lower issue
pri ce t han under t he TPDS but t hei r
ent i t l ement wi l l al so reduce by 2 kg.
Assuming current prices of wheat and rice
(in the north zone at Rs. 19 and Rs. 27 per
kg for wheat and rice respectively) and
assuming they will demand at least as much
as under TPDS, they will be strictly worse off
(t he l oss on t he 2 kg ent i t l ement wi l l
outweigh the gain on the 5 kg).
Table 1: Additional Annual Expenditures under FSA (Rs. Crores)_
State Shared b/w centre and state Total
Di st rict Grievance Redressal Off ice (DGRO) 320
St at e Food Commissi on 140
Expendit ure on i nt ra-st at e t ranspi rat i on and handli ng of foodgrai ns 8300
Mat erni t y benefi t 12000
Total 8760 12000 20760
Table 2: Distributional Implications: Current TPDS vs FSA
AAY Covered Difference in issue
price 137495
(TPDS-NFSB) rs./ton)_
137495 Wheat Rice
Ot her BPL persons i n 000 Covered increased expendi t ure Di fference in issue price (TPDS-
NFSB) (rs./ t on)
2,150 2,650
221,122 62%
APL persons 452,151 71% Covered increased expendi t ure 4,100 2,650
Remai ni ng APL No coverage
181,312 29% I ncreased expendi t ure
Note: The estimates for TPDS are based on how it is currently operated (1993/ 94 poverty ratio and
2000 population) The on-AAY BPL persons who move to covered: they were getting 7 kgs before at a higher
issue price; they get 5 kg now at the lower issue price, but the gain on 5 kg outweighs the loss of entitlement
of 2 kg, which t hey have t o acquire now at the market price, account ing for a potential increase in the
expenditures. APL persons moving out of coverage under NFSB have to obtain the grains through the market,
and hence a potential increase in their expenditures.
71 percent of APLs will move into covered
category. They will obtain 2 kgs of additional
food grains and a lower issue price relative
to TPDS; they will be strictly better of.
Overall , out of t he current populat ion
covered under the existing TPDS, 46 percent
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will be strictly better off, 14 percent will be
equally bet ter off and 40 percent will be
strictly worse off
Issue about Misclassification in Current TPDS
Similarly, if implementation of FSA requires
merging the current classification under the TPDS
with new and more careful identification schemes, we
should al so consider t he consequences of mis-
classification.
Table 3: Cost of Grandfathering
Number of ot her BPLs movi ng int o covered 221,122
Addi t i onal f oodgrai n per person (kg) 2
t ot al f oodgrai n (mn t on) 5.31
Wheat 2.41
Rice 2.89
Subsi dy (Rs.t on)
Wheat 15952
Ri ce 20786
Tot al subsi dy bill (Rs. Crores)
Wheat 3852
Rice 6012
Tot al 9864
Number of APLs moving out of coverage 181,312
Addit ional f oodgrai n per person (kg) 3
Tot al foodgrai n (mn t on) 6.53
Wheat .97
Rice 3.56
Subsi dy t o be borne by govt . Rs. per t on
Wheat 14,002
Rice 18,136
Tot al cost (Rs. Crores) 20,474
Increment al cost over TPDS(rs. Crores) 23,951
Tot al including grandfat hering - Rs. Crores 44,425
Suppose everyone classified as BPL under the
current scheme is aut omat ically given covered
st at us. However, everyone who currently holds a
BPL card may not be truly poor.
Conclusion
To summarize, the total incremental costs of
implement ing t he FSA over t he above t he TPDS
could range from Rs. 44,711 to Rs. 76,486 crores in
2013-14. The smal l er est i mat e is t he basel i ne
incremental costs, while the large estimate includes
the costs of grand fathering the existing beneficiaries
and subsi di zi ng t he BPLs who ar e current l y
misclassified.
DEMOCRACY AND SOCIAL
TRANSFORMATION:
INSIGHTS FROM AMBEDKAR
Ambedkars Views on Democracy
The concept ion of democracy right from it s
origin in antiquity to the modem t imes takes it as
the form of government as alluded to by Ambedkar
in t he above quot at ion, but he easily ext ends i t
beyond the bounds of government when he says,
Democracy is not merely a form of Government. It
is primarily a mode of associated living, of conjoint,
communicat ed experi ence. I t i s essent i al l y an
at t i t ude of respect and reverence t owar ds
fel lowmen. He equat es i t t o frat er ni t y, sayi ng
fraternity.. is only another name for democracy,
and elsewhere to his favorit e value t riad, liberty,
equality, fraternity
According to him, democracy presupposes a
democratic society:
The t erm soci al democracy general l y
subsumed economic institutions and ref lected the
Fabian belief in gradual transformation of capitalism
int o socialism. But in Ambedkars view, it means
society sans hierarchy, exclusion, and segregation. It
acutely refers to the Indian society and its castes.
Constitutional Vision
Const i t ut i on i s a rul e book f or pol i t i cal
governance in democracies. Though, the chairman of
the drafting committee, it should be noted that his
vi si on was ent i rel y di f f erent f rom what t he
Constitution of India ref lects. He was not satisfied
with mere political democracy because he knew that
i t woul d not be sust ai ned wi t hout economi c
democracy.
He was very clear that the economy based on
pri vat e ent erpri se vi ol at es t he pri nci pl e of
democracy. Privat e ent erprise essent ially ent ails
concentration of wealth and hence power in private
individuals which necessarily leads to undermining
lights of people, who have to work for their survival.
Act ually, he was verbalizing his scheme of
state socialism, which he had just drawn up t o be
submitted to the Constituent Assembly on behalf of
the Scheduled Caste Federation. He elaborated this
scheme in his States and Minorities. Unfortunately, his
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i deas wer e not accept ed by t he Const i t uent
Assembly and its truncated parts were shifted to the
Directive Principles of the State Policy in Part IV of
the Constitution, left to the sweet will of the rulers.
Culmination into Buddhism
One of t he most interesting features of Dr.
Ambedkars philosophy is his stress on the ethical
di mensi on of democracy, or what he cal l ed
moral i t y. We aspect of t hi s i s i mpor t ance of
constitutional morality, which is, abiding by the
spirit of t he Const i t ut ion and not just i t s l egal
provisions.
Indias Tryst with Democracy
India, despite such a doyen of democracy as
Ambedkar guiding its Constitution, has pursued the
path of capitalist development laid down by the big
bourgeoisi e vi de t hei r Bombay Plan creat ed i n
January 1944 by vi rt ually adopt i ng it s 15 years
investment plan for its first three five-year plans. It
systematically transformed vast rural India into the
grazing grounds of capit alism by undertaking t he
cal i brat ed l and reforms and i mpl ement i ng t he
capitalist strategy of Green revolution.
According to the Global Hunger Index (GHI)
of the International Food Policy Research Institute
(IFPRI), India is 67th among the worst 80 countries
in terms of malnourishment. India continues to be
home for maximum number of lepers in the world,
maximum number of illiterate adults in the world,
largest number of people (626 million) who lack
sani t at i on and who def ecat e i n open; l argest
population that lacks access to drinking water, and
many such parameters.
Over the last three decades the camouf lage of
sociali st rhet oric is t orn t o shreds by t he social
Darwi ni st global i zat i on, whi ch i s int ri nsi cal l y
ant it het ical t o any concept of democracy. It has
helped India achieve economic growth beyond its
decades-l ong range-bound rat e, whi ch was
derogat or i l y ref erred t o as t he Hi ndu r at e of
growt h. It has surely t ransformed India beyond
recognit ion for t he elit e and middle classes, and
thereby emboldened them to discard their apologia
of decades and t ake pride i n t hei r cust oms and
traditions, which have been detrimental to the lower
caste people. In the resultant euphoria, they ignored
even ot her paramet ers of economy required for
sustaining the growth. Today, hollowness of it has
begun t o surface. For inst ance, on t he economic
misery index, as the sum of the unemployment rate
and the inflation rate, a measure of vulnerability and
crisis of economy, India ranks dangerously behind its
peers in BRIC countries at 17.8 as against China at
9.1.
FOOD SECURITY BILLWOULD IT WIPE
OUT HUNGER AND MALNUTRITION?
The persons covered may be as many as 75
percent of rural and 50 percent of urban population.
A number of question arise concerning
1. Need
2. Coverage
3. Beneficiaries
4. Effectiveness, impact on
5. Hunger
6. Malnutrition
7. Food grains production, cost and financial
implications
Also, one wonders if t his is the best way t o
reach the objectives.
What was the need for the Food Security
Bill (FSB)?
To sum up
PDS has a large exclusion error and doesnt
reach most of the poor.
It provides only a fraction of food grain
consumption of the poor households.
The money value of income transfer through
PDSgrains is also modest.
The poor get a bit more than 10 per cent of
t he t ot al subsi dy expense of t he
government . More recent figures shows
that they receive 32 percent of the tot al
expenditure.
More than 40 percent of the PDS grains do
not reach the consumers.
Since a large part of the poor are excluded, the
FSB aims at effectively reaching all the poor.
Is the coverage right: One way to deal with
the exclusion error is to go for a universal right to
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f ood under whi ch ever yone i s ent i t l ed t o get
subsidized food grains from the PDS as proposed by
the National Advisory Committee. The food security
bi ll ai ms t o cover up t o 75 percent of t he rural
households and 50 percent of the urban ones are to
be covered. I f you want t o ensure t hat no poor
person is excluded though many non-poor may be
included, this is perhaps the right level of coverage.
Would it affect food grains production?
If, and t hat is a big if, Food Corporation of
India (FCI) can effectively procure food grains at
Minimum Support Price (MSP) from all over t he
count r y, f ar mers woul d have t he i ncent i ve t o
produce food grains. Since, at present , FCI largely
operates only in few selected states, farmers in other
states often get a price lower than the MSP. Those
who were not covered earli er woul d now get a
hi gher pr i ce and woul d have t he i ncent i ve t o
produce more.
Would this wipe out hunger?
I t wi l l depend on how ef f ect i ve i s t he
procurement of food grains at minimum support
price (MSP). If procurement is 100 percent effective,
market price would be at least as high as MSP. To-day,
procurement operations are effectively carried out
only in f ew st at es and dist rict s. The impact on
reduct i on of rural povert y and by i mpl i cat i on,
hunger will depend on the additional coverage and is
difficult to assess but is likely to be small.
Would it wipe out malnutrition?
Even if t he addit ional income is spent on
nutritious food, malnutrit ion would not be wiped
out. An extremely important factor in malnutrition
in India is the disease environment to which children
are exposed. It is est imat ed t hat wit hin a square
kilometre some 200 persons defecate openly. Till this
is cont rolled, increasing food consumpt ion could
have only marginal impact on malnutrition as can be
seen from the incidence of child malnutrition even
among the richer classes. Right to a latrine may be
more important than FSB for reducing malnutrition.
IMPLEMENTING THE FOOD SECURITY ACT
I n t he l ast decade, a st r ong movement
emerged i n India - l ed by l ef t poli t ical part i es,
academics and non-governmental organizationsfor
est ablishing a universal right to food. It was t his
pressure t hat culminat ed in t he draft ing of t he
Nat i onal Food Securi t y Bi l l 2011, whi ch was
eventually passed by Parliament in September this
year, becoming the National Food Security Act, 2013.
The Food Security Act is a first step in ensuring
the universal right to food. While I have reservations
about the Act, and specifically about targeting and
t he excl usi on of a subst ant i al sect i on of t he
population from the right to food, I shall focus first
on the pressing issue of implementation of the Apt.
In implementing the Food Security Act, there
are some important lessons we can learn from the
Brazilian experience. Brazil was in fact t he first
country in t he world to legislat e- a right t o food.
This was part of the now-famous Fome Zero or Zero
Hunger Programme of t he Brazilian government
t hat has become known worl dwide as a major
successful intervention in the sphere of food security.
In 2010, by means of a Constitutional Amendment,
t he right t o food was added t o t he list of social
rights in the Brazilian Constitution, thus providing a
permanent legal basis for interventions such as the
Zero Hunger Programme.
The core of the Zero Hunger Project was an
appropriate combination of structural policies and
compensat or y pol i ci es. The need f or such a
combinat ion came from t he underst anding t hat
hunger in Brazil stemmed from three main factors:
t he specif ic pat t ern of growt h result ing i n low
aggregat e demand on account of hi gh i ncome
inequalit ies and unemployment ; low purchasing
power on account of t he relat ion bet ween food
prices and wages; and the exclusion of the poorest
sections of society from the market (Swaminathan
2012).
The key t o t he success of t he Zero Hunger
Programme was st rong pol i t i cal commi t ment .
Ending hunger was viewed as a national issue and as
a social rather than an individual concern. Early in
the new Presidency, three special bodies were created
t o implement t he Programme: an Ext raordinary
Minist ry of Food Security and Hunger, a National
Food Security Council (with 18 ministers of State and
36 non-government representatives) and a special
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advisory body to the Presidency. This step ref lects
the political importance given to the Programme.
The implementation of the Food Security Act
will require resources in cash and kind. It follows,
then that fiscal allocations will have to rise, if the Act
is to be implemented properly. The critics of the Act
have al ready poi nt ed on t he burden of f ood
subsidy on the exchequer. The Economic Survey of
the Government of India 2013 states that the food
subsidy bill is put ting a huge st ress on the fiscal
side. However, the food subsidy, as defined in the
Government of I ndias budget (t he operat i onal
deficit of the Food Corporation of India), has rarely
exceeded 1 per cent of GDP over t he last t hree
decades (except in 2011-12, when)t went slight ly
above one per cent.
I n concl usi on, unl ess t here i s pol i t i cal
commitment, backed by financial resources, the Food
Security Act will not lead to major changes in food
insecurit y in t he count r y. Furt her, as t he Act i s
impl ement ed, t he def ini t i on of t he pri orit y or
t arget ed populat ion needs t o be kept f lexible, t o
allow State governments and local governments, to
ident ify food insecure populations and give t hem
access to a minimum quantity of subsidized food.
LEGAL
RECOGNITION OF STREET VENDORS
The Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood
and Regulat i on of St reet Vending) Bill t hat was
introduced in the Lok Sabha on 6 September 2013
is a landmark for protection of this important section
of t he urban poor. The bill is an out come of t he
consi st ent eff ort s of organisat ions such as Sel f
Employed Womens Association (SEWA) and National
Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI) who
have, f or over a decade, been pressuri zi ng t he
government t o grant legal recognit ion t o st reet
vendors.
Why Street Vendors?
Over the past few decades we can observe that
there is substantial increase in the number of street
vendors in the major Indian cities. Mumbai and Delhi
have around 250,000 each. In fact , t he Nat ional
Pol i cy of Urban St reet Vendors, 2009 and t he
present bill st at e t hat around 2.5 percent of t he
urban population is engaged in street vending.
There is also anot her sect ion of t he urban
population that has taken to street vending. These
people, or their spouses, were once engaged in better
paid jobs in t he formal sector. Most of t hem were
empl oyed i n t he t ext i l e mi l l s i n Mumbai and
Ahmedabad and engineering firms in Kolkata.
Main Features of the Bill
The most important body at the local level is
the Town Vending Committee. This will be the focal
point of the policy as it will decide on issues such as
issuing of certificates to vendors, deciding on areas
for street vending and the amount to be collected as
fees/ t ax f rom vendors, besi des a host of ot her
act i vit i es. The Muni ci pal Commi ssioner/ Chi ef
Execut i ve Of f i cer of t he l ocal body wi l l be t he
chairperson. Representatives of street vendors will
comprise 40 percent of the total membership while
civil society representatives (NGOs and CBOs) will
constitute 10 percent.
The first function of the TVC is to conduct a
survey of existing street vendors (Section 3). The TVC
has t o ensure t hat al l exi st i ng vendor s are
accommodat ed on t he pavements or other places
select ed for the purpose. No street vendor will be
evicted till the survey is completed.
Sect ion 5 of t he bill st at es t hat t he person
who is awarded the certificate alone has the right to
vend. The vendor must not have any other source of
income besides street vending and the minimum age
is 14 years the person cannot give the certificate to
ot hers. The except i on i s i f t he person i s i l l or
becomes physically disabled to vend, the children or
spouse can take up the trade. This is an important
point as it will prevent spaces being given to others
at a price.
Anot her i mpor t ant i ssue i s evi ct i on and
confiscation of property. This is t he most dreaded
f ear f or any st r eet vendors. The muni ci pal
authorities come in vans or trucks and swoop down
on illegal vendors and confiscate their goods.
The bi l l st at es i n Sect i on 5 t hat evi ct i on
should be t he last resort . If st reet vendors in a
locality need to be relocated due to genuine reasons,
they have to be provided alternative sites. In case
some vendors refuse to move they will be issued a
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not ice t hat t hey should move wit hin a specified
period. If this fails, the local authority may impose a
fine of Rs. 250 a day. If even this is not a deterrent ,
the authorit ies may forcibly evict them. However,
t here are cl ear r ul es regardi ng evi ct i on and
confiscation of goods. The authorities must provide
the vendor with a signed seizure list.
Thought t he TVC i s t he most power f ul
authority dealing with recognition and regulation of
st reet vending, t here i s a need f or redressal of
grievances. Section 20 notes that every city/town will
have a Grievance redressal Committee with a former
civil judge or judicial magistrate, who will chair the
commit tee. There will be two other members who
will be professionals but will not be employees of the
government of local body. This committee will hear
on cases relat ing t o applicat ions (cert ificat es of
vending).
In order to promote street vending, the TVC,
in conclusion with the planning authority will prepare
a plan for st reet vendi ng every f ive years. It i s
i mport ant t hat t he pl an wi l l not be used t o
adversely affect the street vendor.. this aspect is very
important from the point of town planning.
In the case of eviction we find that the police
has greater powers. Section 34 of the Indian Police
Act states that the police can remove any person who
of f ers goods f or sal e in publ i c. Each st at e has
incorporated this clause in its police act. This implies
that even if the local authorities allow street vendors
in a particular street the police can evict them under
provisions of this clause.
Conclusion
We have not at t empt ed an exhaust i ve
explanation f the bill. There are many more issues.
For example the first schedule provides details on the
plan for street vendors and the second schedule deals
with the scheme for street vending that each state
government should undertake. There are also other
aspects in the bill that we did not elaborate on. We
have tried to lay down the main issues that the bill
deals with.
There are also some adverse aspects. The bill
excl udes rai l ways f rom i t s pur vi ew. Thi s i s
unfortunate because licensed vendors have been an
important part of rail travel, especially for the poor.
We find that in most large railway stations vendors
of tea and snacks have been replaced by branded
kiosks such as Cafe Day or similar vent ures. The
prices of drinks and snacks are at least three times
what the vendors charged. Similarly, the food served
on the long dist ance t rains has become expensive
even for middle class passengers. Licensed vendors
could provide facilities at much lower rates.
Street vendors are asked to keep their vicinity
cl ean, but a major probl em f or most vendors,
especially women vendors, is lack of toilets. For food
vendors, running water is needed for cooking and
cleaning. The bill could have made special provision
for these. The expenses could be recovered from the
fees charged. Women working as vendors stay on the
st reet t he whol e day. They are unabl e t o ease
themselves and as a result suffer from disease.
FDI REFORMS IN INDIA:
STEPS IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION
One of the remarkable features of globalisation
since the 1990s has been the f low of private capital
in the form of foreign direct investment (FDI), which
is an important source of development finance for
developing count ri es, and whi ch cont ribut es t o
product ivit y gains by providing new investment ,
bet t er t echnology, management exper t i se, and
export markets. Given resource constraints and lack
of invest ment in developing count ries like India,
market forces and the private sector are increasingly
been relied on as the engines of economic growth.
Foreign direct i nvest ment promot es economi c
growth by increasing investment and its efficiency.
Theref ore, al l count ri es, more so devel opi ng
countries and least developed countries (LDCs), seek
FDI. Foreign invest ment, especially FDI, not only
supplement s domest ic invest ment but act s as a
source of foreign exchange and eases pressure on the
balance of payments (BoP).
Considering t he economic benefits of FDI,
India has adopted wide-ranging reforms since the
early 1990s and more so in recent months to attract
FDI to ease the pressure of rising current account
def i ci t (CAD), depreci at i ng rupee, st agnat i ng
investment, and the slowdown of the growth rate.
Alt hough I ndia was select ively recept ive t o FDI
before the 1990s, successive Indian Government s
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realised t hat FDI is an important determinant of
investment, economic growth, and employment, and
therefore act ed as a facilitat ors since t he 1990s.
Some of the recent reforms such as FDI in retail,
insurance, civil aviation, broadcasting services, etc.
are welcome steps and will have significant outcomes
in years to come. However, some significant issues
remain, which need to be addressed to realise Indias
potential in attracting FDI as China, Singapore, or
Brazil does.
Importance of FDI: A Macro View
Economic growt h i n any count ry depends
upon the sustained growth of productive capacity,
supported by savings and investment. Foreign direct
invest ment , which bri ngs new t echnol ogy and
knowledge along with capital, is considered a good
subst it ut e for debt in developing economies for
higher investment and, thereby, growth.
In traditional Solow-type standard neoclassical
growth models, FDI is considered an addition to the
host economys capit al st ock and faci lit at es t he
incorporation of new input s and new variet ies of
intermediate goods in production.
The literature on technology transfer identifies
four main channels of technological spillovers from
FDI to the host country-(1) learning by doing; (2)
compet i t i on; (3) l abour ski ll s; and (4) l inkage-
al t hough, i n pract i ce, i t i s rat her di f f i cul t t o
distinguish between these four channels. The direct
route through which FDI contribut es to growth is
investment based on the crowding in hypothesis.
Furt her, PDI hel ps i nt egrat e devel opi ng
countries into the global economy by easing access to
foreign markets and including local enterprises in
global production chains. The FDI inf lows t o East
Asia helped modernisation of the export s sector,
more so the manufacturing sector, leading to growth
in export s as wel l as overal l economi c growt h.
Therefore, FDI contributes to improving t he host
economys export competitiveness and volume by (I)
augmenting domestic capital for exports; (2) helping
transfer of technology and new products for exports;
(3) f acil it at ing access t o new and l arge f orei gn
markets; and (4) providing t raining for t he local
workforce and upgrading technical and management
skills.
FDI Reforms in India: A Brief Summary
Though India had been receptive to FDI since
independence, until 1991 FDI policies were designed
to meet domestic requirements and were ad hoc
wi t hout any consi st ent di rect i on or proper
institutions. The new economic policy of the early
1990s, triggered by the 1991 BoP crisis, aimed at
creat i ng a conduci ve envi ronment f or-f orei gn
investors, initially by raising foreign equity caps in
many sect ors, dilut ing provisions of t he Foreign
Exchange Regul at i on Act (FERA), and al lowi ng
.automatic approvals (Sahoo etal, 2013;2012a); The
1991 reforms were a big bang approach intended
to attract FDI to modernize Indias industrial base,
improve export competitiveness, and integrate the
Indian economy with the rest of the world.
During the post-reform period, a number of
controls were dismantled in the areas of industrial
policy, taxation, export-import policy, and foreign
i nvest ment . The de-l i censi ng of i ndust r y, de-
reser vat i on of t he publ i c sect or, easi ng of
competition controls, trade reforms, deregulation of
interest rat es, and opening up of capit al market s
were some of the reforms undertaken to encourage
invest ment and capit al formation. Furthermore,
FDI policy is now reviewed on a regular basis and
changes in sectoral policy or sectoral equity caps are
notified through Press Notes by the Secretariat for
Industrial Assistance (SIA) and the Department of
Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP).
Some major FDI reforms are listed below.
Industrial licensing has been abolished and
many sect ors opened f or f orei gn
participation, except for a few industries on
the ground of strategic and environmental
concerns. After 2000, sectors marked for
automatic approval of FDI were expanded
to include most sectors, and foreign equity
caps raised to 100 per cent.
The FERA was revamped into the Foreign
Exchange Management Act (FEMA) in 1999
to facilitate foreign exchange management
in the capital account.
Automatic permission for high technology
agreements or technological collaborations
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in priority sectors and removal of conditions
related to technology, such as restrictions
on FDI in low-technology areas.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) introduced
an automatic approval channel for 100 per
cent foreign equity in priority sectors. The
automatic route has been extended to up
to 51 per cent foreign equit y in priority
sectors.
Abolition of high local content requirements,
divi dend balanci ng requirement s, and
export obligation conditions except for 22
consumer goods. The condit ions on 22
consumer goods wer e subsequent l y
withdrawn in 2000.
Major institutions set up to promote and
faci li t at e FDI i nf lows, such as Forei gn
I nvest ment Promot i on Boar d (FI PB),
For ei gn I nvest ment I mpl ement at i on
Authority (FIAA), and SIA.
Privatisation of public sector.
Aggressive signing of bilateral investment
and doubl e t ax avoi dance agreement s
(currently with 69 countries) to benefit and
assure f orei gn i nvest or s. The l aw on
trademarks and the Geographical Indications
of Goods passed i n 1999 t o prot ect
intellectual property rights.
Fiscal incentives such as tax subsidies and
concessions offered by both central and state
governments to foreign investment.
Reforms at the state government level and
institutions established help implement FDI
projects.
Recent FDI Reforms
The past few years have witnessed a slowdown
in investment and growth in India owing to the global
financial crisis, policy paralysis, and deterioration of
business environment. Consistent deficits in trade
and cur rent account s al ong wi t h weak macro
fundamentals resulted in a sharp fall in the value of
t he rupee and business confidence. Realising the
seriousness of t he sit uation, t he Government of
India (GoI) has pursued aggressive policy reforms,
including in FDI, to regain t he confidence of both
domestic and foreign investors. Some reforms such
as the revision of fuel prices, allowing 51 per cent FDI
in mult i -brand ret ailing, al lowi ng int ernat ional
airlines t o invest in domest ic airlines, hiking FDI
equity in broadcasting services from 49 per cent to
75 per cent , disinvest ment of four public sect or
undertakings (PSU), etc, are nothing less than big
bang reforms. Though each major policy decision is
contentious, pushing through all these long-pending
ref orms woul d cert ai nl y bri ng back i nvest ors
conf idence and growt h moment um i n t he near
future.
Some major FDI reforms since Sept ember
2012 are listed below.
Allowing 100 per cent FDI ownership in
single brand retail trading and up to 51 per
cent FDI in multi-brand retail trading.
Allowing foreign airlines up to 49 per cent
FDI in the capital of Indian companies in the
civil aviation sector operating scheduled and
non-scheduled air transport.
Increasing FDI equity from 49 per cent to
74 per cent in certain broadcasting sectors.
Allowing up to 49 per cent FDI in power
exchanges regist ered under t he Central
Electricity Regulatory Commission (Power
Market) Regulations, 2010.
Increasing FDI limit in the insurance sector
from the current 26 per cent to 49 per cent.
Allowing 49 percent FDI in several sectors
such as pet rol eum and nat ur al gas,
commodity and st ock exchanges, power
exchanges, asset reconstruction, single brand
ret ail, and t elecommunicat ions. Foreign
i nvest ment up t o 49 percent i n t hese
industries may be made under the automatic
route, which does not require approval from
the RBI or the Indian government.
Sectors such as asset reconstruction and
telecommunications are eligible for 100 per
cent FDI upon approval by the FIPB.
The defence sector will also be eligible for
greater FDI under the recent changes. While
the standard cap for the sector remains 26
percent, according to a government press
release, the Cabinet Committee on Security
will be allowed to approve defence projects
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for up to 100 percent FDI if the projects are
likely to result in access to modem and state
of the art technology.
Further increases in the pension sector have
been proposed and await parliament ary
approval.
Implications of FDI Reforms
The comprehensive reform of FDI policy since
1991 has resulted in a substantial increase in FDI
inf lows int o India-from less than US$1 billion in
1991 to US$42 billion in 2008 but slowed down after
Global Financial Crisis reaching US$27 billion in
2012. The per capita FDI stock also rose dramatically
from less than US$ 1 per person in 1991 to US$ 188
in 2010. Although presently ranked third, India was
ranked the second-most desirable FDI destination
for many years. Furt her, act ual FDI inf lows as a
percent age of t he approvals, whi ch used t o be
negligible before 1991, have become subst ant ial
during the post -reform period, part icularly since
2000. The number of source count ries of FDI has
increased from 29 in 1991 t o 130 in 2012, which
shows the enhanced interest of foreign investors in
the Indian economy (Sahoo et al, 2013).
The recent FDI reforms will have implications
in future. The clearance of 51 per cent FDI in multi-
brand ret ai li ng i n Sept ember 2012, whi ch was
approved by the Cabinet in November 2011 aft er
two years of deliberation but suspended due to the
ensuing political furore, is a big step and will change
the way business is conducted in India. There are
many economi c advant ages, part i cul arl y f or
consumers and producers. The scale economies and
assured supply chai ns of organised mult i-brand
retailing would offer better varieties of products at
lower and stable prices to consumers.
Challenges and unfinished Agenda
Though FDI inf lows to India have increased
over last two decades, India still lags behind countries
like China, Singapore, or Brazil. FDI inf lows to India
are st ill concent rat ed in a few sectors and a few
states because of unresolved issues and India is yet
to receive FDI inf lows to its full potential. With all the
advantages India has, there are still factors and issues
that hinder FDI f low into India, including
infrastructure bottlenecks,
rigid and complicated labour laws,
lack of coordination between the centre and
states,
FDI caps/ceilings in many sectors where 100
per cent FDI equity is not allowed for feasible
investment projects, and
di f f i cul t bureaucr at i c cont rol s and
procedures to get the necessary Clearances
and approvals. First-time investors in India
are always sceptical about whether projects
will progress from screening to operation.
The establishment and strengthening of the of
FDI i nst i t ut i ons such as Forei gn I nvest ment
Promotion Board (FIPB), Secretariat of Industrial
Assi st ance (SI A) and Forei gn i nvest ment
Implementat ion Authorit y (FIIA) t o facilitate FDI
moving beyond approval t o implement at ion has
certainly helped. However, the next level of reforms
and policies need to address these issues and set up
appropriat e inst it ut ions. Some of t he necessary
reforms are:
a bett er environment for infrast ruct ure
devel opment wi t h an appropri at e
institutional framework such as a dispute
resol ut i on mechani sm, i ndependent
regulatory authority, and special investment
law;
a Uni f orm Labour Code af t er an
independent review and proper consultation
wi t h st akehol ders; proper desi gn and
pl anning of SEZs, incl udi ng local level
solutions for land acquisition and sector-
specific policies with incentives to attract FDI
into SEZs;
proper infrastructure connectivity to SEZs
and allowing the private sector to provide
infrastructure services to SEZs;
increasing FDI caps in sect ors with FDI
potential and allowing more sectors under
the automatic route;
revisiting outdated laws, controls, regulatory
syst ems, and government monopol ies
affecting the investment environment;
encouraging non-governmental facilitation
services for foreign investors; and
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further trade reforms and reforms in public
services to attract foreign investment.
Overall, India needs t o address it s lack of
adequat e i nf rast ruct ur e, ri gi d l abour l aws,
bureaucrat i c delays, and st at e l evel reforms t o
realise its FDI potential.
ELECTRICITY PRICES IN INDIA:
COMPARING APPLES, ORANGES, AND LYCHEES
Economics of Power Generation
Comparing Sources of Power
Economi cs uses t he t erm f ungi bi l i t y t o
describe how well something can be substituted with
something similar (rather, identical). Commodities
are of t en t hought of as f ungi bl e. Is el ect ri ci t y
fungible? At one level, a unit of power (a kilowatt-
hour, or kWh), is often viewed so. But it isnt, at two
levels - both generation as well as supply in to the
grid.
At t he grid side, when, where, etc. and with
other technical characteristics it turns out that coal
plants versus hydro versus solar etc. are different.
Consumpt i on of elect ri ci t y cl earl y depends on
location and time. While transmission is meant to
minimize impacts of location, grid constraints (and
cost s) mean a generat ion source nearer loads is
superior, and if such generation were on-site, then
this would avoid almost all the transmission and
distribution (T & D) losses.
Pr obabl y t he best descri pt i on of
differentiation of power is the analogy to fruit. We
(today) think of electricity like selling fruit (Rs./ kWh)
but t he basket we sell is actually a mix of apples,
oranges, lychees, mangoes, etc. each with different
cost and other characteristics. Blending the supply as
per t heir respect ive shares may work f rom an
account ing perspect ive, but it masks import ant
si gnali ng about marginal cost s as well as ot her
characteristics of the power.
At the production side, plants differ based not
just on cost, which well explore furt her, but also
lifespan, ext ernal impacts, land usage, et c. While
externalities such as pollution are a known market-
failure, shouldnt land, lifespan, etc. be captured in
the economic calculations.
Some Cost Number calculations
There are t wo major t ypes of expenses for
cat egorizat ion, capit al expenses (aka capex) and
operating expenses (aka opex). Opex includes fuel
charges (if any), operations and maintenance (O&M),
salaries (often bundled within O&M), etc. Both sets
of cost s oft en vary by size of plant , wit h modest
economies of scale upto a threshold which varies by
technology.
Capital costs include the total costs, including
any interest during construction (IDC), which can be
capitalized. This investment is typically a combination
of debt + equity (e.g., in a 70:30 ratio). Debt has to
be repaid at an interest rate, and equity also requires
a rate of return, e.g., 16 percent. For simplification,
we can consider weight ed average cost of capit al
(WACC), or project cost of capital.
The f i rst wri nkl e i n al l t hese numbers i s
uncert aint y. Thi s has a number of component s,
including:
(a) Generation (per annum) this is often
captured in the statistic Plant Load Factor
(PLF), e.g., the target for large plants like
coal or nuclear being ~80 percent, while for
solar 20 percent is considered reasonable.
Actual generation will vary based on plant
conditions, demand (off take), fuel (input)
availability, etc.
(b) Lifespan Many plants can be refurbished
or improved with a modest expenditure, so
the calculation of lifespan should be final
lifespan, factoring in such renovation as a
mid-service cost.
(c) Fuel costs it is hard to predict the price
of fuel over the life of a plant. Simplifications
include projecting this as a ratio or multiplier
of t he inf lat ion rat e, which is it self an
unknown.
(d) O&M costs these are also simplified as
growing at or near inf lation.
(e) Foreign exchange fluctuations (if applicable)
etc.
We l evel i ze t he cost s. Level i zi ng appl i es
discount rates to cash f lows and energy outputs that
can vary overtime to make them comparable.
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The most common calculation is the levelized
cost of enery (LCOE), shown below as per t he
International Energy Agency. Assume we know, with
reasonable certainty, the output and operating costs
for a plant , as well as its lifespan. Cash f lows is the
future on a nominal basis must be discounted (at a
chosen discount rate) t o be brought into present
value.
Recommendations for
Comparing Generation
While our focus has been on generation, one
can use retail tariffs to help understand why a simple
comparison can be misleading.
Some qualities t hat may have value beyond
that captured in LCOE comparisons include:
Detachability
Predictability
Time period to install
Carbon impact
Fut ure escalat ion of costs (fuel, foreign
exchange, etc.)
Domestic component (Capital, know-how,
fuel, etc.)
In t he long run, el ect ri cit y will need t o be
vi ewed very di ff erent ly t han t he commodi t y
people think it is. More than different fruits (types of
electricity), electricity is an enabler for services such
as heating, cooling, lighting, pumping wat er, etc.
Such a change will allow the proper value of saving
energy, dubbed negawatts, and proper investments
in efficiency, smart grids, etc.
IMC AND QUEENSLAND UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY SIGN INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
AGREEMENT FOR TRAINING & CAPACITY BUILDING
Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), New Delhi and Queensland University of
Technology (QUT), Brisbane, Australia have signed an International Cooperation Agreement to
col l aborat e i n academi c programmes and i n f ront i er areas of research i n Medi a and
Communication. The agreement envisages bringing ICT in academic programmes in a significant
way. Both the institutes have agreed for the development of joint venture projects and also for
opening avenues for developing a collaborative doctoral programme to benefit students and
faculty. The bilateral cooperation agreement also envisages organization of joint academic and
scientific activities, such as, courses, conferences, seminars, symposia or lectures, exchange of
staff and students and exchange of materials and publications of common interest.
This is the first agreement signed by IIMC seeking international collaboration and partnership
with a foreign university. The agreement aims to facilitate a two-way value added training and
capacity building programme in the field of Mass Media & Communication. This cooperation
agreement shall be valid for five years from t e date of signing. It shall be reviewed six (6) months
prior to expiry and may be renewed for a further term by mutual agreement.
DEVELOPMENT ROADMAP
PMG CLEARS IMPORTANT PROJECTS
About 128 projects wort h over Rs. 4.30 lakh crore have been cleared by the Prime Ministers
Project Monitoring Group (PMG) so far. The PMG, set up to track stalled large investment
projects, has given priority to projects from the power sector by clearing all issues relating to 94
projects, entailing an investment of over Rs 3.80 crore.
Ot her projects cleared relate to 34 projects in oil and gas sect ors, railways, steel, roads and
highways, shipping, civil aviation and mines, involving investments of over Rs 50,000 crore. The
PMG was set up in June to facilitate and work towards resolving specific issues of projects and
fast -t racking t hem. Some of t he project s cleared include t he Rs 12,000 crore project for
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development of new terminal buidling at the Mumbai airport, and the Rs 4255 crore Lumding-
Silchar guage conversion project of Railways which is aimed at providing seamless connectivity
to lower Assam and Tripura, Mizoram and Manipur with the rest of India
CORPUS FUND FOR GREENING FOR TEXTILE PROCESSING UNITS APPROVED
An Integrated Processing Development Scheme (IDPS) with a corpus fund of Rs 500 crore to
make t extile processing unit s more environment friendly and globally competitive has been
approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA). The fund, meant to address
environment al issues faced by t ext ile proecessing unit s, will be used to set up four t o six
brownfield projects and three to five green field projects will be set up under the projects over
the 12th Plan period. The eligible projects under the scheme would cover Common Eff luent
Treat ment Plant s, capt ive power generat ion on t echnology preferably renewable/ green
technology, infrastructure such as storm water management , necessary roads and pipelines for
wat er and wast ewater and facilit y for t est ing and R&D cent res. The scheme will support
upgradation of existing processing clusters/ centres specifically in the area of water and waste
water management and also encourge reaearch and development work in the textile processing
sector.
ROAD PROJECTS CLEARED IN PUNJAB AND MAHARASHTRA
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved road-widening projects worth over Rs
3,000 crore in Maharashtra and Punjab. Four-Ianing of the Aurangabad-Yadeshi Highway - 211
in Maharashtra will be done under the National Highways Development Project (NHDP) Phase
IV on Build, Operate and Transfer basis. The estimated cost of the 190-km project is Rs 2,406.63
crore and would include the cost of land acquisition, resettlement and rehabilitation and other
pre-construction activities.
The proposed highway between Sangrur (Punjab) and Haryana border will cost Rs 612.28 crore,
including the cost of land acquisition, resettlement and rehabilitation and other pre-construction
activities. The total length of the road will be approximately 57 kms.
TISS DEGREE FOR SECOND PMDRF PROGRAMME
The Prime Ministers Rural Development Fellowship (PMRDF) programme was revamped with
the launch of its second version in which fellows will get a degree from the Tata Institute of Social
Sciences. Apart from covering the Naxal affected districts, the PMRDF would also cover the
Northeast region.
FUNDS ALLOCATED FOR UPGRADED PMSSY PHASE III
About Rs 5,071 crore has been allocated under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana
Phase III for upgradation of facilities in 39 medical institutions and colleges across the country.
The upgraded scheme, aimed at boost ing medicare infrast ructure in t he count r y, will be
undertaken across 20 states within 43 months. With this, the total number of medical institutions
and colleges to be Upgradedn!Oes7t o 58 at a cost of Rs 7,111 crare as 19 have already been
undertaken in the first two phases of the scheme.
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DO YOU KNOW?
WHAT IS 3 D PRINTING
In this process, a three dimensional solid object of any shape is made from a digital model. It is
also known as additive manufacturing. It is an additive process, in which successive layers of
material are laid.
3 D printing technology has been increasingly gaining ground. Sequential layering for creation of
t hree dimensional objects in any shape led to the use of t he term addit ive manufact uring.
Addition or joining of plates, sheets, forgings has been traditionally used for fabrication of objects,
but the unique thing about 3 D printing has been the use of information technology. Creating
exact shapes with high precision from a remote cont rolled command gives an edge to t his
technology. This technique has been called magical as it can create objects out of thin air. It can
print material in plastic or metal. It is a sort of manufacturing revolution. For instance, if we
need a part of some machine, it needs t o be import ed all t he way from t he count ry of it s
manufacture. However, in future this technology has the potential to 3D print at our end the
part of the machine we need.
3 D printers use a variety of additive manufacturing technologies and build a three dimensional
object t hrough successive layers. It takes virtual blue print s from computer aided design or
animat ion modelling soft ware. Layers of const it uent mat erial are deposit ed or heaped and
shaped as per the design. There is a date interface between CAD software and the machines. While
generating the printout, the printer reads the design and forms it by laying successive layers of
liquid, powder, paper or sheet. Any shape or geometric feature can be formed in this way. 3 D
printing is not just prototyping. It offers transformative advantages from the stage of concept
design to production.
3 D printing is getting popularity and 3 D printers can be easily purchased in some countries. This
method is hoped to revolutionise the fields of manufacturing, education etc. It shall have impact
on many industries. In the teaching rooms, the students can, for instance, design their own 3 d
molecular structures. This will help in better understanding of the things and in getting clear
concepts.
INDIAN BIOMASS RESOURCES AN
ASSESSMENT FROM THE GRASSROOTS
There exi st s an ardent need f or t he
development of carbon neutral fuels in view of the
non-sust ainable economy of fossil fuels primarily
from climate change considerations. Biomass could
provi de a bouquet of envi ronment al l y beni gn
solutions to cater to the countrys energy needs.
Several technological options are available for
biomass conversion to energy directly, in the form of
heat or electricity or to other forms, such as liquid
biofuel or combustible biogas.
Data Sources and Methodology
Whi l e consi dering an al t ernat ive bi of uel
scenario, it becomes an essent ial prerequisit e t o
ensure a regular availability of biomass feedstock.
For setting priorities in technology development in
the sector, a comprehensive assessment of Indian
biomass resources for their conversion into energy,
fuel and other bio-products assumes importance.
The overal l assessment f or t he sur pl us
biomass resources was based on estimat ion of the
quantity of crops produced, crop residues generated
and their existing utilization patterns/ practices in
the area. Biomass residues generation, consumption
and surplus density were calculated based on per sq.
km availability of biomass in five states, identified on
the basis of secondary data of production of select
crops.
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Biomass Residue Generation
Agricult ure being an i mport ant economi c
act i vi t y i n I ndi a, al ong wi t h t he cr ops l ar ge
quant it ies of residues are generat ed every year.
Processing of agricultural produce through milling
et c. also produces substant ial amount of biomass
residues, which are vital sources of energy both for
domestic and industrial purposes.
In India, a total of 623.4 Million Metric Tons
(MMT) of biomass residues was generated from the
crops. The r i ce st raw and husk, wheat st raw,
sugarcane tops and bagasse account for almost 80
percent of the residue generated by the crops. The
top four states in terms of biomass generation are
UP, Maharashtra, Punjab and AP. The following are
the biomass residues generated by different crops.
Table 1: State-wise crop residues generation
State Generation (MMT) Top 3 Residues
Uttar Pradesh 138.0 Wheat straw, Bagasse, Sugarcane
tops
Maharashtra 81.7 Sugarcane tops, Bagasse, Oilseeds
AndhraPradesh 44.2 Wheat straw, Rice husk
Punjab 41.5 Ricestraw, Bagasse, Sugarcane
tops
Tamil Nadu 40.3 Sugarcane tops, Bagasse, Rice
straw
Karnataka 39.1 Sugarcane tops, Bagasse, Maize
Stover
Madhya Pradesh 38.1 Wheat straw, Pulses, Oilseeds
Rajasthan 33.8 Ricestraw, Oil Seeds, Bajra
Gujarat 30.9 Cotton stalk, Wheat straw,
Bagasse
Haryana 29.6 Wheat straw, Maize, Stover, Rice
straw
Others 106.2 Wheat straw, Ricestraw, Rice husk
Biomass Resource Consumption
Crop residues offer good economic values to
farmers as they are consumed as animal feed, compo
st i ng, t hat chi ng f or rural homes and f uel f or
domestic and industrial use, etc. Farmers use agri-
residues either themselves or sell it to other landless
households or intermediaries, who in. turn sell the
residues to industries.
The surplus non-fodder type crop residues are
burnt in the field itself. Biomass burning has been a
significant global source of atmospheric aerosols and
trace gas emissions, which have a major impact on
climat e and human healt h. In addit ion to aerosol
part icles, forest fi res and crop resi due burni ng
contribute to the generation of carbon dioxide (CO),
carbon monoxi de (CO), met hane (CH
4
), volat ile
organic compounds (VOC), nit rogen oxides and
halogen compounds.
Availability of Surplus Biomass Resources
Nearly 165 MMT is estimated as surplus crop
residue available in India in a year; this being 26.4
percent of overall bi omass resi due generat ion.
Sugarcane tops constitute the most available surplus
crop residue followed by oilseed residue, cot t on
stalk, rice st raw and wheat straw. An addit ional 4
MMT of main bamboo plant would be available as
potential biomass.
Biomass Residues: Collection &
Transportation
Utilization of biomass residues for biofuel or
for other applications requires a reliable, long-term
and economi cal l y vi abl e f eedst ock. But t he
availabilit y of biomass residues from agriculture
being seasonal in nature, there is a need to procure
and store required quantity of biomass within the
stipulated time.
Conclusion
The biomass residues are important resources
as feed for animals, fuel, fertilizer and as an industrial
raw mat erial. As not ed f rom t he dat a t here i s a
shortage of cattle fodder in India so the biomass is
unlikely to be available in large amounts for biofuel
production unless specifically grown for the purpose.
Hence, t he focus should be on non-fodder crops
namely, sugarcane tops, cotton residue, chilli, residue,
pulses residue, oilseeds residue (select) and bamboo
residue.

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Gis t of
KURUKSHETRA
TWO DECADES OF
PANCHAYATI RAJ-GAPS AND CHALLENGES
Panchayati Raj Inst it ut ions have come int o
being t o give power t o the powerless, voice to the
voiceless by brining the hitherto neglected sections
of the societ y int o t he area of polit ical, social and
administ rative development to achieve inclusive
growt h. The present PRIs owe t heir existence t o
Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Prime Minister P.V.
Narasimha Rao. While Rajiv Gandhi conceived the
idea of institutionalizing and constitutionalising PRIs,
P.V. Narasimha Rao carried forward the gigantic task
and enact ed 73
rd
Amendment to the Constit ution
which is hailed as the Magnacarta.
Objective
(1) Thought the Panchayati Raj Institutions have
been in existence for a long time, it has been
observed that these institutions have not
been able to acquire the status and dignity
of viable and responsive peoples bodies due
to a number of reasons including absence of
regular elections, prolonged supersessions,
insufficient representation of weaker sections
like Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and
women, inadequate devolution of power and
lack of financial resources.
(2) Article 40 of the Constitution lays down that
the State shall take steps to organise village
Panchayats and endow t hem wit h such
powers and authority as may be necessary
to enable them to function as units of self-
government.
(3) Accordingly, it was proposed to add a new
Par t rel at i ng t o Panchayat s i n t he
Const itution to provide for among other
things, Gram Sabha in a village or group of
villages; constitution of Panchayats at village
and other level or levels; direct elections to
all seats in Panchayats at the village and
intermediate level.
The Highlights of the Act
(1) Constitutional status to PRIs,
(2) Gram Sabha
(3) Direct Elections to all seats in Panchayats
and t he of f i ces of Chai rper sons of
Panchayats
(4) Reservation of seats for the SCs and Sts and
office of chairperson in Panchayat at each
level, reservation of seats for women,
(5) Fixed tenure of five years
(6) Constitution of Election Commission and
(7) Finance Commission
Gram Sabha
Gram Sabha is regarded as the fourth tier of
t he Const it ut ion t he ot her t iers being Cent ral
Government, St ate Governments and PRIs. Gram
Sabha, a body of the voters of the village is regarded
as a mini Assembly of Parliament at the level. It has
a main role of suggesting plan for the development
of village. Active funct ioning of t he Gram Sabha
woul d ensure a part i ci pat ory democracy wi t h
transparency, accountability and achievement.
Finance Commission
Stat e government s are required to appoint
l ocal Fi nance Commi ssi on under t hi s 73
r d
Amendment Act. The principles which should govern
are:
(i) The distribution between the State and the
Panchayats of the net proceeds of the taxes,
GIST OF KURUKSHETRA VOL15 47
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duties, tools and fees leviable by the State,
which may be divided between them under
this part and the allocation between t he
Panchayats at all levels of their respective
share of such proceeds;
(ii) The determination of the taxes, duties, tools
and fees which may bees which may be
assi gned t o, or appropr i at ed by, t he
Panchayat;
(iii) The grants-in-aid to the Panchayats from the
Consolidated Fund of the State;
The recommendat i ons of t he Fi nance
Commi ssi on are not bi ndi ng on t he st at e
governments like the recommendations of National
Finance Commission on Government of India.
Conclusion
Si nce st at es have been gi ven opt i on t o
formulate conformity Acts under the main Act, state
government s led by regi onal part i es have done
better than t he ot her stat es. This Act has thrown
challenge to age old caste system, power structure
and domination of haves over the havenot s. As
expected empowered women and oppressed classes
have been humiliated, harassed and prevented from
enjoying their rights conferred on them by the 73
rd
Amendment of Const i t ut i on Act . However,
opposition from the upper castes, feudal lord is not
in a large scale. Slowly and steadily the mind set of
opposition from the upper castes, feudal lords is not
in a large scale. Slowly and steadily the mind set of
opponent s of t he Act is compromising wit h t he
changing political transformation of India.
Political will and wisdom of the politicians are
required to take necessary measures to protect the
interest of t he weaker sections who are prevented
from enjoying there are prevent ed from enjoying
their constitutional rights. It is learnt that Atrocities
on SCs & STs prevention Act is going to be amended
to include prevention of filing a nomination, holding
office et c by the reserved candidates as an offence
under this Act. Like Food Security Act, bett er it is,
t hat the 73
rd
Amendment Act implementat ion is
t aken by t he Gover nment of I ndi a as i t s
responsibility. St ates autonomy, federal spirit et c.
should not defeat t he purpose of t he Act in t he
interest of inclusive growth of the country.

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Gist of The Hindu

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48 VOL15 GIST OF PRESS INFORMATION BUREAU
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Gis t of
PRESS INFORMATION BUREAU
PARAM SUPERCOMPUTER AMONG THE MOST
POWER EFFICIENT SYSTEMS OF THE WORLD
The Cent re for Development of Advanced
Comput i ng (C-DAC) has achieved a si gnif icant
milestone with PARAM Yuva II supercomputer being
ranked 1st in India, 9th in the Asia Pacific Region and
44th in the world among the most power efficient
comput er syst ems as per t he Green500 Li st
announced at t he Supercomput i ng Conference
(SC2013) in Denver, Colorado, USA.
Supercomputers, in general, consume a lot of
el ect ri cal power and produce much heat t hat
necessit at es elaborat e cooling facilities t o ensure
proper operation. This adds to increase in the Total
Cost of Ownership (TCO) of a supercomputer. To
draw focus towards development of energy efficient
supercomputers, Green500 ranks computer systems
in the world according to compute performance per
watt, thus providing a world ranking based on energy
efficiency.
Energy consumed by supercomput ers i s
measured at vari ous Level s L1, L2, L3 - f or
purpose of reporting. As the level increases, accuracy
and rigor of measurement exercise also increases. It
is also a measure of our capability and noteworthy
that C-DAC is the second organization worldwide to
have carried out the Level 3 measurement of Power
versus Performance for the Green500 List.
Shri Kapil Sibal, Minister for Communications
& Information Technology, has congratulated C-DAC
f or t hi s si gni f i cant achi evement . He sai d t hat
supercomputing is very important for the all round
advancements in the country, and the Government
is planning a big impetus for capacity building and
advanced R&D in this area. He would expect many
more contributions from C-DAC, as a key player, in
this endeavour.
PARAM Yuva II uses hybrid t echnology
processor, co-processor and hardware accelerators -
t o provi de t he peak comput e power of 520.4
Teraf l op/ s usi ng 210 ki l oWat t power. The
int erconnect net work comprises of homegrown
PARAMNet-III and Infiniband FDR Syst em Area
Network. This system is designed to solve large and
complex comput ational problems. The system has
200 Terabyt es of high performance st orage, and
requisite system software and utilit ies for parallel
applications development.
VVIP CHOPER AGREEMENT WITH
AGUSTAWESTLAND INTERNATIONAL LTD.
(AWIL) TERMINATED
The Government of India has terminated with
immediat e effect t he Agreement that was signed
with M/ s. AgustaWestLand International Ltd. (AWIL)
on 08 February, 2010 for the supply of 12 VVIP/ VIP
helicopters on grounds of breach of the Pre-contract
Integrity Pact (PCIP) and the Agreement by AWIL.
Based on the opinion received earlier from the
Attorney General of India, it has been the view of the
Government t hat int egrit y-relat ed issues are not
subject t o arbit rat ion. However, AWIL has since
pressed for arbitration and appointed an arbitrator
from its side. In view of this, MoD sought afresh the
opinion of t he At torney General. Wit h a view t o
safeguard the interests of the Government, MoD has
nominated Honble Mr Justice BP Jeevan Reddy as
its arbitrator.
SOUTHERN GRID SYNCHRONOUSLY CONNECTED
WITH THE NATIONAL POWER GRID
The Southern Grid has been synchronously
GIST OF PRESS INFORMATION BUREAU VOL15 49
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connect ed t o t he rest of the Grid in t he count ry.
With this, the mission of One Nation One Grid
One Frequency has been successfully accomplished.
The southern grid connectivity was achieved on the
eveni ng of December 31, 2013 t hrough
commissioning of Raichur-Solapur 765 kV single
circuit transmission line by Power Grid Corporation
of India Limited, the Central Transmission Utility of
t he count r y, int erconnect ing t he Sout hern grid
synchronously with the rest of the national power
grid facilitating bulk transfer of power across regional
boundaries.
This line of 208 circuit kilometers (ckm) and
765/ 400 kV substations at Raichur and Sholapur has
been commi ssi oned f i ve mont hs ahead of i t s
contractual schedule i.e. 31st May, 2014 at a cost of
approxi mat el y Rs.815 cr ores. Wi t h t hi s
interconnection, Indian power system has entered
i nt o a new era and become one of t he l ar gest
operating synchronous grids in the world with about
232GW of installed power generation capacity.
Synchronous int egration of Sout hern Grid
with rest of the national power Grid shall not only
augment the inter-regional power transfer capacity
of Sout hern region but also relieve the congestion
being experienced in few transmission corridors. This
will be a great boost for further economic growth of
the country.
It is likely to take a few months before power
f low over this line is stabilized. Indian Power System
is operating through five Regional Grids and a Pan
India synchronous grid was envisaged for optimal
ut i l i zat i on of t he generat i on resources i n t he
country.
Till now, four regional grids namely Northern,
Eastern, Western and North-eastern regions (NEW
grid) were connected synchronously and Southern
Region (SR) was connected to this NEW grid through
HVDC links.
Synchronous interconnection of SR with NEW
grid was envisaged through high capacit y 765 kV
Raichur Sholapur lines, as an ultimate step towards
establishment of an All India Synchronous National
Grid f aci lit at i ng bulk t ransf er of power across
regional boundaries.
ACHIEVEMENTS AND INITIATIVES OF MINISTRY
OF STATISTICS & PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION
DURING 2013
A. Central Statistics Office
I. National Accounts Division
Achievements
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) released
a press not e on 1
st
Revised Est imates of
Nat i onal I ncome, Consumpt i on
Expenditure, Savings and Capital Formation
for 2011-12 on 31.01.2013 and Provisional
Estimates of National Income for 2012-13
on 31.05.2013.
The GDP at factor cost at constant (2004-
05) prices in 2012-13 registered a growth of
5.0 %.
The GDP at current prices for the year 2012-
13 is estimated at Rs. 94.6 lakh crore, while
the Net National Income is estimated at Rs.
83.7 lakh crore. The Per Capit a Income
during 2012-13 at current prices is estimated
at Rs.68,757/ -
The Gross Saving Rate at current prices is
estimated at 30.8% of GDP at market prices
in 2011-12, as against the saving rat e of
34.0% in 2010-11.
The rat e of Gross Capit al Format ion at
current prices is 35% for 2011-12 as against
36.8% in 2010-11.
Quarterly GDP at factor cost at constant
(2004-05) prices for Q1 of 2013-14 is
estimated at Rs. 13.7 lakh crore, as against
Rs.13.1 lakh crore in Q1 of 2012-13,
registering a growth of 4.4 per cent during
Q1 of 2013-14, as against a growth of 5.4
per cent during the corresponding quarter
of the previous year.
Quarterly GDP at factor cost at constant
(2004-05) prices for Q2 of 2013-14 is
estimated at Rs. 13.7 lakh crore as against
Rs. 13.05 lakh crore in Q2 of 2012-13,
registering a growth of 4.8 per cent during
Q2 of 2013-14, as against a growth of 5.2
per cent during the corresponding quarter
of the previous year.
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The growth during H1 (April-September) for
t he year 2013-14 at const ant prices is
est i mat ed at 4.6 per cent over t he
corresponding previous half year as against
the estimate of 5.3 per cent during H1 of
2012-13.
Monthly Consumer Price Indices (Rural/
Urban/ Combined) were released on 12
th
of
next month or t he next working day, if
12
t h
was a hol i day. The si gni f i cant
achievement over previous year is that the
provisional indices, which were used to be
released with a lag of 18 days in 2012 till
Sept ember 2012, are now being released
with a lag of 12 days only. All India inf lation
rates on point to point basis (month of this
year over same month of last year), which
were in double digit for first three months
of the year 2013, declined to single digit level
in April 2013 and remained so till September
2013. During October 2013, it marginally
increased to the level of 10.09 percent.
Apart f rom t he regular publicat ions of
National Accounts Statistics and Sequence
of National Accounts, India, CSO brought
out a publication on State wise Estimates of
value of Output from Agriculture and Allied
Activities for the years 2004-05 to 2010-11.
II. Social Statistics Division
A Pi l ot Ti me Use Survey (TUS) was
conducted in two States, namely, in Bihar
and Gujarat in March 2013, t o t est t he
National classification of Activities of Time
Use Sur vey, schedul e t o be canvassed,
met hodology et c.Based on the feedback
and findings of this pilot Survey, a report
has been prepared by CSO which may be the
basis for conducting the all India Time Use
Survey.An International workshop was
organized in New Delhi during 5-6
th
April
2013, to discuss the report of the Expert
Group set up by the Government of India
for developing a framework of Green
national accounts for India.The workshop
was inaugurated by Dr. Manmohan Singh,
Prime Minister of India.The expert group
has recommended that, the transition from
the existing system of National Accounts
(SNA) to a comprehensive set of national
accounts in a step- by- step manner.
The Ministry of Statistics and Programme
I mpl ement at i on, represent i ng t he
Government of India, i s cont inuing it s
bi enni al i ni t i at i ve t o conf er
t heMahalanobisInternat ional Award in
Statistics in memory of the eminent Indian
statistician Professor P.C.Mahalanobis. The
award is conferred on a selected Statistician
from a developing country, in recognition of
his/her lifetime achievement in Statistics and
the promotion of best practices.The award
instituted by the Government of India is
administered through ISI, Netherlands. In
the year 2013, theMahalanobisAward was
conferred onLamineDiopof Senegal at a
function held inHongkongduring the World
Statistics Congress in August, 2013.
The MOSPI has instit ut ed t wo Nat ional
Awards to be given in alternate years for
outstanding and Meritorious Research Work
i n St at i st i cs, one i n memory of Pr of .
P.V.Sukhatmefor life time achievement in
St at ist ics and ot her in honour of Prof.
C.R.Rao, t o a young st at ist ician in t he
country. In 2013, the award in honor of Prof.
C.R.Raot o an young st at i st i ci an was
conferred on Dr. AbhimanDas ,Director,
St at ist ics Depart ment , Reserve Bank of
India.
The first issue of t he publicat ion t it led
Statistics related to Climate change in India
was publi shed in November 2013.The
publication based on Statistics collected from
various official sources is available in the
Ministrys website.
As per the Indian commitment to the SAARC
mechanism, CSO brought out the report
SAARC Development Goals India Country
Report A statistical appraisal 2013.The
report gives a Statist ical appraisal of the
achi evement s made on t he SAARC
development Goals in India.
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An updated stat istical tracking report of
achievement of Millennium Development
Goals in India t itled Towards achieving
Millennium Development Goals- India 2013
has been released and uploaded in t he
website of the Ministry.
Two regular publicat ions of the Ministry
t i t l ed Compendi um of Envi r onment
Statist ics 2012 and Women and Men in
India 2013 have been released during 2013.
III. National Academy of Statistical
Administration during 2013
Nat i onal Academy of St at i st i cal
Administ rat ion (NASA) under t raini ng
division of Central Statistical Office, Ministry
of statistics & programme Implementation
is a premier Inst it ut e fost ering human
resource development in Official Statistics.
NASA provi des t rai ni ng t o st at i st i cal
per sonnel f rom Cent ral & St at e
Government s as al so f or f orei gn
participants. The training programmes are
meant both for fresh recruits and in-service
Officers for different t arget Groups viz.
Indian Statistical Service (ISS), Subordinate
Statistical Service (SSS), Statistical Personnel
f rom St at e/ UTs, M. St at . St udent s,
Prof essors of St at i st i cs of di f f erent
Universit ies, Internat ional Part icipants,
Int ernat ional Student s of Internat ional
Statistical Education Centre (ISEC), SAARC
part icipants, need based/ request based
t rai ni ng f or St at e of f i ci al s and ot her
developing count ries.Besides impart ing
trainings in the above listed areas, NASA also
conducts Internship Programme for post
graduate students of Statistics. During 2013,
NASA conducted 48 national/ international
t rai ni ng pr ogrammes t o St at i st i cal
Prof essi onal bel ongi ng t o st at i st i cal
organizations within the country and outside
India.
IV. Computer Centre
Web based Survey Data Catalogue for the
unit level data in the Ministry was created
f or 120 dat a set s of Annual Survey of
I ndust ri es, Economi c Census and
t heNat ionalSampleSurvey using IHSN
Tool kit software. Web site of the Ministry is
bei ngaccessedbyvar i ous Nat i onal /
International users todownload metadata
and various reports which are uploaded on
t he si t e. Duri ng 2013, t her e were
4.35l acsaver age number of vi si t ors
ofMoSPIwebsite. The Ministry earned about
Rs. 2.15 crore from sale of unit level data on
Annual Survey of Industries, National Sample
Survey Office and Economic Census during
2013.
V. Economic Statistics
DivisionAnnual Survey of Industries
The Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) is the
principal source of industrial statistics of
organized manufacturing sector in India.
From ASI 2010-11 onwards, data are being
collected under Collection of Statistics Act
2008. The final results of ASI 2010-11 have
been released in e-media in the month of
March, 2013.
A Web-Portal has been developed by Central
Statistics Office (Industrial Statistics Wing),
Kol kat a wi t h t he support of NI C f or
collection and compilation of schedules of
ASI. The main objective of the portal is to
facilitate and accelerate the collection of ASI
dat a at t he source point s wi t h built -in
validation checks. This will help in achieving
data accuracy and timeliness. The ASI web-
portal has been successfully launched for
frameupdation, sample selection and e-
compilation of ASI schedules for ASI 2012-
13.
Economic Census
The MOS&PI i s conduct i ng t he Si xt h
Economic Census (EC) in association with
St ate/ UT Directorates of Economics and
Statistics in the country. The field work of
the census was started in January, 2013 and
it is scheduled to be completed soon. The
Si xt h EC woul d provi de up-t o-dat e
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information on number of establishments
and number of persons employed therein,
activity wise, at national and sub-national
levels for all t he sect ors excluding crop
product i on, pl ant at i on, publ i c
administrat ion,defenceand compulsory
social security. The village and block level
database of number of establishments and
workers by industry would provide a useful
area frame, which could be used for selection
of primary sampling units in the follow-up
establishment surveys. Further, a Directory
of Establishments with 10 or more workers
would be available based on the sixth EC.
Survey on Services Sector
In order t o bridge t he dat a gaps in t he
servi ces (i .e. non-agr i cul t ural non-
manufacturing) sector, an annual survey of
rel at ively bigger est abl ishment s in t he
services sector has been contemplated. A
pilot survey in this regard for testing the
survey instrument has been completed in
six states and four metropolitan cities of the
country. The report of the pilot survey is
under finalization.
Occupational
Categorization for Data on Wages
In its report to the Government of India,
the Working Group set up for revision of
categorization of occupations for collection
of dat a on wages has recommended a
revision to the existing categorization and
provided a list of 12 occupat ions in the
agricul t ural sect or and 15 in t he non-
agricultural sector for collection of data on
wage rates.
VI. Coordination and Publication Division
The Ministry of Statistics and Programme
Implementation has been celebrating the
Statistics Day every year since 2007. This year
the Ministry celebrated 7
th
Statistics Day on
29
th
June, 2013. The theme of this years
Statistics Day was Labour and Employment
Statistics. At national level, the function was
held in New Delhi which was presided by Shri
Sri kant Kumar Jena, Minist er of St at e
(Independent Charge) for St at i st ics &
Programme Implementation and Chemicals
& Fertilizers. Dr. C.RangarajanChairman
Economi c Advi sory Counci l t o Pr i me
Minister and Dr.PronabSen, Chairman,
National Statistical Commissionwerethe
Guests of Honor. On this occasion, National
Award in St at i st i cs, const it ut ed i n t he
Honour of Prof. C.R.Raowas conferred to
Dr. Abhiman Das, Eminent Statistician from
Reserve Bank of India.
VII. India Statistical
Strengthening Project (ISSP)
The total approved cost of the ISSP project
is Rs.650.43 Crore. At present, 33 States /
UTs (except for Chandigarh & Goa) have
expressed their willingness to participate in
the ISSP.
ISSP is being currently implemented in 13
States and 1 UT, namely, Karnataka, Gujarat,
Rajast han, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu,
Bihar, Sikkim, Lakshadweep, Mizoram, West
Bengal, Odisha, Kerala, Jharkhand and
Manipur.
B. NATIONAL SAMPLE SURVEY OFFICE
TheNat i onal Sampl e Sur vey Of f i ce
(NSSO)under the Ministry of Statistics &
Programme Implementation is mandated
for carrying out surveys on socio-economic
aspects of Indian Economy by collecting data
from households and enterprises located in
villages and in the towns with a view to
update dat a base for sound planning for
development and administrative decisions.
It also provides technical assist ance and
guidance to the States/ Central Government
Departments in the matter relating to large
scale surveys.
Towards t hi s end and object i ve of t he
organization, the major achievements during 2013
are as follows:
Surveys undertaken/ launched:
(i) Field work of NSS 70
th
round on Land and
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Livestock Holding, Debt and Investment
and Si t uat i on Assessment Survey of
Agri cul t ur al Househol ds has been
completed and Survey Instruments for NSS
71
st
round on Healt h and Morbidit y and
Education and IT Literacy which is to be start
from Jan 2014 had beenfinalised.
(ii) Agricultural Statistics Survey on Sample
check on area enumeration and supervision
of crop cut t ing experiment s under t he
scheme for Improvement of Crop Statistics
(ICS) for the agricultural years 2012-13 and
2013-14. While the Survey for 2012-13 is
complet ed, t he Survey for 2013-14 will
continue up to June 2014.
(iii) Regular price collection surveys in rural areas
for compilation of Consumer Price Indices
for Rural and Agricultural Labour by Labour
Bureau and in urban areas for Consumer
Price Index (Urban) by Central Statist ics
Office (CSO).
(iv) Completion of field work of Annual Survey
of Industries 2011-12 and launch of Annual
Survey of Industries 2012-13.
New initiatives undertaken
(i) Pilot on Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS)
for collection of dat a on employment &
unemployment in the country with a view
to provide Quarterly estimates of Labour
Market Indicators has been concluded in 3
Statesviz, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and
Odisha. A workshop f or discussion on
firming up the methodology and survey
i nst rument s for Periodi cLabourForce
Surveys with the stakeholders was held on
9
th
December 2013 at New Delhi. Workshop
chaired by Chairman NSC and was attended
by academicians, researchers, data users, etc.
Wide ranging recommendations have been
made in the Workshop regarding modalities
of t he launch of Periodi c Labour Force
Survey on regular basis.
(ii) Experi ment at ion of use of Hand-hel d
devices/ gadgets for data collection in the
socio-economic surveys in the field.
(iii) With an objective to bring uniformity in the
data processing of the State sample, from
70th round, the data entry software for the
St at e DESs has also been developed in
RDBMSusing MSAccess
Reports released
(i) 97
t h
i ssue of t he NSSO Journal
Sarvekshana.
(ii) Reports/ Results based on NSS rounds:
NSS 66
th
Round
1. Public Distribution System and other sources
of Household Consumption
2. Perceived Adequacy of Food Consumption
in Indian Households
3. Participation of Women in specified Activities
along with Domestic Duties
4. St at us of Educat i onal and Vocat i onal
Training in India
5. Employment and Unemployment Situation
Among Major Religious Groups in India
6. Employment and Unemployment Situation
in Cities and towns in India
NSS 67
th
Round
Economic Characterist ics of Unincorporated
Non-agri cul t ur al Ent erpri ses (Excl udi ng
Construction) in India
NSS 68
th
Round
(a) Key I ndi cat ors of Empl oyment and
Unemployment in India 2011-12
(b) Key Indicators of Household Consumer
Expenditure in India 2011-12
NSS 69th Round
(a) Key Indicators of Drinking Water, Sanitation,
Hygiene and Housing Condition in India
(b) Key Indicators of Urban Slums in India
Seminar
A Nat i onal Seminar on t he result s of NSS
66
t h
round surveys was held on20
t h
&21
st
June
2013 in Bangalore. As many as 34 technical papers
based on survey results of this round organized into
two technical sessions were presented in the seminar.
Seminar was inaugurated by Prof. R.Radhakrishna,
Former Chairman, NSC and ot her dignitaries who
attended the seminar included Prof. A. K.Adhikari,
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Chairman Working Group on 68
t h
Round, Dr. T. C.
A.Anant , Chief Statistician of India & Secretary, M/
o Statistics & Programme Implementation and Shri
Vijay Kumar, DG & CEO, NSSO, Senior officers from
NSSO, CSO ot her Cent ral Govt .Dept t .andSt at e
Governments. Forum oforganisingseminar was also
ut i l i zed t o rel ease t he Key I ndi cat ors on
Empl oyment & Unemployment and Househol d
Consumer Expendit ure based on 68t h round of
NSSO conducted during 2011-12.
C. PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION WING
I. Infrastructure and
Project Monitoring Division (IPMD)
Role of IPMD: Moni t oring of import ant
infrastructure sectors in the country to provide an
overvi ew of t he per f ormance wi t h a vi ew t o
highlight ing slippages, if any, before t he decision
making authorities in respect of Power, Coal, Steel,
Railways, Telecommunications, Port s, Fertilizers,
Cement, Petroleum & Natural Gas, Roads, and Civil
Aviation.In addition, IPMD also monitors Central
Sector Projects costing Rs. 150 crore and above with
respect to time and cost overrun.
Infrastructure Performance:The
perfor mance dur ing t he cur rent year i nPower
generation : (+)0.22%; Coal Production : (-)7.49 %;
Railways Revenue Earning Freight Traffic: (+)2.19%;
Fertilizer : (-)10.67 %; Crude Oil Production: (-) 2.20
%; Refinery product ion: (+) 0.84 %; Nat ural Gas
Production: (-) 6.37%;Civil Aviation Export Cargo:
(-) 1.20%; Civil Aviation Import Cargo: (-)11.75%;
Passenger Handl ed at I nt ernat i onal Ai rport s:
(+)5.62%; Passenger Handled at domestic airports:
(+)1.57%; Up gradat i on of hi ghways by NHAI :
(-)9.44%; andUpgradationof highways by state PWD
and Border Road Organization(BRO) is reported to
be (-)11.06%.
Monitoring of Projects:MOSPI monitors
Central Sector Project cost ing Rs. 150 crore and
above with respect t o time and cost overrun on a
monthly and quarterly basis.MOSPI also monitors
the progress of irrigation projects, which are being
financed under the Accelerated Irrigation Benefit
Programme (AI BP).I n coordi nat i on wi t h t he
administ rat ive ministries concerned, MOSPI has
taken up various initiatives to bring about a systemic
improvement in various areas of project formulation,
planning, implementation and monitoring. The cost
and time overrun has been steadily going down over
the years, due to tightening of procedures, timely
monitoring and initiatives taken up by this Ministry.
ProjectImplementationPerformance:During
t he year (i .e. t i l l 1.10.2013), 19 inf rast ruct ure
project s cost i ng Rs. 150 crore and above were
complet ed at an est imat ed cost of Rs. 19363.87
crore. The overall cost overrun in projects has come
down f rom 40.9% i n March 1999 t o 19.2% i n
September 2013. Similarly, the percentage of delayed
projects has also gone down from 53.11% in March
1999 to 40.79% during September 2013.
On-Line Comput erized Monit oring System
(OCMS) owned by this Ministry, has been augmented
t o i mprove qual i t y of moni t ori ng and on-l i ne
submissi on of report sbyproject impl ement i ng
agencies.
Two Trai ni ngs / Workshops have been
organized during this year with a view to enhance
the knowledge and capacity of project managers of
Cent ral Public Sect or Unit s in Project Planning,
I mpl ement at i on and Moni t ori ng at Nat i onal
Academy of Statistical Administrative, Greater Noida,
which were attended by approximately 70 officers/
project managers.This division is also providing
technical support to training programmes on Project
Management organized by PSUs and in the process,
a programme has been organized this year for the
executives /project managers of OIL India atDuliajan,
Assam. Capaci t y bui l di ngprocess on Project
Management for state Government officers and PSUs
havealso been taken up by this Division.
A programme, inaugurated by Chief Minister
of Arunachal Pradesh, has been successf ul l y
conducted atIt anagarin the mont h of April 2013
and was at t ended by around 130 part icipant s of
State Government/PSU.
A major step undertaken by this Ministry to
ensure timely completion of project is the setting up
of Central Sector Projects Coordination Committee
(CSPCCs) in the states under the chairpersonship of
Chief Secretaries for removal of bottlenecks and for
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facilit at ing the speedy implementat ion of Major
projects. Till dat e, t he CSPCCs have already been
constituted in twenty of the states whilerest of the
st at es arealso being pursued vigorously by t his
Ministry, so that the CSPCCs can be constituted in
them also.
Irrigation Potential: As on March 2012, 140
Medi um and Major I r ri gat i on Project s were
completed and cumulat ive irrigat ion potent ial of
68.65 Lakh hect ares creat ed under Accelerat ed
Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP). Also, during
the period, Rs. 54,350.48 crore has been released as
Cent ral Loan Assi st ance/ Grant s t o t he St at e
Governments under AIBP.
II. MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT LOCAL AREA
DEVELOPMENT SCHEME (MPLADS)
The Member of Parl i ament Local Ar ea
Development Scheme (MPLADS) was launched by
t he Govt . of I ndia on 23rd December, 1993, t o
provide a mechanism for Members of Parliament to
recommend works of devel opment al nat ure for
creat i on of durabl e communi t y asset s and f or
provision of basic facilit ies including communit y
infrastructure, based on locally felt needs to be taken
up in t heir Const ituencies/ Stat es. The scheme is
governed by a set of Guidelines, which have been
comprehensively revised from time t o t ime. The
present Guidelines were issued in August, 2012.
Some of the Salient features of the scheme are
enumerated below:-
MPLADS is a Plan scheme fully funded by
Government of India, under which funds are
released in t he form of Grant in-aid, as
special Central Assistance to States.
In 1993-94 ,when the scheme was launched
, an amount of Rs. 5 lakh per MP was allotted
which was enhanced t o Rs. 1 crore per
annum from 1994-95 per MP and Rs. 2 crore
from 1998-99. This was further increased
t o Rs. 5 crore f r om 2011-12 per
const i t uency. I t i s rel eased i n t wo
installments of Rs. 2.5 crore each by the
Government of India directly to the District
Aut horit ies for execution of t he eligible
works recommended by the MPs by following
the established procedure of the concerned
state government.
The funds released under the scheme are
non lapsablei.ethe funds not released in a
particular year will be carried forward for
making releases in the subsequent years
subject to eligibility.
Examining t he el igibil it y, sanct ioni ng,
funding, selection of implementing agencies,
prioritization and overall execution and
monitoring of the scheme at the ground level,
is done by the District Authorities.
The Lok Sabha Members shall recommend
works in their respective constituencies. The
elected members of the Rajya Sabha can
recommend works anywhere in the State
from which t hey are elected. Nominated
Members of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha
can recommend works for implementation
anywhere in the country.
Right from the inception of t he Scheme,
works for creat ion of durable asset s of
nat ional priorit ies viz. drinki ng wat er,
primary education, public health, sanitation
and roads etc. have been given priority.
MPs can al so recommend communi t y
infrastructure and public ut ilit y building
works for registered Societies/ Trusts and
Cooperative Societies up to a ceiling for Rs.
1 crore. The Tr ust s/ Soci et i es and
Cooperative Societies are eligible to receive
only Rs. 50 lakh in their life time. However
Tr ust s/ Soci et i es t hat run char i t abl e
resident ial homes for orphans, old/ aged
persons, widows, lepers, blind persons,
spastic/ mentally retarded children or for
deaf and dumb children are eligible for
receiving a maximum of Rs.1 crore in their
entire life time for creation of charitable and
residential home. The structure constructed
with MPLADS funds shall be the property
of State/ UT Government.
Special attention is given for infrastructural
devel opment of areas i nhabi t ed by
Scheduled Cast es and Scheduled Tribes
population by earmarking 15% and 7.5%
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respectively of MPLADS funds for those
areas and in case there is insufficient tribal
population in the area of Lok Sabha Member,
they may recommend this amount for the
creation of community assets in tribal areas
outside of their constituency within their
state of election. In case a state does not
have ST inhabited areas, this amount may
be utilized in SC inhabited areas and vice-
versa.
Also to encourage Trusts/ Societies to work
for the betterment of the tribal people, the
ceiling of Rs.50 lakh has been increased to
75 lakh where the additional amount of
Rs.25 Lakh should be used for the creation
of public utility building assets primarily for
the benefit of tribal people in tribal areas.
In order to undertake rehabilitation works
in the areas affected by calamities in a state,
Lok Sabha MPs from the non-affected areas
of that state can recommend permissible
works to the tune of up to Rs. 10 lakh per
annum i n t hose areas. In t he event of
calamity of severe nature in any part of the
country an MP recommend works up to a
maximum of Rs. 50 lakh for the affected
district.
If an elected Member ofParliament,finds
the need, to contribute MPLADS funds, to a
place outside their State/UT, or outside the
constituency within the states or both, the
MP can recommend eligible works under the
Guidelines up to a maximum of Rs. 10 lakh
in a financial year.
MP canspent a maximum of Rs.10 lakh per
year for giving assist ance to physically challenged
per sons f or pur chase of t ri -cycl es (i ncl udi ng
motorized tri-cycles), battery operat ed motorized
wheel chair and artificial limbs.
Purchase of books for schools, colleges and
public library are allowed subject to some
financial restriction.
Purchase of computers and Visual Display
Units for government and government aided
institutions are also allowed.
Release of 1
st
installment equal to 50% of
annual entitlement in respect of MPs at the
t i me of const i t ut ion of Lok Sabha and
el ect i on t o t he Rajya Sabha i s done
aut omat i call y wit hout wai t i ng f or any
document from district authorities.
To bring in more financial accountability,
Utilization Certificate and Audit Certificate
for the previous financial year are also pre-
requisit es for t he release of the second
installment. From financial year 2012-13,
release of first installment is made on the
basis of the release of second installment of
previ ous year bei ng made and al so
provisional Utilization Certificate to be given
by the District Authority in respect of 80%
of entitlement of 1
st
installment of previous
year.
Funds released by the Government of India
are deposi t ed by t he Di st ri ct
Administrations in nationalized banks.
2% of the MPLAD funds which is part of the
annual ent it lement of t he MPhasbeen
allowed t o St at e Government for t heir
administrative expenses.
The normal financial and audit procedures
prevalent in the states in which the works
are execut ed apply wi t h regard t o t he
implementation of the works.
The roles of Central Government, St at e
Government , Dist rict Aut hori t ies and
Implementing Agencies have been clearly
demarcated for implementation of MPLAD
Scheme.
An integrated software on MPLAD Scheme
system has been developed for monitoring
MPLAD Scheme f unds rel ease, f unds
monit oring, Monit oring of expendit ure
incurred at Macro and Micro level through
NICSI. The proposed syst em wil l be a
dynamic user friendly web application and
will be a single portal of reference for all the
stake holders. The portal will ensure Micro
(works), Macro (release and expendit ure
level) reporting and monitoring of timely
utilization of funds.
An effective mechanism of monitoring of
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i mpl ement at i on of MPLADS i s most
essential, for efficacious implementation of
the Scheme. Therefore, third party agencies
are engaged by this Ministry to physically
moni t or al l MPLADS works. NABARD
Consultancy Services (NABCONS)isone of
the agencies which was selected for the third
party monitoring of MPLADSworks during
the period 2007-08 to 2010-11. Presently
the work is being done by Agriculture Finance
Corporation (AFC).
Impact
Since its inception, the Scheme has benefited
t he l ocal communi t y by meet i ng vari ous
developmental needs such as drinking water facility,
educat ion, elect ricit y, healt h and family welfare,
i r r i gat i on, non-convent i onal energy,
communit ycent res, public libraries, bus stands/
st ops, roads, pat hways and bridges, sport s, et c.
These works are sanctioned, executed and monitored
as per the provisions of the MPLADS Guidelines.
SCHEME PERFORMANCE DURING THE
YEAR 2013
Physical Performance (As on 30.11.2013)
As compiled from reports received from the
Di st ri ct s, f rom t he mont h of January 2013 t o
November, 2013since inception of the scheme:-
118787 works have been recommended 108077
works have been sanctioned. 91728 works have
been completed.The percentage work completed to
sanctioned is 84.87
Financial Performance (As on 30.11.2013)
Rs3063.50crorehave been released during
the period January to November, 2013.
Expenditure of Rs. 3302.07croreincurred
during the same period.
The percentage of expenditure over release
is 107.78.

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Gis t of
SCIENCE REPORTER
INDIA AIMS FOR THE RD PLANET!
It was a moment of pride for space scientists
in part icular and Indians in general, when on 5th
November 2013, at preci sel y 2.38 pm I ndi an
Standard Time, PSLV-XL blasted off from Sriharikota
on a rnangalvatra. It carried with it Indias maiden
spacecraft aiming for Mars, the Mars Orbiter Mission
(MOM), and t he pri de and hopes of a bi l l i on
countrymen.
The launch was perfect - a t extbook launch
some would call it. Even as you read this, the Mars
Orbiter Mission would have been ejected from the
Ear t hs orbi t and fi red on t o an i nt erplanet ar y
trajectory on its 300-day journey to Mars 400 million
kilometres away.
The 1,350 kg sat ellite will be monitored by
I SROs space t racki ng f aci l i t y at Byal al u near
Bangalore and also NASAs Jet Propulsion Labs Deep
Space Network and its three int ernational ground
stations. The final challenge would come after nine
mont hs when t he spacecraft woul d have t o be
inserted into the Mars orbit on 21 September 2014
- most Mars missions have failed at this stage.
The challenges are formidable. The distance of
400 million kilometres presents a huge challenge in
ensuring minimum energy or fuel to t ransfer the
spacecraft from an Eart h orbit to a Martian orbit.
Scient ist s also have t o grapple wit h a 20-minut e
communication delay. Besides, if at any time during
i t s journey t he spacecraf t devel ops a seri ous
problem, it has to be p into a safe mode so that the
ground controllers can set it right.
An usual, there has been criticism of the Rs 450
crore Mars mission. But it needs to be realised that
I SROs Mar s mi ysi on i s a decl arat i on of t he
t echnological capabilit y and aut onomy of Indias
space programme.
ART OF POLITE
CONVERSATION FROM THE MARMOSETS
Humans need t o l ear n t he ar t of pol i t e
conversat i on f rom marmoset monkeys. These
talkative and social monkeys wait for their turn to
speak. And their vocal exchanges are known to last
for even up t o 30 minut es. Researchers from the
Princeton University reported these findings in the
Cell Press journal Current Biology on October 17.
The Princeton University researchers picked
on marmosets because of two features they hold in
common with people: they are generally friendly with
one another and t hey communicat e primarily by
producing vocal sounds.
Di scovered i n t he l at e 1990s, t he fungus,
Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, was causing skin
infections in amphibian. Although the identity of the
toxic fungal factor (or actors) remains a mystery, its
ability to Inhibit a wide range of cell types including
cancerous cell ssuggest s t hat it may off er new
di r ect i ons f or t he devel opment of i mmuno-
suppressive or anti-cancer agents.
YAWNING CONTAGIOUS IN CHIMPANZEES
Human yawning is cont agious for juvenile
chimpanzees, a study published on 16 October 2013
in the open-access journal PLOS ONE has found.
Elainie Madsen and colleagues from Lund University
noticed t hat as sanctuary-kept chimpanzees grow
from i nf act t o juveni le, t hey develop i ncreased
susceptibility to human yawn contagion, possibility
due to their increasing ability to empathize.
GIST OF SCIENCE REPORTER VOL15 59
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SLEEP CLEANESS BRAIN TOXINS
How does a god night s sleep freshen up your
brain? Researchers from the Center for Translational
Neuromedi ci ne at t he Uni versi t y of Rochest er
Medical Cent er in New York believe it does so by
f lushing out toxins.
I n a st udy done on mi ce t he researchers
showed for the first t ime that t he space between
brain cells may increase during sleep, allowing the
brain to f lush out toxins that build up during waking
hours. These results, published in Science, show that
during sleep a plumbing system called the glymphatic
system may open, letting f luid f low rapidly through
the brain. The glymphatic system helps control the
f l ow of cerebrospinal f luid (CSF), a cl ear l iquid
surrounding the brain and spinal cord.
ENERGY EFFICIENT VEHICLES
Scientists from the Korea Advanced Institute
of Science and Technology (KAIST) have introduced a
new t echnology called Shaped Magnet ic Field in
Resonance (SMFIR) t hat enables Online Elect ric
Vehicles (OLEV) to transfer electricity wirelessly from
the road surface while moving.
The OLEV receives power wirelessly through
the electrical cables buried under the surface of the
road, creating magnetic fields, There is a receiving
device installed on the underbody of the OLEV that
converts these fields into electricity, The length of
power strips installed under the road is generally 5%-
15% of the entire road, requiring only a few sections
of the road to be rebuilt with the embedded cables.
OLEV has a small battery (one-third of the size
of the battery equipped with a regular electric car),
The vehi cl e compl i es wi t h t he i nt ernat i onal
electromagnetic fields (EMF) standards of 62,S mG,
within the margin of safety level necessary for human
healt h, The road has a smart funct ion as well
power supply is switched on in the power strip when
OLEV buses pass along, but is switched off for other
vehicl es, t hereby prevent ing EMF exposure and
standby power consumption, As of now, the SMFIR
technology supplies 60 kHz and 180 kW of power
remotely to transport vehicles at a stable, constant
rate.
ARTIFICAL SPERM PRODUCTION:
BOON OR CURSE
Almost 16-17% Indian couples are infertile of
which men contribute to about 30-40%. Remedial
measures are decided depending on the cause and
gravity of the ailment.
In surrogacy, a woman acts as a foster mother
for gestating and giving birth to a child for other to
raise. Surrogacy on medical ground for a woman who
cannot gest at e and deli ver a bi rt h i s okay. But
surrogacy for unmarried couples or for medically fit
working women or for women who do not want to
gestat e because of fear of adverse effect on their
figure is ethically wrong.
With the success of in-vitro fertilization (IVF)
and in-vitro fertilization (IVF), many infertile couples
are now adopting an embryo rather than a child. The
child born out of adopt ed embryo is a biological
offspring. With availabilit y of artificial womb, it is
possible for a couple whose female partner is unable
to gestate to use their own gestate (sperm and egg)
and artificial womb for having their own child. The
child using artificial womb is genetically identical to
parents.
In case of male infertility, the female may take
help of a sperm donor to achieve pregnancy. In this
case, the father of the baby is not a genetic father.
Other sources of sperm of infertile couple are frozen
omen or sperm produced in the laboratory.
Artificial sperm production in the laboratory is
a boon for infertile couples if infertility is due to male
factor (aspermia, oligospermia, teratospermia). The
t echnology also provides solut ion for young boys
wit h leukaemia who have become infert ile aft er
undergoing chemot herapy. Offspring produced by
art if icial sperm are ident ical t o t heir parent s in
contrast to offspring produced by couples who have
undergone insemination by donors sperm.
With the possibility of developing fully grown
baby in the laboratory using artificial ovum, artificial
sperm and artificial womb, will men be phased out of
the reproductive process and become obsolete?
GLUTEN INTOLERANCE AND
CELIAC DISEASE
One mans food may be anot her mans
60 VOL15 GIST OF SCIENCE REPORTER
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poison. Milk can be cited as a common example of
this. It can cause severe digestive disorders in persons
wit h low level of the enzyme lactase, necessary to
digest lactose, the sugar present in milk.
A similar but lesser known example is wheat.
In some people, mostly in children, gluten, a type of
protein present in it triggers an autoimmune reaction
in which the body produces antibodies that attack its
own t issues. A mixt ure of gliadin and glutenin, it
causes inflammation and damage to the lining of the
small intestine and result s in Celiac disease or CD,
which also goes by names like Gluten Enteropathy,
Glut en Sensit ivit y and Idiopat hic Sprue. Besides
wheat , t he ot her major cereals cont aining t hi s
protein are barley, rye and to a lesser extent oat.
Wrongly perceived as a western disease, it has
never been taken seriously in our country. However,
i n recent t i mes as more and mor e cases are
report ed, doct ors have begun t o cal l i t an
impending epidemic. It is believed that the new
strains of wheat that are cultivated nowadays have
a highl y ant i genic gl ut en unli ke t he t radit ional
ancient varieties, which may have caused the rising
incidence of the disease.
SCIENCE IN THE
SERVICE OF ENTREPRENEURS
In 2010, the Report of the Prime Ministers
Taskforce on the MSMEs found that Indian MSMEs
manufacture over 6,000 products.
Some of t he major subsect ors in t erms of
manufacturing output are: food products (18.97%),
text iles and ready-made garment s (14.05%), basic
met al (8.81%), chemi cal and chemical product s
(7.55%), met al products (7.52%), machinery and
equipments (6.35%), transport equipments (4.5%),
rubber and pl ast i c product s (3.9%), f urni t ure
(2.62%), paper and paper product s (2.03%) and
leather and leather products (1.98%). The MSMEs
contribute to int erestingly diverse areas although
t here are many more areas t hat can be fruit fully
tapped.
MSMEs have been recognised as the backbone
of t he Indian economy and as engines promoting
inclusive growth. According t o t he 4th Census of
MSME Sector, these enterprises employ about 59.7
million persons spread over 26.1 million enterprises.
It is estimated t hat in terms of value, the MSME
sector accounts for about 45% of the manufacturing
output and around 40% of the t otal export of t he
country. Of the 26 million MSMEs, only: 1.5 million
are in t he registered segment t he rest are in the
unregistered segment.
CSIR and the Technology Pavilion
Synergy MSME 2013 was designed as a one-
stop, go-to place for customized solutions for specific
MSME business needs. It was a six-day event where
a Technol ogy Pavi l i on di spl ayed product s and
pr ocesses meant t o at t ract t he at t ent i on of
ent repreneurs. The Technol ogy Pavi l i on was
inaugurated by Prof. Samir K Brahmachari, Director-
General , CSI R, who i s al so Member, Nat i onal
Innovat i on Counci l Shri Rajiva Si nha, Principal
Secretary, Micro & Small Enterprises and Textiles,
Govt . of West Bengal and ot her dignit aries were
present during the Inaugurat ion. By t he time t he
event drew to a close the Technology Pavilion had
welcomed more than 17,000 visitors; most of them
either existing entrepreneurs or potential ones. CSIR
wi t h i t s enormous spect rum of product s and
processes was a key contributor to its success. CSIR
technologies on display at t Technology Pavilion were
arranged under the following five themes.
NETWORK VERIFICATION
CHALLENGE OPEN FOR SCIENTISTS
The Network Verification Challenge recently
opened for submissions from the global scientific
community. The Challenge uses a crowd-verification
process (an approach also known as Wisdom of the
Crowds) t o fi ne-t une and veri fy sophist i cat ed
biological networks. The resulting models represent
the current status of scientific knowledge as related
to a given set of networks, and provide a framework
by which other biological networks can be visualized,
expanded and verified.
The Net wor k Ver i f i cat i on Chal l enge i s
uni quel y pl aced t o hel p us generat e accurat e,
comprehensive and reliable models of biological
networks, said Professor Martin Hofrnann-Apitius,
Head of Depart ment of Bi oi nf ormat i cs at t he
Fraunhofer Institute for Algorithms and Scientific
GIST OF SCIENCE REPORTER VOL15 61
www.upscportal.com
Computing SCAI, which developed part of the online
platform that Challenge participants use to work on
the networks.
This is an exciting new approach to network
verificat ion which has a number of implicat ions,
including t he pot ential t o provide an accelerated
mechanism for the dissemination and validation of
scientific knowledge, bet ter maps of disease and
i mprovement s t o t herapeut i c di scovery and
development . The Challenge i s part of t he sbv
IMPROVER project (syst ems biology verificat ion:
Industrial Methodology for PROcess VErification in
Research), a collaborative initiative by IBM Research
and Phi l i p Morris I nt ernat i onal R&D whi ch i s
desi gned t o develop a robust , t ransparent and
practical process for assessing complex scientific data.
Within this framework, it also provides an approach
for the verification of systems biology data and with
i mpl i cat i ons f or human heal t hcare and ot her
scientific and industrial areas:
The sbv IMPROVER project is addressing
some of t he most fundament al issues facing t he
scientific community today, including: how can we
cope with the explosive growth of data confidently,
thoroughly and practically.
RAIN CATCH RAIN COAT
People have been collecting rainwater for the purpose of drinking it since time began, but this
might be the first time that a raincoat has been used as an on-the-go collection device. The Rain
Catch Rain Coat is designed to provide clean drinking water to people without enough sense to
come in from the rain. The coat features a series of straws and attached filters along with some
pockets for storing collected water. This is a novel design that makes good use of a natural resource.
SMART FLOWER POT
The Click and Grow helps people who travel away from home a lot to grow houseplants without
the trauma of forgetting to water them for a few days or weeks. It is an electronic f lower pot that
takes care of plant care details like watering and fertilizing. Each flower pot comes with a cartridge
containing seeds, fertilizer and software. The user plugs the cartridge into the pot, supplies some
batteries and a litre of water, then places the pot in a sunny place - and that s it. The Click & Grow
takes care of watering and fertilizing the plant to keep it healthy and happy.
BABY-LIKE ROBOT FIGHTS DEPRESSION IN SENIOR CITIZENS
For older people and t hose suffering from dement ia, depression can be t he only const ant
companion. A pet can help, but not all senior citizens with depression are able to take care of a
pet. Babyloid, a baby-like robot, can help older people fight depression by giving them a companion
to care for. The robot is equal parts cute an creepy. Its wide-set eyes, unrealistic mouth and furry
body all serve to keep Babyloid from looking too much like a human baby doll. But at the same
time, its behavior - crying, smiling, sleeping and making real baby noises - is very similar to that
of an actual baby.
GROWING SOUND
Singing to plants is a tried-and-true trick for getting them to grow bigger and more beautiful, but
what about turning their containers into speakers? A designer created Ceramic Sound, a f lower
pot that is not only an attractive home accessory it s also a high-quality surround sound speaker.
The speaker is on the bottom and the watertight f lower pot is on the top. The f lower pot comes
in a variety of colours and comes on its own or with a speaker, so users can switch out colours to
match their decor. The sound waves from your music do not affect the WAY YOUR PLANTS GROW.

You will be provided current affairs on various important topics on a weekly basis.
Important national and international news from various sources at a single platform for your
convenience.
Each and every topic will be given point wise , making it easier to grasp.
Very handy when it comes to various competitive exams..
Planning Commission
Ministry of External Affairs
National Portal of India
National
International
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In The News
Science and Technology
Burning Issues (Editorials From Different Newspapers)
You will get (52 Issues) PDF Only no Hard Copy
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Study Kit for Preli minary Exami nations:
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v W. V. V8. (8|R|4 NI44B) 9|1R4 91|H| 2014 9 91 -1
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Study Kit for Mai ns Examinati ons:
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